CaaC (John)

Scottish Gossip: Rangers, Celtic, Hibs, Lennon, Gerrard, Rodgers, Hearts, Aberdeen 19 December 2018 | Scottish Hibs boss Neil Lennon insisted it took real guts for Steven Gerrard to step into his first managerial role at a club as big as Rangers. (Daily Record) Brendan Rodgers has urged his shattered Celtic stars to give him one final push in 2018. The Hoops play their 67th game of the year when they host Motherwell. (Scottish Sun) Brendan Rodgers has been listed by bookmakers among the leading contenders to become the next Manchester United boss following the sacking of Jose Mourinho yesterday. (Scotsman, print edition) Craig Levein admits he can't find a way to fix Hearts' striker crisis, after seeing his side hit just four goals in their last nine games. (Scottish Sun) Derek McInnes watched his five-star side crank up the heat at the top of the table - and then warned Aberdeen have still to hit top gear. (Daily Record) Hearts have warned that they are on the verge of closing a section of their new stand as they look to root out anti-social behaviour and unsavoury singing within their own support. (Scotsman, print edition) Celtic winger James Forrest is backing chilled-out Odsonne Edouard to turn red-hot and fire the Hoops' title charge. Edouard has managed just one goal in his last eight games. (Daily Record) Rangers are weighing up a January move for Chicago Fire midfielder Matt Polster. (Scottish Sun) Ronnie MacDonald has stepped down as chairman of Hamilton and been succeeded by former manager Allan Maitland. (Herald, print edition) Ann Budge has assured supporters that Hearts' mystery benefactors have no say in how their investment in the club is spent.. (Edinburgh Evening News) Stephen Robinson, the Motherwell manager, admitted he will be forced to make changes against Celtic to avoid a repeat of the injury problems which hit his side last December (Herald) Hibs boss Neil Lennon insisted it took real guts for Steven Gerrard to step into his first managerial role at a club as big as Rangers. (Daily Record) Brendan Rodgers has urged his shattered Celtic stars to give him one final push in 2018. The Hoops play their 67th game of the year when they host Motherwell. (Scottish Sun) Brendan Rodgers has been listed by bookmakers among the leading contenders to become the next Manchester United boss following the sacking of Jose Mourinho yesterday. (Scotsman, print edition) Craig Levein admits he can't find a way to fix Hearts' striker crisis, after seeing his side hit just four goals in their last nine games. (Scottish Sun) Derek McInnes watched his five-star side crank up the heat at the top of the table - and then warned Aberdeen have still to hit top gear. (Daily Record) Hearts have warned that they are on the verge of closing a section of their new stand as they look to root out anti-social behaviour and unsavoury singing within their own support. (Scotsman, print edition) Celtic winger James Forrest is backing chilled-out Odsonne Edouard to turn red-hot and fire the Hoops' title charge. Edouard has managed just one goal in his last eight games. (Daily Record) Rangers are weighing up a January move for Chicago Fire midfielder Matt Polster. (Scottish Sun) Ronnie MacDonald has stepped down as chairman of Hamilton and been succeeded by former manager Allan Maitland. (Herald, print edition) Ann Budge has assured supporters that Hearts' mystery benefactors have no say in how their investment in the club is spent. (Edinburgh Evening News) Stephen Robinson, the Motherwell manager, admitted he will be forced to make changes against Celtic to avoid a repeat of the injury problems which hit his side last December. (Herald) Dundee United striker Nicky Clark will be out for at least another three weeks after suffering an injury setback. (Scottish Daily Mail, print edition) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46616862

A Dwarf planet is the most distant solar system object we’ve ever observed Mary Beth Griggs 2 hrs ago © Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science Astronomers have spotted a new object that’s the most distant ever discovered in our solar system— a dwarf planet that’s roughly four times farther away from the Sun than Pluto. The discovery was announced on Monday by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. When Scott Sheppard, who helped detect the dwarf planet, first saw how slowly the distant object moved across the sky, he had one thought, murmured quietly to himself: “far out.” He was amazed, because to astronomers like Sheppard, a slow object is a very distant object in our solar system. And this one was extraordinary. “It was the slowest-moving object we’ve ever seen,” Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science says. By measuring how slowly the dwarf planet moved across the sky, Sheppard and his colleagues calculated that the object, now known as 2018 VG18 (and nicknamed ‘Farout’), was at least 120 astronomical units (AU) away from Earth. For perspective, one AU is the distance between the Earth and the sun, or 93 million miles away. © Roberto Molar Candanosa/Carnegie Institution for Science That puts Farout at around the same distance from Earth as Voyager 2, the space probe that recently crossed into interstellar space. Another spacecraft, Voyager 1, is even farther away at 145 AU and is getting farther all the time. These extreme distances mean that figuring out what’s going on with the Voyager spacecraft is hard enough, but discovering what’s happening with other, natural objects in these outer reaches of the solar system is far more challenging. It took an international team of astronomers to confirm the existence of Farout, scanning through data from extremely high-powered telescopes to look for small signs of movement that might indicate the presence of a planet. © Scott S. Sheppard/David Tholen Sheppard and the team responsible for this discovery detected another dwarf planet that was announced earlier this year, nicknamed the Goblin. Both discoveries, and others, are thanks to a massive search of the sky that’s been going on for the past six years. “We’ve been doing the largest, deepest survey for solar system objects,” Sheppard says. One of the goals of this survey is to look for a large planet-sized object (also called Planet 9 or Planet X) that might exist in the outer reaches of the Solar System. Since 2012, the team has covered about 20 per cent of the night sky, and while they’ve found a lot of dwarf planets, they still haven’t found Planet X. Even with objects that the team has located, like Farout, researchers don’t have a whole lot of information. “All that we currently know about 2018 VG18 is its extreme distance from the Sun, its approximate diameter, and its colour,” David Tholen, an astronomer at the University of Hawaii and a co-discoverer of the object said in a statement. They can tell that it’s roughly 500-600 kilometres (310-372 miles) around, large enough to qualify as a dwarf planet. It’s also a distinctive reddish-pink colour, which is common for that area of the solar system. Sheppard says the colour indicates that it is probably an icy object. “When ice is bombarded by radiation over the age of the Solar System it turns kind of reddish in colour,” Sheppard says. And in this area of our cosmic neighbourhood, objects are constantly bombarded with radiation, just as they’ve been for hundreds of millions of years, if not longer. Out there, they are at the edge of the protective bubble formed by plasma streaming off the Sun. When they cross that boundary, called the heliopause, the levels of cosmic radiation go up, and the interaction changes icy objects, giving them that characteristic tinge of colour. “There are hundreds of thousands of worlds of various sizes from the size of islands to the size of continents in this realm of the solar system and almost all of them are going in and out of the heliopause as they travel in their orbit around the Sun,” Michele Bannister, an astrophysicist at Queen’s University Belfast, says. “If it wasn’t pinkish, I would be astounded.” While researchers can detect a blush of pink through the telescope, other details about 2018 VG18 (Farout) remains stubbornly out of focus. Astronomers can tell that it probably takes a thousand years or more to make one full circuit around the sun, but they still aren’t sure what the shape of its orbit is, whether it’s moving away from the Sun, or toward it. They still have no idea how far into the Solar System it might come, and whether or not it is affected by the gravity of the giant planets, like Neptune, Saturn, or Jupiter. All of that information will take at least a year, if not more, to tease out from data gathered by telescopes around the world. “That this object is particularly distant is in many ways not the most interesting thing about it,” Bannister says. Bannister, who was not involved in the survey, points out that the discovery of objects such as this one, and future analyses of its orbit will help astronomers get a better picture of how the Solar System formed and developed. For her, the fact that we managed to see this faint object at such a great distance is more of a bonus than a feature. “This is what comes out of doing patient, careful searching,“ Bannister says. “That we’re seeing it at this distance is purely an accident of cosmic time.” https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/techandscience/dwarf-planet-is-the-most-distant-solar-system-object-we’ve-ever-observed/ar-BBRb8k3?ocid=chromentp

Saturn losing rings at 'worst-case-scenario' rate Sky News 22 hours ago Saturn is losing its rings at a "worst-case-scenario" rate according to new research by NASA. The gas giant's iconic rings are being pulled into the planet by gravity as a dusty rain of ice particles under the influence of the planet's magnetic field. "We estimate that this 'ring rain' drains an amount of water products that could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool from Saturn's rings in half an hour," said James O'Donoghue of NASA. "From this alone, the entire ring system will be gone in 300 million years," Mr O'Donoghue added but noted that actually, the situation was far direr. Measurements of ring-material detected falling into Saturn's equator by the Cassini spacecraft suggest that the rings actually have less than 100 million years to live. "This is relatively short, compared to Saturn's age of over four billion years," stated Mr O'Donoghue, who is the lead author of the study on Saturn's ring rain. The origins of Saturn's rings have long puzzled scientists, who are still unsure if the planet was formed with the rings or if it acquired them at a later stage. According to the findings of the new research, it is now considered to be more likely that it acquired the rings after it formed. The study suggests Saturn's rings are unlikely to be older than 100 million years. "We are lucky to be around to see Saturn's ring system, which appears to be in the middle of its lifetime. "However, if rings are temporary, perhaps we just missed out on seeing giant ring systems of Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune, which have only thin ringlets today!" added Mr O'Donoghue. There are a number of theories which could explain the origin of the rings. Among the most prominent is the suggestion that they came about when small icy moons collided, perhaps after their orbits were disturbed by a passing asteroid or comet. https://uk.yahoo.com/news/saturn-losing-rings-worst-case-scenario-rate-101600827.html

Have never watched the new version but I loved the old series with Dr Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris) always getting into some kind of trouble

Science & Environment Pterosaurs: Fur flies over feathery fossils By Helen Briggs BBC News 17 December 2018 Two exceptionally well-preserved fossils give a new picture of the pterosaurs, the flying reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs. Scientists believe the creatures may have had feathers, and looked something like brown bats with fuzzy wings. The surprise discovery suggests feathers evolved not in birds, nor dinosaurs, but in more distant times. Pterosaurs were the closest relatives of dinosaurs, sharing a common ancestor about 250 million years ago. "We would suggest - tentatively - that it would be worth considering that feathers originated much earlier than we thought," Prof Mike Benton, from the University of Bristol, told BBC News. Hailing from China, the 160-million-year-old fossils are of two different pterosaurs, one of which is newly discovered. Strange feathery creatures In depth analysis shows that as well as fur - which has been suggested before - the flying reptiles had feathers like some dinosaurs, including the theropods. "If I just saw these fluffy bits on their own, I would swear they were from a theropod dinosaur," said Dr Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh, who was not part of the study. "This means feathers were not a bird innovation, not even a dinosaur innovation, but evolved first in a much more distant ancestor. "The age of dinosaurs was full of all sorts of strange feathery creatures! The researchers found that the pterosaurs had four different kinds of covering, including fuzzy, fur over most of their body; and, on parts of the head and wings, three types of fibres similar to modern feathers. The fluff and feathers are likely to have been important in heat regulation and aerodynamics. "These structures on the pterosaur make it look a bit like a fruit bat, or something like that, a fuzzy hairy creature," said Prof Benton, who worked on the discovery with colleagues in China. "They fly with great out-stretched bony wings that carry a substantial membrane, a bit like a bat." Flight in the Jurassic skies Questions still remain over whether these are true feathers. If they are, it would suggest that feathers appeared millions of years earlier than previously thought. Alternatively, feathers could have evolved twice during the course of evolution. Insects were the first group to achieve the ability to fly: they developed wings at least 320 million years ago. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates - animals with a backbone - to evolve powered flight, about 230 million years ago. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-46572782

@SirBalon, photos re-sized and cropped.

Lol, like two peas in a pod and look-alikes, your son and our wee grandson Kaiden 5+

Nasa's New Horizons probe on course for a historic flyby By Jonathan Amos BBC Science Correspondent 2 hours ago The American space agency's New Horizons probe remains on course for its daring flyby of Ultima Thule. When the mission sweeps past the 30km wide object on New Year's Day, it will be making the most distant ever visit to a Solar System body - at some 6.5 billion km from Earth. Mission planners decided at the weekend to forego a possible trajectory change. It means the probe will get to fly 3,500km from icy Ultima's surface to take a series of photos and other data. There had been some concern that the object might be surrounded by large debris particles which could destroy the probe if it were to run into them. But nothing of the sort has been detected and so a wider, safer pass will not be needed. Voyager 2 probe 'leaves Solar System' Saturn probe Cassini is incinerated Nasa spacecraft speeds past Pluto

Jan Vertonghen: Tottenham extend Belgian defender's deal 1 hour ago | Tottenham Tottenham have activated an option to extend Jan Vertonghen's contract with the club to 2020. The Belgium international defender, who is currently sidelined until January with a thigh injury, was set to see his deal expire in the summer. But Spurs have extended the 31-year-old's contract by one year. Vertonghen has made 264 appearances for the club since joining from Dutch side Ajax in 2012, but only 14 this season because of injury problems. He follows Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Dele Alli and Davinson Sanchez who have signed new contracts in the past seven months. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46609966

Salyut 7 film review: Russian space epic is an edge-of-the-seat retelling of a mission impossible In similar gripping vein to Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, this Russian thriller highlights the heroism and desperation of Soviet-era cosmonauts tasked with a first docking of an unmanned object in space PUBLISHED: Saturday, 24 February 2018, 7:01 am UPDATED : Saturday, 24 February, 2018, 7:00am Billed as “a Russian Gravity”, Klim Shipenko’s Salyut 7 is the thrilling retelling of one of the most technically complicated space missions in human history. When the Soviets lose contact with their orbiting space station, it prompts a never-before-attempted mission to dock with an unmanned object in space. Unspooling at the height of the cold war, the Soviets not only risk losing a highly advanced piece of technology, should the Salyut 7 come hurtling back to Earth, but also horrific casualties if it crashed in a populated area. Of even greater concern is the loss of face to the Americans, who were hurrying to launch their own Challenger Space Shuttle. Any Russian space film is cursed to exist in the shadow of Andrei Tarkovsky’s existential masterpiece Solaris, but Salyut 7 holds its own by keeping its feet firmly on the ground, even as its characters drift thousands of miles above the Earth. Vladimir Vdovichenkov and Pavel Derevyanko, as the cosmonauts tasked with this mission, strike a perfect balance between granite-faced heroism and fallible desperation, while carrying a playful degree of disdain for their superiors and even each other. The film actually shares more in common with Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, as both champion the humbling resilience of the human spirit, when faced with the failures of our most advanced technological achievements. Shifting between the smoke-filled offices of Ground Control and the icy confines of the defunct space station, Shipenko has created a claustrophobic and unrelentingly tense experience, further heightened by gorgeous cinematography, strong effects work, and a stirring score that accentuates the overall epic scale. https://www.scmp.com/culture/film-tv/article/2134435/salyut-7-film-review-russian-space-epic-edge-seat-retelling-mission

Any Space film is good to me and this was a historical drama film and I quite enjoyed although being in Russian with sub-titles it was still good, for it to get a 7.2/10 rating from IMBd tells you it must be good. "Salyut 7 (Russian: Салют 7) is a 2017 Russian historical drama film directed by Klim Shipenko. The story is based on the Soyuz T-13mission in 1985, part of the Soviet Salyut programme; it was the first time in history that a 'dead' space station was docked with and brought back into service. It was released on 12 October 2017". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_7_(film)

Lol, I was only joking, any manager in the EPL could go to the likes of Celtic and be a good manager and win trophies but they would struggle in the EPL manager wise Scottish football died a slow death some 10/12 years ago, it's not the same as it was, only SAF was a success at Aberdeen winning trophies, came down here and did the same with United.

You never know, they might go for Brendan Rogers of Celtic? Still not keen on Poch taking over but I would prefer him over Giggs which is hitting the media circuit.

Aye, and I am bloody sure I saw that on tv one night when Liz was around our daughters babysitting!!

Yep, people and especially the media keep saying Poch but he has won fuck all at Spurs and they do have some good players, I think I would forget about Zidane, as @Cannabis 'The Predator said': "Hope Zidane gets it as he would be eaten up alive in the Premier League..." I would get rid of mad Jose and just let Carrick continue on as manager and see how he gets on, he played under SAF and the great players like Keane, Beckham, Rio, Vidić etc so he knows how SAF run things with them around.

He stays, Jose goes...please Anthony Martial: Man Utd extend deal for France forward By Simon Stone BBC Sport 1 hour ago | Man Utd Manchester United have triggered the option of a year's extension on the contract of France forward Anthony Martial. The 23-year-old's current deal would have expired in the summer but will now run to 2020. United took a similar move with their Spain keeper David de Gea last month. Martial's representatives remain in discussions with United over a new separate deal beyond the contract that has been extended to 2020. United signed Martial from Monaco for an initial £36m in 2015, making him the world's most expensive teenager in the sport. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46597119

Exclusive: Not only Alex Sandro renewal but also another Brazilian starlet offered to Juve Not only have Juventus secured the services of Alex Sandro at the club, but they are also eying other interesting reinforcements. The relationship between the agent of the Brazilian and Juventus sporting director Paratici has been strong and solid for some time. It was not easy to get the signing of the renewal, but the new contract until 2023 is a reality now. However, the dialogue between the parties does not stop here. In one of the last meetings, in fact, Juventus have been proposed a new Brazilian prospect on which they can get their hands from now to next summer, with great expectations. The player'ss name is Renan Lodi, left-back playing for Atletico Paranaense, where he is doing very well. The player has reached 24 league appearances and is a very offensive fullback that resembles Alex Sandro in a way. Juventus are taking note, but there are no real negotiations for now. The Bianconeri scouts have started to follow him closely. He is a name for the future because Paratici does not think only of the present. Fabrizio Romano. Translated by Nikita Fesyukov https://www.calciomercato.com/en/news/exclusive-not-only-alex-sandro-renewal-but-also-another-brazilia-73860

Premier League stats: Is Eden Hazard having a deceptively good season for Chelsea? By Saj Chowdhury BBC Sport 4 hours ago | Premier League There had been no goals since the start of October, plus concerns over his fitness and speculation over his future - but remarkably Eden Hazard is arguably having his best season in a Chelsea shirt. The 27-year-old came into Sunday's match at Brighton having not found the net in nine games, but against the Seagulls he ended that run and fulfilled his 'false nine' role to a T by setting up Pedro for the opener before scoring himself. The reports will trumpet his goal and assist in the 2-1 win, but maybe they should highlight the fact he has now been involved in more Premier League goals this season (17 in 16 appearances) than he had in the whole of last season (16 in 34 appearances). The Belgian has also now provided more assists in league competition than any other player in the top five European leagues. Former Tottenham midfielder Jermaine Jenas said earlier this season that Hazard was not in the same league as Barcelona's Lionel Messi and Juventus' Cristiano Ronaldo. That was three months ago - should these updated statistics change his opinion? Well, at the time of writing (in all club competitions): Messi has scored 20 goals and provided 12 assists from 19 games Ronaldo has 12 goals and seven assists from 21 appearances Hazard has scored nine goals and made nine assists from 19 games https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46585898

It's a long read this but a good article, I am no expert on F1 and guys & girls in here would more than run rings around me talking about it but over the years certain F1 driver created an interest to me, Ayrton Senna, Stirling Moss, Lewis Hamilton and this great man, Michael Schumacher, hats off to his loyal family especially his wife who have pushed the media away and kept this tragedy private and hopefully the great man will make a full recovery. Inside the hidden world of Michael Schumacher: Five years on from F1 legend's life-changing accident, how he is NOT bed-ridden but receives nursing care costing more than £50,000 a week in a Swiss chateau. Jonathan McEvoy for the Daily Mail 12 hrs ago © Getty Michael Schumacher at the 2010 British Grand Prix It is a bright winter’s day and next to nothing stirs outside the £50million mansion in which Michael Schumacher is hidden from the world. December 29 will mark five years since the most successful Formula One driver in history, who will turn 50 five days later, fell and hit his head while skiing in Meribel, in the French Alps. But Schumacher’s wife Corinna, whom he married in 1995, has insisted on secrecy over his condition, a request that has been faithfully observed by all around them. Friends don’t talk. If they do, they are no longer friends.

Untouched 4,400-year-old tomb discovered at Saqqara, Egypt A. R. Williams 1 day ago During Egypt’s pyramid age, a well-connected man named Wahtye died and was laid to rest in the vast royal cemetery that now occupies the desert west of modern Cairo. His colourfully decorated tomb, apparently intact, has recently come to light some 16 feet (five meters) beneath the sand at the archaeological site known as Saqqara. © Getty The Egyptian Archaeological Mission working at the Sacred Animal Necropolis in Saqqara archaeological site succeeded to uncover the tomb This burial is “one of a kind in the last decades,” said Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, at a press conference that announced the discovery earlier today. "The colour is almost intact even though the tomb is almost 4,400 years old."

United could have done with him today, another player booted out the door by Jose.

Hector Bellerin: Arsenal defender out for 'some weeks' 1 hour ago | Arsenal Bellerin has been in every Arsenal starting XI in the Premier League this season Arsenal right-back Hector Bellerin will be out for "some weeks" after he came off injured in the Gunners' 3-2 defeat by Southampton on Sunday. The 23-year-old Spain international was substituted at half-time at St Mary's with a calf injury. Charlie Austin scored an 85th-minute winner as Southampton ended Arsenal's 22-match unbeaten run. "Bellerin has a small injury - he is going to be some weeks off I think," said Arsenal boss Unai Emery. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46586266