Two instruments that served more than 15 years aboard the Hubble telescope have gone on display in the US.
Washington DC’s National Air and Space Museum is the new home for the WFPC-2 and Costar, which once served as the telescope’s eyes and its spectacles.
The two instruments were replaced during a servicing mission in May.
They will depart in December for a brief tour of California before returning permanently to the museum in March 2010.
The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, or Costar, was a suite of optics providing the fix for a manufacturing fault that initially stymied Hubble’s mission.
A tiny flaw in the curvature of the telescope’s main mirror meant its first images were blurred.
In 1993, Costar was installed to act as “spectacles” to correct the images for a range of Hubble’s instruments and cameras. In addition, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC-2) was installed, which already had the optical fix built into it.
The rejuvenated telescope then began to produce some of the most stunning images astronomers - and the public - have ever seen.
The WFPC-2 was responsible for the ubiquitous image of the Eagle Nebula, dubbed the “Pillars of Creation”, among 135,000 others during its 15 years in space.
The two instruments were removed in the final Hubble servicing mission in May and returned to Earth.
“This was the camera that saved Hubble,” said Dr Ed Weiler, associate administrator for Nasa’s science mission directorate.
“I have looked forward for a long time to stand in front of this very instrument while on display to the public.”
The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum holds thousands of artefacts from the history of aviation and spaceflight.
]]>]]>‘Fat for cosmetics’ murder suspects arrested in Peru
Four people have been arrested in Peru on suspicion of killing dozens of people in order to sell their fat and tissue for cosmetic uses in Europe.
The gang allegedly targeted people on remote roads, luring them with fake job offers before extracting their fat to sell it for $15,000 (£9,000) a litre.
Other suspected gang members, including two Italian nationals, remain at large.
Police said the gang could be behind the disappearances of up to 60 people in the region.
At a news conference in the capital, police showed reporters two bottles containing human body fat and images of one of the alleged victims.
One of the alleged killings is reported to have taken place in mid-September, with the person’s body tissue removed for sale.
Cmdr Angel Toledo told Reuters some of the suspects had “declared and stated how they murdered people with the aim being to extract their fat in rudimentary labs and sell it”.
Police said they suspect the fat was sold to cosmetics and pharmaceutical companies in Europe, but have not confirmed any such connection.
‘Detailed confession’
Gen Felix Burga, head of Peru’s police criminal division, said there were indications that “an international network trafficking human fat” was operating from Peru.
The first person was arrested earlier this month in a bus station in Lima, carrying a shipment of the fat.
The Associated Press news agency quoted Col Jorge Mejia as saying one of the suspects had described to police in detail how the victims were killed and their fat removed.
The suspect said the fat was then sold to intermediaries in Lima and that the gang’s leader, Hilario Cudena, had been carrying out such murders for decades, AP reported.
The alleged buyers of the fat are also being hunted by police.
The gang has been referred to as the Pishtacos, after an ancient Peruvian legend of killers who attack people on lonely roads and murder them for their fat.
By staff writers news.com.au November 19, 2009 03:12pm
-Girl, 10, Tasered in her home
-She wouldn’t take a shower
-Mum gave permissionA US police officer used a Taser stun gun to subdue a “combative” 10-year-old girl in her own home because she refused to take a shower.
I couldn’t give a flying F*** who gave permission, even if it was her mother. I don’t for one second see any excuse for using a taser on this 10 year old girl. Presumably the police officer involved is a grown adult who’s had training in dealing with people in difficult situations.
I actually believe that tasers should be banned. They appear to be open to abusive use by police officers who see them as a convenient way to subdue people without getting their own clothes dirty.
]]>]]>Beggin’ your Parton, but that’s not Dolly
Several Dolly Parton fans in Darwin have tried to get their money back after discovering a tribute show did not feature the country music queen herself.
The Darwin Entertainment Centre played host to a Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers tribute band, but it seems some punters mistook it for the real deal.
The centre’s general manager Hamish McDonald says they could not give the refund because the show was run by an outside promoter.
He says the promoters also declined the refund because they felt the publicity had made it clear that it featured well-known Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers impersonators from America.
“There was some confusion we thought when people rang to book,” he said.
“We made it clear what the situation was and as I said it was clear on the website where these people booked.
“So I guess they were just very good impersonators.
“Darwin gets lots of tribute shows, you know, we have Queen bands, we have Bee Gee bands, we have Abba bands and frankly we’ve never had anything like this happen before.”
]]>Creepy Santa is ‘every child’s worst nightmare’
A controversial giant Santa Claus decoration has been reinstalled in Auckland’s city centre to the horror of some locals who say it is “too creepy”.
The 20-metre-high fibreglass Santa has been attached to the side of a book shop in Queen Street over Christmas for almost 50 years.
But it has undergone major cosmetic surgery after Aucklanders complained his smile looked sinister and his beckoning finger was scaring children.
Last year, the Santa had broken apart and been stuck together with what looked like a giant band-aid.
It has been under the knife for the past four months, with Santa’s face currently wrapped in white bandages that are due to be removed on Sunday.
But some locals say the bandages are creepier than the old face, with one mother looking up at the decoration saying: “This is every child’s worst nightmare”.
American tourist Edward said he could not believe his eyes when he saw Santa’s face covered by bandages.
“Santa in bondage. It’s a very funny thing. They just couldn’t wait to bring it out,” he said.
“He does look kind of sad up there, doesn’t he?”
Aucklander Phil McGrath said he had just finished his banking when he noticed the face.
“He looks like he’s had botox. A bit of plastic surgery for Santa this year,” he said.
“[The old Santa’s] eyes were freaky, very scary. I remember taking my niece and she looked up and started crying.”
The bandages come off on Sunday and Mr McGrath says he is going to come down to watch the unveiling.
“What they should do is reveal it strap by strap… on the TV programs, they are bruised and battered, that’s what they should do with Santa.”
]]>Story by By Ben Packham, Herald Sun, November 19, 2009 12:01am
- Two terrifying dives by Qantas Airbus
- Flight attendant, passengers injured
- Cosmic rays from space may be to blameCOSMIC rays may have been responsible for a near disaster involving a Qantas jet off Australia’s northwest coast.
IBM has announced a software simulation of a mammalian cerebral cortex that’s significantly more complex than the cortex of a cat. And, just like the actual brain that it simulates, they still have to figure out how it works.
Pictured below, a typical…
A PORT Alfred man, who allegedly stole a R10 meat pie from a local supermarket, got the shock of his life when a magistrate yesterday joked he was being charged with rape and murder.
A stunned Kyle Bosch told magistrate Walter le Grange “that is not true”.
However, he was visibly relieved when the smiling magistrate stated the obvious and told him he had been charged with theft.
Bosch allegedly stole a R9.95 meat pie from a local supermarket – after paying for other items and not the snack.
He was released on warning and ordered to appear again in court on 24 November for a pre-trial assessment.
Paul Rossouw appeared for the State. Bosch was not represented.
Wasn´t sure to post it under jokes or news. But there you have it.
]]>]]>Cancer scientist reveals secret life as prostitute
An erotic blogger whose double life as a prostitute became a hit TV series has ended years of fevered speculation by revealing her most intimate secret—her true identity.
Brooke Magnanti, a cancer specialist at a university in western England, unmasked herself in a British newspaper as the woman behind “Belle de Jour,” the salacious online diary of a high class call girl.
“It feels so much better on this side. Not to have to tell lies, hide things from the people I care about,” the 34-year-old wrote on her blog after the Sunday Times published its interview with her.
Magnanti’s frank and sometimes funny accounts of working as a call girl earned her a huge following, a lucrative book deal and legions of critics who variously accused her of glamorizing the sex industry, making it up—and of being a man.
The 34-year-old said she became a call girl in 2003 to support herself in London while completing her doctoral thesis after realizing she had no qualms about being paid for sex.
She contacted an agency, working as a prostitute until late 2004, describing it as “so much more enjoyable” than an earlier job as a computer programmer.
Her online chronicle of her experiences attracted a huge following, prompting the publication of a bestselling book which was serialized on UK prime time television in 2007’s “Secret Diary of a Call Girl,” starring actress of Billie Piper.
The success led to wild speculation among Britain’s literary community over her true identity—with several well-known authors wrongly accused.
Meanwhile Magnanti had put her call girl career behind her and was quietly working as a cancer and developmental neurotoxicologist at the University of Bristol.
She said she finally broke her silence to answer her critics, including senior Church of England clergy, and because she feared an ex-boyfriend was poised to go public.
“I don’t want this massive secret over me any more,” she told the Sunday Times.
Last month John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, said on his Web site that “fiction” like “Belle de Jour” created a “myth” that sex workers were “independent women, empowered by the hold they have over men.”
Magnanti said she was most upset by the accusation she wrote fiction.
“You can’t say I’m not real, and that my experience isn’t real, because here I am,” she said, adding that while some sex workers have “terrible experiences” she was “unbelievably fortunate.”
Magnanti, who has declined to give further interviews, also told the Sunday Times that her colleagues, all female, had been “amazingly kind and supportive” when she revealed her past.
Barry Taylor, director of communication and marketing at the University of Bristol said the revelations would not affect her employment.
“This aspect of Dr Magnanti’s past is not relevant to her current role at the university,” he said.
While Magnanti’s admission, and indeed her years of blogging, contained many eyebrow-raising insights, according to her final blog entry most people were more interested in distinctly unsexy details.
“Also, so much curiosity about my tax situation! Yes, I did pay taxes on sex work earnings,” she wrote.
Hotel offers guests night as hamster
A hotel in the French town of Nantes is offering the chance for people to become a hamster.
For 99 euros ($158) a night, you can eat hamster grain, run in a giant wheel, sleep in hay stacks in what is called the Hamster Villa.
Maud and Sebastien are the first ones to experience how hamsters live, not afraid at the thought of sleeping in hay or feeding on a hamster fountain and special grain.
It is a unique experience and, the guests say, just something different.
“To become a hamster, eat seeds, change our way of life… come out of our daily routine,” Maud and Sebastien said.
The owners, Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho, run a company which rents out unusual and bizarre places.
“The hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small,” Mr Falquerho said, dressed as a hamster.
However, the price is soon to go up as today’s hamsters need, according to the owners, Wifi and a giant TV screen.
Okay, I can imagine this being quite the popular idea for the furry fandom, but I doubt that other people would do it more than once for the experience; I doubt that there would be many repeat customers among the latter group.
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