SOPA sounds terrible.  I was going to take down my website today in protest, like Wikipedia has…but then I realized no one would notice.  So instead I’m going to link to a few helpful websites:

Gizmodo has an easy to understand break-down of why SOPA is so ridiculous.

Here’s why Wikipedia is blacked out.

Here’s Google’s take.  I think they have my favorite protest image, a big black bar over their logo.

Here and Here are some on-line protests…if these even do anything.

Everyone’s big advise is to contact your Representative and say you’re not for the bill.  SO GO DO THAT RIGHT NOW!!

They’re coming in fast now!  Yesterday NASA announced the existence of Kepler-22b, an exo-planet found within a distant star’s habitable-zone that’s similar in size to the Earth.  Clearly we have to be prepared for this new Earth-like planet to be our evil twin.

An article about the awesome discovery: TWINSIES!

The idea was for this comic was STOLEN (given) by comedian extraordinaire Seth Joseph.

The “Shuttle 4 Sale” shirt will only be available until Saturday, December 3rd!  Act fast because this will be the only time this shirt is printed (making it hugely valuable!)  All you’ll need is a Paypal account to complete the transaction.

UPDATE:

The sales are now closed for these items.  Thank you to everyone who made a purchase!  Orders will be shipping soon!

This is an illustration of Stanley Kubrick playing mad scientist with action figures from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

This illustration was for an article entitled “Where’s my personal spaceship?”

One of my distractions has been starting school again.  That’s right, I’m taking an illustration class!  Time to LEVEL UP!!  I haven’t taken a class since college (4 years ago) and I’m excited to get back into a scholastic rhythm.

Hit the jump for a bunch of rhetorical questions I’m trying to answer and see a picture of my “notes” from class:

To the left you’ll see my notes.  I’ve been taking notes like this for years and this is the first class where they’ve been relevant to the curriculum!  I posed a question to the professor at the beginning of class; what is the difference between an illustrator and a designer?

I asked because I’ve been watching Feng Zhu’s AMAZING tutorials lately where he’s big on separating illustrators and designers as two different professions…but never really says why.  After the class discussion, and careful contemplation (sleep) I think I’ve figured it out:

An Illustrator illustrates a concept.  A Designer designs an object (i.e., a graphic designer designs 2D objects, an industrial designer a 3D object.)

Another question I’ve been struggling with is when is an illustration a drawing and vice versa?  When the drawing’s purpose is only to render a person, object, or environment, and not to supply a deeper meaning or context, then it is not an illustration.  When they’re is a narrative or an idea being conveyed through the rendering of people, objects, and environments, then it is an illustration.  I think a lot of people call things illustrations when they’re really just drawings.

For shites and giggles (and since I’m starting art classes again) I thought I’d throw these questions in:

What is art?  When is an illustration considered fine art?  Can it be both?

These are silly questions that every art student has to deal with.  It’s silly because the answer can be different for everyone.  Here’s my silly answer:

Art is anything that is transcendent.

What the hell do I mean?!  When does a baker become an artist?  When is a urinal art?  When does cooking meth become an art form (Breaking Bad reference?)  It’s when they do or create something that has more meaning, is more effective, or is unique compared to the world around it.

The End.

…I’m sorry for the odd blog entry, apparently this is now my diary.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is bus-sized satellite that was launched in 1991 to study the hole in the Ozone layer.  It’s scheduled to reenter the atmosphere on Friday Sept. 23…

UPDATE after the jump on NEW READERS!

Amid all the news about it’s unexpected reentry, not one article has mentioned whether or not it was a successful mission during  it’s operational years.  What I mean is, is there a hole in the ozone over the north pole?  Why did people stop talking about it?!  I’m too tired to look this up on my own…

Here’s a great info-graph from Space.com (they have the best info-graphs in the biz!) about the UARS satellite.

UPDATE:

I have it on good authority that a PhD at Fermilab read this strip…and couldn’t make heads or tails of it.  Hmm…I can’t decide if I’m disappointed or if I should just be happy these guys are reading.  Oh well, onwards and upwards!

Recently, NASA released it’s much delayed and anticipated rocket design that will be replacing the Constellation program.  The new design is called the SLS (Space Launch System.)  Without a doubt, this is the worst named rocket in NASA history!  It couldn’t be more literal or boring!  Hit the jump for an artist’s rendition of NASA’s new SLS.

I’m not one to critique without constructive feedback so I have a few name ideas for you.  At NASA, we like to name our rockets and programs after Greek gods and terminology, i.e., Titan, Mercury, Apollo, Saturn, and Ares (?).  The big thing I’ve noticed is the lack of Greek goddess representation.  I think this new program would be a fantastic opportunity to use one of these feminine names.  Picture it:

The Athena 7

or

The Artemis 3

or

The Nyx 1

Why these names in particular?  Well, Athena was kind of the queen of the gods and this rocket is supposed to be the mother of all rockets, so I figured it fit.  Also one of her symbols is a spear.  Spear=Rocket.  We also have Artemis who was Apollo’s brother (connecting those two programs) but she was a bad ass in her own right, rocking the bow and arrow and being the goddess of the hunt.  Last but not least we have Nyx…frankly I just think it sounds cool.

So take or leave these suggestions but honestly anything is better than SLS.

We won’t see any flight tests until at least 2017.  That is of course if the program is ACTUALLY allowed to go on that long.  Don’t get me wrong, if Constellation was going as poorly as they say then it deserved to be cancelled, but this time around I’m not getting my hopes up until I see one of these birds on the launchpad.

I hope we can stay the course with this program because this rocket is powerful enough to take a human crew to an asteroid, Mars or beyond!  If we can stick to the plan/budget this time we can get back to proper exploring in a timely fashion.  Read more about it on NASA’s site here.

…also you may have noticed the “Space Tickles” logo at the top of the strip this time.  It’s because that is the official name of the strip now.  Get ready for t-shirts, mugs, and fridge magnets.  It’s all about the merchandising!

Read about whatever the hell a Super-Earth is and why I’m talking about one after the jump

Think of Earth only bigger and better…and in HD!

On September 12th, HARPS released 50 new exoplanets (planets found outside our solar system.)  This may not seem like a big deal but keep in mind that only a few years ago we had never confirmed A SINGLE exoplanet and now, thanks to HARPS and the Kepler Space Observatory, we’ve confirmed over 600!!

An exoplanet that stood out to astronomers was HD 855 12 b (wow, what a name.)  It is 3.6 times the size of Earth, giving it a Super-Earth classification, is only 35 light-years away, and orbits on the edge of it’s star’s Habitable Zone.  This means there’s a possibility water can exist on the planet’s surface.

But what does it really mean?  Pack your bags kids!  We found a bigger, better planet than this smelly, old one and I say we start making our way there pronto…seeing as how it’s going to take us 195 million years even in our fastest spaceship.  When I think of it that way, maybe we should just stay put.

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