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- Opportunity's Selfie
NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity catches its own late-afternoon shadow in this dramatically lit view eastward across Endeavour Crater on Mars. The rover used the panoramic camera (Pancam) between about 4:30 and 5:00 p.m. local Mars time to record images taken through different filters and combined into this mosaic view. Most of the component images were recorded during the 2,888th Martian day, or sol, of Opportunity's work on Mars (March 9, 2012). At that time, Opportunity was spending low-solar-energy weeks of the Martian winter at the Greeley Haven outcrop on the Cape York segment of Endeavour's western rim. In order to give the mosaic a rectangular aspect, some small parts of the edges of the mosaic and sky were filled in with parts of an image acquired earlier as part of a 360-degree panorama from the same location. Opportunity has been studying the western rim of Endeavour Crater since arriving there in August 2011. This crater spans 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter, or about the same area as the city of Seattle. This is more than 20 times wider than Victoria Crater, the largest impact crater that Opportunity had previously examined. The interior basin of Endeavour is in the upper half of this view. The mosaic combines about a dozen images taken through Pancam filters centered on wavelengths of 753 nanometers (near infrared), 535 nanometers (green) and 432 nanometers (violet). The view is presented in false color to make some differences between materials easier to see, such as the dark sandy ripples and dunes on the crater's distant floor. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.
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Monthly Archives: July 2009
Basic Definition
I really like this. Many people in America have never understood this fundamental definition: I’d like to clarify something that some people seemed to be confused about. Health care is not a right. (Neither is education, or food, or housing, … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Politics
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MHI 1
Do you remember the Steve Martin movie “The Jerk”? The main character gets listed in the phone book, and when it is published he screams, “The new phone book’s here, the new phone book’s here! …. I am somebody”. Well … Continue reading
Posted in Reading
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What does it Take?
Have you ever wondered, “What does it take to…”? In this case, what does it take to be a “protector”? If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know what it take to be a sheep dog. Being … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Heroes
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Sotomayor
I have stayed away from the Sotomayor confirmation debate. This is a battle that is not going to go the way that I would like it to. There are too many in the Senate that need to play the political … Continue reading
Posted in Gun Control, Politics
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Friday Funny
Dave and his buddies were hanging out and planning an upcoming fishing trip. Unfortunately, he had to tell them that he couldn’t go this time because his wife wouldn’t let him. After a lot of teasing and name calling, Dave … Continue reading
Posted in Humor
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Unbelievable Behaviors
Life has a way of throwing us curve balls. When it does, the character of the individual usually comes out. Hopefully we all rise to the occasion but the reality is that in most of those cases our minds, and … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
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Comedy from yesteryear
Maybe I’ll do a series of posts like this… I do enjoy a lot of the older comedy.
Posted in Culture, Humor
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Knife Control
Stats can be twisted however you want but, at first blush this one gets the “Why am I not surprised” reaction. The number of knife deaths in areas targeted by an anti-knife crime scheme has risen, the Home Office has … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
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“Sweet Shiva on a surfboard”
I love that quote. Tam had an epiphany. It is about the same one that I had when I discovered Zune and iPod both. These things are great for this reason. They are also great for those long flights. It … Continue reading
Posted in Culture
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Cane-Fu
Very cool new program. This is the new world of self-defense for seniors, at least as taught by Shuey, founder of Cane Masters, a Lake Tahoe, Nev.-based company that manufactures custom canes. Shuey, a tae kwon do and hapkido expert, … Continue reading
Posted in Martial Arts
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