Nasa estimates the odds of someone being struck by a falling part of the spacecraft at one in 3,200 The world’s major space agencies, armed forces and security officials have come together to monitor the heavens for a bus-sized spacecraft that will fall to Earth this week. In an event prompted by the rule that what goes up must come down, the defunct satellite will plummet through the atmosphere, burn and break apart, and scatter hunks of steel, aluminium and titanium over a distance of hundreds of miles. Much of Nasa’s nearly six-tonne Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will disintegrate as it hurtles through the atmosphere, but the space agency anticipates that 26 potentially hazardous parts, weighing a total of 532kg, could remain intact and impact on the surface. The debris will spread over an estimated 500 miles. Among the parts expected to survive the fiery re-entry are four titanium fuel tanks, four steel flywheel rims and an aluminium structure that alone weighs 158kg. Depending on their size and shape, the components will strike at speeds of between 55mph (90kph) and 240mph (385kph). Radar stations around the world, including RAF Fylingdales in north Yorkshire, are tracking the object and expect it to re-enter the atmosphere between Thursday and Saturday, but there is little chance of predicting with any accuracy where the debris will fall. An update from Nasa on Wednesday said the satellite was 120 miles above the Earth and due to impact on Friday US time. The agency will issue further updates 24 hours before re-entry, then at 12, six and two hours before re-entry . The spacecraft’s orbit puts a great swathe of the planet in its path between the latitudes of 57 degrees north and south. Mainland Britain lies between 50 and 60 degrees North. The satellite spends more time at higher latitudes, so there is a slightly higher risk in those regions. Most likely by far is that the remains of the satellite will drop into the ocean, or be strewn across one of the planet’s most desolate regions, such as Siberia, the Australian outback or the Canadian tundra. Noting that safety was its top priority, Nasa declared the odds of someone being struck by a falling part of the spacecraft at one in 3,200. There are no confirmed injuries from man-made space debris and no record of significant property damage from a falling satellite. “Most of the Earth’s surface is covered by water or is uninhabited, so nobody tends to even see this kind of debris when it does land,” Hugh Lewis, a space debris expert at Southampton University , told the Guardian. “Those pieces that do survive re-entry have slowed down a lot, but they are still travelling quite fast. Because of their size, they would do significant damage if they hit a structure or a person, but the chances of that happening are remote,” he added. When Nasa’s Skylab fell to Earth in 1979, the space agency put the risk of personal injury at 1 in 152, with the odds of the defunct space station striking a city much higher. The partially-controlled Skylab missed its expected impact site in South Africa and crash-landed in Australia. An organisation of major space agencies known as the Inter-agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) takes a lead role in monitoring threats from falling space junk and is running back-to-back simulations to work out when, and roughly where, the spacecraft’s remains will impact. If the IADC or the Ministry of Defence, via RAF Fylingdales, found that the UK was at risk, they would inform the Cabinet Office civil contingencies committee , which is responsible for alerting the emergency services. “There is a limit to what you can do in response, because you cannot give categorical information on where something is going to land. It would be irresponsible to order an evacuation, because you would put more people at risk than would ever be in danger from falling space debris,” said Richard Crowther, a space surveillance expert at the UK Space Agency . “Fortunately, we are a small target compared with other landmasses.” Predicting where the debris will land is difficult for two main reasons. Unpredictable rises in the sun’s activity warm the atmosphere and make it expand, which causes the spacecraft to experience more drag and re-enter more quickly. Another problem comes from uncertainties in the tracking of how the spacecraft disintegrates, which means that even just a few hours before impact, the region at risk will cover several thousand kilometres. Under an international treaty, governments are obliged to return any parts of the satellite that are found to the owner, in this case Nasa. The space agency urged anyone who suspected they had found debris from the spacecraft not to touch it and inform the local police. The satellite was launched in 1991 aboard the space shuttle Discovery and decommissioned in 2005. Wherever the spacecraft lands, it will give the relevant authorities valuable experience ahead of a potentially more dangerous event in early November, when the German Rosat satellite re-enters at 28,000kph . The German space agency, DLR, said up to 30 pieces of the spacecraft might survive re-entry, with a combined mass of more than one-and-a-half tonnes. Satellites Space Nasa Ian Sample guardian.co.uk
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EricWAFF says: RT @ waff48 : Hobe Sound teen reels in 800 pound gator http://t.co/rt4oE7tw see some video on WAFF 48 News Now
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Type: Toy Title: Sesame Street Let’s Rock Elmo See all customer reviews Product Description: Are you born to rock? Rock out with Let’s Rock Elmo! Comes with a microphone, tambourine, and drum set. Elmo recognizes the instruments, too! Are you born to rock? Now you can rock out with Let’s Rock Elmo! Sing along with 3 built-in songs, or create your own. Elmo comes with his own microphone, plus a tambourine and drum set. He recognizes the instruments, too! For more rockin’ fun, this toy interacts with Let’s Rock Instruments (sold separately)! Features: Elmo comes with his very own microphone and two instruments ? a tambourine and a drum set. Preschoolers can choose which instrument Elmo plays, and he “magically” recognizes which one you give him. For even more rockin? fun, Elmo also interacts with other LET?S ROCK instruments (each sold separately); he knows when you?re playing the LET?S ROCK Guitar, Keyboard or Microphone and plays along with you! The LET?S ROCK Elmo toy sings six rockin? songs, so grab an instrument and join Elmo?s band! Figure comes with microphone, tambourine, drums and instructions. See the details
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We’ve already witnessed the launch of a Windows Phone with Mango and seen several others announced , so when’s the update rolling out to devices still operating on NoDo ? According to Microsoft’s official Windows Phone Blog, we need only wait another week or two before the update begins rolling out. The Windows Team indicates it won’t be pushed to your phone OTA when the time comes, so you’ll want to ensure you have the right software ( Zune for PC , Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac) installed on your computer before this all goes down. Now, a word of caution: we’d be completely taken by surprise if every phone received the update on the same day — after all, the NoDo rollout spanned several weeks before it was delivered everywhere — so it’s best if you exercise a degree of patience if your particular handset isn’t ready the very first day, just in case. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in] Existing Windows Phones to get Mango update within the next two weeks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani was assassinated yesterday by a pair of “articulate and well-trained” fighters who won his trust by promising peace talks, a Taliban spokesman gloats. The killer—a suicide attacker who blew up a bomb in his turban—and his accomplice “were telling Rabbani that they would…
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OMG!! Troy Davis execution: Georgia pardons board denies plea for clemency Troy Davis Georgiacution Save Troy Davis! Time Is Of The Essence! SnyderMaria says: Troy Davis execution date : Convicted murderer will die tomorrow http://t.co/DmJ2Zxtd
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Department of Education’s claims messages conducting government business ‘do not fall within FOI act’ is rebuked The information commissioner’s office has challenged a claim by the Department for Education that private email accounts are not subject to freedom of information legislation. The claim was made in response to allegations that the education secretary, Michael Gove, and his closest advisers conducted government business on private emails. The Financial Times reported that these emails included issues such as a school literacy programme, which would be covered by FOI law. In its rebuttal of the allegations, the Department for Education has claimed that private emails “do not fall within the FOI Act” and are not searchable by civil servants. However, in a statement the information commissioner’s office said: “It is certainly possible that some information in private emails could fall within the scope of the Freedom of Information Act if it concerns government business. This will be dependent on the specific circumstances.” The information commissioner’s office is making inquiries after an FT journalist made FOI requests seeking to retrieve details of emails he had seen through other channels. According to the paper, the department said in each case it did not hold the information. The email traffic includes questions about government business such as “where are we on reducing bureaucracy?”, the FT reports. In one email, Gove sums up what he expects from a judicial review of his decision to cancel the Building Schools for the Future programme with one word: “AAAAAARGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!”. The decision to cancel Labour’s school building programme last summer generated the worst crisis of Gove’s time in office. In February, a high court judge ruled he had acted unlawfully. Sandwell, one of the councils affected by the scrapping of BSF, has instructed solicitors to write to the Department for Education , asking whether Gove and his aides used personal email accounts in the decision-making process. The DfE has also responded to the disclosure that Dominic Cummings, Gove’s chief political adviser, wrote to colleagues shortly after he was appointed stating he “will not answer any further emails to my official DfE account”. The email continued: “i will only answer things that come from gmail accounts from people who i know who they are. i suggest that you do the same in general but thats obv up to you guys – i can explain in person the reason for this …”[sic] The department said the email concerned party political activity, not government business. In its statement, the DfE said: “[The FT] has repeatedly asked that civil servants search private email accounts. However, the Cabinet Office is clear that private email accounts do not fall within the FOI Act and are not searchable by civil servants. Neither the secretary of state nor special advisers have been asked to disclose emails sent from private accounts.” The Guardian revealed yesterday that inquiries by civil servants about the Tories’ free schools programme were blocked by Cummings. The inquiries were an attempt to answer parliamentary questions about free schools tabled by the Labour MP Caroline Flint. Flint has tweeted: “So Gove’s adviser blocked answers to my freeschool PQs. Time for a public apology Mr Gove?” Michael Gove Freedom of information Free schools Financial Times Newspapers & magazines Jeevan Vasagar guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Obama: Palestinian statehood must be achieved through talks with Israel
September 21, 2011 No Comment
US president tells UN general assembly Palestinians deserve their own state – but defends threat to veto any bid on Friday Barack Obama has infuriated Palestinian leaders with a lengthy defence of the US threat to veto the Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations while praising revolutions in other parts of the Arab world. Obama told the opening of the UN general assembly in New York that negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, not security council resolutions, is the way to ensure a lasting peace. But he was challenged by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who said that US leadership on the issue has failed and called for a new initiative involving Europe and Arab states to see the birth of a Palestinian state within a year. Obama said he believes “that the Palestinian people deserve a state of their own”, and that that vision had been delayed for too long. But he offered no new initiatives and, tellingly, did not repeat earlier calls – for which he has come under fire – for negotiations to be based on the borders at the time of the 1967 war, with agreed land swaps. Obama, who went from his speech to a meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, was dismissive of the plan put forward by the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, to ask the security council on Friday to recognise Palestine as a state. The US has said it will veto such a move. “Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the UN – if it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians who must live side by side. Ultimately, it is Israelis and Palestinians – not us – who must reach agreement on the issues that divide them: on borders and security, on refugees and Jerusalem,” he said as Abbas shook his head. Obama spoke about the US’s “unshakeable” commitment to Israel’s security, and said that any lasting peace must recognise the Jewish state’s “very real security concerns”. He spoke at length about Israeli suffering, but to the consternation of the Palestinians made no mention of the difficulties of life under occupation, or the impact of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The president said: “Let’s be honest: Israel is surrounded by neighbours that have waged repeated wars against it. Israel’s citizens have been killed by rockets fired at their houses and suicide bombs on their buses. Israel’s children come of age knowing that throughout the region, other children are taught to hate them. “Israel, a small country of less than 8 million people, looks out at a world where leaders of much larger nations threaten to wipe it off of the map. The Jewish people carry the burden of centuries of exile, persecution, and the fresh memory of knowing that six million people were killed simply because of who they were. “Friends of the Palestinians do them no favours by ignoring this truth, just as friends of Israel must recognise the need to pursue a two state solution with a secure Israel next to an independent Palestine.” Obama’s failure to offer any new hope of progress toward a Palestinian state stood in sharp contrast to his praise of the quest for freedom in parts of the Arab world and beyond. “Something is happening in our world. The way things have been is not the way they will be. The humiliating grip of corruption and tyranny is being pried open,” he said. Sarkozy said the “miracle” of the Arab spring is a reminder of the moral and political obligation to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, without naming the US, he said that its oversight of years of failed negotiations means a new approach is required. Sarkozy said: “We can wait no longer. The method is no longer working? Change the method. Cease believing that a single country or a small group of countries can solve a problem of such complexity.” Sarkozy called for a fresh set of negotiations, with wider involvement of European and Arab nations, based on a timetable that would see the borders of a Palestinian state agreed within six months and a final deal within a year. “We should not look for the perfect solution. Choose the path of compromise,” he said. But Sarkozy also said that the Palestinians were mistaken to seek full recognition as a state by the UN security council. He warned that if the bid went ahead and it was vetoed by the US violence could be caused. The French president said the Palestinians should instead ask to be admitted as an observer state to the general assembly, a move he said would give them hope. A senior Palestinian official said privately that Obama’s speech was a “disaster”, and that the Palestinian leadership has lost confidence in him to be a neutral intermediary. He said that the Palestinians will go ahead with their application to the UN security council on Friday but expect a vote on the issue to be put on hold. They will then consider whether to ask the general assembly for observer status. Obama’s speech was also greeted with despair in the West Bank. Mustafa Barghouti, an independent politician and former Palestinian presidential candidate, said he was disappointed. “It clearly shows the double standards of the US when it comes to the Palestinian issue. Obama spoke about freedom, human rights, justice in South Sudan, Tunisia, Egypt – but not for the Palestinians,” he said. “His version of reality is wrong. He claims that Israel is the victim in this conflict and that’s not true. He doesn’t see that this is not a struggle between two equal sides, but between an oppressor and the oppressed, and occupier and the occupied.” A Ramallah shop owner, Marwan Jubeh, said: “Israel and the US are one and the same: the US is Israel, and Israel is the US. Israel doesn’t want to give the Palestinians anything and Obama can’t do anything without Israel because Congress is pro-Israel.” In contrast, Netanyahu praised Obama when the two met after the US president’s speech. The Israeli prime minister described Obama’s pledge to block the Palestinian move at the UN security council as a “badge of honour”. Netanyahu said he is ready for talks with the Palestinians but he was sceptical about what they could achieve. “I think the Palestinians want to achieve a state but they’re not prepared yet to make peace with Israel,” he said. Barack Obama United Nations Israel Palestinian territories US foreign policy Middle East United States Chris McGreal Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …More bad news for the economy — and particularly for the struggling housing sector: Home prices are expected to rise by just 1.1 percent per year through 2015, according to a survey released Wednesday (pdf). “Markets and government institutions are visibly struggling to respond consistently to an unprecedented rash of crises and conflicts, said Robert
Continue reading …I realize the term “economic sabotage” is a loaded one. But what else do you call this? Robert Reich: Today, in advance of a key meeting of the Federal Reserve Board’s Open Market Committee to decide what to do about the continuing awful economy and high unemployment, top Republicans wrote a letter to Fed Chief Ben Bernanke. They stated in no uncertain terms the Fed should take no further action to lower long-term interest rates and juice the economy. “We have serious concerns that further intervention by the Federal Reserve could exacerbate current problems or further harm the U.S. economy.” Translated: You try this, and we rake you over the coals publicly, and make the Fed into an even bigger scapegoat than we’ve already made it. Top Republicans believe they can block all or most of Obama’s jobs bill. That leaves only the Fed as the last potential player to boost the economy. So the GOP will do what it can to stop the Fed. After all, as Republican Senate head Mitch McConnell stated, their “number one” goal is to get Obama out of the White House. And that’s more likely to happen if the economy sucks on Election Day. To say it’s unusual for a political party to try to influence the Fed is an understatement. So these lunatics think they can block the jobs bill, rake the Fed over the coals, continue to oppress the economy, and get elected on that platform in 2012? Magical. Just magical. These people don’t care about real people in the least. Not even a little bit. Unemployed since 2008? Screw you. That’s what they’re telling you. They’re taking every single person who isn’t wealthy or employed and telling them they can shove it. Explain to me again how this is patriotic, or defends the Constitution, please? (Full text of the letter here )
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