Experiencing augmented reality doesn't have to be as easy as holding up a cell phone. Through the years, researchers have dreamed up and constructed hardware that is either totally cool or utterly ridiculous (sometimes both, depending on whom you ask).

The above funglasses from Lumus Optical suggest you can view email, SMS and video games "inconspicuously during meetings."

Because no one would ever question why you're wearing huge black sunglasses indoors.

Needless to say, I'll give it up that there are practical applications for this hardware (exploring a city, viewing Google Maps, etc.). Plus, it's pretty clever:

Lumus' patented, revolutionary Light-guide Optical Element (LOE) [ed. note: 2-3mm thick] comprises a flat, transparent optical substrate that incorporates a set of embedded partially reflecting facets. The upper figure illustrates the LOE function. An optical image, generated by a microdisplay (e.g. LCD, LCoS or OLED), is coupled into the LOE substrate. Trapped by total internal reflection, the image components are guided along the LOE. The image is then expanded and coupled out by a set of partial reflectors for viewing by the user. The LOE provides the viewing experience of a large distant screen: an enlarged, distant image, with a large field-of-view (FoV).

After the jump, check out some other AR projects, old and new, which require you to look less like an iPhone fanboy and more like a cyborg...

[Lumus via MedGadget]

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As with the Internet itself, some of the coolest tech trickles down from the military. Case in point: years after non-commercial aircraft started using HUDs to overlay flight data in front of pilots, video games followed suit. And, for the last five years, the hype and promise for augmented reality — a hybrid of virtual and actual reality — to spread into virtually every aspect of our daily lives has only grown.

From consumer HUDs, clunky wearable computer packs, hilarious helmets and goofy goggles now to small web cams, portable gaming devices, integrated GPS, and near-free cell phone apps (this is the big one), are we finally on the cusp of the breakthrough that's been buzzed about?

Above is a demo of TwittARound, an iPhone app that was unveiled recently. The AR app displays live tweets, allowing the viewer to see from where the 140-character message originated. Kinda fun, but also potentially useful: After a natural disaster, rescue workers could hypothetically locate any persons trapped inside buildings or under rubble.

That's why AR has so much potential to become ubiquitous: 1) the applications for it fall everywhere and anywhere on the spectrum between totally useful and just plain silly (thus, it targets anyone and everyone). 2) the tools required to partake are getting cheaper, smaller, and easier to use.

After the jump, see where you can expect to see a lot more augmented reality, and why:

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Aris folds her tiny hands across her aproned lap and smiles. "If you need me, please poke me to get my attention!" she says in a peppy, high-pitched voice. "Just don't poke me in a weird place! "

As if to deliberately defy her request, Taisei Tanaka, who is sitting next to me in a soccer jersey and jeans, lifts up Aris' poofy skirt with a stick, revealing the ends of her black thigh-high socks and a glimpse of her blue panties. Aris screams at the top of her lungs. "Please stop! This kind of thing is not good!"

Tanaka has every right to lift up Aris' skirt. He is her creator, after all. Besides, Aris is not a real person; she doesn't even really exist. She is an optical illusion, a three-dimensional projection of a brown-haired girl in a maid outfit who lives inside of a cube that looks like an oversized die. The cube has QR codes pasted on each of its sides that uses image recognition, motion-tracking, and other computer-generated data to project images into space when recorded with a webcam.

I'm at the office of Geisha Tokyo Entertainment, the company that makes and sells the popular Augmented Reality Figure Aris. At first glance, it's a cookie cutter Japanese workspace with long fluorescent ceiling lights and walls painted a sterile white. But the normalness ends there. The whiteboard by the entrance is covered with a 20-frame manga featuring egg-shaped characters in a comedy routine; a rack holding half a dozen guitars sits in the back corner of the room. Wigs and figurines line the rows of desks crammed into the 800 square foot or so space. As I look around the office upon arrival, one of the employees, a tall guy in a bandanna, waves at me with a didgeridoo in one hand and two stuffed Pokemon in the other.

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BBG reader bazzargh reminded me of the awesome, Alaskan ice wall we blogged about four years ago.

At the time, the wall was 132 feet tall. Since then, it seems they've perfected the art of ice gardening.

Not only does the block appear even more massive and challenging, but the climbers who scale it sure do seem to enjoy the finer things in life. Cheers to them.

If you want to get a handle on ice climbing, here's a solid primer on the science of ice.

*har har!

I've never been to a rock climbing gym or scaled an artificial rock wall. Although I once put on a harness and climbed some low rock structures 15 years ago, I've always been more into scrambling. I figured it had to do with an abstract fear of heights, but then I realized I've always love climbing trees.

Since it'd be sad to let BBG's official "climbing" day go by without acknowledging the sport many of us grew up doing, here's an assortment of stuff to take your tree-climbing to the next level &mdash unless you'd prefer to go barefoot and gearless.

Grapnell: $27; cause if it's good enough for Bat-Man...

Spur Climbing Kit: $439+, includes a saddle, spurs, spur pads, flipline, carabiner, bag (pictured above: ultra-light kit)

Dual-Handle Rope Ascender: $107, helpful in conjunction with the "foot lock" technique

Rope Retrieval Device: $49, cause a line just out of reach is a total bummer.

Treefrog: $52 (rated to 1200 lbs.)

For links to more retailers, books, instructors, etc. check out the Tree Climber's Coalition.

photo by aphasiafilms

You don't want to carry too much crap with you when you're going on a climbing trip, but you still need to eat. There are several great lightweight camping stoves on the market &mdash one of them is the Primus Eta Pack Lite. It comes with a little carry sack that's about the size of a climbing helmet, and the kit includes pretty much everything you need to make pasta or soup for a couple of people &mdash a burner, an igniter, a pot with a colander top, a wind screen, and a bowl to eat out of. It only weighs 20 ounces, and boiled water in just over two minutes. It's non-stick, so easy to clean, too. I used it to make a couple of meals and I really liked it. It's $115.

Product page [Primus]

Unlike running or cycling, rock climbing is a sport that can't be easily simulated. In the old days, you'd get in your car and drive to a mountain to "practice." These days, more and more options abound. Eurpeans are starting to experiment with "rockmills," giant vertical treadmills that provide various hand- and footholds as you move (hat tip: TJ S).

Of course, indoor climbing facilities are popping up all over the world. And, most interesting to me, regular gyms are also starting to get in on the action. But how do you squeeze a mountain into a gym that's already been constructed? Easy. You convert the racquetball court.

While the dimensions (i.e. height) aren't ideal, according to Cort Gariepy of climbing wall manufacturer Rockwerx, the racquetball-climbing wall is becoming a popular option among gyms trying to compete with the growing number of climbing-specific facilities that might charge around $25 per session.

However, not all rock walls are created equal. Duh.

As the CEO of Rockwerx, Gariepy has spent the last 16 years constructing about 1 million square feet of climbing space (100,000 sq. ft. every year). We asked him to walk us through the three main options for wall-building.

Modular Panels
What it is: 4'x8' pieces of plywood mounted to a 2D wall. Each panel is coated with different substances, including 1) a thin, textured paint that's cheap and feels lightly sanded like a tennis court; 2) liquid acrylic which provides more texture, friction; 3) 3D which is also acrylic, but with much more texture, "in-cut cracks" and bulging shapes (it's also pricier). Note: modular panels are also available in Gym Rock (pictured at top, described below) and Summit Rock (a blend of acrylic and fiberglass).
Benefits: Quick, easy to install; might only take a few hours to bolt in and can be handled by a local contractor or maintenance staff, not a hardcore rock wall builder; relatively cheap ($375 - $1,295 per panel, depending on material); great for rooms that don't have exceptionally high ceilings (above, left), because panels can be arranged horizontally to maximize climbing space; thus, great for kids/beginners.
Drawbacks: Doesn't come close to the real thing, unless you go with a higher-end panel material like Gym Rock; tends to look like a jungle gym or childrens' playground, not a serious mountain.
Price: $

Gym Rock
What it is: A free-standing, steel-framed geodesic structure covered in ¾-inch CDX plywood panels coated with a combination of blended polymers and cement textured to look and feel like Yosemite granite. The structure itself creates various "natural" formations like arches, caves, spires and stalactites (this is also true of Natural Rock).
Benefits: Realistic look and feel, but still relatively lightweight, especially compared to Natural Rock; also half as expensive as Natural Rock (below). Provides more traction than cheaper modular panels.
Drawbacks: Takes 2-3 weeks install, depending on the dimensions/specs.
Price: $$ (cost of racquetball conversion: ~$100,000)

Natural Rock
What it is: A similar steel-framed, free-standing structure covered in panels covered in glass-reinforced concrete molded from actual rock; like free-standing Gym Rock, very easy to replicate "natural" formations, described above.
Benefits: Incredibly realistic look and feel; very durable and rigid; no seems between panels, giving wall a more natural, sculptural appearance.
Drawbacks: Heavier than a Slayer concert; more expensive than front row tickets to a Metallica concert (five of them). Also takes 2-3 weeks install, depending on the dimensions/specs.
Price: $$$$ (cost of racquetball conversion: ~$200,000)

Check out this famous video of Dan Osman, a Japanese-American outdoor adventurist who like to run up 400+ feet tall crags &mdash like this one at Lover's Leap near South Lake Tahoe &mdash without any protection. Most of the time, climbing this rock requires a lot of hardware &mdash nuts, camalots, quickdraws, a rope, a belay device &mdash but when you're Dan Osman, all you need is a lot of balls. Osman was also an avid free-jumper &mdash he liked to jump off of cliffs with a normal rope (not the elastic kind that softens your fall like in bungee jumping) that would place him just inches off the ground. Sadly, but not too surprisingly, Osman died in Yosemite at the age of 35 when a rope failed him.

When you're climbing outdoors, you inevitably end up facing some of your biggest fears, whether it's heights, dirt, or pooing in the wild. Here are some tips and tools on how I dealt with three of my phobias.

1. Mosquitoes
Yes, there are mosquitoes in the wild! Tons at Lover's Leap, where I went to test my climbing gear, especially near the little stream of water that runs along the path to the crags in the early evening. Outdoor Research has gaiters &mdash durable leg warmers that go over and strap under your shoes &mdash that are treated with insect repellent. Gaiters also help keep dirt and pebbles out of your shoes.

Mosquitoes are often at the campsite, too. Since a lot of climbers ditch the tent in an effort to minimize weight, taking a bug bivy with you is also a good idea.

2. Heights
I'm not normally scared of heights, but I have to admit that hanging out on the edge of a 400-foot-tall cliff and trying to look down to see how my climbing buddy was doing whilst being held in place by one flimsy rope was a little freaky at times. Since positive self-talk (it's ok, breathe, you're not gonna fall) was not really working, I thought of my own calming down method &mdash I found tiny flowers and leaves in the rock's cracks and pretended they were my dog Ruby. "Hi Ruby," I'd say, and suddenly my fear was replaced by a warm, fuzzy feeling. "What are you doing here?" I know it sounds crazy, but try it. It works.

3. Getting lost
This may not be a realistic fear unless you're going way into back country, but the thought of not being able to head straight back to base camp after a long day of hiking and climbing is pretty daunting. I was with a trustworthy leader who knew his way around the Leap, but if you're trekking out on your own, you could take the Bushnell Backtrack &mdash it records your starting point and then constantly directs you back to it with arrows and mileage. Of course, this could be totally futile if roads are windy and sparse, or if there are rivers and bears and stuff that get in the way of a direct path home. But it hooks easily onto a carabiner and for $80, it's not bad. (I also recommend this product, by the way, to people who can't locate their cars in mall parking lots.)

4. Pooing in the wild
The only thing I have to say about pooing in nature is that it's fun! Try it. Just remember to wipe, and take your dirty paper with you after you're done.

I strongly recommend rock climbing as routine exercise for geeks. Figuring out how to get up a route is very strategic in a puzzle game type of way, and you never have to lift more than your own weight. It also gives you nice muscle tone all around. Here are six things you'll need to invest in to start.

1. A harness.

A harness is what you tie the rope to &mdash the rope that keeps you from falling. Very important! In the gym, I use the Aura harness by Black Diamond (the men's version is called the Ozone) &mdash it's super lightweight and has a special webbing design that allows it to skimp on thickness while maintaining durability. For outdoors, though, I prefer one that's a little bit more rugged, with adjustable leg loops and with more carabiner and chalk loops like the Petzl Luna (the men's version is called the Adjama). These harnesses cost about $80-100.

2. Climbing shoes

If you only get two things, get a harness and shoes. Read my shoe reviews here. Prices vary from about $80-150.

3. A belay device

Rock climbing is a social sport &mdash unless you're bouldering or you're crazy and like to free climb, you always need at least two people, one to belay while the other climbs. There are many different kinds of belay devices on the market &mdash Mammut's new Smart Belay is designed to soften long falls, and Petzl's self-braking Grigri prevents accidents entirely. If you're lead climbing with more than two people outdoors, though, you'll need something that fits two ropes like the Verso. Expect to spend $30-100 on a belay device.

4. A helmet

A lot of climbers think they don't need a helmet, but seriously? If you're planning to hit the outdoors, you really don't want shards of rock or someone else's hardware falling on your head. (I dropped my belay device about 300 feet at Lover's Leap &mdash luckily, it didn't hit anyone. But you never know what's gonna happen.) Pictured here is Petzl's Meteor 3. It's light, it's airy, and it's one-size-fits-all. I've also tried BDE's Tracer, which is just as light as the Meteor and equally resistant to falling belay devices. Cost = $100, give or take.

5. Comfy clothes.

This is very important. A lot of climbers also do yoga because it increases flexibility, and flexibility enhances your range of movements, which is key in making sure you don't get stuck in the middle of a huge granite wall and not being able to hook your toe on a good hold because you're too stiff. Get some solid climbing-friendly clothes &mdash pants that are long enough so you don't scrape up your knees, but short enough so that you don't end up stepping on them. Mountain Hardwear makes abrasion-resistant pants with SPF50, and Prana, the company that makes the yoga mat that Xeni reviewed in April, has a wonderful selection of capri-length pants and comfy tops you can move around in, as well as the last thing you definitely need: chalk bags.

6. Chalk

Sweaty hands = major problem when the grip of a finger could make or break your ability to not fall off a rock. Make sure you get some chalk and a chalk bag that hooks onto your harness or pants so that you can un-stickify your fingers when they're starting to feel useless. Chalk is cheap, I just bought a refill for my chalk bag for $4 at REI.

Also, think about picking up a climbing book to get started: I read Girl on the Rocks, which is written by a super-cute female climber named Katie Brown.

On a recent trip to Lover's Leap, a prime time climbing spot in South Lake Tahoe, my friends and I did a camping food taste test. Camping foods = dehydrated meals that come in resealable pouches that can be used to carry, cook, and eat the food in. Backpacking foods were pioneered in the 50s, when a company called Richmoor needed to find a way to keep Boy Scouts well-fed in the wilderness. They're no gourmet restaurant meals, but after a long day of climbing and hiking and being dirty, we were grateful for warm meals and pleasantly surprised by some of them.

AlpineAire Foods Hurry Curry Chicken vs. Backpacker's Pantry Pad See You with Chicken vs. Mountain House chicken breasts with rib meat & mashed potatoes

The instructions for Hurry Curry Chicken were to add 2 cups of boiling water into the pouch (don't forget to take out the oxygen absorber) and let sit for 10-12 minutes. Easy. We did that simultaneously with the Pad See You, which required 2.5 cups of boiling water and a 13-minute wait. 10 minutes later, we started up the MH chicken breasts, which only take 2-3 minutes in the pouch. Since we boiled water using a JetBoil &mdash which literally made the freezing cold Tahoe lake water boil within two minutes &mdash the whole three-course dinner for six took only 15 minutes to make.

The five of us who taste-tested these meals could not agree on one that was *the best.* Personally, I thought the Pad See You was not bad &mdash I've had worse Asian food in San Francisco that was actually cooked by a person in a wok. Angela thought the Hurry Curry was a winner &mdash it did taste a lot like dal, and in fact, if it came on a dish with naan and tikka masala I could have been fooled too. Most surprising and controversial was the chicken breast with mashed potatoes. The chicken was well-seasoned and tasty, and the mashed potatoes tastes like chives and garlic &mdash delicious! &mdash but I couldn't kick the thought that these were all artificial flavors. Matt almost ate the entire two-serving meal within minutes; meanwhile, Tommy thought it was just gross.

Backpacker's Pantry organic spicy omelet vs. Mountain House scrambled eggs with ham

BP's spicy omelet was a little bit labor-intensive &mdash it actually required us to cook it in low heat in a greased pan after mixing the stuff with water. The ingredients are all organic &mdash organic mozzarella, organic peppers, organic tomatoes, organic pasteurized dry whole egg &mdash but the taste was just okay. At least we knew it was marginally healthy... Mountain House's scrambled eggs were a just-add-hot-water type of deal, and came with precooked red and green peppers. Sure enough, it looked like fluffy scrambled eggs, but it tasted kind of like cardboard. The ingredient list included stuff like xantham gum, sodium tripolyphosphate, sodium erythorbate, and sodium nitrite, which don't really sound like food.

Next on my list to try: Natural High's chicken enchiladas and Backpacker's Pantry's chocolate cheesecake. Yum!!

The most important piece of equipment for rock climbing is your shoes. Climbing shoes are made with leather or synthetic uppers that leave virtually no wiggle room for your toes (they're not supposed to) and sticky rubber soles that basically make you Spiderman-sticky on walls and tiny footholds (so you don't slip and fall and get hurt). There are many, many different kinds of climbing shoes, but in my mind they roughly divide into three categories: comfortable, medium comfortable, and not so comfortable at all. Of course, the latter = higher performance, so it's always going to be a tradeoff.

1. The wear-anywhere climbing shoe

Lace-ups that you can walk in, climb cracks in, and feel totally at ease in for hours. If you're a beginner climber, these may be the only pair you need for a while. They're not designed for super high performance, though. La Sportiva's Mythos are a good starter pair &mdash I actually started with something a little more intense, but then my toenail fell off and I traded them in for these, and used them for a long time.

2. The performance shoe that doesn't kill your feet

Evolv's Defy (for women: Elektra) and La Sportiva's Katanas are both reliable, tried-and-true climbing shoes in this category. The Katanas are slightly wider at the heel. These are actually pretty comfy, i.e. you won't be screaming in pain while you're on the rocks, but you'll have to take them off in between climbs. The velcro is not ideal for outdoors because it can get caught between cracks, but if you need a solid gym shoe that won't slow you down once you get to an intermediate climber level, I'd say go for one of these. I traded in my Mythos for a pair of Katanas when I was stuck doing 5-10a's, and within a month I had conquered most of the 5-10c's and d's at my gym. The shoes made a huge difference in how confident I felt doing toe-hooks and heel-hooks with my feet.

3. The super high-performance shoe that proves that more pain = more gain

These are the shoes that will hurt like hell in the beginning, and even after you break them in you won't want to wear them any longer than you have to. Why the heck would you want these shoes then? Because they make your feet turn into another pair of hands &mdash when you wear these, all of a sudden you can walk on your toes upside down. Seriously. In this category, I tested two pairs of shoes, the Five Ten Projects and the Mammut Goblins. They both have signature sticky rubber bottoms &mdash Five Ten uses their signature stealth rubber, Mammut has soles made by Vibram. Which hurt my feet more? The Projects, for sure &mdash they are ultra-tight and have the sole is only 2mm thick, as opposed to the standard 4+mm. Both shoes proved to be pretty damn awesome at clinging onto steep overhangs even if it doesn't make any ergonomic sense for them to want to do that. The Goblin have a really thick and not-as-sticky heel, but they're great on 99% of boulder problems and definitely good enough for me.

Starting today, you can see this very schmancy Louis Vuitton trunk that has been custom-made for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing at the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the Museum of Natural History in NYC.

via Hypebeast

The NY Times published a set of eight space-themed puzzles to commemorate the Moon landing. The answers will be published tomorrow.

Until then, good luck!

Sure, it's awesome that NASA is restoring the footage they have of the Apollo 11 moon landing, but what really happened to the original slow-scan telemetry tapes that the highest resolution footage was recorded on? Rumors abound about them being lost forever, or found again. To find out what really happened, I had a chat with Dick Nafzger, the Goddard Space Flight Center engineer who was in charge of coordinating all TV operations for the moon landing back in 1969, at the age of 28. He still works at Goddard as an engineer, and has been one of the leading characters in the tape restoration this year. Here are excerpts from our interview in which he answered the question: Are the original Apollo 11 tapes lost forever?

The conclusion my team and I have reached is that they were degaussed and erased. They're gone. The original tapes are gone.

Everything that was on the original tapes was transmitted live to the world, but back then, we had to degauss tapes all the time. The telemetry tape we used for Apollo 11 had 14 tracks, and one of them was used for video. It just dropped through the cracks that there was just one slow scan of that mission only on that telemetry tape. From Apollo 12 on, we switched to a broadcast standard on regular television recorder.

The Apollo 11 mission required special provisions because we were still exploring, and we weren't sure what the transmission capabilities were at the time. We were not confident that we could broadcast at that distance. So we changed everything to be at a lower bandwidth and lower power so we could transmit a smaller signal and convert it. We just wanted to make sure we could get a signal to the moon.

We are also still looking for two tapes from Parkes Observatory in Australia that contained about 10-12 minutes of the original walk in the original slow scan format. They're not the primary tapes, but were part of an experimental program. The tapes were made at Parkes, and we know they came back to the Applied Physics Lab to be viewed 40 years ago, right after the mission. They could be anywhere right now.

What we're restoring now are the best available converted tapes from Sydney, Australia and TBS in New York, taken from a TV monitor in Houston during the mission. It's about 40% done, and the final product will be revealed in September. All things considered, I'm very satisfied with where we are at with the restoration efforts, which will be done in September. We're trying to restore history, not produce something from scratch that's high definition. It's an archive for future generations.

Does it seem shameless for Motorola to release an Apollo-themed phone that comes bundled with NASA video footage, pics and ringtones like "That's one small step for man..."?

Guess again.

Motorola famously supplied NASA, and specifically the Apollo program, with communications equipment, including the transponder that transmitted those first images, audio, and telemetry back from the Lunar surface. Hence the company's famous Moon-boot ad from 1970 which declared, "Motorola was there."

The special "Celestial Edition" phone is an update to the AURA (from 2008), meaning the tech is basically the same (only a 2MP sensor and 2GB of memory?!). BUT, the handset does come bundled with commemorative postcards and the following info laser-etched into it:

"Motorola AURA Celestial Edition, Honouring the Apollo 11 mission, 20th July 1969"

Yep, that's right. "Honouring" is spelled with a 'u' because the phone is available in the UK.

Ha ha.

[via SlipperBrick]

This is, perhaps, the most famous photo from the Apollo Moon landing. It was taken by Neil Armstrong, who shot most of the pics taken on the Lunar surface using a Hasselblad 500EL camera outfitted with a Zeiss Biogon f-5.6/60 mm lens and 70mm Kodak film that was "thin-based and thin emulsion double-perforated."

Called the Data Camera, the 500EL used on the Moon was modded with a special silver finish to boost the hardware's ability to withstand extreme thermal variations (the middle camera pictured here has the silver finish). The Data Camera also featured a glass Reseau plate, which produced a 5x5 grid of little crosses you can still see on the image. NASA used the markings to help account for film distortion and calculate the angular distance(s) between specific points in the image.

Pictured above is Buzz Aldrin, who appears in the bulk of the Moon landing pics. In fact, there's essentially only one photo of Armstrong taken while on the Moon, a blurry close-up of his reflection in Aldrin's visor.

Although a lot of brainpower went into creating the camera taken to the Moon, Aldrin says little planning went into the photography itself, which is why he became the unofficial star of the Moon.

From Aldrin's book Magnificent Desolation:

Neil shot most of the photos on the moon, having the camera attached to a fitting on his spacesuit much of the time while I was doing a variety of experiments. I didn't have such a camera holder on my suit, so it just made sense that Neil should handle the photography. He took some fantastic photographs, too, especially when one considers that there was no viewfinder on the intricate Hasselblad camera. We were basically "pointing and shooting." Imagine taking such historic photographs and not even being able to tell what image you were getting. Unlike the digital camera era of today, in 1969 we were shooting on film, typically looking through a small optical opening on the back of the camera that corresponded with what the camera's lens was "seeing." But with our large space helmets, such a viewfinder would have done little good anyhow. So, similar to cowboys shooting their sixguns from their hips, we aimed the camera in the direction of what we wanted to photograph, and squeezed the trigger. Given that ambiguity, it is even more of a credit to Neil that we brought back such stunning photographs from the moon.

if you look more carefully at the reflection in the gold visor on my helmet, you can see the Eagle with its landing pad, my shadow with the sun's halo effect, several of the experiments we had set up, and even Neil taking the picture. It is a truly astounding shot, and was the result of an entirely serendipitous moment on Neil's part. Later, pundits and others would wonder why most of the photographs on the moon were of me. It wasn't because I was the more photogenic of the two helmet-clad guys on the moon. Some even conjectured that it must have been a purposeful attempt on my part to shun Neil in the photos. That, of course, was ridiculous. We had our assigned tasks, and since Neil had the camera most of the time we were on the surface, it simply made sense that he would photograph our activities and the panoramas of the lunar landscape. And since I was the only other person there . . .

Ironically, the photography on the moon was one of those things that we had not laid out exactly prior to our launch. NASA's Public Affairs people didn't say, "Hey, you've got to take a lot of pictures of this or that." Everyone was interested in the science. So we did the science and the rest of it was sort of gee-whiz. We had not really planned a lot of the gee-whiz stuff that, in retrospect, proved quite important.

You can purchase a 16x20 print of the above pic and other Apollo-11 shots from Moonpans.com.

photo by Neil Armstrong/NASA via Boston Globe via Todd Lappin

Astrobotic Technology's prototype is scheduled to explore the Apollo landing site in 2011 &mdash and hopefully win the $25 million Google Lunar X Prize. Developed by Dr. William Whittaker, a roboticist at Carnegie Mellon, the solar-powered rover has been tweaked and fine-tuned for its mission, which will involve examining how materials used by the Apollo 11 mission have weathered on the Moon.

Here are a few unique engineering feats:

Unlike Mars rovers that have motors in the hub of each wheel, the Astrobotic lunar rover tucks two motors inside the body of the robot where they are safeguarded both from heat and the abrasive lunar dust. Each motor drives one side of the robot's wheels using a chain drive like a bicycle. Key to the design are tailored composite structures made from carbon fiber tape and resin...

The fundamental innovation developed at Carnegie Mellon is the rover's asymmetrical shape. On the cold side, there's a flat radiator angled up to the black lunar sky as well as a vertical panel for the logos of the corporations sponsoring the expedition. On the hot side, a half-cone of solar cells generates ample electrical power to power the wheels, run the computers and energize the transmitter beaming back stereo HD video to Earth.

Another innovation is a lunar-specific drive train. Unlike Mars rovers that have motors in the hub of each wheel, the Astrobotic lunar rover tucks two motors inside the body of the robot where they are safeguarded both from heat and the abrasive lunar dust. Each motor drives one side of the robot's wheels using a chain drive, like a bicycle. The chain drive mechanism has been tested in a Carnegie Mellon vacuum chamber to ensure that is does not experience "cold welding" &mdash a process where materials sometimes merge or weld to each other when touching in a hard vacuum.

"That's not going to happen."

In just five words, Buzz Aldrin casually broke my heart. Which is to say, the former astronaut-turned-rapper reminded me that despite the haze of nostalgia surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing, Aldrin is still very much an engineer, a logician who deals in pragmatic extremes. Not some romantic willing to dive into hyperbole or seemingly-pointless hypotheticals.

The question prompting the above response seemed simple enough at the time: "If you could go back for another Moon walk or orbit Mars tomorrow, which would you choose?"

A total softball question, I admit, but I'd just spent the last half hour listening to Aldrin mostly ramble and rehash much of what he's already said about NASA's failures, China, why we should focus on Mars, and more. Not all that surprising, considering Xeni found Aldrin relatively incoherent when she interviewed him a year ago.

However, I had figured a simple question like this might ground us, get the 79-year-old legend reflective &mdash possibly even a little misty-eyed &mdash or at least waxing semi-poetic. After all, Aldrin took part in one of the most glorious spectacles ever captured on film, an event which garnered what was, at the time, the most-watched live TV broadcast ever (some 600 million viewers). Getting to the Moon is still the gold standard to which invention and engineering can frequently be compared &mdash i.e. "We've gone to the Moon, but I still can't get cell phone reception in my home?"

All I wanted was for Aldrin to utter something like: "Well, my boy, I'd orbit Mars, because it's somewhere we've never been. And we should never stop pushing the limits of what's possible." etc. etc.

Find out what he actually said, after the jump, along with more reflections with/of/from the man Snoop Dogg now calls "Doc Ron," a shortened version of Aldrin's nickname "Dr. Rendezvous."

photo by NASA via Boston Globe via Todd Lappin

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Using bodypaint, makeup, teeth and other prosthetics, people are succeeding at some pretty mind-blowing transformations. Not to knock furries, but there's a big difference between putting on a fuzzy suit and adding prosthetics and silicone to alter the bone structure of your face. These folks, namely Russian Model Alex Kovas, really go the extra mile:

(Not the best artistry, especially compared to Kovas, but bonus points for doing everything himself quickly and opting for the Rolling Stones as a soundtrack.)

An average woman supposedly spend 30 minutes every day applying makeup, which smudges, flakes, fades and runs if exposed to water and other elements. So, in that sense, I get why we've created permanent makeup. Then again... no I don't!

Known as cosmetic tattooing, intradermal cosmetics is a frightening trend. I don't just mean sitting there while someone injects ink into your eyebrows, either. I mean the business itself.

If someone is going to be tattooing your face, you'd think you'd want them to be using the best gear possible, right? I've found some makeup-tat rigs, like the Giant Sun Permanent Makeup Machine, available for as little as $120 (batteries, needles, gloves and more included!). The Silver Tomi gun and kit (pic above) usually retails for $555.

Usually, I'm not one to advocate using the most expensive gear possible. But if you're going to get forever lipliner, I'll head go out on a limb and recommend you and your loved ones check out the gear at the disposal of your prospective technician. Before that even, ask to see a book of his/her work. Also, try asking them how many Eyebrow Practice Skin Sheets they went through before beginning to work on actual, living human beings. If their reply is "What's an eyebrow practice skin sheet?" ...move along!

The mid-90s band Make-Up didn't actually wear makeup, at least not overt KISS-style facepaint. They did, however, wear matching suits from time to time. Either way, I'm a fan. Think punk meets soul.

My favorite song: "Born on the Floor" from my favorite album I Want Some. To sample the goods, check out the Make-Up on Pandora

Tidbit: Apart from playing on a slew of other albums with several other seminal D.C. bands (like Nation of Ulysses), Make-Up lead singer Ian Svenonius is also the host of Vice Magazine's "Soft Focus."

Here he is chatting up Andrew W.K. at the Guggenheim in NY (yes, really):

Movie makeup and special effects wizardy is very much a study and exercise in materials science. Since the dawn of film, artists have been been toying with synthetic appliances, pigments, and all kinds of organic matter. Through the years, new materials, digital tools and rendering software, like ZBrush, have boosted efficiency and creativity.

Rick Baker, the legendary makeup artist behind films like An American Werewolf in London, Thriller, and those Eddie-Murphy-fat-guy films, isn't a purist when it comes to adopting new technologies. He's stated very clearly that he embraces the use of CGI because it can accomplish what's literally impossible &mdash even for him.

And yet, for the upcoming film The Wolfman, starring Benicio Del Toro (pic above), the guru of gore decided to go old school. As an homage to makeup artist Jack Pierce, who created the effects in the original film from 1941, the Academy Award-winning special effects master decided to ditch silicone and other newfangled materials for the stuff of yesteryear &mdash foam rubber, acrylic teeth and yak hair. Yes, yak hair, which Pierce used along with kelp to transform Lon Chaney into the o.g. wolfman.

So how does Baker's wolf compare?

Not sure. The film was originally due in April, got bumped to November. Color me curious to see the transformation and F/X, but concerned about everything else.

Now you can go to Sephora and buy makeup specifically engineered so you'd look good in hi-def.

Product page [Cargo Cosmetics]

Each set comes with "creme makeup, brush, sponge, puff, powder and detailed instructions."
$50 for all four characters: The Demon, The Starchild, The Catman, The Spaceman.

Still, I'm not sure these are quite as awesome as the 1978 "KISS Your Face" kit from Remco.

I never went through a pimply teenager phase, but over a decade later I still get the occasional zit in random places. Enter the Zeno Mini, a pocketable gadget that claims to get rid of blemishes with a 90% success rate. It has a small sensor pad at the tip that heats up to 118 degrees, and after two and a half minutes of treatment it claims to reduce pimples and eventually make them disappear. Cool concept! For $89, it's not a bad deal for people who might otherwise be inclined to pop the zit or apply super-dehydrating zit cream.

But most importantly, does it work?

The short answer: I think it does. I used the Zeno Mini on two new zits that appeared on my face a couple of weeks ago, one on my forehead and the other on my right cheek. As soon as I noticed the two grease bumps peeking out, I Zeno-ed the life out of them. The next day, instead of blossoming into big red puss-filled messes, they stayed small and, by day three, disappeared completely. Now I can't say for sure that it was the Zeno that did it because every zit is born different and lives a unique lifespan. But in early June, I had a zit under my left nostril that hurt like hell and looked really ugly. I made the mistake of popping it, and now I have a permanent red blotch on my face where it used to be. I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have happened had I had the Zeno then. So, yeah. I'm going to keep this thing in my back pocket for emergency zit zappage.

Mascara isn't just a tube of black goo that you slather onto your eyelashes anymore. Three relatively new mascaras have integrated motors in them that make them vibrate, rotate, and pulsate. They're supposed to do everything for you &mdash curl, separate, lengthen, and volumize &mdash no need for eyelash curlers or glue-ons! Mostly, I think it's another clever marketing scheme that makes women believe that technology can help them become more beautiful, but hey, maybe it really works. I decided to try them all out and see for myself.

1. Maybelline Pulse Perfection vibrating mascara

Pulse Perfection claims to vibrate 7000 times per stroke. Sure enough, when you push the button on the wand handle the thing starts shaking very softly. There was definitely no clumping with this one, though it did nothing for the curl factor. You can buy it on Walgreens.com for $15.

2. Estee Lauder TurboLash

Using Estee Lauder mascara just makes me feel pretty because it's such a fancy brand. TurboLash claims to use a timed release technology that keeps curling and lengthening as you slather the stuff onto your lashes. The motor starts automatically when you twist the top, kind of like a conventional vibrator. My eyelashes were dramatically thick but still clumpy after several strokes. It's $32.

3. SpinLash

Multipurpose makeup kits like these have had flip tops, dual-sliding pieces, and hidden pop-up functions way before cell phones or cameras ever did.

via Gadgets Page

From top to bottom: BR Double-Heart Make Up Kit; Malibu Glitz Make Up Color Kit; Color Workshop All-in-one Set, all available on Amazon.