9.15.2017

Cassini.
At approximately 7:55 am this morning, NASA's Cassini space probe will complete its grand finale, intentionally plunging into Saturn's atmosphere at a speed of 70,000 mph. The probe, a flagship-class robotic spacecraft (see specs), was launched almost 20 years ago to study Saturn and its unusual rings. Along the way it traveled past Venus and Jupiter, arriving in the Saturn system in 2004. On arrival it detached a separate probe - the Hugyens - which was the first man-made craft to land anywhere in the outer Solar System, touching down on Titan, one of Saturn's 62 moons. Scientists are crashing Cassini on purpose - it's running out of fuel and they want to avoid it crashing and contaminating any of Saturn's other moons. As they do, live raw images will be streaming at the mission's website - and be sure to check out the Cassini photo hall of fame. 

Windians.
The Cleveland Indians broke the record for most consecutive wins in the history of Major League Baseball Thursday evening in dramatic fashion, beating the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in extra innings for their 22nd straight win. It could not have been a closer call for the Indians - down 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, with two outs and two strikes, shortstop Francisco Lindor hit a double that allowed pinch runner Erik Gonzalez to score from first base. Jay Bruce knocked in the winning run in the 10th inning to seal the game. With the win the Indians pass the 1935 Cubs for longest win streak, and set their sights on the 1916 New York Giants, who went 26 games without losing - but included one tie along the way. Amazingly, two of Cleveland's top players - reliever Andrew Miller and second baseman Jason Kipnis - have been on the disabled list for most of the streak.  

Oil Spill.
Greek officials are scrambling to clean up oil leaking from a tanker that sunk on Sunday near the island of Salamis (map). The leak - which was thought to be contained - has forced the closure of popular Athens beaches, with floating tar and dead fish beginning to wash ashore. The tanker was carrying 2,500 metric tons of oil, and officials estimate they have cleaned up at least 180 tons so far. On top of potential ecological impact, Athens' beaches are a key part of the Greek tourism sector, which is critical to the overall Greek economy - tourism accounted for about 24% of the country's GDP in 2016 and was responsible for 8 in 10 new jobs created. You can see some of the affected areas filmed via drone here. 
 

Selena Gomez reveals she had recent kidney transplant (More)
Fergie & Josh Duhamel call it quits after 8 years of marriage (More)
Mega fight: Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin (GGG) face-off Saturday; GGG is Vegas favorite (More) | Bonus Read: Fight is 'culmination' of GGG's life (More)
 

Colorado, Hyperloop One partner for feasibility study (More) | Hyperloop reveals the top 10 potential routes (More)
Breakthrough in stretchable electronics provides "skin" for robots (More)
IBM researchers use quantum computer for largest-ever simulation of a complex molecule (More)
 

Nestle acquires $500M majority stake in Blue Bottle Coffee at $700M valuation (More)
3 former female employees sue Google for wage and promotion discrimination (More)
Bitcoin & fellow cryptocurrencies continue freefall (~30% in last week), as Chinese exchanges will halt trading (More) | Cryptocurrency 101 (More) 
 

North Korea fires second missile over Japan (More)
Officials investigating 'terrorist incident', homemade bomb goes off on London Tube during rush hour (More)
House passes $1.2T spending package for FY18, waits on Senate (More)

The Atlantic | Emily Yoffe. A three-part piece on how universities have gotten their response to campus sexual assault wrong, Yoffe walks through how due process is often lost for the accused, racial bias in the system, and the bad science behind the current system. A fascinating - and frustrating - look at how administrators got it wrong. (Read pt. I) (Read pt. II) (Read pt. III)
 

LA Times | Deborah Netburn. An oral history of the Cassini mission which ends today, as the probe spirals into Saturn's atmosphere, from the team at the Jet Propulsion Lab. (Read)

Space Graveyard: Interactive visualization of the final resting place of all 42 crashed space probes.

Data: How much each organ costs to transplant.

Photos: See the 13 finalists for Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2017. 

Mapping all the different ways drugs are smuggled from South America into the US. 

The 'Capital of the Confederacy' is bracing itself for confederate statue rallies on Saturday.  

Bluetiful: Meet Crayola’s newest crayon color.

See the 2017 National Book Awards for Nonfiction long list.

HBO will fight spoilers on Game of Thrones by filming multiple endings. 

Wealth Belly is the new dad bod.

Rare Video: A white giraffe and her baby in the wild.   

Ranking the top university libraries in the US.

Clickbait: Fanged, faceless mystery creature that washed up on shore during Harvey has been identified.

Historybook: Marco Polo born (1254); Mayflower departs for America with 100 Pilgrims aboard (1620); Charles Darwin reaches Galapagos Islands (1835); HBD President Taft (1857); HBD Agatha Christie (1890); Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin (1928); Muhammad Ali defeats Spinks to win record 3rd title (1978); Google.com registered as domain name (1998); Olympic Games open in Sydney (2000); RIP Johnny Ramone (2004).

"THE MAN WHO VIEWS THE WORLD AT 50 THE SAME AS HE DID AT 20 HAS WASTED 30 YEARS OF HIS LIFE."
-Muhammad Ali

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