CAROLINA NATURALLY: Jul 14, 2012

Saturday, July 14, 2012

The Daily Drift

Look me in the eye when you say that ...

Some of our readers today have been in:

Islamabad, Pakistan

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Gdynia, Poland

Jerudong, Brunei

Kuantan, Malaysia

Jakarta, Indonesia

Johannesburg, South Africa

George Town, Malaysia

Kathmandu, Nepal

Vilnius, Lithuania

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

Cape Town, South Africa

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Ankara, Turkey

Ipoh, Malaysia

Tbilisi, Georgia

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Lodz, Poland

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Ljubjana, Slovenia

Don't forget to visit our sister blog!

Today in History

1223		In France, Louis VIII succeeds his father, Philip Augustus.
1430		Joan of Arc, taken prisoner by the Burgundians in May, is handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais.
1456		Hungarians defeat the Ottomans at the Battle of Belgrade, in present-day Yugoslavia.
1536		France and Portugal sign the Treaty of Lyons, aligning themselves against Spain.
1789		The Bastille, a fortress in Paris used to hold political prisoners, is stormed by a mob.
1798		The Sedition Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
1864		At Harrisburg, Mississippi, Federal troops under General Andrew Jackson Smith repulse an attack by General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
1900		European Allies retake Tientsin, China, from the rebelling Boxers.
1933		Nazi Germany promulgates the Law for the Protection of Hereditary Health–the begining of the Euthanasia program.
1940		A force of German bombers attacks Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.
1941		Vichy French Foreign Legionaries sign an armistice in Damascus, allowing them to join the Free French Foreign Legion.
1945		American battleships and cruisers bombard the Japanese home islands for the first time.
1951		The George Washington Carver National Monument in Joplin, Missouri becomes the first national park honoring an African American.
1964		The United States sends 600 more troops to Vietnam.

Like living in a box with no money, no food, and no health care?

Like living in a box with no money, no food, and no health care?

Then, by all means vote for the teabagger gang and the repugican cult!

Yet some still vote repugican . . . what?!
More

Romney campaign now lies about Mitt's felony-lie

In response to the news that Mitt Romney may have committed a felony by lying in federal documents about when exactly he left Bain Capital, the Romney campaign today lied about Romney's lie.

Here's what Romney himself claimed (via his campaign) in documents filed with the federal government:

"Mr. Romney retired from Bain Capital on February 11, 1999 to head the Salt Lake
Organizing Committee."

Here's what the Romney campaign is now claiming that Romney said in those documents:

"FactCheck was saying, if Mitt Romney was actively managing Bain, as the Globe asserts, and he certified that he wasn't actively managing Bain, then he would be guilty of a federal felony," McDonald said. "They are not saying that he would be guilty of a federal felony [just] for saying he left in 1999." [emphasis added]

Actually, a fact sheet from Factcheck.org isn't the basis for determining whether something is a felony. But putting that aside, since the Romney campaign wants to go there... contrary to what the Romney campaign is now alleging, Romney didn't say in federal documents that he "wasn't actively managing Bain." He said that he had "retired." And retired means you're gone. And Romney wasn't "gone" at all. He remained the CEO, chair of the board, and sole stockholder, we now know from SEC documents filed by Bain.

So either Romney lied in his federal filing, or Bain lied in theirs. Either way, someone may very well be guilty of a felony.

Boston Globe refuses Romney demand to "correct" Bain story

The Boston Globe reported this morning that federal and state documents filed by Mitt Romney and Bain claim that Mitt Romney remained the CEO, chairman of the board, and sole stockholder well beyond the 1999 retirement date that Romney had claimed in federal documents filed with the FEC.

If Romney lied, this could be a felony. And he appears to have lied to someone as you can't "retire" but still remain CEO and Chair of the Board for a couple more years.

The Romney campaign demanded that the Globe "correct" their story, which Romney called "inaccurate." The problem is that, as the Globe notes in their subsequent letter to the Romney campaign, the Globe can't correct a story that quotes federal and state documents that Romney wrote himself.

Via Politico, the Globe writes:

The Globe story was based on government documents filed by Bain Capital itself. Those described Governor Romney as remaining at the helm of Bain Capital as its “sole stockholder, chairman of the board, chief executive officer, and president” until 2002. The story also cited state financial disclosure forms filed by Romney that showed he earned income as a Bain “executive” in 2001 and 2002, separate from investment earnings.

Only in Romney-land does someone retire and then keep his job for a few more years. If Romney is now claiming that he took a leave of absence from Bain, then why did he tell the FEC that he "retired"? And why did he file state documents showing he was still earning income if he supposedly no longer worked there?

Lots of questions, and no answers, from Camp Romney.

Then there's this story from Buzzfeed in which Mitt Romney said during a recent repugican primary debate that he "worked" at Bain - you know, that place he "retired" from - until 2002.

As a result of all the bad news, Romney's camp is losing it. They issued a statement today demanding Obama apologize for the "out of control behavior" of his staff. Their behavior was accurately commenting on Romney's own federal and state filings.

But the Romney camp's statement is a sign that their worried, very worried, about today's news, and more generally, the traction the Bain story is clearly starting to have. For them to risk making the story bigger by issuing such an over-the-top statement smells of desperation. They felt they to had to do something, anything, to stop the story. And instead, they keep making it bigger.

Romney - Fetal Disposal - Profits

As CEO and President of Bain, Romney was responsible for aborted-fetus-disposal investment

During his tenure as CEO & President of Bain, Romney's company invested in a business that disposes of aborted fetuses.

BusinessInsider:

As "Chairman, CEO, and President" of Bain, he damn well would have remained responsible for these decisions. In which case, saying he had "left" and implying that he had no involvement or responsibility whatsoever is highly misleading.

The CEO of a car company may not have input into the decision of what specific cars the company makes or where it makes them (though he or she obviously could if s/he wanted), but this CEO is unequivocally responsible for these decisions.

Similarly, if Romney was CEO of Bain at the time it made the Stericycle decision, as well as the company layoffs and other unpleasant facts that Candidate Romney would like to disown, he certainly was responsible for these decisions.

So, enough with walking a fine line rhetorically.

Interestingly, Romney claims to have "left" Bain in February of 1999, and the aborted-fetus deal happened in November of 1999, so Romney et. al. are claiming that he had nothing to do with the deal, even though Romney remained President, CEO and stole shareholder. Interesting timing on Romney's claim to have left.

We're to believe that no one told Romney that they were going into the aborted fetus business. Uh huh. That's like me taking a leave of absence from Carolina Naturally, but retaining total ownership and leadership, and the rest of the staff deciding to take the blog into the porn business without telling me.

Yeah, right.

Another point: how you run a huge business like Bain when the President and CEO is missing in action for three years, but retaining his posts in the company. So Bain was rudderless for three years, rather than Romney temporarily stepping down as President and CEO. Really?

Also:

Has Romney ever returned the money he made off of aborted fetuses?

Mitt Romney was the President, CEO and sole stockholder of Bain Capital, a company bought millions of shares in Stericycle, a company that disposes of aborted fetuses.

Romney is now trying to claim that he wasn't responsible for profiting off of something people like Romney himself would call the murder of young children, because the investment happened after his "leave of absence" in which he remained President, CEO and sole stockholder.

Okay, let's say we take Romney at his absolutely un-credible word. He had nothing to do with Bain making somewhere between $13m and $50m, depending on how (or when) you count it (some of the money was made before Romney finally actually left the company - i.e., gave up his jobs and shares - some was made later) off of the murder of young babies.

Regardless, Mitt Romney, as President, CEO and sole shareholder of Bain made a sizable sum of money off of the Stericycle deal. Mitt Romney made a sizable amount of money off of the disposal of dead aborted fetuses - off of the murder of young babies, to use the repugicans' own language.

Has Mitt Romney ever given back the blood money he made off of murdered babies?

Oh that's right - Romney won't release his tax returns, so no one knows.

Did you know ...

About the Congressional repugicans' increasingly incoherent attacks on Medicare

That Mitt Romney invested millions in Chinese firm that profited from U.S. outsourcing

About the top ten events in the Romney Olympics

That Florida accused of covering up worst TB outbreak in 20 years

About the abandoned Wal-Mart transformed into a public library

Saudi Arabia to Send Two Women to Olympics

A First for Female Athletes

By Sarah B. Weir

Sarah Attar

It's been a huge week for women and the Olympics. On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Saudi Arabia would be sending two women to the Olympics--a first for the conservative Muslim country. The decision means that every nation in the world with a team will be sending female representatives to the London Games. This follows the news on July 11 that, for the first time ever, more women than men had made it onto Team USA. The Gulf nations, Qatar and Brunei will also be breaking an historic gender barrier by sending female competitors.

"This is very positive news and we will be delighted to welcome these two athletes in London in a few weeks time," IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a statement. The IOC had been negotiating with Saudi Arabia over this issue for weeks.
The two Saudi athletes are Sarah Attar, an 800-meter runner, and judo competitor Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani. Attar, who is only 17 and trains the United States, told the official Olympic website, "A big inspiration for participating in the Olympic Games is being one of the first women for Saudi Arabia to be going." She continued, "It's such a huge honor and I hope that it can really make some big strides for women over there to get more involved in sport." Sarah Attar is pictured above, no images of Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhan are available.

The participation of women in sports is still strongly opposed by ultraconservatives in Saudi Arabia. Four days ago, it appeared they would not be allowing women to attend the Games. Saudi Arabia is known for its restrictive laws pertaining to women and girls. Every woman, even widows, is required to have a male guardian, women are not allowed to drive, and most cover their faces in public. Saudi Prince Nawaf bin Faisal told Al Jazeera, the athletes must not mix with men at the games and will wear clothing that adheres to sharia (Islamic) law. They must also attend with their male guardian.
The development may open the door for more freedoms. "It's an important precedent that will create space for women to get rights," Minky Worden, of Human Rights Watch, told the BBC. "It will be hard for Saudi hardliners to roll back."
Historically, women's advancement in the Olympics has been slow. The ancient Greek games did not include women. The first time females participated in the modern Olympics was in Paris, 1900. In 1908, about 1.5 percent of the athletes were women. By 1984, that number had only grown to 23%. In the Beijing Games four years about, 42 percent of the participants were women and only three countries failed to send female athletes.
Sarah Attar is pictured above, no images of Wodjan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhan are available.

Random Photo

karolinalaskowska:

http://karolinalaskowska.co.ukLingerie: Karolina LaskowskaPhotographer: Craig Fleming Stylist: Tess Daly Model + MUA: Chloe Gray

Canadian Supreme Court upholds fair dealing and user rights in copyright

Michael Geist writes,

The Supreme Court of Canada issued its much anticipated rulings in the five copyright cases it heard last December. It will obviously take some time to digest these decisions, but the clear takeaway is that the court has delivered an undisputed win for fair dealing that has positive implications for education and innovation, while striking a serious blow to copyright collectives such as Access Copyright.
Led by Justice Abella, the court has reaffirmed that fair dealing is a user's right that must be interpreted in a broad and liberal manner. In fact, the court provides further guidance on interpreting fair dealing with an emphasis on the need for a flexible, technology-neutral approach. In reading the decisions in the Access Copyright and song previews cases, it is hard to imagine a bigger victory for education, Internet users, and innovative companies. This post will provide some quick key points in the Access Copyright and song previews decisions.

Supreme Court of Canada Stands Up For Fair Dealing in Stunning Sweep of Cases

Viacom punishes Internet to get at DirecTV

... Yanks Daily Show offline

Viacom and DirecTV are fueding over which Viacom channels will be carried on DirecTV's service. DirecTV has nuked Viacom's channels. In retaliation, Viacom has removed The Daily Show from the Internet. Which is not owned by DirecTV. But a lot of DirecTV customers use the Internet, so maybe they'll complain to DirecTV and participate in Viacom's profit-maximization strategy.

DirecTV doesn’t want to pay that much, and as a result, has dropped all Viacom programming, which includes Comedy Central (No Jon Stewart!), MTV, Nickelodeon and others from its customers' TV options.
So, in a tit-for-tat move, Viacom is now trying to get fans of its content to pressure DirecTV into calling the satellite provider by removing free episodes online, including "Jersey Shore" and "The Daily Show."
Public Knowledge, a public advocacy group, has called this move "unprecedented."
"Viacom has decided to take a service away from all Internet users in its attempt to punish DirecTV," wrote John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney, on the organization’s website on Wednesday.

Viacom pulls "The Daily Show" offline as a result of contract dispute

Uzbek man gets more than 15 years for Obama threat

An Uzbek man who once worked at a shopping mall in Alabama was sentenced Friday to more than 15 years in prison for plotting to kill President Barack Obama.

Poachers Murder 7 at Reserve in the Congo

Poachers wielding AK-47 assault rifles attacked and murdered seven people at the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of the Congo last month. Read more

Kentucky Mother Trades Newborn For Truck

She sold the truck for $800 and meth, police said

By Cathy Rainone Kentucky Mom Accused of Trading Newborn Son for Truck

The couple who took the baby were arrested for human trafficking.

A Kentucky mother traded her newborn son for a truck, according to the Laurel County Sheriff's Office.

Heather Kaminskey, 30, handed her baby to Jamie and Jeremy Brown in January and then sold the truck for $800 plus some meth, according to police.

Police said they discovered the scheme when Kaminskey tried sell the vehicle. They arrested the Browns and charged them with human trafficking. The baby boy appeared to be well taken care of, investigators said.

Kaminskey, police said, might be in Florida and they are hoping to obtain warrants for her arrest. She apparently called neighbors of the Browns on Thursday and told them that she’s distraught over what happened and that she wants to return to Kentucky.

***

In other baby-for-sale news, a Philadelphia dad said to be desperate for some quick cash to buy drugs tried to sell his baby girl on Friday, police sources and neighbors said.

A couple he approached called police and another neighbor pretended he was going to buy the 6-month old baby until police arrived to arrest the man. The baby was taken to a hospital to be checked out.

Police found 119 bags of heroin in man's underpants

Carlisle police say they found more than 100 bags of heroin in a surprising place while serving a search warrant on July 5.
Police served a Cumberland County Drug Task Force warrant on Jalil Nickerson, 23, in the 200 block of West North Street at 10 a.m., according to police, who noted that Nickerson resisted arrest.

Photo from here.

Once he was taken into custody, a search revealed a concealed compartment in the crotch area of Nickerson’s underwear, police said. In the compartment, police say they found 119 bags of heroin.

Nickerson was charged with two counts of manufacture, delivery or possession with intent to deliver and two counts of criminal use of communication facility. Nickerson was arraigned and placed in Cumberland County Prison on $25,000 monetary bail, which he was unable to post as of Wednesday.

Paramedics turn to expired drugs due to shortages

When paramedics ran out of a critical drug used to treat irregular heartbeats, the Bend Fire Department in Central Oregon dug into its stash of expired medications, loaded up the trucks and kept treating patients.

Feds go after "world's largest" medical marijuana dispensary

Wow, we're all safe now. Aren't we lucky that the Feds are cracking down on this rather than prosecuting Wall Street for creating the Great Recession that now may be a depression?

Federal prosecutors have filed civil forfeiture actions against an Oakland medical marijuana dispensary that bills itself as the world's largest, as part of a crackdown by U.S. authorities on California's massive cannabis trade.

The lawsuits, filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seek forfeiture of two properties where Harborside Health Center operates, said Melinda Haag, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

Harborside says it is the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the world, serving more than 100,000 patients in a "beautiful waterfront location," and is subject of the Discovery Channel reality TV show "Weed Wars."

There's only so much bandwidth at the federal government level and this should be a low priority. The last time I checked, it wasn't the medical marijuana industry that destroyed the economy.

Not One, Not Two, But Four

Tunnel between Mexico and Arizona

Cnn Dam Assets 120712091905-Arizona-Drug-Tunnel-Story-Top

The DEA discovered this impressive 240-yard tunnel running between an ice plant in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, Mexico and a "one-story, nondescript" building in San Luis, Arizona. They didn't find any drugs in either building though. "Feds uncover drug tunnel from Mexico to Arizona"

Drug Tunnels Discovered Days Apart In U.S., Mexico

Two tunnels authorities say were designed to smuggle drugs into the United States were found days apart on both sides of the border with Mexico.

4 sophisticated drug tunnels found on border

Three of the tunnels were incomplete, including one that the Mexican army found in a Tijuana warehouse Thursday with more than 40 tons of marijuana at the entry.

Jake Palmer, a real estate agent in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, promises that future owners will encounter no paranormal problems in this house. He guarantees it in bold print on the sign in front:

“This house was kind of an ideal spot to try this for a few reasons, partly because of the (young) demographic that it is going to attract, the location and also because the sellers have a really good sense of humour. They were really excited at the idea of trying something new,” Palmer, an agent with Re/Max, told the Star Wednesday.
Other descriptors on the sign in front of the 68-year-old home have included: “Indoor Plumbing; Love Shack, Baby; It’s a Brick, House; No Dandelions; Fog Resistant; Batteries Included.”

Beachfront morgue for sale

Also, Starbucks in a funeral home.

Media Images 61453000 Jpg 61453101 Untitled-1

This 19th century mortuary in Saltburn-by-the-sea in North Yorkshire, England is up for sale by the Redcar and Cleveland Council. It's expected to make a pleasant beach chalet. Having stopped being a mortuary in the 1960s, it was most recently a shop. It still contains the original slab.
More
In related news, a South Carolina funeral home is getting a Starbucks.

The Liberator Pistol

The FP-45 pistol was a small and specialized but potentially terrifying weapon. Technologically, it was simple: it fired just a single .45 caliber bullet down an unrifled barrel. It was so cheap that the United States could afford to manufacture hundreds of thousands of them and airdrop them over Nazi-occupied territory. The plan was that untrained civilians would use them to kill solitary German soldiers:

The pistols would be air dropped by the hundreds of thousands into enemy occupied territory, where it was expected the Germans would never be able to recover all of them. Useless as a battlefield weapon, the issue of providing useful weapons to the enemy was moot. On the other hand… as a weapon of terror in the hands of the resistance, the Liberator might have had extraordinary value. A common civilian, alone with a conquering German soldier, suddenly produces the single shot .45 and drops the man in a surprise attack, afterwards making off with the soldiers weapons. Now the German Army is down one soldier, the resistance has one more battle rifle, and every other German soldier has to wonder…. will he be next?
I say might have had, as the OSS never carried out the plan to any degree. Aside from a few FP-45′s finding their way to the Philippine resistance and perhaps China, the Liberators were not deployed as expected. They languished in warehouses, and after the war… almost all were destroyed.

At the link, you can find more pictures and a video of a Liberator being fired.

Go ahead, look someone in the eye and lie -- new research suggests you won't be found out. Read more

Why Do We Scream “Geronimo” When Jumping From Things?

By Matt Soniak

© Bettmann/CORBIS

In the early 1940s, the United States Army was testing the idea of parachuting from planes as a way of deploying troops. The first group to really experiment with it and begin developing paratrooper techniques was a unit of 50 men known the Parachute Test Platoon.
These guys were based out of Fort Benning, Georgia, and spent most of their summer working through grueling training sessions in the afternoon heat, wearing parachutes on their backs along with the rest of their standard gear. When training was done for the day, the troops liked to loosen up and cool down a little. Usually, most of the guys went to the air-conditioned Main Post Theatre in the evenings to see whatever movie was playing.
One night in August 1940, that movie happened to be the Paramount western, Geronimo, about the Apache chief.

After the movie, there was beer. After beer, there was, as there often is, a boast. On their way back to their bunks after the film, the group got to talking about the jump they were doing the next day, their first as a group. The paratroopers only had a few solo jumps under their belts, and many of them were admittedly nervous. One of the guys, Private Aubrey Eberhardt, a brawny, six-foot-three native son of Georgia, claimed that he wasn’t worried. The mass jump would be nothing!
The other soldiers gave him a hard time. They were all scared. Of course he was scared, too. He should just admit it.
“All right, dammit!” Eberhardt finally shouted. “I’ll tell you jokers what I’m gonna do! To prove to you that I’m not scared out of my wits when I jump, I’m gonna yell ‘Geronimo’ loud as hell when I go out that door tomorrow!”
The next day, he made good on his promise. Out the plane he went and everyone heard “Geronimooooooo!” The rest of the platoon wasn’t about to let Eberhardt show them up, so on subsequent jumps the rest of the soldiers took up his battle cry and a tradition was born. The next year, the Army’s first official parachute unit, the 501st Parachute Infantry Battalion, made “Geronimo” the motto on their unit insignia after their commander tracked down descendants of the real Geronimo to ask for their permission to use his name.
After World War II, the army brass put an end to the mid-air yelling, worried that a screaming paratrooper would inevitably give away some unlucky unit’s position during operations. The heavy media coverage of the novel paratroopers during the war put the “Geronimo” cry in the public’s imagination, though, and Aubrey Eberhardt’s boozy brag lives on among civilians.

How To Shoot Liquid Flow Photographs

Corrie White is an Ontario, Canada-based photographer who specializes in water drop photography. In this tutorial she will share how she makes 'liquid flow' photos - smoke-like abstracts done by dropping cream colored with food dye into a small tank of water, then rotated 180 degrees.

New Headlights Make Raindrops Disappear

Do you ever have trouble driving through rain at night because every raindrop reflects your headlights? Carnegie Mellon’s Robotics Institute has developed a new type of car headlight that reduces glare from falling rain or snow. The technology is akin to running between the raindrops -with light! Associate robotics professor Srinivasa Narasimhan explained:

The system uses a camera to track the motion of raindrops and snowflakes and then applies a computer algorithm to predict where those particles will be just a few milliseconds later. The light projection system then adjusts to deactivate light beams that would otherwise illuminate the particles in their predicted positions.
“A human eye will not be able to see that flicker of the headlights,” Narasimhan said. “And because the precipitation particles aren’t being illuminated, the driver won’t see the rain or snow either.”
To people, rain can appear as elongated streaks that seem to fill the air. To high-speed cameras, however, rain consists of sparsely spaced, discrete drops. That leaves plenty of space between the drops where light can be effectively distributed if the system can respond rapidly, Narasimhan said.
In their lab tests, Narasimhan and his research team demonstrated that their system could detect raindrops, predict their movement and adjust a light projector accordingly in 13 milliseconds. At low speeds, such a system could eliminate 70 to 80 percent of visible rain during a heavy storm, while losing only 5 or 6 percent of the light from the headlamp.

And if the system fails, the lights will still function as normal headlights. More

Phantom Vibrations

Have you ever felt your phone vibrate, but the sensation wasn’t real? Researchers at Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne call it “phantom vibration.” The Atlantic‘s Robinson Meyer summarized their study in eleven points:

1. Many, many people experience phantom vibrations. 89 percent of the undergrad participants in this current study had felt phantom vibrations. In the two other studies on this in the literature — a 2007 doctoral thesis, which surveyed the general population, and a 2010 survey of staff at a Massachusetts hospital — majorities of participants experienced phantom vibrations.
2. They happen pretty often. The survey of undergrads and medical professionals agree: about ten percent experience phantom vibrations every day. 88 percent of the doctors, specifically, felt vibrations between a weekly and monthly basis.
3. If you use your phone more, you’re more likely to feel phantom vibrations. The 2007 graduate study found that people who heard phantom rings roughly used twice as many minutes and sent five times as many texts as those who didn’t.

'First' Americans Were Not Alone

Early Americans' two-tool tech

Scientists studying how North America was first settled find stone spearheads and darts in Oregon, US, that date back more than 13,000 years.

Stone points found in an Oregon cave suggest a whole group of people existed at the same time as the Clovis. Read more

Most Complete Pre-Human Skeleton Found

The oldest most complete skeleton of an ancient relative of man was discovered in the Cradle of Humanity in South Africa. Read more

Scientists place 500-million-year-old gene in modern organism

It’s a project 500 million years in the making. Only this time, instead of playing on a movie screen in ...

The Natural Beauty of Ukraine

A set of pictures taken in Ukraine: nature and landscapes of the Kiev Sea and Korostyshev.

Russia’s Orda Cave is the Largest Underwater Gypsum Cave on Earth. It’s not easy to get to, but the photographs are truly awesome. Read all about it at Environmental Graffitti.

Solar storm barreling toward Earth

A solar storm was due to arrive Saturday morning (today) and last through Sunday, slamming into Earth's magnetic field.

What Would an Interstellar 'Worldship' Look Like?

When mankind takes to interstellar space, the living space will need to be as familiar as neighborhoods on Earth. Read more

Virgin Galactic Taking On Satellite Launching

Well on its way toward becoming the first commercial spaceliner, Virgin Galactic is unveiling a service for cargo as well. Read more

Astronomical Picture of the Day

Wandering Chimps: Lancelot Link we need you!

Loose Chimpanzees Roam Las Vegas, Baffle Locals

Two chimpanzees spent part of Thursday afternoon on the loose in Las Vegas before cops captured one and shot the other, local media reported Thursday.

Meanwhile in Germany:

Chimpanzees escape from enclosure and roam zoo

Five chimpanzees broke out from their enclosure at a German animal park Wednesday, injuring a five-year-old girl and sparking a temporary evacuation of 2,500 visitors. It is thought the five primates used wood that had fallen into their pen from recent gardening work to climb out and run for freedom at Hannover's Experience Zoo.

The five-year-old girl sustained light head wounds after she was apparently knocked down by one of the marauding chimps. She was taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.

Four of the five escapees "had a quick look around and then jumped pretty quickly back into their compound," said spokeswoman Simone Hagenmeyer. "The fifth and oldest chimp went off to visit the head gorilla," she said, adding he was a bit harder to cajole back to captivity.

YouTube link.

"He's getting on a bit, so we offered him a ladder to get back into the enclosure," she said. Some 2,500 people were evacuated from the zoo in the northern city of Hannover while the escape bid was quashed, the spokeswoman said.