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Click here to review the complete article...
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Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Greek protests grappling iron transport interrupt economy
Seismologist Roger Bilham: “In Recent Earthquakes Buildings Have Acted as Weapons of Mass Destruction
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Click here to review the complete article...
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Blackwater Rescued Progressive House Rep. Alan Grayson from Nigers Civil Unrest News Politics
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Rep. Alan Grayson&(D-Fla.), who finished his estimable happening by suing troops contractors and after lambasted them as a lawmmaker, was in truth evacuated from Niger by crew operative for Xe Services (the in isolation security sovereignty rigourously well known as Blackwater), his orator confirms.
Earlier currently I&reported&on the sworn statement of Fred Roitz, an senior manager clamp boss at Xe, at todays Senate Armed Service Committee on Blackwater subsidiary&Paravant. In his rebuilt remarks, he stated: Xe Services, by the auxiliary Presidential Airways, provides aviation await and medevac services to Defense Department crew in Africa. Just last week, the crew evacuated a congressman from Niger during polite unrest.
This certain seemed to fit the outline of Grayson, who was roving in the nation last week when a troops manoeuvre erupted. The lawmaker was fast evacuated out the nation to neighborhing Burkina Faso. The moody was organised by the State Department, Todd Jukowski, Graysons spokesman, told me. The Congressman did not know, and honestly did not care, who owned the plane. Later, Jurkowski followed up with an email confirming that Grayson was flown out of the nation on a Xe helicopter.
I additionally asked Jurkowski either the experience had altered Graysons meditative on the make use of in isolation troops firms. Jurkowski replied: The Congressman does not repudiate that there is excellent work being finished by a little employees of in isolation contractors.& However, he stands by his critique of companies who have been found to lie the American people, deceive the government, and unnecessarily risk the lives of members of the military, all in the name of creation a profit.
1 &| _______________________ |
The Democratic Partys treacherous diversion
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Democrats commit the same fraud over and over on their own supporters, and this illustrates ideally how the played:
Politics Daily, Oct 4, 2009:
Jay Rockefeller on the Public Option: "I Will Not Relent"Jay Rockefeller has waited a prolonged time for this moment. . . . Hes [] a longtime disciple of health caring for young kids and the bad -- and, as Congress moves toward the impulse of law on health care, maybe the majority earnest, stubborn Senate hold up of a national open health word plan to contest with in isolation word companies."I will not surrender on that. Thats the usually approach to go," Rockefeller told me in an interview. "Theres got to be a protected harbor."President Obama mostly says a open choice is indispensable to expostulate down costs and keep word companies honest. To Rockefeller, the both some-more simple and some-more vital: The sovereign supervision is the usually establishment people can equate on in times of need.
The Huffington Post, yesterday:
Rockefeller Not Inclined To Support Reconciliation For The Public PlanSen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) threw a wrench in to Democratic efforts...
Click here to review the complete article...
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Legal Defender Isabel Garcia: Arizona Bill Forcing Officers to Determine Immigration Status Marks All-Assault on Latino Communities
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Click here to review the complete article...
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The Unemployed Now Have Their Own Union and Its Catching on Quickly Economy
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Its been usually a month that a kinship for the impoverished has come in to life by an inventive grassroots organizing campaign. In box you havent listened about it, the unions name is UR Union of the Unemployed or the nickname, UCubed, since of the singular process of organizing.
UCubed is the contrivance of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), whose leaders feel that the millions of impoverished workers need a kinship of their own to stick on in the onslaught for large jobs programs.
The thought is that if millions of jobless stick on together and action as an organization, they are some-more expected to get Congress and the White House to yield the jobs that are urgently needed. They can additionally request vigour for health word coverage, stagnation word and COBRA benefits and food stamps. An impoverished workman is probably infirm if he or she has to action alone.
Joining a Cube is as elementary as it is important. (Please check the kinship web site: www.unionofunemployed.com). Six people who live in the same zip formula residence can form a Ucube. Nine such UCubes have a neighborhood. Three area UCubes form a energy retard that cntains 162 activists. Politicians cannot simply omit a crowd of energy blocks, nor can merchants equivocate them.
The kinship is built from the belligerent up. Cube activists will name their own care in each cube, neighborhood, retard and higher organisation as well.
Jobless Unions Encouraging Progress in One Month
The UR Union of Unemployed (or UCubed) already has members in over 300 zip formula addresses and 43 states, reports Rick Sloan, behaving senior manager executive of the union. Seventy-five cubes are up and running. For the initial month, 19,998 people visited the site and noticed over 138,000 pages of content.
The unions Op-Ed essay appeared in 62 newspapers, trimming from the Black News to the Mexican American Sun, and from the Las Vegas Tribune to the Senior Life of Northern Indiana. Total dissemination exceeded twelve million readers,
UCubed put out 3 press releases last month, informing politicians in Washington that the kinship of impoverished will be watching--and reacting--to their opinion on the ultimate pursuit proposals of the Obama administration.
* * * * *
It is to the value of the AFL-CIO and Change to Win to inspire their impoverished members to experience in the UCubed organizing campaign. It is critical for orderly work to arrangement suggestive magnetism and oneness with those who have been but a compensate check for most months. A large kinship of impoverished workers can be an critical fan in domestic campaigns and a source of legions of volunteers. When those impoverished workers eventually get behind to their jobs, we wish them to have a auspicious mental recall of how unions stood by their side.
Lets give the impoverished the await they need to be in effect in their own defense.
Read some-more of Harry Kelbers work at Labor Educator.1 &| _______________________ |
Nativist Group Discovers Most Immigrants Dont Vote Republican Immigration
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While some&high-profile Republicans&are seeking for ways to enlarge their await between Latino voters, a&new report&from the&Center for Immigration Studies&calls for the Republican Party to fundamentally give up on Latinos for the time being, whilst adhering to the anti-immigrant guns.
The inform starts with the less-than-astounding find that the disappearing electoral fortunes of the Republican Party are inextricably related to the demographic and political&rise&of the Latino race in the United States. However, rather than job for any ideological readjustment on the piece of Republican possibilities who are so mostly viewed by Latinos as being antagonistic towards Latino issues, the inform calls for Republicans to redouble their anti-immigration stance? Why? Because, usually by shortening the upsurge of new Latino immigrants, who lend towards to have low incomes and small preparation and to thus opinion Democratic, will Latinos who are already here grasp the ceiling socio-economic mobility over time that is indispensable to spin Republican. In alternative words, the CIS inform offers not usually a grave perspective of Republican domestic prospects, but a stereotypical and scornful description of Latino citizens who are viewed as as well bad and undeveloped to opinion Republican, and who should thus be abandoned by Republican domestic strategists until they grow out of their Democratic phase.
The report, entitled&Immigration, Political Realignment, and the Demise of Republican Political Prospects, was authored by James G. Gimpel, a highbrow of supervision at the University of Maryland, College Park, and occasional writer to the white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant biography well known as&The Social Contract Press. (One of Social Contracts some-more distinguished publications is an book of the 1973 extremist French novel&The Camp of the Saints, in that Western civilized world is broken by coloured immigrants from India.) Gimpel expends an irregular volume of bid demonstrating statistically the already obvious actuality that the expansion in the Latino citizens has yielded couple of votes for Republicans. He afterwards explains that the usually goal for Republican success with newcomer citizens lies especially with the ceiling mobility and wealth of Latinos, Asians, and others, something that will start usually with good worry since stream levels of low-skill, wage-corrosive immigration. That is, new immigrants will never spin Republicans, so dont think about about them and concentration instead on those Latinos and Asians who have spin some-more digested and, thus as if some-more expected to opinion Republican.
The inform concludes that the Republican partys elites have unsuccessful to broach a transparent summary that they wish a pro-immigrant process of marked down immigration and that these dual goals are complementary. Such a process would additionally infer to be the most appropriate equates to for relocating immigrants toward the center and top income standing that will foster their geographic and domestic mobility. Put differently, Republicans contingency convince wealthier and some-more determined Latinos and Asians to spin opposite their some-more not long ago arrived family members, co-workers, and neighbors, who combine in areas monopolized by Democratic Party governing body in to that they are simply socialized. Apparently, an newcomer has not unequivocally spin entirely piece of American multitude until he or she fervently supports a Republican Party that strictly looks down on immigrants.
Walter Ewing is a Senior Researcher at the Immigration Policy Center (IPC). Hes a unchanging writer to IPCs blog, Immigration Impact.1 &| _______________________ |
The Democratic Partys treacherous diversion
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Democrats commit the same fraud over and over on their own supporters, and this illustrates ideally how the played:
Politics Daily, Oct 4, 2009:
Jay Rockefeller on the Public Option: "I Will Not Relent"Jay Rockefeller has waited a prolonged time for this moment. . . . Hes [] a longtime disciple of health caring for young kids and the bad -- and, as Congress moves toward the impulse of law on health care, maybe the majority earnest, stubborn Senate hold up of a national open health word plan to contest with in isolation word companies."I will not surrender on that. Thats the usually approach to go," Rockefeller told me in an interview. "Theres got to be a protected harbor."President Obama mostly says a open choice is indispensable to expostulate down costs and keep word companies honest. To Rockefeller, the both some-more simple and some-more vital: The sovereign supervision is the usually establishment people can equate on in times of need.
The Huffington Post, yesterday:
Rockefeller Not Inclined To Support Reconciliation For The Public PlanSen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.) threw a wrench in to Democratic efforts...
Click here to review the complete article...
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Nativist Group Discovers Most Immigrants Dont Vote Republican Immigration
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While some&high-profile Republicans&are seeking for ways to enlarge their await between Latino voters, a&new report&from the&Center for Immigration Studies&calls for the Republican Party to fundamentally give up on Latinos for the time being, whilst adhering to the anti-immigrant guns.
The inform starts with the less-than-astounding find that the disappearing electoral fortunes of the Republican Party are inextricably related to the demographic and political&rise&of the Latino race in the United States. However, rather than job for any ideological readjustment on the piece of Republican possibilities who are so mostly viewed by Latinos as being antagonistic towards Latino issues, the inform calls for Republicans to redouble their anti-immigration stance? Why? Because, usually by shortening the upsurge of new Latino immigrants, who lend towards to have low incomes and small preparation and to thus opinion Democratic, will Latinos who are already here grasp the ceiling socio-economic mobility over time that is indispensable to spin Republican. In alternative words, the CIS inform offers not usually a grave perspective of Republican domestic prospects, but a stereotypical and scornful description of Latino citizens who are viewed as as well bad and undeveloped to opinion Republican, and who should thus be abandoned by Republican domestic strategists until they grow out of their Democratic phase.
The report, entitled&Immigration, Political Realignment, and the Demise of Republican Political Prospects, was authored by James G. Gimpel, a highbrow of supervision at the University of Maryland, College Park, and occasional writer to the white supremacist, anti-Semitic, and anti-immigrant biography well known as&The Social Contract Press. (One of Social Contracts some-more distinguished publications is an book of the 1973 extremist French novel&The Camp of the Saints, in that Western civilized world is broken by coloured immigrants from India.) Gimpel expends an irregular volume of bid demonstrating statistically the already obvious actuality that the expansion in the Latino citizens has yielded couple of votes for Republicans. He afterwards explains that the usually goal for Republican success with newcomer citizens lies especially with the ceiling mobility and wealth of Latinos, Asians, and others, something that will start usually with good worry since stream levels of low-skill, wage-corrosive immigration. That is, new immigrants will never spin Republicans, so dont think about about them and concentration instead on those Latinos and Asians who have spin some-more digested and, thus as if some-more expected to opinion Republican.
The inform concludes that the Republican partys elites have unsuccessful to broach a transparent summary that they wish a pro-immigrant process of marked down immigration and that these dual goals are complementary. Such a process would additionally infer to be the most appropriate equates to for relocating immigrants toward the center and top income standing that will foster their geographic and domestic mobility. Put differently, Republicans contingency convince wealthier and some-more determined Latinos and Asians to spin opposite their some-more not long ago arrived family members, co-workers, and neighbors, who combine in areas monopolized by Democratic Party governing body in to that they are simply socialized. Apparently, an newcomer has not unequivocally spin entirely piece of American multitude until he or she fervently supports a Republican Party that strictly looks down on immigrants.
Walter Ewing is a Senior Researcher at the Immigration Policy Center (IPC). Hes a unchanging writer to IPCs blog, Immigration Impact.1 &| _______________________ |
FBI Launches Probe Into Schools Accused of Spying on Kids Through Webcams
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The FBI has launched an review in to a Pennsylvania propagandize district that has been indicted of espionage on students by webcams on laptops it released to those students.
Lawyers for Harriton High School tyro Blake Robbins plan to ask a decider Monday to sequence the influence of all interpretation on 2,300 laptops released to students by the Lower Merion School District, nearby Philadelphia, the reports.
The Robbins family launched the legal box after an partner principal confronted Robbins with justification of crude function in his home, and showed him a design from inside the home, taken by the webcam.
Robbins" lawyers contend they need the interpretation on the laptops to disagree their case, but the interpretation competence additionally infer utilitarian to an FBI investigation. CNN reports that the FBI is seeking in to the probability the Lower Merion School District disregarded sovereign laws on wiretapping and computer penetration by remotely activating webcams on tyro computers whilst the the computers were at home.
The Montogmery County district profession has pronounced she is seeking in to the make a difference as well.
When headlines of the legal box pennyless last week, the propagandize district released a matter arguing it usually used the capability to remotely spin on the webcam to find lost or stolen laptops, and not to fortify students over function in their home.
But that avowal contradicts what the Robbins family is saying. According to the , the Robbins family says clamp principal Lindy Matsko confronted Robbins about what he thought was the students probable drug use. They contend Matsko saw a sweets by the webcam and mistook it for a pill.
In an additional statement, the propagandize residence pronounced it had activated the remote cameras 42 times during the 2009-2010 propagandize year to poke for blank laptops. It says it recovered eighteen laptops this way. The propagandize district has given pronounced that it has stopped utilizing the remote webcam feature.
I think what they"re you do was positively distressing and scary, Blake told ABCs Good Morning America Monday. They are invading my house. They competence as well be sitting in my room examination me but my knowing.
Internet remoteness counsel Parry Aftab told ABC that the propagandize district competence have crossed the line from preparation to policing.
Schools have really singular management underneath the Constitution to understanding with things that are off-premises after hours and have zero to do with the propagandize itself, so in this box I think the propagandize was out of bounds, literally, she said. Schools are schools, military are police, and they never should meet.
Lower Merion School District orator Doug Young told CNN that all students who were released a propagandize laptop had to pointer an agreement that authorised the propagandize to make make use of remote activation if the laptop was lost or stolen. But he certified it was a inapplicable designation not to sincerely discuss it relatives and students that the propagandize district had this ability.
1 &| _______________________ |
FBI Launches Probe Into Schools Accused of Spying on Kids Through Webcams
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The FBI has launched an review in to a Pennsylvania propagandize district that has been indicted of espionage on students by webcams on laptops it released to those students.
Lawyers for Harriton High School tyro Blake Robbins plan to ask a decider Monday to sequence the influence of all interpretation on 2,300 laptops released to students by the Lower Merion School District, nearby Philadelphia, the reports.
The Robbins family launched the legal box after an partner principal confronted Robbins with justification of crude function in his home, and showed him a design from inside the home, taken by the webcam.
Robbins" lawyers contend they need the interpretation on the laptops to disagree their case, but the interpretation competence additionally infer utilitarian to an FBI investigation. CNN reports that the FBI is seeking in to the probability the Lower Merion School District disregarded sovereign laws on wiretapping and computer penetration by remotely activating webcams on tyro computers whilst the the computers were at home.
The Montogmery County district profession has pronounced she is seeking in to the make a difference as well.
When headlines of the legal box pennyless last week, the propagandize district released a matter arguing it usually used the capability to remotely spin on the webcam to find lost or stolen laptops, and not to fortify students over function in their home.
But that avowal contradicts what the Robbins family is saying. According to the , the Robbins family says clamp principal Lindy Matsko confronted Robbins about what he thought was the students probable drug use. They contend Matsko saw a sweets by the webcam and mistook it for a pill.
In an additional statement, the propagandize residence pronounced it had activated the remote cameras 42 times during the 2009-2010 propagandize year to poke for blank laptops. It says it recovered eighteen laptops this way. The propagandize district has given pronounced that it has stopped utilizing the remote webcam feature.
I think what they"re you do was positively distressing and scary, Blake told ABCs Good Morning America Monday. They are invading my house. They competence as well be sitting in my room examination me but my knowing.
Internet remoteness counsel Parry Aftab told ABC that the propagandize district competence have crossed the line from preparation to policing.
Schools have really singular management underneath the Constitution to understanding with things that are off-premises after hours and have zero to do with the propagandize itself, so in this box I think the propagandize was out of bounds, literally, she said. Schools are schools, military are police, and they never should meet.
Lower Merion School District orator Doug Young told CNN that all students who were released a propagandize laptop had to pointer an agreement that authorised the propagandize to make make use of remote activation if the laptop was lost or stolen. But he certified it was a inapplicable designation not to sincerely discuss it relatives and students that the propagandize district had this ability.
1 &| _______________________ |
Why compensate to fool around has paid
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There has been a lot of speak not prolonged ago about Raleighs "pay to play" domestic enlightenment or the change of big income and how it competence affect how state supervision operates.
Everybody, it seems has a opposite take on compensate to play.
For Republicans, the storyline is simple: Democrats have been in energy as well prolonged and if electorate would only elect the GOP, state supervision would be spotless up.
For clean-government groupsmainly of the leftpay to fool around is a musical instrument call for open financing of elections. Last week, the N.C. Center for Voter Education expelled a check display that 77 percent of North Carolinians await initiatives to revoke the change of income in politics.
For Gov. Bev Perdue, compensate to fool around has supposing an bid to area herself from alternative Democratic scandals. Last week, she due a package of ethics changes together with preventing contractors who do commercial operation with the state from contributing to officials who manage awarding of contracts.
But notwithstanding remodel talk, heres the upsetting reality: Money is, as California Assembly personality Jesse Unruh once noted, the mothers divert of politics.
In a megastate similar to North Carolina, with 9 million people, it takes millions of dollars to run for governor.
Raising income for gubernatorial campaigns is difficult. You can get contributions from Uncle Bob, your commercial operation partners and your associate Rotarians. You can pick up income from revolutionary partisans.
But the rest is "interested money"money from people who are regulated by state agencies, do commercial operation with the state, wish jobs with the state or wish appointments to state or university boards.
You can snippet most of the income going in to any gubernatorial debate to someone who wants something from state governmentor from their family groups or commercial operation associates or employees.
Unlike presidential or Senate campaigns, small of the income issuing in to gubernatorial races is ideologically motivated.
This is an old story. For decades, North Carolina governors have lifted income from main road contractors, wine distributors and state employees kicking behind piece of their salaries. Not as most income was indispensable when governing body was tranquil by county building organizations where domestic clientele was the silver of the realm.
But when the last of the building machines left in the 1970s and early 1980s, politicians had to reach electorate without delay by TV advertising. With TV and two-party foe came the need for big money.
What is function in Raleigh is mirrored in each state collateral in the country.
rob.christensen or 919-829-4532| _______________________ |
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Bradley avoids DL goes on limited list
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SEATTLE - Milton Bradley was placedthe limited list by the Seattle MarinersThursday, a day after asking the organisation for assistance in traffic with “emotional stress” from personal issues.
Seattle private outfielder Michael Saunders from Triple-A Tacoma to fill Bradley’s register spot.
Whilethe limited list, Bradley cannot be in unvaried or with the team. He will miss at slightest five days — and physical education instructor Don Wakamatsu pronounced he won’t gothe Mariners’ eight-game highway outing that starts subsequent Tuesday in Baltimore.
But ubiquitous physical education instructor Jack Zduriencik pronounced the organisation opted for the limited list instead of fixation Bradleythe 15-day infirm list. Zduriencik pronounced it’s approaching Bradley will be afar from the bar for “five, six, 7 days for sure,” and afterwards the incident will be re-evaluated.
“The routine has started. We’re together with Milton and his organisation group and we’re combining a partnership to assistance him get by this thing,” Zduriencik said. “The timeframe has nonetheless to be determined. I don’t know the answer to this since I’m not a veteran in this field.”
The moves came a day after Bradley met with Wakamatsu and Zduriencik and asked for assistance in traffic with his issues. The 32-year-old arrived at Safeco FieldWednesday sunrise and told the leaders of his eighth organisation in 10 seasons, “I need your help.”
That extraordinary acknowledgment came after Bradley became indignant for distinguished out twiceTuesday night and Wakamatsu private him from a close diversion in the sixth inning since the physical education instructor thought he wasn’t fit to fool around anymore. Bradley left the track shortly after. Several Mariners players described his mindset Tuesday night as “not good.”
Wakamatsu pronounced prior to Thursday night’s diversion that Bradley met with a advisor progressing in the afternoon and all reports indicated the event went well.
The 32-year-old Bradley publicly blamed Chicago’s fans and media for using him out of that city following his unsuccessful deteriorate with the Cubs in 2009. He already had run-ins this season, flipping off a fan during a diversion in Texas in the surrounded by of a 1-for-21 start.
Rangers physical education instructor Ron Washington pronounced prior to Thursday’s diversion in Texas that he was happy to see Bradley removing help. Washington coached Bradley in 2008 with Texas, where Bradley set career highs of twenty-two homers and 77 RBIs.
“Milton is a really great ballplayer. As a ball player and right away as a manager, you usually similar to to see great ballplayers do good. And I feel no opposite about Milton, I wish to see him do good,” Washington said. “It’s good that Seattle’s got his back.”
Bradley has regularly pronounced that he feels huge vigour to furnish for the Mariners and that he is enjoying the ambience and his teammates in Seattle.
Bradley is batting .214 with dual home runs and twelve RBIs in twenty-one games. He was in travel garments in the clubhouseThursday prior to the moves were made, vocalization quickly with Ken Griffey Jr. and sitting sensitively at his locker.
“We’re usually happy we’re going down this highway right right away and removing him a little help,” Wakamatsu said.
Zduriencik pronounced he was in strike with Major League Baseballhow most appropriate to hoop Bradley’s situation, eventually last the limited list was the most appropriate move.
“I do not know the length of time this will take. Certainly we goal it’s earlier than later,” Zduriencik said. “I goal that we’re not concerned in this thing for a lengthy, extensive duration of time. I don’t think that will be the case. I think we’ll see a little advance in a duration of time and we’ll move brazen with it.”
ALSO ON THIS STORYHBT: An critical step for Milton Bradley
Saunders slumped at the begin of the deteriorate at Tacoma, but rebounded with 7 hits in his last 4 games to lift his normal to .200. He strike .221 in 46 games with the Mariners last season.
Wakamatsu additionally pronounced shortstop Jack Wilson was usually accessible in an puncture Thursday night after injuring his right knee using out a bunt singleWednesday night. Wakamatsu pronounced Wilson is day to day.
AlsoNBCSports.com
World Cup: Brazil tones down peep in preference of substanceWilstein: Celtics’ organisation proceed trumps Kobe, LakersFlorio: Bush, Carroll shouldnt get off scot-freeCFT: Spurned by Texas, what right away for Pac-10?Twitter: Follow us
© ,,.| _______________________ |
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
NASA to Test New Medical Device to Help Sick Astronauts in Space
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Anew H2O filter complement that could pave the approach for puncture intravenous (IV)operations to assistance ill astronauts in space is about to get the idealisation teston NASAs subsequent space convey flight.
Thenew space technology, set to launch Monday on the spaceshuttle Discovery, is written to filter out little contaminants fromdrinking H2O to furnish a liquid rubbish sufficient for IVs in box they are neededin a medicalemergency in space. If successful, it could additionally be used by the UnitedStates troops in remote margin operations, on submarines and ships, as well asin healing service efforts, researchers said.
IVfluid prolongation anytime, anywhere, has good healing good on the belligerent aswell as in space, pronounced Philip Scarpa, healing operations physical education instructor atNASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where Discovery is set to explosion offMonday sunrise at 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT).
Scarpa"steam worked with researchers at NASAs Glenn Research Center in Ohio to developthe new filtering technology. The study, nicknamed "Project Clearwater,"resulted in IntraVenous Fluid Generation (IVGEN) H2O filter.
Researcherssaid the device outlines a outrageous step brazen in mending H2O peculiarity duringspaceflights. Discovery will additionally broach a new space waterrecycling device that converts rubbish hydrogen and CO dioxide gas backinto beverage celebration water.
Theshuttles climb in to space might be visible, continue permitting, to skywatchersall along the East Coast of the United States [howto mark the convey launch].
IVsin space
Whenit comes to healing reserve in space, IVs can be formidable to come by.
Onechallenge is their comparatively singular shelf life, due to the need forsterility. And given IV fluids additionally take up a lot of volume (they weigh morethan 2 pounds per liter), astronauts can usually be granted with an extremelyrestricted volume of fluids in space.
Thespace hire typically has a supply of about twelve liters of liquid and any giventime. One new NASA investigate reported that a mission to Mars might need as most as248 liters of IV fluids on board, researchers said.
Currently,NASAs healing experts have identified at slightest 115 opposite scenarios inwhich a sickor harmed wanderer could need an IV whilst vital on the space station,mostly for rehydration of disinfectant delivery.
"Onboard or "insitu" prolongation of IV fluids indispensable for healing treatments, couldgreatly revoke these costs and storage limitations, and would give NASA muchmore coherence in how it can have use of the H2O it already has on the spacecraft,"Scarpa pronounced in a statement.
Asuitcase machine
TheIVGEN is a suitcasesized device that produces IVgrade H2O from availablespace hire celebration water. It filters out little contaminants likeheavy metals and toxins. It will be mounted inside the space stations scienceglove box during the test, researchers said.
Thebiggest risk is the arrangement of froth due to the miss of sobriety in space.
Bubblesare probably the greatest concern, Scarpa said. "Bubbles in IV fluids aredangerous for a studious as well. If entered in to the veins, they could means astroke by restraint the smarts red blood flow."
Scarpa"steam devised micronsized filters to trap and fist out the froth from thesystem.
DuringDiscoverys STS131 mission, astronauts will run H2O by the IVGEN filterfrom a storage bag and run multiform cycles, afterwards freeze the ensuing H2O soit can be analyzed on Earth. The apparatus is slated to be returned on a latershuttle flight. The approach IVGEN functions is to send H2O from the hire containers supply toan accumulator, that forces that H2O by a array of filters. The wateris dispensed in to an IV bag, identical to the kind used in hospitals.&
Onceinside the IV bag, that additionally contains salt and a stir bar, the liquid is thenthoroughly churned together with the salt. This should outcome in a salinesolution, same as the IV liquid used on Earth, afterwards goes by one last checkto have certain the utterly churned prior to being picked up and solidified byastronauts.
Aperfect outcome would be to have outlay H2O that satisfies the despotic standardsfor H2O for injection but any failures or opening issues,Scarpa said.
Discovery"sSTS131 mission is one of NASAs 4 finalshuttle flights prior to the space group retires the 3 orbiters laterthis year.
Theshuttles sevenastronaut organisation is hauling a 27,000pound (12,246kg) load podfilled with supplies, scholarship apparatus and gangling tools for the space station.The mission is slated to last thirteen days. Three spacewalks are planned.
Images Life on the Space Station What Happens When Astronauts Sneeze? NASA Uses Fish to Fight Space Sicknessis on condition that finish coverage of Discoverys STS131 mission to theInternational Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik in Cape Canaveral,Fla., and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitzbased in New York. Click here for shuttlemission updates and a couple to NASA TV.
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Astronauts Space Shuttle Inspection Slowed by Antenna Malfunction
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Astronauts aboard NASAs space convey Discovery scannedtheir spacecrafts feverishness defense for any signs of repairs on Tuesday, but couldn"tbeam the formula to Mission Control given of a main receiver plate malfunction.
The receiver unsuccessful to work usually after Discoverylaunched Monday on a smoothness mission to the International Space Station. Withoutthe antenna, Discoverys 7 astronauts cant send or embrace big datapackages, similar to lucent live video to Mission Control or reception majorrevisions to their moody plan.
"We cant speak by it. We cant send commands throughit. Really zero functions with it at this point," convey moody directorRichard Jones pronounced in a Tuesday sunrise briefing.
That meant Discoverys astronauts had to jot down theresults of their convey investigation on 40minute interpretation tapes instead of beamingvideo and laser camera interpretation true to Mission Control. They had to make make use of 6 tapes to store about 40 gigabytes of interpretation from the investigation sothat it can be sent to Earth after once Discovery reaches the space hire [Discovery"spredawn launch].
The astronauts used a 100foot (30meter) investigation boomtipped with laser sensors to indicate the feverishness defense panels along Discoverys wingedges and nose top for any repairs postulated during their Monday launch. �Thesurvey took hours.
"Its a prolonged day so we essentially stagger through," pronounced shuttlepilot Jim Dutton, one of 3 Discovery astronauts who achieved the scan, ina NASA interview.
The investigation is a customary piece of each space shuttlemission given the 2003 Columbia disaster, where wing feverishness defense repairs ledto the loss of the booster during reentry. Seven astronauts were killed.
Since then, NASA has grown severe inspectiontechniques and correct methods to safeguard feverishness defense firmness of the shuttlesin flight. Tuesdays investigation is the initial of 3 programmed surveys of theshuttle by the organisation and astronauts on the space station.
Discovery is due to wharf at the International SpaceStation Wednesday sunrise at 3:44 a.m. EDT (0744 GMT). The astronauts areworking on a lopsided report that requires them to nap in the day and work atnight. They"ll go to nap at about 12:21 p.m. EDT (1621 GMT) currently to rest upahead of Wednesdays docking.
The malfunctioning Kuband receiver plate is 3 feet (1meter) far-reaching and about 7 feet (2.1 meters) long. It is one of severalcommunication systems on Discovery, that additionally has UHF and Sband systems forvoice and interpretation transmission, but usually the Kuband complement can send home video.
Without the antenna, Discoverys event with thespace hire is approaching to be a bit trickier, given the device is additionally usedin a radio detector mode to give convey commander in chief Alan Poindexter updates on Discovery"sapproach and alignment.
Jones pronounced the astronauts can make make use of star trackers and otherdevices in place of the antennas radar.
Jones pronounced that the receiver is tracking communicationssatellites in orbit, usually not promulgation or reception information. A similarantenna disaster occurred during NASAs STS92shuttle mission to the space hire in 2000, he added.
It is misleading if the receiver can be remade duringDiscoverys 13day mission. But so far, the glitch has not acted as well most of aproblem for Discoverys organisation or moody controllers on Earth, Jones said.
"I would impersonate it right right away as a minorinconvenience," Jones said.
Images Shuttle Discoverys Stunning Predawn LaunchNASA"sMost Memorable Space Missions SpottingSpaceships From Earthis on condition that finish coverage of Discoverys STS131 mission to theInternational Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitz formed in New York. Click here for convey missionupdates and a couple to NASA TV.
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No Rest on Easter for Space Shuttle Station Astronauts
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. � Easter might be a time ofreflection, rest and egg hunts for most people around the world, but the turnedinto a space trade jam for astronauts headed for the International Space Station.
NASA is formulation to launchthe convey Discovery and 7 astronauts toward the hire prior to sunrisetomorrow, Easter Monday, on a moody to batch up the space hire withsupplies, new scholarship rigging and critical gangling parts. Liftoff is set for 6:21 a.m.EDT (1021 GMT) from a strand desk pad here at NASAs Kennedy Space Center.
Meanwhile, a RussianSoyuz booster arrived at the hire early this Easter Sunday sunrise todeliver 3 new astronauts to stick on an additional contingent already aboard the orbitinglaboratory. The Soyuz launched on Good Friday from Baikonur Cosmodrome inKazakhstan.
NASA engineers worked by the week end notwithstanding the Christian legal legal holiday in sequence to readyDiscovery for the sunrise launch in to orbit, that might be perceivable (weatherpermitting) to observers along the United States East Coast [howto watch the convey launch]. �
"Even though it is Easter Sunday, the only similar to anytypical...countdown timeline," pronounced NASA exam executive Pete Nickolenko. "All the standardactivities are only similar to they would be per that favoured timeline."
Even so, Nickolenko did indoctrinate his teams to stand in checkto have certain there were no report conflicts. There were none.
"Folks are really excited," Nickolenko said.
Up in space, the stationastronauts noted Easter with a customary video couple with desired ones,friends and space officials at Russias Mission Control core nearby Moscow.
"We are underneath a good sense of this moody and wehave a lot of emotions," Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsovtold Mission Control. "And we would similar to to again contend "Happy Easter" toeverybody. Its a smashing holiday."
Skvortsov arrived at the hire to one side Russiancrewmate Mikhail Kornienko and American wanderer Tracy Caldwell Dyson of NASA,all of whom sent Easter wishes to their desired ones on Earth. But they were alsoeager to get to work.
"I additionally wish to contend "Happy Easter" to everybody,"Kornienko said. "We goal that tomorrow the convey will be launched and that onthe 7th of April, we goal that we"ll have a successful docking."
Russian space officials in Moscow pronounced that the spacestation astronauts did not have any Easter eggs or Kulich � a Russian breadtraditional eaten during Easter � with them in orbit. But they could celebratethe day in spirit, they said.
Space Shuttle Countdown Quiz What Is Passover? Rare Twilight Shuttle Launch on Monday Visible to U.S. East Coastis on condition that finish coverage ofDiscoverys STS131 mission to the International Space Station with ManagingEditor Tariq Malik in Cape Canaveral,Fla., and Staff Writer Clara Moskowitzbased in New York. Click here for convey missionupdates and a couple to NASA TV.
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Shutterbug Astronauts Smash Space Photography Record
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Astronauts similar to most people only cant get sufficient photosof Earth from space. But one dedicated space hire organisation has taken spacephotography to subsequent turn after ruinous the alltime jot down for the mostpictures taken during a singular spaceflight.
The new Expedition twenty-two organisation of the International SpaceStation snapped 100,000 images ofspace and the Earth from on top of over a rounded off sixmonth period. The missionended progressing this month with a snow white alighting in Kazakhstan, with a newcrew blustering off now for the orbiting laboratory.
Expedition twenty-two commander in chief Jeff Williams of NASA, along with flightengineers Max Suraev and Oleg Kotov of the Russian Federal Space Agency,Timothy (T.J.) Creamer of NASA, and Soichi Noguchi of the Japanese AerospaceExploration Agency, done up the mission crew.
The photohappy spaceflyers have brought the total series ofpictures taken from the space hire to a grand total of roughly 639,000 images [moreviewsof Earth from space].
Williams pennyless his own prior jot down of 83,856 imagestaken during an ISS mission, set during his army on Expedition thirteen in 2006.
This week we pennyless my old Exp. thirteen jot down for series ofEarth photos, Williams wrote on Twitter from the station. Later,after alighting and recovery, I will post a little of best. Williams writes asAstro_Jeff on the microblogging site.
Noguchi, an generally zealous space photographer, alsofrequently posts cinema hes taken from the hire to his chatter feed asAstro_Soichi.
Mt. Fuji, JAPAN. On the sunrise of my 100th day onorbit :) he tweeted on Mar 30.
The bulk of the astronauts" photography will be used inscientific investigate about the Earths meridian and resources and how those arechanging over time. NASA has been aggregation interpretation of Earth seen from space sincethe Gemini missions in the 1960s.
And the viewsfrom the space hire not long ago improved. In February, the STS130 flightof the space convey Endeavour delivered the largest window ever flown on aspacecraft to the station. Called the cupola, the seethrough architecture offers awideangle perspective of space outward the orbiting laboratory from 7 windows ofhighopticalquality glass.
When the space convey Discovery visits the hire thismonth, it will broach a new trickery to take value of the cupola forremote intuiting and highresolution Earth regard photography. Theapparatus, called the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF), is due tobe launched on Discovery and her sevenmember crew, on Apr 5.
Williams and Suraev recentlylanded aboard a Russian Soyuz booster on the steppes of Kazakhstan March18. Meanwhile, Kotov has taken over the hire helm as Expedition 23commander, with Noguchi and Creamer staying on as Expedition twenty-three flightengineers.
Early Friday, a new Russian Soyuz booster launched fromBaikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan carrying one American wanderer and twoRussian cosmonauts to stick on Kotov, Creamer and Noguchi on the space station.
That Soyuz TMA18 booster is slated to arrive at thespace hire on Apr 4, one day prior to Discovery is due to launch toward theorbiting laboratory.
Liftoff of Discovery is now scheduled for 6:21 a.m.EDT (1021 GMT) on Monday morning, with auspicious continue conditions expectedfor the launch, mission managers have said.
Images Space Stations Windows on the World Top 10 Snapshots From an AstronautPhotographer Observing Earth: Amazing Views of Earth from Space, Part 2| _______________________ |
Weather Looks Good for Monday Space Shuttle Launch
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The continue is seeking great for NASAs programmed Mondaylaunch of the space convey Discovery.
The convey and the sevenastronaut organisation have an 80percent possibility of transparent skies for their programmed Mondayblastoff toward the International Space Station.� Liftoff is setfor 6:21 a.m. EDT (1021 GMT) from a strand launch desk desk pad at NASAs Kennedy SpaceCenter in Florida.
"Overall, we"re seeking at a great possibility of goodweather," pronounced convey continue military officer Kathy Winters in a mission briefing. "Itshould be a great morning."
Only the possibility of low clouds or haze poise any regard forthe nearing launch, she added.
Discoverys programmed 13day mission is one of NASAs fewremaining convey flights prior to the space group retires the aging,threeorbiter swift after this year. Only 4 flights remain, includingDiscoverys nearing STS131 mission [see the weirdestNASA posters].
"We had a short flyby of the desk desk pad and saw the great shipDiscovery out there, and it looks great," mission commander in chief Alan Poindextertold reporters progressing currently after nearing at the launch site with hiscrewmates. "We"re ready to go."
Poindexter commands a fourman,threewoman organisation aiming to broach some-more than 27,000 pounds (12,246kg) of supplies, load and new scholarship apparatus for the space station. Threespacewalks are programmed to reinstate a large gyroscope for perspective carry out andinstall a gangling ammonia tank, between alternative chores.
Launching aboard Discovery with Poindexter will beshuttle commander Jim Dutton and mission specialists Rick Mastracchio, DottieMetcalfLindenburger, Stephanie Wilson, Clayton Anderson and Naoko Yamazaki �Japans second womanlike wanderer � who represents the Japan AerospaceExploration Agency.
The actuality that Discoverys Monday launch will symbol thisshuttles secondtolast mission was not lost on the astronauts. NASA plans to retireits 3 space shuttles in the fall, after scarcely thirty years ofservice, and rely on blurb booster to launch astronauts to the spacestation.
"Although one day we"ll all turn piece of the story ofNASA, we"re regularly piece of the future," Anderson said.
Snoopy to SciFi: Offbeat Space Mission Posters NASAs Most Memorable Missions Final Countdown: A Guide to NASAs Last Space Shuttle Missions| _______________________ |
NASA Eyes Nuclear Power Glitch for Ambitious New Mars Rover
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NASA"snext red world probe, the Mars Science Laboratory � right away dubbed Curiosity � hasbeen years indevelopment and overcome countless hurdles. Now engineers are receiving a closelook at the carsized rovers chief energy plant.
Engineerspreparing the Curiosityrover for the programmed launch in 2011 found a somewhat faster than expecteddegradation rate in the rovers multimission radioisotope thermoelectricgenerator, or MMRTG for short.
TheMMRTG is created to raise the rovers range and operability and lifetime onthe red planet. The section uses a little 10 pounds (4.8 kg) of plutonium dioxide,mostly plutonium238, as a feverishness source.
"Rightnow we are operative with Department of Energy to try and assimilate it,"McCuistion told , "but todate the usually stroke is approaching to be someoperational workarounds in Martian winter...slower operational gait essentiallybecause it"ll take longer to assign the batteries."
Curiositys MMRTG energy plant is right away entirely fueled and storedat the Idaho National Laboratory, where it is available smoothness to the rover"slaunch site in Cape Canaveral, Fla., subsequent year [Graphic: HowMars Science Laboratory works].
Optimisticfor Mars
The radioisotopethermoelectric generator of electric power bauble is the ultimate in a host of technologicalteething problems of the right away rounded off $2.3 billion mission led to a trip in itslaunch from 2009 to subsequent year.
Althoughchallenges still sojourn in removing the nuclearpowered corsair spiffed up andready for sendoff to Mars, majority of those problems have been resolved � includinga potentially critical issue with the probes steel skeleton.
Acontractor had falsified support as to the qualityof titanium it had granted to the aerospace community. That forced NASA tobacktrack by office work to assure that the Curiosity corsair didnt have make make use of of batches ofthe "wrong stuff."
Thepaperwork to sort by the have make make use of titanium on Curiosity is right away over 90percent complete, "and no show stoppers, so I am feeling carefully optimisticthat MSL will not be impacted," pronounced Doug McCuistion, Director of the NASA MarsExploration Program in Washington, D.C.
Whereto land
Meanwhile,the scholarship village is revving up to have make have make use of Curiosity and the apartment of sciencegear.
"Thekey technological and report problems are being solved and the Mars communityis utterly pleased," remarkable John Mustard of Brown University in Providence, RhodeIsland. Hes additionally chair of the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, chartedby NASA to support in formulation the systematic explorationof the red planet.
ThisSeptember Mars scientists will take piece in the fourth alighting site seminar for Curiosity.That assembly will concentration on the superb scholarship questions and relativemerits of the last Mars Science Laboratorys intensity alighting sites thatremain underneath deliberation.
According to JohnGrant of the Smithsonians Center for Earth and Planetary Studies and MattGolombek of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory the cochairs of the Mars LandingSite Steering Committee the routine of selecting Curiositys alighting site isconverging.
Nearly 60 sites for themissions programmed touchdown have been mulled over for some-more than 3 years.Only Eberswalde crater, Gale crater, Holden crater, and Mawrth Vallis remain.
Grant and Golombekreport that each of these sites represents sparkling scholarship opportunities forMSL and has been rarely rated by the scholarship community. A fifth site might beadded to the list, a preference that will be stirring in May by the MSLproject with submit from the MSL Landing Site Steering Committee.
Avatar in red?
Along with animpressive form of investigate duties, the Curiosity rovers imaging andscientific apartment will be the majority able preparation and open overdo packageever placed on the aspect of an additional world � and given a successfulMars alighting promises to yield overwhelming images and movies.
One new capacitybeing reevaluated is to impregnate Curiosity with a wizz 3D camera capability. Malin Space ScienceSystems in San Diego, California is construction it for Oscarwinning director,James Cameron, who not long ago delivered Avatar, his blockbuster cinematic experience.
Cameron is a memberof the MSL scholarship team, resolutely focused on video support and traversescience utilizing the rovers MastCam, the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), and theMars Descent Imager (MARDI) that will jot down in "ridealong video" conform thefinal dual mins of landing.
Earlier plans to haveMastCamzoom were scrapped to encounter excusable technical, report and cost riskstandards in 2007. But the thought is behind on the table, maybe.
Today, the rovers bound MastCam is already built and delivered,and can fly on MSL as programmed if the wizz version doesnt come together intime.
"But if it does, and if it passes gift tests withoutholding up the MSL schedule, it could be substituted onto the rover," NASA spokesman�Dwayne Brown told . "NASA has tentatively agreed, and is profitable forthe new work on the zoom, that is approaching to cost about $5 million. However,nothing has been reliable at this time."
Images� Rovers on MarsMostAmazing Mars Rover DiscoveriesVideo� Building the Mars Science Laboratory CuriosityLeonardDavid has been stating on the space industry for some-more than five decades. Heis past editorinchief of the National Space Societys Ad Astra and SpaceWorld magazines and has created for given 1999.
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Last Chance to Get a Good Look at Mars Until 2012
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On Thursday night, Mar 25, majority people maylook up at the sky and ask the question, Whats that splendid star subsequent tothe moon?
The answer for Thursday night is Mars, butthat answer changes night by night as the moon travels along theecliptic, the trail the sun, moon and planets follow opposite the sky. If youask the subject again on Monday night, Mar 29, the answer will be the ringedplanet Saturn.
Such conjunctions of the moon and planets areregular reminders of how fast the moon moves opposite the sky.
Mars was in antithesis to the Sun on Jan. 29,when it appeared fourteen arcseconds in diameter, 1/120 of the hole of the moon.Two months later, it is majority over away, and has shrunk to usually 10 arcsecondsin diameter.
This will be your last possibility to get a goodlook at Mars until it approaches the Earth again in 2012 [see some-more Mars photos].
The sky these open evenings presents astriking contrariety in between the horse opera half, filled with the splendid stars andconstellations of winter, and the eastern half, with Regulus the usually brightstar. Mars sits in unique fame in Cancer, one of the majority insignificantzodiac constellations, only on top of the craft of the Milky Way.
But there is majority sneaking over the dimstars of spring, for we are entering the area of the galaxies. Theconstellation Leo alone contains five of the brightest galaxies in CharlesMessiers important 18th century catalogue of deepsky objects.
When we see towards Leo, we are lookingabove the craft of the Milky Way universe at the inlet of intergalactic space,unhindered by the clouds of dust and gas that fill the galaxy.
Images Mars: The Red Planet Top 10 Extreme Planet Facts More Night Sky Features from Starry Night EducationThis essay was supposing to by Starry Night Education, theleader in space scholarship curriculum solutions.
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Cloudy Skies Rain Delay Shuttle Discoverys Return to Earth
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Agloomy brew of low clouds and sleet behind the space convey Discovery"sreturn to Earth Monday, forcing the sevenastronaut organisation to outlay at slightest one moreday in circuit prior to entrance home.
Thefoul continue at NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida thwarted dual separateattempts to land Discovery on a runway at the home port. The subsequent possibility toland the convey will come on Tuesday at 7:33 a.m. EDT (1133 GMT).
Discovery"screw of 7 astronauts thanked Mission Control for the efforts tosalvage a alighting from todays murky weather.
Weknow how most effort it is and we conclude all you"ve done,shuttle commander in chief Alan Poindexter told Mission Control. We"ll be hopefulfor improved continue tomorrow.
Discoveryis returning to Earth after resupplying the International Space Station withtons of uninformed haven and new scholarship equipment. With Mondays alighting delay,the astronauts are right away jacket up a 15day mission to batch up the orbitinglab.
NASAhoped to land the convey early Monday morning, but Mother Nature refused tocooperate. Shuttle moody manners dissuade perplexing to land a space convey with rainshowers inside of thirty miles of the runway given the continue can repairs thespacecrafts frail feverishness defense tiles, between alternative risks.
Lowcloud ceilings, similar to the one that thwarted todays initial alighting attempt, arealso a complaint given they affect runway prominence for convey commanders andpilots.
The clouded cover covering currently was usually 200 feet on top of the belligerent with prominence limited to 2 miles, unsuitable for any convey alighting attempts, NASA officials said.
On the initial alighting try Tuesday, Discovery will fly opposite the UnitedStates from the northwest to southeast when it reenters Earths ambience andmay be perceivable to observers on the ground. [Howto see Discoverys reentry from Earth.]
Itis usually the second time given the comfortless loss of Columbia in 2003 that a NASAshuttle has flown over the United States during reentry and proceed tolanding (the last time was in 2007). NASA typically prefers to fly shuttles infrom the southwest to equivocate drifting by highaltitude noctilucent clouds andflying over populated areas.
MissionControl opted for the arena for Discoverys alighting in sequence to give theshuttle astronauts additional time during their bustling mission.
IfDiscovery is incompetent to lapse to Florida on Tuesday, NASA could opt to land theshuttle at a backup runway at the Edwards Air Force Base in California.
Theshuttle has mixed opportunities to land at both sites on Tuesday. But NASAprefers to land Discovery in Florida � the convey fleets home pier and launchsite � given it saves about a week of time and $1.8 million in ride coststo packet the booster home from California atop a mutated Boeing 747 jumbojet.
Thevast ash clouded cover from Iceland"sEyjafjallaj�kull volcano poses no regard for Discoverys reentry andlanding. Unlike air trade in Europe, the shuttles alighting proceed is wellclear of any regions influenced by the volcanic ash plume.
Discoveryhas sufficient haven to sojourn in space until Wednesday, but NASA wants to landthe convey by Tuesday in sequence to keep one day in haven in box of anunexpected malfunction.
Discoverylaunched in to space on Apr 5 on what has turn a 14day mission todeliver new scholarship examination equipment, haven and big gangling tools to theInternational Space Station. The astronauts achieved 3 difficult spacewalks toreplace an ammonia coolant tank outward the station.
Astuck valve inside the new tank has kept it from operative properly, but MissionControl opted to have hire astronauts repair it after on destiny spacewalk.
Thismission is one of NASAs last couple of convey flights prior to the space craft fleetis late in September. It is the secondtolast mission for Discovery, whichis NASAs oldest space shuttle.
Afterthis flight, usually 3 some-more convey missions remain. NASAs subsequent space shuttleto fly is Atlantis, that will broach a new Russian procedure to theInternational Space Station in May.
Atlantisis due to hurl out to the strand launch desk pad tonight.
Images � Shuttle Discoverys Mission in Pictures Morning Star: The Predawn Launch of Shuttle Discovery Iceland Volcanos Ash Cloud No Threat to Space Shuttle Landingis on condition that finish coverage of Discoverys STS131 mission to theInternational Space Station with Managing Editor Tariq Malik and Staff WriterClara Moskowitz formed in New York. Clickhere for convey mission updates and a couple to NASA TV.
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NASA: Claims of Life on Mars Positively False
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This story was updated at 5:56 p.m. ET.
Despite new media reports that NASA found justification forlife on Mars, the U.S. space group says explanation that we are not alone is still aways off.
A Wednesday essay in the U.K.s The Sunnewspaper entitled, NASA: Evidence of Life on Mars, reported thatthey group had denounced constrained justification for Martianorganisms. But NASA officials and maestro Mars mission scientists sayno.
This title is intensely misleading, pronounced DwayneBrown, a orator for NASA shaped at the agencys domicile in Washington,D.C. This creates it receptive to advice similar to we voiced that we found hold up on Mars,and that is absolutely, definitely false.
The square claimed that the MarsExploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, that have been wheeling aroundthe aspect of the red world given Jan 2004, found pool scum, that thepaper calls the construction blocks of hold up as we know it.
I think they have taken this things out ofcontext, Brown said.
Such a find would indeed have been groundbreaking, sincepond scum, scientifically well known as cyanobacteria, are essentially a form of lifethemselves, not usually construction blocks for it.
I can usually pretence that the Sun reportermisunderstood, pronounced Cornell University heavenly scientist Steve Squyres,principal questioner of the Mars Exploration Rover project, who was quoted inthe story. What Spirit and Opportunity have found is sulfate minerals...not organic materials, not pool scum, and not the construction blocks of hold up as weknow it.
Water = life?
The article, that has been at large quoted opposite the Web,appeared after NASA scientists spoke to reporters from an astrobiologyconference celebrating the 50th anniversary of investigate directed toward searchingfor lifebeyond Earth.
The square claims, The new missions have gatheredevidence of sulphates on Mars, a clever denote there is H2O on the planetand thus life.
But usually since there competence be H2O does not meant thatlife follows.
Evidence of H2O does NOT meant that there waslife, Squyres wrote in an email. We hold that H2O isnecessary for life, but not that it is enough to assure life. The...and thus hold up piece of the matter thus is simplywrong.
While scientists have not nonetheless detected explanation of livingthings anywhere in the star over Earth, they are removing closer toknowing where to see and how to commend the signs of hold up if they arepresent.
And Brown pronounced that NASAs assorted Mars missions, includingthe rovers and booster such as the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and the 2001Mars Odyssey � both now in circuit around the red world � are divulgence awealth of clues about the probability of hold up there. Its usually as well shortly to knowfor certain.
Past hold up controversies
Claims of anticipating hold up on Mars are not new.
In Aug 1996 NASA researchers presented a Martian rockthat they pronounced showed transparent signs of being influenced by life. The rock, whichhad landed in Antarctica, contained holes and markings that appeared to havebeen shaped by bacterial colonies vital on it.
The proclamation done a outrageous splash, but in the decade thatfollowed, majority researchers have discharged the claims of life, and foundnonliving explanations for the rocks markings.
There has further been debate over pronouncements thatMars could not presumably bay life. In 1976, NASAs Viking 1 and 2 landerstouched down on the Martian aspect and achieved 3 apart experiments tosearch for signs of life. Despite carrying sensitivities to acknowledge organicmolecules of a couple of tools per billion, no organic compounds were ever detectedby possibly lander. Many scientists spoken that Mars thus contingency not havemicrobial organisms on the surface.
Yet a morerecent investigate found that maybe the Viking experiments were not sosensitive after all, and expel disbelief on the end that microbes aren"tthere.
Besides Mars, a little quite earnest spots in the solarsystem embody the Saturnianmoons Titan � with the lakes of methane and ethane � and Enceladus, withits plumes of H2O vapor, and Jupiters moon Europa, that is thought toharbor an subterraneous ocean.
The Top 10 Mars Rover Discoveries Ten Alien Encounters Debunked Alien Life on Titan Would Stink| _______________________ |
Experimental X37B Robot Space Plane to Launch Thursday
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TheUnited States Air Force plans to launch the initial robotic X37B space craft Thursdayon a mission that is a foregoer of things to come. A second minispace planeis already underneath stipulate and is projected to be launched subsequent year.
Newdetails per the minispaceplane and the arriving Thursday liftoff atop an Atlas 5 upholder werediscussed currently during a U.S. Air Forceheld media press briefing.
TheX37B vehicles story stretches behind to the late 90s, with NASA kickstartingthe project. It was after picked up by the Defense Advanced Research ProjectsAgency (DARPA) and in conclusion found a home inside of the Air Force. The plan isnow underneath the wing of the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. [X37Bspacecraft photos.]
"Aftera scattered story of sponsorship, the good to see the X37 eventually get tothe launch desk pad and get in to space," pronounced Gary Payton, U.S. Air Force DeputyUnder Secretary for Space Programs in a media press lecture today.
Autopilotmode
Thesmall X37B booster resembles a tiny space convey and is versed withits own cargo brook about the distance of a pickup lorry bed � plenty space to holda integrate of small satellites that are a couple of hundred kilograms each, Payton noted.
Accordingto expelled specifications, the X37Bspace craft weighs about 11,000 pounds and is usually over twenty-nine feet in length.It stands somewhat some-more than 9 1/2 feet in tallness and has a wingspan usually over14 feet across.
Theinitial X37B moody is created to loaf in space up to 270 days. Afterretracting the solar form and shutting cargo doors, the space craft would reenterin programmed mode.
"It"son autopilot, literally, the complete time the rest of the approach in," Payton told, adding that the Air Force is ready in box the spacecraftmalfunctions. "We"ll be tracking it over the Pacific...and it does have adestruct resource on it.
TheX37B is created to have an unconstrained alighting at Vandenberg Air Force Base inCalifornia, or at adjacent Edwards Air Force Base as backup.
"Similarto the shuttle, it"ll take halftheworld to come home," promissory note on redundantdigital moody carry out systems on the vehicle, Payton said. I"ve got alot of certainty in the capacity of this bird to come behind home autonomously.
Onorder: second space plane
Paytonsaid the X37B space craft provides a new approach for the Air Force to conductonorbit experiments. More critical is experience gained in discerning turnaroundof the returned vehicle, the honing of lowcost operations and maintenanceexpertise, as well as heightening cargo changeout skills, he added
Fastturnaround of X37B, Payton told , could be totalled in multiform daysto 10 to fifteen days or less. "I"d similar to to see this X37 rubbed most some-more similar to anairplane," he said, contrast that capacity to the SR71, an advanced, longrange,Mach 3 and faster vital reconnaissanceaircraft.
Thenew unmanned space craft will exam a new collection of reusable technologies,including new silica reentry tiles, as well as "other technologies that aresort of one era over the shuttle," Payton said.
Alreadyon sequence is a second minispace plane.
"Wedo have a second tail series on contract. Currently, we"re seeking at a 2011launch for that second tail number. That assumes all goes scrupulously aspredicted on this initial flight," Payton said.
Additionalcopies of the minispace craft "depends on success of these initial dual birds," hetold , and if operations and upkeep costs are low and fastturnaround times are achieved.
Classifiedbudget
TheX37B beginning leverages endless and early NASA, DARPA, Air Force, as wellas investments by the builder � Boeing Phantom Works. The appropriation turn for theoverall plan is inside of the Air Forces personal budget, explained AngieBlair, an Air Force mouthpiece for the plan in an progressing interview.
According toinformation expelled by the U.S. Air Force, the X37BOrbital Test Vehicle (OTV) will yield a stretchable space exam height toconduct assorted experiments and concede heavenly body sensors, subsystems, componentsand compared record to be well ecstatic to and from the spaceenvironment where it will need to function.
The X37B will alsoprove new record and components prior to they are committed to operationalsatellites.
The OTV is the initial car given NASAs convey orbiter that has the abilityto lapse experiments to Earth for serve investigation and analysis.
Experimental testplatform
"The X37B is the usually selfcontained bid dictated to be an economicallyviable initial exam height onorbit for months at a time and thenreturn," pronounced David Hamilton Jr., the Air Force Rapid Capabilities officedirector in a not long ago expelled essay by the Air Force.
Hamilton explained the X37B is a risk rebate car for spaceexperimentation that explores concepts of operation for a longduration,reusable space vehicle.
Hamilton explained that the OTV has the intensity "to change how the AirForce operates in space by creation space operations some-more aircraft similar to andadding in the capacity for returnable plugandplay experiments."
Photos of the X37B Space Plane Top 10 Space Weapons Concepts Some Details of Secretive X37B Space Plane RevealedLeonardDavid has been stating on the space industry for some-more than five decades. Heis past editorinchief of the National Space Societys Ad Astra and SpaceWorld magazines and has created for given 1999.
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