Color photos
NASA releases color images of Pluto and Charon. The heart shape on Pluto is different colors indicating different geologic, tectonic, or morphological origins. The big red spot near Charon’s north polar region are most likely nitrogen particles from Pluto. The sun burns off the particles on the areas facing the sun, but not the polar region which faces away from the sun for decades.
Some regions are relatively ancient, and other places are very young and currently undergoing geologic evolution.
Questions Froome performance
As Froome dominates the Pyrenees Mountain stage of the Tour, Armstrong questions if he is cheating
1. Clearly Froome/Porte/Sky are very strong. Too strong to be clean? Don’t ask me, I have no clue.
@danieljcastille I’m not accusing anyone In fact, quite the opposite. I’m not interested (nor do I have the credibility) to opine there.
Changes Cosby stance
In a conversation with ABC News chief legal analyst Abrams, Goldberg says:
If this is to be tried in the court of public opinion, I got to say all of the information that’s out there kind of points to guilt.
Goldberg recently said she had received threats for staunchly standing by Cosby and joins Abrams in encouraging viewers to contact their legislators to have statute of limitation laws changed for rape cases. She also has a direct message for Cosby:
It looks bad, Bill. Either speak up or shut up.
Closest approach
After flying three billion miles from Earth, at 7:49 a.m. EDT, New Horizons makes its closest approach to Pluto at 7,700 miles from the surface. It flies past at 31,000 mph. The team receives confirmation from the spacecraft around 9:00 p.m. EDT that the flyby is a success.
Hey, people of the world! Are you paying attention? We have reached Pluto. We are exploring the hinterlands of the solar system. Rejoice!
Pentaquark discovered
Scientists at Large Hadron Collider discover the Pentaquark, a particle predicted to exist since the 1960’s.
The pentaquark is not just any new particle… It represents a way to aggregate quarks, namely the fundamental constituents of ordinary protons and neutrons, in a pattern that has never been observed before in over fifty years of experimental searches.
Tweets ‘Nazi’ soldiers in image
Trump tweets an image of himself, the White House, cash, and what appears to be soldiers wearing German uniforms. Further investigation reveals the image to be of WWII reenactors, who are wearing patches of the Waffen SS. The post is deleted and Trump’s organization blames an intern.
Will return in GoT Season 6
Wright says he will be returning to Game of Thrones season 6 as Bran Stark.
I can’t say a lot, but I am back this season, and it’s going to get particularly interesting with Bran. He has some interesting visions.
He also talks about whether Jon Snow will come back;
I wish he would because I love Kit and because the character’s so cool. Who knows? We start filming series six at the end of this month [July] so we’ll see.
Reward for information
Mexico’s Attorney General offers a reward of up to 60 million pesos (about $3.8 million) for information leading to the location and capture of Guzman. as well as releasing an updated photo of the escapee. The image shows the Sinaloa cartel chief with a shaved head and face and no mustache. So far, 34 people had been questioned in connection with the escape.
Heart shape closeup
New Horizons takes a photo of Pluto from 768,000 km (476,000 miles) away showing a close-up view of the heart-shaped feature. The heart measures about 1,600 km (1,000 miles) across. The heart borders darker equatorial terrains, and the mottled terrain to its east (right) are complex. However, even at this resolution, much of the heart’s interior appears remarkably featureless—possibly a sign of ongoing geologic processes.
Wow! My prediction was that we would find something wonderful, and we did. This is proof that good things really do come in small packages.
Pluto’s size measured
NASA’s New Horizon mission scientists determine Pluto’s size to be 2,370 kilometers (1,473 miles) in diameter making it the largest known body beyond Neptune.
The size of Pluto has been debated since its discovery in 1930. We are excited to finally lay this question to rest.
They also determine Charon’s size to be 1208 km (751 miles) in diameter, Hydra is about at 45 km (30 miles) and Nix is about 35 km (20 miles).
Charon close up
New Horizons takes a photo of Charon from 466,000 km (289,000 miles) away. A series of cliffs and valleys stretch about 1,000 km (600 miles) from left to right, suggesting widespread fracturing of Charon’s crust. At upper right is a canyon about 7-9 km (4-6 miles) deep. The north polar region reveals a dark spot suggesting a thin deposit of material. The lack of craters suggests that the surface is still young being reshaped by geologic activity.
Explains finger injury
Fallon returns to The Tonight Show after a 10-day hospitalization and explains his finger injury. What he thought was a broken finger was actually a ring avulsion injury, and he was sent to another hospital for specialized microsurgery. Many people with the same injury lose their finger. The six-hour surgery involved taking a vein from his foot to help repair the finger.
I tripped and fell in our kitchen on a braided rug that my wife loves. I can’t wait to burn it to the ground. And I caught my fall. So I’m getting up and my finger is sideways. It looks like a cheap horror movie.
Media Briefing interview
Ingram is interviewed by The Media Briefing about the “vicious circle” that leads some publishers to chase huge audience figures at the expense of their identity.
Certainly some publishers that started out with a very targeted focus had to grow and expand the range of things they cover and write about. When you do that you become more and more like a mass media outlet like a newspaper, and the conventional wisdom is that’s not what people want any more. People don’t want something that is about everything. They want sites that are specifically about the things they’re interested in. That’s a very difficult game to play…It’s very hard to build a giant mass audience made up of highly targeted verticals.
And on the perils of using Facebook and Google as a platform:
To the extent that you use a platform to [grow to scale], you are empowering the platform. You’re not necessarily empowering you. To some extent those two things can work together, but in many ways you’re actually helping something that’s in many cases a competitor become stronger. Everyone’s focusing on the same things and the question becomes ‘what are you doing that’s any different’…Is it just about scale, is it just about having views, is it just about how many clicks? And if it is, Google and Facebook are the ones who win, not you.
Running for President
Walker declares his candidacy for President, portraying himself as a man who gets things done, who got a conservative agenda passed in a state that normally supports Democrats, and who has curtailed the power of labor unions.
In the Republican field, there are some who are good fighters, but they haven’t won those battles. And there are others who’ve won elections, but haven’t consistently taken on the big fights. We showed you can do both. I am running for president to fight and win for the American people.
Threatens Trump
After Trump says that Guzman embodies ‘everything that is wrong with Mexico’ and added he would ‘kick his ass’, the drug lord responds on a Twitter account administered by his son:
Keep f**king around and I’m going to make you swallow your f**king words, f**king white cum sh**ter.
https://twitter.com/ElChap0Guzman/status/620340119896133636
Comments on El Chapo escape
In a series of Twitter posts, Trump comments on El Chapo’s escape.
Mexico’s biggest drug lord escapes from jail. Unbelievable corruption and USA is paying the price. I told you so!..Now that the Mexican drug lord escaped from prison, everyone is saying that most of the cocaine etc. coming into the U.S. comes over border!..…..but that’s what I’ve been saying. Very unfair treatment by the media!..Can you envision Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton negotiating with ‘El Chapo’, the Mexican drug lord who escaped from prison? ….
…Trump, however, would kick his ass!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 13, 2015
Israel denounces labeling
Israel denounces the effort by the EU Commission to have all products made in the West Bank settlements labeled as such before distribution and export. The Israeli government questions the legality of such a requirement. Israel’s ambassador to the EU:
[The initiative] is a European attempt to politically pressure Israel on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by using economic means of questionable legality. The labels are an attempt to de facto determine the boundaries of Israel while it is up to the parties involved to decide, and nothing good or constructive can come out of going down that road.
Has nightmares about Finals loss
During an appearance on Bleacher Report Radio, James says he still feels the pain of his 2015 NBA Finals loss to the Golden State Warriors:
I just don’t feel like you ever move on from losing in the Finals. You feel like you’re right there. You have a great opportunity to do something special … I guess there’s nightmares, now, about them, about situations throughout the games, and it’s always replaying in my head. You know, it was definitely difficult, and I’m getting better every day, but you know, it takes quite a while for me to get out of the funk.
Katniss ‘part of me’
At Comic-Con, Lawrence talks about saying goodbye to her most iconic character, Katniss.
I don’t feel like it’s happened yet. It’s still such a big part of my life. These movies really did change my life. The people who are in my life…you guys challenged me. I love you. I think that the changes that happened in my life are so permanent that I don’t think I’ll ever really say goodbye to her. She feels like she’s part of me.
Misses last bus
Tendulkar misses the last bus out of Great Haseley Oxfordshire. He tweets:
In Great Haseley Oxfordshire. Missed the last bus, can anyone give me a lift.
He also tweets three pictures of himself in the bus stand. Lots of tweeters offer to help and offer support. He seems to get help and reaches his destination safely.