GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee

On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)

Read More..

Conn. Kids Laid to Rest: 'Our Hearts Are With You'

Visibly shaken attendees exiting the funeral today for 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of 20 children killed in the Connecticut school massacre last week, said they were touched by a story that summed up the first-grader best.

His mother, Veronique, would often tell him how much she loved him and he'd respond: "Not as much as I [love] you," said a New York man who attended the funeral but was not a member of the family.

Noah's family had been scheduled to greet the public before the funeral service began at 1 p.m. at the Abraham L. Green & Son Funeral Home in Fairfield, Conn. The burial was to follow at the B'nai Israel Cemetery in Monroe, Conn. Those present said they were in awe at the composure of Noah's mother.

Rabbi Edgar Gluck, who attended the service, said the first person to speak was Noah's mother, who told mourners that her son's ambition when he grew up was to be either a director of a plant that makes tacos -- because that was his favorite food -- or to be a doctor.

Outside the funeral home, a small memorial lay with a sign reading: "Our hearts are with you, Noah." A red rose was also left behind along with two teddy bears with white flowers and a blue toy car with a note saying "Noah, rest in peace."

CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video

The funeral home was adorned with white balloons as members of the surrounding communities came also to pay their respects, which included a rabbi from Bridgeport. More than a dozen police officers were at the front of the funeral home, and an ambulance was on standby at a gas station at the corner.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep. and Sen.-Elect Chris Murphy and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, all of Connecticut, were in attendance, the Connecticut Post reported.

Noah was an inquisitive boy who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically, The Associated Press reported. His twin sister, Arielle, was one of the students who survived when her teacher hid her class in the bathroom during the attack.

CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.

The twins celebrated their sixth birthday last month. Noah's uncle Alexis Haller told the AP that he was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak. He called his twin sister his best friend.

"They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said.

The funeral for Jack Pinto, 6, was also held today, at the Honan Funeral Home in Newtown. He was to be buried at Newtown Village Cemetery.

Jack's family said he loved football, skiing, wrestling and reading, and he also loved his school. Friends from his wrestling team attended his funeral today in their uniforms. One mourner said the message during the service was: "You're secure now. The worst is over."

Family members say they are not dwelling on his death, but instead on the gift of his life that they will cherish.

The family released a statement, saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."

"He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life," the statement said. "Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."

Jack and Noah were two of 20 children killed Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when 20-year-old Adam Lanza sprayed two first-grade classrooms with bullets that also killed six adults.

Read More..

Obama in Newtown, Conn.: ‘You’re not alone in your grief’ over school massacre

NEWTOWN, Conn. — President Obama offered words of solace to a heartbroken and inconsolable community Sunday, meeting with loved ones of the dead from Sandy Hook Elementary School and lamenting at a nationally televised memorial service that the United States has failed in its duty “to keep our children, all of them,” safe from harm.

“Whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide,” Obama vowed, addressing a grief-stricken audience of hundreds in the auditorium of the town’s high school. Many more listeners crowded near speakers in the school’s gym, while others huddled outside in a cold drizzle, holding candles and weeping at times.

Read More..

Incoming Japan PM pledges no compromise on islands

TOKYO - Incoming Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe came out fighting Monday after his sweeping election victory, saying there can be no compromise on the sovereignty of islands at the centre of a dispute with China.

Abe, whose conservative Liberal Democratic Party secured a comfortable win in national polls Sunday, acknowledged Japan's relationship with China was important but stuck to the hard line he pushed throughout the campaign.

"The Senkaku islands are Japan's inherent territory," he told a press conference, referring to an archipelago Beijing calls the Diaoyus.

"Japan owns and controls the islands... under international law. There is no room for negotiation on this point".

But he also struck a slightly more conciliatory note, saying he wanted to "deepen dialogue" with China.

"We need to have wisdom not to turn political issues into economic issues," he said.

Abe's large electoral margin boosted hopes for the country's problem-plagued economy, with investors pushing stocks up as the painfully high yen eased.

The one-time premier has vowed to put the moribund economy back on track after years of deflation, made worse by a soaring currency that has squeezed exporters.

Topping his agenda was a promise to pressure the Bank of Japan into more aggressive easing policies aimed at kick-starting growth as the world's third-largest economy slips into recession.

All eyes will be on the bank's policy meeting this week to see whether the central bankers move in line with Abe's wishes.

Investors are increasingly betting on some action from the central bank, with the yen tumbling against the dollar and euro on Monday while Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock index surged 0.94 per cent by the close.

Voters on Sunday dumped Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda three years after his Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) promised a change from more than half a century of almost unbroken LDP rule. The result cost Noda his party leadership.

The rout was completed by news that the LDP and its junior coalition party New Komeito had secured a large enough majority in the lower house to overrule the upper chamber.

"Control of two-thirds of lower house seats would alleviate concerns about divided control of the Diet's two chambers," brokerage giant Nomura said in a note.

"It is also likely to fuel expectations, particularly among foreign investors, of more expeditious policymaking."

Fukushima operator TEPCO was a big winner on Monday, with its shares rocketing 33 per cent, at the head of a charge by energy firms as investors cheered the likely end to a nascent move to snuff out atomic power.

Anti-nuclear sentiment has run high in Japan since last year's Fukushima atomic crisis, with opinion polls showing a majority of voters want to phase out nuclear power.

But the mood failed to translate into success for parties pushing for an atomic exit.

Analysts, however, say the LDP's victory came by default -- with voters disenchanted by the DPJ after three years of flip-flops, policy missteps and diplomatic drift, but having little faith in any of the alternatives.

With turnout at a record low and voters complaining of no real choice, even Abe acknowledged the result was not a ringing endorsement.

"I think this result means a 'no' to the political confusion of the DPJ. People will be strictly watching if the LDP will be able to live up to expectations."

Abe's offer to boost spending on infrastructure was standard fare from the LDP playbook but chimed with voters in the northeast, where the devastation of the March 2011 tsunami is still evident.

His win stoked speculation that whoever is appointed to replace BoJ governor Masaaki Shirakawa next year will favour a more aggressive easing stance.

"Foreign investors are likely to remain bullish, betting that Mr. Abe will fulfil his promises to turn on the fiscal taps," Kenichi Kubo, senior fund manager at Tokio Marine Asset Management, told Dow Jones Newswires.

He is likely to "pressure the Bank of Japan into much more aggressive asset purchases to pull Japan out of recession and prolonged deflation".

However, Credit Agricole said in a note that "it is not obvious that coalition parties will be as welcoming" to Abe's aggressive policies.

- CNA/ck

Read More..

Parliament disrupted over quota bill, Muslim reservation

NEW DELHI: Both Houses of Parliament were disrupted on Monday as Samajwadi Party (SP) members voiced their protest over the bill on reservations in government job promotions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and implementation of the Sachar Committee report on minorities.

Ahead of the Rajya Sabha vote on the controversial quota bill, SP member Ram Gopal Yadav in the Upper House called for implementation of the Sachar Committee report which recommended reservation for Muslims.

Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari asked him to raise the issue during zero hour and let the question hour run smoothly.

But SP's Naresh Aggarwal asked its members to gather near the chairman's podium, following which the chair adjourned the house for half-an-hour.

Similar scenes were visible in the Lok Sabha, where SP led by its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav raised the issue of reservation in government job promotions.

SP members rushed towards the speaker's podium, raising slogans against the bill and disrupting question hour.

Speaker Meira Kumar appealed for peace and told the SP it would be given time to raise the matter during zero hour.

Parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath also tried to pacify SP members but the protests continued. Finally, the speaker adjourned the House till 11.30 p.m. and then till noon.

While the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has been pressing the government to pass the bill, the SP has issued veiled threats saying it could reconsider its outside support to the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) if the bill is passed.

Parliament has been disrupted frequently over the issue since the winter session started on November 22.

Read More..

Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

Read More..

Obama: Nation Faces 'Hard Questions' After Shooting

President Barack Obama said at an interfaith prayer service in this mourning community this evening that the country is "left with some hard questions" if it is to curb a rising trend in gun violence, such as the shooting spree Friday at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School.

After consoling victims' families in classrooms at Newtown High School, the president said he would do everything in his power to "engage" a dialogue with Americans, including law enforcement and mental health professionals, because "we can't tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change."

Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

President Obama: 'Newtown You Are Not Alone' Watch Video

Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting: Remembering the Victims Watch Video

The president was not specific about what he thought would be necessary and did not even use the word "gun" in his remarks, but his speech was widely perceived as prelude to a call for more regulations and restrictions on the availability of firearms.

The grieving small town hosted the memorial service this evening as the the nation pieces together the circumstances that led to a gunman taking 26 lives Friday at the community's Sandy Hook Elementary School, most first graders.

"Someone once described the joy and anxiety of parenthood as the equivalent of having your heart outside your body all of the time, walking around," he said, speaking of the joys and fears of raising children.

"So it comes as a shock at a certain point when you realize no matter how much you love these kids you can't do it by yourself," he continued. "That this job of protecting kids and teaching them well is something we can only do together, with the help of friends and neighbors, with the help of a community, and the help of a nation."

CLICK HERE for Full Coverage of the Tragedy at Sandy Hook

Read More..

Love online challenges Pakistan taboos

MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan - Sania was just a schoolgirl when she logged onto an Internet chat room and met a young college student called Mohammad. They fell in love and decided to get married.

Internet dating in the West is now so common that it is no longer considered an act of shameful desperation but an acceptable way for busy professionals to discover a like-minded partner.

But for Sania, the 22-year-old daughter of a conservative truck driver in Pakistan, online romance and her subsequent marriage has meant repeated beatings and death threats at the hands of her relatives.

"No one gets married outside our community. It is our tradition," Sania told AFP. She is from the garrison city of Rawalpindi and Mohammad comes from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

At first she and Mohammad chatted online. Then they both bought mobiles to continue their relationship by telephone. For several years they asked their parents for permission to marry, but were refused.

So Sania decided to escape.

She packed a bag and sneaked out while her brother was at school, her mother sleeping and her father out at work. She took the bus straight to Muzaffarabad.

"I spent the four-hour journey in fear. I kept thinking that if my family caught me, they'd kill me," she told AFP.

In Muzaffarabad, Mohammad met her off the bus and they got married immediately. But while his family quickly accepted Sania, nearly two years later the couple still live in fear of her relatives.

Twice they have dragged her back to Rawalpindi since her marriage and have demanded repeatedly that she break off relations with Mohammad.

"Last time they took me back three months ago and put lot of pressure on me to break off this relationship. I got in contact with my husband and asked him to fetch me. I escaped from the house at midnight and we managed to flee," she said.

Now Sania and her 24-year-old husband have moved to a new one-room house in a slum, changed their phone number and dare not venture out of the city.

"They say they will kill us whenever they find us," Sania says.

Women in Pakistan who marry against the wishes of their parents are ostracised or even killed by male relatives for supposedly bringing dishonour on the family.

But online relationships are a new phenomenon.

More than 2.1 million people are officially estimated to have access to the Internet in Pakistan, a drop in the ocean of the population of 180 million, a reflection of the huge disparity in wealth and literacy.

Mohammad Zaman, professor of sociology at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, who has written a book about marriage, says arranged unions that have dominated for centuries are on the wane.

"Internet marriage is a new trend emerging in Pakistan. Technological advancement has entered into our homes and traditional taboos are slowly vanishing in educated and affluent families," Zaman told AFP.

Online, they can share personal information and swap photographs -- things that would be restricted or prohibited in the traditional selection of partners.

The Internet is changing mindsets, giving young people freedom and privacy, and a forum to discuss matters frowned upon by Pakistan's traditional, conservative society.

"There is a kind of emancipation in society and young people want their say in the selection of their future partner," Zaman said, although he conceded that parents find it easier to accept a son's choice than that of a daughter.

Tahir, a Pakistani peace activist, knows only too well how the freedom of the Internet can collide with the restrictions of everyday life -- not only conservative sensibilities but politics and war.

The 26-year-old fell for university student Nazia on Facebook and Skype.

All fine and good, except that Nazia lives on the other side of one of the most heavily militarised borders in the world -- that which divides the Himalayan region of Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Twice India and Pakistan have gone to war over Kashmir. Although tentative peace talks resumed last year, travel is tightly controlled.

Only those with special government permits are permitted to cross and take the bus service that runs once a week from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar, the capital of the Indian-administered portion.

Last month, a 22-year-old Indian girl was reportedly detained after trying to cross the Line of Control, as the de facto border is known, to meet her boyfriend from Pakistani-administered Kashmir, whom she allegedly met on Facebook, and to escape an arranged marriage at home.

Not even modern methods of communication are reliable.

"Sometimes when I speak to her on Skype, I can see her but there is a lot of noise and we cannot understand each other," said 26-year-old Tahir, not his real name.

He says people in Indian Kashmir cannot call those in Pakistani Kashmir and that it can take three or four days for her to receive his text messages.

If the Internet is the only place Tahir and Nazia could have met, Kashmir is probably the last place they could ever meet in person.

"We understand each other from both sides of Kashmir, but they can't come to our side and we can't go there.... I love her a lot and don't think I can live without her, but I've decided there is no future," he told AFP.

- AFP/ir

Read More..

Haryana people prefer khaps over courts: Report

CHANDIGARH: A survey carried out by a sub-committee constituted by Haryana Backward Class Commission (HBCC) to ascertain possibility of reservation for jats and other communities has found out that rustic Haryanvis have more faith in social panchayats than judicial courts and prefer to approach khaps for remedial measures.

During the survey conducted on 49,870 households in rural areas, it was found that 66.6% families from 16 different castes said they preferred approaching khap panchayats than opting for judicial remedies for seeking justice whenever disputes arise. The survey was tasked to ascertain khaps' influence in Haryana and was conducted by a sub-committee headed by K S Sangwan, a former HoD of department of sociology at Maharishi Dayanand University, Rohtak.

The research was one of the 12 social indicators used by the sub-committee for determining social, educational and economical backwardness of various castes and communities of Haryana. While this part of the report has come as a shot in the arm for khap leaders, who claim khap panchayat to be legitimate dispute disputes platform, they have very conveniently chosen to trash the rest of the report.

"This is the only portion where the commission could not manipulate. We cannot rely on any other recommendations made in the report,'' said Sube Singh Samain, a spokesperson of Sarvjat Khap Panchayat.

Khaps in Haryana have been inviting criticism from various sections of the society as well as Punjab and Haryana High court for their diktats on barring same-village marriages and inter-caste marriages, which has led to incidents of honor killings in the state.

"Bhaichara (brotherhood) concept still exists in rural Haryana. Khaps have played important role in solving common problems. Villagers feel that in courts only one party wins the case. But when it comes to khap panchayats, it is a win-win situation for both the parties,'' said Sangwan.

Read More..

Space Pictures This Week: Frosty Mars, Mini Nile, More

Photograph by Mike Theiss, National Geographic

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, illuminates the Arctic sky in a recent picture by National Geographic photographer Mike Theiss.

A storm chaser by trade, Theiss is in the Arctic Circle on an expedition to photograph auroras, which result from collisions between charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere and gaseous particles in Earth's atmosphere.

After one particularly amazing show, he wrote on YouTube, "The lights were dancing, rolling, and twisting, and at times looked like they were close enough to touch!" (Watch his time-lapse video of the northern lights.)

Published December 14, 2012

Read More..