Another Record… US Household Net Worth Reaches 43 Year Low Under Obama | The Gateway Pundit

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/11/elections-have-consequences-us-household-net-worth-reaches-43-year-low-under-obama/


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Fwd: Only In America" Observations ~ by a Canadian:

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Begin forwarded message:

From: Kent Castle <kent.d.castle@hotmail.com>
Date: November 30, 2012 6:23:24 PM CST
To: Patterson James <w8ljz@aol.com>, Reason Marilou <loganlou55@yahoo.com>, Martin Bobby <bobbygmartin1938@gmail.com>, Smith Harold <ke5gsk@gmail.com>, Hart Harry <hwhart@embarqmail.com>
Subject: FW: Only In America" Observations ~ by a Canadian:

 

---

Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2012 23:51:45 -0600
Subject: Only In America" Observations ~ by a Canadian:

 

 

TOP-10 "Only In America" Observations ~ by a Canadian: 1) Only in America, could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000.00 a plate campaign fund-raising event. 2) Only in America, could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when they have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black while only 12% of the population is black. 3) Only in America, could they have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes. 4) Only in America, can they have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash. 5) Only in America, would they make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just 'magically' become American citizens. 6) Only in America, could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists." 7) Only in America, could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote. 8) Only in America, could people demand the government investigate whether oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when the return on equity invested in a major U.S. oil company (Marathon Oil) is less than half of a company making tennis shoes (Nike). 9) Only in America, could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation in recorded history, still spend a Trillion dollars more than it has per year - for total spending of $7-Million PER MINUTE, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money. 10) Only in America, could the rich people - who pay 86% of all income taxes - be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.

 

 

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Obama Conspiracy 2.0: Obama Campaign Threatened to Whack Chelsea If Clintons Spoke About Obama’s Ineligibility | THE WESTERN EXPERIENCE

http://thewesternexperience.com/2012/04/03/obama-conspiracy-2-0-obama-campaign-threatened-to-whack-chelsea-if-clintons-spoke-about-obamas-ineligibility/


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ISS can not be repaired for certain failures w/o vehicle with shuttle capability!

Titan

Cassini Detects Changes in Titan's Atmosphere

By Emma Sylvester Brown

This artist's impression of Saturn's moon, Titan, shows the change in observed atmospheric effects before, during, and after equinox in 2009. The Titan globes also provide an impression of the detached haze layer that extends all around the moon (blue). This image was inspired by data from NASA's Cassini mission. Image Credit: ESA

PASADENA, Calif. – A new discovery has been made by NASA's Cassini Solstice Mission. The spacecraft revealed data tying a shift in seasonal sunlight to a reversal in the circulation of the atmosphere of Saturn's moon, Titan, at unexpected altitudes.

There is definitive evidence at Titan's south pole showing sinking air where it was upwelling earlier in the mission. Thus, the key to circulation in the atmosphere of Titan is a certain slant of light.

This true color image captured by NASA'S Cassini spacecraft before a distant flyby of Saturn's moon, Titan, on June 27, 2012, shows a south polar vortex, or a swirling mass of gas around the pole in the atmosphere of the moon. Photo Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

In addition to the evidence of sinking air, Cassini also found complex chemical production in the atmosphere at up to 400 miles above the surface. This means the atmospheric circulation extends about 60 miles higher than previously thought.

Compression of the sinking air as it moved to lower altitudes produced a hot spot above the south pole. Scientists were also able to see very rapid changes in the atmosphere and pinpoint the circulation reversal to about six months—around the August 2009 equinox—when the sun shone directly over Titan's equator. The circulation change meant that within two years of equinox, some gases increased 100-fold—much more extreme than anything seen so far on Titan.

The results also suggest that a detached layer of haze, first detected by NASA's Voyager spacecraft, may instead be the region where small haze particles combine into larger, more transparent, clumped aggregates that eventually descend deeper into the atmosphere and give Titan its characteristic orange appearance.

These findings were published in the journal Nature. Nick Teanby, the study's lead author and a Cassini team associate, said, "Cassini's up-close observations are likely the only ones we'll have in our lifetime of a transition like this in action. It's extremely exciting to see such rapid changes on a body that usually changes so slowly and has a 'year' that is the equivalent of nearly 30 Earth years."

Titan is the only moon in our solar system to have both a solid surface and a substantial atmosphere. Titan has been described as a pre-biotic Earth and could help scientists better understand how life arose on our own world.

"Understanding Titan's atmosphere gives us clues for understanding our own complex atmosphere," said Scott Edgington, Cassini deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Some of the complexity in both places arises from the interplay of atmospheric circulation and chemistry."

The Cassini spacecraft arrived in orbit around the planet Saturn in 2004. Since that time it has revolutionized our understanding about the Saturnian system. Image Credit: NASA / JPL

The pole on Titan experiencing winter is usually pointed away from Earth, but since Cassini has been in orbit around Saturn (the spacecraft arrived in 2004), the moon has been studied from angles unattainable from Earth.

According to NASA's mission page, it is a top priority to see Titan's surface in the act of changing, and thanks to Cassini these changes can be watched as they develop over time.

Cassini instruments recently obtained images of the formation of haze and a vortex over Titan's south pole. The composite infrared spectrometer (CIRS) data also revealed changes in hard-to-detect vertical winds and global circulation.

"Next, we would expect to see the vortex over the south pole build up," said Mike Flasar, the CIRS principal investigator at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. "As that happens, one question is whether the south winter pole will be the identical twin of the north winter pole, or will it have a distinct personality? The most important thing is to be able to keep watching as these changes happen."

The Cassini Solstice mission is scheduled to last through September 2017 and is named for the Saturnian summer solstice that will occur in May 2017.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate.

 

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Ice on planet closest to sun

Messenger Spacecraft Finds Evidence of Ice on Planet Closest to Sun

By Jason Rhian

Shown in red are areas of Mercury's north polar region that are constantly in shadow in every image that the MESSENGER spacecraft has acquired to date. These areas are rich in water ice, despite the planet's colse proximity to the sun. Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory

NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft has detected evidence that the tiny planet Mercury could contain substantial amounts of water ice. This new data backs up a long-held hypothesis that the planet holds frozen water and other volatiles in the permanently shadowed craters located on Mercury's polar region.

MESSENGER is an acronym for MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging. Given that Mercury was the messenger of the gods, the name fits.

The instruments onboard MESSENGER have provided views of Mercury that were not possible before. Since the spacecraft's arrival in March of 2011, researchers are able to better define how the inner terrestrial planets gained their water as well as some organic elements.

"The new data indicate the water ice in Mercury's polar regions, if spread over an area the size of Washington, D.C., would be more than 2 miles thick," said David Lawrence, a MESSENGER participating scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). Lawrence is also the lead author on one of three papers that detail the findings. The papers were posted online in Thursday's edition of Science Express.

The MESSENGER spacecraft, depicted in this artist's rendering, began studying Mercury last year. It was designed and built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Image Credit: NASA

MESSENGER's instruments have finished their initial assessment of excess hydrogen at Mercury's north pole. The spacecraft has also made initial measurements of the reflectivity of deposits at near infrared wavelengths which allowed the first-ever comprehensive models to be produced. These included the temperatures of Mercury's north pole.

Mercury is just 35,980,000 miles (57,910,000 km) out from the sun, a fact that would make the presence of water, in any form, unlikely. The fact that ice has been detected on Mercury is due to the tilt of the tiny world's rotational axis – which is less than one degree. As such, some portions of Mercury's poles never see the light of the sun.

"For more than 20 years, the jury has been deliberating whether the planet closest to the sun hosts abundant water ice in its permanently shadowed polar regions," said Sean Solomon of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y. "MESSENGER now has supplied a unanimous affirmative verdict."

The concept of ice existing in the permanently-shadowed regions of Mercury's north pole is nothing new. It was first suggested decades ago. Photo Credit: NASA

The concept that Mercury might have ice on its surface is nothing new. According to a NASA press release, scientists suggested decades ago that Mercury's poles could contain water ice.

The idea received support in the 90s when the Arecibo radio telescope, located in Puerto Rico noted radar-bright patches at Mercury's poles. Arecibo's findings overlapped well with the large impact craters that the Mariner 10 probe discovered back in the 70s. However, Mariner 10 only mapped about 50 percent of the planet's surface, leaving our understanding of the world somewhat lacking.

MESSENGER's 2011 imagery matched the radar-bright regions with shadowed areas on Mercury's surface. This appears to further validate the water ice hypothesis.

New findings by MESSENGER suggest that a major component of Mercury's north pole deposits – is water ice. Measurements also show that ice is exposed on the planet's surface in the coldest of these deposits.

MESSENGER used its neutron spectrometer to study the average hydrogen concentrations within the radar-bright regions.

"We estimate from our neutron measurements the water ice lies beneath a layer that has much less hydrogen. The surface layer is between 10 and 20 centimeters (4-8 inches) thick," Lawrence said.

MESSENGER conducted detailed topographical surveys of Mercury's terrain which corroborated the radar data as well as the neutron measurements that Lawrence highlighted.

NASA's release also mentioned another interesting discovery. Measurements of the shadowed regions show irregular bright and dark deposits that were detected in near infrared wavelengths at Mercury's north pole.

Mariner 10 scanned about 50 percent of Mercury's surface. The MESSENGER mission is providing much more data about the planet. Image Credit: NASA / JPL

In a second paper by Gregory Neumann of, measurements of the shadowed north polar regions reveal irregular dark and bright deposits at near-infrared wavelength near Mercury's north pole.

"Nobody had seen these dark regions on Mercury before, so they were mysterious at first," said Gregory Neumann with NASA's Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Whereas some sections of the region surveyed by MESSENGER showed some areas with far less reflectivity than others. This indicates that the ice in these regions is covered by a layer of material that dims the highly-reflective ice.

Neumann thinks that either asteroids or comets could have deposited the material on Mercury's surface, but the materials were not pure. This would explain the varied surface at Mercury's north pole.

"The dark material is likely a mix of complex organic compounds delivered to Mercury by the impacts of comets and volatile-rich asteroids, the same objects that likely delivered water to the innermost planet," said David Paige with the University of California at Los Angeles, one of the authors of the third paper about these recent findings.

MESENGER was produced by APL. The mission is operated by the lab for NASA and is part of NASA's Discovery Program.

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