No. 1: Allison Stokke
No. 2: Lindsey Vonn
No. 3: Jessica Gysin

1: That First Small Step
That shiny white thing in the upper left where humans first slipped the surly bonds of Earth, and walked on another world.
2: The Detail’s in the Devil
Mars has an atmosphere, though it’s thin: about 1% of Earth’s atmospheric pressure, it doesn’t seem capable of doing much. But when you have a robotic probe like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and its 50-cm resolution orbiting the Red Planet, you see far, far more, and learn that the air of Mars can create beauty.The image above shows a region of Mars near its mid-lower northern latitudes. It’s a close-up of the bed of a crater, and you can see the ripples of sand dunes, endemic on the Martian surface. The sand is similar to beach sand here on Earth, but is dark in color because it’s made of basalt, a greyish rock. Then why is Mars so red? It’s because of much finer-grain dust, which is reddish in hue. The dust lies on top of the sand, making everything look red
3: Eternally Stargazing
The skies there must be incredibly dark; located about 3000 km west of Chile in the Pacific Ocean, you might wonder how much more black the nights could be, and of course the answer is none.
4: Hubble’s Metamorphosis
In May 2009, the Space Shuttle Atlantis roared into orbit to rendezvous with the ailing Hubble Space Telescope. After several exciting spacewalks, astronauts succeeded in making many upgrades to the venerable observatory, including installing new high-resolution cameras, fixing old shorted-out cameras, and replacing needed hardware like computer parts and gyroscopes. We all waited anxiously, and finally, in September, new images from the refurbished ’scope were released
The Cassini spacecraft has been orbiting Saturn since 2004, and has been returning a virtual firehose of incredible images and science ever since. I’d argue it’s one of the most dramatically successful space probes of all time. It’s certainly revolutionized our view of the ringed planet over and again
6: The Cosmic Hand of Destruction
This eerie shot, from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, is actually showing extremely hot gas around a pulsar, the rapidly spinning core of a once-exploded star. The pulsar — named PSR B1509-58 — is buried in the bright spot in the "wrist" of this structure. As the pulsar spins, it generates extremely strong magnetic winds which blow out and interact with previously existing gas in the region. Dense knots of gas form, and those are at the tips of the "fingers" (if only they were holding a "laser"). The red gas above is probably expanding material from the supernova explosion that formed the pulsar in the first place, something like 1700 years ago.
7: The Lunar abyss stares back
One of the biggest news stories of the year was the confirmation of large quantities of water on the Moon, stored in the endless dark of crater floors at the lunar poles. If the crater is deep enough sunlight can never reach the bottom, and the temperature stays chillingly cold. Water can come in the form of comets, for example, which impact the Moon and blast water molecules over the surface. When sunlight hits them the molecules quickly fall apart, forming hydrogen and hydroxyl ions. But if the water settles to the floor of a polar crater, it can stay intact. Over billions of years, it builds up.
In November 2009, Rosetta swung by the Earth for its third and final assist. While it was still over 600,000 km (360,000 miles) away, it took this remarkable image of our home.
9: A Computer’s Spot in the Sun
30 Dark blemishes on the Sun have been known since antiquity; when the setting Sun’s disk is dimmed by dust in the air, you can sometimes see sunspots against its reddened face. Those are monster spots, and very rare, but even the normal run-of-the-mill sunspots aren’t well understood.
10: Pandora’s Galaxy
NGC 4522 is a spiral galaxy that lies 60 million light years away, a denizen of the Virgo Cluster, the nearest such collection of galaxies to our Milky Way.(Thanks )
| S.No | Date/Estimated No. Killed | Location |
| 1 | Syria /May 20,/ 1202 /1,100,000 | |
| 2 | Shenshi/China /Feb 2, 1556/820,000 | |
| 3 | Calcutta/India/Oct 11, 1737/300,000 | |
| 4 | Antioch/Syria /May 20, AD 526/250,000 | |
| 5 | Tangshan/China /July 28, 1976/242,419 | |
| 6 | Nanshan/China /May 22, 1927/200,000 | |
| 7 | Yeddo/Japan /Dec 30, 1703/190,000 | |
| 8 | Kansu/China/Dec 16, 1920/180,000 | |
| 9 | Messina/Italy/Dec 28, 1908/160,000 | |
| 10 | Port-au-Prince/Haiti/Jan 12, 2010/150,000 |
$21.3 billion, Age: 81, His Cheung Kong paid $100 million for shares in Russian aluminum maker Rusal ahead of its January Hong Kong listing; his Hutchison Whampoa offered $545 million to take its telecom subsidiary private. Li's been buying up shares in both firms. Oil firm Husky Energy, in which he has big stake, made another big gas discovery in the South China Sea in 2009.
$19 billion Age: 82 Lee's wealth rebounded, thanks in part to doubling share price of his property firm, Henderson Land. Active investor with stakes in such outperfomers as China Shenhua Energy. Chairman of Hong Kong & China Gas, which distributes gas in more than 90 cities.
$17 billion Walter, who ran family's property firm SHKP for 18 years before being replaced by his 2 younger brothers, Thomas and Raymond, in 2008, dropped his lawsuit alleging improper dismissal last year and is now a nonexecutive director. Mother, Kwong Siu-hing, is nonexecutive chairman. Firm is finishing construction of Hong Kong's tallest building, the International Commerce Center. Opened replica of Noah's Ark in Hong Kong in May as tourist attraction.
$7 billion Age: 84 His New World Development, which launched a Facebook page in December, reportedly hired bankers for upcoming debt road show. Cheng's personal investment firm bought stakes in Ming Fung Jewelry, New Times Energy, property firm Evergrande.
$6 billion Age: 59 One of Hong Kong's biggest landlords kept occupancy rates above 90% at his Chinese Estates despite downturn. Launched first development in Chengdu. Spent $9.5 million for a 7.03-carat blue diamond, which he renamed "Star of Josephine" after youngest daughter.
$5 billion Age: 68 Power generator CLP is still core of Kadoorie's wealth, but Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels generated some of best returns last year. Opened the Peninsula in Shanghai, the city where family got its start before leaving in wake of Communist revolution. Took control of the Peninsula in Chicago.
$4.2 billion Age: 64 Wheelock, whose main subsidiary, the Wharf (portfolio includes Hong Kong's Times Square, Harbour City), rebounded along with real estate sector. Group is close to finishing one of Shanghai's tallest structures in prestigious Jing'an district. Its I-Cable is bidding for free-to-air broadcast license, city's third.
$3.2 billion Age: 87 His Nan Fung Group first made money in textiles; it is now a property developer, with interests also in shipping. Partnering with HSBC to invest in property in China; the 2 recently formed venture with U.K's Tesco to invest in malls. Chen owns minority stake in Sino Land.
$3 billion Age: 60 Outsourcing giant Li & Fung, founded by his grandfather, just signed an agreement to act as a buying agent for Walmart. Last year picked up Liz Clairborne's sourcing operations in Asia, became exclusive sourcing agent for Talbots; bought children's apparel maker Wear Me, footwear supplier Shubiz. William, who was named to Singapore Airlines board in January, is managing director; brother Victor, a U.S. citizen, is chairman. Possible successor: Victor's son Spencer, an executive director. Brothers own stakes in newly public luxury menswear retailer Trinity.
$2.9 billion Age: 63 Outsourcing giant Li & Fung, founded by his grandfather, just signed an agreement to act as a buying agent for Walmart. Last year picked up Liz Clairborne's sourcing operations in Asia, became exclusive sourcing agent for Talbots; bought children's apparel maker Wear Me, footwear supplier Shubiz. Victor, a U.S. citizen, is chairman. Brother William is managing director Possible successor: Victor's son Spencer, an executive director. Brothers own stakes in newly public luxury menswear retailer Trinity.
The octagonal nature of the house allows for irregularly-shaped rooms with a lot more space than most conventional houses.
Windows and glass doors constitute a large part of the exterior walls, in order to take advantage of both the views and the warmth of the sun.
The wrap-around verandah is a hardwood timber deck, 3 metres wide.
The Everinghams have been in a spin since they moved into their dream home in the countryside north of Sydney four years ago. They can turn the house to follow the sun
"When you wake up you do wonder where you'll be facing," said Luke Everingham,The octagonal-shaped house sits on a turntable powered by a small electric motor and controlled by a computer, which allows it move on demand.
The exterior walls are mostly glass and steel
The house cost about A$700,000 ($641,000)
Everinghams' own Web site (www.everinghamrotatinghouse.com.au)
The Everingham Rotating House is situated approximately 40 kilometres from Wingham NSW.
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