Saturn moon has liquid on surface, NASA says

PASADENA, California (AP) -- At least one of many large, lake-like features on Saturn's moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, making it the only body in the solar system besides Earth known to have liquid on its surface, NASA said Wednesday.

Scientists positively identified the presence of ethane, according to a statement from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, which manages the international Cassini spacecraft mission exploring Saturn, its rings and moons.
Liquid ethane is a component of crude oil.
Cassini has made more than 40 close flybys of Titan, a giant planet-sized satellite of the ringed world.

Scientists had theorized that Titan might have oceans of methane, ethane and other hydrocarbons, but Cassini found hundreds of dark, lake-like features instead, and it wasn't known at first whether they were liquid or dark, solid material, JPL's statement said.
"This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid," Bob Brown, team leader of Cassini's visual and mapping instrument, said in the statement.

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The instrument was used during a December flyby to observe a feature dubbed Ontario Lacus, in the south polar region, that is about 7,800 square miles, slightly larger than North America's Lake Ontario.

Cassini reached Saturn in mid-2004 and at the end of that year launched a probe named Huygens that parachuted to the surface of Titan the following January.

The mission is a project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.


Source: CNN

Viewer's Guide: Aug. 1 Solar Eclipse

Friday, August 1 is a red-letter day for eclipse enthusiasts. On that date, the sun will be partially eclipsed over an immense area that includes western and central Asia, parts of northern and central Europe, all of Greenland and even a small slice of northeastern North America.

A total solar eclipse — the first in nearly two and a half years — will be visible along a narrow track that will start over the Northwest Passage of Canada, gives a glancing blow to northern Greenland, then shifts southeast through Siberia and western Mongolia and before ending near the famed Silk Route of China.

The path of totality for this upcoming eclipse is never more than 157 miles (252 km) wide.


Where it's visible
The total eclipse begins at sunrise over Northern Canada's Queen Maud Gulf, where the moon's umbra will first touch down on the Earth, resulting in Canada's hosting its first total solar eclipse since February 26, 1979.

As the sun comes into view over the north-northeast horizon its disk will become completely blocked by the moon. This is in the area of the famous Northwest Passage, a sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Arctic archipelago of Canada. The various islands of the archipelago are separated from one another and the Canadian mainland by a series of Arctic waterways collectively known as the Northwestern Passages. Politically, this region belongs to Nunavut, the largest and newest of the territories of Canada; it was separated officially from the vast Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999.

Although the umbral shadow narrowly misses the towns of Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island, and Resolute on Cornwallis Island, its northern edge just clips the northernmost permanently inhabited place in the world: Canada's remote outpost of Alert, which lies just 508 miles (817 km) from the North Pole and has a population of just 5. Here, totality will last 43 seconds.

Crossing the open Arctic, the southern half of the totality path slides across the many fjords of northermost Greenland, coming to within 450 miles (720 km) of the North Pole at 9:38 UT over the Arctic Ocean before turning southeast. Totality sweeps over the Norwegian island group of Svalbard, while the northern edge of the umbra's path just grazes Russia's Franz Josef Land island group, then cuts across the crescent-shaped island of Novaya Zemlya on its way to central Asia. The umbra first touches the Russian coast on the Yamal Peninsula. Not far inland, greatest eclipse, producing 2 minutes 27 seconds of totality, is attained near the town of Nadym (pop. ~46,000), just inland from the boot-shaped Gulf of Obskaja.

Spending part of your summer in Siberia may sound a bit more appealing upon hearing that the central path passes almost directly over the city of Novosibirsk, Russia's third most populous city (pop. ~1.4 million) where totality begins at 10:44 UT and will last 2 minutes 18 seconds. The center of the path will then follow the Mongolia-China border for several hundred kilometers, with Olgij, Mongolia getting 1 min 36s of totality. Totality finally whisks into north-central China, crossing the west end of the Great Wall before leaving the Earth at a point northeast of the major city of Xi'an (pop. 3.9 million).

The northern half of Maine as well as the Canadian Maritime Provinces will experience a partial eclipse at sunrise.


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Eclipse expedition
A most unusual attempt to rendezvous with the moon's shadow will be made by an Airbus A330-200 twin-engine long-range aircraft. Following a flight plan optimized specifically for the purpose of viewing this eclipse, all of the many unusual requirements of this flight have been evaluated and satisfied with arrangements by the air charter company Deutsche Polarflug (AirEvents) which has previously operated successful over-flights of the North Pole with this same aircraft.

Glenn Schneider, from the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory and a veteran of 26 total eclipses, has worked out the detailed formulation of the flight plan. He is targeting a point from the high polar north, at approximately +83-degrees latitude and about 440 nautical miles from the North Pole at an altitude of 37,000 feet above the Arctic Ocean.

This will be a unique event in the annals of solar eclipse-chasing since there are no records of any total solar eclipse observations as far north as this. While total solar eclipses in the polar regions are not rare, accessibility is very difficult. Until this juncture in time (and technology) very high-latitude (north or south) total solar eclipses have been elusive. The total solar eclipse of 23 November 2003 was the first in history to have been observed from the Antarctic.

Once again it needs repeating: to look at the sun without proper eye protection is dangerous. Even if you are in the path of the total eclipse you will need to protect your eyes during the partial phases.

Source: Space.com


Quarter Life Crisis

If youre between 20 to 30 years old, read this:

BEING TWENTY - THIRTY SOMETHING

They call it the ” Quarter-life Crisis.” It is when you
stop going along with the crowd and start realizing
that there are many things about yourself that you
didn’t know and may not like. You start feeling
insecure and wonder where you will be in a year or
two, but then get scared because you barely know where
you are now.

You start realizing that people are selfish and that,
maybe, those friends that you thought you were so
close to aren’t exactly the greatest people you have
ever met, and the people you have lost touch with are
some of the most important ones. What you don’t
recognize is that they are realizing that too, and
aren’t really cold, catty, mean or insincere, but that
they are as confused as you.

You look at your job… and it is not even close to
what you thought you would be doing, or maybe you are
looking for a job and realizing that you are going to have
to start at the bottom and that scares you.

Your opinions have gotten stronger. You see what
others are doing and find yourself judging more than
usual because suddenly you realize that you have
certain boundaries in your life and are constantly
adding things to your list of what is acceptable and
what isn’t. One minute, you are insecure and then the
next, secure. You laugh and cry with the greatest
force of your life. You feel alone and scared and
confused. Suddenly, change is the enemy and you try
and cling on to the past with dear life, but soon
realize that the past is drifting further and further
away, and there is nothing to do but stay where you
are or move forward.

You get your heart broken and wonder how someone you
loved could do such damage to you. Or you lie in bed
and wonder why you can’t meet anyone decent enough
that you want to get to know better. Or maybe you love
someone but love someone else too and cannot figure out
why you’re doing this because you know that you aren’t a
bad person. One night stands and random hook ups start
to look cheap. Getting wasted and acting like an idiot
starts to look pathetic.

You go through the same emotions and questions over
and over, and talk with your friends about the same
topics because you cannot seem to make a decision. You
worry about loans, money, the future and making a life
for yourself… and while winning the race would be
great, right now you’d just like to be a contender!

What you may not realize is that everyone reading this
relates to it. We are in our best of times and our worst of times,
trying as hard as we can to figure this whole thing out. Send this to
your twenty-something, thirty-something friends…maybe it will help
someone feel like they aren’t alone in their state of confusion……..

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Fare Hike Will Take Effect Next Week

Manila, Philippines. Because of the continuous increase of oil price in the market, there will be another fare increase. Fare increase effective next week and not on July 10 or 11 according to LTFRB. This is the second fare increase since the first hike 2 months ago.


The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Tuesday approved petitions for a fare hike for passenger jeeps, buses and taxicabs.


Jeepney - minimimum fare will cost P8.50 ( first four kilometers) and an additional of P0.25 per kilometer.

Taxi -Additional of P10.00 for taxi on the total meter cost.

Ordinary buses- Minimum fare for is P10.00 and an additional P0.20 per succeeding kilometer.

Aircon Bus - Additional 20% increase
More Oil Increase, Less Traffic.

Petron, Shell: Oil Price Rollback this Midnight.

Petron Corp and Pilipinas Shell announced today that they are rolling back the prices of their gasoline. The P1-per-liter rollback will take effect Wednesday midnight.

I don't know on what to react, maybe my question is, why P1-per-liter ONLY?

More Oil Increase, Less Traffic.

Major Reason Behind Oil Price Hike

U.S. investor Jim Rogers has said that the decline in known oil reserves across the world is the main reason behind the skyrocketing oil prices that have already topped 145 U.S. dollars a barrel. While admitting that factors driving up oil prices are various, Rogers insisted that short of oil supply was the fundamental factor pushing oil prices up all the way.


"Nobody has discovered any major oil fields in over 40 years, while known oil reserves are declining amid a situation that the demand is boiling," he said, adding that oil prices will no doubt go higher unless somebody finds a lot of oil quickly, Rogers said in a telephone interview with Xinhua Thursday.

"Nearly every oil company has declining oil reserves, nearly every oil country in the world has declining oil reserves," he said, noting that "the known oil reserve will not last 100 years."

Rogers said that he was "not good at short-term trading" and predicting the price trend in a short period, but it is obvious that oil prices "will maintain an upward trend over a longer period" because the conflict between oil supply and demand is a big problem.

Rogers blamed the U.S. government for driving down the value of the dollar, saying that the U.S. government should do something about the currency. He said he has been "very vocal" about the U.S. dollar policy and criticized its "mistakes" as having been printing a lot of money since last August and lowering interest rates dramatically. All these factors have helped drive up the prices of the dollar- dominated crude oil, he said. Noting that the sharp rise in oil prices will change people's lives, he said they have to change their lives "accordingly."

Rogers highly recommended the use of nuclear fuel, saying that it is cheaper and cleaner than anything else, adding "if you are careful with it, it is safe." In September 2007, Rogers sold his mansion in New York City for about 15 million dollars and moved to Singapore, mainly due to his belief that this is a ground-breaking time for investment potential in Asian markets.


Uncanny Prophesy: What will happen to the world and to the Philippines at 2008

nagiging sikat na tong email na to: PLEASE DONT BELIEVE ON THIS CRAP.


Mr. Juseleeno Nobulega DaRoose is Brazilian, born in 1960, 47 years old now, his occupation is a teacher, he is a normal citizen, having a very poor life with his wife and kids. All the events which Mr. Juselleno predicted had clear indication of the year, month date of the disasters, incase any third party wants to confirm the facticity of his prophesy, Mr. Juselleno always put the story which he predicted to the notarization office or post office for the approval.
Somebody asked him, how old did he start the prophesy dream, he answered: 9 years old, from 1969, he dreamed 3 events a day, sometimes 9 events, the times he dreamed is different every day. He said all the prophesy dreams were automatically in his dream. When Mr. Juseleeno was 19 years old, he met the famous Brazilian prophesy Saint Mr. Franciscoshabiz, after that the worldwide disaster events were increased in his prophesy dream. Mr. Franciscoshabiz was two times the candidate for the Nobel Prize, he is a very famous differential functional person, at the same time he is also the Charitarian. The events which Mr. Juseleeno predicted are already more than 80000, firstly let's look at below a few big worldwide events and huge disaster from his prophesy.

July 18, 2008 - Philippines will get 8.1 earthquake, thousands of people will die.
PLS. LET US BE ALERT AND MARK THIS DATE JULY 18, 2008, FRIDAY. LET'S BE PREPARED,AND LET US ALL PRAY THAT THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN TO US.

IF POSSIBLE: PLS. DON'T GO TO WORK ESPECIALLY THOSE WITH OFFICE LOCATED IN HIGH PLACES, BUILDINGS, CONDOS AND MALLS.

NOTHING TO LOSE IN THIS KIND OF REMINDER. MAYBE, THIS IS GOD'S WAY TO SAVE YOU, YOUR FAMILY , YOUR FRIENDS AND YOUR OFFICEMATES OR LESSEN CASUALTIES.

LET'S ALL PRAY AND MARK THIS DATE.
PLS. FORWARD TO ALL YOUR CONTACT LIST TO WARN YOUR RELATIVES, FRIENDS AND YOUR LOVED ONES AND ALL PEOPLE LIVING IN THE PHILIPPINES .
AGAIN: REMEMBER JULY 18, 2008 ¡V HAVE AN ALARM ON THIS DATE.