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YouTube:Gustav Holst - The Planets - Jupiter, and the Orchestral Bringer of Jollity In this composite images from the New Horizon mission, Jupiter was captured in three bands of infrared light making the Great Red Spot look white. Complex hurricane-like ovals, swirls, and planet-ringing bands are visible in Jupiter's complex atmosphere. A volcanic plume is erupting from Io's volcano Tvashtar. Frost and sulfuric lava cover the volcanic moon, while red-glowing lava is visible beneath the blue sunlight-scattering plume. The robotic New Horizons spacecraft is on track to arrive at Pluto in 2015.It is to the sheer size of Jupiter...

Explanation: Two dark shadows loom across the banded and mottled cloud tops of Jupiter in this sharp telescopic view. In fact, captured on January 3rd, about a month after the ruling gas giant appeared at opposition in planet Earth's sky, the scene includes the shadow casters. Visible in remarkable detail at the left are the large Galilean moons Ganymede (top) and Io. With the two moon shadows still in transit, Jupiter's rapid rotation has almost carried its famous Great Red Spot (GRS) around the planet's limb from the right. The pale GRS was preceded by the smaller but similar hued...

Iowa --(AmmoLand.com)- In the middle of America, you wouldn’t expect it to be so difficult to get a concealed carry permit. But in Iowa, it is — especially if the local sheriff doesn’t like you. That’s why I’m glad to introduce you to a great new organization fighting on this issue. Iowa Gun Owners has been pushing for a major reform of Iowa’s “Might Issue” concealed carry laws. Not since Alaska (in 2003) has a state passed a no-permit-needed concealed carry law, enacting real carry freedom for law-abiding gun owners. Iowa Gun Owners burst on to the scene in their...

May 2, 2007—Jupiter's most turbulent moon, Io, is renowned among scientists for its flashy volcanic displays. But even experts were surprised when they saw this plume of gas vaulting nearly 200 miles (320 kilometers) over the moon's north pole. The giant frozen jet—about as tall as the state of New Hampshire is long—spewed from a volcano known as Tvashtar in February, just as NASA's New Horizons spacecraft was cruising by on its way to Pluto. The passing craft captured several images of the event, providing an unprecedented view of volcanism on Io, the most geologically active body in the solar...

The plume is seen as an umbrella-shaped feature in the long exposure image to the right Nasa's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back images of a huge volcanic eruption on Jupiter's moon Io.A massive dust plume, estimated to be 150m (490ft) high, can be seen erupting from the Tvashtar volcano on Io. On Wednesday, the US probe flew by Jupiter, using the planet's gravity to boost its speed, reducing the travel time to its ultimate target of Pluto. New Horizons also took photos of the icy moons Europa and Ganymede in the run-up to its encounter with Jupiter. Turning...

Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan: Earlier this week, Glenn Reynolds reproduced an informal email from Afghanistan, which included an anecdote about the Canadian media maintaining the "Death Watch" (their own words) at Kandahar Airfield. The reporters are restricted to maintaining a presence at the airbase to report on potential deaths or wounding of Canadian soldiers. The soldiers resent the media for this, and the reporters do not like manning the DeathWatch as well. They are at the mercy of the news bureaus, who crave the sensational stories. Tonight I had the displeasure of witnessing the Death Watch in action. An Al Jazeera...

Jack Murtha, ex-Marine 'rat politician, and Linda S. Heard, Brit expat Arabist Jihadi mouthpiece, having abandoned the Tet template for Iraq, are now collaborating on a remake of My Lai, with the objective of demonizing the United States Marine Corps, horrifying the American people, inciting the Muslims to riot, and forcing premature withdrawal from Iraq.According to Joint Publication 3-13, psychological operations are planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce...

A number of stories have been unreported on – or misreported – in the war of terror. The mainstream media is willing to discuss the car bombs. But which of these stories have been the most damaging in terms of not getting out? @ The memos from Saddam's regime. These memos, often ignored by major mass media outlets (unless targeted for derision), have generally shown the terrorist connections that Saddam's regime had, and showed that the regime was also interested in acquiring weapons of mass destruction. Far from lying, the Bush Administration had largely been spot on. @ Guantanamo Bay...

Marie Brenner, a writer-at-large for Vanity Fair magazine whose reporting career began against the backdrop of the Watergate era, said Saturday that war is being waged against this nation's press and journalists must stand together to turn back assaults on their freedoms.  Schadenfreude ist gut, kameraden.  "The atmosphere against the press right now is as onerous as I can ever remember it," Brenner said after her speech. At the same time, she said, newspapers are facing declining readership, and all members of the mainstream media are seeing their credibility attacked on Web logs, or "blogs." "This many-headed ombudsman" can...

Terrorists Use Internet for Propaganda, Defense Officials Say By Steven Donald SmithAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, May 5, 2006 – Terrorist networks are skillfully using the Internet to raise money, recruit and train members, and to spread a message of hatred, defense officials said here yesterday. "The enemy's message, of course, is a gross distortion of American policy," Peter Rodman, assistant secretary of defense for policy and international security affairs, told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. "It is at bottom an incitement to hatred, extremism and terrorism." Rodman, along with U.S. defense contractors, presented a briefing to...

The PAO Conversation:Over at Mudville, I mentioned in the comments a sidebar conversation several of us had with the CENTCOM PAO who showed up to talk with us. For ease of reference, here's most of what I said:Really two things: the degree to which MilBlogs should be embraced by the military leadership and ways in which they can be; and also some friendly advice on how PA and IO can and must be improved. He came to talk to the first point, and got a bit blindsided by the degree to which we wanted to talk about the second....

"More than half of this battle is taking place on the battlefield of the media, [for] we are in a media battle in a race for the hearts and minds of [Muslims]." The speaker was not some public relations executive, but Osama bin Laden's chief lieutenant, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Terrorists have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but, for the most part, America and the governments of the other democracies have not. Consider that the violent extremists have their own "media relations committees" aimed at manipulating elite opinion. They plan and design headline-grabbing attacks using every means of...

It's All Info Ops To Me The Defense Department has issued a new publication outlining joint doctrine on the use of "information operations," according to Secrecy News. Which might make you think the Pentagon has some new rules for keeping computers safe. But Information operations is used for a wide range of military operations designed "to influence, disrupt, corrupt, or usurp adversarial human and automated decision making while protecting our own," according to the document, officially known as Joint Publication 3-13. The doctrine document follows the 2003 publication of a DOD "Information Operations Roadmap", which outlined plans for developing capabilities...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2004 May 2 Io in True Color Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: The strangest moon in the Solar System is bright yellow. This picture, showing Io's true colors, was taken in 1999 July by the Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003. Io's colors derive from sulfur and molten silicate rock. The unusual surface of Io is kept very young by its system of active...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 27 When Moons and Shadows Dance Credit & Copyright: Wes Higgins Explanation: It's no wonder Jupiter is a favorite target for even modest earthbound telescopes. The most massive planet in the solar system with four of the largest moons also boasts the famous Great Red Spot, a giant hurricane-like storm system over three hundred years old. Recorded on December 15, 2002 between 7:19 and 8:40 UT,...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 January 20 Io at Sunset Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: How tall are mountains on Jupiter's moon Io? One way to find out is to view them at sunset. Tall structures facing the Sun are then better-lit and cast long shadows. The above image highlights Mongibello Mons on the far left, a sharp ridge rising so high it would rank among the highest mountains on Earth....

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 18 Io Volcano Culann Patera Credit: Galileo Project, JPL, NASA Explanation: What causes the unusual colors surrounding Io's volcanoes? Io, the innermost large moon of Jupiter, is known to be the most tumultuous body in the Solar System. Approximately the size of Earth's Moon, Io undergoes nearly continuous volcanic eruptions from an interior heated by gravitational tides from Jupiter and Jupiter's other large moons. The robot...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 December 7 Jupiter, Io and Shadow Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, Cassini Project, NASA Explanation: Pictured above is the innermost of Jupiter's Galilean satellites, Io, superposed in front of the gas giant planet. To the left of Io is a dark spot that is Io's own shadow. A solar eclipse would be seen from within the shadow spot on Jupiter. Viewed from planet Earth, similar shadows of Jupiter's...

Titanic volcanic eruption seen on Io 14:50 14 November 02 Successive views show the dramatic eruption on Io (Image: Franck Marchis/UC Berkeley) A titanic volcanic eruption has been spotted on the surface of Jupiter's volatile moon Io using a telescope back on Earth. Astronomers believe it to be the most powerful eruption ever witnessed in the entire Solar System. The volcano spewed lava kilometres into the sky during its most explosive period, say the researchers. The consequent lava flow is thought to have spread many hundreds of square kilometres across the surface of Io. "It is clear that this eruption...

Titanic volcanic eruption seen on Io 14:50 14 November 02 NewScientist.com news service A titanic volcanic eruption has been spotted on the surface of Jupiter's volatile moon Io using a telescope back on Earth. Astronomers believe it to be the most powerful eruption ever witnessed in the entire Solar System.... [see link for photos].