A Roundup Of Interesting Tidbits.

Is The End of this World Close at Hand?





An exceptionally strong magnetic storm would have deadly effects



"We don't know how the Earth (or humanity) might meet its end or when that will happen. Pondering and predicting the event has usually been a job for the world's great religions: all of them have some idea about how humans will meet their maker.."
Read the Entire Article

Nigel Farage. You Gotta Admire His Style

Moving on. May I share with you a video of one of my favorite persons in the world? His name is Nigel Farage. He is a member of the European Parliament from Great Britain and no lover of the European Union. Listen to his remarks made in Parliament on November 16th.
I've always said, "Stand up, stand out and be counted." Well Nigel is a good example of that.




Flying Time Lapse, Flying Over the Earth From Space


Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.


Time lapse sequences of photographs taken by Ron Garan, Satoshi Furukawa and the crew of expeditions 28 & 29 onboard the International Space Station from August to October, 2011, who shot these pictures at an altitude of around 350 km.

Shooting locations in order of appearance:

1. Aurora Borealis Pass over the United States at Night
2. Aurora Borealis and eastern United States at Night
3. Aurora Australis from Madagascar to southwest of Australia
4. Aurora Australis south of Australia
5. Northwest coast of United States to Central South America at Night
6. Aurora Australis from the Southern to the Northern Pacific Ocean
7. Halfway around the World
8. Night Pass over Central Africa and the Middle East
9. Evening Pass over the Sahara Desert and the Middle East
10. Pass over Canada and Central United States at Night
11. Pass over Southern California to Hudson Bay
12. Islands in the Philippine Sea at Night
13. Pass over Eastern Asia to Philippine Sea and Guam
14. Views of the Mideast at Night
15. Night Pass over Mediterranean Sea
16. Aurora Borealis and the United States at Night
17. Aurora Australis over Indian Ocean
18. Eastern Europe to Southeastern Asia at Night



Reforming Education. Why Schools Must Change



"We're Going to Be Friends" The White Strips. Kids Signing. Tremendous. A Good Way to end this post.

Two Space Station Updates

Soyuz rocket blasting off in snowstorm.

Two international dockings this week made the news. Our first story is the return of human spaceflight to Russian space Operations, as a successful Soyuz launch was made to the ISS. On board the TMA-22 Soyuz spacecraft were two cosmonauts and an astronaut of Expedition 29. Even though the launch occurred during a snowstorm, the spacecraft successfully made it to the ISS and docked to the Russian Poisk module on Wednesday.

Expedition 29 all together now.

Cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and astronaut Dan Burbank join the rest of the Expedition 29 team for a six month stay aboard the station. Burbank is in the middle of the front crewmembers in the photo. Station Commander Mike Fossum (middle in back row), astronaut Satoshi Furukawa (left back row) and cosmonaut Sergei Volkov (right back row) will return to Earth next week. Another group of three astronauts will launch to the station in December.

Meanwhile, the Chinese have been continuing their tests with their Tiangong-1 space module which acts as a remote-control station for practice purposes.

Tiangon-1 (left) and Shenzou-8 (right)

Chinese ground controllers have been practicing undocking and redocking the Shenzou-8 spacecraft. No Taikonauts (Chinese astronauts) are on either craft. Notice the Shenzou-8 (right side of picture) looks remarkably like a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Why start from scratch when you can borrow (?) from something that has worked well for decades. The Chinese are actually doing very well and making good progress in their goal to establish an inhabited space station and then press on to the Moon. Certainly they have benefited from the American and Russian technology. Sure would be nice if they paid for the use of those patents, though.

Recovering the landed Shenzou-8.

Like the Russian Soyuz, the Chinese Shenzou spacecraft land in an open wilderness for recovery. In this case, Inner Mongolia. It had undocked from Tiangong-1 on Wednesday and returned to Earth on Wednesday. It is expected that Taikonauts will be on either the next flight to the station or for certain the third flight up.

Mark Daymont,
Space Center Educator

HopeKids and the Space Center

Hello Troops,
The following is an email received recently from a parent of one of the Hopekids who attended the special missions we ran for them two weeks ago.

I want to thank the staff and volunteers who made the evening a success. Honestly, do you know of any place on Earth where so much human awesomeness exists in such a concentrated space? The astronauts in the International Space Station must see this place glowing on pure 100% creative fuel when all the ships are running as they orbit the Earth.

I'm proud to be associated with such fine people past and present.

Mr. W.

Dear Space Center,
Hi! I just wanted to send you a little note to thank you for letting my son and Hopekids come enjoy space camp. My 10 year old son, Austin, has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy which is 100% fatal with no treatment or cure. He wants to be an astronaut when he grows up. He absolutely loved coming to this activity and has talked about it for days. Hopekids is a really special organization to us, especially since Austin stopped walking 1 year ago. He can no longer go to friends homes to play and finds himself trying to keep up with friends. Hopekids gives us the gift of being together and participating in activities that Austin can participate in and gets him out of the house. We love Hopekids and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for supporting us. Our live are definitely enriched through everyday angels like you!

Thanks again,

Karalee
(Austin's Mom)