Life on Mars Search Continues

I love the report of the Martian Robot explorations that come from NASA in the quest to find life on Mars. This is a new report from the Space Reporter.

NASA’s Opportunity rover is celebrating ten years since it landed on Mars, on January 24, 2004. In the rover’s 24-mile journey from its landing site to the rim of Endeavour Crater, it has uncovered evidence that is helping to elucidate the early history of Mars. The latest findings have been analyzed by a team led by Opportunity Deputy Principal Investigator Ray Arvidson of Washington University.

According to a NASA statement, Opportunity has analyzed rocks older than any others encountered by the rover. The Opportunity team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory employed an instrument on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that is designed to map minerals on the Martian surface. This instrument, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, began scanning the vicinity of Opportunity in 2010, and detected the signature of a clay mineral called iron-rich smectite at a site on Endeavour’s rim known as Matijevic Hill.

 

The Opportunity team steered the rover in a loop, guided by the orbiter, until it arrived at the promising outcrop. There, Opportunity had the chance to study the smectite in its proper context and determine how its location and position in the Martian geological record relate to those of other minerals and rock layers.

 

Arvidson and team’s analysis of the new data indicates that the warmer, wetter conditions in which the iron-rich smectite formed existed before Endeavour Crater was gouged out approximately 4 billion years ago. This environment also predates acidic and oxidizing conditions represented in rocks previously studied by the rover. The environment would have been suitable for microbial life. The new research has been published in the January 24 issue of the journal Science.

 

Although Opportunity’s twin rover, Spirit, ceased to function in 2010, Opportunity is still working well in conjunction with the larger, newer Curiosity rover half a planet away. Both rovers are guided by data gathered by the Odyssey and Mars Reconnaissance orbiters.

 

I can't help wondering if some of the conditions that destroyed Mars might have been around the time when the believed meteorite hit Earth destroying the dinosaurs. Its only a thought, but maybe the solar system had a rain fall of meteorites many billion years ago along a scale more intense then we get at present.

 

Of course I'm no scientist and my dates could be way off and I'm sure NASA scientists have explored such a possibility. I will watch the continuous reports of the Martian exploration robots. Its very exciting stuff and I hope they find some fossil evidence of life, even if its the minutest form of life that once was.

 

 

 

 

 

US Helicopter Gunners in Vietnam War

This documentary, about Huey Helicopter Gunners is rather special because of the commentary and the way it is presented. We might laugh at it today with the benefit of hindsight, but despite the terror of the Vietnam war and horrors it brought into our living rooms via tv, I strongly believe it was a war that the USA could not afford to ignore. This is a bit rich coming from a Brit, I know. I don't think she (USA) had a choice and the other minor western nations, that enjoyed democracy under the cloak of US protection, also had no choice but to support this action. It proved to be a loss in the long run, but it did exhaust communist ambitions in other areas. I think there was an inadvertent success of the domino theory, though the Vietnam war/battle became a strategic withdrawal/loss.

 

The USA had to undertake a war with restrictions because of what happened in Korea. I do believe that there were long term benefits for the democratic west in the long run because of this, while the USA picked up the tab of recrimination. This, of course, might appear callous. It does not take into account the innocent Vietnamese that were killed in the crossfire. However, they were being brutally killed by both sides. The USA paid the price with international and unfair vilification from many nations that were free because of US power and presence, and so did the Vietnamese with the hard won unification.

 

This above film is very good from an historical point of view because of the way it is presented. Imagine if we could listen to the presentation of Romans or Crusaders with their firm convictions. I think this is a great documentary.

 

 

Fenland's Wisbech Should have Rail line Re-instated.

There is still a Railway station in the market town of March, Cambridgeshire but some of the other Fenland market towns are cut off from Rail today. One of the most notable places is Wisbech. A big town like Wisbech in Fenland Cambridgeshire should be reconnected to the main rail lines.

 

This is a clip from 1963 in March. The station still remains, though I don't think it is as busy as it once was. The Wisbech connection should be reconsidered and there is a local campaign to reinstate a rail line at Wisbech. I hope it comes true because I think it would be good for the Fenland.

Wisbech did once have a rail station that was built in 1848. However, it was shut down in 1968. Today many feel that this was a mistake and Wisbech should be re-instated.

Celtic Music - Dark Compelling Spirit Rituals

This is dark, mystical, yet beautiful. It reminds me of the woodlands and obscure nooks and crannies around the Isles, where things of old still echo through vision and smell. Places that are perhaps the same before the Romans came. Today we can only find the places in our imagination, yet musical pieces like this allow the listener to see the raw beauty within the mind's eye. I wonder if such beauty, from the past, still retains a biological programme within our DNA. Is there something about it the past that sounds familiar to us.

    

Little Owls in Britain

Little Owls are not native to Britain. They were introduced in 1842, by a man named Thomas Powys. Since this time the Little Owl has become naturalised. They are wonderful little creatures, but the temptation to cuddle or stroke one is a big no, no. Owls don't usually like being cuddled or stroked - even the ones tamed to human keepers or falcon trainers.

 

They are at their best in the wild though some reside in rescue centres and get to be flown. Tame ones need to be flown because there is a weight balance that they must fit into. This weight is easily maintained in the wild when hunting for food. In captivity they can become over weight very quickly if not exercised. They are high maintenance creatures and don't make the best pets. The wild is always better for them.

 

 

Isle Of Man TT Speed Needs of the Chancers

The Isle of Man TT is a Motorbike race like no other. The regulations are less stringent, so the safety aspect is reduced. The race is dangerous, to say the least. The Isle of Man TT is like a Mecca for those with an unyielding need to push themselves to the limit. Sometimes with dire consequences.

Watch the above clip and get an idea of the speed these racers go to and see what can happen with just the merest lapse in concentration.

    

Common Buzzard in the Fenlands of East England.

My wife and I have bought a house in the Market town of March, Cambridgeshire in the Fenlands. There are vast areas of open flat lands - fields everywhere with tiny clusters and lines of trees here and there.

 

One of the first things I noticed was the birds of prey. Mainly kestrels that are hovering everywhere along the country roads hunting rodents. Then I saw a rather bigger bird that made my heart leap.

 

It was the creature in the picture beside. It is called a Common Buzzard. I did not know this at the time as my knowledge on such fine creatures is very limited.

 

Since seeing this bird I have seen several, even as many as three along a stretch of the A16 going between Crowlands and Spalding in Lincolnshire. They are often perched upon fence posts along the A16 road as we drive to Spalding. I've also seen another, on several occasions, along a country lane called New Cut B1167 off of the A46 going towards another lane called French Drove and the village of Gedney Hill.

 

They become such regular observations that we keep our eyes peeled when ever travelling between March, Crowlands and Spalding. On numerous occasions, including yesterday, Friday 24th January 2014, we saw the usual three Common Buzzards along that same old stretch of the A16 between Crowlands and Spalding.

We decided to pay a visit to the Raptor centre today 25th January 2014, at a place called Pidely in Cambridgeshire, between March and Huntingdon. The common sight of so many birds of prey caused us to go. There were birds of Prey from all over the world and they gave us a display of falconry. The showed us six different type of bird, including an Eagle from South Africa, a couple of kestrels - one British and one American. But to end it all, they brought out a Common Buzzard for us to see. The falconer spoke of how their numbers were reduced in recent decades to the areas of North and West Britain, but since the 1990s they have began to reappear in the East.

I was tempted to call out, that there are a large number in the Cambridgeshire/Lincolnshire boarders, but he then went on tell the audience that the last time he spoke of how rare they were; no fewer then eight were spotted in the wild, surrounding the fields of the raptor centre. He then went on to say how they like to perch on fence post along the roads or telegraph poles, the very places we had seen them.

After our enjoyable afternoon, my wife 'Carole' and I drove back to see my Mother who lives in French Drove close to where we saw one of the Common Buzzards. As I turned the car off of the roundabout of the A46 onto New Cut Lane B1167 where the sign said Gedney Hill, I preceeded along the country road and mentioned to Carole that we should keep our eyes peeled. No sooner had I said it and then there was one (Common Buzzard) standing on the grass on the other side of a dyke, where the field ended. The dyke ran along the side of the road.

I said to Carole, "Did you see that, there was one by the dyke."

She had missed it so I turned the car by a field entrance path and drove back slowly along the lane. There it was staring at us with it huge eyes. We went back down to the roundabout on the A46 and returned once again into New Cut. Carole got out her mobile phone to photograph the wonderful creature, but as we got there, the buzzard looked at us and got spooked. He opened his wings and flew off across the fenland field. We watched it flying low for some distance before landing among, what looked like, small cabbages.

"I think we spooked it," I said.

Common Buzzards seem to be plentiful now in the Fenlands. We continued home and there were the usual kestrels hovering along the dyke of French Drove.