Video of the Day: Refugees in Lesbos...

Just thought I'd end this month by sharing this amazing documentary that was shot by actress/comedian Milana Vayntrub late last year. Milana filmed this project (using only her iPhone) after deciding to help the influx of Syrian refugees to the Greek island of Lesbos during what was supposed to be a vacation with her dad last Fall. Milana—who's a refugee herself from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan—stayed behind to welcome the new arrivals as they braved the hours-long trip across the Aegean Sea to get to Greece from Turkey. As you can see from the video, Milana witnessed first-hand the struggle of these refugees as they fled the carnage wrought by Bashar al-Assad and ISIS in Syria...and sought to start a new life in Central Europe, specifically in Germany.

As a result of her experience in Greece, Milana (who I had the pleasure of meeting in person last year) also started a charity organization known as Can't Do Nothing. Visit CantDoNothing.org to see how you can help the refugees in Europe. And if you have a Twitter account, use the hashtag #CantDoNothing to tweet and let others know what you did or plan to do to aid folks trying to seek asylum overseas and elsewhere. I myself donated to the Boat Refugee Foundation twice since last October...the most recent donation being last Thursday. Again, visit CantDoNothing.org for more details.

Curiosity Update: The Rover Could SURE Use a Wash...

NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS

Curiosity Self-Portrait at Martian Sand Dune (Press Release)

This self-portrait of NASA's Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at "Namib Dune," where the rover's activities included scuffing into the dune with a wheel and scooping samples of sand for laboratory analysis.

The scene combines 57 images taken on Jan. 19, 2016, during the 1,228th Martian day, or sol, of Curiosity's work on Mars. The camera used for this is the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) at the end of the rover's robotic arm.

Namib Dune is part of the dark-sand "Bagnold Dune Field" along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp. Images taken from orbit have shown that dunes in the Bagnold field move as much as about 3 feet (1 meter) per Earth year.

The location of Namib Dune is show on a map of Curiosity's route at http://mars.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7640. The relationship of Bagnold Dune Field to the lower portion of Mount Sharp is shown in a map at http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16064.

The view does not include the rover's arm. Wrist motions and turret rotations on the arm allowed MAHLI to acquire the mosaic's component images. The arm was positioned out of the shot in the images, or portions of images, that were used in this mosaic. This process was used previously in acquiring and assembling Curiosity self-portraits taken at sample-collection sites, including "Rocknest" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA16468), "Windjana" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18390) and "Buckskin" (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19807).

For scale, the rover's wheels are 20 inches (50 centimeters) in diameter and about 16 inches (40 centimeters) wide.

MAHLI was built by Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Science Laboratory Project for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL designed and built the project's Curiosity rover.

Source: NASA.Gov

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NASA / JPL - Caltech / MSSS

Photos of the Day: Why Did the Sloth Cross the Road?...

...To get stuck in the middle of the highway, smile adorably for the cameras of police officers coming to the rescue, and go viral on the Internet—that's why!

(All images courtesy of Comisión de Tránsito del Ecuador’s Facebook page.)

THE X-FILES Returns!

Welcome back, Mulder and Scully! Who here isn't surprised that the presidency of George W. Bush made for fertile ground in terms of fueling conspiracy theories that were presented in today's series premiere? God forbid, but methinks that The X-Files creator Chris Carter would have an even bigger field day if Trump wins the election this November (and Carter, who graduated from Cal State Long Beach like I did, decides to re-follow the exploits of Mulder and Scully years from now). Again, GOD FORBID. Fox Mulder would have a lot on his plate—moreso, that is—if he had to deal with living in an America actually governed by Nazi-style government policies...

Anyways, it's awesome to see FBI Assistant Director Skinner and The Smoking Man back as well! 14 years later, and William B. Davis' chain-smoking character is still alive and tickin'. The biggest plot twist by the end of this 6-episode series will be that The Smoking Man injected himself with alien DNA to stay alive for more than a decade. And Mulder and Scully will need the help of the Lone Gunmen to stop him! Man, I missed this TV show...

Photo of the Day: The Joint Strike Fighter and Its New Sidewinder...

Lockheed Martin photo / Chad Bellay

F-35 Fires First AIM-9X Missile (Press Release)

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AFNS) -- An F-35 fighter jet from the 461st Flight Test Squadron launched an AIM-9X missile for the first time over the Pacific Sea Test Range Jan. 12.

The flight sciences aircraft, AF-1, of the Joint Strike Fighter Integrated Test Force, was piloted by David Nelson, the Lockheed Martin chief F-35 test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base.

The AIM-9X is an advanced infrared missile and the newest of the Sidewinder family of short-range air-to-air missiles carried on a wide range of fighter jets.

The missile was launched at 6,000 feet.

The shot paves the way for the F-35 to utilize the weapon's high off-boresight and targeting capabilities, increasing lethality in the visual arena.

Source: United States Air Force

PLANET NINE: Does Another Ice Giant Exist In Our Solar System, Beyond Dwarf Planet Pluto?

Caltech / R. Hurt (IPAC)

Assuming that astronomers confirm that this mysterious Neptune-sized world does exist, I wonder how long it would take a spacecraft traveling as fast as New Horizons did when it flew past Pluto last July to reach this distant object? Planet Nine presumably takes 10,000 to 20,000 years to orbit the Sun, so I reckon that even with the help of NASA's powerful Space Launch System rocket (SLS)—which makes its first flight (to the Moon) in 2018—a robotic probe will take many generations (RE: at least half a century) to make the long sprint across the solar system towards this Kuiper Belt body. Hopefully, if it exits, we'll get a nice (but highly, highly-pixelated) image of it with NASA's James Webb Space Telescope...also due for launch around the same time as SLS' maiden flight two years from now.

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Evidence for a Distant Giant Planet in the Solar System (Press Release)

Recent analyses have shown that distant orbits within the scattered disk population of the Kuiper belt exhibit an unexpected clustering in their respective arguments of perihelion. While several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this alignment, to date, a theoretical model that can successfully account for the observations remains elusive.

In this work we show that the orbits of distant Kuiper belt objects cluster not only in argument of perihelion, but also in physical space. We demonstrate that the perihelion positions and orbital planes of the objects are tightly confined and that such a clustering has only a probability of 0.007% to be due to chance, thus requiring a dynamical origin. We find that the observed orbital alignment can be maintained by a distant eccentric planet with mass greater than ~10 Earth masses, whose orbit lies in approximately the same plane as those of the distant Kuiper belt objects, but whose perihelion is 180 degrees away from the perihelia of the minor bodies.

In addition to accounting for the observed orbital alignment, the existence of such a planet naturally explains the presence of high perihelion Sedna-like objects, as well as the known collection of high semimajor axis objects with inclinations between 60 and 150 degrees whose origin was previously unclear. Continued analysis of both distant and highly inclined outer solar system objects provides the opportunity for testing our hypothesis as well as further constraining the orbital elements and mass of the distant planet.

Source: Konstantin Batygin & Michael E. Brown - arxiv.org/

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Caltech / R. Hurt (IPAC); [Diagram created using WorldWide Telescope]

Photos of the Day: You, Too, Can Look As Bad-Ass As Boba Fett!

Photo courtesy of Galac-Tac International - Facebook.com

Just thought I'd share these awesome pics showing body armor that was recently developed by a company called AR500 Armor. This gear—which you can wear while playing airsoft (and paintball too...presumably)—is inspired by the cool Mandalorian armor that Boba Fett (and his father Jango Fett before him) donned in the Star Wars saga. Don't know how much this outfit will cost, but all I can say is, the U.S. military should adopt this for use in the Army and Marine Corps...just because. One wonders how much ISIS fighters would piss in their pants if they saw opposing troops wearing that awesome helmet with its T-shaped visor walking right towards them, guns at the ready.

Note to AR500: Please develop a Kylo Ren-inspired helmet next!


Photo courtesy of Galac-Tac International - Facebook.com


Photo courtesy of Galac-Tac International - Facebook.com


Photo courtesy of Galac-Tac International - Facebook.com

The NFL in L.A.: What Could've Been...

LosAngelesfootballstadium.com

With the Rams set to make a return to Los Angeles next season, just thought I'd share these images of the stadium that was once envisioned to be built in the City of Industry after the NFL decided to bring a team to the City of Angels once more. Even though the arena that's the brainchild of Edward P. Roski (who owns part of the Lakers and Los Angeles Kings) will no longer be constructed, this site will still be the home to a new shopping center that borders Industry and the city of Diamond Bar. At least I have another place to hang out at once this plaza opens for business (which still won't be for a few years)...though it would've been cool to watch a Super Bowl on TV, and one day knowing that the game was being played in a stadium located less than 6 miles from where I live. It's all good.


LosAngelesfootballstadium.com


LosAngelesfootballstadium.com

New Horizons Update: An Ice Volcano(?) in High-Resolution...

NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

Pluto’s Wright Mons in Color (Press Release)

Scientists with NASA’s New Horizons mission have assembled this highest-resolution color view of one of two potential cryovolcanoes spotted on the surface of Pluto by the New Horizons spacecraft in July 2015.

This feature, known as Wright Mons, was informally named by the New Horizons team in honor of the Wright brothers. At about 90 miles (150 kilometers) across and 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) high, this feature is enormous. If it is in fact an ice volcano, as suspected, it would be the largest such feature discovered in the outer solar system.

Mission scientists are intrigued by the sparse distribution of red material in the image and wonder why it is not more widespread. Also perplexing is that there is only one identified impact crater on Wright Mons itself, telling scientists that the surface (as well as some of the crust underneath) was created relatively recently. This is turn may indicate that Wright Mons was volcanically active late in Pluto’s history.

This composite image includes pictures taken by the New Horizons spacecraft’s Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015, from a range of about 30,000 miles (48,000 kilometers), showing features as small as 1,500 feet (450 meters) across. Sprinkled across the LORRI mosaic is enhanced color data from the Ralph/Multispectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) gathered about 20 minutes after the LORRI snapshots were taken, from a range of 21,000 miles (34,000 kilometers) and at a resolution of about 2,100 feet (650 meters) per pixel. The entire scene is 140 miles (230 kilometers) across.

Source: NASA.Gov

The NFL Returns to the City of Angels...

Los Angeles Rams

Rams to Return to Los Angeles (Press Release - January 12)

Following a vote from National Football League owners, the Rams officially have been approved to return to the greater Los Angeles area and will do so for the 2016 NFL season. The organization called Los Angeles home from 1946-1994.

“This has been the most difficult process of my professional career,” said Rams owner E. Stanley Kroenke. “While we are excited about the prospect of building a new stadium in Inglewood, California, this is bitter sweet. St. Louis is a city known for its incredibly hard-working, passionate and proud people. Being part of the group that brought the NFL back to St. Louis in 1995 is one of the proudest moments of my professional career. Reaching two Super Bowls and winning one are things all St. Louisans should always treasure.

“While there understandably has been emotionally charged commentary regarding our motives and intentions, the speculation is not true and unfounded. I am a Missouri native named after two St. Louis sports legends who I was fortunate enough to know on a personal level. This move isn’t about whether I love St. Louis or Missouri. I do and always will. No matter what anyone says, that will never change. This decision is about what is in the best long-term interests of the Rams organization and the National Football League. We have negotiated in good faith with the Regional Sports Authority for more than a decade trying to find a viable and sustainable solution. When it became apparent that we might not be able to reach an agreement, it was then and only then that we looked at alternatives.

“We would like to thank the National Football League, its owners, and the Committee on Los Angeles Opportunities for their diligence and dedication. We look forward to returning to Los Angeles and building a world-class NFL entertainment district in Inglewood.”

Source: StLouisRams.com

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Hollywood Park Land Company