Let Me Explain

Is NASA part of the government cover up, hiding the existence of aliens for the safety of the planet?!?! No. No they're not. But if a feed cuts out on the ISS, everyone seems to freak out and say it's because our government won't tell us the truth. We're getting a small update on the Juno satellite... don't expect photos back until October, but we now have a date when they'll start snapping the glamour shots. Have you upgraded to Windows 10? It's the last call to get the new OS from...

There's junk floating all around space, just waiting for a robot cowboy to wrangle it all up. But Europe has a crazy idea to clean it all up. A special capture machine will be sent up to do the space dirty work. We talk about Carl Sagan a few times in this podcast. First, SETI is looking for some new outside ideas to help with leads into new places to explore in the universe. The world's best radio telescope has found hundreds of new galaxies, and there's lots more to explore. AND we're...

Juno is doing it's thing, and we couldn't be more excited. After a 5 year journey, the spacecraft is ready for a quick adjustment and will be booting up and taking all kinds of interesting measurements of Jupiter. So what's next? We also look at Mars. You might be surprised to find out the USA isn't the only country in the race to get back there. Several other agencies plan to invade the martian planet. And all that water we thought we found on the red planet? New research says not so...

I don't often side with the ACLU, but they doing good work arguing the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. You're probably a felon and don't even know it. There's certain cyber laws that are written so broadly that everyone is guilty... if the government wants you to be guilty. Have you ever tried to park downtown... only to return to your car and find a ticket on the windshield? There's a new website that uses bots to help fight tickets. Good news is they're beating the system. We also look at...

Do you ever get the feeling you're being spied on? Maybe there's aliens 40 light years away that have been listening to us all along. And just maybe we'll start to listen back. But you know how I feel about aliens... they don't exist so... yeah. We also get a follow up on Juno, the probe that's about to orbit Jupiter. It's about to get so close to the planet that you won't know what to do with yourself. What will we learn, and what will the little Lego characters learn? PLUS we look at a...

In 2011, a bunch of brainy people at NASA spent $700 million dollars of your money to send a satellite to Jupiter... and it's awesome. Or at least, it better be awesome. It's called Juno, and the spacecraft is planned to get into orbit of the planet on July 4th. After waiting a few years to hitch a ride on the Earth slingshot (and snapping photos), it's been on it's way to the planet and is about to get closer to the gassy giant than ever before. We go over the details of this mission and...

Will Domino's deliver in space? No, they won't. But they will let you phantom order a pizza and send it your way without even making a call. They might even send a robot to deliver it to you. If only they can find a way to get it to Mars. I hear we'll have people there soon. Speaking of Mars... will having 3D printing help make space travel more possible? In space, nobody can hear you scream. They'll also scream as the 3D printer takes a day to create a small part. And if we're going to...

Do real life super villains exist? He doesn't have super powers, but he does have a lot of money and wants to nuke Mars. His name is Elon Musk. If you're not familiar with Elon, we'll look over his history and how he worked his way to the top of the tech industry. A few things to point out is that in 2015 he suggested we should nuke Mars (the planet not the candy in a microwave) in order to help build up a the average temperature on the planet. It's a bold suggestion, but does he have the...

I’m for keeping the internet free and open, and you should be to. If you’re not familiar with the idea of Net Neutrality, it’s important that you understand it and become an advocate of it. Allowing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) the digression to limit, discourage and throttle commerce on the internet is not based on your best interests. Right now there’s another battle in the U.S. Government, and this time Congress is trying to force the FCC to drop the Net Neutrality fight in order to...

Is it open season on drone hunting? There's a good piece by the Wall Street Journal that gives both sides of the story regarding done flight in your neighbors of your private property. I think you should have to get prior consent to fly a drone over private property... and if I catch someone trying to spy on me with one of these devices, you better believe I'm going to use something like a high pressured hose to scare it away. It's not worth having those annoying things over your private...

You'll never catch me in a self driving car. I just can't get past the idea that a machine could make one wrong calculation and I'm driving into a lake. That's not to mention the probability hackers could control my car, or a computer chip fails mid-drive. No thank you. This week we look at Google now hiring "drivers" for their self driving cars. So I guess there is a price you can put on your life -- it's $20/hour. We also find out that the FBI can neither confirm nor deny they are spying...

You'll go blind if you stare at the sun... unless scientists tell you it's OK. In that case, go ahead and stare away! (disclaimer: don't be dumb and stare at the sun without the proper protections). I feel like I don't actually need that disclaimer, but it's never a bad idea. In this podcast we look at how NASA has posted real time images of Mercury passing across the sun. For all you sun "watch paint dry" enthusiasts this was a great day. Actually... I might be downplaying this. It only...

I didn't want to miss an upload, but this week in Indiana has been heavy on politics and short on time. I wouldn't leave you guys in the dark! Here's an update of what's going on with me, and we'll have a full update next week.

My mom always told me to wear fresh underwear in case I'm abducted... hopefully by aliens and not angry conspiracy theorists for saying aliens don't actually exist. Int his episode we continue to look at science, space, technology and some nonsense. What's more likely - a meteorite traveled billions of miles across the universe to make you rich, or you have some furnace slag that you call a meteorite? That's what auctioneers and lunar geochemists have to go through every, kind of like the...

Call me Mr. Pragmatic. In this episode we look at the mystery of thy Wow! signal some 40 years after astronomer Jerry Ehman discovered it in 1977. Could we be just a few years away from confirming or denying one theory of it's origin? One scientist thinks so, and he's will to put up your money to solve the puzzle. Stephen Hawking doesn't think we'll find aliens any time soon. Mainly because aliens don't exist. But it won't stop him from planning a fly by of Alpha Centauri thanks to a Russian...

It's episode 11 of Let Me Explain, looking at technology, space and peanut butter. Are there wanted signs across the universe with a photo of our sun? If the scientists that ruined my childhood by demoting Pluto are correct, the mysterious Planet Nine may have been captured from another star. Some say it was stolen without any apology. We also talk about someone that may or may not be an alien herself, Hillary Clinton, and the pandering to E.T. lovers. She's not fooling me. There's some good...

This week we look at the shady Oculus Rift Terms of Service practices from #Gizmodo, a #Google engineer who reviews USB cables on #Amazon, a great article from Kevin Burke regarding the TSA Randomizer #iPad app, #SETI's search for life update and using lasers to hide from #aliens. Photo Source: https://goo.gl/bzzuGh License: https://goo.gl/OOAQfn

Give a boy your WIFI password, he'll troubleshoot for the day. Give a boy a programmable computer board, he'll love computers for a lifetime... or something like that. I'm not sure that makes any sense. A new initiative in Britain is giving away mini-computers to 11 year old boys and girls in hope to get them interested in computer sciences. It's a small investment to excite the imaginations of the youth. Hopefully this will be the new standard in places like the United States. We also look...

You’ll never see me in a self driving car. I can’t get over the fact that hackers could take control of my car and cause general craziness. In this episode, I take my wife’s advice and talk more about technology and things happening here on Earth. We look at the FBI vs Apple, hacking cars, mustaches, pumping coffee into kids, and yes even some aliens.

There’s a lot of people that are smarter than me. That includes Mark Masters, Chair and Professor of Physics at IPFW in Fort Wayne and also Steve Gillam, Assistant Professor of Physics at IPFW. Both have their Ph.D. in smarts, and both helped me understand the complexity of gravitational waves. As part of a series at IPFW, they’ll be hosting an open forum called LIGO & Gravitational Waves on Friday, March 18th. The event is in Kettler Hall 132 starting at 7:30 p.m. and will feature much of...