"While the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) is not expected to see a significant change in its budget this coming year, it is possible that cuts are forthcoming in future budgets which were already scheduled to decline as the government reigns in spending."
Marc's note: As you'll read in the article the Canadian government appears to have delayed releasing Canada's Long-Term Space Plan for a year as it waits out what NASA was going to do as. FYI your login with NASA Watch will work on SpaceRef Canada if you choose to leave comments there.
A new technique to study protein dynamics in living cells has been created by a team of University of Illinois scientists, and evidence yielded from the new method indicates that an in vivo environment strongly modulates a protein's stability and folding rate.
STM32 embedded Flash performance gets double boost with 90nm production availability and Adaptive Real-Time accelerator enabling zero-wait program execution up to 120MHz.
Microorganisms are everywhere and most of them are harmless, but they can do a lot of damage in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals or in tissue transplants. With the aid of a new device, germs can be detected in artificial cartilage within a few hours.
The companies and institutes involved from industry and research have set themselves the goal of mass producing pressure and temperature sensors which can be cheaply printed onto plastic film and flexibly affixed to a wide range of everyday objects, such as electronic equipment.
All existing transistors are based on junctions - obtained by changing the polarity of silicon from positive to negative. Researchers have now demonstrated a new type of transistor in which there are no junctions and no doping concentration gradients. The key to fabricating a junctionless gated resistor is the formation of a semiconductor layer that is thin and narrow enough to allow for full depletion of carriers when the device is turned off - something that was achieved by fabricating silicon nanowires with a diameter of a few dozens of atomic planes. The electrical current flows in this silicon nanowire, and the flow of current is perfectly controlled by a ring structure that electrically squeezes the silicon wire in the same way that you might stop the flow of water in a hose by squeezing it.
Like silkworm moths, butterflies and spiders, caddisfly larvae spin silk, but they do so underwater instead on dry land. Now, University of Utah researchers have discovered why the fly's silk is sticky when wet and how that may make it valuable as an adhesive tape during surgery.
A breakthrough approach by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers and their collaborators in fabricating thin films of a new superconducting material has yielded promising results: The material has a current-carrying potential 500 times that of previous experiments, making it significant for a variety of practical applications.
Researchers at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center have figured out how ATP is broken down in cells, providing for the first time a clear picture of the key reaction that allows cells in all living things to function and flourish.
A team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has developed a new approach for creating powerful nanodevices, and their discoveries could pave the way for other researchers to begin more widespread development of these devices.
When my wife, son, and I flew back from San Francisco yesterday, the security scanners detected a small Swiss Army knife in my wife's purse. Shows the system works, right?
Not so much. She cannot remember when she put the knife in her purse, but it was years ago and has therefore gone through security undetected on numerous occassions.
3.00mL of a 0.984 M CuSO4 solution is diluted to 50.00mL in a volumetric flask. Is the concentration of the new solution
a. 2.95 M
b. 0.177 M
c. 0.0590 M
d. 0.0197 M
please help, i am fairly new to chemistry, I dont know how to work this ou
Towering skyscrapers, modern architecture, white sand beaches, exotic local culture. It all looks rather inspiring in the brochures to a young co-ed, straight out of college, and looking to start a new career.
Now imagine this scenario: You are a beautiful young woman from Britain, wanting to do your part to better humanity. So, you take a teaching position at an international school in a Muslim country. Your ex-boyfriend, for whatever reason, uploads provocative pictures to your Facebook account and tells a colleague of yours about them. The colleague then accuses you of prostitution in a country where Sharia Law is common. What do you do?
This is exactly what happened to 24-year-old Emma Jones (photo), a teacher in Abu Dhabi. Her former boyfriend, Jamie Blayley, allegedly stole some images of Emma from her computer and uploaded them to her Facebook page. Knowing that she could face potential jail time or death under Sharia Law, Ms. Jones (allegedly), according to the coroner, drank a corrosive liquid in a possible suicide. I say "possible" because she apparently was found with her passport in her jeans and clothes ready to be packed as if to return to Britain.
As the Brits would say, it all sounds rather fishy indeed.
Cleaning fluid down her throat finding by Abu Dhabi Coroner
From The London Telegraph:
Deputy assistant coroner Thomas Atherton said he did not believe Mr Brayley was to blame for Miss Jones’s death.
Mr Atherton said he could not be sure Miss Jones, a sociology graduate, meant to kill herself and recorded an open verdict.
He said she may have accidentally drunk cleaning fluid from an unlabelled container, mistakenly believing it was water.
He said: "For whatever reason Emma expressed concern she was about to be arrested and put in prison.
"She agreed the best course of action was to leave Abu Dhabi and return to Britain. Her clothes were out and her passport was in her pocket.
“That's not someone who is contemplating suicide."
And these further rather incriminating details from Sky News, "Naked Facebook":
The 24-year-old was frightened of being jailed in the strict Muslim country after the male co-worker accused her of being a prostitute, her mother claimed.
[Her] Mum Louise Rowlands... said Miss Jones was packing to return home to Britain before she swallowed the corrosive fluid at her home in Khalifa City.
The 41-year-old care worker from Caerphilly, South Wales, told the inquest: "She (Miss Jones) said she had to get away.
"She was crying, she was breaking her heart. I said 'Emma, whatever it is can't be that bad. Just come home'."
But her daughter exclaimed: "I can't leave the country - they will throw me in jail," Mrs Rowlands said.
An attempt to flee from Sharia Law
So here we have a young woman who just wanted to teach, killing herself (allegedly; Vince Foster, call your office) because her ex-boyfriend decided to seek revenge in a country where women are possessions and have less rights than animals. And what better way to do it than to use the barbarism that is Sharia Law against her. The man is a scumbag of epic proportions.
We constantly hear about how islam is such a peaceful religion and that women really have nothing to fear under Sharia Law. Oh really? Then maybe those who support Sharia Law could explain why so many women are killed in so-called "honor killings" because they dared to live like a respectable human being with God-given rights. In Ms. Jones's case, however, she chose to take her own life in a horrific manner rather than face the torture that she believed was to be her punishment for nothing she did. Truly a sad story to tell.
While Emma Jones is only one story of fear of Sharia Law, the question remains: How many Emmas are there whose stories we don't hear? How many women commit suicide rather than face judgment by a group of Stone Age men with higher regard for their reputation than human life? And how many of these cases happen right here in the United States (and UK)? I'd bet the numbers would amaze a rational person.
Editor's Note - Denise Clark is a working mom, loving wife and mother of 3, who lives in Western Pennsylvania. She's a staunch supporter of the US Military, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Her blog is RightStuff.
Shrinking Budget and No Space Plan puts the Canadian Space Agency in a Bind, SpaceRef Canada
Marc's note: As you'll read in the article the Canadian government appears to have delayed releasing Canada's Long-Term Space Plan for a year as it waits out what NASA was going to do as. FYI your login with NASA Watch will work on SpaceRef Canada if you choose to leave comments there.
