With the arrival of “Seedship” UNS ”Calypso” in the Beta Caeli star system with orders to assist the UNS ”Tantalus”, which had colonized the system nearly 21 years before, soon the crew of the UNS ”Calypso” on arrival at Beta Caeli, learns that Earth has been attacked and is likely destroyed by the Centaurians also learn that the Tantalus colony has been destroyed with few traces of it at all left. However, leftover Tantalus technology may give the ”Calypsos crew an advantage later on.

History

In 2043, the first encounter with alien life is in the form of an alien solar sail probe from the Alpha Centauri star system, not long after signals indicating intelligent life were heard emanating from there and a direct message was sent there from Earth. The US Scout Ship ”Friendship”, currently on assignment surveying the Neptunian moon of Triton, diverted to intercept the craft. On the first Friday in October of 2043, after many attempts to contact the craft, the ”Friendship” closed to within 200 miles of the unknown vessel; without warning the probe fired an energy based weapon at the ”Friendship”, destroying it in mere moments. Despite numerous counter-attacks by other ships and even missiles, the alien vessel continued to drive towards Earth. Upon arriving at Earth the probe fired missiles of its own at Earth with most being destroyed by planetary defense systems but one hit near Sudan. The viral weapons onboard the missile killed millions. This violent act of aggression by the Centaurians would be the catalyst for the humans to rally all governments under the auspices of the United Nations, realizing that only their combined effort would create an effective defense.

Thus, the Human-Centaurian War began, with Earth putting all its efforts behind spacefaring and warfare research. Soon a battlefleet departed for Alpha Centauri to take the war to the enemy; after a long voyage and some progress in the enemy starsystem, the battlefleet was destroyed without achieving its mission and with a counterstrike expected.

The Humans and Centaurians continued to send battle fleets at each others’ systems over the next several decades to attack each other’s homeworlds, often encountering each other in the Oort Cloud and fighting vicious battles. Human fleets would attack a Centaurian homeworld, and if any survived, would continue on to other systems such as Tau Ceti. After a large Human armada was destroyed, though, the Humans awaited a final Centaurian assault. Overall, while the two species are approximately equally matched technologically, the Centaurians are far more aggressive, and it is apparent that the Humans are losing the war.

Last Hope

Fearing complete annihilation, mankind constructed colonization ships called “Seedships” to ensure survival of the human race in case Earth’s defenses failed. Massive enough to hold thousands of colonists, machines, supplies, and shuttles, the Odessa class Seedships are the pinnacle of technological advancement. The key feature of these Seedships is their revolutionary Bussard ramjet engines that allowed them to travel vast distances without needing a large amount of fuel, simply by using the trace hydrogen found in the interstellar medium; still voyages will take several decades and required the use of suspended animation techniques to reach their destinations. Seedships were launched, each with orders to assume that all others had been destroyed. Two of them are the UNS ”Calypso” and the UNS ”Tantalus”.

The Odessa Class 3-B Seedship UNS ”Calypso” was launched in 2119 on its course towards Beta Caeli. The Odessa Class 4-C Seedship UNS ”Tantalus”, with its new Ramikin fusion engine, would arrive in Beta Caeli 21 years prior to the ”Calypso” even though the ”Tantalus” was launched in 2135. Found in the Caelum constellation and located over 17 parsecs (over 55 light years) away from Earth, the Beta Caeli system was deemed a good candidate for survival from the Centaurians. ”

(Note: Beta Caeli, a blue-white star considerably brighter than the Sun, was chosen as the setting for the story because it is fairly far from the Sun and has a name containing an easily-remembered Bayer designation. In reality, G-type stars like our Sun would be far more likely to be chosen for human settlement, but at the distance of Beta Caeli—the in-game motive for this distance, of course, being to get away from the Centaurians—would be quite dim and almost certainly have a hard-to-remember Henry Draper Catalog designation, such as the recently-discovered real system HD 154345, or at best, a Flamsteed designation like 37 Geminorum or 18 Scorpii. The real Beta Caeli, meanwhile, is not considered particularly habitable, and is not being observed by any of the major planet-hunting groups.)

Planetary systems

The Beta Caeli system is extremely similar to the solar system, with a barren, rocky inner planet, terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of the inner system, followed by gas giants in the outer system that first increase and then decrease in size, and a tiny rock outermost. This suggests either that the “cigar” hypothesis of planetary formation holds true instead of the prevailing solar nebula hypothesis (the former proposes that a passing star rips a band of matter from another, a band that’s thicker in the middle and tapers off at the ends), or that the game designers took the easy way out, or that Beta Caeli was one of a relative handful of stars found to have a Sun-like solar system (like HD 154345 in the previous paragraph) and was selected for human habitation for that reason.

*Beta Caeli (F0-type Star; Blue-White in color)

*Alpha Asteroid Belt; analogous to the nonexistent Vulcanoids

*Hermes (Rocky Planet); analogous to Mercury

*Rhea (Earth-like Planet) Similar to Venus in position, but has a large Moon and is slightly larger than Earth. The presence of the large natural satellite and a quick rotation rate supposedly prevented the runaway greenhouse effect, making it Earth-like.

*Prometheus (Natural Satellite of Rhea), analogous to Earth’s Moon

*Gaea (Earth-like Planet); the Calypso starts the game orbiting Gaea. It has no moon.

*Ares (Desert Planet); analogous to Mars but poor in iron

*Beta Asteroid Belt; analogous to the Solar System’s main asteroid belt

*Zeus (Gas Giant); analogous to Jupiter

*Hera (Natural Satellite of Zeus); analogous to Io but larger and less volcanically active

*Hebe (Natural Satellite of Zeus); analogous to Ganymede

*Cronus (Gas Giant); analogous to Saturn but has no rings or moons.

*Poseidon (Gas Giant); analogous to Uranus and Neptune

*Thetis (Natural Satellite of Poseidon); analogous to Triton but larger

*Hades (Minor Planet); analogous to Pluto

The naming of the Caelian planets closely matches that of naming planets in our solar system. But while our system uses the names of Roman deities (except for Uranus), Caeli has Greek ones; Rhea and Gaea are both Greek goddesses of the Earth. One amusing artifact that can be found in the game details a movement demanding that Roman names be used for the Caelian planets also. In addition, as Beta Caeli is brighter and hotter than the Sun, the Caelian planets are more distant from their sun than their Solar System analogs are. In reality, Beta Caeli may be too bright and young to host life, a fact noted in the game itself where they noted that the system is 2.5 billion years old but an F0 star lasts for about 5 billion years, yet both Earth-like planets have advanced life forms.

Races

* The H’riak, a highly xenophobic race who have apparently seeded many planets in the Galaxy with their life, including Beta Caeli and Alpha Centauri, but apparently not Earth, have an automated sporeship called Gamma1 in the outer asteroid fields. The sporeship seems to send signals to the biota of terrestrial planets, and program it (whether intelligent or not) to attack any non-H’riak life forms nearby. Gamma1 was originally heavily armed, until the ”Tantalus” colonists managed to destroy most of its weaponry at the cost of all of their ships. The Centaurians are apparently either H’riak colonists or a H’riak-spawned intelligent species, and it is not unlikely that a sporeship like Gamma1 helped start the Human-Centaurian war after receiving the contact message from Earth by driving the Centaurians into a genocidal madness just like the biota on Rhea and Gaea.

* The Empiants, who resemble purple squids in appearance, inhabit the Gas Giant Cronus. Although fundamentally different from both man and Centaurians – due to the reason that the H’riak tried to send a sporeship to a Gas Giant and experiment the birth of a species living in such a radical environment. In the end, Empiants waged war against the H’Riak. The reasoning behind such attacks on the Human race is that Empiants and Men have different types of brainwaves, and that Human thoughts cause severe pain and is disturbing to Empiants but not vice versa. Though aggressive from appearances, they are not unreasonable once a person is able to block brainwaves. In fact, the Empiants provide Humans with the science necessary to unlock previously unavailable hyperspace and win the game.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Alien Legacy, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Current members include:

*Rosina Bierbaum, a widely-recognized expert in climate-change science and ecology, is Dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. Her PhD is in evolutionary biology and ecology. She served as Associate Director for Environment in OSTP in the Clinton Administration, as well as Acting Director of OSTP in 2000-2001. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

*Christine Cassel is President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine and previously served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Vice President for Medical Affairs at Oregon Health & Science University. A member of the US Institute of Medicine, she is a leading expert in geriatric medicine and quality of care.

*Christopher Chyba is Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs at Princeton University and a member of the Committee on International Security and Arms Control of the National Academy of Sciences. His scientific work focuses on solar system exploration and his security-related research emphasizes nuclear and biological weapons policy, proliferation, and terrorism. He served on the White House staff from 1993 to 1995 at the National Security Council and the Office of Science and Technology Policy and was awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship (2001) for his work in both planetary science and international security.

*Sylvester James Gates Jr. is the John S. Toll Professor of Physics and Director of the Center for String and Particle Theory at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the first African American to hold an endowed chair in physics at a major research university. He has served as a consultant to the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Defense, and the Educational Testing Service and held appointments at MIT, Harvard, California Institute of Technology and Howard University.

*John Holdren is serving as co-chair of PCAST in addition to his duties as Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the Executive Office of the President and Assistant to the President for Science and Technology. Prior to this appointment Dr. Holdren was a Professor of Environmental Policy and Director of the Program on Science, Technology, and Public Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He also served concurrently as Professor of Environmental Science and Policy in Harvard’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and as Director of the independent, nonprofit Woods Hole Research Center. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as well as a former President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship.

*Shirley Ann Jackson is the President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and former Chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1995-1999). She is the University Vice Chairman of the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, and past President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Jackson was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate from MIT and chairs the New York Stock Exchange Regulation Board.

*Eric Lander is serving as a co-chair of PCAST. He is the Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and Professor of Biology at MIT, Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He was one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project, recipient of the MacArthur Foundation Prize Fellowship and is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine.

*Richard Levin has served as President of Yale University since 1993 and is a distinguished economist with interests in industrial organization, the patent system, and the competitiveness of American manufacturing industries, including industrial research and development, intellectual property, and productivity. He is a leader in US-China cooperation, in research and education, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

*Chad Mirkin is Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Chemistry, and Medicine at Northwestern University, as well as Director of Northwestern’s International Institute of Nanotechnology. He is a leading expert on nanotechnology, including nano-scale manufacturing and applications to medicine. Awarded the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology in 2002, he is one of the top-cited researchers in nano-medicine, as well as one of the most widely cited chemists.

*Mario Molina is a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Center for Atmospheric Sciences at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, as well as Director of the Mario Molina Center for Energy and Environment in Mexico City. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995 for his role in elucidating the threat to the Earth’s ozone layer of chlorofluorocarbon gases. The only Mexican-born Nobel laureate in science, he served on PCAST for both Clinton terms. He is a member of both the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine.

*Ernest J. Moniz is a Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, Director of the Energy Initiative, and Director of the Laboratory for Energy and the Environment at MIT. His research centers on energy technology and policy, including the future of nuclear power, coal, natural gas, and solar energy in a low-carbon world. He served as Under Secretary of the Department of Energy (1997-2001) and Associate Director for Science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (1995-1997).

*Craig Mundie is Chief Research and Strategy Officer at Microsoft Corporation. He has 39 years of experience in the computer industry, beginning as a developer of operating systems. Dr. Mundie co-founded and served as CEO of Alliant Computer Systems.

*William Press is Professor of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, has wide-ranging expertise in computer science, astrophysics, and international security. A member of the US National Academy of Sciences, he previously served as Deputy Laboratory Director for Science and Technology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1998 to 2004. He is a Professor of Astronomy and Physics at Harvard University and a former member of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (1982-1998).

*Maxine Savitz is retired general manager of Technology Partnerships at Honeywell, Inc and has more than 30 years of experience managing research, development and implementation programs for the public and private sectors, including in the aerospace, transportation, and industrial sectors. From 1979 to 1983 she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Conservation in the US Department of Energy. She currently serves as vice-president of the National Academy of Engineering.

*Barbara A. Schaal is Professor of Biology at Washington University in St Louis. She is a renowned plant geneticist who has used molecular genetics to understand the evolution and ecology of plants, ranging from the US Midwest to the tropics. Dr Schaal serves as Vice President of the National Academy of Sciences, the first woman ever elected to that role.

*Eric Schmidt is Chairman and CEO of Google Inc. and a former member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc. Before joining Google, Dr. Schmidt served as Chief Technology Officer for Sun Microsystems and later as CEO of Novell Inc.

*Daniel Schrag is the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University and Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is also Director of the Harvard University-wide Center for Environment. He was trained as a marine geochemist and has employed a variety of methods to study the carbon cycle and climate over a wide range of Earth’s history. Awarded a MacArthur Prize Fellowship in 2000, he has recently been working on technological approaches to mitigating future climate change.

*David E. Shaw is the chief scientist of D. E. Shaw Research, where he leads an interdisciplinary research group in the field of computational biochemistry. He is the founder of D. E. Shaw & Co., an investment and technology development fund company. Dr. Shaw is a former member of PCAST under President Clinton and a member of the executive committee of the Council on Competitiveness, where he co-chairs the steering committee for the Council’s federally funded High-Performance Computing Initiative. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves on the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Academies.

*Harold Varmus is the President and CEO of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and co-chair of PCAST. Dr. Varmus served as the Director of the National Institutes of Health from 1993 to 1999 and in 1989 was the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his pioneering studies of the genetic basis of cancer. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and Institute of Medicine and recipient of the National Medal of Science.

*Ahmed Zewail is Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Caltech and Director of the Physical Biology Center. Dr. Zewail was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for his pioneering work that allowed observation of exceedingly rapid molecular transformations. He is an Egyptian, widely respected not only for his science but also for his efforts in the Middle East as a voice of reason. Dr. Zewail is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and postage stamps have been issued to honor his contributions to science and humanity.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article United States President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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* [http://books.google.com/books?id=BYkfAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 ''The Christian idea of education: papers and discussions''], co-edited with Edmund Fuller (1958), Yale University Press

r. Pollard, the Chairman, added: “The purpose of this seminar is to examine and identifiy in a fundamental fashion the peculiar characteristics of the educational processes and objectives which constitute the Christian idea of education. The emphasis will not be on religious perspectives in teaching, nor on the problems of the Christian teacher, but will rather be concerned with education in its entirety from a Christian viewpoint.

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=-fFBAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 ''Schools and Scholarship: The Christian Idea of Education: Part 2''], co-edited with Edmund Fuller (1962), Yale University Press

:The formal addresses by the university professors are, by and large, re-enactments of the ritual of Loving One’s Subject. They are eloquent pleas, on behalf of this, that or the other discipline, for a greater share in the students’ time. Most of the real moments of constructive excitement come in the discussions. …There are two startling exceptions to the generalization about the contribution of the university people. These exceptions are the scientists. The most exquisite statement of what the process of education should be is not to be found amid the majestic vivacity of the humanists but in the conversational, almost casual speech by Edward Teller, the physicist. The most acute and moving theology is contributed by the Executive Director of the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, the Rev. William G. Pollard. Their utterances explain why it has been, of all things, the dramatic demands of science on the high-school curricula that have, after thirty-five years of stagnation, at last produced the beginnings of a new humanism in American education.

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=IykaAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 ''The Hebrew Iliad : the history of the rise of Israel under Saul and David : written during the reign of Solomon probably by the priest Ahimaaz''], co-authored with Robert Henry Pfeiffer, Harper (1957)

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=HQMjHgAACAAJ ''Chance and providence: God's action in a world governed by scientific law''], Faber and Faber and Charles Scribner’s Sons, (1958) ([http://www.archive.org/details/chanceandprovide028224mbp full text] )

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=Fm8rAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 ''Physicist and Christian: a dialogue between the communities''] (1st published 1961; 2nd pub. 1964), Seabury Press ([http://www.archive.org/details/physicistandchri027533mbp full text] )

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=gzhDAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 ''Atomic energy and southern science; the impact of the Nation's atomic energy program on the development of science and technology in the South since 1946''], Oak Ridge Associated Universities (1966)

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=t8yXGAAACAAJ ''Science and faith: twin mysteries''], T. Nelson (1970)

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=2K-iGQAACAAJ ''The mystery of matter''], U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1970)

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=YDccAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 ''Transcendence and providence : reflections of a physicist and priest''], Scottish Academic Press (1986), ISBN 0707304865

* [http://www.osti.gov/energycitations/product.biblio.jsp?osti_id=7249851 Long-range prospects for solar-derived fuels], American Scientist, Vol/Issue: 64:5, 1976 Jan 01

* “The Recovery of Theological Perspective in a Scientific Age” (pp.& 22–43) in [http://books.google.com/books?id=7Ch4AAAACAAJ ''Religion and the University''] (1964) Edited by Jaroslav Pelikan, University of Toronto Press

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=kVuoGAAACAAJ ''The Moral Implications of Energy: Its Production, Distribution and Use''], By William G Pollard, Frederick S Carney, Thomas J. Reese, Published by America Press, 1981, (published as special issue of Catholic Mind October 1981)

* “The Faith of a Physicist” in [http://books.google.com/books?id=ZomNGQAACAAJ Modern Canterbury Pilgrims: The Story of Twenty-three Converts and why They Chose the Anglican Communion], James Albert Pike, Stephen Neill, Wystan Hugh Auden, New York, Mowbray, London: Morehouse-Gorham, 1956, 317 pages

:Review of book in Time Magazine: [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,937410,00.html Travelers at Home], Monday, May. 28, 1956

* “Creation by Alternative Histories”, Chapter 16 of ”[http://books.google.com/books?id=POanAAAACAAJ Science, Faith, and Revelation: An Approach to Christian Philosophy]” (A festschrift for Eric Rust), Bob E. Patterson, Eric Charles Rust, Broadman Press, 1979, ISBN 0805418091, 371 pages

Adapted from the Wikipedia article William G. Pollard, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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* 21st Century Cosmos – Our perception of the universe has changed dramatically from thoughts of a starry, unknown realm to knowledge of the countless galaxies that surround us, yet the scale of the cosmos remains a mystery. How old is the universe? How much matter and energy does the universe contain? ”21st century Cosmos” probes questions of cosmology with international astronomers to refine our understanding of how stars and galaxies are formed, if the universe is flat or curved, and how and why the universe will continue to expand.

* The Case for Mars – With its sandy deserts, snow-white polar caps and mysterious surface markings, Mars resembles our own world more than any other planet. For over 100 years, experts have debated whether or not there’s life on Mars. The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) mission produced an accurate map of the planet and detected evidence of an ancient ocean. How can a planet lose an entire ocean? Scientists are working to find out if remnants of this ocean are circulating beneath Mars’ surface. ”The Case for Mars” explores Mars’ landscape and compares it to oceans on Earth, while asking the question: Where will Mars exploration go next?

* The Enigma of Venus – Venus, the Sun’s second planet, is a dark, broiling oven. It is a high-pressure, volcanic world with temperatures soaring above 500 degrees Celsius and air choked with carbon dioxide. How can the planets Earth and Venus, so similar in size and composition, be so different? ”The Enigma of Venus” explores this unique planet’s features, including its abundant volcanoes, which have been mysteriously inactive for hundreds of millions of years. Planetary scientists theorize on the current state of Venus, and speculate about what it can teach us regarding global warming on our own planet.

* Extreme Astronomy – At the edge of the spectral frontier, strange things go bang! in the night. High-energy radiation, the alarm signal of atoms in extreme distress, can only be detected in space through the advanced technology of X-ray telescopes and gamma-ray satellites. In ”Extreme Astronomy”, rare but spectacular catastrophes caused by high-energy radiation—such as supernovas, stars in collision, and planets falling into black holes — are glimpsed through these instruments, teaching us more about our universe.

* Hubble’s Heritage – In 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of science—the expansion of the universe. To honor this king of cosmology, an orbiting observatory named the Hubble Space Telescope was launched in 1990 after years of research and delay. Hubble’s Heritage takes a closer look at this instrument, from its beginning as a flawed engineering nightmare to its evolution, through corrective optics, into humanity’s eyes on the universe. Viewers see some of the astonishing images captured by the Hubble Space Telescope through the years and learn of their significance to astronomers. Designers of the next generation of space telescopes explain the challenges that must be met before Hubble’s successors can reveal more mysteries of the universe.

* The Search for New Planets (Alien Planets: Anyone Home?) – Is there life among the stars? Are there planets circling other suns? Astronomers are ready to take on the greatest challenge in the search for extraterrestrial life: to discover another Earth, but how? The answer lies in extremely sensitive planet-finders—monster telescopes being designed and built to operate several hundred light years away. In ”The Search for New Planets”, ‘planet hunters’ discuss the prospects of finding ‘extrasolar’ signs of life and what such a discovery could mean.

* Stellar Evolution (Lives of the Stars) – If we could watch for millions of years, we would witness the stars undergo an astonishing sequence of changes. Thanks to a new generation of telescopes, the never-ending story of ”Stellar Evolution” is told in spectacular detail. Telescopic ultrasound — a camera sensitive to infrared light—monitors prenatal suns incubating inside clouds of hydrogen gas and newborn protostars emitting ultraviolet energy. What happens to stars after they die? From supernova explosions to black holes, the demise of stars eventually leads to new suns, new planets and possibly new life.

* The Story of Comets (Children of Stardust) – Comets are a natural phenomenon that are more violent than earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tornadoes put together. ”The Story of Comets” explores these unpredictable cosmic icebergs, which travel up to 100 times the speed of sound. Viewers discover the surprising influence comets have had over life on Earth, and follow a space mission sent to collect a sample of comet stardust for analysis. Will scientists unravel the mystery of comets and their impact on planets?

* Travelling to Outer Planets (Worlds Apart) – While we may know a great deal about the planets in our “neighborhood,” the lonely outer stretches of the solar system are now targets for a new generation of space missions. ”Traveling to Outer Planets” introduces viewers to scientists planning these explorations and highlights some of the mysteries they hope to solve. Does the icy surface of Jupiter’s moon, Europa, contain a liquid ocean with possible life? Can water and land survive the thick, foggy atmosphere of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan? What can be learned from asteroids? Scientists and researchers are preparing for the day when astronauts may visit these unexplored worlds.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Cosmic Odyssey (documentary), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Since purchasing the 430ha town, the community has added 2 500ha of agricultural land to the town.

Environmental practices

The people of Orania believe in protecting the environment.

* People recycle their own garbage by sorting and placing the garbage into five different trash cans.

* All new houses must have solar-boilers for hot water.

* Various people in the town are looking at ways to switch over to green electricity.

* In the town there is a number of different ecological buildings, for example a straw bale house with a living roof.

* In the near future earthships (aardskepe) will be built in Orania.

File:RecyclingOrania.JPG|Garbage recycling in Orania.

File:SolarBoilerOrania.JPG|Example of a solar boiler.

File:SolarWindPowerOrania.JPG|House with solar and wind energy.

File:StrawBaleOrania.JPG|The first straw bale house in Orania.

File:GrobbelaarHouseOrania.JPG|Straw bale house with living roof.

File:NatureCoolingWallOrania.JPG|Natural cooling and heating wall.

Education

There are two schools, ”Die Volkskool Orania” (Orania People’s School) and the ”CVO Skool Orania” (where CVO stands for ”Christelike Volks-Onderwys” or Christian People’s-Education). Although the official curriculum is followed, special emphasis is placed on Afrikaner history and Christian religion, though with some differences in their teaching methods.

* The Volkskool use a self driven teaching (selfgedrewe) system which is unorthodox by South African standards .

* The CVO-school is run along more conventional lines.

Economy and Agriculture

Farming is an important part of Orania’s economy, the most recent project being a massive pecan nut plantation.

During April 2004, Orania launched its own monetary system, called the Ora, based on the idea of discount shopping vouchers. The Orania local banking institution, the ”Orania Spaar- en Kredietkoöperatief” (“Orania Savings and Credit Co-operative”) is in charge of this initiative. Orania recently launched its own chequebook.

Orania’s tourism industry is showing rapid development with the completion of a luxury river spa and boutique hotel complex in 2009. ”Orania Toere” (Orania Tours), Orania’s first registered tour operator, was also launched in 2009.

In 2010 thirteen (13) independent hospitality businesses operate in Orania. This includes, caravan park, self-catering flats, rooms, hotel and guest-houses.

Media

In 2005, after complaints by citizens, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa shut down Orania’s unlicensed Radio Club 100 radio station, on grounds of its alleged racism. The station’s equipment was seized. No criminal charges were laid against the operators of the radio station, who claim that the radio station broadcasted harmless news about birthdays and social events. Management of the radio station claimed that they repeatedly applied for a radio license in order to be a community broadcaster like other radio stations in the country.

After being granted a license toward the end of 2007 Orania radio re-started broadcasting on the 13th of April 2008 on 95.5 MHz.

In January 2010, Afrikaans daily newspaper Beeld published an article by Frans de Klerk, chief executive of Orania, in which he sets out what he views as the successes of Orania. De Klerk also distanced the town from racist organizations using Orania to further their own causes. Shortly after, Die Burger, another Afrikaans daily newspaper and sister publication of Beeld, published an article by author and journalist Marida Fitzpatrick, describing her experiences when visiting Orania. Fitzpatrick praised the town for its safety and environmentally friendly approaches to living, but also wrote that overt racist ideas and ideology still underpinned the views of many residents.

Self-government progress

On Thursday 5 June 1998, Mr. Valli Moosa (then Minister of Constitutional Development in the ANC government) stated in a parliamentary budget debate that, “The ideal of some Afrikaners to develop the North Western Cape as a home for the Afrikaner culture and language within the framework of the Constitution and the Charter of Human Rights is viewed by the government as a legitimate ideal.”

On July 4, 2007 the town of Orania and the Northern Cape government agreed that the question of Orania’s self-government should be discussed at all government levels.

In the recent South African general election, 2009, the community decisively voted for the Freedom Front Plus party.

Debate surrounding a volkstaat returned to the mainstream media following the murder of AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche in April 2010. Boshoff claimed a symbolism of the murder for farm murders that he described as “nothing other than a state of war”. Yet he rejected an invitation to Terre’Blanche’s funeral, “I’m not enamoured of him.. He chose a path of confrontation, of conflict. We wanted another way.”

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Orania, Northern Cape, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Low and mid-latitude flows

The typical diurnal cycle in the mid-latitude (i.e. well below auroral latitudes) ionosphere and plasmasphere includes a significant transient triggered by sunrise on the ionosphere, as well as a diurnal ‘breathing’ associated with the varying sun-light and length of the flux tube. For O+ ions, the breathing velocities, especially during drainage from the plasmasphere, are predicted to be transonic, and standing acoustic deceleration shocks can be set up at mid-altitudes in the topside of each

hemisphere, though this has not to date been clearly observed. A recent theoretical treatment of this region is given by Guiter et al. (1995).

Near the mean plasmapause position, the plasmasphere undergoes cycles of density erosion by enhanced magnetospheric circulation, followed by refilling to equilibrium densities, over time scales of a few days. The erosive part of the cycle transports ionospheric plasma out of the inner magnetosphere toward its boundary layers. The refilling part of the cycle is a case of transient polar wind outflow, mentioned here only to set the context for higher latitude plasma outflows.

High latitude outflows

Within the high latitude (i.e. at auroral and polar cap latitudes) magnetospheric flow, plasma flux tubes undergo a circulation cycle whose time scale ranges from diurnal to much shorter than diurnal, depending on the strength of the solar wind interaction. During the course of this circulation cycle, a particular plasma flux tube is first stretched from 10 RE to 100 RE in length as it is convected anti-sunward in the low latitude boundary layer, or it may be disconnected from the conjugate hemisphere and connected into the solar wind during part of the cycle, permitting direct plasma exchange between the two media. Later, after reconnection in the tail if disconnection has occurred, the flux tube relaxes back to a length consistent with passage through the inner magnetosphere and back to its starting point. During each circulation cycle, the flux tube volume changes by a factor of order 10^4 .

During the stretch part of the cycle, or when the flux tube is connected to downstream solar wind regions (which pull a vacuum rather than filling the flux tube with solar plasma), ionospheric plasma expands freely into the flux tube as if there were a zero pressure upper boundary condition, introducing H+ /He+ plasma to the flux tube at a rate limited by the available source of plasma. The net result is a very low density, supersonic flux of cold light ions through the polar caps and into the magnetospheric lobes.

This outflow is generally called the polar wind and has been observed at ionospheric topside heights by Brinton et al. (1971), Hoffman et al. (1974, 1980), and Blelly et al. (1992), at altitudes of about 1 R_E by Abe et al. (1993a, 1993b) and Yau et al. (1993), around 3 – 4 RE by Nagai et al. (1984) and Olsen et al. (1986) and most recently at altitudes up to 9 R_E by Moore et al. (1997). However, it has been noted by many of these authors that the cold supersonic light ion outflows are often accompanied by comparable fluxes of O+, even under conditions of low solar activity.

Understanding this profound difference between predicted and observed outflow composition is the most important goal of research on ionospheric plasma source processes at high latitudes. It is generally agreed that special energizing processes must be involved to produce sizeable O+ ion outflow fluxes.

Photoelectron effects

Ambipolar coupling of electron energy to the ion plasma is an intrinsic aspect of all polar wind theories and the proper handling of photoelectrons has been argued extensively over the history of polar wind research. An ambipolar potential drop will develop which is sufficient to limit the electron escape flux to the signed sum of the flux of ions escaping and electrons entering the system.

Based on contemporary estimates of photoelectron content, Tam et al. (1995) concluded that a large flux of O+ is required to escape unless a supply of high altitude electrons is present. They computed an enhanced ambipolar potential distribution able to extract the required O+, using a one-dimensional flux tube model. However, Khazanov et al. (1997) assume that sufficient numbers of electrons will be available at high altitude to limit this effect, obtaining results more similar to observations (including enhanced O+ outflow) with the same photoelectron population as used by Tam et al. (1995).

At present, the role of the high-altitude electrons seems unresolved and there is a need for a more realistic (at least two-dimensional) model of convecting flux tubes with a (magnetosheath) supply of electrons at the upper boundary. Three-dimensional models have been developed (Schunk and Sojka, 1989), but they do not presently account for photoelectrons or structure in the upper boundary condition.

Centrifugal effects

Cladis (1986) first proposed the centrifugal force in the reference frame of the plasma convecting across the polar cap as an important contributor to the acceleration of O+ . Horwitz et al. (1994a) suggested that this acceleration process is sufficient to significantly enhance the O+ escape flows. Demare and Shunk (1996) confirmed the strong effect of the centrifugal acceleration on the O+ , but argued that it was only effective above a few RE altitude. Thus, some other energization process was required at lower altitude. They argued therefore that the centrifugal acceleration would add little O+ escape.

Demars and Schunk cite observations of heating at lower altitudes as evidence against a significant role for centrifugal acceleration in the escape process. Thus it is likely that low altitude heating effects are dominant in enhancing the number flux of O+ escape. The centrifugal acceleration increases the parallel velocity of the O+ flow relative to the transverse or convective flow and enhances O+ penetration down the lobes into the tail of the magnetosphere (Moore and Delcourt, 1995).

Cool/hot plasma contact surfaces

The ‘ground state’ ionosphere is also influenced by the presence of hot magnetospheric or magnetosheath plasmas through many processes that exceed the scope of this article. Here we consider only the possible formation of contact surfaces or double layers between the cool ionospheric and hot magnetospheric plasmas.

The interaction of these two plasmas with wide temperature differences can produce an electric potential difference as was first proposed by Hultqvist (1971). Lemaire and Scherer (1978) suggested that this effect could lead to a double layer above the ionosphere. The formation of a double layer was also reported in simulations of Barakat and Schunk (1984). They have shown that where the hot electron density is substantial and the energy is of the order of several keV, there exists a discontinuity in the kinetic solution. This discontinuity corresponds to a contact surface between the hot and cold electrons, at which a double-layer potential barrier reflects the cold ionospheric electrons and prevents their escape.

Barakat and Schunk (1984) have also shown that if the hot/cold electron temperature ratio is small, the polar wind solutions are similar to those obtained previously without hot electrons. When the temperature ratio is high, the supersonic H+ and O+ ion outflow velocities are increased on passage through the surface.

Recent observations have shown that the polar wind is often variable in velocity, at times with amplitudes of a factor of three on time scales of a few minutes or less (Su et al., 1998; Moore et al., 1999), and that the variability is in some way related to the polar rain electron environment. It is likely that enhanced ambipolar potential drops and their spatio-temporal variability are responsible for these variations in polar wind outflow velocity.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Polar wind, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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There are many state and privately owned television stations in Irkutsk, including state IGTRK company http://irkutsk.rfn.ru and private ones http://as.baikal.tv AS Baikal TV, TV company AIST http://www.aisttv.ru, TV company Gorod http://www.gorodtv.ru, and e.g. http://www.vsp.ru VSP newspaper agency.

Irkutsk live webcamera inlc. life temperature in city center: http://as.baikal.tv/webcam/

Education

Irkutsk is home to East Siberian Education Academy (since 1909), Irkutsk State University (1918), Irkutsk State Medical University (1918), Baykalsky State University of Economics and Law (since 1932), Irkutsk State Technical University (since 1939), Irkutsk State Academy of Agriculture, Irkutsk State Linguistic University (1948), Irkutsk State Railway Transport University (since 1975), and a number of private colleges: Siberian Institute of Law, Economics and Management (since 1993), Institute of Economics of ISTU (since 1996), and others.

Science

As part of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences there are nine research institutes located in the Irkutsk Academgorodok suburb: Institute of Geography, Energy Systems Institute, Institute of Geochemistry, Institute of Systems Dynamics and Control Theory, Earth’s Crust Institute, solar-terrestrial physics institute, Institute of Chemistry, Institute of Limnology (located on lake Baikal’s shore), Institute of Plants Physics, Laser Physics Institute (Branch of the Novosibirsk-based Institute). Apart from SB RAS Research Institutes, there are R&D institutes including GAZPROM R&D Institute (Branch of Moscow-based Institute), Irkutsk Institute of Less-Common and Precious Metals and Diamonds.

Literature

Irkutsk has long been home to the well-known Russian writer Valentin Rasputin; many of his novels and stories take place in the Angara Valley. An essay on the cultural history of Irkutsk (and another one about the nearby Lake Baikal) is included in Rasputin’s non-fiction collection Siberia, Siberia, which is also available in English translation.

Museums

The Taltsy Museum , located on the Angara 47& km south of Irkutsk, is an open-air museum of Siberian traditional architecture. Numerous old wooden buildings from villages in the Angara valley which have been flooded after the construction of the Bratsk Dam and Ust-Ilimsk Dam have been transported to the museum and reassembled there. One of the centerpieces of the collection is a partial recreation of the 17th-century ”ostrog” (fortress) of Ilimsk, which consists of the original Spasskaya Tower and the Church of Our Lady of Kazan transported from the flooded ”ostrog” in the mid-1970s, to which an exact modern copy of another tower of the ”ostrog” and the southern wall of the fortress were added in the early 2000s

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Irkutsk, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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World History

* 7 Wonders

* African Kingdoms

* Ancient China

* Ancient Egypt

* Ancient Greece

* Ancient India

* Ancient Persia

* Aztecs

* Caribbean

* Explorers

* Great Wall Of China

* Incas

* Industrial Revolution

* Kings & Queens

* Knights & Castles

* Language

* Leonardo Da Vinci

* Maps

* Marco Polo

* Maya

* Mesopotamia

* Mexico

* Middle Ages

* Money

* Mummies

* Pyramids

* Roman Empire

* Samurai

* Shakespeare

* Shelter

* Titanic

* Vikings

* World War I

* World War II

American History and Culture

* 1776

* America 1492

* American Revolution

* Ben Franklin

* Civil Rights

* Civil War

* Colonial America

* Declaration Of Independence

* Edison, Thomas

* Ellis Island

* Firefighters

* Great Depression

* Hawaii

* How America Works

* Immigration

* Jackie Robinson

* Jefferson

* Lewis & Clark

* Lincoln

* Mark Twain

* Martin Luther King, Jr

* Mississippi River

* Native America

* Northwest Coast Peoples

* Pioneers

* Plains Indians

* Presidency

* Revolutionary Women

* Roaring 20’s

* Sacagawea

* Southwest Peoples

* Statue Of Liberty

* Suffragists

* Teddy Roosevelt

* Underground Railroad

* Washington

* Wright Brothers

Life Sciences

* 5 Senses

* Bees

* Birds

* Blood

* Boats & Ships

* Bones

* Brain

* Butterflies & Moths

* Cells

* Conservation

* Ecology

* Elephants

* Energy

* Everglades

* Eyes

* Flowers

* Germs

* Gorillas

* Heart

* Insects

* Lakes

* Lungs

* Medicine

* Microbes

* Muscles

* Nutrition

* Oceans

* Plants

* Rain Forests

* Rain Forests II

* Skin

* Spiders

* Wetlands

Earth Science

* Antarctica

* Climate

* Earth

* Earthquakes

* Extreme Weather

* Glaciers

* Grand Canyon

* Hurricanes

* Ice Age

* Islands

* Mountains

* Oceans

* Pompeii

* Rain & Snow

* Rocks

* Shelter

* Tornadoes

* Volcanoes

* Water

* Weather

Space and Physical Science

* Atoms

* Bridges

* Electricity

* Energy

* Inventions

* Light

* Moon

* Moon Exploration

* Planets

* Simple Machines

* Solar System

* Space

* Space Exploration

* Stars & Nebulae

* Sun

* Telescopes

* Water

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Kids Discover, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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The shape of the main island of Taiwan is similar to a sweet potato seen in a south-to-north direction, and therefore, Taiwanese, especially the Min-nan division, often call themselves “children of the Sweet Potato.” There are also other interpretations of the island shape, one of which is a whale in the ocean (the Pacific Ocean) if viewed in a west-to-east direction, which is a common orientation in ancient maps, plotted either by Western explorers or the Great Qing.

Geology

The island of Taiwan lies in a complex tectonic area between the Yangtze Plate to the west and north, the Okinawa Plate on the north-east, and the Philippine Mobile Belt on the east and south. The upper part of the crust on the island is primarily made up of a series of terranes, mostly old island arcs which have been forced together by the collision of the forerunners of the Eurasian Plate and the Philippine Sea Plate. These have been further uplifted as a result of the detachment of a portion of the Eurasian Plate as it was subducted beneath remnants of the Philippine Sea Plate, a process which left the crust under Taiwan more buoyant.

The east and south of Taiwan are a complex system of belts formed by, and part of the zone of, active collision between the North Luzon Trough portion of the Luzon Volcanic Arc and South China, where accreted portions of the Luzon Arc and Luzon forearc form the eastern Coastal Range and parallel inland Longitudinal Valley of Taiwan respectively.

The major seismic faults in Taiwan correspond to the various suture zones between the various terranes. These have produced major quakes throughout the history of the island. On September 21, 1999, a 7.3 quake known as the “921 earthquake” occurred. The seismic hazard map for Taiwan by the USGS shows 9/10 of the island as the highest rating (most hazardous).

On 4 March 2010 at about 01:20 UTC, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit southern Taiwan.

Climate

Taiwan’s climate is marine tropical. The northern part of the island has a rainy season that lasts from January through late March during the northeast monsoon, and experiences ”meiyu” in May. The entire island experiences hot, humid weather from June through September. The middle and southern parts of the island do not have an extended monsoon season during the winter months. Natural hazards such as typhoons and earthquakes are common in the region.

Taiwan is a center of bird endemism; see Endemic birds of Taiwan for further information.

Environment and pollution

With its high population density and many factories, some areas in Taiwan suffer from heavy pollution. Most notable are the southern suburbs of Taipei and the western stretch from Tainan to Lin Yuan, south of Kaohsiung. In the past, Taipei suffered from extensive vehicle and factory air pollution, but with mandatory use of unleaded gasoline and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency, the air quality of Taiwan has improved dramatically. Motor scooters, especially older or cheaper two-stroke versions, which are ubiquitous in Taiwan, also contribute disproportionately to urban air pollution.

Natural resources

Because of the intensive exploitation throughout Taiwan’s pre-modern and modern history, the island’s mineral resources (e.g. coal, gold, marble), as well as wild animal reserves (e.g. deer), have been virtually exhausted. Moreover, much of its forestry resources, especially firs were harvested during Japanese rule for the construction of shrines and have only recovered slightly since then. The remaining forests nowadays do not contribute to significant timber production mainly because of concerns about production costs and environmental regulations.

Camphor extraction and sugarcane refining played an important role in Taiwan’s exportation from the late 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. The importance of the above industries subsequently declined not because of the exhaustion of related natural resources but mainly of the decline of international market demands.

Nowadays, few natural resources with significant economic value are retained in Taiwan, which are essentially agriculture-associated. Domestic agriculture (rice being the dominant kind of crop) and fisheries retain importance to a certain degree, but they have been greatly challenged by foreign imports since Taiwan’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001. Consequently, upon the decline of subsistent importance, Taiwan’s agriculture now relies heavily on the marketing and exportation of certain kinds of specialty fruits, such as banana, guava, lychee, wax apple, and high-mountain tea.

Energy resources

Taiwan has significant coal deposits and some insignificant petroleum and natural gas deposits. Electrical power generation is nearly 55% coal-based, 18% nuclear power, 17% natural gas, 5% oil, and 5% from renewable energy sources. Nearly all oil and gas for transportation and power needs must be imported, making Taiwan particularly sensitive to fluctuations in energy prices. Because of this, Taiwan’s Executive Yuan is pushing for 10% of energy generation to come from renewable energy by 2010, double from the current figure of approximately 5%. In fact, several wind farms built by American and German companies have come online or will in the near future. Taiwan is rich in wind energy resources, with Wind farms both onshore and offshore, though limited land area favors offshore wind resources. Solar energy is also a potential resource to some extent. By promoting renewable energy, Taiwan’s government hopes to also aid the nascent renewable energy manufacturing industry, and develop it into an export market.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Taiwan, under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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Carmel High shares a cross town rivalry with Pacific Grove High School, where every year the two teams compete in “The Shoe Game”, so named after a shoe that was bronzed and made into a trophy by Carmel High students in an attempt to start the rivalry. As of 2008, “The Shoe” was in the possession of the Carmel team. The school’s mascot is the Padre, which pays homage to the peninsula’s history with the Spanish missionaries, with the Carmel Mission found just a few miles from the campus.

The Carmel High School’s new Library has approximately 16,000 volumes and is equipped with wireless communication. The old library, that at one point was a theater, was torn down and a new theater is being built in its place. This theater will be an attempt to use “green” construction practices, such as solar panels and energy efficient lights and appliances.

Construction recently finished on a new weight room, dance room, remodeled gym and locker rooms, and pool. The school is known for their cross country, and track and field teams, as well as their golf program, with a home course located at Pebble Beach. The success of their cross country and track and field programs is often attributed to Coach Ables, who has trained the team to State skill level for the past 40 years.

As of 2006 the school has a team that participates in the FIRST Robotics Competition – Team 2035, name “The Robo-Rockin’ Bots”, which is headed by teachers Paul McFarlin and Tom Clifford. Team 2035 had a highly successful rookie year, placing second in the U.C. Davis Regional Competition. The team was awarded the Motorola Quality Award in 2008. The school is also planning a state-of-the-art robotics lab to support the ROP Robotics class.

The school also has a mock trial team, headed by teachers Bill Schrier and Marc Stafford. The team has been the Monterey County champions since 2008, advancing to the state finals each year. In 2010, the team finished 11th in the state and was honored with two individual awards.

Most recently, Karl Pallastrini, a Carmel High graduate, retired from his position as principal. He was one of many faculty members that were once students at Carmel High School.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Carmel High School (Carmel, California), under the G. N. U. Free Documentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

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