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NASA’s Contest to Design the Last Shuttle Patch

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The space shuttle program is on its way out, but the core of people who built and maintained it will live on.

To honor them, NASA gave its employees the chance to design the patch that will commemorate the shuttle program, which is slated to end in September, after STS-133 flies.

From the designs of 85 current and former employees, the Shuttle Program Office has selected 15 finalists. The prospective patches, presented here, will be voted on internally by NASA employees and judged by a small panel.

The program patch will help mark the end of the shuttle era. Begun rather enthusiastically in the late 1970s, the program almost didn’t have mission patches, said Robert Pearlman, the space history and memorabilia enthusiast who brought the internal contest to the public eye.

“In 1976, the Space Shuttle program designed a patch, called the Space Shuttle Program logo, which was a single triangle, blue and white. It’s very iconic,” Pearlman said. “And the original idea was that since the space shuttle as of 1976 was going to fly so many times and so often — every couple weeks — you wouldn’t want or need crew mission patches any longer. The idea was we’d do away with mission patches.”

But astronauts and other mission members dissented. By then, the patches had become a popular tradition within NASA, even though they’d only been used for a little more than a decade. In the wake of NASA’s 1965 decision not to allow astronauts to name their own vehicles, one astronaut decided that his Gemini V mission needed a patch.

“Gordon Cooper, looking for a way to keep a personal touch to the mission, borrowed something from the military, and created and fought for a patch,” Pearlman said.
His design, prominently featuring a covered wagon, became the first of hundreds of NASA patches.

So, after some wrangling, NASA decided the shuttle missions could have their own patches after all. The first patch, for STS-1, was designed by Robert McCall, a well-known space artist, Pearlman said.

Subsequent works have come together in a variety of ways. Some have been drawn by the astronauts themselves, others by hangers-on or friends. Together, they form an odd pictographic record of a program that has been at the center of the world’s premiere space agency for more than 30 years. One of the 15 entries you see here will be the final installment in the series.

In the patch design at the top of this post, the sunrise/sunset represents the start and finish of the shuttle program, and the stars honor the astronauts who died on Challenger and Columbia. The artist wrote, “I picked the most dramatic angle of the shuttle I could find to highlight the magnificence of the most complicated space vehicle in the world.”

Captions are summaries of the artists’ explanations. For full captions, go to CollectSpace.com.

Source: Wired Science

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Takanakuy Festival at risk? – Strange Events

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250px-Location_of_the_province_Chumbivilcas_in_Cusco.svgDid you ever heard about “Takanakuy”? Did you have wanted the opportunity to straight up your differences with somebody you knew in a fight, enjoin a good food, special dress, dance and booze? Well a lot people call that Saturday night.

Chumbivilcas is a province in the Andes, South Peru, and according to the Peru 2005 Census 77,721 inhabitants, rural communities families with eight and more children are not unusual, one of the poorest regions of the country.

The people in the province are mainly indigenous citizens of Quechua descent.

Takanakuy Festival for beginners

Each December 25th part of the population from Chumbivilcas Province reunite to the Takanakuy “festival”, where participants practice of fighting fellow community members.

Takanakuy Festival at risk - 02The practice started in Santo Tomás, the capital of Chumbivilcas, and has now spread to other villages and cities, the prominent ones being Cuzco and Lima.

The festival consists of dancing and of individuals fighting each other to settle old conflicts or simply to display their manhood.

Those holding the grudges call out their opponents by their first and last name.

Kicking and punching are allowed in the middle of the circle. Biting, hitting those on the ground, or pulling hair is not allowed during the fight, this is a civilized community!

Takanakuy Festival at risk - 01Although the government of Lima has tried to eradicate Takanakuy Festival, the celebration has diffused into urban areas such as Cuzco and Lima.

People of non-indigenous descent are now taking part in this originally indigenous cultural custom, yeah, why not?

Then everybody goes drinking to numb the pain and move on to a new year.

Now serious, tells us, don’t you have a co-worker, neighbor, a church member you have a beef with?

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Polish company to brew beer from a Czech model’s vagina bacteria

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Polish company to brew beer from a Czech models vagina bacteriaPolish brewery company launched a crowdfunding for its attempt to brew beer from a Czech model’s vagina bacteria.

There are large number of bizarre ingredients used in the manufacture of craft beers, but use a formula from a vaginal bacteria stands out in the crowd.

Warsaw-based The Order of Yoni — “Yoni” being a Sanskrit word for “vagina” — is seeking to raise about U$170,000 (£118,000 or 150,000 Euros) with an IndieGoGo campaign for Bottled Instinct, a beer brewed using lactic acid bacteria collected from the vagina of Alexandra Brendlova.

The Order of Yoni says the initial run of beers would include sour ales, lambics, flanders ales and sour stouts. Each bottle of beer will be stamped with Brendlova’s name as well as “the date of the collection of her vaginal swab.” Also it will brew six batches of 16,600 beers each, with funds going towards the ‘brewing process, ingredients and bottles’ decorations’.

The money will also cover the ‘model’s reward’ and a budget for the ‘perks’ offered to investors. However, there is no detail provided as to the breakdown of the costs.

The beers do not, however, feature the taste or odor of a vagina, the brewers say.

The company says their future plans include brewing other types of beers using bacteria harvested from other woman, as well as other products incorporating said bacteria including kefirs and yogurts.

Not as strange as vagina bacteria beer

In 2012 an Oregon brewery, developed a drink that led, among the ingredients, beard strands of his brewmaster. The drink was sold, including in other countries.

More informations on “The Order of Yoni” oficial website

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Here’s your sign: Woman claims watching 3D film made her pregnant

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A white American couple had a black baby. The woman claimed she became pregnant while watching a 3D porno film.

The child’s father Erik Johnson, a soldier had been away for a year serving in a military base in Iraq when he returned he found the black baby at home.

Jennifer Stewart 38 years old, told him that the baby had been conceived while she and her friends had been watching a 3D porno film.

“I see no reason not to believe her as these 3D films are very lifelike. With the technology of today everything is possible” said Erik, who has registered the baby as his.

This is the kind of people we have protecting our country??????

Jennifer said she only went to the cinema with her girlfriends to see how a porno would look with 3D effects.

The child, she claimed, looked exactly like the Black male lead in the film.

“A month after watching the film I found out I was pregnant. I am going to sue the cinema and the producers. Luckily my husband believes me. It could have wrecked my marriage, but he knows I am faithful to him.”

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