Gosling
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ICYMI: Soft robot challenge, NASA's space sails and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-736059{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-736059, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-736059{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-736059").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: NASA announced a space probe this week that will use solar sails to leave Earth's orbit; the first spacecraft from the agency to do so. It should go up in 2018 and its mission is to get a good view of an asteroid.
Watch baby geese gliding down a cliffside in the BBC's latest 4K documentary
In the early days of HDTV, BBC's nature docs were the go-to showpieces for your new home theater gear. Some time has passed since then, and Planet Earth on Blu-ray doesn't look quite as good as it used to. With Life Story, however, the outfit's jumped into the world of UHD 4K filming for the first time. How's it look? Terrifying. Not for the reason you might expect, though. The teaser clip is of the death-defying journey that Greenland's barnacle geese chicks take to leave their nests. Because they can't fly, the adorable goslings have to glide some 400 feet down a sheer cliffside, to their parents and the feeding ground below. And by glide, we mean enter a controlled fall for a bit and then miraculously survive after tumbling along the rock wall. If the streaming clip over at the source isn't enough for you, the full episode debuts on BBC One at 9 p.m. this Thursday and we've embedded the series' trailer just below.
Google hires Java founder James Gosling amid Oracle infringement suit - ah, snap!
And the war wages on... We've been reporting on the showdown between Oracle and Google over Java-related patent infringement since its inception, and now El Goog's throwing a little extra excitement into the fray by hiring Java founder, and former VP of Sun Microsystems, James Gosling. When Oracle acquired Sun last year, Gosling, who refused to take part, wasn't shy about expressing his views, calling Oracle's Larry Ellison "Larry, Prince of Darkness." On a post to his blog, which has since crashed, Gosling was vague about his new duties saying simply, "I don't know what I'll be working on. I expect it'll be a bit of everything, seasoned with a large dose of grumpy curmudgeon." That's just the kind of smack talking this scuffle needed to keep things interesting. Long live James Gosling!
"Bionic" goose happy to have new leg, disappointed by lack of retractable laser cannon
Not wanting to let Betty the gosling goose meet an untimely fate, a UK vet outfitted the anatidae with a bionic leg, allegedly the first operation of its kind in the world (not counting Robot Chicken, of course). She's currently learning to walk again at nearby Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital at Buckinghamshire. Does she now possess super speed, the ability to make large vaults without using her wings, or a super powerful kick? All signs point to no, but a new lease on life has gotta count for something, right?
