Off Topic The "That's interesting"/geek thread

A very hot place to visit!

Parker Solar Probe: Sun-skimming mission starts calling home

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46547588

 

Do you have $250,000 for a 90 minute ride?

Branson's Virgin Galactic reaches edge of space

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46550862

 

Egypt tomb: Saqqara 'one of a kind' discovery revealed

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46580264

 

Couple of interesting space stories today.?

First, China land on dark side of the moon...

China Moon mission lands Chang'e-4 spacecraft on far side - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46724727

And NASA find a flying snowman deep in space..

Nasa's New Horizons: 'Snowman' shape of distant Ultima Thule revealed - BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46742298

 

NASA found a snowman
Santa better be careful in December

 

Sorry, I found this very interesting but was not sure where to post it

 

Sir Billy Connolly says sorry to fans and declares he's 'not dying'
The comedian says sorry for "depressing" fans during a BBC programme in which he said his life was "slipping away".

https://news.sky.com/story/sir-billy-connolly-says-sorry-to-fans-and-declares-hes-not-dying-11599904

 

Don't know if it was shown down there, but the two-part program on up here was excellent, interspersed with his memories, parts of his stage shows over the years, and him meeting Glaswegians on the street and in normal life. He's revered as a something very special up here, and I was lucky enough to catch him on his final tour a couple of years ago.

There was a part of the show last night where he got a bit emotional about his disease and saying he was nearer the end of his life than the beginning, which is probably where the article got it's story from.

Recommend catching the programs....

Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland, Series 1: Episode 1: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bwzhy6 via @bbciplayer

Billy Connolly: Made in Scotland, Series 1: Episode 2: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bwzw0f via @bbciplayer

 

I've heard the clip that the story comes from, and it's quite remarkable. His outlook on what lies ahead for him is almost mystical and more than a little moving.

 

Was that for real or some red nose day joke

 

Bunch of fannies - they'd last two seconds up here with the NEDs.....(Non-Educated Delinquents)

 

careful where you stand in the woods

 

Heathrow announces plan for up to 68 more take-offs and landings a DAY in bid to boost capacity by 25,000 flights a year BEFORE the third runway opens

• Heathrow plans to accommodate 25,000 extra flight movements per year
• Proposal for 68 flights per day will be outlined in a public consultation next week
• This would come ahead of opening of the airport's controversial third runway

By Faith Ridler For Mailonline
Published: 20:20 AEDT, 5 January 2019 | Updated: 00:53 AEDT, 6 January 2019
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Heathrow is set to announce plans for an extra 68 take-offs and landings per day before the opening of its controversial third runway.
The airport will announce plans to accommodate 25,000 more flights per year at a public consultation next week.
If approved, Heathrow's flight cap of 480,000 would be raised by 5.2 per cent - and annual flight numbers would exceed 500,000 for the first time.

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• This new growth is proposed ahead of the opening of its controversial third runway, which the airport hopes to complete by 2026.
  Plans are subject to an application to the aviation authorities.
  A spokeswoman for Heathrow said 'bringing forward early growth is dependent upon a range of factors' which will be outlined in the consultation.
  These include the ability to use both runways for simultaneous arrivals - or independent parallel approaches.
  
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  This will raise its current flight cap of 480,000 by 5.2 per cent - and move annual flight numbers above 500,000 for the very first time
  
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  The increase will come before the opening of Heathrow's controversial third runway (pictured, a proposed location for the runway)
  Video playing bottom right...
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  Heathrow expansion: What will the third runway look like?
  Heathrow will also display the position of new flight paths to be used as it grows by up to 50 per cent over the next ten years at the consultation next week.
  Plans for a third two-mile runway to the northwest of the airport were given the go-ahead by MPs in June.
  How the expansions will impact flight numbers at Heathrow Airport
  2017
  Flight movements per day: 1,299
  Flight movements per year: 474,033
  Maximum flight movements per year: 480,000
  With proposed extra flights
  Estimated flight movements per day: 1,367
  Estimated flight movements per year: 505,000
  After third runway
  Maximum flight movements per year: 740,000
  Maximum passengers per year: 130 million
  Support from Labour helped push through the proposals to expand Europe's busiest airport with an overwhelming majority of 296.
  The plans will create 114,000 extra jobs in the area around the airport by 2030, with an extra 16 million long-haul seats by 2040, according to officials.
  The £14 billion project will also allow the airport to grow from its annual cap of 480,000 aircraft movements per year to 740,000.
  Heathrow is expected to be able to serve up to 130 million passengers per year after the expansion.
  It has been forecast that the airport will be operating at its new increased capacity by 2040.
  John Stewart, chairman of the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise, said: 'A lot of people will be resistant to any extra flights.
  'If they are spread out throughout the day it is much less noticeable but the real concern is that Heathrow will want to bring them in during the hours where they are under the most pressure, and that means between 6am and 7am.
  'If this were to happen there would be a lot of resistance'.

 

With the recent Chinese landing on "The Dark Side of the Moon", I found these two videos which I found fascinating. Well worth a watch when you have a spare 10 minutes:

Why is the “Dark Side” of the Moon totally different to other side?

Why do we only see one side face of the moon?

 

46 hour days
up to 14 work periods a week
bugger that

 

mysterious radio signals from deep space detected
By Helen Briggs BBC News

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Image copyright Getty Images
Image caption Artwork: A highly magnetised rotating neutron star. Astronomers say one of these could be a source of the signals
Astronomers have revealed details of mysterious signals emanating from a distant galaxy, picked up by a telescope in Canada.
The precise nature and origin of the blasts of radio waves is unknown.
Among the 13 fast radio bursts, known as FRBs, was a very unusual repeating signal, coming from the same source about 1.5 billion light years away.
Such an event has only been reported once before, by a different telescope.
"Knowing that there is another suggests that there could be more out there," said Ingrid Stairs, an astrophysicist from the University of British Columbia (UBC).
"And with more repeaters and more sources available for study, we may be able to understand these cosmic puzzles - where they're from and what causes them."
The CHIME observatory, located in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley, consists of four 100-metre-long, semi-cylindrical antennas, which scan the entire northern sky each day.
The telescope only got up and running last year, detecting 13 of the radio bursts almost immediately, including the repeater.

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Image copyright CHIME experiment
Image caption Canada's new radio telescope, CHIME
The research has now been published in the journal Nature.
"We have discovered a second repeater and its properties are very similar to the first repeater," said Shriharsh Tendulkar of McGill University, Canada.
"This tells us more about the properties of repeaters as a population."
FRBs are short, bright flashes of radio waves, which appear to be coming from almost halfway across the Universe.

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More stories you might like:
Light shed on mystery space radio pulses
Mystery cosmic radio bursts pinpointed

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So far, scientists have detected about 60 single fast radio bursts and two that repeat. They believe there could be as many as a thousand FRBs in the sky every day.
There are a number of theories about what could be causing them.
They include a neutron star with a very strong magnetic field that is spinning very rapidly, two neutron stars merging together, and, among a minority of observers, some form of alien spaceship.