Nintendo TVii Impressions: Could Be Better

Do you own a Nintendo Wii U system? If so, a new app named TVii is available to you. The app promises to integrate your cable with internet streaming services such as Hulu and Amazon Instant Video (Netflix is arriving in early 2013).. It's a great attempt, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. 

Ideally, the service should allow you to search and browse for shows that you like and easily watch new or old episodes regardless of where they actually reside. In practice ... it has a few kinks that need to be worked out.. The interface is SLOW when accessing content, since it actually closes TVii and launches a separate Hulu / Amazon app to watch the content. All in all, it takes a good minute of waiting, which is just too much in this era of tablets.  Many people would rather just pick up a remote and get instant gratification.

If you can't see the Hulu and Amazon video below, click here.

Nintendo does a much better job with its Sports application, which allows real time tracking of basketball and football, complete with social networking integration. 

If you can't see the Sports video below, click here

NASA's Year of Awesome

2012 was an amazing year for space exploration. NASA has put together a great interactive infographic showing all of their accomplishments from the Mars Curiosity Rover to the GRAIL moon exploration. To check it out, click here!

Also, check out an amazing video of how the Hubble Telescope. Jannik Hansen from Google+ puts its best:

Imagine taking a picture of an empty area of space no bigger to you than a grain of sand held out at arms' length. Through enough exposure, however, Hubble revealed that this miniscule are of space holds a multitude of galaxies never seen before. 

If you can't see the video below, click here.

We Fly High, No Lie, And You Know This

One hundred and nine years ago, the Wright Brothers set off the aeronautical revolution by making short flights with their Kitty Hawk glider.  Their arcraft wing design is the result of extremely precise wind tunnel data that gave them " the most detailed data  in the world for the design of aircraft wings".

Check out NASA's section on the Wright Brothers for more info.

Creating A Culture to Support Diversity in the Sciences

Laci Green explains it all in her own amazing way. Warning, there is some Gangnam Style involved ...

Best quote: "We need to create college environments and culture that support women in the sciences in the same way that the men are supported". I can't count the amount of women that have told me that they've felt bullied and talked down to as they've supported their scientific goals.  

If you can't see the video below, click here.

50 Years of Doing The Impossible

From verifying hunches to discovering entirely new organisms, I typically think of science as doing the impossible. NASA has had a long history of this, and they recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of successfully sending a probe to another planet. Up to this point, planets were only observed through telescopes and abstract mathematical equations. This makes it especially hard to observe planets such as Venus, which is consistently covered with clouds. Sending a probe to beam back images as well as atmospheric information helped us to further understand our neighbor as well as our own planet, as the high temperatures of Venus are potentially due to global warming on Venus.

For more information and an audio story, check out the NPR article here.

NASA/JPL/CalTech