A Leap Year Red Moon Lunar Eclipse Tonight

On Wednesday, February 20, 2008, beginning at 7:01 p.m. PST, the moon will move completely under the shadow of the Earth in a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse can be seen in the Americas, Europe, and Africa. Hope for good weather because the next total lunar eclipse won't happen until December 2010. The moon will be completely under Earth's shadow for about 50 minutes. During this time, the moon won't be completely obscured because of indirect light coming from the Earth's atmosphere. But the moon will appear to change colors from light gray to orange or deep red. The shade depends on the amount of dust and clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. Caption and Graphic Credit: NASA TV – Sequence Image Credit: F. Espenak

A Leap Year Red Moon Lunar Eclipse Tonight
Live Viewing Photo Gallery Link Here>>

This year, leap year 2008, is North America's best chance at seeing the effects of the Earth passing between the Moon and the Sun until late 2010.

If the weather is really good and the sky is clear, depending upon where one is standing in North America, Europe, and Northern Africa on this Oblate Spheroid, one will see the color of the moon change from white/grey to a shade of red, and back again.

Image Credit: NASA

Along with the color change, the Red Moon comes with a fable that involves Christopher Columbus who knew that the shape of the Earth was not flat ... but he needed help to survive the ordeal of this first trip in the discovery of the new world.

West Coast residents may miss out on the early stages of the eclipse as it will occur before moonrise, but the rest of the country should be able to see the entire event--weather permitting, of course. Image Credit: F. Espenak

This excerpted from AFP via Yahoo! News -

Get ready for the eclipse that saved Columbus
AFP (Paris) - Mon Feb 18, 2:55 PM ET

The Moon will turn an eerie shade of red for people in the western hemisphere late Wednesday and early Thursday, recreating the eclipse that saved Christopher Columbus more than five centuries ago.
----
Lunar eclipses have long been associated with superstitions and signs of ill omen, especially in battle.
----
And an eclipse is credited with saving the life of Christopher Columbus and his crew in 1504.

Stranded on the coast of Jamaica, the explorers were running out of food and faced with increasingly hostile local inhabitants who were refusing to provide them with any more supplies.

Columbus, looking at an astronomical almanac compiled by a German mathematician, realized that a total eclipse of the Moon would occur on February 29, 1504.

He called the native leaders and warned them if they did not cooperate, he would make the Moon disappear from the sky the following night.

The warning, of course, came true, prompting the terrified people to beg Columbus to restore the Moon -- which he did, in return for as much food as his men needed. He and the crew were rescued on June 29, 1504.

The Moon will be in total eclipse from 0301 GMT to 0351 GMT. This will be visible east of the Rocky Mountains in North America, as well as in all of Central and South America, West Africa and Western Europe. The zenith of totality is close to French Guiana.
----
The last total lunar eclipse took place on August 28 2007. The next will take place on December 21 2010.
Reference Here>>

This Red Moon fable points out that on this Oblate Spheroid, information is everything!

Path of the Moon through Earth's umbral and penumbral shadows during the Total Lunar Eclipse of February 20, 2008 (Eastern Standard Time) – Image Credit: NASA

Additional information on this beautiful and unique Oblate Spheroid astronomical event can be found:

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/LEmono/TLE2008Feb21/TLE2008Feb21.html

http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/OH/OH2008.html

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=38834

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/15357796.html

Meet “sQuba” - The Oblate Spheroid's First Submersible Electric Car

“Dive it again, James!” If the situation gets too hot for the secret agent he’ll go underground - or under water. So demonstrated impressively by Roger Moore in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977 when he dove below the waves in a sleek vehicle that moments before seemed to be an ordinary car. Image Credit: Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Meet “sQuba” - The Oblate Spheroid's First Submersible Electric Car

An electric powered car … that swims!

Three electric motors are located in the rear compartment of the Rinspeed “sQuba”. One provides propulsion on land, the other two drive the screws for underwater motoring. Image Credit: Rinspeed

That’s right, a “green” car that can go into and tool around in the blue!

The “sQuba” by Rinspeed, is to be introduced to the world at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show (March 6th - 16th, 2008) in Geneva, Switzerland. With this introduction comes the first, ever, car that can actually fly under water.

You drive the car into the water and the car floats. That is, until you crack the door to let the water in. Immediately the “sQuba” starts on his way to the underwater world. The occupants’ breathing air comes from an integrated tank of compressed air that divers know from scuba diving. Image Credit: Rinspeed

Growing up, we all remember going to the movies to watch James Bond take off from a pier, into the water in order to investigate the hijacking of submarines carrying nuclear warheads, in “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Problem was is that this concept car in the 1977 film never existed … movie tricks!

With the introduction of the Rinspeed “sQuba,” the Oblate Spheroid's first real submersible car, the movie fakery now becomes reality.

This excerpted from the Rinspeed website -

Thirty years after the movie thriller ‘The Spy Who Loved Me’ hit the silver screen “sQuba” is the first car that can actually ‘fly’ under water.

“Dive it again, James!” If the situation gets too hot for the secret agent he’ll go underground - or under water. So demonstrated impressively by Roger Moore in ‘The Spy Who Loved Me” in 1977 when he dove below the waves in a sleek vehicle that moments before seemed to be an ordinary car.
----
The scene never really took place; it was an animation.
----
Rinspeed boss Frank M. Rinderknecht (52) is known for his extraordinary automotive creations. The acknowledged James Bond enthusiast and Swiss automobile visionary kept revisiting this scene in his mind over and over: “For three decades I have tried to imagine how it might be possible to build a car that can fly under water. Now we have made this dream come true.”

Levers help to steer the "sQuba" when it is underway, underwater. Image Credit: Rinspeed

And it is this submerged stabile flight at a depth of 10 meters that sets the “sQuba” apart from military vehicles. While the latter can go under water, they are limited to driving slowly over the submerged ground. Rinderknecht: “It is undoubtedly not an easy task to make a car watertight and pressure resistant enough to be maneuverable under water. The real challenge however was to create a submersible car that moves like a fish in water.”

It also had to be a sports car that was converted into a diving dream in the facilities of Swiss engineering specialist Esoro.

In a first step the combustion engine was removed and replaced by several electric motors. Three motors are located in the rear. One provides propulsion on land, the other two drive the screws for underwater motoring. They are supported by two powerful Seabob jet drives in the front, which ‘breathe’ through special rotating louvers from HS Genion (for opening and closing the water intake). The rotating outlet jets were designed to be extremely light yet twist resistant by using high-tech nano materials, so-called Carbon Nano Tubes.
----
You drive the car into the water and the car floats. That is, until you crack the door to let the water in. Immediately the “sQuba” starts on his way to the underwater world. The occupants’ breathing air comes from an integrated tank of compressed air that divers know from scuba diving.
----
It is even capable of autonomous driving on land thanks to a sophisticated laser sensor system from the Hamburg company Ibeo - without any help from the driver or passenger.

Power is supplied by rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries. Rinderknecht: “The ‘sQuba’ is a zero-emission car as documented by the rotating license plate in the rear. It produces no exhaust emissions.
----
For shore leave the “sQuba” relies on a stainless coil-over suspension from KW automotive and large Pirelli tires mounted on custom-made forged light-weight wheels from AEZ with 17- and 18-inch diameters.
----
Frank M. Rinderknecht and his partners - amongst them also the fleet specialist LeasePlan - have created a truly unusual vehicle and in the process have thought of everything. Even the Motorex lubricants used in the ‘sQuba” are biodegradable. For the Rinspeed boss that is a meticulousness stemming from conviction: “The ‘sQuba’ lets me be one with the elements and lets me immerse myself in a new and fascinating world - with Q factor. It is our duty to protect this world in which we are guests to the best of our ability.” Isn’t it, Miss Moneypenny? - James couldn’t have said it better himself glancing at the sporty Swiss precision chronograph from C.F. Bucherer. Eau la la - shaken, not stirred.
Reference Here>>

With the intorduction of the Rinspeed "sQuba" ... anyone can become 007! Image Credit: Rinspeed
(ht: The EDJE)

Filling Stations To Become Service Stations, Again!

As seen through the rearview mirror - Robotic arm opens the fuel flap, unscrews cap, inserts nozzle, and fuels car ... all without the driver having to leave the car. Image Credit: Rotec Engineering BV

Filling Stations To Become Service Stations, Again!

It has been a long time, but there was a time (in the 1950's through to some of the 1970's) that when one pulled into a "gas station" to fill up, an attendant with a hat and a bowtie would ask the driver for the order selection, open the fueling door to the car, and stick the nozzle in to fill the car with fuel. The attendant would then make sure the windshield was clean, the tires were at the proper operating pressure, and inspect under the hood all other fluid levels, top off the fill up order, accept payment from the driver from the drivers side window (that's right, the driver never moved from the car) and off one went on down the road, confident the car was full of gas and in good working order.

Ahhhhh, the age of the "Service Station" here on the Oblate Spheroid.

The Tankpitstop as it appears at a Shell station fueling island. Image Credit: Rotec Engineering BV

Well, this age of full service is about to make a comeback. Here is a technology approach that, if perfected, could begin the conversion of the work performed by the customer/driver to a robotic process. This technology would allow filling stations to call themselves "Service Stations" once again.

A trip to the gas station of the future may no longer require the driver to leave the car. Tankpitstop the Robot will do it all for you. Video Credit: Copyright 2008 KahawaFilm (www.kahawa.nl)

This excerpted from Reuters -

Dutch unveil robot to fill car gas tank
Reporting by Alexandra Hudson, editing by Ralph Boulton - Reuters (EMMELOORD, Netherlands) - Mon Feb 4, 2008 - 11:25am EST

Dutch inventors unveiled on Monday a 75,000 euro ($111,100) car-fuelling robot they say is the first of its kind, working by registering the car on arrival at the filling station and matching it to a database of fuel cap designs and fuel types.

The Tankpitstop robotic arm as it inserts the fueling nozzel for a fill up at a neighborhood Shell station. Image Credit: Rotec Engineering BV

A robotic arm fitted with multiple sensors extends from a regular gas pump, carefully opens the car's flap, unscrews the cap, picks up the fuel nozzle and directs it towards the tank opening, much as a human arm would, and as efficiently.

"I was on a farm and I saw a robotic arm milking a cow. If a robot can do that then why can't it fill a car tank, I thought," said developer and petrol station operator Nico van Staveren. "Drivers needn't get dirty hands or smell of petrol again."

He hopes to introduce the "Tankpitstop" robot in a handful of Dutch stations by the end of the year.
----
Asked whether he would trust his car to a robotic garage attendant, Jelger De Kroon, filling his black Alfa Romeo at a nearby gas station, said:

"Why not? I guess I could keep my hands free and clean, but I'd hope they have good insurance."
Reference Here>>

This may only be the beginning ... why not have robots clean the windshield, check the tires, and look under the hood?

Now, If only we can get these bots to sport a cap and a wear a bowtie, the transformation would be complete!
(ht: ... notes from The EDJE)

Bacteria Delivers "Buck-A-Gallon" Biofuel Solution

As syngas fermentation leads to lower ethanol concentrations than corn fermentations, the energy and cost to separate the ethanol from water is proportionally higher. To reduce this differential, Coskata has exclusively licensed membrane separation technology to reduce the energy requirements by over 50%. The vapor permeation process is amenable to separating ethanol from biofermentation broth because of the very low solids content of the broth relative to other fermentation processes. Image Credit: Coskata

Bacteria Delivers "Buck-A-Gallon" Biofuel Solution (two approaches)

There was a time one could buy fuel for ones car or truck for a “Buck-A-Gallon" … and it is a past we can embrace right now … TODAY!

Well, at least General Motors seems to think so with its investment in Biofuel processing startup Coskata.

The key to the conversion approach Coskata has perfected uses bacteria to break down the broad array of organic waste (switch grasses, twigs, corn husks, leaves, landscape waste, and other non-food sources of organic material) and make Ethanol for a fuel mix or replacement.

After the carbon-hydrogen bonds in the feedstock are "cracked" using gasification and converted into syngas, bacterial fermentation (biofermentation) of the syngas into ethanol occurs using proprietary Coskata microorganisms. Image Credit: Coskata

The real kicker is that this process not only protects our current food paradigm built upon corn for feed and food, the process uses far less petroleum fuel (about 13% as opposed to 77% - or 17 times more efficient) and water while greatly increasing the productive output per bale of feedstock in order to create a gallon of this cleaner burning substance here on the Oblate Spheroid.

Design engineer Mike Sura adjusts settings on Coskata's 150L bioreactor to make ethanol. Image Credit: Tyler Mallory/General Motors

This excerpted from WIRED -

Startup Says It Can Make Ethanol for $1 a Gallon, and Without Corn
By Chuck Squatriglia - 01.24.08 1:00 PM

A biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies, company officials said.

Coskata, which is backed by General Motors and other investors, uses bacteria to convert almost any organic material, from corn husks (but not the corn itself) to municipal trash, into ethanol.

"It's not five years away, it's not 10 years away. It's affordable, and it's now," said Wes Bolsen, the company's vice president of business development.

The discovery underscores the rapid innovation under way in the race to make cellulosic ethanol cheaply. With the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requiring an almost five-fold increase in ethanol production to 36 billion gallons annually by 2022, scientists are working quickly to reach that breakthrough.
----
Besides cutting production costs to fire sale prices, the process avoids some key drawbacks of making ethanol from corn, company officials said. It wouldn't impact the food supply, and its net energy balance is high because the technique works almost anywhere using almost anything with great efficiency. The end result will be E85 sold at the pump for about a dollar cheaper per gallon than gasoline, according to the company.

Coskata won't have a pilot plant running until this time next year, and it will produce just 40,000 gallons a year. Still, several experts said Coskata shows enough promise to leave them cautiously optimistic.
----
Coskata uses existing gasification technology to convert almost any organic material into synthesis gas, which is a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Rather than fermenting that gas or using thermo-chemical catalysts to produce ethanol, Coskata pumps it into a reactor containing bacteria that consume the gas and excrete ethanol. Richard Tobey, Coskata's vice president of engineering, says the process yields 99.7 percent pure ethanol.

Image Credit: Coskata

Gasification and bacterial conversion are common methods of producing ethanol, but biofuel experts said Coskata is the first to combine them. Doing so, they said, merges the feedstock flexibility of gasification with the relatively low cost of bacterial conversion.
----
Coskata's method generates more ethanol per ton of feedstock than corn-based ethanol and requires far less water, heat and pressure. Those cost savings allow it to turn, say, two bales of hay into five gallons of ethanol for less than $1 a gallon, the company said. Corn-based ethanol costs $1.40 a gallon to produce, according to the Renewable Fuels Association.
----
May Wu, an environmental scientist at Argonne National Laboratory, says Coskata's ethanol produces 84 percent less greenhouse gas than fossil fuel even after accounting for the energy needed to produce and transport the feedstock. It also generates 7.7 times more energy than is required to produce it. Corn ethanol typically generates 1.3 times more energy than is used producing it.
----
Making ethanol is one thing, but there's almost no infrastructure in place for distributing it. But the company's method solves that problem because ethanol could be made locally from whatever feedstock is available, Tobey said.

"You're not bound by location," he said. "If you're in Orange County, you can use municipal waste. If you're in the Pacific Northwest, you can use wood waste. Florida has sugar. The Midwest has corn. Each region has been blessed with the ability to grow its own biomass."
----
"Even if you produce it county by county, you still need an infrastructure," he said. "People aren't going to go to some remote location for fuel."
Reference Here>>

The Biodesign Institute of Arizona State University - Alternative Engergy
(click image to launch video)

The biofuel developed for ASU's "Tubes in the Desert" project avoids many of the downsides presented by biofuels such as corn, cellulose or other crops/plants. Because it uses a microscopic bacteria as the fuel source, it doesn't compete with food crops and could yield a much larger amount of fuel per acre. The bacteria are grown in transparent tubes, hence the name. /// ASU researchers are also exploring the possibilities of microbial fuel cells -- tiny microbes that generate energy by feeding on waste. /// Guest interviews include: Neal Woodbury, Ph.D., the Biodesign Institute; Wim Vermaas, Professor, ASU School of Life Sciences. /// Learn More: Visit http://www.azpbs.org/asuspotlight
(ht: MAXINE)

Want To Go Green?, Go Fly A Kite!

MS Beluga SkySails with the innovative towing kite system. Image Credit: DHL

Want To Go Green?, Go Fly A Kite!

Kite Runner has a new definition. A movie by the same name recently was released in December 2007 and the term Kite Runner referred to the kite retrieving member of a kite flying team in Afghani culture that flew kites in competition.

The global package delivery company DHL has a different idea what the term Kite Runner should refer to here on the Oblate Spheroid.

Lanes - Windsurfing off of the coast of Maui. Image Credit: Christian Black

This week will mark the first time a modern container bulk transport ship will use wind to aid in its propulsion across the vast Atlantic Ocean. DHL will launch a kite sail in a method similar to the windsurfing sport pioneered in the late 1990’s off of the Hawaiian coast of Maui.

The kite sail that will be deployed from a launch mast at the front of the ship measures more than the width of three football fields, or just under 350 Yards.

This new Kite Runner wind aided transport method is expected to save between 10% and 35% making the savings per year on fuel alone potentially total over $400,000 per year.

This excerpted from a press release posted at The NewsMarket -

DHL Uses First Wind-Propelled Cargo Vessel to Make Delivery to South America DHL
Deutsche Post World Net - 21-Jan-2008

The MS Beluga SkySails, the world’s first cargo vessel with the SkySails towing kite system, is being used for commercial transport for the first time. It will carry cargo from Bremen to Venezuela on behalf of DHL Global Forwarding, the ocean and air freight carrier of the Deutsche Post World Net Group.

The vessel features a new wind propulsion system with a towing kite measuring up to 320 metres, that provides additional thrust for the ship at sea, a sustainable solution for reducing fuel consumption, costs and emissions.

Depending on wind conditions, fuel costs can be lowered between ten and 35 percent. A small, 87-metre-long freighter would thus save an average of 280,000 Euros in fuel costs per year.
Reference Here>>

Bremen (Bremenhaven) - Germany's biggest North Sea coastal town, Europe's most important fishing port, member of the exclusive club of the world's leading container ports, shipbuilding location with an international reputation and, as a rendezvous for the world's most beautiful luxury liners and passenger ships, Germany's number one amongst the cruise ship ports of the world. Image Credit: Senatskanzlei (Bremen Werbung).

And this -

Eco-friendly sea transport from Bremen to Venezuela
DHL - Bremen, Germany - 18 January 2008

DHL first company to use ocean-going cargo vessel with wind propulsion system
Shipping becomes safer, more profitable and more eco-friendly

The MS Beluga SkySails, the world's first cargo vessel with the innovative SkySails towing kite system, is being used for a commercial transport for the first time. It will carry the first parts of a complete particle board factory from Bemen to Venezuela on behalf of DHL Global Forwarding, the ocean and air freight carrier of the Deutsche Post World Net Group.
----
DHL will transport the particle board factory to South America for its client, Dieffenbacher, in a total of eight partial shipments. It is to be used for a government-sponsored housing project.
Claus Krüger, director at DHL Global Forwarding and responsible for the Project Group Germany, says: "Besides offering our customers first-rate quality in ocean and air freight transports, we are always mindful of the increased need for sustainable logistics solutions. The Beluga SkySails is a forward-looking example of how to implement low-emission ocean freight transports. The promising environmental aspects of the new SkySails System were a major factor in our decision for this charter."
----
On 15th December 2007, the MS Beluga SkySails was christened in Hamburg by Eva Luise Köhler, wife of Germany's Federal President. The so-called "multipurpose heavy-lift carrier" belongs to the fleet of Bremen shipping company Beluga Shipping GmbH.

The ship is based on the simple principle that wind is cheaper than oil and, at sea, the most inexpensive and cleanest source of energy. The wind propulsion system, which features a towing kite measuring up to 320 square metres, was developed by the Hamburg firm SkySails and can now be used on ocean-going vessels for the first time.
----
The MS Beluga SkySails tied up in Bremen's Neustädter Harbour at noon on Friday. DHL Global Forwarding immediately began loading the freighter with parts of the factory supplied by Dieffenbacher, which is based in Eppingen, Baden-Württemberg. Krüger: "In its first partial shipment, the vessel is transporting about 10,000 freight tons from Bremen to Guanta, Venezuela. The route across the Atlantic will take a good two weeks."
Reference Here>>

Heads Up! On An “Eyes Up” Contact Lens Display

Contact lenses with circuits and lights … a possible platform for superhuman vision- Science Central Video Link (click photo) - Image Credit: University of Washington

Heads Up! On An “Eyes Up” Contact Lens Display

Have you ever asked yourself, “How can I see the display of my cellphone without having to use my hands?”

Well, it looks as though the researchers at the University of Washington have asked themselves the same question and set about doing something to address this perceived need.

Eyes with a contact lens that contains circuits that will display images one can see while going about ones business.

Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests. The lenses were manufactured at the microscopic level by researchers at the UW. Image Credit: University of Washington

The prototype contact lens device contains an electric circuit as well as red light-emitting diodes for a display, though it does not yet light up. The lenses were tested on rabbits for up to 20 minutes and the animals showed no adverse effects.

This excerpt from University Week (University of Washington) –

Bionic eyes: Contact lenses with circuits, lights a possible platform for superhuman vision
By Hannah Hickey - News and Information - Jan. 17, 2008

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes -- visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the UW have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

"Looking through a completed lens, you would see what the display is generating superimposed on the world outside," said Babak Parviz, a UW assistant professor of electrical engineering. "This is a very small step toward that goal, but I think it's extremely promising."

The results were presented today at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' international conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems by Harvey Ho, a former graduate student of Parviz's now working at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif. Other co-authors are Ehsan Saeedi and Samuel Kim in the UW's electrical engineering department and Tueng Shen in the UW Medical Center's ophthalmology department.

There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle's speed projected onto the windshield. Video game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.
----
Ideally, installing or removing the bionic eye would be as easy as popping a contact lens in or out, and once installed the wearer would barely know the gadget was there, Parviz said.
----
Researchers built the circuits from layers of metal only a few nanometers thick, about one thousandth the width of a human hair, and constructed light-emitting diodes one third of a millimeter across. They then sprinkled the grayish powder of electrical components onto a sheet of flexible plastic. The shape of each tiny component dictates which piece it can attach to, a microfabrication technique known as self-assembly. Capillary forces -- the same type of forces that make water move up a plant's roots, and that cause the edge of a glass of water to curve upward -- pull the pieces into position.

The prototype contact lens does not correct the wearer's vision, but the technique could be used on a corrective lens, Parviz said. And all the gadgetry won't obstruct a person's view.
----
Future improvements will add wireless communication to and from the lens. The researchers hope to power the whole system using a combination of radio-frequency power and solar cells placed on the lens, Parviz said.

A full-fledged display won't be available for a while, but a version that has a basic display with just a few pixels could be operational "fairly quickly," according to Parviz.
Reference Here>>

Poll Answers

"Mammoth Capybara” Discovery In South America

Fossil hunters have uncovered the greatest rodent that ever lived -- a one-ton behemoth that bestrode the swamplands of South America some four million years ago. Graphic Credit: AFP/GUSTAVO LECUONA

"Mammoth Capybara” Discovery In South America

In a recent document released by Institute of Physics of Montevideo, Gustavo Lecuona helps to give life to the largest fossil rodent ever discovered here on the Oblate Spheroid.

The paleobiological reconstruction of this newly-identified species is the greatest-known member of the order Rodentia and by comparison makes the largest rodent living today, the 60-kilo (132-pound) capybara versus the 1,008-kilo (2,217-pound) Josephoartigasia monesi, look like a pygmy shrew.

The newly discovered skull is considerably larger than a modern-day rat - Image Credit: Blanco

The reconstruction was based upon skull fragments (above) found at an archeological dig along the coast of Uruguay.

This excerpted from AFP via YAHOO! -

King of the rats weighed one tonne
AFP, Paris - Tue Jan 15, 7:10 PM ET

Fossil hunters have uncovered the greatest rodent that ever lived -- a one-tonne behemoth that bestrode the swamplands of South America some four million years ago.
----
The skull of the extraordinary beast was found in a broken boulder on Kiyu Beach on the coast of Uruguay's River Plate region, palaeontologists reported in a study on Wednesday.

Measuring a whopping 53 centimetres (21 inches), the skull has massive incisors several centimetres long.

Despite this fearsome look, the creature was not carnivorous and looked more hippo-like than rat-like.

Its small grinding teeth suggest it had only weak masticatory muscles for chewing food, and probably tucked into soft vegetation, fruit and squidgy aquatic plants in deltas, the experts say.

Its food intake must have been vast, given its huge size.
----
The newly-found species has been dubbed Josephoartigasia monesi, in honour of Alvaro Mones, a Uruguayan palaeontologist who specialised in South American rodents.

Authors Andres Rinderknecht of the National Museum of Natural History and Anthropology and Ernesto Blanco of the Institute of Physics in Montevideo say there are several ways to estimate J. monesi's size.
----
The most reliable figure is an average of 1,008 kilos (1.008 tonnes, 2,217 pounds) which is derived from comparing the giant to its closest living relatives, called hystricognath rodents.

The previous rodent record-breaker, Phoberomys pattersoni, was found in Venezuela in 2003 and was estimated at 700 kilos (1,540 pounds) in its prime.
Reference Here>>

Additional Resources Here>>

RIP - Sir Edmund Percival Hillary, Age 88

My Story - I Was The First To Conquer EVEREST - “RELIVE Edmund Hillary’s trek to the top of the world." Image Credit: Scholastic Inc.

RIP - Sir Edmund Percival Hillary -- July 20, 1919 - January 10, 2008

See Panorama View From The Top Of Mount Everest Here (interactive using cursor)

Sir Edmund Hillary was credited with being the first person to climb to the top of the tallest mountain on Earth. Many thought that this point was the place on Earth closest to the heavens but as we found out a little less than one year ago, that point is on the top of a volcano named Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador.

Sir Edmund Hillary (left), a beekeeper from New Zealand, and Tenzing Norgay (right), a Sherpa from a mountain village in Nepal, won the race to summit Everest in 1953. The climbers made a pact to not reveal who reached the summit first. Hillary wrote in a press statement that they reached the summit "almost together." Years later, Norgay revealed that Hillary reached the top first, by a mere six feet -- the length of the rope that held the two together. Image Credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS

This point of definition will never take away the fact that Hillary lived his life in a very special and accomplished way. He not only is credited with being the first person to scale Mount Everest, in 1985 he accompanied United States astronaut Neil Armstrong in a small twin-engined airplane outfitted with skis over the Artic Ocean and landed on the North Pole. This made Hillary the first person to stand at both poles and on the summit of Mount Everest!

Sir Edmund Percival Hillary rest in peace, and may your spirit of adventure and discovery touch each and everyone of us for at least one moment in our lifetime here on Earth.

Mount Everest from afar. Image Credit: Bungatech

This excerpted from BBC News -

Sir Edmund Hillary dies aged 88
BBC News - Last Updated: Thursday, 10 January 2008, 23:34 GMT

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark described the explorer as a heroic figure and said all New Zealanders would deeply mourn his passing.

Sir Edmund's health had reportedly been in decline since April, when he suffered a fall while visiting Nepal.

He was the first man to climb the 8,850m (29,035ft) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay on 29 May 1953.

Since his ascent, Sir Edmund has devoted his life to helping the Sherpas of Nepal's Khumbu region. He was made an honorary Nepalese citizen in 2003.

'Quintessential Kiwi'

Announcing Sir Edmund's death on Friday, New Zealand's prime minister described him as a "heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility and generosity".

"The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived," Ms Clark said.

"But most of all he was a quintessential Kiwi."

"He was ours - from his craggy appearance to laconic style to his directness and honesty. All New Zealanders will deeply mourn his passing."

Born 19 July 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Edmund served as a pilot during World War II and earned renown as an ice climber.

In the 1980s he also served as New Zealand's ambassador to India.
Reference Here>>

Poll Answers

See Panorama View From The Top Of Mount Everest Here

The New “Times Ninety” Hubble Telescope

Spiral Galaxy M74 – Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

The New “Times Ninety” Hubble Telescope

The Hubble has proven to be a delicate but productive instrument. The information and confirmation of astronomical theories this instrument, placed in orbit, out in space, has produced have been invaluable.

Color Images of Quasar 1208+101Split by Gravitational Lenses – Image Credit: J. Bahcall/NASA

The Hubble needs to have another repair mission performed and NASA is planning to upgrade the platform with two new instruments that will make the instrument 90 times more powerful than ever. The repair mission is expected to take place this August, 2008.

Without the repair mission, Hubble would likely die by 2011, when its last functioning gyroscope is expected to fail. With new gyroscopes and batteries installed on the upcoming servicing mission, the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) should last at least until 2013, and possibly into the 2020s.

This excerpted from the New Scientist -

Upgraded Hubble telescope to be 90 times as powerful
David Shiga, Austin / NewScientist.com news service / 17:58 08 January 2008

Space shuttle astronauts will attempt an unprecedented in-orbit repair of key Hubble Space Telescope (HST) instruments during the servicing mission scheduled for August 2008. The repairs, along with the addition of two new instruments, will make Hubble 90 times as powerful as it was after its flawed optics were corrected in 1993.
----
Now, the space agency says it will try something never attempted in the three previous Hubble servicing missions – a finicky electronics repair job in space, where astronauts have the challenge of doing everything while wearing bulky spacesuit gloves.
----
Two powerful new instruments will be installed on the mission. The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) will allow Hubble to see fainter and more distant galaxies than anything it has seen before, shedding light on the early universe.

This could allow Hubble to see galaxies so far away that we see them as they were just 400 million years after the big bang, says Sandra Faber of the University of California in Santa Cruz, US, a member of the panel that recommended that NASA carry out the final servicing mission.

Jupiter’s red spot as seen from the HST. Image Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA) and Amy Simon (Cornell U.)

To date, the most distant galaxies seen by Hubble appear to be from about 800 million years after the big bang, which occurred 13.7 billion years ago. "The universe evolves extremely rapidly at these early times, so a [time] difference like this makes a huge difference in the structure and size of galaxies [that exist in those eras]," Faber said at a press conference on Tuesday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Austin, Texas, US.

Another new instrument, the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), can obtain ultraviolet light spectra of very faint, distant objects such as quasars – huge black holes that are glowing as they gobble up surrounding gas. COS can measure much fainter objects than STIS, although STIS can get more detailed spectra of the objects it can see.

With its new instruments, Hubble will be 90 times as powerful as it was supposed to be when first launched – it will be like having 90 of the original Hubble Space Telescopes, astronomers say. The improvement comes from a combination of increased sensitivity and wider fields of view, allowing Hubble to see 900 galaxies where its original instruments would have revealed only 10. HST will be about 60% more powerful than it was right after the third servicing mission, before ACS and STIS failed.
----
Both repairs involve astronauts unfastening dozens of tiny screws to replace some circuit boards on each of the instruments – all while wearing bulky spacesuit gloves. Such a feat has never been attempted before in space.

The astronauts will also have to cut through metal layers to reach the circuit boards, creating sharp edges that could be hazardous to spacesuits. In the case of ACS, Grunsfeld may not even be able to see the screws he is working with because of the way the instrument is angled inside HST.
----
NASA science chief Alan Stern said although the mission is still scheduled for August 2008, it could slip because of the launch delays the space shuttle has been experiencing in its missions to assemble the International Space Station. "Our watchword in all of this is safety," he said, adding that if the servicing mission needed to wait until October or even later to make sure the shuttle is safe, then NASA would wait.
Reference Here>>

Civic Lighting Idea Grows To Bear Solar Fruit

Solar Tree, prototype, November 2007, designed by Ross Lovegrove and produced and developed by Artemide polycrystalline solar cells by Sharp. On display at the Piazza della Scala, Milan, Italy. Image Credit: David Zanardi.

Civic Lighting Idea Grows To Bear Solar Fruit

Plant an idea and watch the green grow through technology and design.

This last fall in Milan, Italy and Vienna, Austria, a new design in street and plaza lighting was installed with great success. A grouping of arching beams that look a little like futuristic tree branches are topped with solar cells and LED lights and use storage batteries to hold power are designed by Ross Lovegrove, a British designer, who said that they are not only efficient but also attractive and bring a sense of "nature into a gray city environment".

Solar cell "tree" tops that grab power from the sun. Image Credit: Gerhard Koller (MAK)

Artemide, an Italian lighting design systems company, and Sharp Solar, a German company known for being the world's largest producer of photovoltaic (PV) cells, joined forces to turn the design into reality.

Someday soon, these “solar trees” could well be the main form of street lighting in Europe … and maybe, the rest of the civic/commons use spaces on this Oblate Spheroid.

Close up of branches on a solar tree in Vienna. Image Credit: Gerhard Koller (MAK)

This excerpted from RenewableEnergyAccess.com website -

Introducing the Solar Tree
by Jane Burgermeister, European Correspondent, RenewableEnergyAccess.com - December 21, 2007

The streets of Europe could soon be lit by solar energy due to the fact that a solar tree prototype recently passed a key test phase.

The solar trees went on display for four weeks in October on a busy street — the Ringstrasse — in Vienna, Austria. They were able to provide enough light during the night-time even when the sun did not show for as much as four days in a row.

"The solar cells on the tree were able to store enough electricity in spite of receiving no direct solar light for days at a time because of the clouds. They showed that solar trees really are a practical form of street lighting," Christina Werner from Cultural Project Management (Kulturelles Projektmanagement, Vienna) told RenewableEnergyAccess.com.

She said that the City of Vienna was now in the process of deciding whether to install more solar trees.
----
Putting solar powered LED light systems on trees would cut down on the carbon emissions and also slash the bills of local authorities, she said.

Street lighting consumed 10 percent of all the electricity used in Europe in 2006 or 2,000 billion KWh, and resulted in carbon emissions of 2,900 million ton.

The use of more energy-efficient lighting in the Austrian city of Graz, with a population of almost 300,000 saved the city 524,000 KWh of electricity and 67,200 euros [US $96,800] in 2005.

"Not just trees but other objects could be decorated with solar cells and so keep streets well lit at night time," she said.

The branches of the solar tree were decorated with 10 solar lamps, each one comprising 36 solar cells; they also had rechargeable batteries and electronic systems.

A sensor was used to measure the amount of light in the atmosphere and trigger the solar lamps to go on automatically at sunset and off at sunrise.

The tree's lights went on for the first time in Vienna on October 8, 2007 at 11:00 pm. They are now on display outside the La Scala opera house in Milan.
----
The idea came from Peter Noever, the Director of the Austrian Museum for Applied Arts in Vienna (Österreichisches Museum fuer angewandte Kunst).

Ross Lovegrove and Sharp are now working on the design study for a car that is powered by solar energy.

Sharp solar had a production volume of 434 megawatts in 2006 and a world market share of 17 percent. It produces PV cells in a factory in Katsuragi, Japan.

Most of Sharp's modules are used for solar energy systems on roofs, but the company believes that solar cells could soon be used in all areas of everyday life from clothes to satellites.
Reference Here>>

A suggestion to Artemide, the Italian lighting design systems company ... use PowerSheet by Nanosolar instead of standard manufactured silicon solar cells. The PowerSheet was the Popular Science - 2007 Innovation Of The Year!

Pyramid Find In Central Mexico City Changes Site Date

A general view shows the "Plaza de las Tres Culturas", or the plaza of the three cultures, in the central Tlatelolco area of Mexico City December 27, 2007. Archeologists have discovered the ruins of the 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought. The pyramid, found last month as part of an investigation begun in August, could have been built in 1100 or 1200, signaling the Aztecs began to develop their civilization in the mountains of central Mexico earlier than believed. Image Credit: REUTERS/Henry Romero (MEXICO)

Pyramid Find In Central Mexico City Changes Site Date

Archaeologists have discovered the ruins of an 800-year-old Aztec pyramid in the heart of the Mexican capital that could show the ancient city is at least a century older than previously thought.

This find was uncovered just last month and additional skeletal evidence on the site will give clues to the society and culture of the Aztec civilization.

The Aztecs who are credited with inventing chocolate, ruled an empire stretching from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean and encompassing much of modern-day central Mexico.



This excerpted from Reuters via the Courier Mail (Austrailia)

Ancient Aztec pyramid found in heart of Mexico City
By Miguel Angel Gutierrez in Mexico - December 28, 2007 12:46pm

Mexican archaeologists found the ruins, which are about 11 metres high, in the central Tlatelolco area, once a major religious and political centre for the Aztec elite.

Since the discovery of another pyramid 15 years ago, historians have thought Tlatelolco was founded by the Aztecs in 1325, the same year as the nearby twin city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. The Spanish razed Tenochtitlan in 1521 to found Mexico City, conquering the Aztecs.
----
"We have found the stairs of this, much older, pyramid. The (Aztec) timeline is going to need to be revised," archaeologist Patricia Ledesma said at the site on today.

Tlatelolco, visited by thousands of tourists for its pre-Hispanic ruins and colonial-era Spanish church and convent, is also infamous for the 1968 massacre of leftist students by state security forces there, days before Mexico hosted the Olympic Games.

Ms Ledesma and the archaeological group's coordinator, Salvador Guilliem, said they will continue to dig and study the area next year to get a better idea of the pyramid's size and age.

The archaeologists also have detected a sculpture that could be of the Aztec rain god Tlaloc, or of the god of the sky and earth Tezcatlipoca.

Some of the five skulls discovered are seen in the "Plaza de las Tres Culturas", or the plaza of the three cultures, in the central Tlatelolco area of Mexico City December 27, 2007. A team of researchers from the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) discovered an 800 year-old pyramid in the main temple of the religious and political centre of Tlatelolco, known to have been inhabited by the Mexicas, the Aztec's most powerful group. They also found, a few metres from the pyramid, a living complex in the city and the five skulls dating back to the year 1431. Image Credit: REUTERS/Henry Romero (MEXICO)

In addition, the dig has turned up five skulls and a series of rooms near the pyramid that could date from 1431.

"What we hope to find soon should tell us much more about the society of Tlatelolco," said Ms Ledesma.

Mexico City is littered with pre-Hispanic ruins. In August, archaeologists in the city's crime-ridden Iztapalapa district unearthed what they believe may be the main pyramid of Tenochtitlan.
Reference Here>>