114 Year Old Record Broken

A winter storm that pummeled New York City for two days broke a monthly record for snowfall in Central Park that stood for 114 years, according to the National Weather Service.

Duchy of Ice

(Reuters) - An iceberg the size of Luxembourg has broken off from a glacier in Antarctica after being rammed by another giant iceberg, scientists said on Friday, in an event that could affect ocean circulation patterns.

McCain: Paulson Lied to Me!

In response to criticism from opponents seeking to defeat him in the Aug. 24 Republican primary, the four-term senator says he was misled by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. McCain said the pair assured him that the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would focus on what was seen as the cause of the financial crisis, the housing meltdown.

"Obviously, that didn't happen," McCain said in a meeting Thursday with The Republic's Editorial Board, recounting his decision-making during the critical initial days of the fiscal crisis. "They decided to stabilize the Wall Street institutions, bail out (insurance giant) AIG, bail out Chrysler, bail out General Motors. . . . What they figured was that if they stabilized Wall Street - I guess it was trickle-down economics - that therefore Main Street would be fine."

But McCain stopped short of calling the TARP a mistake.

"Something had to be done because the world's financial system was on the verge of collapse," he said. "Any economist, liberal or conservative, would agree with that. The action they took, I don't agree with."

Truth and The Quest for Innocence

Jay Rosen on truth, reality, and the journalistic quest for innocence.

Meteorite Older Than Sun Had Organic Compounds

Space rock contains organic feast
By Doreen Walton
Science reporter, BBC News

Scientists say they have confirmed that a meteorite that crashed into earth 40 years ago contains millions of different organic compounds.

It is thought the Murchison meteorite could be even older than the Sun.

"Having this information means you can tell what was happening during the birth of the Solar System," said lead researcher Dr Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin.


A study using high resolution analytical tools including spectroscopy allowed the team to identify 14,000 different compounds including 70 amino acids in a sample of the meteorite.

Anomaly

"Intelsat S.A. announced today that its Intelsat 4 satellite (IS-4) experienced an anomaly on 1 February 2010 at approximately 00:18 GMT. Intelsat and Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, the manufacturer of the IS-4, are working together to identify the cause of the anomaly."


Careful, this is how Capt. Picard almost destroyed humanity.