What's that sparkle in Cassini's eye?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? The moon Enceladus, one of the jewels of the Saturn system, sparkles peculiarly bright in new images obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft. The images of the moon, the first ever taken of Enceladus with Cassini's synthetic aperture radar, reveal new details of some of the grooves in the moon's south polar region and unexpected textures in the ice. These images, obtained on Nov. 6, 2011, are the highest-resolution images of this region obtained so far.

The area on Enceladus observed by Cassini's radar instrument does not include the famous "tiger stripes," fissures that eject great plumes of ice particles and water vapor, but covers regions just a few hundred miles away from the stripes. Scientists are scrutinizing an area around 63 degrees south latitude and 51 degrees west longitude that appears to be very rough, a texture that shows up as very bright in the radar images.

"It's puzzling why this is some of the brightest stuff Cassini has seen," said Steve Wall, deputy team lead of Cassini's radar team, based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "One possibility is that the area is studded with rounded ice rocks. But we can't yet explain how that would happen."

Scientists are also intrigued by an area around 65 degrees south latitude and 293 degrees west longitude, which shows a close-up view of grooved, water-ice bedrock. The new images reveal undulations and other intricate patterns that had not been seen previously. They also now have measurements of the heights and depths of the grooves in this area, with the central groove measuring about 2,100 feet (650 meters) deep and 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) wide. It has slopes of about 33 degrees.

These images of Enceladus show some similarity to those obtained of Saturn's largest moon Titan. Titan's large feature Xanadu is also very bright, as are areas surrounding the crater Sinlap. Whether the bright areas seen here are due to the same, or very different, processes will be a subject of discussion as scientists continue to learn more about the moons of Saturn.

The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the U.S. and several European countries. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. For more information about the Cassini mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201220532.htm

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Obama urges Congress to pass payroll tax cut (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama says Congress should pass a payroll tax cut before their end-of-the year break, and he's raising the possibility that "we can all spend Christmas here together."

Obama made the comments Friday at an event on energy efficiency.

The president says he'll keep pushing Congress to approve the payroll tax cut. He says now is not the time to slam the brakes on the economy, but it's "time to step on the gas."

The government just reported that the unemployment rate fell to 8.6 percent in November, down from 9 percent in October. That's the lowest since March 2009.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_economy

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Obama to speak at AIDS event, help light Xmas tree (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama speaks at a World AIDS Day event Thursday and also helps light the National Christmas Tree.

At the AIDS ceremony, Obama will be joined, by video hookup, with former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. They'll note that a lot of progress has been made against the disease, but a lot still needs to be done.

The event, which is hosted by the ONE Campaign and (RED), will be held at George Washington University.

In the evening, the first family officially kicks off the Christmas season with the lighting of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse. The president will make a few remarks.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_preview

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Ga. counseling student in court over view on gays (AP)

ATLANTA ? An attorney for a graduate school counseling student told federal judges in Atlanta on Tuesday that the student's First Amendment rights were violated when professors at a Georgia university sought to punish her for her biblical views on gay rights.

Augusta State University put Jennifer Keeton on academic probation for saying it would be hard for her to work with gay clients, and threatened to expel her unless she attended events like Augusta's gay pride parade, Keeton's attorney Jeff Shafer told the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"She was told, `You don't have to believe it. You just have to say you do,'" Shafer said.

Augusta State University countered that the counseling program would risk its accreditation if it didn't hold Keeton to a code of ethics. The school has a duty to require students to counsel all segments of the community, including those who are gay or transgender, it said in court papers.

Keeton told other students that she was interested in practicing conversion therapy ? where a therapist tries to "cure" a person from being homosexual ? after graduation, said Cristina Correia with the state Attorney General's office. Correia said Keeton also told her professors she would tell any clients who said they were gay that homosexuality is morally wrong.

University faculty were concerned that Keeton was scheduled to practice counseling in middle and high schools as part of her degree program and could possibly harm young students with her views, Correia said.

"The university has a responsibility when putting students in a practicum and graduating them," Correia said. "When you have that kind of evidence, the faculty could not, under their ethical standards, put that student in a clinical setting without further remediation."

Keeton, who said she's a devout Christian "committed to the truth of the Bible," enrolled in the school's counselor education program in fall 2009 and soon began discussing her views that sexual behavior is a personal choice and that gender identity isn't subject to change.

Faculty members were alarmed after she wrote in a term paper that it would be hard with her to work with gay clients. The school told her that her language was unethical according to guidelines from the American Counseling Association, and she was put on probation and warned she could be expelled.

She was asked in May 2010 to agree to a remediation plan that would require her to attend sensitivity training, read counseling journals and mix with gays at events like the city's gay pride parade.

Keeton refused to comply with the plan, which she said in court papers would require her to "tell clients wanting to hear it that homosexual sex is moral."

She filed a federal lawsuit claiming the school wanted to expel her because she "holds Christian ethical convictions" on human sexuality and gender identity. A judge rejected her challenge, leading to Tuesday's court arguments.

Attorneys for both sides declined comment after the hearing because the case is under a gag order by the court.

The case has drawn national attention from religious groups and gay rights advocates.

Keeton's lawsuit was brought by the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group that that presses faith-based cases in court nationwide. It argues that the First Amendment protects Keeton's rights to share her beliefs about gays with others.

The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, the national gay rights law firm, took the opposing side. They argued that counselors shouldn't discriminate based on sexual orientation and should avoid imposing their values on clients.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111129/ap_on_re_us/us_counseling_student_gays

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Hope Solo: I Was Too Muscular for Dancing With the Stars (omg!)

When Hope Solo and Maksim Chmerkovskiy were voted off Dancing With the Stars on November 15, the 30-year-old soccer player was so distraught she refused to speak to reporters backstage.

VIDEO: An angry Maks lashes out at the judges

The athlete broke her silence during a Tuesday appearance on Anderson, where Solo told host Anderson Cooper she felt "very naive" during her time on the ABC show.

"It is very much reality television. From day one, they casted our characters," she said.

Though she frequently sparred with Chmerkovskiy, 31, Solo insisted "Maks and I were great friends and we had an endearing relationship."

PHOTOS: DWTS' incredible body makeovers

Solo felt that the three judges -- Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba and Bruno Tonioli -- were wary of her from the beginning.

PHOTOS: DWTS' sexiest power couples

"I was told I had too much muscle and I was too intense and wasn't very dainty. Well, hello -- you cast a female professional athlete! Help me get better as a dancer," she said. "There's no hard feelings at all. I understand that it's television."

Tell Us: Did Hope Solo deserve to be sent home on November 15?

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/news_hope_solo_too_muscular_dancing_stars223015752/43730421/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/hope-solo-too-muscular-dancing-stars-223015752.html

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Christina Patterson: If You Dress Your Child Like a Tart, Don't Worry, You're Not to Blame

If I were a mother, I'm not sure that I'd be rushing to take advice from someone who went back to work seven hours after giving birth.

I think I might think that pushing something the size of a cat out of something that had struggled to accommodate a speculum might earn me at least a few days off. I think I might be a little bit worried when I heard her say that she wanted to be "an excellent role model," and particularly when I heard that she was the head teacher of a school for girls.

"Most women," said Helen Wright last year, after giving birth in the early morning, and being back at her desk by lunch, "have a choice of taking maternity leave or going back to work and having their babies looked after. Why," she asked, "can't there be a third way -- taking your baby to work with you?"

Well, why indeed? Apart, perhaps, from the fact that it might get in the way of the photocopier, and the fact that it's quite hard to tap away at a computer when you've got a small human being hanging from your chest. And, perhaps, the fact that the other 150 people who share your office don't mind the odd phone call, but aren't all that keen on primal screams.

If I had a daughter at her school (which I probably wouldn't, because it costs nearly ?30,000 a year) and had to choose between that and a home, I think I'd worry that she might grow up with the kind of expectations you give children at state primary schools when they come last in the egg and spoon race but still get a gold star. But I think I'd find it hard to disagree with the comment Helen Wright made at a conference for the Girls' School Association earlier this week, that when little girls wear "Future WAG" T-shirts, and make-up, and high heels, there's "something intensely wrong."

Parents, she said, aren't to blame. Schools, she said, had "a key role to play" in providing guidance. "We need to take away," she said, "the stigma for parents that they have to know everything."

If I were a parent, I think I'd be pleased to be told that I wasn't to blame, and that someone else should take away the "stigma" of anything that anyone thought I'd done wrong. If, for example, like the parents of some of the children at schools near me, I didn't bother to teach my child how to put its shoes on, or how to eat at a table, or how to use a sentence without using the word "fuck," and if I sent it to school without breakfast, or lunch, and didn't give it tea when it got home, I think I'd be quite pleased that the school didn't think that it was up to me to do "everything."

And if my child wasn't reading all that well, I might, like some parents who were quoted in the Evening Standard this week, quite like to stand at the school gates, and talk to the other parents about how the school was letting my child down. I might like to talk, for example, about how the children should be getting more homework, and how the teachers should be doing a better job.

But if I were a teacher, I think I might feel that if you'd gone to all the trouble of pushing something the size of a cat out of something that used to struggle with a speculum, then it wouldn't kill you to give it a couple of pieces of toast, and maybe a couple of fish fingers when it got home. And if I were a teacher at the school mentioned in the Standard this week, and was trying to teach a class where 80 percent of the students didn't speak English at home, I think I might also feel that it wouldn't kill the parents to swap a few minutes of The X Factor for, say, a few pages of The Gruffalo.

And if I saw the children I was teaching wearing T-shirts saying things like, "So many boys, so little time," and maybe even, through the T-shirt, a padded pink bra, I think I might wonder if parents needed a Ph.D. to know that it wasn't a great idea to buy their small daughters clothes that made them look as though they wanted to be paid for sex. I think I might even wonder why the bloody hell these people had bothered to push the cat-sized thing out of the thing that used to struggle with a speculum if they didn't want to feed it, or talk to it, or read to it, or dress it in relatively normal clothes.

But if I were a teacher and saw the child dressed as a prostitute, and could see that it was quite likely to end up as a teenage mother, since the U.K. has more of them than anywhere in Europe, and that the teenage mother might also not be keen on making toast or heating fish fingers, which would just create a cycle that would go on for ever, I think I might well feel that even though I didn't become a teacher in order to become an effing social worker, I didn't really have a choice.

I think I might feel that I'd better teach the child about toast and fish fingers, too, and hope that the government goes ahead with its plans to run courses in toast and fish fingers for grown-ups (which it's calling courses in "parenting") so that a few more people in this country could learn that if you want to have a child, you might also want to think about whether you actually want to bring it up.

?

Follow Christina Patterson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/queenchristina_

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/christina-patterson/if-you-dress-your-child-l_b_1114852.html

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Egypt activists to step up protests

CAIRO?? Activists vowed to crank up pressure on Egypt's generals on Friday, a day after a court ordered the release of three American students arrested during the unrest in Cairo.

Demonstrators plan an overwhelming show of people power to cap almost a week of protests against army rule that have left 41 people dead.

State media said the army leaders picked a political veteran in his late 70s to form a national salvation government, a choice that was quickly snubbed by many of the young activists who have led the demonstrations in Tahrir Square.

Kamal Ganzouri agreed in principle to lead the new government after meeting the head of the military council, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, the website of state newspaper Al Ahram reported, citing sources close to Ganzouri.

As talk of a Ganzouri appointment filtered through the crowds thronging Tahrir on Thursday night, discussion quickly focused on his age.

"Ganzouri is no good for this transitional period, which needs youth leaders not grandparents," said student Maha Abdullah.

Freedom ordered for US students
Meantime, freedom was expected for three Americans who attend the American University in Cairo. Derrik Sweeney, a 19-year-old Georgetown University student, Luke Gates, a 21-year-old Indiana University student, and Gregory Porter, a 19-year-old Drexel University student, were arrested on Sunday on the American University roof near Tahrir Square where they were allegedly throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters.

Attorney Theodore Simon, who represents Porter, from a Philadelphia suburb, said his client remained in custody at a police station as of Thursday afternoon Eastern time.

Video: Protesters throw stones, conflict grows in Cairo (on this page)

But Simon said he was able to speak by phone with Porter, describing the student's demeanor as "calm and measured, demonstrating a maturity well beyond his 19 years."

"He was extremely thankful and appreciative for our efforts and the unconditional support of his mother and father," Simon said.

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Sweeney's mother, Joy Sweeney, said she is "absolutely elated" at the news of her 19-year-old son's release.

"I can't wait to give him a huge hug and tell him how much I love him," she said, adding that the news of the court order was the best Thanksgiving gift.

Meanwhile an American film maker and journalist was arrested by Egyptian police while documenting clashes in Tahrir Square, she told a colleague by phone.

Karim Amer, the producer for Jehane Nojaim ? an award-winning film maker of Egyptian ancestry who is best-known for her al-Jazeera TV documentary "Control Room" ? said Nojaim was detained and her camera was confiscated.

Amer said he was separated from her after they both fled from tear gas.

Egyptian-American columnist and activist Mona Eltahawy, who regularly appears on news channels as a self-described "speaker on Arab and Muslim issues" was also reportedly arrested in Cairo.

"Beaten arrested in interior ministry," she posted on her Twitter account overnight.

She tweeted "I AM FREE" at about 5:30 a.m. ET, and then sent several messages saying she had been beaten and sexually assaulted, using strong language to condemn the Egyptian police.

She also said her right hand was "so swollen I can't close it." She posted a picture of her hand. She tweeted she was being taken to hospital.

The U.S. Department of State tweeted early Thursday that it was aware of the reports that Nojaim and Elthawy had been arrested and said the U.S. Embassy in Cairo was "engaging authorities."

Military apologizes
Egypt's military also issued a statement on Thursday apologizing for the loss of life and vowing to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of protesters in Cairo's iconic Tahrir Square and elsewhere in the country.

Slideshow: Violent clashes in Egypt (on this page)

Army troops have used metal bars and barbed wire to build barricades to separate the protesters and the police on side streets leading from Tahrir to the nearby Interior Ministry. Most of the fighting has been taking place on those side streets.

A truce came into force around 6 a.m. and was still holding late Thursday.

In a communique, protesters called the million-man march on "the Friday of the last chance" for the army to hand over power.

The Egyptian Independent Trade Union Federation called for a workers' march to Tahrir. Another labor rights group called for a general strike to back the protests. Labour unions played an important role in the movement that toppled Mubarak.

Supporters of the army council had said they would hold a rally to back the military. In a statement on its Facebook page, the army council said it was "appealing to them to cancel the demonstration," saying it wanted to avoid divisions.

Suspicion that the army will continue to wield power behind an elected civilian administration has grown in recent weeks as the government and political parties tussled over the shape of a new constitution.

The military council originally promised to return to barracks within six months of the fall of Mubarak, but then set a timetable for elections and drawing up the constitution that would have left it in power until late next year or early 2013.

The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45426434/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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