Thursday, May 23, 2013

Forecast for Saturn's moon Titan: Wild weather could be ahead

May 22, 2013 ? Saturn's moon Titan might be in for some wild weather as it heads into its spring and summer, if two new models are correct. Scientists think that as the seasons change in Titan's northern hemisphere, waves could ripple across the moon's hydrocarbon seas, and hurricanes could begin to swirl over these areas, too. The model predicting waves tries to explain data from the moon obtained so far by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Both models help mission team members plan when and where to look for unusual atmospheric disturbances as Titan summer approaches.

"If you think being a weather forecaster on Earth is difficult, it can be even more challenging at Titan," said Scott Edgington, Cassini's deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We know there are weather processes similar to Earth's at work on this strange world, but differences arise due to the presence of unfamiliar liquids like methane. We can't wait for Cassini to tell us whether our forecasts are right as it continues its tour through Titan spring into the start of northern summer."

Titan's north polar region, which is bejeweled with sprawling hydrocarbon seas and lakes, was dark when Cassini first arrived at the Saturn system in 2004. But sunlight has been creeping up Titan's northern hemisphere since August 2009, when the sun's light crossed the equatorial plane at equinox. Titan's seasons take about seven Earth years to change. By 2017, the end of Cassini's mission, Titan will be approaching northern solstice, the height of summer.

Given the wind-sculpted dunes Cassini has seen on Titan, scientists were baffled about why they hadn't yet seen wind-driven waves on the lakes and seas. A team led by Alex Hayes, a member of Cassini's radar team who is based at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., set out to look for how much wind would be required to generate waves. Their new model, just published in the journal Icarus, improves upon previous ones by simultaneously accounting for Titan's gravity; the viscosity and surface tension of the hydrocarbon liquid in the lakes; and the air-to-liquid density ratio.

"We now know that the wind speeds predicted during the times Cassini has observed Titan have been below the threshold necessary to generate waves," Hayes said. "What is exciting, however, is that the wind speeds predicted during northern spring and summer approach those necessary to generate wind waves in liquid ethane and/or methane. It may soon be possible to catch a wave in one of the solar system's most exotic locations."

The new model found that winds of 1 to 2 mph (2 to 3 kilometers per hour) are needed to generate waves on Titan lakes, a speed that has not yet been reached during Titan's currently calm period. But as Titan's northern hemisphere approaches spring and summer, other models predict the winds may increase to 2 mph (3 kilometers per hour) or faster. Depending on the composition of the lakes, winds of that speed could be enough to produce waves 0.5 foot (0.15 meter) high.

The other model about hurricanes, recently published in Icarus, predicts that the warming of the northern hemisphere could also bring hurricanes, also known as tropical cyclones. Tropical cyclones on Earth gain their energy from the build-up of heat from seawater evaporation and miniature versions have been seen over big lakes such as Lake Huron. The new modeling work, led by Tetsuya Tokano of the University of Cologne, Germany, shows that the same processes could be at work on Titan as well, except that it is methane rather than water that evaporates from the seas. The most likely season for these hurricanes would be Titan's northern summer solstice, when the sea surface gets warmer and the flow of the air near the surface becomes more turbulent. The humid air would swirl in a counterclockwise direction over the surface of one of the northern seas and increase the surface wind over the seas to possibly 45 mph (about 70 kilometers per hour).

"For these hurricanes to develop at Titan, there needs to be the right mix of hydrocarbons in these seas, and we still don't know their exact composition," Tokano said. "If we see hurricanes, that would be one good indicator that there is enough methane in these lakes to support this kind of activity. So far, scientists haven't yet been able to detect methane directly."

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.

For more information about Cassini and its mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/XNloC1CTXOg/130522133204.htm

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Obamas hosting Carole King: What's the special occasion?

When the Beatles got off the plane for the first time in the US, the first person they wanted to meet was Carole King. So, winning the Library of Congress's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song and a White House gig were events just waiting to happen.

By Peter Grier,?Staff writer / May 22, 2013

Carole King performs at the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Los Angeles on April 18, 2013.

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters/File

Enlarge

President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are hosting singer/songwriter Carole King at the White House tonight. Is it a special occasion? Why yes, it is ? they?re honoring Ms. King for winning the 2013 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

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Mr. Obama will present the award himself, and then the First Couple and favored guests will watch a concert featuring King, Billy Joel, Gloria Estefan, James Taylor, Jesse McCartney, Emeli Sande, and Trisha Yearwood. That?s a mix of generations there, but it?s still heavy on the singer/songwriter era, isn?t it?

The concert will be live-streamed from the White House website starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. It?ll also be broadcast on many PBS stations next Tuesday as part of the ?In Performance at the White House? series.

King plans to debut a new song during the concert, ?I Believe in Loving You." She co-wrote it with lyricist Hal David, who was a co-winner of the Gershwin Prize in 2011 with his longtime collaborator Bert Bacharach. Mr. David passed away in September of last year.

?I?m hoping that this will become a song that people will want to play at their weddings. It?s so romantic. Hal is such a great writer, and his words live on forever,? King told the Associated Press this week.

The Manhattan-born King herself is a songwriter whose work has defined a generation. Her first No. 1 was ?Will You Love Me Tomorrow? for the Shirelles. Her 1971 album ?Tapestry," which included the hits ?It?s Too Late? and ?I Feel the Earth Move," among others, remains one of the best-selling records of all time.

Everyone from the Beatles to Aretha Franklin has recorded her work. That?s why King is so remarkable, said Librarian of Congress James Billington.

?When the Beatles got off the plane, the first person they wanted to meet was Carole King when they first came to America,? said Mr. Billington. ?She was kind of a phenomenon among the performers themselves.?

The Gershwin Prize hasn?t been around that long. Billington created it in 2007 as part of the Library?s mission to foster creativity. The first winner was Paul Simon. Stevie Wonder was the second, Paul McCartney the third, and the Bacharach and David team the fourth.

Yes, but who picks the winner? Good question. It?s not exactly a scientific or rigorous electoral process. (No, we?re not calling the results into question, we?re just pointing that out.)

Here?s the way the Library of Congress describes it: ?The selection is made by the Library of Congress in consultation with a board that is both credible and broad enough in scope to represent the full spectrum of popular song. Board members may include but need not be limited to scholars, producers, performers, music critics, songwriters, and subject specialists within and outside the Library of Congress."

Hmm. We wonder if the president has veto power over the choice. After a long day dealing with IRS scandal and so forth, the last thing you need is an evening listening to someone whose records you hated in high school or who recorded the favorite song of the girlfriend/boyfriend who dumped you first.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/cj9pak04WJI/Obamas-hosting-Carole-King-What-s-the-special-occasion

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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

How the Dow Jones industrial average fared

Stock indexes fell on Wall Street on fear the Federal Reserve could pull back from its stimulus programs soon.

After surging early in the day, stocks fell as investors digested minutes of a Fed meeting that suggested the stimulus could be scaled back as early as next month if the economy picks up.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 80.41 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at 15,307.17.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 13.81 points, or 0.8 percent, to 1,655.35.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 38.82 points, or 1 percent, to 3,463.30.

For the week:

The Dow is down 47.23 points, or 0.3 percent.

The S&P 500 is down 12.12 points, or 0.7 percent.

The Nasdaq is down 35.67 points, or 1 percent.

For the year:

The Dow is up 2,203.03 points, or 16.8 percent.

The S&P 500 is up 229.16 points, or 16.1 percent.

The Nasdaq is up 443.79 points, or 14.7 percent.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dow-jones-industrial-average-fared-211711235.html

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Wedding dress creator

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Source: http://www.hotgamesforgirls.com/play-wedding-dress-creator.html

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Jesse James severs fingertip, Instagrams injury

Celebs

1 hour ago

Jesse James.

Getty Images file

Jesse James.

If laughter really is the best medicine, Jesse James should make a full recovery in no time.

On Tuesday, Sandra Bullock's ex-husband accidentally cut off the tip of his pinky finger while working in his Austin, Texas, shop. The 44-year-old motorcycle guru Instagrammed some very graphic pictures of the gruesome injury and even joked about his damaged digit.

"OOOpps, Bad day at the office," James captioned the first bloody shot. "Headed 2 Surgery in a few #PayUpSucker @ University Medical Center."

PHOTO: Jesse James posts wedding pic with new bride Alexis DeJoria

He then added a particularly graphic, do-not-click-if-you-have-a-weak-stomach pic of his severed fingertip detached from his pinky nub, writing, "Doesn't look like this little dude's gonna make it, Nice know'n you little buddy."

And as James was "Heading 2 surgery," he posted a picture from his hospital bed. Looking none too frightened, he showed off his injury once more and managed to self-promote, writing, "#jessejames #westcoastchoppers #StillMetal."

Big thumbs up to James for keeping a positive attitude about it all.

PHOTOS: Ouch! More injured celebs

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/jesse-james-severs-fingertip-accident-instagrams-injury-6C10018474

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Put a little: Sprucing up the Garage for the Parental Units

A couple weekends ago my dad and I decided it was time to clean out his garage(which probably hadn't been touched in 20 some years). ?My dad is a neat freak like me and he GETS my OCD urge to make sure everything has a home. ?We attacked his entire garage(de-cluttered 35yrs+ of junk)?in 1 day. ?Pretty damn remarkable if I should say so myself. ?

I arrived at my parent's house on a Sunday morning and my dad had already begun the process. ?As I drove up I was salivating, I have issues. I quickly parked and hopped out to help him start carrying everything out. ?After about an hour the whole garage was empty, then I had the worst feeling in the world..."HOLY CRAP" I forgot to take a before pic. Ugh....that still makes me want to vomit but that's when I immediately stopped and started taking some pics mid-project...

Everyone driving by thought it was a yard sale and my dad's reaction each time was priceless... "get the ?heck outta here!" He might have used some other choice words, not gonna lie!?


We bought some shelves from Lowe's to try and utilize the height in the space. ?You could not even walk to the back of this garage before we emptied it. ?

My parents help babysit all 6 of my nieces and nephews, who are all under the age of 9, so you can imagine all of the toys, bikes, scooters, etc that has to be stored in this space. (along with 35yrs worth of junk) ??

Here it is almost finished, we still have to make room for the small sporting equipment on the peg board.?I still can't believe all of the walking space. ?I love it and the kids love it too. ?

We created 5 zones in the space:

?Zone 1: HOME IMPROVEMENT- pool supplies,?tools, and leftover home improvement supplies(extra tile, grout, trim, etc) were stored in the HOT blue cabinetry in the back.

Zone 2: BIKES GALORE- We used "J" hooks to hang up almost every single bike(6)




Zone 3: HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES -cleaning supplies(middle 2 shelves), paint supplies(bottom 2 shelves), Car Wash stuff (top shelf)

Zone 4: GARDEN STUFF- we used more hooks to hang the leaf blower, extension cords and some hoses. ?I also bought two big pegboards for about $16 and painted them with whatever leftover paint my dad had in the garage. We used a bunch of peg board accessories to hang ALL of the garden tools. ?They turned out great and really give my dad room to grow if he needs to add more items later on. ?

Side note: We are still working on a sporting zone but we need to buy a couple bins or some sort of rack system for the peg board. We were also able to hang some of the kids' golf bags up there too.?

Zone 5: HOUSEHOLD SUPPLIES- paper products, and drinks. ?

Still grinding my teeth about not taking a before pic but I will get over it never.



Creating the zones really helped us bring everything back into the garage in a neat and timely fashion. ?I hope it stays this way and if it doesn't I'm kicking somebody's arse!

Source: http://shushinyourhome.blogspot.com/2013/05/sprucing-up-garage-for-parental-units.html

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Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Tweak your snapshots with PicShop HD, free for a limited time on iPhone and iPad

Everyone has their favorite photo editing app on their iOS device, but thanks to esDot Development Studio you can now try another. PicShop HD for iPhone and iPad is now free to download from the App Store for a limited time. PicShop HD supports images up to 8MP in resolution, perfect for your iPhone 5.

PicShop HD combines more traditional photo editing techniques such as cropping, straightening, and adjusting brightness and contrast, with filters, frames, and even drawing effects and memes should you so wish. There's enough tools on board to have a serious play around with your snapshots, which you can load directly from the Camera Roll, take a new shot and use that, or even import your photos from Facebook to tinker with.

Once you're done editing, you get a choice of size to save the image at, or direct sharing to Twitter, Email or Facebook. The UI is well designed and straight forward to use, if a little un-interesting to look at. But it has it where it counts, and is well worth a look while it's on special. Let us know how you find it, and how it compares to your own favorite photo editing apps.

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/8RU6gIHut38/story01.htm

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Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep Confirmed for Into the Woods

Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep confirme for Into the Woods

Universal was able to get its cake and eat it too, when it cast Hugh Jackman ? a Tony award-winning Broadway alum and X-Men franchise star ? as the male lead, Jean Valjean, in the?Les Mis?rables musical adaptation. Wolverine headed a star-studded cast in director Tom Hooper?s film, which took in $437 million worldwide and racked up multiple Oscar nominations ? as well as a Best Actress win for Anne Hathaway ? though, its unconventional cinematic musical structure drew mixed reactions from the show?s fanbase.

Disney and director Rob Marshall (Chicago) are planning a more traditional movie interpretation of James Lapin and Stephen Sondheim?s Into the Woods Broadway musical. Nowadays, though, that means casting celebrities with either offscreen or onscreen singing experience ? Johnny Depp and Meryl Streep in this case ? and the possibility that Depp will play the film?s male lead has prompted love/hate responses, depending on how one felt about his performance in Tim Burton?s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (another Sondheim adaptation).

However, according to a newly-released Disney casting notice (hat tip to THR), Depp is actually playing a supporting role in the film, alongside Streep. For those not familiar with the original Broadway show, here?s the semi-official synopsis (from the casting notice)

?Into the Woods? intertwines the plots of several Brothers Grimm fairy tales such as from ?Little Red Riding Hood,? ?Jack and the Beanstalk,? ?Rapunzel,? ?Cinderella,? etc., and follows them to explore the consequences of the characters? wishes and quests.

Depp is confirmed to portray??a hungry and sexy vicissitude of the fairy tale Wolf? ? that sounds about right for the quirky?Pirates of the Caribbean and Lone Ranger star ? meanwhile, Streep will get to show off her singing abilities once more (after co-headlining the Mamma Mia! musical movie), by playing the Witch responsible for setting the plot in motion. Finally, award-winning Broadway alum James Corden has been cast as the male lead, a humble baker who takes on a dangerous quest to lift the curse that Streep?s witch has placed on his family.

James Corden cast in Disney's Into the Woods

James Corden is headed ?Into the Woods?

Corden won the 2012 Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his lead performance in the Broadway show ?One Man, Two Guvnors?; his previous stage experience includes Alan Bennett?s ?The History Boys? play, back in 2004. He also won a BAFTA for his work on the comedy series Gavin & Stacy, and thereafter jumped to geek fan-favorite thanks to his role as the bumbling, but good-natured, Craig Owens in the Doctor Who episodes ?The Lodger? and ?Closing Time.? He seems a very good choice for the Into the Woods male lead role, all in all.

Marshall?s Oscar-winning?Chicago?proved to be both a critical and artistic success ? it opened in theaters the year after filmmaker Baz Luhrmann (The Great Gatsby) reinvigorated the musical genre with Moulin Rouge! ? but his followup cinematic musical, Nine, was given a more lukewarm reception. Since then, Marshall moving ahead to direct Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,?didn?t exactly help to restore his strong artistic reputation.

Into the Woods is quite the beloved stage musical ? with darker and more adult story elements than you would expect from a Disney musical movie ? and the film adaptation has a great cast lined up; so, there?s potential for this to be the project that brings Marshall the wider critical acclaim that?s evaded him since his debut.

???

According to the casting notice, Into the Woods will begin filming in the UK this September; if so, a Fall/Winter 2014 release date would be feasible. As always, we?ll keep you posted as more information becomes available.

Source: Feature Film Casting [via THR]

"Follow us if you want to live."

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927459/news/1927459/

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