Y'becca: Bucentaure (mythologie) à ne pas confondre avec Minotaure et toréador.

Bucentaure (mythologie) à ne pas confondre avec Minotaure et toréador.
Bucentaure (mythologie)

Dans la mythologie grecque, le bucentaure est un centaure ayant un corps de taureau ou de bœuf1 au lieu d'un corps de cheval. On le trouve plus rarement que le centaure.
Références

↑ François Noel, Dictionnaire de la fable, ou Mythologie grecque, latine, égyptienne, celtique, persanne, syriaque, indienne, chinoise, scandinave, africaine, américaine, iconologique, etc., vol. 1, Le Normand, 1801, 767 p. (lire en ligne [archive]), p. 183

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Chat de Kellas

Le chat de Kellas est un petit félin noir que l'on trouve en Écosse. Alors que l'on a longtemps pensé qu'il s'agissait d'un animal légendaire, dont les rares témoignages étaient faux, un spécimen est tué en 1984 par un chasseur du nom de Ronnie Douglas et se révèle être un hybride entre la sous-espèce domestique de Felis silvestris et sa version sauvage, le Chat sauvage1. Le spécimen reçoit son nom du cryptozoologiste Karl Shuker d'après le village de Kellas en Moray, où il a été vu pour la première fois. Shuker pense que le Cat Sidhe de la mythologie celtique est basée sur le chat de Kellas.

Le chat de Kellas est décrit comme mesurant plus de 65 cm de long, avec de longues et puissantes pattes et une queue qui peut atteindre 30 cm de long. Un spécimen serait conservé dans un musée à Elgin.
Voir aussi

Chat sauvage

Références

↑ Walker's Carnivores of the World By Ronald M. Nowak, Ernest Pillsbury Walker, David W. MacDonald p. 237.[1] [archive]

Karl Shuker: Mystery Cats of the World. Robert Hale: London 1989. (ISBN 0-7090-3706-6)
Karl Shuker: 'The Kellas cat: reviewing an enigma'. Cryptozoology, vol. 9, pp. 26–40 (1990)

Le protecteur de la Tour de Londres et Ami de TAY la Chouette effraie ainsi que des enfants des Roses Blanches et Rouges...
Le Dahlia Noir

Le Cat Sìth (Écosse), ou Cat Sídhe (Irlande, Cat Sí, nouvelle graphie), est une créature légendaire de la mythologie celtique, que l'on dit ressembler à un grand chat noir avec une tache blanche sur sa poitrine. La légende raconte que ces chats fantômes hantent les Highlands. Certains folklores considèrent que ce chat est en fait une sorcière transformée.

Les légendes qui entourent cette créature sont communes dans le folklore écossais, et sont également présentes en Irlande.

Le cryptozoologiste Karl Shuker, dans son livre Mystery Cats of the World (1989), pense que la légende du Cat Sìth pourrait être inspirée du chat de Kellas, qui est supposément un hybride entre chat domestique et chat sauvage, se rencontrant en Écosse. Le chat de Kellas ressemble à un grand chat sauvage, et est probablement présent en Écosse depuis très longtemps.
Dans la culture populaire

Caith Sith est un des protagonistes du jeu vidéo japonais Final Fantasy VII. Le nom du personnage est directement inspiré de la légende.

Références

Shuker, Karl P.N. (1989). Mystery Cats of the World. Robert Hale: London, 1989. (ISBN 0-7090-3706-6)

Liens externes

The Scottish Big Cat Trust [archive] An article on the Kellas cat. (Link Dead)

Un cheval ailé est un cheval possédant une paire d'ailes, généralement à plumes et inspirées de celles des oiseaux. Cette forme fantastique et imaginaire du cheval est présente depuis la plus haute Antiquité dans l'art et les récits de mythes, de légendes, différentes religions et les traditions du folklore populaire. Originaire du Proche-Orient ancien, il est arrivé en Europe avec le Pégase de la mythologie grecque. Il est très présent dans la mythologie arabe, et en Inde tant dans les traditions hindouistes que le bouddhisme. Il se retrouve en Chine, chez les Étrusques, en France dans le folklore du Jura, en Corée avec Chollima, et même en Afrique et en Amérique du Nord.

Étudié par Spinoza et différents psychanalystes, le cheval ailé associe la symbolique du cheval classique, celle de l'animal chtonien et psychopompe, à celle de l'oiseau, animal de légèreté et d'élévation. L'origine de l'iconographie et des traditions qui le mentionnent est certainement liée à l'image cosmogonique de l'animal-éclair fécondant la Terre, soutenue par la diffusion du cheval domestique. S'il est toujours lié au rêve et à l'imagination, des pratiques chamaniques où le chaman chevauche un animal ailé pour passer par différents états de conscience pourraient également jouer un rôle.

Pégase est le plus connu des chevaux ailés1. Son nom désigne par extension ce type de créature. C'est également une figure héraldique imaginaire assez fréquente et un sujet répandu dans toutes les formes d'art. Dans les œuvres modernes de fantasy, les comics et les jeux de rôle, des chevaux ailés se rencontrent également. Luno the White Stallion est le sujet d'une série de cartoons. La saga de Harry Potter en présente plusieurs, notamment les sombrals. Les chevaux ailés sont devenus populaires auprès des petites filles depuis la fin du XXe siècle, en particulier grâce à des licences de jouets comme ceux de My Little Pony et de Bella Sara.

Statement by the Prime Minister of Canada on Commonwealth Day

March 13, 2017
Ottawa, Ontario

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Commonwealth Day:

“Today, the citizens of the Commonwealth of Nations honour the common ties and shared values that unite all 52 member countries.

“Headed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the Commonwealth family spans Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe, and the Pacific; it includes more than two billion people, and many different backgrounds, cultures, and languages.This year’s theme – ‘A peace-building Commonwealth’ – reminds us that diversity and inclusion form a proven path to peace and prosperity.

“The Commonwealth is a champion of democracy, freedom, sustainable development, the rule of law, and human rights, especially the rights of women and girls. As a member of the Commonwealth, Canada remains committed to protecting and promoting these values.

“I invite all Canadians to use today as an opportunity to learn more about the shared history and values that bind the peoples of the Commonwealth.”

Associated links

Canada and the Commonwealth

Commonwealth Day

PMO Media Relations:
613-957-5555

and

Fatima : un appel à la miséricorde

Le procès diocésain en vue de la béatification de sœur Lucie, l’une des trois voyants de Fatima (Portugal) s’est conclu en l’anniversaire de sa « naissance au ciel », le 13 février 2017, au carmel de Coimbra (Portugal) où elle s’est éteinte, il y a 12 ans, le 13 février 2005. Ce sera ensuite à Rome de décider, après examen de la documentation, de donner une suite ou pas au procès de béatification. Il est significatif que le procès arrive à Rome en l’année du centenaire des apparitions de Fatima en 1917, et dans le sillage du Jubilé de la miséricorde.

Mgr Albert-Marie de Monléon explique, dans une interview du 15 janvier 2017:

« On peut effectivement entendre le message de Marie et des Anges à Fatima comme un appel à la miséricorde. Lors de la seconde apparition de l’ange aux petits bergers il leur dit : « Priez beaucoup ! Les Cœurs de Jésus et de Marie ont sur vous des desseins de miséricorde. » A travers ces enfants c’est à chacun de nous que ce message s’adresse. Cette prière est essentiellement « pour la conversion des pauvres pécheurs » et pour la paix dans le monde. Ce sont parmi les plus hautes œuvres de miséricorde dont notre temps a un urgent besoin. »

with

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY
Vacancy in the Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality
ESA is an equal opportunity employer, committed to achieving diversity within the workforce and creating an inclusive working environment. Applications from women are encouraged.
POST
AIV (Assembly, Integration & Verification) Engineer in the Test Support Section, ESTEC Test Centre Division, Mechanical Engineering Department, Directorate of Technology, Engineering and Quality.
This post is classified in the A2-A4 grade band on the Coordinated Organisations’ salary scale.
LOCATION
ESTEC, Noordwijk (Netherlands).
DUTIES
The Test Support Section provides functional support to ESA projects and carries out technological research (R&D) in AIV.
Reporting to the Head of the Section and within the technical fields described above, the main tasks and responsibilities of the post holder will include:
• providing expert technical support and consultancy to ESA projects, programmes and general studies in the field of AIV throughout all project phases; This includes :
o defining and following up satellite AIV programmes
o participating to Test Readiness Reviews, Post Test Reviews, Test Review Boards and Non-conformance Review Boards
o supporting launch campaigns
o providing engineering support for the procurement of mechanical ground support equipment
o providing engineering support for test planning, test preparation, test execution and test analysis for mechanical, thermal and electromagnetic testing of satellite systems/sub-systems
o supporting definition studies in the Concurrent Design Facility at ESTEC
o participating in the development of engineering standards;
• participating in project reviews and evaluations of procurement proposals;
• identifying critical development problems and assisting in their resolution;
• contributing to the definition of technology development requirements and work plans for the Agency’s technology programmes;
• defining, initiating and monitoring R&D activities covering both long- and short-term needs;
• fostering new application areas for multidisciplinary activities, placing emphasis on innovative concepts, cutting-edge technologies and system architectures;
• monitoring applicable scientific and technological trends and maintaining state-of-the-art expertise;
• contributing to the dissemination of the results of the activities performed and the transfer of knowledge across the Agency.
eCPB-2017-0354
ESA/VN-ESTEC(2017)019
Page 2
QUALIFICATIONS
Applicants should have a Master’s degree or equivalent qualification in aerospace or mechanical engineering together with solid experience in satellite level environmental testing.
The candidate shall also have
• experience of at least one complete satellite test and launch campaign in an AIT/AIV role;
• experience of satellite verification engineering;
• good knowledge of MGSE and infrastructure;
• good knowledge and practice of standards
Candidates should have good interpersonal and communication skills. They should be able to work effectively, autonomously and cooperatively in a diverse and international team environment, defining and implementing solutions in line with team and individual objectives, as well as project deadlines.
Applicants should also have good analytical, organizational and reporting skills, a proactive attitude to problem-solving and an interest in innovative technologies.
For behavioural competencies expected from ESA staff in general, please refer to the ESA Competency Framework.
The working languages of the Agency are English and French. A good knowledge of one of these languages is required. Knowledge of another Member State language would be an asset.
CLOSING DATE
The closing date for applications is 6 April 2017.
Applications from external candidates should preferably be made online from the ESA website (www.esa.int/careers). Those unable to apply online should submit their CV to Human Resources, ESTEC, Keplerlaan 1, 2201 AZ Noordwijk ZH, The Netherlands.
ESA staff members wishing to apply should fill in the Internal Application Form and email it to Apply2ESTEC.
The Agency may require applicants to undergo selection tests.
___________________
Please note that applications are only considered from nationals of one of the following States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Canada.
Priority will first be given to internal candidates and secondly to external candidates from under-represented Member States.
In accordance with the European Space Agency’s security procedures and as part of the selection process, successful candidates will be required to undergo basic screening before appointment

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Celebrate Pi Day Like a NASA Rocket Scientist

NASA is giving space fans a reason to celebrate Pi Day, the March 14 holiday created in honor of the mathematical constant pi. For the fourth year in a row, the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has created an illustrated Pi Day Challenge featuring four math problems NASA scientists and engineers must solve to explore space. The challenge is designed to get students excited about pi and its applications beyond the classroom. This year’s problem set, designed for students in grade six through high school – but fun for all – features Mars craters, a total solar eclipse, a close encounter with Saturn, and the search for habitable worlds.

Educators, get the standards-aligned Pi Day Challenge lesson and download the free poster and handouts. The answers to all four problems will be released in a companion infographic on March 16.

Learn about the science behind this year's problem set in our Teachable Moment.

How many decimals of pi do we really need? We asked the chief engineer for NASA's Dawn mission.

What are you up to this Pi Day? Share your Pi Day activities and photos on our website and on social media with the hashtag #NASAPiDayChallenge.


NASA Mission Named 'Europa Clipper'

NASA's upcoming mission to investigate the habitability of Jupiter's icy moon Europa now has a formal name: Europa Clipper.

The moniker harkens back to the clipper ships that sailed across the oceans of Earth in the 19th century. Clipper ships were streamlined, three-masted sailing vessels renowned for their grace and swiftness. These ships rapidly shuttled tea and other goods back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean and around the globe.

In the grand tradition of these classic ships, the Europa Clipper spacecraft would sail past Europa at a rapid cadence, as frequently as every two weeks, providing many opportunities to investigate the moon up close. The prime mission plan includes 40 to 45 flybys, during which the spacecraft would image the moon's icy surface at high resolution and investigate its composition and the structure of its interior and icy shell.

Europa has long been a high priority for exploration because it holds a salty liquid water ocean beneath its icy crust. The ultimate aim of Europa Clipper is to determine if Europa is habitable, possessing all three of the ingredients necessary for life: liquid water, chemical ingredients, and energy sources sufficient to enable biology.

"During each orbit, the spacecraft spends only a short time within the challenging radiation environment near Europa. It speeds past, gathers a huge amount of science data, then sails on out of there," said Robert Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Previously, when the mission was still in the conceptual phase, it was sometimes informally called Europa Clipper, but NASA has now adopted that name as the formal title for the mission.

The mission is being planned for launch in the 2020s, arriving in the Jupiter system after a journey of several years.

JPL manages the mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For more information about NASA's Europa Clipper mission, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/europa

NASA Mars Orbiter Tracks Back-to-Back Regional Storms

A regional dust storm currently swelling on Mars follows unusually closely on one that blossomed less than two weeks earlier and is now dissipating, as seen in daily global weather monitoring by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

Images from the orbiter's wide-angle Mars Color Imager (MARCI) show each storm growing in the Acidalia area of northern Mars, then blowing southward and exploding to sizes bigger than the United States after reaching the southern hemisphere.

That development path is a common pattern for generating regional dust storms during spring and summer in Mars' southern hemisphere, where it is now mid-summer.

"What's unusual is we're seeing a second one so soon after the first one," said Mars meteorologist Bruce Cantor of Malin Space Science Systems, San Diego, which built and operates MARCI. "We've had orbiters watching weather patterns on Mars continuously for nearly two decades now, and many patterns are getting predictable, but just when we think we have Mars figured out, it throws us another surprise."

Weekly Martian weather reports including animated sequences of MARCI observations are available at:

http://www.msss.com/msss_images/latest_weather.html

Weather updates from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter science team provide operators of Mars rovers advance notice both for taking precautions and for planning observations of storms, particularly in case a regional storm grows to encircle the whole planet. A planet-encircling Martian storm last occurred in 2007.

The orbiter monitors storms with its Mars Climate Sounder (MCS) instrument as well as with MARCI. MCS measurements of high-altitude atmospheric warming associated with dust storms have revealed an annual pattern in the occurrence of large regional storms, and the first of these back-to-back storms fits into the identified pattern for this time of the Martian year.

Researchers have watched effects of the latest storms closely. "We hope for a chance to learn more about how dust storms become global, if that were to happen," said David Kass of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "Even if it does not become a global storm, the temperature effects due to thin dust hazes will last for several weeks."

Cantor reported the second of the current back-to-back regional storms on March 5 to the team operating NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The earlier storm, which had become regional in late February, was dissipating by then but still causing high-altitude haziness and warming.

"There's still a chance the second one could become a planet-encircling storm, but it's unlikely because we're getting so late in the season," Cantor said this week. All previously observed planet-encircling dust storms on Mars occurred earlier in the southern summer.

Opportunity Project Manager John Callas, at JPL, credits MARCI weather reports with helping his team protect rovers when sudden increases in atmospheric dust decrease sunlight reaching the rover solar arrays. For example, Cantor's warning about a regional storm approaching the rover Spirit in November 2008 prompted JPL to send an emergency weekend command to conserve energy by deleting a planned radio transmission by Spirit. That saved enough charge in Spirit's batteries to prevent "what would likely have been a very serious situation," Callas said.

During the most recent global dust storm on Mars, in 2007, both of the rovers then operating on the planet -- Spirit and Opportunity -- were put into a power-saving mode for more than a week with minimal communication. The early-2010 ending of Spirit's mission was not related to a dust storm.

The same winds that raise Martian dust into the atmosphere can clear some of the dust that accumulates on the rovers. On Feb. 25, as the first back-to-back was spreading regionally, Opportunity experienced a significant cleaning of its solar panels that increased their energy output by more than 10 percent, adjusted for the clarity of the atmosphere. Dust-removing events typically clean the panels by only one or two percent. The Opportunity operations team has noticed over the years that a large dust-cleaning event often precedes dusty skies. Since Feb. 25, the atmosphere over Opportunity has become dustier, and some of the dust has already fallen back onto the solar panels.

"Before the first regional dust storm, the solar panels were cleaner than they were during the last four Martian summers, so the panels generated more energy," said JPL rover-power engineer Jennifer Herman. "It remains to be seen whether the outcome of these storms will be a cleaner or dirtier Opportunity. We have seen both results from dust storms in the past."

NASA's Curiosity rover, on Mars since 2012, uses a radioisotope thermoelectric generator for power instead of solar panels, so it doesn't face the same hazard from dust storms as Opportunity does. The possibility of observing the growth and life cycle of a regional or global storm offers a research opportunity for both missions, though. Scientists temporarily modified Curiosity's weather-monitoring regime last week in response to learning that a regional dust storm was growing.

"We'll keep studying this for weeks as the dust clears from the sky," said atmospheric scientist Mark Lemmon of Texas A&M University, College Station. Sky observations at multiple lighting angles can provide information about changes in the size distribution of suspended dust particles as additional dust is lifted into the sky and larger particles drop more quickly than smaller ones.

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