6 Laws From 'Lord Of The Rings'

June 17, 2013, 2:09 pm

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In "The Hobbit,""The Lord of the Rings," and "The Silmarillion," J.R.R. Tolkien conjured an entire universe called Middle Earth in extreme detail. If he created a real, spoken language for the Elves, complete with grammar and phonology, you better believe he added a few governing laws.

Hobbits call their police "Shirrifs," according to the Lord of the Rings Wiki. Also known as The Watch and not to be confused with the Bounders, who protect the Shire from outsiders, they wear no uniforms and carry no weapons — not even gardening tools.

To the best of our nerdy abilities, Business Insider has compiled some of the most important laws enforced by the Shirrifs and other law enforcement agents of Middle Earth:

1. The trusty LOTR Wiki also tells us that most successions of power on Middle-Earth follow equal primogeniture, meaning the first-born, regardless of gender, inherits the kingdom. But only three women ever come to power in Tolkien's trilogy. Most royal ladies had sons, we guess.

2. According to the terms of "acquisition by gift" under property law, Gollum has no legal claim to the One Ring after "The Hobbit." He and Bilbo Baggins face off in a riddle contest and mutually agree on the stake — the ring. To read more of the legality behind the ring's ever-changing ownership, visit The Volokh Conspiracy, a legal blog from a libertarian perspective.

3. According to J.R.R. Tolkien's essay "Laws and Customs Among the Eldar," the Eldar, an immortal Elvish race, can only marry once. They mate for eternal life, kind of like penguins.

4. In Gondor, one of the kingdoms of men, swim at your own risk. Gollum's dip in the Forbidden Pool, which conceals one of the two entrances to the den of the rangers of Ithilien, is punishable by death.

5. In Ithilien, a fiefdom of Gondor, releasing a prisoner forfeits your own life. In "The Two Towers," Faramir, captain of Ithilien and son of the Steward of Gondor, sacrifices himself for Frodo in a tear-jerking scene. (Don't worry. He lives.)

6. Again in "The Two Towers," Gandalf tries to enter King Theoden's hall in Rohan, but a soldier mentions "The Law of the Golden Hall." He then confiscates the troupe's weapons. In the Hall of Edoras, you cannot possess a weapon.

Most of Sauron's combat strategies violate the various laws of war set by the Geneva Convention. These laws govern acceptable wartime conduct and forbid attacking civilians' homes. Considering the orcs burn entire villages, that wouldn't fly today.

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  Reported by Business Insider 6 hours ago.

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Climate Change Will Create Dangerously Dry And Dust-Bowl Like Conditions

June 17, 2013, 2:09 pm

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Marlene Cimons of Climate Nexus contributed this article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Drought has beset the Earth since before farming began. In developing nations, it brings suffering and death. In wealthier countries like the United States, it brings economic devastation when crops wither and die, and forests burn.

The United States continues to feel the aftereffects of the 2012 drought, the most severe and extensive in nearly half a century, during the hottest year on record. It affected about 80 percent of the nation's farmland, making it more widespread than any drought since the 1950s, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The drought destroyed or damaged portions of major field crops in the Midwest — particularly, field corn and soybeans — causing hikes in farm prices and leading to other shortages in animal feed, including hay and grasses. Those price spikes, in turn, are prompting increases in the retail prices of beef, pork, poultry and dairy products.

More importantly, the threat posed by drought could become even greater as the planet heats up, especially in parts of the United States — and the world — that already are dry.

"Droughts are a normal part of the climate cycle that we should expect and plan for, but there will be more stress under increased temperatures," said Mark Svoboda, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "The roller-coaster ride will just get rockier. Climate change will put some more double loops into that roller-coaster ride."

Places with a wet season and a dry season generally will become wetter in the wet season and drier in the dry season, and areas that now tend to be dry most of the year likely will suffer more intense drought. This also will result in less water for drinking, less water for agriculture and less water for recreation.

Drought typically afflicts a third of the nation's counties each year, according to the USDA. In recent history, the United States has experienced a number of persistent droughts, including the notoriously famous Dust Bowl of the 1930s. The Southern Plains and the Southwest endured a serious drought in the 1950s, as did the entire West from 1998 until summer 2004. A merciless drought began in Texas in October 2010, continued throughout 2011 and still affects parts of the state.

To be sure, the 2012 drought was due, in part, to natural climate variability — in this case, the La Niña event that began in fall 2010. La Niña conditions change weather patterns over the Pacific Ocean and North America, steering storms north of where they usually occur, depriving the already-arid Southwest of much-needed rainfall. But the unrelenting hot temperatures made things worse.

"This drought wasn't unusually long, but it was unusually hot,'' said Jonathan Overpeck, co-director of the Institute of the Environment at the University of Arizona. "That's what makes this a global-warming-style drought. It has much bigger impacts because it is a hot drought.''

The natural cycle of La Niña is occurring against a background of a climate that is warming. This pattern "always increases moisture in the atmosphere, which takes moisture out of the soil," said Richard Seager, research professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York. "When you have these endless El Niños and La Niñas against this background, droughts will tend to get worse.''

Michael Mann, professor and director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, agrees. "What produces drought isn't just the absence of rainfall,'' he said. "Warmer soils evaporate moisture into the atmosphere more rapidly. Even in regions that get more rainfall in the summer, drought actually worsens because any increase in rainfall is offset by these evaporative losses.''

Globally, more intense and longer droughts have occurred over wider areas since the 1970s, particularly in the tropics and subtropics. "Increased drying due to higher temperatures and decreased precipitation have contributed to these changes, with the latter the dominant factor,'' said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist in the climate-analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

For the United States, the Southwest will take the brunt of a future warming climate in terms of drought, experts say. Warming in the Southwest "is larger than just about anywhere else in the United States, outside of Alaska,'' Overpeck said. "The whole of the Southwest is heating up, which is causing snowpack to recede into the winter and melt earlier, and that is affecting water resources.''

A hot mega-drought in the future "will affect water resources dramatically, and we probably would have a major shortage on the Colorado River and the Rio Grande, and other rivers upon which we depend for water supplies,'' he added. "We will also see devastating impacts in our landscapes.''

Last year in the Southwest, the drought killed trees and desert plants, and spawned unprecedented wildfires, all "related to a drought that wasn't as bad compared to what we could get," Overpeck said, adding, "I worry that we could get one of these really long precipitation-deficit droughts, coupled with the warming temperatures. That would be a devastating climate emergency.''

However, changes in soil conservation and land-use practices — as well as crop and livestock management that minimize soil erosion — could prevent the damaging dust storms that characterized the 1930s Dust Bowl years. But the prospect of such a drought remains a disturbing possibility.

Michael Wehner, a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, conducted a study that used the Palmer Drought Severity Index to project future drought conditions in the United States. The Palmer index is one of several tools used to measure drought.

The findings indicated that "normal conditions in the United States by the end of the century would be the same as the 1930s Dust Bowl,'' Wehner said. "The risk of a Dust Bowl has increased, and will continue to increase, quite a bit over the course of the 21st century.''

Read Cimons' most recent Op-Ed, Deadly Heat Waves Intensify as Summers Sizzle (Op-Ed), and additional contributions on her profile page.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was originally published on LiveScience.com.

· The Worst Droughts in U.S. History
· Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming
· Why Droughts Cost More Than You Think: Op-Ed

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End Of Operations For Herschel Space Telescope

June 18, 2013, 4:09 am

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*April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online*

The European Space Agency (ESA) announced on Monday, June 17, that the Herschel Space Telescope had been shut down, marking the end of operations for the hugely successful space observatory.

BBC News reports that Herschel was the most powerful observatory of its kind ever put in space. In four years of operation, Herschel used its 3.5m mirror and three state-of-the-art instruments to gather pictures and other data at far-infrared wavelengths that have transformed our understanding of star formation and galaxy evolution.

The satellite exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant that cooled the observatory’s instruments close to absolute zero on April 29, effectively putting an end to observations, but the satellite was kept operational as a technology test bed for control techniques that can’t normally be tested in flight.

“Normally, our top goal is to maximize scientific return, and we never do anything that might interrupt observations or put the satellite at risk,” said Micha Schmidt, Herschel’s Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA’s European Space Operations Center (ESOC).

“But the end of science meant we had a sophisticated spacecraft at our disposal on which we could conduct technical testing and validate techniques, software and the functionality of systems that are going to be reused on future spacecraft. This was a major bonus for us.”

Requests for in-orbit validation and analysis of hardware and software, according to Schmidt, came from the mission control teams at ESOC, from the European industry teams that built the satellite and its components, and from science instrument teams.

“For example, the ExoMars team asked us to do some validation using Herschel’s Visual Monitoring Camera, a similar model will fly on their mission. And the Euclid team asked us for some reaction wheel tests.”

As the last step in a complex series of flight control activities and thruster maneuvers, the final command was issued this week that will take Herschel into a safe disposal orbit around the Sun and passivate its systems.

Perhaps the most spectacular event came on May 13 and 14, when Herschel depleted most of its fuel in a record 7-hour, 45-minute thruster burn. The burn was a final move in a series of events that ensured the satellite was boosted away from its operational orbit around the L2 Sun–Earth Lagrange Point and into a heliocentric orbit, further out and slower than Earth’s. The ESOC team executed one final thruster burn on Monday to ensure that all fuel is depleted. Moving Herschel in this way ensures that it will not impede other spacecraft that want to use L2’s very stable temperature and light conditions.

As Herschel drifts, probably in a slow tumble, it will continue to charge its batteries and provide power to the onboard computer.

"In normal circumstances, there is an automatic recovery function whereby Herschel would try to switch on the transponder, but we have overridden this," Schmidt told BBC News.

"It will never contact Earth again. We could re-command it. This mode is hardwired and we can't overcome this. But we have no intention of doing that."

The final command was sent via ESA’s 35 m-diameter deep-space antenna at New Norcia, Australia. The immense distance between Herschel and Earth meant that it took six seconds each way for the satellite to receive the command to shut down, and for ground stations on Earth to confirm the loss of signal.

“Herschel has not only been an immensely successful scientific mission, it has also served as a valuable flight operations test platform in its final weeks of flight. This will help us increase the robustness and flexibility of future missions operations,” noted Paolo Ferri, ESA’s Head of Mission Operations.

“Europe really received excellent value from this magnificent satellite.” Reported by redOrbit 16 hours ago.

Airborne Laser Reveals City Under Cambodian Earth

June 17, 2013, 9:39 pm

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SYDNEY—Airborne laser technology has uncovered a network of roadways and canals, illustrating a bustling ancient city linking Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat temples complex.

The discovery was announced late Monday in a peer-reviewed paper released early by the journal Proceedings of

…

The post Airborne Laser Reveals City Under Cambodian Earth appeared first on The Epoch Times. Reported by Epoch Times 22 hours ago.

EurekaMag.com Publishes 33 Thousand New References on Vaccine Development & Vaccinations

June 18, 2013, 12:15 am

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The Life, Earth and Health Sciences Magazine EurekaMag.com provides 36 million references including 11 million summaries in the basic and applied biological, geographical and agricultural sciences. This content base has now been expanded to include 33,700 newly published references on development of vaccines and results of vaccinations.

Mannheim, Germany (PRWEB) June 18, 2013

EurekaMag.com has newly published over 33 thousand references on vaccine development and results of vaccinations. Vaccines are used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against diseases. Such substances are prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute. A large majority of the newly published entries are included in the site's Research category which covers the effects of such immunogens on stimulating the production of antibodies in humans and agricultural animals. The Life, Earth and Health Sciences Research Section 5 features the bibliographic details of over 7,250 science articles on the effects of vaccinations on human and animal health.

The Life, Earth and Health Sciences Research Chapter 4002 contains a significant subset of the newly published references on development of vaccines and results of vaccinations in humans and animals. Related to human health, it features a study on vaccination against Fowlpox virus via drinking water, vaccination against and treatment of tuberculosis, the Leishmaniases and AIDS, vaccination against influenza, and vaccination in children with egg allergy. In the field of agricultural animal health, the chapter contains references to studies on vaccination of cattle with Anaplasma marginale derived from tick cell culture and bovine erythrocytes followed by challenge-exposure with infected ticks, vaccination of chicks with experimental Newcastle disease and avian influenza oil-emulsion vaccines by in ovo inoculation, and on vaccination of ducks with recombinant outer membrane protein and a partial protein of Riemerella anatipestifer.

The Life, Earth and Health Sciences Website EurekaMag.com was launched in 1998 and has become a comprehensive publisher of references in biology, in the applied life sciences agriculture, horticulture and forestry, in the earth sciences, in the environmental sciences, and in the health sciences. It currently contains a total of 36,061,439 bibliographic references from as early as the beginning of the 20th century of which 10,564,269 entries feature a summary of their science content. The site maintains RSS feeds which enables users to subscribe to news in their favorite science topics. The site also maintains accounts at Twitter and Facebook. Reported by PRWeb 20 hours ago.

"The Smartest Kid: Animals" At The Google Play !

June 18, 2013, 6:54 am

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"The Smartest Kid: Animals"- excellent game which educate your child !


"The Smartest Kid: Animals" at the Google Play !

All kids love animals.
All kids love puzzles.
Mosaic-like game for both little ones, and children up to 5 years.
Boosts outlook, teaches mindfulness and associative thinking.
While playing children will learn the names of animals .
The game will educate and entertain your child for hours!

FEATURES:

* Bright locations from around the world
* 8 unique + randome puzzles with hilariously animated animals!
* Retina screen support
* Positive mood
* Great music
* Easy for children to manage

Google Play :

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.firstgames.kidspuzzleanimals

Gameplay Video :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qhr92vqXXG4

First Games Interactive.

First Games Interactive has developed and produced more than 30 games.
Company have done more than 100 localizations of games released in Russia.
Projects released on PC, MAC, iOS and Android.

Projects :

Mermaid Adventures: The Magic Pearl

The Magic Pearl is stolen and it's up to Alice to find it in Mermaid Adventure: The Magic Pearl.
Sprutto, the dasterdly octopus, snuck into the treasure room and ran off with the Magic Pearl.
The Pearl controls the sea and its absence will create a torrent of storms that will sink all of the ships!
Join Alice and her friend, Crabby the crab, as they track down Sprutto and the Magic Pearl in this charming Match 3 game.
-Colorful graphics
-Collect Power-ups
-Find the Magic Pearl!

Shamanville: Earth Heart

The Heart of the Earth has been stolen by dangerous barbarians!
Train in ancient magic and go on a dangerous journey to get it back from the thieves.
Travel through dangerous environments hot on the trail of the barbarians.
-Unique gameplay
-Incredible trophies to earn
-Light the Heart of the Earth!

Yet games:

Funny Miners
Julia's Quest: United Kingdom
The Juicer

Company Contact Information
First Games Interactive
Sergey
Zelenograd, 1606/61, Russia
124365
84955080535

News and Press Release Distribution From I-Newswire.com Reported by i-Newswire.com 13 hours ago.

Classic Cosmetics: Kinder to Your Skin, Your Wallet and the Earth

June 18, 2013, 8:11 am

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Filed under: Consumer Ally, How to Save Money, Beauty, Saving

*Getty Images*

Makeup can be dangerous.

Looking at the rows of toners and powders, lipsticks and rouges packing the corner drug store, cosmetics seem innocent enough. But under the bright colors and attractive packaging, the sex appeal and huge advertising budgets, dangers lurk -- industrial solvents and carcinogens, deadly metals and petroleum distillates. And even beyond the health dangers, there are environmental worries -- concerns about where these ingredients come from and what their extraction does to the Earth.

On the other hand, it wasn't always this way. Sure, the ancient Romans sometimes mixed lead with their cosmetics, and 19th century Americans occasionally killed whales to get the raw ingredients for their perfumes. But, on the whole, cosmetics and skincare have gotten a lot less friendly over the past few decades.

Luckily, many of the classic cosmetics and skincare products your grandmother used are still going strong today. Here are nine of our favorite brands that are gentle on your wallet and will leave your skin and hair feeling great.

%Gallery-191342%

Bruce Watson is DailyFinance's Savings editor. You can reach him by e-mail at bruce.watson@teamaol.com, or follow him on Twitter at @bruce1971.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments Reported by DailyFinance 12 hours ago.

You Can Now Send Personalized Messages Into Space

June 18, 2013, 10:03 am

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NEW YORK — In 18 years, messages beamed out into space from Earth by a new alien-messaging project Monday (June 17) will reach a distant star system known as Gliese 526.

Officials with the Lone Signal project — a newly launched website designed to send user-written notices to any extraterrestrials who may receive them — hope that their messages might open the first dialogue between Earth and other intelligent life forms.

One of the company's first message beamed to the Gliese 526 system, located 17.6 light-years from Earth was sent by famous futurist Ray Kurzweil and reads: "Greetings to Gliese 526 from Singularity University. As you receive this, our computers have made us smarter, the better to understand you and the wisdom of the universe…" [10 Wildest Ways to Contact Aliens]

"This signal, in 19 hours, will go farther than the Voyager spacecraft has in 40 years," Jason Silva, the host of "Brain Games" on the National Geographic Channel said. He spoke to a crowd of fashion models, businessmen and a handful of scientists in downtown Manhattan honoring Lone Signal's launch on Monday.

*A chosen star system*

Scientists aren't sure if Lone Signal's chosen target of Gliese 526 (a red dwarf star) plays host to any potentially alien-populated exoplanets, but Lone Signal's chief science officer, Jacob Haqq-Misra thinks that it's possible the system harbors life. Gliese 526 is listed in the Catalog of Nearby Habitable Systems.

Lone Signal officials won't put limitations on the messages their users send into space. Although other Lone Signal participants can mark a particular message in the queue as "NSFW" (not safe for work), that doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be beamed toward Gliese 526.

Haqq-Misra doesn't think that this kind of free-range messaging is anymore dangerous than other transmissions being sent into the universe. Radar signals and electromagnetic currents from cell phones and other devices also carry information to far-off places.

Humanity's presence in the universe isn't secret, according to Haqq-Misra.

"We don't really know if [Lone Signal] is more likely to be bad at all," Haqq-Misra told SPACE.com. "It could be more likely to be good. So there's really almost no information as to whether or not we should send radio signals if you're really worried about aliens responding to them … Is Lone Signal dangerous? Are cell phones dangerous? Is radar dangerous? The answer is we don't know."

*A large antenna*

Lone Signal officials are using the Jamesburg Earth Station, a central California radio dish built in 1968, to beam the messages into outer space. The company holds a 30-year lease with the antenna.

Lone Signal is continuously sending two different beams of information toward the alien star. One beam carries the user-created messages while the other holds a binary code "hailing message" that carries information about Earth's place in the galaxy, the hydrogen atom and other information about the planet. The more powerful hailing message will point alien observers to the other stream of messages.

Other scientists and organizations have tried to send messages to possible intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe. One of the most powerful attempts is known as the "Arecibo message"— a powerful radar signal sent to the globular star cluster M13 about 25,000 light-years away. [The Nearest Stars to Earth (Infographic)]

Lone Signal's beams are weaker than the Arecibo message sent from a powerful observatory in Puerto Rico, however, the company's messages are aimed at a much closer region of the universe, Haqq-Misra said.

"What's different about this from previous attempts at messaging to extra-terrestrials is past attempts have been pulses in time that have existed for just a matter of a few seconds or so and then they've ceased," Haqq-Misra said in a video introduction of the website. "… So if we really want to communicate something to a potential extra terrestrial listener, you have to transmit your message repeatedly and with a periodic signal and something that's going to allow a lot of time for them to tune in to the right station."

*A crowd-sourced message*

Any interested person can send his or her first alien communication for free, but extra missives come with a price tag. Another text communiqué can be purchased for one "credit" and photo message cost three. Four credits can be purchased for $0.99, but high rolling space senders can buy 4,000 credits for $99.99.

People around the world can participate in the project in a variety of ways, according to Lone Signal officials:

· Share Beams/Track Beams: Once signed in, users can see how far their beam has traveled from Earth as well as share this information with others.
· Dedicate Beams: Friends and family can dedicate a beam to loved ones
· Explore: The Explore section gives beamers current data on the Lone Signal beam, who is sending messages, from where on Earth and other information.
· Blog/Twitter – The Lone Signal science team and other contributors will post opinion articles and share science news and updates via social media.

You can read more about the Lone Signal project and send your first alien communication from the company's website.

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter and Google+. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

· 9 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life
· Poll: Do You Believe in Aliens?
· Crowdsource Messages To E.T.? | Teaser Video

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KinetX, Russian university team to protect Earth from asteroids

June 18, 2013, 11:11 am

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Move aside, Superman. KinetX Aerospace is stepping up to defend the planet. The Tempe-based engineering, technology and business consulting firm is partnering with the Russian National Research University’s Higher School of Economics to minimize the risk of asteroids on a collision course with Earth. The Chelyabinsk asteroid scare in Russia in February showed the destructive potential of asteroids that are not being tracked. An asteroid slammed into the atmosphere over Russia, injuring hundreds… Reported by bizjournals 9 hours ago.

Tips on Helping the Earth

June 18, 2013, 3:35 pm

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Patch Manalapan, NJ -- Earth Day has recently passed.  Few made Earth Day Resolutions.  Fewer kept them.  

Here are a few suggestions for simple things you can do to make a difference: 

These will save energy, and reduce pollution and greenhouse gases: replace inca Reported by Patch 4 hours ago.

Supermoon Makes Year's Closest Swing Toward Earth on Saturday

June 18, 2013, 4:23 pm

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Patch Western Springs, IL --

*By Korrina Grom*

If the skies are clear Saturday night, the moon we'll see will appear super large and super close. 

It'll be what's called a "Supermoon," where the moon is at perigee — its closest approach to Earth, Reported by Patch 4 hours ago.

Primitive Set to Exhibit Collection of Rare Pre-Columbian Stone Votives That May Carry a Message from "Mother Earth"

June 18, 2013, 4:09 pm

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Primitive will feature a collection of rare pre-Columbian stone votives called Canopa as part of an exhibition of Ancient Stone from Around the World opening June 21. The votives may contain a message about our stewardship of earth.

Chicago, IL (PRWEB) June 18, 2013

Primitive, the well-known Chicago gallery, unveiled a collection of pre-Columbian stone votives from the farmlands of Peru known as Canopa. These small hand-chiseled containers are considered exceptionally rare and usually seen only in museums. Hundreds of years ago, they were created in honor of Pachamama, the Earth Goddess, by the Inca people in Peru. They will be exhibited as part of an exhibition of ancient stone from around the world.

In explaining why the votives are in the form of llamas, Glen Joffe, the owner of Primitive said, “There is an ancient Andean myth stating alpacas, the furry llama-like animals, entered the world after a goddess fell in love with a human. The goddess’ father consented to her inhabiting earth, but only if she brought her alpacas along and only if mankind afforded them special care. The goddess’ name was Pachamama, and she became known as “Mother Earth.” The hole in the backs of the votives was filled with offerings made of coca leaves and other substances to appease this Pachamama and insure a rich harvest. They were then abandoned in the fields and over time became buried in the earth, only to be excavated later.

Primitive’s collection of Canopa are exceptionally fine examples of stone carving, some of which still have some original offering material left inside the holes in their backs. The Canopa have been buried underground since the Incas farmed the Peruvian landscape. They were originally crafted during the 13th-14th Centuries, and never shown to the general public until the Primitive exhibit. These diminutive works of art represented many things to the ancient Peruvians – part of their cosmology, a tool used in a time honored ritual, and almost certainly, a magical object. In describing this unique ancient collection Glen Joffe also posed two provocative questions: “Could it be the Canopa convey a message from Pachamama? After all, it was with her consent the earth gave them back. And if so, what does she want to say?”

About Primitive: Located in downtown Chicago, Primitive presents authentic one-of-a-kind collections of furniture, artifacts, textiles, jewelry, fashion and artwork from around the world. Whether visiting in-person or on the web, you will find a vast colorful mosaic of authentic collections brought from some of the world’s hardest to reach places. Everything offered by Primitive is collectible, has a story, history, purpose and design heritage, and comes “from the hand and heart.” Reported by PRWeb 4 hours ago.

Cassini To Snap Earth From Saturn’s Neighborhood

June 18, 2013, 11:20 pm

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Earth will be captured in a photo on July 19, taken from Saturn’s neighborhood, by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Reported by IBTimes 21 hours ago.

NASA 'Grand Asteroid Challenge' Asks Citizen Scientists To Help Hunt Down Asteroids

June 19, 2013, 4:27 am

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*redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online*

NASA is looking for asteroids, and is seeking help from citizen scientists to locate the dangerous space rocks and reduce the potential threats they may pose to human populations.

"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near the Earth’s orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver.

The space agency introduced the ‘Asteroid Grand Challenge’ during a news conference at its Washington headquarters on Tuesday, and unveiled some of the details surrounding its comprehensive Asteroid Initiative.

"This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."

The Challenge also complements NASA’s recently announced mission to redirect an asteroid and send humans to study it.

Along with citizen scientists, the large-scale Asteroid Initiative will rely on multi-disciplinary collaborations and a variety of partnerships with other government agencies, international partners, industry and academia, NASA said.

The space agency released a request for information (RFI) that invites industry and potential partners to offer ideas on accomplishing NASA's goal to locate, redirect, and explore an asteroid, as well as find and plan for asteroid threats. The RFI is open for 30 days, and responses will be used to help develop public engagement opportunities and a September industry workshop.

Jason Kessler, NASA's program executive for the Asteroid Grand Challenge, said the project aims to stimulate the development of new tools and techniques.

For instance, it might encourage the development of nanosatellites equipped with expandable pop-out mirrors that could better detect dim asteroids, or of new software that better models an asteroid's shape, Kessler said in an interview with NBC News.

It might also establish school observation networks to bring the power of crowdsourcing to asteroid detection.

"I guarantee you there's a number of great ideas out there that I'd never come up with," Kessler said.

"We're being very deliberate in not saying 'this is the way it's going to be,' except to say this is how it's going to be to promote, engage and solicit ideas from the myriad number of great thinkers."

The B612 Foundation, which has been working for years to raise awareness about the threats posed by asteroids, issued a statement on Tuesday praising NASA’s latest initiative.

"This morning, the White House and NASA announced an Asteroid Grand Challenge, 'focused on finding all asteroid threats to human populations and knowing what to do with them.' This directly mirrors the mission of the non-profit private B612 Foundation and our Sentinel Mission, and we strongly applaud NASA and the Obama administration for their leadership in raising the visibility of this critical issue and for establishing detection of asteroids as a national priority,” said B612 chief executive Ed Lu, a former NASA astronaut.

“The administration has called for a team 'of the best and brightest' working on this together, and we look forward to increased collaboration and partnership.”

"There are one million asteroids with the potential to impact Earth with energy large enough to obliterate any major city. We believe that the goal must be to find these one million asteroids — anything less, in our opinion, would not meet the intent of this Grand Challenge." Reported by redOrbit 16 hours ago.

Cassini Spacecraft To Take Picture Of Earth From Nearly 900 Million Miles Away

June 19, 2013, 7:23 am

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*Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online*

The jointly operated NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens orbiter exploring Saturn is set to take a spectacular image of Earth this afternoon – July 19 – during a solar eclipse of the sixth planet. Earth will actually appear as a small, pale blue dot between the rings of Saturn during the mosaic imaging event.

NASA has invited the public to help acknowledge the interplanetary portrait by waving up to the skies when the image is taken. Cassini will begin taking images of Earth at 5:27 p.m. EDT and end about 15 minutes later. While Saturn will be eclipsing the sun from Cassini’s point of view, most of North America and part of the Atlantic Ocean will be in sunlight.

"While Earth will be only about a pixel in size from Cassini's vantage point 898 million (1.44 billion kilometers) away, the team is looking forward to giving the world a chance to see what their home looks like from Saturn," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California. "We hope you'll join us in waving at Saturn from Earth, so we can commemorate this special opportunity."

While Cassini has taken Earth’s image twice before – once in 2006 and once in 2012 – during its past nine years in orbit of Saturn, this will be the first time the orbiter will capture the Earth in its natural color, as human eyes would see it. This will also be the first time Cassini will capture our moon using its high-resolution camera. Because Saturn will be in eclipse from Cassini’s point of view, its sensitive detectors will be able to turn in the direction of the sun, where Earth will be, and snap images.

"This time, the images to be collected will capture, in natural color, a glimpse of our own planet next to Saturn and its rings on a day that will be the first time Earthlings know in advance their picture will be taken from a billion miles away," said Carolyn Porco, Cassini imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Porco added that she has been waiting six long years to have another moment to capture the Earth in a breathtaking mosaic. The 2006 image was heralded as one of Cassini’s “most beloved images,” yet Porco wants to “do it all over again, only better.”

Porco expressed that everyone around the globe has the chance to be part of this historic moment and “savor the uniqueness of our planet and the preciousness of the life on it.”

While examining Cassini’s flight path during the remainder of its mission at Saturn, Porco and staff members from CICLOPS found that July 19, 2013 would be the next best opportunity for the spacecraft to conduct a mosaic portrait of Saturn, its rings and Earth in the distance while hiding in the Saturnian shadows.

July 19 will also give astronomers the best chance to capture Saturn and its ringed system in both visible and infrared imagery.

"Looking back towards the sun through the rings highlights the tiniest of ring particles, whose width is comparable to the thickness of hair and which are difficult to see from ground-based telescopes," said Matt Hedman, a Cassini science team member based at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and a member of the rings working group. "We're particularly interested in seeing the structures within Saturn's dusty E ring, which is sculpted by the activity of the geysers on the moon Enceladus, Saturn's magnetic field and even solar radiation pressure."

While the imaging project has scientific implications in mind, Porco hopes that people everywhere on Earth will embrace the moment Earth poses for Cassini.

“My sincere wish is that people the world over stop what they're doing at the time the Earth picture is taken to revel in the sheer wonder of simply being alive on a pale blue dot of a planet, and to appreciate the ever-widening perspective of ourselves and our world that we have gained from our interplanetary explorations. We are dreamers, thinkers, and explorers, inhabiting one achingly beautiful planet, yearning for the sublime, and capable of the magnificent. Let's celebrate that, and make this one day a day the whole Earth smiles in unison,” she said in a statement.

The latest image will be a continuance of NASA space-based images of the Earth, the first ever becoming the 1968 “Earthrise” image taking during the Apollo 8 moon mission from about 240,000 miles away. Voyager 1 also took a snapshot of the “Pale Blue Dot” in 1990 from nearly 4 billion miles away, an event that Porco co-initiated and executed.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of Caltech, as part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, DC.

The Cassini orbiter and its two main cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team consists of scientists from the US, England, France and Germany. The imaging operations center is based at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. Reported by redOrbit 13 hours ago.

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Prolific Space Telescope Shut Down For Good

June 19, 2013, 5:15 am

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PARIS — Ground controllers put Europe's Herschel Space Observatory to sleep Monday (June 17), turning off the infrared observatory after squeezing every bit of engineering value from the spacecraft since it ceased scientific work in April.

Engineers sent the final commands to Herschel at 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT) in an emotional ceremony at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

"It's like saying goodbye to a friend," said Micha Schmidt, the European Space Agency (ESA)'s operations manager for Herschel.

For its last act, the $1.4 billion Herschel telescope fired rocket thrusters to drain its fuel tank as controllers watched the spacecraft helplessly struggle to regain control while its antennas and power-generating solar panels drifted away from their lock on the Earth and the sun.[Photos: Herschel Observatory's Amazing Images of Deep Space]

"It's a very curious situation in that we are intentionally seeing a spacecraft dying," Schmidt said.

Herschel exhausted its supply of cryogenic helium, required to chill its science instrumentation to a temperature near absolute zero, in April after nearly four years of continuous observations of the cosmos. The telescope's frigid operating temperature allowed its sensors to detect heat from some of the coldest parts of the universe veiled from the view of optical cameras by dust.

Herschel's primary mirror spans 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) in diameter — 50 percent larger than the mirror on the Hubble Space Telescope. The instrument, named after 18th century German astronomer William Herschel, who discovered the infrared spectrum of light, transformed the field of infrared astronomy, according to Göran Pilbratt, Herschel's project scientist.

Launched in May 2009, the mission's credits include the discovery of vast reservoirs of water vapor in disks of gas and dust around infant stars. The water locked in such planet-forming disks could seed oceans like those found on Earth, according to scientists.

Herschel's infrared instruments also took images of networks of dust and gas filaments within the Milky Way, yielding a view of one of the earliest stages of star formation. The thread-like filaments could eventually coalesce into compact cores leading to the birth of new stars, scientists say.

But with Herschel's helium tank empty, the telescope's utility to scientists ended.

"The mission was planned for a duration of three-and-a-half years," Schmidt said. "We have been operating for four years, and the mission is a success."

Artist impression of the Herschel spacecraft, which will an unprecedented view of the cold universe, bridging the gap between what can be observed in the infrared from the ground and earlier space missions of this kind.




Engineers programmed a rocket burn May 13 to guide Herschel away from its operating post at the L2 point, a gravitationally stable location about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. The maneuver put the spacecraft into orbit around the sun on a trajectory that will not return to the vicinity of Earth for thousands of years, Pilbratt said.

During the last six weeks, controllers in Darmstadt put Herschel through a series of tests to push the craft's satellite platform and instruments to the limits.

"These are things you would never want to do on a live spacecraft because if you screw it up, you're going to make a lot of enemies," said Fabio Favata, head of ESA's science planning and community coordination office. "But for a spacecraft which has outlived its prime mission, it's something you can do."

ESA called for ideas across Europe on how to use Herschel as a testbed, and received proposals from satellite control teams, astronomers and designers of the ExoMars mission to the Red Planet and Euclid, ESA's next flagship-class space telescope.

Controllers switched Herschel to its backup systems to verify they were still functional after four years in space. Teams in charge of Herschel's three science payloads analyzed diagnostic data to gauge the health of the instrumentation, Schmidt said.

The last test involved turning Herschel away from its normal pointing mode and checking the ability of the spacecraft's onboard computer to autonomously detect and correct the error.

"This was quite interesting and a lot of fun," Schmidt said. "This was, more or less, the last test. It was the most dangerous test which we put toward the end of the test campaign."

Programmers sent commands to Herschel last week for Monday's fuel-draining engine burn, which was expected to put the spacecraft in a tumble leading to the loss of electricity aboard the observatory, which requires its solar panels to point toward the sun to generate power.

Controllers' last act was to transmit a command to Herschel to turn off its transponder and never turn its radio on again, according to Schmidt.

Martin Kessler, head of ESA's science operations department, sends the final command to the Herschel space telescope from the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

"I have the feeling that the spacecraft and the teams controlling the spacecraft are finished," Schmidt said. "We are turning off the lights now. We have delivered our package to astronomers around the world, who have all the data and can do what they want with it."

Pilbratt said the Herschel mission is funded by ESA through 2017 to process the telescope's vast data archive and preserve it for future scientists.

According to ESA, Herschel made 35,000 science observations and collected more than 25,000 hours of science data from 2009 until 2013.

"This is not the end of the mission," Pilbratt said. "It is the end of spacecraft operations."

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

· The Herschel Space Observatory Story | Video
· Gallery: The Infrared Universe Seen by Spitzer Telescope
· Giant Space Telescopes of the Future (Infographic)

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Reported by Huffington Post 15 hours ago.

NASA Needs Your Help To Find Earth-Destroying Asteroids

June 19, 2013, 10:45 am

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Welcome to the NASA Grand Challenge, where everyone from government agencies to citizen scientists will compete to figure out the best way to detect and study earth-threatening asteroids.

This is a real thing that is happening, and it's all complimentary to the agency's initiative to lasso an asteroid for further study.

NASA loves studying asteroids for two big reasons: first, one that's large enough could destroy all life on earth upon impact. And second, we might be able to use them as rest stops to Mars.

And while we're currently fresh out of space-going manned vehicles, NASA has grand plans to snag an asteroid by 2019, with a mission to Mars some time after 2020 (they've even picked some potential astronauts for those missions). A grand plan needs a Grand Challenge (which is actually a term from the Obama administration) to get things going, so here's how you could help NASA out:

"NASA already is working to find asteroids that might be a threat to our planet, and while we have found 95 percent of the large asteroids near the Earth's orbit, we need to find all those that might be a threat to Earth," said NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. "This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats. We will also harness public engagement, open innovation and citizen science to help solve this global problem."

Along with backyard astronomers, NASA will invite "government agencies, international partners, industry, and academia" to take part in the challenge.

No, it's not very specific. But NASA has promised to reveal more in the coming months, including on financial initiatives to get things going. But the basics are already clear: find killer asteroids, and tell NASA. So put on your thinking caps. Your planet needs you.

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*More From The Atlantic Wire:*
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*SEE ALSO: Obama Wants To Spend $100 Million To Lasso An Asteroid — Here's How It Could Actually Work*

Join the conversation about this story »

 
 
 
  Reported by Business Insider 9 hours ago.

One Teacher That Won't Give Up on a Few Students, No Matter How Great the Challenge.The Grid Earth Project Supports Him

June 19, 2013, 11:51 am

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Cormen Wupip recently gave up a lucrative position, and now paddles 5 miles across a lagoon in order to teach the 10 stents in Fireburn Village. Most would call it a waste of time but Cormen Wupip and his students don't see it that way.

Firreburn, Corozal District, Belize Central America (PRWEB) June 19, 2013

He was teaching in a private school in San Pedro, doing pretty well, by local standards. Although he had attained a teaching certificate, he did not have a Bachelor's Degree which limited his potential and would not enable him to move up through the ranks in the teaching system.

Cormen dedicated himself to the task of obtaining that degree and after much hard work, dedication and faith, he did just that. Now faced with a choice of how to proceed in his future, Cormen took Mr. Frost's proverbial " road not taken " (and we mean really not taken).

Instead of moving up through the ranks of pay and prestige that most academics would follow, Cormen leaves his family, in the nearest village with conveniences, late on Sunday, in order to make the journey to a remote village called Fireburn. He returns on Friday after school. This is no ordinary commute.

The journey includes a road, two crank bridges, a 5 mile canoe trip, then a hike through the jungle. During the week he lives in a small room attached to the school house, and lives on tortillas and beans.

Fireburn has never had a student pass the basic Primary School Exam, yet Cormen felt that this post was his calling. Recently Cormen and every family in Fireburn received solar powered WakaWaka Lights from the Grid Earth Project, which like Cormen doesn't mind traveling the road not taken. Whether a village consists of one hundred children or 10, they all deserve the same chance at a safe education.

The use of candles and other dangerous fire based lighting results in millions of deaths annually, through burns and respiratory illnesses. This is happening in approximately one quarter of the world - deaths and illnesses that are unnecessary and that can be stopped today. Cormen expects that the use of the new solar lights will increase his students' performance dramatically, as most are forced to do what homework they can by candle light, if they have it.

After just one year of teach in Fireburn three of the students eligible passed the exam. The Village is pooling together and one of the students will be going on to College. That student wants to study education, and assures Cormen that if he will hang on long enough, she will return to Fireburn, and relieve him of the Teaching post.

Where never before has any student passed the basic exams, education is now flourishing. No matter how small. And no child will ever again risk their safety in order to obtain an education in Fireburn Village.

To find out more about the Grid Earth Project, visit http://www.GridEarth.org. Reported by PRWeb 8 hours ago.

NASA Cassini probe to photograph Earth from 898 million miles away

June 19, 2013, 12:08 pm

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Nasa’s Cassini spacecraft will take an image of Earth from 1.44bn kilometres away. From there, our planet will look like the expected images of alien earths around other stars Nasa takes pictures of Earth all the time – but not like this. The Cassini spacecraft is in orbit around Saturn, and so is currently 1.44bn kilometres away. From that distance, Earth is only going to appear as a pixel or two across. The image, which [...] Reported by Raw Story 8 hours ago.

Mars May Have Had Oxygen-Rich Past

June 19, 2013, 7:15 pm

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*Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online *

Oxford University scientists reported in the journal Nature that Mars may have had an oxygen-rich atmosphere four billion years ago.

The team examined differences between Martian meteorites and surface rocks examined by NASA's Spirit rover in the Gusev crater on Mars. Surface rocks are five times richer in nickel than the meteorites, which created some mystery for scientists as to whether the meteorites are typical volcanic products of the Red Planet.

"What we have shown is that both meteorites and surface volcanic rocks are consistent with similar origins in the deep interior of Mars but that the surface rocks come from a more oxygen-rich environment, probably caused by recycling of oxygen-rich materials into the interior," said Professor Bernard Wood, of Oxford University's Department of Earth Sciences, who led the research. "This result is surprising because while the meteorites are geologically 'young', around 180 million to 1400 million years old, the Spirit rover was analyzing a very old part of Mars, more than 3700 million years old."

The team believes the differences between the meteorites and rocks arise through a process known as subduction. This is when material is recycled into the interior of the planet.

The researchers suggest the Martian surface was oxidized very early in the history of the planet and this oxygen-rich material was drawn into the shallow interior and recycled back to the surface during eruptions four billion years ago. The meteorites are much younger volcanic rocks that emerged from deeper within the planet, and so were less influenced by this process.

"The implication is that Mars had an oxygen-rich atmosphere at a time, about 4000 million years ago, well before the rise of atmospheric oxygen on Earth around 2500 million years ago. As oxidation is what gives Mars its distinctive color it is likely that the 'red planet' was wet, warm and rusty billions of years before Earth's atmosphere became oxygen rich."

NASA's Spirit rover mission came to an end after the spacecraft found itself stuck on Mars. Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010 and NASA later declared it would not be trying to revive the rover. The rover launched alongside Opportunity, which remains operational along with NASA's newer Curiosity rover. Reported by redOrbit 58 minutes ago.