Prototype Soviet Laser Pistol
Created in 1984; housed in the museum of the “Peter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Troops” in Moscow. This pistol used a clip of disposable pyrotechnic flash cartridges as ammunition and was apparently meant for use against enemy optical systems.
(Via http://j.mp/1l8Qisy and http://j.mp/1l8QOXB . Could this actually be real?)
That’s gonna diminish the resale value of that spaceship.
Via +Sci-fi Covers https://plus.google.com/110716763540971282005/posts/9YAnpgTVexx
▼ Reshared Post From Sci-fi Covers ▼
Wonder Stories Quarterly, Summer 1930. Cover by Frank R. Paul.
http://bit.ly/1dAq92J
#scifi #sciencefiction #WonderStories #FrankRPaul #pulpcover
A technical glitch causes the Hubble Space Telescope, which ordinarily captures magnificently crisp scientific imagery of the cosmos, to lose balance and create this inadvertent piece of modern art.
It is suspected that in this case, Hubble had locked onto a bad guide star, potentially a double star or binary. This caused an error in the tracking system, resulting in this remarkable picture of brightly colored stellar streaks. The prominent red streaks are from stars in the globular cluster NGC 288.
Some photographs of Project Pigeon.
This was a project undertaken during World War II. Behavioural Psychologist B.F. Skinner attempted to develop a missile guidance system controlled by pigeons.
Three pigeons, inserted in the compartments of the nose-cone pictured above, were to be trained to recognize a target and peck on the inner surface of the lens in front of them. As long as the pecks were centred, the missile would fly straight; if the missile’s course were to veer off-target, the off-centre pecks would alter trajectory and bring the missile back on course.
The project was cancelled in 1944. “Our problem”, said Skinner, “was no one would take us seriously.”
June 1914 cover of the American socialist magazine “The Masses”. The illustration by John Sloan depicts the Ludlow Massacre of April 20th, 1914, an incident in which the Colorado National Guard attacked a tent camp of 1,200 striking coal miners, killing thirty nine people including several women and children.
Playing cards drawn by Slovenian artist and architect Boris Kobe, a political prisoner at Allach, a sub-camp of Dachau, near Munich. Intended for use in the card game ‘Tarok’, these cards were most likely created after the liberation of the camp on April 22, 1945.
”[…] My attention was quickly riveted by a large red star close to the distant horizon. As I gazed upon it I felt a spell of overpowering fascination—it was Mars, the god of war… As I gazed at it on that far-gone night it seemed to call across the unthinkable void…”
— Edgar Rice Burroughs
[Earth, seen from Mars, photo taken by the Mars Curiosity Rover]
