The ‘fiscal cliff’ offers: dueling White House and GOP perspectives

Speaker of the House John Boehner
(J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

“The President has put a balanced, reasonable proposal on the table that achieves significant deficit reduction and reflects real compromise by meeting the Republicans halfway on revenue and more than halfway on spending from where each side started.”

— White House Press secretary Jay Carney, statement, Dec. 18, 2012

There are some tentative signs that President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner might reach a deal that would blunt the impact of the so-called “fiscal cliff.” But, as always in these Washington negotiations, a lot depends on whether the two sides actually agree on the bottom-line numbers.

Thus we were struck by White House spokesman Jay Carney’s assertion that President Obama had met the GOP “halfway” on revenue and “more than halfway on spending.” How does the White House figure that — and does the GOP agree? Here’s what the two sides say, based on interviews with officials in both camps.

The Facts

We are going to get into a numerator-denominator problem fairly quickly because the two sides simply don’t start from the same place. And these are just the numbers — there may be real policy differences behind these figures.

Tax Increases

Obama version

Initial White House offer: $1.6 trillion

Initial GOP offer (Boehner Dec. 3 letter): $800 billion

Current White House offer: $1.2 trillion

The White House perspective: We have met them halfway!

GOP version

Initial White House offer: $1.6 trillion

Current White House offer: $1.3 trillion

Initial GOP offer: zero

Revised GOP offer (Boehner letter): $800 billion

Current (unofficial) GOP offer: $1 trillion

The GOP perspective: We have moved dramatically, while they have barely budged. The GOP values the White House offer at nearly $1.3 trillion because Republicans also count the revenue gain from shifting to a different inflation calculator known as chained consumer price index.

Much of the reporting on the chained CPI has focused on its potential to reduce benefits in programs such as Social Security. But the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the shift to a chained CPI also adds about $1 in revenue for every $2 in spending cuts, so spending savings of about $130 billion yields another $70 billion revenue.

(Note: White House officials do not count this revenue as additional tax increases because, from their perspective, the debate is over higher taxes for the wealthy. Chained CPI revenue, which affects all income groups, is simply a by-product of a Republican spending-cut preference and so shouldn’t count as part of the tax package, they say.)

Spending Cuts

Obama version

Initial Obama offer: $600 billion

comprised of:

— $350 billion in health-care entitlement cuts

— $250 billion in other mandatory cuts

Initial Boehner offer: $1.2 trillion

comprised of:

— $600 billion in health-care entitlement cuts

— $300 billion in other mandatory cuts

— $300 billion in discretionary spending cuts

Current Obama offer: $930 billion

Initial offer plus:

— $50 billion more in health-care cuts (total of $400 billion)

— $200 billion in discretionary cuts (split between defense and nondefense)

— $130 billion in benefit cuts because of shift in inflation calculator. (In doing so, the administration removed $50 billion from its original mandatory spending offer, so the total “other mandatory” is $330 billion.)

White House perspective: $930 billion is more than the midpoint of the two initial offers ($900 billion). Moreover, interest savings from reduced deficits would bring the total savings on spending to $1.22 trillion, thus just roughly equal to the tax increases. (The White House would also like to count the $1 trillion in spending cuts reached in 2011 during the debt ceiling fight, but Republicans have refused.)

GOP version

Initial Obama offer: $400 billion (net after spending increases)

Comprised of:

— $350 billion in health-care cuts

— $250 billion in other mandatory cuts

— $200 billion in stimulus spending increases

Initial Boehner offer: $1.35 trillion

Comprised of:

— $600 billion in health-care cuts

— $300 billion in other mandatory cuts

— $300 billion in discretionary spending

— $145 billion in benefit cuts because of the shift in inflation calculator

Current Obama offer: $850 billion (net)

— Revised offer from above of $930 billion, offset by $80 billion in infrastructure (stimulus) spending and unemployment insurance. (Obama cut his request for new spending from $200 billion to $80 billion, Republicans say; administration sources indicate the figure is more like $55 billion, for a net of $875 billion.)

GOP perspective: Obama has not met us more than halfway. Republicans view their initial spending-cut plan as a “middle-ground” offer, so they argue that Obama needs to move much more to make a deal.

(Note: White House officials dispute chained CPI being part of the initial Boehner offer since it was not listed in his Dec. 3 letter. However, a net $875 billion figure would be the exact midpoint of $400 billion and $1.35 trillion.)

The Bottom Line

We seemed to be headed to a solution in which an equal set of new spending cuts are matched by a similar size package of tax increases. With the Republicans now at $1 trillion in tax increases, they would argue the White House needs to cough up another $150 billion in net spending cuts. The White House would claim that they have already met that goal when interest savings are counted.

Given the distances the two sides have traveled, one would think the final numbers would be in reach. But not always. The last few miles are often hardest in any Washington deal, especially when the two sides are still arguing about where the journey started.

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Nature no excuse for cheating, says Chris Wang

SINGAPORE: Is it in men's nature to cheat?

Taiwan actor Chris Wang thinks so.

"The Fierce Wife" star said he came to this conclusion after reading up on the topic and observing similar cheating behaviour among males of other animal species, during his travels as the host of an adventure programme.

However, he stressed that this doesn't make it okay for men to betray their partners.

"I think this isn't a valid excuse. You have to respect her views, know her pain and the source of her tears.

"You can't be selfish," Wang told reporters, during a recent visit to Singapore with his "Love Me Or Leave Me" co-star Tiffany Hsu, to promote the drama.

Hsu, who plays a woman that hires another to test her lover's (played by Wang) fidelity in the drama, had rather different views on the topic.

"I don't think cheating is in men's nature," said the actress, pointing out that both men and women stray because "everyone wants new experiences".

"It's just that women can stay in a stale relationship for a longer time, but men really love to have lots of interactions with different people."

Hsu believed that both parties in a relationship need to work together to create new experiences for one another, in order to make it less likely that their partner will cheat.

-CNA/ha

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Samajwadi Party member snatches quota bill from Narayanasamy in Lok Sabha

NEW DELHI: There was major drama in Parliament on Wednesday when Samajawadi Party (SP) leader Yashvir Singh snatched the bill on quotas in promotions from minister of state in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy while he was reading it in the Lok Sabha.

The House was adjourned for the day after a minor scuffle broke out between Congress and SP members. Congress chief Sonia Gandhi tried to retrieve quota bill from Yashvir Singh, who passed it onto another member Neeraj Shekhar.

The sudden action of member from Nagina Yashvir Singh came when Minister of State for Personnel Narayanasamy was moving the bill for consideration from the second row and Sonia Gandhi, who is also the UPA chairperson, was occupying her usual front seat.

Singh had, meanwhile, passed on the bill to his party colleague Neeraj Shekhar which fell down.

Shocked by Singh's action, which caused commotion in the House, some Congress members led by Gandhi immediately came to the Well to stop Singh, which created a near scuffle like situation. The Congress members included K Bapiraju and Vilas Muttemwar.

This was because the SP members were already in the Well in strength vociferously protesting against taking up the measure. The situation led to a verbal spat between the Congress and SP members. Speaker Meira Kumar was so shocked by the incident that she abruptly adjourned the House for the day.

Earlier, the SC/ST Quota in Promotion Bill was tabled in the House. The Bill has already been passed in the Rajya Sabha despite strong opposition from the Samajwadi Party.

(Inputs from PTI and IANS)

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Race Is On to Find Life Under Antarctic Ice

A hundred years ago, two teams of explorers set out to be the first people ever to reach the South Pole. The race between Roald Amundsen of Norway and Robert Falcon Scott of Britain became the stuff of triumph, tragedy, and legend. (See rare pictures of Scott's expedition.)

Today, another Antarctic drama is underway that has a similar daring and intensity—but very different stakes.

Three unprecedented, major expeditions are underway to drill deep through the ice covering the continent and, researchers hope, penetrate three subglacial lakes not even known to exist until recently.

The three players—Russia, Britain, and the United States—are all on the ice now and are in varying stages of their preparations. The first drilling was attempted last week by the British team at Lake Ellsworth, but mechanical problems soon cropped up in the unforgiving Antarctic cold, putting a temporary hold on their work.

The key scientific goal of the missions: to discover and identify living organisms in Antarctica's dark, pristine, and hidden recesses. (See "Antarctica May Contain 'Oasis of Life.'")

Scientists believe the lakes may well be home to the kind of "extreme" life that could eke out an existence on other planets or moons of our solar system, so finding them on Earth could help significantly in the search for life elsewhere.

Lakes and rivers are buried beneath Antarctica's thick ice (enlarge).

Illustration courtesy Zina Deretsky, NSF

While astrobiology—the search for life beyond Earth—is a prime mover in the push into subglacial lakes, so too is the need to better understand the ice sheet that covers the vast continent and holds much of the world's water. If the ice sheet begins to melt due to global warming, the consequences—such as global sea level rise—could be catastrophic.

"We are the new wave of Antarctic explorers, pioneers if you will," said Montana State University's John Priscu, chief scientist of the U.S. drilling effort this season and a longtime Antarctic scientist.

"After years of planning, projects are coming together all at once," he said.

"What we find this year and next will set the stage for Antarctic science for the next generation and more—just like with the explorers a century ago."

All Eyes on the Brits

All three research teams are at work now, but the drama is currently focused on Lake Ellsworth, buried 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) below the West Antarctic ice sheet.

A 12-person British team is using a sophisticated technique that involves drilling down using water melted from the ice, which is then heated to 190 degrees Fahrenheit (88 degrees Celsius).

The first drilling attempt began on December 12, but was stopped at almost 200 feet (61 meters) because of technical problems with the sensors on the drill nozzle.

Drilling resumed on Saturday but then was delayed when both boilers malfunctioned, requiring the team to wait for spare parts. The situation is frustrating but normal due to the harsh climate, British Antarctic team leader Martin Siegert, who helped discover Lake Ellsworth in 2004, said in an email from the site.

After completing their drilling, the team will have about 24 hours to collect their samples before the hole freezes back up in the often below-zero cold. If all goes well, they could have lake water and mud samples as early as this week.

"Our expectation is that microbes will be found in the lake water and upper sediment," Siegert said. "We would be highly surprised if this were not the case."

The British team lives in tents and makeshift shelters, and endures constant wind as well as frigid temperatures. (Take an Antarctic quiz.)

"Right now we are working round the clock in a cold, demanding and extreme location-it's testing our own personal endurance, but it's worth it," Siegert said.

U.S. First to Find Life?

The U.S. team is drilling into Lake Whillans, a much shallower body about 700 miles inland (1,120 kilometers) in the region that drains into the Ross Sea.

The lake, which is part of a broader water system under the ice, may well have the greatest chances of supporting microbial life, experts say. Hot-water drilling begins there in January.

Among the challenges: Lake Whillans lies under an ice stream, which is similar to a glacier but is underground and surrounded by ice on all sides. It moves slowly but constantly, and that complicates efforts to drill into the deepest—and most scientifically interesting—part of the lake.

Montana State's Priscu—currently back in the U.S. for medical reasons—said his team will bring a full lab to the Lake Whillans drilling site to study samples as they come up: something the Russians don't have the interest or capacity in doing and that the British will be trying in a more limited way. (Also see "Pictures: 'Extreme' Antarctic Science Revealed.")

So while the U.S. team may be the last of the three to penetrate their lake, they could be the first to announce the discovery of life in deep subglacial lakes.

"We should have a good idea of the abundance and type of life in the lake and sediments before we leave the site," said Priscu, who plans to return to Antarctica in early January if doctors allow.

"And we want to know as much as possible about how they make a living down there without energy from the sun and without nutrients most life-forms need."

All subglacial lakes are kept liquid by heat generated from the pressure of the heavy load of ice above them, and also from heat emanating from deeper in the Earth's crust.

In addition, the movement of glaciers and "ice streams" produces heat from friction, which at least temporarily results in a wet layer at the very bottom of the ice.

The Lake Whillans drilling is part of the larger Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD) project, first funded in 2009 by the U.S. National Science Foundation with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

That much larger effort will also study the ice streams that feed and leave the lake to learn more about another aspect of Antarctic dynamism: The recently discovered web of more than 360 lakes and untold streams and rivers—some nearing the size of the Amazon Basin—below the ice. (See "Chain of Cascading Lakes Discovered Under Antarctica.")

Helen Fricker, a member of the WISSARD team and a glaciologist at University of California, San Diego, said that scientists didn't begin to understand the vastness of Antarctica's subglacial water world until after the turn of the century.

That hidden, subterranean realm has "incredibly interesting and probably never classified biology," Fricker said.

"But it can also give us important answers about the climate history of the Earth, and clues about the future, too, as the climate changes."

Russia Returning to Successful Site

While both the U.S. and British teams have websites to keep people up to date on their work, the Russians do not, and have been generally quiet about their plans for this year.

The Russians have a team at Lake Vostok, the largest and deepest subglacial lake in Antarctica at more than 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) below the icy surface of the East Antarctic plateau.

The Vostok drilling began in the 1950s, well before anyone knew there was an enormous lake beneath the ice. The Russians finally and briefly pierced the lake early this year, before having to leave because of the cold. That breakthrough was portrayed at the time as a major national accomplishment.

According to Irina Alexhina, a Russian scientist with the Vostok team who was visiting the U.S. McMurdo Station last week, the Russian plan for this season focuses on extracting the ice core that rose in February when Vostok was breached. She said the team arrived this month and can stay through early February.

Preliminary results from the February breach report no signs of life on the drill bit that entered the water, but some evidence of life in small samples of the "accretion ice," which is frozen to the bottom of the lake, said Lake Vostok expert Sergey Bulat, of the Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, in May.

Both results are considered tentative because of the size of the sample and how they were retrieved. In addition, sampling water from the very top of Lake Vostok is far less likely to find organisms than farther down or in the bottom sediment, scientists say.

"It's like taking a scoop of water from the top of Lake Ontario and making conclusions about the lake based on that," said Priscu, who has worked with the Russians at Vostok.

He said he hopes to one day be part of a fully international team that will bring the most advanced drilling and sample collecting technology to Vostok.

Extreme Antarctic Microbes Found

Some results have already revealed life under the ice. A November study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reported that subglacial Lake Vida—which is smaller and closer to the surface than other subglacial lakes—does indeed support a menagerie of strange and often unknown bacteria.

The microbes survive in water six times saltier than the oceans, with no oxygen, and with the highest level of nitrous oxide ever found in water on Earth, said study co-author Chris McKay, an astrobiologist at NASA's Ames Research Center.

"What Antarctica is telling us is that organisms can eke out a living in the most extreme of environments," said McKay, an expert in the search for life beyond Earth.

McKay called Lake Vida the closest analog found so far to the two ice and water moons in the solar system deemed most likely to support extraterrestrial life—Jupiter's Europa and Saturn's Enceladus.

But that "closest analog" designation may soon change. Life-forms found in Vostok, Ellsworth, or Whillans would all be living at a much greater depth than at Lake Vida—meaning that they'd have to contend with more pressure, more limited nutrients, and a source of energy entirely unrelated to the sun.

"Unique Moment in Antarctica"

The prospect of finding microscopic life in these extreme conditions may not seem to be such a big deal for understanding our planet—or the possibility of life on others. (See Antarctic pictures by National Geographic readers.)

But scientists point out that only bacteria and other microbes were present on Earth for 3 billion of the roughly 3.8 billion years that life has existed here. Our planet, however, had conditions that allowed those microbes to eventually evolve into more complex life and eventually into everything biological around us.

While other moons and planets in our solar system do not appear capable of supporting evolution, scientists say they may support—or have once supported—primitive microbial life.

And drilling into Antarctica's deep lakes could provide clues about where extraterrestrial microbes might live, and how they might be identified.

In addition, Priscu said there are scores of additional Antarctic targets to study to learn about extreme life, climate change, how glaciers move, and the dynamics of subterranean rivers and lakes.

"We actually know more about the surface of Mars than about these subglacial systems of Antarctica," he said. "That's why this work involves such important and most likely transformative science."

Mahlon "Chuck" Kennicutt, the just-retired president of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, an international coordinating group, called this year "a unique moment in Antarctica."

"There's a growing understanding of the continent as a living, dynamic place—not a locked-in ice desert—and that has created real scientific excitement."

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Newtown Settles In for Prayerful, Somber Christmas

Residents of Sandy Hook, Conn., gather every year under an enormous tree in the middle of town to sing carols and light the tree. The tree is lit this year, too, but the scene beneath it is starkly different.

The tree looms over hundreds of teddy bears and toys, but they are for children who will never receive them. The ornaments are adorned with names and jarringly recent birth dates.

Wreaths with pine cones and white ribbons hang near the tree, one each for a life lost. A small statue of an angel child sleeps among a sea of candles.

A steady flow of well-wishers, young and old, tearfully comes to cry, pray, light candles, leave gifts and share hugs and stories.

CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the massacre at Sandy Hook.

The Christmas season is a normally joyful time for this tight-knit village, but in the wake of a shooting rampage, holiday decorations have given way this year to memorial signs. And instead of cars with Christmas trees on top, there are media vans with satellites.

Connie Koch has lived in Newtown for nine years. She lives directly behind Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza, 20, killed 20 children and six adults before turning the gun on himself. Earlier that Friday morning, he had also killed his mother at home.

President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video

Koch said the shocked town, which includes the Village of Sandy Hook, is experiencing a notably different Christmas this year.

"It's more somber, much more time spent in prayer for our victims' families and our friends that have lost loved ones," she said as she stood near the base of the tree.

CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.

Her family has been touched by the tragedy is multiple ways.

"My daughter, she lost her child that she babysat for for six years," she said, holding back tears. "And for her friend who lost her mother. And for my dear friend who lost one of her friends in the school, one of the aides.

"It's hard. And there will be much prayer on Christmas morning for these people, for our community."

Koch said her community always rallies in the face of tragedy, but the term "hits close to home" resonates this time more than ever before. She says the only way to make it through is one day at a time.

"It's all you can do, one hour at a time," Koch said. "For me, I don't even want to wake up in the morning because I don't want to have to face it again. You feel like it's still just a dream and with the funerals starting, it's becoming more real. It's becoming more final."

Another Newtown parent, Adam Zuckerman, stood by the makeshift memorial with a roll of red heart stickers with the words, "In Our" above a drawing of the Sandy Hook Elementary School welcome sign. He was selling the stickers to collect money for a Sandy Hook victims' fund.

"It's a lot," he said of the events of the past few days. "We don't know how it's going to affect our community, but I feel very strongly that I needed to do something to keep it positive, to keep this community positive."

Zuckerman's 20-year-old stepdaughter came home from college for winter break the night before the shooting. As a high school student, she worked in one of the town's popular toy stores.

"She knew a lot of the kids," he said of his daughter. "Their parents brought them in over the years. We have other friends who have lost family here and good friends who are dear friends with the principal of the school. … It's pretty rough."

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The more things change...

(Brendan Hoffman — Getty Images)

We’ve been covering presidential transitions for so long that even news reports written 20 years apart start to read the same. Consider these two items in The New York Times about possible Cabinet selections — in 1992 and 2012.

“Concerned that his first Cabinet appointments might signal the wrong intentions for his Administration, President-elect Bill Clinton plans to expand this week’s announcements to include posts that would be filled by female and minority appointees….

“Mr. Clinton said repeatedly during the campaign that his closest circle of advisers would ‘look like America,’ his way of promising a Cabinet that would include men, women and members of minorities.

“But some of his advisers have worried that as he grew closer to making his first public announcements — probably on Thursday — this promise would conflict with his desire to fill economic posts first.

“His leading choices for the financial jobs, including Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas for Secretary of the Treasury, Roger C. Altman as Mr. Bentsen's deputy, and Robert E. Rubin or Robert B. Reich as Economic Security Adviser, are all white men.”

— The New York Times, Dec. 7, 1992

“The announcement [of Sen. John F. Kerry as Secretary of State] will be delayed, at least until later this week and maybe beyond, because of the Connecticut school shooting and what one official called “some discomfort” with the idea of Mr. Obama’s announcing a national security team in which the top posts are almost exclusively held by white men.

“The American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, who is black and was considered Mr. Obama’s leading candidate for the job, withdrew her name from consideration last week after opposition to her nomination grew in the Senate….

“With Ms. Rice out of the running, Mr. Kerry’s appointment ‘is the working presumption,’ said a senior State Department official who has been preparing for the transition to a new secretary. But White House officials said the deal was not entirely done, because the lineup currently envisioned — with former Senator Chuck Hagel to head the Defense Department and the acting C.I.A. director, Michael J. Morell, likely to be named to the post permanently — looks a bit too much like national security teams of a previous era.”

— The New York Times, Dec. 17, 2012

Obviously, no facts to check here. Simply noted without comment.

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Asian stocks mostly higher on US fiscal hopes

HONG KONG - Asian markets mostly rose Tuesday, taking a lead from Wall Street as dealers grow confident US lawmakers will reach an agreement to avert the fiscal cliff.

Continued weakness of the yen helped send Japanese shares surging for a second straight session as Shinzo Abe prepares to take over as prime minister, vowing to press for a more aggressive policy of monetary easing.

Tokyo rose 0.96 percent, or 94.13 points, to 9,923.01, Seoul was up 0.51 percent, or 10.02 points, at 1,993.09, while Sydney added 0.48 percent, or 21.8 points, to 4,595.2.

Shanghai ended up 0.10 percent, or 2.12 points, at 2,162.46 while Hong Kong gave up earlier gains to end flat, dipping 18.88 points to 22,494.73.

Traders were reacting to news progress was finally being made in talks on a new deficit-cutting budget to replace the tax hikes and spending cuts due to come into effect at the start of January and which would likely tip the US economy into recession.

President Barack Obama hosted top Republican lawmaker John Boehner in the White House for 45 minutes Monday in the latest effort to avert going over the so-called fiscal cliff.

The meeting follows news that Boehner had changed his position on not allowing any more taxes, saying at the weekend that he would agree to some hikes for people earning more than US$1 million.

Although Obama has said he would only agree to rises on people earning more than US$250,000, analysts say the development shows the outline of a tentative deal is being formed.

Wall Street ended on a high, with the Dow closing up 0.76 percent, the S&P 500 gaining 1.19 percent and the Nasdaq adding 1.32 percent.

Japanese shares continued to be supported by the falling yen, which helps the country's exporters, as dealers bet on fresh central bank moves to boost the economy.

The election of Abe and his Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday was widely expected and investors now expect the Bank of Japan to unveil a further loosening of monetary policy at the end of its two-day meeting on Thursday.

Abe and central bank chief Masaaki Shirakawa held talks on Tuesday to discuss monetary policy.

In share trading, utility giant TEPCO, which runs the Fukushima plant at the centre of last year's nuclear crisis, surged 17.32 percent on expectations the new government will shelve any short-term plans to ditch atomic power.

In afternoon Tokyo trade, the dollar bought 84.96 yen, up from 83.87 yen in New York on Monday, while the euro also edged higher to 110.49 yen, from 110.40 yen.

The European single currency fetched US$1.3165, against US$1.3161 in New York.

Oil prices were up. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January rose 58 cents to US$87.74 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for February delivery advanced 73 cents to US$108.33.

Gold was at US$1,701.20 at 0800 GMT compared with US$1,690.10 late Monday.

In other markets:

-- Taipei rose 0.16 percent, or 12.46 points, to 7,643.74.

-- Manila rose 0.23 percent, or 12.74 points, to 5,636.59.

- AFP/ir

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US city approves site plan for Hindu temple

AMRITSAR: City Council of Greenacres in Southeast Florida (USA) has approved the site plan for a 3.1 acre Hindu temple, informed President of Universal Society Rajan Zed while talking to TOI on Tuesday.

He informed that the temple would include a 4,898 square foot sanctuary and there were plans for another 3,510 square foot multi-purpose building connected to the sanctuary by a covered walkway.

He said that the founders of the temple V.S. and Shanthi Sundaram plans to launch construction in spring and build the temple in 18 months.While applauding efforts of the temple project leaders he said that it was important to pass on Hindu spirituality, concepts and traditions to coming generations amidst so many distractions in the consumerist society and hoped that this new temple complex would focus in this direction.

City of Greenacres is located about five miles from Atlantic Ocean and incorporated in 1926, which calls itself as "A Great Place to Be", has earned a "Tree City USA" designation for 20 consecutive years and was recognized as one of the 100 Best Communities for young people. Eom

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GRAIL Mission Goes Out With a Bang

Jane J. Lee

On Friday, December 14, NASA sent their latest moon mission into a death spiral. Rocket burns nudged GRAIL probes Ebb and Flow into a new orbit designed to crash them into the side of a mountain near the moon's north pole today at around 2:28 p.m. Pacific standard time. NASA named the crash site after late astronaut Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

Although the mountain is located on the nearside of the moon, there won't be any pictures because the area will be shadowed, according to a statement from NASA' Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

Originally sent to map the moon's gravity field, Ebb and Flow join a long list of man-made objects that have succumbed to a deadly lunar attraction. Decades of exploration have left a trail of debris intentionally crashed, accidentally hurtled, or deliberately left on the moon's surface. Some notable examples include:

Ranger 4 - Part of NASA's first attempt to snap close-up pictures of the moon, the Ranger program did not start off well. Rangers 1 through 6 all failed, although Ranger 4, launched April 23, 1962, did make it as far as the moon. Sadly, onboard computer failures kept number 4 from sending back any pictures before it crashed. (See a map of all artifacts on the moon.)

Fallen astronaut statue - This 3.5-inch-tall aluminum figure commemorates the 14 astronauts and cosmonauts who had died prior to the Apollo 15 mission. That crew left it behind in 1971, and NASA wasn't aware of what the astronauts had done until a post-flight press conference.

Lunar yard sale - Objects jettisoned by Apollo crews over the years include a television camera, earplugs, two "urine collection assemblies," and tools that include tongs and a hammer. Astronauts left them because they needed to shed weight in order to make it back to Earth on their remaining fuel supply, said archivist Colin Fries of the NASA History Program Office.

Luna 10 - A Soviet satellite that crashed after successfully orbiting the moon, Luna 10 was the first man-made object to orbit a celestial body other than Earth. Its Russian controllers had programmed it to broadcast the Communist anthem "Internationale" live to the Communist Party Congress on April 4, 1966. Worried that the live broadcast could fail, they decided to broadcast a recording of the satellite's test run the night before—a fact they revealed 30 years later.

Radio Astronomy Explorer B - The U.S. launched this enormous instrument, also known as Explorer 49, into a lunar orbit in 1973. At 600 feet (183 meters) across, it's the largest man-made object to enter orbit around the moon. Researchers sent it into its lunar orbit so it could take measurements of the planets, the sun, and the galaxy free from terrestrial radio interference. NASA lost contact with the satellite in 1977, and it's presumed to have crashed into the moon.

(Learn about lunar exploration.)

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Conn. Kids Laid to Rest: 'Our Hearts Are With You'

Visibly shaken attendees exiting the funeral today for 6-year-old Noah Pozner, one of 20 children killed in the Connecticut school massacre last week, said they were touched by a story that summed up the first-grader best.

His mother, Veronique, would often tell him how much she loved him and he'd respond: "Not as much as I [love] you," said a New York man who attended the funeral but was not a member of the family.

Noah's family had been scheduled to greet the public before the funeral service began at 1 p.m. at the Abraham L. Green & Son Funeral Home in Fairfield, Conn. The burial was to follow at the B'nai Israel Cemetery in Monroe, Conn. Those present said they were in awe at the composure of Noah's mother.

Rabbi Edgar Gluck, who attended the service, said the first person to speak was Noah's mother, who told mourners that her son's ambition when he grew up was to be either a director of a plant that makes tacos -- because that was his favorite food -- or to be a doctor.

Outside the funeral home, a small memorial lay with a sign reading: "Our hearts are with you, Noah." A red rose was also left behind along with two teddy bears with white flowers and a blue toy car with a note saying "Noah, rest in peace."

CLICK HERE for complete coverage of the tragedy at Sandy Hook.

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President Obama on Newtown Shooting: 'We Must Change' Watch Video

The funeral home was adorned with white balloons as members of the surrounding communities came also to pay their respects, which included a rabbi from Bridgeport. More than a dozen police officers were at the front of the funeral home, and an ambulance was on standby at a gas station at the corner.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, U.S. Rep. and Sen.-Elect Chris Murphy and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, all of Connecticut, were in attendance, the Connecticut Post reported.

Noah was an inquisitive boy who liked to figure out how things worked mechanically, The Associated Press reported. His twin sister, Arielle, was one of the students who survived when her teacher hid her class in the bathroom during the attack.

CLICK HERE for a tribute to the shooting victims.

The twins celebrated their sixth birthday last month. Noah's uncle Alexis Haller told the AP that he was "smart as a whip," gentle but with a rambunctious streak. He called his twin sister his best friend.

"They were always playing together, they loved to do things together," Haller said.

The funeral for Jack Pinto, 6, was also held today, at the Honan Funeral Home in Newtown. He was to be buried at Newtown Village Cemetery.

Jack's family said he loved football, skiing, wrestling and reading, and he also loved his school. Friends from his wrestling team attended his funeral today in their uniforms. One mourner said the message during the service was: "You're secure now. The worst is over."

Family members say they are not dwelling on his death, but instead on the gift of his life that they will cherish.

The family released a statement, saying, Jack was an "inspiration to all those who knew him."

"He had a wide smile that would simply light up the room and while we are all uncertain as to how we will ever cope without him, we choose to remember and celebrate his life," the statement said. "Not dwelling on the loss but instead on the gift that we were given and will forever cherish in our hearts forever."

Jack and Noah were two of 20 children killed Friday morning at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., when 20-year-old Adam Lanza sprayed two first-grade classrooms with bullets that also killed six adults.

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