Source: www.nytimes.com --- Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Wang Lin, a practitioner of qigong, says Chinese government charges of swindling, dodging taxes and cavorting with criminals are part of a vendetta against him. ? ? ? ? ...
Jeff Bauman cbs news Boston.com NBA Playoffs 2013 Watertown Boston npr Oblivion
Saturn's gravitational pull is responsible for the extraordinary hot geysers on the Enceladus moon that spew water out into space.
The particles are ejected from active fissures known as "tiger stripes" at Enceladus's south pole.
Salt in the plumes suggest the water may come from a liquid ocean beneath its icy shell.
But it had been unclear what was ultimately driving the geological activity on this moon.
Writing in Nature, the team observed that the plume was four times brighter when Enceladus was furthest from Saturn.
Enceladus orbits around Saturn in a distorted, elliptical shape rather than a circular one. This causes the moon to be pulled and squeezed by Saturn's gravity, which heats its interior and enables geological activity on the icy moon.
In 2005 scientists discovered that the surface of this 500km-wide moon was geologically active. Since then they have looked to confirm how Saturn influences the stresses on its surface.
Now a team has tracked the activity of Enceladus through its orbit by analysing 252 images from the Cassini spacecraft, controlling for factors that affect its brightness.
Led by Matthew Hedman at Cornell University, US, the researchers looked at whether the intensity of the plumes from Enceladus's south pole was changing.
When Enceladus went around its slightly elliptical orbit, "the plume was much brighter when it was furthest from Saturn, than when it was closest to the planet", explained Dr Hedman.
He added: "What this tells us is that Saturn's tides are having a significant effect on how much material can escape from beneath Enceladus.
"Previous models predicted that when Enceladus was near the point most distant from Saturn, the cracks would be pulled open or widened, and the most amount of liquid would escape. This is the first observational data we have that shows quite clearly that is the case."
Habitable environmentHe explained that how much the moon responded to these tidal forces could give insight into the "rigidity of its interior" which could help scientists discover what's going on beneath its surface, and where the water vapour and ice streams came from.
"Nobody fully understands why Enceladus is geologically active, but this plume has interesting potential applications for trying to understand what could be a habitable environment," Dr Hedman addded.
Nasa planetary scientist Terry Hurford, who first made tidal stress predictions about Enceladus's cracks in 2007, said it was a great piece of work that "ties the story together" of how the stresses on its surface were formed.
He said there were "big questions" about Enceladus and whether it had a liquid ocean.
"On the model I used to predict this variability in the stresses, I assume there's a global ocean. I think since the current observations are in line with the prediction it might be evidence of a global ocean and not just a local sea.
"Anywhere you have liquid water, there's a chance it could be habitable. What's even more exciting is that because of the material on the surface, you could sample what's in the liquid to learn more about it, unlike Europa which has a few kilometres of ice on top of its ocean," Dr Hurford told BBC News.
In an accompanying news and views article, John Spencer of the Southwest Research Institute, US, said that Enceladus was one of the few places beyond Earth "where we can watch geology happen in real time, giving us a primer for understanding other, less active, icy worlds".
"The likely presence of liquid water and complex organic chemistry makes Enceladus especially intriguing as a potential habitat for extraterrestrial life, providing additional motivation for investigating its interior."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23517808#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
espn3 pacers Grumpy Cat Boston Strong concert john tortorella the voice miranda lambert
DJIBOUTI (Reuters) - Djibouti's economy will grow 5 percent this year then accelerate towards 6 percent by 2016 but needs to diversify and tackle unemployment if it is to lift almost half its population out of extreme poverty, the IMF said.
The tiny Red sea state, a key ally in the West's fight against militant Islam and piracy, also needs to push ahead with economic reforms, the International Monetary Fund said.
"The bulk of the population has benefited little from the recent economic growth," the IMF said late on Wednesday, adding that the economy grew 4.8 percent in 2012.
Commodity price shocks and domestic political instability posed the main risks to expansion this year, it said.
Djibouti's national output last year relied heavily on activity at its DP World-run port, transit trade with neighbouring landlocked Ethiopia and transhipment activity.
The IMF said inflation would slow further to 2.5 percent in 2013 from 3.7 percent last year when steadier international food prices and lower power tariffs for low-consumption households helped ease price pressures on the previous 12 months.
However, persistent budget deficits underscored the need for Djibouti to expand its tax base and strengthen tax administration.
"Priority should also be given to reforming the fuel pricing mechanism, especially replacing the costly fuel subsidies with well-targeted social safety nets, and to re-examining the tax exemptions system," the IMF said.
President Ismail Omar Guelleh's ruling Union for the Presidential Majority party comfortably won in February a parliamentary election which the opposition said was rigged, unleashing a wave of protests in the capital.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/djibouti-needs-diversify-economy-reduce-extreme-poverty-imf-093456341.html
Dutch photographer Jacqueline Hassink has been inside some of the most important and cloistered rooms in the world. But these aren't science labs or political offices?they're the opulent boardrooms of Europe's largest companies, which Hassink photographed as part of a project called The Table of Power.
Source: http://gizmodo.com/boardrooms-of-power-inside-the-inner-sanctums-of-fortu-977035969
2012 nfl draft jazz fest zurich classic selena lamichael james lamichael james acl
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Ai7bFoqPvqM/130730123415.htm
Joseph Gordon-Levitt space shuttle Torrey Smith Brother fiona apple CJ Spiller tracy morgan Chase.com
By David Ferguson
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 15:08 EDT
?
On Wednesday afternoon?s edition of ?Your World with Neil Cavuto,? host Neil Cavuto said that U.S. workers are spoiled and greedy because they want a higher minimum wage. He pointed to his own first job making two dollars an hour as an example of a job that Americans should be thankful to take.
?Get ready,? he said, ?for me to sound like the old fart that I am.?
?It?s like jobs aren?t enough these days,? he opined. ?They damn well better pay well or folks just really going to apply for them at all. Did I ever tell you that when I was a kid, you?d be grateful for any job you could find. Now a lot of kids are just the opposite, turning up their nose at fast food jobs that go begging at 11 bucks an hour. It?s true!?
?Only in America today,? he continued, ?can our politicians bemoan a livable wage, forgetting a lot of folks would be grateful for any wage, any chance, any job, anytime. All I know is as soon as I turned 16 and heard a fast food chain called Arthur Treacher?s was opening a store in my town of Danbury, Connecticut, I stood in a line for a position ? any position. I got the job, and soon rocketed to relief manager, then weekend manager, then by 16 and a half, full-time store manager! And it all started at two bucks an hour. And all the fish I could eat.?
Mother Jones writer Tim Murphy said, ?That?s a good story. But the math makes the opposite point Cavuto intended.?
Adjusted for inflation, Cavuto?s two dollars an hour in 1974 would be about $9.47 today, which is 28 cents more than the highest minimum wage in the country, Washington state?s $9.19 per hour. In Connecticut, the minimum wage is only $7.25, meaning workers who start at that same Arthur Treacher?s restaurant now earn about $1.40 per hour in 1974 Cavuto-dollars.
Mother Jones noted that Cavuto?s summer job at 16 ? living with his parents and having only discretionary expenses ? is a far cry from the situation faced by most fast food workers today. The median age of men working in fast food restaurants in the U.S. is currently 28. For women, it?s 32.
Watch the video, embedded below via Fox News:
?
?
?
?
?
pranks pregnancy test april fools day 2012 ja rule amityville horror acm passover recipes
1 hour ago
GUS RUELAS / Reuters file
Anderson Cooper.
A man who reportedly had been stalking newsman Anderson Cooper was being held on $75,000 bail in Manhattan Criminal Court over the weekend, according to the New York Daily News.
Alex Hausner is accused of leaving numerous phone calls at Cooper and his partner Benjamin Maisani's home in the city, and trying to break into the couple's home at least four times over a six-month period that began in January, said the complaint.
One such visit to their home reportedly involved Hausner standing outside the apartment and banging "with his foot on the door numerous times," said the court papers.
He's also accused of tracking Cooper down at his job at CNN and left a threatening call to security on Friday, telling the guard, "The f---ing worst is coming."
He was charged with menacing, stalking, aggravated harassment and given an order not to contact Cooper.
The New York Post indicates the harassment has been going on for much longer than since January, saying Hausner ? who the paper says describes himself as "a gay, Jewish white supermacist" ? has been pursuing Cooper since 2008.
Hausner is next due in court on Aug. 8.
Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/anderson-coopers-alleged-stalker-arrested-new-york-6C10791939
