… New Moon Frank, Chinook’s Checkers and The Great (Fake) Internet Crash of 2007!

A tiny new moon has been discovered around Saturn, bringing the ringed planet’s total to 60.

The moon is just 2 kilometers (1 mile) across and, until a proper name for the moon is chosen by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the moon has been given the provisional designation S/2007 S 4.

Queen Mary University London scientists — who first noticed the moon in images from the Cassini spacecraft — have nicknamed the new moon “Frank,” says New Scientist.

According to Spaceflight Now, Frank has an orbit similar to those of two other small Saturnian moons, Methone and Pallene. As such, scientists suspect they are somehow related to one another. “This trio of objects could be remnants of a collision or perhaps they are the lucky survivors of a larger population of material that failed to form a moon,” says Carl Murray of Queen Mary University London.

Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Download larger image HERE, and a movie showing S/2007 S 4 orbiting Saturn HERE.

When Cassini was launched in 1997, only 18 moons of Saturn were known. The other 42 have been discovered since then through images from both Cassini and ground-based telescopes.

Space Travel Costs Climbing
But if you’re hoping to travel to space and were willing to drop the $25 million payment to fly to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship, you should know the cost is climbing.

According to The Associated Press:

The cost of flying to the international space station aboard a Russian Soyuz spaceship has increased from $25 million earlier this year to $30 million. Trips planned in 2008 and 2009 will cost $40 million.

Prospective space tourists must put down a 20 percent deposit, pass physical examinations and later undergo training at a Russian space facility.

Wig Out
Last week Britain’s most senior judge, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, announced that, starting Jan. 1, the centuries-old tradition of wigs and gowns worn for civil and family court cases will come to an end, according to the UK Times.

Credit: Nicolas Asfouri/Agence France-Press — Getty Images

The 300-year old horsehair headgear is to go in large numbers of trials from next year, along with wing collars and bands, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers said, ending (at least for now) a long, hot debate over whether and how to modernize and simplify the elaborate standards of formal court dress.

(Thanks, Fred.)

Jeeves Supply & Demand
From GovPro:

The relatively recent creation of almost-obscene wealth has precipitated a crisis in Britain and New York City because the resulting demand for professional butlers far exceeds the supply. Longstanding butler schools in both countries are running at capacity, turning out debonair, refined man-servants at salaries that may exceed $100,000 — plus, in the U.S., an extra $20,000 or so for one who speaks “British” — but fortunes are being created at an even faster pace, so that, increasingly, multimillionaires are just having to make do without one.

The Wall Street Journal and The Independent have also covered this growing problem the ridiculously rich are having to face.

Computer Scientists “Solve” Checkers
Canadian researchers have developed a program, called Chinook, that cannot lose in a game that’s been popular with young and old alike for more than a thousand years.

“The program can achieve at least a draw against any opponent, playing either the black or white pieces,” the researchers say in this week’s online edition of the journal Science.

The important thing is the approach, according to Jonathan Schaeffer, lead author of the paper and chairman of the the University of Alberta’s department of computing science. (Photo credit: BBC News)

In the past, game-playing programs have used rules of thumb — which are right most of the time, he said — to make decisions. What the scientists have done is show that we can take nontrivial problems, “very large problems,” and we can do the same kind of reasoning with perfection.

“There is no error in the Chinook result. … Every decision point is 100 percent,” Schaeffer told AP. Every combination of 10 checkers offers 39 trillion positions for the endgame, he said. Chinook can calculate them all.

Robbery-Turned-Therapy
Last month a robber with a gun in Washington D.C. threatened a group dining on their patio. One of the hosts suggested that the robber join them for a glass of wine instead of robbing their house and/or killing them. The robber took a sip and then things got very strange.

AP reports:

The robber, with his hood down, took another sip and a bite of Camembert cheese. He put the gun in his sweatpants … “I think I may have come to the wrong house,” he said before apologizing. “Can I get a hug?”

Five guests stood up and wrapped their arms around the armed man. “Can we have a group hug?” the man asked. The group complied, and the man walked away soon after.

Nothing was stolen, and no one was hurt.

The Great Internet Crash of 2007
Where were you when it happened?

Hee!

Cheers.