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Wednesday, June 13, 2007

University of California, Berkeley scientists have published a report in Nature that says Mars was once covered by massive oceans.

In the 1980’s the Viking spacecraft sent back images to NASA that had shown thousands of kilometers of ancient shorelines, known as Arabia and Deuteronilus, on the north and south poles of Mars, but the Mars Global Surveyor got a closer look of the shorelines and photographed a 300 meter length of the two shorelines in the 1990’s. Those images had shown that the alleged shorelines were too warped and rugged to have been created by water or an ocean.

But the new study now shows that due to a tilting in the axis of Mars by nearly 3,000 kilometers over a period of 2 or 3 billion years, the shorelines might actually have to be more rugged as the water settled, creating land formations that would rise and fall during this process.

“When the spin axis moves relative to the surface, the surface deforms, and that is recorded in the shoreline,”said Michael Manga, a UC Professor and a co-author of the study.

“On planets like Mars and Earth that have an outer shell, or lithosphere, that behaves elastically, the solid surface will deform differently than the sea surface, creating a non-uniform change in the topography,” said Taylor Perron the primary author of the study and who is now attending classes Harvard University‘s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences to receive his postdoctoral degree.

Mars is said to have an elastic crust and the study shows why the shorelines vary so much in elevation with Arabia at 2.5 kilometers and Deuteronilus at 0.7 kilometers.

“This is a beautiful result that Taylor got. The mere fact that you can explain a good fraction of the information about the shorelines with such a simple model is just amazing. It’s something I never would have guessed at the outset. This really confirms that there was an ocean on Mars,” said Mark Richards, a professor at UC Berkley of earth and planetary science and study co-author.

The study says that as little as a 50 degree shift in the Martian axis, could cause a significant change in the elevation of the shorelines of Arabia, as much as 3,000 k.m.. As little as a 20 degree shift could do the same with Deuteronilus, but with a 700 k.m. change in the shoreline elevation.

It is estimated that the shorelines on Mars were created between 2 and 4 billion years ago.

Saturday, April 16, 2005

Defying government warnings against further demonstrations, as many as twenty-thousand Chinese protesters turned out for a second weekend of anti-Japan demonstrations in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Tianjin.

In Shanghai, a crowd broke many windows at the Japanese consulate, according to Kyodo News. The crowd also busted up a Japanese restaurant and set its sign on fire. The protesters then attacked a convenience store, according to the Los Angeles Times.

At the Japanese consulate, the crowd chanted “jia ru, jia ru” asking the police to “join us”. The police did not arrest the protesters, and stood by watching as the demonstration proceeded. The police permitted the protesters to throw eggs and rocks. Although the police provided at one point a sign which read “March route this way,” state-controlled media denied that the protesters had been given permission for their demonstration.

Southwest of Shanghai, in the city of Hangzhou, an estimated ten thousand protesters demonstrated against Japan, repeating recent demands for a boycott of Japanese products.

“Chinese people are angry,” student protester Michael Teng told Associated Press. “We will play along with Japan and smile nicely at them, but they have to know they have a large, angry neighbor,” Teng said.

In Beijing, Tiananmen Square was largely quiet as security tightened in anticipation of tomorrow’s visit by Japan’s foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura. Hundreds of police are guarding both Tiananmen Square and the Japanese embassy.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Friday seeking to reassure Japanese citizens and businesses operating in China.

“The Chinese government has attached great importance to the situation and has kept on urging the public to express their appeals in a calm, sane, law-abiding and orderly manner and to avoid extreme activities,” Chinese State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan said in a press release issued on Friday.

As the protests continued in China, Japan lodged a “strong protest” against China.

“We cannot but say that the security system in Shanghai is insufficient,” Machimura told reporters.

Despite the protests, Machimura announced that he is not cancelling plans to meet with China’s foreign minister Li Zhaoxing on Sunday to discuss Sino-Japanese relations.

“China has been increasing its regional economic and political influence,” Robert Broadfoot, managing director of Political & Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. told Bloomberg from Hong Kong. “Japan doesn’t want to have its position in the region dictated by China. Japan is adopting a more assertive policy, and China is trying to block it,” Broadfoot said.

On Friday, the Japanese government warned its citizens in China to keep a low profile during the protests.

Sunday, August 5, 2007

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants has officially tied Hank Aaron‘s decades old home run record. Bonds hit the home run at PETCO Park in an away game against the San Diego Padres Saturday night. Pitcher Clay Hensley gave up the homer in the second inning, a 382 foot homer over the left-center field wall. Adam Hughes, a 33-year old plumber caught the ball, which is worth millions of dollars on the collectibles market. Security guards quickly escorted the plumber and the ball from the stands.

In post game interviews, Barry said, “The hard part is over,” referring to the long try to tie the record. Aaron did not issue a statement.

Bonds did not comment yesterday on the steroids scandal that has tainted his last several years in baseball. Currently, Bonds is under investigation for perjury by a federal grand jury regarding his 2003 testimony on the BALCO steroids case, in which he denied using performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds allegedly used steroids, which were not prohibited by Major League Baseball at the time, though they could not be obtained without a prescription.

Bonds is not only first in career home runs but also is first in career walks and intentional walks. Bonds also holds the single-season home run record with 73 home runs in 2001.

Bonds, a sure fire Hall of Famer, is one of the oldest players in the majors. He turned 43 on July 24. So far, Bonds has hit 21 home runs this season.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Nancy Many about her book My Billion Year Contract, and asked her about life working in the elite Scientology group known as the “Sea Org“. Many joined Scientology in the early 1970s, and after leaving in 1996 she later testified against the organization. Published in October, Many’s book has gone on to become one of the top selling new books on Scientology at Amazon.com.

A compilation of brief news reports for Sunday, March 14, 2010.