The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center that specializes in the creation of robotic planetary spacecraft, Earth-orbit and astronomy missions, as well as NASA's Deep Space Network. Located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles, JPL is on the border of the cities of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena. JPL is jointly managed by the California Institute of Techology (CalTech) for NASA.

JPL has been responsible for many of the unmanned spacecraft that have explored the solar system: Ranger and Surveyor programs (Moon-60's), Viking program (Mars- mid 70's), Voyager program (Leaving the solar system, still in progress) and many more.

On August 6, 2012, JPL's most advanced rover to date (named Curiosity) will land on Mars. The lab had to develop a new "skycrane" method of deployment to accommodate the enhanced rover (check out a sweet animation here).

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At the bottom of San Cristobal Hill, in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago, is one of the three houses that the poet Pablo Neruda occupied in Chile.

In 1953, Neruda started to build a home for his secret love, Matilde Urrutia. He named the home La Chascona ("wild hair"), the same nickname he had for Urrutia because of her abundant red hair. Neruda moved in after separating from his wife in February 1955.

Neruda died on September 23rd, 1973, only days after the military coup by Pinochet. The home was vandalized, but Urrutia was determined to have the funeral in the home. She spent the night with friends in the living room surrounded by broken windows.

Urrutia lived in the home until she died in 1985. Today it's a museum and is open to the public.

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“I feel the tiredness of Santiago. I want to find in Valparaiso a little house to live and write quietly. It must have some conditions. It can’t be located to high or to low. It should be solitary but not in excess. With neighbours hopefully invisibles. They shouldn’t be seen or heard. Original, but not uncomfortable. With many wings, but strong. Neither too big or too small. Far from everything but close to the transportation. Independent, but close to the commerce. Besides it has to be very cheap. Do you think I would find a house like that in Valparaiso?- Pablo Neruda in a letter to friends, 1959.

Although his list of demands for a home was impressive, in 1959 Pablo Neruda's friends found this mansion on Florida Hill that fit the poet's desires. Neruda ultimately felt the home was too big; he split the home and sold the bottom two floors to the sculptor Marie Martner and her husband, Dr. Francisco Velasco. Neruda retained the third and fourth floor and a tower.

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Now a museum celebrating his life, this was the home of the poet Pablo Neruda from 1939 to his death in 1973. The "Casa de Isla Negra" was named by Neruda to describe the black rocks right off the shore. It was here that Neruda lived with this third wife, singer Matilde Urrutia, and they are both buried on the property with a clear view of the beach.

In 1973, when armed forces loyal to the dictator Pinochet searched this home of Neruda's, he famously said:

"Look around—there's only one thing of danger for you here—poetry."

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Davy Jones (actor/singer/musician, former member of the Monkees), was pronounced dead of a heart attack at Martin Medical Center on the morning of Wednesday, Feb. 29. Jones had been complaining of chest pains the previous night at his Indiantown, Florida.

Jones was initially an actor, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show with the cast of Oliver! the same night the Beatles made their first appearance on that show (on February 9,1964). Later recalling that evening, Jones said:

"I watched the Beatles from the side of the stage, I saw the girls going crazy, and I said to myself, this is it, I want a piece of that."

From 1966 to 1971, Jones starred in the hit tv show The Monkees, a semi-parody sitcom version of The Beatles that created some fun tunes like "Last Train to Clarksville","Daydream Believer", and the psychedelic-inspired film (co-written by Jack Nicholson), Head.

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