4 Stranded Pilot Whales Treated at Fla.... - ABC News

Two male and three female whales were brought to Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Institute after becoming stranded. Officials say one of the males had been stable Monday morning but died unexpectedly around noon.
The other whales, including one calf whose mother did not survive, show signs of inflammation and infection, but they are swimming on their own and accepting a thin fish formula fed through tubes every four hours.<br />http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/stranded-pilot-whales-treated-fla-institute-17149493

Mars Rover Curiosity's Circular Marks Explained As 'Fiducials' - Huffington Post

"I talked to the engineers who specialize in computer vision, and we came up with the design for the fiducials [on Curiosity]," Leger said. "We wanted something that would be easy for either a computer program or a person to accurately pick the center of. Having that intersection in the middle makes it easier for a person -- they can zoom in on the image and click exactly on that intersection -- and [the design] also makes it easy for a computer, because it can compute the center of a circle."The circular markings are a staple of engineering that can serve two parallel purposes, Leger said: to calibrate cameras and to calibrate various mechanisms on the rover. They're a common feature in high-tech photography and robotics here on Earth, but the use of fiducials on extraterrestrial robots is relatively new. The technique started informally on the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which landed Spirit and Opportunity on the Red Planet's surface in 2004.<br />http://www.huffington!
post.com/2012/08/30/mars-rover-curiosity-fiducials_n_1844679.html

Made 'Giant Leap' as First Man to Step on Moon - New York Times

John Schwartz contributed reporting. Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/26/science/space/neil-armstrong-dies-first-man-on-moon.html?pagewanted%3Dall

Mars rover Curiosity, JPL win praise from Jerry Brown - Los Angeles Times

“If the idea is when you got a problem you don’t do
anything, then you shut this place down, that’s stupid,” he said during
his visit to the campus in La Cañada Flintridge. “You’ve got to do more
than one thing. We have to invest as well, as we take care of all these
other problems.Brown
acknowledged that he didn’t take any science courses in college but
reminisced about his involvement with the space industry over the years
and the reputation he earned for proposing far-out ideas during his
first term as governor, from 1974 and 1982.<br />http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/08/mars-rover-curiosity-jpl-win-praise-from-jerry-brown.html

Earthlings Look for Signs in New Photos of Mars - Wall Street Journal

Wilmer Faust, another Mars enthusiast, was the first human to spot the parrot formation in 2002, according to a website about the parrot research project. But he wouldn't have seen anything had it not been for his pet parrot's wild squawking and "bobbing his head" at Mr. Faust's computer monitor while he was examining images from Mars, according to an introduction on the website.He and his colleagues have been criticized by some in mainstream academia for their research. But Mr. Haas holds his ground. "I know art when I see it," says Mr. Haas, a past president of the Sculptors Association of New Jersey. He knows it is a hard sell. "The American public, they may not be ready for the parrot," he says.<br />http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443855804577599851584093374.html

Mars landing: Like NASA Curiosity rover, family switches to Mars time - Newsday

var myRating_Submitted = 0; // a flag indicating whether the rating has been submitted
var rating_id = "7.3834505";


User rating: 3








(3) Click to rate
Every mission to Mars, hundreds of NASA scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory make the time change for three months. But it's unusual for an entire family to join in. The kids will be on Mars time for about a month.<br />http://newyork.newsday.com/news/world/mars-landing-like-nasa-curiosity-rover-family-switches-to-mars-time-1.3913837

Massive galaxy cluster spawns more than 700 stars a year - Los Angeles Times

Further study of SPT-CLJ2344-4243 and massive galaxy clusters like it could also help astronomers figure out how unique Phoenix actually is, added Bradford Benson, a University of Chicago astrophysicist and study co-author. He said studying more clusters could lead scientists to determine whether star-making phases like the one observed in this study tend to be relatively brief (say, a few million years), or extended (100 million years).At first, astronomers didn't realize how unique the cluster was.&nbsp; But in the months that followed, McDonald and his co-authors analyzed a variety of signals from the cluster including X-rays, optical light, and infrared radiation it emitted &mdash; and realized they had a "remarkable" object on their hands.<br />http://www.latimes.com/news/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-phoenix-galaxy-cluster-20120815,0,2484591.story?track%3Drss