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Forget the Eiffel Tower, These Are the World’s Best Places to Propose – Bloomberg

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Theres one proposal story that Ill never forget, aside from my own.

A good friend was planning to propose in Romearguably one of the most romantic cities in the worldand had chosen to get down on one knee at the Spanish Steps. He had planned the whole trip as a surprise, and he didnt tell his girlfriend where they were goingjust that she needed a passport and weather-appropriate clothes. By the time they landed in Rome, it was all amore and baci and gelato untilwait for itthey stumbled upon another proposal right at Piazza di Spagna. Petrified to carry the ring any longer, my friend took his girlfriend back to the hotel, where he popped the question (oddly enough, on both knees) at the foot of the bed.

Guys: That story ended fabulously well. She said yes, they had one of the most beautiful weddings Ive ever seen, and a few, happy years of marriage later, theyre still one of the best couples I know. But learn from his mistake and propose somewhere a little less obvious.

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A couple ties the knot at the IceHotel in Sweden

Source: Asaf Kliger and IceHotel

Remember the Ice Hotel? The one carved entirely out of ice that we told you about a few weeks ago? Turns out the staff is impressively adept at setting a romantic scene. There, said Kozolchyk, you can hire a reindeersled to take you to a "glittering, Narnia-like national park" in Swedish Lapland, where your guide will set up a campfire and build a cozy fortfor you to cozy up in. Youll wait for the northern lights to do their thing while sipping Champagne under reindeer skins; once the sky starts twinkling, thats your cue.The key, said Kozolchyk, "is to book through an operator [such asOff the Map] that really knows what it's doing in this part of the world, where conditions are eminently changeable (but consistently gorgeous)."

A sandbar, ready to become a pop-up dining room, in Palawan, the Philippines.

Photograph: El Nido Resorts

The Philippine archipelago of Palawanwhich consists of almost 2,000 islandshas some of the best beaches in the world. So it may come as a surprise that the destinations best proposal spot is actually a bit off shore. Here, Kozolchyk said, you can stay at a resort onLagen Island, a cluster of 18 overwater cottages tucked into limestone cliffs. Theyll arrange for a boat to take you to a secluded sandbar, where a dramatic meal awaits. Depending on when you make your way over, there may be almost no ambient lightexcept for some glimmering plankton in this seaso the candle-lit 'reveal' of your dinner spot is all the more dramatic, she said. And in case youd rather go for better visibility, Kozolchyk said a lunchtime proposal is just as spectacular. The only caveat, she joked, is that the clarity and brilliance of the surrounding emerald water might rival that of the ring.

A double lunar rainbow at Victoria Falls.

Photographer: Paul Joynson Hicks/Getty Images/AWL Images RM

This plot requires careful timing, as lunar rainbows take place only during specific dates around a full moon. Luckily, the riverside Tongabezi Lodge, in Central Africa's Zambia, helps you figure out the right travel dates to make it happen.Said Kozolchyk, You can pop the question on a viewing balcony, with the mists and moonbow as your backdrop." Her alternate suggestion: Wait until youre back at the lodge, where you can propose over a torchlit dinner on a sampan (a flat-bottomed boat) moored in the Zambezi River. Each course is delivered by canoe, and a Zambian choir can be on standby to serenade you with a round of Jason Derulos Marry Me.

The abbey of San Fruttuoso, near Portofino, Italy.

Source: Atlantide Phototravel/Getty Images

Heres how Kozolchyk said you guarantee privacy in picture-perfect Portofino. First, you stay at Belmond'sHotel Splendido, a knockout five-star resort with its own motor yacht. Then you charter said yacht to the tiny patch of pebble beach in front of San Fruttuosoa stunning, secluded Benedictine abbeywhere the property can set up a movie-worthy five-course meal. Pop the question at sunset and then celebrate back in your balcony suite (where previous guests have included everyone from George Clooney to Madonna). There will be nothing monastic about it, we promise.

Hot air ballooning in the Australian Outback.

Source: Outback Ballooning

You can hot air balloon in plenty of beautiful corners of the world, but few will be as visually stimulating as the Australian Outback. If proposing mid-air makes you nervous about somehow dropping the ring, Kozolchyk tipped us off to another good spot: the terrace of your luxury tent at Longitude 131, where she says you'll have an unobstructed view of Uluru (aka Ayer's Rock),a 550-million-year-old monolith that can inspire your eternal vows.

The stunning Dubrovnik coastline in Croatia.

Source: Adriatic Luxury Hotels

Dubrovnik is insanely romantic, with or without HBOs fictional overlay, said Kozolchyk, but you dont have to be a Game of Thrones super-fan to appreciate this jaw-dropping location. Still, you can take a cue from the cast by staying at their favorite seaside spot, Villa Orsula, a stone-faced manor whoseconcierge can point you toward the prettiest lookouts in town. (If its full, try the villas sister property, Hotel Excelsior, a sleek, mid-century-style boutique hotel that's about to reopen after a long-awaited renovation.)

Dinner on a private balcony at the Oberoi Amarvilas, with a view of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.

Source: Oberoi Hotels

Experts usually recommend that you visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise, but heres an exclusive twist. Book one of the few available nighttime visits to the Taj Mahal during a full moon, when the greatest Mughal monument to love goes from merely breathtaking to utterly otherworldly, advised Kozolchyk. Reserve with your concierge or head hereto make it happen; finding operators that offer full moon tours isnt easy, and availability is thin. Also tempting: an in-suite dinner at the Oberoi Amarvilas, where Kozolchyk said the Taj Mahal-facing balconies were practically designed for proposers.

Crowd-free views of Machu Picchua rarity in Peru.

PHOTOGRAPH: Romantic Destinations

The lost Incan citadel is a tough spot for private momentswhat with all the crowdsbut that doesnt rule out a Peruvian proposal. According to Kozolchyk, you should check intothe "enchanted forest-feeling retreat that is the Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel," whose concierge cansign you up for some of the area's most limited-access hikes: one to Huayna Picchu (the tall peak in everyone's iconic images) or to Machu Picchu Mountain, which sitsbehind the ruins. Either way, she said, youll end up with a vantage that actually looks down onto the ruins, where the only other tourists you see will look like ants crawling the heritage site below.

Have your proposal spelled out in the sand in France's Saint Barthlemy.

Source: Cheval Blanc

Most people who want to impress in St. Bart's opt for a yacht. Go the opposite route, recommendedKozolchyz, and take to the skies instead. Give the Beach Ambassadors a heads-up about your intentions, she said, and they'll craft a romantic message in the sand, so that you can see it from a Champagne helicopter tour over Flamands Beach. (It takes the pressure off coming up with the perfect words.) Then, on dry ground, the hotel will coordinate a private dinner on the beachwith a customized fireworks finish.

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Forget the Eiffel Tower, These Are the World's Best Places to Propose - Bloomberg

Start With Humanism – Huffington Post

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

For your own self-designation, begin with the broadest most relevant category and call yourself a Humanist.

This classification encompasses all others. After the word Humanist you may add your preferred subset label: Humanist Muslim, Humanist Christian, Humanist Buddhist, Humanist Atheist, Humanist Agnostic. It is important that these subset terms do not precede the word Humanist. We are Humanists first, and what we are after that is secondary or tertiary or even further down the line.

We are Humanists first because we are human infants first, insusceptible of further branding at that time. No infant is Muslim or Christian or Atheist or Conservative or Liberal or even American or Dutch or Egyptian or any of the like. An infant is simply human, inducted by dint of that condition into a decades-long participation in 'basic human goods,' chief of which are friendship, play, learning, skillful performance, and the rearing of children.

We are Humanists first because Humanism is easiest to believe. There are no fabulist doctrines to embrace. No winged ponies. No uncertain nativities. No staggering saintly pedigrees. No post-possessed recuperations. No impracticable moral embargoes No otherworldly opinions on textiles that drape the body. No deistic dietary whims. No lurching angel trumpeting doom. No underworld chamber brutalizing dissent. Humanism says simply that human ingenuity is the source of goodness and therefore a source of delight. Easy assent.

We are Humanists first because, apart from the rough generosity nature bestows, humans mold a malleable nature on behalf of human flourishing, creating innumerable gracious alterations to the natural world, from a road to a bridge to a house to a knife to a plate to a toy to a pipe to a balm to a bed to a flute to a lute to a wending bedtime story in florid prose, and a near infinity more.

We are Humanists first because with human tools we attempt an anatomy of human destructiveness to better ourselves and shed our vices. With human tools we devise the ethics of urgency to rapidly contain a rapacity that harms the elements and the animals.

We are Humanists first because we cannot be reduced to anything smaller than the human, and we cannot be elevated to anything larger. Even the posthuman and the transhuman are but species of the human--from which, for now, all the metrics of morality emerge and extend to bonobo and cyborg.

For what you call yourself, begin with the broadest most relevant term. When someone asks 'What are you?" say 'I am a Humanist.' Search and see what the word has meant. And as you understand it, receive it first and foremost, after which, if you must, you can array yourself with any of the other supplementary hues on offer. But start with Humanism.

Top Chinese Supercomputer Blazes Real-World Application Trail – The Next Platform

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

February 13, 2017 Jeffrey Burt

Chinas massive Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer sent ripples through the computing world last year when it debuted in the number-one spot on the Top500 list of the worlds fastest supercomputers. Delivering 93,000 teraflops of performance and a peak of more than 125,000 teraflops the system is nearly three times faster than the second supercomputer on the list (the Tianhe-2, also a Chinese system) and dwarfs the Titan system Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a Cray-based machine that is the worlds third-fastest system, and the fastest in the United States.

However, it wasnt only the systems performance that garnered a lot of attention. It also was the fact that the supercomputer was powered by Sunways many-core SW26010 processors built in China rather than chips from well-known US players like Intel, AMD or Nvidia. As weve talked about before, the TaihuLight system and the the SW26010 chips it runs on are part of a larger push by Chinese officials to have more components for Chinese systems made in China rather than by US vendors, an effort that is fueled by a number of factors, from national security issues to national competitive pride. Another part of that push is Chinas plan to spend $150 billion over 10 years to build out the countrys chip-making capabilities.

The chip itself is not overly impressive by the numbers Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory outlined the current state of the high-performance computing space and the challenges it faces, and described the SW26010s size (built on 28-nanometer technology) and speed (1.45GHz) as modest compared with what Intel, AMD and other vendors in the United States are coming out with. However, the supercomputer is powered by more than 10.6 million cores. By comparison, Tianhe-2 is running 3.12 million Intel Xeon E5-2692 cores.

The size and performance capabilities of the supercomputer, which is installed at the National Supercomputing Center in China, makes it an attractive choice when running computationally intensive workloads like computational fluid dynamics (CFD), used to simulate occurrences in a broad range of scientific areas, including meteorology, aerodynamics and environmental sciences. A group of scientists from the Center for High Performance Computing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China and the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Japan recently released a paper outlining experiments they conducted running a hybrid implementation of the Open Source Field Operation and Manipulation (OpenFOAM) CFD application on the TaihuLight system. The researchers wanted to see if they could develop a hybrid implementation of the software to overcome a compiler incompatibility situation in the SW26010 processor. They called OpenFOAM was of the most popular CFD applications built on C++.

In their study, titled Hybrid Implementation and Optimization of OpenFOAM on the SW26010 Many-core Processor, the researchers laid out the challenge presented by the chip when running C++ programs.

The processor includes four core groups(CGs), each of which consists of one management processing element (MPE) and sixty-four computing processing elements (CPEs) arranged by an eight by eight grid, they wrote. The basic compiler components on MPE support C/C++ programming language, while the compiler components on CPE only support C. The compilation incompatibility problem makes it difficult for C++ programs to exploit the computing power of the SW26010 processor.

In order to get high performance from the OpenFOAM program while running on the chip, the researchers Delong Meng, Minhua Wen, Jianwen Wei, James Lin not only used a mixed-language design for the application, but also leveraged several feature-specific optimizations on the SW26010 on the software. What they did with the OpenFOAM application can also be used with other complex C++ programs to ensure high performance when running on systems powered by the SW26010 processor.

Details of the study can be found here, but one of the key steps was developing a mixed-language programming model for OpenFOAM, in party by modifying the data storage format and reimplementing the kernel code with C language. In addition, on the MPE, they put in a new compilation method for OpenFOAM in which they compile ThirdParty and OpenFOAM with GCC and swg++-4.5.3, respectively, and changed the linking mode of OpenFOAM, using the static library. The optimizations of the MPE included the such areas as vectorization, data presorting and algorithm optimization.

They also took steps for running OpenFOAM on the chips CPE cluster, which only supports the C compiler, through such steps as using the master-slave cooperative algorithm of the PCG method and by modifying the library file. Optimizations of the CPE were done in such areas as data structure transformation, register communication, direct memory access (DMA), prefetching, double buffering and data reuse.

The studys authors then tested the software by running it on both a SW26010 processor and a 2.3GHz Xeon E5-2695 v3 in a test case involving what they described as a lid-driven cavity flow. The top boundary of the cube is a moving wall that moves in the x-direction, whereas the rest are static walls. In the tests comparing the performance of the MPE, the CPE cluster and the Intel chip, they found that after optimizing the CPE cluster, there was an 8.03-times performance increase based on the optimized implementation on the MPE. In addition, the CPE cluster was 1.18 times faster than the single-core Intel chip. However, while the CPE cluster performance was better than that of the Intel processor, there were issues with efficiency. Those were due to a smaller cache and scratchpad memory (SPM) size of the SW26010, which means having to repeatedly load data into the SPM and hindering memory access. In addition, the DMA latency was high and the automatic optimizations of the SW26010 applied by the compiler was less efficient than with the Intel chip.

However, the researchers said they proved that the work they did with OpenFOAM to enable it to reach high performance in the SW26010 can be used with other C++ workloads.

The implementation and results we present demonstrate how complex codes and algorithms can be efficiently implemented on such diverse architectures as hybrid MPE-CPEs systems, they wrote. We can hide hardware-specific programming models into libraries and make them general purpose. OpenFOAM is now ready to effectively exploit the new supercomputing system based on the SW26010 processor.

Categories: Code, HPC

Tags: China, Sunway, TaihuLight, Top 500

Intel Gets Serious About Neuromorphic, Cognitive Computing Future ARM Gains Stronger Foothold In China With AI And IoT

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Top Chinese Supercomputer Blazes Real-World Application Trail - The Next Platform

Illinois Uses Supercomputer to Solve State Problems – MeriTalk (press release) (blog)

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Foellinger Auditorium on the University of Illinois campus at Urbana-Champaign. (Photo: Shutterstock)

The University of Illinois supercomputer program is working to secure state-collected data and organize information in order to find solutions to state problems.

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is partnering with the state to build new ways to protect and categorize individuals data. The state collects data on health, business licenses, and credit card information, which will be analyzed to reduce problems such as traffic congestion and repeat offenders in the prison system.

In the first phase of the partnership, NCSA will work with the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) to safeguard citizen data.

A partnership between DoIT and NCSA will bring great benefits to Illinois businesses and citizens in the area of cybersecurity, said Kirk Lonbom, DoITs chief information security officer. The threat posed by cyberattackers grows exponentially by the day and collaborations such as these accelerate the pace of cybersecurity progress.

The NCSA plans to secure collected data, protect critical infrastructure systems, respond to threats, and provide for the integrity of their information systems.

NCSAs Cybersecurity Division brings expertise in several areas to help the state with their strategic goals, said Bill Gropp, NCSAs acting director.

After the data is secured, the NCSA and the state will decide how to organize the data in order to improve the process of curation and usability. The NCSA plans to look into how the location of certain projects and local culture affect the data to develop solutions.

We expect to learn lots! Especially things we arent expecting, Gropp said. Think of this as a step toward customized services for the citizens and visitors to the state. But the most exciting outcomes are the ones that you dont expect; we hope to make it easier not just for the state but for the public to explore public data and innovate.

Illinois launched its smart state initiatives in 2016. The state hosted workshops in April and December for private sector and government leaders to discuss how smart state projects will improve government efficiency, access to services, and promote the growth of business.

Illinois is nationally recognized as the first U.S. state to have a vision and road map for becoming a smarter state, said state CIO Hardik Bhatt. The goal is to use technology, Internet of Things, analytics, and cybersecurity to improve operational efficiency and find new and more cost-effective ways to serve our customers.

The NCSA was established in 1986 as one of the of the National Science Foundations Supercomputer Centers Programs. NCSA is funded by the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, the National Science Foundation, and grants from other Federal agencies. The center provides resources on computing, software, data, networking, and cybersecurity to scientists and academics across the country.

The NCSAs goals to accomplish by 2020 include working with government agencies to help the nations research opportunities and use data to address complex problems. This partnership with the state of Illinois could tackle issues in health care, the prison system, and the roadway system.

At NCSA, University of Illinois faculty, staff, students, and collaborators from around the globe use advanced digital resources to address research grand challenges for the benefit of science, industry, and society, said Gropp. We are excited about leveraging these resources to modernize infrastructure in order to better serve the citizens of Illinois and uplift the states economy.

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Illinois Uses Supercomputer to Solve State Problems - MeriTalk (press release) (blog)

Pastor, rabbi, imam speak of interfaith spirituality in ‘Amigos’ presentation – Peninsula Daily News

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

PORT ANGELES An imam, a pastor and a rabbi walked into a church.

We Jews are the chosen people, the rabbi, Ted Falcon, of Seattle told 332 listeners Saturday at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Port Angeles.

Jesus said, I am the way to truth and the life, no one comes to God but by me, Pastor Dave Brown of Tacoma retorted.

Here is the real truth, Sufi Imam Jamal Rahman of Seattle responded. The Koran said whoever chooses a religion other than Islam, it will not be accepted of him, and he will be one of the losers in the hereafter.

Falcon, Brown and Rahman collectively embraced their differences in a traveling, humorous, heartfelt lecture as the Pacific Northwest Interfaith Amigos.

They were scheduled to give presentations Sunday at the Port Townsend High School auditorium and at two services at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Port Townsend.

Rahman, Falcon and Pastor Don Mackenzie wrote Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos Guide to Personal, Social and Environmental Healing, a book that sparked reading groups all over the Peninsula.

The Rev. Barb Laski said that 15 organizations sponsored study groups in East Jefferson County. Following Laskis lead, Marilyn Eash of the Interfaith Community of Clallam County reported 19 study groups formed in Clallam County.

The spiritual study will close in Port Townsend with a Celebration of Our Journey at 2 p.m. March 5 at Unity Spiritual Enrichment Center, 3918 San Juan Ave.

Interfaith Community of Clallam County will host a Celebration of Our Journey at 2 p.m. March 18 at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 510 E. Park Ave., Port Angeles.

Since Mackenzie has moved to Minneapolis, Brown of Tacomas Immanuel Presbyterian Church has stepped in for him creating the Pacific Northwest Interfaith Amigos, who give presentations all over the Northwest.

In their seamless, sometimes scripted repartee, they drew who-has-the-best-religion dividing lines to teach a larger lesson about the importance of inclusivity over exclusivity.

They gave a connected, holistic and historic context to faith as presented in the scriptures of three of the worlds major religions.

Jews were chosen for the way of the Torah, Falcon explained. More than that, each and every one of us is chosen. We are chosen to be the ones we are. All authentic paths are chosen for the integrity of their paths.

Brown said Jesus was not saying he is the way in an egotistical sense.

He was not speaking about himself, he was speaking about the wisdom that goes beyond ego, Brown said.

At a time of political and religious upheaval, Jesus was saying his way is nonviolence and unconditional love, Brown said.

Rahman said that at Islams core is surrendering to God in peace and a respect for Abraham and Moses.

It does not matter, in the Koran, if you do not practice Islam, he said.

We make no distinction among the prophets, he said.

Islam means surrendering to God in peace, Rahman said.

The critical question is, what am I surrendering? The Koran says your attachment to your ego.

The Interfaith Amigos formed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Their lesson is about the links that can grow between people of different faiths when they lead spiritual lives, drawing from the best of their faiths rather than a path of exclusivity that, as Falcon said, can lead to violence.

The bond grows when people eschew ego and embrace compassion, as taught by Islam, Rahman said.

It blossoms when people show unconditional love to others, as taught by Christianity, Brown said.

After doing presentation after presentation, I understand my own journey as a Christian in a new way because of being open to my brothers, he added.

The trio that appeared Saturday did so at a time of political discord in the U.S. that was alluded to by the participants.

I can think of no time as important as it is at this time to have an interfaith dialogue, Brown said.

Rahman noted that after 9/11, most of those who objected to having a mosque built at Ground Zero did not personally know a Muslim in stark contrast to the majority of those who favored building a mosque, who did know a Muslim.

Falcon said those of different faiths and politics need to create a context for meeting each other as human beings without shouting, name-calling and demonizing each other.

He said people 0f all three faiths go astray from their core teachings when they support exclusivity, violence in the name of that exclusivity, inequality of men and women, homophobia, economic and racial injustice, policies that keep large segments of populations in poverty and the degradation of the environment.

If we talk about where we stray from our core teachings, it gives us a chance to grow and to deepen our faith, our self-understanding and our mutual understanding, Brown said.

A woman during a brief question-and-answer session told Rahman that friends of hers were very concerned and scared about Sharia law.

He urged her to read the writings of Bloomberg View columnist and Harvard law Professor Noah Feldman.

There is no fiqh, or body of Islamic law, that can be introduced into the U.S. that can go against the Constitution, Rahman said.

For Muslims, Sharia means the way to the spring, Rahman said.

To them, Sharia is the overall guidance and justice and love, he said.

He noted how every holy book contains what he called particular verses that have a historical context and universal verses that are timeless and filled with wisdom.

The problem is when you take a particular verse and advocate it as a universal verse, Rahman said.

For example, the Koran contains a verse imploring Muslims to not be friends with Jews and Christians. That was from a time when Muslims were being attacked on all sides.

Some Christian and Jewish tribes had reneged on treaties, hence the distrust, Rahman said.

Eighteen verses down from the warning, the Koran says that having faith in God is what matters beyond a particular religion, and in particular doing righteous deeds, Rahman said.

This is repeated again and again and again and again, he said.

The Amigos ended their presentation with the common thread of spirituality, reminding all of the interconnectedness, as Falcon said, with all humans.

Its all one, and I am as I am, Falcon, Rahman and Brown sang, linking arms.

For more information in East Jefferson County, see http://www.spiritualread.org or call Laski at 360-301-1855.

For more information in Clallam County, email interfaithclallamcounty@gmail.com or call Eash at 360-477-0681.

________

Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.

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Pastor, rabbi, imam speak of interfaith spirituality in 'Amigos' presentation - Peninsula Daily News

At the Grammys, Beyonce paid an epic tribute to African diaspora spirituality – Quartz

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Daily Mail

At the Grammys, Beyonce paid an epic tribute to African diaspora spirituality
Quartz
In her Grammy performance on Sunday night, Beyonce styled herself as not one but at least two religious icons: Oshun, a Yoruba deity from West Africa, and the Virgin Mary. Beyonce, draped in yellow, recalled images of the Yoruba goddess of fertility ...
Revealed: African goddess of water and fertility that blesses mothers with TWINS who Beyonc paid homage to at last ...Daily Mail

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At the Grammys, Beyonce paid an epic tribute to African diaspora spirituality - Quartz

What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet – Forbes

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Forbes

What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet
Forbes
I read on Quora that ISS has a slow Internet connection (slow as a dial-up). How do they manage to stream live HD videos from ISS to YouTube? originally appeared on Quora: the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others ...

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What It Takes For The International Space Station To Stream Video To The Internet - Forbes

Photographer explains how he captured rare space station moon … – FOX 13 News, Tampa Bay

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Last week, you probably heard a lot about the full 'snow moon,' the lunar eclipse, and even the faint green comet passing close to Earth. But the most stunning photo of the week involved none of those things.

Florida photographer James Boone captured a series of photos Thursday night showing the International Space Station passing in front of the bright nearly-full moon, which is known as a lunar transit. It's an incredibly difficult feat to achieve -- many photographers plan and practice for years to be ready for such an occasion.

That was indeed the case for James, who's a regular contributor of stunning weather photos to FOX 13 (see his other photos above or click over to his website). We asked him to elaborate a little on how he managed to get the shot, and if he had any advice for other astrophotographers out there.

Here are his answers:

When and where did you shoot this photo?

I shot this from near the Orlando Airport [Thursday night] around 10pm. Exact time was 10:05:38...the ISS takes less than a second to transit the Moon.

How long have you been trying to get a shot like this?

I've wanted this shot as soon as I saw similar photos online of ISS transits. I've probably planned this photo around a dozen times over the past four years...mostly missed my chances due to the weather not cooperating or because I wasn't able to drive to the location the day of the transit.

What inspired you to try for this shot?

There are a few photographers / amateur astronomers who do some incredible work and post their techniques online. Thierry Legault, a French astronomer, is probably the most inspiring. He has captured lunar and solar transits with the ISS and even the space shuttle.

Let's talk about the technical details: What kind of camera, how many exposures? How did you determine what settings to use?

For last night's transit, I had two camera setups -- one with a traditional DSLR lens and the other hooked up with a telescope. The traditional setup was a Nikon D500, Nikkor 300mm f/4 lens and a Nikkor TC-20e Teleconverter (which gives the lens two times the reach). This setup is equivalent to a 900mm lens on a 35mm camera. I also used a polar aligned tracking mount - SkyWatcher Star Adventurer on a tripod. This moves the camera at the same speed as the Earth's rotation so that the Moon stayed center of the frame during the time I was shooting.

My telescope setup was a Nikon D750 and Orion 10" Dobsonian DSE telescope with an adapter to hook the camera up to the eyepiece. The telescope setup was the most difficult one to get as you're only working with a section of the moon so you have to hope that the ISS will cross where you have the telescoped pointed. Also the D750's memory buffer fills up at around 5 seconds so I can't start shooting until the last moment.

I fired off around 20 seconds worth of exposures with my D500, so that ended up being around 200 exposures total...only six of those frames ended up showing the transit. The telescope setup I probably shot 30 exposures and it only showed up in one (and it was the first shot I took...so I was cutting it close).

And the logistics: How did you know where and when to shoot from in order to get the station lined up with the moon?

I use two sites in order to prepare for shots like this. Calsky is the standard as it's been around for years but it's also somewhat tricky to use. Thankfully they've made it a little easier to find these transits within the last couple of years. Also, Transit-Finder.com is a relatively new site but uses the same basic data as Calsky but is more focused and way more user-friendly to use. I'll probably use that one from now on. Also there are a few apps out there, like ISS Finder and SkyView, that I use for tracking the ISS that are handy when I'm shooting. I've attached one of the screenshots from the SkyView app I use.

A little about you: How long have you been shooting? Do you have a 'day job'?

I've been taking photos since I was a kid but didn't pick up a DSLR until 2008. Outside of shooting astronomical objects, I'm a motorsports shooter for races like the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring and St. Pete Grand Prix. I also take photos of lightning during our storm season. And yes, I have a day job. I'm not good enough to earn a living as a full-time photographer.

What are some of your other favorite shots through the years?

Probably my most popular photos are some of my moonrise photos, storm shots and some motorsports stuff. Not everyone is into racecars, which I understand, but it is some of the toughest, most demanding photography out there. Plus I love how technically difficult it is when shooting fast cars at slow shutter speeds. Also shooting some astrophotography objects can be really rewarding once you get the image fully processed, which is a lot of work. See attached.

Any advice for aspiring photographers on getting this photo or any other tough shot?

Planning is key. For most of these transit shots, you can't actually see the ISS moving across the sky as it's either too late in the evening for the lunar transits or during the day for the solar transits. You really have to trust the data from the websites. Having a long lens or telescope is definitely a plus but this shot can be done relatively inexpensively. Also, don't give up if you don't get it the first trying to get a difficult shot. I miss plenty of shots but I also love the challenge of a truly difficult photo.

LINK: http://www.JamesBoonePhoto.com

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Astrobee: NASA’s Newest Robot for the International Space Station – IEEE Spectrum

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

The International Space Station will soon be getting some new robot occupants. Astrobee is a robotic cube packed with sensors, cameras, computers, and apropulsion system. Its designed tohelp astronauts around the ISS with a variety of tasks.

While the robot is designed to fly freely on board the ISS, for testing on the ground, Astrobee is mounted on top of a sled that uses a jet of CO2 to create a low-friction air bearing above a perfectly flat (and very enormous) block of granite. This allows the researchers to simulate microgravity in two dimensions to test the robots propulsion and navigation systems, but once its up in space, the entire robot will consist of just the cube thats defined by the blue bumpers, without all of the stuff underneath it.

Last fall, IEEE Spectrum visited NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif., to have a look at the latest Astrobee prototype and meet the team behind the robot.

NASA expects to have Astrobee on orbit at some point between July 2017 and June 2018. Theyll be sending three of them to the ISS, although they only expect two robots to be active at once: The third will be packed away in a space closet somewhere.

Read More: How NASA's Astrobee Robot Is Bringing Useful Autonomy to the ISS

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Astrobee: NASA's Newest Robot for the International Space Station - IEEE Spectrum

This is a legitimately funny space prank – Mashable

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Mashable

This is a legitimately funny space prank
Mashable
According to the tweet, the two astronauts floated Whitson into the Russian half of the Space Station and gave their cosmonaut colleagues quite a surprise when she "popped out" of the bag. All in all, it sounds like a pretty good space prank. This is ...
The Future Of Human Reproduction: Space PregnancyVocativ
A look at the crazy-hardcore fitness regimen NASA is using to keep astronauts healthy and impenetrably strongMen's Fitness
Space Traveling Affects Human Body SubstantiallyScience Times

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This is a legitimately funny space prank - Mashable

Fire returns to flame trench at Apollo-era launch pad in Florida – Spaceflight Now

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Credit: William Harwood/CBS News

Nine Merlin engines ignited and throttled up to nearly 2 million pounds of thrust Sunday during a brief hold-down firing of SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket, sending a plume of smoke out of the flame trench at Kennedy Space Centers historic launch pad 39A as the company preps for a space station cargo mission next weekend.

The Merlin 1D engines on the rockets first stage were programmed to fire for about three-and-a-half seconds, reaching full power with around 1.7 million pounds of thrust as the Falcon 9 booster remained affixed to the seaside launch complex.

Onlookers at Kennedy Space Center reported visible venting of super-chilled liquid oxygen vapors from the rocket leading up to the static fire test, then a white cloud of rocket exhaust rushing out of the north side of the launch pad as the Merlin engines ignited at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT).

SpaceX confirmed a few minutes later that the static fire was successfully completed, and engineers are reviewing data collected during the test.

Sensors in each engine were to measure many performance parameters during the brief ignition at the launch pad. Hold-down restraints kept the rocket on the ground.

The hotfire test marked the first time a rocket ignited at pad 39A since July 8, 2011, when the final space shuttle mission blasted off there. The launch complex sat dormant for three years until SpaceX signed a 20-year lease to take over the pad in 2014.

The milestone static fire test is a major step leading to SpaceXs first-ever launch from pad 39A scheduled for next Saturday, Feb. 18, with a Dragon supply ship carrying 5,266 pounds (2,389 kilograms) of equipment and experiments to the International Space Station.

If the rocket takes off Feb. 18, the Dragon spacecraft will reach the research lab in orbit Feb. 20.

It will be SpaceXs first resupply launch to the space station since last July, before a Falcon 9 rocket exploded on the Complex 40 launch pad at nearby Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The explosion grounded the Falcon 9 rocket for the rest of 2016, and left Complex 40 with significant damage requiring repairs.

Preparations at pad 39A took on a feverish pace in the months since the Sept. 1 explosion at pad 40, which sits on Air Force property a few miles south of pad 39A.

The crucial static fire test doubled as a check of the rockets readiness for flight and the function of the launch pads fueling, telemetry and water deluge systems, all of which were overhauled by SpaceX in recent months.

With the test completed, ground crews will lower the rocket and attach the Dragon cargo freighter for launch next weekend.

Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceXs vice president of flight reliability, said Wednesday that testing of the new ground systems at 39A was nearly complete, allowing managers to move ahead with rollout of the rocket.

This is a huge pad, Koenigsmann said. The runs from the LOX (liquid oxygen) farm and the fuel farm down to the launch head are huge. The transporter-erector is huge. Its like one-and-a-half million pounds of steel, and (it has) so much technology because this thing controls all the interfaces (with the rocket).

The transporter-erector will carry rockets from the hangar up the incline to the pad, then lift the vehicles vertical. The rocket carrier was observed vertical at pad 39A in the last few weeks during testing.

There was nothing in particular that gave us a hard time, Koenigsmann told reporters Wednesday during the Federal Aviation Administrations 20th Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington. Its more like this whole thing was a huge effort, and at the end of it you want to test and test things again to make sure that theyre ready to go.

SpaceX resumed launches Jan. 14 with a successful Falcon 9 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the companys return-to-flight in Florida has been paced by the construction at pad 39A.

NASA launched 12 Saturn 5 rockets from pad 39A during the Apollo moon program including Apollo 11 and 82 shuttle flights departed from the seaside launch complex.

But NASA decided it no longer needed pad 39A after the shuttles retirement. Nearby launch pad 39B, previously built for Apollo and shuttle flights, will be home to NASAs Space Launch System, a government-owned heavy-lift rocket that will launch astronaut crews on deep space expeditions.

The concrete foundation of pad 39A dates back to the Apollo era of the 1960s, while the 347-foot-tall (106-meter) fixed service structure and lightning tower were emplaced before the first shuttle launch.

It gives me a little bit of chills when I walk out there and see stuff thats left over from Apollo, Koenigsmann said.

Since SpaceX took over, changes to pad 39A have included the construction of the new rocket hangar outside the south gate to the facility, where space shuttles and Saturn 5 moon rockets arrived on top of tracked crawler-transporters after rollout from the nearby Vehicle Assembly Building.

The hangar can accommodate five Falcon 9 rocket cores at a time, according to SpaceX.

Other additions include the installation of RP-1 kerosene fuel tanks and the construction of the massive transporter-erector, which is sized to accommodate SpaceXs powerful triple-body Falcon Heavy rocket when it debuts later this year.

The transporter-erector is big enough to do Falcon Heavy. We can launch Falcon 9 with it in the center, of course, but the Falcon Heavy drives the size of it, Koenigsmann said. You can see Its bigger than the one we used to have.

The facilitys water system has also been refurbished to provide acoustic and heat protection to the pad deck during liftoffs, and the water tower at the northeast perimeter of the pad has been repainted, now emblazoned with the SpaceX logo.

Later this year, SpaceX plans to add an access arm to pad 39As fixed service structure for astronaut crews to board a human-rated version of the Dragon spacecraft beginning in 2018. SpaceX and Boeing have contracts with NASA to develop commercial spaceships to rotate crews between Earth and the space station.

SpaceX officials intend to base crewed launches and Falcon Heavy missions from pad 39A, and flights for the U.S. military and some commercial missions will be launched from pad 40 a few miles to the south.

Pad 40 should be ready for launches again in a few months after ground teams finish clean-up and repairs following the explosion of a Falcon 9 booster there in September.

SpaceX said the construction crew working at pad 39A will move over to pad 40 in the coming weeks. A firm timetable for pad 40s availability for launches will be better known once repairs begin, but the facility could be ready by the middle of the year, officials said.

SpaceX aims to launch once every two weeks after pad 39A is inaugurated later this month, continuing with the deployment of an EchoStar communications satellite in early March, then the launch of an SES telecom payload aboard a previously-flown first stage booster later in March.

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Fire returns to flame trench at Apollo-era launch pad in Florida - Spaceflight Now

Arianespace preps 2 satellites for launch atop workhorse Ariane 5 … – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Curt Godwin

February 13th, 2017

During final integration at the Spaceport for Flight VA235, Telkom 3S is positioned atop the Ariane 5s core cryogenic stage (photos at left and center), followed by placement of the payload fairing containing SKY Brasil-1 and the SYLDA dispenser system (photo at right). Photo(s) Credit: Arianespace

With its Launch Readiness Review complete, Arianespace continues to make preparations to launch itsfirst Ariane 5 rocket of 2017. The delivery into space of two communication satellites,SKY Brasil-1 and Telkom 3S, is scheduled for the beginning of an 86-minute launch window that opens at 4:39 p.m. EST (21:39 GMT) on Feb. 14, 2017.

Archive photo of Ariane flight VA233. Photo Credit: Stephane Corvaja / ESA

The mission, designated VA235, is being flown todeliver the two satellites to geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). The European heavy-lift vehicle is notable in its capability to deliver multiple, large satellites into orbit, allowing customers to share launch costs.

The 13,228-pound (6,000-kilogram) AT&T/DirecTV SKY Brasil-1 spacecraft will supply digital entertainment services to Brazil via DirecTVs Latin America subsidiary.

Sharing the ride to GTO inside the fairing will be the 7,826-pound (3,550-kilogram) Telkom 3S digital services satellite.

The state-owned Telkom Indonesia satellite will provide telecommunications and high-definition television services throughout the island nation.

Riding in the lower bay of the two-position SYLDApayload carrier is the Telkom 3S satellite. The third Telkom satellite to be launched by Arianespace, it was built on the Thales Alenia Space Spacebus 4000B2 platform and is outfitted with 24 C-band, eightextended C-band, and 10 Ku-band transponders.

Telkom 3S will ultimately be positioned at 118 degrees Eastand will provide a multitude of digital services to customers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia. The medium-class satellite has twin solar arrays, providing the necessary6.3 kilowatts of payload power, and has an expected on-orbit lifetime of 15 years.

The other satellite, SKY Brasil-1, will sit in SYLDAs top position. Alternately known as Intelsat 32e, the satellite was built on the Airbus Defense and Space Eurostar E3000 spacecraft architecture, a widely used and flexible satellite bus.

Using its60 Ku-band transponders, the satellite will provide servicesto Brazil and areas of the North Atlantic Ocean. After settlinginto its orbital slot at 43.1 degrees West, SKY Brasil-1 is expected to deliver digitalcontent for at least 19 years.

Arianespaces reliable Ariane 5 rocketwill be delivering the satellite duoto GTO. It is configured in its ECA arrangement for flight VA235. The heavy-lift rocket has been a mainstay of the multinational launch providerand offers a high degree of precisionwith its ability to place payloads into orbit with near meter-level accuracy.

Like NASAs now-retired Space Shuttle, the Ariane 5 makes use ofsolid-fueled boosters to supplement the mainliquid-fueled engine.

A pair of P241 solid rocket boosters will provide a combined 3.18 million pounds (14,160 kilonewtons) of thrust at liftoff. Each will burn for approximately 130 seconds, providing roughly 92 percent of the Ariane 5s liftoff thrust. Once their propellant is consumed, they will separate and fall into the Atlantic Ocean.

Supplying the remaining eightpercent of liftoff power is the core stages Vulcain 2 cryogenic engine. Burning a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the hydrolox powerplant provides 220,000 pounds (960 kilonewtons) of sea-level thrust. That increases to 310,000 pounds (1,390 kilonewtons) as it climbs into the vacuum of space.

The second stage is outfitted with a single HM7B cryogenic engine. Itsupplies 15,000 pounds (67 kilonewtons) of vacuum thrustand can operate for 945 seconds.

The mission will be broadcast live via Arianespaceswebsite. Coverage will begin 15 minutes beforethe scheduled liftoff.

An artists rendering of the SKY Brasil-1 digital television satellite, set to launch aboard an Ariane 5. Image Credit: Arianespace

Tagged: Ariane 5 ArianeSpace Guiana Space Centre Lead Stories Sky Brasil-1 Telkom 3S VA235

Curt Godwin has been a fan of space exploration for as long as he can remember, keeping his eyes to the skies from an early age. Initially majoring in Nuclear Engineering, Curt later decided that computers would be a more interesting - and safer - career field. He's worked in education technology for more than 20 years, and has been published in industry and peer journals, and is a respected authority on wireless network engineering. Throughout this period of his life, he maintained his love for all things space and has written about his experiences at a variety of NASA events, both on his personal blog and as a freelance media representative.

Teams practice for Cape Canaveral’s first launch of Minotaur 4 … – Spaceflight Now

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

The pathfinder vehicle stands atop Complex 46, enclosed by the mobile gantry. Credit: Ben Cooper/Spaceflight Now

CAPE CANAVERAL Three inert Peacekeeper missile stages have been stacked at Cape Canaverals Complex 46 pad, demonstrating the techniques that will be used to assemble a Minotaur 4 rocket to launch an experimental space surveillance satellite this summer.

Decommissioned Peacekeeper missiles form the basis for Minotaur 4 rockets, operated by Orbital ATK, and will deliver the majority of power to launch a small spacecraft, called SensorSat, into Earth orbit.

Launch is tentatively planned for July 15 at roughly 1 a.m. EDT (0500 GMT).

Known as the Operationally Responsive Space-5 mission, or ORS-5, it will be the first Minotaur launch from Cape Canaveral.

Officials say the Cape was chosen as the launch site because it is best suited to fly the special five-stage Minotaur 4 into the desired equatorial orbit.

The payload will circle the planet in low-Earth orbit to scan the valuable region of space 22,300 miles high the geosynchronous orbital belt to spot debris and warn against collisions.

Geosynchronous orbit is where communications satellites, weather observatories and key reconnaissance platforms reside because that altitude allows the craft to fly continuously above the same part of the globe.

Many of the details about ORS-5 remain classified. But SensorSat will test technologies and reduce the risk for future space situational awareness missions.

The launch pad hosting this mission is Complex 46, a former Trident missile test site built in the 1980s for the U.S. Navy, then converted to spaceflight users in the 1990s and employed by Lockheed Martin to launch two Athena boosters including NASAs Lunar Prospector.

Space Florida, an arm of the state, now oversees the complex for commercial customers. It will be the first launch from the pad, which is on the easternmost tip of the Cape, in 18 years.

Five previous Minotaur 4 rockets have launched from Kodiak Island in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California since 2010.

The entire Minotaur family has conducted 25 missions since 2000, all successfully. Cape Canaveral will join Kodiak Island, Vandenberg and Wallops Island in Virginia as sites that have hosted launches.

Mission planners selected the Cape to launch SensorSat due to the plane change required en route to achieve the targeted 375-mile-high circular orbit at 0 degrees inclination. A Wallops-based launch could not reach such an orbit with Minotaur 4, officials said.

The successful pathfinder operations at Complex 46 were completed Sunday and punctuated with a photo op for the news media. The inert stages will be destacked beginning Monday.

The real rocket for ORS-5 will be stacked beginning about three weeks before launch. That will be followed by a week-and-a-half of pre-flight testing.

Minotaur 4 will blast off on 500,000 pounds of thrust, propelling the 193,000-pound, 78-foot-tall rocket on a half-hour trip to orbit.

After the three Peacekeeper motors burn, two commercial upper stages deliver the final pushes to reach orbital velocity and then change planes to obtain the correct inclination for ORS-5.

See earlier ORS-5 coverage.

Our Minotaur archive.

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Teams practice for Cape Canaveral's first launch of Minotaur 4 ... - Spaceflight Now

MRO data utilized for Mars 2020 landing-site selection – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

Paul Knightly

February 11th, 2017

Artists depiction of NASAs Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) above the Red Planet. Image Credit: James Vaughan / SpaceFlight Insider

As scientists and engineers from around the world have gathered this week to discuss potential landing sites for NASAs Mars 2020 rover, a key piece of hardware has been central in aiding their efforts. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) arrived at Mars in 2006 and has been capturing high-resolution imagery and data about the Martian surface in the 11 years since. This data is now being used to aid in landing-site selection efforts for the Mars 2020 rover and other future missions.

While the meeting this week discussing potential landing sites for the Mars 2020 rover focused on eight candidate landing sites, MRO data has also been used to evaluate the landing sites for past robotic missions, including Phoenix and Curiosity. The data is even being used to evaluate some 45 potential exploration zones for future crewed missions.

From the point of view of evaluating potential landing sites, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is the perfect spacecraft for getting all the information needed, said the workshops co-chair, Matt Golombek of NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). You just cant overstate the importance of MRO for landing-site selection.

The high-resolution of data returned by the MRO enables engineers and scientists to evaluate the safety of candidate landing sites. Stereoscopic 3-D images can reveal whether slopes are too steep and help to develop terrain models that can aid in future rover operations. MRO data can also reveal the distribution of mineral deposits that are important to achieving mission objectives. These terrain and mineral models are already being used by the Curiosity and Opportunity rover teams to help plan driving routes for those rovers by guiding them to interesting targets while staying out of potentially dangerous situations.

Missions on the surface of Mars give you the close-up view, but what you see depends on where you land. MRO searches the globe for the best sites, said MRO Deputy Project Scientist Leslie Tamppari of JPL.

These eight places on Mars are potential landing sites under consideration as the destination for the Mars 2020 rover mission. Image & Caption Credit: NASA

MRO also serves as a communications relay for present surface missions in tandem with other orbiting spacecraft. Scientists and engineers plan to utilize these communications relay capabilities to support the Mars 2020 rover. This month, it will reach and surpass the milestone of 6,000 relay sessions for Mars surface missions.

While MRO data is important to characterizing potential landing sites, the orbiter has done much more than just assisting with Martian surface operations. MRO has acquired more than 224,000 images and millions of other observations of Mars during its nearly 50,000 orbits of the planet. This large volume of data returned will surpass 300 terabyteslater this month, which is more data than has been returned from any past or present interplanetary mission combined. For perspective, that is more data than would be contained in four months of non-stop high-definition video.

Whether it is looking at the surface, the subsurface or the atmosphere of the planet, MRO has viewed Mars from orbit with unprecedented spatial resolution, and that produces huge volumes of data, said MRO Project Scientist Rich Zurek of JPL.These data are a treasure trove for the whole Mars scientific community to study as we seek to answer a broad range of questions about the evolving habitability, geology and climate of Mars.

Among the other discoveries made possible by data returned by MRO are the following:

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on the orbiter took the four images used in this animated sequence, showing the same site over the time period from March 31, 2007, to April 2, 2012. The earliest of the four observations is the one in which the impact blast zone looks darkest. The space-rock impact that created this blast zone occurred sometime between September 2005 and February 2006, as bracketed by observations made with the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASAs Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The location is between two large volcanoes, named Ascraeus Mons and Pavonis Mons, in a dusty area of the Tharsis region of Mars. During the period from 2007 to 2012, winds blowing through the pass between the volcanoes darkened some regions and brightened others, probably by removing and depositing dust. The view covers an area about 1.0 mile (1.6 km) across, at 7 North latitude, 248 East longitude. North is toward the top. GIF & Caption Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona

Tagged: Jet Propulsion Laboratory Mars 2020 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter NASA The Range

Paul is currently a graduate student in Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Akransas in Fayetteville. He grew up in the Kansas City area and developed an interest in space at a young age at the start of the twin Mars Exploration Rover missions in 2003. He began his studies in aerospace engineering before switching over to geology at Wichita State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in 2013. After working as an environmental geologist for a civil engineering firm, he began his graduate studies in 2016 and is actively working towards a PhD that will focus on the surficial processes of Mars. He also participated in a 2-week simluation at The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in 2014 and remains involved in analogue mission studies today. Paul has been interested in science outreach and communication over the years which in the past included maintaining a personal blog on space exploration from high school through his undergraduate career and in recent years he has given talks at schools and other organizations over the topics of geology and space. He is excited to bring his experience as a geologist and scientist to the Spaceflight Insider team writing primarily on space science topics.

MRO data utilized for Mars 2020 landing-site selection - SpaceFlight Insider

Redheads and unrequited love honored at Santa Rosa’s Schulz … – Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Posted on February 13, 2017 by Danzig

(1 of ) Redhead Felecia Hobbs and her sister Sandy Headrick visit the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, on Sunday, February 12, 2017. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat) (2 of ) Felecia Hobbs, an artificially enhanced redhead, stands near a wall painted in 1951 by Charles Schulz for his daughter's bedroom. Photo taken at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, on Sunday, February 12, 2017. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat) (3 of ) Redhead Felecia Hobbs visits the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, on Sunday, February 12, 2017. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat) (4 of ) Felecia Hobbs, an artificially enhanced natural redhead, stands near a the "Peanuts" tile mural by Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, on Sunday, February 12, 2017. (BETH SCHLANKER/ The Press Democrat)

JULIE JOHNSON

THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | February 12, 2017, 3:05PM

| Updated 4 hours ago.

The little red-haired girl is talked about but never seen in the Peanuts comic strip.

Her affection or even mere attention is Charlie Browns holy grail.

Readers know Charlie Brown rarely gets what he wants in his long suffering narratives followed by generations. Few are lucky like Ed McKee, who convinced a redheaded girl to marry him about 30 years after she handed him a note to give a different boy, inviting him to a high schools Vice-Versa dance.

The rest is history, said McKee.

In honor of unrequited love, the Charles M. Schulz Museum gave free admission to redheads Sunday, two days before the Valentines Day holiday. Theyve done so since 2004, said Jean Bevier, museum store coordinator.

McKee waved in ginger-tressed visitors from the docents podium at the entrance of the museum on Hardies Lane in Santa Rosa.

Only an estimated 1to 2 percent of the worlds population has red hair, and a few were lucky enough to choose Sunday to visit the museum.

It was a welcome perk for Libby Day of San Diego, who said it wasnt always easy having the worlds rarest hair color. Her complexion and freckles once made her feel like the odd woman out.

There werent a lot of redheads when I grew up, said Day, San Diegos redevelopment project manager visiting Sonoma County for a wine event with friends. It probably made me more independent.

Days once-red tresses are now in waves of silver, but the red still shines through in highlights lit by the sun.

Felecia Hobbs gives credit to her hairstylist for bringing out the fiery tones in her long auburn hair.

Hobbs, 50, of Walnut Creek and her blonde sister Sandy Headrick, 59, of Clovis are lifelong fans of Peanuts comics and the lovable, self-deprecating protagonist.

Hobbs wore out her Joe Cool T-shirt and was hoping to find a replacement.

Headrick named her sibling Maltese dogs Linus and Lucy just guess which one is always grumpy.

The best humor is found in real life, Headrick said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.

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Redheads and unrequited love honored at Santa Rosa's Schulz ... - Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Redheads and unrequited love honored at Santa Rosa’s Schulz Museum – Santa Rosa Press Democrat