FULL POWER FOR FULL SCIENCE IN LAST YEAR OF THE AMERICAN SPACE SHUTTLE

where's wally?

i grew up in north america where one asks where's waldo? when searching for a tall man in a red and white striped shirt and hat, amid hundreds of other sketched people. but the world was first introduced to this character by martin hartford, who orginally asked where's wally? in the 1980s. i dont know why they changed the name to waldo for the north american release... i know several wally's but have never met a real life waldo. i wonder if thats because of the book?

anyway, we had a little art party this morning and made a painting called "where's what's-his-name?" can you find him? ;)

China Building New Radio Telescope to be Used in Moon and Mars Space Missions

A new 65-meter-diameter radio telescope started construction this week in Shanghai, China designed to support tracking and collecting data from satellites and space probes including Chinese astronomical projects like Chang'e lunar probe, YH-1 Mars exploration and other deep space explorations, said Zhan Wenlong, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The nearly $30-million (USD) project is also capable of receiving data for Jupiter and Saturn exploration, said Hong Xiaoyu, head of Shanghai Astronomical Observation, which will run the project after it is expected to be fully completed in 2015 but will provide support for tracking and locating missions during China's lunar probe program from 2013 to 2014; more from China Daily.

The Chang'e-2 lunar orbiter is expected to be launched at the end of 2010.

wishing you happiness in the new decade

“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”

- Aristotle

2010: The Year We Make Contact?

Estimate how many exoplanets will be found in 2010? There are 415 now. Will any exoplanet be Earth-sized and in the so-called "habitial zone" found in 2010? How about just one exoMoon? Comment please.

calvin's loophole

more calvin shenanigans.

Russain Space Agency Sounds Asteroid Earth Impact Alarm; Seeks International Defense

The large asteroid Apophis is BAAAACK!

Russia's Roscosmos space agency chief, Antoly Perminov, is advising that the world's space agencies take the Apophis asteriod impact threat seriously, saying "lives are at stake," in a statement to a Russian news agency. "We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would ... prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people."

Perminov is saying that "calculations show that it's possible to create a special purpose spacecraft within the time we have" and "the threat of collision can be averted" if the Russia's , American, European, and Chinese space agencies band together to do build space defense hardware before the 2036 impact date. There is more in this Agence France Presse report, from Pravda with video, and The Guardian.

The impact of Apophis, as suggested by the Russians, would be much larger than the impact at Meteor Crater in Arizona and described as three times the size of the almost three times as large as the Tunguska meteorite that struck Sibera over 100-years ago. Here is more on the the asteriod threat from A.C. Charania's Planetary Defense blog.

America's NASA has plans to defend against the asteriod. The United Nations has been listening to the counsel of former Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart on these matters for some time. Congress has taken the matter seriously and funded Near Earth Asteroid searches but not building hardware yet to do it.

Near Earth Objects and Planetary Defence group made a volunteer made video documentary last month about the current issues surrounding defending the Earth from Asteroid and Comet impacts in four parts.

Secrets of the Coming Webb Space Telescope

It's going to take infrared eyes to see farther back in time than even the Hubble Space Telescope, and that's what the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI or Mid-Infrared Instrument detectors will do. Now there's a new short movie that shows what the MIRI detectors are all about and what they can do. More from NASA's JPL. The telespcope launch is planned for June 2014 aboard an ESA Ariane 5 booster rocket from the French Guiana Space Center.

Christmas Snowshoes

Happy holidays to all!

I took time off from the book (of course) to spend Christmas in Baraga with my son and daughter-in-law, Kevin and Jericho, and Jericho's family. Kevin and Jericho flew in from Vermont. The weather cooperated so the driving wasn't too bad, just slippery in spots.

On Christmas eve, Kevin and I went snowshoeing up by the Bishop Baraga statute that looks over Keweenaw Bay. The photo didn't come out great given that the flash on my digital camera is not that great, but it is kind of an interesting shot anyway, given the holiday season.



On Christmas, Kevin and I went snowshoeing along the Horoscope River, which is located around 15 miles northwest of Baraga. Jericho's family owns some of the land, which is beautiful. Here is one of the old barns, old farm equipment, and lawn tractor -- the old one that is now a snow holder, and a couple of snowshoe photos. While driving over there, we saw 4 eagles plus ravens etc. feeding off road kill. I've never seen 4 eagles that close up in the same place before!









Now I'm back home and working hard on the book. I have completed the challenging section on agate genesis. It should be down hill from here. Just as a teaser, below is one of the photos that will be going in the book taken by Tom Shearer. He really is a magic man. This is one of the shots of a Laguna Agate that I'll be using to discuss the infiltration channel structures often seen in agates.




I hope that everyone had a great Christmas.

Japan to Launch Venus Probe in May 2010

Akatsuki (meaning dawn), formerly known as PLANET-C and Venus Climate Orbiter (VCO), is a planned Japanese unmanned spacecraft to explore Venus currently planned for launch in May 2010, with arrival in December 2010 for a mission of two years or more. The Akatsuki spacecraft will be launched from Earth to Venus aboard a H-IIA (type 202) booster rocket; JAXA is allowing it to carrying your name and message.

The $100-million mission will conduct several scientific investigations including surface imaging with an infrared camera and experiments designed to confirm the presence of lightning and determine the existence or otherwise of current surface volcanism.

Akatsuki is not the first spacecraft to explore Venus; it will be the 27th mission launched from Earth. But Venus was the first planet to ever be reached by a space probe in 1962. The Mariner 2 spacecraft flew within 34,400 kilometers of the surface of Venus and transmitted to Earth information about its temperature and details about its atmosphereand rotational period.

The Orbiter of Pioneer Venus was launched on May 20, 1978. It entered an orbit around Venus in December of that same year. Most of the Orbiter instruments were still working when the probe entered the Venusian atmosphere in October of 1992.

The Soviet probe, Venera 7 was the first probe to land on Venus. Unfortunately, it was put out of operation within an hour by Venus' high temperature. In 1982, Venera 13 transmitted the first color pictures from Venus' surface.

The Magellan spacecraft, launched in 1989, arrived at Venus on August 10, 1990. Before its demise in October 1994, Magellan was able to collect radar images of 98% of Venus' surface.

United States Lagging in Rocket Propulsion

The White House Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy submitted to the Congress on December 22, 2009 a 14-page report on the "capacity of the United States industrial base for development and production to meet" the nation's demand for space launch vehicles. The report was signed by John P. Holdren, the President's Science Advisor.

According to the report released: "Despite the importance of space to government and commercial activities the U.S. space launch industry has seen a decline in launch services over the past decade . . . From 2004-2008 the U.S. shared of commercial launches was about 17 percent, compared with 42 percent for Russia, 21 percent for Europe and 18 percent for the multi-national company SeaLaunch." [Video is of SpaceX Falcon 9 ground test in 2008.]

Goodbye To 2009

As The Year 2009 Is Winding Up, Here I'm Showing You A Video Which Will Make You To Remind What All Happened In 2009.

Enjoy The Video:



image: hissweetheart
alsoread: Most Watched Videos Of 2009

a decorated tree

a decorated tree sits in the snow near arosa, switzerland.


this photo comes from the christmas 2009 collection at the big picture.

Video: Backup And Restore Blogger Template

Making a backup of your blogger template could become handy when you are about to edit your blogger template.Read more »

lunar eclipse on new years eve!

the last eclipse of 2009 will occur on new years eve! everyone around the world will see a full moon that night, and it will be a blue moon - the second full moon occurring in a month. look to the east, in the constellation gemini.

image from earth sky.

on new years eve, the earth will float almost directly between the sun and the moon, causing a partial lunar eclipse. the greatest eclipse occurs at 19:23 UT, when the edge of the moon passes thru the earth's shadow. this eclipse will be visible to people in europe, africa, asia, india, and some of australia - too bad americas! but you will have this view during the first few nights of 2010, as the moon passes close by mars on january 2nd!


the above map comes from sky and telescope, who state that "the Moon is plotted for North America; in Europe, move each Moon symbol a quarter for the way toward the one for the previous date."

Goo.gl Link Shortening Extension For Google Chrome

Earlier We Have Discussed About A Bookmarklet Which Lets Us To Make Goo.gl Shortlinks. It Doesn't Works Greatly In Google Chrome Browser, So Here Is A Google Chrome Extension Which Not Only Makes Goo.gl Short Links, But Also Have A Feature For Sharing It On Twitter.


Thanks To Alexandre Gaigalas For Making This Wonderful Extension.

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 Note: Extensions Are Available Only For Google Chrome Beta

alsoread: Goo.gl Link Shortening Bookmarklet

Time for China-US-Russia Joint Human Missions in 2012-2013 to Space Stations

PROPOSAL: The future of space is internationally important as evidenced by the serious efforts of the Chinese civilization becoming the third in the world, behind Russia and the United States, to launch humans to low earth orbit repeatedly. A multinational space mission is exactly what is needed to be planned in 2010 to become operational in a multinational "Project 2012" (using Chinese space parlance).

An American-based Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) could be organized to execute a contract with Virginia-based Space Adventures to purchase a $100-million USD dedicated Russian Soyuz 2012 spaceflight. The mission would be crewed by perhaps a Russian spaceflight commander/pilot cosmonaut, a Chinese taikonaut passenger, and an American commercial astronaut-diplomat -- all of distinguished careers --- to fly for a 10-day stay at the International Space Station. Such a People-to-People-like space mission would demonstrate the possibilities for multinational cooperation in human spaceflight. The concept mission would be well worth Chinese financial investment giving the civilization-state the desired recognition as an equal partner in the human exploration of space.

But there should be a second People-to-People-like mission whereby a second $100-million USD Russian Soyuz would be contracted in 2013. The purpose of the second mission would be to fly a multinational crew of a Russian spaceflight commander/pilot cosmonaut, a Chinese taikonaut passenger, and an American NASA astronaut (should 'the agency' accept the gesture). The purpose of the mission would be to rendezvous in space with a Chinese Shenzhou spacecraft at (or near) the planned Chinese space station known as Tiangong-1. There a Chinese taikonaut crew member could be exchanged between the orbiting Soyuz and Shenzhou for seperate returns from orbit. The crew-swap would constitute the first Chinese space station crew exchange.

The importance of a joint mission to the Chinese Tiangong-1 station is for the Chinese to provide 'clarity of intent' to the West, and the United States Congress more specifically, that the new spacefaring nation openly petitions to be a part of civil space exploration and discourse without hostile intent.

In 2009 this blogger visited China, read Chinese space-related literature, and listened to informed commentators. The Project 2012 concept has been vetted (through the creation of a draft paper and Power Point) with Space Adventures, US academic Chinese space experts, commercial space lawyers and space policy experts, business organizations, a member of the United States Congress, and others gaining vaired reactions.

With United States President Barack Obama clearly sending signal of his desire to cooperate with China in space, it is time to make this proposal more open and direct with the Chinese. It is time for breakthrough diplomacy in space that captures global imagination while utilizing the existing and short-term planned space assets to set the larger political foundation for government-to-government [G2G] international human space policy progress and action. The Project 2012 concept is more significant and more challenging than the Apollo-Soyuz handshake of yesteryear. The American government would not have a human-rated booster rocket in the space center stable.

Your views would be welcomed in the comment section below or in a direct connection via e-mail or cellular telephone or a 'Tweet.' It is time to think ahead of the curve and advance human space cooperation to the next level.

Think about it; John F. Kennedy did.

LG's Chocolate 2 - James Cameron's Favorite Phone

LG's New HD Phone, BL40(Chocolate-2) Has Arrived. Its The World's First Full Cinematic Screen Mobile. Even James Cameron And Farah Khan Has Started To Use This Device.



The Phone Is Loaded W/ The HD Tailor Of James Cameron's Big Budget Movie, "Avatar".
alsoread: Acer F1 Touch

European Space Trekkers Send Greetings

Christmas on the International Space Station

The five-member crew of the International Space Station are today sharing special food in the celebration of the traditional Christmas celebration but in less than a fortnight the crew will again celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas on January 7, 2010 in addition to ringing in the New Year 220-miles above planet Earth. The crew will have American, Russian, and Japanese food supplies to share for the three holidays adding to the multi-culutral orbital holiday season.

NASA: 2009 in Review

merry christmas!

A Blue Moon for the New Year's Eve

A "blue moon" will be upon us this coming New Year's eve in what Old English mystics believed to show the light of the "betrayer" while some early alternative interpretations referenced the blue moon as references to absurdities and impossibilities such as the Moon is made of cheese. In folklore some have said the moon had a face and talked to those in its light, perhaps it does to some at least in music.

But in modern science, a blue moon is a full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern but it is a rare event usually caused by smoke or dust particles in the Earth's atmosphere. Specifically, a blue moon is a second full moon in a calendar month.

Two full moons in the same calendar month happens about every 2.7 years. The exact time of full moon is 2:13 p.m. Dec. 31, or about three hours before its 5:16 p.m. rise time for those who take an outside stroll evening/night hike into the Blue Moon New Year.

Christmas-Eve Message from the Moon

Forty-one years ago Apollo 8 astronauts were the first human beings to circle the Moon caputuring the attention of billions of peoples on the Earth. Now humans have found water and other significant minerals and are in a global contemplation of new robotic probes and a return to the Moon by human beings. It is time to seriously think about, what Bill Gates years ago called, "The Road Ahead."

GAO Cites Lack of Science on ISS

The US General Accountability Office has issused a 39-page report [PDF] targets the International Space Station for underutilization by the scientific community because of the retirement of the space shuttle fleet in late 2010 and the uncertainity associated with federal funding of the $100 billion orbiting facility national laboratory after 2015.

"[T]he uncertainty of the ISS program beyond its 2015 retirement date has deterred members of the scientific community from considering the station as a platform for fundamental research," GAO says.

The problem is compounded by the upcoming retirement of the space shuttle fleet after five more missions, and NASA's decision not to use Russian Progress capsules for cargo transport to the station after 2011. NASA is estimating an 88,000-pound shortfall in cargo capacity in 2010-15, and severe shortages in the ability to return samples and other scientific cargo to Earth.

Commercial vehicles NASA is counting on to ease the shortfall -- the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus II -- are behind schedule, as is the Ares I/Orion vehicle NASA is developing in-house. Developed under the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) initiative with federal seed money, both commercial vehicles are critical to using the station for research, reports Frank Morring, Jr. at Aviation Week.

The GAO recommended seven executive actions to enhance the ISS based upon options of retirment of the facility in 2015 or extenting its operations into future years [most likely 2020]. The GAO indicates that it will provide the Congress with additional information depending upon the course of executive actions. The President is now reviewing space policy options at the White House.

Share Internet Contents On Orkut Via Orkut Share Bookmarklet

Here Is An Interesting Announcement From The Orkut Team, Now You Can Share Internet Contents With Your Orkut Friends With The Help Of A Bookmarklet.

Share On Orkut  <--- Bookmarklet, Drag And Drop To Your Bookmark Bar


We Used To Share Interesting Contents On The Internet With Our Friends On Facebooks, And Also With The Twitter Followers. And As Far As I'm Concerned, Its What Makes Orkut, A Boring Social Network.

Orkut Team Has Made Several Interesting Updates To The Orkut During The Past Few Months, Like Orkut Promote, New Version w/ More Features, Video Chatting, Face Detection And Face Tagging On Photos, Etc...

Now We Will Have More Fun, While Orkutting. Keep Up With Orkut. :)

Source: Orkut Blog
alsoread: Social Media Revolution

home for the holidays

trips home are always exciting, enjoyable, energizing *and* exhausting! some observations and lessons i've learned from this venture to the US:

you cant carry christmas crackers in your luggage :(

i can say "pants" without feeling slightly embarrassed, but i've started to snicker to myself when i hear other people say it.

it takes approximately 3 hours for me to have the midwestern drawl return to my voice, although my family claims to hear my british accents.

this is the land of plentiful water fountains, trash cans, and eye contact with strangers.

i forgot that some time in the last few years i was given a strawberry shortcake ornament that smells just like my old doll!

there is a lot of space in this country. everything is so spread out!

despite the fact that its too cold to show my feet, i got a pedicure with my good friend and completely enjoyed it.

i should have bought everyone in my family an electric kettle for christmas. best innovation ever. why dont people use them in this country? i hadnt realized how reliant i've become on mine and i'm impatient with the watched pot.

i love waking up to see snow unexpectedly on the trees and ground.

it has been entirely too long since i've been sled riding!


i saw a car dressed up as a reindeer today.

i'll see my mom tomorrow and over one hundred other family members in the next two days!!!

Happy Holidays!

As many of you have probably guessed, my focus this past two weeks has been the new agate book. It is coming right along. I am probably 60% complete with the writing, but almost done with the agate genesis chapter. This section has been the challenge, given the complexity of the subject matter. With the help of non-technical language, diagrams, and photos -- I think the story of agate genesis will be told in a useful and understandable way.

I did take some much needed time off on Sunday, though, to go snow shoeing in the Seney National Wildlife Refuge with my friend, Renee. Her maiden name is Beaver, so we had to take a shot with the beaver sign.



It was a cold, but partly sunny day. A few of the photos are below.

I hope that everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

Warm Greetings,
Karen

FAA to Fund Spaceport Infrastructure

FAA Space Transportation Infrastructure Matching Grants (STIM-Grants) have been funded by the Congress in an initial amount of $500,000 in Fiscal Year 2010. The grant(s) will be competitively awarded to spaceports nationwide through FAA's spaceport grant program, the first time the grant program has been funded since being created in 1993.

The grants will be awarded by the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) under Dr. George Nield to allow spaceports to support operations and protect public safety. Existing and proposed spaceports in Virginia, California, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Alaska, Wisconsin, Indiana, and other states, will be eligible for these competitively-awarded grants.

In addition to promoting safety, the STIM-Grants program is expected to increase the competitiveness of U.S. launch facilities and create new jobs.

Virginia to Boost Commercial Spaceport Budget $1.37 Mil Each of the Next 2-Years

Virginia's spaceport is on the move in 2010 with outgoing Governor Tim Kaine including $1.37 million in the next state budget [114 (K)] for each of two years to the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) to operate the commercial launch facility.

The budget amendment, backed by Governor-elect Robert F. McDonnell during the 2009 statewide political campaign, became even more urgent when the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts released the 17-page 2009 audit of the VCSFA and looked to the future.

The 2010 General Assembly faced with significant budget cuts must act favorably on the request during the course of the winter. Virginia readers may opt to mention this budget line-item favorably to members of the state legislature.

Orbital Science Corporation of Dulles, Va. is expected to begin launching the new Taurus II booster from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. in the spring of 2011 to re-supply and ferry cargo to the International Space Station under contract with NASA.

the many faces of calvin and keldan

we were stuck inside, waiting for enough snow to fall to go sled riding. my nephew and i found creative inspiration from calvin and hobbes.

the many faces of calvin and keldan:


snow days are great!

Have A Look At The New Vaio X

The Lightest Notebook From Sony Is Here, The New Vaio X Weights Just 780 Grams And With A 13.9mm Full Flat Carbon Fibre Chassis. You Could Carry It Even With Your Three Fingers :).


 
alsoread: A New Laptop From Nokia IS Here...
Click Here To Get The Full Details On Vaio-X Series Notebooks From Sony

carl sagan and the interstellar adventures of the voyager mission

i contributed today's podcast to the excellent 365 days of astronomy project! go have a listen to carl sagan and the interstellar adventures of the voyager missions, or read the trascript below! (i like that they published the trasnscipt in the same lowercase form that i submitted it!)


TRANSCRIPT:

hello everyone! i'm amanda bauer, a postdoctoral research fellow in astronomy at the university of Nottingham in england. today is december 20th, 2009, the 13th anniversary of astronomer carl sagan's death.

my first memory of carl sagan is from my first year as an undergraduate at the university of cincinnati. i was majoring in french and taking the university's only undergraduate astronomy course as my one science requirement. my professor played a few episodes of the COSMOS mini-series in class. eventhough this tv series was written in the late 1970s by carl sagan, ann druyan, and steven soter, the episodes made a memorable impression on me! i wondered why i had never seen anything explaining the universe so simply and understandably before. remember, this was back before youtube allowed us immediate access to all the good, and the bad, video information humans had to offer each other.

i'd like to mention an online video project i've been involved with at the university of nottingham, called sixty symbols. filmmaker brady haran, has worked in collaboration with scientists here to create 5-10 minute youtube videos about the various funny little letters and squiggles used by physicists and astronomers to explain concepts about the physical universe. you can find videos at http://www.sixtysymbols.com/.

so a couple months after first being exposed to the COSMOS tv series, the movie contact was released, proving to be a huge inspiration in my thoughts about the future. in fact, just a few weeks later, i decided to change my course and switch my college major to physics, dedicated to the idea of studying astronomy as much as i could! i only found out many years later that the movie contact was actually based on a novel by carl sagan!

My student days are long gone now, but I regularly hear colleagues claim that he was a huge influence in their decision to study astrophysics.

In addition to communicating astronomy and critical thinking to the public, i admire carl sagan because he actively applied science to public welfare, he was a skeptic who fought against pseudo science, he wrote about the virtues of cannabis under the pseuonymn "Mr. X," he won a pulitzer prize for his book "The Dragons of Eden," and he contributed hugely to the scientific discoveries about our solar system made by space probes sent out in the 1970s and 80s.

One project in particular seems to have left a lasting impression on human beings: the twin voyager missions. in 1977, NASA launched the voyager 1 and voyager 2 spacecraft, which were intended for 4 year missions to explore the outer regions of our solar system! Both voyagers have completely exceeded all expectations for their missions and continue to explore the the farthest reaches of our solar system!

traveling aboard each voyager spacecraft is an ambitious time capsule, intended to communicate the story of humity to any being that might find them! referred to as a 'golden record,' each time capsule is a phonographic 12-inch gold-plated copper disk. carl sagan chaired the committee that determined what message should be sent out into space on the voyager spacecrafts to portray the uniqueness of life on earth. imagine how exciting it must have felt to lead the group of people who designed, created, and found what images, symbols, and sounds to use to explain to a potential distant unknown creature... who we are, where we are, and *what* we are!

in the end, the team included 115 images, nature sounds of earth, 90 minutes of music, and spoken greetings from 55 different languages, among other things.

voyager 1 remains the most distant human made object we have sent to space, having passed the distance of pioneer 10 on february 17, 1998. As of November 20th, 2009, voyager 1 is over 111 times the farther from the sun than the earth! that's 111 astronomical units. thats more than 16,000 million kilometers and about 4 times as far from the sun as pluto's orbit!

these little chunks of synthetic machinery have been traveling away from earth for 32 years, and continue to travel outward, well beyond the confines of our solar system, making them the first spacecraft in interstellar space! the nearest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light-years away. at its current speed (about 38,000 miles per hour!), it will take 56,000 years for voyager 1 to reach the next star!!

it will have lost power, and all interactive capabilities, long before that time. NASA scientists estimate that in 2025, the spacecraft will lose electrical power, because the Radio-isotope Thermo-electric Generators will run out of their plutonium fuel sources, due to natural radioactive decay. The voyagers will lose power well before they reach another star system.

but the good news is that the 'golden record' has a shelf life of 1 billion years!

it's actually impossible to predict the exact trajectory of the voyager spacecraft as they will get gravitationally bumped along their journeys. but they could pass nearby several thousands of stars during the next billion years, while the golden records will still be playable. and they will possibly pass out into intergalactic space! voyager 1 is traveling 35 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the north. Voyager 2 is traveling 48 degrees out of the ecliptic plane to the south and will pass 4.3 light years (25 trillion miles) from Sirius, the brightest star in earth's night sky.

it's amazing how far these spacecraft will travel away from earth. and it reminds me just how incredible it is that the light from the distant galaxies that i study everyday, has traveled for over 10 billions years, across spacetime, without running into any obstacles, only to crash into the primary mirror of a telescope we happen to have sitting on the surface of earth. amazing!

relatively early on in the voyager missions, the voyager 1 spacecraft turned around to take an image of the earth on february 14, 1990. in that photo, earth appeared as a tiny dot, encompassing one single pixel of that entire image. carl sagan was inspired to call our home planet the "pale blue dot" based on that image, and i'd like to leave you with some of his words. thank you for listening:

"Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

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Auto Publish UR Feeds 2 Twitter Via Feedburner

Feedburner Has Launched A New Service Which Will Help Us To Publish Our New Blog Contents Automatically To Twitter. It Will Also Shorten Our Links W/ The Goo.gl Link Shortening Service, (Goo.gl Is A New Link Shortening Service From Google, Which Is Now Available For Google App Users.)

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Read The Official Announcement From Google
alsoread: Get Feed Updates On Your Mobile

Obama Said to Back Heavy-Lift Booster to Dash Out to the Moon and Beyond

In an exclusive ScienceInsider report, President Barack Obama has decided to ask the Congress next year to fund a new heavy-lift launcher to take humans on 'dash outs' to the Moon, asteroids, and the moons of Mars. NASA would receive an additional $1 billion in 2011 both to get the new heavy-lift launcher on track and to bolster the agency’s fleet of robotic Earth-monitoring spacecraft. The report failed to indicate if the heavy-lift vehicle would be the Ares-V.

New Mexico Looks at Spaceflight Liability & Immunity Legislation Again in 2010

The state of New Mexico, home of Spaceport America and the launch site for commercial paying space tourists aboard the first Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo flights, is again considering spaceflight liability and immunity legislation similar to the measure killed last year by the state's legislature, reports The Las Cruces-Sun. The measure is designed to reduce insurance costs for spaceflight companies.

Virginia was the first in the nation with Spaceflight Laibility & Immunity state law in 2007 followed by Florida in 2008 and Texas in 2009. New Mexico may be the fourth state to adopt risk assumption for spaceflight in 2010 with state officials saying "We're confident it will pass."

Virginia will seek to repeal the July 1, 2013 senset clause attached to the state's orginial law to place it on the same cometitive footing as Flroida and Texas in the 2010 session of the state legislature. The measure has been pre-filed by Virginia State Delegate Terry Kilgore. The veteran state legislator carried the original spaceflight liability & immunity measure in 2007.

The Most Watched Videos In 2009

As The Year 2009 Is Winding Up, Googleblog Published A Blog Post Which Informed Us About The Most Watched Videos In 2009. Here I'm Posting Some Of Them...

*  Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)
  (Embedding Has Been Disabled For This Video... :( )

Get More Videos, Such As "Most Watched Music Videos"
Visit: Official Google Blog: What you watched and searched for on YouTube in 2009

ExoPlanet with Atmosphere and Water Found

Planet GJ1214 has been found by astronomers recently only 40 light years away with a mass about six times that of Earth. The planet's interior is likely mostly made of water ice surrounded by a thick but very hot atmosphere, which makes it inhospitable for life as we know it on Earth, according to the European Southern Observatory and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. NASA JLP now notes that 403 exoplanets have been discovered outside of Earth's solar system. Popular Science notes that many more exoplanets are soon to be found with perhaps the Earth-like twin planet not far ahead.

Scientists say they will soon find such a rocky planet in the habitable region, or "Goldilocks zone," of a star, where its orbit will make it "not too hot" and "not to cold" to theoretically support life. One estimate today is that an erath-like planet will be found orbiting a star within the next 24-months or less.

The Universe is an interesting place!

Professor Brian Cox Advocates Fusion Energy

Professor Brian Cox is an emerging voice in international physics. The combined 12-minutes of the two linked YouTube videos are well worth the time to review.

President Pledges Support to Space Program

The space community was buzzing today with the news that President Barack Obama was in an afternoon meeting with the NASA Administrator Charles Bolden to discuss the future direction of the space agency.

"The President confirmed his commitment to human space exploration, and the goal of ensuring that the nation is on a sustainable path to achieving our aspirations in space," said White House spokesman Nicholas Shapiro. There will be a clear idea of the future direction prior to the President's Statue of the Union addess to Congress next month.

Meanwhile, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) was critical of NASA's human spaceflight funding today.

For more on the meeting between Obama and Bolden linked are articles from The Huntsville Times, SpaceNews, MSNBC, SpaceflightNow, The Orlando Sentinel, Florida Today, SpacePolitics, and NASAWatch. There will be much more said about this meeting in the days ahead.

what english sounds like to italians

what english sounds like to italians, the MUSICAL! i dont know the origin or reason behind the video, the music, or the dancing - but i love them all!!!

See more funny videos and Music Videos at Today's Big Thing.

found at cluster flock.

i never open my eyes under water

i just dont like to. but this is a great photo from the big picture's 2009 in photos series.


2009 in photos: part 1, part 2, and part 3.

Yahoo Messenger For iPhone And iPod Touch

Yahoo Has Released Yahoo Messenger Application For iPhone And iPod Touch W/ Some Cool Features, Including Free SMS To Mobile Phones.


Watch The Video Which Shows "How To Use Y! Messenger App"

Here Are Some Of The Features:

* Send Instant Messages In Real-Time To Your Friends
* Stay Signed In And Available For Up To 2 Weeks
* Instantly Share Photos From Your iPhone
* Stay In Control With Stealth Settings
* Show Your Style With Emoticons And Avatars
* Quickly Access Your Most Recent Conversations
* Set A Custom Status Message To Share With Friends


Get More Details And Download Link From Here