Aurora makes the sky sing the blues

Brad Goldpaint

Photographer Brad Goldpaint captured this view of the northern lights over Crater Lake, Ore., early Sunday.

By Alan Boyle

A double-burst of solar particles?sparked auroral lights over the weekend, as expected?? but at least in some parts of the world, the colors were not what you'd expect. Instead of the typical greenish glow, observers reported seeing reds, pinks, violets and even blues.

"It's been many years since I saw the blue in our auroras, but Saturday night they came back," John Welling reported in a note accompanying the photo he posted to SpaceWeather.com.

Pinks, reds and blues also dominated the scene captured on camera early Sunday by Brad Goldpaint, from a vantage point above Oregon's Crater Lake. In an email, Goldpaint told me the opportunity came about "by pure coincidence."


"Capturing this famous light show had been a dream of mine for several years, but I could not have imagined the lights showing up in my own backyard!" Goldpaint wrote. "After setting up near the Rim Village Visitor Center lookout area, I began to notice a faint band of moving light slowly making its way from behind the Watchman Tower, around 1:30 a.m. My camera began picking up bright pink bursts of light towards the north, with what also looked like unfamiliar vertical bands of light stretching upwards from the horizon. I quickly changed my camera?s white balance to confirm I was not picking up some random light pollution, or hallucinating in my drowsy state. Following additional exposures, I came up with the same amazing results. The magical shifting scene continued until sunrise, and like most days in the wilderness, I was awed and humbled by true nature personified."

The photo now graces Brad's portfolio at GoldpaintPhotography.com.

The colors of the aurora depend on the wavelength of the light emitted when fast-moving, electrically charged particles from the sun interact with different types of atoms and ions in Earth's upper atmosphere. If the particles hit mostly oxygen atoms, the light will be in the greenish-yellowish-reddish range. Collisions with nitrogen atoms produce the blue, purple and deep red hues.

The altitude of the auroral glow also affects the color: At altitudes between 60 and 120 miles (100 and 200 kilometers), the oxygen emissions tend toward the green side of the spectrum. At higher altitudes, you'll see more red. Blend all those colors, and you get a beautiful, wide-ranging palette.

The "Causes of Color" website provides a fuller spectrum of information. And speaking of a fuller spectrum, here are more of the weekend's colors, plus a bonus video:

Stephen Voss

Stephen Voss snapped pictures of the southern lights from a spot near Invercargill in the south of New Zealand. "A dull arc hung around for a couple of hours before suddenly exploding with a mixture of rays and curtains," Voss told SpaceWeather.com. Check out Voss' gallery at Deep South Astrophotography.

Scott Lowther

Scott Lowther snapped this panoramic picture of Saturday night's auroral display as seen from Tremonton, Utah. The shot was taken with a Nikon D5000 and a 55mm lens at f/1.4 with 6-second exposures. For more of Lowther's photos, check out the Art by Earthlings website.

Shawn Malone / LakeSuperiorPhoto.com

Shawn Malone snapped this picture before dawn on Sunday morning from Marquette, Mich. "Got to witness the tail end of aurora activity as the skies cleared about 15-20 minutes before the sunrise light moved in," Malone told SpaceWeather.com. "Photos taken between 3:50 a.m. and 4:15 a.m. Bright aurora, with rays of light overhead, almost forming a corona. Beautiful purples came through on the exposures, but only light visible to the eye, as is typical with auroras right before sunrise." Check out LakeSuperiorPhoto.com for more of Malone's work.

Here's a 13-minute recap of three winters' worth of auroral imagery from Sweden. It's all part of "Light Over Lapland: The Aurora Borealis Experience" from Chad Blakley of LightsOverLapland.com on Vimeo. For best results, go full screen and HD. "The movie is a compilation of many thousands of still images captured in Abisko National Park," Blakley writes. "By my calculation I have spent no less than 2,000 hours pointing my camera at the sky recording the northern lights to create this film. ... I am enjoying the midnight sun and all of its warmth, but I am ready for the darkness and the auroras to return."

More auroral glories:


Alan Boyle is msnbc.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

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How many tests will we take?

Hi,

If a teacher says,

"In this class, there will be a test on reading, speaking, writing and listening at the end of the year",

will we (students) take four tests, each of which is on each subject?
Or will we take one test which covers all the four subjects?

Thank you,
Rino

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Spotify challenges Pandora with free radio on iPhone, iPad

Music streaming service Spotify has announced it is adding a free radio feature to its iOS app that will compete with the likes of Pandora, Slacker and Songza. Previously only available to desktop users, the feature will enable both free and premium Spotify users to create unlimited radio stations based on specific artists, songs, playlists or albums and stream them from an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Those under the $9.99 a month plan won?t hear any commercials and will be able to skip as many songs as they like, while free users will hear two to three minutes of commercials each hour and can skip about six songs every 60 minutes. Also, although Spotify Radio will be available for free and premium users in the US, it will be limited to premium subscribers only in the remaining fourteen markets Spotify supports.

The company is betting that free, ad-supported radio will attract users who can turn into paying subscribers later. The model is also cheaper to operate because it doesn?t require agreements with record companies ? which Spotify has for its on demand service ? thus royalty rates are lower and set by Congress.

Spotify has about 3 million paying subscribers globally and 10 million registered users worldwide as of November 2011.? Pandora, which was founded in 2005 and has yet to expand outside of the US, has 150 million registered users with 49 million listening within the last 30 days.

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AP Sources: Bobcats hire St. John's asst. Dunlap

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Sales Management Trainee - Baton Rouge, LA Jobs - Careers.org

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Basic Job Info

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Location

US-LA-Baton Rouge

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Employment Type

Full-Time

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Relocation Covered

False

Job Description

Looking to use your skills with an industry leader? In the Enterprise Management Training Program, you can use those talents on a daily basis as you interact and do business with customers and business partners alike. You?ll also be taught how to lead a sales team, be responsible for P&L, and develop a plan to grow the business ? all while honing your management, customer service and communication skills. You?ll have real responsibility from day one in all aspects of the business. And with our performance-based promotions, you?ll have real opportunity as well. Join the company that?s ranked year-after-year by BusinessWeek as one of the ?Best Places To Launch A Career".

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Entry-Level Sales Management Training Program Opportunities at Enterprise

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During your first year, you'll learn valuable business skills from capable mentors who were once in your shoes. Nearly 100% of all our managers and corporate executives started out as Management Trainees and helped define their own career path that took them to where they are today. Day-to-day responsibilities include actively participating in everything from sales, marketing and customer service to operations and finance. As you progress, you?ll be evaluated every step of the way. And upon successful completion, you can expect rewards, pay increases and the opportunity for continued promotions. Thanks to our entrepreneurial philosophy, there?s absolutely nothing holding you back. Your own initiative and capabilities, coupled with your ability to think on your feet and market effectively, will dictate how fast you advance.


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CM Punk makes his first "Late Night" appearance

All WWE programming, talent names, images, likenesses, slogans, wrestling moves, trademarks, logos and copyrights are the exclusive property of WWE, Inc. and its subsidiaries. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ? 2012 WWE, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This website is based in the United States. By submitting personal information to this website you consent to your information being maintained in the U.S., subject to applicable U.S. laws. U.S. law may be different than the law of your home country. WrestleMania XXIX (NY/NJ) logo TM & ? 2012 WWE. All Rights Reserved. The Empire State Building design is a registered trademark and used with permission by ESBC.

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Romney won't say he'll overturn immigration order

BRUNSWICK, Ohio (AP) ? Mitt Romney is refusing to say that he would overturn President Barack Obama's new policy allowing some young illegal immigrants to stay in the United States.

The Republican presidential candidate was asked three times in an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" whether he would overturn the executive order issued Friday if he's elected in the fall. He refused to directly answer.

"It would be overtaken by events," Romney said when pressed for the second time by moderator Bob Schieffer during the interview taped Saturday while the former Massachusetts governor's bus tour stopped in Pennsylvania.

He explained the order would become irrelevant "by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution, with legislation which creates law that relates to these individuals such that they know what their setting is going to be, not just for the term of a president but on a permanent basis."

Romney's Rust Belt tour swept through Ohio on Sunday. He attended a Father's Day pancake breakfast with two of his sons and five of his 18 grandchildren. He told a rain-soaked crowd that the weather was a metaphor for the country and that "three and half years of dark clouds are about to part."

He planned two additional stops in the state Sunday.

In the TV interview, Romney suggested that Obama's decision on immigration was motivated by politics. "If he felt seriously about this he should have taken action when he had a Democrat House and Senate, but he didn't. He saves these sort of things until four and a half months before the general election," he said.

Obama adviser David Plouffe, sent by the White House to four of the talk shows, contended that Obama's action, which appeals to Hispanic voters who are critical to the president's re-election effort, was not "a political move."

Obama's order has put Romney in the difficult position, forcing him to decide between possibly alienating Hispanic voters with tough talk or stoking anger within a conservative GOP base that was slow to warm to him during the primary process.

Romney's comments represent a further softening of his rhetoric on immigration since the GOP primary campaign ended.

For example, before the Iowa caucuses in January, when he faced the challenge of winning over the right-wing base of the GOP, he pledged to veto legislation backed by Democrats that would have created a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Instead of emphasizing the plight of illegal immigrants, Romney focused on the consequences illegal immigration has for U.S. jobs.

Obama's immigration announcement disrupted the start of Romney's five-day bus tour through small cities and towns in six important states.

The tour, now on its third day, scheduled two stops are in Ohio towns just outside the metropolitan areas of Cleveland and Columbus. Romney spent the first two days in New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, where he assailed Obama and insisted that he's the candidate who will give middle-class Americans "a fair shot."

The Obama administration said the policy change announced Friday will affect as many as 800,000 immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. Obama's move bypasses Congress and partially achieves the goals of the Democrats' long-stalled legislation aimed at young illegal immigrants who went to college or served in the military.

Under the administration plan, illegal immigrants will be able to avoid deportation if they can prove they were brought to the United States before they turned 16 and are younger than 30, have been in the country for at least five continuous years, have no criminal history, graduated from a U.S. high school or earned a GED diploma or certificate, or served in the military. They also can apply for a work permit that will be good for two years with no limits on how many times it can be renewed.

Romney's CBS interview was his first in more than a year with a Sunday talk show on a network other than Fox. It covered a range of topics, including health care, Romney's political future and the European financial crisis.

Romney said that the American banking sector "is able to weather the storm" in Europe. He said European countries are capable of dealing with their mess "if they choose to do so" and the U.S. doesn't want to get into the business of bailing out foreign banks. Romney also does not favor another round of economic stimulus by the Federal Reserve, saying a previous one didn't have the desired effect.

The former Massachusetts governor, whose health care plan for the state served as the model for the national health reform law, outlined steps he'd take if the Supreme Court strikes it down. On Iran, Romney said he would be willing to "take military action if necessary" to prevent the country from becoming a nuclear power.

Romney also insisted that he isn't worried about his own political future. "I don't have a political career," Romney said. "I spent my life in the private sector. I don't care about re-elections."

Schieffer asked, "So you're not saying you just intend to serve one term?"

Romney replied that for him "this is not about politics. This is not about did I win this or did they win this. This is about what can we do to get America right."

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Shenzhou docks with space lab

China's capsule moves to dock with space lab

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The docking was an automated procedure, with computers in control of events

China's Shenzhou-9 capsule, with its crew of three, has docked with the Tiangong-1 space lab.

The coupling of the vehicles occurred at 14:07 Beijing time (06:07 GMT; 07:07 BST).

The latest Shenzhou mission was launched on Saturday, taking the nation's first female astronaut into orbit.

Thirty-three-year old Liu Yang flies with Commander Jing Haipeng, 46, and fellow flight engineer, Liu Wang, 42.

It was another two hours after the docking before the astronauts moved between the vehicles.

They first had to wait for pressures inside the vessels to be equalised before they could open the hatches.

Commander Jing led the way into the lab, followed by Mr Liu. Ms Liu initially stayed behind in the Shenzhou capsule in case of emergency.

A video camera inside Tiangong relayed pictures of the entrance of the two men, who waved into the lens. They immediately set about checking systems.

After 20 minutes, Ms Liu followed her male colleagues into Tiangong, and the three then turned to the camera as a group to wave.

Continue reading the main story

Astronaut Liu Yang

  • Born in Henan province and an only child
  • Married, with no children
  • Air force pilot with rank of major
  • Member of Communist Party
  • Honoured as a "model" pilot in March 2010
  • Landed plane after being struck by birds
  • "Little flying knight" on QQ instant messenger
  • Likes cooking; a penchant for patriotic speeches

This is China's fourth manned mission. It follows on from last year's unmanned Shenzhou-8 outing which completed successful rendezvous and docking manoeuvres at Tiangong.

That gave Beijing authorities the confidence to put astronauts on the current flight.

Monday's docking was an automated procedure; computers - not the crew - were in charge of events.

A suite of radar, laser and optical sensors aligned Shenzhou with Tiangong. The capsule's thrusters then drove it into the space lab's docking ring.

The union happened at an altitude of about 340km (210 miles). Ms Liu operated a handheld video camera to record the moment of docking.

It is understood that for most of the time, only two members of the crew will work in the lab. The third individual will tend to hold back in the Shenzhou craft.

During the flight, a range of scientific experiments are planned, including a number of medical tests geared towards understanding the effects of weightlessness on the human body.

At some point in the next few days, the astronauts will attempt a manual docking.

This would see the crew uncouple their vehicle from the lab, retreat to a defined distance and then command their ship to re-attach itself.

Liu Wang will take the lead in this activity. "We've done over 1,500 simulations," he said during the pre-launch press conference.

"We've mastered the techniques and skills. China has first class technologies and astronauts, and therefore I'm confident we will fulfil the manual rendezvous."

China is already talking about a Shenzhou-10 mission to Tiangong sometime in the next year.

The lab is a prototype for the type of modules the nation hopes to join in orbit later this decade to form a permanently manned space station.

At about 60 tonnes in mass, this proposed station would be considerably smaller than the 400-tonne international platform operated by the US, Russia, Europe, Canada and Japan, but its mere presence in the sky would nonetheless represent a remarkable achievement.

Concept drawings describe a core module weighing some 20-22 tonnes, flanked by two slightly smaller laboratory vessels.

Officials say it would be supplied by freighters in exactly the same way that robotic cargo ships keep the International Space Station (ISS) today stocked with fuel, food, water, air, and spare parts.

China first put a man in orbit in 2003 (Shenzhou-5). This was followed by a two-man mission in 2005 (Shenzhou-6). In 2008, the Shenzhou-7 spacecraft carried three astronauts into orbit to perform the nation's first spacewalk.

Shenzhou-9 Commander Jing Haipeng was also involved in that venture, making him now China's most experienced spaceman.

Mr Jing's crew are expected back on Earth before the end of the month.

Long March 2F rocket

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China launches Shenzhou-9 capsule carrying its first female astronaut

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk and follow me on Twitter

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