Photo Of The Day

source photo from flickr commons + tiny bit of photoshop.

= creepy win

Just feel it a little dishonest

He's no Kittinger.

The thing about Kittinger that was so amazing was the extent to which he was stepping into the unknown and how much more he was on the line. No one knew for sure if it was doable. If there's ever been someone who was "out there", it was him.

+1 amazing. I remember seeing a documentary years ago on Kittinger.Truely epic.When BOC released Dayvan Cowboy you could (probably still can) buy the that dvd single.Great post!

Gaza under rocket attack...

Epic and terrifying.

ftfy

I don't think any evidence was presented to show that rockets were launched from that target.

That's ~~ chaff. (countermeasure) ~~ what he said >

It's white phosphorus.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/25/israel-white-phosphorus-gaza

Not to lower the tone but I thought this was an advertising fail on that article...

Sphinx Observatory

The Sphinx (3,571m) peak, begins from the Jungfraujoch on the Valais side and at the Great Aletsch Glacier. There is an elevator to its summit, where a small viewing platform and a scientific observatory, the Sphinx Observatory, are located.

^ want

Looks like something out of a studio Ghibli film.

I don't think any evidence was presented to show that rockets were launched from that target.

Launch sites are not worthwhile targets for counter-strikes, but other places (rocket manufacture/assembly/storage locations, launch parties' homes etc.) might be, so that's pretty irrelevant. If you want to argue about collateral damage, worry yourself about the fact that the Philistines don't even bother to select targets, and even if they did their CEP is so large that their weapons would be classed as indiscriminate anyway.

The aftermath of Cyclone Gudrun, which blew down approximately 1.3 % of Sweden's forest, more than 75,000,000 cubic metres. The processed timber is being stored at the former military airport of Byholma in southern Sweden

Fishermen's lights attract plankton, and plankton attract young whale sharks in Djibouti's coastal waters. In 2008 the United Arab Emirates banned whale shark fishing—a sign of growing awareness of the importance and vulnerability of Arabia's seas.
Photograph by Thomas P. Peschak

^^

HOLY. Fuck.

another good one from the same storm

Sunset on Mars On May 19, 2005, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit captured this stunning view as the Sun sank below the rim of Gusev crater on Mars. This Panoramic Camera mosaic was taken around 6:07 in the evening of the rover's 489th Martian day, or sol.
Sunset and twilight images are occasionally acquired by the science team to determine how high into the atmosphere the Martian dust extends, and to look for dust or ice clouds. Other images have shown that the twilight glow remains visible, but increasingly fainter, for up to two hours before sunrise or after sunset. The long Martian twilight (compared to Earth's) is caused by sunlight scattered around to the night side of the planet by abundant high altitude dust. Similar long twilights or extra-colorful sunrises and sunsets sometimes occur on Earth when tiny dust grains that are erupted from powerful volcanoes scatter light high in the atmosphere.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Texas A&M/Cornell

rocket manufacture/assembly/storage locations, launch parties' homes etc[

Have you seen evidence of any of these in that location?

^^ I've used up my rep tokens on you, spotter, or I'd give you some for that beaut.

This is the rover that took the image:

It was still noodling around sending back images until quite recently, wasn't it?

Reminds me of Wal-E.

cheers luci, up till late 2009 is was still happily pootling about the place, then it got stuck, here's the account of its last movements etc

**2009
*Stuck in dusty soil with poor cohesion
***On May 1, 2009, the Rover became stuck in soft soil, the machine resting upon a cache of iron(III) sulfate (jarosite) hidden under a veneer of normal-looking soil. Iron sulfate has very little cohesion, making it difficult for the rover's wheels to gain traction. JPL team members simulated the situation by means of a rover mock-up and computer models in an attempt to get the rover back on track. Indeed, it is particularly difficult to experimentally reproduce the same soil mechanical conditions on Earth as those prevailing on Mars under low gravity and under very weak atmospheric pressure. Tests with a lighter version of a mock-up of Spirit were conducted at JPL in a special sandbox to attempt to simulate the cohesion behavior of poorly consolidated soils under low gravity. Preliminary extrication drives began on November 17, 2009.
On December 17, 2009, the right-front wheel suddenly began to operate normally for the first three out of four rotations attempts. It was unknown what effect it would have on freeing the rover if the wheel became fully operational again. The right rear wheel had also stalled on November 28 and remained inoperable for the remainder of the mission. This left the rover with only four fully operational wheels. If the team could not gain movement and adjust the tilt of the solar panels, or gain a beneficial wind to clean the panels, the rover would only be able to sustain operations until May 2010.

2010
*Stationary research platform*
On January 26, 2010, after several months attempting to free the rover, NASA decided to redefine the mobile robot mission by calling it a stationary research platform. Efforts were directed in preparing a more suitable orientation of the platform in relation to the Sun in an attempt to allow a more efficient recharge of the platform's batteries. This was needed to keep some systems operational during the Martian winter. On March 30, 2010, Spirit skipped a planned communication session and as anticipated from recent power-supply projections, had probably entered a low-power hibernation mode.

Last communication
The last communication with the rover was on sol 2210 (March 22, 2010) and there is a strong possibility the rover’s batteries lost so much power at some point that the mission clock stopped. In previous winters the rover was able to park on a Sun-facing slope and keep its internal temperature above -40 Celsius, but since the rover was stuck on flat ground it is estimated that its internal temperature dropped to −55 Celsius. If Spirit had survived these conditions and there had been a cleaning event, there was a possibility that with the southern summer solstice in March 2011, solar energy would increase to a level that would wake up the rover.

2011
*Mission end*
JPL continued attempts to regain contact with the Spirit rover until May 25, 2011, when NASA announced the end of contact efforts and the completion of the mission. According to NASA, the rover likely experienced excessively cold "internal temperatures" due to "inadequate energy to run its survival heaters" which, in turn, was a result of "a stressful Martian winter without much sunlight." Many critical components and connections would have been "susceptible to damage from the cold." Assets that had been needed to support Spirit were transitioned to support Spirit's "still-active twin", Opportunity, as well as the next-generation Mars rover Curiosity. Two NASA Mars orbiters and the Deep Space Network of antennas were prepared for the Curiosity launch which took place on November 26, 2011.

Here are some panorama's it took (click for full size)

I know it sounds stupid but I can't believe I'm looking at another planet when I'm seeing those.

Yeah. It's all filmed 21 miles outside of Vegas + some Photoshop. Everyone knows that maaaaaaaan.

[/consipracy]

[QUOTE=spenceey;2773730]I know it sounds stupid but I can't believe I'm looking at another planet when I'm seeing those.[/QUOTE

A charming post that made me smile (no homo).