The Gale Crater landing site on Mars taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover.
Scientists will be taking a closer look at several splotches in the foreground that appear gray. These areas show the effects of the descent stage’s rocket engines blasting the ground. What appeared as a dark strip of dunes in previous, black-and-white pictures from Curiosity can also be seen along the top of this mosaic, but the color images also reveal additional shades of reddish brown around the dunes, likely indicating different textures or materials.
The images were taken late Aug. 8 PDT (Aug. 9 EDT). Mars only receives half the sunlight Earth does and this image was taken in the late Martian afternoon.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
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53 Responses to A Martian Afternoon [Photo]
Now on The Trail
Woo Hoo!
Looks like a heckuva place for a fish camp…as dry as the Romney campaign’s HQ.
“Splotches” -- That’s the word scientists use, right?
Back to the OT, MoJo talking about Paul Ryan for veep? Nah.
Romney can’t afford to lose they grey vote. While they may be social conservatives and not like the idea of gov’t “handouts,” they certainly won’t want to see their Social Security/Medicare benefits under attack.
Question: If the media is so “in the bag,” for the Democrats, why hasn’t NBC, etc., played up more about the British healthcare system?
Jeez, if Ryan Seacrest needs to babble on about something (isn’t “American Idol” on Fox, anyway?) during primetime Olympic coverage, why wouldn’t it be to highlight socialized healthcare to a large, U.S. population, unless they have fallen out of love with Obama?
Obama Gets Jump in Fox Poll, as Campaign Hits Romney on “Notorious ‘Son of Boss’ Tax Scandal”
by Taylor Marsh
kgc, follow the money. they’ve got to put on a horse race even if it’s just with wooden merry-go-round ponies.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-26/tv-stations-charge-super-gouge-ad-rates-for-super-pacs.html
3 billion in just ad revenue
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/08/09/1118428/-It-s-John-Huntsman-Sr-right-Harry
By David Ingram and Aruna Viswanatha
WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) -- The U.S. Justice Department said it will not pursue criminal charges against Goldman Sachs Group Inc or its employees related to accusations that the firm bet against the same subprime mortgage securities it was selling to clients.
The decision not to prosecute Goldman, a firm held up by critics as a symbol of Wall Street greed during the 2007-2009 financial crisis, highlights the difficulty in prosecuting crisis-related cases.
‘Well I didn’t see that coming “Hah
Does anyone know where I can get Hillary ’16 bumper stickers?
Re: Mars.
It looks like the midwest.
and much of texas…..
Hi OD,
Here you go!
http://www.zazzle.com/hillary+2016+bumperstickers
[Letter to the Editor, Chas. Post and Courier. (Right wing rag) ]
Some friendly tips on what’s par for the Johns Island course.
Welcome to Johns Island, PGA Championship fans! As many of you are visiting us for the first time, my fellow farmers and I want to introduce you formally to our island and our way of life.
Our guess is that one of the first things you will notice as you drive down our roads to Kiawah is that Johns Island isn’t accustomed to having such big crowds. But we hope you will also notice that Johns Island is, by and large, rural and exceptionally beautiful.
For more than 300 years, generations of families have farmed this land. Our family lands serve as a breadbasket, not only to local communities, but also to visitors at Charleston’s many renowned restaurants. In its entirety, Johns Island is 84 square miles, making it the fourth largest island on the East Coast. Inspiring vistas, endless expanses of marsh teeming with wildlife, and abundant waterways create the character of this wonderful island. Notably, we are also home to the Angel Oak, a 1,400 year-old live oak tree.
Our land is precious and so too are our people. Many of us are Gullah/Geechee descendants of enslaved Africans from various ethnic groups of west and central Africa.
As a Gullah community, we have retained many aspects of our African heritage, like sweetgrass basket making and a unique Gullah dialect. We are also part of a designated national corridor, extending from North Carolina to Florida, which seeks to preserve the Gullah/Geechee culture that makes our region and community so unique.
For Johns Island residents, the PGA Championship is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Our roads do not normally serve as major thoroughfares. As the people who live here, again we welcome you. But we also request that you respect the character of our community as you pass through.
With that in mind, there are a few things that you can do to make your drive more enjoyable: drive slowly, designate a sober driver, be attentive at intersections, and watch for pedestrians. Unfortunately, we currently lack adequate traffic law enforcement and many of the car accidents that occur on Johns Island are due to speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol. Further, we do not have many pedestrian paths, so any residents who use their bikes or walk as their primary form of transportation must share the road. Please be cognizant that you are sharing the roads with us.
There are also several dangerous intersections that have fallen into disrepair. Until very recently, the state and the county have not prioritized fixing these intersections. Island residents and many of our fellow Charleston County citizens are working hard with local officials to ensure that these problems with our roads are recognized and fixed.
As you slow down to enjoy the Johns Island experience, we invite you to stop and enjoy some of the Certified South Carolina roadside farm stands along River and Bohicket roads. We have fresh produce straight from the field for purchase.
At Joseph Fields’ Farm stand, you can find fresh certified organic kale, tomatoes, okra, eggplant, local grapes, peas, carrots and peppers for sale.
We are not the only farm you will see. We are a member of the Sea Island Farmers Co-op that includes Johns Island farms such as Freeman Farm, Fields Pinckney Farm, Fields Farm and Simmons Farm. Also on Johns Island are Legare Farms, Burden Creek Dairy and Rosebank Farm, among others.
We welcome you to explore our community, respect our environment, and enjoy our bounty, and we hope to see you at the farm.
Helen Fields, Joseph Fields Farms
River Road, Johns Island.
The picture in this link shows traffic on Stono Bridge which is approx. 15 miles all the way across johns island to the island of kiawah. Once you hit kiawah, there’s 6 more miles to the golfyard……
http://postandcourier.com/article/20120810/PC16/120819925/1165/traffic-jam-to-kiawah-island-for-pga-championship-even-worse-today
“kgc, follow the money. they’ve got to put on a horse race even if it’s just with wooden merry-go-round ponies.” -- Pat @ 9:16 am
Yup. If peope don’t show up to watch the $3B!LL!ON tide of advertrash, advertizers may decide not to throw us another election.
Nash, that can’t be the midwest. The soil is too pale. I think that’s SW Texas.
MQW,
God, how I hate erc holder. The smoking guns over at goldam sacks were the promo materials they gave to prospective clients of the toxic mortgage bundles they bet against.
‘Course it could be Sonora. Or, So. Libya. Or Sinai. Or, the Gobi.
But, it doesn’t look like Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Misery, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, or Wisconsin.
Okay, maybe the NE panhandle . . . .
Thurs & Fri Poll National Reports
Thurs :
Fox -- Obama by 9%
CNN/OR -- Obama by 7%
Fri :
Gallup T -- Tie
Rasmussen T -- romney by 4%
Why is it, I kinda don’t think that rasmussen is getting it right ?
If you knock off the 2 blatantly republican company polls, and average Gallup and CNN/OR, you get the Prez up by 3.5%
If you average the puguglican polls, Obama leads by 2.5%
nash & xr, also looks a bit like great sand dunes np in colorado or craters of the moon in idaho… or if you squint just right, maybe gay head on the vinyard
Thanks Tony…
fyi, doin Spitzer’s Current show tonight somewhere in the 8p hour
isn’t there a conflict of interest for newscasters with 3 billion presidential campaign ad dollars floating around in medialand?
Pat,
I thought of Mts of the Moon, but in my memory the Mtns are less sand and more sharp rock, like pahoehoe.
Pat,
newscasters can’t be bought. They are rented.
I should have said commercial newscasters.
I’m off to work in our back rain forest.
just tell that to their agents, xr
I wish we got current we don’t get msnbc either but that’s no loss
Sununu is like Prick Cheney lite kind of like one of those little ankle biter dogs. It’s like they wound him up and sent him out on the campaign trail but only gave him one line..
Ari Fleshier seems heavily medicated to me
So, Craig,
While I am delighted to see the implementation of a “top comments” sidebar that someone so sagaciously suggested, whoever that good and kindly soul may be, it would be nice if the sidebar comments were linked to their full posts, so that one could click them and read them in their entirety. For instance, I would like to read Flatus’ full post regarding the Korean temple, but don’t really fell like digging for it.
I may just be doing it wrong.
Re: Polls:
I’m still holding out hope that Ron Paul will be the Republican nominee.
(Paul would win the general election if he had party backing, too bad the RNC is scared shitless of him)
Re: Mars:
They should plant a tree on it.
Gimme a spaceship and I’ll do it.
talk to the guy at virgin airlines or the one from paypal they have spaceships
The Goldman Sachs Justice Department
by Taylor Marsh
Paul Ryan vp — yes let’s expose his ideas to the general public
The Afternoon isn’t earthly by any means
I would dearly love Ryan as the Veep choice. That would be the equivalent of a resignation in the chess match unless the district gerrymandering and voter suppression have been so extreme that we will never have another honest election.
STurgeone
I would dearly love to visit the Gullah community if only to hear the music in the voices and to dine on all that amazing food.
I’ve spent the day vaguely learning the way around my IPhone. If there is an Apple expert handy, please send me an email at webthings at comcast dot net with a phone number and I will call you tomorrow. I need a hooman bean.
It seems that mr romney has been chosen for the latest installment of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.
Please…please select Paul Ryan…
Craig,
Excellent appearance on Spitzer tonight. Nice to bring out the individual issues. They need to put you on a panel not just 3 minute interviews.
http://craigcrawford.com/2012/08/06/portman-boring-chickens-disagree/#comment-294424
Thanks for the explanation, Jamie.
Don’t know why I work myself into such a tizzy at times, and regret that the good people here have to hear it when I do. It rarely has anything to do (exactly) with what I read here, but just something said that sparks off a pet peeve or two of mine.
I respect everyones opinion here, whether I agree with them or not. Just think we can over intellectualize things sometimes, when maybe just using our good old common sense would work better.
(… be adviced, I do know when I have over-reacted. Those times, there’s usually too much emotion involved in my response, and that’s when my thinking can become cloudy (or one sided))
………………..
Flatus, can’t wait until we hear from you here again!
Chloe
Champ, Didn’t notice if anyone addressed your concern about being able to read the entire post on the favorites on the sidebar, but if you click on the blue name, the entire post does appear for you, at the place and time it was posted.
Oh, and Jamey, hope your son has a safe trip.
Hubby has an Iphone and loves it. It just takes some getting used to. They do a little ‘too much’ for me to catch on to, so I stick with a simple flip phone.
Just in case folks are feeling a bit negative, here is a bit of what is really important: Today’s image from Mary Elizabeth
Tony, glad you’re feeling better.
Still miss you Jack, and hope you will reconsider and visit here once in a while. You’re depriving me the enjoyment I get from your comments.
I even miss some of the ‘minor’ arguments we used to get into.
Maybe I should have use a different screen name instead of Nemo. Hot head may have been more appropriate.
Loud bark but not much bite.
So far the ad that President Obama’s Super PAC has run on YouTube about a plant closure where the man’s wife ended up with Stage 3 (I believe) Cancer and dying has hurt $Rmoneny really bad.
Now they need to follow up with a new YouTube video about $Romney starting Bain Capital with funds tied to Salvadorian Death Squads to his Caymen Islands Company for Foreign Investors who don’t want to pay American Taxes.
The question ask should be or go something like this:
$Romney started Bain with money from people tied to Death Squads. Does his Foreign Investors possibly have ties to Terrorist Organizations as well and is that why he won’t release his Tax Returns?
Put it on YouTube and watch the GOP and Reichwing Republicans go Bat Shit Crazy.
They (the Super Pac) would be able to get as much coverage with this video for free as they got for the first one where the man’s wife died.
After all, all’s fair in Love, Politics and War, isn’t it?
Have a great evening.
If Solar shows up Program recommendation: Through The Wormhole: Did We Invent God?
I was wrong: “Romney” didn’t pick a Latino VP candidate.
Ah, thanks, Chloe. I was, indeed, doing it wrong.
NEW THREAD, Mitt VP announcement at 9am