(Credit:
NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)
NASA announced this week that a key piece of gear on its Kepler space telescope has run into trouble. And though the space agency hasn’t given up on a jump-start, the mission may well be at risk.
It’s already gone well beyond its planned duration, however, and presented us with many fascinating discoveries.
In this gallery, we take a look back at that mission — at Kepler’s intriguing quest to find Earth-like, life-friendly planets among the Milky Way’s many stars.
Requ [...]
A look back at NASA’s planet-pinpointing space ‘scope
(Credit:
NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech)
NASA announced this week that a key piece of gear on its Kepler space telescope has run into trouble. And though the space agency hasn’t given up on a jump-start, the mission may well be at risk.
It’s already gone well beyond its planned duration, however, and presented us with many fascinating discoveries.
In this gallery, we take a look back at that mission — at Kepler’s intriguing quest to find Earth-like, life-friendly planets among the Milky Way’s many stars.
Requ [...]
Brewers top Cardinals in 10 innings
St. Louis, MO – Jeff Bianchi’s two-run single in the 10th inning led the Milwaukee Brewers to a 6-4 win over the St. Louis Cardinals in the second of a three-game set.
Ryan Braun started the 10th with a single through the middle off Joe Kelly
(0-2) and moved to third when Aramis Ramirez dropped a bloop single into
right. After Jonathan Lucroy grounded out, Carlos Gomez was issued a free pass
to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Logan Schafer hit into a 6-2 fielder’s choice
that saw Braun forced out [...]
Winning ticket for $590.5 million Powerball lottery sold in Florida
By Karen Brooks and Steve Gorman
Sun May 19, 2013 2:55am EDT
(Reuters) – A single winning ticket for a record U.S. Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late on Saturday, but there was no immediate word about who won or where in the state the ticket was bought.
The winning numbers from Saturday night’s drawing were: 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball number of 11, and the odds of winning were put at one in 175 million.
The grand prize, accumulated after [...]
Training push fails to halt military sexual assault crisis
By Tabassum Zakaria and David Alexander
WASHINGTON |
Sun May 19, 2013 1:25am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Under pressure to fight sexual assault, the U.S. armed forces in recent years rolled out education programs about proper sexual conduct through methods like role playing and video games.
The increase in education has nevertheless failed to prevent what the nation’s top general called last week “a crisis” after the Pentagon reported a 37 percent jump in the estimated number of sexual [...]
China Premier Li Keqiang in India
19 May 2013
Last updated at 02:44 ET
India has welcomed the Chinese premier’s decision to make it his first foreign stop since taking office in March
China’s Premier Li Keqiang is travelling to India in the first stop of his maiden foreign trip since taking office.
Upon his arrival in Delhi, Premier Li will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, followed by dinner at the Indian leader’s residence.
Border tensions and trade ties are expected to be among the issues discussed by the two men.
The nei [...]
Puzzling! Swine flu virus detected in elephant seals off West Coast
Joachim Ploetz, Alfred Wegener Institute
A male elephant seal opens wide at sea. Scientists have found the H1N1 virus strain in northern elephant seals off the coast of California, the first such detection in marine mammals.
The H1N1 virus strain that caused a 2009 swine flu outbreak in humans was detected in northern elephant seals off the coast of central California.
Scientists say this is the first time marine mammals have been found to carry the H1N1 flu strain, which originated in pigs. The seals seem to have picked up the virus whi [...]
Daniel Dennett’s seven tools for thinking
1 USE YOUR MISTAKES
We have all heard the forlorn refrain: “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!” This phrase has come to stand for the rueful reflection of an idiot, a sign of stupidity, but in fact we should appreciate it as a pillar of wisdom. Any being, any agent, who can truly say: “Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time!” is standing on the threshold of brilliance. We human beings pride ourselves on our intelligence, and one of its hallmarks is that we can remember our previous thinking and ref [...]
Warner charged with CA code breach
Australia’s Test opening batsman David Warner has been charged with breaching Cricket Australia’s code of behaviour after abusive comments were posted on his Twitter account.
The 26-year-old faces a CA hearing over the abusive messages to journalists.
The posts, some containing obscene language, appeared after News Limited’s Robert Craddock criticised the Indian Premier League.
Warner is currently appearing in the IPL for Delhi Daredevils.
Australian cricket’s governing body said: “Cri [...]
PayPal was no friend in need
My son took out a £1,300 car insurance policy – or so he thought – with the insurer MMA. I encouraged him to play safe and use my PayPal account for the transaction. After a couple of months, he discovered that the car was not insured. MMA claimed he had been a victim of fraudulent brokers, who had set up bogus policies in MMA’s name, and that police were investigating similar cases.
Since he can’t afford new insurance he has had to sell his car. I contacted PayPal, who said they couldn’t help as I was outside their 45- [...]
Danger and separation from families changing job of U.S. diplomats
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON |
Sun May 19, 2013 1:41am EDT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When the Yemen-based branch of al Qaeda placed a bounty on her husband’s head, Mary Feierstein learned of it from a friend who called and said, “You must be a mess!”
U.S. Ambassador Gerald Feierstein was thousands of miles (km) away at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, without his wife and family on what is called an “unaccompanied” posting.
He is one of more than a thousand U.S. diplomats on such t [...]
Working conditions in the fashion industry: news and teaching resources round up
The deaths of more than 1,100 garment workers when the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed last month, as well as those at a Cambodian shoe factory on Thursday, have forced consumers and retailers to re-examine the impact and ethics of fast fashion.
Here we round up the best news stories, multimedia, teaching resources and websites to help you study the working conditions of garment workers and the sustainability of the fashion industry in the citizenship and geography classroom, and beyond.
From the Guardian
Cambodia shoe facto [...]
Winning ticket for $590.5 million Powerball jackpot sold in Florida
Sun May 19, 2013 1:48am EDT
(Reuters) – One winning ticket for a record U.S. Powerball lottery jackpot worth $590.5 million was sold in Florida, organizers said late on Saturday.
No other information on the winning ticket was immediately available, but the grand prize accumulated after two months of drawings surpassed the previous record Powerball payoff of $587.5 million, set in November 2012.
The winning numbers picked on Saturday night were: 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball number of 11, and the odds [...]