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Christopher Guest Series To Include People You Would Expect | I ...

Still eager to work with old friends, past collaborators, and public masturbators alike, Christopher Guest has reportedly arranged Fred Willard, Michael McKean, and Ed Begley Jr. for recurring roles for his upcoming HBO mockumentary series, Family Tree.

As previously reported, the Guest and Jim Piddock-created series will focus on a character named Tom Chadwick (played by Chris O'Dowd) as he travels the country "exploring his family heritage after inheriting a mysterious box from a great aunt he never met." McKean will be playing Tom's father, Keith, while Begley will play Uncle Andy and Willard will grin and shout from next door as the uncle's neighbor. Don Lake (the oft-chipper bald guy who is also in all of Christopher Guest's projects) has signed on for a guest spot as Tom's cousin. Basically, you can expect the show's remaining casting to dribble out just as soon as Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Parker Posey, Michael Hitchcock, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Coolidge, and John Michael Higgins have been suitably matched with generic names and blood relations. But would you want it any other way?

August 31, 2011

- Dwayne Johnson tweeted the above photo as evidence that actor/comedian DeRay Davis has a part in G.I. Joe 2. Also as evidence that the two of them arm wrestled outside a ladies' room. - Actor Ben Whishaw says Tom Tykwer's Wachowski-produced adaptation of Cloud Altas will see... / Continue ?

March 25, 2009

If you've got an HBO subscription, keep an eye out for Dennis Quaid to be playing that president from all the McDonald's and semen monologue jokes. The gruff-speaking actor has signed on to play Bill Clinton in the Frost/Nixon playwright's directorial debut, The Special Relatio... / Continue ?

September 18, 2012

Expanding on the criminology-by-way-of-diorama notion previously explored on television by George Costanza, HBO, Guillermo del Toro, and novelist Sara Gran are developing a series about the real-life '50s housewife who solved grisly murders through dollhouse crime scene reconst... / Continue ?

Source: http://www.iwatchstuff.com/2012/09/christopher-guest-series-to-include-peop.php

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Republicans assail Obama on 9/11 attack in Libya

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republicans lashed out at President Barack Obama and senior administration officials over their evolving description of the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, a late campaign-season broadside challenging the veracity and leadership of an incumbent on the upswing.

Desperate to reverse the apparent trajectory of the White House race, Republicans sense a political opportunity in Obama's reluctance to utter the words "terrorist attack" as well as the varying explanations emerging from the administration about the assault in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Talk of Watergate-style scandal, stonewalling and cover-up echoed in the GOP ranks on Thursday, from the head of the party to members of Congress to Mitt Romney's campaign staff. This full-throated criticism comes five days before the first debate between Obama and Romney, with Republicans determined to cast the president as dishonest and ineffectual on both foreign and domestic policy.

"Amid Middle East turmoil and six weeks before the election, President Obama refuses to have an honest conversation with the American people," Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican Party, wrote in an article for the website Real Clear Politics. "The country deserves honesty, not obfuscation, from our president."

Republicans say the administration has been slow to call the assault a terrorist attack and has criticized its initial insistence that the attack was a spontaneous response to the crude anti-Islam video that touched off demonstrations across the Middle East.

Since then, it has become clear that the Benghazi assault was distinct from the mobs that burned American flags and protested what they considered the blasphemy in the movie, but didn't attack U.S. personnel. Republicans have also suggested that the administration had intelligence suggesting the deadly attack might happen and ignored it.

"I think it's pretty clear that they haven't wanted to level with the American people. We expect candor from the president and transparency," Romney told Fox News this week.

The White House and Democrats accused the GOP of politicizing national security, with officials specifically mentioning Romney's quick swipe at Obama as an extremist sympathizer as the crisis was still unfolding in North Africa around Sept. 11.

"The Republican approach is to shoot first and ask questions later," Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said in an interview. "The administration wants to do an investigation and be as accurate as possible. That's the difference between partisan politics and trying to govern."

Democrats also used the criticism to recall the former Massachusetts governor's missteps during his summertime overseas trip and his omission in his prime-time speech at the Republican National Convention of any mention of U.S. military forces fighting in Afghanistan.

"Every time Mitt Romney has attempted to dip his toe into foreign policy quarters, it's been an unmitigated disaster," Obama campaign press secretary Jen Psaki said aboard Air Force One.

National security has provided few political openings for Romney and the GOP as Obama has shed the Democrats' past reputation for weakness by ordering the successful raid that killed terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and undercut al-Qaida. An Associated Press-GfK poll earlier this month found Obama with an edge over Romney on who Americans think can do a better job of protecting the country, 51 percent to 40 percent.

The economy and jobs are the dominant issues in the election, with few voters likely to cast their ballots based on events in Libya or conflicts overseas. Underscoring the general weariness after more than 10 years of war, some of the fiercest GOP defense hawks in Congress have suggested the United States withdraw its forces from Afghanistan, an even bolder step than Obama.

But the administration has struggled to present a coherent description of the assault in Libya, prompting questions from Republicans and Democrats about whether the United States had prior intelligence, whether the attack was planned and whether security was sufficient.

In that same AP poll, Americans approved of Obama's handling of Libya by just 45-41 percent. The poll was conducted within days of the assault.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday called it a terrorist attack.

"What terrorists were involved I think still remains to be determined by the investigation," he told reporters at the Pentagon. "But it clearly was a group of terrorists who conducted that attack."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and White House press secretary Jay Carney called the violence a terrorist attack last week. But Obama has declined several chances to call the incident a terrorist attack. He said last week that extremists used an anti-Islam video as an excuse to assault U.S. interests.

And just five days after the attack, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the attack was a spontaneous reaction to the video. Her assessment was at odds with Libya's interim President Mohammed el-Megarif, who said there was no doubt the perpetrators had predetermined the date of the assault. Panetta said Thursday it was a "planned attack."

The FBI is investigating, but the apparent contradictions have prompted demands for information from Congress and a flurry of scathing letters to the administration.

So far, U.S. intelligence has indicated that heavily armed extremists numbering 50 or more attacked the consulate, relying on gun trucks for added firepower. They established a perimeter, limiting access to the compound. A first wave of attacks forced the Americans to flee to a fallback building, where a second group of extremists attacked with mortar fire. Stevens died of apparent smoke inhalation when he was caught inside one of the consulate buildings, which had been set on fire.

Officials have not singled out one responsible group, but have focused their attention on Ansar al-Shariah, a Libyan militant group led by a former detainee at the U.S. military-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that there has been a "thread of intelligence reporting" about groups in eastern Libya trying to coalesce, but no specific threat to the consulate.

Since the fall of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi last year, militias, weapons and terrorists are common in Libya.

"It was just unbelievable that Ambassador Rice and Secretary Clinton and the White House spokesman and others would say that there was no evidence ? that this was a spontaneous attack, yet they say, 'come on, honey, bring your mortars, we're going to a spontaneous demonstration,'" Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS' "This Morning."

McCain, who called the administration's statements "disgraceful," joined three other Republican senators this week in a letter to Rice pressing her on her "troubling statements that are inconsistent with the facts."

Eight Republicans who head House committees sent a letter to Obama criticizing a "pre-9/11 mindset" of "treating an act of war solely as a criminal matter." They said they would return to Washington from their nearly two-month recess for briefings beyond the back-to-back sessions Clinton and others held last week.

Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., have asked for communications between the State Department and the U.S. mission in Libya leading up to the attacks.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., has written the State Department's Thomas Nides asking him to provide the panel with a detailed accounting of the attacks on U.S. missions in Libya, Egypt and Yemen on Sept. 11, information on security and whether there was any prior intelligence.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a member of the panel, said the purpose of this letter is a bipartisan effort to get information.

"I do think it is legitimate and appropriate to ask questions," Coons said in an interview. "Some have sadly overreached and clearly are politicizing this incident."

___

Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington and Steve Peoples in Springfield, Va., contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-assail-obama-9-11-attack-libya-203528583.html

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AFP Expands Operations Into China - Business Review Australia

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- AFP announces it's new subsidiary AFP China. Headquartered in Shanghai, China, AFP China will work in conjunction with AFP Austin to design, engineer, and source environmentally sustainable packaging solutions for Multi-National businesses with manufacturing in China and businesses serving the local China market. The AFP China team will also leverage its' supply chain management expertise to improve efficiency and inventory management within the China packaging supply chain.? AFP will extend the reach of its' manufacturing technology and processes by collaborating with leading Chinese packaging suppliers to improve efficiency and quality through innovation and automation.

"Our new business in China, not only extends our capability to supply our existing customer base of the world's leading high technology companies, it opens new opportunities to supply the world's largest packaging market with our innovative packaging designs and manufacturing technology while leveraging our supplier relationships to globalize environmentally sustainable, cost reducing, packaging solutions," stated Tim O'Hearn, CEO of AFP, Inc.

"Having engineering teams, on both sides of the world will enable collaborative round the clock engineering and design capabilities along with the ability to deliver packaging solutions where our customers need them and when they need them," said Jodie Zhang, General Manager of AFP China.

AFP, Inc., headquartered in Austin, Texas and Shanghai, China with five manufacturing locations serving the United States and Mexico, has provided leading high technology companies like Acer, Dell, Flextronics, HP and IBM with innovative and cost reducing engineered packaging solutions since 1978. For more information about AFP, Inc. contact Rick Lange on 512-251-6300 or visit www.a-f-p.com.

Media Contact: Rick Lange AFP Inc., +1(512)251-6300, RIckLange@a-f-p.com

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com

SOURCE AFP Inc.

Source: http://www.businessreviewaustralia.com/press_releases/afp-expands-operations-into-china

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Dickey gets 20th win, leads Mets over Pirates 6-5

New York Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey puts his hand to his heart as the thanks the fans as he celebrates his 20th victory of the season after the Mets 6-5 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a baseball game at Citi Field in New York, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey tips his cap to the crowd as he celebrates his 20th victory of the season after the Mets 6-5 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a baseball game at Citi Field in New York, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

New York Mets starting pitcher R.A. Dickey acknowledges fans as he celebrates his 20th victory of the season after the Mets 6-5 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a baseball game at Citi Field in New York, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Fans pay tribute to New York Mets pitcher R.A Dickey, who is going for his 20th victory, during a baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field in New York, Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

NEW YORK (AP) ? R.A. Dickey was so close yet so far from 20 wins, faltering from fatigue and fuming he had failed to seize the moment.

"About the fourth or fifth inning I felt exasperated. I was not myself today for the most part," he said.

"And then I'd come out for an at-bat and I would hear this kind of growing surge, and it really was neat. I mean I don't know if I've ever experienced something like that before. Maybe I never will again. Although I wasn't distracted from the moment, how could you not be motivated to go out there and give the fans and, well, your teammates and yourself all that you have?" he said.

Absorbing the energy from 31,506 fans at the final home game of another sorry Mets season, Dickey summoned his strength and concentration. David Wright boosted him into the lead with a tiebreaking three-run homer, and Dickey led New York over Pittsburgh Pirates 6-5 Thursday to become the first knuckleballer in more than three decades to win 20 games.

"It's like a big exhale," Dickey said.

Throwing his hard knuckler at up to 78 mph, Dickey (20-6) allowed three runs and eight hits in 7 2-3 innings, tying his career high with 13 strikeouts and walking two.

With New York winding up its fourth straight losing season, he capped a trinity of highlights that began with the first Mets no-hitter by Johan Santana in June and continued with Wright setting the team career hits record on Wednesday.

"This was about R.A. today," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "It was about him. It was about his connection with the fans, the connection with the city. And so I said use that."

Quite a turnaround from 2010, when Dickey began the season at Triple-A Buffalo and had to prove he belonged in the majors. And from last year, when he was 8-13.

The 37-year-old had never won more than 11 games in any previous season is just 61-56 in his big league career.

"I was the picture of mediocrity by my own admission," he said.

But in the late stages of his career, he has mastered the knuckler ? a pitch that has flummoxed most of those who have tried and must survive on fastballs.

"I think everybody here today would have taken one swing where they thought they were going to crush one and they swung right throw it," Pirates outfielder Travis Snider said.

Dickey had never set a numerical goal for his pitching.

"It's just much more for me if I can really harness the moment and suck the marrow out of every second, then I've done what I want to do and I can be satisfied," he said.

Dickey became the first 20-game winner for the pitching-proud Mets since Frank Viola in 1990 and the first knuckleballer to accomplish the feat since Houston's Joe Niekro in 1980, according to STATS LLC. Viola also reached 20 with a win over the Pirates.

New York had altered its rotation, giving Dickey a chance to win 20 at home. The fans gave Dickey his first ovation when he walked to the bullpen to warm up. He waved his cap as they applauded when he walked off after his 128th and final pitch ? his most in eight years ? and got a final round of applause when he returned to the field for a postgame interview that was broadcast over the stadium sound system.

"Growing up, you just want to compete. And once you have the weaponry to compete, you want to be really good," he said. "And then when you're really good, you want to be supernaturally good. And I think for me there's been this steady kind of metamorphosis from just surviving to being a craftsman. Ultimately the hope is to be an artist with what you do."

The milestone following two life-changing events. He authored a book last spring, "Wherever I Wind Up," revealing he was a sexual abuse victim when he was 8. And he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise awareness for the Bombay Teen Challenge.

"When you get to a comfort level about who you are and you don't have secrets and you feel the freedom to be who you feel like you're called to be, that's something," Dickey said. "Is this the result of the cathartic experience of writing the book, I don't know. I'm going to say this, it certainly hasn't hurt. And to be comfortable in your own skin, which I was not for so long in my life, there's something to that."

His memorable year began with a climb to the 19,341-foot Uhuru Peak of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

"He was taking his career and putting it in jeopardy, putting it in harm's way," Collins said. "You don't know what's going to happen. But it wasn't about him. It has never been about him."

Dickey joined Washington's Gio Gonzalez as the top winners in the majors ? until Gonzalez beat the Phillies to improve his record to 21-8. They figure to duel for the NL Cy Young Award.

Dickey fell behind 2-0 and 3-1 and overcame an outstanding, climbing catch by Snider more than 2 feet above the right-field wall that robbed Mike Baxter of a tying home run in the second inning.

Former Texas teammate Rod Barajas hit an opposite-field RBI double that hopped the right-field wall in the second, and Jordy Mercer following with a run-scoring infield single.

Ike Davis led off the bottom half with his 31st homer, but Barajas boosted the lead to 3-1 when he homered on an 0-2 pitch in the fourth, a drive over the old 16-foot wall in left. Kevin Correia (11-11) gave up Scott Hairston's RBI single in the fourth and Murphy's tying single in the fifth before Wright hit an opposite-field drive to right for his 21st home run this season and a 6-3 lead.

Dickey was watching on TV in the clubhouse at the time.

"There were times he picked us up and really carried us as a team on his back," said Wright, happy to provide the hit that made the difference.

Dickey said after the seventh inning he was "pooped," but Collins sent him out for the eighth.

"I said, look, this ballpark is filled with energy today. Use it to your advantage," the manager recalled. "These people deserve to see you walk off the mound."

Responded Dickey: "Don't leave me hanging."

Jon Rauch, pitching on his 34th birthday, came in after a two-out walk, finished the eighth and allowed Alex Presley's two-run homer in the nervy ninth. Bobby Parnell retired Josh Harrison on a groundout and Jose Tabata on a flyout for his fifth save.

Dickey came back on the field for handshakes and soaked in the fans' love.

"I feel it in my face. I don't know if that makes any sense," Dickey said. "I want to get emotional. It's hard because we've had the type of season that we've had."

His family stayed back in Nashville, Tenn. ? the kids are in school ? but planned to meet him in Atlanta on Thursday night for the start of the Mets' final trip. He had some close friends at the game.

Through all the tough times, Dickey pictured this type of success in his mind.

"I never abandoned hope. I always held that out," he said. "My hope always outweighed my doubt, and that's what kind of kept me going."

NOTES: Pittsburgh, which led the NL Central at the All-Star break, lost for the 20th time in 26 games and dropped to 76-80. ... Snider gave the Pirates a memory with one of the best defensive plays of the season. He dug his cleats into the chain-link fence, hooked his left arm on top of the wall in front of the Mo's Zone seats, hoisted himself up and grabbed Baxter's drive in the webbing of the glove on his right hand well about the 8-foot wall. ... Andrew McCutchen bruised his left knee on a failed attempt at a diving catch on a soft fly to center in the seventh inning. He went 0 for 4, dropping to .332 and giving up the NL batting lead to San Francisco's Buster Posey, who went 2 for 4 and is hitting .333. ... The Mets drew 2,242,803 to Citi Field this year, down from 3.15 million in 2009, 2.56 million in 2010 and 2.35 million last year. This is the team's lowest home attendance since 2.19 million at Shea Stadium in 2003. ... Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez shaved off his mustache before the game in a charity fundraiser.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-09-27-BBN-Pirates-Mets/id-d719a7f9aec7491cbdd50e52321d1c4c

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Mars rover driving through ancient riverbed

The Mars Rover has detected the first on-the-ground evidence of an ancient streambed. If there was water, could Mars have supported life? NBC's Tom Costello reports

By Alan Boyle

A close look at pebble-filled layers of rock has convinced scientists that NASA's Curiosity rover is driving through a dried-up stream bed on Mars where water flowed vigorously billions of years ago. They say it's the kind of place that just might have supported life when the planet was young.

"This is a rock that was formed in the presence of water," Caltech's John Grotzinger, project scientist for the $2.5 billion Mars Science Laboratory mission, said today during a televised news conference at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The evidence is in the shape, size and composition of the rocks that Curiosity came across at multiple sites during its landing on Aug. 5. Conglomerate rocks, consisting of pebbles cemented together within layers of sediment, were seen at three sites:

Goulburn, a bedrock formation that was exposed by the blast from Curiosity's descent.
Link, a rock outcrop that was seen once Curiosity headed out from the landing site.
Hottah, an uplifted slab of craggy rock that was given a visual inspection two weeks ago.

Hottah in particular showed clear evidence of rounded pebbles that were too big to be smoothed by the action of the wind. Some of the rocks are as big as golf balls. The best explanation for the gravelly pebbles was that they were eroded by the vigorous flow of water, said Curiosity science team member Rebecca Williams, a senior scientist at the Arizona-based Planetary Science Institute.

The Hottah slab, which measures 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters) thick, looks as if "somebody came along the surface of Mars with a jackhammer and lifted up a sidewalk that you might see in downtown LA, sort of like in a construction site," Grotzinger said.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS

A closeup view of the "Hottah" rock outcrop shows the characteristic pebbly rock that is associated with the action of a flowing stream. Broken surfaces of the outcrop have rounded, gravel clasts, such as the one circled in white, which is about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) across. The rock formation was named after Hottah Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories.

The Planetary Science Institute's Rebecca Williams describes new images from Mars.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / PSI

This set of images compares the Link outcrop of rocks on Mars (left) with similar rocks seen on Earth (right). The image of Link, obtained by NASA's Curiosity rover, shows rounded gravel fragments, or clasts, up to a couple of inches (few centimeters) wide, within the rock outcrop. In accordance with the Mars mission's tradition, Link takes its name from a rock formation in Canada's Northwest Territories.

The evidence from the ground meshes well with the evidence from orbit indicating that Curiosity is near an 11-mile-wide (18-kilometer-wide) fan of material that may have washed down a channel in ancient times, when Mars was warmer and wetter, according to William Dietrich, a planetary scientist at the University of California at Berkeley.

"These stones ... are very, very revealing to us about the process," Dietrich said. Some previous research has suggested that water flowed on Mars only for brief periods, separated by long, cold, dry spells. That scenario might not have provided enough time for life to get a foothold on the Red Planet in ancient times. But Dietrich said the patterning of the channels within the fan suggested that water streamed through the area for well beyond a thousand-year time scale.

"We can step away from the idea that there was a single burst of water ... that built it all in a day," he told reporters.

Based on the size of the gravel seen by Curiosity, Dietrich estimated that the water moved at a speed of about 3 feet (1 meter) per second, at a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep.

"Plenty of papers have been written about channels on Mars with many different hypotheses about the flows in them," Dietrich said in a NASA news release. "This is the first time we're actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of streambed material to direct observation of it."

NASA / JPL-Caltech / Univ. of Ariz.

This image shows the topography, with shading added, around the area where NASA's Curiosity rover landed. Higher elevations are colored in red, with cooler colors indicating transitions downslope to lower elevations. The map highlights an alluvial fan of material, apparently issuing from a channel named Peace Vallis. The black oval indicates the targeted landing area for the rover known as the "landing ellipse," and the cross shows where the rover actually landed.

NASA / JPL-Caltech / UC-Berkeley

This image shows a dry streambed on an alluvial fan in Chile's Atacama Desert, revealing the typical patchy, heterogeneous mixture of grain sizes deposited together. On Mars, Curiosity has seen two rock outcrops close to its Bradbury Landing site that also record a mixture of sand and pebbles transported by water. Scientists say the mixture was probably deposited along an ancient streambed.

So far, the scientists' conclusions are based exclusively on visual observations by Curiosity's high-resolution Mastcam imager. Further imagery, along with chemical readings from other instruments on the rover, will likely be used to fill out the story of the ancient stream bed, Grotzinger said.

The main goal of Curiosity's two-year primary mission is to assess how habitable Mars was in ancient times. That's why mission managers chose 96-mile-wide (154-kilometer-wide) Gale Crater as Curiosity's landing site. It has that alluvial fan, which appears to issue forth from a channel that has now officially been designated Peace Vallis. It also has a 3-mile-high (5-kilometer-high) mountain, known as Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp, which could preserve billions of years' worth of Mars' geological record.

Grotzinger noted that the three requirements for habitability typically listed by astrobiologists are the presence of liquid water, the availability of an energy source (such as sunlight) and the presence of carbon-based compounds that can be used as the building blocks of life.?

"Now we've got a hall pass for the water examination," Grotzinger joked.

Theoretically, a long-flowing stream could be a habitable environment. "It is not our top choice as an environment for preservation of organics, though," Grotzinger said in NASA's news release. "We're still going to Mount Sharp, but this is insurance that we have already found our first potentially habitable environment."

Even if the rover's instruments detect the right kinds of carbon compounds, that would not serve as confirmation of ancient life on Mars. That would "have to wait for another mission," Grotzinger said. ?

More from Mars Curiosity:

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.

Source: http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/27/14126504-martian-rocks-reveal-that-rover-is-driving-through-dried-up-martian-streambed?lite

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Water on Mars: NASA scientists are 'excited' (+video)

Mars rover Curiosity found rocks on the Martian surface that are too big to be carried by wind, so researchers suppose water must have existed on Mars at one time. Over the next two years, Curiosity will continue its search for signs of ancient?microbial life on Mars.

By Alicia Chang,?Associated Press / September 27, 2012

Scientists say the rocks found by the Mars Curiosity rover look like they've been moved by water

The NASA rover Curiosity has beamed back pictures of bedrock that suggest a fast-moving stream, possibly waist-deep, once flowed on?Mars?? a find that the mission's chief scientist called exciting.

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There have been previous signs that water existed on the red planet long ago, but the images released Thursday showing pebbles rounded off, likely by water, offered the most convincing evidence so far of an ancient streambed.

There was "a vigorous flow on the surface of?Mars," said chief scientist John Grotzinger of the California Institute of Technology. "We're really excited about this."

The discovery did not come as a complete surprise. NASA decided to plunk Curiosity down inside Gale Crater near the Martian equator because photos from space hinted that the spot possessed a watery past. The six-wheeled rover safely landed Aug. 5 after a nail-biting plunge through the Martian atmosphere. It's on a two-year, $2.5 billion mission to study whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for microbial life.

Present day?Mars?is a frozen desert with no hint of water on its radiation-scarred surface, but geological studies of rocks by previous missions suggest the planet was warmer and wetter once upon a time.

The latest evidence came from photos that Curiosity took revealing rounded pebbles and gravel ? a sign that the rocks were transported long distances by water and smoothed out.

The size of the rocks ? ranging from a sand grain to a golf ball ? indicates that they could not have been carried by wind, said mission scientist Rebecca Williams of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz.

Though Curiosity did not use its high-tech instruments to drill into the rocks or analyze their chemical makeup, Grotzinger said scientists were sure that water played a role based on just studying the pictures.

It's unclear how long the water persisted on the surface, but it easily could have lasted "thousands to millions of years," said mission scientist Bill Dietrich of the University of California, Berkeley.

Curiosity chanced upon the dried-up streambed while driving to Glenelg, an intriguing spot where three types of terrain meet. Its ultimate destination is Mount Sharp, a mountain rising from the center of crater floor, but it was not expected to travel there until the end of the year.

Finding past water is a first step toward learning whether the environment could have supported microbes. Scientists generally agree that besides water and an energy source such as the sun, organic carbon is a necessary prerequisite for life.

While an ancient streambed holds promise as a potentially habitable environment, scientists don't think it's a good place to preserve the carbon building blocks of life. That's why the rover will continue its trek to the foothills of Mount Sharp where there's a better chance of finding organics.

Alicia Chang can be followed at?http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/gDQ4m1dLj-8/Water-on-Mars-NASA-scientists-are-excited-video

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Nashua will host ArtWalk 2012 on Sept. 29-30 - EncoreBuzz.com

Nashua will host ArtWalk 2012 on Sept. 29-30

By TERESA SANTOSKI Staff Writer

Courtesy photo. "Alice," a mixed media collage by Bonnie Guercio. Guercio, who has a studio in Nashua's Picker Building, is one of many artists participating in ArtWalk 2012.

Courtesy photo. "Free Space," a mixed media collage by Bonnie Guercio. Guercio, who has a studio in Nashua's Picker Building, is one of many artists participating in ArtWalk 2012.

Courtesy photo. "Twin Gold," a mixed media collage by Bonnie Guercio. Guercio, who has a studio in Nashua's Picker Building, is one of many artists participating in ArtWalk 2012.

Courtesy photo. Dual metal earrings by Gail Moriarty Designs. Moriarty, who has a studio in Nashua's Picker Building, is one of many artists participating in ArtWalk 2012.

Courtesy photo. Earrings by Gail Moriarty Designs. Moriarty, who has a studio in Nashua's Picker Building, is one of many artists participating in ArtWalk 2012.

Courtesy photo. A piece by Renaissance Glassworks. Located in Nashua's Picker Building, Renaissance Glassworks is one of many studios participating in ArtWalk 2012.

Courtesy photo. "Alice," a mixed media collage by Bonnie Guercio. Guercio, who has a studio in Nashua's Picker Building, is one of many artists participating in ArtWalk 2012.

IF YOU GO

ArtWalk 2012

WHEN: Noon-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, and noon-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30.

WHERE: Downtown Nashua and the Millyard.

MORE INFORMATION: Visit www.cityartsnashua.org. For more information about downtown Nashua?s Fall Restaurant Week, visit www.downtownnashua.org.

As Christmas draws ever closer, so does the dread of braving the crowded malls in search of the perfect gifts.

From what City Arts Nashua board member Bonnie Guercio has seen, those familiar with Nashua?s arts community have a little shopping secret: the annual ArtWalk.

ArtWalk 2012 will be held from noon-5 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, and noon-4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, in downtown Nashua and the nearby Millyard.

As a mixed-media collage artist with a studio in the Picker Building, Guercio noticed that a number of people who visited the building during last year?s ArtWalk returned in the weeks leading up to Christmas. In addition to buying completed pieces, they also requested commissions.

?Most of the people in the Picker Building, just about everybody has somebody come back because they saw them in the ArtWalk,? Guercio said. ?They like what you created and now they?re ready to acquire that.?

To buy something that?s original and handmade in your community ?says something nice about your ideas of gift-giving,? Guercio said. It ?becomes a nicer, more thoughtful gift.?

?Our gift dollars are shrinking, and so I think people are putting a bit more thought into their gifts.?

ArtWalk, organized by City Arts Nashua, is an opportunity for the public to connect with the city?s arts scene through open studios, tours, activities, musical performances and conversations with the artists.

?It helps people know that there are wonderful artisans, craftsmen, that they can count on,? Guercio said. ?You don?t have to go to Boston or Cambridge or someplace like that to find some really very well done art.?

In addition to the Picker Building, which houses more than two dozen artists, major ArtWalk venues include 55 Lake St. Studios; the Hunt Memorial Building, where members of the Nashua Area Artists Association will display the work of its members; and Indian Head Plaza, which will host independent artists.

Something a little different will greet visitors to ArtWalk?s northernmost venue ? the Nashua Historical Society ? where about 20 pieces of very weighty Nashua history will be on display and available for purchase.

They?re the city?s iconic triangular manhole covers, which the society has previously auctioned in groups and is now selling to boost its fund for educational programs.

The Speare and Abbot House museums will be open for tours as well.

On Main Street, a number of businesses also will open their doors, Guercio said, ?so artists that have no studios can be inside to display their artwork. They don?t have to be outside in a tent.?

For example, Renaissance Downtowns at 88 Main St. will host Positive Street Art, which will display its ?Views From a Cell? cellphone photography exhibit.

The exhibit will be judged by Mark Levesque, of Mark Emile Photography.

All photos will be for sale, with the proceeds going to support future Positive Street Art projects.

?We have an amazing amount of support from the businesses downtown this year,? Guercio said. ?I think the businesses on Main Street are very receptive to including the arts community in the business world.?

Several art-focused tours also will be conducted during ArtWalk.

Historian Alan Manoian will lead a tour of some of Nashua?s architectural highlights, beginning at Bicentennial Park at 1 p.m. Saturday.

The Nashua Sculpture Symposium will guide interested attendees through the city?s downtown sculptures, also beginning at Bicentennial Park, at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Yvonne Dunetz will lead a labyrinth walk at the Rotary Common Park on South Main Street at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. She also will discuss the planned Gallery on the Wall, which will be on an exterior wall of the Adult Learning Center, near the park.

Rotary Common Park will host children?s activities, courtesy of the Rotary Club of Nashua. Children?s face painting will be offered at 55 Lake St. Studios throughout the weekend and the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua will provide art activities for the young ones Saturday at Indian Head Plaza.

More grown-up artists will appreciate demonstrations at the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen, 98 Main St.: Nuno Felt with Melinda LeBarge at 1 p.m. Saturday and glass art with Aaron Slater at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Nashua Public Library will have some arts-related events, with a movie screening part of this year?s Nashua Reads program, at 2 p.m. Saturday and a slideshow by Nancy Baker exploring patterning in art at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Live music will be featured at the major ArtWalk venues.

It will include performances by the B Street Blues, Adrien Chan, Cold Stream, Eclectic Woodwind Quintet, Figure 8, Monument Square Brass Quintet, Siroteau, Stagecoach Women?s Chorus, Rahel and John Volpe.

As if all of this wasn?t enough of a draw, ArtWalk will coincide with the end of downtown Nashua?s Fall Restaurant Week. Participating restaurants will offer discounts or special menu items.

For more information about Fall Restaurant Week, visit www.downtown nashua.org.

?It?s almost like a festival of all kinds of arts,? Guercio said. ?You can spend a weekend just appreciating all the wonderful things that Nashua has to offer.?

For more information about ArtWalk, visit www.cityartsnashua.org.

Teresa Santoski can be reached at 594-6466 or tsantoski@nashua telegraph.com. Also, follow Santoski on Twitter (@Telegraph_TS).

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