Top News Stories –
Beagle 2 probe found on Mars –
Pictures taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have spotted the missing Mars robot Beagle2, identified its landing location and it looks to be in one piece. The probe designed an promoted by the late Professor Colin Pillinger landed on Mars on 25th December 2003, but no radio contact was ever made with the probe. It was assumed to have crashed but it now seems that for some reason two of the solar panels did not deploy and the radio signal was consequently blocked.
Replica of Beagle 2 at the London Science Museum
Britain’s oldest person dies age 114 –
Ethel Lang has died at the age of 114. She was believed to be the last person living in the UK who was born in the reign of Queen Victoria. The oldest person in the world is thought to be Misao Okawa, a Japanese woman who celebrated her 116th birthday in March 2014.
Elon Musk proposes 700 mph test track in Texas –
Elon Musk (@elonmusk) the billionaire founder of PayPal tweets that he will build a test track for his “Hyperloop” transport system that could theoretically travel at speeds of up to 700 miles per hour. He tweets the most likely location for the test track that works in a partial vacuum using magnets is in Texas, USA.
Elon Musk in 2013
Video of the Day –
CNN explains Elon Musk’s Hyperloop
List of the day –
Oldest verified persons (from Wikipedia)
| Rank | Name | Sex | Birth date | Death date | Age (at death, or as of 8 March 2015) |
Place of death or residence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeanne Calment[2] | F | 21 February 1875 | 4 August 1997 | 122 years, 164 days | France |
| 2 | Sarah Knauss[3] | F | 24 September 1880 | 30 December 1999 | 119 years, 97 days | United States |
| 3 | Lucy Hannah[4] | F | 16 July 1875 | 21 March 1993 | 117 years, 248 days | United States |
| 4 | Marie-Louise Meilleur[5] | F | 29 August 1880 | 16 April 1998 | 117 years, 230 days | Canada |
| 5 | Misao Okawa[6][7][8] | F | 5 March 1898 | Living[7] | 117 years, 3 days | Japan |
| 6 | María Capovilla[9] | F | 14 September 1889 | 27 August 2006 | 116 years, 347 days | Ecuador |
| 7 | Gertrude Weaver[7][10] | F | 4 July 1898 | Living[7] | 116 years, 247 days | United States |
| 8 | Tane Ikai[11] | F | 18 January 1879 | 12 July 1995 | 116 years, 175 days | Japan |
| 9 | Elizabeth Bolden[12] | F | 15 August 1890 | 11 December 2006 | 116 years, 118 days | United States |
| 10 | Besse Cooper[13] | F | 26 August 1896 | 4 December 2012 | 116 years, 100 days | United States |
Top Twitter Trends –
Other News Stories –
- Armed conflicts and attacks
- Syrian Civil War
- The United States Department of Defense announces that it will send 400 troops to train moderate Syrian rebels in the spring of 2015. (AP)
- A hostage crisis at a post office in Colombes, Paris, ends with the attacker releasing the hostages and surrendering himself to the police. (Daily Mail) (CNN)
- The Military of Chad enters Cameroon to assist in fighting against Boko Haram insurgents. (Reuters)
- Business and economy
- U.S. federal magistrate Carl Barbier’s ruling caps BP‘s fine under the Clean Water Act for its 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico at $13.7 billion. (Reuters)
- The Obama Administration eases trade restrictions with Cuba, now permitting the sale of tools and equipment forprivate-sector use in Cuba. (USA Today)
- Disasters and accidents
- An explosion of the Hunga Tonga submerged volcano in the South Pacific Ocean, near Nuku’alofa, Tonga, disrupts air travel and creates a one-kilometer new island. (Radio Australia) (The Weather Channel)(Discovery News)
- 2015 Malawi floods:
- Flash flooding continues since January 14 in the African nation of Malawi with at least 176 people killed and 110,000 displaced. (ABC News Australia)
- Environment
- Chinese officials impose an emergency ban on tourists approaching pandas subsequent to the death of two pandas from a canine distemper virus. (USA Today)
- Law and crime
- Polk County, Florida police arrest four men who face charges in having allegedly robbed an Auburndale, Florida pawn shop, and then fatally shot two women in their central Florida home. (AP via MSN)
- Mexican authorities arrest an alleged hitman for the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel, Felipe Rodriguez, in connection to the September 26, 2014 death of 43 college students. (AP via ABC News America)
- The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to consolidate and hear four appellate rulings whether there is a constitutional right tosame-sex marriage. It is currently allowed in Washington, D.C. and 36 states. Oral arguments will take place in April and a ruling may occur by June. (CNN) (The New York Times)
- Pittsburgh police arrest Ryan Williams for the October 18, 2014 McKeesport, Pennsylvania arson attack and charge him with arson, burglary, and six counts of criminal homicide. The victims include four children ages 2 through 7. (AP),(WTAE)
- The Obama Administration imposes restrictions on state and local police‘s ability to seize personal property under the guidelines of the Equitable Sharing federal program. (Washington Post)
- Science
- NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers state that 2014 is the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880. (Xinhua)(NASA)(NOAA)(The New York Times)(Russia Today)(The Guardian)(The Wall Street Journal)
- NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finds the Beagle 2 spacecraft that disappeared in 2003 intact on the surface ofMars. An error had stopped the spacecraft’s solar panels from working and communicating back to Earth. (TNN viaTimes of India)
- Public video emerges of the January 10 SpaceX CRS-5 mission Falcon 9 failed landing. (The Telegraph)
- Sports
- St. Louis, Missouri announces a new multimillion dollar public-private venture open-air riverfront stadium that would be aimed at keeping the NFL‘s St. Louis Rams from relocating to their former home of Los Angeles, where there are also plans for stadium development. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
News from Wikipedia – please support this valuable resource