The Mars Phoenix lander touched down in the far north of the Red Planet, after a 680 million-km (423 million-mile) journey from Earth. It was a perfect soft landing.

“Phoenix has landed - welcome to the northern plain of Mars,” a flight controller announced.

It will begin examining the site for evidence of the building blocks of life in the next few days.

First Pic from Phoenix

Posted by FA Editors at 9:06 AM PDT

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The winds that blow near the surface of the Earth have two beneficial effects: They provide a renewable source of clean energy and they evaporate water, helping rain clouds to build up. But aerosolized particles created from vehicle exhaust and other contaminants can accumulate in the atmosphere and reduce the speed of winds closer to the Earth’s surface, which results in less wind power available for wind-turbine electricity and also in reduced precipitation, according to a study by Stanford and NASA researchers.

This type of aerosol means more than hair spray…one scientist advocates replacing existing motor vehicles with cleaner ones, such as renewable-energy powered battery-electric and hydrogen-fueled vehicles, and substituting contaminating power plants with networked wind farms. These actions would reduce particle emissions practically to zero, he says. The second-best option would be adding particle traps to existing vehicles and other sources of pollution. Otherwise, we literally could be driving ourselves to drought.

Read more at PhysOrg.com.

Posted by Linda at 8:49 AM PST

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I just learned this evening that Mercury is in retrograde from today until 19 February. When Mercury is in retrograde, plans can go awry. It’s best to remain flexible, allow extra time for travel, and avoid signing any contracts because something negative may show up when the retrograde period is over.

Positives about Mercury in retrograde include the fact that this is a great time to reflect on the past (not live in it, however). Intuition is high during these periods and coincidences can be extraordinary. I’m glad I’ve learned all this, as I’m going to look at some houses tomorrow. Now I know to not sign anything until after the middle of the month - even though those Roman columns in that bathroom are to die for. ;-)

Posted by Linda at 11:37 PM PST

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Once more, this presidential administration has proven itself inept, pompous, and contentious. According to CNN, The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday reversed seven rulings that denied endangered species increased protection, after an investigation found the actions were tainted by political pressure from Julie MacDonald, a former senior Interior Department official.

MacDonald resigned in May after the Interior Department’s inspector general “rebuked her for pressuring wildfire agency scientists to alter their findings about endangered species and for leaking information about species decisions to industry officials.” She also was involved in delisting the Sacramento splittail, a fish found only in California’s Central Valley where MacDonald owned an 80-acre farm on which the fish live. In that link, you’ll learn that the fish was on the ‘threatened’ list in 1999, was removed from that list in 2000, and was moved to a species of concern list after it was found that the species currently is declining.

Francesca Grifo of the Union of Concerned Scientists said the acknowledgment of seven instances of wrongdoing “does not begin to plumb the depths of what’s wrong” at the wildlife agency and its implementation of the Endangered Species Act.

Problems were found in seven of the eight cases, taken up for review after MacDonald’s resignation, although there are at least 30 cases where there’s evidence of tampering over the last seven years. Some animals that will receive more attention are the white-tailed prairie dog (pictured above), the Canada lynx, Hawaiian picture-wing fly (pictured here), and Arroyo toad.

Posted by Russell at 8:00 AM PST

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