Ted Alvarez on November 27, 2007 11:40 AM
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New Mexico is one of my favorite places -- between them selling turpentine-strength liquor in gas stations and me doing wicked amounts of pretty deese peyote in the desert, I find the place hard to beat. But the Land of Enchantment (and hantavirus) faces stiff competition for tourism dollars from its shinier stepsisters Colorado, Arizona and Utah, so they've stepped up their campaign to feature what they're best known for: aliens.
The ad, commissioned by the board of tourism and funded with state dollars, has generated a bit of controversy. Check it after the jump.
Continue reading 'Why go to New Mexico? Aliens, dumbass!' >
Ted Alvarez on October 29, 2007 3:21 PM
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New Mexico was once again the site of interstellar shenanigans (I'm looking at you, Roswell) as the X Prize Cup rocket expo ended with Armadillo Aerospace's entry into the 2007 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge exploding in spectacular fashion.
In a last-ditch attempt to win the prize, Armadillo took the engine out of another, more powerful rocket called Pixel – which it had planned to fly in the more difficult level 2 challenge – and used it as a replacement for Module 1's cracked engine.
But the engine exploded in a fireball at launch, producing a bang that was audible from more than a kilometre away. Armadillo declared an emergency and fire trucks rushed to the scene, but the fire quickly burned itself out without any intervention or injuries.
Nine teams entered, but only Armadillo Aerospace was actually prepared to compete in time to win the prize. Armadillo was founded by John Carmack, creator of iD Software and the games Doom and Quake.
Continue reading 'X Prize ends with no winners, explosions' >
