- It is the ages-old question about outer space: Can the moon really be made of green cheese? Or maybe the question is where all of the funny-looking aliens who populate low-rent sci-fi movies live when filming is done……and then there’s the query of whether or not there is water in outer space. If water exists in space, the theory goes, then life exists there and a world of possibilities opens up. A team of international scientists have been plugging away on the dilemma and although the United States is now officially out of the business of shooting human beings into outer space, the world at large still possesses a healthy interest in the cosmos. A group led by Jason Glenn, an associate professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, has come to the conclusion that there was, at one time, a lot of water in space - literally, a ginormous and mind-blowing quantity. "We not only detected water in the farthest reaches of the universe, but enough to fill Earth's oceans more than 100 trillion times," said Glenn, who was co-author of a study of the quasar where traces of water vapor were found. The quasar, located 12 billion light-years from Earth, has traces of water vapor in it. Those asking what a quasar is clearly haven’t been watching the NASA channel enough, but scientists liken it to "a voraciously feeding black hole" – equivalent to 34 billion times the mass of our planet. As recently as 12 billion years ago (sounds reasonable), these scientists say there was water located in the quasar and it is supposedly the largest mass of water ever found. Satellite images show, in the researchers’ minds, that water was present in the early stages of the universe when it was 1.6 billion years old. Those who subscribe to the big-bang theory believe the universe to be approximately 13.6 billion years old. As a point of comparison for the amount of water in the quasar, Earth’s home galaxy, the Milky Way, contains 4,000 times less water than in the quasar, and it is spread over a few light-years, according to the study. Conversely, in the quasar, the water vapor is present over hundreds of light-years. One light-year is about 6 trillion miles. The study’s findings came from the use of a spectrograph at the California Institute of Technology's telescope on the Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island and verified using a facility in California's Inyo Mountains. Its work was completed by scientists from the University of Colorado-Boulder and Caltech, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, the Observatories of the Carnegie Institute of Science and the University of Pennsylvania. That’s a lot of smart people on one project, but if they were really smart they would probably be focusing their intelligence on solving Earth’s own water problems…………
- Soap operas may be so dead that even Oprah Winfrey has turned a dead ear to pleas from fans of the doomed genre to jump in and save their beloved shows, but as Orlando Bloom’s character Will Turner reminded one and all in the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, no cause is lost if there is but one fool left to fight for it. When it comes to soap operas, that one fool just may be actor James Franco. Franco, still riding low after scathing reviews of his performance last year as co-host of the Oscars with Anne Hathaway, is a busy man these days. He is still taking college courses in New York and this fall he will appear on Broadway in the fall with Nicole Kidman in "Sweet Bird of Youth." Yet in the midst of those efforts as well as film roles he is currently involved in or considering, Franco is reportedly carving out time to return to none other than “General Hospital,” one of the few remaining soaps on the air - for now. Once it meets the same fate as “All My Children” and every other dinosaur-like soap and heads off to the television graveyard in the sky, there will be no more chances to save it and so Franco is throwing his (questionable) might behind the show now. He appeared on “GH” in 2009 as Robert "Franco" Frank, a serial killer and performance artist. His character has made return visits to whatever imaginary town it is that “General Hospital” is set in and his last appearance was just after the Academy Awards ceremony in February. Franco will soon return to the show to reprise his role, the fourth time he has done so. Making time for the soap will certainly put a strain on his busy schedule and he may have to find a way to squeeze some homework and paper writing in between takes, but can one ever put a price on doing everything possible to keep a dying genre of TV from decades gone by alive? So what if “GH” is filmed in California and everything else he’s involved in is based in New York? Go for it, J. Franco………….
- The concept of asylum doesn’t have the buzz or cache among Americans that it has elsewhere in the world. Fleeing the U.S. because of government persecution and oppression and filing for asylum to get a fresh start elsewhere just isn't a part of the normal American thought process. Sure, there will always be the occasional Roman Polanski who will have sex with a 13-year-old girl and flee the country to live in France, but for the most part any American who grows disenchanted with living in the land of the free can simply expatriate and become a citizen of another country without much trouble. For the rest of the world, asylum is a bigger part of the vocabulary and for a renegade group of Australians, it’s their current reality as part of a refugee swap deal with Malaysia. The first wave of asylum-seekers under the deal were sent out Monday night on their way to the Australian territory of Christmas Island en route to Malaysia. Under the arrangement with Malaysia , Australia will be able to send 800 asylum-seekers to Malaysia in return for 4,000 UN-assessed refugees over the next four years. The trek from Java to Christmas Island is approximately 240 miles and has been known to take as little as 30 hours in a fast boat with GPS. However, past refugees have claimed that they were at sea for as many as 11 days from Indonesia trying to reach the Australian territory. All the Australian Border Protection Command confirmed that at least one boat could have left Indonesia for Christmas Island. Malaysia seems to be ducking any involvement in the matter by placing responsibility for organizing the transit accommodation to be used to house transferred asylum-seekers for the first 45 days of their stay with the Australian government. Those leaving Australia are tied to Labor for Refugees, a rank-and-file party group with more than 180 members supported by several federal MPs. The group also has about 75 state branches. Three sites for the refugees’ housing are reportedly under consideration: a “run down” former hotel and two unidentified sites all in the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur and its airport. Amnesty International is not a big fan of the agreement, warning that refugees in Malaysia are "frequently caged in appalling conditions, exploited and caned.” Malaysian Immigration Minister Chris Bowen dismissed those concerns and vowed that Malaysian authorities would uphold protection guarantees for asylum-seekers sent by Australia. "With the assistance of the International Organisation for Migration, they'll move into the community," Bowen said. "They will have the right to self-reliance, including work rights, they'll have the right for children to attend schools and they'll have the right to basic healthcare. And they'll receive Australia and Malaysia identification to establish their legal right to be in Malaysia, as is very clear in the arrangement." Many parties have weighed in on the situation in Australia as well, with the Law Council of Australia ranting, "There are significant shortcomings . . . in particular a lack of detail about unaccompanied minors and legal assistance for transferees." Just about the only party yet to check in? The refugees themselves and at present, they probably have bigger concerns to cope with……….
- Life is about to get a little more comfortable for inmates in the state of New Hampshire and not everyone is happy about it. The New Hampshire Department of Corrections announced on Monday it had signed a contract with a St. Louis-based company that provides inmates with access to email and downloadable music. Keefe Commissary Network works specifically with correctional institutions to cater to the needs of inmates, NHDOC officials said. "The (company) provides kiosks where inmates can access email and they can access things such as downloadable music," said NHDOC official Jeff Lyons. The company’s primary services are selling see-through MP3 players and other devices to the inmates directly for as much as $130 and setting up limited Internet access for inmates. Ten percent of the purchase price of the electronic devices will go into the NHDOC's recreation fund to pay for other inmate activities. Prison officials say email access will also help reduce operational expenses by cutting down on traditional mail, thus lessening the flow of contraband coming into the facility and the associated expenses of paying employees to process the mail. "(The amount of paper mail coming in) and things that are stuffed into envelopes or hidden under stamps or things like that will decrease," Lyons said. "This will give us the ability to monitor the current mail that's going out and coming in." Those worried that Internet access will provide incarcerated men and women with a chance to keep up to date on their Facebook profile and tweet about life on the inside need not worry, as inmates will still not have access to most of the Internet. "The (program) is just another tool that we can use to enhance safety, at the same time giving the inmates activity they can do when they are not in their programs and treatment," Lyons said. Taken in its totality, the program doesn’t seem like a terrible thing and best of all, the NHDOC said there is no cost to the taxpayer for the program. That hasn’t placated some New Hampshire residents, who are angry about inmates having access to privileges that some struggling free men and women cannot afford…………
- Now that the NFL lockout is officially over, a few rites of football passage need to happen before football can truly be considered “back.” The league must have its free agency period wherein teams throw ridiculous amounts of money at undeserving players, trade rumors must run wild and out-of-shape players must start reporting to training camp and sweating off the pounds in the hot sun. Oh, and the world needs its unwanted annual dosage of Brett Favre rumors because no one’s life is complete without hearing how the Ol’ Gunslinger just might dust off the cleats and dirty baseball cap one last time and come back to chase another championship because he just loves playin’ ball, so much so that he would play the game for free. This time, the rumor struck before the NFL Players Association had officially ratified the new labor agreement it had spent four-plus months negotiating with owners. Media outlets in Philadelphia began circulating word that the Eagles were interested in Favre as a backup to starter Michael Vick, which made no sense because if there is one thing Brett Favre is not (other than humble, selfless or adverse to the spotlight), it is a backup. He plays football to feed his ego, get as much camera time as possible and yes, to win games as well. Backing up Vick, even for a rumored $4 million salary, was never going to fly with Favre. Vick didn’t help put out the rumor fire by tweeting that he would be honored to have Favre as his backup. Vick tried to double back on those words by deleting his tweet, but to no avail. With Favre laying uncharacteristically low and spending most of his offseason at home in Hattiesburg, reporters were left to flock en masse to his agent Bus Cook, who steadfastly maintained that his most prominent client has given no indication of reviving his career. Cook dismissed talk of his client attempting another NFL comeback as nothing more than “speculation.” Cook said on Monday morning that Favre hasn’t talked to him about a comeback and to his knowledge, Favre “hasn’t talked to anybody else about a comeback” either. Combined with Favre’s own insistence that he’s done playing football and that would be the end of the story - with anyone but Brett Favre. To football fans who have grown weary of his annual game of retirement chicken, the fear of Favre popping up on ESPN, throwing go routes to high schoolers near his home, being interviewed leaving the field in his souped-up pickup truck and hopping aboard an owner’s private jet for the flight to his introductory press conference with his new team is very real and that fear will persist as long as Favre is alive. Yes, he stumbled through an injury-plagued season with the Minnesota Vikings last year, throwing for 2,509 yards, 11 touchdowns and 19 interceptions, but he remains the football equivalent of the villain in a bad horror movie, the one you just cannot kill…………
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