The New Horizons probe, on its way to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, has directly observed Pluto for the first time. The arrival at Pluto is planned for 2015, hopefully with great pictures of the former planet! After this the journey moves on towards the Kuiper Belt, the first contact planned for 2016-2020. I'm waiting exitedly for this, I only hope I live that long :-) The web page of the mission is here.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/29/2006 08:01:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

After years of living with a dribbling kettle, we finally got totally pissed cheesed off with it and went out and bought a new one, all shiny and expensive. Lo and behold, it drips when pouring! Why is nobody capable, in this day and age, of designing a kettle that doesn't drip everywhere but in the cup?

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/25/2006 11:27:00 PM 0 comments links to this post

Gestern Abend sagte ich zu meiner Frau, das wär' doch ein dolles Ding, wenn 96 mal Bayern schlagen könnte (sie haben ja gestern Abend gespielt). Der Tabellenletzter gegen der Rekordmeister und Titelanwärter! "Das glaubst Du wohl selbst nicht mehr", erwiderte Sie. Na dann, Prost, da ist doch noch was drin! Es lebe die Roten!

Bayern München 0 : 1 Hannover 96

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/09/2006 03:48:00 AM 0 comments links to this post

The GOCE (Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer, pronounced "ghos" as in ghost with no "t") mission is ESA's first satellite mission to measure Earth’s gravity. It is due for launch in 2007. ESA have now produced a vodcast for the mission; it can be viewed here. Or go to the ESApod page.

It is hoped that the mission will provide new insights into Earth surface processes by measuring the Earth's gravity field and modelling the geoid, which represents a hypothetical surface of equal gravitational potential, with very high accuracy and resolution. It will also provide insights into such processes as volcanism and earthquakes.

- posted by Affenhänger @ 11/08/2006 02:29:00 AM 0 comments links to this post