Soyuz Space Capsule Makes Foggy Landing with US-Russian Crew

A Soyuz spacecraft has safely landed on the frigid steppes of Kazakhstan, returning an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonaut to Earth after a nearly five-month mission to the International Space Station.

The Soyuz space capsule touched down at about 11:11 p.m. EDT (0311 March 16 GMT) on Friday (March 15), though it was early Saturday local time at the landing site. The spacecraft returned NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin home after 142 days in space. The trio was greeted by freezing temperatures after exiting the spacecraft.

"They've landed. Expedition 34 is back on Earth," NASA spokesperson Rob Navias said during live commentary.

Originally, the international crew was set to depart from the laboratory on Thursday (March 14), but freezing rain and foggy weather on the ground prevented them from returning home. Weather conditions improved today, leading to a?smooth undocking, however a bank of clouds greatly hampered visibility in the landing zone. The foggy conditions caused some last-minute alterations to the original search plan after landing, however, the Soyuz crew was still recovered successfully.

During their almost five month stay on board the station, the two cosmonauts and the astronaut orbited the Earth 2,304 times, travelling nearly 61 million miles (98,169,984 kilometers). This was Novitskiy and Tarelkin's first trip to space, the second for Ford. [See photos from Expedition 34 space mission]

The three crewmembers were on board to see the docking of the unmanned Dragon capsule ? owned and operated by private spaceflight firm SpaceX ? at the beginning of March. A month before, the crew participated in the docking and undocking of another supply capsule, the Progress 50.

Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin leave three other international crewmembers on board the space station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko and NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn remained on board the station after saying goodbye to the three spaceflyers that boarded the space capsule earlier today.

Hadfield, Romanenko and Marshburn will not be the sole residents of the station for long. Cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov, Alexander Misurkin and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy are expected to arrive at the station on the same day of their launch from Earth on March 28.

If all goes as planned, it will mark the first time a Soyuz capsule has delivered a station crew to the International Space Station in one day. Russia's Federal Space Agency has proven the one-day flight profile during unmanned Progress cargo ship deliveries to the space station.

NASA has relied on Russia's Soyuz crafts to transport astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit since the retirement of the agency's shuttle program in 2011. NASA officials hope to eventually depend on privately built, unmanned and crewed spacecraft to bring people and cargo to and from the space station.

The $100 billion laboratory was built by space agencies representing Japan, Canada, the United States and Russia. International crews of astronauts have continually occupied the station since 2000.

This story was updated to reflect a successful landing at 11:42 EDT.

Follow Miriam Kramer @mirikramer and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soyuz-space-capsule-makes-foggy-landing-us-russian-034345572.html

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Early Vine Use Sees Video App Rising On iOS While Cinemagram, Viddy, Socialcam All Decline

Call it a fad, call it the Twitter effect, or call it another example of when it pays not to be the first mover, but it looks like two months out of the gate, Twitter's short-form video-sharing app Vine is picking up users like they're going out of style.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sMwRWdWAUjI/

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Can a 'Headhunter' Help in Your Job Search? Maybe | Personal ...

If you?re at all typical, when it?s time to look for a new job (for whatever reason(s)), you quite probably say something like this: ?I?m going to ?dust off? my r?sum? and start contacting some ?headhunters.?? Both of these moves can be integral to a successful new job search, but when it comes to contacting?and perhaps ultimately working with?a ?headhunter,? you can save yourself considerable time and trouble if you first make sure you understand the actual role(s) played by a ?headhunter? in the job-hunting process.

If you haven?t worked with a ?headhunter? during previous job searches, chances are, you are probably harboring some misconceptions about what a ?headhunter? actually brings to the hiring game. Let me begin this blog by telling you just a few things that a ?headhunter? does not (and cannot) do for you during a job search.

A ?headhunter? cannot/does not . . .

• ?Find you a job.?
• Charge you, the job hunter, a fee.
• Even consider working with you unless you have clearly branded yourself as being among ?the best of the best? candidates available for open positions in his/her market ?niche.?

Let me briefly explain why each of these things is true.

First and foremost?and this quite often comes as both a shock and a surprise to most job hunters?a ?headhunter?s? client is not the job seeker. The company having the open position is the client in this situation. And since that is true, it?s also the reason you, the job seeker, are never charged a fee by the ?headhunter.? The hiring company pays the ?headhunter?s? fee, if his/her candidate is the successful candidate for the position.

Why does a ?headhunter? only work with the very top candidates? Simple. Hiring companies are not going to pay me (or any other ?headhunter,? for that matter) to find them ?over the transom? candidates that they can easily find themselves using existing employee acquisition systems and approaches.

Well, you might be asking yourself at this point, if a ?headhunter? can?t ?find me a job,? then why should I even consider working with him/her? Actually, if you?ve branded yourself as being among the cr?me de la cr?me of candidates, there can be many distinct advantages. Let me cite just a few of them.

A ?headhunter? can/does . . .

• Have access to and knowledge about key open positions that are neither advertised nor widely known about outside the executive circles of the hiring company.
• Offer a wide variety of FREE professional assistance and services to you, e.g., preparation of a job-winning r?sum?, thorough coaching and comprehensive preparation for job interviews, salary/benefit negotiation, etc.
• Provide you an opportunity to establish an ongoing, potentially quite productive professional relationship with him/her. That means, if you prove not to be a ?good fit? for a currently open position, you may be considered for appropriate, future positions.

All ?Headhunters? Not ?Created Equal?

If you think you may be able to benefit from working with a ?headhunter? during your job search, and equally important, if you are absolutely convinced that you have adequately branded yourself so that you can attract the attention of ?headhunters,? it?s crucial to keep in mind this fact: All ?headhunters? are not created equal.

As is the case with virtually all professions, ?headhunters? specialize in a specific industry or market niche. For example, my executive recruiting firm, Hire to Win, specializes in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and R&D professionals. So, if you are seeking a new job in, say, the advertising industry, not only could my firm not be able to help you, we wouldn?t even try. Obviously, you would have to locate a recruiting firm that focuses on and specializes in the advertising industry.

How to Find a ?Headhunter? in Your Market Niche

This, of course, begs the question of how, precisely, do you go about finding?and then connecting with? a ?headhunter? in your unique market niche. The short answer to this question is merely to conduct an online search using appropriate key words, e.g., ??Headhunters,? advertising industry, Atlanta, GA (or any other geographic locale you might desire).? Today, however, a far, far better approach to take is to conduct this same type of search on LinkedIn, since this site is the ?first-stop shop? for most recruiters.

Regardless of the search approach you take, expect to get a significant number of returns. That means you will have to then do your ?due diligence,? i.e., identify which recruiting firms can potentially best serve your job search needs and requirements. While there is no definitive way of determining which firm(s) will work best for you until you actually make contact with them, a good place to start is at their websites. What kind of candidate assistance/expertise do they offer? How long have they been in business? What is the geographic ?reach? of the firm, i.e., statewide, nationwide, worldwide? Can the firm?s claimed ?track record? on placements be independently verified?

And Finally . . .

Let me conclude this blog by referring back to the headline: Can a ?Headhunter? Help in Your job search? The word ?Maybe? was added to the headline by design because I wanted to make you aware that, despite the very common misconception, not every job seeker is a viable candidate for a true ?headhunter? (in contrast to, say, a job placement specialist). Maybe you are a good candidate and maybe you are not a good candidate. One way to find out for sure is to ?throw your hat? into the ring. If you do prove to be a good candidate for a ?headhunter,? the benefits can be substantial!

Author:

Skip Freeman?is the author of the international bestselling job hunting book ?Headhunter? Hiring Secrets: The Rules of the Hiring Game Have Changed . . . Forever!?(http://portal.sliderocket.com/BFDSG/Find-Your-Dream-Job)?and is the President and Chief Executive Officer of?The HTW Group (Hire to Win), an Atlanta, GA, Metropolitan Area Executive Search Firm. Specializing in the placement of sales, engineering, manufacturing and R&D professionals, he has developed powerful techniques that help companies hire the best and help the best get hired.

Source: http://www.personalbrandingblog.com/can-a-headhunter-help-in-your-job-search-maybe/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=can-a-headhunter-help-in-your-job-search-maybe

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Life Found Deep Inside Earth's Oceanic Crust

Microbes have been found living deep inside this crust at the bottom of the sea. The crust is several kilometers thick and covers 60 percent of the planet's surface, making it the largest habitat on Earth

By Ed Yong and Nature magazine

Living microbes have been found deep beneath the sea floor. Image: NOAA/WHOI

For the first time, scientists have discovered microbes living deep inside Earth?s oceanic crust ? the dark volcanic rock at the bottom of the sea. This crust is several kilometers thick and covers 60% of the planet?s surface, making it the largest habitat on Earth.

The microbes inside it seem to survive largely by using hydrogen, formed when water flows through the iron-rich rock, to convert carbon dioxide into organic matter. This process, known as chemosynthesis, is distinct from photosynthesis, which uses sunlight for the same purpose.

Chemosynthesis also fuels life at other deep-sea locations such as hydrothermal vents, but those are restricted to the edges of continental plates. The oceanic crust is much bigger. If similar microbes are found throughout it, the crust ?would be the first major ecosystem on Earth to run on chemical energy rather than sunlight?, says Mark Lever, an ecologist at Aarhus University in Denmark, who led the study. The results are published in Science.

?This study is highly significant in that it confirms the existence of a deep-subsurface biosphere that is populated by anaerobic microorganisms,? says Kurt Konhauser, a geomicrobiologist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

The oceanic crust is formed at ridges between tectonic plates, where rising lava meets sea water and cools. The newborn rock ? mostly basalt ? is pushed away from the ridges and becomes buried under thick sediment. Although scientists have long known that microbes live in this sediment and in exposed basalt that has not yet been covered, the deeper, buried parts of the crust have been a mystery. ?Until our study it still wasn?t clear that there?s life down there,? says Lever.

Under the sea
In 2004, Lever sailed aboard the US research vessel JOIDES Resolution to collect samples from one of the best-studied regions of oceanic crust, just west of Washington state. The ship usually carries a crew of geologists, but this time, ?we had five microbiologists on board?, says Lever.

The team, which included scientists from six different countries, drilled through 265 meters of sediment and 300 meters of crust to collect basalt that had been formed around 3.5 million years ago. Inside their samples, the researchers found genes from microbes that metabolize sulphur compounds and some that produce methane.?

To test whether the genes came from living or long-dead microbes, the team heated the rock samples to 65 ?C in water rich in chemicals found on the sea floor. Over time, methane was produced, showing that the microbes were living and growing.

Lever is convinced that the microbes are not hitchhikers from the surface, but genuine residents of the crust. ?When I went on this expedition, I thought it would be impossible to get contamination-free samples,? he says. He changed his mind after cracking open the samples: the team had added small amounts of marker chemicals to the fluid they used to drill for samples, but although these chemicals slathered the exterior of the rocks, there was almost none inside. Lever now plans to analyze fragments of crust collected from other sites in the Pacific Ocean and the north Atlantic.

?Given the large volume of sub-sea-floor crust, one can?t help but wonder how the amount of living biomass there compares to that at the Earth?s surface,? says Konhauser.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on March 14, 2013.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=0224a065d6cb8a7a55ddecccbc3aff09

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Hiring a Plumber - Home Improvement

One of the drawbacks of living in an older home is that you have to call different service industries quite often for various home improvements and fixes. For example, this year alone I had to call in an electrical twice, an HVAC expert once and a plumber three different times. It?s just something you have to deal with if you are like me and have a soft spot for an older, historic home. In my case the house was passed down to me so it as sentimental value but many other people like the solid build quality along with the look and feel of a home that has some age to it. Most people would agree that as with most other things the saying is true that they just don?t make it like they used to.

But while I do like older homes, I still like mine to be as efficient and function as well as possible. If it means I have to spend the extra money and put up with the hassle of calling in plumbing or electrical experts then so be it. It sure is better than the alternative of waiting and not calling someone in to fix the problem right away. Most recently, I called in an expert that I was beginning to know by name through no fault of his own. I called Plumbright in Richmond VA because there few a few different plumbing problems around the house I wanted to be addressed. It was a little bit of everything really, a little work needed to be done in the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom and in the laundry rooms as well.

The first plumbing problem had to do with a leaky faucet in the kitchen sink. The water was not flowing properly out of the faucet head and was also leaking down below. When I showed it to the expert he started to go to work on it and I just chuckled and told him, no wait there is more let me show you. So I let him to the laundry room and showed him the puddle of water that was on the floor, I wasn?t exactly sure what the problem was I told him but it had been happening for about two weeks that whenever I started a load of laundry there was some sort of leak. Finally I showed him the bathroom where the sink was clogged. I told him it had not been draining properly for over a month and if he could figure out the problem I would appreciate it as well.

Needless to say he had his hands full but before too long my house was in working order once again or at least as far as plumbing was concerned. There is something truly satisfying to know that you are keeping things working in an older home even if you cannot always figure out how to do the job yourself.

This entry was posted in PLumbing and tagged fixing a leaky sink, home plumbing in Richmond, how to choose a plumber on March 14, 2013 by home-improvement.

Source: http://www.home-improvement.net/hiring-a-plumber/

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No. 24 Notre Dame tops Rutgers at Big East tourney

NEW YORK (AP) ? Pat Connaughton scored a season-high 21 points and led Notre Dame's impressive show from 3-point range as the 24th-ranked Fighting Irish beat Rutgers 69-61 on Wednesday night in the second round of the Big East tournament.

Tom Knight had a career-high 18 points for sixth-seeded Notre Dame (24-8), which will face third-seeded and 12th-ranked Marquette in the quarterfinals Thursday night.

The Irish have reached the semifinals in each of the last three years but haven't been able to get that first tournament title ? and this is the Fighting Irish's last chance since they are leaving for the Atlantic Coast Conference next season.

Senior forward Austin Johnson had a career-high 18 points for the Scarlet Knights (15-16), who were able to cut into Notre Dame's lead several times in the second half only to see Connaughton find a way to start the Irish offense in a hurry.

Connaughton finished 6 of 8 from 3-point range as Notre Dame, which led the Big East in 3-point percentage (36.9), was 10 of 17 from beyond the arc (58.8 percent).

Myles Mack had 18 points for Rutgers, which was 4 of 15 from 3-point range and 5 of 11 at the free throw line. The Irish were 15 of 19 from the free throw line.

Notre Dame, which came into the tournament having lost two of three, led 33-19 at halftime but the Scarlet Knights opened the second half on a 7-0 run. Jerian Grant and Connaughton both hit 3s to open the lead back to 11 points.

Rutgers got within 41-36 with 13:23 to play only to see Connaughton hit a 3 that started a 6-0 run. He did it again with just under 9 minutes to play when he buried a 3 just after Rutgers had gotten within 49-43.

Rutgers beat DePaul 76-57 in the opening round Tuesday and the Scarlet Knights were looking to win a second game in the tournament for the first time since 1998. Rutgers is leaving for the Big Ten after the 2013-14 season.

Wally Judge led the Scarlet Knights in the win over DePaul by tying a Big East tournament record by going 9 for 9 from the field and finishing with 20 points and 10 rebounds. It was a lot different against Notre Dame for Judge, who was 1 for 6 from the field and had two points and one rebound.

Knight was playing the part of the inside presence usually taken care of by all-Big East forward Jack Cooley.

Knight had 10 points and four rebounds in leading the Irish to the 14-point halftime lead. Knight was 5 of 10 from the field while Cooley, who was second in the conference at 58.2 percent, was just 1 of 6.

Cooley finished with two points but he and Knight both had nine rebounds.

Poor shooting was a problem for the entire Rutgers team in the first half except Kadeem Jack, who was 4 of 5 from the field. The rest of the Scarlet Knights were 4 of 22 from the field including making just one of eight from beyond the arc.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/no-24-notre-dame-tops-rutgers-big-east-040255129--spt.html

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Increase in heavy rainfalls over past 60 years in upper Midwest, US

Mar. 13, 2013 ? Heavy rains have become more frequent in the upper Midwest over the past 60 years, according to a study from the University of Iowa. The trend appears to hold true even with the current drought plaguing the region, the study's main author says.

The fact that temperatures over the country's midsection are rising, too, may be more than coincidence.The hotter the surface temperature, which has been the trend in the Midwest and the rest of the world, the more water that can be absorbed by the atmosphere. And the more water available for precipitation means a greater chance for heavy rains, explains Gabriele Villarini, assistant professor in engineering at the UI and lead author of the paper, published in the Journal of Climate, the official publication of the American Meteorological Society.

"We found that there is a tendency toward increasing trends in heavy rainfall in the northern part of the study region, roughly the upper Mississippi River basin," says Villarini, in the civil and environmental engineering department and an assistant research engineer at the IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering. "We tried to explain these results in light of changes in temperature. We found that the northern part of the study region -- including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois -- is also the area experiencing large increasing trends in temperature, resulting in an increase in atmospheric water vapor."

Villarini notes the current drought affecting the Midwest and other regions of the country has occurred too recently to be included in his study, whose data goes from about 1950 to 2010.

"I'm not looking at the average annual rainfall. I'm studying heavy rainfall events," he says. "We may currently be in deficit for overall rainfall, but we may also be in the normal range when it comes to the number of heavy rainfall days."

Villarini and his colleagues examined changes in the frequency of heavy rainfall through daily measurements at 447 rain gauge stations in the central and southern United States. The states included were: Minnesota, Wisconsin Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi.

Each rain gauge station has a record of at least 50 years. The data cover much of the 20^th century and the first decade of this century. For the purposes of the study, heavy rainfall was defined as days in which rainfall exceeded the 95^th percentile of the at-site rainfall distribution.

Villarini notes that while his study focused on changes in temperature and the frequency of heavy rainfall over the central United States, other published results have shown rainfall increases to be linked to changes in irrigation over the Ogallala Aquifer, which runs from Nebraska to northern Texas. Based on those studies, he says it is reasonable to assume that changes in land use, land cover and agricultural practice would affect the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere as well.

His colleagues in the study are James Smith, professor at Princeton University; and Gabriel Vecchi, of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The research was funded by NASA and the Willis Research Network.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Iowa. The original article was written by Gary Galluzzo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Gabriele Villarini, James A. Smith, Gabriel A. Vecchi. Changing Frequency of Heavy Rainfall over the Central United States. Journal of Climate, 2013; 26 (1): 351 DOI: 10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00043.1

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/R9mRo1exA9Q/130313182312.htm

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