‘Dirty Dancing’ town planning memorial for Patrick Swayze

London, Sep 19 (ANI): Locals of a North Carolina community, where Patrick Swayze’s film ‘Dirty Dancing’ was shot, are planning a memorial service for the late star.

The ‘Ghost’ star died on Monday evening after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

The town of Lake Lure will pay homage to the 57-year-old during a memorial service on Saturday evening at Firefly Cove, a housing development that was Camp Chimney Rock when ‘Dirty Dancing’ was filmed.

Many outdoor scenes in the film were filmed there, as was the cabin of Johnny Castle, Swayze’s character.

While the memorial service is free, visitors will be asked to donate to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.

Rev Everette Chapman, who will be speaking at the memorial service, said that the town’s residents remember Swayze as a kind family man.

Chapman, who lived at Lake Lure when the movie was filmed but did not meet the actors, said he would talk about Swayze’s determination to live each day to the fullest.

“I’ll ask people their memory of him and just talk about him as every woman’s heart-throb and every man’s envy,” said Chapman.

Although organisers have no idea how many people to expect, they have still arranged for police officers to help with parking. (ANI)

J and K Govt seeks Center’s clearance to construct concrete huts along LAC

Srinagar, Sep 16 (ANI): The Jammu and Kashmir Government has sought clearance from the Ministry of Defence to construct huts like along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) bordering China.

According to sources the State Government forwarded this proposal with the aim of strengthening the Indian presence along the LAC.

State Revenue Minister Raman Bhalla, said concrete huts would also help the nomadic shepherds to stay.

Nomadic shepherds are currently using mobile tents.

Recently Leh’s Deputy Commissioner Ajit Kumar Sahu said, the Chinese had threatened some shepherds in the remote regions of the district.

The State Government is also reportedly planning to house revenue officials and guards to monitor Chinese activities along the Pangong Lake, sources said.

Meanwhile, National Security Advisor M.K.Narayanan has called a meeting of the China Study Group of the Union Government on Wednesday, to discuss the situation along Indo-China border.

Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, Defence Secretary Pradeep Kumar, Home Secretary G. K. Pillai, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, Senior officials of the Army, the Air Force and the Navy, officials from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) would also attend the meeting. (ANI)

Cracks on Mars a result of evaporating lakes in ancient times

Washington, September 16 (ANI): Networks of giant polygonal troughs etched across crater basins on Mars have been identified as desiccation cracks caused by evaporating lakes, providing further evidence of a warmer, wetter Martian past.

The findings were presented at the European Planetary Science Congress by PhD student M. Ramy El Maarry of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research.

The polygons are formed when long cracks in the surface of the Martian soil intersect.

El Maarry investigated networks of cracks inside 266 impact basins across the surface of Mars and observed polygons reaching up to 250 meters in diameter.

Polygonal troughs have been imaged by several recent missions but, until now, they have been attributed to thermal contractions in the Martian permafrost.

El Maarry created an analytical model to determine the depth and spacing of cracks caused by stresses building up through cooling in the Martian soil.

He found that polygons caused by thermal contraction could have a maximum diameter of only about 65 meters, much smaller than the troughs he was seeing in the craters.

“I got excited when I saw that the crater floor polygons seemed to be too large to be caused by thermal processes. I also saw that they resembled the desiccation cracks that we see on Earth in dried up lakes,” said El Maarry.

“The stresses that build up when liquids evaporate can cause deep cracks and polygons on the scale I was seeing in the craters,” he added.

El Maarry identified the crater floor polygons using images taken by the MOC camera on Mars Global Surveyor and the HiRISE and Context cameras on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The polygons in El Maarry’s survey had an average diameter of between 70 and 140 kilometers, with the width of the actual cracks ranging between 1 and 10 meters.

Evidence suggests that between 4.6 and 3.8 billion years ago, Mars was covered in significant amounts of water.

Rain and river water would have collected inside impact crater basins, creating lakes that may have existed for several thousand years before drying out.

However, according to El Maarry, in the northern hemisphere, some of the crater floor polygons could have been formed much more recently.

“When a meteorite impacts with the Martian surface, the heat can melt ice trapped beneath the Martian crust and create what we call a hydrothermal system. Liquid water can fill the crater to form a lake, covered in a thick layer of ice. Even under current climatic conditions, this may take many thousands of years to disappear, finally resulting in the desiccation patterns,” said El Maarry. (ANI)

Tibetans-in-exile at Leh react strongly to Chinese incursion

Leh, Sep 15 (ANI): Members of the exiled Tibetan community at Leh reacted strongly to the recent Chinese trespass into India’s border areas in Ladakh region.

Such concern was expressed by functionaries of Tibetan fora based at Leh on Monday.

Warning India of Chinese designs, Kunzang Dechen, President of Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, Leh, termed China as the biggest threat to India.

“China these days is a great threat to India. I have seen through channels…that the Chinese are entering to the border but when Tibet is an independent nation, when Tibet is in between them, China has nothing to bother even. From Indian point of view, this must be settled through Tibet and not through China,” Deche added.

Sonam Gyatso, President of Tibetan Market Welfare Association, Leh, said that if the recent developments in Ladakh are ignored by the government of India, then Ladakh would also meet the same fate as Tibet.

“The one and half kilometres incursion by the Chinese troops in Ladakh…. written at the border area in Chinese ‘Republic of China’, all these will have a bad impact on Ladakh. In Pangong Lake, first they said 45 kilometres is under China and 45 kilometres is under India, which they (Chinese) have extended to 50 kilometres and if Ladakhi government and the authorities ignore this issue then whatever happened in Tibet, the same would happen in Ladakh also since Ladakh is a very isolated region,” Gyatso added.

Officials sources have said that Chinese troops entered nearly 1.5 kilometres into the Indian territory near Mount Gya, which is recognised as the international border by India and China, and painted the word ‘China’ in Cantonese on the boulders and rocks there with red spray paint. The incursions were reported from the area generally referred in the Chumar sector in east of Leh.

The 22,420 ft Mount Gya, also known as “fair princess of snow” by the Army is located at the tri-junction of Ladakh in Jammu and Kashmir, Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, and Tibet. Its boundary was marked during the British era and is regarded as International border by the two countries.

The border patrol discovered the red paint markings on various rocks and boulders along the Zulung La (pass) on July 31 and the Chinese had entered into the area and written “China” all over the place, the sources said.

Indian soldiers later erased the text, writing ‘India’ instead.

This is not the first such reported intrusion. On June 21 Chinese helicopters had violated the Indian air space along the Line of Actual Control in Chumar region. The Chinese troops also reportedly dropped expired tinned food packets in the area. (ANI)

Antarctica’s secret water network far more dynamic than believed

London, September 15 (ANI): The first complete map of the lakes beneath Antarctica’s ice sheets reveals the continent’s secret water network is far more dynamic than we thought, and could be acting as a powerful lubricant beneath glaciers, contributing to sea level rise.

According to a report in New Scientist, Ian Joughin at the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues developed the map.

Unlike previous lake maps, which are confined to small regions, Joughin and colleagues mapped 124 subglacial lakes across Antarctica using lasers on NASA’s ICESat satellite.

The team also observed the lakes draining and filling.

While interior lakes tended to be static, many coastal lakes changed significantly. Some even appear to be connected by channels under the ice hundreds of kilometres long.

For instance, when upstream lakes under the Recovery glacier drained 3 cubic kilometres of water, lakes downstream gained a similar amount.

Water flowing under glaciers can act as a lubricant, causing land ice to accelerate into the sea and add to rising sea levels.

“The implications for the flow of ice are potentially quite significant,” said Andy Smith of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, UK.

“Those lakes with no clear drainage channels are of particular interest because they could be spreading a thin film of lubricating water under glaciers,” he added. (ANI)

Natural History Museum bets on discovery of Loch Ness monster

London, Sept 14 (ANI): London’s Natural History Museum has inked a deal with bookmakers William Hill, which will see the mythical Loch Ness monster go on public display – if it is ever caught.

The Loch Ness Monster is a creature believed to inhabit Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands. It is similar to other supposed lake monsters in Scotland.

The museum has secured the rights to showcase Nessie’s remains, if the monster is ever caught.

According to the archive documents, under the 1987 deal William Hill will pay the museum an annual fee on return for the guarantee its experts will provide “positive identification” of the elusive creature.

The agreement also covers the Yeti or Abominable Snowman, another mythological creature and an ape-like cryptid said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet.

The bookmaker currently offers odds of 500/1 on the existence of the Loch Ness monster being proved within a year and 200/1 for the Yeti.

“We have maintained our relationship with the Natural History Museum and are delighted to do so,” the Telegraph quoted Graham Sharpe, spokesman for William Hill, as saying.

“As we rely on the Met Office to rule on white Christmases, we are dependent on the museum to tell us whether any carcass that may emerge from the loch is a haddock, or a previously unknown creature from the deep,” he added. (ANI)

After Ladakh, Chinese incursions now reported in Uttarakhand

Dehradun (Uttarakhand), Sep.13 (ANI): Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has reportedly informed the Central Government about possible incursions by the Chinese in his state.

Pokhriyal, quoting reports from locals in Rimkhim in Chamoli district, said the Chinese entered the state on September 5 and left behind biscuit packet wrappers and cigarettes.

He informed both Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Home Ministry about this development and sought their help in curbing what he calls frequent incursions in his state.

He said, “We have shared the information with the Centre and we have demanded for more patrolling force at the Indo-China border.”

About a fortnight ago that the Chinese had ventured as far as the Pangong Lake in Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir. According to reports, Chinese military helicopters had air dropped food packets in the region.

In another provocation, Chinese troops entered 1.5 kilometres into Indian Territory near Mount Gya-recognised as International border by India and China. Chinese troops painted rocks, boulders in Indian Territory red and labeled them “China”. The Chinese Government, however, has denied this charge through its foreign ministry.

Private television channel TIMES NOW quotes the Leh Deputy Commissioner as mentioning in a letter every instance of Chinese incursion and threats to sheperds in the region. The letter states that the Chinese are not only disputing territory, they are actually claiming the land as their own.

China has also raised a stink over proposed visit to Tamang in Arunachal Pradesh by Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. (ANI)

Four giant stone-age axes found in African lake basin

Washington, September 13 (ANI): A team of archaeologists has found four giant stone hand axes from the dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi in the Kalahari Desert in Africa, dating back to the Stone Age, which suggests that the region was once much drier and wetter than it is today.

The discovery of the axes is part of the finding of thousands of stone tools on the lake bed, which sheds new light on how humans in Africa adapted to several substantial climate change events during the period that coincided with the last Ice Age in Europe.

Researchers from the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford are surveying the now-dry basin of Lake Makgadikgadi.

Their research was prompted by the discovery of the first of what are believed to be the world’s largest stone tools on the bed of the lake.

Although the first find was made in the 1990s, the discovery of four giant axes has not been scientifically reported until now.

Four giant stone hand axes, measuring over 30 cm long and of uncertain age, were recovered from the lake basin.

Equally remarkable is that the dry lake floor where they were found is also littered with tens of thousands of other smaller stone-age tools and flakes, according to the researchers.

According to Professor David Thomas, Head of the School of Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford, “Many of the tools were found on the dry lake floor, not around its edge, which challenges the view that big lakes were only attractive to humans when they were full of water.”

“As water levels in the lake went down, or during times when they fluctuated seasonally, wild animals would have congregated round the resulting watering holes on the lake bed,” he said.

“It’s likely that early human populations would have seen this area as a prolific hunting ground when food resources in the region were more concentrated than at times when the regional climate was wetter and food was more plentiful and the lake was full of water,” he added.

The research team has investigated islands on the floor of the lake – remnants of former sand dunes – which suggest the region’s climate has also been both windier and markedly drier than it is today.

“The interior of southern Africa has usually been seen as being devoid of significant archaeology. Surprisingly, we have found and logged incredibly extensive Middle Stone Age artefacts spread over a vast area of the lake basin,” Professor Thomas said. (ANI)

Scientists use bacteria to make radioactive metals inert

Washington, September 9 (ANI): A team of scientists is researching the use of sulfate-reducing bacteria to convert toxic radioactive metal to inert substances, a much more economical solution.

The research is being done by Judy Wall, a biochemistry professor at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

The bacteria Wall is studying are bio-corrosives and can change the solubility of heavy metals.

They can take uranium and convert it to uraninite, a nearly insoluble substance that will sink to the bottom of a lake or stream.

Wall is looking into the bacteria’s water cleansing ability and how long the changed material would remain inert.

Wall’s research could also be beneficial to heavy metal pollution from storage tanks and industrial waste.

The bacteria are already present in more than 7,000 heavy metal contaminated sites, but they live in a specific range of oxygen and temperature, making them difficult to control.

“Our research must be done in the absence of air,” Wall said. “Obviously, none but the most committed – and stubborn – will work with them,” she added.

Even if an oxygen-tolerant strain were developed, there are still multiple factors that would make applying the bacteria challenging, and these microbes can contribute to massive iron corrosion.

“Knowledge of the way bacteria live in the environment, in microbial communities, is still in its infancy,” Wall said. “We just don’t know a lot about the communication systems among microbes,” she added.

Wall and researchers from the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory in California are investigating the bacterium’s basic genetics and hope to determine its growth limits and activity in natural settings, including how to make its interactions with metals sustainable.

They have already identified a few genes that are critical to converting uranium. (ANI)

Potable water shortage hits villagers in Kashmir

Kupwara (J-K), Sep 4 (ANI): Facing acute shortage of potable water, the villagers are forced to drink polluted water in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir.

A prolonged drought-like situation has further added woes to the villagers.

Everyday, women cover long distances to fetch water from village streams and lakes, which are not fit for drinking. But since taps in their houses have run dry, they are forced to take the filthy water from lake.

The villagers had even held demonstrations in the past, highlighting their plight to the government, but to no avail.

“We have all kinds of difficulties. Despite our protest, the government has not made any arrangements. They take out funds but do nothing. We are suffering due to shortage of water,” said Ashiq Hussain Bhat, a resident.

Residents said they are forced to take the filthy water from the nearby lakes as taps have run dry.The water we take from this lake is very dirty and full of sand. But we are forced to take the dirty water from here as taps have run dry,” said Rubeena, another resident.

Accepting that there is shortage of water due to long spell of dryness, concerned officials said that they have initiated steps to end the water shortage in the district.

“To overcome this difficulty, the department has already taken up and has got a new scheme approved under the Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) phase new. Under the scheme, we will lift the water from Phurunala and store it in a reservoir in Tuthigund, which will solve all their problems,” said Mukhtar Ahmad Dar, assistant executive engineer, Public Health Engineering (PHE), Kupwara.

Total rainfall in the country since the beginning of June was 19 percent below average, pulled down by the driest June in 83 years, data from the India Meteorological Department showed.

India’s monsoon will remain weak according to the latest Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) index, which gauges the eastward progress of tropical rain. (ANI)

Antarctica’s plumbing system more dynamic than previously believed

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): Scientists, using space-based lasers on a NASA satellite have created the most comprehensive inventory of lakes that actively drain or fill under Antarctica’s ice, which has revealed a continental plumbing system that is more dynamic than previously thought.

“Even though Antarctica’s ice sheet looks static, the more we watch it, the more we see there is activity going on there all the time,” said Benjamin Smith of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.

Unlike most lakes, Antarctic lakes are under pressure from the ice above. That pressure can push melt water from place to place like water in a squeezed balloon.

The water moves under the ice in a broad, thin layer, but also through a linked cavity system. This flow can resupply other lakes near and far.

Understanding this plumbing is important, as it can lubricate glacier flow and send the ice speeding toward the ocean, where it can melt and contribute to sea level change.

But figuring out what’s happening beneath miles of ice is a challenge.

Researchers led by Smith analyzed 4.5 years of ice elevation data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation satellite (ICESat) to create the most complete inventory to date of changes in the Antarctic plumbing system.

The team has mapped the location of 124 active lakes, estimated how fast they drain or fill, and described the implications for lake and ice-sheet dynamics.

Smith, Helen Fricker, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and colleagues extended their elevation analysis to cover most of the Antarctic continent and 4.5 years of data from ICESat’s Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS).

By observing how ice sheet elevation changed between the two or three times the satellite flew over a section every year, researchers could determine which lakes were active.

They also used the elevation changes and the properties of water and ice to estimate the volume change.

Only a few of the more than 200 previously identified lakes were confirmed active, implying that lakes in East Antarctica’s high-density “Lakes District” are mostly inactive and do not contribute much to ice sheet changes.

Most of the 124 newly observed active lakes turned up in coastal areas, at the head of large drainage systems, which have the largest potential to contribute to sea level change.

According to Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, “The survey shows that most active subglacial lakes are located where the ice is moving fast, which implies a relationship.” (ANI)

China denies any violation of Indian air space

Beijing, Sep.1 (ANI): Chinese government on Tuesday said that there has been no violation of Indian air space and reports about such an occurrence by India media were baseless.

“Chinese military never crossed into the air space of other countries and its border patrols are conducted strictly “in accordance with law”, said Jiang Yu, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman, in reply to a question about Chinese helicopters violating Indian air space.

Jiang termed the reports as “groundless” and said that the two countries have arrived at a consensus about making efforts to safeguard peace and tranquility on the border region while the border issue is being negotiated.

On Monday, the Indian Army said that China violated the Indian air space in Leh in Jammu and Kashmir.

It has happened. That is confirmed. But there is nothing alarming in it. I have given a written reply and that is the correct version, said Army Spokesperson Northern Command, Colonel Kachari,

Two Chinese helicopters reportedly violated the Indian air space in the recent months in Leh. The helicopters air-dropped some canned food in a barren land at Chumar, northeast of Leh, along the border on June 21.

The MI series helicopters were reported by residents living along the Pangong lake.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has been crossing over into the Indian side in this region quite frequently with August reporting the maximum number of incursions.

In August, Chinese patrols entered into the Indian territory 26 times and walked away with petrol and kerosene meant for jawans of the border guarding forces. (ANI)

Army confirms violation of Indian air space by Chinese copters

New Delhi, Aug 31 (ANI): The Indian Army on Monday said that China violated the Indian air space in Leh in Jammu and Kashmir.

Army Spokesperson Northern Command, Colonel Kachari said, “It has happened. That is confirmed. But there is nothing alarming in it. I have given a written reply and that is the correct version.”

Two Chinese helicopters reportedly violated the Indian air space in the recent months in Leh.

The helicopters air-dropped some canned food in a barren land at Chumar, northeast of Leh, along the border on June 21.

The MI series helicopters were reported by residents living along the Pangong lake.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has been crossing over into the Indian side in this region quite frequently with August reporting the maximum number of incursions.

In August this year, Chinese patrols have entered into the Indian territory 26 times and walked away with petrol and kerosene meant for jawans of the border guarding forces.

The Chinese Army had made 223 attempts last year and left tell-tale signs.(ANI)

Archaeologists uncover 7th century ship in Sweden

Stockholm (Sweden), August 28 (ANI): Swedish archaeologists have announced the find of a 7th century burial ship, the oldest of its kind to be discovered in Scandinavia.

According to a report in The Local, the ship, thought to be from the Vendel era (550-793) of Swedish prehistory, was found in Sunnerby on the island of Kallandso in Lake Vanern in central Sweden.

Officials at the Lake Vanern Museum have said that this is the only known ship burial to be uncovered in Sweden.

Archaeologists from Lake Vanern Museum and Gothenburg University are busy excavating the find that includes equipment, gifts and animal sacrifices.

“In Sunnerby, the number of boat rivets found so far indicate that there is a ship hidden in the Kungshogen mound, that is to say a vessel of more than 10 metres and possibly up to 20 metres in length,” the museum writes in a statement.

The ship is a burial vessel and the museum reports that only people in the highest echelons of society were afforded such a grand farewell.

The museum compares the find to the important Sutton Hoo ship burial find in south east England, though archaeologists believe the Swedish find is unlikely to yield as many significant artifacts as the Suffolk ship.

The ship would have been loaded with the deceased, animal sacrifices, equipment and gifts and the whole vessel set alight in a huge funeral pyre.

Annelie Nitenberg and Anna Nyqvist Thorsson, archaeologists at Lake Vanern Museum, hope that the Kungshogen find will help to shed light on Vendel era cultural life by Sweden’s largest lake.

The excavation of the Kungshogen find will now continue until October. After a break for the winter, the work will resume in 2010. (ANI)

Dead Sea shrinking by 1 meter every year

Washington, August 27 (ANI): Reports indicate that the Dead Sea is still shrinking fast, with water levels continuing to drop at the rate of about 1 meter per year.

Praised far and wide for the reputed healing powers of its minerals and waters, the Dead Sea has been luring visitors for thousands of years.

But these days, tourists see a very different lake from the one that others would have witnessed a few decades ago.

According to a report in National Geographic News, the sea sits in the lowest place on earth, and for years, the water level was 1280 feet below sea level. However, in the last 40 years, it’s dropped more than 80 feet.

Today, the Dead Sea continues to drop at the rate of about 1 meter per year.

This dramatic shortage is particularly evident at Israel’s Ein Gedi Spa, on the southern shores of the Dead Sea.

“The beach was here, and now (it’s) far away. You can see it’s more than one kilometre from here. In 30 years, the beach (will have) disappeared,” said Alon Shachal, Ein Gedi Spa Manager.

The need to change the status quo and find a solution to the Dead Sea’s alarming shrinking has been a concern for years for ‘Friends of the Earth Middle East’, a non-governmental organization that brings together Palestinian, Israeli and Jordanian environmentalists.

“After the ’60′s, we started to see a dramatic decrease in the surface area of the Dead Sea. And according to the different studies, in 50 years from now, at the same rate, which is 1 meter per year of drop in the surface level of the Dead Sea, means that this sea will not be the same. It will be more of a very small lake; not the same area that we have today,” said Iyad Aburdeieneh, Project Coordinator, Friends of the Earth Middle East Bethlehem.

According to Gidon Bromberg, from Friends of the Earth Middle East Tel Aviv, “The Dead Sea has had its taps closed from both ends. From the North, in fact here in front of us is where the Jordan River should be flowing to the Dead Sea, but the Jordan River basically doesn’t flow anymore.”

“Ninety-five per cent of its waters have been diverted by Israel, by Syria, by Jordan, so that what’s left in the Jordan River – a river holy to half of humanity – is little more than agriculture runoff, fish farm waste and, mostly, untreated sewage waters,” he said. (ANI)

Largest lake on Saturn’s moon Titan found to be as smooth as a mirror

London, August 22 (ANI): A new study has shown that the largest lake on Saturn’s moon Titan is as smooth as a mirror, varying in height by less than 3 millimeters, and good enough for skipping rocks on it.

According to a report in New Scientist, the find, based on new radar observations, adds to a deluge of evidence that the moon’s lakes are indeed filled with liquid, rather than dried mud.

“Unless you actually poured concrete and spread it really, really smoothly, you’d never see something like that on Earth,” said team member Howard Zebker of Stanford University.

Astronomers have waffled on whether Saturn’s largest moon is dry or wet, but the bulk of the evidence points to liquid lakes.

The radar on the Cassini spacecraft, which arrived at Saturn in 2004, turned up dark splotches at Titan’s poles.

The darkness in radar indicates those regions are very smooth, like the signal expected from the surface of a liquid lake.

Spectral data also showed that the apparent lakes seem to be filled with methane and ethane, which would be liquid on Titan’s frigid surface, and “geomorphologically, they just look like lakes,” Zebker said.

But, previous radar observations viewed the apparent lakes at an angle, and therefore did not see bright radar glints reflected back from their surface, leaving open the possibility that the features were dry lake beds or patches of soot.

Now, researchers report seeing just that signal.

In December last year, Cassini pointed its radar straight down over Titan’s largest lake, Ontario Lacus, which spans 235 kilometres at the moon’s south pole.

The reflected signal was so strong, it maxed out the probe’s receiver.

The radar echoes revealed a surface covering thousands of square metres whose height varies by less than 3 millimetres – 10 times as flat as previous measurements were able to reveal.

“It’s very hard to imagine a solid surface that is smooth on the order of millimeters,” lead author Lauren Wye of Stanford told New Scientist.

This provides strong evidence that the lake is currently liquid, not dried mud.

“If you’ve ever walked outside and seen an area on the ground where there’s mud and the water dries up, even that is pretty flat – but you get cracks in the mud and pieces that curl up,” Zebker said. “You never see anything as smooth as what we’re inferring for Titan’s surface,” he added.

Confirming the presence of liquid on Titan adds to the long list of similarities between Titan and Earth. (ANI)

Pak raises lands drying up issue due to Indian conspiracy with Holbrooke

Islamabad, Aug.21 (ANI): The Pakistan Government is reported to have raised the issue of its agrarian lands drying up due to India’s water conspiracy with visiting US Special Representative to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke.

Though Holbrooke told officials in Islamabad that American experts will soon be in town to help the country resolve its energy crisis, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will make a further announcement on energy needs during her scheduled visit in October, the latter highlighted the fact that India has reduced the country”s agro-based economy to tatters by building the Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project on the Jhelum River.

The News quotes Indus Water Commissioners Ishrat Ali Khan and Jamaat Ali Shah, as saying that Pakistan has handed over credible evidence in June of this year to India, which establishes 14 agenda items; including the contentious Wullar barrage project.

Both officials says that while the talks were essentially a failure, the fact remains that India is taking steps to stop the flow of water through a 22-KM long tunnel into the Wullar Lake.

India, on the other hand, claims that the project, which includes buidling a dam, will help maintain better water levels in a nearby lake and regulate the flow of flood waters.

Islamabad fears the proposed dam on the Jhelum river, a tributary of the Indus, will affect water levels further downstream in the plains of its Punjab province threatening irrigation and power projects.

In the wake of inconclusive talks on water flow of Jhelum, it says that the Indian attempt to use water as a geo-strategic tool, is unfair and in contravention to the Indus Water Ttreaty, 1960.

According to Indus Water Treaty of 1960, India has been allotted exclusive control/right over the waters of the eastern rivers, namely; the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. Pakistan controls the waters of three western rivers; the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab.

It is interesting to note that the base-source of water of all the rivers flows from the Indian side of Kashmir.

According to Pakistan, the treaty bars India from storing any water or constructing any storage works on the western rivers that would result in a reduced flow of water to Pakistan and destruction of the country”s Rabi crop.

Pakistan maintains that India, under the treaty, can store water but it cannot divert it to any other side. Thus, any diversion would violate the provisions of the treaty.

Pakistan believes Wullar barrage can be used as: (1) a geo-strategic weapon, (2) potential to disrupt the triple canal project of Pakistan, (3) badly affecting the Neelum-Jehlum hydro-power project, (4) agriculture in Pakistan Kashmir (5) drying the lands of Punjab province.

The Indian side is of the view that Pakistan is not developing its hydel resources anyway and should not get so serious about its objections. (ANI)

Pak accuses India of reducing its agro-based economy to tatters

Islamabad, Aug.19 (ANI): Authorities in Pakistan have once again charged India with reducing the country’s agro-based economy to tatters by building the Wullar Barrage/Tulbul Navigation Project on the Jhelum River.

The News quotes Indus Water Commissioners Ishrat Ali Khan and Jamaat Ali Shah, as saying that Pakistan has handed over credible evidence in JUne of this year to India, which establishes 14 agenda items; including the contentious Wullar barrage project.

Both officials says that while the talks were essentially a failure, the fact remains that India is taking steps to stop the flow of water through a 22-KM long tunnel into the Wullar Lake.

India, on the other hand, claims that the project, which includes buidling a dam, will help maintain better water levels in a nearby lake and regulate the flow of flood waters.

Islamabad fears the proposed dam on the Jhelum river, a tributary of the Indus, will affect water levels further downstream in the plains of its Punjab province threatening irrigation and power projects.

In the wake of inconclusive talks on water flow of Jhelum, it says that the Indian attempt to use water as a geo-strategic tool, is unfair and in contravention to the Indus Water Ttreaty, 1960.

According to Indus Water Treaty of 1960, India has been allotted exclusive control/right over the waters of the eastern rivers, namely; the Ravi, the Beas and the Sutlej. Pakistan controls the waters of three western rivers; the Indus, the Jhelum and the Chenab.

It is interesting to note that the base-source of water of all the rivers flows from the Indian side of Kashmir.

According to Pakistan, the treaty bars India from storing any water or constructing any storage works on the western rivers that would result in a reduced flow of water to Pakistan and destruction of the country’s Rabi crop.

Pakistan maintains that India, under the treaty, can store water but it cannot divert it to any other side. Thus, any diversion would violate the provisions of the treaty.

Pakistan believes Wullar barrage can be used as: (1) a geo-strategic weapon, (2) potential to disrupt the triple canal project of Pakistan, (3) badly affecting the Neelum-Jehlum hydro-power project, (4) agriculture in Pakistan Kashmir (5) drying the lands of Punjab province.
The Indian side is of the view that Pakistan is not developing its hydel resources anyway and should not get so serious about its objections. (ANI)

Scientists identify lake shorelines on Mars

Washington, August 9(ANI): A team of scientists, using images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on board NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, have reported direct evidence of lake shorelines in the Shalbatana Vallis in Mars.

Scientists generally believe that warm, wet conditions existed on Mars until only about 3.7 billion years ago.

In recent years, however, remote sensing studies have hinted at the existence of Martian lakes during the Hesperian epoch (about 3.5 billion to 1.8 billion years ago).

Now, sub-meter-scale images from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show clear, unambiguous evidence of shorelines of a lake more than 450 meters (1,476 feet) deep that formed about 3.4 billion years ago.

The study indicates that conditions favorable for flowing water and lake formation may have existed for thousands of years on Mars during the Hesperian epoch, which has been thought to be a period during which surface conditions did not allow significant hydrological activity.

According to the researchers, the sedimentary deposits associated with the lake in Shalbatana Vallis should be considered a priority for further study by future landed Mars missions. (ANI)