China and Russia are considering building a high-speed rail line thousands of kilometers from Moscow to Beijing

China and Russia are considering building a high-speed rail line thousands of kilometers from Moscow to Beijing that would cut the journey time from six days on the Trans-Siberian to two. The project would cost more than $230bn (£144bn) and be over 7,000km (4,350 miles) long more than three times the world's existing longest high-speed line, from the Chinese capital to the southern city of Guangzhou.

The railway would be an authoritative physical symbol of the ties that bind Moscow and Beijing, whose political relationship has roots dating from the Soviet era and who frequently votes together on the UN Security Council. They have strengthened their relationship as Western criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin mounts over Ukraine and other issues.

The two signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this week during Premier Li Keqiang's visit to Moscow in which Beijing expressed interest in building a fast rail link between the Russian capital and Kazan in the oil-rich Tatarstan region, state broadcaster China Central Television reported. The 803-kilometre line would be the first stage of the route to Beijing, CCTV said.

At present, trains between the two run along the Trans-Siberian railway that links Moscow and Vladivostok, before switching to a branch line heading south through the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator.  Direct passenger trains between Beijing and Moscow went into operation in 1954 and there’re still two services per week, CCTV said. The new link would cut the train travel time from six days at present to less than two days; the Beijing Times quoted Wang Mengshu, a tunnel and railway expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, as saying.

If the funds are raised efficiently the line can be completed within five years at the quickest,' he added. The paper cited a study report that put the cost of one kilometer of Chinese-built fast rail at $33 million. The country has the world's largest high-speed rail network, built from scratch in less than a decade, relying on technology transfer from foreign companies, as well as France's Alstom, Germany's Siemens and Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries. Its reputation was stained after a bullet train collision in July 2011 near the eastern city of Wenzhou that killed at least 40 people and injured hundreds. But China is now keen to promote the export of its technology, and has been building high-speed rail networks in Turkey and Venezuela.

Colossal volcanic eruption could destroy Japan

Japan could be nearly destroyed by a huge volcanic eruption over the next century, putting almost all of the country's 127 million-strong population at high risk, according to a new study. It is not an overstatement to say that a colossal volcanic eruption would leave Japan vanished as a country," Kobe University earth sciences professor Yoshiyuki Tatsumi and associate professor Keiko Suzuki said in a study publicly released in this week. The specialists said they analyzed the scale and frequency of volcanic eruptions in the archipelago nation over the past 120,000 years and considered that the probabilities of a devastating eruption at about 1 % over the next 100 years. The chance of a foremost earthquake striking the city of Kobe within thirty years was projected at about 1 % just a day before a 7.2-magnitude quake demolished the Japanese port city in 1995, killing approximately 6,400 people and injuring almost 4,400 others, the study noted. So, it’d be no wonder if such a colossal eruption occurs at any moment," it added.

The new research comes weeks after Japan's Mount On take erupted without warning kills 57 people and leaving at least six others missing in the country's deadliest volcanic eruption in almost 90 years. The Kobe University researchers said their study was critical since Japan is home to about 7% of the volcanoes that have erupted over the past 10,000 years. A disaster on the southernmost main island of Kyushu, which has been struck by 7 gigantic eruptions over the past 120,000 years, would observe an area with more than seven million people buried by flows of lava and molten rock in just two hours, they said. Volcanic ash would also be carried by westerly winds toward the main island of Honshu, making almost all of the country "unlivable" because it is strangled infrastructure, including important transport systems, they said. It’d be "desperate" trying to save around 120 million living in key cities and towns across Honshu, the study said. This expectation was based on geological findings from the eruption of a gigantic crater, 23 kilometers (14 miles) across, in southern Kyushu around 28,000 years ago. The study also called for new technology to precisely grasp the state of "magma reservoirs" which are feast across the earth's crust in layers a few kilometers deep.

Northern Lights Put On Show, Thanks To Large Solar Flare

The sky danced with bands of green, yellow and other colors last night, as the aurora borealis, or northern lights, dazzled viewers in the upper Northern Hemisphere. The light show was sparked by a powerful solar flare that erupted from the sun Wednesday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center says that while Earth will feel the effects of the large coronal mass ejection through Sunday, it won't bring major communications or electrical problems. If you weren't far enough in the north — or well-rested enough – to see the show, don't worry: stunning images were posted to Twitter and elsewhere. Here's a selection:

Vikings’ Adrian Peterson Booked on Charge of Child Abuse

Adrian Peterson, the star Minnesota Vikings running back charged with child abuse, surrendered to Montgomery County, Tex., authorities early Saturday morning and was freed on $15,000 bond. Peterson flew to Houston on Friday night after practicing with the Vikings earlier in the day. A warrant had been issued for Peterson’s arrest Friday afternoon, one day after he was true-billed indicted, essentially by a Montgomery County grand jury on a single count of injuring a child. The team listed him as inactive for Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots at Minneapolis. It was not directly clear whether Peterson planned to return for the game or remain in the Houston area, where he lives in the off-season. In the N.F.L., inactive players often stand on the sidelines. A Vikings spokesman did not return a phone call. Ray Rice was arraigned on domestic violence charges in May. He was fired by the Baltimore Ravens this week. In a statement, Lt. Brady Fitzgerald of the Montgomery County sheriff’s office confirmed Peterson turned himself in and was released shortly after booking. Peterson, in a gray T-shirt, smiled for his mug shot.A spokeswoman for Rusty Hardin, Peterson’s lawyer, said Hardin had no further comment on the arrest or Peterson’s surrender. On Friday, a Vikings spokesman said the team was gathering information and referred all questions to Hardin.

The charges stemmed from Peterson’s disciplining his 4-year-old son in May in Spring, Tex., with a small tree branch, commonly called a switch.CBS Houston, citing law enforcement sources and police reports, said the beating caused cuts and bruises in several areas of the boy’s body, including his back, ankles and legs. Peterson, 29, told the police that the punishment was a “whupping” administered after the boy pushed another of Peterson’s children. At a news conference Saturday, Phil Grant, Montgomery County’s first assistant district attorney, said that while parents were entitled to discipline their children, the grand jury decided what Peterson did “was not reasonable and did not reflect community standards of what was reasonable discipline.” Peterson could face up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine if convicted, Grant said. The boy’s name has not been released. In an interview with ESPN.com last month, Peterson acknowledged having one child with his wife, Ashley Adrian Jr., age 3 as well as four others who did not live with him. The couple married in July. Another boy, whom Peterson never met, was killed last October in Sioux Falls, S.D., after being assaulted. A man the mother was dating faces murder charges. Peterson’s arrest comes at a time when the N.F.L. is already reeling from criticism for its handling of a domestic violence case involving Ray Rice, the former Baltimore Ravens running back.

Frozen Fruit Machine

Turn frozen fruit and other flavorings into a delicious, healthy soft-serve treat. The unit combines frozen bananas and any additional fruit or chocolate and churns the ingredients to produce a treat with the texture of frozen yogurt, but without the additional fat, sugar, or preservatives.

China wants to build line of high-speed train linking Beijing to USA

hina is planning to build a giant train line linking Beijing to the United States passing through Alaska and Canada. At certain points of the route, the train line will undergo underwater. According to a report in Beijing Times matter, citing an expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Chinese authorities intend to start the route in northeast China, passing through eastern Siberia, Russia, and across the Bering Strait through a tunnel submerged about 200 km to get to Alaska.

A black hole in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out.

As seen on Cosmos: A black hole is a place in space where gravity pulls so much that even light cannot get out. The gravity is so robust because matter has been squeezed into a little space. This can occur when a star is dying. Because no light can get out, people can't see black holes. They are invisible. Space telescopes with special tools can help find black holes. The distinctive tools can see how stars that are very adjacent to black holes act in a different way than other stars. Seen here is an artist's drawing of a black hole named Cygnus X-1. It shaped when a large star caved in, and this black hole pulls matter from blue star beside it.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

Northern lights may make rare appearance in parts of U.S.

A solar storm may cast colored lights – known as the Aurora Borealis or Northern lights – in the sky over parts of the northern Plains, the Great Lakes region and Northeast on Thursday and Friday, forecasters say.

“It’s a very rare occurrence,” Joe Kunches of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colo., told the Los Angeles Times.It may be only be visible for five or 10 minutes, most likely as far south as Colorado, Illinois and Iowa and potentially from Chicago, Boston, Cleveland, Seattle and Des Moines.
MORE: How to see the Northern lights
The time, location and duration of an appearance is a calculated guess. “We really don’t have the ability to say when it comes to forecasting the aurora,” Kunches said.The cause, however, is clear. “Basically, on late Tuesday, there was a strong eruption at the sun that was caused by strong magnetic fields,”  Kunches said. “Part of that eruption was at a cloud, which got blown off.” The eruption shook Earth's magnetic field and expanded the Aurora Borealis south, possibly as far south as Colorado and central Illinois.
MORE: How to see the Northern lights
Kunches likened the eruption to a foul ball at a baseball game.“There is a directional component to it,” he said. “It really matters where you are.”In this case, the cloud – like a foul ball at a baseball game – is “coming our way.” He said best viewing would probably be Thursday around midnight in all regions, weather permitting.Normally, “the Northern lights mostly appear at the very northern or southern latitudes because that’s where the magnetic fields of Earth come through the atmosphere,” Andrew West, a Boston University professor in the department of astronomy, told The Times in an email.
“Following large solar flares where huge amounts of particles are sent into the solar system, we can often see auroras and sometimes at mid-latitudes."Dr. William Paterson of NASA's Department of Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, said that the aurora is visible in these areas “a couple of times a decade.”Back in 2004, Paterson said the Northern lights were visible as far south as Virginia. But the magnitude of this geomagnetic solar storm is hard to predict.“Exactly how dramatic the storm is going to be, we can’t tell,” Paterson said. “But it is within the realm of possibilities that the Northern lights are going to be seen pretty far south.”Kunches said if the storm isn’t as severe as forecasters are predicting, the Northern lights may only make its way to the U.S.-Canada border.The name “aurora borealis” means “dawn of the north.” In Roman myth, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn, according to the Canada-based Northern Lights Centre website.

As new coach of the Redskins, Jay Gruden faces a very tall order

1) Statistically, there is a very good chance you will eventually be fired.And, 2) Remember in the Ashburn press room Thursday night, before the pizza you so graciously bought the media arrived, when I asked if you had ever watched, “Good Will Hunting”? Yeah? And you replied, “Yes, I have.”Well, it’s one of my all-time favorites because it distills an unvarnished realness that a man of solid Gruden stock like yourself might appreciate. Especially the scene at the end, when Matt Damon’s character is brought to inconsolable tears by his vulnerable, tough-guy therapist, who finally opens the gusher with four simple words: It’s not your fault.

In this drama, where you have signed on for five years to boldly go where no coach — not even Joe Gibbs — has gone before under Daniel Snyder, you need to hear those four words. You need to hear them before the cycle begins anew, before unbridled optimism turns to constant concern and constant concern turns to moments of resignation and moments of resignation turn to, “Why did I take this damn job?”And like Robin Williams in the film, on your most deflating day, I will tell you like I did Thursday night: It’s not your fault. It’s not your fault, Jay.If you become the eighth straight coach in the Snyder era not to finish your contract, you will not leave Washington a worse coach than you were before you got here. If you don’t hoist the Lombardi Trophy with this franchise, it will likely have nothing to do with your ability to prepare or lead or get the best out of your men. You probably won’t be done in by a better scheme or a more capable coaching staff.

You will simply be caught up in a vortex of an owner and a management structure that really, sincerely wants to win but still hasn’t shown it knows how,

Dan means well; he really does. But almost unconsciously he could soon make you compromise your values and beliefs about this game in ways you can’t imagine.It might be as simple as you spending an inordinate amount of time in his office each week, explaining every move to him. It might be taking the player’s side in a dispute that undermines your authority. It might be strongly recommending that you and Bruce trade for a player you really have major questions about. He won’t just come out and say, “If you don’t take Albert Haynesworth you’re fired.” No. It’s much more subtler than that. He’ll say, “Look, I’m ready to pony up to get this guy. If we don’t get him, you better hope he doesn’t have an MVP season or that’s going to look real bad on your staff.”

That really happened.

In time, you will learn to pick your battles. But at some juncture you might also look the other way when your authority on a personnel matter is challenged, because that’s what you’ll feel you need to do to survive.

And, one night a couple of years from now, when things are not going well and you can’t tell the world about the way you feel undermined, you will invariably call your brother, Jon, and recall how simple football was when all you had to worry about was game-planning for the monster on the other side of the line each weekend.

But this is a new day, a good day for you and your family.Your name helped, but your credentials — paying your dues for 17 years in three pro leagues – hopefully got this job more than being the brother of a man who won a Super Bowl 12 years ago.Being a former quarterback of renown at Louisville and a legend in the Arena League, you still intuitively know what’s going through Robert Griffin III’s mind, based solely on the shared past of being a star at the most important position on the field.Your first order of business is every new coach’s first order of business in this town — clean up the mess that came before you, bond with the quarterback.

Just remember it’s a foundational issue — deeper and more multi-layered than even the best refurbishing expert can comprehend. It goes back more than a decade. Marty Schottenheimer, Mike Shanahan, Gibbs and others who were very fine coaches tried mightily but simply couldn’t get it done. You’re younger and hungrier than all of them, teeming with the same I-can-be-the-guy belief they had the day they took the job.

I’m rooting for you because I have a hunch you’re the kind of plain-spoken, authentic person needed to make fans believe.It’s a heck of a task. Not the fixing the roster part. But actually changing a culture, not just saying a culture is changed. f it happens and you’re the last coach on the field at the end of the season with the confetti coming down, you’ll not only be the man who restored the franchise to prominence; you’ll be the first coach to give Daniel Snyder the one thing money can’t buy: the utter, complete adoration of the fans.But if it doesn’t happen, chances are forces beyond your control will have been the reason.