Last week, noted journalist Michael Hastings was killed in a tragic and dramatic car crash
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Why Cars Explode Into Fireballs And Why They Usually Don't
Titan Unmasked: 1st Map of Saturn Moon's Topography Revealed
Scientists have pieced together the first-ever global topographic map of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, using radar observations from veteran NASA spacecraft.
The new map of Titan was stitched together from radar observations of the moon by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. It reveals an unprecedented look at Titan's surface and should help scientists learn more about one of the most Earth-like bodies in the solar system, members of the mapping team said.
"Titan has so much interesting activity ? like flowing liquids and moving sand dunes ? but to understand these processes it's useful to know how the terrain slopes," Ralph Lorenz, a member of the Cassini spacecraft's radar team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., who led the map design effort, said in a statement. "It's especially helpful to those studying hydrology and modeling Titan's climate and weather, who need to know whether there is high ground or low ground driving their models." [Amazing Photos: Titan, Saturn's Largest Moon]
Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system, and the only one known to have clouds and a dense atmosphere. Scientists have been keen to study the cloud-covered world because of its Earth-like qualities. Titan's atmosphere, like Earth, is primarily composed of nitrogen, but instead of water, Titan's rain, clouds and?lakes are made of methane.
Titan's nitrogen-rich atmosphere also contains organic chemicals that are derived from methane, which may hold clues to the building blocks of life as we know it, the researchers said.
Seeing through the clouds
Typically, NASA maps the topography of planetary bodies using remote cameras to observe the shapes and shadows of the landscape.?Titan's thick atmosphere, however, makes this difficult, the researchers explained.
NASA's?Cassini probe has flown by Titan nearly 100 times since it arrived at Saturn in 2004. As the spacecraft swings past the hazy moon, it uses a radar imager to pierce through the clouds. These radar measurements can then be used to estimate the heights of topographical features on the moon.
But, since Cassini is only able to observe Titan on flybys, putting together a complete map of its surface is challenging.
"We have only imaged about half of Titan's surface, and multiple 'looks' or special observations are needed to estimate the surface heights," Lorenz said. "If you divided Titan into 1-degree by 1-degree [latitude and longitude] squares, only 11 percent of those squares have topography data in them."
To create a global map, Lorenz and his colleagues used a mathematical process called "splining," which uses smooth, curved surfaces to stitch together grids of existing data.
"You can take a spot where there is no data, look how close it is to the nearest data, and use various approaches of averaging and estimating to calculate your best guess," Lorenz said. "If you pick a point, and all the nearby points are high altitude, you'd need a special reason for thinking that point would be lower. We're mathematically papering over the gaps in our coverage."
Piecing together the puzzle
Scientists already knew that Titan's polar regions are lower in altitude than regions around the equator, but the new topographic map fills in details that will enable researchers to make more accurate models of how and where Titan's rivers flow, and seasonal distribution of the moon's?methane rainfall.
"The movement of sands and the flow of liquids are influenced by slopes, and mountains can trigger cloud formation and therefore rainfall," Lorenz said. "This global product now gives modelers a convenient description of this key factor in Titan's dynamic climate system."
The map was compiled using data from 2012, but Lorenz said it may be updated when the Cassini spacecraft's mission ends in 2017. In the meantime, the scientists are hoping the newly compiled topographical information will spur new research on Titan.
"With this new topographic map, one of the most fascinating and dynamic worlds in our solar system now pops out in 3D," Steve Wall, deputy team leader of Cassini's radar team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said in a statement. "On Earth, rivers, volcanoes and even weather are closely related to heights of surfaces ? we're now eager to see what we can learn from them on Titan."
The map was published in the July 2013 issue of the journal Icarus.
Follow Denise Chow on Twitter?@denisechow. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Source: http://news.yahoo.com/titan-unmasked-1st-map-saturn-moons-topography-revealed-143046055.html
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US factory boss held hostage by workers in Beijing
BEIJING (AP) ? An American executive said he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department.
Chip Starnes, 42, a co-owner of Coral Springs, Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, said local officials had visited the 10-year-old plant on the capital's outskirts and coerced him into signing agreements Saturday to meet the workers' demands even though he sought to make clear that the remaining 100 workers weren't being laid off.
The workers were expecting wire transfers by Tuesday, he said, adding that about 80 of them had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office. He declined to clarify the amount, saying he wanted to keep it confidential.
"I feel like a trapped animal," Starnes told The Associated Press on Monday from his first-floor office window, while holding onto the window's bars. "I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen."
Workers inside the compound, a pair of two-story buildings behind gates and hedges in the Huairou district of the northeastern Beijing suburbs, repeatedly declined requests for comment, saying they did not want to talk to foreign media.
It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, often from their Chinese owners, though occasionally also involving foreign bosses.
The labor action reflects growing uneasiness among workers about their jobs amid China's slowing economic growth and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories. The account about local officials coercing Starnes to meet workers' demands ? if true ? reflects how officials typically consider stifling unrest to be a priority.
Huairou district and Qiaozi township governments declined to comment.
A local police spokesman said police were at the scene to maintain order. Four uniformed police and about a dozen other men who declined to identify themselves were standing across the road from the plant.
"As far as I know, there was a labor dispute between the workers and the company management and the dispute is being solved," said spokesman Zhao Lu of the Huairou Public Security Bureau. " I am not sure about the details of the solution, but I can guarantee the personal safety of the manager."
Representatives from the U.S. Embassy stood outside the gate much of the day, and eventually were let in. U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said the two sides were on the verge of an agreement and that Starnes would have access to his attorneys. It was unclear what agreement might be reached, and subsequent attempts to contact Starnes were not immediately successful.
Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division, planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing last Tuesday to lay off the last 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were "pretty nice," he said.
Some of the workers in the other divisions got wind of this, and, coupled with rumors that the whole plant was moving to India, started demanding similar severance packages on Friday.
Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said he wasn't familiar with Starnes' case, but that such hostage-taking was "not a major problem" for the foreign business community.
"It happened more often say 15 years ago than today, but it still happens from time to time," he said. "It rarely leads to personal harm to the managers involved, but there are cases when it has in years past."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-factory-boss-held-hostage-workers-beijing-074855847.html
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Will Smith Not In 'Independence Day 2,' Director Roland Emmerich Says
"Independence Day" is finally getting the sequel fans have awaited for nearly two decades, but its biggest star won't be coming along for the ride.
Will Smith, whose role in the 1996 alien-invasion blockbuster helped propel him to megastardom, will not be appearing in "Independence Day 2," director Roland Emmerich told the New York Daily News on Saturday. "He's too expensive," Emmerich lamented.
That admission comes hot on the heels of Thursday's announcement that 20th Century Fox would be bringing the highly anticipated sequel to big screens on July 3, 2015. The news capped more than a decade of speculation about the long-gestating sequel, but it was not immediately clear whether or not Smith would be involved. That uncertainty wouldn't last long.
"Will Smith can not come back because he's too expensive," Emmerich told the Daily News, "but he'd also be too much of a marquee name."
"It would be too much," he said.
Smith, whose latest film, "After Earth," was a rare box-office miss, has been linked recently to several other blockbuster sequels/prequels, including "Bad Boys 3," "Hancock 2," and I Am Legend 2." His next film, an adaptation of Mark Helprin's celebrated fantasy novel "Winter's Tale," finds the actor in a supporting role for the first time in years.
Bill Pullman, who played a United States president-cum-fighter pilot in "Independence Day," has already indicated that there's a role for him in the sequel. While Emmerich has not yet revealed what other actors from the original might be returning, he did hint that several of the movie's primary characters have been written into the sequel's screenplay, which he co-wrote with producer Dean Devlin and James Vanderbilt.
"We have like maybe half of the people that you know would know from the first film (in the script)," Emmerich told the Daily News, "and the other half people who are new."
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/will-smith-independence-day-2_n_3484969.html
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15 Foods That Help You Stay Hydrated
According to the old rule of thumb, you're supposed to drink eight glasses of water per day (and some experts recommend even more). That can seem like a daunting task on some days, but here's the catch: You don't have to drink all that water. Roughly 20% of our daily H2O intake comes from solid foods, especially fruits and vegetables.
It's still important to drink plenty of water?especially in the summertime?but you can also quench your thirst with these 15 hugely hydrating foods, all of which are at least 90% water by weight.
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 96.7 percent.
This summer veggie?which has the highest water content of any solid food?is perfect in salads, or sliced up and served with some hummus, says Keri Gans, RD, author of The Small Change Diet: 10 Steps to a Thinner and Healthier You and a consultant to Mindbloom, a technology company that makes life-improvement apps.
Want to pump up cucumber's hydrating power even more? Try blending it with nonfat yogurt, mint, and ice cubes to make cucumber soup. "Soup is always hydrating, but you may not want to eat something hot in the summertime," Gans says. "Chilled cucumber soup, on the other hand, is so refreshing and delicious any time of year."
8 Refreshing Chilled Soups for Summer
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 95.6 percent.
Iceberg lettuce tends to get a bad rap, nutrition-wise. Health experts often recommend shunning it in favor of darker greens like spinach or romaine lettuce, which contain higher amounts of fiber and nutrients such as folate and vitamin K. It's a different story when it comes to water content, though: Crispy iceberg has the highest of any lettuce, followed by butterhead, green leaf, and romaine varieties.
So when the temperature rises, pile iceberg onto sandwiches or use it as a bed for a healthy chicken salad. Even better: Ditch the tortillas and hamburger buns and use iceberg leaves as a wrap for tacos and burgers.
9 Healthy Chicken Salad Recipes
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 95.4 percent.
That urban legend about celery having negative calories isn't quite true, but it's pretty close. Like all foods that are high in water, celery has very few calories?just 6 calories per stalk. And its one-two punch of fiber and water helps to fill you up and curb your appetite.
This lightweight veggie isn't short on nutrition, however. Celery contains folate and vitamins A, C, and K. And thanks in part to its high water content, celery neutralizes stomach acid and is often recommended as a natural remedy for heartburn and acid reflux.
30 Foods Under 40 Calories
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 95.3 percent.
These refreshing root vegetables should be a fixture in your spring and summer salads. They provide a burst of spicy-sweet flavor?and color!?in a small package, and more importantly they're filled with antioxidants such as catechin (also found in green tea).
A crunchy texture also makes radishes a perfect addition to healthy summer coleslaw?no mayo required. Slice them up with shredded cabbage and carrots, sliced snow peas, and chopped hazelnuts and parsley, and toss with poppy seeds, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper.
Superfood Secrets for a Long and Healthy Life
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 94.5 percent.
Sliced and diced tomatoes will always be a mainstay of salads, sauces, and sandwiches, but don't forget about sweet cherry and grape varieties, which make an excellent hydrating snack, Gans says. "They're great to just pop in your mouth, maybe with some nuts or some low-sodium cheese," she says. "You get this great explosion of flavor when you bite into them."
Having friends over? Skewer grape tomatoes, basil leaves, and small chunks of mozzarella on toothpicks for a quick and easy appetizer.
20 Snacks That Burn Fat
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 93.9 percent.
Bell peppers of all shades have a high water content, but green peppers lead the pack, just edging out the red and yellow varieties (which are about 92 percent water). And contrary to popular belief, green peppers contain just as many antioxidants as their slightly sweeter siblings.
Peppers are a great pre-dinner or late-night snack, Gans says. "We tell people to munch on veggies when they have a craving, but a lot of people get bored of carrots and celery pretty quickly," she says. "Peppers are great to slice up when you get home from work, while you're making or waiting for dinner."
Colorful Produce For a More Nutritious You
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 92.1 percent.
Don't let cauliflower's pale complexion fool you: In addition to having lots of water, these unassuming florets are packed with vitamins and phytonutrients that have been shown to help lower cholesterol and fight cancer, including breast cancer. (A 2012 study of breast cancer patients by Vanderbilt University researchers found that eating cruciferous veggies like cauliflower was associated with a lower risk of dying from the disease or seeing a recurrence.)
"Break them up and add them to a salad for a satisfying crunch," Gans suggests. "You can even skip the croutons!"
17 Superfoods That Fight Disease
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 91.5 percent.
It's fairly obvious that watermelon is full of, well, water, but this juicy melon is also among the richest sources of lycopene, a cancer-fighting antioxidant found in red fruits and vegetables. In fact, watermelon contains more lycopene than raw tomatoes?about 12 milligrams per wedge, versus 3 milligrams per medium-sized tomato.
Although this melon is plenty hydrating on its own, Gans loves to mix it with water in the summertime. "Keep a water pitcher in the fridge with watermelon cubes in the bottom," she says. "It's really refreshing, and great incentive to drink more water overall."
The Best Foods for Every Vitamin and Mineral
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 91.4 percent.
Iceberg lettuce may have a higher water content, but spinach is usually a better bet overall. Piling raw spinach leaves on your sandwich or salad provides nearly as much built-in hydration, with an added nutritional punch.
Spinach is rich in lutein, potassium, fiber, and brain-boosting folate, and just one cup of raw leaves contains 15 percent of your daily intake of vitamin E?an important antioxidant for fighting off the damaging molecules known as free radicals.
The 20 Best Foods for Fiber
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 91.4 percent.
This tropical fruit, also known as carambola, comes in sweet and tart varieties and has a juicy texture similar to pineapple. Its eye-catching shape looks great in a fruit salad or as an edible garnish on the rim of a summer cocktail, and as an added bonus it's rich in antioxidants, especially epicatechin?a heart-healthy compound also found in red wine, dark chocolate, and green tea.
One note of caution: People with kidney problems should avoid star fruit because of its high levels of oxalic acid.
23 Superfruits You Need Now!
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 91.0 percent.
All berries are good foods for hydration, but juicy red strawberries are easily the best of the bunch. Raspberries and blueberries both hover around 85 percent water, while blackberries are only slightly better at 88.2 percent.
"I love strawberries blended in a smoothie or mixed with plain nonfat yogurt?another hydrating food," Gans says. Strawberries add natural sweetness to the yogurt, she adds, and the combo of carbohydrates, fiber, and protein make a great post-workout recovery snack.
12 Summer Fruit and Veggie Recipes
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 90.7 percent.
Like its cousin cauliflower, raw broccoli adds a satisfying crunch to a salad. But its nutritional profile?lots of fiber, potassium, vitamin A, and vitamin C?is slightly more impressive. What's more, broccoli is the only cruciferous vegetable (a category that contains cabbage and kale, in addition to cauliflower) with a significant amount of sulforaphane, a potent compound that boosts the body's protective enzymes and flushes out cancer-causing chemicals.
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 90.5 percent.
This juicy, tangy citrus fruit can help lower cholesterol and shrink your waistline, research suggests. In one study, people who ate one grapefruit a day lowered their bad (LDL) cholesterol by 15.5 percent and their triglycerides by 27 percent. In another, eating half a grapefruit?roughly 40 calories?before each meal helped dieters lose about three and a half pounds over 12 weeks. Researchers say that compounds in the fruit help fuel fat burn and stabilize blood sugar, therefore helping to reduce cravings.
Best Superfoods for Weight Loss
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 90.4 percent.
A carrot's a carrot, right? Not when it comes to water content. As it turns out, the baby-sized carrots that have become a staple in supermarkets and lunchboxes contain more water than full-size carrots (which are merely 88.3 percent water).
The ready-to-eat convenience factor is hard to top, as well. Snack on them right out of the bag, dip them in hummus or guacamole, or?for a bit of added crunch and bright orange color?chop them up and add them to salads or salsas.
Hydrating Foods
Water content: 90.2 percent.
This succulent melon provides a big nutritional payoff for very few calories. One six-ounce serving?about one-quarter of a melon?contains just 50 calories but delivers a full 100% of your recommended daily intake of vitamins A and C.
"I love cantaloupe as a dessert," Gans says. "If you've got a sweet tooth, it will definitely satisfy." Tired of plain old raw fruit? Blend cantaloupe with yogurt and freeze it into sherbet, or puree it with orange juice and mint to make a refreshing soup.
This article originally appeared on Health.com.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Wellness/15-foods-stay-hydrated/story?id=19457119
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
Europe tests reusable spaceship
By Irene Klotz
PARIS (Reuters) - The European Space Agency is preparing to launch an experimental reusable spaceship next summer following a successful atmospheric test flight this week, officials said at the Paris Airshow.
A mock-up built by Thales Alenia Space was dropped from a helicopter flying 1.9 miles above the Mediterranean near Sardinia on Wednesday to check its handling and parachute system, company officials said.
The 14.4 foot long (4.4 meter) craft, known as "IXV" as it is an intermediate experimental vehicle, splashed down in the ocean and was retrieved by an awaiting ship.
The test flight clears IXV for a follow-on demonstration run beyond the Earth's atmosphere in August next year. That program, in turn, paves the way for an orbital prototype dubbed "Pride", slated to launch in 2018.
The aim is to help Europe develop an autonomous atmospheric re-entry system that could be used on vehicles flying experiments in space, Roberto Provera, director of space transportation programs for Thales Alenia Space, told Reuters.
"It's the first time in Europe that we've tried something like this," Provera said, adding that it could eventually be used to carry people.
The vehicles are similar to but smaller than the U.S. military's X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles, built by Boeing. Like NASA's now-retired space shuttles, they have "lifting body" designs shaped to produce lift without airplane-like wings.
For its next test, Europe will launch another IXV vehicle on a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center in French Guiana.
Once at an altitude of about 199 miles, the IXV will separate from the rocket and climb to about 267 miles before slamming back into the atmosphere at a speed of about 4.7 miles per second and parachuting into the Pacific Ocean.
Several U.S. firms are also developing reusable spaceships. Designs include traditional capsules, as well as "lifting body" vehicles.
SPACE STATION
Privately owned Sierra Nevada Corp., for example, is testing a vehicle called Dream Chaser that has NASA backing.
The U.S. space agency, which retired its space shuttles in 2011, is seeking commercial options to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, a permanently staffed research outpost that flies about 250 miles above Earth.
Virgin Galactic, a U.S. offshoot of billionaire Richard Branson's London-based Virgin Group, is testing a suborbital passenger vehicle called SpaceShipTwo, expected to start flying next year.
The U.S. military has two experimental unmanned reusable spaceships developed under its X-37B program. One is in orbit.
President Vladimir Putin told astronauts in orbit in April that Russia would send up the first manned flights from its own soil in 2018, using a new launch pad he said would help the once-pioneering space power explore deep space and the moon.
Thales Alenia said it has not yet finalized a price for Pride with the European Space Agency, but expects it will cost about the same as the IXV program, or roughly 200 million Euros ($264 million).
Thales Alenia Space is a joint venture owned 67 percent by France's Thales and 33 percent by Italy's Finmeccanica.
($1 = 0.7590 euros)
(Editing by James Regan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/europe-tests-reusable-spaceship-162022862.html
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Paula Deen Canned by Food Network After Racial Slur Uproar -
Paula Deen, queen of Southern Cooking has been dropped by the Food Network after a bizarre series of events, in which she admitted using racial epithets, using slurs against gays, and that she condoned pornography and racist jokes in the workplace. According to the NY Times, She was scheduled to appear on the ?Today? show to defend her actions, but canceled at the last minute, leaving host Matt Lauer steaming. Paula then posted two odd online videos, tearfully begging her audience to forgive her for using racist language. ?I want to apologize to everybody for the wrong that I?ve done. I want to learn and grow from this. Inappropriate and hurtful language is totally, totally unacceptable? (since removed from the service). Later this afternoon she posted a second video?in which she says ?The pain has been tremendous that I have caused to myself and to others?.
This is not the first controversy for Paula. Last year she was roundly criticized for continuing to push her sugar laden cooking after keeping secret her diagnosis of diabetes.
The Food Network stated that Paula?s contract would not be renewed when it expires this month.
This will not be a big loss for the food community. I hate to think she?d be causing herself more pain.
"I have a wide-range of food experience - working in the restaurant industry on both sides of the house, later in the wine industry, and finally traveling/tasting my way around the world. Whether you agree or disagree, you can always count on my unbiased opinion. I don't take free meals, and the restaurants don't know when, or if, I am coming."
Source: http://portlandfoodanddrink.com/paula-deen-canned-by-food-network-after-racial-slur-uproar/
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