Friday, April 29, 2011

SIM-sized satellites to lift off with Endeavour this afternoon

SIM-sized satellites

They won't be beaming GPS or radio signals back to Earth anytime soon, but these one-inch-square satellites could one day travel to distant planets -- without fuel. Developed over a period of three years by a team of undergraduates at Cornell University, the Sprite chips could eventually be used for communication, flying in clusters like tiny space plankton. After hitching a ride on-board the final space shuttle Endeavour mission this afternoon, the three prototype satellites will be mounted outside the International Space Station, where they'll sit for the next few years, exposed to conditions found only beyond our atmosphere. Perhaps someday we'll even see some "Spprite" KIRFs by the time China's own space station is ready to hit the launchpad in 2020.

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar
Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Amazing Guitar

Tinie Tempah delaying the release of second album to concentrate on breaking the US

Tinie Tempah delaying the release of second album to concentrate on breaking the US
Tinie Tempah is delaying the release of his second album to concentrate on breaking the US.

The British rapper had planned to bring out a follow-up to debut 'Disc-Overy' later this year, but after his single 'Written in the Stars' went to number 14 in the US charts he is putting all his efforts into making it big there.

A source told the Daily Star newspaper: 'Tinie has got the busiest schedule around, but you'll never hear him moan. Even when he's on a plane, he's thinking of ideas for his next album, show or performance.

'As much as he wants to get new music out to his fans he doesn't want to short-change them, so the album will now come out in 2012.'

The American public appear to be very taken with Tinie, especially after discovering he hung out with Prince William and his fiancee Kate Middleton at last year's Radio One's Big Weekend event in his homw country.

The source added: 'All the Americans want to ask Tinie is about meeting the royals. They're overwhelmed at the story of Wills declaring himself a big fan of his debut single 'Pass Out'.'

Tinie, 22, was also flattered by his meeting with royalty, telling BANG Showbiz: "Prince William came to watch me, and that was a really surreal.

"To think that the future king of England was watching my set and, like, singing along to my lyrics was a little bit crazy.

"But he was so sincere and just one hundred per cent, just very much personal and nice to know - we got on like a house on fire."

Sir Elton John hasn't spoken to his mother in three years

Sir Elton John hasn't spoken to his mother in three years
Sheila Farebrother explained her 64-year-old son has cut her out of his life "completely" after what was believed to be a disagreement with his partner David Furnish, with whom Elton fathers four-month-old baby Zachary.

She explained: "He has cut me off completely. It happened three years ago this June. He has had nothing to do with me since then.

"I don't want to go into what caused it. It is a painful subject. My son cut me out of his life for good."

The 86-year-old widower ' who is still financially supported by the singer ' also claimed she has "no particular interest" in meeting her new grandson, who was brought into the world via a surrogate mother on Christmas Day (25.12.10).

Speaking to The Sun newspaper, she added: "I have no particular interest really. You will have to ask them about that."

Despite Sheila having sold a treasure trove of Elton memorabilia for £28,820 when she recently moved house, she also insisted it had "nothing to do" with the rift between her and her son.

She said: "That has nothing to do with it. I moved into a smaller place and had nowhere to keep all that stuff."

Adriana Lima

Adriana Lima
Birth Name: Adriana Francesca Lima
Birth Date: June 12, 1981
Birth Place: Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Adriana LimaLima never thought about being a model, although she had won many beauty pageants in elementary school. However, she had a friend at school who wanted to enter a modeling contest and did not want to enter alone, so Lima entered with her. Both sent in pictures, and the contest sponsor soon asked Lima to come out for the competition. Soon after, at the age of 15, she entered and finished in first place in Ford's "Supermodel of Brazil" model search. She subsequently entered the 1996 Ford "Supermodel of the World" contest and finished in second place. Three years later, Lima moved to New York City and signed with Elite Model Management. After acquiring representation, Lima's modeling portfolio quickly began to expand, and she appeared in numerous international editions of Vogue and Marie Claire. As a runway model, she has walked the catwalks for designers such as Vera Wang, Christian Lacroix, Emanuel Ungaro, Giorgio Armani, Fendi, Ralph Lauren, Louis Vuitton, and Valentino, among others. Lima became a GUESS? girl in 2000, appearing in that year's fall ad campaign. She also appeared in the book A Second Decade of Guess? Images.

Lima continued to build upon her portfolio, doing more print work for Maybelline, for whom she worked as a spokesmodel from 2003 until 2009, the same year she appeared in the company's first calendar, a limited edition run also featuring Kemp Muhl, Jessica White, Julia Stegner, and Anna Wang. Lima has also worked for notable fashion brands bebe, Mossimo, Armani, Bulgari, De Beers, FCUK, Intimissimi, Keds, Swatch, Versace, and BCBG. She also appeared on the covers and in the editorials of other fashion magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, GQ, Justify FullArena, Cosmopolitan, and Esquire. Her April 2006 GQ cover was the highest-selling issue that magazine for the year. She also appeared in the 2005 Pirelli Calendar and became the face of Italy's cell phone carrier, Telecom Italia Mobile, a move that earned her the nickname, "the Catherine Zeta-Jones of Italy."

Adriana Lima
In February 2008, Lima was featured on the cover of Esquire, re-creating the classic 1966 Angie Dickinson cover on Esquire's 75th anniversary along with fellow Victoria's Secret Angels Alessandra Ambrosio, Karolina Kurkova, Izabel Goulart and Selita Ebanks. She appeared only in shoes, diamonds and gloves for the November 2007 issue of Vanity Fair celebrating 20 years of supermodels with her fellow Angels. In February 2008, she was chosen to be the face of Mexico's Liverpool department store chain and launched the partnership with a press conference, runway show, and summer campaign. Lima returned to the high fashion runway in 2009, walking for Givenchy. That same year, after visiting Turkey, Lima signed a contract with Doritos to appear in print campaigns and commercials which began airing in Turkey that April. She was also one of the faces of Givenchy for the Fall/Winter 2009 season, alongside Mariacarla Boscono and Iris Strubegger.

In 2006, Lima ranked as the fifth highest paid supermodel. In 2007 and 2008, she ranked as the world's fourth highest paid supermodel by Forbes Magazine.

Lady Gaga throws royal wedding-themed party to mark the end of her tour

Lady Gaga throws royal wedding
The eccentric singer marked the end of her 'Monster's Ball' tour on Wednesday (27.04.11) by throwing a huge bash inspired by today's (29.04.11) nuptials between Prince William and Kate Middleton for her friends, family and crew in Cleveland, Ohio.

According to insiders, the 'Judas' singer decorated the venue with Union Jack bunting and served her guests ' including her mother Cynthia - traditional English fare such as cucumber sandwiches, coronation chicken and crumpets with jam, with gin cocktails served in royal mugs.

A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: 'Gaga had the time of her life ' on occasion she was even talking in a London accent.

'Her attention to detail was impressive. She had a special room decorated backstage in British flags and bunting and everyone was told to work the royal look.'

Gaga, 25, dressed up as William's great-grandmother, the late Queen Mother, in what was described as a 'unique interpretation' of the royal, while her entourage were also creative in their costumes.

The source added: 'Her dancers came dressed as Wills and Harry, Henry VIII and even corgis, like the Queen's dogs.'

Simoncelli happy after topping the timesheets on day one

San Carlo Honda Gresini Team’s Marco Simoncelli was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday for the bwin Grande PrĂ©mio de Portugal, despite a crash in the afternoon.

After the disappointment of crashing whilst leading the race in Jerez, the 24 year old dominated both first and second practice, to finish ahead of fellow Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner. Simoncelli was consistently quick on a circuit where he has enjoyed good results in the past. His best result of his debut season was here at Estoril with a fourth place. The rider from Cattolica was happy with his set-up after improvements were made from earlier in the day and is confident of continuing enhancements throughout the weekend.
Simoncelli happy after topping the timesheets on day one

Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini Team

”Yes today is a great day of course for me because I started the morning very fast. We continued this into the afternoon. We did some work on our set-up and made some modifications to the chassis and everything is working good. We still need to improve the grip in the first corner for the maximum angle, this is the main problem. This morning we had some problems with the brakes but we solved the issue, not completely but a very good step forward. I’m happy and confident with the set-up of my bike.”