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General characteristicsCrew: 2Length: 23.34 m (72 ft 2 in)Wingspan: 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in)Height: 6.09 m (19 ft 5 in)Loaded weight: 39,000 kg (85,980 lb)Useful load: 8,000 kg (17,600 lb)Max. takeoff weight: 45,100 kg (99,425 lb)Powerplant: 2 × Lyulka AL-31F1 turbofans, 13,500 kgf (132 kN, 29,762 lbf) with afterburner eachPerformanceMaximum speed:High altitude: Mach 1.8 (2,200 km/h, 1,375 mph)Low altitude: Mach 1.2 (1,400 km/h, 870 mph) at sea levelThe Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The array has been constructed on the 5,000 m (16,000 ft) elevation Chajnantor plateau near the Llano de Chajnantor Observatory and the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment. This location was chosen for its high elevation and low humidity, factors which are crucial to reduce noise and decrease signal attenuation due to Earth s atmosphere. ALMA is expected to provide insight on star birth during the early Stelliferous era and detailed imaging of local star and planet formation.ALMA is an international partnership among Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Chile. Costing about US$1.4 billion, it is the most expensive ground-based telescope in operation. ALMA began scientific observations in the second half of 2011 and the first images were released to the press on 3 October 2011. The array has been fully operational since March 2013.The initial ALMA array is composed of 66 high-precision antennas, and operates at wavelengths of 3.6 to 0.32 millimeters (31 to 1000 GHz). The array has much higher sensitivity and higher resolution than earlier submillimeter telescopes such as the single-dish James Clerk Maxwell Telescope or existing interferometer networks such as the Submillimeter Array or the Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimétrique (IRAM) Plateau de Bure facility.The antennas can be moved across the desert plateau over distances from 150 m to 16 km, which will give ALMA a powerful variable zoom , similar in its concept to that employed at the centimetre-wavelength Very Large Array (VLA) site in New Mexico, United States.The high sensitivity is mainly achieved through the large numbers of antenna dishes that will make up the array.The telescopes were provided by the European, North American and East Asian partners of ALMA. The American and European partners each provided twenty-five 12-meter diameter antennas, that compose the main array. The participating East Asian countries are contributing 16 antennas (four 12-meter diameter and twelve 7-meter diameter antennas) in the form of the Atacama Compact Array (ACA), which is part of the enhanced ALMA.The complex was built primarily by European, U.S., Japanese, and Canadian companies and universities. Three prototype antennas have undergone evaluation at the Very Large Array since 2002.General Dynamics C4 Systems and its SATCOM Technologies division was contracted by Associated Universities, Inc. to provide twenty-five of the 12 m antennas, while European manufacturer Thales Alenia Space provided the other twenty-five principal antennas (in the largest-ever European industrial contract in ground-based astronomy). Japan constructed 16 Antennas. The first antenna was delivered in 2008, the last in 2011.The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of Europe, North America and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences of Japan (NINS) in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan. ALMA construction and operations are led on behalf of Europe by ESO, on behalf of North America by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), which is managed by Associated Universities, Inc (AUI) and on behalf of East Asia by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA. Its current director since February 2018 is Sean Dougherty.What is ALMA?Half of all light in the universe is in millimeter-wavelength light between the far infrared and radio waves. ALMA can detect this light, which is emitted by cool objects and distant objects. It’s possible thanks to the telescope’s location at 16,400 feet in the driest desert on Earth, and because of the incredible precision of its 66 antennas.All  telescopes are limited in their angular resolution by the ratio of their aperture to the wavelength they observe, explained Michael Thornburn, head of the ALMA department of engineering. ALMA is an aperture synthesis telescope.“We cannot make a single aperture 15 kilometers across, so we do it in pieces,” he said. “The signals from individual dishes are combined to build up the image from a single large aperture.”Radio signals from distant cosmic sources arrive at each dish at ever-so-slightly different times, and these are combined with the signals from every other antenna. This technique, interferometry, allows ALMA to operate like a single huge dish with an adaptable radius.In a carefully choreographed ballet, each dish moves in unison with the others to change the telescope’s observing area. Along with moving in place, giant transporter trucks, specially designed for the dishes, can pick them up and cart them across the Chajnantor Plateau to one of 192 concrete pads. At their greatest distance apart–16 kilometers–ALMA’s angular resolution will be equivalent to the Hubble Space Telescope, Peck said.ALMA is observing sources that are 10 times weaker than those observed with other arrays, explained Pierre Cox, ALMA’s incoming director. This is key to ALMA’s capability for observing phenomena like star formation, he said.“Future observations should allow us to detect dark matter substructure and shed light on its nature,” he added.There’s much more to learn about how ALMA works, and why astronomers are so excited about it–stay tuned for more dispatches from the Atacama.The Troll A platform is an offshore natural gas platform in the Troll gas field off the west coast of Norway. At 1.2 million ton ballasted under tow, 472 meters high, with underwater concrete structure at 369 meters, and dry weight of 656,000 tons, the Troll A platform is a majestic piece of design and construction. Not only is Troll A among the largest and most complex engineering projects in history, it is the largest object ever to be moved by man across the surface of the Earth. The platform was a televised sensation when it was towed into the North Sea in 1996, where it is now operated by Statoil.Normally a platform’s legs are transported on their side and then – supported by flotation devices – are dropped into place. In the case of Troll A, however, the whole platform was assembled in one location, and then floated out to sea. The Troll platform was towed over 200 kilometers from Vats, in the northern part of Rogaland, to the Troll field, 80 kilometers north-west of Bergen. The tow took seven days.The platform stands on the sea floor 303 meters below the surface of the sea and one of the concrete cylindrical legs has an elevator that takes over nine minutes to travel from the platform above the waves to the sea floor. The walls of Troll A’s legs are over 1 meter thick made of steel reinforced concrete formed in one continuous pour. The four legs are joined by a “Chord shortener”, a reinforced concrete box interconnecting the legs, but which has the designed function of damping out unwanted potentially destructive wave-leg resonances. Each leg is also sub-divided along its length into compartments a third of the way from each end which act as independent water-tight compartments. The legs use groups of six 40 meters tallvacuum-anchors holding it fixed in the mud of the sea floor.In 1996 the platform set the Guinness World Record for ‘largest offshore gas platform’. The title now belongs to the Petronius Platform in the Gulf of Mexico which stands 2,000 feet (610 m) above the ocean floor.Interesting how oil dictates geopolitical relations.  Governments and corporations are obssessed with finding and then pumping oil.  Seemingly unimportant areas of the world that were once regarded as no more than boondock hinterlands, become the life of the party when oil is discovered under them.  Such is the case with the Falkland Islands.The Falkland Islands ( Spanish: Islas Malvinas) are an archipelago located in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about 310 miles (500 kilometres) east of the Patagonian coast at a latitude of about 52°S. The archipelago which has an area of 4,700 square miles (12,173 square kilometres) comprises East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands. The islands, a British Overseas Territory, enjoy a large degree of internal self-government, with the United Kingdom guaranteeing good government and taking responsibility for their defence and foreign affairs. The capital is Stanley on East Falkland.Controversy exists over the Falklands’ original discovery and subsequent colonisation by Europeans. At various times there have been French, British, Spanish, and Argentine settlements. Britain re-established its rule in 1833, though the islands continue to be claimed by Argentina. In 1982, following Argentina’s invasion of the islands, the two-month-long undeclared Falklands War between both countries resulted in the surrender of all Argentine forces and the return of the islands to British administration.The population, estimated at 2,841, primarily consists of native Falkland Islanders, the vast majority being of British descent. Other ethnicities include French, Gibraltarian, and Scandinavian. Immigration from the United Kingdom, Saint Helena, and Chile has reversed a former population decline. The predominant and official language is English. Under the British Nationality Act of 1983, Falkland Islanders are legally British citizens.On 2 April 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and other British territories in the South Atlantic. By exploiting the long-standing feelings of Argentines towards the islands, the nation’s ruling military junta sought to divert public attention from Argentina’s poor economic performance and growing internal opposition. The United Kingdom’s reduction of military capacity in the South Atlantic is considered to have encouraged the invasion.The United Kingdom sent an expeditionary force to retake the islands. After short but fierce naval and air battles, the British forces landed at San Carlos Water on 21 May, and a land campaign followed leading to the British taking the high ground surrounding Stanley on 11 June. The Argentine forces surrendered on 14 June 1982. The war resulted in the deaths of 255 British and 649 Argentine soldiers, sailors and airmen, as well as 3 civilian Falklanders.The United Kingdom and Argentina both claim responsibility for the Falkland Islands. The UK bases its position on continuous administration of the islands since 1833 (apart from 1982) and the islanders having a “right to self determination, including their right to remain British if that is their wish”.  Argentina posits that it gained the Falkland Islands from Spain, upon becoming independent from it in 1816, and that the UK illegally occupied them in 1833.Diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina, which were severed at the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982, were re-established in 1990. In 2007, Argentina reasserted its claim over the Falkland Islands, asking for the UK to resume talks on sovereignty.  In 2009, British prime minister Gordon Brown met with Argentine president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and declared that there would be no talks over the future sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.  As far as the United Kingdom and the Falkland Islands are concerned, no pending issue to resolve exists.Argentina seems to have gotten very interested in the Islands again since the discovery of oil reserves offshore near the Islands.A 1995 agreement between the UK and Argentina had set the terms for exploitation of offshore resources including oil reserves as geological surveys had shown there might be up to 60 billion barrels (9.5 billion cubic metres) of oil under the seabed surrounding the islands. However, in 2007 Argentina unilaterally withdrew from the agreement; Falklands Oil and Gas Limited then signed an agreement with BHP Billiton to investigate the potential exploitation of oil reserves. Due to the difficult climatic conditions of the southern seas exploitation will be difficult, though economically viable; the continuing sovereignty dispute with Argentina is also hampering progress.In February 2010 exploratory drilling for oil was begun by Desire Petroleum, but the results from the first test well were disappointing. Two months later, on 6 May 2010, Rockhopper Exploration announced that “it may have struck oil”.  Subsequent tests showed it to be a commercially viable find; an appraisal project was launched and on 14 September 2011.  Rodeo is a competitive equestrian sport that arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain and Mexico, expanding throughout the Americas and to other nations. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States, western Canada, and northern Mexico. Today, it is a sporting event that involves horses and other livestock, designed to test the skill and speed of the cowboys and cowgirls. American style professional rodeos generally comprise the following events: tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing. The events are divided into two basic categories: the rough stock events and the timed events. Depending on sanctioning organization and region, other events such as breakaway roping, goat tying, and pole bending may also be a part of some rodeos.American rodeo, particularly popular today within the Canadian province of Alberta and throughout the western United States, is the official state sport of Wyoming, South Dakota, and Texas. The iconic silhouette image of a Bucking Horse and Rider is a federal and state-registered trademark of the State of Wyoming. The Legislative Assembly of Alberta has considered making American rodeo the official sport of that province. However, enabling legislation has yet to be passed.Caleb Nichols goes airborne after getting bucked by his bronc during the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo on Friday, July 29, 2011. AAron Ontiveroz, The Denver Post Video Killed The Radio Star I heard you on the wireless back in 52Lying awake intently tuning in on youIf I was young it didn t stop you coming throughOh-a-ohThey took the credit for your second symphonyRewritten by machine on new technologyAnd now I understand the problems you can seeOh-a-ohI met your childrenOh-a-ohWhat did you tell them?Video killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starPictures came and broke your heartOh-a-a-a ohAnd now we meet in an abandoned studioWe hear the playback and it seems so long agoAnd you remember the jingles used to go:Oh-a-ohYou were the first oneOh-a-ohYou were the last oneVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starIn my mind and in my carWe can t rewind, we ve gone too farOh-a-a-a ohOh-a-a-a ohVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starIn my mind and in my carWe can t rewind, we ve gone too farPictures came and broke your heartPut the blame on VTR You are the radio starYou are the radio starVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starYou are the radio starVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starYou are the radio starVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starYou are the radio starVideo killed the radio starVideo killed the radio starYou are the radio starOh-a-oh, oh-a-oh The Japan Air Self-Defense Force (航空自衛隊, Kōkū Jieitai), or JASDF, is the aviation branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces responsible for the defense of Japanese airspace and other aerospace operations.  The JASDF carries out combat air patrols around Japan, while also maintaining an extensive network of ground and air early warning radar systems. The branch also has an aerobatic team known as Blue Impulse and has recently been involved in providing air transport in several UN peacekeeping missions.The JASDF had an estimated 45,000 personnel in 2005, and as of 2013 operates 791 aircraft.  Of those 791 aircraft in service approximately 350 are fighter aircraft.Most of the aircraft below are Aggressor Jets.  Aggressors are used as training opposition aircraft and thus painted in the colour schemes of potential enemy air forces.  The Jets are painted in Russian, North Korean and mainland Chinese schemes. The bottom three images are JASDF paint schemes.J-1, Japanese variant of the American F-16 FalconF-15 Eagle Aggressors

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