Friday, November 13, 2009

| Dominican prospect charged in killing loses US visa

Dominican-prospect-charged-in-killing,-loses-U.S.-visa SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -A top prospect for the San Francisco Giants has been stripped of his U.S. visa after he was charged with killing a man in his Caribbean homeland.

Pablo Peguero, the Giants representative for Latin America, said Friday that 19-year-old Angel Villalona cant join the team in the United States because the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic has revoked his visa.

Dominican prosecutor Jose Antonio Polanco said Tuesday that Villalona offered the family of the man he allegedly killed nearly $140,000 to drop the case against him. He alleged the first baseman paid $55,000 and expected to offer another $83,000.

Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad heredocument.write{DisplayDartAdandRecordAdLoad;} // if {RecordAnyLoad;});
);

Polanco said the family viewed the payment as compensation for the killing of 25-year-old Mario Felix de Jesus Velete.

The family has not returned repeated calls seeking comment. Villalona, who has pleaded innocent to the murder charge, also has declined to speak to reporters.

Police say Villalona, who received a $2.1 million signing bonus in his 2006 deal with the Giants, turned himself in 12 hours after the Sept. 19 bar shooting in La Romana. He could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.

Villalona was released last week on $14,000 bail after the family issued a statement saying it had accepted the money, Polanco said. A Dominican judge is expected to hear the case in about a month.

Villalona hit .267 with nine homers and 42 RBIs in 74 games for Class-A San Jose this season. Baseball America selected him as the Giants top prospect before the 2008 season, and the 6-foot-3, 200-pound slugger was selected for the Futures Game during All-Star festivities that year.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

function nm_mi {
if {
window.clearTimeout;
nm_tDis = 0;

}
if {
if {
nm_aDef = new Array;
return;

} else {
window.clearTimeout;
nm_tNew = 0;
nm_nNew = 0;

}

}
var b = == *) && ;
nm_mx;
if {
var body = document.body,
dxCli,
dyCli,
dxOff,
dyOff,
sId = sU.slice;
if {
dyCli = body.clientHeight;
dxOff = body.scrollLeft;
dyOff = body.scrollTop;

} else {
dxCli = window.innerWidth - 14;
dyCli = window.innerHeight - dyNetScrFudge;
dxOff = window.pageXOffset;
dyOff = window.pageYOffset;

}
var isNBCSports=.indexOf==-1)?false:true);
var oX = new nm_xy,
xPar = oX.x,
yPar = oX.y,
dxPar = oX.dx,
dyPar = oX.dy;
dxOff -= oX.xP;
dyOff -= oX.yP;
if && || && )) {
var sas = nm_as;
if {
if != *) sas = +|Latest headlines| + sas;
sas = sas.replace;
var nmC = || == -1)) ? 1: 2;

nm_sSuf = sS;

} else {
sas = sas.replace;

}
var as = sas.split,
cs = as.length - 1,
sS,
s = new Array,
sV,
sW,
sT;
nD = nD + 1;
nm_nD = nD;

//init omniture link track values
var omni_nm_pn = Omni.NewsMenu.ProjectName;
var omni_nm_ct = ;
var omni_nm_cn = ;
var topicset=false;

s.push;
var ceCnt = 0,
CM = ,
temp;
for {
sT = as;
if == ) sT = sT.replace;
sV = sW = nm_link;
var arrowflavor = ;
var sn = ;

//get the parent omniture link track data ct value
var omni_parent_ct = o.getAttribute;
var omni_parent_cn = o.getAttribute || ; //default value statement

if == *) {
temp = sV.slice;
if
continue;
temp = nm_as.split;
if sT = temp.substr;
sV = nm_link;
sS = arrowflavor = F;
sn = sW.substring;
if == undefined || nm_as == ) arrowflavor = E;
if ceCnt = 0;
CM = F;

//Omniture news menu link track, assign first subsection flyout ct value and cn value
//ct == component type
if {
omni_nm_ct = Omni.NewsMenu.FirstFront;
omni_nm_cn = sT.substr;
//cn is subsection name, limited to first 30 characters

}

}
else if != +) //headline
{
//Omniture new menu link track, determine parent ct value and assign headline ct value and cn value
if
{
if
{
omni_nm_ct = Omni.NewsMenu.FirstHeadline;
omni_nm_cn = omni_parent_cn;

}
else if
{
omni_nm_ct = Omni.NewsMenu.ExpandHeadline;
omni_nm_cn = omni_parent_cn;

}
else if
{
omni_nm_ct = Omni.NewsMenu.SecondHeadline;
omni_nm_cn = omni_parent_cn;

}

}

sS = arrowflavor = E;
if ceCnt = 0;
CM = S;

}
sV = nm_su;
if == +) {
if
{
s.push onmouseover=nm_mi + ,null, + nD + , + gS + )> + sT + );
}
else
{
if
{
s.push;
topicset=true;
}
else
{
s.push onmouseover=nm_mi + ,null, + nD + , + gS + )> + sT + );
}
}
}
else
{
if
{
s.push + CM + gS + CE= + sId + - + + class=nmI + arrowflavor + nmLink onclick=Omni.LinkTrack.OnclickHandler;nm_mc + ) onmouseout=nm_mo onmouseover=nm_mi + ,null, + nD + , + gS + ) pn= + omni_nm_pn + ct= + omni_nm_ct + cn= + omni_nm_cn + > + sT + );
}
}

}

if
{
s.push;
}

s.push;
var oC = document.getElementById;
oC.innerHTML = s.join,
dx = oT.offsetWidth,
dy = oT.offsetHeight;
var x = xPar,
y = yPar;
if {
y += dyPar;
if x = - dx; //j-chicks

} else if != -1) {
y = y + o.offsetHeight + 6;
dx = oT.parentNode.offsetWidth;
if {
if x = xPar + o.offsetWidth - dx;
else x = - dx;

}
if x = dxOff; //end j-chicks

} else {
var dxOverlap = ? 0: 2;
x += dxPar - dxOverlap;
x += 6;
y += 1;
if y -= 1;
if {
if x = xPar + dxOverlap - dx;
else x = - dx;

}
if x = dxOff;
if {
y = - dy;
}
if y = dyOff;

}

var oD = document.getElementById;
oD.style.pixelWidth = oD.style.width = dx;
oD.style.pixelHeight = oD.style.height = dy;
oD.style.pixelLeft = oD.style.left = x;
oD.style.pixelTop = oD.style.top = y;
oD.style.zIndex = 100000000;
nm_os;
if nm_of != H) {
o.className += H;
if o.firstChild.className += H;
}
} - | Dominican prospect charged in killing loses US visa |

Monday, November 9, 2009

| Moon’s ‘friends’ say no to future lunar crashes

Moon’s-‘friends’-say-no-to-future-lunar-crashes When a NASA spacecraft rammed into the moon in October, it tossed up a hard-to-see plume of lunar material.

But the event also stirred an observable cloud of public anxiety and protests in some quarters about bombing the moon, a backlash that may hint at a rising Friends of the Moon movement.

On Oct. 9, the Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite experiment created twin impacts on the moons surface in a search for water ice. Scientists remain busy at work analyzing data to assess whether water ice was kicked-up by the event. Given a human return to the moon, such a resource could help sustain future explorers there.

Still, not everybody was upbeat about beating up the moon.

Bomb ... bastic term
All the talk about bombing the moon prompted science writer Pete Spotts of the Christian Science Monitor to make his own nose-dive into Websters Dictionary to pinpoint the definition of bomb – an explosive device used to detonate under specific conditions.

That meaning incited Spotts to scold reporters, chiding them to stop misusing and misinterpreting the word in LCROSS mission coverage.

Similar in view is NASAs Jennifer Heldmann, lead for the LCROSS Observation Campaign at NASAs Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.

On LCROSS there are no explosives...theres no bomb. So were not bombing the Moon, she told SPACE.com prior to the crash. In reality, the moon is regularly hit with impacts that release the sort of magnitude of energy as realized with LCROSS.

So LCROSS wasnt doing anything new to the moon that doesnt happen already, Heldmann emphasized, evidenced by its cratered appearance after being hit with objects the past 4 1/2 billion years or so.

Shock and awe
But others found unnerving aspects to the LCROSS slam dunk.

In the Huffington Post, screenwriter Amy Ephron called it NASAs own version of shock and awe and put in motion a Help Save the Moon Twitter Page in the hope that readers can convince NASA not to try any further experiments of this kind, she wrote.

Well, I for one, dont like explosions. Call me a pacifist, call me cautious, call me an environmentalist, or call me something worse, I dont really care, Ephron explained.

PC World Blogger, Jeff Bertolucci, came up with his own possible, covert goals of why NASA bombed the Moon. His self-admitted lighthearted look included:

To destroy secret alien moon bases on the far side
Hate high tides? So does NASA
NASA engineers love demolition derbies

Others took a less jocular view of NASAs LCROSS effort.

Lunadarity forever
The Chicago Surrealist Movement put its muscle behind a Stop NASA From Bombing the Moon campaign.

That crusade called for Lunadarity forever! and included a petition drive on Care2 – billed as an online community of people making a difference in healthy and green living, human rights and animal welfare.

For example, Care2 posted petitions embrace support for climate action to protecting polar bears from global warming, as well as regulating toxic coal ash as hazardous waste.

In this case, the moon petition tagged the NASA experiment as a hostile act of aggression and a violent intrusion upon our closest and dearest celestial neighbor.

Furthermore, the appeal flagged the LCROSS mission as leading to the exploitation of resources and the colonization of territory without regard for ecosystems or indigenous peoples, and clearly the moon is the next territory coveted by imperialists.

At last look, some 560 had responded to the anti-NASA bombing the moon petition, over half-way to a 1,000 person sign-up goal.

Real issues
There are real issues related to lunar preservation and silly issues. The concern about LCROSS is in the latter category, countered Chris McKay, a space scientist at NASAs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

McKay said that impacts the size of the LCROSS crash are probably happening naturally on the moon every few decades. A small crater in a crater saturated surface is hardly environmental destruction, he told SPACE.com.

But for McKay there are serious issues still to be dealt with in terms of future utilization of the moon.

A plan to mine Helium 3 from the moon to power fusion energy plants that we dont even have yet is one such issue, McKay said. Another is the preservation of NASAs six Apollo moon landing sites.

McKay added that a real issue for scientists is the creation of a temporary atmosphere due to rocket exhaust. Ive seen estimates that it would take decades to subside.

There is an upshot. McKay said he doesnt think there are any serious biological issues with either forward contamination or back contamination, so repeated travel back and forth between Earth and the moon shouldnt pose too big a risk in that respect.

Cultural and natural landscape
Whether you agree or disagree with the protests about the LCROSS mission, it shows that the moon is perceived as a cultural place as well as a celestial body orbiting Earth, said Beth Laura OLeary of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. The moon is seen as part of both a cultural and natural landscape that may be harmed.

OLeary is co-editor of a new book Handbook of Space Engineering, Archaeology, and Heritage recently issued by CRC Press.

In reviewing the feelings of those expressing LCROSS outrage, OLeary said they saw the mission as morally wrong. This is in contrast with previous perceptions, she told SPACE.com.

The idea of sending a spacecraft -- robotic or human piloted -- to the moon was viewed in the 1950s and 1960s as a legitimate scientific exploration, although it was firmly set in the context of the Cold War, she said. The sentiment... is that it is a bomb site not a crash site and that with the LCROSS mission we are disturbing the natural order of the universe - from changing the tides to committing a sacrilege.

Some feel it is a violation of the United Nations Outer Space Treaty, she added.

OLeary said that what is being expressed are some current sentiments which move parallel to, but are in conflict with, the commercial interests in exploring and exploiting the Moons resources in the near future.

For space archaeologists, the material cultural and impact area of LCROSS on the moon exist as artifacts and features of an archaeological site. It is one of the few recently created sites on the moon and is part of our space heritage, OLeary said.

LCROSS joins other lunar locales that are cultural resources on the moon, OLeary added. The event and the assemblage have many complex layers of meaning indicative of our human historical perspective about space in the 21st century, she concluded.

© 2009 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.var url=location.href;var i=url.indexOf + 1;if{i=url.indexOf + 1;}if{i=url.indexOf;}if{url = url.substring;document.write;if{window.print;}}
MSN Privacy .
Legal © 2009 MSNBC.com - | Moon’s ‘friends’ say no to future lunar crashes |