| What's up in Space | June 30, 2008 | |||||
SUNSET SKY SHOW: Tonight, after sunset, go outside and look west. Red Mars and 1st-magnitude star Regulus are having a close encounter, less than 1o apart. Together they join with Saturn to form a pretty isosceles triangle that you won't want to miss: sky map. photos: from Tamas Ladanyi of Lake Balaton, Hungary; from Doug Zubenel of Linn County, Kansas NOCTILUCENT COMPANIONS: The Pleiades. A slender crescent Moon. Electric-blue noctilucent clouds (NLCs). Add them all together and you get ... Monday in England. This morning just before the sun came up over the British Isles, a wispy bank of noctilucent clouds joined the Moon and Pleiades in the pre-dawn sky: "What a sight!" says Pete Lawrence who took the picture, above, from the beach at Selsey in West Sussex. A panoramic shot "conveys the scene quite well with noctilucent fingers stretching out of the twilight arc." Noctilucent cloud activity remains high; readers, be alert for NLCs and their companions. more images: from Martin Stirland of Winterton On Sea Norfolk England; from Laurent Laveder of Quimper, Bretagne, France; from Thad V'Soske of Grand Valley, Colorado; from Mark E. Peter south of Flint Ridge, Ohio; from David Arditti of Edgware, Middlesex, UK LAVENDER SUNS: California is on fire. Hundreds of wildfires in the northern half of the state are filling the air with smoke and filling the sky with ... lavender suns? Christopher Calubaquib saw one on June 26th when he looked through the haze over El Sobrante, California: "Because of the smoke, the sun was not very bright, and I didn't need to use a filter to take the picture," says Calubaquib. In other words, the colors are genuine. A day later, another lavender sun appeared over Arcata, California: "This photo was not processed or retouched; it's how the sun really looked," says photographer Mike Kelly. What makes the sun lavender? It happens when the air is filled with particles measuring about 1 micron (10-6 m) across, a little larger than the wavelength of red light. Micron-sized particles scatter red light strongly, while letting shades of blue pass through. The mix of ash over El Sobrante produced a lavender hue, reminiscent of the great Alberta muskeg fires of September 1950. Believe it or not, the same physics can turn the Moon blue, but that is another story. Is the smoke wafting through your hometown this week? Be alert for the lavender sun. more images: from Raymond Rochelle of Chico, California; from Andrew Kirk of Bishop, California; | ||||||
June 30, 2008
What's up in space - 30 June 2008
June 01, 2008
Tina Meier, the mother of the Missouri teen who committed suicide after being bullied online has launched a foundation to educate kids and parents about cyberbullying and work on legislation to address the growing phenomenon.
The Megan Meier Foundation's web site has resources for educators, parents and teens that include a list of emoticons and their meanings to help parents understand the online language their kids are using as well as explanations about the kinds of technologies kids are using to communicate with one another. The site features the stories of other teens who have also been bullied online.
Photo: AP
See Also:
- Experts Say MySpace Suicide Indictment Sets 'Scary' Legal Precedent
- Teen Involved in MySpace Suicide Hoax Says Adult Also Participated
- No Charges Will Be Filed In Cyberbullying Case
- Federal Grand Jury Issues Subpoenas in Teen Cyberbullying Case
- Megan Meier Suicide Stokes the Internet Fury Machine
- Prosecutor Will Review Megan Meier Cyberbullying Case
May 08, 2008
Megen Meier story followup; New Era is Social Networking? Matthew Good
A few months ago I talked about Megan Meier, a young girl who encountered verbal and emotional abuse from a classmate’s mother via MySpace. That abuse eventually led to Megan committing suicide, and sparked a whole series of internet debates about where the fault for something like that lies and how accountable social networks should be for the actions of their users.
Today Facebook announced that they will be implementing over 40 safeguards to help protect its users from sexual predators and online cyberbullying:
Facebook, the world’s second-largest social networking Web site, will add more than 40 safeguards to protect young users from sexual predators and cyberbullies, attorneys general from several states said Thursday.
Facebook and officials in 49 states and the District of Columbia agree to safeguards to protect young users.
The changes include banning convicted sex offenders from the site, limiting older users’ ability to search online for subscribers under 18 and building a task force seeking ways to better verify users’ ages and identities.
“The agreement marks another watershed step toward social networking safety, protecting kids from online predators and inappropriate content,” said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who announced the agreement Thursday with his counterparts in several other states.
Obviously I think that’s a huge step forward for the internet, especially since both Facebook and MySpace have agreed to adopt the guidelines set out in the agreement. And while it’s impossible to protect everyone from harm on these networks, I definitely think it’s a move in the right direction.
About This Entry
- Author: Duane Storey
- Date: May 8th, 2008














