SMAP Takes to the Skies

A United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory onboard is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches from Space Launch Complex 2, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists’ understanding of the processes that link Earth’s water, energy, and carbon cycles. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls) via NASA http://ift.tt/1Abg9qy

Hubble’s View of the Polar Ring of Arp 230

This image shows Arp 230, also known as IC 51, observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

Arp 230 is a galaxy of an uncommon or peculiar shape, and is therefore part of the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies produced by Halton Arp. Its irregular shape is thought to be the result of a violent collision with another galaxy sometime in the past. The collision could also be held responsible for the formation of the galaxy’s polar ring.

The outer ring surrounding the galaxy consists of gas and stars and rotates over the poles of the galaxy. It is thought that the orbit of the smaller of the two galaxies that created Arp 230 was perpendicular to the disk of the second, larger galaxy when they collided. In the process of merging the smaller galaxy would have been ripped apart and may have formed the polar ring structure astronomers can observe today.

Arp 230 is quite small for a lenticular galaxy, so the two original galaxies forming it must both have been smaller than the Milky Way.  A lenticular galaxy is a galaxy with a prominent central bulge and a disk, but no clear spiral arms.  They are classified as intermediate between an elliptical galaxy and a spiral galaxy.

European Space Agency

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Flickr user Det58 via NASA http://ift.tt/1yLHxoB

Delta II Rocket With Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission Onboard

A worker is seen preparing the launch gantry to be rolled back from the United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket with the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory onboard, at the Space Launch Complex 2, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Now scheduled to launch early Friday morning, SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists’ understanding of the processes that link Earth’s water, energy, and carbon cycles.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls via NASA http://ift.tt/1Kbxxvx

NASA’s Day of Remembrance 2015

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and his wife, Alexis, lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns as part of NASA’s Day of Remembrance, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015, at Arlington National Cemetery.  The wreaths were laid in memory of those men and women who lost their lives in the quest for space exploration.  Photo Credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky via NASA http://ift.tt/1v57rc7

How to Maximise your Fitness Band

Fitness bands are becoming a more and more common accessory amongst both people who are in control of their health and those who are looking to start getting healthy and need the extra support. While they all seem to promise results and an easier way to keep track of your fitness and health, people still seem surprised when the weight doesn’t just fall off and when they need to actually put effort into their weight loss efforts. With that in mind, here are some tips to help you maximise your fitness band experience.

1. Monetary Motivation: One of the best motivators for anyone trying to accomplish anything is money. Everyone loves to make money but people seem to hate losing money even more and so it makes a great motivator for weight loss. People always seem to have issues doing what they know is good for them (like exercise) and so the threat of monetary punishment is frequently enough to help tip the scales in favor of being healthier. There are a number of websites and apps that will create commitment contracts that stipulate how much money you would lose if you don’t meet your daily or weekly goals. Use these to add extra incentive to your health kick!
2. Don’t Over-Complicate and Accessorize: One of the greatest things about fitness trackers is that they’re so easy and convenient to add to your daily routine. With that in mind, if you over-complicate the addition of your fitness band in your daily routine then you run the risk of making it a much less effective weight loss tool. Keep it simple and make sure that the addition of your band is as natural and seamless as possible to make sure that there are no excuses for using it properly.
3. Be Realistic: One of the most disheartening things when trying to lose weight is failure or not reaching your goals. Keep it simple and keep those goals reasonable and realistic so that you can reach them and use that pride to further motivate you. Weight loss takes time and so don’t sprint out the gate during what will become a marathon.
4. Support, support, support: Don’t do this alone. So many fitness bands have websites or apps attached to them that have a large and incredibly supportive community. No one will make fun of you for trying and these groups can be the extra kick you need to help boost your weight loss efforts into overdrive. Use them!

Hopefully these tips will help you use your fitness band better and help your weight loss goals! If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

from Bryan Lockley and Fitness http://ift.tt/1DaEY3u

NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Ready for Jan. 29 Launch

The sun sets behind Space Launch Complex 2 (SLC-2) with the Delta II rocket and the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) observatory protected by the service structure on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. SMAP is NASA’s first Earth-observing satellite designed to collect global observations of surface soil moisture and its freeze/thaw state. SMAP will provide high resolution global measurements of soil moisture from space. The data will be used to enhance scientists’ understanding of the processes that link Earth’s water, energy, and carbon cycles.

Image Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls via NASA http://ift.tt/1zyp1a3

Lance Armstrong Would Dope Again

When Lance Armstrong finally admitted in an interview on Oprah Winfrey’s show that he was guilty of doping throughout his career as one of the greatest cyclists the world has ever known, the world reeled in collective horror as the flawless veneer of one of the most inspirational athletes to have ever existed was stripped right before our eyes. While the public fallout was surely painful to Lance and his supporters, the cherry on the proverbial pain sunday was when he was stripped of every Tour de France victory (seven in total) as punishment for his steroid abuse and subsequent lying about it. While you would think this would be enough, the revelations also cost Lance most, if not all, of his sponsorship deals as well as his position within the Livestrong Foundation.

In a follow up interview with the BBC about his new documentary, Lance Armstrong: The Road Ahead, the question about doping and whether he would do it again was posed and the answer that Lance gave surely shocked most if not all of the viewers and especially his supporters. Lance said that if he could go back in time to 1995 then he would absolutely dope again but that if he were in the same position now as he was back then, he wouldn’t. While this might have shocked people, his follow-up actually makes a lot of sense and his decisions, while wrong, could at least be seen as reasonable. Apparently the 90′s were the heydey of doping in the cycling world and everyone was doing it. Not only were all major competitors doing it, the culture of the sport also led to pushing steroids on bikers and coercing those who were unwilling into steroid abuse.

The only way to stand a chance and stand out from the pack was by injecting steroids and breaking the rules and so Lance would do it again because that was the norm and he wouldn’t have found any success if he hadn’t. While this is worrisome, it also speaks to the culture in many professional athletic competitions and how those who are new and inexperienced are frequently led down the wrong path by mentors and older competitors who had no respect for the game. If anything, this interview should led to less of a focus on Lance Armstrong and more on the culture of these sports that promote and reward cheating and flaunting the rules.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

from Bryan Lockley and Sports http://ift.tt/1JCGakb

Bowe Bergdahl Might Be Charged With Desertion

As many people remember from our time in Afghanistan, our soldiers were both killed and captured in the line of duty. One of the most famous, if not the most famous, prisoners of war (POW) was Bowe Bergdahl who wandered away from his camp in the middle of the night and was promptly captured by Muslim terrorist fighters who were affiliated with the Taliban. While the exact story is still up in the air, it is thought that Bergdahl walked away from the protection of his base and was captured by fighters from the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Network and held by them until his release during which they tortured him.

Now Bergdahl is back home thanks to a government deal that resulted in 5 suspected Taliban militants being released from Guantanamo Bay in return for Bergdahl’s safe return. While the return of one of our soldiers was seen as a good thing by most people, it still caused rancor in those groups of people who believe that Bergdahl is a traitor and the trade wasn’t in our favor. Thanks to those screaming heads, Bergdahl is now being investigated for desertion of his post and may very well face charges regarding to desertion and, if those who are crying for blood get their way, potentially treason.

According to Fox News, an inside source within the military intelligence community has said that Bergdahl is definitely going to be charged and will face jail time for sure. However the second that leak came out, every governmental organization and official who would know about the case disagreed and said that no decision has been made. It seems as though the conservative effort to throw Bergdahl under the bus jumped far ahead of itself and started making up facts pertaining to his case and his life. Either way, regardless of what happens with Bergdahl’s case, the fact remains that his life has probably been ruined and will never be the same. It’s sad when we refuse to rally around a POW, regardless of how and why he got captured.

If you’d like to read more, the link is here.

from Bryan Lockley’s General Site http://ift.tt/1JZ8o7b

Sounding Rockets Launch Into an Aurora

The interaction of solar winds and Earth’s atmosphere produces northern lights, or auroras, that dance across the night sky and mesmerize the casual observer. However, to scientists this interaction is more than a light display. It produces many questions about the role it plays in Earth’s meteorological processes and the impact on the planet’s atmosphere.

To help answer some of these questions, NASA suborbital sounding rockets carrying university-developed experiments — the Mesosphere-Lower Thermosphere Turbulence Experiment (M-TeX) and Mesospheric Inversion-layer Stratified Turbulence (MIST) — were launched into auroras from the Poker Flat Research Range in Alaska. The experiments explore the Earth’s atmosphere’s response to auroral, radiation belt and solar energetic particles and associated effects on nitric oxide and ozone.

This composite shot of all four sounding rockets for the M-TeX and MIST experiments is made up of 30 second exposures. The rocket salvo began at 4:13 a.m. EST, Jan. 26, 2015. A fifth rocket carrying the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe remains ready on the launch pad. The launch window for this experiment runs through Jan. 27.

Image Credit: NASA/Jamie Adkins

> More: M-TeX and MIST Experiments Launched from Alaska via NASA http://ift.tt/1yL9zFf

Sweaty Answer to Chronic Illness by JANE E. BRODY

By JANE E. BRODY

Studies suggest that a more demanding approach to exercise is not only safe for most patients but also more effective at preventing and reversing the problems of many ailments.

Published: January 26, 2015 at 09:04AM

from NYT Health http://ift.tt/1zj6WwK