Mercury

One of the most prolific and successful pop-R&B songwriter-producers of the 1990s, Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds was behind such monster hits as Boyz II Men's "End of the Road" and Toni Braxton's "You're Making Me High." During that time, he also established a multiplatinum career as a performer, racking up solo hits such as "Whip Appeal" and "For the Cool in You." On Playlist, his latest CD and the first release on the newly reactivated Mercury label, Edmonds covers his favorite pop classics, including Jim Croce's "Time in a Bottle," James Taylor's "Fire and Rain" and others.

Scientists and engineers who launched NASA's Messenger spacecraft in 2004 to study the planet Mercury are hoping to learn more about another planet - Venus - when their spacecraft soars by that cloud-shrouded world tonight. Among other things, they would like to know more about global warming on Venus and why the "greenhouse" effect has made that planet's atmosphere hot enough to melt lead, while Earth's climate has so far remained habitable. The $426 million, Maryland-built Messenger spacecraft will fly within about 210 miles of Venus' surface just after 7 p.m. It will use Venus' gravity to bend its course toward a first encounter with Mercury in January, according to mission managers at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory near Laurel.

PANCEVO, Yugoslavia -- Near bombed oil refineries and crumpled petrochemical plants, Petar Danilov baited his hook with bread dough and fished for carp in a canal polluted with vinyl chloride, mercury and ammonia."

Peter J. Pitchess, 87, who as Los Angeles County sheriff for 23 years transformed the largest U.S. sheriff's department from a rustic cowboy agency into a modern professional law enforcement organ- ization, died Sunday at his home in Newport Beach, Calif.Gary Blonston, 56, chief of the Knight Ridder Washington news bureau and a veteran reporter and editor, died Sunday of cancer in Washington. He was a principal writer on two Pulitzer Prize-winning projects: the Detroit Free Press coverage of the 1967 Detroit riots and the San Jose Mercury News' reporting of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

A 19-year-old Columbia man who menaced a mechanic with a hand grenade led police on a chase from Parkton through Baltimore and into Anne Arundel County yesterday morning, police said. The pursuit ended in Riviera Beach with a car crash, a helicopter pursuit and a canine search -- but no injury or explosion.The three-hour incident began when a car broke down shortly before midnight on Interstate 83 near Parkton, said Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey.The driver called AAA for assistance, and a wrecker towed his 1997 Oldsmobile Bravada to the Parkton Exxon in the 19000 block of York Road, Toohey said.

Johns Hopkins Hospital's medical practices may be cutting edge, but its methods of handling garbage and toxic wastes put it near the back of the pack in efforts to prevent pollution, according to a Washington environmental research group.In a survey of 50 of the nation's top hospitals, the nonprofit Environmental Working Group found that some are trying to cut their share of air pollutants by burning less waste, while reducing the amount of harmful chemicals, like mercury, that they use.Medical waste incinerators are ranked by the Environmental Protection Agency as one of the nation's top sources of toxic air pollution.

Once again it's Chutzpah Award time, when I bestow annual honors on those who have taken gall and audacity much too far. That wonderful Yiddish term is defined not by a dictionary definition, but by a character.It seems this guy murdered his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he was an orphan. That's chutzpah. There were some folks in 1997 who had more than their share. But sometimes there is one person, group or organization that has so much that it or they drown out everyone else's chutzpah.

WASHINGTON -- Introduced as representatives of the "most powerful city in the world," the WNBA Washington Mystics had trouble dealing with foreign visitors yesterday in an 86-69 loss to the Phoenix Mercury at the MCI Center.In the first half, 6-foot-5 German center Marlies Askamp was the difficulty -- she scored all 12 of her points in the half. In the second half, 6-8 Russian center Maria Stepanova came off the bench late to score all 11 of hers. She also had two blocked shots and six rebounds in 10 minutes.

TO APPRECIATE the importance of Alan B. Shepard's space flight, you have to remember the times. It was May 5, 1961. This country was in the heat of the Cold War against the communist Soviet Union. Every schoolchild was drilled to prepare for a missile attack.Three weeks earlier, a Russian rocket had propelled Yuri Gagarin into space, a not-so-subtle message that their advanced technology might be capable of shooting more powerful objects in the direction of the United States.When Mr. Shepard's Mercury capsule splashed down into the Atlantic Ocean, his casual remark that, "Everything is A-OK," meant much more than that his mission was a success.

En route from Brazil to Baltimore, scientist Ellen Silbergeld stumbled upon one of those serendipitous, eureka moments that every professional problem solver prays for.The University of Maryland scientist had gone to the Amazon to gauge the impact of mercury contamination on people associated with gold-mining operations. When she left, however, she still didn't know how to show villagers that their tradition of using mercury to separate gold particles from sediment could harm them.And her conversation with a fellow passenger on the plane wasn't going much better.

Scientists say they may have to re-think some of their best theories about the origins and evolution of the planet Mercury as new data from the Sept. 29 flyby of the planet by the Maryland-built Messenger spacecraft continue to surprise. In their latest discussion of the mission's scientific findings, scientists said Tuesday they have found evidence that volcanic activity, including explosive eruptions, continued until unexpectedly recent times. The evidence appears in photos of an unnamed volcanic crater, 180 miles wide with a double ring around it. Its interior is surprisingly smooth and free of subsequent meteor impact craters, suggesting there were lava flows into the center as recently as a billion years ago. Scientists had thought Mercury's vulcanism, like that on Earth's moon, was among the first in the solar system to cease, at least 3 billion years ago. But "if the basin is young and the interior is even younger ... that may not be the case," said Brett Denevi, an imaging team member from Arizona State University in Tempe.

Parts of Colorado lie freezing beneath 2 to 3 feet of snow today. That's why we live here. The biggest October snowstorm of all time (at least since 1883) in Baltimore occurred on this date in 1925, leaving 2.5 inches on the ground. It arrived amid some very unseasonable cold. The day before the storm, the mercury stalled at 46 degrees - still the chilliest high on record for an Oct. 29 in Baltimore.

James Chwirut writes from Baltimore: "We were debating in the office today about past temperatures for the summer ... When was the last 100-degree day of actual temperature - not heat index - in and around Baltimore?" Thankfully, we haven't been that hot at BWI since Aug. 8, 2007, when the mercury reached 102 degrees, setting a record for the date. It was 106 degrees that day at the Maryland Science Center.

If you can roust yourself from bed before dawn on a clear, dry morning next week, you might catch a glimpse of the elusive planet Mercury, very low in the east, before sunrise. The nearest planet to the sun reaches its greatest "elongation" on Monday, which means its highest point in the sky and out of the sun's glare. Look due east, between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., for a tiny point of steady light below bright Venus.

Question: : The other day, I had a fever and was taking my temperature. When I was shaking my thermometer, the bottom broke off, and it spilled down the sink drain. I was too sick to do anything about it that day. Today, I am feeling better, and when I searched the Web for ideas about disposal, I got freaked out. What should I do about the mercury that went down the drain? Answer: : This is a serious situation, because liquid mercury from a thermometer can release mercury vapors that are toxic.

WASHINGTON - -Cappie Pondexter scored 24 points and Diana Taurasi had 23 to help the Phoenix Mercury pick up its first road victory of the season with a 93-87 win over the host Washington Mystics on Thursday night. Temeka Johnson added 11 points and Kelly Mazzante scored 10 for the Mercury (6-3), who had key runs to close out the first and third quarters and then held off the Mystics' late rally. Alana Beard led five double-figure scorers with 21 points and had four steals, as the Mystics (4-2)

Meteors that smashed into the planet Mercury 3.9 billion years ago are giving scientists a glimpse deep into the tiny planet's interior and providing clues to how it has evolved in the eons since. The 430-mile-wide Rembrandt impact basin, first seen by NASA's Maryland-built Messenger spacecraft during two flybys last year, preserves cracks created during ancient upheavals from beneath the basin, as well as ridges formed like wrinkles as the planet cooled and shrank. "This is really exciting, because this pattern of tectonic land forms is different than anything we see anywhere in the solar system," said Thomas Watters, a scientist with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington who is part of the Messenger team.

Cheers! Study sees more wine benefits You've heard about the health benefits of red wine, which is rich in antioxidants. Now there is even more good news for moderate drinkers: A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found that healthy people age 50 and older who drink small-to-moderate amounts of alcohol appear less likely to suffer from age-related physical disabilities than people who don't drink. The report, published in the most recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, defines light-to-moderate drinking as less than 15 drinks per week with a daily maximum of five drinks for men and four for women.

It's a relatively small change - a rewritten page buried deep in the Food and Drug Administration Web site that will list possible health hazards from the use of mercury in dental fillings. But for a small, vocal group of advocates, it's the culmination of a 32-year battle against the dental establishment, as well as a 10-year lawsuit against the government to force official recognition of their position that these common dental repairs may be a cause for concern. "I'm really glad that people are starting to wake up to this and realize that putting mercury toxins into our bodies has consequences, and that we need to protect the public," said Gabrielle Hart, a Northwood mother of two and member of Moms Against Mercury, which has struggled with the FDA over the issue.

Scientists poring over the first closeup pictures of Mercury in almost 33 years say they're rediscovering a "dynamic" planet brimming with features they've seen nowhere else in the solar system. The new images were captured Jan. 14 by NASA's Maryland-built Messenger spacecraft, which is being managed by scientists and engineers at the Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory near Laurel. One of the most puzzling images is that of a 25-mile-wide crater in the middle of Mercury's broad Caloris impact basin.