Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/270265782?client_source=feed&format=rss
mlb trade rumors Misty May And Kerri Walsh Jake Dalton London 2012 field hockey Missy Franklin Hunter Pence NBCOlympics
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Cassini spots mini Nile River on Saturn's moon Titan
Dec. 12, 2012 ? Scientists with NASA's Cassini mission have spotted what appears to be a miniature, extraterrestrial likeness of Earth's Nile River: a river valley on Saturn's moon Titan that stretches more than 200 miles (400 kilometers) from its "headwaters" to a large sea. It is the first time images have revealed a river system this vast and in such high resolution anywhere other than Earth.
Scientists deduce that the river, which is in Titan's north polar region, is filled with liquid hydrocarbons because it appears dark along its entire length in the high-resolution radar image, indicating a smooth surface.
"Though there are some short, local meanders, the relative straightness of the river valley suggests it follows the trace of at least one fault, similar to other large rivers running into the southern margin of this same Titan sea," said Jani Radebaugh, a Cassini radar team associate at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. "Such faults -- fractures in Titan's bedrock -- may not imply plate tectonics, like on Earth, but still lead to the opening of basins and perhaps to the formation of the giant seas themselves."
The new image is available online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia16197.html .
Titan is the only other world we know of that has stable liquid on its surface. While Earth's hydrologic cycle relies on water, Titan's equivalent cycle involves hydrocarbons such as ethane and methane. In Titan's equatorial regions, images from Cassini's visible-light cameras in late 2010 revealed regions that darkened due to recent rainfall. Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer confirmed liquid ethane at a lake in Titan's southern hemisphere known as Ontario Lacus in 2008.
"Titan is the only place we've found besides Earth that has a liquid in continuous movement on its surface," said Steve Wall, the radar deputy team lead, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This picture gives us a snapshot of a world in motion. Rain falls, and rivers move that rain to lakes and seas, where evaporation starts the cycle all over again. On Earth, the liquid is water; on Titan, it's methane; but on both it affects most everything that happens."
The radar image here was taken on Sept. 26, 2012. It shows Titan's north polar region, where the river valley flows into Kraken Mare, a sea that is, in terms of size, between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea on Earth. The real Nile River stretches about 4,100 miles (6,700 kilometers). The processes that led to the formation of Earth's Nile are complex, but involve faulting in some regions.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and ASI, the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the US and several European countries. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/n0Qo40m5dLQ/121212164028.htm
george lucas numerology the game new hampshire primary hue jackson coachella 2012 line up lsu
Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Obama to hold conference call on economy with bipartisan group of mayors (Star Tribune)
APNewsBreak: Texas judge halts oil pipeline work
HOUSTON (AP) ? A Texas judge has ordered TransCanada to temporarily halt work on a private property where it is building part of an oil pipeline designed to carry tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast, the latest legal battle to plague a project that has encountered numerous obstacles nationwide.
Texas landowner Michael Bishop, who is defending himself in his legal battle against the oil giant, filed his lawsuit in the Nacogdoches County courthouse, arguing that TransCanada lied to Texans when it said it would be using the Keystone XL pipeline to transport crude oil.
Tar sands oil ? or diluted bitumen ? does not meet the definition as outlined in Texas and federal statutory codes which define crude oil as "liquid hydrocarbons extracted from the earth at atmospheric temperatures," Bishop said. When tar sands are extracted in Alberta, Canada, the material is almost a solid and "has to be heated and diluted in order to even be transmitted," he told The Associated Press exclusively.
"They lied to the American people," Bishop said.
Texas County Court at Law Judge Jack Sinz signed a temporary restraining order and injunction Friday, saying there was sufficient cause to halt work until a hearing Dec. 19. The two-week injunction went into effect Tuesday after Bishop posted bond.
David Dodson, a spokesman for TransCanada, has said courts have already ruled that tar sands are a form of crude oil. The company said in a statement emailed Tuesday that work on Bishop's property is underway and that the injunction will not have an effect on construction.
"We are on track to bring this pipeline into operation in late 2013," the statement said.
Environmentalists are concerned that if the pipeline leaks or a spill occurs, the heavy tar sands will contaminate water and land. The tar sands, they argue, are more difficult to clean than regular crude, and U.S. pipeline regulations are not suited to transport the product. They also say refining the product will further pollute the air in the Texas Gulf Coast. The state already leads the nation in greenhouse gas emissions and industrial pollution.
In February, another judge briefly halted work on the pipeline in northeast Texas due to archaeological artifacts on the property. The judge later ruled the work could resume. The pipeline is being built, although the landowner is fighting the condemnation of her land.
TransCanada wants to build a pipeline to transport tar sands from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, but has encountered roadblocks along the way. To cross the U.S.-Canadian border, the company needs a presidential permit, which was rejected earlier this year by President Barack Obama, who suggested the company reroute to avoid a sensitive environmental area in Nebraska. The company plans to reroute that portion.
In the meantime, Obama encouraged the company to pursue a shorter portion of the pipeline from Oklahoma to Texas, which would help relieve a bottleneck in Cushing. TransCanada received the necessary permits for that southern portion earlier this year and began construction.
But many Texas landowners have taken to the courts to fight the company's land condemnations in a state that has long wed its fortunes to oil.
Bishop owns 20 acres in Douglass, a town about 160 miles north of Houston. He used to raise poultry and goats on the land where he lives with his wife and 16-year-old daughter, he said, but sold the animals about two years ago because of the planned pipeline. Initially, the Vietnam War veteran said, he fought the company's attempt to condemn his land, but settled because he could not afford the lawyer's fees of $10,000.
Bishop said he settled under "duress," so he bought a law book and decided to defend himself. Since then, he has filed a lawsuit in Austin against the Texas Railroad Commission, the state agency that oversees pipelines, arguing it failed to properly investigate the pipeline and protect groundwater, public health and safety.
Aware that the oil giant could have a battery of lawyers and experts at the hearing later this month, Bishop, a 64-year-old retired chemist currently in medical school, said he is determined to fight.
"Bring 'em on. I'm a United States Marine. I'm not afraid of anyone. I'm not afraid of them," he said. "When I'm done with them, they will know that they've been in a fight. I may not win, but I'm going to hurt them."
___
Associated Press writer Josh Funk contributed to this report from Omaha, Neb.
__
Plushnick-Masti can be followed on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RamitMastiAP
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-texas-judge-halts-oil-pipeline-145811577.html
where have you been rihanna kirk cousins mothers day ovechkin one world trade center bks new dark knight rises trailer
Google, U.S. regulators close to deal in patents dispute: sources
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators are near a settlement with Google Inc in a dispute over the search giant's efforts to stop the sale of products it says infringe essential patents, according to two sources close to the probe.
But the Federal Trade Commission is not expected to reach a deal soon on the larger, more contentious issue of whether Google tweaks its search results to disadvantage rivals in travel, shopping and other specialized searches.
Its rivals say Google fears the specialized sites will siphon away its most lucrative advertising and the revenue that goes with it.
Under the expected settlement, which could be announced this week or next, Google will be required to drop demands for injunctions in lawsuits filed using a special class of patents called standard essential patents, or SEPs, the sources said.
SEPs ensure, for example, that one brand of wireless phone can call another brand.
There would be an exception to the injunction ban, however. Google would be allowed to request injunctions if companies refuse to negotiate SEP licensing at all, the sources said.
SEPs are usually expected to be broadly licensed for a reasonable price. One view is that if a company convinces a standard-setting organization to name its patent as the standard, that company should be barred from asking for an injunction if there is infringement.
The larger investigation, which is more than a year old, addresses search bias as well as smaller items that aggravate Google's rivals in Silicon Valley and beyond.
These include taking data, such as hotel reviews, from non-Google web sites to use on Google products, and preventing the export of data on advertising effectiveness to non-Google software so ad campaigns can be evaluated.
The European Commission is investigating many of the same allegations.
Google's critics, disappointed with the trajectory of the FTC probe, appear prepared to take their grievances to the U.S. Justice Department.
At least one Google adversary met with Justice Department officials recently, pressing them to investigate if the FTC fails to get a satisfactory settlement on search or litigate against Google, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.
The Texas attorney general's office is also leading a probe into Google's practices.
(Reporting By Diane Bartz; editing by John Wallace)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-u-regulators-close-deal-patents-dispute-sources-201654526--sector.html
hopkins dear john derrick rose torn acl pacers undrafted free agents braveheart earthquake california
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Tennessee Won't Create Obamacare Insurance Exchange - Livewire
Pema Levy
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam (R) announced Monday that Tennessee would not create a health insurance exchange in line with President Obama's health care reform law. In a press release, Haslam said the decision came after "months of consideration" and was not a "political decision."?
?In weighing all of the information we currently have, I informed the federal government today that Tennessee will not run a state-based exchange," Haslam said. "If conditions warrant in the future and it makes sense at a later date for Tennessee to run the exchange, we would consider that as an option at the appropriate time."
He continued: ?This decision comes after months of consideration and analysis.?It is a business decision based on what is best for Tennesseans with the information we have now that we?ve pressed hard to receive from Washington.?If this were a political decision, it would?ve been easy, and I would?ve made it a long time ago."
With Haslam's decision, 21 states have now declined to create insurance exchanges, according to the Huffington Post.?
Source: http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/tennessee-wont-create-obamacare-insurance-exchange
Alex Karras BCS Rankings 2012 the walking dead the walking dead Walking Dead Season 3 vampire diaries derek jeter
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)