samhexum

Do they still do singing telegrams? How about strip-o-grams? Por Favor, Padrino?

When you get caught in a storm here on Earth, you just find shelter for a little while and let it pass, but things are a whole lot different on Mars. It’s now been three weeks since the massive dust storm on Mars has swallowed up NASA’s aging Opportunity rover and scientists have absolutely no idea when the bot will wake back up or what condition it will be in when it finally does. The rover has gotten the worst of this planet-wide storm and since it’s located in an area that was one of the first to be shrouded in the dense dust clouds, its solar panels have been unable to capture energy-giving light for a while now. Thus the rover sits in silence, unable to speak to its handlers back home and without enough power to do any actual work. So what’s next? Dr. James Rice, co-investigator and geology team leader on the NASA project that includes Opportunity, recently gave a brief update on Opportunity’s status, as well as an interesting glimpse into what things were like for the rover just before it shut down: We went from generating a healthy 645 watt-hours on June 1 to an unheard of, life-threatening, low just about one week later. Our last power reading on June 10 was only 22 watt hours the lowest we have ever seen. The primary concern is that we will not have enough power to keep us warm enough to prevent any damage to the vehicle’s electronics. However, our thermal experts think that we will stay above those low critical temperatures because we have a Warm Electronics Box (WEB) that is well insulated. So we are not expecting any thermal damage to the batteries or computer systems. Fortunately for us it is also the Martian Spring and the dust, while hindering our solar power in the day, helps keep us warmer at night. Rice also brushes off concerns that the storm will ultimately claim Opportunity’s life, saying that it is “far from dead” and that the rover’s longevity should be all the proof anyone needs to believe that it will emerge from the dire situation intact. He’s certainly right about that last point. Opportunity’s original mission was planned to last just 90 days from its landing date back in 2004, but it has somehow stretched that to over 14 years, continuing to add scientific objectives to its already impressive list of achievements. Let’s all just keep our fingers crossed that its incredible run doesn’t end here.

A Nassau County cop’s act of kindness helped a Bayside woman and her two dogs stay safe from the heat after her car broke down on Sunday morning. According to police, at 11:45 a.m. on July 1, Police Officer Nicholas Accardi responded to a radio call to assist a motorist with a disabled vehicle on the Atlantic Beach Bridge. Upon his arrival, Accardi found Joan Silke of Bayside standing outside of her BMW 530, which was parked on the side of the road, with her two 12-year-old dogs on leashes. Accardi parked behind her vehicle and turned on his emergency lights for her safety. As he approached Silke, he noticed that her dogs, a cream-colored mini goldendoodle named Molly and an apricot-colored mini goldendoodle named Maggie, were showing signs of distress from the extreme heat. Springing into action, Accardi offered to let Silke and the dogs sit in his patrol car with the air conditioning on. Once inside, the dogs began to respond to the cooler temperature. Within the hour, Silke’s car was fixed and she and the dogs went on their way.

Linda Hunt was hospitalized on Monday following a car accident in Hollywood. According to eyewitness reports via TMZ, Hunt was involved in a collision with a sedan and a Honda SUV after trying to make a left turn in her black BMW SUV. The 73-year-old was said to be visibly shaken following the accident and witnesses helped her to a lawn chair on the sidewalk. Paramedics arrived to take a look at Hunt and decided she needed to be taken to hospital for further evaluation. A witness told TMZ that the drivers of the other vehicles involved in the wreck only suffered minor injuries. Hunt is a former Oscar winner, having earned a Best Supporting Actress nod for her role as Billy Kwan in Peter Weir’s “The Year of Living Dangerously,” which made her the first person to win an Oscar portraying a character of the opposite sex. She has appeared in over 200 episodes of “NCIS” where she plays the popular character Henrietta “Hetty” Lange. She is also the narrator in the “God of War” video game franchise. At this time, the cause of the accident is unknown and under investigation. According to TMZ, law enforcement sources confirmed that only one person was hospitalized.

A bear with a taste for margaritas caused a stir in a Southern California community when it took a dip in a bubbling hot tub. Mark Hough said he was lounging in his Altadena backyard Friday afternoon with his wife and a couple margaritas when he heard rustling, then saw the bear climbing over a fence into his yard. They retreated inside, leaving the margaritas behind. Hough later ventured out to discover the bear lounging in the unheated hot tub. After Hough shot some video, he said the bear emerged from the water, walked over to his margarita, knocked it over and lapped it up. Hough later spotted the bear taking a snooze in an oak tree before it disappeared down the street. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department said it received six bear-sighting calls that day, but were unable to find it. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1841849959216151

A topless woman in Montana is accused of taking a front-end loader for a joyride that ended with her crashing into a building across town, according to officials. Great Falls Police said that 34-year-old Heather Houston allegedly drove the vehicle Sunday morning to Fox Hollow Apartments, where she plowed down a fence en route to pick up a shirt from her home. The half-naked woman reportedly used the machinery’s arm and bucket to climb inside her upper-level apartment, according to the Great Falls Tribune. “We can’t make stuff like this up,” Police Lt. Doug Otto told the newspaper. Authorities said Houston stole the front-end loader Sunday morning from a business around 6 miles away from her apartment. Houston’s neighbors took to social media to complain about the early morning disturbance. “Got woken up to our TOPLESS upstairs neighbor driving an excavator into the building!” Molly Broxhold wrote on Facebook. Police arrested Houston on suspicion of criminal mischief and criminal endangerment. Officials said there may be more charges filed against her.

I find some ethnicities (and their stereotypical characteristics when present) more attractive than others as a generality, but there is no group of people I find entirely attractive or unattractive.*** There are always hotties and notties in every group. *** Well, no Evangelicals set my loins aflutter... but they're a cult, not an ethnicity.

If you give me your number, I'll call you. Will you put me in your will? I'll even send you birthday & Christmas cards! :rolleyes: PLEASE, Padrino?

Planet formation isn’t exactly the kind of thing that happens in the blink of an eye. New worlds form over extremely long stretches of time, at least on a human scale. They slowly build up mass from the dust and debris nearest to them, eventually forming the spherical shape we’re all familiar with. Despite the fact that it can take ages for a planet to fully form, actually capturing the process of planet formation has proven to be incredibly difficult. Now, for the first time ever, astronomers have announced the witnessing of a planet in the midst of its own birth, and they’ve got a stunning image to back up the news. The discovery was made using the powerful planet-hunting tool called SPHERE, which is part of the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. The instrument was able to spot a large mass of material — referred to as an accretion disk — surrounding a nearby star. Within that planet-forming cloud of debris, a planet is being constructed. In the image provided by ESO, the planet is seen as a bright mass to the right of its host star which has been blacked out by a mask that allows the surrounding detail to be seen. The planet, named PDS 70b, is careening through the dust cloud as it orbits its star, gathering material on its surface and slowly but surely maturing into what will one day be a fully-formed world. What makes this discovery so interesting is that it’s the first time that scientists have managed to spot such a young planet with utter certainty. “These discs around young stars are the birthplaces of planets, but so far only a handful of observations have detected hints of baby planets in them,” Miriam Keppler, the lead researcher on the project, explains. “The problem is that until now, most of these planet candidates could just have been features in the disc.” While a newborn planet might sound like an interesting place to visit, you most certainly wouldn’t want to set foot on PDS 70b any time soon. The young planet is absolutely scorching, with a surface temperature topping 1,000 degrees Celsius.

Just one week after a fatal collision in Whitestone that caused the tragic death of a local teenager, Queens residents are demanding a change to the way New York state assesses its senior drivers. More than 7,000 residents have signed onto a petition that calls for “mandatory retesting every two years for all drivers age 80 and over.” New York state currently has an eight-year renewal program that requires a vision exam. It does not have specific provisions for older drivers. The call comes in the wake of the June 25 collision that killed Madeline Sershen, a 17-year-old who attended St. Francis Prep in Fresh Meadows. Sershen was crossing Utopia Parkway with the walk light in her favor when she was struck by a 2005 Toyota Corolla driven by 88-year-old Sheila Kahn Prager, who police said ignored a steady red light. Madeline's mom works in the same school as my best friend. Paramedics rushed Sershen to NewYork-Presbyterian Queens hospital, where the teen was pronounced dead. Prager was issued a desk appearance ticket charging her with three crimes, including disobeying a traffic control device. The Change.org petition, which was published on June 30, suggests that drivers over 80 years of age undergo a driving test every two years to determine whether or not they are still fit to drive, before they are issued a new license. “Simply passing a vision exam is an extremely low standard for a person to maintain their privilege to drive,” the petition reads. “Individuals over 80 must be able to demonstrate that they can continue to remain safe on the road.” Across the country, states have varying rules for issuing licenses to older adults. Many states require seniors drivers to either renew their license in person, complete a written test or provide a doctor’s certificate stating they are fit to drive. The petition, which was already just short of its 7,500-signature goal on July 2, will be delivered to Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio and the New York State Legislature. Julian Ho, the local who started the petition, said Sershen’s family reached out to him to voice their support for the petition. He also encouraged those who signed to call Cuomo’s office to urge the leader to change the state’s driver’s license renewal procedures. “My beautiful baby sister’s death shall not be in vain,” wrote Olivia Sershen. “Please make the change we need to see in order to prevent future tragedies like Madeline’s — which could have been avoided!!!” The petition is the second community response to last week’s tragic accident. In the hours following the incident, friends of the teenager’s family launched a fundraiser on GoFundMe to help ease the burden of funeral costs. The campaign surpassed its $10,000 goal in less than 24 hours and has raised $37,194 as of July 2.

My preference is gorgeous & wealthy. My reality is breathing and not indigent.

Are you sure? How heavy was your sister? Does she have a big nose & tusks growing out of her face? Elephants have the longest gestation period of all mammals. These gentle giants' pregnancies last for more than a year and a half. Drunk again, huh? Didn't they have a show on TLC?

I suppose 'Auntie' was out of the question...

Ever since I was a young'n, I told my sister I would NOT be Uncle Sam if she ever had kids. It took her a long time to find the right guy... She had her first kid at 37+, & her second 3 1/2 years later... ironically, the exact same timetable as our mother. I was pleasantly surprised when I was with her one day during the first pregnancy... she started talking to her belly, and introduced me to the baby as Tio Sam (we're English-speaking Jews). Both my nephew & niece grew up calling me Tio Sam. They're both in college now, and they still call me Tio Sam. I'm still not sure if they actually realize I'm their uncle. (I didn't say they were in good colleges. :rolleyes:)

And now she gets to co-star with LL Cool J. Hubba Hubba!

And it made the career of that great American beauty, Linda Hunt.

The Year Of Living Dangerously OR The Trumpster Fire (to answer your query, Twenty Eighteen)

Good show; excellent episode tonight.

Thank him for giving you time to figure out your shopping list.

I have 2 questions... 1. Did he buy me dinner? 2. Is he buying (or making) me breakfast?

An orphaned bear cub suffered painful burns to her paws in one of the half-dozen significant wildfires scorching Colorado, but she is being nursed back to health, state officials said Friday. Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers believe the bear will recover well enough to be released this winter. “When the bear was brought in, I wasn’t sure if it was going to make it,” Michael Sirochman said, a Parks and Wildlife veterinary technician. “But she’s responding very well to treatment, and by winter we believe we’ll be able to return her to the wild.” It was an encouraging bit of news amid an extreme drought and an outbreak of disruptive wildfires in Colorado and much of the Southwestern U.S. The injured bear cub is 4 or 5 months and weighed just 10 pounds when she was rescued. Firefighters spotted her wandering alone in a burned-over area north of Durango last week. They notified wildlife officials on June 22 because there was no sign of her mother. It’s not clear how the mother and cub became separated. Wildlife officers found the cub in a tree and immobilized her with a tranquilizer dart and took her to a state facility. Sirochman, the facility’s manager, said the cub’s burns were severe. She’s being treated with salve, bandages, antibiotics and pain medication, and is eating solid food and a liquid milk replacement. She spends most of her time lying on her side to keep her weight off the painful wounds, Sirochman said. Caretakers are minimizing their contact with the cub so she won’t become accustomed to humans, which would make it difficult for her to survive in the wild. After she heals, she will be placed in an enclosure with four other cubs at the wildlife facility. They could be released this winter. “We have good luck returning young bears to the wild,” Sirochman said. “We’re very strict about minimizing human contact.” In California, two adult bears that suffered third-degree burns in a wildfire last year recovered and were released back into the wild.