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Thursday, 16 May 2013

Astronauts reflect on Skylab, 'life off Earth' legacy

NASA TV

International Space Station Expedition 34 commander Kevin Ford (right) presents Skylab astronauts Owen Garriott (left) and Gerald Carr with space-flown flags to mark the 40th anniversary of their missions on board America's first space station on Monday at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C..

By Robert Z. Pearlman
Space.com

Before the International Space Station existed, before U.S. astronauts shared space on Russia's space station Mir, America's first home in Earth orbit was Skylab.?

The converted upper stage of a massive Saturn V moon rocket, Skylab was launched 40 years ago?Tuesday. The orbital workshop gave NASA its first experience at establishing a long-duration human presence in space, laying the foundation for American astronauts to take up continuous residency almost three decades later on board the International Space Station (ISS).?

On Monday, NASA commemorated four decades of "life off Earth" and the 40th anniversary of Skylab's launch during a roundtable discussion held at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. The event featured Skylab and ISS astronauts, as well as agency managers who are helping to plan the United States' future outposts in space. [Skylab: The First U.S. Space Station (Photos)]?

"When these guys went to the final frontier to stay for a long time, they did it as the first ones, the ones who were entering the unknown and to see what it was going to be like and set the stage for us," said astronaut Kevin Ford, who returned from space in March after commanding the International Space Station's Expedition 34. "It is a pleasure for me to be here on the 40th anniversary."?

NASA

Skylab astronauts took this photograph as they approached the orbiting laboratory on the third and final mission in November 1973.

America's first space station?
Three crews of three astronauts each launched to the Skylab space station between May and November 1973. Each mission set a record for the amount of time that crew members spent in space ? Skylab 1 for 28 days, Skylab 2 for 59 days and Skylab 3 for 84 days.?

"It verified the fact that people could live, work?(and) do productive things for long duration, and also took the first steps toward doing the science that we wanted to have aboard," said Owen Garriott, who served as the science pilot for Skylab's second crew.?

That astronauts were even able to spend one day aboard Skylab was a testament to the value of having humans in space.?

Excessive vibrations during the station's Saturn V liftoff resulted in a critical meteoroid shield being ripped off in flight, which in turn took out one of the orbital workshop's two power-providing solar arrays. Flight controllers moved Skylab's secondary solar panels to face the sun to provide as much electricity as possible, but because of the loss of the debris shield this caused the station's interior to heat up to over 125 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius).?

NASA / JSC

Astronaut Gerald P. Carr, commander for the Skylab 4 mission, jokingly demonstrates weight training in zero-gravity as he balances astronaut William R. Pogue, pilot, upside down on his finger.

The effort to "save Skylab" fell to its first crew, who had to quickly prepare for a series of unexpected spacewalks in the short time they had between the station's launch and their own. Despite the very tight schedule, the astronauts successfully deployed a parasol (later augmented by a solar shield) to lower the temperature inside the station and freed a snagged second solar array.?

Once the workshop was a stable living platform, the three Skylab crews logged about 2,000 hours in total performing scientific and medical experiments. They also took more than 46,000 photos of the Earth and 127,000 photos of the sun, capturing eight solar flares on film.?

The astronauts also devised methods for maximizing their productivity, a lesson with far-reaching applications.?

"We dealt with problems having to do with scheduling and productivity," said Gerald "Jerry" Carr, who commanded the final Skylab crew. "We came to some solutions that worked very well. It took a while to get there ... but those solutions that we came across were used on subsequent missions to some degree."?

"We tried to make sure that got into the planning for the operations aboard the International Space Station and on the (space) shuttle," Carr added.

"I think we're still working that issue," replied Ford. "We've gotten a much better feeling, I think, now that we are up there to do work that the ground can't necessarily figure out how long it is going to take you to do everything."?

The end of Skylab
Upon the end of its crewed missions, Skylab was moved into a stable attitude where it was expected to remain for eight to 10 years. It was hoped that one of the early space shuttle missions could be used to reboost Skylab's orbit to save the station for future use.?

In late 1977, however, four years before the shuttle would first fly, it was discovered that greater-than-predicted solar activity had heated the outer layers of Earth's atmosphere, increasing the drag on Skylab. On July 11, 1979, Skylab re-entered the atmosphere and broke apart over the Indian Ocean. Much of the station burned up or dropped into sea, but its debris field stretched over Australia, where many pieces were later found. [See photos of Skylab's remains in Australia]

Despite its relatively short life span, the use of Skylab's unique environment and vantage point represented a major step in the United States' spaceflight efforts, serving as a bridge between the Apollo missions to the moon and the long-duration expeditions on board the International Space Station, the roundtable said.

"The (International) Space Station was built around what we learned on Skylab," Ford said. "What they put up there for us, the way the modules were sized and the way they were constructed in space ... that all came out of what we learned from Skylab."

"We may have done it first, but these guys are doing it better," added Carr, referencing Ford and the current ISS crews. "People need to continue to do it better and better because we learn more and more as we do this. We just took the first step, and the rest of the steps are having had been taken and are being taken right now."?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2be9ed4c/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A50C140C182530A230Eastronauts0Ereflect0Eon0Eskylab0Elife0Eoff0Eearth0Elegacy0Dlite/story01.htm

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Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Minn. governor to sign bill allowing gay marriage

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? With marriages to be available for Minnesota's gay couples starting Aug. 1, Duluth residents Gary Anderson and Gary Boelhower are getting ready to do something that seemed impossible when they started dating three years ago: plan a wedding.

"The plan is to do it in August, definitely," Boelhower said Monday, shortly after Minnesota's Legislature took its final vote in favor of legalizing gay marriage. Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has pledged to sign the bill, and is scheduled to do so at 5 p.m. Tuesday on the front steps of the Capitol in St. Paul.

"It means the ability to have our love and commitment recognized publicly," Boelhower said. "To me, that's what it's most about."

Minnesota is set to become the first state in Midwest to legalize gay marriage by legislative vote, and the third nationwide in just 10 days, joining Rhode Island and Delaware. Thousands of gay marriage supporters thronging the Capitol erupted into deafening cheers after the Senate's 37-30 vote; the House passed it last week on a 75-59 vote.

"Members, God made gays," Sen. Ron Latz, a Democrat from a suburb of Minneapolis, said during the Senate's emotional four-hour debate. "And God made gays capable of loving other people. So who are we to quarrel with God's intentions?"

The gay marriage issue shifted quickly in Minnesota, with the Legislature's vote coming a little more than six months after voters defeated an amendment that would have banned gay marriage in the state constitution. The groups that led the campaign against the amendment swiftly turned to pushing for legalizing same-sex marriage, an effort aided when Democrats captured full control of state government in November.

Only one Republican senator, Branden Petersen of suburban Andover, voted for the bill. Three Democrats from rural districts voted against it.

Republican opponents said the bill alters a centuries-old understanding of marriage as a societal building block that benefits children.

"Forcing others to give you your rights will never end well," said Sen. Dan Hall, a Republican and a pastor. "It won't give you the recognition you desire."

Hall said gay marriage supporters have told him he's on the wrong side of history but, he said, "the truth is I'm more concerned about being on the right side of eternity."

But supporters, too, cited religious faith and relationships with gay family members and friends as shaping their vote for the bill. Many spoke of the benefits of their own marriages.

"I could never and I would never deny the kind of recognition and all the other positive things I get out of my marriage with my husband, to anyone else," said Sen. Vicki Jensen, a Democrat from the southern Minnesota city of Owatonna.

With passage looking inevitable Monday, vocal and visual opposition was muted. Don Lee, of Eagan, placed a tombstone on the Capitol lawn with the words "R.I.P. MARRIAGE 2013."

"The legislation being passed today is the end of marriage as we know it in Minnesota," Lee said. "It's a transformation from a forward-looking sacrificial institution to one focused on adult desires."

Supporters and opponents were close to evenly matched during the House debate, but Monday was dominated by gay marriage backers.

They taped blue and orange hearts on the Capitol steps, creating a path into the building for lawmakers with the signature colors of their movement. In the rotunda, demonstrators sang songs including "Over the Rainbow," ''Going to the Chapel" and "The Star-Spangled Banner."

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman ordered the Wabasha Street Bridge near downtown festooned in rainbow-striped gay pride flags, and temporarily renamed it the "Freedom to Marry Bridge." He also proclaimed it "Freedom to Marry Week."

Minnesota's most famous opponent of gay marriage also weighed in. U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, an ardent supporter of banning gay marriage when she served in the state Senate, released a statement expressing disappointment in a vote she said "denies religious liberty to people who believe in traditional marriage."

Jessica Flatequal and Maria Bevacqua, a lesbian couple from Mankato who have been together for a decade, were jubilant after the vote, as supporters spilled out of the front of the Capitol.

"We're excited to become equal citizens under the law," said Bevacqua, a professor at Minnesota State University-Mankato. Asked whether they would get married, both women laughed.

"Well, neither of us proposed today," Flatequal said. "But now that's going to be part of the discussion. It's weird, actually."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/minn-governor-sign-bill-allowing-gay-marriage-070533644.html

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Beautiful plankton blooms viewed from space

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Beautiful plankton blooms viewed from space
As weather warms up off the coast of France, blooms of plankton have once again begun to form, creating a beautiful, multicolored swirl visible from space.NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites acquired these images of the colorful blooms on April 20 and May 4, according to ?the NASA Earth Observatory. On the later date, a noticeably larger bloom occurred, fueled by nutrient ru...????

Source: NBCnews
Posted on: Tuesday, May 14, 2013, 9:00am
Views: 8

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128255/Beautiful_plankton_blooms_viewed_from_space

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Skechers to pay $40 million for exaggerated shoe claims

Skechers to pay $40 million: Skechers will divide $40 million among half a million customers who believed claims that $100 Shape-Ups make you 'use more energy with every step' or that Resistance Runners increase 'muscle activation.'

By Brett Barrouquere,?Associated Press / May 13, 2013

Skechers organized this fitness walk up New York's Fifth Avenue on Aug. 6, 2010, to publicize the alleged benefits of Shape-ups ? that sneakers that provide a fun and easy way to tone and improve strength and posture.

Diane Bondareff / AP Images for SKECHERS

Enlarge

Skechers will pay $40 million to settle claims in a class-action suit between Skechers?USA Inc. and consumers who bought toning shoes after ads made unfounded claims that the footwear would help people lose weight and strengthen muscles.

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U.S. District Judge Thomas B. Russell in Louisville approved the deal, which covers more than 520,000 claims. About 1,000 people eligible for coverage by the settlement opted not to take part.

Those with approved claims will be able to get a maximum repayment for their purchase ? up to $80 per pair of Shape-Ups; $84 per pair of Resistance Runner shoes; up to $54 per pair of Podded Sole Shoes; and $40 per pair of Tone-Ups.

Russell also awarded $5 million for the attorneys in the case to split. Russell ordered that the money cannot come from the $40 million settlement fund set aside for consumers.

Two people that served as the lead plaintiffs in the case will receive payments of $2,500 each.

Russell considered multiple factors in deciding to approve the settlement and found it provides just compensation to the plaintiffs.

"Accordingly, the court finds that the proposed settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate," Russell wrote.

The approval comes a year after Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based?Skechers?reached a deal with the Federal Trade Commission over the ads. The settlement covers more than 70 lawsuits from across the country. The lawsuits were consolidated in federal court in Louisville.?Skechers?denied the allegations but said it settled to avoid long litigation.

The settlement grew out of a series of ads?Skechers?aired featuring celebrity endorsers such as Kim Kardashian and Brooke Burke, with claims that the shoes could help people lose weight and strengthen their butt, leg, and stomach muscles.

Skechers?billed its Shape-ups as a fitness tool designed to promote weight loss and tone muscles with the shoe's curved "rocker" or rolling bottom ? saying it provides natural instability and causes the consumer to "use more energy with every step." Shape-ups cost about $100 and are sold at retailers nationwide.

Ads for the Resistance Runner shoes claimed people who wear them could increase "muscle activation" by up to 85 percent for posture-related muscles and 71 percent for one of the muscles in the buttocks.

Eleven people filed objections to the settlement, ranging from people seeking the full purchase price of their shoes in return to one person saying the settlement would preclude him from seeking damages on his own.

The judge rejected those arguments.

Should claims not consume the entire $40 million settlement, Russell ordered the remaining money to go to the Federal Trade Commission.

A settlement with the FTC bars?Skechers?from running the ads in the future.

The agency settled similar charges with Reebok last year over its EasyTone walking shoes and RunTone running shoes. That $25 million agreement also provided customer refunds.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/SogeeyzhrNU/Skechers-to-pay-40-million-for-exaggerated-shoe-claims

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Tuesday, 14 May 2013

CA-NEWS Summary

European, U.S. retailers split on Bangladesh reform plan

DHAKA (Reuters) - Major U.S. retailers, including Gap Inc, declined to endorse an accord on Bangladesh building and fire safety backed by Europe's two biggest fashion chains, a trans-Atlantic divide that may dilute garment industry reform efforts. Three weeks after the collapse of a building housing garment factories, which killed more than 1,100 people, Western brands that rely on Bangladesh to produce clothing cheaply disagreed over how best to ensure worker safety.

Russia says CIA agent caught trying to recruit spy

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Tuesday it had caught an American red-handed as he tried to recruit a Russian intelligence officer to work for the CIA, a throwback to the Cold War era that risks upsetting efforts to improve relations. The announcement came at an awkward time, just days after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry during which Washington and Moscow agreed to try to bring the warring sides in Syria together for an international peace conference.

Britain's Cameron faces leadership questions over Europe

LONDON/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron faced questions about his leadership on Tuesday after he buckled to pressure from within the Conservative Party to bring forward draft legislation enforcing a referendum on Britain's European Union membership. Just hours after U.S. President Barack Obama cautioned against rushing towards the EU exit, Cameron was forced by a rebellion in his party into promising a bill that would pave the way for an in-out vote on Europe.

Deadly Benghazi blast caused by fishing explosives: official

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - A blast that killed three people in Libya's second city Benghazi was caused by fishing explosives that detonated accidentally, not a car bomb as originally thought, a local government official said on Tuesday. But rights activists said the incident was symptomatic of deteriorating security in a country whose government exerts scant authority beyond the capital Tripoli and which is largely split into fiefs of armed groups that were instrumental in the 2011 revolution that ousted dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Kenyan police fire teargas at protest over MPs' pay

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan police fired teargas and water cannon outside parliament on Tuesday to disperse about 200 people demonstrating against lawmakers' demands for a salary 130 times the legal minimum wage. Civil rights groups organized the protest to express widespread anger that politicians are demanding a pay rise so soon after a broadly peaceful election on March 4.

First Kurdish rebels reach Iraq under Turkish peace plan

HEROR, Iraq (Reuters) - Weary and caked in mud, the first group of Kurdish militants to leave Turkey under a peace plan to end three decades of war descended a mountain into Iraq on Tuesday to be met with embraces from PKK comrades. Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters began leaving their positions in southeast Turkey last week following a March ceasefire declared by jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan to end a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, ravaged the region's economy and tarnished Turkey's human rights record.

Bulgarian party scuppers idea of broad coalition

SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish party MRF rejected working with a nationalist party on Tuesday, scuppering chances of a broad coalition government and deepening the political stalemate in the European Union's poorest country. The nationalist Attack has emerged as kingmaker after an inconclusive election on Sunday. But its anti-Roma and anti-Turkish policies and pledges of nationalizations may alarm the EU and make it difficult for other parties to work with.

Four U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan's Kandahar

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Four U.S. soldiers were killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Tuesday, the coalition and officials said, a day after three Georgian soldiers were killed in nearby Helmand. The soldiers were in a vehicle on patrol in Kandahar's Zhari district when they were killed, provincial spokesman Jawid Ahmad Faisal said.

Syrian rebels unite to retake strategic town near Damascus

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have counter-attacked east of Damascus to retake a town that served as a conduit for arms from Jordan into the capital before it was seized by government forces last month, rebel sources said. The rebels' struggle to end four decades of Assad family rule has been complicated in part by internal divisions along ideological and political lines, as well as a shortage of heavy weaponry that could decisively turn the tide of conflict.

Rohingya Muslims drown off Myanmar trying to flee storm

SITTWE, Myanmar (Reuters) - A boat carrying about 100 Rohingya Muslims capsized off western Myanmar and many were feared drowned at the beginning of a mass evacuation from low-lying regions ahead of a powerful storm, a United Nations official said on Tuesday. The tropical depression, likely to strengthen into Cyclone Mahasen this week, threatens areas of Myanmar where about 140,000 victims of ethnic and religious unrest are living in camps. The United Nations warned last week there could be a humanitarian catastrophe if people were not evacuated.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-001437590.html

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