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An international team of astronomers, led by Felipe Braga-Ribas (Observatório Nacional/MCTI, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), has used telescopes at seven locations in South America, including the 1.54-metre Danish and TRAPPIST telescopes at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, to make a surprise discovery in the outer Solar System. This unexpected result raises several unanswered questions and is expected to provoke much debate. A press conference will be held in Brazil to present the new results and allow opportunities for questions. Note that all information regarding these findings is under strict embargo until 19:00 CET (15:00 BRT) on Wednesday 26 March...

Two Iranian warships set sail Tuesday for the Atlantic Ocean on their navy's first-ever mission there, state TV reported. The voyage comes amid an ongoing push by Iran to demonstrate the ability to project power across the Middle East and beyond. The report said that the destroyer Sabalan and the logistic helicopter carrier Khark will be dispatched on a three-month voyage. "The warships will have task of securing shipping routes as well as training new personnel," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Iran's navy chief Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying.

One of the most exciting Cassini events in 2013 will be the unusual opportunity on July 19 to image the whole Saturn system as it is backlit by the sun. With Saturn covering the harsh light of the sun, we will be gathering unique ring science and also catching a glimpse of our very own home planet.

Workers at a tsunami-crippled Japanese nuclear plant are scrambling to find the cause of a highly radioactive water leak from a brand-new storage tank amid concerns that the problem is hampering cleanup efforts.

(CBS/AP) TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has test-fired four missiles designed to hit warships during a drill near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, an Iranian military commander said. The missiles were fired simultaneously and hit a "big target" the size of a warship, sinking it within 50 seconds, Gen. Ali Fadavi of the powerful Revolutionary Guard was quoted as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.

Building a trillion-mirror space-based solar shield around the planet - good idea, bad idea?

This is a picture of sunspot number 1022, in the current solar cycle 24.

Astronomers who count sunspots have announced that 2008 is now the "blankest year" of the Space Age. As of Sept. 27, 2008, the sun had been blank, i.e., had no visible sunspots, on 200 days of the year. To find a year with more blank suns, you have to go back to 1954, three years before the launch of Sputnik, when the sun was blank 241 times. "Sunspot counts are at a 50-year low," says solar physicist David Hathaway of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. "We're experiencing a deep minimum of the solar cycle."

In a briefing today at NASA headquarters, solar physicists announced that the solar wind is losing power. "The average pressure of the solar wind has dropped more than 20% since the mid-1990s," says Dave McComas of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas. "This is the weakest it's been since we began monitoring solar wind almost 50 years ago.

... You are right about Katrina, everyone seems to only be focused on that Hurricane. The reason it was such a disaster is because the 256th Inf Bde was deployed to Iraq at the time. There was little to no help from the Louisiana National Guard right before the storm. ...

The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight. Video at link.

Hello, I am writing to inquire if you might be interested in part-time employment in the field of accounting/clerical services. Our firm is a major Russian investment bank and asset management company, is looking for responsible and determined individuals to fill the specialist and associate positions within the Receivables department of our Transactions/Finance group in the United States. As a specialist or associate, you will be in charge of monitoring and processing funds transfers initiated by our US clients and reporting to the Receivables department manager in Russia. We are looking for numerate individuals who are also capable team-players, preferably...

If diseases like AIDS and bird flu scare you, wait until you hear what's next. Doctors are trying to find out what is causing a bizarre and mysterious infection that's surfaced in South Texas. Morgellons disease is not yet known to kill, but if you were to get it, you might wish you were dead, as the symptoms are horrible. "These people will have like beads of sweat but it's black, black and tarry," said Ginger Savely, a nurse practioner in Austin who treats a majority of these patients. Patients get lesions that never heal. "Sometimes little black specks that...

I was listening to the talking head of Katie Couric's this morning, and she was interviewing Gwinnett County District Attorney Daniel Porter. I wasn't paying too close attention, but I heard her ask something about getting Miss Wilbanks some psychiatric help... and I heard is response as "You cannot help someone until you get them under the control of the courts."

MADRID, Spain — An Islamic group that claims responsibility for the Madrid bombings says it will turn Spain "into an inferno" unless the country halts its support for the United States and withdraws its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The threat came in a letter faxed to the Spanish daily newspaper ABC over the weekend, the paper said Monday. ABC said the letter was handwritten in Arabic and signed "Abu Dujana Al Afgani, Ansar Group, al-Qaida in Europe." The same person claimed responsibility for the March 11 bombings in a videotape found outside a Madrid mosque two days after the...

Okay, so I'm a relatively new Conservative, or, rather, I am in the process of discovering my Conservative Roots, which were there all along. New to Free Republic, though I have been a lurker for a year or more. Two questions I have for the forum: 1. Has at any time since the morning of September 11, 2001 any American Muslim group come forward to denounce this act? It is the one thing that truly bothers me. I can remember several nations sending condolences and regrets, heads of state, but I honestly do not remember any Muslim rejection of Osama...

Granted... a lot of "friend" of "friend" of "my brother's uncle's second cousin's dog"...... but I received this e-mail today: My brother is a diplomat, and is representing Brazil at Beijing (China). A friend of him, journalist, sent him and everybody else on his mailing list these heartfelt impressions of the situation they have all been going through in recent weeks. My brother "censored" three words to preserve the source. ------------------------ Dear All: Last night around 7pm I wandered out of my office building in the center of Beijing's business district and made it three steps toward the pedestrian escalator...