Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all, a Happy New Year!
                             Happy Holidays!                                  

From Britain and HMS "Ocean", This FUN Video!

All I Want For Christmas - HMS OCEAN

After lots of time away last year (214 days) -- planned for 7 week deployment exercise with other nations

Diverted to Libya and further operations

Back 9 Dec after 7½ months away - 225 days with 176 at sea

400 people onboard (at peak during the amphibious exercises just under 900 onboard but approx 650 during Op Ellamy)
Steamed just over 40,000 miles
Burned approx 6,000 tonnes of fuel
Operated 16 different type of aircraft off the deck

Realities of deploying:

15 babies born while the ship has been away (fathers did get home to see mum and baby)
5 people were sent home so they didn't miss their own weddings.
1 sailor whose son's third birthday is on homecoming. Family meeting ship

Ships company have missed:

Summer holidays.
Children's exam results
Children finishing school and starting university
The Padre missed his daughter's graduation.

The ship's company ma... more

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                                                      Tico wishes you a Merry Christmas!

From the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX, a Merry Christmas Flash-Dance!

LAX XMAS FLASHDANCE 2010

On Dec. 15, 2010, hundreds of unsuspecting passengers at LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal witnessed a surprise Christmas Flash Dance performed by dozens of airport workers. Many travelers taken with the spirit of the moment joined in the dance.

Los Angeles International Airport is one of the world's busiest airports with flights to and from every major 

city in the world. 

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                                   Merry Christmas from Noe Valley, (San Francisco)

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**Official Denver Airport Holiday Flash Mob**

Holiday travelers at Denver International Airport (DIA) were surprised with an entertaining treat when a flash mob broke out in Jeppesen Terminal on November 22nd, 2011. Approximately 100 dancers from Community-Minded Dance (cmDance) performed a Lindy Hop to a medley of Swing classics in the airport's Great Hall in Denver, Colorado. Video by Rich Clarkson & Assoc.

Coordinated by cmDance
Choreography by Ceth Stifel, Heather Ballew, Joseph DeMers, & Lark Mervine
cmDance creates world-class educational dance and music experiences. The non-profit organization's programs bring the music and dance of the Americas to Colorado schools and audiences, including Lindy Hop, Argentine Tango, Jazz, and other American Vintage and folkloric dances. For more information, visit www.cmdance.org

Organized by DIA's Art and Culture Program
Today's dance performance was presented by the airport's Art and Culture Program. DIA is home to a world-clas... more

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Merry Christmas from the Original Frontier Airlines,
photos courtesy of http://fal-1.tripod.com/

Space Exploration! 05DEC11

I do believe today marks a mile-stone in Space Exploration.

I think the NASA Program needs continued funding.
Bravo for The European, Chinese, and Japanese Programs.

Bravo to Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic!




Earth Like Twin Confirmed by Astronomers

5 December 2011 Last updated at 12:50 ET

Kepler 22-b: Earth-like planet confirmed

 

The planet lies about 15% closer to its star than the Earth is to the Sun

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of an Earth-like planet in the "habitable zone" around a star not unlike our own.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.
It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".
However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.
During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets.
The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150,000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount.
Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.

The planet, Kepler 22-b, lies about 600 light-years away and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth, and has a temperature of about 22C.
It is the closest confirmed planet yet to one like ours - an "Earth 2.0".
However, the team does not yet know if Kepler 22-b is made mostly of rock, gas or liquid.
During the conference at which the result was announced, the Kepler team said that it had spotted some 1,094 new candidate planets.
The Kepler space telescope was designed to look at a fixed swathe of the night sky, staring intently at about 150,000 stars. The telescope is sensitive enough to see when a planet passes in front of its host star, dimming the star's light by a minuscule amount.
Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.

Kepler Space Telescope

• Stares fixedly at a patch corresponding to 1/400th of the sky
• Looks at more than 155,000 stars
• Has so far found 2,326 candidate planets
• Among them are 207 Earth-sized planets, 10 of which are in the "habitable zone" where liquid water can exist

• William Borucki talks about Kepler

Kepler 22-b was one of 54 candidates reported by the Kepler team in February, and is just the first to be formally confirmed using other telescopes.

More of these "Earth 2.0" candidates are likely to be confirmed in the near future, though a redefinition of the habitable zone's boundaries has brought that number down to 48.
Kepler 22-b lies at a distance from its sun about 15% less than the distance from the Earth to the Sun, and its year takes about 290 days. However, its sun puts out about 25% less light, keeping the planet at its balmy temperature that would support the existence of liquid water.
The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".
"Fortune smiled upon us with the detection of this planet," said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator at Nasa's Ames Research Center.
"The first transit was captured just three days after we declared the spacecraft operationally ready. We witnessed the defining third transit over the 2010 holiday season."
The results were announced at the Kepler telescope's first science conference, alongside the staggering number of new candidate planets. The total number of candidates spotted by the telescope is now 2,326 - of which 207 are approximately Earth-sized.
In total, the results suggest that planets ranging from Earth-sized to about four times Earth's size - so-called "super-Earths" - may be more common than previously thought.

 

Related Stories

• Most liveable alien worlds ranked
• Hunt closes in on 'another Earth'
• Strangely silent star system seen

More on This Story

Related Stories

• Most liveable alien worlds ranked 23 NOVEMBER 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Hunt closes in on 'another Earth' 03 FEBRUARY 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Strangely silent star system seen 08 APRIL 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Exoplanet sextet stuns stargazers 02 FEBRUARY 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Rocky exoplanet 'is missing link' 10 JANUARY 2011, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Kepler spies Saturn-sized worlds 26 AUGUST 2010, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Rich exoplanet system discovered 24 AUGUST 2010, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
• Exoplanet gas spotted from Earth 03 FEBRUARY 2010, SCI/TECH
• Planet-hunter spots five worlds 04 JANUARY 2010, SCI/TECH

From other news sites

• CNET News Earth-like planet found in distant sun's habitable zone 1 hr ago

• USA Today NASA discovers Earth-like planet 3 hrs ago

• Reuters UK Planet found orbiting habitable zone of sun-like star 3 hrs ago

• New Scientist Smallest habitable world around sun-like star found 5 hrs ago

• Yahoo! UK and Ireland NASA confirms 'super-Earth' that could hold life 6 hrs ago

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Beautiful Video of the view of Earth, as a small blue light in the distance!

We Are Here: The Pale Blue Dot

The Pale Blue Dot: The picture of Earth from 4 billion miles away. As told by Carl Sagan through some my favorite films set to the music of Mogwai.
http://palebluefilms.com/?p=11


Edit: I've had some requests for subtitles from people abroad. I hope the English subtitles help a few more people understand the narration. Please feel free to translate the subtitles into your native language.

http://subtitle.in/w/2pfwY2TNehw/IL__xdkgNMS

Chinese Subtitles (thanks to wedgewu):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBEjTawbeYw

Korean Subtitles (courtesy wittjess)
http://www.mncast.com/?5822428

Estonian Subtitles (courtesy AinEstonia)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG0PupRp58U

Spanish Subtitles (courtesy codigovenezuelavideo)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4samOeK8KXU

German Subtitles (courtesy s4ndwichMakeR)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAkxL5spSTM

World AIDS Day, 30 Years.

This Year marks the 30th Anniversary of AIDS.

I'm proud to say I worked with ActUp-LA as their Travel Agent.
ActUp-LA went on the road for many actions, from the CDC in Atlanta, a Medical Fraud Conventions in Kansas City, (which I attended and got arrested in Civil Disobedience), Chicago had a Large Action, and of course several Actions in San Francisco, One I recall coincided with Gay Pride.

SILENCE = DEATH: Los Angeles AIDS Activism 1987–2007

http://www.drkrm.com/actup.html


It was an exciting time.
Activism can be very rewarding.
You get a chance to meet a lot of People you wouldn't otherwise come in contact with.
And...
We did evoke change, real change.

#ActivismIsSexy

Some of the reasons I support the Occupy Movement

This was the lecture that I went over to Berkley to hear Marianne Williamson speak at Unity Church of Berkley.
She had been invited up to help with #OccupyOakland and the entire Movement.
She is one my Spiritual Guides who also helped introduce "A Course In Miracles" to me as a young man back in West Hollywood.

Some folks who don't understand what this Movement is about, or who may get false information via a couple of various 24/7 News Agencies.
Occupy does have a clear goal.
Occupy isn't out to rid this Country of Capitalism, we just want regulation.
We want a return to a growing, thriving Middle Class, we're not asking for a handout.
But we need pull in the reins of Wall Street and those there who are raping this Country and the Middle Class including the Working Class.
I don't even need to talk about the Poor in this Country, who now suffer the worse economic reality since 1929.

Occupy isn't filled with folks who don't want to work, quite the opposite.
Most Occupy Supporters I know have a job, OR are eagerly seeking employment in this Bad Economy.
Take a look at the Photos I took at Unity Church , where Marianne came up from LA to speak, and You will see Normal People,
from various walks of life, but not the types being described by folks who don't know,
certainly not those 24/7 Propaganda News Stations.

Marianne does a lot of speaking up on Social Issues, and is in support of the Occupy Movement, in LA, NYC, Oakland, SF, everywhere.
As She says, We are the Guardians of our Democracy, but above all else, Keep it Peaceful, with Love on your side.
Demonstrate YOUR Love. 

Marianne Williamson also started up the Project Open Hand in LA for Patients living with HIV and/or AIDS.

She's certainly worth a listen, it's an Hour, but it might just be so invigorating for your soul, and perhaps an education on what is this "Occupy Movement" wants, and  what it is to strive for. 
For more on Marianne Williamson, and some of her platforms:

http://acim.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_in_Miracles

http://www.marianne.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marianne_Williamson

http://www.marianne.com/books.htm

http://www.angelfood.org/

http://unityberkeley.org/