Space station trio makes chilly but safe landing

After spending nearly six months aboard the International Space Station, three spacefliers returned home to Earth on Monday.

NASA astronaut Mike Fossum, Japanese astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov departed from the space station and landed on the frigid, windy Central Asian steppes of Kazakhstan at about 9:26 p.m. ET Monday (8:26 a.m. local time Tuesday).

After months in orbit, the crew's homecoming featured wintry conditions, with harsh winds, below-freezing temperatures and a layer of snow covering the landing site. When it touched down, the Soyuz capsule landed on its side, which is not uncommon in windy conditions, NASA officials said; otherwise, it was a smooth and successful landing.

The trio of spacefliers undocked from the orbiting complex in their Russian-built Soyuz TMA-02M spacecraft from the Rassvet module on the station's Russian segment earlier this evening. The two spacecraft physically separated from one another at about 6 p.m. ET as they flew over the Chinese-Mongolian border.

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Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov arrived at the orbiting outpost in early June. During an in-flight media interview last week, Fossum described how quickly the time passed for him in space.

"The time has gone by in a flash," Fossum said. "The calendar says five and a half months. To me, it seems more like five and a half weeks. If you ask my wife, it's probably more like five and a half years."

Fossum is a veteran of two previous space shuttle flights, but this was his first long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station. [Mission Photos: Expedition 29 to the International Space Station]

"I've dreamed about living and working on a space station since I was a kid, so this is a dream come true for me," Fossum said last week. "This has been great. I'd be more than happy to stay here a bit longer."

Over the course of three spaceflights, Fossum has now logged 194 days in space, Volkov, who has completed two long-duration stints aboard the space station has spent 366 days in orbit. Furukawa, who completed his first spaceflight, logged 167 days in space.

Fossum was commander of the space station's Expedition 29 mission. Before returning home, he passed the post on to NASA astronaut Dan Burbank, who will act as commander of the new Expedition 30 for the duration of his stay.

"It was very poignant and very rewarding to watch our friends and colleagues, and teachers these last couple of days, get on their way to their families and home," Burbank radioed to Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday. "I guess we'll have to wait a couple of months before we have the chance to see them again."

Snowy landing for Soyuz spacecraft

Burbank arrived at the station on Nov. 16 with Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Anatoly Ivanishin. The trio will live and work aboard the orbiting laboratory until March.

Last week, Fossum gave Burbank some advice for his time in orbit.

"My advice for Dan is, enjoy every bit of every day," Fossum said. "Anytime you think that you're getting a little bit frustrated, get a grip, because you're in the most amazing place imaginable, working in the world's premier laboratory in orbit 240 miles above the Earth. This is an amazing place. What a great experience it is ? every bit of it."

Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov are the last space station crew members to have been present at the station during a visiting space shuttle mission. The spacefliers played host to the crew of NASA's space shuttle Atlantis during its STS-135 mission ? the last-ever flight of the space shuttle fleet. The agency retired its 30-year shuttle program immediately following Atlantis' STS-135 mission in July.

"Expedition 29 has been a very interesting time," Fossum said in a ceremony on Sunday to hand command of the station to Burbank. "We were here to be part of the historic, last space shuttle mission. It was then our task to transition from a focus on assembly operations to full scientific utilization."

During their time in orbit, Fossum, Furukawa and Volkov conducted a variety of scientific experiments and Earth observation. Fossum also conducted a spacewalk in July during the shuttle Atlantis' visit.

In the change-of-command ceremony, Fossum also thanked the ground teams and mission planners for their support.

"We are the fortunate ones living in space, with the great view," he said. "In truth, we merely serve as the hands and eyes of a huge team with the real brains, passion, persistence and patience. We did work hard, but our success is really a tribute to the mission teams on the ground who developed the plans to make it all happen."

You can follow Space.com staff writer Denise Chow on Twitter @denisechow. Follow Space.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45395566/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: e-readers

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We're well aware of the heartbreaking difficulties surrounding the seasonal shopping experience, so we're here to help you sort out this year's tech treasures. Below is today's bevy of curated picks, and you can head back to the Gift Guide hub to see the rest of the product guides as they're added throughout the holiday season.

The e-reader space is really -- if you'll pardon the expression -- heating up just in time for the holiday season. Industry leader Amazon dropped the gauntlet yet again, with the introduction of three new devices, including the entry-level fourth generation Kindle (which starts at an enticing $79 for the ad-supported version) and the Kindle Fire, which is helping to further blur the lines between the e-reader and tablet worlds. Not to be outdone, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Sony are also offering up impressive new devices for the holiday season. All in all, there's never been a more exciting time to give the gift of reading.

Continue reading Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: e-readers

Engadget's holiday gift guide 2011: e-readers originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/21/engadgets-holiday-gift-guide-e-readers/

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The Nook Tablet Gets Torn Apart For Fun And Profit

XhvdNuWUOeIQWsf4The fine folks over at iFixit just posted their latest trademark teardown guide. This time around the victim is the brand new Nook Tablet. Much like its Kindle counterpart, the low-cost B&N tablet doesn't hide anything all that surprising. It is, after all, just an upgraded Nook Color.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/aQF-uq94KvU/

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Prominent Nigeria newspaper publisher dies at 66 (AP)

LAGOS, Nigeria ? Alex Ibru, the publisher of Nigerian newspaper The Guardian and a harsh critic of late dictator Sani Abacha, has died. He was 66.

Ibru's newspaper, which he founded in 1983, announced his death Sunday. The newspaper said he died "in the course of an illness."

Ibru, a former government minister, was a powerful critic of the kleptocratic rule of dictator Sani Abacha. Abacha's regime banned the newspaper from publishing for a year, then masked men set fire to its offices when it resumed printing.

The publisher escaped death after gunmen shot him several times in the head in February 1996. Many blamed the attack on Abacha's regime and a criminal case over the shooting remains in court.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obits/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111120/ap_on_re_af/af_nigeria_obit_ibru

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Megachurch rises in Pakistani city of Karachi (AP)

KARACHI, Pakistan ? Pakistan's tiny and downtrodden Christian community thought big when constructing its latest church ? a domed, three-story building that towers over the sprawling slum it serves and is the largest yet in the violent, Muslim country.

St. Peter's of Karachi, which opened its doors this month and can fit around 5,000 people, is a sign of the resilience of a faith that has long suffered from state discrimination and attacks by extremists allied with al-Qaida and the Taliban.

The church took 11 months to build and cost $3.8 million, raised from local donations and from Roman Catholics around the world, said Father Saleh Diego. It was built on the site of a smaller church in Azam Basti district, a jumble of lanes and simple brick houses that is home to around 15,000 Christians.

"There were so many people here it was not possible for us to accommodate them on Sundays. Some were sitting at the back, some in the corner, some on the terrace," said Diego. "Now we can pray together, all 5,000 people, worship the Lord and really share and strengthen our faith."

Pakistani towns and cities are dotted with striking churches dating back to the 19th century, when the subcontinent was ruled by Britain. Newer churches do get built, especially by Protestant and evangelical groups, but are smaller, single-room affairs.

In some predominantly Muslim countries, such as Egypt and Indonesia, the construction of new churches can trigger tensions and even violence, but those built in Pakistan normally sit in poor Christian neighborhoods like Azam Basti, so they rarely spark protests. Those few that are built in Muslim or commercial areas can expect some problems, said a Western missionary whose church is about to begin construction of a school and church complex in Punjab province.

"We had some opposition at the start," said the man, who has lived legally and openly on a missionary visa in Pakistan for many years, but declined to give his name for security reasons. "If we put up a big cross, and we called it a seminary, then we would expect that the locals would give us some problems. We will do it slowly."

Christians are often discriminated against in Muslim countries, but in Pakistan they face unique problems.

Most are the descendants of low-caste, "untouchable" Hindus, who converted to Christianity when the region was under British colonial rule. Today, many still do the same work as their ancestors: street sweeping, domestic service or other menial jobs.

They tend to live in ghettos of extreme poverty, often separated from their Muslim neighbors by high walls.

In Pakistan, Christians account for between 3 percent and 5 percent of the country's 180 million people, split approximately equally between Roman Catholics and Protestants. There are even smaller numbers of Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists.

St. Peter's is roughly the same size as Karachi's imposing British-era cathedral, St. Patrick's. But it can accommodate many more worshippers because they sit on the floor, not on benches as is common in churches visited by wealthier Pakistanis like St. Patrick's.

The church is a simple rectangular building, adorned with arches and dozens of Gothic spires. Dozens of stained-glass windows depict the sufferings of Jesus Christ, while the walls inside are painted shiny white with large frescos.

On a recent evening, many hundreds flocked to the church, where several young girls were being confirmed.

Dressed in their best clothes, the worshippers took off their shoes ? which, like sitting on the floor, is an Islamic custom adopted by some churches here ? before walking inside. They sang hymns to the accompaniment of a piano and a 'dhol', a traditional drum.

Outside, conversation turned to the predicament facing the community.

When Pakistan achieved independence in 1947, the country's leaders envisaged a liberal Muslim state that protected minority rights, even if the constitution has always prevented Christians from becoming prime minister or president. But Islamist groups have steadily gained ground, pushing through laws that have marginalized minorities.

Over the past 10 years, the rise of al-Qaida and Taliban militancy has made Christians a frequent target of bombings and shootings, along with other non-Sunni Muslims. In March this year, militants shot and killed Shahbaz Bhatti, the sole Christian minister in the government, for his campaign to modify blasphemy laws used to persecute Christians.

"We are called sweepers, and Muslims do not like to share their meals with us," said 18-year-old Joseph Messieh, one of the worshippers at St. Peter's. "It is disgusting."

Sharoon Gill, another young man, disagreed, saying this was unfair.

"Most of my friends are Muslims and we dine out. I never feel discriminated against," he said.

Father Diego said the church was concerned about rising radicalism, but that his building had received no threats.

"Without persecution there is no Christianity," he said. "So we are faithful in persecution and we are faithful to the suffering."

___

Associated Press writer Chris Brummitt in Islamabad contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111120/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan_megachurch

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"Hoop Dreams" director snubbed again by Academy (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Almost two decades after the most famous Oscar documentary snub of all time, the Academy is at it again.

Steve James' "The Interrupters," one of the most acclaimed docs of 2011 and a film that most observers put at the top of the list of films most likely to be honored by the Academy this year, did not make the shortlist of 15 feature documentaries still in contention for the Oscar.

In 1995, James's "Hoop Dreams" failed to receive a nomination, leading to a huge outcry and the creation of new rules governing the Oscar doc process.

The snub of "The Interrupters," in which James followed former gang members devoted to stopping the violence in inner-city Chicago, is not the only surprise on the list of 15 films that were chosen in the first round of voting.

Other films that failed to make the shortlist are Werner Herzog's "Into the Abyss," Errol Morris's "Tabloid" and Patrizio Guzman's "Nostalgia for the Light," the only documentary to be nominated for the top honor by both the International Documentary Association and the Cinema Eye Honors.

In fact, only one film that nominated by either the IDA or Cinema Eye, "Project Nim," made the shortlist.

As for what first-round Academy voters did like, the list included a surprising number of lighter docs and portrait films, as opposed to the serious, issue-oriented films that usually dominate the category.

"Bill Cunningham New York," "Buck" and "Pina" all made the shortlist -- which came as something of a shock in the case of the last film, a 3D dance documentary that many observers figured would be crippled by the fact that first-round voters watch the films not in theaters but on screeners.

The Harry Belafonte biopic "Sing Your Song" and the death-row doc "Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory" also made the shortlist; both had high profile debuts on HBO but were quietly qualified for the Oscars with low-profile one-week theatrical runs before their cable debuts.

"Paradise Lost 3," which concludes a trio of films instrumental in getting the West Memphis 3 released from prison, is one of several films that fit the usual mold in the category. Also included on the list are such serious films the Afghanistan war doc "Hell and Back Again," the environmentally-themed "If a Tree Falls," the AIDS chronicle "We Were Here" and the story of a longtime Marine fighting to uncover contamination on a military base, "Semper Fi: Always Faithful."

"Undefeated," a high school football film that will be released by the Weinstein Company, made the list as well.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111118/film_nm/us_documentaries

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Top cable ratings for Nov. 7-13 (AP)

Rankings for the top 15 programs on cable networks as compiled by Nielsen for the week of Nov. 7-13. Day and start time (EDT) are in parentheses:

1. NFL Football: Chicago at Philadelphia (Monday, 8:30 p.m.), ESPN, 12.21 million homes, 16.84 million viewers.

2. College Football: Nebraska at Penn State (Saturday, 12:04 p.m.), ESPN, 4.18 million homes, 5.42 million viewers.

3. "Walking Dead" (Sunday, 9 p.m.), AMC, 4.08 million homes, 6.12 million viewers.

4. NFL Football: Oakland at San Diego (Thursday, 8:30 p.m.), NFLN, 3.77 million homes, 5.27 million viewers.

5. "SportsCenter" (Monday, 11:57 p.m.), ESPN, 3.44 million homes, 4.35 million viewers.

6. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.35 million homes, 4.44 million viewers.

7. Auto Racing: NASCAR Sprint Cup (Sunday, 3 p.m.), ESPN, 3.286 million homes, 4.76 million viewers.

8. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 9:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3,284 million homes, 4.44 million viewers.

9. "Geek Charming" (Friday, 8 p.m.), Disney, 3.21 million homes, 4.91 million viewers.

10. "College Football Scoreboard" (Saturday, 3:36 p.m.), ESPN, 3.19 million homes, 4.23 million viewers.

11. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 10 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.09 million homes, 4.29 million viewers.

12. "SpongeBob SquarePants" (Saturday, 8:30 a.m.), Nickelodeon, 3.07 million homes, 4.06 million viewers.

13. "College Football Scoreboard" (Saturday, 11:48 a.m.), ESPN, 3.06 million homes, 3.91 million viewers.

14. "WWE Raw" (Monday, 9 p.m.), USA, 2.92 million homes, 4.17 million viewers.

15. "Monday Night Countdown" (Monday, 7 p.m.), ESPN, 2.87 million homes, 3.86 million viewers.

___

USA is owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal. ESPN and the Disney Channel are owned by the Walt Disney Co. Nickelodeon is owned by Viacom. AMC is owned by AMC Networks. NFLN is owned by the NFL Enterprises LLC.

___

Online:

http://www.nielsen.com

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111117/ap_en_tv/us_cable_nielsens

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Netflix, Fox ready to resurrect Arrested Development as a streaming exclusive in 2013

The Bluth family has been off TV since Arrested Development was cancelled by Fox back in 2006, but after protracted rumors and a reported bidding war the show is ready to return as a Netflix-exclusive series. New episodes should be available in the first half of 2013 and represent another serious push into original content after Netflix signed up House of Cards, which will debut next year. The details are in the press release after the break, including interesting quotes from Fox execs celebrating this "new business model" allowing them to bring back another show, after Family Guy and Futurama made similar trips back from the dead with great success. After a summer of price hikes, cancellations, and Qwikster PR gaffes, this should bring back goodwill at least from fans of this show, and likely heat up the campaigns to save other gone-too-soon TV shows. So what's next to get the Flatliners treatment? Firefly? Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles? Dollhouse? Terriers? Community (six seasons and a movie!)?

Continue reading Netflix, Fox ready to resurrect Arrested Development as a streaming exclusive in 2013

Netflix, Fox ready to resurrect Arrested Development as a streaming exclusive in 2013 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corn gene boosts biofuels from switchgrass

ScienceDaily (Nov. 18, 2011) ? Many experts believe that advanced biofuels made from cellulosic biomass are the most promising alternative to petroleum-based liquid fuels for a renewable, clean, green, domestic source of transportation energy. Nature, however, does not make it easy. Unlike the starch sugars in grains, the complex polysaccharides in the cellulose of plant cell walls are locked within a tough woody material called lignin. For advanced biofuels to be economically competitive, scientists must find inexpensive ways to release these polysaccharides from their bindings and reduce them to fermentable sugars that can be synthesized into fuels.

An important step towards achieving this goal has been taken by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), a DOE Bioenergy Research Center led by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

A team of JBEI researchers, working with researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service (ARS), has demonstrated that introducing a maize (corn) gene into switchgrass, a highly touted potential feedstock for advanced biofuels, more than doubles (250 percent) the amount of starch in the plant's cell walls and makes it much easier to extract polysaccharides and convert them into fermentable sugars. The gene, a variant of the maize gene known as Corngrass1 (Cg1), holds the switchgrass in the juvenile phase of development, preventing it from advancing to the adult phase.

"We show that Cg1 switchgrass biomass is easier for enzymes to break down and also releases more glucose during saccharification," says Blake Simmons, a chemical engineer who heads JBEI's Deconstruction Division and was one of the principal investigators for this research. "Cg1 switchgrass contains decreased amounts of lignin and increased levels of glucose and other sugars compared with wild switchgrass, which enhances the plant's potential as a feedstock for advanced biofuels."

The results of this research are described in a paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled "Overexpression of the maize Corngrass1 microRNA prevents flowering, improves digestibility, and increases starch content of switchgrass."

Lignocellulosic biomass is the most abundant organic material on earth. Studies have consistently shown that biofuels derived from lignocellulosic biomass could be produced in the United States in a sustainable fashion and could replace today's gasoline, diesel and jet fuels on a gallon-for-gallon basis. Unlike ethanol made from grains, such fuels could be used in today's engines and infrastructures and would be carbon-neutral, meaning the use of these fuels would not exacerbate global climate change. Among potential crop feedstocks for advanced biofuels, switchgrass offers a number of advantages. As a perennial grass that is both salt- and drought-tolerant, switchgrass can flourish on marginal cropland, does not compete with food crops, and requires little fertilization. A key to its use in biofuels is making it more digestible to fermentation microbes.

"The original Cg1 was isolated in maize about 80 years ago. We cloned the gene in 2007 and engineered it into other plants, including switchgrass, so that these plants would replicate what was found in maize," says George Chuck, lead author of the PNAS paper and a plant molecular geneticist who holds joint appointments at the Plant Gene Expression Center with ARS and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. "The natural function of Cg1 is to hold pants in the juvenile phase of development for a short time to induce more branching. Our Cg1 variant is special because it is always turned on, which means the plants always think they are juveniles."

Chuck and his colleague Sarah Hake, another co-author of the PNAS paper and director of the Plant Gene Expression Center, proposed that since juvenile biomass is less lignified, it should be easier to break down into fermentable sugars. Also, since juvenile plants don't make seed, more starch should be available for making biofuels. To test this hypothesis, they collaborated with Simmons and his colleagues at JBEI to determine the impact of introducing the Cg1 gene into switchgrass.

In addition to reducing the lignin and boosting the amount of starch in the switchgrass, the introduction and overexpression of the maize Cg1 gene also prevented the switchgrass from flowering even after more than two years of growth, an unexpected but advantageous result.

"The lack of flowering limits the risk of the genetically modified switchgrass from spreading genes into the wild population," says Chuck.

The results of this research offer a promising new approach for the improvement of dedicated bioenergy crops, but there are questions to be answered. For example, the Cg1 switchgrass biomass still required a pre-treatment to efficiently liberate fermentable sugars.

"The alteration of the switchgrass does allow us to use less energy in our pre-treatments to achieve high sugar yields as compared to the energy required to convert the wild type plants," Simmons says. "The results of this research set the stage for an expanded suite of pretreatment and saccharification approaches at JBEI and elsewhere that will be used to generate hydrolysates for characterization and fuel production."

Another question to be answered pertains to the mechanism by which Cg1 is able to keep switchgrass and other plants in the juvenile phase.

"We know that Cg1 is controlling an entire family of transcription factor genes," Chuck says, "but we have no idea how these genes function in the context of plant aging. It will probably take a few years to figure this out."

Co-authoring the PNAS paper with Chuck and Simmons were Christian Tobias, Lan Sun, Florian Kraemer, Chenlin Li, Dean Dibble, Rohit Arora, Jennifer Bragg, John Vogel, Seema Singh, Markus Pauly and Sarah Hake.

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Journal Reference:

  1. G. S. Chuck, C. Tobias, L. Sun, F. Kraemer, C. Li, D. Dibble, R. Arora, J. N. Bragg, J. P. Vogel, S. Singh, B. A. Simmons, M. Pauly, S. Hake. Overexpression of the maize Corngrass1 microRNA prevents flowering, improves digestibility, and increases starch content of switchgrass. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2011; 108 (42): 17550 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1113971108

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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