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Sunday, June 23, 2013

Summer solstice 2013: Longest day, best Mercury-spotting

This year's summer solstice,?Friday (June 21) at 1:04 a.m. EDT (0504 GMT), also features a rare chance to see Mercury, the planet usually obscured by the sun's glare.

By Geoff Gaherty,?Starry Night Education / Space.com / June 20, 2013

Land of the Midnight Sun: The sun sets just before 1 a.m. on June 16, 2013, in Anchorage, Alaska. Daylight in Anchorage will peak on Friday, June 21, with 19 hours, 21 minutes on the summer solstice.

Dan Joling / AP

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Don?t miss your chance to see Mercury in the night sky as the northern summer kicks off.

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The last few weeks have provided an unusually fine opportunity for stargazers to spot the elusive?planet Mercury?because the planet has been in close proximity to brilliant Venus, and, earlier, Jupiter as well. However, the opportunity is now coming to a close as Mercury passes its maximum elongation from the sun today (June 20) and begins its rapid drop towards the horizon, passing between Earth and the sun on July 9.?

For the next few nights, Mercury will be a tiny speck just below Venus. It is closest to Venus on July 20, slightly less than two degrees away, but will also be very close one night earlier or later.

The best time to see Mercury is about half an hour after local sunset. Any earlier, and it will be lost in the sky's glare but much later and it will be too low to see. It is most easily spotted with binoculars, but once you've located it, the planet should be relatively easy to see with the naked eye.

This week also marks the?summer solstice, on Friday (June 21) at 1:04 a.m. EDT (0504 GMT). The sun will reach its most northern declination, marking the middle of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the middle of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

Because the sun is as far north as it can get, it is above the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere as long as is possible. At local noon, it will be as high in the sky as it can get. These two factors combine to create the maximum solar heating possible in the hemisphere.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is true. The day is as short as it can get, and the sun is low in the northern sky, giving little warmth.

If June 21 is the "midsummer" or "midwinter" day, why is it that we always think of the seasons as beginning on this day? It's because it takes time for the sun to have its effect, causing the seasons to lag behind the sun, making the hottest days of summer (or the coldest days of winter) come a month or two after the solstice.

The solstices have always been important dates for humans. Most calendars mark the beginning of the year close to the winter solstice. Determining the exact date of the solstice was important to fix the calendar, and structures like?Stonehenge?in England were built to make accurate measurements of the sun?s rising and setting points.

Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Mercury in the night sky, or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by?Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter?@StarryNightEdu. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebookand?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/sU-bP7S-q1A/Summer-solstice-2013-Longest-day-best-Mercury-spotting

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

Poll: Hong Kongers would not back extradition of Edward Snowden

About 50 percent say the NSA whistle-blower should not be surrendered, 17.6 percent said he should be turned over, and a third aren't sure yet, according to poll published today.

By Peter Ford,?Staff Writer / June 16, 2013

A TV screen shows the news of Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping US surveillance programs, in the underground train in Hong Kong Sunday.

Kin Cheung/AP

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By a 3-to-1 margin, Hong Kongers do not want their government to hand over NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden if Washington demands his extradition.

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Beijing Bureau Chief

Peter Ford is The Christian Science Monitor?s Beijing Bureau Chief. He covers news and features throughout China and also makes reporting trips to Japan and the Korean peninsula.

Holy Crap These Four Images Are Actually Just One Single Picture

On first glance, you probably thought these images were four different pictures stitched together with Pic Stitch for Instagram or something. I don't blame you, it looks like a perfect windowpane. But what's crazy is if you look closer, these four images are actually just one single photograph. What.

Robert Duvall stops in on 'Whitey' Bulger trial

BOSTON (AP) ? Academy Award winner Robert Duvall is one of the spectators at the racketeering trial of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger.

Duvall sat in the back of the Boston courtroom Friday.

The 82-year-old Duvall has had a long TV and film career, including starring roles in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather: Part II." In those mob epics, he played Tom Hagen, a lawyer and adviser to the Corleone family.

He won a best actor Oscar in 1984 for his role in "Tender Mercies."

He has been shooting a movie, "The Judge," in Shelburne, Mass., this month. Duvall plays the title character in the film, which also stars Robert Downey Jr., Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent D'Onofrio.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robert-duvall-stops-whitey-bulger-trial-153609891.html

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Ask a New York City Movie Location Scout Anything You Want

Did you know there's an abandoned swimming pool in the basement of the Woolworth Building? Did you know there's an abandoned Cold War-era missile silo buried under a log cabin in the Adirondacks? Do you have any idea what happened with the filming location of Ghostbusters or Annie Hall? Nope! But Nick Carr, the location sleuth behind Scouting NY does.

Nick started Scouting NY in 2008 to document the places he discovered in his job as a location scout for movies and TV shows. He know the secrets of every old building of alleyway of New York City. His first scouting gig was on Steven Speilberg's Munich, and he's been scouting professionally ever since. Just how good is his eye? He's scouted for movies like Spiderman 3, Doubt, Enchanted, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Taking of Pelham 1-2-3, and the upcoming Scorsese joint The Wolf of Wall Street. Sounds like just about the coolest job ever.

Want to know what Nick's job is like? We'll have him here in the comments taking your questions starting at 10:30 EST. So fire away!

The Q&A is now over. Thanks for joining us!

Nick Carr is currently working on his first film, set not in NYC, but on New Hampshire's very mysterious Mount Madahodo. You can read more about it here. To donate money to help Nick make the movie, go here.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/ask-a-new-york-city-movie-location-scout-anything-you-w-516374447

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EU to decide who pays when banks fail

By John O'Donnell and Robin Emmott

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - The European Union will seek on Friday to forge rules to force losses on large savers when banks fail, a sensitive reform that could shape how the euro zone deals with its sickly banks.

Finance ministers in Luxembourg will try to resolve one of the most difficult questions posed by Europe's banking crisis - how to shut failed banks without sowing panic or burdening taxpayers.

"The costs of future restructurings can't be wished away," said a senior EU official involved in the talks. "We need a mechanism to shift the burden away from taxpayers."

The European Union spent the equivalent of a third of its economic output on saving its banks between 2008 and 2011, plundering taxpayer cash but struggling to contain the crisis and in the case of Ireland, almost bankrupting the country.

But France and Germany are divided over how strict the new rules should be, with Paris worried that imposing losses on depositors could prompt a bank run.

A draft EU law that will form the basis of discussions recommends a pecking order in which first bank shareholders would take losses, then bondholders and finally depositors with more than 100,000 euros ($132,000) in their account.

That would make the harsh treatment of savers, which was part of Cyprus's bailout in March, a permanent feature of Europe's response to future banking crises. EU countries would be required to follow these rules when closing banks.

Finding a prompt solution is important as Europe tries to put more than five years of financial turmoil behind it and emerge from economic stagnation.

"We must act now while we still remember the crisis," Erkki Liikanen, a member of the European Central Bank's governing council, said in Brussels before the meeting.

RESISTANCE IN LONDON, PARIS

A central element to ensure the euro zone's long-term survival is a system to supervise, control and support its banks, known as banking union.

Common rules in the wider European Union are considered a stepping stone towards the euro zone's banking union.

Agreeing EU-wide norms would address Germany's demand that European rules on closing banks be in place before the 17-nation euro zone's bailout fund can help banks in trouble.

Euro zone finance ministers agreed late on Thursday to set aside 60 billion euros to help banks via the fund, the European Stability Mechanism.

If agreed, the new EU rules would take effect at the start of 2015 with the provisions to impose losses coming as late as 2018.

Still, the idea has divided EU governments.

Britain and France say countries should have the final word in deciding how to close banks and not be tightly bound by any new EU rules.

But Germany, the Netherlands and Austria want regulations that will be applied in the same way across all 27 countries in the European Union. They fear that granting too much national leeway would undermine the new law.

"Some flexibility might be necessary, but it shouldn't be too much," Joerg Asmussen, the German member of the European Central Bank executive board, told reporters, arguing that investors need to know the rules of the game. ($1 = 0.7590 euros)

(Additional reporting by Ingrid Melander and Martin Santa; editing by Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eu-decide-pays-banks-fail-220544142.html

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Friday, June 21, 2013

Tesla's 90 second battery swaps will power EVs faster than gas pumps fill tanks

Tesla founder Elon Musk has mentioned battery swap service stations as an even faster alternative to charging for EV drivers, and tonight the company showed just how efficiently it can be done. In a demonstration at its design studio, it beat what it claims is the fastest gas pump in LA by exchanging a drained car battery pack for a fresh fully charged one in just 90 seconds. When the $500,000 stations start rolling out, owners will stay in the car the whole time then either swap the battery back for their original on a return trip, or get a bill for the difference. Of course, failed outfit Better Place proposed a similar service before it shut down, but Tesla is betting that it can make it work this time. The first service stations are coming to busy corridors, with some planned for I5 in California. Still need more proof? Elon Musk tweeted that video of the event will be available in "about an hour," so check back then.

Filed under: Transportation