Saturday, January 25, 2014
10 Strange Secrets Of The Moon
The Moon is humanity’s nearest companion in our travels in space and the only celestial body that we have had the chance to actually visit. Still, despite its relative closeness and familiarity, our satellite continues to hold many interesting secrets. From its scientific strangeness to the many ways it affects our lives, the Moon is a mystery that is definitely worth a closer look.
10Moonquakes
The frightening thing about moonquakes is that we have no real idea of what causes them. Earth’s earthquakes are usually caused by the movement of tectonic plates, but the Moon doesn’t have any active plate tectonics. Some researchers think they may have some link to Earth’s tidal activity, which is caused by the Moon’s pull. However, this theory is inconclusive, as the tidal forces affect the entirety of the Moon, but moonquakes are usually localized.
9The “Twin Planet”
Because of its large size, the Moon doesn’t actually orbit Earth at all. Instead, Earth and Moon orbit each other, around a point between them. This point iscalled a barycenter, and the illusion the Moon is actually orbiting Earth comes from the fact that the barycenter is currently located inside the Earth’s crust. The fact that the barycenter remains inside the Earth is pretty much the only reason Earth and Moon aren’t classified as a twin planet, instead of a planet and its satellite. However, this may change in the future.
8Moon Trash
Don’t worry, though—it’s not as if the astronauts have been purposely littering the place and throwing sandwich wrappers and banana peels everywhere. Most of that garbage is debris from various experiments, space probes and lunar rovers. Some of it is, in fact, still functional today. There is also some real trash, however, such as astronaut poop containers. Gross.
7The Moon Is A Burial Ground
Shoemaker wanted to be an astronaut himself, but was turned down because of a minor medical issue. Throughout his life, this remained his biggest disappointment. Still, hoping against hope, Shoemaker kept on dreaming that he would some day visit the Moon. When he died, NASAfulfilled his most precious wish and sent his ashes to the Moon with the Lunar Prospector in 1998. His ashes remain there, scattered among moon dust.
6Lunar Anomalies
Some of the pictures taken by the various vessels that have visited it show some very strange things on the Moon’s surface. Many of these images seem to show artificial constructs that range from tiny canister-like shapes to the “Shard,” which appears to be a towering structure that could be at
Friday, January 24, 2014
.jpg)
GHOST ship crewed only by CANNIBAL rats feared to be heading for Scottish coast
THE hulk of cruise ship Lyubov Orlova has been adrift in the North Atlantic since 2012 with nothing on board but hungry vermin.
A GHOST ship crewed only by CANNIBAL rats is feared to be heading for Britain.
The hulk of cruise ship Lyubov Orlova has been adrift in the North Atlantic for the past year after being cut loose off the coast of Canada.
But now coastguards are reportedly worried the recent storms may have driven her thousands of miles towards our own coastline.
The 300ft vessel, built 40 years ago in the Soviet Union, has nothing aboard but packs of disease-ridden rodents who are forced to prey on one another to survive.
Her current position is unknown despite several high-level searches.
Last year satellites picked up an unidentified blip off Scotland large enough to be the ship — but search planes found nothing.
As well as the authorities, salvage hunters — after the 4,250-ton vessel's £600,000 value as scrap — are scouring the seas for any trace of her.
They believe the liner is still afloat because its life-raft transmitters have not been activated.
If the ship makes landfall it is likely to be on the west coast of Ireland, Scotland or the far southern tip of England.
One searcher, Belgian Pim de Rhoodes, said: "She is floating around out there somewhere.
"There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other.
"If I get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison."
Named after a Russian actress, the Lyubov Orlova carried up to 110 passengers to destinations across the globe, including the polar regions.
However, in 2010 she was impounded in Newfoundland, Canada in a row over debts and deserted by her unpaid crew.
After two years tied up in port, the decision was taken to tow her to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean where she would be scrapped.
But in heavy seas, the tow-line to a tug broke, prompting the Canadian government to send out another ship to drag her far out to sea and release her.
"There have been huge storms in recent months but it takes a lot to sink a vessel as big as that," said Irish coastguard chief Chris Reynolds.
"We must stay vigilant."
And it has been in the news before:
http://www.derrydaily.net/2013/10/23/could-missing-rat-infested-ghost-ship-be-off-the-derry-coast/
More About SHIPS
A GHOST ship crewed only by CANNIBAL rats is feared to be heading for Britain.
The hulk of cruise ship Lyubov Orlova has been adrift in the North Atlantic for the past year after being cut loose off the coast of Canada.
But now coastguards are reportedly worried the recent storms may have driven her thousands of miles towards our own coastline.
The 300ft vessel, built 40 years ago in the Soviet Union, has nothing aboard but packs of disease-ridden rodents who are forced to prey on one another to survive.
Her current position is unknown despite several high-level searches.
Last year satellites picked up an unidentified blip off Scotland large enough to be the ship — but search planes found nothing.
As well as the authorities, salvage hunters — after the 4,250-ton vessel's £600,000 value as scrap — are scouring the seas for any trace of her.
They believe the liner is still afloat because its life-raft transmitters have not been activated.
If the ship makes landfall it is likely to be on the west coast of Ireland, Scotland or the far southern tip of England.
One searcher, Belgian Pim de Rhoodes, said: "She is floating around out there somewhere.
"There will be a lot of rats and they eat each other.
"If I get aboard I'll have to lace everywhere with poison."
Named after a Russian actress, the Lyubov Orlova carried up to 110 passengers to destinations across the globe, including the polar regions.
However, in 2010 she was impounded in Newfoundland, Canada in a row over debts and deserted by her unpaid crew.
After two years tied up in port, the decision was taken to tow her to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean where she would be scrapped.
But in heavy seas, the tow-line to a tug broke, prompting the Canadian government to send out another ship to drag her far out to sea and release her.
"There have been huge storms in recent months but it takes a lot to sink a vessel as big as that," said Irish coastguard chief Chris Reynolds.
"We must stay vigilant."
And it has been in the news before:
http://www.derrydaily.net/2013/10/23/could-missing-rat-infested-ghost-ship-be-off-the-derry-coast/
More About SHIPS
Wendy Davis’ Ex Asked a Court to Order Her Not to Use Drugs Before Seeing Her Kids
It is her ex-husband who talked to a left-of-center Dallas reporter. It is also her ex-husband who asked a Texas District Court to issue a temporary restraining order against Wendy Davis in 2003.
In that order, the judge ordered that Wendy Davis “be immediately restrained from . . . using illegal drugs or consuming alcohol within 24 hours before or during the period of possession of or access to the child.”
Speaking of the child, at the time her daughter requested her father serve as her managing conservator.
It appears that Wendy Davis did not just leave out key details. Nor does it appear that Davis is just being held to a different standard than a man. It appears there is much more to Wendy Davis than meets the eye.
h/t: http://www.redstate.com/2014/01/20/wendy-daviss-ex-asked-a-court-to-order-her-not-to-use-drugs-before-seeing-her-kids/
Beware Of Fartkontrol..
So The Vikings have invented Fartkontrol... Guess I need to come up with a new saying instead of, "Here comes the hammer of Thor..."
The Great Manta
Smith & Wesson to stop selling guns in California due to microstamping law
Smith & Wesson announced it will stop selling its handguns in California rather than manufacture them to comply with the new microstamping law. The other publicly traded firearms manufacturer in the U.S., Sturm, Ruger, also said this month that it will stop new sales to California.... Read The Rest HERE
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Driving Directions To Hotel California..
I would change #2 to: Continue To Limbo
Because of the line: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...
"Hotel California"
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (Any time of year)
You can find it here
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
So I called up the Captain,
"Please bring me my wine"
He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine"
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...
Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)
Bring your alibis
Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
"Relax, " said the night man,
"We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave! "
ooh, ooh, ooh, I just found this, suggesting that the song is about Satanism? http://blackjacketsymphony.wordpress.com/2012/05/17/revisit-the-hotel-california/ who knew?
Is The Witch Hunt In Wisconsin Over?
A judge blocks subpoenas against conservative allies of Scott Walker.
Now we learn that Judge Gregory A. Peterson ruled on Friday that at least some of those subpoenas were improper. They "do not show probable cause that the moving parties committed any violations of the campaign finance laws," he wrote. His opinion remains under seal but we obtained a copy.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the anti-free speech witch hunt is over.
Here:
Chalk up a big victory for the First Amendment. On Friday a Wisconsin judge struck a major blow for free political speech when he quashed subpoenas to conservative groups and ordered the return of property to the targets of a so-called John Doe campaign-finance probe.
John Doe probes operate much like grand juries, allowing prosecutors to issue subpoenas and conduct searches while gag orders require the targets to keep quiet. We wrote about the kitchen-sink subpoenas and morning raids by special prosecutor Francis Schmitz that targeted dozens of conservative groups that participated in the battle to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker ("Wisconsin Political Speech Raid," Nov. 16, 2013).
Now we learn that Judge Gregory A. Peterson ruled on Friday that at least some of those subpoenas were improper. They "do not show probable cause that the moving parties committed any violations of the campaign finance laws," he wrote. His opinion remains under seal but we obtained a copy.
The quashed subpoenas were sent to Friends of Scott Walker, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Inc., the Wisconsin Club for Growth, and Citizens for a Strong America, as well as their officers and directors. Judge Peterson's order doesn't apply to other subpoena targets, but they can presumably get the same result if they file a motion with the judge and have a similar factual basis.
The order is all the more remarkable because it bluntly rejects the prosecutor's theory of illegal coordination between the groups and the Walker campaign. Wisconsin's campaign finance statutes ban coordination between independent groups and candidates for a "political purpose." But a political purpose "requires express advocacy," the judge wrote, and express advocacy means directly advocating the election or defeat of a candidate.
"There is no evidence of express advocacy" and therefore "the subpoenas fail to show probable cause that a crime was committed," Judge Peterson wrote. Even "the State is not claiming that any of the independent organizations expressly
Astronomers Capture The First Image Of The Mysterious Web That Connects All Galaxies In The Universe
For the first time, astronomers were able to see a string of hot gas known as a filament that is thought to be part of the mysterious underlying structure that dictates the layout of all the stars and galaxies in our universe.
Scientists believe that matter in the universe is arranged into a gigantic web-like structure. This is called the cosmic web.
There are signatures of this structure in the remaining radiation from the Big Bang and in the layout of the universe itself. Without some mysterious force pulling visible matter into this web, galaxies would be randomly scattered across the universe. But they aren't.
We can see that galaxies are found in groups and those groups come together in larger clusters.
Computer models tell us that those galaxy clusters are linked by long filaments of hot gas and dark matter — a mystery substance that we can't see because it doesn't radiate or scatter light but that makes up most of the web.
It's believed that gas and dark matter flow along the filaments to form clumps of galaxies where the strands intersect. So filaments are important because they represent what the universe looks like on a large scale. The problem is that, even though we should technically be able to see hot gas filaments, they are really hard to detect.
To find this strand of gas, astronomers where able to take advantage of an extremely bright mass of energy and light known as a quasar.
The light from a quasar located 10 billion light-years-away acted like a "flashlight" to make the surrounding gas glow, researchers report Jan. 19 in the journal Nature. This boosted the Lyman alpha radiation that hydrogen gas emits to detectable levels over a huge swath of the region.
The researchers were able to figure out the wavelength of the Lyman alpha radiation emitted by the gas and used the Keck telescope in Hawaii to get an image at that wavelength.
Scientists believe that matter in the universe is arranged into a gigantic web-like structure. This is called the cosmic web.
There are signatures of this structure in the remaining radiation from the Big Bang and in the layout of the universe itself. Without some mysterious force pulling visible matter into this web, galaxies would be randomly scattered across the universe. But they aren't.
We can see that galaxies are found in groups and those groups come together in larger clusters.
Computer models tell us that those galaxy clusters are linked by long filaments of hot gas and dark matter — a mystery substance that we can't see because it doesn't radiate or scatter light but that makes up most of the web.
It's believed that gas and dark matter flow along the filaments to form clumps of galaxies where the strands intersect. So filaments are important because they represent what the universe looks like on a large scale. The problem is that, even though we should technically be able to see hot gas filaments, they are really hard to detect.
To find this strand of gas, astronomers where able to take advantage of an extremely bright mass of energy and light known as a quasar.
The light from a quasar located 10 billion light-years-away acted like a "flashlight" to make the surrounding gas glow, researchers report Jan. 19 in the journal Nature. This boosted the Lyman alpha radiation that hydrogen gas emits to detectable levels over a huge swath of the region.
The researchers were able to figure out the wavelength of the Lyman alpha radiation emitted by the gas and used the Keck telescope in Hawaii to get an image at that wavelength.
What they were able to see is a cloud of gas extending two million light years across intergalactic space — the largest ever found. And it wasn't just a diffuse cloud, there are areas where there is more gas and areas of darker, emptier space. The gas-filled areas are filament, while the emptier areas are the gaps between filaments and galaxy clusters.
"This is a very exceptional object," first author Sebastiano Cantalupo, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Cruz said in a statement. "It's huge, at least twice as large as any nebula detected before, and it extends well beyond the galactic environment of the quasar."
Researchers think that the gas filament is even more extended since they only see the part that is illuminated by the radiation from the quasar.
The research still "provides a terrific insight into the overall structure of our universe," co-author J. Xavier Prochaska, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz said in statement, since the "quasar is illuminating diffuse gas on scales well beyond any we've seen before, giving us the first picture of extended gas between galaxies."
"This is a very exceptional object," first author Sebastiano Cantalupo, a postdoctoral fellow at UC Santa Cruz said in a statement. "It's huge, at least twice as large as any nebula detected before, and it extends well beyond the galactic environment of the quasar."
Researchers think that the gas filament is even more extended since they only see the part that is illuminated by the radiation from the quasar.
The research still "provides a terrific insight into the overall structure of our universe," co-author J. Xavier Prochaska, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz said in statement, since the "quasar is illuminating diffuse gas on scales well beyond any we've seen before, giving us the first picture of extended gas between galaxies."
