Posts

Characterizing the Visual Experience of Astronauts at the Lunar South Pole

Image
Humans are returning to the Moon—this time, to stay. Because our presence will be more permanent, NASA has selected a location that maximizes line-of-sight communication with Earth, solar visibility, and access to water ice: the Lunar South Pole (LSP). While the Sun is in the lunar sky more consistently at the poles, it never rises more than a few degrees above the horizon; in the target landing regions, the highest possible elevation is 7°. This presents a harsh lighting environment never experienced during the Apollo missions, or in fact, in any human spaceflight experience. The ambient lighting will severely affect the crews’ ability to see hazards and to perform simple work. This is because the human vision system, which despite having a high-dynamic range, cannot see well into bright light and cannot adapt quickly from bright to dark or vice versa. Functional vision is required to perform a variety of tasks, from simple tasks (e.g., walking, operating simple tools) through managin...
Post a Comment
Read more

Justin Baldoni Sued by His Former Publicist Amid Blake Lively Scandal

Image
Justin Baldoni ‘s former publicist sued him, his company and his current publicity team on Tuesday, amid a spiraling scandal over an alleged smear campaign against Baldoni’s “It Ends With Us” co-star Blake Lively . Steph Jones , who owns Jonesworks, accused Baldoni of breaching their contract, which required him to pay her $25,000 per month. Baldoni dropped the firm in August, a few months into a year-long deal, after his Jonesworks publicist, Jennifer Abel, left the company to start her own publicity firm. Jones also sued Abel and publicist Melissa Nathan, accusing them of implementing the smear campaign against Lively behind her back and without her knowledge. She alleges that they are now trying to blame her for the ensuing meltdown. “To this day, Abel and Nathan continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light, and to defame and attack Jones in the industry,” the lawsuit states. Lively filed a complaint on Saturday with the Cal...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ex-drug lord Fabio Ochoa walks free in Colombia after 20 years in US prisons | Colombia

Image
The return of former drug trafficker Fabio Ochoa to Colombia following his deportation from the United States has reopened old wounds among victims of the Medellín cartel, with some expressing dismay at the Colombian authorities’ decision to let Ochoa walk free. Some of the cartel victims said they are hoping the former drug lord will at least cooperate with ongoing efforts by human rights groups to investigate one of the most violent periods of Colombia’s history and demanded that Colombian prosecutors also take Ochoa in for questioning. In the late 80s and early 90s the Medellín cartel killed police officers, politicians, judges, journalists and bystanders as it waged war on the Colombian state, which had stepped up its efforts to interdict drug shipments, arrest drug traffickers and seize their properties. Some historians in Colombia attribute 10,000 killings to cartel leader Pablo Escobar. Ochoa was one of the cartel’s key operators at the time and lived for several years in Mia...
Post a Comment
Read more

The bikini-clad barista babes making a killing in oil-rich boomtown... and their creepy encounters

Image
A bright pink coffee shop is not what most people would expect to find outside the oil fields near Odessa,  Texas  - but business is booming.  Pickups full of workers are bumper-to-bumper before dawn and inside scantily-clad baristas serve almost exclusively male customers - roughnecks looking for strong drinks from hot women before grueling manual labor in the unforgiving fields. Boomtown Babes Espresso is the brainchild of Nyssa Gray, a Seattle native who grew up in the shadow of Starbucks and cut her teeth in the Pacific Northwest coffee industry – including managing a lingerie-themed stand called Hot Chick-a-Latte.    She had recognized the potential of coffee stands with sexy service, and when she learned about oil and gas boomtowns she suspected she had hit upon a winning combination. ‘I knew I wanted to open a stand, but obviously Seattle is a very saturated market ... and then I heard about guys working hitches on the oil fields in North Dakota ,' Gray, now 36, tells DailyM...
Post a Comment
Read more

Teenager dies after car crashes during Sheffield police chase | Sheffield

Image
An 18-year-old has died after a car crashed into a wall during a police pursuit in Sheffield city centre. The teenager was killed in a crash in the Hyde Park Walk area of the city on the afternoon of 23 December, South Yorkshire police confirmed. The force said officers were in the area just before 1pm on a pre-planned operation when the 18-year-old, who was driving a stolen black Ford Fiesta, spotted the officers and attempted to flee – prompting a chase. The Fiesta then crashed into a wall after a short pursuit. “An 18-year-old man was taken to hospital where he has sadly died as a result of his injuries,” a spokesperson from South Yorkshire police said. “His family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.” After the crash the force made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct. East Bank Road, where the incident occurred, was closed while officers conducted their work, but has since reopened. The police said: “We’re appealing for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

COVID and flu vaccination rates in Mass. drop to low levels

Image
“One of the things most concerning to me is not just that we are below where we were in prior seasons for vaccinations, it’s that we are plateauing earlier. If we were still on the upward trajectory for vaccinations, I would feel more confident,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, state public health commissioner. It can take a couple of weeks for a vaccine to be fully effective, so the sooner people get shots, the better, Goldstein said. Just 38 percent of children under 5 years old, and less than two-thirds of people 65 to 79, have had their flu shot this season. For COVID, only 10 percent of children under 5, and roughly 45 percent of those over 65 have received vaccinations. The numbers are also measurably down across all other age groups in Massachusetts and have been trending downward for the past two years. Nationally, flu vaccinations for all children are down significantly this year, the lowest they’ve been since before COVID. Meanwhile, COVID vaccinations for children, 6 months to ...
Post a Comment
Read more