There are approximately 560 satellites operating in the Earth’s orbit, out of ~8,000 man-made objects in total. Satellites have an operating lifespan between five to twenty years after which they will continue to stay in the orbit as space junk or incinerated upon re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere.

Currently, the former Soviet states launch about 1,300 satellites into the orbit per year, the USA about 1,000, Japan 100, China 50, France 40, India 30, the UK 25, and a few from Australia and Israel.

Some satellites, called microsats, nanosats, or picosats, can be as small as 10 cm in diameter and 0.1 kg in mass.

自1955年的《書劍恩仇錄》開始至1972年的《鹿鼎記》封筆作，武俠小說大師金庸共創作了十五部長、中、短篇小說。

分別為：《書劍恩仇錄》、《碧血劍》、《射鵰英雄傳》、《神鵰俠侶》、《雪山飛狐》、《飛狐外傳》、《倚天屠龍記》、《連城訣》、《天龍八部》、《俠客行》、《笑傲江湖》、《鹿鼎記》、《鴛鴦刀》、《白馬嘯西風》、《越女劍》。

金庸曾把所創作的小說名稱的首字聯成一副對聯：飛雪連天射白鹿，笑書神俠倚碧鴛

Michael Phelps out swam Milorad Cavic of Serbia with a new Olympic record time of 50.58 to win the Men’s 100m Butterfly final. The win brings Phelps’ seventh gold medal at the Beijing Games and ties the world record for most gold medals at a single Olympics set by Mark Spitz (USA) at the Munich 1972 Games.

This is the only event in which Phelps participates that he does not hold the world record time.

Catch the historical moment on Michael Phelps become the greatest swimmer on Men’s 4 x 100m Medley Relay Final, 10:58 a.m.(UTC/GMT +8) on August 17, National Aquatics Center.

Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia, the world’s No. 2 shuttler, has entered men’s singles final at the Beijing Olympic Games. He eliminated Lee Hyun-il from South Korea to qualify for the final with 21-18, 13-21, 21-13. He will be facing his tradition rival China world’s No. 1 Lin Dan in the final.

The final showdown will take place at 8:48 p.m. (UTC/GMT +8) on August 17 at the Beijing University of Technology Gymnasium (北京工業大學體育館). If he wins in the final, it would be the first ever Olympic gold for Malaysia, you know?!

Just like Malaysia hoping for the FIRST ever gold medal in Olympics, Singapore also marked history to win the first medal in 48 years in Olympics history, after beating South Korea 3-2 in the semifinal of the women’s team table tennis tournament at the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Southeast Asian city-state, with a population of 4.6 million, has never won a medal at the Games since a silver for men’s weightlifting in 1960. Singapore pinned its hopes on its women paddlers, led by Beijing-born Li Jia Wei.

China will go head to head with Singapore for the gold. So far, the top-ranked Chinese women’s team has never lost any contest to the second seed Singapore which makes them a clear favorite. The gold medal match will take place at 7:30 p.m. (UTC/GMT+8) August 17.

Go Go Lee, and Li also lah.

I got this joke from cnreviews.com about how many swimming world records (WR) / Olympics records (OR) have been smashed in the Water Cube （水立方) - National Aquatic Center（国家游泳中心) since the first day of 29th Beijing Olympic Games.

A: Hi, I just “smashed” a world record in a semi-final contest.
B: Oh, that’s great! Congratulations! Wish you a gold medal in the final.
A: Well, thank you. but I didn’t make into the final.
B: ….

Even you broke a world record, you might not even qualify for the final contest.

So, different theories about the world record making secrets have “revealed” on the web. Here are the top 3 most popular ones:

1. Speedo LZR RACER Swimming Suits

SULLIVAN Eamon from Australia said “it was very comfortable when wearing the Speedo LZR Racer.” Chinese Jiaying Pang said “it was like floating on the water after wearing it.” Speedo has done enough PR to show its high tech behind the “shark-skin”, but number is more convincing: 52 out of 56 swimming world records were set when athletes were wearing Speedo LZR Racer.

2. Technologies Used in Water Cube

4 key elements:

a. The error tolerance for the 50m swimming lane is only 2mm, far more less than international standard of 1cm.
b. Water quality is better. (I ever suspected special chemical was added lol)
c. The floor around the swimming pool is heated to keep the athletes warm before the game.
d. Water recirculating process technologies on the walls of the pool. They were designed and built to absorbed more currents/waves to reduce the resistance.
e. The pool is 1m deeper than general pools, which is also helpful in reducing the water resistance.

In capturing the 200-meter butterfly and 800 freestyle relay with his fourth and fifth world records in as many races in the Beijing Games, Phelps eclipsed a group including Mark Spitz and Carl Lewis to become the winningest Olympian of all time with 11 gold medals.

That leaves only one other thing for Phelps to do before he leaves China: win all eight of his events to take down Spitz’s record of seven golds at the 1972 Munich Games.

Phelps is now five-for-five, and Mark Spitz is well-within his sights. Saturday morning’s 100-meter butterfly is the biggest hurdle remaining. If Phelps can get by American teammate Ian Crocker, he should get his eight golds, barring a catasrophic disqualification in Sunday’s medley relay.

Three more events for swimming history., 15, 16 and 17th August.

Read more here

I would love to get a foldable bicycle and ride to office which is merely distance of 4.5km from my house.

Ever wonder whose voice it is, behind all our Singapore MRT announcements?

If you commute to work via MRT, you will hear the same voice almost everyday. “Attention please, eating or drinking is not allowed in the trains and stations”, “Thank you for traveling with SMRT”, etc.

Well, here she is:

However sadly, the voice has already been replaced since early of 2008. Now we cannot hear her voice anymore. (never mind the below video clip…)