Saturday, November 14, 2009
My Senator, Big John Cornyn! Big Mouth, too!
GOPers blast GITMO move - First Read - msnbc.com:
"'These terrorists planned and executed the mass murder of thousands of innocent Americans. Treating them like common criminals is unconscionable,' said GOP Sen. John Cornyn. 'The attacks of September 11th were an act of war. Reverting to a pre-9/11 approach to fighting terrorism and bringing these dangerous individuals onto U.S. soil needlessly compromises the safety of all Americans.'"
"'These terrorists planned and executed the mass murder of thousands of innocent Americans. Treating them like common criminals is unconscionable,' said GOP Sen. John Cornyn. 'The attacks of September 11th were an act of war. Reverting to a pre-9/11 approach to fighting terrorism and bringing these dangerous individuals onto U.S. soil needlessly compromises the safety of all Americans.'"
Meet the World's Newest Biggest Loser! Lucy!
Zoo puts pudgy pachyderm on diet: "EDMONTON — Lucy the elephant is aiming to be Edmonton's biggest loser. The Valley Zoo's 34-year-old Asian elephant is cutting carbs and increasing her exercise routine in an effort to shed 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) over the next year, veterinarian Dr. Milton Ness says. Under a new treatment plan announced Friday, Ness said Lucy's handlers will also investigate ways to improve her indoor environment so she can get more exercise when the weather gets cold. The goal of the healthier lifestyle is to improve the elephant's breathing problems and help control her arthritis, Ness said."
Friday, November 13, 2009
Water on the Moon and on Mars... very important discoveries.
Splash! NASA moon crash struck lots of water
By ALICIA CHANG (AP)
LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.
Experts have long suspected there was water on the moon. Confirmation came from data churned up by two NASA spacecraft that intentionally slammed into a lunar crater last month.
"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit. We found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up a white water bucket for emphasis.
The lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons and that's only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact, Colaprete said.
Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.
"Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go," said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.
Even so, members of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA's future plans said it doesn't change their conclusion that the program needs more money to get beyond near-Earth orbit. The panel wants NASA to look at other potential destinations like asteroids and Mars.
"This new and terrific result reassures us about lunar resources, but ... the challenges currently facing the human spaceflight program remain," Chris Chyba, a Princeton astrophysicist who is on the panel, said in an e-mail.
President George W. Bush had proposed a more than $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, then go on to Mars; a test flight of an early version of a new rocket was a success last month. President Barack Obama appointed the special panel to look at the entire moon exploration program. The decision is now up to the White House, and NASA's lunar plans are somewhat on hold until then.
As for unmanned exploration, previous missions had detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the moon's poles, possible evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water in the lunar soil all over the moon's surface.
But it was NASA's Oct. 9 mission involving the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, that provided the stunning confirmation announced Friday — water, in the forms of ice and vapor.
"Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one," said Greg Delory of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the mission, led by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
The LCROSS spacecraft only hit one spot on the moon and it's unclear how much water there is across the entire moon.
The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then, a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.
Though scientists were overjoyed with the plethora of data beamed back to Earth, the mission was a public relations dud. Space enthusiasts who stayed up all night to watch the spectacle did not see the promised giant plume of debris.
NASA scientists had predicted the twin impacts would spew six miles of dust into the sunlight. Instead, images revealed only a mile-high plume, and it was not visible to many amateur astronomers peering through telescopes.
Scientists spent a month analyzing data from the spacecraft's spectrometers, instruments that can detect strong signals of water molecules in the plume.
"We've had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it," said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 made his historic Apollo 11 moonwalk with Neil Armstrong, was pleased to hear the latest discovery, but still believes the U.S. should focus on colonizing Mars.
"People will overreact to this news and say, `Let's have a water rush to the moon,'" Aldrin said. "It doesn't justify that."
Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the moon dust.
AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.
By ALICIA CHANG (AP)
LOS ANGELES — Suddenly, the moon looks exciting again. It has lots of water, scientists said Friday — a thrilling discovery that sent a ripple of hope for a future astronaut outpost in a place that has always seemed barren and inhospitable.
Experts have long suspected there was water on the moon. Confirmation came from data churned up by two NASA spacecraft that intentionally slammed into a lunar crater last month.
"Indeed, yes, we found water. And we didn't find just a little bit. We found a significant amount," said Anthony Colaprete, lead scientist for the mission, holding up a white water bucket for emphasis.
The lunar crash kicked up at least 25 gallons and that's only what scientists could see from the plumes of the impact, Colaprete said.
Some space policy experts say that makes the moon attractive for exploration again. Having an abundance of water would make it easier to set up a base camp for astronauts, supplying drinking water and a key ingredient for rocket fuel.
"Having definitive evidence that there is substantial water is a significant step forward in making the moon an interesting place to go," said George Washington University space policy scholar John Logsdon.
Even so, members of the blue-ribbon panel reviewing NASA's future plans said it doesn't change their conclusion that the program needs more money to get beyond near-Earth orbit. The panel wants NASA to look at other potential destinations like asteroids and Mars.
"This new and terrific result reassures us about lunar resources, but ... the challenges currently facing the human spaceflight program remain," Chris Chyba, a Princeton astrophysicist who is on the panel, said in an e-mail.
President George W. Bush had proposed a more than $100 billion plan to return astronauts to the moon, then go on to Mars; a test flight of an early version of a new rocket was a success last month. President Barack Obama appointed the special panel to look at the entire moon exploration program. The decision is now up to the White House, and NASA's lunar plans are somewhat on hold until then.
As for unmanned exploration, previous missions had detected the presence of hydrogen in lunar craters near the moon's poles, possible evidence of ice. In September, scientists reported finding tiny amounts of water in the lunar soil all over the moon's surface.
But it was NASA's Oct. 9 mission involving the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, LCROSS, that provided the stunning confirmation announced Friday — water, in the forms of ice and vapor.
"Rather than a dead and unchanging world, it could in fact be a very dynamic and interesting one," said Greg Delory of the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the mission, led by NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.
The LCROSS spacecraft only hit one spot on the moon and it's unclear how much water there is across the entire moon.
The October mission involved two strikes into a permanently shadowed crater near the south pole. First, an empty rocket hull slammed into the Cabeus crater. Then, a trailing spacecraft recorded the drama live before it also crashed into the same spot four minutes later.
Though scientists were overjoyed with the plethora of data beamed back to Earth, the mission was a public relations dud. Space enthusiasts who stayed up all night to watch the spectacle did not see the promised giant plume of debris.
NASA scientists had predicted the twin impacts would spew six miles of dust into the sunlight. Instead, images revealed only a mile-high plume, and it was not visible to many amateur astronomers peering through telescopes.
Scientists spent a month analyzing data from the spacecraft's spectrometers, instruments that can detect strong signals of water molecules in the plume.
"We've had hints that there is water. This was almost like tasting it," said Peter Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and a co-investigator on the LCROSS mission.
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who in 1969 made his historic Apollo 11 moonwalk with Neil Armstrong, was pleased to hear the latest discovery, but still believes the U.S. should focus on colonizing Mars.
"People will overreact to this news and say, `Let's have a water rush to the moon,'" Aldrin said. "It doesn't justify that."
Mission scientists said it would take more time to tease out what else was kicked up in the moon dust.
AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Official: Obama Does Not Plan To Accept Afghan War Options, Wants Handover Details
Official: Obama Does Not Plan To Accept Afghan War Options, Wants Handover Details: "WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to the Afghan government, a senior administration official said Wednesday.
That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official."
That stance comes in the midst of forceful reservations about a possible troop buildup from the U.S. ambassador in Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, according to a second top administration official."
Fort Hood's next battle
Counseling for returning soldiers must be stepped up, no matter the cost.
Posted: 11/10/2009 07:04:40 PM PST
In the album of sadness there is no sadder melody than "Taps." On Tuesday, America mourned the 13 soldiers who were gunned down in an act as cruel as an ambush in Kandahar.
Yet, the murders last week at Fort Hood are not isolated. This year alone, a husband killed his wife, then himself. They had just returned to Fort Hood from service in Iraq. Another soldier, who served two tours in Iraq, killed himself in a friend's apartment. And the same month, a decorated soldier, just back from Iraq, killed a fellow soldier.
In the past six years, 76 soldiers assigned to Fort Hood have committed suicide, according to an article in The New York Times. There have been 10 suicides this year alone at Fort Hood.
In the past eight years, reports of domestic violence have risen 75 percent. While violence in towns the size of Killeen, Texas, where Fort Hood is located, has declined, violence in Killeen has increased by 22 percent. (Nationwide, there are 1.7 million reported cases of domestic violence a year among civilians, a number that is rising due to the country's economic crisis, according to a survey of domestic abuse shelters. Most of those who are abused are women.)
A Catholic priest told The Times that "fatigue and other strains are `rampant"' on the base. Divorces, too, are rampant, he said. "Every night in my apartment complex some soldier and his wife are screaming and shouting at each other," he said.
A soldier talked of being ridiculed by an officer when he complained about stress. Once back at Fort Hood, he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized. After another soldier committed suicide, the base commander told Congress the base needed more mental health professionals.
In July, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist, arrived at Fort Hood to counsel stressed-out soldiers. He is accused of killing 13 fellow soldiers and wounding 30 others in the worst act of violence on a U.S. military base.
Counseling for returning soldiers must be stepped up, no matter the cost.
Posted: 11/10/2009 07:04:40 PM PST
In the album of sadness there is no sadder melody than "Taps." On Tuesday, America mourned the 13 soldiers who were gunned down in an act as cruel as an ambush in Kandahar.
Yet, the murders last week at Fort Hood are not isolated. This year alone, a husband killed his wife, then himself. They had just returned to Fort Hood from service in Iraq. Another soldier, who served two tours in Iraq, killed himself in a friend's apartment. And the same month, a decorated soldier, just back from Iraq, killed a fellow soldier.
In the past six years, 76 soldiers assigned to Fort Hood have committed suicide, according to an article in The New York Times. There have been 10 suicides this year alone at Fort Hood.
In the past eight years, reports of domestic violence have risen 75 percent. While violence in towns the size of Killeen, Texas, where Fort Hood is located, has declined, violence in Killeen has increased by 22 percent. (Nationwide, there are 1.7 million reported cases of domestic violence a year among civilians, a number that is rising due to the country's economic crisis, according to a survey of domestic abuse shelters. Most of those who are abused are women.)
A Catholic priest told The Times that "fatigue and other strains are `rampant"' on the base. Divorces, too, are rampant, he said. "Every night in my apartment complex some soldier and his wife are screaming and shouting at each other," he said.
A soldier talked of being ridiculed by an officer when he complained about stress. Once back at Fort Hood, he suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be hospitalized. After another soldier committed suicide, the base commander told Congress the base needed more mental health professionals.
In July, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a psychiatrist, arrived at Fort Hood to counsel stressed-out soldiers. He is accused of killing 13 fellow soldiers and wounding 30 others in the worst act of violence on a U.S. military base.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)