NASA Launches New Website, Celebrates Women's Contributions To Science And Exploration
"NASA will debut its new Women@NASA website during a Women's History Month event at the agency's Headquarters in Washington at 1 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, March 16. Approximately 200 local students from elementary through high school level will attend and learn about the significant and varied roles women have played in the agency's history."
Go to http://women.nasa.gov/
The earthquake in Japan has caused global demand for platinum group metals (PGM) to plunge, largely because of decreased demand from the Japanese auto industry. PGMs are used in autocatalysts and catalytic converters, important parts of a car's emissions control system.
Autocatalysts are ceramic
Last week's earthquake in Japan did what the New England Coalition (NEC) could not - delay the relicensing of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. Since 1971, the NEC has investigated "the safety, suitability and environmental effects" of the region's nuclear power plants, including the boili
As a steel company Metallurgist and Quality Director, I was the guy who got the call to visit a shop because the material we sent wasn't machining right.
"This stuff won't drill! Help!"
"This stuff is killing my OD form tool. Can you check the steel?"
"This steel you sent is acting crazy. It ma
If you live in California, you're used to seeing the roads dominated by imports. The domestics have slipped a lot there in the last few decades. According to The Detroit News, "Detroit's automakers sold less than 30 percent of all vehicles in California last year, down from 45 percent in 2004.
From Fast Company:
This past week, Fast Company visited Tesla Motors headquarters for a look at the automaker's progress on its first mass-market vehicle, the Model S electric sedan. We had the chance to see the Model S Alpha testing fleet, see some of the vehicle's innards, and speak wi
From Geeks are Sexy:
Fresh off the Apollo 11 Moon landing and aching to get some of those sweet avocado-colored refrigerators into space, NASA held a couple summer camps focused on designing space colonies. Artist's renderings of some of the designs are truly spectacular-predating digita
From Gizmag:
Tired of your glasses fogging up on cold days, or of having to spit in your dive mask before putting it on? Those hassles may become a thing of the past, as researchers from Quebec City's Université Laval have developed what they claim is the world's first permanent anti-fog
From Gizmag:
Clarkson University (New York) was the overall winner in the 2011 Clean Snowmobile Challenge, a collegiate design competition put on by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and hosted by Michigan Technological University. This year's competition was billed as "the green
From DVICE:
Piston engines are big, heavy, dirty, complicated, and expensive pieces of machinery that have been around for a century. It's about time for something better, and one option could be wave disk engines, which are small, light, clean, simple, and cheap pieces of machinery that
Extensive rain from large cloud systems, spotted by Cassini's cameras in late 2010, has apparently darkened the surface of the moon. The best explanation is these areas remained wet after methane rainstorms. The observations released today in the journal Science, combined with earlier results in Geophysical Research Letters last month, show the weather systems of Titan's thick atmosphere and the changes wrought on its surface are affected by the changing seasons.
"It's amazing to be watching such familiar activity as rainstorms and seasonal changes in weather patterns on a distant, icy satellite," said Elizabeth Turtle, a Cassini imaging team associate at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Md., and lead author of today's publication. "These observations are helping us to understand how Titan works as a system, as well as similar processes on our own planet."
The Saturn system experienced equinox, when the sun lies directly over a planet's equator and seasons change, in August 2009. (A full Saturn "year" is almost 30 Earth years.) Years of Cassini observations suggest Titan's global atmospheric circulation pattern responds to the changes in solar illumination, influenced by the atmosphere and the surface, as detailed in the Geophysical Research Letters paper. Cassini found the surface temperature responds more rapidly to sunlight changes than does the thick atmosphere. The changing circulation pattern produced clouds in Titan's equatorial region.
Clouds on Titan are formed of methane as part of an Earth-like cycle that uses methane instead of water. On Titan, methane fills lakes on the surface, saturates clouds in the atmosphere, and falls as rain. Though there is evidence that liquids have flowed on the surface at Titan's equator in the past, liquid hydrocarbons, such as methane and ethane, had only been observed on the surface in lakes at polar latitudes. The vast expanses of dunes that dominate Titan's equatorial regions require a predominantly arid climate. Scientists suspected that clouds might appear at Titan's equatorial latitudes as spring in the northern hemisphere progressed. But they were not sure if dry channels previously observed were cut by seasonal rains or remained from an earlier, wetter climate.
An arrow-shaped storm appeared in the equatorial regions on Sept. 27, 2010 -- the equivalent of early April in Titan's "year" -- and a broad band of clouds appeared the next month. As described in the Science paper, over the next few months, Cassini's imaging science subsystem captured short-lived surface changes visible in images of Titan's surface. A 193,000-square-mile (500,000-square-kilometer) region along the southern boundary of Titan's Belet dune field, as well as smaller areas nearby, had become darker. Scientists compared the imaging data to data obtained by other instruments and ruled out other possible causes for surface changes. They concluded this change in brightness is most likely the result of surface wetting by methane rain.
These observations suggest that recent weather on Titan is similar to that over Earth's tropics. In tropical regions, Earth receives its most direct sunlight, creating a band of rising motion and rain clouds that encircle the planet.
"These outbreaks may be the Titan equivalent of what creates Earth's tropical rainforest climates, even though the delayed reaction to the change of seasons and the apparently sudden shift is more reminiscent of Earth's behavior over the tropical oceans than over tropical land areas," said Tony Del Genio of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, a co-author and a member of the Cassini imaging team.
On Earth, the tropical bands of rain clouds shift slightly with the seasons but are present within the tropics year-round. On Titan, such extensive bands of clouds may only be prevalent in the tropics near the equinoxes and move to much higher latitudes as the planet approaches the solstices. The imaging team intends to watch whether Titan evolves in this fashion as the seasons progress from spring toward northern summer.
"It is patently clear that there is so much more to learn from Cassini about seasonal forcing of a complex surface-atmosphere system like Titan's and, in turn, how it is similar to, or differs from, the Earth's," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team lead at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. "We are eager to see what the rest of Cassini's Solstice Mission will bring."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/whycassini/cassini20110317.html
The data were previously released as part of a long, 120-degree view of the plane our galaxy (see http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2680-ssc2008-11a-Spitzer-Finds-Clarity-in-the-Inner-Milky-Way). Now, data from the very center of that picture are being presented at a different contrast to better highlight this jam-packed region. In visible-light pictures, it is all but impossible to see the heart of our galaxy, but infrared light penetrates the shroud of dust giving us this unprecedented view.
In this Spitzer image, the myriad of stars crowding the center of our galaxy creates the blue haze that brightens towards the center of the image. The green features are from carbon-rich dust molecules, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are illuminated by the surrounding starlight as they swirl around the galaxy's core. The yellow-red patches are the thermal glow from warm dust. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and dust are associated with bustling hubs of young stars. These materials, mixed with gas, are required for making new stars.
The brightest white feature at the center of the image is the central star cluster in our galaxy. At a distance of 26,000 light years away from Earth, it is so distant that, to Spitzer's view, most of the light from the thousands of individual stars is blurred into a single glowing blotch. Astronomers have determined that these stars are orbiting a massive black hole that lies at the very center of the galaxy.
The region pictured here is immense, with a horizontal span of 2,400 light-years (5.3 degrees) and a vertical span of 1,360 light-years (3 degrees). Though most of the objects seen in this image are located near the galactic center, the features above and below the galactic plane tend to lie closer to Earth.
The image is a three-color composite, showing infrared observations from two of Spitzer instruments. Blue represents 3.6-micron light and green shows 8-micron light, both captured by Spitzer's infrared array camera. Red is 24-micron light detected by Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer. The data is a combination of observations from the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) project, and the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer Galactic survey (MIPSGAL).
For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-088
Commander Steve Lindsey, Pilot Eric Boe and Mission Specialists Alvin Drew, Michael Barratt, Nicole Stott and Steve Bowen lifted off aboard Discovery on Feb. 24, 2011, from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to begin the spacecraft's pursuit of the station.
With Lindsey at the controls, Discovery rendezvoused with the station two days later and then backed the shuttle to its berthing port. Discovery's docking completed the rare occasion of having vehicles from the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan connected to the International Space Station at the same time. Along with the shuttle and the Russian Soyuz capsules, the European Space Agency's uncrewed Automated Transferred Vehicle-2 and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's H-II Transfer Vehicle, or HTV, were attached to the station.
Discovery's six astronauts joined the six residents on the station for a quick welcome before they teamed up to move an equipment platform out of the shuttle's cargo bay and onto the station's truss.
The Express Logistics Carrier had been loaded on Earth with spare parts for the station, including a radiator to cool the station's systems. The parts will not be installed until they are needed as replacements.
Barratt and Stott operated the space station's robotic arm to lift the platform out of Discovery's cargo bay. They handed it off to the shuttle's own robotic arm, worked by Boe and Drew. After the station arm was maneuvered to a new location, the shuttle arm was used to hand it back to the station arm, which maneuvered the platform to its final location on the station's backbone.
Drew and Bowen left the station's Quest airlock Feb. 28 on the first of two spacewalks planned for the mission. Working inside Discovery's cargo bay and on the station, the duo put the finishing touches on the outside of the Permanent Multipurpose Module, or PMM, so it could be installed on the station and they moved a failed pump module to a stowage platform where it will stay until it can be brought back to Earth for evaluation.
Station Commander Scott Kelly worked with Barratt to drive the station's robotic arm during the spacewalk to assist Bowen and Drew. Although a glitch in the arm's control system prompted them to move to a backup location, the spacewalk's objectives were completed.
Barratt and Stott took the controls of the station's robotic arm again the next day to attach the new module to the underside of the station, connecting it to the Earth-facing side of the Unity node. The PMM is a closet for the space station, giving the crew more room to store equipment and supplies. Technicians retrofitted the Italian-built Leonardo resupply module with meteorite shielding and other gear so it could be permanently attached to the station.
The module went into space loaded with equipment, experiments and supplies for the station, so the shuttle and station crews worked throughout the mission to unpack some of the material in the PMM as well as the supplies inside the European and Japanese cargo ships.
Bowen and Drew ventured outside the station again on the mission's seventh day in space. Bowen, riding the station's robotic arm, disconnected an experiment rack from the outside of the Columbus laboratory module and Drew removed covers from the logistics carrier Discovery brought up.
The crews of both spacecraft spent the next week working inside the space station to prepare it for continuing research operations. Outfitting work inside the PMM included removing launch supports and putting unneeded materials into the HTV, which will be jettisoned later to burn up in the atmosphere.
Discovery left the space station Monday, March 7 and its crew began prepping the shuttle for its final glide back to Earth.
The shuttle soared through mostly clear skies over Florida on Wednesday, March 9. Lindsey guided Discovery onto Kennedy's runway at 11:57 a.m. EST.
After the landing, reflection mixed with celebration after Discovery completed the last of its 39 missions into orbit. Lindsey and his crew walked beneath the shuttle with NASA officials including Administrator Charles Bolden.
"I am so glad we got to land here at Kennedy, the home of Discovery," STS-133 Commander Steve Lindsey said. "As the minutes pass, I'm actually getting sadder and sadder about this being the last flight and I know all the folks involved with the shuttle program feel the same way."
Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA's associate administrator of Space Operations, said the work was critical to set up the station and its crew for research.
"I think (Discovery's) legacy will be the future," Gerstenmaier said.
Although Discovery will not go back into space, it still will offer scientific insight to future engineers, said Mike Moses, chairman of the Mission Management Team.
"The vehicle itself is a science platform," he said, adding that parts of Discovery will be pulled from the spacecraft and evaluated for wear.
The shuttle teams throughout NASA drew special praise for the longevity of the program and its successes, along with the workers' diligence.
"Discovery was in great shape and I view that as a testament to the team," Moses said. "It was really a triumph today for the entire Discovery team."
"We wanted to go out on a high note and Discovery's done that," said Mike Leinbach, shuttle launch director. "We couldn't ask for more."
For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts133/launch/sts133overview.html
With this fifth release of data, striking new images and maps have been added to the already comprehensive collection of raw lunar data and high-level products, including mosaic images, that LRO has made possible. The spacecraft's seven instruments delivered more than 192 terabytes of data with an unprecedented level of detail. It would take approximately 41,000 typical DVDs to hold the new LRO data set.
"The release of such a comprehensive and rich collection of data, maps and images reinforces the tremendous success we have had with LRO in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and with lunar science," said Michael Wargo, chief lunar scientist of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
Among the latest products is a global map with a resolution of 100 meters per pixel from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). To enhance the topography of the moon, this map was made from images collected when the sun angle was low on the horizon. Armchair astronauts can zoom in to full resolution with any of the mosaics—quite a feat considering that each is 34,748 pixels by 34,748 pixels, or approximately 1.1 gigabytes.
"Because the moon is so close and because we have a dedicated ground station, we are able to bring back as much data from LRO as from all the other planetary missions combined," said LRO Project Scientist Richard Vondrak of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
LRO's Diviner Lunar Radiometer Experiment is providing new data relating to the moon's surface. These include maps of visual and infrared brightness, temperature, rock abundance, nighttime soil temperature and surface mineralogy. The data are in the form of more than 1700 digital maps at a range of resolutions that can be overlaid easily on other lunar data sets.
The Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project, which collects information to help identify surface water-ice deposits, especially in permanently-shadowed regions of the moon, also has new data. This release includes new maps of far-ultraviolet (FUV) brightness, albedo and water-ice data as well as instrument exposure, illumination and other conditions.
As a complement to the high-resolution digital elevation maps, representing 3.4 billion measurements already released by the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter team, the group is delivering new maps of slope, roughness and illumination conditions. New maps from the Lunar Exploration Neutron Detector, and the latest data from the Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation and the Miniature Radio Frequency instruments, also are featured.
"All these global maps and other data are available at a very high resolution -- that's what makes this release exciting," said Goddard's John Keller, the LRO deputy project scientist. "With this valuable collection, researchers worldwide are getting the best view of the moon they have ever had."
The complete data set contains the raw information and high-level products such as mosaic images and maps. The data set also includes more than 300,000 calibrated data records released by LROC. All of the final records from the exploration phase, which lasted from Sept. 15, 2009 through Sept. 15, 2010, are available through several of the Planetary Data System nodes and the LROC website.
For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/terabytes.html
Of course, the cause of the farside/nearside asymmetry is an interesting scientific question. Past studies have shown that the crust on the farside is thicker, likely making it more difficult for magmas to erupt on the surface, limiting the amount of farside mare basalts. Why is the farside crust thicker? That is still up for debate, and in fact several presentations at this week's Lunar and Planetary Science Conference attempt to answer this question.
The Clementine mission obtained beautiful mosaics with the sun high in the sky (low phase angles), but did not have the opportunity to observe the farside at sun angles favorable for seeing surface topography. This WAC mosaic provides the most complete look at the morphology of the farside to date, and will provide a valuable resource for the scientific community. And it's simply a spectacular sight!
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) is a push-frame camera that captures seven color bands (321, 360, 415, 566, 604, 643, and 689 nm) with a 57-km swath (105-km swath in monochrome mode) from a 50 km orbit. One of the primary objectives of LROC is to provide a global 100 m/pixel monochrome (643 nm) base map with incidence angles between 55°-70° at the equator, lighting that is favorable for morphological interpretations. Each month, the WAC provides nearly complete coverage of the Moon under unique lighting. As an added bonus, the orbit-to-orbit image overlap provides stereo coverage. Reducing all these stereo images into a global topographic map is a big job, and is being led by LROC Team Members from the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). Several preliminary WAC topographic products have appeared in LROC featured images over the past year (Orientale basin, Sinus Iridum). For a sneak preview of the WAC global DEM with the WAC global mosaic, view a rotating composite moon (70 MB video from ASU's LROC website). The WAC topographic dataset will be completed and released later this year.
The global mosaic released today is comprised of over 15,000 WAC images acquired between November 2009 and February 2011. The non-polar images were map projected onto the GLD100 shape model (WAC derived 100 m/pixel DTM), while polar images were map projected on the LOLA shape model. In addition, the LOLA derived crossover corrected ephemeris, and an improved camera pointing, provide accurate positioning (better than 100 m) of each WAC image.
As part of the March 2011 PDS release, the LROC team posted the global map in ten regional tiles. Eight of the tiles are equirectangular projections that encompass 60° latitude by 90° longitude. In addition, two polar stereographic projections are available for each pole from ±60° to the pole. These reduced data records (RDR) products will be available for download on March 15, 2011. As the mission progresses, and our knowledge of the lunar photometric function increases, improved and new mosaics will be released! Work your way around the moon with these six orthographic projections constructed from WAC mosaics. The nearside view linked below is different from that released on 21 February.
For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/lro-farside.html
The universe appears to be expanding at an increasing rate. Some believe that is because the universe is filled with a dark energy that works in the opposite way of gravity. One alternative to that hypothesis is that an enormous bubble of relatively empty space eight billion light-years across surrounds our galactic neighborhood. If we lived near the center of this void, observations of galaxies being pushed away from each other at accelerating speeds would be an illusion.
This hypothesis has been invalidated because astronomers have refined their understanding of the universe's present expansion rate. Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., led the research. The Hubble observations were conducted by the SHOES (Supernova Ho for the Equation of State) team that works to refine the accuracy of the Hubble constant to a precision that allows for a better characterization of dark energy's behavior. The observations helped determine a figure for the universe's current expansion rate to an uncertainty of just 3.3 percent. The new measurement reduces the error margin by 30 percent over Hubble's previous best measurement of 2009. Riess' results appear in the April 1 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
The value for the expansion rate is 73.8 kilometers per second per megaparsec. It means that for every additional million parsecs (3.26 million light-years) a galaxy is from Earth, the galaxy appears to be traveling 73.8 kilometers per second faster away from us.
Every decrease in uncertainty of the universe’s expansion rate helps solidify our understanding of its cosmic ingredients. Knowing the precise value of the universe's expansion rate further restricts the range of dark energy's strength and helps astronomers tighten up their estimates of other cosmic properties, including the universe's shape and its roster of neutrinos, or ghostly particles, that filled the early universe.
"We are using the new camera on Hubble like a policeman’s radar gun to catch the universe speeding," Riess said. "It looks more like it's dark energy that’s pressing on the gas pedal."
Bursting the Bubble
Dark energy is one of the greatest cosmological mysteries in modern physics. Even Albert Einstein conceived of a repulsive force, called the cosmological constant, which would counter gravity and keep the universe stable. He abandoned the idea when astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 that the universe is expanding. Observational evidence for dark energy didn’t come along until 1998, when two teams of researchers (one led by Riess) discovered it.
The idea of dark energy was so far-fetched, many scientists began contemplating other strange interpretations, including the cosmic bubble theory. In this theory, the lower-density bubble would expand faster than the more massive universe around it. To an observer inside the bubble, it would appear that a dark-energy-like force was pushing the entire universe apart. The bubble hypothesis requires that the universe’s expansion rate be much slower than astronomers have calculated, about 60 to 65 kilometers per second per megaparsec. By reducing the uncertainty of the Hubble constant’s value to 3.3 percent, Riess reports that his team has eliminated beyond all reasonable doubt the possibility of that lower number.
“The hardest part of the bubble theory to accept was that it required us to live very near the center of such an empty region of space,” explained Lucas Macri, of Texas A&M University in College Station, a key collaborator of Riess. “This has about a one in a million chance of occurring. But since we know that something weird is making the universe accelerate, it’s better to let the data be our guide.”
Using stars as “cosmic yardsticks” measuring the universe’s expansion rate is a tricky business. Riess’ team first had to determine accurate distances to galaxies near and far from Earth. The team compared those distances with the speed at which the galaxies are apparently receding because of the expansion of space. They used those two values to calculate the Hubble constant, the number that relates the speed at which a galaxy appears to recede to its distance from the Milky Way. Because astronomers cannot physically measure the distances to galaxies, researchers had to find stars or other objects that serve as reliable cosmic yardsticks. These are objects with an intrinsic brightness, brightness that hasn't been dimmed by distance, an atmosphere, or stellar dust, that is known. Their distances, therefore, can be inferred by comparing their true brightness with their apparent brightness as seen from Earth.
Among the most reliable of these cosmic yardsticks for relatively shorter distances are Cepheid variables, pulsating stars that dim and fade at rates that correspond to their intrinsic luminosity. But Cepheids are too dim to be found in very distant galaxies. To calculate longer distances, Riess’ team chose a special class of exploding stars called Type Ia supernovae. These stellar explosions all flare with similar luminosity and are brilliant enough to be seen far across the universe. By comparing the apparent brightness of Type la supernovae and pulsating Cepheid stars, the astronomers could measure accurately their intrinsic brightness and therefore calculate distances to Type Ia supernovae in far-flung galaxies.
Using the sharpness of the new Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to study more stars in visible and near-infrared light, scientists eliminated systematic errors introduced by comparing measurements from different telescopes.
"WFC3 is the best camera ever flown on Hubble for making these measurements, improving the precision of prior measurements in a small fraction of the time it previously took," said Macri.
Using one instrument to measure the Hubble constant is like measuring a hallway with a tape measure instead of by laying a ruler from end to end. By avoiding the need to pick up the ruler and lay it back down, you can prevent mistakes. “The camera on Hubble, WFC3, is the best ever flown on Hubble for making these measurements, improving the precision of prior measurements in a small fraction of the time it previously took,” Riess said.
The astronomer hopes that Hubble will continue to be used in this way to reduce the uncertainty in the Hubble constant even more, and thus refine the measured properties of dark energy. He suggests the present uncertainty could be cut in two before Hubble gives way to improvements out of Hubble’s reach but within the scope of the James Webb Space Telescope, an infrared observatory scheduled to launch later this decade.
Chasing a runaway universe, Riess has been pursing dark energy for 13 years. He co-discovered the existence of dark energy by finding that distant Type Ia supernovae were dimmer than expected, which meant they were farther away than anticipated. The only way for that to happen, Riess realized, was if the expansion of the universe had sped up some time in the past.
Until that discovery, astronomers had generally believed that the cosmic expansion was gradually slowing down, due to the gravitational tugs that individual galaxies exert on one another. But the results implied that some mysterious force was acting against the pull of gravity, shoving galaxies away from each other at ever-increasing speeds.
Riess decided that one of the best ways to tighten the constraints on dark energy is to determine an accurate value for the Hubble constant, which he has been doing with the Hubble Space Telescope. That measurement, combined with others from NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), traces the universe’s behavior from nearly the dawn of time to the present age. (WMAP showed the universe as it appeared shortly after the Big Bang, before stars and galaxies formed.)
Riess is just one of many astronomers who, over the past 80 years, have been measuring and re-measuring the Hubble constant. The Hubble telescope has played a major role in helping astronomers precisely measure the universe, expansion. Before Hubble was launched in 1990, the estimates for the Hubble constant varied by a factor of two. In 1999, the Hubble Space Telescope Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale refined the value of the Hubble constant to an error of about 10 percent.
For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/cosmic-expansion.html
 CNET (blog) | HTC Thunderbolt LTE Speed Test Results Are In, Mind Blowing GizmoCrunch Now if you're using the popular Speedtest.net app to test out your HTC Thunderbolt on 4G LTE, do take note that the best way to do it is to tether it to a laptop first and then hit the Speedtest.net website as the upload speeds are inaccurate if you do ... Thunderbolt LTE Speed Tests Are Rolling In – How Fast Are Yours?Android Police Speed Test: HTC Thunderbolt vs. iPhone 4MobileCrunch HTC ThunderBolt: Verizon's first 4G LTE smart phonemsnbc.com |
Information Overload: Social media geotagging can tell others where you are Victoria Advocate But do keep in mind that if you upload a photograph to your blog or personal website, or on Twitter, geographical information may be available on that photo, if you have geotagging enabled on your camera or mobile phone. Before you start getting all ... |
Afraid to Watch the News, Millions Turn to Fox “NEWS” — The Channel Offers Welcome Break from Reality, Psychologists Say NEW YORK (The Borowitz Report) – With unprecedented crises engulfing the world, millions of television viewers are finding the news too stressful to watch – and are turning to the Fox News Channel instead. “Things are so bad in the world right now, many people are afraid to watch the news,” says psychologist Davis Logsdon, who studies the relationship between news consumption and stress at the University of Minnesota. “For them, Fox News represents a welcome break from reality.” Tracy Klugian, 37, a systems analyst from Lansing, Michigan, said that he was flipping the channels to find “anything but news” and found himself watching Fox for the first time. “They had this guy on – something Beck I think his name was – and he was just going on and on, making stuff up,” he said. “I was like, this is the kind of mindless junk I need right now.” Mr. Klugian says he now records the program and watches it every day when he gets home for work: “For one hour at least, I know that I can kick [...]
Dennis Kucinich speaking at Workers’ Rights Rally in Madison, WI. Today, a judge blocked the union busting bill from Governor Scott Walker. Wisconsin Judge Temporarily Blocks Gov. Walker’s Union-Busting Bill Various sources are reporting that Dane County, Wisconsin, Judge Maryann Sumi has granted a restraining order temporarily blocking the publication of the union-busting law that was rammed through the Wisconsin state legislature recently. The blog WisPolitics: Sumi said she was given no evidence to show why the conference committee could not have given a 24-hour notice for its meeting last week or why a timely notice was not provided. Sumi said some may ask how a bill can be stopped in its tracks by a “minor” issue like failure to properly notice a meeting. “My response is it’s not minor; it’s not a minor detail,” she said, adding it is of utmost importance that nothing that happens in government occur in secret.
