Message Received: NASA's Messenger Probe Crashes Into Mercury After Four Years In Orbit

Having served admirably as an interplanetary diplomat between Earth and Mercury, NASA's Messenger probe went out in a blaze of glory yesterday, crashing into the planet it had spent years documenting...

Composite shots of Mercury, courtesy the Messenger.  Colors added for awesomeness.
(Image courtesy huffingtonpost.com.)

No Surprise With Robot Eyes: Microsoft Awarded Patent For Emotion-Revealing Glasses

It's no surprise anymore that things in this brave new world can't remain private.  Your papers, property, and person are one thing, but what happens when you willingly enter the public eye, and that public eye is now equipped with glasses that can read your emotions?

Uh, future?  Can we just go focus on space travel or something?
This is creepy.
(Image courtesy dailymail.co.uk.)

Feline Groovy: Play Out Your "Crazy Cat Person" Fantasy Via This New App

Are you too popular?  Are you more interesting than the average person, and suffer no lack of friends due to this?  Do you often find yourself graced with many socially-engaging options and fun things to enrich your life?  And do you hate the hell out of all of that?  Never fear...now, you can become a crazy cat person, at least in the realm of apps...

Questioning your sanity has never been so adorable!
(Image courtesy notarybatonrouge.info.)

Forests, Not Firebombing: New Drones Could Plant A Billion Trees Per Year

While just last week we discussed drones aiding and abetting criminals in prison, now it's time to look at one of the nicer sides of our flying friends.  An ex-engineer from NASA now intends to use drones to plant over a billion trees a year...

Spread the love (and the oxygen!)
(Image courtesy lionsground.com.)

Space Station Sunday: Robot Muscles Get Ripped, New Coffee Cups Get Sipped

Good afternoon, space fans!  It's been another fascinatingly productive week on the ISS.  Here's what's up!

Friday marked the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Telescope.  Keep shooting those stars!
(Image courtesy NASA.gov.)

Tutorial: A Simple iOS Collection View in Swift

Introduction
A collection view is a great way to present view elements in a grid-like arrangement. The precise layout of visual elements is definable through subclassing a collection view. Collection views are packaged with a data source facility that makes it possible for an app to generate data-driven views (collection view cells). In this tutorial we will create a subclass of a UICollectionView and write a random color generating function to supply our collection view data for its cells.

Get The App Kicked Out Of You: Chinese Now Hiring Thugs By Smartphone

You used to have to go into shady bars or disreputable gyms to find yourself a hired goon.  Now, thanks to the magic of smartphones, you need only use an app, according to a report from China...

And to think, beatdown apps used to be all fun and games...
(Image courtesy play.google.com.)