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Snow maps from space aid reindeer herders

Snow worries: Satellite maps of snow coverage and melt can help reindeer herders.
Arctic reindeer herders in northern Scandinavia are getting a view from space to help them look after their herds as the region copes with climate change.

Using satellite-based snow melt maps supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) backed program Polar View, herders are able to view the depth of snow and judge where the best foraging spots are to take their reindeer. “Snow is of paramount importance for reindeer herding, because its quality determines whether reindeer are able to access the pastures that lie beneath it for much of the year,” Anders Oskal, the Director of the International Center for Reindeer Husbandry (ICR) told the ESA. “Detailed circumpolar snow information is, thus, becoming increasingly important following the recent changes in the Arctic climate.” Oskal is working with Sámi reindeer herders in Finnmark, Norway, to help them maintain and develop sustainable reindeer husbandry. According to Oskal, Finnmark is the area of Norway that is predicted to experience the largest temperature increases, raising concerns about whether ice layers will form over pastures preventing reindeer from foraging. Under the Polar View initiative, Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT) have been providing snow melt maps for Norway and Sweden, as well as snow cover maps for Eurasia, for the last 18 months. The ICR partnered with Polar View in a trial of the maps to examine how satellite observations could help by gathering information on snow change in a timely manner for such vast circumpolar regions.

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“The experience so far has definitely been positive, and the reindeer herders are extremely interested in the future utilization of Polar View products that can relate important information about local snow conditions,” said Oskal. “These products could have important consequences for herders’ decisions regarding winter pasture quality and potential migration routes.” In addition to climate change, reindeer herders also have to face a loss of pastures because of infrastructure development, such as roads, hydroelectric power dams and cabin resorts. The same technology would help the ICR to monitor the different forms of land-use change over time.

Episcopal minister defrocked after becoming a Muslim

Ann Holmes Redding says she sees no contradiction in being both a Christian minister and a Muslim.
Ann Holmes Redding has what could be called a crisis of faiths.

For nearly 30 years, Redding has been an ordained minister in the Episcopal Church. Her priesthood ended Wednesday when she was defrocked. The reason For the past three years Redding has been both a practicing Christian and a Muslim. “Had anyone told me in February 2006 that I would be a Muslim before April rolled around, I would have shaken my head in concern for the person’s mental health,” Redding recently told a crowd at a signing for a book she co-authored on religion. Redding said her conversion to Islam was sparked by an interfaith gathering she attended three years ago. During the meeting, an imam demonstrated Muslim chants and meditation to the group. Redding said the beauty of the moment and the imam’s humbleness before God stuck with her. “It was much more this overwhelming conviction that I needed to surrender to God and this was the form that my surrender needed to take,” she recalled. “It wasn’t just an episode but …. was a step that I wasn’t going to step back from.”

Ten days later Redding was saying the shahada — the Muslim declaration of belief in the oneness of God and acceptance of Mohammad as his prophet. But Redding said she felt her new Muslim faith did not pose a contradiction to her staying a Christian and minister. “Both religions say there’s only one God,” Redding said, “and that God is the same God. It’s very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven’t shifted my allegiance.” Watch Redding say, “Being a Muslim makes me a better Christian” » The imam at the Islamic Center in Seattle, Washington, where Redding prays said she brings the best of both traditions to her beliefs. “Coming from an example of wanting to be Christ-like and coming from the perspective of wanting to follow the best example — the example of our prophet Mohammed — it all makes sense then,” Benjamin Shabazz said. There are many contradictions between the two religions. While Islam recognizes Jesus as a prophet, Christianity worships him as the son of God.

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James Wellman, who chairs the department of comparative religion at the University of Washington, said that while it is not unusual for people to “mix and match” beliefs, it is almost unheard of for a minister to claim two religions. “When you take ordination as a Christian minister, you take an explicit vow of loyalty to Jesus. It’s hard for me to understand how a Christian minister could have dual loyalties,” Wellman said. Redding said she sees the theological conflicts but that the two religions, at their core, “illuminate” each other. “When I took my shahada, I said there’s no God but God and that Mohammed is God’s prophet or messenger. Neither of those statements, neither part of that confession or profession denies anything about Christianity,” she said. To her parishioners and family, though, Redding has turned her back on her faith and office. There was, she said, “universal puzzlement” at her decision to convert to Islam but still remain an Episcopal minister. “I have people who love me very much who really don’t want me to do this, and I love them very much. And I would love to be able to say, ‘Because I love you I will renounce my orders’ or ‘I will renounce Islam’ … I hate causing pain to people who love me, that’s not my intention,” Redding said. The Episcopal Church also rejected Redding’s religious choice. “The church interprets my being a Muslim as ‘abandoning the church,’ ” she said. “And that [there] comes an understanding that you have to be one or the other, and most people would say that. It simply hasn’t been my experience that I have to make a choice between the two.” The Diocese of Rhode Island, where Redding was ordained, told her to leave either her new Muslim faith or the ministry. A diocese statement said Bishop Geralyn Wolf found Redding to be “a woman of utmost integrity. However, the Bishop believes that a priest of the Church cannot be both a Christian and a Muslim.” Even though she has been defrocked, Redding said she is not capable of turning her back on either faith. She said she wants to continue speaking about and teaching religion and perhaps even travel to the Hajj, a journey to Mecca that every Muslim is supposed to make in their lifetime.

Redding said she does not want her belief in two religions to diminish the value she holds for both Christianity and Islam. Each faith by itself is enough to fulfill a person spiritually, she said. “It’s all there. I am not saying you have to go somewhere else to be complete. Some people don’t need glasses, some people need single lenses. I need bifocals.”

Ghosts stay clear of ‘Haunting’ actress

In its opening weekend, "The Haunting in Connecticut" scared and thrilled millions of moviegoers across the country.

The film, which earned $23 million to finish No. 2 at the box office, emphasizes psychological horror over slasher film blood ‘n’ gore, which its audience apparently appreciated. But Virginia Madsen, who plays Sara Campbell in the film, confessed that, while filming, fear was not just reserved for the screen. “We all stayed in this big, old hotel which was kind of like the one in ‘The Shining,’ one of those turn-of-the- century big, old hotels,” Madsen told CNN. “I had a little chat with my room. I said, ‘Just out of respect, if there are any entities around, I need to stay here, I have a lot of work to do, I have to sleep at night, so please leave me alone.’ ” Yet, Madsen admitted, her belief in ghosts is not very strong. “I do have an attraction to paranormal investigation and all those kinds of shows but I’m not sure if I really believe in ghosts,” she said. “The Haunting in Connecticut” is based on the true story of Sara Campbell, a mother who moves her family into an old house in Connecticut in order to be closer to the hospital where her son, Matt (Kyle Gallner), receives cancer treatment. The house was once a funeral home and, shortly after their move, the family begins witnessing strange, supernatural activities. “Something very powerful and very real happened to this family. Whether or not you believe it was some sort of demon or, you know, they’re manifesting it — whatever it is — it changed their lives,” Madsen said. Madsen, 47, is probably best known for her Oscar-nominated turn in “Sideways” as Maya Randall, the restaurant waitress who gets involved in a romance with the prickly writer played by Paul Giamatti. Since that 2004 film, the actress has made several films, including “A Prairie Home Companion” and “The Number 23.” She and the rest of the cast developed a close relationship on the set and were much like a family behind the scenes. “I was more like a mother bear with my young actors,” Madsen said. In fact, Madsen added, her close relationship with the younger actors made filming difficult at times. “One scene in the movie that was the hardest for me to do was when [Matt] wakes up … and his skin is all carved with these different incantations,” she said. “And I open his shirt and he’s just looking up at me with these big blue eyes with tears … and he really felt like my boy, he really felt like my second son.” Madsen said the film, complete with ghosts, séances and creaking floorboards, is successful because it has all the elements of a good horror flick. “The movie works … because it plays on our most basic childhood fears. ‘Something’s under the bed, something’s in the closet, something’s in the mirror.’ And all of us still have those same childhood terrors,” she said. The desire to experience those same terrors and to forget about everyday life, Madsen added, draws people to the theaters at an older age. “I like things that go bump in the night, and scary things that are fun,” she said. “That’s really what this movie really is. I think horror movies are so popular because times are especially hard and I think a horror movie more than any other kind of movie is a true escape … You’re forgetting about your life because you’re like, ‘Oh my God!’ ”

Jupiter’s stormy Great Red Spot is shrinking

NASA's Cassini spacecraft photographed Jupiter and its Great Red Spot, seen center near the equator, in 2000.
Everything about Jupiter is super-sized, including its colorful, turbulent atmosphere. But there’s fresh evidence that one of the planet’s most recognizable features, the Great Red Spot, is shrinking.

The spot, which is actually an ancient monster storm that measures about three Earths across, lost 15 percent of its diameter between 1996 and 2006, scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found. It shrank by about 1 kilometer (about 0.6 miles) a day during that time period, said Xylar Asay-Davis, a postdoctoral researcher who was part of the study. Astronomers have observed for years that the clouds of the Great Red Spot have been waning, but this newest research focused on the motion of the storm — a much more reliable way to measure its size, Asay-Davis said. He and fellow Berkeley researchers Philip Marcus, Imke de Pater, Michael Wong and Sushil Shetty developed software that tracked the movement of the spot’s cloud patterns over long periods of time. “It’s not just the motion of the spot as a whole object. Within it, it has a very complicated swirl to it — sort of a thin ring on the outside and then a sort of quiet area in the center — and that shape of it has been changing over time,” Asay-Davis said. “What we actually look at is where the winds are the strongest in the vortex. It’s the ring where they’re the strongest, and that ring has been shrinking over time.” The findings have been submitted for publication in Icarus, the International Journal of Solar System Studies. See photos of the other planets and find out what makes them stand out » What makes it red The researchers do not know why the storm is shrinking. In fact, little is known about the Great Red Spot at all. Even the exact cause of its distinctive color is a mystery. “We don’t actually know what causes any of the colors on Jupiter,” said Amy Simon-Miller, chief of the Planetary Systems Lab at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “One of the leading theories is that [the storm] is dredging up stuff from much deeper below in the atmosphere that turns red when it’s exposed to sunlight.” The spot isn’t always bright red; sometimes it’s actually quite pale, Simon-Miller noted. Astronomers have been tracking it since the 1870s, said Glenn Orton, a senior research scientist at NASA’S Jet Propulsion Laboratory who investigates planetary atmospheres. It is possible that the spot may one day disappear, he added. “It’s just a storm that, like many things, has a natural growth and disintegration rate,” Orton said. Astronomers see a dramatic difference in the spot’s shape when comparing photos of Jupiter taken more than a century ago to recent images of the planet. Orton joked that the Great Red Spot used to be so long that its acronym should have stood for the “Great Red Sausage.” “I just happened to look at an old picture and said to myself, ‘That looks like a breakfast sausage.’ It’s very long. I mean, if you look at one of those pictures back from then and a picture now, you think, ‘My God, this thing is going on a diet,” Orton said. Now eye-shaped, the spot is expected to become circular by about 2040, he added. Chemical stew The storm is a fascinating feature on a fascinating planet. It has some of the characteristics of a hurricane on Earth, including a circular motion and strong winds. They’re Jupiter-strength inside the spot, with some gusting up to 400 miles per hour, Simon-Miller said. Unlike hurricanes on Earth, which are low-pressure systems, the Great Red Spot is a high-pressure system, so it’s more stable — one of the reasons it has lasted so long, she added. Another factor in its longevity is that there is no land on Jupiter to slow a storm in the way landfalls cause hurricanes to lose steam on Earth. Jupiter’s atmosphere of colorful dots, swirls and bands may look like an impressionist painting from above, but it would quickly lose its beauty on closer approach. The clouds visible from space consist of ammonia ice and ammonium hydrosulfide — a sort of smoggy chemical stew — and the conditions below are brutal, especially inside the Great Red Spot. “The winds are so strong, everything would get pulled apart pretty quickly. There’s no surface to stand on and look up at it,” Simon-Miller said. Probes sent by NASA towards the interior of the planet have been crushed by the gas giant’s enormous atmospheric pressure.

Still, the images of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot mesmerize astronomers. “The pictures are just so beautiful, and they’re different every single time we look,” Simon-Miller said.

Commentary: Obama finds a world that blames U.S.

Ed Rollins says President Obama is finding that world leaders blame the United States for the economic crisis.
After firing the CEO of General Motors and putting Chrysler on a path that could lead to bankruptcy, the still-popular President Obama moved from the domestic battlefield to the international one. But the subject is the same, with no relief in sight: the woeful world economy.

(CNN) — After firing the CEO of General Motors and putting Chrysler on a path that could lead to bankruptcy, the still-popular President Obama moved from the domestic battlefield to the international one. But the subject is the same, with no relief in sight: the woeful world economy. The president and a staff of hundreds took off this week on Air Force One and backup planes to attend his first international summit, the G-20 meeting in London, England. The eyes of a nervous world are looking to the new American president, as well as the leaders of 18 other countries and the European Union, with some hope that they can get us out of this world financial crisis. These countries all have diverse populations and different roles in the world, but all share a concern for a world economy that is teetering on the brink of disaster. In a meeting that will last only a little more than eight hours, including meals, little will be accomplished, but impressions will be made that will be long-lasting and important. Historically in international meetings, the United States presidents set the agenda and often the tone for the meeting. This one will be different. The United States’ role is being challenged by China, which is funding our past and hopefully future debt, and by France, which also has a new charismatic leader with very strong opinions. Germany and others reject the president’s stimulus plan and most, if not all these countries, blame the world economic crisis on the good old US of A.

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They think that two expensive, unending wars, our greedy bankers and the irresponsible runaway spending by our government and citizens have laid the foundation for the collapse of the worlds’ economy. Fortunately for President Obama, most of the blame falls on the shoulders of his predecessor, the Texan who just packed his boxes and returned to Crawford, Texas. But they are measuring the president to see if he is more than a big personality and if he is willing to be a team player and a listener. Is the United States going to be part of the solution or a continued source of the problem goes the unanswered question that most other world leaders are asking. Does the United States have solutions that they can buy into or does this become a go-it-alone situation and every country has to do its own thing for survival The more important purpose of the president’s international trip may be the sidebar meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Russian meeting held Wednesday was a preliminary session for a future summit to deal with the expiration of the landmark 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. Both sides want to continue to reduce nuclear weapons, but like President Obama’s budget, the devil is in the details. The Russians of course want us to include the future of missile defense plans in any discussions — which we should resist at all costs, as well as any reduction in our missiles, bombers or submarines. We must remember the Russians are back in a mode of rebuilding their military. And we must always remember when former President George W. Bush looked in former president and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s eyes and stated, “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul.” No American leader was ever so mistaken! As far as the Chinese meeting, President Hu Jintao is concerned about the strength of the U.S. dollar and wants a new world reserve currency. Since he has a lot of our dollars and President Obama’s future deficit spending programs will depend on China’s lending a lot more of them, that meeting is most important for the long term. Developing a good rapport with the leader of China — the most significant long-term challenger to the United States’ place as the world’s economic and military superpower — is critical for the new president and the country he leads. Meanwhile back on the home front, the congressional Democrats, after a little pushing and shoving among themselves, will pass the president’s budget resolution and keep the blueprint intact. The details will be battled over for several months without any help from the Republicans. Unfortunately, my party continues to be distracted by internal squabbles among the House Republican leadership and the near-daily missteps of the new Republican National Chairman, Michael Steele. Steele, who I think is a nice man, is becoming an embarrassment to himself and the party he leads. Comparing his job to that of President Obama and stating that his attacks on Rush Limbaugh, a conservative icon, were strategic made many Republicans shake their head in dismay. Also, his now repeated talk about running for president reminds people who know him how badly he was defeated when he ran for the U.S. Senate two years ago. And even though the cries for his resignation are getting louder by the blunder, he will probably survive. But his suggestion to a Republican fundraiser in Maryland Tuesday evening that the party faithful — some of whom have criticized his erratic statements — need to be more like him: “unconventional, unpredictable … to do from time to time the unexpected” was pretty stupid, to say the least. Unfortunately, that is all we expect of him now. His mantra of “Drill, baby, drill” is now being paraphrased by many party activists: “Quit, baby, quit!” It is very unfortunate. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ed Rollins.

Hamilton disqualified from Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has been disqualified from the Australian Grand Prix after presenting "misleading" evidence to stewards.

The McLaren driver and Toyota’s Jarno Trulli were called to an FIA hearing in Malaysia — the site of the next grand prix — Thursday to discuss an incident during last weekend’s Australian race. Trulli finished third at Melbourne’s Albert Park, only to later be handed a 25-second penalty by race stewards which relegated him to 12th position and saw Hamilton lifted into third. McLaren had complained that the veteran Italian illegally passed Hamilton under yellow flags following an accident late on involving Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Robert Kubica in his BMW Sauber. Trulli had decided not to appeal the original decision but the FIA, the sport’s governing body, said it had received new information and pressed ahead with a second hearing.

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“The stewards, having considered the new elements presented to them from the 2009 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, consider that driver No 1, Lewis Hamilton, and the competitor, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, acted in a manner prejudicial to the conduct of the event by providing evidence deliberately misleading to the stewards at the hearing on Sunday 29th March 2009,” the FIA said in a statement. It said Hamilton and McLaren had violated its rules and retrospectively disqualified him from the race.

Global markets surge on U.S. optimism

European markets charged higher in early trading Thursday, adding to strong performances across Asia and on Wall Street.

The helicopter was carrying 16 people when it went down about 13 miles off Scotland’s northeastern coast, officials said. Rescuers recovered eight bodies from the crash Wednesday. “We are coming to terms with the fact that all might have been killed in the crash,” a spokeswoman for Grampian Police told CNN. She said there is no evidence that anyone survived. Rescuers resumed searching Thursday morning for the eight missing people over a search area of 30 nautical miles. Two lifeboats and seven other vessels, including ferries and fishing boats, were conducting the search Thursday, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. There was good visibility and only a light breeze in the search area Thursday, a Coastguard spokeswoman said. Thursday’s efforts were also beginning to recover the wreckage from the seabed to try to establish whether the remaining eight people were trapped in it, the Aberdeen Press and Journal reported.

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The cause of the crash was not clear, authorities said, noting that they had not yet recovered the wreckage of the craft. They did not say whether it sent a distress signal before going down. The recovery would provide vital information on what caused the crash, as Super Puma helicopters are equipped with black box flight recorders which will document everything that happened in the minutes before the crash. The Bond AS332L Mark II helicopter was returning from the Miller Platform, a drilling operation in the North Sea, said Brian Taylor, who represents the drilling contractor. Fourteen passengers and two crew members were on board, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. They included 10 members of the drill crew. The bodies found Wednesday were in the water, not in the helicopter, said Suzanne Todd of the agency. All were wearing survival suits. It is the second crash of a helicopter in the North Sea in less than two months. A Super Puma helicopter ditched about 120 miles east of Aberdeen while approaching an offshore platform on February 18, the RAF said. All 18 aboard were rescued without major injuries.

16 feared dead after helicopter ditches off Scotland

Eight people missing from a fatal helicopter crash in the North Sea off Scotland are feared dead, police said Thursday.

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GM’s new chief optimistic that he can steer the company to health

General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson is hopeful the company's malaise won't be long-term.
In his first week as president and chief executive officer of General Motors, Fritz Henderson expressed optimism that he can steer the company out of the economic rut in which it has stalled.

“The challenges are immense but, you know, let’s bring it on,” Henderson said Wednesday. The 50-year-old GM lifer said the company has plenty going for it, from workers to dealers to customers, “so we need to get the job done. It’s that simple.” The federal government has given him 60 days to restructure the deeply indebted company if he wants to get federal funds to keep it in business. “It’s painful,” he said. “We have to make sacrifices everywhere in the business.” Henderson was moved up to the driver’s seat Friday, when the White House told his former boss, Rick Wagoner, to resign. Henderson did not exclude the possibility of seeking bankruptcy protection for the industrial behemoth, though “bankruptcy has not been our preferred approach,” he said.

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He said his moves are being closely monitored — a government task force considering the proposed federal bailout “has been intimately involved in our business for six, seven weeks.” The company will “do whatever we can” to minimize the amount of federal funding needed, he said. That will mean lowering break-even points, reducing costs and streamlining operations, Henderson said. Left unsaid were the specifics that observers expect will be required: negotiation of big concessions from bondholders and the United Automobile Workers, to which GM owes $20 billion for retired workers’ health care. “It’s all about, frankly, creating a leaner, tougher, more resilient General Motors,” the Harvard MBA said. He held out hope that the company’s malaise would not be long-term. “When things turn, they turn fast,” he said. “It can be a wonderful business when it’s on the upside, particularly when you get a business that’s properly structured.” Before Friday, the Detroit, Michigan, native had been the company’s president and chief operating officer since March 2008. Before that, he was vice chairman and chief financial officer. Henderson, a certified public accountant, started working for GM in 1984 as a senior analyst in the treasurer’s office.

Rift threatens to torpedo G-20 summit

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned the G-20 summit must agree tough rules to govern banks.
The G-20 summit began Thursday, with leaders looking to repair a rift after France and Germany threatened to withdraw their support unless tough new rules were agreed to regulate the world’s financial markets.

U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that delegates at the London summit needed to act with urgency and in unison to address the financial crisis. Obama said G-20 delegates had “a responsibility to act with a sense of urgency” and come up with “tough new rules” for managing the world economy. “We’ve passed through an era of profound irresponsibility,” Obama said. “Now, we cannot afford half-measures and we cannot go back to the kind of risk-taking that leads to bubbles that inevitably burst. So we have a choice: We either shape our future or let events shape it for us.” Brown called on world leaders to cooperate in achieving five tasks at the one-day summit, starting with restoring growth to emerging market economies and agreeing to “clean up” the global banking system.

Fact Box This week’s London Summit brings together the leaders of the world’s 20 largest economic powers, known as the Group of 20, to discuss the global financial crisis and decide new measures to set the world on a more stable economic footing.

There will be no sustainable recovery until a new regulatory system for the banks is put in place, Brown said. He also wanted countries to commit to do “whatever is necessary” to encourage growth and help the poor, protectionism to be rejected and a push for investment in the environment. However, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned they would not sign up to an agreement at the summit if the new rules were not tougher. At a joint press conference at a London hotel Wednesday night, the two leaders made clear that they were not satisfied with the proposals currently on the table. Watch more on the G-20 summit » “Germany and France will speak with one and the same voice,” Sarkozy said. “These are our red lines.” Earlier Wednesday, thousands of anti-capitalists, anarchists and environmental campaigners descended for protests in several locations around the British capital.

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The most violent demonstrations took place near the Bank of England, Britain’s central bank. People broke several dark-tinted windows of a Royal Bank of Scotland branch and crawled inside. Demonstrators also spray-painted the word “thieves” and the anarchist symbol on the side of the building. Watch more on the protests »

Three people were arrested at the bank — two for aggravated burglary and one for arson, a police spokesman said. Organizers said there would be tight security at the summit Thursday.