Old Tree knocked down by wind [ 718 ]

1,000-year old tree in front of Kamakura shrine knocked down by strong winds

The fallen giant ginkgo tree is pictured at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Wednesday. (Mainichi)

KAMAKURA, Kangagawa -- A 1,000-year-old giant ginkgo tree in front of the main hall of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine here has been knocked down, apparently by strong winds.

At around 4:40 a.m. on Wednesday, a security guard at the shrine found the famous tree -- designated as a natural monument by Kanagawa Prefecture in 1955 -- knocked down with its trunk snapped. It is believed to have been hit by a series of strong winds that continued from late Tuesday afternoon. There were no reports of injuries.

The giant ginkgo tree is pictured in December 2004. (Mainichi)

According to the shrine, the 30-meter-high ginkgo tree is estimated to be 1,000 years old. The security guard reportedly heard a loud thumping sound, like that of "heavy covering of snow falling to the ground," about three times at around 4:15 a.m. After hearing a sound like a lightening strike, he found the tree collapsed on the ground.

The maximum wind velocity at that time was 12 meters per second, according to the Fire Fighting Head Office in Kamakura.

Chikayasu Hamano, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture, attributed a blizzard from late Tuesday afternoon as the main cause of the tree's collapse, in addition to heavy rain from February that softened the ground. Hamano also commented that it is impossible to save the tree.

At the end of 2009, the shrine started to consider conservation steps for the giant tree, with inspections by Hamano finding no problems with the health of the tree.

Shigeho Yoshida, the chief priest of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, is too shocked to comment on the matter, a shrine official said. Other priests, who are also in shock, made spiritual gestures by offering rice and sake to the collapsed tree.

The giant ginkgo tree, well known as a symbol of the shrine, was dubbed "Kakure Icho" (hidden ginkgo) since monk Kugyo hid behind the tree when he assassinated Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate, in January 1219.

(Mainichi Japan) March 10, 2010

The 10/3 NASA "Image of the Day".[ 717 ]

NASA Image of the Day

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Snapshot of the International Space Station
On March 13, 2008, the International Space Station passed across the field-of-view of Germany's remote sensing satellite, TerraSAR-X, at a distance of 195 kilometers, or 122 miles, and at a relative speed of 34,540 kilometers per hour, or more than 22,000 mph. In contrast to optical cameras, radar does not 'see' surfaces. Instead, it is much more aware of the edges and corners which bounce back the microwave signal it transmits. Smooth surfaces such as those on the station's solar generators or the radiator panels used to dissipate excess heat, unless directly facing the radar antenna, tend to deflect rather than reflect the radar beam, causing these features to appear on the radar image as dark areas. The radar image of the station therefore looks like a dense collection of bright spots from which the outlines of the space station can be clearly identified. The central element on the station, to which all the modules are docked, has a grid structure that presents a multiplicity of reflecting surfaces to the radar beam, making it readily identifiable. This image has a resolution of about one meter (about 39 inches). In other words, objects can be depicted as discrete units--that is, shown separately--provided that they are at least one meter apart. If they are closer together than that, they tend to merge into a single block on a radar image. Since this image as taken, the station has expanded and is more than 90 percent complete, including a full complement of solar arrays. Image Credit: DLR

Τετάρτη, 10 Μάρτιος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

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The latest NASA "Image of the Day" [ 715 ]

NASA Image of the Day,, March 9th, 2010
The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

A Mosaic of Cassiopeia
This mosaic of images from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explore, or WISE, in the constellation of Cassiopeia contains a large star-forming nebula within the Milky Way Galaxy, called IC 1805 or the Heart Nebula, a portion of which is seen at the right of the image.

IC 1805 (or the Heart Nebula ) is more than 6,000 light-years from Earth.

Also visible in this image are two nearby galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2.

In visible light these galaxies are hidden by dust in IC 1805 and were unknown until 1968 when Paolo Maffei found them using infrared observations. Both galaxies contain billions of stars and are located some 10 million light-years away.

Maffei 1 is a lenticular galaxy, which has a disk-like structure and a central bulge but no spiral structure or appreciable dust content. Maffei 2 is a spiral galaxy that also has a disk shape, but with a bar-like central bulge and two prominent dusty spiral arms. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

Τρίτη, 9 Μάρτιος 2010 7:00:00 πμ

Deadly suicide blast, Taliban[ 714 ]

Taliban claims responsibility for deadly suicide blast

March 8, 2010 7:56 a.m. EST

Volunteers search for blast victims in the rubble of a destroyed law enforcement building after a car bomb attack in Lahore, Pakistan, Monday.

(CNN) -- The Taliban said Monday it was behind a suicide bombing in Lahore that killed 11 people and wounded more than 60.

Azam Tariq, spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, said the attack was in response to U.S. aggression against Muslims around the world.

"I am proud to accept the responsibility of the Lahore suicide blast," he wrote in a text message to CNN.

"We will follow U.S. and its allies all over the world, even if they are in Karachi, Peshawar, Lahore, Afghanistan or in U.S."

Government officials provided the death toll from the bomb in the eastern part of the country. Many of the wounded were in critical condition, and the death toll could rise, officials said.

The blast occurred in an affluent part of Model Town in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city.

The suicide bomber targeted the Special Investigation Agency, a provincial law-enforcement agency that investigates high-value detainees. It is where suspected militants have been interrogated, said Khusro Pervez, a senior government official in Lahore.

Journalists Nasir Dawar and Hasir Habib contributed to this report.