Commercial Spaceflight Federation Commends New Mexico for Passage of Key Liability Legislation

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On Saturday, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed into law the “New Mexico Space Flight Informed Consent Act,” following similar legislation already passed in Virginia and Florida. The legislation marks a key step towards commercial operations of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo at the New Mexico spaceport. Recognizing that commercial suborbital spaceflight is a developing industry, the law provides critical liability protections that will enable spaceflight businesses to operate efficiently and effectively for their customers.

“This legislation secures New Mexico’s investment in Spaceport America and its resulting job creation by ensuring we are competitive with other space states such as Virginia and Florida who have similar legislation in place,” said Gov. Richardson.

The state legislation builds upon the federal Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act, passed by Congress in 2004, which states that “space transportation is inherently risky” and requires space flight participants to sign an informed consent waiver in recognition of this fact.

Steve Landeene, Executive Director of Spaceport America, added, “The passage of the Space Flight Informed Consent Act was critical to the success of Spaceport America and our ability to attract and retain commercial space companies to New Mexico. Any company taking participants into space must obtain a signed waiver where they acknowledge the inherent risks of spaceflight.” Landeene said that this protects New Mexico and operators licensed by the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation such as Virgin Galactic, but still allows legal options in cases of gross negligence.

Spaceport America’s 10,000-foot runway is currently under construction in preparation for flights of SpaceShipTwo. Since August 2009, Spaceport America has created almost 500 construction jobs in New Mexico, with more to come.

Motorola Backflip Review: Not For Us, But Maybe For Them [Review]

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AT&T's first Android phone, the Backflip, is a smartphone for people who probably wouldn't otherwise buy a smartphone. And for them—and only them—it might just work.

The Price

$100, on a two-year contract with AT&T. As usual, you can expect retailers to beat this price, and soon. (Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Backflip end up free, or nearly free, within a close timeframe.)

The Theory

It's cute. It's ever so slightly odd. It's, in short, the opposite of what nearly every other Android phone on the market has strived for. But where Motorola's Cliq and Devour had identity issues—the Cliq was unavoidably viewed as Motorola's grand entrance into Android, even though it was a second-tier product; and the Devour suffered from perceptions of downgraded Droid-ness—the Backflip knows what it is, and who it's for: a budget phone, for the masses.

The Hardware


The first thing you notice about the Backflip is the way it unfolds. It's weird! Quite weird! Instead of closing screen-to-keypad, clamshell-style, it closes with the screen and keypad facing outward. (Contortionist-style?) Behind the screen is a hidden trackpad, which does what a trackball or d-pad does on other Android phones.

The advantages, as far as I can tell, number three:

• since the keyboard doesn't have to slide inside of the screen, it's free to take up the entire rear surface
• when the phone is closed, you can still see the screen
• the phone can be propped halfway open, so you can set it down on a table for movie watching.

It's a concept that works if only because the Backflip is fairly compact, just a bit thicker than the iPhone, and smaller in every other way. The rounded outside edges mean the body slides in and out of your pocket with ease, and that it feels even smaller than it is. The keyboard is spacious, and despite its smooth surface and lack of gaps between keys, provides juuuuust enough surface differentiation and feedback to make typing effortlessly fast. The rear trackpad strikes me as a gimmick most of the time, especially since you can only use it when the phone is open, but I will give it some credit—it's no worse than a trackball for most tasks, and for scrolling through long email messages and webpages, I actually prefer it to a Droid-like d-pad.

It's when you drill down past the surface that the Backflip reveals its weaknesses. The touchscreen is resistive, and a bit squishy to the touch. UPDATE: It's capacitive. I mistook the screen's give to mean that it was resistive. Wi-Fi and GPS are all included, but really, how couldn't they be? And that camera, with a 5MP sensor and LED flash, couldn't be classified as better than "good enough," though the fact that it's mounted on the keyboard makes MySpace-style self-portraiture dangerously easy.

The processor is an outdated 528MHz Qualcomm number, and the whole system is propped up, Motoblur and all, by 256MB of RAM. In terms of raw hardware specs, the Backflip is really no better than the Cliq, and more damningly, the G1. If you're the kind of person who snaps up phones from the bleeding edge, the Backflip isn't for you. Just buy a Droid.

The Software

Last I saw Motoblur, Motorola's social networking-centric Android skin, it was on the Motorola Devour, a similarly-placed Android phone on Verizon. I'm not a huge fan of the interface, but I get what it's going for, and who might like it—it makes sense for social networking hounds, even if it's a little clumsy sometimes.

But here's where it gets weird: The Backflip runs Motoblur atop Android 1.5, which means that at its core, its software is older than the G1's. And there's no way around it: This is a bad thing. New Google apps like Google Maps Navigation don't even show up in its App Market, 3rd party apps increasingly won't support it, and Android 1.6+ accoutrements like voice commands just aren't there. Add to that Motoblur's inherent slowness, and you've got a decidedly strained software experience.

This would be a dealbreaker—even for the smartphone noobies the Backflip is targeting—if not for one thing: Though they couldn't give me a timeframe, AT&T tells me that a software upgrade to 2.1 is coming—something which I couldn't confirm for the Devour, which shipped with a slightly more futureproof 1.6. On the one hand, this is reflective of a truly bizarre software and upgrade strategy on Motorola's part; on the other, it means that the Backflip could actually be a buyable phone, for the right user.

The Right User

If you've read through this review and you're feeling flat about the Backflip, that's fine. It's not for you! And honestly, it's not for me. There are objectively more capable phones on other carriers, and soon, probably, on AT&T as well. But if you're not even sure you need a smartphone, plan to spend most of your time texting or on Twitter or Facebook, don't really know about (or care to know about) the newest apps in the Android Market, and aren't bothered by quirks like Motorola's replacement of Google search with Yahoo search, don't count the Backflip out. Just keep in mind what we don't know for sure:

• When exactly to expect the software upgrade to Android 2.1
• That Motoblur on 2.1 will be significantly faster that Motoblur on 1.5 (The enhanced speed of 1.6 on the Devour could be attributed to its fast processor)
• That newer apps in generally will perform well on the Backflip's 528MHz processor
• That AT&T won't release another Android phone that'll instantly nullify the Backflip entirely.

These are some serious caveats for a new phone, to the point that even my tempered recommendation comes with a separate recommendation to wait and see—what Motoblur has in store for Android 2.1, what AT&T has in store for Android, and what retailers have in store for the Backflip's price. To us, the gadget nerds, the phone is basically unbuyable. But Android's future is as much about Backflips as about Nexus Ones—not because the Backflip is comparable to the Google Phone, but because it's not. As an agent from Android's budget future, the AT&T's firstborn gets a lot right.

It's more functional than the messaging/feature phones it's attacking

The backwards folding mechanism is surprisingly functional

Android 2.1 to come

Spacious keyboard

Launch price too high, though it will probably fall

The rear trackpad: great when the phone's unfolded, but useless when it's closed

Ships with Android 1.5

Resistive screen

Underwhelming hardware specs


Freeware for Removing All Data and Partitions

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HI ALL

Just installed a new 160 GB hard drive into my ACER Aspire 3000.

Using the Partitioning utility of an original XP-Pro Installation disk, I partitioned the Drive into 4 Part(ition)s, in order to be able to run XP and SUSE Linux as a dual Boot on the Laptop.

How

Boiler Feedwater – Acceptable TDS

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On this platform, I have a Scotch 3 pass wet back boiler, Mod: Series 400. It is used for generating steam for cleaning and heating applications. I have read through the manufacturer's nomenclature and can find nothing about the quantities of total dissolved solids (tds) that is acceptable in the fe

Syncrocheck Relay Malfunction

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what will happen in details if two un equal voltage for power transformer connected in parallel due to problem in syncrocheck relay?

where the first transformer voltage was 6.3 KV and the another was 7.3 KV

and the both transformers were connected in parallel.

initially ik

Frozen in Stone: An Ancient Snake Poised to Devour Dinosaur Eggs | 80beats

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SnakeDinoTake a good look: according to a new study in PLoS Biology, what you see in this image is a snake about to prey on dinosaur eggs, a 67-million-year-old scene frozen in time and finally discovered. It’s the first time that a snake has been seen eating a dinosaur. The snake is that bit of bones on the left, lead researcher Jeff Wilson says. The egg in the top right contains a tiny titanosaur, one of largest dinosaur groups to ever walk the Earth.

“The snake (Sanajeh indicus) probably lived around the nesting ground and preyed upon hatchlings. They all died instantly when they were covered by a big pulse of sediment from a nearby hill loosened by a storm,” says Wilson [New Scientist]. Wilson guesses that a storm or some other malady might have led the enormous adult dinos to leave the nest, opening the door for the snake to slither in, wait for the baby dinos to hatch, and snack on them. But it never got the chance.

snake-dinoUnlike modern snakes, S. indicus lacked jaw joints that allowed it to open its mouth incredibly wide, so it relied on its large overall body size to prey on the fledgling dinosaurs [Wired.com]. However, researchers say it’s rare to find a snake specimen from the period, especially one as complete as the one here. Fully developed, the snake would’ve been nearly 12 feet long. And while the titanosaur would’ve reached immense size if it had grown to adulthood, the baby seen here is only 20 inches long—easy prey.

If at first you have a hard time seeing a snake in the jumble of fossils, don’t worry—the team did, too. Researchers found the fossil in India in 1984, but thought the area contained only dino bones. It wasn’t until 2001 that Wilson took a second look at it, and the team finally figured out they were looking at snake remains and began to piece the puzzle together. “It was such a thrill to discover such a portentous moment frozen in time,” said Dr Dhananjay Mohabey from the Geological Survey of India, who unearthed the fossil [BBC News].

Related Content:
80beats: Scientists Blow Up Super-Hard Rock To Get To Dinosaur Skulls
80beats: Early Dino Had Crazy Colored Feathers, Resembled “Spangled Hamburg Chicken”
80beats: New Analysis Reveals Color of Dinosaur Feathers for the First Time
80beats: Model Suggests 4-Winged Dino Glided Like a Flying Squirrel
80beats: Super-Sized Snake Ate Crocodiles For Breakfast

Images: Jeff Wilson / PLoS, Tyler Keillor / Ximena Erickson / Bonnie Miljour


Voltage Transformers

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dear sir,

i would like to ask a question which why can not use the fuse on the secondary of the voltage transformer on the generator grounding transformer?

i have gen. grounding transformer 14.2/0.24 KV in addition to 0.6 ohm resistance for grounding ,we used voltage transformer 24

How Apple and Google’s Romance Turned To Hate [Apple-google War]

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Apple has sued Google's phone manufacturer for infringing on 20 iPhone patents. Not so long ago, Apple and Google were a nice couple. Then, everything went to hell.

The romance began with the iPhone, even while we didn't know about it in 2006. Back then, Steve Jobs invited Google's CEO Eric Schmidt to his house, to sit at his table, and have vanilla-frosted cupcakes and tea together. It was instant love.

An Affair to Remember

They happily worked in the iPhone's 2007 launch. Google gave Apple their maps, their search, and their mail, and Apple gave Google the best spot in their new shiny device. Apple put YouTube into the iPhone and Google made YouTube to work nicely with QuickTime, moving all videos to the h.264 standard (so Apple could avoid that nasty Flash kid). Google even optimized their web apps for the iPhone, and Apple smiled.

And so they played in the new smartphone playground together and giggled at Yahoo and Microsoft and Adobe and everyone else. They were the coolest kids, they told everyone how happy they were, and everyone thought they were the perfect lovers.

The iPhone quickly became a huge success, positioning itself as the future of ubiquitous consumer-oriented computing. Just the kind that Google wants to control to deliver its highly targeted ads. Google noticed the success, and the relationship started to rupture. I can imagine the meeting between Eric, Sergey and Larry: "Whaaaa...? How did they...? Fuck, we need to get into this now." It was then that Google started to reveal its true face — and their plans for the little company they bought in 2005, helmed by the phone wiz Andy Rubin. They realized that they couldn't let Apple control the main window to the web. After all, it was their web, not Apple's.

Google presented Android, their own smartphone operating system made to imitate Apple's. Not only did they devote resources to create this, but they wanted to give it for free to every manufacturer and carrier. It didn't take much for Steve Jobs to realize that the romance was over. It was betrayal. Google was his new Microsoft. The real nemesis that could build a new dominant "Windows", and turn his early success with the iPhone into the new Mac underdog.

That was when all went to hell.

Escalating Conflict

It wasn't an open war. At the beginning, it all happened behind curtains, like when Apple allegedly stopped multitouch on Android and Google complied, realizing that they might otherwise be stepping into a patent minefield. Like the one the just got into now, with HTC as the proxy.

Steve Jobs couldn't tie his tongue, however. Back in January 2008, he was already criticizing Google and Android, pointing out that it wasn't going to be good for anyone. It was the first knife shining in the open, but it wasn't the last one.

After that, executives at Apple have been pretty clear about what they think about Google, like when Tim Cook said that Google was still trying to catch up with the first iPhone or Jobs gave his blunt-as-bricks opinion on Google's "Don't Be Evil" mantra. "It's bullshit," he said, a sentiment now shared by many.

It almost feels like this is something personal for Steve Jobs, as if he believed that a fake-smiled Eric Schmidt sat at the Apple's board, eating his food and drinking his wine, while plotting to kidnap Apple's baby since the very beginning. It seems the feeling is mutual: Schmidt delivered his own snide against Jobs and his new baby recently, pooping on the iPad as nothing more than a big phone.

Knowing how things developed, it's surprising that Schmidt stayed on Apple's board for so long. He resigned on August 2009, just as the war started to go open, first with Google grabbing mobile advertising company AdMob from Apple's hands (which forced Apple to buy Quattro Wireless). Then with Apple pissing on Google's parade by stealing Lala, the music streaming service that Larry and Sergei wanted to have.

The love affair was definitely over, and the bitter separation started. Like gangrene, the hate started to spread to every aspect in the relations between the two companies. According to insiders, negotiating the terms for maps in the new iPhone OS and the iPad was a fierce battle, to the point in which Apple went and bought their own charting company at one point. Who knows if that move was part of their poker hand—like the rumors about Apple replacing Google search with Bing—or an actual desire to get fully independent from Google.

The War for the Future of Computing

The true war, however, has started today, with the lawsuit against HTC. It names their Windows phones, but that's just a distracting maneuver. The core example in the lawsuit is Android, and that's where the real attack is. And by going against HTC, the weakest link in the chain, Apple is not only attacking Google. It's also giving a warning to every manufacturer out there: If you try to pull a Nexus Two for them, we will launch our missiles against you. Motorola—who confirmed they are working with Google—could be the next one in the list.

Jobs clearly knows that they are playing for the domination of the future of computing, the Next Big Thing. And he doesn't want this one to end like the Macintosh-Windows War. This time he has a huge lead, and he has the deep pockets to fight for it, whether that means new product development, strategic acquisitions or all-out legal battles. In the most recent Apple shareholder meeting, he clearly said this: They will use their huge mountain of cash to do everything necessary, every "bold move" needed to keep their lead, and have the whole enchilada for themselves.

There's no doubt that Jobs will use every single of Apple's 40 billion dollars to trump Google's plans, and keep their massive market share in the mobile device and applications world. But for that he will need a strong cloud structure and to get deep into the social aspect of the web. Of the latter, they got nothing. On the former, MobileMe is still a half-baked solution, and iWork.com beta has failed to gain any real traction. Maybe Apple's traditional enemy—Microsoft—would be able to help there. And maybe getting together with Facebook would slap Google where it hurts more.

On the other side, Google has the lead in the cloud, except for their failed social efforts, which are the target of jokes and extreme criticism. At the same time, while technically good, Android has failed to match the momentum of the iPhone. Android's app marketplace is still tiny compared to the App Store—and low quality too, by comparison. Apple has an easier time wooing app developers at this point, and that is a big advantage.

Overall, it seems like the two ex-lovers are in a technical tie, and are getting dirtier and bloodier by the day. Sometimes, love ends up like this.


King Tamatoa Tahiti

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The fast ferry King Tamatoa will go into service between Tahiti and Bora Bora on Friday, March 5, 2010. Operated by the shipping company Raromatai Ferry, this vessel will run twice a week.

Study: 1 in 4 parents think vaccines cause autism | Bad Astronomy

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In a study done a year ago — before Andrew Wakefield was found to be unethical, dishonest, and irresponsible, and his paper which started this whole thing withdrawn from the Lancet — it was found that one in four parents thought autism was related to vaccines. However, the study also found that of these, many felt that vaccines were still important in protecting children from disease.

While that number is high, that added part about protection is very heartening. If we can show those parents the reality that vaccines have nothing to do with autism, then maybe we’ll see the number of children suffering, and even dying, from preventable diseases drop.

After all, we can prevent measles, mumps, rubella, pertussis, HiB, and many other illnesses. But the thing is, we can also prevent ignorance. We just have to shine a light on it.

There are many who will try to extinguish that light. But we have to make sure we hold that light steady and true. It can be tiring, since the antivaxxers are loud and seemingly relentless in their zealous crusade. But we have a huge advantage on our side: we’re right. Reality will always win out, and we just have to make sure that it does so quickly, before more children lose their lives.

Tip o’ the syringe to BABloggee Randyt.


Common Weedkiller Chemically Castrates Frogs; Turns Males Into Females | 80beats

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frogsAtrazine, one of the world’s most widely used herbicides, is wreaking havoc on the sex lives of male frogs. In a new experiment, exposure to the chemical emasculated more than half of the male African claw frogs in the study, and made one in ten turn into females. The results, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, have raised concerns that the herbicide found in waterways is altering amphibians’ hormones, and could potentially have similar effects on other animals, including humans.

Biologist Tyrone Hayes studied 40 male control tadpoles along with 40 male tadpoles reared in water tainted with atrazine. The levels of the chemical matched the levels the frogs would encounter in their natural settings, and was also within the drinking water standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The results showed that 75 percent of male tadpoles reared in atrazine-contaminated water developed into frogs that had low testosterone levels, decreased breeding gland size, feminized laryngeal development, suppressed mating behavior, reduced sperm production and decreased fertility, while the control group showed features typically found in male frogs [AFP]. Most of these “chemically castrated” frogs were unable to reproduce.

The rest of the results were even more dramatic. Ten percent of tadpoles raised in the chemically tainted water developed into frogs with male genetics but female anatomy, and some of these were actually able to breed and produce eggs. The offspring, researchers found, were all male because both parents contributed male genes. Scientists worry that the sex-reversed males and the subsequent production of all-male offspring is skewing the sex ratio of wild frog populations, and may be contributing to the decline of frog populations worldwide.

This is not the first time that Hayes has found atrazine to be wreaking havoc on male frogs. In 2002, working on the African clawed frog, the researchers found that tadpoles raised in atrazine-contaminated water become hermaphrodites – they develop both female (ovaries) and male (testes) gonads. This occurred at atrazine levels as low as 0.1 parts per billion (ppb), 30 times lower than levels allowed in drinking water by the EPA (3 ppb) [University of California, Berkeley]. Subsequent studies in the Midwest showed that male leopard frogs living in atrazine-contaminated streams often had eggs in their testes. They also had lower testosterone levels and smaller voice boxes, which scientists presumed hampered their ability to call mates.

Other studies have found that atazine can interfere with the hormones and sexual development of fish, birds, and rats. Hayes says his new findings should raise alarms about human health. “It’s a chemical . . . that causes hormone havoc,” Hayes said. “You need to look at things that are affecting wildlife, and realize that, biologically, we’re not that different” [Washington Post].

However, Syngenta, the leading manufacturer atrazine, has disputed Hayes’ studies. Hayes responded by saying that people will have to make a final call on whether the costs of atrazine exposure outweigh its benefits: “Not every frog or every human will be affected by atrazine, but do you want to take a chance, what with all the other things that we know atrazine does, not just to humans but to rodents and frogs and fish?”[AFP].

An estimated 80 million pounds of atrazine is used annually in the United States, and it’s commonly found in ground and surface water. About 75% of stream water samples and 40% of groundwater samples contain atrazine, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, detected atrazine in 90% of tap water samples from 139 water systems [USA Today]. The EPA is currently reviewing the herbicide, while several states are considering banning it all together. Atrazine is already banned in the European Union.

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Related Content:
80beats: A Gentleman Frog That Takes Monogamy & Parenting Seriously
Discoblog: Endangered Frogs Encouraged to Get Amorous in an Amphibian “Love Shack”
80beats: Frogs Pee Away Scientists’ Attempts To Study Them
Discoblog: Video: How Male Frogs Kick up a Frog Froth to Protect Their Young

Image: Tyrone Hayes