Titan's Atmosphere More Earth-Like Than Previously Thought - Al Gore Blames Moonal Warming

Saturn's moon Titan's atmosphere could bear more similarity to the Earth's atmosphere than previously thought, researchers from the University College London (UCL) say.

The UCL team analysed data gathered over seven years by the international Cassini probe and found that the interactions between Titan's atmosphere and the solar magnetic field and radiation create a wind of hydrocarbons and nitriles being blown away from its polar regions into space.

This is very similar to the wind observed coming from the Earth's polar regions.

Like the Earth and Venus, and unlike any other moon, Titan has a rocky surface and a thick atmosphere. It is the only object in the solar system apart from the Earth to have rivers, rainfall and seas, and it is bigger than the planet Mercury.

"Titan's atmosphere is made up mainly of nitrogen and methane, with 50 percent higher pressure at its surface than on Earth," said study leader Andrew Coates.

"Data from Cassini Plasma Spectrometer (CAPS) proved a few years ago that the top of Titan's atmosphere is losing about seven tonnes of hydrocarbons and nitriles every day, but did not explain why this was happening. Our study provides evidence for why this is happening," Coates said.

"I think that this is a classic case of rocket overuse by The Mooninites, but it could be a plot by The Plutonians to contaminate Titan's atmosphere in retaliation for Pluto's loss of planet status" said Gore.

http://gadgets.ndtv.com/science/new...rth-like-than-previously-thought-study-705575

 

Speaking of babies stamping their little feet, the pricklest baby of them all breaks into his Spamalot routine again.

 

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration Friday proposed new standards for big trucks aimed at lowering fuel costs and cutting carbon emissions as part of President Barack Obama’s broad climate-change agenda.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department jointly announced a suite of draft standards for big vehicles ranging from garbage trucks to 18-wheelers to vans and buses to heavy-duty pickup trucks.

“We’re delivering big time on President Obama’s call to cut carbon pollution,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Friday in a statement. “With emission reductions weighing in at 1 billion tons, this proposal will save consumers, businesses and truck owners money; and at the same time spur technology innovation and job-growth, while protecting Americans’ health and our environment over the long haul.”

The administration is proposing two broad categories of standards, one for the front part of big trucks, called tractors, and one for trailers that big semi-trucks and other trucks haul.

The tractor standard will require that a truck built in 2021 and beyond will be up to 24% more fuel efficient and emit up to 24% fewer carbon emissions than an equivalent truck built in 2018, according to EPA.

In a related story, Captain John Trimmer, author of the book How To Avoid Huge Ships, said he is now planning a sequel tentatively entitled "How To Avoid Big Truck Exhaust". "It's about damn time people started taking my books seriously. Those @s$holes on Amazon really tick me off".

 

(CNN)Police are pursuing possible sightings of two men who may fit the descriptions of the murderers who broke out from Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate New York.

The sightings happened in Steuben County last weekend, New York State Police said in a news release Friday evening.

The development is another lead in the search for escapees Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 35, which is now on its 15th day.

"Witnesses spotted two men on June 13 walking near the Gang Mills rail yard on Rita's Way in the town of Erwin," police said. "The next day, two men with the same description were spotted walking along County Route 115 in the town of Lindley, heading toward the Pennsylvania Border."

The unconfirmed sightings came from two separate individuals, police spokesman Beau Duffy told CNN on Saturday.



http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/20/us/new-york-prison-break/

 

Yay more regulations!

 

An index of euro-area factory and services unexpectedly rose to the highest in more than four years this month as growth gained momentum in Germany and France, the bloc’s two largest economies.

Markit Economics said on Tuesday that its composite index increased to 54.1 from 53.6 in May. That’s above the 50 mark that divides expansion from contraction and exceeds the median estimate of economists, who forecast it would slip to 53.5. France’s gauge of the two industries climbed to the highest since 2011 and growth in Germany also strengthened.

The euro-zone economy is weathering the Greek debt standoff “relatively well,” said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit. European Central Bank stimulus and a weaker euro helped boost euro-area growth to 0.4 percent in the first quarter, and Markit says its purchasing-manager indexes suggest the region grew at a similar pace between April and June.

“The second quarter upturn signalled by the PMI puts the region on course to expand by around 2 percent this year, though much of course depends on the outcome of the Greek debt negotiations,” Williamson said.

The euro stayed lower against the dollar after the data and was trading at $1.1247 as of 10:12 a.m. London time, down 0.83 percent on the day.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...s-up-as-business-index-reaches-four-year-high

 

SEOUL—

The United Nations officially opened a new field office in Seoul Tuesday to document human rights abuses in North Korea. The world body has been trying to increase pressure on the repressive Kim Jong Un regime to end ongoing systematic human rights violations that it calls “without parallel in the contemporary world."

Phil Robertson, with the non-government group Human Rights Watch, called the opening of the U.N.’s field office in Seoul a critical step forward in the campaign to hold North Korea’s leaders accountable for committing crimes against humanity.

“This is something that Kim Jong Un should be staying awake at night thinking about, because he is going to be facing a determined team of professional investigators looking and speaking to people to find out the abuses that are taking place against them,” said Robertson.

International pressure has been intensifying on Pyongyang since the release of a U.N. report last year documenting a network of political prisons in North Korea holding 120,000 people and a list of atrocities that include murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, and rape.

http://www.voanews.com/content/un-o...-in-seoul-to-investigate-n-korea/2833576.html

 

ATHENS, Greece — A banking official says the European Central Bank has increased the amount of emergency liquidity that Greek lenders can draw on, the second time it has done so in two days.

The ECB held a teleconference Tuesday morning and agreed on the increase, the official said, but declined to provide a figure. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the decision was not publicly announced, said the ECB would remain on call for a revision should that become necessary.

Worried Greeks pulled an estimated 4 billion euros out of banks last week ahead of critical meetings in Brussels to discuss a deal on the country's troubled bailout.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/06/23/world/europe/ap-eu-greece-bailout.html?_r=0

 

The UN has concluded both Israel and Palestine may have committed war crimes in their 50-day war in Gaza last year. So what? Fairfax Media's Middle East Correspondent Ruth Pollard explains.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission of Inquiry report found evidence of serious violations, including possible war crimes, by both Israel and Palestinian armed groups during last year's 50-day war in Gaza.

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It found the 2014 hostilities marked a huge increase in firepower used in Gaza, with more than 6000 airstrikes by Israel and approximately 50,000 tank and artillery shells fired in the 51-day operation.

At least 1462 Palestinian civilians were killed, a third of them children. In total around 2200 Palestinians were killed. Palestinian armed groups fired 4881 rockets and 1753 mortars towards Israel in July and August 2014, killing six civilians and injuring at least 1600.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/un-report-on-50day-war-in-gaza-what-happens-next-20150623-ghvfo0.html

 

A prison worker accused of helping two convicted killers break out of a maximum-security New York jail earlier this month smuggled them vital tools that were concealed inside frozen chunks of hamburger meat, according to a report published late Monday.

Joyce Mitchell, 51, has been charged with felony promoting prison contraband and misdemeanor criminal facilitation in connection with the escape of Richard Matt and David Sweat from Clinton County Correctional Facility on the night of June 5-6. Court documents allege that Mitchell provided the men with hacksaw blades, chisels, a punch and a screwdriver bit in the weeks prior to the escape.

Law enforcement sources told the New York Post that Mitchell came up with the idea to sneak the tools into the jail masked by the frozen food.


http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/06/2...led-escaped-convicts-tools-in-hamburger-meat/


Meanwhile, authorities said they had recovered items from a remote cabin in northern New York state, near the Canadian border, that may be linked to Sweat and Matt.

 

No joke there!

 

Have they caught these 2 yet?

 

I think we should explore Titan instead of Mars

 

By John Clarke

WASHINGTON, June 22 (Reuters) - A Florida man who flew a gyrocopter onto the U.S. Capitol grounds rejected a plea deal on Monday that would likely involve jail time, prosecutors said.

Douglas Hughes, a 61-year-old mail carrier from Ruskin, Florida, appeared in federal court where he turned down a plea deal, according to a spokesman for Assistant U.S. Attorney Tejpal Chawla.

Hughes told reporters outside the courthouse that he would not accept a plea deal that would involve several years of prison time, and called his illegal flight a "pure act of civil disobedience," according to the Washington Post.

His April 15 stunt was aimed at drawing attention to the need for campaign finance reform.

Hughes was arrested after piloting the craft from Pennsylvania and landing on the west lawn of the Capitol as police and tourists looked on. He was carrying a letter for each of the 535 members of Congress.

The flight of the small, unauthorized aircraft was among the most high-profile of recent security lapses in the U.S. capital.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22/gyrocopter-plea-deal_n_7640296.html

 

This morning, Cambridge, Mass.-based battery company 24M emerged from stealth mode after four-and-a-half years of improving its technology and lining up investors and strategic partners.

24M brings two new things to the table with its semisolid lithium ion battery: the technology itself, which is cheaper and environmentally more benign (solvent-free and more easily recycled); and the potential promise of dramatically reshaping the economics of lithium ion battery manufacturing.

In a conversation today, Throop Wilder, Co-Founder and CEO, and Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, filled me in on the details, and why this matters.

Chiang observes that the lithium ion battery has been around a while, having first been commercialized in 1991, and that although there have been significant improvements along the way, the manufacturing process has not fundamentally changed. The current approach is to start with a wet ink of active materials, paint it onto a thin metal foil, dry it out, and then put it under extreme pressure. The pieces are then cut and assembled, after which liquid electrolyte is added. The high speed drying process takes place on a reel-to-reel manufacturing line that may be hundreds of feet long. Which means you need very large and expensive factories.

 

Home> Entertainment
The Bachelorette Recap: Kaitlyn Gets Frisky with Nick in Dublin
Jun 23, 2015, 1:03 AM ET
By SHANE LOU via Good Morning America

'Bachelorette' Sneak Peek: 'My Blood Is Boiling'
Next Video 'Bachelorette' Recap: Jennifer Weiner's Take on Nick Viall
Auto Start: On | Off



There was plenty of drama on Monday night's episode of The Bachelorette ... and a fake wake, too.

Let's start with the drama. Not surprisingly, Nick Viall was at the center of it all. He earned a one-on-one date with Kaitlyn Bristowe after she and the remaining men flew to Dublin, Ireland. The new couple explored the city, and while doing so Nick bought rings that they could each wear on their ring finger. Nick isn't messing around!
After visits to a pub and the Christ Church Cathedral, where Nick received a rose, he and Kaitlyn continued their date in her hotel suite. They had a make-out session on the couch, then went into her bedroom, where they escaped the cameras and did a little more than kiss. She was racked with guilt the next morning.
Kaitlyn's hotel hook-up with Nick was still on her mind later when Shawn B., upset that he didn't earn a group date rose, showed up to her suite. She was worried that he would ask her about her night with Nick. How did their conversation go? You'll have to tune in to ABC next Monday night to find out.

Monday's episode began by revisiting last week's cliffhanger in San Antonio: Ian accusing Kaitlyn of being on the show just "to make out with a bunch of dudes on TV." Good thing he didn’t stick around for the Dublin trip.

Needless to say, she was offended, and they both agreed it would be best if he left.

At a rose ceremony at the Alamo, two bachelors were eliminated: Justin and Joshua, the latter of whom previously complained to Kaitlyn about Nick's arrival.


Home> Entertainment
The Bachelorette Recap: Kaitlyn Gets Frisky with Nick in Dublin
Jun 23, 2015, 1:03 AM ET
By SHANE LOU via Good Morning America

'Bachelorette' Sneak Peek: 'My Blood Is Boiling'
Next Video 'Bachelorette' Recap: Jennifer Weiner's Take on Nick Viall
Auto Start: On | Off



There was plenty of drama on Monday night's episode of The Bachelorette ... and a fake wake, too.

Let's start with the drama. Not surprisingly, Nick Viall was at the center of it all. He earned a one-on-one date with Kaitlyn Bristowe after she and the remaining men flew to Dublin, Ireland. The new couple explored the city, and while doing so Nick bought rings that they could each wear on their ring finger. Nick isn't messing around!





After visits to a pub and the Christ Church Cathedral, where Nick received a rose, he and Kaitlyn continued their date in her hotel suite. They had a make-out session on the couch, then went into her bedroom, where they escaped the cameras and did a little more than kiss. She was racked with guilt the next morning.
Kaitlyn's hotel hook-up with Nick was still on her mind later when Shawn B., upset that he didn't earn a group date rose, showed up to her suite. She was worried that he would ask her about her night with Nick. How did their conversation go? You'll have to tune in to ABC next Monday night to find out.

Monday's episode began by revisiting last week's cliffhanger in San Antonio: Ian accusing Kaitlyn of being on the show just "to make out with a bunch of dudes on TV." Good thing he didn’t stick around for the Dublin trip.

Needless to say, she was offended, and they both agreed it would be best if he left.

At a rose ceremony at the Alamo, two bachelors were eliminated: Justin and Joshua, the latter of whom previously complained to Kaitlyn about Nick's arrival.

 

Hannibal fans have been left aghast as it has been revealed the current third season of the Bryan Fuller drama will be its last....

http://www.independent.ie/entertain...celled-after-just-three-seasons-31322954.html