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BRYAN TEXAS UTILITIES
Features
USAT Sanctioned Event
Chip Timing
Post Racfe Massages
Prize Drawings
Awards
500 Meter 9wim • 31K Bike • 5K Run
April 4 • Lake Bryan in Bryan, TX
ft A C*1Y DRY7EC You do not need to be a
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Antaress Indian Fusion Band in MSC Flagroom
* The Last Samurai at 7:00 & 9:45 pm in Rudder
$1 w/ TAMU ID In Collaboration w/ MSC Film Society
*Free activities in the MSC Basement: pool, bowling,
arts & crafts and Dance Dance Revolution
in collaboration with Cepheid Variable
* FREE FOOD and Drinks!!!
* PRIZES: Nintendo Game Cube
& Digital Camera!!!
Drawing at 12:50 am in MSC Flagroom!
V.
979.845.1515 aggienights.tamu.edu
&■
For special needs, please contact us
three days prior to the event at 845-151 5.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
THE BATTA1
NASA: Mars once had a shallow
Republican vot
pool of briny water on its surface
drive to hit MTi
By Andrew Bridges
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PASADENA, Calif. — Mars
had a shallow pool of briny
water on its surface long ago,
NASA said Tuesday in
announcing what could be the
strongest evidence yet that the
now-dry Red Planet was once
hospitable to life.
The space agency’s scientists
announced earlier this month that
the Opportunity rover found evi
dence of water in Mars’ distant
past. But it was unclear whether
the water was in the soil or on the
surface. The new findings suggest
there was a pool of saltwater at
least two inches deep.
A rocky outcropping examined
by the rover had ripple patterns
and concentrations of salt — con
sidered telltale signs that the rock
formed in standing water.
“We think Opportunity is
now parked on what was once
the shoreline of a salty sea on
Mars,” said Cornell University
astronomer Steve Squyres, the
mission’s main scientist.
The findings add to the grow
ing body of evidence that the Red
Planet was once was a wetter and
possibly warmer place that may
have been conducive to life.
“This is a profound discov
ery, it has profound implications
for astrobiology, and I’d like to
say if you have an interest in
searching for fossils on Mars,
this is the first place you’d want
to go,” said Ed Weiler, NASA’s
associate administrator for
space science.
Although Squyres referred to
the water as a sea, scientists said
it is not clear how big the body
of water might have been or
whether it was a fixed feature
and not just a desert basin that
flooded periodically.
Evidence of Mars’ surface brine
NASA’s Mars Opportunity rover has
found rocks thought to be sedimentary
deposits that formed where saltwater
once flowed.
NASA’s Opportunity rover
is located in the
Meridiani Planum region
:
Magnified view of martian rock shows
layers indicating sediments
Rover’s tracks , Eagle Crater in the Meridiani Planum
WASHINGTON
For young Americans!
care more about
than the GOP, choos
their favorite music vid
on MTV’s “Total Retp
Live” may be as
they’ve come to the d®
cratic process.
Republicans are hopis!
change that by sendingii
voter registration
Thursday to two
where Republicans
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Times Square.
The National Repufe
Committee’s Reggie | IjZ.',
Registration Rig is sett
uled to visit the “TRL’i
Bn*
prii
day
wel
ray the i
as been
ien. Join
; s Jreadyb
dio, where the currenltj 1( j sattac
test between Presids
Bush and Massacta ltn i' s us
Sen. John Kerry usiia , n
takes a back seat
:onserva
iccause
vying videos of Usher a )eturne(
Clay Aiken.
SOURCE: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The evidence also does not
indicate when water covered the
broad and flat region where
Opportunity landed, called
Meridiani Planum, or for how
long. Nor does it indicate if any
organisms actually lived on Mars.
If life did flourish at the site
when it was awash in water, the
type of rock found there is capa
ble of preserving evidence of
any biological material, he said.
“If we are correct in our
interpretation, this was a habit
able environment,” Squyres
said. “These are the kinds of
environments that are very suit
able for life.”
The findings were presented
at a televised news conference at
the headquarters of the National
Aeronautics and Space
Administration in Washington.
Weiler noted that a group of
outside scientists was brought in
to review the rover mission sci
entists’ findings before they
were announced.
The findings give NASA
impetus to expand its Mars explo
ration program to leant whether
microbes ever existed there and.
ultimately, whether people can
live there, Weiler said.
NASA plans to send a more
sophisticated rover to Mars in
2009 to probe for signs of life.
In 2013, the space agency plans
to send a robotic mission that
would collect rock and soil sam
ples and bring them back to
Earth for more detailed analysis.
NASA intends to send one or
more unmanned missions to Mars
every 26 months. President Bush
recently proposed a manned mis
sion to visit the planet but did not
set a timeline for such an under
taking, which probably remains
decades away.
9 police trainee
shot south of
Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq (
Gunmen opened fire on
van filled with police reciul wrung \
south of Baghdad i sions. Tl
Tuesday, killing nine, ar ^ the
assailants shot and killed!*
policemen — twin brotte fr° m Ma
— north of the capital.
The slayings were thefc
est to target police and otlii
Iraqis who work with tti
U.S.-led occupation
The attack in the son!
took place on a
between Musayeb
Hillah when a car pu
front of the minibus an
assailants sprayed it t
small arms fire, police
Hillah said.
rc;
S’
lie, an a
:onserva
nited is
MasterC
ommerc
ferry is
eceivinj.
raring
‘Anothei
AAA reports record-high gasoline price,
By Brad Foss
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — The
retail price of gasoline hit an all-
time high Tuesday — nearly
$1.74 per gallon nationwide —
reflecting strong demand, tight
supplies and the high cost of oil,
AAA reported.
AAA, formerly the American
Automobile Association, report
ed that motorists are now paying
$1,738 per gallon for self-serve
regular unleaded gasoline, one-
tenth of a penny higher than the
previous record set Aug. 30 of
last year. Premium unleaded
costs more than $2 a gallon in
many parts of the country.
“Unstable gasoline prices
make budgeting for fuel costs
extremely difficult for families
and businesses,” AAA said in
a statement.
The Orlando, Fla.-based
travel agency gets its data from
Oil Price Information Service of
Lakewood, N.J., which collects
retail price information from
60,000 locations daily.
Gasoline prices traditionally
rise between March and May as
refiners temporarily shut down
their plants in preparation for the
peak summer driving season,
when special clean-burning
blends of fuel are required. These
shutdowns shrink supplies.
This year, the effect on price
has been magnified because
commercial inventories of gaso
line are already low. For the
week ended March 12, U.S.
gasoline inventories stood at
199.6 million barrels, down
from 202.1 million barrels a
year ago.
The most recent statistics
from the Energy Department
show that gasoline demand has
been roughly 4.5 percent higher
than last year over the past four
weeks, at 8.9 million barrels a
day. Moreover, refiners are
maintaining extremely lean
inventories because of the high
price of crude oil, another factor
contributing to higher fuel
prices.
Crude oil for May delivery
sold for $37.45 per barrel
Tuesday on the New York
Mercantile Exchange, up 40
cents. The price of oil is below
recent highs but still near its
highest level in 14 years.
The Energy Department's
weekly survey of retail gasoline
prices, released Monday,
showed a jump to $1,743 in the
national average for regular
grade gasoline in the week
ended March 22, up from
$1,724 the week before. That’s
still 0.4 cent below the record
the agency reported last August.
Gas prices reach
all-time high
natut
The national average price of
self-serve regular unleaded
gasoline reached an all-time high
on Tuesday, reflecting strong
demand, tight supplies and the
high cost of oil.
National daily average price
of regular unleaded gasoline
$2.0 per gallon
March 23
$1,738
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
2000 2001
SOURCE: AAA
2002 2003 ’04
AP
The department’s Energy
Information Administration
compiles the data weekly from a
sampling of about 800 locations
from a database of 115,000 sta
tions monitored.
Meantime, some Democratic
lawmakers criticized the Bush
administration for contributing to
the recent run-up in fueicosls
purchasing oil for the
Strategic Petroleum Reserve
time when supplies are tiglit,i
ing prices even higher.
Sen. Carl Levin, D-M
questioned the diversion ai
time when private oil invel
ries, at 281 million barrels,!
23.4 million barrels below
five-year average for this tiffi
year, according to the EIA.
“When supply goes doi
the private inventory the pti«
going to go up,” argued Levin!
said high energy prices havetn
“a drag on the economy"
pose national security conce®
Sens. Charles Schumei
New York, Barbara Boxei
California and Harry R
Nevada also urged the
ad m i n i st rat ion release oil fo
the reserve, which is dost
its 700 million-barrel capm
at 648 million barrels as
March 12.
Energy Secretary Spetf
Abraham has repeatedly ss
the administration views
petroleum reserve asanei
gency stockpile for
security and that it
be used to manipulate pries
The amount of oil bt!
taken off the market “is
negligible” in a global oil®
ket of 86 million barrels ad!
Abraham said Tuesday
Senate hearing.
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LeaderShape is coming to
Texas A&M University!
What is LeaderShape?
LeaderShape is an intensive and ene'rgizing six-day student program(W
at Camp Allen) that teaches key leadership issues - vision, partnerslf
integrity, results, reflection, and personal growth.
This program is FREE, but space is limited so apply today!
The deadline to submit applications has been
extended to Friday, March 26, 2004 @ 5:00
Applications can be found at the front area of Student Activities,oi
online at http://studentactivities.tamu.edu/stuactweb/sitemap.htmF
on Leadership Opportunities). Return applications to Koldus 112,
An informational meeting is being held on
Wednesday, March 24 ,h @ 8:30 pm in Koldus
Room 144 for anyone interested in applying
MSC |
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