International space station captures time lapse pictures and video

Around the world in 60 seconds :- Incredible time-lapse video from the International Space Station.

1.  Science teacher created video using 600 free pictures.
2.  Over a million pictures of space stored on website.

It took Phileas Fogg 80 days to circumnavigate the world but, thanks to the wonders of technology, it is now possible to do it in just a minute.This whirlwind video tour of the planet is a compilation of time-lapse images shot from the International Space Station (ISS).
                             James Drake spliced together the images from the ISS, which travels at about 220 miles above the surface, to create the one-minute footage which he posted online - and it has become an internet sensation.Science teacher Mr Drake used some 600 free-to-access images on the website The Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth, and knitted them together so everyone can enjoy the amazing view of North and South America.

The Earth is shown at night - and the yellow flashes here show the ionosphere - a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.

The science teacher, James Drake, stitched together over 600 images to create the amazing video.
The film, which was uploaded on September 15 and has attracted almost 50,000 hits on YouTube, starts over the Pacific Ocean and then moves over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica.

The sun is shown rising in the incredible pictures taken from the ISS, which takes 91 minutes to orbit the Earth.

Some 600 images were used to make the one-minute video.

The ISS has been manned for almost 11 years, and images of the Earth are regularly beamed back by their astronauts.

The ISS is currently on Expedition 29, and the astronauts will be on the space station until mid-November, when they will be replaced by another crew.

Flashes of lightening can be shown over the Pacific Ocean.

The South American coast can be seen from the space station which travels at about 220 miles from the Earth's surface.

The International Space year celebrated a decade of human occupation.

By Oliver Pickup

London Olympic Games 2012 venues

Olympic Stadium
An aerial view of the Olympic Stadium. During the 2012 Games in London, the stadium – which seats 80,000 spectators – will host athletic events.

Tennis

An aerial view of Wimbledon, which will host the tennis events during the 2012 Olympic Games.

Manmade whitewater

An aerial view of the Lee Valley White Water Centre, which will host the canoe slalom events during the London Olympics.

Football

An aerial view of Wembley Stadium, which will host soccer events during the 2012 Games.

Lords Cricket Ground

 An aerial view of Cricket Ground, which will host archery events during the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Courtside seats

An interior view of the Handball Arena at London’s Olympic Park. The Handball Arena became the third venue at the Olympic Park to be completed.

Basketball Arena

An interior view of the London 2012 Basketball Arena. Construction on the 12,000-seat basketball arena for 2012 Olympics in London has been completed, just 15 months after building began. The stadium became the fourth venue at Olympic Park to be finished, on budget and in time for the first test event to be held at the site in August.

The Dome

An aerial view of the North Greenwich Arena, also known as The Dome, which will host artistic gymnastics, trampoline, basketball and wheelchair basketball events during the 2012 Olympics in London.

Bentley Mulsanne comes with twin iPads for back-seat passengers

The Bentley Mulsanne is already one of the world’s most luxurious cars – but it’s now one of the most hi-tech, thanks to a new interior that includes twin Apple iPads for those relaxing in the back.Unveiled at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Mulsanne Executive Interior Concept takes the craftsmen and women at its Crewe factory 170 hours to complete.
              The iPad workstations have full internet access and are integrated into retractable picnic tables, while TV shows and movies can be watched on a large, drop-down hi-definition LED screen that folds down from the roof at the touch of a button.

The Bentley Mulsanne now comes with twin iPads, an Apple Mini Mac and various other swish 21st-century features.

The iPads come equipped with keyboards.

And of course, they fold away snugly into the seat.

Passengers can play video files and music, and access email and the internet through the iPads, while an iPod that sits in-between the seats acts as a remote control for the car’s audio system.An Apple Mini Mac is stored in boot compartment - giving extra storage space for films and music. Naturally the iPads are equipped with Bluetooth keyboards, too.
                If you wish to go old-school and send a hand-written note to someone, perhaps boasting of your car’s luxury, there’s a Tibaldi fountain pen stowed in the centre armrest.Though in reality it’s more likely to be used for signing multi-million-pound contracts by the car’s super-wealthy occupants.

The executive interior comes with a fold-down high-def TV.

The iPod in the back seat controls the audio system, among other things.

The Apple Mini Mac is stowed away out of sight.

The Bentley Mulsanne packs a 505bhp V8 under the bonnet.

The Mulsanne is aimed at those who want to do high-level business on the go.

Nasa warns fall of junk satellites from space

A six tonne Nasa satellite is set to fall uncontrolled out of orbit, potentially raining debris over swathes of the planet including Britain, the US space agency has admitted.

The $750 million (£468 million) Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) satellite, launched 20 years ago to study climate change, is set to breach the atmosphere within weeks.

In a new alert issued this week, officials warned pieces could land in densely populated areas on six continents including parts of Britain, Europe, North and South America and Asia.

Nasa claimed the risk to public safety from the “dead” satellite – which is orbiting just over 155 miles above the earth with an inclination of 57 degrees – was “extremely small”.

But senior space agency officials admitted they were “concerned” about the risk to billions of people when it starts falling uncontrolled out of orbit at any stage from later this month.

Nasa admitted more than half a tonne of metal from the satellite, which ran out of fuel in 2005, will survive as the majority it will burn up after entering Earth's atmosphere.

 

Scientists estimate the debris footprint will be about 500 miles long with a 1-in-3,200 chance a part a satellite part could hit someone.
While Nasa did not know the exact areas it will fall, the projected danger zone has been narrowed to areas between 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south of the Equator.
These areas cover six continents and billions of people and three oceans.
"Things have been re-entering ever since the dawn of the space age; to date nobody has been injured by anything that's re-entered," said Gene Stansbery, Nasa’s orbital debris chief.
"That doesn't mean we're not concerned."

According to the US Space Surveillance Network, which monitors space junk, there are more than 22,000 objects measuring 10cm or more currently above the earth. The International Space Station has to move out of the way of debris occasionally.
Last year, a Pentagon report warned that space was so littered with debris that a collision between satellites could set off an “uncontrolled chain reaction” capable of destroying the communications network on Earth.
The volume of abandoned rockets, shattered satellites and missile shrapnel in the Earth’s orbit is reaching a “tipping point” and is now threatening the $250 billion (£174bn) space services industry, according to the US Defense Department's interim Space Posture Review.
Meanwhile in a report earlier this month, the National Academy of Sciences admitted that scientists had “lost control” of the space environment.

The world's longest Bridges

The world's longest cross-sea bridge, spanning 36.48 kilometers across the mouth of the Jiaozhou Bay in China's eastern Shandong province, opened to traffic four years after construction started. Here's a peek into some of the world's longest bridges.

Lake Pontchartrain Causeway

Located in Louisiana, United States, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, consists of two parallel bridges that run parallel to each other. The bridges are supported by 9,500 concrete pilings and spans over 38.35 kilometres.

Donghai Bridge

Completed on December 10, 2005, the Donghai Bridge has a total length of 32.5 kilometres and connects Shanghai to the Yangshan port in China. The 'Donghai Bridge' is popularly known as 'The stone'.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a four lane bridge that connects the Delmarva Peninsula's Eastern Shore of Virginia with Virginia Beach and the metropolitan area of Hampton Roads, Virginia. The bridge has a total length of 37 kilometres.
Vasco da Gama Bridge

The Vasco da Gama Bridge is a cable bridge with a total length of 17.2 kilometres. The bridge was opened to traffic on 29 March, 1998. The bridge spans across the Tagus River near Lisbon, Portugal.

Penang Bridge

The Penang Bridge opened to traffic on September 14, 1985 and connects Gelugor in Penang island and Seberang Prai to mainland Malaysia. The total length of the bridge is 13.5 kilometres.

Rio-Niteroi Bridge

The Rio-Niteroi Bridge is a box girder bridge that connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niteroi. The bridge opened on March 4, 1974 and the total length of the bridge is 13 kilometres.

Confederation Bridge

The 12.9 kilometre long bridge opened on 31 May 1997, connecting the Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick, Canada. The Confederation bridge is a two-lane highway toll bridge.

San Mateo-Hayward Bridge

Commonly known as the San Mateo Bridge, the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge connects San Francisco Peninsula with the East Bay. The total length of the bridge is 11.265408 kilometres.

Seven Mile Bridge

The Seven Mile Bridge is is located between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait. Finished in 1982 at a cost of $45 million, the Seven Mile Bridge connects city of Marathon in the Middle Keys of Florida to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys of Florida.

Facebook iPhone application updated to 3.5

Facebook has updated its iPhone app to version 3.5 and that's pretty darn significant. Why? Because on top of the usual pile of bug fixes and performance improvements, this update brings quite a few new features to the mobile application.

The updated application will allow you to tag friends and places in posts, share external links from a web view and use privacy controls which match those on the desktop version of the social network. You'll also find that the mobile versions of the profile and group pages have received a little bit of a design makeover and that the Notification bar no longer mysteriously disappears and reappears for no reason.

There still appears to be no cure for the app's tendency to crash at the most inopportune moments.

Bomb blast outside delhi high court

New Delhi, Sep 7 At least 9 people were killed and around 100 peoples are injured when a powerful bomb hidden in a suitcase exploded outside the Delhi High Court Wednesday morning at its peak hour. This is the third major bombing in India since the 2008 Mumbai attack.

Home Secretary R.K. Singh said the explosion took place around 10.30 a.m. outside Gate No 5 of the high court complex located close to India Gate in the centre of the capital.

The gate is usually crowded on weekdays with a long queue of visitors waiting to get inside.

'There are nine dead. Forty-five are injured. This bomb was in a suitcase. We have remains of the suitcase,' Singh told reporters.

'All the injured have been evacuated,' the home secretary said.

Eyewitnesses said the number of injured was closer to 50 or 60.

According to an eyewitness, Bhagwan Das: 'The explosion severed the limbs of several people.'

The home secretary said investigating teams were already at the blast site. 'We have the National Investigation Agency team right there. We have people from the forensic laboratories there, we have NSG (National Security Guard) team there to collect evidence.'

Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Dharmendra Kumar told reporters that police had cordoned off the area and were requesting people not to converge at the site.

Wednesday's blast comes after the July 13 triple bombings in Mumbai that killed over 25 people. Before that, in February 2010, an explosion inside a popular eatery in Pune claimed 17 lives, four of them foreigners.

The terror attack Wednesday is also the second time in four months that the Delhi High Court has been targeted. On May 25, a low intensity explosion took place without causing any damage. The explosives were hidden in a plastic bag near a car in a service lane outside the court.

Help lines for any queries:-

AIIMS HELPLINE: 011-2610 1925

RML HOSPITAL HELPLINE: 011- 2374 4721/ 2336 5525

SAFDARJUNG HOSPITAL HELPLINE: 011- 2670 7444 

Eyewitnesses reactions of bomb blast

"It was a powerful blast...there is a lot of blood there," said a shocked woman lawyer, who was just driving up to work at the Delhi High Court when the explosion took place near Gate no 5.

Live Tweet of a Lawyer :-" Blast in delhi HC. Right in front of me. *shudders* the whole car shook" ..."The bomb was very powerful it seems. Everyone is outside. Lots of injured. The gates are closed now. Can hear sirens"...

Television channels report of injuries to people. There are more people at the court premises than other days of the week since Wednesdays are when PILs are heard.

9/11 before and after

This combo image shows two documentations of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York City and the current day location. In Top Smoke rises into the sky following the collapse of World Trade Center Towers Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 in New York. Below the skyscraper known as One World Trade Center, right, rises in lower Manhattan, Aug. 10, 2011 in New York.

Top the World Trade Center destruction is shown in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in New York on Sept. 30, 2001.

The tower known as Four World Trade Center is under construction in lower Manhattan, Aug. 9, 2011 in New York.

Firefighters work beneath the destroyed mullions, the vertical struts which once faced the soaring outer walls.

The tower known as Four World Trade Center is under construction.

People run from the area of the World Trade Center as the center's south tower collapses.

The skyscraper known as One World Trade Center, center, is under construction in lower Manhattan, Aug. 4, 2011.
People covered in dust walk over debris near the World Trade Center in New York.

People walk near the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, Aug. 8, 2011 in New York.

New Yorkers walk over the Brooklyn Bridge on their way to work on April 7, 1980, during the transit strike.

People flee the scene of the attacks on the World Trade center on September 11, 2001.

Broadway near ground zero on the evening of September 11, 2001 after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

People pass a McDonald's restaurant on Broadway in lower Manhattan, Aug. 4, 2011.

Emergency workers at ground zero on Sept. 11, 2001 after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

People walk along Church Street past Century 21 clothing store in lower Manhattan, Aug. 4, 2011.

A destroyed subway station near ground zero on the evening of Sept. 12, 2001 after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

People walk along Church Street in lower Manhattan, Aug. 4, 2011.

India Pakistan border can be seen from space

           Snaking for hundreds of miles across the earth's surface, this spectacular picture shows one of the planet's land borders like never before.The dramatic picture shows a bright orange line jutting across the earth, indicating the border between India and Pakistan.
           The stunning image of the earth, taken from the International Space Station last month, also shows busy cities show up as bright clusters hundreds of miles apart.

The International Space Station image captures the floodlit border between India, above the orange line, and Pakistan, below the border in the picture.


The Indian government sanctioned a move to erect floodlights along the terrain separating India and Pakistan in the Gujarat sector in 2003 to prevent smuggling and arms trafficking.In previous years the border has regularly seen attempts at infiltration by terrorists, as well as the smuggling of arms, ammunition and contraband.In total, the Indian government hope to cover 1248 miles (2009 km) of the 1800-mile (2900 km) India-Pakistan border with floodlights.

Officials have so far erected floodlights along 286 miles (460 km) of Indian border with the Pakistan state of Punjab.The extensive floodlighting continues for 635 miles (1022 km) across Rajasthan, 109 miles (176 km) across the Jammu international border, and 125 miles (202 km) through Gujarat.

So far 1156 miles (1861 km) of the border have been floodlit.Plans are in place to erect a total 1269 miles (2043 km) of fencing along the nation's border. The Indian government hope to have completely finished the floodlight operation by March 2012.A similar fenced border zone operates along India's eastern border with Bangladesh, although it cannot be seen as vividly on images like this.

The Gujarat border region was notorious for being infiltrated until officials erected the floodlit border in 2003.The spectacular image showing the floodlit border was taken by Expedition 28 International Space Station Crew on August 21.

 

Also visible on the picture as bright clusters is Lahore, Pakistan, nearest to the orange border line.Islamabad, Pakistan, can also be seen towards the bottom of the picture, as well as New Delhi, India, at the top.