Aug. 21, 1989: Voyager 2 Reaches Triton
Monday, August 24, 2009
1989: Twelve years and one day after liftoff, Voyager 2 reaches Triton, the largest of Neptune’s eight moons and the coldest, most unusual satellite in our solar system.
Launched from Cape Canaveral on Aug. 20, 1977, Voyager 2, as the name suggests, was the second of two identical deep-space probes originally dispatched by NASA to gather data on Jupiter and Saturn. Their primary mission completed, Voyager 2 continued on to make observations of Uranus and Neptune, while Voyager 1 hightailed it toward the edge of the solar system. Voyager 2’s flyby of Triton was the spacecraft’s last contact with a major heavenly body before heading off in the direction of Voyager 1 and interstellar space.
Triton was certainly worth a look-see.
Neptune’s largest moon, discovered in 1846 by British astronomer William Lassell, was named for the Greek god Triton, the son of Poseidon (Neptune to the Romans). Its diameter of 1,677 miles makes it roughly half the size of our own moon, unremarkable enough. But Triton is the only large satellite in the solar system with a retrograde orbit, that is, orbiting in the opposite direction of its planet’s rotation. It is also the coldest known object in the solar system, with a mean surface temperature of minus 391 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 235 Celsius). Unlike Earth’s moon, Triton has an atmosphere, albeit a very thin one, composed mainly of nitrogen and methane.
Voyager 2 returned a series of crisp photos of Triton’s surface, including closeups of ice formations, impact craters and other general surface characteristics. It also photographed a plume of frozen material in the process of being ejected at the surface, which is believed to be either liquid nitrogen or methane. Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have visited Triton. (Voyager 1, launched on a shorter trajectory, took a different route than its sister and bypassed Triton entirely.)
As Voyager 2 passed beyond Neptune and Triton, the mission’s planetary exploration phase officially ended.
If that had been the end of it, the twin Voyagers mission would have been an unqualified success. Although designed and built to complete an exploration of only Jupiter and Saturn, both Voyager 1 and 2 proved far more durable. So NASA extended the original mission include to the outer two planets. But more was, and is, yet to come. Thirty-two years after launch both craft are sailing through the heliosphere at 38,000 mph, still returning data to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory through the Deep Space Network.
NASA expects to continue receiving data from both probes until at least 2025, nearly a half-century after their launch.
Source: NASA
Photo: Voyager 2, the only spacecraft ever to pass Triton, took this photo of the Neptunian moon in 1989.
Courtesy NASA
Courtesy NASA
baby name wizard
If you think making a name for yourself is hard, try making one for someone else.
Once a mere reflection of the times, baby names are now considered shorthand for everything from the parents’ values to the likelihood of future child-therapy bills. Choosing a title that’s at once unique but not precious, stylish but not trendy, meaningful but not obscure, is seen by many expectant moms and dads as the first test of their prowess as parents.
It’s not quite a prenatal exam, but it feels like one.
“It used to be that a very large percentage of parents wanted a good, solid, ordinary name for their child,” says Laura Wattenberg, a noted name researcher. “But today, parents treat ordinary as a dirty word.”
The appeal of unusual baby names drew international attention last week, when news broke that a New Zealand judge had ordered a nine-year-old girl be made a ward of the court long enough to change her name: Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.
A 2007 California State University study of turnover rates in baby names found fashions change because of a small minority of innovators amidst a majority of copycats. Tweaking the spelling of conventional names has become a predominant trend in Canada because it allows parents to choose an in-vogue moniker that still seems unique. Madison, for example, can become Madisson, Madisyn, Madisynne, or Madison.
“We all want our kids to be distinctive, and that’s created a kind of arms race because we might want to be different from one another but our tastes are very much the same,” says Wattenberg.
While parents have always suffered some degree of prenatal naming anxiety, the digital age has upped the ante exponentially.
Over 100 niche baby-name websites offer everything from popularity graphs to searchable databases, opinion polls and historical birth certificate data; For about $50, online consultants will do name research on parents’ behalf. At sites such as Celebrity Baby Blog, parents can obsess over the choices pop icons are making, which this year have included Ignatius (Cate Blanchett), Knox (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), Clementine (Ethan Hawke), Sunday (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban) and Callum Lyon (Kyle MacLachlan).
“Parents type a first and last name into Google and feel panicked when it’s taken, or when the domain name is taken,” says Wattenberg, founder of babynamewizard.com.
“When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt named their daughter Vivienne, I had multiple people writing to me who had that name, or a similar name, chosen and felt like it had been ruined.”
Factor in the cultural din of academics whose research warns of the damage a “bad” name can do to a child, and it’s no wonder parents are stressed before changing their first diaper.
For Jody Szabo, a 29-year-old mother of two from Calgary, the pressure of finding the right names for her sons was “overwhelming.”
“It was difficult, time-consuming and stressful,” she recalls. “There’s nothing worse than being nine months pregnant, due any day, and having no clue what you’re going to call this child.”
After poring over online name databases, combing through thousands of possible monikers in baby books, and launching an epic battle against her husband’s preferred choice of Argus - a name plucked from a Greek myth about a 100-eyed giant - Szabo happily settled on Jeremy for her first-born and Austin for her second.
For her part, 37-year-old Karen Markovics is suffering “namer’s remorse.” Five years after giving birth to Nicole Josephine, the North Carolina mom is considering legally changing the girl’s name to Josephine Marie; she has informally been calling her Josie since she was a year old.
“A lot of people were really cruel when it came out that we wanted to change her name,” says Markovics. Other parents have accused her of being superficial and “a flake” for wanting a mulligan on the birth certificate.
“I just wanted a name that when I yelled it on the playground, I didn’t get 12 kids running.”
Misty Verlik Kelleher, 26, blames a combination of information overload and having too many cooks in the kitchen for her own prenatal naming anxiety.
“These days, it doesn’t seem like any name, no matter how ridiculous, is off the table,” she says, citing actor Jason Lee’s son Pilot Inspecktor as an example.
After taking great pains to create a shortlist of names with her partner, it seemed everyone the Edmonton native knew wanted to weigh in on the couple’s choices.
“Let me tell you, no one was shy in the least,” says Kelleher. “All I heard for months was, ‘I don’t like Brandon, that reminds me of this jerk I went to high school with …’, and on and on it went.”
Kelleher ended up naming her son Valentin (val-in-teen), after her father.
“While I know he’ll definitely be made fun of in school, he’ll still have it easy compared to the kids whose parents named them after some kind of beverage, stereo equipment or someone else’s occupation.”
If current trends persist, however, the kids who stand out won’t be the ones with the exotic names but rather the ones called Ann, Joan, Todd or Ralph, all of which barely register in the most recent Canadian name listings.
Fifty years ago, 40 per cent of boys and 26 per cent of girls had Top 20 names. In 2005, the Top 20 accounted for just 19 per cent of boys’ names and about 14 per cent of girls’ names, according to Harper-Collins’ Best Baby Names for Canadians.
As ludicrous as some contemporary names sound, a leading branding expert says memorable monikers - and especially those with three syllables, such as Moon Zappa, daughter of Frank - can prove valuable later in life.
“People tend to favour the familiar; and unusual names, ironically, are more familiar to people because they only need to hear them once, or perhaps twice, to remember them,” says Harry Beckwith, author of You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself.
Ultimately, the branding advice he gives to businesses - to choose a name with backstory and meaning - applies equally to parents.
“Precious, contrived, meticulously-searched-for names always will eventually reveal their artifice, and artifice loses to authenticity every single time.”
Once a mere reflection of the times, baby names are now considered shorthand for everything from the parents’ values to the likelihood of future child-therapy bills. Choosing a title that’s at once unique but not precious, stylish but not trendy, meaningful but not obscure, is seen by many expectant moms and dads as the first test of their prowess as parents.
It’s not quite a prenatal exam, but it feels like one.
“It used to be that a very large percentage of parents wanted a good, solid, ordinary name for their child,” says Laura Wattenberg, a noted name researcher. “But today, parents treat ordinary as a dirty word.”
The appeal of unusual baby names drew international attention last week, when news broke that a New Zealand judge had ordered a nine-year-old girl be made a ward of the court long enough to change her name: Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii.
A 2007 California State University study of turnover rates in baby names found fashions change because of a small minority of innovators amidst a majority of copycats. Tweaking the spelling of conventional names has become a predominant trend in Canada because it allows parents to choose an in-vogue moniker that still seems unique. Madison, for example, can become Madisson, Madisyn, Madisynne, or Madison.
“We all want our kids to be distinctive, and that’s created a kind of arms race because we might want to be different from one another but our tastes are very much the same,” says Wattenberg.
While parents have always suffered some degree of prenatal naming anxiety, the digital age has upped the ante exponentially.
Over 100 niche baby-name websites offer everything from popularity graphs to searchable databases, opinion polls and historical birth certificate data; For about $50, online consultants will do name research on parents’ behalf. At sites such as Celebrity Baby Blog, parents can obsess over the choices pop icons are making, which this year have included Ignatius (Cate Blanchett), Knox (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), Clementine (Ethan Hawke), Sunday (Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban) and Callum Lyon (Kyle MacLachlan).
“Parents type a first and last name into Google and feel panicked when it’s taken, or when the domain name is taken,” says Wattenberg, founder of babynamewizard.com.
“When Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt named their daughter Vivienne, I had multiple people writing to me who had that name, or a similar name, chosen and felt like it had been ruined.”
Factor in the cultural din of academics whose research warns of the damage a “bad” name can do to a child, and it’s no wonder parents are stressed before changing their first diaper.
For Jody Szabo, a 29-year-old mother of two from Calgary, the pressure of finding the right names for her sons was “overwhelming.”
“It was difficult, time-consuming and stressful,” she recalls. “There’s nothing worse than being nine months pregnant, due any day, and having no clue what you’re going to call this child.”
After poring over online name databases, combing through thousands of possible monikers in baby books, and launching an epic battle against her husband’s preferred choice of Argus - a name plucked from a Greek myth about a 100-eyed giant - Szabo happily settled on Jeremy for her first-born and Austin for her second.
For her part, 37-year-old Karen Markovics is suffering “namer’s remorse.” Five years after giving birth to Nicole Josephine, the North Carolina mom is considering legally changing the girl’s name to Josephine Marie; she has informally been calling her Josie since she was a year old.
“A lot of people were really cruel when it came out that we wanted to change her name,” says Markovics. Other parents have accused her of being superficial and “a flake” for wanting a mulligan on the birth certificate.
“I just wanted a name that when I yelled it on the playground, I didn’t get 12 kids running.”
Misty Verlik Kelleher, 26, blames a combination of information overload and having too many cooks in the kitchen for her own prenatal naming anxiety.
“These days, it doesn’t seem like any name, no matter how ridiculous, is off the table,” she says, citing actor Jason Lee’s son Pilot Inspecktor as an example.
After taking great pains to create a shortlist of names with her partner, it seemed everyone the Edmonton native knew wanted to weigh in on the couple’s choices.
“Let me tell you, no one was shy in the least,” says Kelleher. “All I heard for months was, ‘I don’t like Brandon, that reminds me of this jerk I went to high school with …’, and on and on it went.”
Kelleher ended up naming her son Valentin (val-in-teen), after her father.
“While I know he’ll definitely be made fun of in school, he’ll still have it easy compared to the kids whose parents named them after some kind of beverage, stereo equipment or someone else’s occupation.”
If current trends persist, however, the kids who stand out won’t be the ones with the exotic names but rather the ones called Ann, Joan, Todd or Ralph, all of which barely register in the most recent Canadian name listings.
Fifty years ago, 40 per cent of boys and 26 per cent of girls had Top 20 names. In 2005, the Top 20 accounted for just 19 per cent of boys’ names and about 14 per cent of girls’ names, according to Harper-Collins’ Best Baby Names for Canadians.
As ludicrous as some contemporary names sound, a leading branding expert says memorable monikers - and especially those with three syllables, such as Moon Zappa, daughter of Frank - can prove valuable later in life.
“People tend to favour the familiar; and unusual names, ironically, are more familiar to people because they only need to hear them once, or perhaps twice, to remember them,” says Harry Beckwith, author of You, Inc.: The Art of Selling Yourself.
Ultimately, the branding advice he gives to businesses - to choose a name with backstory and meaning - applies equally to parents.
“Precious, contrived, meticulously-searched-for names always will eventually reveal their artifice, and artifice loses to authenticity every single time.”
'Flight simulator' for flies sheds light on visual processing
Despite its tiny limited brain, a blowfly performs difficult aerial maneuvers with speed and precision with the help of eyes that can perceive 100 images per second as discrete sense impressions, compared to about a maximum of 25 for human eyes.
Specific flight patterns are simulated by controlling optical "flux fields" presented to the fly. Credit: Max-Planck Institute for Neurobiology
How these flies can process optical stimuli fast enough to suddenly change direction, stand still in the air, and make precise, pinpoint landings, is a subject that has baffled a group of scientists at the Cognition for Technical Systems or CoTeSys in Munich, Germany. To find an answer, they’ve created a “flight simulator” to investigate what goes on in the brains of flies while they’re flying.
By tethering and studying these insects as they experience virtual scenarios presented to them on a small wraparound screen, the researchers aim to put similar capabilities in human hands.
The simulator works by presenting diverse patterns, movements, and sensory stimuli to a blowfly held in place by a halter. The fly has implanted electrodes that register the reactions of its brain cells as it whizzes around virtual objects. The researchers observe and analyze the data using a fluorescent microscope.
Flapping 'nano' aircraft takes flight in (AV)
Engineers at Aeronvironment (AV) of Monrovia, California, have demonstrated the world’s first successful flight of the smallest ever self-powered, rudderless, aircraft with flapping wings.
The nano air vehicle (NAV) is modeled after a large insect or small bird, such as a hummingbird. It can hover indoors under radio control and without wires. “It is capable of climbing and descending vertically, flying sideways left and right, as well as forward and backward,” says the company. (See the video at end of the post).
The NAV carries its own power supply and operates by using two flapping wings, which also function as the rudder, elevators, ailerons and engine. “It’s extremely complicated and technically challenging to come up with ways to control an aircraft with two flapping wings,” AV’s Matt Keennon recently told Discovery News. “But this is the closest anyone has come to a rudderless, flapping aircraft.”
ICC Test Rankings: Australia slip to 4th, SA hold top spot
Click Image to Enlarge 
New Delhi: Success is easy to gain, hard to maintain. The adage seems to be true for Australian Cricket team who ended this Ashes series with a humiliating defeat. With this demise, Australia has slipped in ICC rankings.
According to a report, the Aussies has been knocked off its long-held perch as the number-one team in the ICC Test Championship after losing the Ashes series 1-2 in England.
England celebrated the 197 runs victory over Australia in the final Test at the Oval.
With Australia going down to fourth position in the rankings, South Africa assumed top spot followed by Sri Lanka-second and India-third.
Australia has been knocked off top spot for the first time since the current method of ranking was introduced in May 2003. According to the rule, the Test team rankings are only updated at the end of the each series.
Gaining six rating points, England stays fifth in the ranking.
ICC Test Championship (as of August 23, 2009)
Rank Team Rating 1 South Africa 122 2 Sri Lanka 119 3 India 119 4 Australia 116 5 England 105 6 Pakistan 84 7 New Zealand 82 8 West Indies 76 9 Bangladesh 13
According to a report, the Aussies has been knocked off its long-held perch as the number-one team in the ICC Test Championship after losing the Ashes series 1-2 in England.
England celebrated the 197 runs victory over Australia in the final Test at the Oval.
With Australia going down to fourth position in the rankings, South Africa assumed top spot followed by Sri Lanka-second and India-third.
Australia has been knocked off top spot for the first time since the current method of ranking was introduced in May 2003. According to the rule, the Test team rankings are only updated at the end of the each series.
Gaining six rating points, England stays fifth in the ranking.
ICC Test Championship (as of August 23, 2009)
Rank Team Rating 1 South Africa 122 2 Sri Lanka 119 3 India 119 4 Australia 116 5 England 105 6 Pakistan 84 7 New Zealand 82 8 West Indies 76 9 Bangladesh 13
Toyota Fortuner , Toyota Fortuner India, Toyota Fortuner 2009
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The single variant Fortuner will be priced at Rs 18.45 lakh INR ex-showroom in the Indian Capital Delhi.
Toyota India has succeeded by keeping the price low which could give Honda & Chevrolet run for its money.
With Toyota India well known reliability & technology the new fortuner 2009 will create waves in the Indian Car market.
In competition with other city SUVs like the Honda CR-V, Mitsubishi Outlander, Ford Endeavour and Chevrolet Captiva, the Fortuner’s pricing beats of all these vehicles.
Fortuner will have advanced features like a overhead rear seat, Bluetooth connectivity, air conditioning vents, cruise control and navigator.
Toyota aims to sell at least 2000 Fortuners by the end of this year. It will be available in three variants.
Toyota Fortuner will be assembled in India at its factory in Bidadi in south India near Bangalore, Karnataka.
Read more: kings4wheels.blogspot.com
Miss Venezuela Stefania Fernandez Is Miss Universe 2009
The 18-year-old lady is crowned the new Miss Universe after beating out heavy contenders from Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Kosovo, and Australia.
Stefania and last year's Miss Universe Dayana Mendoza share hug on stage and the two jump in happiness. Receiving her crown from Dayana, Stefania accidentally drops the tiara on-stage. Yet, Dayana helps picking it up and puts it on Stefania's head who then faces the audience like nothing has happened.
Meanwhile, named as the 2nd Runner-Up is Miss Kosovo Gona Dragusha. As for the 3rd Runner-Up, the predicate goes to Miss Australia Rachael Finch. In addition to them all, Miss China Wang Jingyao is chosen as Miss Photogenic, while Miss Thailand Chutima Durongdej is named Miss Congeniality.
More about Stefania Fernandez, she is no stranger to beauty pageants. She won the Miss Venezuela 2008 title in a pageant held in Caracas, Venezuela on September 10 last year. During the same event she also won the "Miss Elegance", "Best Body" and "Best Face" titles.
True Blood season 2 episode 11 preview
miss universe 2009 official top 15 list
Miss Universe 2009 - The Official Top 15
The Official Top 15 are:PUERTO RICO
ICELAND
ALBANIA
CZECH REPUBLIC
BELGIUM
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
SWEDEN
KOSOVO
AUSTRALIA
FRANCE
SWITZERLAND
SOUTH AFRICA
USA
CROATIA
VENEZUELA
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