WASHINGTON ? A small comet survived what astronomers figured would be a sure death when it danced uncomfortably close to the broiling sun.
Comet Lovejoy, which was only discovered a couple of weeks ago, was supposed to melt Thursday night when it came close to where temperatures hit several million degrees. Astronomers had tracked 2,000 other sun-grazing comets make the same suicidal trip. None had ever survived.
But astronomers watching live with NASA telescopes first saw the sun's corona wiggle as Lovejoy went close to the sun. They were then shocked when a bright spot emerged on the sun's other side. Lovejoy lived.
"I was delighted when I saw it go into the sun and I was astounded when I saw something re-emerge," said U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams.
Lovejoy didn't exactly come out of its hellish adventure unscathed. Only 10 percent of the comet ? which was probably millions of tons ? survived the encounter, said W. Dean Pesnell, project scientist for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which tracked Lovejoy's death-defying plunge.
And the comet lost something pretty important: its tail.
"It looks like the tail broke off and is stuck" in the sun's magnetic field, Pesnell said.
Comets circle the sun and sometimes get too close. Lovejoy came within 75,000 miles of the sun's surface, Battams said. For a small object often described as a dirty snowball comprised of ice and dust, that brush with the sun should have been fatal.
Astronomers say it probably didn't melt completely because the comet was larger than they thought.
The frozen comet was evaporating as it made the trip toward the sun, "just like you're sweating on a hot day," Pesnell said.
"It's like an ice cube going by a barbecue grill," he said.
Pesnell said the comet, although only discovered at the end of November by an Australian observer, probably is related to a comet that came by Earth on the way to the sun in 1106.
As Comet Lovejoy makes its big circle through the solar system, it will be another 800 or 900 years before it nears the sun again, astronomers say.
___
Online:
NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory: http://1.usa.gov/upZJgS
U.S. Naval Research Lab's Sun-grazing comet website (video, photos at bottom): http://bit.ly/sfAAN5
New York ? Goodbye, Rombot. Hello, sensitive human? Here's how Team Romney is trying to make the super-rich, often-wooden candidate seem like the rest of us
"Meet Mitt Romney, human," says Reid J. Epstein in Politico. With the GOP nomination seemingly fading from sight, Team Romney has been working overtime to soften the so-called "Rombot" candidate who's been on display all year. The push to "humanize" Romney ? a strategy his campaign team disavows ? has its skeptics. But it's pretty clear, says Ashley Parker in The New York Times, that the often "inscrutable, overly polished, and occasionally robotic" candidate "is striving mightily to humanize himself just three weeks before the first round of voting begins." How? Here are six ways:
1. Deputizing his family The humanizing effort began last week with a spate of TV ads emphasizing Mitt the Family Man. And to "show his softer side," says Philip Rucker in The Washington Post, Romney "has been campaigning more frequently with his wife, Ann, and their family." He's had various of his five sons introduce him at events, and is telling more personal anecdotes about his family life. The subtext may be a swipe at thrice-married GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich, but it's also tactically "good to remind Iowans of how strong he is from a family standpoint," says unaligned Iowa GOP congressman Steve King.
SEE MORE: Time for Mitt Romney to attack Newt Gingrich?
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2. Sending his wife to talk about his unseen side Beyond featuring wife Ann in ads, Romney is sending her out to smaller private fundraisers to talk about "the side of Mitt people don't see or don't hear about." In other words, says Jessica Grose in Slate, "she's trying to make Mitt seem less stiff, and more fun." It might work, but if she wants to improve on "her first attempt at Mitt humanization circa 2007," Ann Romney is going to have to be a little more "specific, intimate, and revealing." It's nice that Mitt stood by her through breast cancer and multiple sclerosis, but Ann will have to "up the personal disclosures if she wants to crack that lacquered image that most people have of her husband."
3. Talking about his Mormonism The Dec. 10 debate marked the first time in four years that Romney brought up being a Mormon, and he's only upped the religion talk since, discussing his stints as a missionary in France and as a stateside counselor to struggling Mormons. In "racing to humanize a distant and sometimes awkward politician...," say Ben Smith and Maggie Haberman in Politico, Team Romney just "smashed personal red lines the candidate spent decades erecting." He's even joking about his religion, claiming that he "encouraged the guys" who created the lewd, satirical Broadway hit The Book of Mormon, "because I thought that'd be really helpful."
SEE MORE: Why Fox News viewers don't like Mitt Romney: 4 theories
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4. Talking (maybe too much) about his hardships Mitt's Mormon remembrances included new details about his two-year missionary stint that weren't even in his autobiography. Insisting he wasn't "living high on the hog" in France, Romney told a crowd on Sunday that he'd subsisted on $110 a month, in bare-bones apartments often without refrigerators, showers, or even toilets. Instead of toilets, he had "little pads on the ground, OK?" he elaborated. "You know how that works, all right. There was a chain behind you with a bucket ? it was a bucket affair." I get that he's trying to "shed his robotic image,"?says Zeke Miller in Business Insider. But that's "a definitional case of the phrase 'Too Much Information'."
5. Meeting the press more After facing criticism for avoiding the press, and then blowing an on-air chat with Fox News'?Bret Baier, Romney has dramatically boosted his access to reporters. More is needed, American University political scientist Leonard Steinhorn tells the Boston Herald. "If he wants to humanize himself, he better work as quickly as possible and work as many media outlets as possible," especially Jon Stewart's Daily Show. Romney himself seems cool to the idea, telling the Herald he'd "much rather have a setting that's fun, and give-and-take."
SEE MORE: Romney's big weakness: Speaking French?
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6. Talking about how equally un-human his rivals are Romney's estimated $200 million in wealth may make him seem removed from everyday Americans, but he "doesn't want to be cast as the only rich person in the race for the Republican presidential nomination," says Brian Montopoli in CBS News. On Wednesday Romney pointed out that Gingrich is also "a wealthy man, a very wealthy man," adding that "if you have a half a million dollar purchase from Tiffany's, you're not a middle class American." Zing! Gingrich is worth at least $6.7 million.
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A norm to improve train safety and circulation in EuropePublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ana Herrera oic@uc3m.es Carlos III University of Madrid
This press release is available in Spanish.
In this meeting of the JWG - the work group made up of European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) - the last revision of the text was carried out that will make up norm EN 45545, which affects the entire railroad industry, the operators, fire-testing laboratories and standardization entities. This meeting took place on the Legans campus of the UC3M, under the auspices of the Master's in Fire Safety Engineering Program, from the Pedro Juan de Lastanosa Institute.
The final version of the text made within the framework of this meeting will be submitted to formal vote in the standardization committees of the different countries for its approval, and the norm will foreseeably be published at the end of 2012. . "After 20 years of intense discussion and debate between industry, operators and laboratories, and after incorporating important results from research, agreement was at least reached to consider a text that will guarantee the same level of safety for railway passengers in all countries," UC3M Professor Jos Luis Prez Daz, the Spanish representative at JWG pointed out. As the coordinator of the mirror group, its function is to transmit the different discussions to the agents involved in Spain, as well as the industries and operators, and in addition, to carry out these discussions from the point of view of these Spanish agents.
This is basic norm for railway vehicles to circulate freely all over Europe, according to the experts. Its purpose is to unify fire safety criteria on passenger trains in the different European countries which adopt it, so that trains complying can circulate without problems. "It improves safety, but it also facilitates free circulation and free competition in the railway sector," Professor Prez Daz asserted, director of the Master's in Fire Safety Engineering Program, from the Pedro Juan de Lastanosa Institute.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
A norm to improve train safety and circulation in EuropePublic release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ana Herrera oic@uc3m.es Carlos III University of Madrid
This press release is available in Spanish.
In this meeting of the JWG - the work group made up of European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC) - the last revision of the text was carried out that will make up norm EN 45545, which affects the entire railroad industry, the operators, fire-testing laboratories and standardization entities. This meeting took place on the Legans campus of the UC3M, under the auspices of the Master's in Fire Safety Engineering Program, from the Pedro Juan de Lastanosa Institute.
The final version of the text made within the framework of this meeting will be submitted to formal vote in the standardization committees of the different countries for its approval, and the norm will foreseeably be published at the end of 2012. . "After 20 years of intense discussion and debate between industry, operators and laboratories, and after incorporating important results from research, agreement was at least reached to consider a text that will guarantee the same level of safety for railway passengers in all countries," UC3M Professor Jos Luis Prez Daz, the Spanish representative at JWG pointed out. As the coordinator of the mirror group, its function is to transmit the different discussions to the agents involved in Spain, as well as the industries and operators, and in addition, to carry out these discussions from the point of view of these Spanish agents.
This is basic norm for railway vehicles to circulate freely all over Europe, according to the experts. Its purpose is to unify fire safety criteria on passenger trains in the different European countries which adopt it, so that trains complying can circulate without problems. "It improves safety, but it also facilitates free circulation and free competition in the railway sector," Professor Prez Daz asserted, director of the Master's in Fire Safety Engineering Program, from the Pedro Juan de Lastanosa Institute.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Apple will refresh the stock iPad wallpapers when it eventually gets round to releasing iOS 5.1 to the public. iOS 5.1 is currently in its second beta phase and as there is no sign of a Gold Master release we have no idea when it will become...
Rapid rise in wildfires in large parts of Canada? Public release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Ecologists show for the first time threshold values for natural wildfires
This press release is available in German.
Chicago/Leipzig. Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently approaching this threshold value and may in future exceed it due to climate change. As a result both the area burnt down annually and the average size of the fires would increase, write the researchers of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Michigan in the December issue of the journal the American Naturalist. The strategies for combating wildfires in large parts of Canada should therefore be reconsidered.
According to media reports, after weeks of drought around 1,000 hectares of forest and scrubland were burnt down in the West Canadian province British Columbia in the summer of 2009 alone. 11,000 people had to be evacuated. Are such events on the rise as a result of climate change? This question is being hotly debated by ecologists all over the world. In July a group of US researchers led by Anthony Westerling of the University of California forecasted similar changes in the journal PNAS. They believe that climate change might result in a dramatic increase in the threat of wildfires in Yellowstone National Park and that the forests might disappear here in the 21st century.
Fires are an important factor in many terrestrial ecosystems. They are a result of the interaction of the weather, vegetation and land use, which makes them very sensitive to global change. "Changes in the wildfire regime have a significant impact on a local and global scale and therefore on the climate as well. It is therefore important to understand how the mechanisms which shape these wildfires work in order to be able to make predictions on what will change in future," explains PD Dr. Volker Grimm of the UFZ.
For their model, the scientists evaluated data from the Canadian Forest Service, which had recorded fires greater than 200 hectares between 1959 and 1999, and sorted these by ecozone. This showed that three of these ecozones in Canada are close to a turning point: the Hudson Plains south of the Hudson Bay, the Boreale Plains in the Mid-West the Boreale Shield, which stretches from the Mid-West to the East coast and is therefore the largest ecozone in Canada. The closest to a turning point is apparently the Boreale Shield. In order to check their model and the theory of a threshold value for wildfires, the scientists looked at the fires in this region more closely. Around 1980 the average size of the fires in this part of the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba tripled rapidly. "In our opinion this is a sign that there are also threshold values for forests above which the wildfire regime drastically changes," reports Volker Grimm. "It is likely that the Boreale Plains have in recent decades, particularly around 1980, experienced a change to a system characterised by wildfires. This has fundamental repercussions for the environment and the combating of wildfires. Small changes in the fire propagation parameters have a great impact on the size of the fires." Gradual changes, such as those which can be expected due to climate change, can therefore result in an abrupt and sharp increase in the size of the fires.
The scientists were also interested in the parallels with disease propagation. Prevention strategies, which reduce combustible material, are in a way similar to the vaccinations which are used against the spread of diseases such as the measles. Here too there is a threshold value above which a disease spreads and below which it falls. Other modellers from the UFZ were therefore able to turn this theoretical threshold value into a practical value. With foxes it was shown that only 60 per cent had to be vaccinated against rabies in order to successfully combat the disease. The scientists therefore hope to find out more in future studies which cover both disciplines.
Tilo Arnhold
###
Publication:
Richard D. Zinck, Mercedes Pascual and Volker Grimm (2011): Understanding Shifts in Wildfire Regimes as Emergent Threshold Phenomena. The American Naturalist. Vol. 178, No. 6, December 2011
http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/662675
The studies were funded by the European Union within the scope of the EU's PATRES project.
Other technical information:
PD Dr. Volker Grimm
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Telephone: 0341-235-1711
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=3679
and
Richard D. Zinck
E-mail: zinck@umich.edu
and
Dr. Mercedes Pascual
University of Michigan
Telephone: 734-615-9808
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eeb/directory/faculty/pascual/
UN Year of Forests 2011:
http://www.biodiversity.de/index.php/de/fuer-presse-medien/top-themen-biodiversitaet/1345-wie-wird-der-wald-von-morgen-sein/
http://www.wald2011.de/
http://www.un.org/esa/forests/index.html
Study: Climate Change to Increase Yellowstone Wildfires Dramatically
http://www.ucmerced.edu/news/study-climate-change-increase-yellowstone-wildfires-dramatically
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/07/20/1110199108
Fires regenerate African grassland (press release, 19 September 2008):
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=17197
Disturbances in Ecosystems:
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=17620
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Rapid rise in wildfires in large parts of Canada? Public release date: 16-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Tilo Arnhold presse@ufz.de 49-341-235-1635 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
Ecologists show for the first time threshold values for natural wildfires
This press release is available in German.
Chicago/Leipzig. Large forest regions in Canada are apparently about to experience rapid change. Based on models, scientists can now show that there are threshold values for wildfires just like there are for epidemics. Large areas of Canada are apparently approaching this threshold value and may in future exceed it due to climate change. As a result both the area burnt down annually and the average size of the fires would increase, write the researchers of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Michigan in the December issue of the journal the American Naturalist. The strategies for combating wildfires in large parts of Canada should therefore be reconsidered.
According to media reports, after weeks of drought around 1,000 hectares of forest and scrubland were burnt down in the West Canadian province British Columbia in the summer of 2009 alone. 11,000 people had to be evacuated. Are such events on the rise as a result of climate change? This question is being hotly debated by ecologists all over the world. In July a group of US researchers led by Anthony Westerling of the University of California forecasted similar changes in the journal PNAS. They believe that climate change might result in a dramatic increase in the threat of wildfires in Yellowstone National Park and that the forests might disappear here in the 21st century.
Fires are an important factor in many terrestrial ecosystems. They are a result of the interaction of the weather, vegetation and land use, which makes them very sensitive to global change. "Changes in the wildfire regime have a significant impact on a local and global scale and therefore on the climate as well. It is therefore important to understand how the mechanisms which shape these wildfires work in order to be able to make predictions on what will change in future," explains PD Dr. Volker Grimm of the UFZ.
For their model, the scientists evaluated data from the Canadian Forest Service, which had recorded fires greater than 200 hectares between 1959 and 1999, and sorted these by ecozone. This showed that three of these ecozones in Canada are close to a turning point: the Hudson Plains south of the Hudson Bay, the Boreale Plains in the Mid-West the Boreale Shield, which stretches from the Mid-West to the East coast and is therefore the largest ecozone in Canada. The closest to a turning point is apparently the Boreale Shield. In order to check their model and the theory of a threshold value for wildfires, the scientists looked at the fires in this region more closely. Around 1980 the average size of the fires in this part of the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba tripled rapidly. "In our opinion this is a sign that there are also threshold values for forests above which the wildfire regime drastically changes," reports Volker Grimm. "It is likely that the Boreale Plains have in recent decades, particularly around 1980, experienced a change to a system characterised by wildfires. This has fundamental repercussions for the environment and the combating of wildfires. Small changes in the fire propagation parameters have a great impact on the size of the fires." Gradual changes, such as those which can be expected due to climate change, can therefore result in an abrupt and sharp increase in the size of the fires.
The scientists were also interested in the parallels with disease propagation. Prevention strategies, which reduce combustible material, are in a way similar to the vaccinations which are used against the spread of diseases such as the measles. Here too there is a threshold value above which a disease spreads and below which it falls. Other modellers from the UFZ were therefore able to turn this theoretical threshold value into a practical value. With foxes it was shown that only 60 per cent had to be vaccinated against rabies in order to successfully combat the disease. The scientists therefore hope to find out more in future studies which cover both disciplines.
Tilo Arnhold
###
Publication:
Richard D. Zinck, Mercedes Pascual and Volker Grimm (2011): Understanding Shifts in Wildfire Regimes as Emergent Threshold Phenomena. The American Naturalist. Vol. 178, No. 6, December 2011
http://www.jstor.org/pss/10.1086/662675
The studies were funded by the European Union within the scope of the EU's PATRES project.
Other technical information:
PD Dr. Volker Grimm
Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ)
Telephone: 0341-235-1711
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=3679
and
Richard D. Zinck
E-mail: zinck@umich.edu
and
Dr. Mercedes Pascual
University of Michigan
Telephone: 734-615-9808
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/eeb/directory/faculty/pascual/
UN Year of Forests 2011:
http://www.biodiversity.de/index.php/de/fuer-presse-medien/top-themen-biodiversitaet/1345-wie-wird-der-wald-von-morgen-sein/
http://www.wald2011.de/
http://www.un.org/esa/forests/index.html
Study: Climate Change to Increase Yellowstone Wildfires Dramatically
http://www.ucmerced.edu/news/study-climate-change-increase-yellowstone-wildfires-dramatically
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/07/20/1110199108
Fires regenerate African grassland (press release, 19 September 2008):
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=17197
Disturbances in Ecosystems:
http://www.ufz.de/index.php?de=17620
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? StumbleUpon is adding more avenues to meander through its online content recommendation service.
The renovations, unveiled late Monday as part of a major overhaul, allow StumbleUpon's 20 million users to be more specific about their interests so they won't have to wait as long for the service's technology to figure it out.
For example, users can now tell StumbleUpon to feed them information about specific brands, such as Audi, instead of a general topic such as cars or ask to be steered to the best material from a particular website, such as FunnyorDie.com.
More than 250 brands, actors and sports figures have set up channels under StumbleUpon's new format. Besides Audi and FunnyorDie.com, StumbleUpon's initial channel line-up includes AOL Inc., Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN, Tom Hanks and Magic Johnson.
StumbleUpon also has added an "explore" option designed to make it easier to find content with a quick search.
The organizational tools bring a greater sense of direction to StumbleUpon, whose appeal has been tied to its random qualities. The free service, which makes it money from selling ads, got its name from its penchant for leading users down online corridors that they didn't even know existed.
"People are still going to experience serendipity and surprise on StumbleUpon, but they now they are going to have more control," said StumbleUpon CEO and co-founder Garrett Camp.
To herald the shift, StumbleUpon redesigned its logo. The most glaring change is the logo's color, now reddish-orange instead of blue and green.
The paint job comes nearly a decade after Camp and some friends started StumbleUpon in Canada before eventually moving to Silicon Valley in 2006. That led to StumbleUpon's sale in 2007 to eBay Inc. for $75 million. Camp regretted the decision and teamed up with several venture capitalists to buy back StumbleUpon from eBay for an undisclosed amount in 2009.
Since then, StumbleUpon's audience has tripled, helping the service emerge as one of the Web's largest catalysts for driving traffic to other sites. StumbleUpon says its recommends more than 1.2 billion pieces of content per month, doubling its volume from a year ago.
Next up: an international expansion for what so far has been an English-only service. The redesign includes technological tweaks that will make it easier to translate StumbleUpon into different languages. StumbleUpon, which is based in San Francisco, expects to expand into France and several other European countries early next year.
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Public release date: 16-Dec-2011
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