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gethes
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
**** Tito. That guys has been a jackass ever since he made his debut in UFC. I hope he gets the crap kicked out of him.
I've spent some time working in SLO.The folks there are really into Chuck
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5/24/2008, 11:19 am
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Nine Buck
ALL TIME NASTY PIMP DADDY
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Registered: 03-2007
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
Haha. Cry me a river.
Patrick Seething After Disappointing Day at Indy
May 25, 4:52 PM (ET)
By CHRIS JENKINS
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -After spending much of the afternoon giving her own mechanics an earful, a late crash left Danica Patrick looking like she was ready to fight another driver's pit crew.
Patrick already was having a disappointing day in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 when driver Ryan Briscoe ran into her on pit road late in the race, causing her car to rumble to a halt at the end of pit road.
A furious Patrick then got out and purposefully strode toward Briscoe's pit for what was shaping up as a confrontation with his crew. But track security personnel intervened and directed her back to her own pit area.
With that, all the hype and momentum Patrick carried into the race didn't mean a thing. Even before the crash, Patrick had spent much of the race complaining about her car.
"I am SLOW!," Patrick protested over her in-car radio with about 60 laps left. "I am DAMN SLOW!"
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5/25/2008, 4:19 pm
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Nine Buck
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
wooot wooot !
Phoenix lander safely touches down on Mars
* NewScientist.com news service
* Ivan Semeniuk, Pasadena
Phoenix has landed, but mission members don't yet know if it successfully deployed its solar arrays
--
Touchdown! NASA's Phoenix lander has survived its harrowing descent to Mars and apparently stands poised to conduct what scientists hope will be a revealing investigation of the Red Planet's enigmatic northern plains.
The news reached Earth at 1653 PDT on Sunday (0053 GMT on Monday), courtesy of the Mars Odyssey orbiter, which relayed a strong signal from Phoenix as it gently bumped to a safe landing.
During the final minutes of the descent, team members and spectators alike were riveted by the running commentary provided by deputy systems engineer Richard Kornfeld in the mission support area at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, US.
As he scrutinised the data appearing on his monitor, Kornfeld relayed the outcome of each crucial milestone as Phoenix drew closer to the end of its journey, from the successful deployment of its parachute, to the ignition of its 12 pulsing descent thrusters and finally to surface contact.
"Touchdown has been detected!" Kornfeld called out at the pivotal moment, as shouts and cheers erupted around him.
Almost as critical to the mission's success is the deployment of Phoenix's two solar panels. Without them, the spacecraft can only survive an estimated 34 hours on battery power.
Settling dust
The panels' deployment is expected 15 minutes after landing, by which time any dust raised by the spacecraft's arrival should have settled down. However, because Mars Odyssey will have passed over the landing site's horizon by then, mission controllers will not be able to confirm solar panel deployment, along with other key start-up events, until the orbiter's next pass approximately 90 minutes after landing.
During this second pass, if Phoenix performs as planned, it could transmit as many as two dozen images to Earth, including a picture of the solar panels, the landing pad on the surface and possibly a glimpse across the northern plains.
Unlike many of the places where earlier missions have landed, there are not expected to be many rocks at the Phoenix landing site - although any rocks that are present will also be of great interest. "Just looking at the rocks will tell us something about the history of this site," said principal investigator Peter Smith before the landing.
If images become available, one question scientists will be asking concerns the variety of features that may fall within reach of Phoenix's robot arm.
Icy troughs
Phoenix's landing site lies in a region of "polygonal" terrain. The polygons are about 5 metres across and are defined by trough-like boundaries created by the repeated expansion and contraction of subsurface ice. If Phoenix lands near enough to a trough, it may have more immediate access to material just below the surface.
According to principal investigator Peter Smith, even if all goes according to plan, it will take two to three days before the science team has created a 3D model of the immediate terrain around the lander.
The model is necessary before the arm can be instructed to dig away at the northern soil and scoop up samples of the permafrost below. Scientists are especially anxious to search for the presence of organic molecules mixed in with the soil and ice.
In time, scientists may discover if the vast northern reaches of Mars were once a safe haven for alien life. In the meantime, as of now, there is exactly one alien inhabitant there - and it is very much alive.
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5/25/2008, 4:24 pm
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rootbeersoup
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Registered: 02-2008
Location: New Orleans
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
quote:
Nine Buck wrote:
Haha. Cry me a river.
Patrick Seething After Disappointing Day at Indy
May 25, 4:52 PM (ET)
By CHRIS JENKINS
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -After spending much of the afternoon giving her own mechanics an earful, a late crash left Danica Patrick looking like she was ready to fight another driver's pit crew.
Patrick already was having a disappointing day in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 when driver Ryan Briscoe ran into her on pit road late in the race, causing her car to rumble to a halt at the end of pit road.
A furious Patrick then got out and purposefully strode toward Briscoe's pit for what was shaping up as a confrontation with his crew. But track security personnel intervened and directed her back to her own pit area.
With that, all the hype and momentum Patrick carried into the race didn't mean a thing. Even before the crash, Patrick had spent much of the race complaining about her car.
"I am SLOW!," Patrick protested over her in-car radio with about 60 laps left. "I am DAMN SLOW!"
DUDE
Check out those man hands
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5/25/2008, 7:42 pm
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Nine Buck
ALL TIME NASTY PIMP DADDY
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Registered: 03-2007
Location: Offseason Abyss
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
quote:
rootbeersoup wrote:
DUDE
Check out those man hands
No doubt. She's fackin' gross.
I've seen better looking transvestites.
(not intimately of course, haha)
Any guy who thinks that "Dan Skeletor Patrick" is hot/fine, needs to get out FAR more often.
Last edited by Nine Buck, 5/25/2008, 9:16 pm
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5/25/2008, 9:08 pm
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Nine Buck
ALL TIME NASTY PIMP DADDY
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
Hopefully, I am not boring everyone with these updates.
(If so, then I assume you all know how to scroll fast, or click to close the thread.)
Personally, I find never before seen pictures of Mars to be interesting, even if like they say, it looks like a parking lot where they landed.
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NASA's Mars Phoenix lander has unfurled its solar panels and transmitted its first images of the planet's northern plains back to Earth, revealing a remarkably flat and strangely patterned landscape.
Throughout the images, there is ample evidence of the "polygons" that orbital images hinted should be present at the landing site.
The polygons are defined by trough-like boundaries, likely created by the repeated expansion and contraction of subsurface ice. As seen through Phoenix's eyes, the polygons give the landing site a quilt-like appearance, characterized by low bumps and shallow dips.
All the pictures seen so far show an area that is outside the "digging area" of the lander's robotic arm, but principal investigator Peter Smith of the University of Arizona in Tucson, US, expressed optimism that the interesting features evident in the terrain would continue closer to the lander, where Phoenix can scoop samples for detailed examination.
"This is a scientist's dream," said Smith.
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Wind-scoured site
If Phoenix manages to sample a trough, it will probably find traces of "a complex history" that could relate to the movement of water vapor to and from an icy layer thought to lie just below the soil's surface, Smith told New Scientist.
Phoenix is designed to dig down to the ice and search for traces of organic residue that might indicate whether this part of Mars could have been habitable in the past.
Smith also noted that the soil around the lander looks granular, "like gravel", which suggests a wind-scoured place where the fine red dust - so common at other landing sites - has been carried away on the Martian breeze.
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In one image, a bright white object is clearly visible in the distance protruding towards the horizon line (see image below right).
Team members did not reveal their guesses as to what the object could be, but there is speculation here that it could be the lander's protective backshell, which separated from Phoenix along with its parachute less than a minute before touchdown. The object will likely be imaged at higher resolution and at different Sun angles, which may help solve the mystery.
___
Critical deployment
The images began streaming down at about 1900 PDT on Sunday (0300 GMT on Monday), courtesy of the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, which made a return pass over Phoenix's landing site after earlier relaying news of the lander's safe arrival at 1653 PDT (0053 GMT on Monday).
After deploying its solar panels and stereo camera approximately 15 minutes after landing, Phoenix executed a pre-programmed sequence of images designed to help engineers assess its health.
 
The pictures clearly show the unfolded solar panels and one foot of the lander planted firmly on the Martian surface. The images sparked a round of cheering as they flooded into the mission control area of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, US.
The solar arrays are nearly as critical to the success of the mission as the landing itself. Without them, the spacecraft could only survive an estimated 34 hours on battery power. Engineers were elated when they saw the dust-free condition of the solar arrays, said Ed Sedivy, Phoenix program manager for Lockheed Martin, which built the spacecraft.
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Maximize power
The lander's own onboard instruments indicate that it is sitting nearly level, with a tilt of no more than 0.25°. Had Phoenix ended up with a significant tilt in the wrong direction, it would have reduced the amount of solar power available to science experiments.
Data relayed to Earth during the spacecraft's descent indicate it performed a "pirouette" maneuver, as planned, so that its panels opened along an east-west axis to maximize power.
"We rehearsed all of the problems, and none of them occurred," Phoenix project manager Barry Goldstein told reporters, clearly relieved at what appears to have been a remarkably smooth landing.
One notable divergence from textbook perfection was the opening of the lander's parachute 6.5 seconds later than anticipated. This ultimately caused Phoenix to touch down about 25 kilometers eastward of its expected destination, at a site near the outer edge of its projected landing ellipse.
While this leaves engineers with a puzzle to solve about why the chute deployed late, it is not expected to affect the science that Phoenix will return, because different points within the landing ellipse are expected to be virtually identical to one another.
--
Human missions
The landing marks NASA's sixth success in seven attempts to land on Mars since Viking I touched down in July of 1976. But this impressive success rate belies genuine concerns that NASA managers had about the pulse thruster landing system that Phoenix employed during its final descent.
Prior to this evening, NASA's recent successes – including Mars Pathfinder in 1997 and the two Mars Exploration Rovers in 2004 – have all bounced to the surface of the Red Planet encased in inflatable air bags.
Phoenix and future missions, including the more ambitious Mars Science Laboratory, were designed to land with thrusters, considered a must for heavier payloads – and for any future attempt to send astronauts on Mars.
"The way we're going to land humans on Mars is with propulsive systems and landing legs," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
The most powerful camera ever sent to the Red Planet, the HiRISE camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft, will attempt to image the Phoenix lander from space at about 0600 PDT (1400 GMT) on Monday.
Last edited by Nine Buck, 5/26/2008, 9:20 am
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5/26/2008, 9:01 am
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Nine Buck
ALL TIME NASTY PIMP DADDY
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
Stunning snaps from best camera ever sent to Mars
A strangely persistent patch of frozen water is among the features imaged by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) in the first few days since it started its main phase of science observations. It also spotted gouges from landslides that have left no visible debris behind.
MRO arrived at Mars in March 2006, but spent its first few months skimming in and out of the Martian atmosphere to tighten its orbit around the Red Planet.
It then underwent a period of instrument testing, followed by a hiatus beginning in mid-October when the Sun was too close to Mars, as seen from Earth, for reliable radio communication. This prevented MRO from beginning its primary science phase until 7 November.
Now, some first images have been released, taken with MRO's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE), the most powerful camera ever sent to Mars.
Gully gazing:
These gullies on the sides of sand dunes, first imaged by the Mars Global Surveyor, but seen in much greater detail by MRO may have formed when sunlight evaporated frozen carbon dioxide or water mixed in with the sand, causing avalanches (Image: NASA/JPL/U Arizona)
One image (above) shows gullies carved in the sides of sand dunes in the Russell Crater. These gullies were first imaged by Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and are puzzling because they do not have deposits of debris at their ends, as do other gullies seen on Mars, thought to be due to avalanches.
Scientists have previously suggested that these gullies might form when sunlight heats the dunes, causing frozen carbon dioxide or water ice mixed in with the sand to suddenly evaporate, loosening up the sand and causing it to flow downhill.
But it is still puzzling that there is no accumulation of material at the bottom of the channels, says HiRISE chief scientist Alfred McEwen at the University of Arizona in Tucson, US. The new images show the gullies in much better detail than ever before, and may eventually help scientists solve the mystery.
_____________________________________
Thin coating:
This mound of water ice, sometimes referred to as a frozen lake, was first found at the bottom of a crater by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft. The new MRO image is detailed enough to reveal the texture of the ice (Image: NASA/JPL/U Arizona)
Another image (above) shows part of the frozen "lake" of water ice imaged by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft in 2005 (see Frozen lake shines bright in Martian crater. Despite its appearance, the ice is not flat, but mound shaped, McEwen says, citing laser altimetry data previously obtained by MGS.
The new image is sharp enough to reveal the texture of this ice. The texture at the edges of the ice mound mimics that of the surrounding terrain, suggesting that at the mound's edges, the ice is only thinly coating the underlying material.
The mound is at 70° north in latitude, which is far enough from the north pole to make the survival of ice at the surface surprising, especially since other craters of similar size in the same area do not contain water ice, McEwen says.
He suspects there is something special about this crater that has led water ice to accumulate there. "Maybe there's a source of water vapor from the subsurface," he speculates.
Picture from 2005 :
Frozen lake shines bright in Martian crater
15:15 29 July 2005
NewScientist.com news service
Damian Carrington
A bright patch of water ice sitting serenely on the floor of a crater near the Martian north pole has been imaged by the Mars Express spacecraft.
The image was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on board the European Space Agency (ESA) probe and has a resolution of about 15 metres per pixel.
The impact crater is located on Vastitas Borealis, a broad plain that covers much of the far northern latitudes on Mars. It is 35 kilometres (21 miles) wide and drops down to 2 km (1.2 miles) beneath the crater rim.
The ice is present all year round, as the temperature and pressure are not high enough to allow the sublimation of water ice, say ESA scientists. And it cannot be frozen carbon dioxide since carbon dioxide ice had already disappeared from the north polar cap by the time the image was taken - late Martian summer.
Faint traces of water ice are also visible along the rim of the crater and on the crater walls. The absence of ice along the north-west rim and walls may occur because this area receives more light due to the Red Planet’s orientation in relation to the Sun.
_____________________________________
Very, very young:
Ada Crater is puzzling because it has features indicating it is very young, yet its rim is as eroded as those of much older craters. It also has a strange double rim, whose origin is unknown (Image: NASA/JPL/U Arizona)
A third image (above) shows a very unusual crater on Mars called Ada Crater. The crater walls show clear signs of erosion, exhibiting gullies and scalloped edges. "That's surprising because this is clearly a very, very young crater," McEwen says.
Despite the erosion, the new HiRISE images show that no smaller craters have accumulated on top of Ada Crater, and also reveal V-shaped deposits of fine debris in its vicinity that the wind should quickly erode away.
McEwen suspects that the erosion features, normally associated with long term weathering, were in this case produced at the time the crater formed, when tremors may have shaken material loose from the rim.
_________________________________
HiRISE has also imaged the Viking 1 and 2 landers on the Martian surface, McEwen says. The two NASA spacecraft landed on Mars in 1976. They have never been photographed from orbit before. The HiRISE team is struggling to keep up with the flow of data, McEwen says, and is still preparing the images for public release.
The camera has already taken hundreds of images of the Martian surface. McEwen expects that the instrument will obtain about 5000 for every year that the mission runs. Its mission is scheduled to continue until about 2010, with the possibility of extensions beyond that if the spacecraft continues to perform well.
===================================
NASA and JPL have yet to comment on Five other pictures, that were also taken from the Phoenix lander yesterday:
 
 
Images: NASA/JPL/U Arizona)
Last edited by Nine Buck, 5/26/2008, 11:24 am
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5/26/2008, 9:15 am
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Nine Buck
ALL TIME NASTY PIMP DADDY
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
Ex-MLB Pitcher Gonzalez Killed by Lightning
May 26, 2:05 PM (ET)
(AP) 2007 file photo of Geremi Gonzalez of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -Former major league pitcher Geremi Gonzalez, who won 11 games for the Chicago Cubs in 1997, was killed by a lightning strike in his native Venezuela on Sunday. He was 33.
Emergency management official Herman Bracho said Monday that Gonzalez was struck by lightning at a beach.
Gonzalez pitched for five major league teams from 1997-06. The right-hander appeared in 131 games with 83 starts, compiling a 30-35 record.
Gonzalez also played for the Tampa Bay Rays, Boston Red Sox, New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers. He made a combined 24 appearances for the Mets and Brewers in his final major league season in 2006.
The Toronto Blue Jays released him during spring training last year. Gonzalez then moved to Japan and pitched in five games for the Yomiuri Giants.
"The Chicago Cubs are very saddened today to learn of Geremi Gonzalez's sudden passing," general manager Jim Hendry said in a statement.
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5/26/2008, 11:39 am
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Nine Buck
ALL TIME NASTY PIMP DADDY
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Re: The random krap and bizarre pics thread
Not much to offer up today, so this photo shop ad job will have to suffice.
Oh, and there was this too:
A HEARTBROKEN Taiwanese man tried to commit suicide by climbing into a morgue freezer holding his DEAD GIRLFRIEND.
The grieving man climbed into the freezer to be with his partner but was discovered alive half an hour later.
The 41-year-old was discovered when workers detected an unusually high temperature in the freezer and realized the hatch was not securely fastened.
A local newspaper reporter: "A morgue manager opened the hatch, saw two people lying inside, felt scared enough to yell out and then cried."She didn't stabilize for a long time,” it was reported.
The same paper said the man had taken a drug before climbing into the freezer to speed up what appeared to be a suicide attempt.
The man’s girlfriend is said to have died on Friday following a sleeping pill overdose.
The morgue said it would step up security following the incident.
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5/28/2008, 9:29 pm
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