NASA Image of the Day,March 24th...[ 796 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day"

Mars' Concepcion Crater
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity took this image in preparation for the first autonomous selection of an observation target by a spacecraft on Mars.

Opportunity used its navigation camera to take this image after a drive during the 2,172nd Martian day, or sol, of its mission on Mars (March 4, 2010).

Using newly developed and uploaded software named Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS, the rover analyzed the image to identify the feature that best matched criteria given for selecting a target.

The top target that Opportunity selected with AEGIS is shown by the yellow marker. AEGIS was directed to look for rocks that were larger and darker in color. The rover then used the software to take more detailed observations of the selected target using its panoramic camera.

The more-than-50 rocks in this image are near a young crater called 'Concepcion' and might have been thrown outward by the impact that excavated the crater. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Τετάρτη, 24 Μάρτιος 2010 6:00:00 πμ

Portugal's credit ..[ 795 ]

Portugal credit rating downgraded over debt concerns

The government's tough budget went unopposed by other parties BBC ,,11:31 GMT, Wednesday, 24 March 2010 Portugal's credit rating has been downgraded from AA to AA- by leading credit rating agency Fitch over concerns about its high levels of debt. Earlier this month, Portugal passed an austerity budget aimed at cutting its budget deficit. The downgrade heightened concerns about the health of some of Europe's heavily indebted economies, forcing the euro lower against the dollar and the pound. The euro fell by 1.34 cents, or 1%, against the dollar, to $1.3362. Against the pound, it fell by half a penny to 89.325p. The downgrade also sent major European stock markets into negative territory. European impact "A sizeable fiscal shock against a backdrop of relative macroeconomic and structural weaknesses has reduced Portugal's creditworthiness," Douglas Renwick of Fitch's said. Although the agency said Portugal's austerity budget was "credible", it said the government would need "to implement sizeable consolidation measures from next year", as well as reverse stimulus measures this year, in order to get its debt levels under control. The downgrade could mean Portugal has to pay higher yields on government bonds to attract investors, making it more expensive for the country to borrow money - even though other leading ratings agencies may not necessarily follow Fitch's lead. Analysts stressed the wider European impact the downgrade could have. "The downgrade has more impact on the wider sovereign debt crisis, rather than on Portugal at the moment," said Peter Chatwell at Credit Agricole. There have been widespread concerns about the high levels of debt of a number of European countries, most notably Greece. At the end of last year, Fitch and Standard & Poor's, the second of the three major international credit ratings agencies, downgraded Greek government debt. European leaders are currently discussing how best to deal with Greece's debt crisis.

The T-50's vs Lockheed Boeing F-22 Raptor[ 794 ]

The "F22-Raptor" and the "T-50" fifth-generation fighter..

The Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor specifications and performance compared to the T-50' fifth generation fighter

Greek Mythology [ 793 ]

The Myth of Minotaur, Theseas and the King of Athens Aegeas

Posted by admin in Interesting

Minos, who was the king of Knosos ,was the son of Zeus and Europe.
One of Minos’s brothers, Sarpidon ,was the king of Gortys but he wanted to usurp the throne of Minos. Minos said that he was the chosen by the Gods to be king of Knosos , and to prove it, asked Poseidon (the god of the sea) to send him a bull to sacrifice.

Poseidon did that, and everybody believed that Minos was right.

Minos however felt that the bull sent by Poseidon would improve his own stock, so he sacrificed another one and kept the one sent by the god.

Poseidon decided to punish Minos for this sacrilege by making his wife , Pasifae, fall in love with the bull. The offfspring of the union of Pasifae with the bull was, appropriately, a monster that ate human flesh, with a bull’s head and a human body, Minotaur.

Obviously, the Minotaur, was not someone that Minos liked to have running around in his palace, scaring (and sometimes eating ) his guests. So he locked him in a labyrinth constructed by Daedalus.

In order to deal with Minotaur’s weird tastes, Minos forced the Athenians, who have killed his son Androgeo, to send him fourteen young Athenians (seven male and seven female) every year to serve (as) dinner for the Minotaur.

Theseas, the son of the Athenian king Aegeas , asked his father to let him be one of the fourteen to go to Crete. When they arrived , Minos daughter, Ariadne, saw Theseas and felt in love with him.

So, when her father threw Theseas to the Labyrinth, she helped him kill the Minotaur, and escape.

I have to add :

Theseus departed for Crete. Upon his departure, Aegeus told him to put up the white sails when returning if he was successful in killing the Minotaur. However, when Theseus returned he forgot these instructions.

When Aegeus saw the black sails coming into Athens he jumped into the sea and drowned, mistaken in his belief that his son had been slain.Henceforth, this sea was known as the AEGEAN SEA (**).

Sophocles' tragedy Aegeus has been lost, but Aegeus features in Euripedes' Medea.

Pilot Chats with Iranian Air Defense Radar[ 792 ]

U.S. Marine Fighter Pilot Chats with Iranian Air Defense Radar

by: Scott Martin posted: 2009-04-06 17:15:00
Viewed 41232 times. 28 Comments.

According to a Marine Pilot?

In addition to communicating with the local Air Traffic Control facility, all aircraft in the Persian Gulf AOR are required to give the Iranian Air Defense Radar (military) a ten minute ?heads up? if they will be transiting Iranian airspace.

This conversation was recorded on the VHF Guard (emergency) frequency 121.5 MHz, while flying

from Europe to Dubai ..

Iranian Air Defense Radar: 'Unknown aircraft at (location unknown), you are in Iranian airspace. Identify yourself.'

Aircraft: 'This is a United States aircraft. I am not in Iranian airspace, I am in Iraqi airspace.'

Iranian Air Defense Radar: 'You are in Iranian airspace. If you do not depart our airspace we will launch interceptor aircraft!'

Aircraft: 'This is a United States Marine Corps FA-18 fighter. Send 'em up, I'll wait!'

Iranian Air Defense Radar: (no response .... total silence)