IBLOG SPACE

NASA on Wednesday said that it is working on a personal flying suit. Called “Puffin,” the conceptual and highly experimental project is part one-man stealth plane, part personal jet pack. Unveiled at a San Francisco meeting of the American Helicopter Society on Jan. 20 by Mark D. Moore, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center, the Puffin promises — on paper at least — a self-contained design with proper “cockpit” and helicopter-style blades that allow for high-altitude flying up to 30,000 ft. The Puffin is intended to be 12 feet in length, with a total wingspan of 14.5 ft., and would tip the scales at 300 pounds, empty. It will be powered by a 60 horsepower electric motor for simplicity, reliability and low environmental impact. The reason for this conceptual device? Covert military missions (”swoop and shoot,” if I may) or rescue operations. Take a look at the video: Why the name “Puffin,” by the way? “If you’ve ever seen a puffin on the ground, it looks very awk

Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation, inset after Haimin Yao et al., PNAS, January 2010 A mollusk discovered just a decade ago called the scaly-foot gastropod doesn’t sound like the toughest of creatures. But researchers have found that its armor could help engineers improve load-bearing and protective materials in everything from aircraft hulls to sports equipment. The snail has an unusual tri-layered shell including a highly calcified inner layer and a thick organic layer. But it’s the exterior layer, fused with granular iron sulfide, which most excited researchers at the National Science Foundation -supported Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . The layer structure could be important in mollusk-inspired vehicle or personnel armor construction. A report, “Protection mechanisms of the iron-plated armor of a deep sea hydrothermal vent gastropod,” appears this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy

Not even two paralysed fingers could prevent Django Reinhardt, born 100 years ago in a caravan, from becoming one of the world's greatest guitarists. The founder of gypsy jazz, with its driving rhythms and nimble solos, grew up just outside Paris and lost the use of his fingers in a fire. Doctors said he would never play guitar again. But the accident only drove the 18-year-old Reinhardt to come up with a unique style involving lightning-fast solos and chord changes that still baffle guitar teachers today. Paris is marking the 100th anniversary of Reinhardt's birthday with a torrent of concerts and commemorative events. Several jazz clubs are putting on Django extravaganzas and on Thursday a square -- just a few metres (yards) from where Reinhardt's family once parked their caravans -- was named after him. "He was a Roma, he was a rebel, and he is someone who represents the culture of travelling people," said Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe during th

A new book follows a handful of Japanese who were lucky -- or unlucky -- enough to survive both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings, and their shocking story could make it to the big screen in 3-D, its author said. Charles Pellegrino's "The Last Train From Hiroshima: The Survivors Look Back", is the result of lengthy research, including extensive interviews with the survivors and those who dropped the weapons towards the end of World War Two. He and "Avatar" director James Cameron met one such person, Tsutomu Yamaguchi, not long before he died earlier this month aged 93, and Pellegrino believes it is their duty to commit his story to film. "Mr. Yamaguchi called us to him, literally to hold hands with him and gave us each this assignment (of making the movie)," Pellegrino said in a telephone interview. "We have to figure out how to go forward with this project. With Mr. Yamaguchi dead it's our destiny to." The 56-year-ol

It’s all hugs and kisses with the NBC affiliates now that they’ve cleaned the blood of The Jay Leno Show off their hands. Appropriately pacified, now they’ll presumably let the Comcast acquisition go through without hassling the process. Both NBC and its affiliates board spoke positively of their annual meeting in New York today (Jan. 21), saying both parties are happy to move ahead after the recent Jay Leno-Conan O’Brien drama and work together on issues such as retransmission consent. NBC affiliates board chairman Michael Fiorile said the board-and, presumably, most of the affiliate body-is looking forward to seeing Jay Leno back in his old Tonight Show role. “I think everybody’s pretty happy about that,” he said. “NBC went ahead and made the decision and made it quickly, and we’re appreciative.” via Broadcasting & Cable . I will not be surprised at all if the newly Comcast led NBCU puts the screws to them once the deal is done. Here’s an imaginary Steve Burke (Comcast CO

via press release: USA PREMIERES WHITE COLLAR ON TUESDAY NIGHTS TO RECORD DEMOS AND A YOUNGER AUDIENCE WHITE COLLAR ’s Move to Tuesday Night on January 19 leads to Series Highs NEW YORK, NEW YORK – January 21, 2010 – The winter premiere of USA’s WHITE COLLAR on Tuesday at 10pm delivered series high ratings among P18-49 and 2nd best among P25-54, ranking as the #1 program of the day on cable and beating many shows on broadcast. The show, which previously aired on Fridays in 4Q09, averaged 2.12 million P18-49, up +30% from the 4Q09 season average, and 2.21 million P25-54, up +18%. This is USA’s best performance for P25-54 in the Tuesday time slot in more than five years. The move to the night also brought in series highs among P18-34 with a jump of +42%. WHITE COLLAR out-delivered ABC in its entire primetime lineup among P18-49, P25-54 and total viewers. It also beat all broadcast competitors among M18-49, making it #1 in the demo at 10pm in all of television . WHITE COLLAR

I too will miss the wonderfully antagonistic quotes flowing like water out of all this late night hubub. NBC executives do not expect the just-concluded late-night scuffle that has played out so publicly in the media and on late-night programs to permanently damage Jay Leno. “While a lot of this has been fodder for [the media] I think in the end Jay Leno viewers don’t care what Conan O’Brien’s rabid viewers and fans are saying ,” Jeff Gaspin, chairman of NBC Universal Television Entertainment, said during a phone interview Jan. 21. “I think we are much more aware of it in this industry because it becomes our daily topic. But I don’t think the fan base that Jay has between New York and [Los Angeles] really cares all that much about the inner-workings and the politics of Hollywood.” read the rest of the interview at Broadcasting & Cable .

The Jan. 19 episode, the season’s seventh of 13 installments, set a record for the women’s targeted service by averaging 2.09 million watchers, according to Nielsen data, while also setting marks across all key demos. With 1.38 million adults 18-to-49 watchers, the show became the sixth in Oxygen history — and the fifth Bad Girls Club episode this season — to surmount the 1 million mark with that key demo, according to network officials. By totaling 1.05 million women of that age, the show also became Oxygen’s first to cross that 1-million threshold.

In the wake of a lot of drivel being written about the Leno-pocalypse comes an excellent opinion piece from Ad Age’s Brian Steinberg . Here are his major points ( there is a lot more behind each of them in the article ): TV networks need to innovate, but NBC’s failure might chill their enthusiasm for doing so. Affiliates will continue to get in the way of clever broadcast-network experiments. Late-night may never be the same again. My take: 1. Agree on the need to innovate, and completely agree on the chilling effect of doing it in such an “in your face” manner that Zucker/NBC used with The Jay Leno Show, but I think it’s quite likely you’ll see plenty of incremental changes (that don’t have a big “hate me” bullseye painted on them). Edit: In this case, I define “innovation” as simply doing something different, not something necessarily packed with genius. TJLS was different, and hardly genius. 2. Absolutely. Not just because of the Leno rebellion, but because of the changing ec

BRAVO’S “THE MILLIONAIRE MATCHMAKER” DELIVERS SERIES’ HIGHEST RATED PREMIERE EVER Season Three Debut Up 37 Percent From Last Season With Over One Million Total Viewers NEW YORK – January 21, 2010 – Matchmaker, matchmaker made a big match, with the third season premiere of Bravo’s “The Millionaire Matchmaker” catching a double digit increase from the second season premiere and scoring the series’ highest rated premiere ever in all demographics, according to Nielsen Media Research. The premiere attracted 758,000 adults 18-49 and 1.10 million total viewers, up 30 percent (vs. 581,000) and 37 percent (vs. 807,000) respectively over season two’s premiere (2/12/09). Online, “The Millionaire Matchmaker” saw triple digits gains in total page views from the prior season premiere, with an increase of 135 percent on the series site on BravoTV.com (109,000 vs. 46,000). Catch an all-new episode of “The Millionaire Matchmaker” next Tuesday, January 26 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Bravo, where Patti Stan