8th June 2009
IMMEDIATETO NEWS/POLITICAL DESKS
BNP gain foothold in EuropeThe BNP have won two European Parliament seats: one in Yorkshire and Humber; another in the Northwest. However, they failed to gain seats in London, and in the Midlands.Nick Griffin was elected as Euro MEP for the North West. Griffin only needed around 8% of the Euro votes across the region to be elected to Strasbourg, against the 6.4% he polled in the last European Elections in 2004.Some commentators have stated that this is a disaster particularly for the Labour Party. It is also an extremely worrying sign to see the BNP’s support increase since 2004.Simon Woolley, Director of Operation Black Vote, said:It would appear that the BNP have gained from low voter turnout and a disgruntled electorate that has sought to bash the main parties. The expenses scandal and the disarray of the Labour Party, especially over the past week, have meant voters having less confidence in the leading party to rule the country efficiently. This has led to gains for extreme right parties in the UK. The racist BNP's Nick Griffin's election in particular is a disaster for politics, a disaster Black communities in the UK and for immigrants and those seeking asylum across EuropeAshok Viswanathan, Assistant Director of Operation Black Vote said:“The rise of racism in society, such as attacks on asylum seekers, immigrants, Muslim communities and a debate on the merits of multiculturalism for almost a decade, has meant that racism is becoming more ‘normal’ and acceptable. This is underpinning the BNP’s vote. Low voter turnout has also been a cause for this BNP victory."Abdus Shuman, Assistant Events Co-ordinator at Operation Black Vote said:"From the results it is quite clear that more needs to be done to ensure that in further elections voter turnout increases to the extent that the BNP are blocked completely. It is dismaying to know that the BNP could have been stopped in these elections had more people voted.”Wyn Grant, a politics professor at Warwick University said:"It's clear from the Netherlands that the populist right is going to do well in many areas. It's a trend across Europe, and it's not surprising the global recession exacerbates tensions especially with one in ten Europeans unemployed."The polling evidence across Europe seems to suggest the rise of racist parties is not only a problem facing the UK, but that right-wing parties will also have an impact in other European countries. Geert Wilder’s Dutch far-right Freedom Party was given more than 15 percent of the vote in the Netherlands and just one seat less than the ruling Christian Democrats.
The Freedom Party despises Islam, opposes immigration, and wants the European Parliament abolished.ENDS
On Mercury
Why are many large craters on Mercury relatively smooth inside? Images from the MESSENGER spacecraft that flew by Mercury in October 2008 show previously uncharted regions of the planet that have large craters with an internal smoothness similar to Earth's own moon, and are thought to have been flooded by lava floes that are old but not as old as the surrounding more highly cratered surface. MESSENGER will buzz past Mercury late in 2009 before entering orbit in 2011. Image Credit: NASA, JHU APL, CIW
Why are many large craters on Mercury relatively smooth inside? Images from the MESSENGER spacecraft that flew by Mercury in October 2008 show previously uncharted regions of the planet that have large craters with an internal smoothness similar to Earth's own moon, and are thought to have been flooded by lava floes that are old but not as old as the surrounding more highly cratered surface. MESSENGER will buzz past Mercury late in 2009 before entering orbit in 2011. Image Credit: NASA, JHU APL, CIW
What’s Up for June?
06.04.09
› View Vodcast
What’s Up for June? Hello and welcome. I'm Jane Houston Jones at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California 2009 is International Year of Astronomy. And each month this year we’re showcasing a great celestial object. This month it’s the Hercules Globular Cluster, which is also called M-13. It’s called M-13 because this object is the 13th of Charles Messier’s 1764 catalog of celestial objects. But Charles Messier wasn’t the discoverer of this cluster! M-13 was discovered half a century earlier by Edmund Halley. A globular cluster is a collection of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars held together by gravity. You can easily find M-13 in the "Keystone"of the constellation Hercules, about a third of the way along a line drawn between Eta and Zeta Herculis. M-13 will look like a round hazy glow in binoculars. Through a telescope, you’ll see individual stars at the edge of the cluster, and a dense core of stars closer to the center. The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (or “WFPC2” for short) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys combined data from 1999 through 2006 to create a glittering image of this Herculean star city. A spiral galaxy like our Milky Way is made up of three visible parts: the nucleus, the disk and the halo. The nucleus contains the highest density of stars in the galaxy. Most of the gas and dust is contained in the disk. The halo, or outer shell, is spherical and contains little gas, dust, or star formation. The globular clusters found in the halo are the oldest parts of the galaxy. M13 is one of 150 globular clusters in the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy. This is the last month to get a good look at Saturn in the evening sky. So, don’t miss it! The rings are narrowing to nearly edge on, and look dimmer than they did last month! You can read about the Hercules globular cluster on NASA's International Year of Astronomy website: astronomy2009.nasa.gov And you can learn all about NASA's missions at www.nasa.gov That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones. And you can learn all about NASA's missions at: www.nasa.gov That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones. › View Vodcast
06.04.09
› View Vodcast
What’s Up for June? Hello and welcome. I'm Jane Houston Jones at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California 2009 is International Year of Astronomy. And each month this year we’re showcasing a great celestial object. This month it’s the Hercules Globular Cluster, which is also called M-13. It’s called M-13 because this object is the 13th of Charles Messier’s 1764 catalog of celestial objects. But Charles Messier wasn’t the discoverer of this cluster! M-13 was discovered half a century earlier by Edmund Halley. A globular cluster is a collection of hundreds of thousands of ancient stars held together by gravity. You can easily find M-13 in the "Keystone"of the constellation Hercules, about a third of the way along a line drawn between Eta and Zeta Herculis. M-13 will look like a round hazy glow in binoculars. Through a telescope, you’ll see individual stars at the edge of the cluster, and a dense core of stars closer to the center. The Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (or “WFPC2” for short) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys combined data from 1999 through 2006 to create a glittering image of this Herculean star city. A spiral galaxy like our Milky Way is made up of three visible parts: the nucleus, the disk and the halo. The nucleus contains the highest density of stars in the galaxy. Most of the gas and dust is contained in the disk. The halo, or outer shell, is spherical and contains little gas, dust, or star formation. The globular clusters found in the halo are the oldest parts of the galaxy. M13 is one of 150 globular clusters in the halo of our Milky Way Galaxy. This is the last month to get a good look at Saturn in the evening sky. So, don’t miss it! The rings are narrowing to nearly edge on, and look dimmer than they did last month! You can read about the Hercules globular cluster on NASA's International Year of Astronomy website: astronomy2009.nasa.gov And you can learn all about NASA's missions at www.nasa.gov That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones. And you can learn all about NASA's missions at: www.nasa.gov That's all for this month. I'm Jane Houston Jones. › View Vodcast
