UPDATE: A spokesman from Zalora Taiwan said: Zalora Taiwan is conducting review of our operating model in Taiwan to shift some of the operation to our headquarter in Singapore. During the period, we would not be able to serve new order and we apologize for the inconvenience caused. We will resume the operation as soon as possible and keep you informed. Any returns and refund will also be honored according to the term agreed. All customers can contact us on cs@zalora.com.tw. Our customer service agent will response within 1 working day. We deny any rumors that we are going through a bankruptcy or closure. All payment to customers and our vendors are proceeded or will be preceded. All of our employees will be managed according with Taiwan labor law. We reserve the right to take legal action against anyone making untrue statement about us. One year after launching in Taiwan, Rocket Internet-backed Zalora may be shutting down its operations in the country. Though the Singapore-based fashion e-tailer has yet to issue a confirmation, e27 notes several signs that a closure of its Taiwan branch is already in progress. Zalora Taiwan’s Web site currently says that it will no longer provide telephone services for customer support after today. Furthermore, Taiwanese TV news station TVBS reported last week (link via Google Translate) that more than 100 employees were suddenly laid off as Zalora?canceled orders from suppliers.?Reasons cited by TVBS for Zalora Taiwan’s potential demise include the high cost of marketing in Taiwan’s saturated online retail market, which is already dominated by e-commerce sites Yahoo! Taiwan and PChome. Zalora recently landed several high-profile investments, including $26 million from German retail conglomerate Tengelmann Group, but as Jacky Yap of e27 notes, Rocket Internet has already encountered several setbacks in Southeast Asia, including the closure of Home24. “Rocket Internet will not hesitate to pull the plug when it comes to evaluating a likely failure,” just as it shut down its operations in Turkey last August, Yap writes. Despite Zalora’s rapid growth, the reported closure of its Taiwan operations is a reminder that Rocket Internet’s foothold on the Asian market is still not a sure thing. I’ve reached out to Zalora’s HQ for comment and will update if I hear back from them.
It was getting dark, and the sheriff of Nelson County, N.D., was in a standoff with a family of suspected cattle rustlers. They were armed, and the last thing anybody wanted was a shoot out.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which monitors police radio chatter, offered to help. Their Predator was flying back to its roost at the Grand Forks Air Force base and could provide aerial support. Did the sheriff want the assist?
Yep.
"We were able to detect that one of the sons was sitting at the end of the driveway with a gun. We also knew that there were small children involved," Sheriff Kelly Janke told NBC News, remembering that tricky encounter in the early summer of 2011. "Someone would have gotten seriously injured if we had gone in on the farm that night." He decided to wait.
The next day, the drone gave them an edge again by helping them choose the safest moment to make a move. "We were able to surprise them ? took them into custody," Janke said. They also collected six stolen cows.
Rodney Brossart, the arrested farmer, sued the state, in part because of the cop's use of a drone. But a district judge ruled that the Predator's service was not untoward.
When advocates express concern about government drones threatening people's privacy, the Brossart case is one they bring up. It's one of the first instances of a flying robot doing a cop's dirty work, and this kind of intervention is likely to be more and more commonplace, as the FAA fulfills a congressional mandate to increase its granting of drone permits ? certificates of authorization, or COAs.
Cops and flying robots At the moment, there are only 327 active COAs, all held by these organizations, and all for unarmed crafts, of course. A tiny sliver of these permits are in the hands of law enforcement agencies, and from them, we're seeing the first glimpses of drone use in policing and emergency response.
"The FAA has approved us to cover a 16-county area," Sheriff Bob Rost of Grand Forks County, N.D., said of their COA. "To look for missing children, to look for escaped criminals and in the case of emergencies." In the spring, they will use two mini-copter drones ? a trusty DraganFlyer X6 and an AeroVironment Qube ? to check on flooded farms.
The police department in Arlington, Texas, also recently got FAA clearance to fly their drones after two years of testing. The two battery-powered Leptron Avenger helicopter drones won't be used for high-speed chases or routine patrol, the department explains. In fact, the crafts will be driven in a truck to where they're needed, and when they're launched to scope out incidents, local air traffic control will be informed.
In Mesa County, Colo., the police department has used drones to find missing people, do an aerial landfill survey and help out firefighters at a burning church. For them, it's seen as a cost-cutting technology.
"It's the Wal-Mart version of what we'd normally get at Saks Fifth Avenue," said Benjamin Miller, who leads the drones program in Mesa County, comparing drones to manned helicopters that would otherwise give police officers help from the sky.
In Seattle, the police department received an FAA permit ? but had to give back its drones when the mayor banned their use, following protests in October 2012.
Protests and red tape "Hasn't anyone heard of George Orwell's '1984'?" the Seattle Times quoted a protester as saying. "This is the militarization of our streets and now the air above us."
Protesters, not just in Seattle, seek more legal definition of what a drone can or can't do, and debate whether or not current laws sufficiently protect citizens from unauthorized surveillance and other abuses.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg thinks of police drones as an inevitability ? "We're going to have them," he recently said in a radio interview ? while those on the police (and drone) side say the fears are unfounded.
"This hysteria of [a drone] hovering outside your backyard taking a video of you smoking a joint, it's just that ? hysteria," said Al Frazier, an ex-cop from Los Angeles who is now an assistant professor of aeronautics at the University of North Dakota, and a deputy at the Grand Forks sheriff's office.
The reason the sky isn't lousy with drones already mostly has to do with red tape. The FAA's highly restricted drone application for government agencies is supposed to take about 60 days, though unofficially, we're told it's much longer. COAs are also very strict about where, when and by whom a drone is flown.
"I think there are many agencies who would like to use [drones] for public good, but they're stymied by the process," Frazier said.
That's likely to change ? and soon. Last February, Obama signed a mandate that encourages the FAA to let civil and commercial drones join the airspace by 2015. This will take new regulations from the FAA for safe commercial drone flight, and it may take some convincing of local anti-drone activists (who sometimes don't differentiate between drones great and small). It may even require the passing of a few new privacy laws.
Folks like Frazier and Miller don't see the permit process getting easier any time soon but eventually ? inevitably ? and for better or worse, your local police department will get its drone.
Nidhi Subbaraman writes about technology and science. Follow her on Twitter and Google+.
Related:
The drones are coming ... but our laws aren't ready
Anticipating domestic boom, colleges rev up drone piloting programs
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's two main opposition parties traded warnings on Sunday against joining forces with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives after September's election if they fail to win their own left-of-center majority.
The leaders of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens party issued unusually shrill messages to each others' supporters about the risk their votes might end up going to a party that could join forces in a coalition with Merkel.
The SPD and Greens want to form a center-left government after September's election but opinion polls show they will fall short of the needed margin. Surveys show Merkel's best chances of serving a third term could be to lure either the SPD or the Greens into a coalition with her Christian Democrats (CDU).
SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel, alarmed about flirtations between the Greens and CDU, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Greens voters should be aware that the pro-environmental party could end in bed with the CDU if the SPD and Greens failed to achieve a majority on September 22.
"That can't be ruled out and Greens voters should know about that," said Gabriel. The Greens, he said, had turned into Germany's "new liberal party" as they were chasing voters who had earlier backed the CDU and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP).
"There is a lot of overlap between the CDU and the Greens now," Gabriel said, trying to deter hard-core Greens voters who have traditionally viewed the conservatives as the party's arch political enemy.
'HOT AIR MERCHANT'
Greens co-chairman Cem Oezdemir, one of the party's most eloquent proponents of an opening to the CDU, quickly shot back.
"Gabriel is a hot air merchant," Oezdemir told Die Welt newspaper. "He knows that we want to defeat the center-right government together with the SPD. But it's not enough to rely only on SPD-Greens voters. If we were to do that, the SPD would quickly end up turning to Merkel for another 'grand coalition'."
Opinion polls show neither Merkel's ruling center-right coalition nor the center-left opposition command enough support to win a majority to lead Europe's biggest economy.
An Emnid poll in Bild am Sonntag showed Merkel's conservatives at 39 percent and their Free Democrat allies at five percent for a combined 44 percent. The SPD was at 26 percent and the Greens at 15 percent for a total of 41 percent.
The SPD and Greens governed together in a coalition from 1998 to 2005. After that the SPD joined forces with Merkel as junior partners in an awkward "grand coalition" until 2009.
The Greens' support in polls has doubled in recent years to levels around 15 percent thanks in part to fears about nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, but also their growing appeal to conservative and rural voters.
The Greens, once famous for their unpredictable and self-destructive party congress battles, have become a serious and united party eager to return to power.
At the state level, the Greens ruled in a harmonious coalition with the CDU in Hamburg for three years until 2011, earning them national respectability as a fiscally responsible party. They have also ruled the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg with the SPD as their junior coalition partners since 2012.
A NASA spacecraft scanning for the most powerful explosions in the universe has captured a photo of Comet ISON, an icy wanderer that could potentially dazzle stargazers when it swings close to the sun later this year.
NASA's Swift satellite, which is typically used to track intense gamma-ray bursts from distant stars, photographed Comet ISON on Jan. 30, with the space agency unveiling the photo today (March 29). By tracking the comet over the last two months, Swift has allowed astronomers to learn new details about how large the comet is and how fast it is spewing out gas and dust.
"Comet ISON has the potential to be among the brightest comets of the last 50 years, which gives us a rare opportunity to observe its changes in great detail and over an extended period," said Lead Investigator Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer with University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) who helped obtain the new image.
Some astronomers have predicted that ISON could be the "Comet of the Century" when it makes its closest approach to the sun in late November. But a recent analysis found that the comet is not brightening as expected, and may have a ways to go to meet such expectations.
Comet ISON was first discovered in September 2012 by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON) located near Kislovodsk. The comet's official designation is Comet C/2012 S1 (ISON). [See more photos of Comet ISON]
Swift's Comet ISON view
Bodewits and his university colleagues teamed up with the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., to capture new views of Comet ISON using the Swift spacecraft. The satellite's Jan. 30 photo shows the comet as a bright, fuzzy white ball. At the time, Comet ISON was about 375 million miles (670 million kilometers) from Earth and 460 million miles (740 million km) from the sun.
"Using images acquired over the last two months from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT), the team has made initial estimates of the comet's water and dust production and used them to infer the size of its icy nucleus," NASA officials wrote in a statement.
Swift's observations revealed that Comet ISON is currently shedding about 112,000 pounds (51,000 kilograms) of dust and about 130 pounds (60 kg) of water every minute, an odd mismatch for such an anticipated comet.
All comets are made of dust and frozen gases that mix together to form a sort of "dirty snowball" in space, NASA officials explained. Water ice in comets typically stays frozen until the comet approaches within three times the Earth's distance to the sun, at which time the water ice heats up and changes directly into gas (a process called sublimation), creating jets of material that can brighten the comet.
"The mismatch we detect between the amount of dust and water produced tells us that ISON's water sublimation is not yet powering its jets because the comet is still too far from the sun," Bodewits said. "Other more volatile materials, such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide ice, evaporate at greater distances and are now fueling ISON's activity."
Currently, Comet ISON is about 5,000 times fainter than the dimmest object the human eye can see.
NASA's Comet ISON campaign
NASA's Swift spacecraft is one of several satellites and probes to observe Comet ISON as it passes through the inner solar system. The space agency has formed the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) to make the most of the comet's visit.
On Oct. 1, the comet will pass within 6.7 million miles (10.8 million km) of Mars, and may be spotted by orbiters around the Red Planet. [Comet ISON's Path Through Solar System (Video)]
"During this close encounter, Comet ISON may be observable to NASA and ESA spacecraft now working at Mars," said Michael Kelley, a UMCP astronomer and also a Swift and CIOC team member. "Personally, I'm hoping we'll see a dramatic postcard image taken by NASA's latest Mars explorer, the Curiosity rover."
On Nov. 28 ? 58 days after swing close by Mars ? Comet ISON will make its closest approach to the sun, flying within 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) of the star's surface during the encounter. Several sun-watching observatories will be tracking the comet at that time, and ISON may even become visible in the daytime sky to observers who block the sun's light with their hand, NASA officials said.
The comet will make its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 26, coming with 39.9 million miles (64.2 million km) of the planet as a late Christmas present.
But whether Comet ISON will live up to its celestial hype or fizzle out in a whimper still remains to be seen, astronomers warned. The comet must still survive the approach into the inner solar system, as well as its close encounter with the sun.
"It looks promising, but that's all we can say for sure now," Matthew Knight, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory said. "Past comets have failed to live up to expectations once they reached the inner solar system, and only observations over the next few months will improve our knowledge of how ISON will perform."
Editor's note: If you snap an amazing photo of Comet ISON or any other celestial object, and you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, please send images and comments, including location information, to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him?@tariqjmalik?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+.?Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Jim Boeheim calls this year's Syracuse team his best defensive group ever. Hard to argue, based on the suffocating performances that put the Orange in the Final Four.
Using its trapping, shot-challenging 2-3 zone to perfect effect for 40 minutes, No. 4-seeded Syracuse shut down No. 3 Marquette 55-39 in the East Regional final Saturday to earn Boeheim his first trip to the national semis since a freshman named Carmelo Anthony helped win the 2003 NCAA title.
"It's a great thing," Boeheim joked afterward. "We go once every 10 years."
Fittingly, a matchup between schools from the soon-to-break-apart, rough-and-tumble Big East became quite a struggle on the offensive end. Syracuse (30-9) was led by senior forward James Southerland's 16 points. Michael Carter-Williams, a 6-foot-6 guard who is out front in the zone, was named the regional's top player after having 12 points, eight rebounds and six assists Saturday.
Marquette (26-9) hadn't scored fewer than 47 points all season ? and, indeed, put up 74 in a victory over Syracuse on Feb. 25. But this time, Marquette kept turning the ball over, seeing its shots blocked or just plain missing.
"They beat us from start to finish. We collectively tried everything we knew to try," Marquette coach Buzz Williams said. "It is the zone, and it is the players in the zone."
Much like what happened Thursday in the regional semifinals, when Syracuse knocked off top-seeded Indiana by limiting it to a season-low output, too.
"I don't think we've played as good defensively as these last two games," senior guard Brandon Triche said. "We held some good teams down."
All told, Marquette made only 12 of 53 shots ? 23 percent ? and was 3 for 24 on 3-pointers. Vander Blue, who carried Marquette to the round of eight, was held to 14 points on 3-for-15 shooting. The Golden Eagles' 39 points were a record low for a team in an NCAA tournament regional final since the shot clock was introduced in 1986.
"They cover ground really good. You've got to get the ball in the middle, you've got to play inside out, you've got to get to the free throw line and wear them down with the 3-pointer when you can," Blue said. "They're really good at what they do in that zone."
In the national semifinals at Atlanta next week, Syracuse will face the winner of Sunday's South Regional final between Florida and Michigan.
Last season, Syracuse fell a victory short of the Final Four, losing to Ohio State in the round of eight.
"We wanted to get over the hump," Southerland said. "That's what I told the guys: We've still got two more to go."
The Big East is transforming radically before next season. Syracuse is heading to the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Marquette is one of seven basketball-centric schools departing the conference to form a new league that is taking the Big East name with it.
But talk about a last hurrah.
Not only is Syracuse on its way to the Final Four, but the league also could have a second representative because Louisville is in the Midwest Regional final Sunday against Duke.
In this very same building, exactly three weeks ago, Syracuse wrapped up its final Big East regular-season schedule with a bad-as-can-be performance in a lopsided loss to Georgetown, scoring 39 points ? the Orange's tiniest total in a half-century.
Thanking fans after Saturday's victory, Boeheim said: "I'm sure some of you were here, three weeks ago today, when it didn't turn out so good."
That was Syracuse's fourth loss in a span of five games, a stumbling way to head into tournament play. Since then, though, Boeheim's team has won seven of eight games.
"When you bounce back like that, that says a lot about your kids, your team and your character," Boeheim said. "This is a heck of a bounce back."
And the secret to success? Defense, naturally.
"We got the right personnel for each key position," C.J. Fair said. "We got big long guards, we got big long forwards that can cover ground and our centers do a good job holding down the inside."
Syracuse really needed only one run on offense in the second half, making five shots in a row during a spurt that gave it a 41-28 lead with 9? minutes left.
With President Barack Obama ? a basketball enthusiast who picked Indiana to win the title ? and NFL Rookie of the Year Robert Griffin III of the Washington Redskins sitting in the crowd, Syracuse harassed Marquette into missing 14 of its first 15 tries from beyond the 3-point arc.
Marquette started 1 for 10 overall on field-goal tries, with Blue's 3-pointer about 1? minutes in the only make. He celebrated as though it came at the end of the game, not the outset, punching the air and tapping defender Triche on the back while heading to the other end of the court.
After Blue's 3, Marquette missed its next seven shots.
Davante Gardner ended that drought by scoring inside. Still, four of Marquette's next five possessions ended with turnovers: Gardner couldn't handle a teammate's pass, and the ball bounced off his face; Blue was called for traveling; Fair drew a charge from Blue; Junior Cadougan lost control of his dribble on a wild foray into the lane with the shot clock expiring.
That was part of a stretch ? disappointing for Marquette, delightful for Syracuse ? in which the Golden Eagles went nearly 6? minutes without a single field-goal attempt. Forget about putting the basketball through the net; Syracuse was so smothering, Marquette did not even manage to shoot.
That helped Syracuse build a 19-7 lead.
Enter Gardner, a 290-pound reserve forward.
He scored a career-high 26 points in Marquette's February victory over Syracuse, and he went right to work Saturday.
A 7-minute gap between baskets for Marquette was snapped by Gardner, who grabbed the rebound of his own missed free throw and sank a jumper, beginning a bunch of highlights for him.
Another jumper was followed by a defensive rebound, then an assist on Chris Otule's bucket. Gardner high-stepped back down the court, yelling and punching a fist, before chest-bumping Otule.
It was part of a run in which Marquette cut its deficit to 21-18 on yet another jumper in the lane by Gardner.
The thing is, the Golden Eagles can play defense, too ? what Big East team can't? ? and the teams combined for four turnovers, two blocks and 3-for-16 shooting in the early minutes. For the first half, Marquette shot 27 percent ? take away Gardner's 4 for 5, and his teammates were under 15 percent ? while Syracuse was at 36 percent.
Indeed, as Gardner almost single-handedly got his team back in the game with half of Marquette's initial 18 points, Syracuse went through an 0-for-6 blip.
But Southerland hit a 3, off a pass and screen by Carter-Williams, to put the Orange ahead 24-18 at halftime.
After helping cut down the net to celebrate Saturday, Southerland was asked whether he thought this sort of thing was possible when his team was leaving the same arena on March 9 after losing meekly to Georgetown.
"We just did a good job of recovering from that," Southerland explained, "and not sulking."
___
Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich
NASA's Swift sizes up comet ISONPublic release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Francis Reddy francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov 301-286-4453 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Astronomers from the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) and Lowell Observatory have used NASA's Swift satellite to check out comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), which may become one of the most dazzling in decades when it rounds the sun later this year.
Using images acquired over the last two months from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT), the team has made initial estimates of the comet's water and dust production and used them to infer the size of its icy nucleus.
"Comet ISON has the potential to be among the brightest comets of the last 50 years, which gives us a rare opportunity to observe its changes in great detail and over an extended period," said Lead Investigator Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer at UMCP.
Additional factors, including an encounter with Mars followed by a scorching close approach to the sun, make comet ISON an object of special interest. In late February, at NASA's request, a team of comet experts initiated the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) to assist ground- and space-based facilities in obtaining the most scientifically useful data.
Like all comets, ISON is a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust. Often described as "dirty snowballs," comets emit gas and dust whenever they venture near enough to the sun that the icy material transforms from a solid to gas, a process called sublimation. Jets powered by sublimating ice also release dust, which reflects sunlight and brightens the comet.
Typically, a comet's water content remains frozen until it comes within about three times Earth's distance to the sun. While Swift's UVOT cannot detect water directly, the molecule quickly breaks into hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl (OH) molecules when exposed to ultraviolet sunlight. The UVOT detects light emitted by hydroxyl and other important molecular fragments as well as sunlight reflected from dust.
The Jan. 30 UVOT observations reveal that ISON was shedding about 112,000 pounds (51,000 kg) of dust, or about two-thirds the mass of an unfueled space shuttle, every minute. By contrast, the comet was producing only about 130 pounds (60 kg) of water every minute, or about four times the amount flowing out of a residential sprinkler system.
"The mismatch we detect between the amount of dust and water produced tells us that ISON's water sublimation is not yet powering its jets because the comet is still too far from the sun," Bodewits said. "Other more volatile materials, such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide ice, evaporate at greater distances and are now fueling ISON's activity."
At the time, the comet was 375 million miles (604 million km) from Earth and 460 million miles (740 million km) from the sun. ISON was at magnitude 15.7 on the astronomical brightness scale, or about 5,000 times fainter that the threshold of human vision.
Similar levels of activity were observed in February, and the team plans additional UVOT observations.
While the water and dust production rates are relatively uncertain because of the comet's faintness, they can be used to estimate the size of ISON's icy body. Comparing the amount of gas needed for a normal comet to blow off dust at the rate observed for ISON, the scientists estimate that the nucleus is roughly 3 miles (5 km) across, a typical size for a comet. This assumes that only the fraction of the surface most directly exposed to the sun, about 10 percent of the total, is actively producing jets.
An important question is whether ISON will continue to brighten at the same pace once water evaporation becomes the dominant source for its jets. Will the comet sizzle or fizzle?
"It looks promising, but that's all we can say for sure now," said Matthew Knight, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., and a member of the Swift and CIOC teams. "Past comets have failed to live up to expectations once they reached the inner solar system, and only observations over the next few months will improve our knowledge of how ISON will perform."
Based on ISON's orbit, astronomers think the comet is making its first-ever trip through the inner solar system. Before beginning its long fall toward the sun, the comet resided in the Oort comet cloud, a vast shell of perhaps a trillion icy bodies that extends from the outer reaches of the planetary system to about a third of the distance to the star nearest the sun.
Formally designated C/2012 S1 (ISON), the comet was discovered on Sept. 21, 2012, by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a telescope of the International Scientific Optical Network located near Kislovodsk.
The first of several intriguing observing opportunities occurs on Oct. 1, when the inbound comet passes about 6.7 million miles (10.8 million km) from Mars.
"During this close encounter, comet ISON may be observable to NASA and ESA spacecraft now working at Mars," said Michael Kelley, an astronomer at UMCP and also a Swift and CIOC team member. "Personally, I'm hoping we'll see a dramatic postcard image taken by NASA's latest Mars explorer, the Curiosity rover."
Fifty-eight days later, on Nov. 28, ISON will make a sweltering passage around the sun. The comet will approach within about 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) of its visible surface, which classifies ISON as a sungrazing comet. In late November, its icy material will furiously sublimate and release torrents of dust as the surface erodes under the sun's fierce heat, all as sun-monitoring satellites look on. Around this time, the comet may become bright enough to glimpse just by holding up a hand to block the sun's glare.
Sungrazing comets often shed large fragments or even completely disrupt following close encounters with the sun, but for ISON neither fate is a forgone conclusion.
"We estimate that as much as 10 percent of the comet's diameter may erode away, but this probably won't devastate it," explained Knight. Nearly all of the energy reaching the comet acts to sublimate its ice, an evaporative process that cools the comet's surface and keeps it from reaching extreme temperatures despite its proximity to the sun.
Following ISON's solar encounter, the comet will depart the sun and move toward Earth, appearing in evening twilight through December. It will swing past Earth on Dec. 26, approaching within 39.9 million miles (64.2 million km) or about 167 times farther than the moon.
Whether we'll look back on ISON as a "comet of the century" or as an overhyped cosmic dud remains to be seen, but astronomers are planning to learn the most they can about this unusual visitor no matter what happens.
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NASA's Swift sizes up comet ISONPublic release date: 29-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Francis Reddy francis.j.reddy@nasa.gov 301-286-4453 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Astronomers from the University of Maryland at College Park (UMCP) and Lowell Observatory have used NASA's Swift satellite to check out comet C/2012 S1 (ISON), which may become one of the most dazzling in decades when it rounds the sun later this year.
Using images acquired over the last two months from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT), the team has made initial estimates of the comet's water and dust production and used them to infer the size of its icy nucleus.
"Comet ISON has the potential to be among the brightest comets of the last 50 years, which gives us a rare opportunity to observe its changes in great detail and over an extended period," said Lead Investigator Dennis Bodewits, an astronomer at UMCP.
Additional factors, including an encounter with Mars followed by a scorching close approach to the sun, make comet ISON an object of special interest. In late February, at NASA's request, a team of comet experts initiated the Comet ISON Observing Campaign (CIOC) to assist ground- and space-based facilities in obtaining the most scientifically useful data.
Like all comets, ISON is a clump of frozen gases mixed with dust. Often described as "dirty snowballs," comets emit gas and dust whenever they venture near enough to the sun that the icy material transforms from a solid to gas, a process called sublimation. Jets powered by sublimating ice also release dust, which reflects sunlight and brightens the comet.
Typically, a comet's water content remains frozen until it comes within about three times Earth's distance to the sun. While Swift's UVOT cannot detect water directly, the molecule quickly breaks into hydrogen atoms and hydroxyl (OH) molecules when exposed to ultraviolet sunlight. The UVOT detects light emitted by hydroxyl and other important molecular fragments as well as sunlight reflected from dust.
The Jan. 30 UVOT observations reveal that ISON was shedding about 112,000 pounds (51,000 kg) of dust, or about two-thirds the mass of an unfueled space shuttle, every minute. By contrast, the comet was producing only about 130 pounds (60 kg) of water every minute, or about four times the amount flowing out of a residential sprinkler system.
"The mismatch we detect between the amount of dust and water produced tells us that ISON's water sublimation is not yet powering its jets because the comet is still too far from the sun," Bodewits said. "Other more volatile materials, such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide ice, evaporate at greater distances and are now fueling ISON's activity."
At the time, the comet was 375 million miles (604 million km) from Earth and 460 million miles (740 million km) from the sun. ISON was at magnitude 15.7 on the astronomical brightness scale, or about 5,000 times fainter that the threshold of human vision.
Similar levels of activity were observed in February, and the team plans additional UVOT observations.
While the water and dust production rates are relatively uncertain because of the comet's faintness, they can be used to estimate the size of ISON's icy body. Comparing the amount of gas needed for a normal comet to blow off dust at the rate observed for ISON, the scientists estimate that the nucleus is roughly 3 miles (5 km) across, a typical size for a comet. This assumes that only the fraction of the surface most directly exposed to the sun, about 10 percent of the total, is actively producing jets.
An important question is whether ISON will continue to brighten at the same pace once water evaporation becomes the dominant source for its jets. Will the comet sizzle or fizzle?
"It looks promising, but that's all we can say for sure now," said Matthew Knight, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., and a member of the Swift and CIOC teams. "Past comets have failed to live up to expectations once they reached the inner solar system, and only observations over the next few months will improve our knowledge of how ISON will perform."
Based on ISON's orbit, astronomers think the comet is making its first-ever trip through the inner solar system. Before beginning its long fall toward the sun, the comet resided in the Oort comet cloud, a vast shell of perhaps a trillion icy bodies that extends from the outer reaches of the planetary system to about a third of the distance to the star nearest the sun.
Formally designated C/2012 S1 (ISON), the comet was discovered on Sept. 21, 2012, by Russian astronomers Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok using a telescope of the International Scientific Optical Network located near Kislovodsk.
The first of several intriguing observing opportunities occurs on Oct. 1, when the inbound comet passes about 6.7 million miles (10.8 million km) from Mars.
"During this close encounter, comet ISON may be observable to NASA and ESA spacecraft now working at Mars," said Michael Kelley, an astronomer at UMCP and also a Swift and CIOC team member. "Personally, I'm hoping we'll see a dramatic postcard image taken by NASA's latest Mars explorer, the Curiosity rover."
Fifty-eight days later, on Nov. 28, ISON will make a sweltering passage around the sun. The comet will approach within about 730,000 miles (1.2 million km) of its visible surface, which classifies ISON as a sungrazing comet. In late November, its icy material will furiously sublimate and release torrents of dust as the surface erodes under the sun's fierce heat, all as sun-monitoring satellites look on. Around this time, the comet may become bright enough to glimpse just by holding up a hand to block the sun's glare.
Sungrazing comets often shed large fragments or even completely disrupt following close encounters with the sun, but for ISON neither fate is a forgone conclusion.
"We estimate that as much as 10 percent of the comet's diameter may erode away, but this probably won't devastate it," explained Knight. Nearly all of the energy reaching the comet acts to sublimate its ice, an evaporative process that cools the comet's surface and keeps it from reaching extreme temperatures despite its proximity to the sun.
Following ISON's solar encounter, the comet will depart the sun and move toward Earth, appearing in evening twilight through December. It will swing past Earth on Dec. 26, approaching within 39.9 million miles (64.2 million km) or about 167 times farther than the moon.
Whether we'll look back on ISON as a "comet of the century" or as an overhyped cosmic dud remains to be seen, but astronomers are planning to learn the most they can about this unusual visitor no matter what happens.
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SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - North Korea put its missile units on standby on Friday to attack U.S. military bases in South Korea and the Pacific, after the United States flew two nuclear-capable stealth bombers over the Korean peninsula in a rare show of force.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed off on the order at a midnight meeting of top generals and "judged the time has come to settle accounts with the U.S. imperialists in view of the prevailing situation", the official KCNA news agency said.
The North has an arsenal of Soviet-era short-range Scud missiles that can hit South Korea and have been proven, but its longer-range Nodong and Musudan missiles that could in theory hit U.S. Pacific bases are untested.
On Thursday, the United States flew two radar-evading B-2 Spirit bombers on practice runs over South Korea, responding to a series of North Korean threats. They flew from the United States and back in what appeared to be the first exercise of its kind, designed to show America's ability to conduct long-range, precision strikes "quickly and at will", the U.S. military said.
The news of Kim's response was unusually swift.
"He finally signed the plan on technical preparations of strategic rockets of the KPA (Korean People's Army), ordering them to be on standby for fire so that they may strike any time the U.S. mainland, its military bases in the operational theaters in the Pacific, including Hawaii and Guam, and those in South Korea," KCNA said.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported there had been additional troop and vehicle movements at the North's mid- and long-range missile sites, indicating they may be ready to fire.
"Sharply increased movements of vehicles and soldiers have been detected recently at North Korea's mid and long-range missile sites," Yonhap quoted a South Korean military source as saying.
It was impossible to verify the report which did not specify a time frame, although South Korea's Defense Ministry said on Friday that it was watching shorter-range Scud missile sites closes as well as Nodong and Musudan missile batteries.
The North has launched a daily barrage of threats since early this month when the United States and the South, allies in the 1950-53 Korean War, began routine military drills.
The South and the United States have said the drills are purely defensive in nature and that no incident has taken place in the decades they have been conducted in various forms.
The United States also flew B-52 bombers over South Korea earlier this week.
The North has put its military on highest readiness to fight what it says are hostile forces conducting war drills. Its young leader has previously given "final orders" for its military to wage revolutionary war with the South.
ECONOMIC ZONE
Despite the tide of hostile rhetoric from Pyongyang, it has kept open a joint economic zone with the South which generates $2 billion a year in trade, money the impoverished state can ill-afford to lose.
Pyongyang has also canceled an armistice agreement with the United States that ended the Korean War and cut all communications hotlines with U.S. forces, the United Nations and South Korea.
"The North Koreans have to understand that what they're doing is very dangerous," U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.
"We must make clear that these provocations by the North are taken by us very seriously and we'll respond to that."
The U.S. military said that its B-2 bombers had flown more than 6,500 miles to stage a trial bombing raid from their bases in Missouri as part of the Foal Eagle war drills being held with South Korea.
The bombers dropped inert munitions on the Jik Do Range, in South Korea, and then returned to the continental United States in a single, continuous mission, the military said.
Thursday's drill was the first time B-2s flew round-trip from the mainland United States over South Korea and dropped inert munitions, a Pentagon spokeswoman said.
Victor Cha, a North Korea expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the drill fitted within the context of ramped-up efforts by the Pentagon to deter the North from acting upon any of its threats.
Asked whether he thought the latest moves could further aggravate tensions on the peninsula, Cha, a former White House official, said: "I don't think the situation can get any more aggravated than it already is."
South Korea denied suggestions on Friday that the bomber drills contained an implicit threat of attack on the North.
"There is no entity on the earth who will strike an attack on North Korea or expressed their wishes to do so," a spokesman for the South's Unification Ministry said.
Despite the shrill rhetoric from Pyongyang, few believe North Korea, formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, will risk starting a full-out war.
Still, Hagel, who on March 15 announced he was bolstering missile defenses over the growing North Korea threat, said all of the provocations by the North had to be taken seriously.
"Their very provocative actions and belligerent tone, it has ratcheted up the danger and we have to understand that reality," Hagel said, renewing a warning that the U.S. military was ready for "any eventuality" on the peninsula.
North Korea conducted a third nuclear weapons test in February in breach of U.N. sanctions and despite warnings from China, its one major diplomatic ally.
(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Warren Strobel, Paul Simao and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
A Soyuz rocket carrying an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts roared into space today on the first-ever "express" flight to the International Space Station.
The rocket launched NASA astronaut?Chris Cassidy?and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov into orbit at 4:43 p.m. EDT?(2043 GMT) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the local time was early Friday. The crew's Soyuz TMA-08M spacecraft is expected to make history when it arrives at the space station later tonight.
The Soyuz crew plans to dock at the space station's Poisk module tonight at 10:32 pm EDT (0232 GMT Friday). You can watch the space docking live on SPACE.com here.
Until today, Soyuz and NASA shuttle trips to the space station typically took at least two days, but Cassidy, Misurkin and Vinogradov are due to?arrive in just six hours, after making only four orbits of Earth. Some NASA officials have dubbed the flight profile, the "express" flight to the International Space Station.
"I think this is a very good thing that we are decreasing the time that it takes for crews to reach the International Space Station," Vinogradov said in a pre-launch interview. "I'm confident that both in Russia and in the United States we have excellent teams that are supporting us." [Launch Photos: Soyuz Rocket's 'Express' Flight to Station]
The quick trip to the space station has been made before by unmanned cargo spacecraft, but never by a crew. Mission managers say its benefits include less time spent in a cramped space by the crew, and a savings on expenses related to the personnel needed in Mission Control when Soyuz is flying.
Once there, they will join the existing station residents ? commander Chris Hadfield of Canada, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn ? on the station's?Expedition 35 mission. The newcomers are due to stay in space for about six months.
"It's shaping up to be a very dynamic and a very busy expedition," Cassidy said during a pre-launch interview. "We welcome that ? that makes us feel very rewarded and high job satisfaction. When you can deliver for people that have worked hard to produce all of those activities on the ground, that's very satisfying," he said of the ability to fulfill the goals of the Mission Control team.
Cassidy and Vinogradov are both spaceflight veterans: The former flew on the STS-127 space shuttle mission in 2009, while Vinogradov visited the Russian Mir space station in 1997 and the?International Space Station?in 2006. Misurkin, a spaceflight rookie, is making his first journey to orbit.
"I'm just really excited and looking forward to this flight," he said in a preflight interview. "I think it would be a great experience for me and the biggest thing in my whole life."
In between their busy schedules of science experiments, space station maintenance and spacewalks for station upkeep, the spaceflyers hope to find some down time to appreciate their environment.
Vinogradov is an astronomy buff and said he looks forward to the view of the heavens from space.
"I think I'm very fortunate that I have this unique opportunity to perform space observations from space," Vinogradov told SPACE.com in a preflight interview. "Every time I get a spare minute I plan to practice astronomy. I cant promise or guarantee that this will happen every day, because our flight program is very busy, but I am planning to use every opportunity to do that."
Vinogradov is scheduled to take over command of the space station from Hadfield in May when Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn return to Earth. Vinogradov, Cassidy and Misurkin are due to return home in September.
Follow Clara Moskowitz?@ClaraMoskowitz?and?Google+. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major stock markets recovered and the euro edged off a four-month low on Thursday, as banks in Cyprus reopened to relative calm following the island's controversial bailout.
On Wall Street, stocks moved in and out of positive territory in choppy, pre-holiday trade. <.n/>
There was little sign of the mass panic that some had feared as the country's banks reopened after a forced closure of almost two weeks, albeit with tight capital controls to prevent depositors from cleaning out their vaults.
"Contagion from Cyprus to other banks in the periphery will be limited", Barclays analysts Rajiv Setia and Laurent Fransolet said in a research note. But the decision to include senior debt holders and large depositors in the Cyprus bailout could have a "lasting effect" on the way investors perceive weaker euro area banks, they added.
Despite its rise, the euro was seen to be vulnerable to the Cyprus crisis which could encourage anxious investors to sell euro zone assets and seek the safety of the U.S. dollar.
PIMCO, the world's largest bond fund, said last week it had reduced allocations to the euro in response to the planned levy on bank deposits in Cyprus, citing the levy as "a significant departure" in euro zone policy from other reserve currencies.
Cyprus's 10 billion euro rescue deal with its European partners at the weekend is the first euro zone bailout to impose losses on bank depositors, and has raised the prospect of savers withdrawing their money from banks.
European Central Bank data showed some depositors began to take money out of their accounts in February when the possibility that depositors would take a haircut in a bailout deal, but the calm as bank employees returned to work helped settle early market jitters.
The euro, which has dropped around 2.0 percent over the last couple of weeks, climbed back above $1.28 on Thursday, up from a four-month low against the U.S. dollar <.dxy> and one-month low against the yen
Uncertainty has been amplified by an unexpected rise in German unemployment in March in data reported on Thursday, the lack of a government in Italy following inconclusive elections, and traditional end-of-quarter caution ahead of the Easter holiday.
But Germany's unemployment rise was countered by stronger retail sales and a surprise rebound in Italian business confidence.
European stock markets shrugged off their early nerves though as news of calm in Cyprus was reported. With benchmark stock indexes in London, Frankfurt and Paris all higher, the FTSEurofirst 300 <.fteu3> climbed 0.6 percent.
U.S. Treasuries and German government bonds, assets investors turn to for safety slipped.
Benchmark 10-year Treasury notes last traded down 3/32 in price to yield 1.857 percent, up 1.2 basis points from Wednesday's close.
Treasuries held those losses after the U.S. government raised its reading on U.S. economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2012 while reporting a bigger-than-expected rise in weekly jobless claims in the latest week.
Gold slipped below $1,600 an ounce on Thursday, as banks reopened in Cyprus for the first time in two weeks without signs of panic withdrawals, sapping demand for low-risk assets.
Gold hit a one-month high of $1,616.36 last week on concerns the $10 billion euro rescue deal for Cyprus, which will leave big depositors and private bondholders with huge losses, could become a template for future bank bailouts in the euro zone.
Gold was down 0.5 percent to $1,597 an ounce by 9:24 a.m. EDT. Spot prices were still set for a one percent gain in March, their first monthly rise in six months. U.S. gold futures dropped 0.6 percent to $1,596.20 an ounce.
U.S. crude futures hovered above $96 a barrel early on Thursday as banks reopened in Cyprus. NYMEX crude for May delivery was down 5 cents at $96.53 a barrel by 1358 GMT.
London Brent crude for May delivery was down 4 cents at $109.29, after finishing 33 cents higher at $109.69 a barrel the previous session.
(Additional reporting by Richard Leong, Angela Moon and Julie Haviv in New York; Marc Jones and Clara Denina in London and Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo; Editing by Clive McKeef)
Pratibha Gai takes multimillion pound electron microscopes and drills tiny holes in them to make atomic movie cameras. She tells Celeste Biever about her quest to understand the secret life of atoms, which helped her to scoop a L'Or?al-UNESCO For Women In Science award on 28 March.
Electron microscopes can take images of single atoms. What more did you want to see? Conventional electron microscopes operate only in a vacuum and often only at room temperature. But many chemical reactions happen at elevated temperatures, and in a gas, so we really cannot use the microscopes to get inside the reaction as it is taking place. To understand these processes, we need to be able to watch them directly.
So what did you decide to do? It suddenly occurred to me, why not drill a hole through the imaging lens, and put gas through there, where the sample is? That way I wouldn't have to take the machine apart, and everything would be integrated. But it's very challenging ? the gas pressure is a billion times greater in this 5-millimetre hole than in the rest of the experiment.
How much did the machine you were planning to drill into cost? More than $1 million.
Were you nervous? That's why I made a mock up ? it had to be done on a model first. When that was successful, I tried the real thing. Everybody had gone up to a meeting. I put the gas in, I heated it and turned the beam on.
I held my breath and I looked up at the monitor ? it's real time ? and I saw, for the first time in the world, atoms working in chemical reactions, changing their atomic structure. That was a wow moment. It was absolutely thrilling.
You first did this in 1993. How are these insights changing the world now? We are using it to help convert plants into biofuels, especially biodiesel. Using the microscope, we saw that tiny defects on the surface of the catalyst were very beneficial to the reaction. This allowed us to improve the performance to give us more product. We have also been working on antibiotic nanoparticles to control infections in medical implants. When we simulate the wound environment, we see that they are incredibly potent.
So if you understand how atoms work, you can make reactions more efficient? It is more economical if we can train atoms to do the reaction we want rather than let them do their own thing. You can see the power. Instead of using tons of material, we could just use a few thousand or million atoms to do the same work. It would save a lot of money in terms of materials.
Have you patented your hacked microscope? I am a scientist ? I believe in scientific research. I did it to study chemical reactions. After I published it, I wanted it to be available to other researchers. If you patent it you can't publish all the details. By publishing, I could help other people and it was good also for us to get grants, research funding.
Some people think chemistry is boring? Oh no, it is exciting.
But even you didn't start out as a chemist? When I left school in India, I went to Cambridge to do physics. At that time, outside microscopy, I wasn't interested in chemistry. But then I went to work with a chemistry professor in Oxford, who was really pretty instrumental in enthusing me about chemical synthesis. And then I realised I could use my electron microscopy knowledge from Cambridge to understand what I made. It was a tremendous combination. I went to a meeting and I said nobody has done this before. And unless you do something new ? totally insane ? nobody is going to take any notice. Especially for women.
There couldn't have been many women in your field back then? At Cambridge, I was the only woman in my group. It was a bit discouraging because I think at least in those days ? 3 decades ago ? physical science was still a male preserve.
How did you cope? They accepted me as a scientist but I think in the workplace you had to work harder than a man to get recognition. There were no role models in those days. I realised that that one thing that is nice thing about science is that if you have an idea, get some results, you can actually publish it and they need not know you're a woman.
Did you learn anything from these challenges? I learned that I had to be pretty good to compete, and therefore I had to work harder. And what I did was I found my own niche. As a leader in a field, the focus is on what you are achieving rather than your gender. So it is important to go for something new ? if there are already other people in a field, you are not going to be very successful unless you are brilliant.
Profile
Pratibha Gai is a professor of electron microscopy at the University of York, UK. This week she was presented with a L'Or?al-UNESCO For Women In Science award
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Home > News > Zero Motorcycles adds former BMW Mottorad exec de Waal to board
March 28, 2013 Filed under News, Top Stories
News release
Zero Motorcycles, the global leader in the electric motorcycle industry, today announced an addition to its Board of Directors, naming Pieter de Waal as its newest member. De Waal comes to Zero with more than 30 years of business, engineering and sales experience in both the automotive and motorcycle industries. This includes stints with Nissan, Delta (GM) and Mercedes Benz and, more recently, at BMW Motorrad as North American Vice President. In addition to his Board position, he will also consult Zero on future strategies, including powertrain initiatives.
?We?re thrilled to have someone with Pieter?s wealth of experience with BMW Motorrad, the motorcycle division at BMW, joining the Zero Board of Directors,? said Richard Walker, CEO of Zero Motorcycles. ?His counsel will be invaluable as we enter our next phase of growth to further solidify Zero?s position as market leaders in the electric motorcycle marketplace.?
As the newest member on the Board of Directors, de Waal brings to Zero a passion for motorcycles, an impressive track record and an international perspective, having served as head of BMW?s motorcycle operations in South Africa, the United Kingdom and later in Munich as head of sales and marketing worldwide. ?I am excited to be part of Zero Motorcycles,? said de Waal. ?I believe that electric vehicles will play an important role in our future and Zero has the resources, drive and pioneering spirit to help make that future an exciting reality.?
De Waal?s selection as board member builds to the strength of the team at Zero Motorcycles. Zero Motorcycles has consciously sought to team senior executives with motorcycle industry experience along with leaders from other high tech fields to create the ideal blend of background and experience for success in this dynamic new and emerging consumer market.
The newly protected area ? the size of New York City ? connects several adjacent parks, making it one of the largest contiguous tiger habitats in the world.
By Douglas Main,?Our Amazing Planet / March 26, 2013
A tigress and her cub rest in India's Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary.
Vijay Kumar / WWF-India / LiveScience.com
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India has created a new protected area for tigers within a wildlife reserve in the south of the country.
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The area, part of the Sathyamangalam Wildlife Sanctuary, is home to about 25 tigers, according to a release from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a conservation group. This population of tigers rivals the size of some of India's better-known reserves, the statement said.
This will be the 42nd tiger reserve in the country, which is home to the largest population of tigers in the world. The 272-square-mile (705 square kilometers) protected area will help connect several adjacent parks, making it one of the largest continuous tiger habitats in the world, according to the WWF. The area is also home to elephants, leopards, hyenas and vultures.
For more than a decade, WWF-India has worked with local authorities in the state of Tamil Nadu (where the reserve is found) to support projects to counter poaching, improve communications via cellular phones and wireless networks, train forest rangers and monitor tigers, the statement said.
"The tiger is the national animal of India, and WWF congratulates the government for yet another important milestone in its conservation efforts that will make a tremendous contribution to the goal of conserving wild tigers and their natural habitats in the country," said Dipankar Ghose, of WWF-India, in the statement.
Tiger numbers have declined by about 95 percent in the last century across their entire historic range, and experts think there are only about 3,000 left in the wild, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Email Douglas Main?or follow him @Douglas_Main. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?or? Google+.Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.
Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Equality goes viral as the Supreme Court starts to hear two historic marriage equality cases.
You simply can't ignore the red today. From images of equal signs filling up your Facebook feed to people dressed in all red, the bright color is everywhere on and offline. That's because today is a huge day for?gay-marriage supporters.?
Today marks the first of two days of Supreme Court hearings over crucial same-sex marriage laws. Today, the constitutionality of California's Proposition 8 is being discussed and tomorrow the court will address the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prevents same-sex couples from marrying nationally.
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Thanks to the Human Rights Campaign, who began promoting the equality image (pictured above) yesterday to gain online support over today's hearings in Washington, everyone from your long-lost high school acquaintance to celebrities have been voicing their support today with powerful images and words.?
So what does it mean that all of your Facebook friends' profiles have gone completely red and that even our president is?tweeting?his support for same-sex marriage? A lot.
We already know the mental health benefits?that come from allowing same-sex couples to marry, that gay parents are thriving, the?cost of banning gay marriage?and the positive effects of acceptance for all of society.?So what else do we need to prove how essential this is?
Perhaps the Human Rights Campaign says it best on their website: "Together we will show the nation that we believe all Americans deserve to be treated fairly and equally under the law ? no matter who they love."
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Share your support for gay marriage by changing your profile picture?or spread the word by joining #marriageequality conversation on Twitter.
To the unschooled, The Host is just a movie about aliens taking over the planet and leaving teenage girls confused about which boys to make out with. But to stars Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, and Jake Abel, the film took on a much bigger meaning about the human spirit and greatness of our species. Making it taught them many lessons, though sadly one of them was not how to pronounce "Saoirse" properly.
SAI reports that Spotify plans to expand beyond its on-demand streaming music service into the wild world of streaming video. According to unnamed sources, Spotify wants to take on VOD services with exclusive content, which would put the company in direct competition with companies like Netflix, Amazon, and even, if you're willing to stretch you imagination, with HBO. More »
UPDATE: A spokesman from Zalora Taiwan said: Zalora Taiwan is conducting review of our operating model in Taiwan to shift some of the operation to our headquarter in Singapore. During the period, we would not be able to serve new order and we apologize for the inconvenience caused. We will resume the operation as soon as possible and keep you informed. Any returns and refund will also be honored according to the term agreed. All customers can contact us on cs@zalora.com.tw. Our customer service agent will response within 1 working day. We deny any rumors that we are going through a bankruptcy or closure. All payment to customers and our vendors are proceeded or will be preceded. All of our employees will be managed according with Taiwan labor law. We reserve the right to take legal action against anyone making untrue statement about us. One year after launching in Taiwan, Rocket Internet-backed Zalora may be shutting down its operations in the country. Though the Singapore-based fashion e-tailer has yet to issue a confirmation, e27 notes several signs that a closure of its Taiwan branch is already in progress. Zalora Taiwan’s Web site currently says that it will no longer provide telephone services for customer support after today. Furthermore, Taiwanese TV news station TVBS reported last week (link via Google Translate) that more than 100 employees were suddenly laid off as Zalora?canceled orders from suppliers.?Reasons cited by TVBS for Zalora Taiwan’s potential demise include the high cost of marketing in Taiwan’s saturated online retail market, which is already dominated by e-commerce sites Yahoo! Taiwan and PChome. Zalora recently landed several high-profile investments, including $26 million from German retail conglomerate Tengelmann Group, but as Jacky Yap of e27 notes, Rocket Internet has already encountered several setbacks in Southeast Asia, including the closure of Home24. “Rocket Internet will not hesitate to pull the plug when it comes to evaluating a likely failure,” just as it shut down its operations in Turkey last August, Yap writes. Despite Zalora’s rapid growth, the reported closure of its Taiwan operations is a reminder that Rocket Internet’s foothold on the Asian market is still not a sure thing. I’ve reached out to Zalora’s HQ for comment and will update if I hear back from them.
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