NASA discovers water on the Moon. Yeah, but, can you irrigate with it?

Being this was found at the poles, it makes complete sense there should be some trace of anything that can be frozen there.

BUT.

One has to stop to realize, the Moon was declared to have no atmosphere. So. Like. What gives?

Realizing as well there is 'organic mass' picked up by the instruments, it was a blastedly good idea, NASA had the foresight to put the returning astronauts of the Apollo project in 'DeCon,' huh? Right? Smart folks at NASA.

NASA The plume at about 20 seconds after impact

Moon strikes found significant water (click title to entry - thank you)
David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Friday, November 13, 2009
(11-13) 13:28 PST MOUNTAIN VIEW -- The spacecraft that sent a used-up rocket crashing into a crater near the moon's south pole last month uncovered "significant" quantities of water and possibly organic chemicals that may have come from comets that slammed into the lunar surface over billions of years, mission scientists announced Friday....
...Colaprete estimated that the impact churned up water vapor and tiny fragments of crystalline ice equal to about 25 gallons of pure water and said the instruments aboard the spacecraft revealed the presence of many organic chemicals yet to be identified in the debris....
...As to the water itself, Colaprete said the Cabeus crater, where temperatures are as low as 365 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, is probably "a little wetter" than Chile's Atacama desert, the driest of any deserts on Earth....

Nidal Hasan is crippled by the soldiers that stopped his raging madness.

He is lucky to be alive and speaks to the 'civility and sanity' of the soldiers at Fort Hood. The sanctity of life is important to them and justice to its loss, no doubt, paramount.


Saddam statues are melted down
FORT HOOD, Texas (AP) — When Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, a pair of monuments stood as symbols of his iron-fisted domination: towering bronze statues depicting a heroic Saddam as the mighty conqueror, on horseback, sword aloft. But U.S. troops blew the statues off their pedestals after the invasion of Iraq, giving the soldiers who pulled Saddam out of his hiding hole a keepsake to bring home.
The 50-foot-tall statues were melted down and recast by a skilled Iraqi artist who turned them into a new memorial that depicts a GI mourning his fallen comrades while a young girl tries to console him. The new statue, mounted on a black granite base, is the centerpiece of an Iraq war memorial being built outside the 4th Infantry Division's museum at Fort Hood in central Texas. 7/14/2004
http://1-22infantry.org/current/4idmonument.htm


Legally, 'we're in for a long haul' (click title to entry - thank you)
Case against soldier accused in mass shooting faces many hurdles
By LYNSI BURTON and STEWART M. POWELLWASHINGTON BUREAU
Nov. 9, 2009, 9:57AM
UPDATE (10:52 a.m. Monday): An Army hospital spokesman says the Fort Hood shooting suspect is conscious and able to talk.
WASHINGTON — As Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan lay under heavy guard at Fort Sam Houston on Sunday, military prosecutors and the accused Fort Hood gunman's family were preparing for what could be a long and complicated legal proceeding.
Military justice experts told the Houston Chronicle that Hasan, if he recovers, could face the death penalty in a military court-martial — unless civilian prosecutors conclude that he was part of a terrorist plot that would justify moving his case into federal criminal courts under U.S. anti-terrorism laws.
But veterans of the military justice system say that any case against Hasan could take many months and could be delayed by medical assessments of the Army officer's physical and mental health. And even if a death sentence is handed down, the military justice system's lengthy appeals process has effectively thwarted all executions since 1961....

Reality television has done a great deal of damage to children. Their parents become disoriented from reality to a world one can hardly call 'real.'

The issue here really isn't 'the parents' it is the audience and the willingness of a 'couple' to exploit their family for wealth.

It should be the concern of the viewership that the children aren't effected by the 'reality' of their exploited lives.

I think privacy for the children of this program and the other one...what was it "Kate and John" or something? I think privacy is what they children need and a return of some form of normalcy.

I believe this exploitation of children is wrong. If exploitation of children is wrong for 'Octomom' then it is wrong for everyone.


"Balloon Boy" hoax parents Richard and Mayumi Heene leave district court after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the incident at the Larimer County Justice Center in Fort Collins, Colorado on November 13, 2009. UPI/Gary C. Caskey...

Richard and Mayumi Heene Plead Guilty (click title to entry - thank you)
By GINA DINUNNOTV GUIDE
Friday, November 13, 2009
Last updated 11:02 a.m. PT
Richard Heene, the father of "Balloon Boy" Falcon Heene, pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant stemming from the families' Oct. 15 hoax, according to CNN.
Heene lawyer: Arresting Heene parents in front of kids "would be 'child abuse'"
His wife, Mayumi Heene, is charged with one misdemeanor count of false reporting to authorities.
According to the Larimer County sheriff's office, Heene turned himself in Thursday and was released on a $5,000 personal recognizance bond.
The penalty range for the felony is two to six years in prison with a fine ranging from $2,000 to $500,000. His wife's misdemeanor range is six months in jail with a fine of $50 to $750, according to a statement issued by the district attorney's office.

Al Qaeda members going on trial. Legitmate law applied to legimate prisoners.

He was born (click title to entry - thank you) in Kuwait to a family from the Pakistani region of Baluchistan, returning to Pakistan as a teenager and then studying at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical University...

(That is in Greensboro, North Carolina by the way. It is a minority university with many distingished graduates. Unfortunately, the notoriety here isn't good. We bring people from other lands to learn and to return to their countries to better the quality of lives of their people. I guess the USA doesn't count on hatred and bigorty toward the very diversity we enjoy in the USA to be an issue for its generosity.)

...in the US where he graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1986.
In the late 1980s he moved to Peshawar in Pakistan from where he fought with his three brothers alongside Osama bin Laden against the Russians in Afghanistan....

...In 2003 he was working on a plot to hijack aircraft and crash them into Heathrow airport, Big Ben and Canary Wharf when he was captured in March at a house in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
Mohammed was subsequently waterboarded 183 times before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2006.
Behind closed doors at a combatant status review at Guantanamo Bay in 2007 Mohammed issued a statement in which he confessed to involvement in 31 separate plots, adding: “I was responsible for the 9/11 Operation from A to Z.”...

It will no doubt be a long and protracted trial. There will be issues with torture and whether or not any confession is actually valid.

I remember the 'affect' of Mr. Padilla (...not your usual website for information - click here) when he stood trial. By that point, what was the purpose? He didn't know what his life was about or what it had transpired to be.

But, the reason for the trial was not about his 'mental state' or his diminished capacity, it was about his crimes and the people that suffered because of his heinous acts.

If issues of 'competency' manifest there are folks like Richard Cheney the nation can thank for that being an issue at all. If the facts to his prosecution are compromised due to torture conducted illegally and with some sort of validity because some screwed by 'team of Bush lawyers' repeatedly stamped approval within their inner circle of 'good 'ole boy' understanding, the the nation can realize how completely the competency of their Constitution was compromised when it should have been upheld beyond a shadow of a doubt.

No judge in their right mind will ever allow this idiot to walk free, BUT, the 'competency' of the evidence and the person might determine the sentence he will receive.

General James Jones arrives in Pakistan. The Pakistani government has a history of being effective with USA backing.

Twin Suicide Bombings Hit Northwest Pakistan (click title to entry - thank you)
By Sean Maroney Islamabad13 November 2009
Pakistani security officials say two suicide car bombings killed at least 16 people and wounded scores of others in northwestern Pakistan on Friday. The attacks come as U.S. National Security Advisor Jim Jones is in the country for meetings with civilian and military leaders.
The first attack early Friday morning targeted the regional headquarters of Pakistan's spy agency, the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence), which is overseeing the anti-militancy campaign in the country's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan....

The goal is to achieve stability in this region of the world. Pakistan is a nuclear country. Non-proliferation needs to be a mandate in countries burdened with extremist regimes within their borders. The nuclear capacity of Pakistan is a direct threat to its sovereignty and a reason the Taliban and/or al Qaeda won't stop their assaults.

ISIS Technical Assessment: Pakistan's Stock of Weapon-Grade Uranium (click here)
byDavid Albright, PresidentKevin O'Neill, Deputy Director
June 1, 1998
On May 28 and May 30, 1998 Pakistan conducted up to six nuclear tests. A Pakistani government statement said that the nuclear test devices contained "uranium-235," commonly referred to as "weapon-grade uranium" (WGU; uranium enriched to 90 percent or more of uranium-235). The statement said that this uranium was produced at the Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), called the Kahuta facility, near Islamabad. While Pakistan's tests remove any doubt about its ability to produce nuclear weapons, significant uncertainties surround estimates of Pakistan's WGU stockpile....


From an edition of "Meet the Press" in September of this year.


...MR. GREGORY: Let, let me go through a few other hot-button issues (click here) in our remaining moments. In Pakistan an important al-Qaeda figure, a Mehsud, who was the head of Pakistan's al-Qaeda leadership, reportedly killed. Are you able to confirm that today?
GEN. JONES: I wish I could, to be honest with you totally. We think so. We, we put it in the 90 percent category, if you want. But Pakistan has confirmed it. We know there are some reports now from the Mehsud tribe that, that he wasn't. But the evidence is pretty conclusive.

MR. GREGORY: What, what does it mean to the United States' security?

GEN. JONES: Well, I think it's a--this is a big deal. And, and it's not only--by the way, it's not only happening in this part of the world, it's happening in other parts of the world as well with some--with a gradual coming together by the family of nations to reject terrorism as something that's acceptable. In terms of the region, it means that the Pakistani armed forces and the Pakistani government are doing quite well in terms of their fight against extremism. This was--Baitullah Mehsud was the public enemy number one in, in, in Pakistan, so it's their, their biggest target. And we've already seen evidence of dissension in the ranks about who's, who's going to follow him. This is--if this is--if this happened, and we think it did, this was a good thing.

MR. GREGORY: Is it still your belief that Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan?

GEN. JONES: That one's a little bit more elusive. We are still very much on the hunt. We think that he's still in that general region. But that's a, that's a tougher nut to crack....


ISIS warns of Pakistan's latest nuclear drive (click here)
Wed, 20 May 2009 00:42:48 GMT
A US arms control institute has warned that Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs could threaten the region.
"Pakistan is indeed progressing in a strategic plan to improve the destructiveness and deliverability of its nuclear arsenal," the Institute for Science and International Security said.
The institute released satellite photos on Tuesday that showed the expansion of a chemical plant complex near Dera Ghazi Khan.
The plant produces uranium hexafluoride and uranium metal, materials used to produce nuclear weapons, the ISIS report said....

Mr. Independent goes independent. Why? Because he couldn't get control over the electorate to raise his ratings. He lost the election, you know?

In the year 2009, are journalists seeking control over the message to their viewership or listening audience rather than reporting the news?

Another one bites the dust. (click here)

...The longest-running anchor on CNN's air, Dobbs was one of the nation's leading financial journalists before turning his program in a more opinionated direction. His persistent advocacy against illegal immigration angered many....

It would be interesting if all the news was reported, rather than just the chosen topic.

Sympathy for Gordon Brown in row over misspelled letter of condolence (click here)
Nov 11 2009 By Magnus Gardham
GORDON BROWN bared his soul yesterday in a bid to quash the most tawdry allegations yet thrown at him.
The Prime Minister said he "felt the pain" of grieving parents after losing his baby daughter Jennifer in 2002.
Brown has always been loath to talk about his private suffering.
But he made the comment at his monthly press briefing after a second day of astonishing personal attacks led by the Sun newspaper.
They were faithfully followed up by feckless BBC reporters who were lambasted on their own website for propagating the scandal....

An official letter to a grieving parent isn't a place for the inconsideration of misspelling. The loss of a soldier and a son should require more than a 'fast note' to the postmaster.

So, who else is inhibiting 'the change' the American electorate has demanded?

Greg Craig is in the chair to the left of President Obama. The guy chewing his fingernails. I guess there are more than one remnants of the GOP still hangin' around. They need to 'get with the program...or plan their retirement. That is, IF they still have enough from the bailout to retire.

Posted: 10:08 a.m. Nov. 13, 2009
Top White House lawyer Greg Craig quitting (click title to entry - thank you)
By JENNIFER LOVENASSOCIATED PRESS
TOKYO — The White House’s top lawyer plans to return to private practice and being replaced by a longtime adviser to Barack Obama.
...It was the highest-ranking resignation so far in Obama’s 10-month presidency, and became public just as the president was arriving in Asia for a weeklong tour. It also came just hours before Attorney General Eric Holder was set to announce that self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other Guantánamo Bay detainees will be sent to New York to face trial in a civilian federal court, while five other suspects will be prosecuted in military commissions. This was revealed to The Associated Press by an Obama administration official earlier Friday....

Ida keeps the title of "Killer Storm" even in remnants.

Rough weather blamed as surfer dies off Rockaway Beach (click title to entry for videos at Newsday site - thank you)
November 12, 2009
By CARL MACGOWAN
carl.macgowan@newsday.com
As the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida threaten to wreak havoc on Long Island's coastline Friday, the system is already being partially blamed in the death of a surfer in the waters off Rockaway Beach.
The unidentified 36-year-old man's leg strap attached to a surfboard became tangled and the rough surf pushed him toward a jetty, officials said. Emergency medical technicians attempted to revive him, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital.
With winds forecast to gust up to 35 mph and rain expected to fall all day, Nassau and Suffolk officials closely watched the storm Thursday as it crawled up the East Coast after drenching the Carolinas.
Freeport and Nassau County emergency management officials said they were ready to evacuate residents from low-lying areas south of Atlantic Avenue if conditions worsen....