Naval Museum

The interesting Naval Museum, in the Castello area of Venice, houses many artefacts rescued from well-known ships, and also exhibits some elaborate gondolas and a wealth of nautical memorabilia.

Venice's Naval Museum features four floors of displays, including detailed models of gunboats, lagoon craft and boats. One of the most impressive attractions at the Naval Museum is the enormous model of the famous naval ship Bucintoro, which was built in 1728.

Girls and boats...

English speakers think of boats (and cars) as being female, but modern racing sailboats show mostly masculine and aggressive characteristics – long, narrow bows thrusting through the water and tall, stiff masts for a start. Those boxy multihull floating caravans that are so popular with Caribbean charterers are totally devoid of any erotic association, male or female, which is presumably why the brochures usually decorate them with half-clad humans. You could probably make a termite mound attractive to termites in a real estate brochure by using the same technique.

I suppose the curved surfaces of sails make them slightly female, but these days they're covered in sheets of plastic and trussed tighter than an old-fashioned corset. Today's sailboats have nary a bosom nor a leg - or even an ankle - in sight, although there were bustles a few decades ago. Some of their promoters have been reduced to adding the unsubtle provocation of thong-clad bimbos lining the weather rail facing the wrong way.

Well this is an interesting topic, but I just like the girls...

Yacthpals.com

Re-Purpose...

Resourceful sailor David Swift  finds a use for old sails:

This year at Warsash Sailing Club we have a fleet of Picos that our young sailors have adopted, both for training double handed and for breaking into weekly racing. So to get in the fleet, on a strict budget, I managed to get hold of a hull, foils and spars for next to nothing and was proposing to buy a new set of sails when I stumbled across an unwanted 3DL mainsail off a J/109; it had been torn in a race and would otherwise end up in a landfill.

There was just enough good material (given the direction of the strands and shape) to cut two sets of sails for the Laser Pico. The jibs are essentially flat blades, but the mains needed more thought. The Pico main has a mast-sleeve, like the Laser, so I unpicked the sleeves from two old original sails, in preparation to sew them on to the new 3DL sails

I used an smaller ‘training’ sail as a template (given that our boys are aged 8 and 10, the power/weight ratio should be fine for them this year) and, using a domestic sewing machine, got to work.

First, I positioned the template – the training sail – on the 3DL, marking out exact replicas on the ‘new’ cloth, leaving an extra inch all the way around. Next, I cut out 5 layers of corner patches, then positioned the leech line, sticking everything down with double-sided tape. I sewed it all together with decent nylon thread. Well, almost all – a busted sewing machine and ample doses of swearing saw me send of the finishing work to Grant Piggot of GP Sails in Warsash. Grant finished the job and punched some cringles in the corners for me (thanks, Grant!).

The result was quite satisfactory; we saved some plastic from the garbage heap (or handbag/deck chair world) while creating perfectly serviceable kids’ sails for next to nothing. There must be thousands more sails like this out there along with thousands of small dinghies that need them.

IMOCA

One slip-up can see a sailor go from hero to zero, or even worse; dead. The human element of pushing oneself through the most extreme and challenging conditions while relating that story to the public using the most advanced forms of communication available while sailing ultra-high performance racing yachts that are on the cutting edge of technology; it is in the opinion of myself and many who will read this the end all be all most exciting sport in the world. I know it, you know it, and a large portion of Sailing Anarchy’s readership knows it. Unfortunately no one in the United States of America, the world’s largest economy, couldn’t give a shit.

 

It’s no secret that the economy in France, and all of Europe, is tanking. With an economic union that is on the brink of collapse, nations declaring bankruptcy and further nations selling off gold reserves, the once freely-flowing supply of English Pounds and Euros has dried up to a level we’ve not seen before. When guys like 2-time Vendée Globe champion Michel Desjoyeaux and reigning Route du Rhum champ Roland Jourdain get ditched by their sponsors and can’t find a ride, you know the situation is bad. Relatively few teams are building new boats, the Vendée fleet contracted by a third in just one cycle and old boats are up on the chopping block as previous sponsors desperately want them off their balance sheets. If the IMOCA class is to grow, or even survive, it can’t be a solely French and English-based entity any more. It needs to go global.

And that is what Sir Keith Mills and Open Sports Management are here to accomplish. The über-successful English businessman and sports marketing magnate has made the internationalization of the IMOCA class his newest business endeavor. With the formation of the new Lausanne, Switzerland-based sports marketing agency Open Sports Management, the man who almost singlehandedly saved the 2012 London Olympic Games sees a winner in the IMOCA class and he’s prepared to bet the farm on it. On Saturday morning in Lausanne, Sir Keith, alongside OSM’s Vice President Giorgio Pauen and IMOCA Class President Luc Talbourdet held a press conference to outline their vision for growing the class.

The IMOCA class will begin to revolve around two 18-month cycles in a 4-year period with two six-month breaks built in to allow for the formation of new teams, corporate and PR sailing and a breather for everyone involved. One 18-month cycle will be double handed, culminating with the non-stop round the world Barcelona World Race while the other 18-month cycle will be singlehanded, culminating with the Vendée Globe.

The class has voted to adopt one-design keels and masts. Using new 1-piece forged steel keel fins, the emphasis has been placed on reliability and cost savings, with another major goal of making the boats more insurable. The masts will be standard “classic” style rigs, removing the vulnerable deck spreaders and less reliable rotating wing masts from the equation. Again, a big part of this decision was said to be to make the rigs more insurable and reliable. Technical director (and the victim of two Vendée retirements due to having deck spreaders…) is none other than PRB skipper and 2004-05 VG champ Vincent Riou. The concept for the rule has been agreed upon, and the rule will actually be written in the next 3-6 months.

This new agreement on a class rule allows teams to invest in the future. OSM wanted an agreement on the new rules and racing program so that sponsors and commercial partners know exactly what they are going to get, years in advance. One of the biggest challenges in the past has been the uncertainty related to ocean racing such as vague dates, race locations, a less streamlined calendar of events, etc.

An increased emphasis on “bringing the stories of the skippers to life and sharing them globally”. Sir Keith mentioned several times his desire to have cameras on the boats, possibly controlled from shoreside, that would capture the drama as it happens and then share it with the world. He insists that the technology is there to allow for 24/7 video streaming from the boats, as opposed to action happening (broach, dismasting, fast sailing, etc) and then having to wait for the skipper to have a chance to edit the video and upload it either hours or days after it’s actually happened. This will obviously create new technical challenges not just with video and satellite communications, but in power management and generation. Being the visionary that he is, he views these obstacles as “opportunities” to engage new technologies and truly global communications in the most adverse conditions.

Bringing in new partners such as a naming rights partner, more technical partners such as telecomm, insurance, nutrition partners, power generation, etc. Sir Keith reiterated “There exists a huge potential on the internet for this sport. It is a unique sport that takes place 24 hours a day for weeks on end. New technologies allow us the ability to leverage this phenomenon unlike any other sport to engage a worldwide audience and to tell their stories on a global stage”.

People are inspired. Change is happening, and a new journey is underway for the IMOCA class. Everyone that attended this weekend’s events in Lausanne realize that Sir Keith Mills, Luc Talbourdet, IMOCA and Open Sports Management have set a goal of promoting and growing the IMOCA class on an international level and these guys have the resources and the know how to get the job done. Look for big things to come from the IMOCA class over the coming months and years and with any luck, a couple of properly funded American entries!

Shore Crew

Roberto Tomasino Grinover wins ‘best shore crew’ at pretty much every event, but he also walked away Sunday with the Peter Island Melges 32 win and the overall Melges 32 Virgin Islands Sailing Series title. Robertissima now heads to Italy for the M32 summer season.  The lovely Natascha, seen here folding the A-3 with great technique is truely the ‘best shore crew’ though
…

Enter the Vortex ....................

This spectacular, vertigo inducing, false-color image from NASA's Cassini mission highlights the storms at Saturn's north pole. The angry eye of a hurricane-like storm appears dark red while the fast-moving hexagonal jet stream framing it is a yellowish green. Low-lying clouds circling inside the hexagonal feature appear as muted orange color. A second, smaller vortex pops out in teal at the lower right of the image. The rings of Saturn appear in vivid blue at the top right.

The images were taken with Cassini's wide-angle camera using a combination of spectral filters sensitive to wavelengths of near-infrared light. The images filtered at 890 nanometers are projected as blue. The images filtered at 728 nanometers are projected as green, and images filtered at 752 nanometers are projected as red. At Saturn, this scheme means colors correlate to different altitudes in the planet's polar atmosphere: red indicates deep, while green shows clouds that are higher in altitude. High clouds are typically associated with locations of intense upwelling in a storm. These images help scientists learn the distribution and frequencies of such storms. The rings are bright blue in this color scheme because there is no methane gas between the ring particles and the camera.

The view was acquired at a distance of approximately 261,000 miles (419,000 kilometers) from Saturn and at a sun-Saturn-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 94 degrees. Image scale is 13 miles (22 kilometers) per pixel.

Andromeda

Andromeda, also known as M31, is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way. Sensitive to infrared light from cool dust mixed in with the gas, Herschel seeks out clouds of gas where stars are born. Andromeda is host to several hundred billion stars, and this Herschel image clearly shows that many more will soon spark into existence.

The Herschel observatory, a European space telescope for which NASA helped build instruments and process data, has stopped making observations after running out of liquid coolant as expected.
The European Space Agency mission, launched almost four years ago, revealed the universe's "coolest" secrets by observing the frigid side of planet, star and galaxy formation.

"Herschel gave us the opportunity to peer into the dark and cold regions of the universe that are invisible to other telescopes," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. "This successful mission demonstrates how NASA and ESA can work together to tackle unsolved mysteries in astronomy."

Confirmation the helium is exhausted came today, at the beginning of the spacecraft's daily communication session with its ground station in Western Australia. A clear rise in temperatures was measured in all of Herschel's instruments.

Herschel launched aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana in May 2009. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., built components for two of Herschel's three science instruments. NASA also supports the U.S. astronomical community through the agency's Herschel Science Center, located at the California Institute of Technology's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center in Pasadena.

Herschel's detectors were designed to pick up the glow from celestial objects with infrared wavelengths as long as 625 micrometers, which is 1,000 times longer than what we can see with our eyes. Because heat interferes with these devices, they were chilled to temperatures as low as 2 kelvins (minus 271 degrees Celsius, or 456 Fahrenheit) using liquid helium. The detectors also were kept cold by the spacecraft's orbit, which is around a stable point called the second Lagrange point about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) from Earth. This location gave Herschel a better view of the universe.

"Herschel has improved our understanding of how new stars and planets form, but has also raised many new questions," said Paul Goldsmith, NASA Herschel project scientist at JPL. "Astronomers will be following up on Herschel's discoveries with ground-based and future space-based observatories for years to come."

The mission will not be making any more observations, but discoveries will continue. Astronomers still are looking over the data, much of which already is public and available through NASA's Herschel Science Center. The final batch of data will be public in about six months.

"Our goal is to help the U.S. community exploit the nuggets of gold that lie in that data archive," said Phil Appleton, project scientist at the science center.

Another Bill Moyer show to watch...

The violent Boston rampage triggered a local and federal response that, according to journalist Glenn Greenwald, adds a new dimension to troubling questions about government secrecy, overreach, and what we sacrifice in the name of national security. Greenwald joins Bill to peel back layers that reveal what the Boston bombings and drone attacks have in common, and how secrecy leads to abuse of government power.

“Should we change or radically alter or dismantle our standard protocols of justice in the name of terrorism? That’s been the debate we’ve been having since the September 11th attack,” Greenwald tells Bill. “We can do what we’ve been doing, which is become a more closed society, authorize the government to read our emails, listen in our telephone calls, put people in prison without charges, enact laws that make it easier for the government to do those sorts of things. Or we can try and understand why it is that people want to come here and do that.”
Greenwald also talks about the limitations of government surveillance as an anti-terrorism tactic, and draws a parallel between the Boston bombings — which he calls a “political event” — and U.S. drone attacks.

“There certainly are cases where the United States has very recklessly killed civilians,” he tells Bill. “So at some point, when a government engages in behavior year after year after year after year, that continues to kill innocent people in a very foreseeable way, and continues to do that, in my mind that reaches a level of recklessness that is very similar to intentional killing.”

http://vimeo.com/64859465

Also see, political scholars Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann tell Bill that Congress’ failure to make progress on gun control last week — despite support for background checks from 90% of the American public – is symptomatic of a legislative branch reduced to dysfunction, partisan ravings and obstruction.

A year ago, the two — who had strong reputations as non-partisan analysts — decided to speak truth to power with their book It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism. In it, they argue that congressional gridlock is mostly the fault of right wing radicals within the Republican Party who engage in “policy hostage-taking” to extend their political war against the president. What’s more, Ornstein and Mann say, the mainstream media and media fact-checkers add to the problem by indulging in “false equivalency” — pretending both parties are equally to blame.

http://vimeo.com/64859467

Now for something really strange...

KATMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepalese mountaineering officials say they are investigating reports of a fight between three foreign climbers and local Sherpa guides on Mount Everest.

Dipendra Poudel of the Mountaineering Department said the three climbers — from Italy, Switzerland and Britain — were involved in arguments with some Sherpa guides on Sunday.

Poudel says both sides accuse each other of starting the fight, adding mountaineering officials based at the Everest base camp were investigating the incident.

Sherpa guides hired by the hundreds of Western climbers attempting to climb the world's highest mountain are the first ones to fix the ropes on the routes so their clients can climb to the peak.

The Sherpas are accusing the foreign climbers of starting the fight.

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Three abalone divers were killed in separate accidents over the weekend in Northern California, where powerful rip currents were reported.

The Press Democrat reports a very low tide drew divers to the beaches looking for sea snails.

The body of a 66-year-old retired Pacifica firefighter was found Saturday afternoon off Sonoma County's Shell Beach.

On Sunday morning, several divers helped pull a 36-year-old San Francisco man to shore after he got caught in a rip tide off nearby Salt Point State Park. He couldn't be revived.

Several hours later, a diver was found dead north of Fort Bragg. A Sonoma County sheriff's sergeant says the man was found about 15 feet below the water and might have been snagged in rocks.

 

Since Ab's have been so over fished, the state past a law on how they are harvested. North of Point Conception (near Santa Barbara) you can not use air tanks, so the diver must 'free dive'. This makes it a lot harder to get them and it also protects the Ab's. But on occasion a diver will become trapped or tangled and drown, or a shark may visit... The down side is that the price for Ab's makes them a target for poachers. I cry no tears for a dead poacher, but the recreational diver who is lost is a shame. Divers know the risk, but it is still a shame.

Lake de Lausanne

Lake de Lausanne and the snow capped Swiss Alps in the background. Even more beautiful than the ridiculously picturesque postcard setting is the love of sailing that permeates the entire scene. Kids are sailing with and against their heroes, a new World Champ is being crowned and sailing history is being made as Open Sports Management prepares to bring the IMOCA class into an even more international and prosperous light.

Ronnie Simpson checks in after a long flight to Switzerland; he’s there throughout the weekend to share IMOCA’s big changes with you.

After the Opti regatta, the crowd moved into the ballroom of the famed 5-star palace to continue the celebration. On stage were previous IMOCA World Champs Roland Jourdain, Bernard Stamm, Mike Golding and Marc Guillermot, while Armel Le Cleac’h, Jean Le Cam and Jean Pierre Dick gave previously recorded video tributes. Sir Keith Mills of Open Sports Management and IMOCA class president Luc Talbourdet came together to outline the future vision and direction of the class before presenting a gracious Francois Gabart with his well-earned trophy as World Champion.

From Sailing Anarchy

Newport to Ensenada

The bad-ass 60′ trimaran Loe Real crushed it on the Newport to Ensenada Race, finishing the 125 mile race first in 07:03:51, just missing the outright elapsed time record by 17 minutes. The 52′ catamaran Afterburner was next, 40 minutes later. The first monohull in was the R/P 65 Bad Pak with an elapsed time of 10:58:30. The TP 52 Meanie won overall on corrected time, beating Bad Pak by 2 minutes!


Meanwhile here is an onboard report from earlier today from K Mag onboard the J/125 Timeshaver: A beautiful day of sailing! This years N2E is in full swing right now as we pass Point Loma at 5:30pm on the J-125 ‘Timeshaver.’ We had a good start (avoided a certain boat in our class like the plague) and immediately went to our small laminate Code 0. Horizon below us and the two Farr 40′s above us meant we had to hold our lane well and avoid any dirty air. We managed that and now set up for the day. We opted to be one of the further boats out and ended up switching to our 3A pretty quickly.
With the wind at 260-270 we put the bow up and got on a low plane at about 140 degrees. We were constantly in the mid teens as we scooted past Horizon, Blue Blazes and anyone else near us. Derivative the other J-125 went inside and he is now off our quarter stern to leeward about 2 miles behind us. Horizon is to weather and behind about a mile. We are now doing about 10kts aimed about 1 mile outside the Coronado Islands… Hope this is the right call because Blue Blazes is looking their going inside the islands at this point.. Ensenada by midnight??

Melges 32

Longtime beach cat and Melges 24 helm Alex Shafer slotted in as tactician alongside main trimmer and speed guru Marty Kullman, and skipper Jaime Torres pulled off one great start after another just off the paradise that’s Peter Island. 

Melges 32

Slow boat to.....

Here is a video of Artemis, no foil... Just watch and see how slow this boat is compared to the foiling Oracle and NZ... They have a new boat coming and that is to foil but they are running out of time to train on a monster foiling cat. They are really behind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6zw_iM1MylA

Antigua Classic Regatta

Ira Epstein — long of Bolinas, and more recently of St. Barth and the Robert Clark-designed 65-ft ketch Lone Fox — told us that he was happy to get back to the dock with nothing broken after each of the four races of last week's 26th annual Antigua Classic Regatta.

Blue Peter was the biggest victim on Saturday, losing her main mast.

"It was the roughest regatta I've ever sailed in," said Epstein, who was the overall winner of the previous two Classics and a veteran of five others. "Saturday had the nastiest weather, with winds in the mid-20s gusting to 30. But it wasn't the wind so much as the seas, which were nine feet with just a seven-second period. Everybody got soaked, and my bowman was underwater the entire time." Epstein's evaluation of the conditions was conservative compared to that of some other very experienced skippers. "Man, it was ferocious out there!" said Scott DiBiaso, the much-respected captain of the 65-ft schooner Juno. "By Saturday there were seas 12 feet and higher, and one right after the other."

Big short-period seas are hard on all boats, but hardest on classic wooden yachts with wooden spars. Five spars in the record 65-boat fleet were lost on Saturday alone, and many were surprised there wasn't more damage. Fortunately, there was only one main mast lost, that of the gorgeous 65-ft Blue Peter. Her mast split lengthwise and snapped horizontally. The cause of the dismasting was apparently a chainplate pulling out. If the dock talk is to be believed, all the other chainplates had recently been replaced on the 80-year-old boat.

The rough conditions had lots of other skippers fearing for their spars. DiBiaso said he'd never seen mighty Juno's wood bowsprit or masts bend so much. "We always push it, but we were pushing it twice as hard as in any previous regatta because we sailed neck-and-neck the entire time with the 75-ft schooner Adventuress, just out of a three-year refit. After four races and 100 miles of racing, often within a stone's throw of each other, only 34 seconds separated us. Fortunately, 34 seconds in our favor."

But Juno's spars held. It's a good thing, too, because it's the end of her Caribbean season and she's headed back to the Vineyard tomorrow. With any luck, she'll be there in 10 to 12 days.
This year's overall winner in the Classic was the 94-ft Sumurun, built by Fife in 1914. "She was unbelieveable, as she didn't reef the entire regatta, but stood straight up," said DiBiaso.
Unlike the America's Cup, there is a second in the Classic, and it was claimed by Epstein's Lone Fox. Actually, just about every boat gets one award or another.

Milky Way and atmospheric airglow

As far as the eye could see, it was a dark night at Las Campanas Observatory in the southern Atacama desert of Chile. But near local midnight on April 11, this mosaic of 3 minute long exposures revealed a green, unusually intense, atmospheric airglow stretching over thin clouds. Unlike aurorae powered by collisions with energetic charged particles and seen at high latitudes, the airglow is due to chemiluminescence, the production of light in a chemical reaction, and found around the globe. The chemical energy is provided by the Sun's extreme ultraviolet radiation. Like aurorae, the greenish hue of this airglow does originate at altitudes of 100 kilometers or so dominated by emission from excited oxygen atoms. The gegenschein
, sunlight reflected by dust along the solar system's ecliptic plane was still visible on that night, a faint bluish cloud just right of picture center. At the far right, the Milky Way seems to rise from the mountain top perch of the Magellan telescopes. Left are the OGLE project and du Pont telescope domes.

1006 AD

What looks like a puff-ball is surely the remains of the brightest supernova in recorded human history. In 1006 AD, it was recorded as lighting up the nighttime skies above areas now known as China

, Egypt, Iraq, Italy, Japan, and Switzerland. The expanding debris cloud from the stellar explosion, found in the southerly constellation the Wolf (Lupus), still puts on a cosmic light show across the electromagnetic spectrum. In fact, the above image results from three colors of X-rays taken by the orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory. Now known as the SN 1006 supernova remnant, the debris cloud appears to be about 60 light-years across and is understood to represent the remains of a white dwarf star. Part of a binary star system, the compact white dwarf gradually captured material from its companion star. The buildup in mass finally triggered a thermonuclear explosion that destroyed the dwarf star. Because the distance to the supernova remnant is about 7,000 light-years, that explosion actually happened 7,000 years before the light reached Earth in 1006. Shockwaves in the remnant accelerate particles to extreme energies and are thought to be a source of the mysterious cosmic rays.

Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord

This image of Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord with Kap Atholl in the background was taken during an Operation IceBridge survey flight in April, 2013. Sea ice coverage in the fjord ranges from thicker, white ice seen in the background, to thinner grease ice and leads showing open ocean water in the foreground.

In March 2013, NASA's Operation IceBridge scientists began another season of research activity over Arctic ice sheets and sea ice. IceBridge, a six-year NASA mission, is the largest airborne survey of Earth's polar ice ever flown. It will yield an unprecedented three-dimensional view of Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets, ice shelves and sea ice. These flights will provide a yearly, multi-instrument look at the behavior of the rapidly changing features of the Greenland and Antarctic ice.

Stuck in the mud..

If you saw the earlier posts on this thing, here is an update. I guess they are trying to launch this 'boat' in San Francisco bay. It is a very big home-built cat that is made of plywood and paint. Most boats are covered in fiberglass and epoxy or are carbon fiber, but this thing is just plywood. Without the coating, the wood will not last long in the water, the paint gives some protection but it is not the best. Also the 'design' is a little strange, lots of windows on the amas but none on the salon?? Plus it is a schooner rig and has a radar mast in a very bad location. Also, how can you steer the thing from the back??? No visibility to the front from the wheel in the back, do you look through the salon?? Will have to see if it floats for long or ends up half sunk in Richardson Bay with so many other derelict boats.

Health care in the US and one reason it costs so much...

Whether you are young or old, man or woman, very healthy or quite sick, it is almost a certainty that you are going to use a prescription drug in the next year or two. These medicines are crucial for preventing diseases and treating all sorts of ailments and problems.

They are also expensive -- really expensive. For example, the best-selling drug of all time, Pfizer's cholesterol lowering drug Lipitor, went for $3.50 per pill and up before going generic in late 2011. But these days some retail chains are giving away generic Lipitor while the rest are charging barely 50 cents a pill.

 

Prescription drugs cost Americans far more than they do people living in many other parts of the world. This is because drug companies spend a fortune on direct-to-consumer sales and marketing (which they don't do in other countries) and because other nations negotiate better deals for drugs than private insurers do in the United States.

 

Since the US government pays for medication through Medicare and other programs, the drug companies and 'health providers' have no incentive to reduce the cost. They simply say the drugs cost more so the government gives them more money. There is no incentive to stop doing this since the providers and Pharma companies are making a fortune at the expense of Americans.

 

Is there anything that can be done to lower costs and increase the availability of more affordable and equally effective drugs? Yes. Earlier this year, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case that drew little attention in the media: Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis. The stakes are high.

 

When the court decides this case, probably in June, it will either reinforce Big Pharma shenanigans that have helped keep prices high and skyrocketing, or finally bring some relief to our pocketbook and escalating national health care bill for drugs.

 

The issue is whether companies that own patents for prescription drugs can pay other companies that want to make cheaper generic versions not to do so, a practice known as pay-for-delay.

One way to get lower prices on drugs is to get generic versions out to replace name-brand drugs. Generic drugs include the exact same active ingredients as the brand names. The difference is the name of the medication and the color or shape of the pill.

 

Prescription drug manufacturers, fearing the arrival of cheaper generics and knowing or worrying that their patents alone won't keep out competitors, try to buy off the competition instead.

In the case before the court, Solvay Pharmaceuticals is accused of paying off would-be generic manufacturers of their blockbuster drug AndroGel, a synthetic testosterone used by hundreds of thousands of AIDS patients, cancer patients, elderly men and others who suffer from low levels of testosterone. The generic companies were happy; they made money for doing nothing. Solvay continued to reap huge profits by keeping its monopoly in the market. The only losers were patients who have had to keep paying much higher prices for their name-brand-only drug.

 

Usually, buying off your competitors is clearly illegal. Pay-for-delay deals run counter to basic antitrust principles. Nonetheless, some lower courts, declining to evaluate the strength of a patent, have let Big Pharma get away with these deals. Big Pharma views the settlements as a bargain. Instead of losing up to 90% of their market share bcause of the introduction of a generic, companies can simply pay generic manufacturers and make the competition go away.

 

Unfortunately, the AndroGel case is not unique. In recent years, deals between Big Pharma and generic drug makers have delayed the introduction of a diverse range of cheaper generics including cancer drugs, AIDS treatments, blood pressure medications, antidepressants, allergy medications, sleep aids, ADD medications and more.

 

The Congressional Budget Office says pay-for-delay tactics cost consumers billions of dollars and the Federal Trade Commission estimates these pay-for-delay deals will cost Americans up to $35 billion over the next 10 years. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, who co-wrote the Hatch-Waxman Act, has been very vocal in arguing that a law Congress intended to help reduce the cost of prescription medicines has been hijacked by the drug industry to do the opposite.

 

What we have now are the generic manufacturers and Big Pharma making a fortune by agreeing to delay competition that would bring lower priced drugs to market. A few weeks ago, the Indian Supreme Court took a hard look at the way big drug companies were using patent extensions to keep out low price competition. They said forget it—that sort of tomfoolery will not be allowed.

 

The U.S. Supreme Court would be wise to concur, heed the Federal Trade Commission's complaint and bring pay-for-delay to an abrupt end.

Saturn's rings and meteoroids...

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided the first direct evidence of small meteoroids breaking into streams of rubble and crashing into Saturn's rings.

These observations make Saturn's rings the only location besides Earth, the moon and Jupiter where scientists and amateur astronomers have been able to observe impacts as they occur. Studying the impact rate of meteoroids from outside the Saturnian system helps scientists understand how different planet systems in our solar system formed.

The solar system is full of small, speeding objects. These objects frequently pummel planetary bodies. The meteoroids at Saturn are estimated to range from about one-half inch to several yards (1 centimeter to several meters) in size. It took scientists years to distinguish tracks left by nine meteoroids in 2005, 2009 and 2012.

Details of the observations appear in a paper in the Thursday, April 25 edition of Science.

Results from Cassini have already shown Saturn's rings act as very effective detectors of many kinds of surrounding phenomena, including the interior structure of the planet and the orbits of its moons. For example, a subtle but extensive corrugation that ripples 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers) across the innermost rings tells of a very large meteoroid impact in 1983.

"These new results imply the current-day impact rates for small particles at Saturn are about the same as those at Earth -- two very different neighborhoods in our solar system -- and this is exciting to see," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "It took Saturn's rings acting like a giant meteoroid detector -- 100 times the surface area of the Earth -- and Cassini's long-term tour of the Saturn system to address this question."

The Saturnian equinox in summer 2009 was an especially good time to see the debris left by meteoroid impacts. The very shallow sun angle on the rings caused the clouds of debris to look bright against the darkened rings in pictures from Cassini's imaging science subsystem.

"We knew these little impacts were constantly occurring, but we didn't know how big or how frequent they might be, and we didn't necessarily expect them to take the form of spectacular shearing clouds," said Matt Tiscareno, lead author of the paper and a Cassini participating scientist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "The sunlight shining edge-on to the rings at the Saturnian equinox acted like an anti-cloaking device, so these usually invisible features became plain to see."

Tiscareno and his colleagues now think meteoroids of this size probably break up on a first encounter with the rings, creating smaller, slower pieces that then enter into orbit around Saturn. The impact into the rings of these secondary meteoroid bits kicks up the clouds. The tiny particles forming these clouds have a range of orbital speeds around Saturn. The clouds they form soon are pulled into diagonal, extended bright streaks.

"Saturn's rings are unusually bright and clean, leading some to suggest that the rings are actually much younger than Saturn," said Jeff Cuzzi, a co-author of the paper and a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist specializing in planetary rings and dust at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. "To assess this dramatic claim, we must know more about the rate at which outside material is bombarding the rings. This latest analysis helps fill in that story with detection of impactors of a size that we weren't previously able to detect directly."

Vallarta Yacht Club’s big WESMEX

A very large member of the perimeter control team throws his weight around behind one of the Club 420s at Vallarta Yacht Club’s big WESMEX event last week. Shot is from Jay Ailworth.

98 Optimists, 67 Lasers, 34 Sailboards, and 20 C-420’s, mixed together in Banderas Bay in a 12-18 knot blender makes for some of the best small boat racing on the planet! Yup, it was WESMEX hosted by Vallarta Yacht Club! VYC has a reputation for being the little Yacht Club that can and does deliver, right up there with the big boys; in just the past few years we’ve held the Optimist North Americans, J-24 Worlds, MEXORC, Copa Mexico, Banderas Bay Regatta, and the Pan-AM Games…with plenty more to come.

WESMEX is a very special one for us; 239 youths from across Mexico are all working to qualify for the Mexican sailing team, while the upcoming Junior Olympics is also hosted by the VYC…so much great new blood for sailing. The event is often frequented by hot up and coming sailors with sights set on international competition. It was just last year that Tom Slingsby and Andrew Merdock showed up to use this event to get ready for the ISAF Worlds and the Olympics. This year the event saw some amazing young sailors that are really showing their drive, with RIO buzzing around in their heads. Keep an eye out for these up and coming Laser and RSX sailors. And please note that any purchase from Jay Aileworth’s photo gallery goes straight to the VYC Junior Program.
Viva Mexico!

Do people still do this???

Windsurfing has kind of taken a back seat to Kite Sailing lately and in general never really gain a huge level of participation among the general public, though some are quite devoted to the sport. I sailed my self back in the 80's and 90's but I have not set foot on the board in years. Surfing took over in my life and I never really got into board sailing. But in some parts of the world windsurfing is a big sport. Hats off to the riders of the world, keep it going!!

Francis Joyon poised to claim Grand Slam

French solo sailing legend Francis Joyon currently holds the singlehanded round the world record (57 days), the solo 24 hour record (668 miles at an average speed of 27.83 knots) and most recenlty recover the Route of Discovery record, between Cadiz and San Salvador in the Bahamas, taking more than one day off the record by completing the voyage in 8 days, 16 hours, 7 minutes and 5 seconds.

Next up Joyon will be making a fresh singlehanded attempt on the eastbound North Atlantic record. If he achieves this, he will become the first sailor ever to have managed the Grand Slam. For any offshore record hunters, be it with crews or solo, four major records comprise the Grand Slam, - the round the world record, the North Atlantic record, the 24-hour distance record and the Route of Discovery. For Joyon there is a real possibility of simultaneously holding all four of these records something that neither Ellen MacArthur, nor Thomas Coville – his two closest rivals in this field – ever achieved.

On board his red 29m maxi trimaran IDEC - now equipped with foils, to make her even faster - Francis Joyon has already achieved a long list of successes and of the major passage records, only the North Atlantic remains.

The current record is held by Thomas Coville on Sodebo with a time of 5 days, 19 hours, 29 minutes and 20 seconds. This equates to averaging almost 21 knots on the 2980 miles direct route and more given that Joyon will inevitably have to sail extra distance if he is to keep up with the depression moving across eastward across the North Atlantic with him.

Joyon will be following in the footsteps of some legendary sailors: Charlie Barr was the first to set the record back in 1905 aboard his famous schooner, Atlantic (12 days, with a crew of 50). It was not until 80 years later, when Eric Tabarly took the time down to 10 days aboard his trimaran Paul Ricard. Then, there were the crews led by Marc Pajot (Elf Aquitaine), Patrick Morvan (Jet Services 2), Loïc Caradec (Royale 2) Philippe Poupon (Fleury Michon VIII), Serge Madec (Jet Services V), Steve Fossett (Playstation), Bruno Peyron (Orange II) and more recently, Franck Cammas (Groupama 3) and Pascal Bidégorry (Banque PopulaireV), who managed with their crew to shave a few hours or days off the legendary passage between New York and the Lizard.

As for the solo records, the first were set by Bruno Peyron (Explorer in 1987 and 1992), Florence Arthaud (Pierre 1er), Laurent Bourgnon (Primagaz, 7 days in 1994)… and yes, Francis Joyon, who held the record for the first time in 2005 aboard his first IDEC trimaran with a time of six days and four hours, before Thomas Coville took the time down to below six days three years later.

MOD70

The first season of the MOD70 circuit was a success, demonstrating the potential of the offshore one design trimarans to create high performance competitive racing in their race eastbound across the Atlantic from New York to Brest, the Krys Ocean Race and then the MOD70 European Tour, coasthopping anti-clockwise around the European coastline between Kiel and Genoa. Over 850,000 visited the race villages during these two events.

Since the launch of the first MOD70 Race for Water in March 2011, the system has generated about 24 million euros in terms of international media coverage.

However in the absence of a title sponsor, the MOD class and team owners have decided upon a 2013 season consists solely of multi-class races. So the major events this year will be another European Tour with the Route des Princes in June and then the doublehanded Transat Jacques Vabre from Le Havre to Itajai, Brazil starting on 3 November.

This season the fleet is expanding with the launch recently of Jean-Pierre Dick's latest Virbac Paprec, the sixth MOD70 to be launched, while hull no2, formerly Roland Jourdain's Veolia Environnement has a new American owner and has been rechristened Orion Racing, however her program looks set to be US-based.

The objective of the MOD class is now to work on a circuit over 2014 to 2016 including the second running of the Krys Ocean Race.

2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race has the first all-female team....

Team SCA, the only all-female team in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race has confirmed the first five crew to officially join the team.

Carolijn Brouwer (NED), Sophie Cizcek (AUS), Sam Davies (GBR), Annie Lush (GBR) and Liz Wardley (AUS) will joining as crew members from early April.

Some 20 candidates have been through a rigorous training ‘camp’ at the team’s base in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. The schedule has included tests of their fitness and stamina as well as medicals and sailing onboard the team’s VO70 training boat, SCA Care. All under the watchful eyes of the team coaches who have experience of some fifteen round the world races between them.

“We have been really impressed with the quality of the candidates coming through. There is a ten-year gap since the last time there was an all-female crew in this race, and the level of professional and competence is much higher now, so clearly none of us is underestimating the task ahead,” commented Richard Brisius, Managing Director, Team SCA.
Team SCA, the only all-female team in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race has confirmed the first five crew to officially join the team.

Carolijn Brouwer (NED), Sophie Cizcek (AUS), Sam Davies (GBR), Annie Lush (GBR) and Liz Wardley (AUS) will joining as crew members from early April.

Some 20 candidates have been through a rigorous training ‘camp’ at the team’s base in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. The schedule has included tests of their fitness and stamina as well as medicals and sailing onboard the team’s VO70 training boat, SCA Care. All under the watchful eyes of the team coaches who have experience of some fifteen round the world races between them.

“We have been really impressed with the quality of the candidates coming through. There is a ten-year gap since the last time there was an all-female crew in this race, and the level of professional and competence is much higher now, so clearly none of us is underestimating the task ahead,” commented Richard Brisius, Managing Director, Team SCA.

All five women have a wide range of experience in sailing, from single handed offshore to Olympics and Match Racing. They have each carved their own niche in what is still considered to be a male-dominated sport.

“They are all very talented natural sailors, gender does not come in to it. Team SCA is providing the tools and structure to give these sailors a chance at competing on an equal footing in what is a classic round-the-world yacht race. It would be great to think that through all our efforts we could engage a new generation of women to break into competitive, crewed offshore racing. A female team in this race should be the norm, not something unusual,” concluded Brisius.

The squad will be based in Lanzarote until the start of the race in autumn 2014. Delivery of the Team SCA VO65 race boat is expected in the early autumn this year.

Only four other all-female teams have competed in this event in its 40-year history and the last all-female entry was Amer Sports Two in the 2001-02 edition of the race.

The Team SCA project is backed by SCA, the leading global hygiene and forest products company. Jan Johansson, President and CEO of SCA, comments: “For SCA this project not only forms an integral part of our marketing and communications activities. Our crew will be strong, high-performing role models internally as well as for our consumers worldwide, of whom 80 percent are women. As a sustainability leader, we know the important everyday roles women play to raise sanitation, hygiene and health standards in communities around the world. That is the core of SCA and our brands."

All five women have a wide range of experience in sailing, from single handed offshore to Olympics and Match Racing. They have each carved their own niche in what is still considered to be a male-dominated sport.

“They are all very talented natural sailors, gender does not come in to it. Team SCA is providing the tools and structure to give these sailors a chance at competing on an equal footing in what is a classic round-the-world yacht race. It would be great to think that through all our efforts we could engage a new generation of women to break into competitive, crewed offshore racing. A female team in this race should be the norm, not something unusual,” concluded Brisius.

The squad will be based in Lanzarote until the start of the race in autumn 2014. Delivery of the Team SCA VO65 race boat is expected in the early autumn this year.

Only four other all-female teams have competed in this event in its 40-year history and the last all-female entry was Amer Sports Two in the 2001-02 edition of the race.

The Team SCA project is backed by SCA, the leading global hygiene and forest products company. Jan Johansson, President and CEO of SCA, comments: “For SCA this project not only forms an integral part of our marketing and communications activities. Our crew will be strong, high-performing role models internally as well as for our consumers worldwide, of whom 80 percent are women. As a sustainability leader, we know the important everyday roles women play to raise sanitation, hygiene and health standards in communities around the world. That is the core of SCA and our brands."

New AC72 launch vid

 ORACLE TEAM USA officially launched the team’s second AC72 on April 23, marking the culmination of months of work for the design, build and shore teams. Now it’s up to the sailing team to push it and develop the fastest AC72 on San Francisco Bay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gKLWSexq71o

Oracle Team USA officially launched the team’s second AC72 today from the team base at Pier 80 in San Francisco.

Helmsman Jimmy Spithill led the team and audience in a toast after Oracle Chief Marketing Officer Judy Sim broke a bottle of champagne across the bowsprit. The boat was then lowered into the San Francisco Bay before docking out for the first time.

“It’s an awesome day. We’re all very, very excited to get it out on the water,” said Spithill. “We hope to develop the fastest AC72 that will hit the Bay. There’s been a lot of energy, a lot of hours, put into this boat from the entire team. Now, it’s up to the sailors, along with the support of the rest of the team, to get out there and really try to get the most out of this boat.”

Spithill recognised the months of work put into the design and build of the boat in preparation for launch. “We have the best, most committed shore team, build team, design team, and the entire team is behind us, supporting us,” he said. “They’re the first to arrive, the last to leave, work 7 days a week, just to provide us with a reliable, race-winning boat, ready to go.”
Named Oracle Team USA 17, the boat is the second AC72 launched by Oracle Team USA and marks the start of the next phase in the team’s campaign. Training commences on the new boat this week, and by late spring the team plans to have both AC72s on the Bay as they prepare to defend the America’s Cup this September.

“There’s been an enormous amount of work that has gone into this boat,” said CEO Russell Coutts during the launch. “It represents extreme performance and extreme engineering. It represents a significant improvement in performance over where we’ve been before. And probably most importantly, this represents the boat that is going to defend the America’s Cup, for America, in America.”

Foiled...

This boat, FOILED, definitely has something new on it. This 35' racer has foils out the side which is supposed to help it sail. From the reports, this boat can move along at a good clip, like 20 knots. These foils my find their way onto Volvo or Imoca racers and maybe be seen during a TransPac. In any event, I will be interested in seeing what happens with all this new technology that is making its way into boating. Just a decade ago, it was thought that a mono-hull had reached its peak in speed and nothing more could be done. All the appendages and hull coatings only seemed to improve the performance by a small fraction, now with canting keels and new hull shapes, mono-hulls are now sailing at speeds only cats would do. Things do change...

Senate bill s401

Senate bill s401, the so-called "Marine Fair Use" legislation that recently passed the Senate nearly without debate, is scheduled to begin deliberations in the House this week. Experts predict it will be approved in short order, if by a narrower margin. As it is known to also have strong White House support, experts say that US boaters can expect the new tax to possibly come into effect as early as January 2014. According to a recent and controversial Op-Ed piece in the Washington Post by April Hatch (Daughter or Senator Orrin Hatch), This and "other 'luxury' and 'sin' taxes are being pushed through easily because they affect a relative minority of voters, and thus pose little risk to most Congress members' re-election."

"Owning a boat, and especially a yacht, is proof in and of itself of disposable income," said Kansas Senator Kurt Drieson in recent interviews on both The View and C-SPAN. "They're big toys, and nothing more!" The Senator has, however, previously stated that land-based RV's, and "boats with a real purpose, like fishing or hunting," would not be taxed.

Critics of the law say the bill, sponsored by Drieson, was sloppily written, and contains vague language far too open to interpretation. For example, it's been pointed out on the press that though the law specifically taxes the wetted area of any recreational vessel using federally controlled waterways, its unclear whether the tax for any particular vessel will be applied per year, or per launch, or both. Thus, trailer boats might be charged for each and every launch, and a larger boat may have to keep a "dinghy log" and pay for each time its tender is dropped into the water.

Others point out that with the enforcement of the law likely to fall under the authority of a new agency, which itself is likely to be under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, the majority of income derived from the program will be used to fund its own infrastructure, and to recruit and train up to 1,200 armed enforcement officers. The only projected net addition to the Federal coffers would be from fines, and a quick check of cyberspace shows it to be abuzz with debate. On line critics saying this scenario ranges from "another case of self-serving bureaucratic bloat," to conspiracists who claim this to be a case of "creating and funding a navy for the police state."

Supporters of the law say that it will make the waterways safer and reduce the environmental impact of recreational boaters, partly by reducing the number of boat owners on the water who cannot afford the fees (and thus are unlikely to purchase proper safety or sanitation equipment), and partly through the encouragement of operator licensing with the incentive of future tax benefits. Experts say that much as with other sin taxes (ie: alcohol and tobacco), the law is designed to discourage what is considered to be a potentially dangerous activity among the poor and uneducated.

Towed Glider Air-Launch Concept

NASA Dryden Flight Research Center is developing a novel space access, rocket launching technique called the Towed Glider Air-Launch Concept. The idea is to build a relatively inexpensive, remotely or optionally piloted glider that will be towed to 40,000 feet by a large transport aircraft. The glider will carry a booster rocket capable of launching payloads into low Earth orbit.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=158494721

Three smartphones.......

Three smartphones destined to become low-cost satellites rode to space Sunday aboard the maiden flight of Orbital Science Corp.'s Antares rocket from NASA's Wallops Island Flight Facility in Virginia.

PhoneSat is a nanosatellite, categorizing the mass as between one and ten kilograms. Additionally, PhoneSat is a 1U CubeSat, having a volume of around one liter. The PhoneSat Project strives to decrease the cost of satellites while not sacrificing performance. In an effort to achieve this goal, the project is based around Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) electronics to provide functionality for as many parts as possible while still creating a reliable satellite.

The trio of "PhoneSats" is operating in orbit, and may prove to be the lowest-cost satellites ever flown in space. The goal of NASA's PhoneSat mission is to determine whether a consumer-grade smartphone can be used as the main flight avionics of a capable, yet very inexpensive, satellite.

Transmissions from all three PhoneSats have been received at multiple ground stations on Earth, indicating they are operating normally. The PhoneSat team at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., will continue to monitor the satellites in the coming days. The satellites are expected to remain in orbit for as long as two weeks.

"It's always great to see a space technology mission make it to orbit -- the high frontier is the ultimate testing ground for new and innovative space technologies of the future," said Michael Gazarik, NASA's associate administrator for space technology in Washington.

"Smartphones offer a wealth of potential capabilities for flying small, low-cost, powerful satellites for atmospheric or Earth science, communications, or other space-born applications. They also may open space to a whole new generation of commercial, academic and citizen-space users."

Satellites consisting mainly of the smartphones will send information about their health via radio back to Earth in an effort to demonstrate they can work as satellites in space. The spacecraft also will attempt to take pictures of Earth using their cameras. Amateur radio operators around the world can participate in the mission by monitoring transmissions and retrieving image data from the three satellites. Large images will be transmitted in small chunks and will be reconstructed through a distributed ground station network.

NASA's off-the-shelf PhoneSats already have many of the systems needed for a satellite, including fast processors, versatile operating systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers and several radios.

NASA engineers kept the total cost of the components for the three prototype satellites in the PhoneSat project between $3,500 and $7,000 by using primarily commercial hardware and keeping the design and mission objectives to a minimum. The hardware for this mission is the Google-HTC Nexus One smartphone running the Android operating system.

NASA added items a satellite needs that the smartphones do not have -- a larger, external lithium-ion battery bank and a more powerful radio for messages it sends from space. The smartphone's ability to send and receive calls and text messages has been disabled.
Each smartphone is housed in a standard cubesat structure, measuring about 4 inches square. The smartphone acts as the satellite's onboard computer. Its sensors are used for attitude determination and its camera for Earth observation.

ISAF 2013

The 2013 Hyeres ISAF
Some nice sailing going on here, as always Iwould love to be there to see it first hand. If you ever have the chance to see sailing on these small fast boats, do go.

Science and Technology

The idea that the nation faces a crisis in science education has more than hit home: Many Americans think U.S. teens perform even worse on standardized science tests than they actually do.
That’s according to a new national survey by Smithsonian and the Pew Research Center that also found unusually strong support for boosting math and science instruction in school.

The survey, done to gauge public scientific literacy and educational priorities, involved a representative sample of 1,006 adults in the continental United States who were reached in March on a landline or cellphone.

Respondents received on average what might be considered a passing grade on the quiz portion of the survey, answering 9 out of 13 questions correctly more than half the time. Men scored slightly better than women, though women were better informed about the threat of antibiotic resistance.
Science and technology in the news rang a bell more often than not. A majority correctly noted that nanotechnology involves small things and natural gas is the resource extracted by “fracking,” or hydraulic fracturing. The youngest group, 18- to 29-year-olds, matched others on most knowledge questions but flunked the one about fracking. Fifty-eight percent of respondents correctly said the gas most closely associated with global warming is carbon dioxide, compared with 65 percent who got the question right when Pew last posed it in a survey, in 2009. That decline is difficult to explain, given that climate change seems to be a more prominent issue than before.

Supporters of strengthening science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education warn that U.S. students are falling behind other nations in technical subjects. This gloomy forecast has sunk in. Asked how 15-year-olds in the United States compare with those in other developed nations on a standardized science test known as PISA, for Program for International Student Assessment, respondents tended to rank American youths at the bottom of the pack. In fact, they place in the middle, scoring 17th out of the 34 developed nations in 2009, the most recent year for which results are available.

ISON

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image of Comet (C/2012 S1) ISON was photographed on April 10, when the comet was slightly closer than Jupiter’s orbit at a distance of 386 million miles from the Sun (394 million miles from Earth).

Even at that great distance the comet is already active as sunlight warms the surface and causes frozen volatiles to sublimate. A detailed analysis of the dust coma surrounding the solid, icy nucleus reveals a strong, jet blasting dust particles off the sunward-facing side of the comet’s nucleus.

Preliminary measurements from the Hubble images suggest that the nucleus of ISON is no larger than three or four miles across. This is remarkably small considering the high level of activity observed in the comet so far, said researchers. Astronomers are using these images to measure the activity level of this comet and constrain the size of the nucleus, in order to predict the comet’s activity when it skims 700,000 miles above the sun's roiling surface on November 28.

The comet’s dusty coma, or head of the comet, is approximately 3,100 miles across, or 1.2 times the width of Australia. A dust tail extends more than 57,000 miles, far beyond Hubble’s field of view.

More careful analysis is currently underway to improve these measurements and to predict the possible outcome of the sungrazing perihelion passage of this comet.

This image was taken in visible light. The blue false color was added to bring out details in the comet structure.

Charleston Race Week vid...

From Sailing Anarchy:
We promised you a spectacular Petey Crawford/Penalty Box Productions wrap video from Charleston Race Week, and we challenge you to show us a better highlight reel from any multi-class regatta; we’ve never seen one.

This one’s got it all: Big booties, gorgeous girls, crashes, wipeouts, high speed runs, downtown action, big boats, little boats, old boats, and new boats, gorgeous girls, extremely low speed takedowns, plenty of interviews with some of the best of the best and the funniest of the funny, and did we mention, gorgeous girls?

http://vimeo.com/64669718

New O72...

Photo thanks to Guilain Grenier/ Oracle Team USA.

Might it be what we don’t see that matters? Looking much like the first one, (excepting the really lame red pain) the new Oracle 72 launched today…

I will have to get a report from my brother when he sees it out onthe water, I am assuming they will have the two out testing eachother to see which is faster and to train the crews on high speed rib and tacking. Witht he summer sailing season now almost here and the winds picking up it should be more interesting to see the boats on the water.

 

Paint Job...

Well if you are going to paint a boat, do it with some style... Not a bad paint job, will be noticed for sure. This is sitting on the hard in NZ, I would of course love to be sailing on it, but it is undergoing maintenance and I would not like to be doing that...

Working the Bow...

Kirsten Gillies skirts the headsail on Firefly during the Commodores Cup at the 2013 Sail Port Stephens regatta, 2 hrs north of Sydney, Australia. In it’s sixth year, Sail Port Stephens is hosted by Corlette Point Sailing Club, a club that claims to be the most exclusive in Australia with only 18 full members!

America's Cup World Series

There was plenty of close racing during the America's Cup World Series event in Naples, Italy (which ended yesterday). But when points for the Series were tallied, Oracle Team USA came out on top yet again by winning the match racing and making a strong showing in the fleet racing, thus succeeding in their bid to sweep the three-venue, ACWS 2012-13 season.

Building on the previous America's Cup World Series successes of Oracle Team USA helmsman Jimmy Spithill, the team's Naples crew, led by helmsman Tom Slingsby, continued the winning momentum by defeating Luna Rossa Swordfish in the match race final.

But in the Super Sunday Fleet Race that same day — where possible points are greatly increased — Swordfish's helmsman Francesco Bruni and his crew were determined to redeem themselves. And they did, with an adrenaline-charged win in an AC45 stampede where the lead changed three times. Swordfish came from behind on the final run to the finish line to score a win before an ecstatic crowd.

Although finishing second in that Super Sunday fleet race, Oracle Team USA took fleet honors for the 2012-13 season with a total of 245 points over second place Luna Rossa Piranha (191 points) and JP Morgan BAR (181).

Phone cost....

How much does your phone service cost?? In the US,  most carriers charge $7.50 for each gigabyte of data downloaded over their LTE network. That is three times the European average of $2.50 and more than 10 times what consumers pay in Sweden, where a gigabyte costs as little as 63 cents.

U.S. consumers who bought mobile service through contracts spent $115 a month for 3G service on average, according to a survey conducted in May and June of 6,000 consumers in 12 countries by Ernst & Young, an accounting firm (2012). In the Netherlands, the average was $51; in Britain, $59.

With 27 million LTE subscribers in the world, about half of them in the United States, the US customers pay more than three times than all other countries. US phone service is a total rip-off. And Americans are to lazy and stupid to even know....

Oakland and the behind the scene development deals...

As it turns out, that $1.5 billion Oakland waterfront development deal announced with great fanfare simultaneously by Mayor Jean Quan in Oakland California and Gov. Jerry Brown during his trip to China requires local taxpayers to make a $25.6 million down payment.
And as interesting as the financing is, the deal has some equally interesting personal and political connections, as well.

The local developer is Signature Development Group, whose president Mike Ghielmetti has known Brown since he was Oakland’s mayor and Quan was only a councilwoman.

Ghielmetti is a big Oakland booster. At one point, the site — which runs from near Oak to Ninth Street, in an industrial area just south of Jack London Square — was touted as a possible home for a new Oakland A’s ballpark.

His father and business partner is Jim Ghielmetti, owner of Pleasanton-based Signature Homes and chairman of the California Transportation Commission.

Another key player is Bruce Quan, an Oakland native now living in Beijing and a longtime friend of Mayor Quan (no relation) and her husband Floyd.

It was Quan who put Signature together with their new Chinese financial backers.

To help swing the deal, Oakland has agreed to spend $25.6 million in unused redevelopment money to buy a pair of parcels from Signature, with the option to build affordable housing.

If the city doesn’t build the housing within five years, it can sell the land back to Signature at the same rate it paid for it.

Meanwhile, the city’s $25.6 million will be used — along with $28 million from a Chinese developer, Zarsion Holdings Group — to clean up the site and finally get the 63-acre Oak to Ninth development going. The “shovel ready” project, now being called Brooklyn Basin, includes 3,100 housing units, 200,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, and 30 acres of parks that include wetlands restoration.

Mike Ghielmetti declined to say how much his company was putting up at this point.

One twist is that Oakland’s share of the cost is coming from the same type of redevelopment money that Brown has yanked from other cities in order to help balance the state budget.

However, since Oakland’s part of the deal was agreed to back in 2006 when Brown was still mayor, the $25.6 million has been exempted — with the state signing off this past week.

“It wasn’t political. ’’ the younger Ghielmetti said. “There happened to be some very good timing involved.”

Brown’s press secretary Evan Westrup echoed Ghielmetti, saying the governor’s only involvement was as “a supporter’’ — first as Oakland mayor and recently to help “move the deal forward’’ in China.

“It was an opportunity to highlight what is possible when California companies connect with Chinese investors who are flush with cash and looking for opportunities…and that really was the extent of our involvement,’’ he said.

Seems to me that luck was helped by some insiders....

Another weekend trip...

Classic California Palm

I had the pleasure to experience the slow-down in the air traffic control of the US airspace this weekend while taking a short trip. Delays were the norm, don't really see why but my flights were delayed going and coming..

Well I spent the weekend in the Central Valley of California. It was not too hot yet but lots of sun. I drove around the city and saw some of the old places I haven't seen in many years, kind of "I remember that place..." Most had no special meaning other than they brought back a memory of many years ago.


 I drove through some parts of town that have stayed the same and others that have gone down some. But a few places looked the same. Caballo Blanco is one place, the white horse Mexican restaurant on Franklin Bvld is a place I would go to once in a while. A standard place with standard food, nothing to special but a good place for tacos and such.

 The stupid rabbit at the airport.. I have no idea why this is there or what it is supposed to mean. Maybe it mean run fast out of town.. I really hate this thing, kind of a joke.

I was able to also pick a large bag of Kumquat's at my parents house. These small citrus fruits are interesting in that the skin taste better than what is inside.. I use these to flavor Vodka or cook down to a marmalade. It is a little late in the year for these, but they will still give a good flavor to Vodka.
I can buy them in a market, but they are expensive, about $6 a pound. I picked two pounds and that will last me quite a while, I will just freeze them since I don't need them fresh.
Besides the Kumquats, I picked a bag full of Lemons. The tree was full and I had to climb to get at them but it is nice to have fresh lemons. If I could have taken more, I would be able to preserve them. Packing them in salt is a good way to keep them, they will last a very long time and are good for cooking. North African foods use the skin of preserved lemon and I will make a few dishes using them. If you do have lemons, it is easy to preserve them, simply wash the lemons and cut them in Fourths but not all the way. The lemons should be held together at one end but cut so there are four sections. Simply pack the lemon with salt (non-iodized) and put in a jar. Pack the lemons with more salt and then fill with juice, pack them in tight and make sure there is no air, put a lid on it and let sit for about a month before you start to use them.

Coronal mass ejection

On April 20, 2013, at 2:54 a.m. EDT, the sun erupted with a coronal mass ejection (CME), a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can affect electronic systems in satellites. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at 500 miles per second and is not Earth-directed. However, it may pass by NASA's Messenger and STEREO-A satellites, and their mission operators have been notified. There is, however, no particle radiation associated with this event, which is what would normally concern operators of interplanetary spacecraft since the particles can trip computer electronics on board. When warranted, NASA operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from the solar material.
Another coronal mass ejection (CME) has erupted from the sun, headed toward Mercury and NASA’s Messenger spacecraft. The CME began at 12:39 p.m. EDT on April 21, 2013. Experimental NASA research models show that the CME left the sun at 625 miles per second and that it will catch up to the CME from earlier on April 21 before the combined CMEs pass Messenger. There is also chance that the combined CMEs will give a glancing blow to STEREO-A. The Messenger and STEREO mission operators have been notified. There may be some particle radiation associated with this event, which in the worst case scenarios can impact computer electronics on board interplanetary spacecraft. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from the solar material.

Hubble Sees a Horsehead of a Different Color

 

Astronomers have used NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to photograph the iconic Horsehead Nebula in a new, infrared light to mark the 23rd anniversary of the famous observatory's launch aboard the space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990.

Looking like an apparition rising from whitecaps of interstellar foam, the iconic Horsehead Nebula has graced astronomy books ever since its discovery more than a century ago. The nebula is a favorite target for amateur and professional astronomers. It is shadowy in optical light. It appears transparent and ethereal when seen at infrared wavelengths. The rich tapestry of the Horsehead Nebula pops out against the backdrop of Milky Way stars and distant galaxies that easily are visible in infrared light.

Hubble has been producing ground-breaking science for two decades. During that time, it has benefited from a slew of upgrades from space shuttle missions, including the 2009 addition of a new imaging workhorse, the high-resolution Wide Field Camera 3 that took the new portrait of the Horsehead.