A Celestial Object Is Being Renamed After An Endangered Sea Mammal

Nebula W50 will now be known as the Manatee Nebula

By: Clara Moskowitz
Published: 01/19/2013 09:45 AM EST on SPACE.com
A watery-looking nebula in deep space is being renamed after the sea creature it strongly resembles: a manatee.

The nebula is the leftovers from a star that died in a supernova explosion about 20,000 years ago. Before it died, the giant star puffed out its outer gaseous layers, which now swirl in green-and-blue clouds around the dead hulk of the star, which has collapsed into a black hole.

Known officially as W50, the celestial object is being dubbed the Manatee Nebula by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), during a ceremony today (Jan. 19) at the Florida Manatee Festival in Crystal River, Fla. The NRAO will also unveil a new photo of the nebula taken by the Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope network in New Mexico.

http://news.yahoo.com/celestial-wonder-looks-uncannily-manatee-144544052.html

Related articles

• Manatee Nebula Imaged In Beautiful New Photo, By The VLA Radio Telescope (planetsave.com)

 

Rufus…the blind Bobcat kitten.

http://www.bigcatrescue.org

Visit them when in Tampa, Florida

As the Space Shuttle was making its final approach

for landing at the Kennedy Space Center, the commander commented that he was seeing the coastline of the Yucatan peninsula.  Thank goodness for all those computers on board that spacecraft because these guys wouldn’t be able to find the landing strip.  After a brief silence he was corrected by the controllers at Kennedy Space Center.  What he was  seeing was the west coast of Florida.  Take a look at the Tracking Map  NASA was displaying during the approach from orbit.  I’ve never seen Colombia‘s map look like this.

Why are Florida’s Sex Offenders Moving in Together?

Why are Florida’s sex offenders moving in together?

Curiously Florida’s new laws regarding where sex offenders may live have created another problem…that of having multiple sex offenders living in one abode.  What is preferable to you?  To know there is one sex offender in your block or to have twenty living down the block because this is the only location far away enough from a school, a day care center or a park?

Randy Young, a registered sex offender runs a for-profit organization called Habitat for Sex Offenders.  Mr. Young was present when a 19-year-old girl performed fellatio on a 15-year-old boy, thus earning him a conviction in 2003 of  a lewd or lascivious act with a minor.  The Habitat finds housing for sex offenders ranging from child pornography to kidnapping and rape.

Broadview Park, a neighborhood with derelict vehicles and repossessed homes became an island that was a least 1,000 feet from the aforementioned institutions.  This neighborhood went in 2007 from having 4 registered sex offenders to 106 in 2009.  The solution to this concentration of sex predators was to increase the buffer zone to 2500 feet thus eliminating even more safe zones for these people.

“A good law would be figuring out where they could live,” rather than where they can’t said John Rodstrom, the commissioner of Broward County’s District 7, which includes Broadview, “But no politician would ever do that, because that’s the death of your career.”

Another problem associated with having sex offenders is the loss of home values.  In Fort Lauderdale after crossing State Road 7 where the buffer is at 1400 feet, homes that were appraised over a million are now selling at 200,000.  All the zoning restrictions did was to push the sexual offenders into the rich areas.  How ironic is that.  This article was written by using Irina Aleksander’s article in March’s 2010 The Atlantic.  Ms. Alexsander is a writer for The New York Observer.