Hi, I’m A Jehovah’s Witness Wondering If You’d Be Interested In A Gym Membership Over At Jehovah’s

IVE SEEN HIM YELL AT TRAFFIC A LOT BUT THIS IS THE BEST ONE

Money Trees

You have a dinner date for seven pm. What time do you arrive?

What Cargo is Launching in October to the International Space Station?

On Sunday, Oct. 16, Orbital ATK is scheduled to send new science experiments to the International Space Station. 

The Cygnus spacecraft will blast off from our Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia at 8:03 p.m. EDT carrying more than 5,000 pounds of science, supplies and equipment.

Let’s take a look at a few of these experiments:

Cool Flames

Low-temperature fires with no visible flames are known as cool flames. The Cool flames experiment examines these low-temperature combustion of droplets of a variety of fuels and additives in low gravity.

Why are we studying this? Data from this experiment could help scientists develop more efficient advanced engines and new fuels for use in space and on Earth.

Lighting Effects

Light plays a powerful role in our daily, or circadian, rhythms. Astronauts aboard the space station experience multiple cycles of light and dark every 24 hours, which, along with night shifts and the stresses of spaceflight, can affect their sleep quantity and quality.

The Lighting Effects investigation tests a new lighting system aboard the station designed to enhance crew health and keep their body clocks in proper sync with a more regular working and resting schedule.

Why are we studying this? Lighting manipulation has potential as a safe, non-pharmacological way to optimize sleep and circadian regulation on space missions. People on Earth, especially those who work night shifts, could also improve alertness and sleep by adjusting lighting for intensity and wavelength.

EveryWear

A user-friendly tablet app provides astronauts with a new and faster way to collect a wide variety of personal data. The EveryWear experiment tests use of this French-designed technology to record and transmit data on nutrition, sleep, exercise and medications. Astronauts use the app to complete questionnaires and keep medical and clinical logs. They wear a Smartshirt during exercise that records heart activity and body positions and transmits these data to the app. Finally, rather than manually recording everything that they eat, crew members scan barcodes on food packets to collect real-time nutritional data.

Why are we studying this? EveryWear has the potential for use in science experiments, biomedical support and technology demonstrations.

Fast Neturon Spectrometer

Outside the Earth’s magnetic field, astronauts are exposed to space radiation that can reduce immune response, increase cancer risk and interfere with electronics.

The Fast Neutron Spectrometer (FNS) experiment will help scientists understand high-energy neutrons, part of the radiation exposure experienced by crews during spaceflight, by studying a new technique to measure electrically neutral neutron particles.

Why are we studying this? This improved measurement will help protect crews on future exploration missions, like our journey to Mars.

Watch Launch

Ahead of Sunday’s launch, there will be various opportunities to learn more about the mission:

What’s on Board Science Briefing Saturday, Oct. 15 at 4 p.m. EDT Scientists and researchers will discuss some of the experiments being delivered to the station. Watch HERE.

Prelaunch News Briefing Saturday, Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. EDT Mission managers will provide an overview and status of launch operations. Watch HERE.

LAUNCH!!! Sunday, Oct. 16 at 7 p.m. EDT Watch live coverage and liftoff! Launch is scheduled for 8:03 p.m. EDT. Watch HERE.

Facebook Live Starting at 7:45 p.m. EDT you can stream live coverage of the launch on NASA’s Facebook page. Watch HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Whenever the Chaotic Neutral player proposes a plan

New paint colors invented by neural network

So if you’ve ever picked out paint, you know that every infinitesimally different shade of blue, beige, and gray has its own descriptive, attractive name. Tuscan sunrise, blushing pear, Tradewind, etc… There are in fact people who invent these names for a living. But given that the human eye can see millions of distinct colors, sooner or later we’re going to run out of good names. Can AI help?

For this experiment, I gave the neural network a list of about 7,700 Sherwin-Williams paint colors along with their RGB values. (RGB = red, green, and blue color values) Could the neural network learn to invent new paint colors and give them attractive names?

One way I have of checking on the neural network’s progress during training is to ask it to produce some output using the lowest-creativity setting. Then the neural network plays it safe, and we can get an idea of what it has learned for sure.

By the first checkpoint, the neural network has learned to produce valid RGB values - these are colors, all right, and you could technically paint your walls with them. It’s a little farther behind the curve on the names, although it does seem to be attempting a combination of the colors brown, blue, and gray.

By the second checkpoint, the neural network can properly spell green and gray. It doesn’t seem to actually know what color they are, however.

Let’s check in with what the more-creative setting is producing.

…oh, okay.

Later in the training process, the neural network is about as well-trained as it’s going to be (perhaps with different parameters, it could have done a bit better - a lot of neural network training involves choosing the right training parameters). By this point, it’s able to figure out some of the basic colors, like white, red, and grey:

Although not reliably.

In fact, looking at the neural network’s output as a whole, it is evident that:

The neural network really likes brown, beige, and grey.

The neural network has really really bad ideas for paint names.