THE largest emission of radiation by the sun in 15 years could disrupt mobile telephone communications as well as television and radio reception, scientists said today. Large solar flares were unleashed when energy stored in magnetic fields above sunspots was suddenly released, said scientists at Britain's Royal Astronomical Society. The effects of the solar flares have been seen at different points on Earth, including brilliant auroras over parts of Britain. "Flares can affect shortwave communications and satellites in the Earth's orbit which could mean problems for phones, television and radio signals," said Peter Bond, spokesman for the Royal Astronomical Society. "The flares have caused a huge amount of geo-magnetic activity as the magnetic field takes a while to settle," he said. It was the largest radiation storm since October 1989, according to experts.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/22/2005 2:48:03 PM ||
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Kinda suspicious, this happening right after Bushitler(tm) gets inaugurated, eh? On the other hand, it may just be Chainey and those zany Haliburtoneers charging up the EarthQuake Machine. Dollars to donuts, they have already plugged in the lat & long for Tehran.
Rummaging in the dirt, Costas Kakoseos pulls up pieces of history steeped in legend.
It is an archaeological site dubbed "Hercules' House" — the place, experts say, that the ancient Greeks may have held to be the mythological hero's birthplace.
Thebes, an unattractive town about 70 kilometers (about 45 miles) north of Athens, stands on a spectacular buried heritage. The latest excavation, begun last February, revealed the remains of an altar and ancient dwellings used for more than 3,000 years.
Vassilis Aravantinos, head of the regional archaeological service, said finds on the site tally with descriptions by the poet Pindar some 2,500 years ago of a shrine to Hercules built on his legendary birthplace.
"We had waited for many years for this discovery but it never came... These findings support the ancient writings," Aravantinos said. "There are signs of worship of Hercules."
Small bronze figures, including one showing Hercules grappling with a lion — both characters standing as if posing for a photograph — are a key piece of evidence.
While shaking soil through a mesh-bottomed crate, Kakoseos throws clay chips — fragments of ancient pots — into a plastic bag. A few are put aside and marked with labels for special attention.
"We're still finding beads, bones and coins. There are so many, you can't imagine," said Kakoseos, who performs much of the labor.
The illegitimate son of almighty Zeus, Hercules was best known for the 12 labors imposed on him by the gods, including slaying a lion and a nine-headed serpent.
With most of the 335-square-meter site explored, archaeologists have recovered several hundred ceramic vessels, small bronze statues, animal bones, and a thick layer of ash created from burning animals sacrificed to the gods. Objects discovered date from the third millennium BC to the late Byzantine era. The dig and the findings began when construction workers were moving earth to build a hotel.
Hotel construction has been suspended indefinitely. Development in this ancient town comes with the risk of finding more history in the foundations.
"Every bit of earth that is moved, we take a look at," said Aravantinos, whose archaeological service is currently excavating half a dozen Theban sites. "We have to."
He said the latest discovery was long sought by archaeologists because of the legends about Hercules' birthplace.
Other finds are still being pieced together at a small workshop beside Thebes' tiny museum, where cats roam around ancient marble statues in the courtyard and the inside rooms are packed with some of the finest artifacts in Greece. Restorers, dressed and equipped like dentists, repair the statuettes and assemble vases and other pottery from an enormous array of fragments. Their room is filled with glued remains in stacked crates, and the tables littered with solvents, scalpels and adhesives.
The discoveries from "Hercules' House" will not be properly displayed until a new museum — still in the planning stage — is built. Archaeologists are still attempting to decipher a strange, circular, ring-like metal object, which the ancient Greeks called a "Chakram", found at the site.
Well, this explains the 25% on tranqs, via Lucianne: IT IS official: the French are a nation of depressed pessimists, wracked with self-doubt and unable to see a positive future. This gloomy portrait of the current state of Gallic morale - or rather the lack of it - was made public yesterday in a damning report by France's prefects, the country's top administrators. "The French no longer believe in anything," the report said. "That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying to be heard any more."
#3
I wouldnt take this report seriously. The French kvetching about their decline, pessimism, cynicism et cetera is a daily part of French life. This "report" states nothing new. The intellectuals always seem to fret at the "lost" of France even during its height as a Western Power.
Indeed, a French who isnt pessimistic and cynical isnt a Frenchman.
#4
Ironic. The French are pessimists whose socialist ideology is built on an assumption of the perfectability of man and the Americans are optomists and have a Smithian ideology built on the assumption of man's corruptability.
What is amazing is that it has taken the frogs 200 years to figure out they are wrong. No wonder they are depressed.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 8:10 Comments ||
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It's indeed new and disturbing. The French suicide rate is the highest in Europe, and increasing. It may seem odd to Americans who've been fed distortions by francophiliac MSM journos for years, but the French have a massive inferiority complex and are increasingly convinced of what Rantburgers have long known: their way of life is an anachronism, their influence in Europe is waning and they are unable to cast much weight in a world whose axis of power runs from Washington to Tokyo to Beijing and Delhi.
The French ever think that everying in France including themselves, their wines and their dog shit is the best of the best of the best of the best. In fact, in order to kill a Frenchman you have to shoot above his head, in his superiority complex.
#7
That's a pity. There's much we can adopt from France, notably a better work-life balance, better diets, high-speed rail travel and a greater appreciation for history and for preserving lovely buildings and towns instead of bulldozing them (not even the Manassas/BullRun battlefield can be spared the developers' onslaught, acc to Congress).
The best way to preserve what's best about transatlantic, specifically US-French, cooperation IMHO would be for US thought leaders and diplomats to ignore the aging, 1968er mandarins of Le Monde and the NYT and start to appeal directly to the next generation.
Stress high technology ventures that inspire the young to seek excellence without the blessing and backing of the state. Bring young Frenchmen and women to Silicon Valley and show them the glory of US capitalism and technological brilliance. Let them see for their own eyes the truth, without the distortions and lies peddled by Le Monde and the French elite.
#8
lex, when you bring them to silicon valley, they just turn into another group of immigrants, except that they continue to dump on America and teach their children to also. They are almost the only immigrants whom I have met who come to this country, get rich off it and dump on it. It is part of why I detest them and their country. There are exceptions, but they are few and far between. JFM is correct.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 9:29 Comments ||
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A large part of Europe, centered in France, has the odd philosophy of realistic pessimism. The seemingly endless wars that Europe endured for 1500 years drained every spark of optimism and idealism out of them. And their philosophy is far more pervasive then they would admit. If you examine the other half of their philosophy, realism, you see how passionate they are about it: as expressed by Voltaire, with the rejection of religion in public life. Unlike the US, where the realism is based in freedom of religion, and not forcing others to obey your faith; the French emphasis is based on a revulsion and rejection of religion, and forcing others to not express their religion in public. And their pessimism is just as strong. Again, by comparison, the American attitude is "On every day, and in every way, things are getting better and better"; whereas the French version would be, "Times are bad and in slow decline, punctuated by steep drops in quality and a rise in misery." In the long run, it is the way of despair and failure, and France will never amount to much until it swallows a gigantic Prozac, and gets over its depression.
#11
Unlike the US, where the realism is based in freedom of religion, and not forcing others to obey your faith; the French emphasis is based on a revulsion and rejection of religion, and forcing others to not express their religion in public.
Moose - interesting thought and quite right.
I feel compelled, having grown up in CA, similar in size to France(?), to note that, while the percentage is far, lower in the US, that we probably have more of the latter here in the US than there are in France. But CA isn't nearly as pessimistic - maybe the influence of the happy Latino culture mixed with hardworking Asian immigrants plus thriving capitalism helps :-)
Those students you want to exchange will have to be younger than you believe. A few months ago I heard one of the women in the caretaking center singing an antiamrican song to my three years old daughter.
#14
Mrs. Davis,
".....They are almost the only immigrants whom I have met who come to this country, get rich off it and dump on it. It is part of why I detest them and their country.."
The French are not the only ones. Argentinians behave the same way.
#19
But CA isn't nearly as pessimistic - maybe the influence of the happy Latino culture mixed with hardworking Asian immigrants plus thriving capitalism helps :-)
Yes, 2b, the biggest difference between us and Europe is our fast-growing immigrant populations. Ours is devoutly Christian and pro-capitalist, theirs is devoutly muslim and anti-capitalist. When asians and hispanics exceed 40% of the population of California, Texas, and other key states, relations with the French will cease to be a concern for most Americans. Pacific Century now.
posted this in the other thread, but it is more appropriate here. From Best of the Web:
UC Berkeley recently completed what a press release describes as "the first attempt to compare measures of mental health and general well-being among California's general population on a county-level basis." The study finds that the two counties with the lowest "mental health scores" are Alameda, which includes Berkeley, and San Francisco, which is coterminous with the city.
What else do these counties have in common? They are the California counties where John Kerry did best: 83% of the vote in San Francisco and 75% in Alameda. You don't have to be crazy to oppose President Bush, but it doesn't hurt.
#21
As a foreigner who has lived in this country for a while, I have to say that those foreigners who are here and complain about this country are losers and will always be losers no matter where they go or how many opportunities they are given.
When I come across people like that I love to tell them what happened to me when I applied to attend the University of Houston (1980s). Because I am Hispanic I was immediately offered a full scholarship (Engineering Dept). I was surprised. It turns out that they had a minority quota to fill and they were not enough takers. Most Hispanics preferred to major in Barrios Studies and other useless degrees.
I also tell them the story of my neighborâs cleaning lady, an illegal alien, who got pregnant by another illegal alien. She was an insulin dependent diabetic who had to be put in the hospital for 3 months before her due date, had a c-section, and received the same level of health care as my son whose fatherâs salary is taxed to maintain the level of health care that she and her son received.
#27
thanks..a2u. You might be interested to know that they are all rabid dems. All nice people though....well meaning and kind. Also have a Argentine friend (doesn't use prozac) who shocked me one day by saying Ted Rall was a favorite cartoonist. Rall's so mean-spirited that I've never really gotten past that what that must mean.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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Some excerpts from Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech of July 15, 1979:
"The real issue is freedom. We must deal with the energy problem on a war footing."
"There will be other cartels and other shortages. American wisdom and courage right now can set a path to follow in the future."
"When we enter the moral equivalent of war, Mr. President, don't issue us BB guns."
"Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our Nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide."
Does France have its own Ronald Reagan waiting in the wings? Let's hope so.
their way of life is an anachronism, their influence in Europe is waning and they are unable to cast much weight in a world whose axis of power runs from Washington to Tokyo to Beijing and Delhi.
Now, where'd I put my nanoviolin? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/22/2005 19:49 Comments ||
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One of the toughest tasks facing Viktor Yushchenko as Ukraine's new president likely will be overhauling the State Security Service, the KGB successor agency alleged to have been involved in an array of devious and deadly activities. The cases of other Soviet-bloc countries show that success or failure could determine how well democracy takes root in Ukraine _ but the issue is complicated by indications that security forces played a role in averting a crackdown on Yushchenko's "Orange Revolution." Since the 38,000-strong State Security Service, or SBU, was formed in 1991 after independence from the Soviet Union, it is alleged to have been connected to organized crime, shady weapons deals and the deaths of several prominent opposition politicians and journalists. It is suspected of involvement in the September dioxin poisoning of Yushchenko, which took him off the campaign trail for weeks and left his face badly disfigured. He fell ill within hours of having dinner with top SBU officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005 00:00:00 ||
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At the same time, the NY Times alleges that in fact a faction of high-ranking officers known as siloviki in fact were key to Yushchenko's victory complete with constant leaks of Viktor Yanukovych's hijinks (such as the Ukrayinska Pravda transcripts) to the opposition, Col. General (SBU) Ihor P. Smeshko calling Yanukovych's bluff on whether he'd use Interior Ministry troops (which had already been infiltrated by SBU) to break a blockade of government buildings and even the deployment of SBU snipers and special forces to guard the opposition at any cost ... the NY Times article makes it look like a damn civil war nearly broke out.
Posted by: Edward Yee ||
01/22/2005 0:36 Comments ||
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The leader of Belarus has denounced the US President's statement made during his inauguration speech that America is destined to bring the freedom of speech to every nation. "The USA openly states that it is destined to carry freedom to every nation. But, perhaps, someone does not need their freedom, drenched in blood and smelling of oil," Alexander Lukashenko said at the Belarussian Security Council's meeting on Friday. "I do not want to be a great leader that opposes Americans, NATO, and so on. The Belarussian people have not set these goals for me. But as we live in a democratic and, as they say, free society, we should have the right to say openly what is going on in the world," he said.
Belarus is ready to cooperate with NATO, but only if its national interests are observed and only on an equal and mutually beneficial basis, the President emphasized. In its contacts with NATO Belarus will abide by the agreements signed within the Union State [with Russia], the CIS and the Collective Security Treaty Organization [that comprises Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia], he said. "We will first of all compare our steps against our commitments in these organizations. This is a sacred thing for us and in this respect we should be decent and, most importantly, reliable for out partners," Mr. Lukashenko stressed. The meeting also took up the issue of Belarus's accession to the agreement between NATO and other countries participating in the Partnership for Peace program. "The most important is to envisage efficient measures to protect our national interests. We cannot risk the lives of our Belarussian guys sending them for military adventures in the interests of the West, like the hostilities in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq. And we should not carelessly invite foreign armies for maneuvers on our territory," the President said. He did not rule out, however, that NATO units might be invited for the country's next military exercise.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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"I do not want to be a great leader that opposes Americans, NATO, and so on. The Belarussian people have not set these goals for me. But as we live in a democratic and, as they say, free society, we should have the right to say openly what is going on in the world," he said.
Orwellian. This guy is the last surviving stalinist leader in the FSU. Belarus is a nightmare state. He was Putin' On the Ol' Soyuz before Putin was cool.
#5
jackal my wife works in close contact with a man whose bride is from Belarus. That is the story she is getting from her family. You apprently are not allowed to speak ill of the government.
Posted by: Johnny Crocran ||
01/22/2005 11:14 Comments ||
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Johnny, I think that's why jackal said "anyone who claims otherwise will be very sorry." Better get back to finding the real killer.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/22/2005 11:20 Comments ||
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"This guy is the last surviving stalinist leader in the FSU". Well, there is Victor Von Doom of Latveria, but nobody ever notices.
He's hands-on, detail-oriented and hates 'yes' men. The George Bush you don't know has big dreams—and is racing the clock to realize them.
Jan. 24 issue - It was time to clean out his cabinet. The top jobs in his administration, President Bush decided last fall, had left people burned out and too beholden to the perks of high office. Besides, he was planning a big new agenda for his second term and wanted fresh legs to power it through. When asked how many cabinet officials he would fire, Bush told one close friend: "Basically everybody." The official story was that many of the cabinet officials were ready to move on; members would volunteer their own resignations. But as the election neared, several began to waver; it became clear they'd need to be shown the door. Other presidents might leave the tough stuff to subordinates, but Bush wanted to do the job himself. When it came time to say farewell, the exchanges in the Oval Office were surprisingly emotional. "They were shocked and really hurt, and that hurt him," says one confidant.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson was one of the walking wounded. A former governor like Bush, he'd toiled on the president's first White House campaign and considered himself a friend. Thompson talked openly of moving to the private sector after 40 years in public life. Yet behind the scenes he also floated the idea of staying around as head of Homeland Security. Early in the new year, three weeks after Bernard Kerik's nomination had fallen apart, Thompson traveled to the Oval Office for one final chat as a cabinet member. Thompson grew tearful, saying he'd always be there for Bush, and hinted one more time that he would jump at the chance to stay on. But Bush stuck to his plan, and said goodbye. "There are strong emotions from the president and strong emotions from the people who are leaving," says White House chief of staff Andrew Card. "But he's looking for a new term and changes. Agents of change frequently are new people."
[...]
Another popular misperception: that Bush doesn't read. Aides describe numerous debates inside the Oval Office, where the president digs deep into his briefing books. "I've seen it time and time again," says Rove. "We all get the briefing papers the night before, we've all read them, and he'll inevitably have thought about three steps ahead of anyone in the room." And he's not just poring over white papers. Friends and aides speak of his passion for novels, including Mark Mills's "Amagansett" (a murder mystery set in postwar Long Island), and Tom Wolfe's racy college tale "I Am Charlotte Simmons." Bush has also adopted Natan Sharansky's "The Case for Democracy" as his own manifesto in the Middle East—a tome he recommends to all comers in the Oval Office.
Aha!
Judging from the press coverage of his new cabinet, you'd think Bush's guiding principle was to put yes men in positions of power. But Bush draws a sharp line between people who can get things done, and those who simply agree with anything he says. His style in policy briefings is to narrow the debate with a series of questions, crystallizing the competing opinions and exploring the disagreements between his staff. Those debates also require a rare quality in Washington—the self-discipline of his staff to keep their disputes behind closed doors. With the notable exception of his foreign-policy team, Bush has succeeded in staunching the leaks that plagued his predecessors—leaving the impression that there are no arguments within the White House walls. "People seem to be fascinated by this administration in that people don't walk out the door after losing an argument and complain about it," says Nick Calio, Bush's former congressional liaison. "Just because nobody complains publicly about losing an argument doesn't mean they haven't disagreed with him." (That discipline will be harder to maintain as Bush steams toward lame-duck status.)
To hear his friends tell it, Bush hates toadies, and loves to mock sycophantic remarks with his trademark reply: "My, Mr. President, that's a nice-looking tie you're wearing today." "If anyone is too much of a suck-up, the president is the first one to call them on it," says Card. "That's not a label you want to have in a meeting, because then he discounts everything you're saying." Flying back to Washington after his second TV debate against John Kerry, Bush asked his strategist Matt Dowd for an honest assessment of the first showdown. "It wasn't your finest hour," said Dowd. "What do you mean?" Bush shot back. "You got your a-- kicked," Dowd explained. Bush frog-marched his aide through Air Force One, repeating Dowd's assessment. "He said I got my a-- kicked," Bush told his staff. "And you all said I won."
Don't tell them you have a brain! They're supposed to misunderestimate you!
There's more, including hints that Rumsfeld may be asked to resign in the future.
Posted by: Phil Fraering ||
01/22/2005 8:14:03 PM ||
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Frankly, I don't read Newsweak because it basically takes a preset position and attempts to build a totally fabricated story around it that is after refuted.
I get more satisfaction from writers better schooled in fictional writing.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 20:41 Comments ||
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because he tells them what they so desperately want to hear: Their policies are sound, Americans really agree with them more than with Republicans, and if they just repeat their mantras loud enough, voters will eventually embrace the party.
Author provides lip service to this but doesn't get it either. In her world, the problem isn't the message - but the strategists that can't figure out the right message. If we just had the right strategists - then we could win. I just never seems to occur to them that the reason the GOP is stomping them is because they look for ideas that actually work - rather than ones that "resonate with the voters"
#2
When I hear the phrase "resonate with the voters" I get this mental image of a buncha vibrating people... then they all lose their lunch. So I'd say they've already got the frequency thingy down - they be resonatin' jes fine - as it's a fairly accurate description of the recent Dhimmicrap election experience.
#2
I guess I can hold off on topping off the tank for a few days.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/22/2005 4:24 Comments ||
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There are drill sights all over Arizona(core samples searching for minerals),if done right,after a year or so you would never know they were there(unless you know what to look for).I'm sure AP knows what I'm talking about.
#4
Every drop of oil edxtracted from Alaska means less money for Al Quaida.
BTW: South Korean TV is broadcasting that SouthKoreans have found a way to make bio-degradable plastics who are as cheap than normal ones and in addition of being bio-degradable are not made from oil. :-)
#1
As I went through the breakfast line, I overheard one of the U.N. strap-hangers, a longhaired guy with a beard, make a sarcastic comment to one of our food servers. He said something along the lines of âNice china, really makes me feel special,â in reference to the fact that we were eating off of paper plates that day. It was all I could do to keep from jerking him off his feet and choking him, because I knew that the reason we were eating off paper plates was to save dishwashing water so that we would have more water to send ashore and save lives. That plus the fact that he had no business being there in the first place.
Yeah, he's special. And he thinks he's better than 99% of the world, too. And he demands the good china. The sailor who wrote this has FAR more self-control than me, I'll tell you what...
#2
This year is the bicentenniel of Trafalgar, October 21 1805. This was a crucial turning point in modern history since it eliminated any threat of sea-borne Napoleonic expansion and confined the emperor's ambitions to the European Continent.
#3
This year is the bicentenniel of Trafalgar, October 21 1805. This was a crucial turning point in modern history since it eliminated any threat of sea-borne Napoleonic expansion and confined the emperor's ambitions to the European Continent.
The Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday declared that Nigeria did not have the financial strength to meet the $7.758 billion (about N1.031 trillion) debt service requirement due in 2005. The DMO, however, described as false reports by international media that Nigeria failed to pay an estimated $30 million on restructured commercial debt. Addressing finance correspondents yesterday in Abuja, Acting Director General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, noted that the successful bilateral debt rescheduling agreement, which the country signed with all the 15 members of the Paris Club, has now given some form of relief. He disclosed that amount due in 2005 stood at $3,241.88 million while expected arrears as at the end of last year was $4,516.62 million and the proposed amount for debt service in the 2005 budget was $1.7million.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005 11:18:10 AM ||
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What we have here is a failure to economize. For example, when you ask a Nigerian leader how to spend $10B of oil revenues, the first thought that crosses their mind should *not* be "Parteeee!"
CNN hemorrhaged more than half their audience from the 2001 Inauguration, overnights show. The troubled news network only averaged 779,000 viewers during yesterday's Inauguration coverage from 10am-4pm with just 168,000 of those viewers landing in the coveted 25-54 demo.
Like CNN, MSNBC also suffered major losses, only averaging 438,000 viewers throughout yesterday's coverage (141,000 in 25-54), down a whopping 68% over 2001 and faring even worse in primetime with just 385,000 viewers.
In contrast, Fox News averaged 2,581,000 viewers from 10a-4p (up 30% over 2001) and their 25-54 demo average of 705,000 came close to CNN's total coverage ratings yesterday.
PRIMETIME:
FNC -- 2,439,000 (up 57% OVER '01)
CNN -- 1,353,000 (down 14% over '01)
MSNBC -- 385,000 (down 47% over '01)
Posted by: anonymous2u ||
01/22/2005 10:54:44 AM ||
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The numbers are worse than shown since FNC isn't in nearly the same number of homes as CNN. FNC is often in a higher priced cable/satellite package than CNN.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2005 12:42 Comments ||
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#2
If anyone has watched many of the talking head shows,, you will note that Peggy Noonan's brain fart of yesterday is now being memed as a refutation of Bush and his entire second term agenda of priorities among the Kool Aid crowd. I've heard it at least 15 times today.
The half-wits keep giving the fuck-wits stupid statments which are immediately turned 180 deg and used as more meme ammo. If Peggy Noonan is 1/10th the American patriot she played for all those years, basking in the reflected glow of Reagan, she'd apoligize profusely on every network and fall on her sword. Aid and comfort to the no-shit internal and external enemies of progress. Reagan, were he alive, would bitch slap the bitch. Thanks, Peggy. Thank you so much for your malignant ego. Here, have some Kool Aid.
THE European robot lab Huygens had found liquid methane on the Saturn satellite Titan, a chemical that seemed to have shaped the moon's peculiar landscape and weather system, scientists said overnight. "We've got a flammable world. It's quite extraordinary," said University of Honolulu researcher Toby Owen, referring to methane's combustibility with air on Earth. "There is liquid on Titan. It has been raining not long ago, there is liquid methane," said Jean-Pierre Lebreton, director of the Huygens mission at the European Space Agency (ESA). "There are truly remarkable processes at work on Titan's surface," he said.
US researcher Marty Tomasko, of the University of Arizona, said the data sent back by Huygens showed "many familiar earthlike processes: abrasion, erosion, precipitation". "On the place where we landed, it had been raining not long ago, maybe two days ago," Mr Tomasko said at a presentation to the press at ESA headquarters in Paris. The rain - not water but liquid methane, which is toxic to humans - causes soil to run down from the hills and forms the rivulets and gullies that were visible in the raw images of Titan, shown to the world last week. Huygens, a 319kg craft fitted with cameras, atmospheric sensors and gas analysers, landed on Titan on January 14, sending back data to a US mothership, Cassini. Titan, the largest satellite of Saturn, was chosen as, intriguingly, it is the only moon in the solar system that has a substantial atmosphere. Its thick mix of nitrogen and methane is suspected to be undergoing chemical reactions similar to those that unfolded on Earth billions of years ago. That process eventually provided the conditions for life on our planet.
The mission, the farthest landing from Earth ever attempted, was "exploration as well as science", said ESA's director of science, David Southwood, who described it as "the most wonderful event in my career". At best, scientists had hoped Huygens would keep transmitting for three brief minutes after hitting Titan's surface. Instead, they said, instruments probably continued to function for at least three hours after the 15km/h touchdown. The only flaw in the mission was the loss of one of two data channels that were used to relay the findings home via Cassini. Instead of 700 images being sent back, only about 350 were received, showing a fog-strewn orange-tinged planet surface. On Thursday, a study published in the British journal Nature reported that Cassini, carrying Huygens, ran into major dust storms as it raced towards its rendezvous with Saturn last year. The microscopic grains smashed into Cassini with an impact speed of more than 100km per second (360,000km/h).
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/22/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Yesterday it was alleged by an insider that channel failure was human error.
#2
Huygen's designers should have rigged up a cigarette lighter flint to be struck after all planned experiments were done, just to see how flammable the place really is.
#5
The NewScientist had a somewhat more extensive quote from Owen that makes it sound less nutty:
"It means there's methane near the surface," says Owen, "Titan is a flammable world." But all the oxygen is trapped in ice. "That's a good thing, or Titan would have exploded a long time ago."
Still a silly thing for him to say. . .
Posted by: James ||
01/22/2005 0:51 Comments ||
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It is conceivable that there are processes that would produce free oxygen on Titan, just as there are processes that produce free methane on Earth.
#8
How can this stuff be considered flammable if there's no oxidizer present to react with?
I read his statement to mean that normally, on Earth, this kind of stuff would be flammable (he should have said 'inflammable' but let's not split hairs).
Posted by: Rafael ||
01/22/2005 2:41 Comments ||
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#9
Yes,but what is Titan's LEL(lower explosive limit),UEL(upper explosive limit).LEL:the lowest ratio of O2/methane that will sustain combustion.
UEL:The point at wich the ratio is to rich to combust
#10
That's what I was thinking Raptor. I wonder how hard it would be to "harvest" all this stuff to supply heating and other fuel needs fo future space exploration. There are a lot of good building blocks in methane and natural gas.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2005 9:42 Comments ||
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#13
I thought we weren't supposed to land on Europa. Titan is where the Puppet Masters are from.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/22/2005 11:30 Comments ||
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#14
Curious. The photo is full of rounded rocks, of a couple of distinct size ranges. Must have been rolled around and banged into each other to knock the edges off. High velocity methane rivers into alluvial fans? Must be some mountains nearby then. So what made the mountains? Titanic plate tectonics?
Can't wait to see more. Planetary geology (between this and the Mars Rovers) hasn't had this much new stuff to play with since the moon landings and the Mars Viking mission.
#17
"Titan is a flammable world." But all the oxygen is trapped in ice. "That's a good thing, or Titan would have exploded a long time ago." . . .
So if we nuked it that would free some oxygen and the planet blows up? KABOOM
Posted by: Bill Nelson ||
01/22/2005 15:26 Comments ||
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#18
lo end/high end flammable limits for methane is 5-15% in air. We're lucky that the atmosphere is not ethylene oxide, heh heh. Universe's largest thermobaric bomb.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/22/2005 15:35 Comments ||
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#19
Dishman: We don't know if Titan has active tectonics. This is the first look we've gotten at it.
Says here in the CRC that methane is soluble in water. Maybe somebody who knows more chemistry can say if methane ices form at these pressures. Probably some form below the surface, where methane trickles deep underground the way water does here. Hmm. Release pressure==> release gas; methane ice volcanoes? I don't know if we could identify puffs in the atmosphere from volcanoes, but if so then local warm upwellings of gas might be an indicator for tectonic activity.
Posted by: James ||
01/22/2005 16:19 Comments ||
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#20
Deacon, I must be the only one who got your comment--I loved that book. Heinlein rules!
Posted by: mary ||
01/22/2005 16:33 Comments ||
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#21
Glenmore is right about the rocks. To me, they resemble glacial moraines more than alluvial deposits, ground to uniform size and smoothness under some sort of solid or semi-solid flow.
Jean-Pierre Bemba, former Congolese rebel turned vice-president under plans to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo, said he had straightened out differences between him and DRC President Joseph Kabila. "I was able to smooth out divergences between the head of state and myself," he said after a three-hour meeting with Kabila.
Bemba, head of the former rebel movement Congo Liberation Movement (MLC), is now one of four vice-presidents under Kabila under a peace accord ending five years of civil war in the vast central African state. He had earlier warned he would quit the government by January 31 if no progress was made in distributing top military and civilian jobs ahead of planned elections in June. "We were able to harmonize our viewpoints and divergences on all the questions necessary to advance the transition," Bemba said. "We have come to a good understanding, President Kabila and I."
But he declined to answer a question about the fate of former Public Works Minister Jose Endundo Bononge, also an MLC man, who was fired this month along with five others for alleged corruption. Bemba had at first insisted that Endundo remain in the government. Speaking in the Gabonese capital Libreville on Wednesday, Bemba accused Kabila of bad faith in the implementation of a 2002 accord signed by the warring parties to end the conflict in the former Zaire. "If progress is made by January 31, we will again support the transition. But we will not be complicit in the postponement of elections or elections on the cheap," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
IT IS official: the French are a nation of depressed pessimists, wracked with self-doubt and unable to see a positive future. This gloomy portrait of the current state of Gallic morale - or rather the lack of it - was made public yesterday in a damning report by France's prefects, the country's top administrators. "The French no longer believe in anything," the report said. "That is the reason that the situation is relatively calm, for they believe that it is not even worthwhile expressing their opinions or trying to be heard any more." 
One of the toughest tasks facing 
The leader of Belarus has denounced the US President's statement made during his inauguration speech that America is destined to bring the freedom of speech to every nation. "The USA openly states that it is destined to carry freedom to every nation. But, perhaps, someone does not need their freedom, drenched in blood and smelling of oil," 
The Debt Management Office (DMO) yesterday declared that Nigeria did not have the financial strength to meet the $7.758 billion (about N1.031 trillion) debt service requirement due in 2005. The DMO, however, described as false reports by international media that Nigeria failed to pay an estimated $30 million on restructured commercial debt. Addressing finance correspondents yesterday in Abuja, Acting Director General of DMO, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo, noted that the successful bilateral debt rescheduling agreement, which the country signed with all the 15 members of the Paris Club, has now given some form of relief. He disclosed that amount due in 2005 stood at $3,241.88 million while expected arrears as at the end of last year was $4,516.62 million and the proposed amount for debt service in the 2005 budget was $1.7million.
THE European robot lab Huygens had found liquid methane on the Saturn satellite Titan, a chemical that seemed to have shaped the moon's peculiar landscape and weather system, scientists said overnight. "We've got a flammable world. It's quite extraordinary," said University of Honolulu researcher Toby Owen, referring to methane's combustibility with air on Earth. "There is liquid on Titan. It has been raining not long ago, there is liquid methane," said Jean-Pierre Lebreton, director of the Huygens mission at the European Space Agency (ESA). "There are truly remarkable processes at work on Titan's surface," he said.
