'Ice volcano' identified on Titan - BBC News

14 December 2010 Last updated at 20:20 ET By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News, San Francisco In this false colour image, greens denote volcanic material and blues are believed to be sands Scientists think they now have the best evidence yet for an ice volcano on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn.

The Cassini probe has spotted a 1,500m-high mountain with a deep pit in it, and what looks like a flow of material on the surrounding surface.

The new feature, which has been dubbed "The Rose", was seen with the probe's radar and infrared instruments.

Titan has long been speculated to have cryovolcanoes but its hazy atmosphere makes all observations very difficult.

Researchers are now wondering how active this mountain might be, and what sort of lava it could spew.

"Much of Titan's outer material is water-ice and ammonia, and so that's certainly one possible material that could melt at low temperatures and flow on the surface," explained Dr Randy Kirk, a Cassini radar team-member from the US Geological Survey (USGS).

"But there's a lot of organic material in the atmosphere, and deposited from the atmosphere, and maybe coming up from the interior in the form of these volcanoes. [This material could be] waxy or even plasticy," he told BBC News.

Dr Kirk was speaking here at the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting, the largest gathering of Earth scientists in the world.

There have been previous claims for ice volcanoes at Titan, but these have never won universal support. Scientists have continued to look however because it is considered an excellent candidate given its frigid conditions: the surface temperature is about minus 180 Celsius.

Dr Kirk and colleagues hope their new data will convince even their sternest critics that a positive identification has now finally been made.

The putative volcano is sited just south of Titan's equator in a sea of sand dunes referred to as Sotra Facula.

Titan's thick haze makes all observations at the moon extremely difficult

The radar instrument on Cassini is able to see through the moon's haze and establish the local topography - scientists can build a 3D model of the ground. The infrared instrument on the probe, on the other hand, can gather some information on the variation in composition of the surface materials. Taken together, Dr Kirk's team says, the two views put forward a compelling case.

"We've seen a mountain that has a crater in, that flows of material coming out and spreading across the surface at some time in the past; and in fact when we looked in more detail in 3D we found that there was more than one volcano in this area. And that's actually very common in volcanic areas of the Earth and other planets."

Jeffrey Kargel, a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona, Tucson, is not connected with the Cassini mission. He told the meeting The Rose was the most likely volcano he had yet seen on Titan.

He said that if the lavas were rich in hydrocarbons, they could have the look of softened asphalt, candle wax or even polyethylene.

"There are many unanswered questions and intriguing possibilities," he told reporters.

"Is Sotra the source of Titan's atmospheric methane? Is cryovolcanism still active at Sotra or elsewhere on Titan? What is the cryovolcanic substance? Is cryovolcanism there explosive or quietly effusive? Might cryo-lavas have dredged up indications of fossils or chemical remains of sub-surface life?"

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a co-operative project of Nasa, the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian space agency (Asi).

Jonathan.Amos-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

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Google's Chrome OS: What Is It Good For? - BusinessWeek

By Om Malik

If Google expected a warm welcome for its Chrome OS and the new Cr-48 laptops it's currently giving away to select beta testers, it was wrong. The hardware has received a reception colder than Scrooge's heart. Folks at TechCrunch have given it a verbal lashing that would make a drill sergeant proud. For that past three days, I've been using the Cr-48. Here are my impressions.

The hardware:The boot-up is extremely fast and the log-on process is smooth and speedy, so long as one has a Google Mail account. (Google Apps ID doesn't quite work.) The screen is great, but the graphic capabilities are pretty limited. There is a single USB port and a flash memory card slot; frankly, having lived with the old MacBook Air with a single USB port, I don't see much of a problem. The trackpad is awful. I love the dedicated Search button and would love to see it on all computers. The laptop picked up most of the commonly used USB peripherals. Both a Logitech mouse and a Microsoft optical mouse worked just fine, without need for special discovery or driver installs.

The User Interface/Experience: The Interface is rough around the edges; what you see is essentially the Chrome Web browser. It takes too many cues from Microsoft Windows, which is understandable, considering that they are going after the mainstream and enterprise markets. The OS needs better font support and reminds me of some early Linux distributions. The user experience expects us to come to the idea of using browser tabs instead of apps—a weird notion, but not so strange if you have used the Chrome browser as your primary browser and are accustomed to cloud-based services. If you use Google Chat and Google Tasks, then you easily understand the idea of "Panels," a new feature inside Chrome OS that runs in small, easy-to-access panes at the bottom right of the browser. Even the best Web apps currently available at the Chrome Web Store are works-in-progress. The biggest challenge for Google's Chrome OS is going to be fighting against the many lifelong habits people have developed using a desktop OS.

The Cloud-Based Services: Despite being severely underpowered, one thing the device does very well is to let you use Google apps—especially Google Docs, Gmail, and other cloud services (from Google)—without problems. The YouTube experience is marginal at best. Netflix doesn't work. Most of your browser-based apps will work, but Adobe Flash on Chrome OS is like watching a toddler learn to crawl. It will be a long time before it reaches the maturity of Adobe on the Windows platform. Adobe has already stated that it plans to improve its integrated Flash performance in Chrome OS, essentially calling it a "work-in-progress."

Bottom line: Will I use Cr-48 or something like it as my primary computer? It would be tough for me to make Chrome OS my primary computing experience. I have a lifelong habit of using a full desktop operating system. That doesn't mean I won't keep an open mind, but for now it's a no-go for me. My more portable, 2.13 GHz MacBook Air is the machine I like. Even as I spend a lot of time inside the browser, I prefer a desktop with the Chrome browser and raw power. Plus my Mac has Silverlight, which lets me play Netflix and use third-party, native apps such as Reeder.

As Google stated very clearly, this particular device isn't going to be sold in the market; the company's partners are going to make the devices that consumers can buy. I hope they do a better job and come up with more attractive hardware.

The real story to focus on is the Chrome OS, what it really means, and whom it targets.

Google's growth has coincided with the shift to the Web. Google is a company that has been a believer in networked computing from its inception. Since 2004 an increasing amount of our focus and attention has been devoted to the browser and what we can do inside it. The so-called Web 2.0 concept helped enhance the inside-the-browser experience, slowly replacing the desktop as our primary focus of attention.

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Espada Is Charged With Stealing From a Health Network He Controlled - New York Times

Mr. Espada, who would return to the Senate in 2008 and lead a coup that shut it down and paralyzed state government for a month, said his rival, State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr., had misused employees of nonprofit groups that Mr. Díaz controlled for political fund-raising and campaigning.

But in the months before and after he wrote the letter, according to federal charges leveled against Mr. Espada on Tuesday, he was putting Mr. Díaz to shame. Indeed, the indictment portrays Mr. Espada, the departing Senate majority leader whose political career unspooled in a swirl of scandal when he lost his primary race in September, as a legislator who embezzled with abandon.

And the schemes detailed in the indictment, which also charges his son, Pedro Gautier Espada, ranged from the extravagant to the absurd.

According to the charges, he used money from a subsidiary of the health care network, Soundview Healthcare Center, to pay for after-school tutoring for one young member of his family and to cater a birthday party for another at his home — complete with a petting zoo, pony rides and a videographer to record it all for posterity.

Money from the same subsidiary paid for a ghostwriter to work on his personal book project and to service the air-conditioning system at his Mamaroneck home, according to the indictment. It contends that he even tried to use $49,000 for the down payment on a $125,000 Bentley, though he never bought the car because his credit application was rejected.

Prosecutors also charge that the elder Espada used a Soundview corporate American Express card to pay for personal expenses. Among the charges was more than $100,000 worth of meals for him and his family, window treatments for his home and tickets to Broadway shows and sporting events.

All in all, the six-count indictment obtained by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charges that Mr. Espada, 57, and his son, 37, abused their positions at Soundview between 2005 and 2009 to divert more than half a million dollars from the nonprofit organization and related companies for their own benefit and the use of family members and friends.

The charges were announced by the office of the United States attorney in Brooklyn, Loretta E. Lynch; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Internal Revenue Service; and Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, who is the governor-elect. Mr. Cuomo’s office initiated a civil inquiry and brought a lawsuit in May against Mr. Espada, his son and Soundview.

“The indictment alleges that funds that could have been, and should have been, applied to purchase medical equipment and enhance health care services for an historically underserved population were diverted by the defendants for their personal use and to benefit friends and family members,” Ms. Lynch said in a statement. “In these difficult economic times, the charged crimes are all the more reprehensible.”

Ms. Lynch said the investigation was continuing.

Mr. Espada, the highest ranking Hispanic lawmaker in the state, founded the health care network in 1978.

His lawyer, Susan R. Necheles, said the senator and his son denied any wrongdoing and intended to fight the charges in court.

“Soundview has provided high quality health care to thousands of families, children and senior citizens in the Bronx,” Ms. Necheles said. “Today is a sad day for Soundview and a sad day for the Espada family.”

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Mr. Cuomo and one of his senior aides, Mitra Hormozi, who was designated as a special assistant United States attorney for the investigation, said the dollar figure in the attorney general’s civil lawsuit — $14 million — was larger than the amount charged in the indictment because Mr. Cuomo’s wide civil jurisdiction over charities under New York State law enabled his lawsuit to encompass acts for which Mr. Espada could not be charged under federal criminal law.

But if convicted, both Mr. Espada and his son, whose lawyer did not return a call seeking comment, face a maximum of 10 years in prison for each of the five counts of embezzlement, five years for the single conspiracy count and a fine of $250,000 for each count on which they are convicted.

The indictment caps a turbulent two-year term as state senator during which Mr. Espada became perhaps the most controversial lawmaker in the Capitol.

He won election in 2008 by defeating an equally scandal-plagued incumbent, Efrain Gonzalez Jr., despite accusations that he did not actually reside in the district in question and owing tens of thousands of dollars in campaign fines. Mr. Espada refused to vote with fellow Democrats until he got a committee chairmanship and other perks, yet for months refused to file election paperwork or disclose the names of the donors who had financed his campaign.

And in summer 2009, Mr. Espada, still unsatisfied, staged the coup against his own party, joining with Republicans in a bid to wrest control of the narrowly divided Senate from the Democrats. The move plunged state government into chaos for a month.

Senate Democrats elevated Mr. Espada to majority leader in exchange for his allegiance. But unbeknown to Mr. Espada, he was already under investigation by Mr. Cuomo. Emboldened by Mr. Cuomo’s lawsuit this year, a coalition of labor unions and liberal activists joined together to back a primary opponent, Gustavo Rivera, and successfully ousted Mr. Espada.

The federal charges could spell the end of a quarter-century political career that is one of the more unusual and turbulent in recent New York City political history, spanning multiple investigations, repeated accusations of fraud and electoral misconduct, and seemingly incessant campaigns for office.

Since the late 1980s, Mr. Espada’s name has appeared on Bronx ballots roughly a dozen times, including bids for City Council, borough president, State Assembly and State Senate — the last a job he has held three different times in two different Bronx districts.

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