NASA: Satellite is down – But where?

NASA UARS Satalite

Pieces of a defunct satellite that plummeted to Earth have settled, NASA said Saturday morning.

The space agency said the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite “is down,” according to the space agency’s Twitter page. NASA said debris fell to Earth between 11:23 p.m. ET Friday and 1:09 a.m. ET Saturday, but it was not immediately clear where the pieces may have landed.

NASA said the satellite pierced through the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean, but the exact time and location were not known.

The sample capsule from Japan's Hayabusa spacecraft became a fireball as it fell to Earth last June.

About two dozen pieces of the satellite were expected to survive the crash through the Earth’s atmosphere.

Late Friday night, NASA predicted satellite parts would pass “over Canada and Africa, as well as vast areas of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.”

“The risk to public safety is very remote,” NASA said.

The 26 pieces expected to survive the descent — made of stainless steel, titanium and beryllium that won’t burn — ranged from about 10 pounds to hundreds of pounds, according to NASA.

Re-entry

“The U.S. is very safe from (the satellite) … It’s final orbit did not cross the United States,” the space agency tweeted early Saturday.

But reports of suspected sightings emerged from San Antonio, Texas, where a TV photographer caught images of bright objects darting rapidly in the night sky, and from Hawaii, where Robert Jeffcoat saw what he believed were two chunks from the satellite.

Jeffcoat was running errands when the first flying object left a thick, white trail that lingered in the sky for about 20 minutes, he said. A second object followed the same path and was “massive,” he said.

“It’s was like a comet, but smoke,” he said. “I’m guessing it landed in the ocean, the way it was going.”

Mark Matney of NASA’s Orbital Debris team in Houston said before spacial rubbish fell that there was no way to know exactly where the pieces would come down.

“Part of the problem is, the spacecraft is tumbling in unpredictable ways, and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it’s coming down even right before the re-entry,” Matney said.

The Federal Aviation Administration released an advisory Thursday warning pilots about the falling satellite, calling it a potential hazard.

“It is critical that all pilots/flight crew members report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility and include position, altitude, time and direction of debris observed,” the FAA statement said.

The FAA said warnings of this sort typically are sent out to pilots concerning specific hazards they may encounter during flights such as air shows, rocket launches, kites and inoperable radio navigational aids.

NASA said space debris the size of the satellite’s components re-enters the atmosphere about once a year. Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that the satellite is far from being the biggest space junk to come back.

“This is nothing like the old Skylab scare of the ’70s, when you had a 70-ton space station crashing out of the sky,” McDowell said.

Pieces of Skylab came down in western Australia in 1979.

Jeffcoat said he was amazed his home of Paia, Maui, seemed to be an ideal place to watch hunks of a satellite rain from the sky.

“Off all the places in the world where it could hit, here it was, in Maui,” he said. “It was quite weird.”

Ecuadorian tribes vs Chevron -Texaco: Oil giant

For the last 18 years Chevron and a number of Ecuadorian tribes have been battling in court over one of the biggest environmental scandals in the world.

Following an Ecuadorian court ruling which ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion in damages to the plaintiffs, the oil company pushed the case back to New York, winning a judgment which prevented the enforcement of the Ecuadorian ruling.

Meanwhile the Amazon Defense Coalition said thousands of people are being affected by cancer and other illnesses from pollution and contamination.

“It’s considered to be one of the largest environmental disasters in the world on record,” said Karen Hinton, spokesperson for the Amazon Defense Coalition.

Local tribes in Amazon’s forests have been battling for compensation for damage caused by Texaco – a company owned by Chevron.

Billions of gallons of toxic waste dumped onto Ecuador’s soil and waters ways causing casualties and serious environmental damage.

“Over 1,400 people have died of cancer, and thousands more have died of other illnesses,” said Hinton.

An Ecuadorian court ruled Chevron must pay $9.5 billion in damages, a sum the company could easily afford.

“Though it’s certainly a large amount of money for you and me, this is something that could certainly be absorbed by Chevron, just as BP has been able to absorb the 20 billion or more cost of practically destroying the gulf of Mexico,” said Brad Johnson, the climate editor at Thinkprogress.com.

However, absorbing is what one New York judge chose not to do by defending Chevron, and blocking the Ecuadorian court’s ruling from being enforced in the US and globally. The judge cited harm to Chevron’s business as the reason for his decision.

“That’s just nonsense. That’s really what it is,” remarked Johnson.

Why would a New York judge meddle in a legal battle Chevron initially insisted take place in Ecuador?

“Obviously it’s a US company, they have huge interests here, they are capable of very severe pressure against those that wish in any way to harm their interest. And of course they have friends in a lot of high places,” said author and lawyer Eva Golinger.

While Ecuador’s tribal members certainly do not, said Greg Palast, an investigative journalist and filmmaker. He said Chevron has been calling all the shots in the case.

“They said don’t try the case in the United States, so they sent it down to Ecuador. Then – they said – now we don’t like the case in Ecuador because of a bad ruling, so now try it in the United States,” Palast commented.

Now the multinational corporation is accusing Ecuadorian villagers and farmers of trying to rob the company’s pockets.

“We have been seeing this fraud go on for the last 20 years – we continue to uncover it. We will continue to pursue several options both internationally and here in the U.S. courts,” said Morgan Crinklaw, Chevron Spokesperson in San Francisco.

Legal experts site double standards, as dumping toxic waste on American soil is a crime that no company would be allowed to get away with.

“Corporations don’t ever want to be held accountable for their actions, especially in other countries. Absolutely, there is a double standard,” explained Eva Golinger.

If Ecuador won the case, a legal precedent would be set: Chevron’s and other oil giants’ biggest nightmare.

“If they pay in Ecuador, they are going to have to pay in Mexico, they’re going to have to pay in Nigeria, they’re going to have to pay in Indonesia. Wherever they have gone, and spoiled, and destroyed the environment. They wanna kill this right now, so it never comes up again anywhere,” said Palast.

The battle between the oil giant and Ecuador looks set to rage on for many more years. Ecuador’s defense team said as many as 10,000 more people may be afflicted by cancer if the damages are not taken care of immediately.

Han Shan, the coordinator at the Clean Up Ecuador Campaign of Amazon Watch explained the case is highly concerning, because after a great deal of legal preceding and a verdict in Ecuador, Chevron continues its policies leading to a number of deaths and illnesses in Ecuador to this day.

In addition, Chevron was the first to initially request the case be heard in Ecuador, but when the verdict was not in their favor they ran back to the US to a judge who would support their side.

Just last week, Watson addressed a group of protestors outside the company’s annual stockholder meeting, telling them that he shared their ideals, but that their view of the company was dead wrong.

“I want to remind you that our fight in Ecuador is for life and justice,” Humberto Piaguaje, a resident of Ecuador’s oil patch, told Watson and the shareholders. “You must own up to your responsibility to the people in the Amazon.”

Five protestors were arrested at last years’ annual meeting. There were no arrests this year.

Last year Chevron was caught trying to pay off freelance journalist Mary Cudahee, to spy on the plaintiffs. She later broke the story in the Atlantic.
“It’s an extraordinary over reach and I think an abuse of power by a Judge,” Shan argued. “I think actually increasingly we are going to see Chevron shareholders telling management that it’s time for them to put this horrific controversy behind them, and step up to the plate, take responsibility for the devastation and pay up.”

Video provided by http://rt.com

The story of lawsuit by tens of thousands of Ecuadorans against Chevron over contamination of the Ecuadorean Amazon.

Click here NETFLIX "Crude" 2009 104 minutes

Filmmaker Joe Berlinger’s provocative documentary explores the ongoing battle waged by 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorans and their lawyers against Chevron for dumping billions of gallons of toxic oil waste into the Amazon. Berlinger examines the environmental catastrophe — dubbed the “Amazon Chernobyl” — from all sides, following the drama as it moves from the contamination site to the courtroom and beyond, even landing on the cover of Vanity Fair.

T-Mobile G2 Final Android 2.3 Gingerbread Update Leaks

Gingerbread 2.3 on HTC Tmobile G2

So, the Gingerbread build for the HTC T-Mobile G2 has been leaked to the T-Mobile Support Forum, by a member called Rodraf. He includes a full list of pro’s and con’s, as well as an installation guide so you can ensure yourself that you’re installing it the right way. We could assume this to do the real deal, because it’s the same Gingerbread version that has been seen on refurbished versions of the G2 lately. HTC says the update for T-Mobile G2 users to Gingerbread is over due. This reads exactly like the last update we received with a similar list of enhancements and firm over-the-air date sometime around August 1st. The G2 was T-Mobile’s first 4G phone and as such it has a special place in our hearts so we hope that the powers that be at HTC and T-Mobile don’t make G2 owners wait any longer.
As for manual update:
While the arrival date of Gingerbread for the T-Mobile G2 has thus far eluded us, a newly leaked screenshot gives hope that we aren’t far off from seeing an official launch. According to this shot and word from the ninjas at HTC are preparing to send SD cards to T-Mobile retail stores in an effort to avoid unnecessary equipment exchanges and to help assist customers with software updates. While the card is good for the myTouch 4G, and myTouch 3G Slide. The HTC T-Mobile G2 Gingerbread update will have many fixes & enhancements.

The update should refine the UI to make it quicker and easier to use. Text input will be faster and more intuitive following the update which will also bring one-touch word selection and copy/paste to the G2. Battery life should be improved thanks to the changes in power management that come with the update,along with an easier way to manage apps on the phone. And the software update will bring a 3G/4G vs. H signal indicator.

T-Mobile Stores To Update Customer Phones Using SD Card.

As we can see in the image both an OTA and SD version will be available for G2 owners to upgrade their devices to Android 2.3

However, using instructions provided to retail store representatives the SD cards will be able to upgrade the customers device right in the store allowing them to walk in with one software and out with another. We see this as a scenario for customers who are either uncomfortable with the upgrade process, don’t know about it or suffering device trouble that an update might fix in lieu of a warranty exchange. Given that the G2 update will also be OTA we imagine an announcement from T-Mobile/HTC isn’t that far off considering this screenshot is already making its way through entail stores.

Here are some pros & cons

There’s a few cons about the leak like:

– No 3-button reset.

– Long pressing the camera button makes the phone vibrates.

– You cant root the phone once this is done. There’s no way to downgrade again to 2.2.

– Some people had reported problems with their backlight keyboard (I dont have any)

However, the pros outweighs the cons:

– Better radio (No, not AM/FM radio)

– Better audio codecs

– Faster boot up… (under 30 seconds on my phone)

– Faster response.

– Better GUI

– Bug Fix on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

We’re still piecing together some details regarding this information but hopefully for G2 owners this gives you a little piece of mind that the Gods at HTC haven’t abandoned us with our 4g phones.

President Obama monitored Osama Bin Laden attack in real time

White House Situation Room

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured.
(Credit: White House/Pete Souza)

President Obama and members of his national security team monitored the attack against Osama bin Laden on a real-time basis, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said today.

“It was probably one of the most anxiety-filled periods of time, I think, in the lives of the people who were assembled here yesterday,” Brennan said in a White House press briefing. “The minutes passed like days, and the president was very concerned about the security of our personnel.”

The president and his team were able to monitor the sequence of events from the very start of the operation through its completion, Brennan said. It took the team of CIA officers and Navy SEALs carrying out the operation no more than 40 minutes to kill bin Laden in the compound in Abbottabad, which is close to Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad.

Brennan said the president and his team had “real time visibility into the progress of the operation,” but would not go into details about what sort of technology was used.

“It was clearly very tense, a lot of people holding their breath, and there was a fair degree of silence as it progressed as we would get the updates,” Brennan said. “And when we finally were informed that those individuals who were able to go in that compound and found an individual that they believe was bin Laden, it was a tremendous sigh of relief that what we believed and who we believed was in that compound actually was in that compound and was found.”

Osama Bin Laden DEAD, Killed in Pakistan

Osama Bin Laden is dead, President Obama announced Sunday night, in a televised address to the nation. The U.S. is in possession of his body, a person familiar with the situation told the Associated Press late Sunday.

The announcement that Obama would speak came at 9:45 p.m., less than an hour before Obama was initially scheduled to go on the air. The unusual hour, and the fact that the White House gave no details about the topic, set off a flurry of speculation.

Two senior counter terrorism officials confirmed to the Associated Press that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan last week. One said bin Laden was killed in a ground operation, not by a Predator drone. Both said the operation was based on U.S. intelligence, and both said the U.S. is in possession of bin Laden’s body.

Officials long believed bin Laden, the most wanted man in the world, was hiding in a mountainous region along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

UFO over downtown Los Angeles

HTC Thunderbolt (Verizon Wireless)

The first 4G LTE cell phone for Verizon Wireless, the HTC Thunderbolt, lands with a bang, scorching the landscape and sending mere 3G phones fleeing for cover. This is the fastest Internet phone ever, and it wins our Editors’ Choice for the top touch-screen smartphone on Verizon Wireless. But that scorching speed has a price: it burns up the phone’s battery, so you’ll need to bring a spare.
The HTC Thunderbolt looks and feels huge. It’s classy looking, though, in all-gray with a glass front and a soft-touch back.
There’s a small 1.3-megapixel camera next to the earpiece, and a larger 8-megapixel shooter on the back, along with a kickstand, so you can prop the phone up on a table or a desk. The 4.3-inch, 800-by-480 screen looks unusually rich. But at 6.4 ounces, the Thunderbolt will weigh down any pocket, and at 4.8 by 2.6 by 0.5 inches (HWD), it won’t fit in some of them. That’s the price you pay for being an early LTE adopter.

LTE Internet Access and Speeds
Let’s get to the most important thing first: this smartphone has the fastest Internet access, ever. It sets the Web on fire.

Verizon’s LTE network currently runs in about 40 metro areas, give or take a few, and it’s constantly expanding. The carrier doesn’t charge extra for LTE: the $30/month smartphone data plan costs the same as a 3G data plan does. And for now, you get unlimited data. An extra $20/month buys you 2GB of data for a laptop or other device to use via USB or Wi-Fi tethering. The phone’s hotspot mode supports eight devices rather than the usual five (the faster to use up your 2GB allotment with.)

Phone Performance and Battery Life
Hey, remember all those AT&T ads where they complained you can’t talk and surf at the same time on Verizon? No longer. The Thunderbolt allows simultaneous talking and Internet access on both 3G and 4G networks. I tried it, and it worked well.

As a voice phone, the Thunderbolt is just fine. RF reception is on the good side of average. Voice quality is strong; the earpiece is loud and there’s an unusual amount of side-tone, the reflection of your own voice in your ear that prevents you from yelling. I like that, because it makes you talk more quietly into the phone and should help make Thunderbolt users more socially acceptable in public places. The speakerphone isn’t very loud, but it’s just loud enough to be usable outdoors. Voices transmitted through the mic are totally intelligible but sound a bit computerized; the speakerphone lets through a bit more background noise than I’d like, but it isn’t awful. The phone paired easily with my Aliph Jawbone Era Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars) and activated the voice dialing system.

Battery life here is an interesting issue. On 3G, it’s great. I got nearly eight hours of talk time on the surprisingly small 1400 mAh battery. In another test, I watched a local video file with the phone connected to the LTE network, but not downloading. I got about six hours of video playback.

Heavy LTE use, on the other hand, totally nukes the battery. I tapped out the battery in only two hours and 20 minutes of LTE streaming using Bitbop and YouTube. If you intend to do a lot of 4G surfing, you’ll have trouble lasting a day. Since there’s no way to turn off 4G, use Wi-Fi when you can to save battery life.

Another option is to buy a second battery. Verizon offers a second standard battery for $39.99 and a gigantic 2750 mAh “extended” battery for $49.99. Two batteries, or one extended battery, would probably give this phone a full day of life.

Processor, Android and Apps
The Thunderbolt runs on a 1GHz, second-generation Qualcomm MSM8655 Snapdragon processor and runs Android 2.2 with HTC’s attractive Sense overlay. On our benchmarks, it performed as well as any high-end smartphone that doesn’t have Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra 2 chipset. Unless you’re an avid gamer, there’s no reason to skip this and wait for a for Tegra 2.

HTC and Verizon have baked a ton of extra software into this phone. Much of it is bloatware, stubs for apps that charge you every month. Verizon has actually taken bloatware to a new level, installing an entire alternative app store called “V Cast Apps” that is sluggish and ugly, but has one big advantage: you can charge app purchases to your phone bill. Of course, you also have access to the 100,000-plus apps in the standard Android Market, along with whatever you sideload from other sources.
Verizon LTE Family
Here are three of the new Verizon LTE phones next to each other: the unnamed Samsung phone, the Motorola Droid Bionic and the HTC Thunderbolt.

AmazonWireless $174.99

Warner Bros. Starts renting movies via Facebook

Warner Bros. will now offer movies for rent on Facebook, starting with Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” and will reportedly roll out more films in the coming months.

“The Dark Knight” will rent for $3 or 30 Facebook credits, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Viewers who rent the film will be given 48 hours to watch it and still have full Facebook functionality. The 2008 film starring Christian Bale as Batman is considered a test for the Hollywood studio — and its first attempt at direct-to-Facebook rentals.

“Facebook has become a daily destination for hundreds of millions of people,” Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, told THR. “Making our films available through Facebook is a natural extension of our digital distribution efforts. It gives consumers a simple, convenient way to access and enjoy our films through the world’s largest social network.”

If the rental is a success, Warner Bros. plans on rolling out other titles along with direct movie sales on Facebook.

It makes sense that the next step for Facebook is actual goods — it’s already done well with virtual ones. While I’m not sure a three-year-old movie is the best choice for a test market on Facebook, at least it signifies a change in how movie studios and social media will do business.

Source: Warner Bros. to Start Facebook Movie Rentals? | NBC San Diego

ROCK OUT (with me)!

Keenan Cahill YouTube sensation!

15-year-old Chicago native Keenan Cahill has come to after becoming an Internet sensation through his YouTube channel that features videos of the teen mouthing the words to the top hits.

“I started three years ago, when I got my Mac with a webcam in it,” Cahill, who is a sophomore in high school, told ABCNews.com. “I did it to put myself out there and to see what would happen and where it would go.”

Where it has gone is viral. Cahill’s YouTube channel boasts nearly 200,000 subscribers and has been viewed tens of millions of times. The teen has even appeared on E!’s program “Chelsea Lately” and his taping of 50 Cent’s new song “Down on Me” featured a cameo of none other than the famed rapper himself.

“It was a total surprise,” said Cahill of 50 Cent’s drop-in. “Now this is what I’m known for.”

Cahill is also know for a rare genetic disorder that affects the way he looks.

He credits his rise to stardom to pop singer Katy Perry, whose song “Teenage Dream” he featured on his site. Few people had seen the video before Perry herself tweeted, “I heart you” to the teen’s Twitter handle in September.

“The numbers started boosting up and up and up,” Cahill said.

The video has been viewed more than 18 million times since its Aug. 28 posting. His most recent recording, a lip-sync performance of Will Smith’s daughter Willow’s hit “Whip My Hair,” was viewed more than 200,000 times in one day.

But Cahill has garnered attention not only for his eccentric performances but also because of his unique appearance.

Cahill has a rare genetic disorder known as Maroteaux Lamy Syndrome, which in some cases, including this teen’s, results in individuals developing a dwarf-like appearance.
(By EMILY FRIEDMAN ABC NEWS)

Keenan Cahill’s YouTube channel

2011 SuperBowl XLV BEPs Half Time Show

The Black Eyed Peas performed at the Super Bowl halftime show and while the sound malfunctioned, the entertainment quality was amazing.

Black Eyed Peas

Fergie, Will.i.am, Apl.de.ap, and Taboo came down on platforms from the ceiling. They started on a circular stage with “groupies” on the field who were in white light up jumpsuits. They did a medley of their most popular songs including I Got a Feeling, Boom, Boom, Pow, and Let’s Get it Started. They were joined by legendary guitarist Slash and by recording artist, Usher, for portions of the show.

Fergie & Slash

The Black Eyed Peas did not disappoint, if you can get over the over produced, robotic sound, and the fact that they shouldn’t have performed live (it’s one time people were begging for lipsynching!). Their round stage ended up being the “O” in the word “Love,” and the light up body suits looked cool in the dark stadium.

Will i Am

The whole point of the half time show is to break up the game and to provide entertainment. Apparently robotic voices and a slaying of Sweet Child of Mine (thanks, Fergie), is good enough for the Super Bowl. What did you think?