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Trump travel ban: Tough questions in US appeals court hearing – BBC News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Trump travel ban: Tough questions in US appeals court hearing
BBC News
The final minutes of the hearing were spent on whether the travel ban amounted to a shut-out for Muslims, which would be unconstitutional. Judge Richard Clifton asked both sides on the issue, pointing out it affected only 15% of the world's Muslims.
Trump Seeks to Limit Damage From Restraining Order on Travel BanU.S. News & World Report
Court mulls travel ban: To compound whiplash, or calm it?Beloit Daily News
US appeals court weighs appeal of Trump's travel banCBC.ca
BBC News -Newsweek -Washington Post
all 2,259 news articles »

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Trump travel ban: Tough questions in US appeals court hearing - BBC News

The 10 Best Stargazing Sites in the World – World Travel Guide

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

World Travel Guide

The 10 Best Stargazing Sites in the World
World Travel Guide
A visit to Hawaii already offers sun, sand and surf; travel to Big Island and you can revel in what many people consider to be the best stargazing on the planet. You may be at risk of altitude sickness (the top of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano, is 13 ...

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The 10 Best Stargazing Sites in the World - World Travel Guide

A whole new world: free passports encourage student travel – FIU News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Student Annalese Abreu got a free passport at the on-campus CIEE Passport Caravan. She plans to study abroad in Thailand.

Maybe traveling the world is on your bucket list.

The first step to making that goal a reality: Getting a passport. More than 120 FIU students recently got their first passports for free.

FIUs Office of Study Abroad and The Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) recently hosted a passport caravan on campus. As part of its support of Generation Study Abroad, a nation-wide initiative to double the number of American students studying abroad by 2020, CIEE committed to pay the $135 passport fee for FIU students.

Its about opening access to travel abroad, Director of FIUs Office of Study Abroad Laura Boudon said. Were helping students with that first hurdle. There are so many benefits for students and for all of us. Whether traveling or studying abroad, as we learn about other peoples and cultures, it gives us more time to reflect on ourselves, our place in the world, our goals and what we want to do in life.

Senior psychology major Natalie Pearson was one of the students who received a free passport.

I really want to travel, she said. If I can get out there, explore and learn a lot, Im all for it. If you dont travel, you dont know anything about the world. It creates more of an open mind.

Some of the places on her list: Spain, England, the Netherlands and Germany.

When finance and marketing major Christian Google heard about the passport event, he thought, Google, you better get that passport.

He said his enthusiasm wasnt just about getting the passport for free, it was about being ready to travel.

It will really help me in my future endeavors, he said. For Google, a photographer, being able to travel will allow him to strengthen his career, take photos all over the world and go wherever his job may take him.

Google was so happy with the opportunity that he also encouraged his roommate and fellow FIU student who was getting ready to travel to come to the caravan and get a free passport, too.

Study Abroad

In 2014, FIU joined the Generation Study Abroad commitment of the Institute of International Education, and made it one of its goals to double the number of students at FIU studying abroad by 2020. Currently, nearly 900 Panthers each year study, research or intern abroad in dozens of countries throughout the world.

Study abroad is traveling with an academic component. Students usually enroll for an FIU course and most often the faculty member teaching the course travels with students and leads the study abroad trip.

From academic, professional and personal development to community-building, there are numerous reasons why study abroad trips are a very special form of travel, Boudon said.

If youre traveling with a group every day, you get to know those people in a very different way, she explained. Theres a camaraderie, a little community, and I know many students continue to keep in contact after they graduate. It connects them to FIU.

Studying abroad also has the potential to be a resume builder.

Companies in the global environment like to see that students know how other people live, Boudon said. It broadens their perspective. And it tells employers the student is flexible, maybe willing to try to learn a new language and be in new situations.

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Why traveling to Antarctica may be the hottest ticket in town – Fox News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

South Georgia had a big problem. Rats and mice were decimating its native birds eggs and chicks.

The rodents, which arrived on ships during the 19th and early 20th centuries, had spread over much of the island, home to 90 percent of the worlds Antarctic fur seals, half the worlds elephant seals and four species of penguins, including 400,000 king penguins.

Rats had access to every nest, Sarah Lurcock, site director of the South Georgia Heritage Trust, told travelers on an Abercrombie & Kent charter cruise to the Falklands, South Georgia and Antarctica. As a result, the main island, one of the worlds last great wilderness areas, had been all but abandoned by its native inhabitants storm petrels, blue petrels and prions. And the South Georgia Pip was threatened.

Enter Team Rat, the worlds largest rodent eradication project. Lurcock told her listeners that a $145 donation would help eradicate rats on 1 hectare (2.7 acres) of the island. If we miss a single pregnant female rate, we would fail, she said.

The program, now in its fourth phrase, is working. Pipits, the worlds most southerly songbirds, found only in South Georgia, are nesting again.

But that good news is tempered by concerns about the impact of climate change. Scientists are anxiously anticipating what they predict will be one of the largest breakoffs ever recorded from Antarcticas Larson Ice Shelf.

They say the breakoff of an iceberg the size of Delaware could destabilize and contribute to the melting of the inland glaciers on the frozen continent, which could raise sea levels. Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey recently announced they wont remain at their research station in the Antarctic winter because if the situation worsens, evacuation may be impossible.

These environmental concerns are being aired as Antarctica increasingly becomes a destination for tourists and especially younger tourists. According to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO), which was formed 25 years ago to promote and advocate for environmentally responsible tourism, nearly 44,000 visitors are expected this season, most of them by ship. Landings grew 10.5 percent last year, with American and Australian tourists leading the way, followed by Chinese.

Tourism is tightly regulated from where boats may dock, to staff rations, to guidelines for watching marine wildlife, to wilderness etiquette (the animals have the right of way), to garbage policy. Only 100 people at a time may visit a beach teeming with thousands of nesting penguins, sea birds and elephant and fur seals. To avoid introducing alien species, tourists must disinfect their boots in special solutions after landings, and they must vacuum their jackets and backpacks before setting shore again. Tourists aboard ships carrying more than 500 passengers cant land at all. For those who can, all activities from kayaking to climbing to walking on the beach must be assessed for environmental impact.

Amanda Lynnes, a spokeswoman for IAATO,said the organization believes the increasing number of visitors hasnt had a discernible environmental impact. She added that long-term monitoring of human activity and tourism is vital and must be a collaborative effort involving the tourism industry, conservation groups and the more than 50 nations that have signed the Antarctic Treaty.

While South Georgia is part of the United Kingdom, Antarctica the only continent without a native human population is overseen by the treaty parties, which include the United States.

The new attention on Antarctica and the increasing number of visitors can have a positive impact, said Dr. James McClintock, a biology professor and Antarctica expert at the University of Alabama. A national authority on the effects of climate change in Antarctica and author of Lost Antarctica Adventures in a Disappearing Land, McClintock has been conducting research for the National Science Foundation Research on the continent for some 25 years.

He said he was nervous about tourism until he had the opportunity to lecture to tourists. Ive been very impressed with the companies taking people to Antarctica, he said. The do all they can to be good citizens, and I watch guests being very conscious and careful.

They go home as ambassadors to Antarctica. They talk to senators and congressmen. Theyve seen climate change with their own eyes, receding sea ice, retreating glaciers, the impact on sea life as a result.

Antarctica, he said, is an otherworldly experience to visit, one that offers a sense of our planet that you wont get anywhere else.

At least for now.

Eileen Ogintz is the creator of the syndicated column and website Taking the Kids. Sheis also the author of the ten-book KidsGuide series to major American cities and the Great Smoky Mountains. The third-edition of the Kids Guide to NYC has just been released.

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Why traveling to Antarctica may be the hottest ticket in town - Fox News

Travel Tip: How River Cruises are Growing Around the World – Peter Greenberg.com Travel News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Cruise Travel / Travel Tips Posted by PeterGreenberg.com on February 8, 2017 at 5:24 am

Image Credit: Stephanie Ervin

Whats the fastest area of growth in the cruise industry? River cruises.

To give you an idea of how fast this segment is growing, consider this: last year there were 18 new river cruise ships, a 10 percent increase over the previous year.

River cruises are not just for aging baby boomers.

Multigenerational families are now booking river cruises, and one cruise line is starting to tailor river cruises to millennials.

Its not just European river cruises on the rise.

In South America, there are new river cruises on the Amazon.

There are also new cruises in China on the Yangtze, and in the Pacific Northwest on the Columbia river.

Perhaps the best part of these river cruises is that the ships are relatively small and have less than 150 passengers.

They go at a slower pace and to destinations that mass tourism boats physically cant reachplaces where history was made, and where history still lives.

For more information about cruise travel, check out:

Keep reading for more travel tips.

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Travel Tip: How River Cruises are Growing Around the World - Peter Greenberg.com Travel News

Global Supercomputer Market (2017-2021) – By End Users, Operating System & Processor Type – Growing Demand for … – Business Wire (press release)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "Global Supercomputer Market 2017-2021" report to their offering.

The global supercomputer market to grow at a CAGR of 7.00% during the period 2017-2021.

The TOP500 List is the benchmark that is attributed to the best and the most high-performing systems in the world and commonly defines market dynamics. A study carried out by industry experts indicate that a number of companies already using supercomputers and unwilling to give up the use of the systems was between the range of 95%-100%. Some of the applications of supercomputers include drug discovery and testing, data analytics in financial services, vehicle crash collision testing, scientific research in physics and chemistry, and weather forecasting.

According to the report, the amount of data that governments across the global must handle range from ongoing and unmet security needs to cryptanalysis and even data mining for rapid and precise analysis of data from a number of disparate sources. There are numerous computational challenges associated with the SIGINT (Signal Intelligence) mission of NSA. In this program, the NSA needs to intercept as well as analyze the communication signals of foreign adversaries, most of which are protected using encodings and other countermeasures.

The mission targets capabilities, intentions, and activities of foreign countries such as Russia and China, thus playing an important role in offering counterintelligence for protection against espionage, sabotage, and assassinations conducted on behalf of foreign powers, organizations, and international terrorist groups.

Key vendors

Key Topics Covered:

Part 01: Executive summary

Part 02: Scope of the report

Part 03: Market research methodology

Part 04: Introduction

Part 05: Market landscape

Part 06: Market segmentation by end-users

Part 07: Market segmentation by operating system

Part 08: Market segmentation by processor type

Part 09: Geographical segmentation

Part 10: Market drivers

Part 11: Impact of drivers

Part 12: Market challenges

Part 13: Impact of drivers and challenges

Part 14: Market trends

Part 15: Vendor landscape

Part 16: Appendix

For more information about this report visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/t9hn3m/global

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Global Supercomputer Market (2017-2021) - By End Users, Operating System & Processor Type - Growing Demand for ... - Business Wire (press release)

Chinese Firms Racing to the Front of the AI Revolution – TOP500 News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

While US-based firms such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft still dominate the artificial intelligence space, Chinese counterparts like Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba are quickly catching up, and in some cases, surpassing their US competition. As a consequence, China appears to be on a path to reproduce its success in supercomputing in AI.

As should be apparent to anyone following this space, the technology duo of supercomputing and AI are not unrelated, the most recent example being the triumph of the Libratus poker-playing application over four of the best players in the game. Libratuss software was developed at Carnegie Mellon University, but schooled at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center using the Bridges supercomputer. In fact, Libratus was tapping into Bridges at night during the poker tournament, refining its poker tactics, while the human players slept. In fact, all the technologies discussed below rely on some sort of HPC platform.

But while its relatively straightforward, although not necessarily easy, to build supercomputing systems, developing AI software requires more cutting-edge talents. And until a few years ago, much of that talent resided inside US-based companies and universities. No more. In fact, a US government report determined that the number of academic papers published in China that mentioned deep learning exceeds the number published by US researchers.

Another visible indication the Chinese are catching up is the number of AI-related patents being submitted there. In an article published last week in Nikkei Asian Review, an analysis showed that Chinese patent applications in this segment rose to 8,410 over the five-year period between 2010 and 2014, represent a 186 percent increase. During that same timeframe, US-sourced AI patent applications reached 15,317, a rate of increase of only 26 percent. The article quotes Shigeoki Hirai, director general at the Japanese government-affiliated New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, who believes the patent growth in China is not only quantitative, but also qualitative. "China's progress is remarkable in hot areas like deep learning," he said. "It's not like they are only growing in numbers."

Last month CNBC reported that venture capital investment in China is being spurred by AI, robotics and the internet-of-things. According to a study by tech auditing firm KPMG, VC investments there will move increasingly into artificial intelligence in 2017. The study noted that venture capital money in China reached a record high of $31 billion last year, despite a global slowdown in VC investment in 2016.

Some of that money is flowing into Chinese startups like iCarbonX, a company specializing in mining medical data and using machine learning analysis to optimize health outcomes. The company, which was founded in 2015 by Jun Wang, has since received a whopping $600 million in investment capital. Wang, who is an alum of Shenzhen-based genomics giant BGI, says he will be able to collect more data and do it much less expensively than US-based rivals working in this area. According to a write-up in Nature, he expects to get data from more than a million people over the next five years. That, he maintains, will allow the algorithms the company is developing to understand how this data correlates with disease states, and be able to dispense advice on lifestyle choices to improve the health of its users.

Other Chinese up-and-comers like iFLYTEK, a firm that focuses on speech and language recognition, and Uisee Technology, a self-driving car company, have also received some notoriety, most recently in a New York Times article. While that report focused primarily on Chinas rapidly maturing AI-based military defense capabilities, it noted that much of the technology is freely flowing across borders. As a result, AI knowledge is rapidly assimilated in countries like China because much of that expertise originated with US-based multinationals and the academic community, neither of which hold a particular allegiance to US government interests.

More well-known Chinese firms like Tencent, the countrys biggest provider of Internet services, and Alibaba, the countrys largest e-retailer, are quickly ramping up their AI efforts. Last August, Alibaba announced a new AI suite, dubbed ET, which includes everything from audio transcription and video recognition to financial risk analysis and traffic forecasting. Tencent, meanwhile, has established an AI lab, which while still relatively small (about 30 researchers) by Google standards, represents just the start of the companys push into this space. In an article published last December in MIT Technology Review, the labs director, Xing Yao, said he thinks domestic companies have an advantage in acquiring AI talent. Chinese companies have a really good chance, because a lot of researchers in machine learning have a Chinese background, he said. So from a talent acquisition perspective, we do think there is a good opportunity for these companies to attract that talent.

To date though, the biggest Chinese success story in artificial intelligence has to be Baidu, which commands the biggest Internet search platform in its homw country. As one of the first firms to recognize the potential of AI technology, it opened a deep learning institute in Silicon Valley in 2013, a move designed to tap into US-based expertise and computing resources. The next year it expanded its investment, to the tune of $300 million dollars, establishing the Silicon Valley AI Lab (SVAIL), which is now one of the premier AI research centers in the world.

Baidus pioneering work in speech recognition, with its Deep Speech and Deep Speech 2 platforms, is considered the best in the business and is quickly closing the gap between human transcribers and automated speech recognition. At the same time, the company has moved forward on many other fronts, including autonomous driving, image recognition, ad matching, and language translation (especially Mandarin to English) many of which are now in production serving its domestic users.

Baidu also recently recently hired Qi Lu, a former Microsoft executive who was at the center of the software makers move into AI and bots. Lu is now Baidus chief operating officer (COO) tasked with overseeing the companys business and research operations. According to company founder Robin Li. Lus immediate focus will be to work on beefing up Baidus search business with AI technologies,. For his part, Li has said he intends to make Baidu a global leader in artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Even given all that, US-based AI is likely to remain dominant for some time. Multinationals like Google, Facebook and Microsoft still have a bigger audience, and thus a bigger data collection pipeline and deployment potential than the largest Chinese web-based companies. But not that much bigger. Chinas internet user base is estimated to be in the neighborhood of 800 million people and if these companies can expand elsewhere in Asia or beyond, those numbers could quickly shift. In which case, that Mandarin-to-English translator is going to be especially useful.

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Chinese Firms Racing to the Front of the AI Revolution - TOP500 News

Experimental stem cell therapy brings positive results – Manufacturer.com

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Kris Boesen works out his upper body after being part of a new stem cell trial. Image courtesy of Greg Iger

USC researchers have potentially discovered the secret to treating paraplegic injuries using stem cells.

A team of doctors from the Keck Medical Center of USC have become the first in California to inject a patient with an experimental treatment made from stem cells as part of a multi-center clinical trial.

The patient in question is Kristopher (Kris) Boesen, a 21-year-old who on March 6 last year suffered a traumatic injury to his cervical spine after his car fishtailed on a wet road and slammed into both a tree and telephone pole.

Kris parents were told that there was a good chance their son would be permanently paralyzed from the neck down. That was until the Keck Medical Center of USCs surgical team offered them hope in the form of an injection of an experimental dose of 10 million AST-OPC1 cells directly into Kris cervical spinal cord just one month after his accident.

Now nine months after this injection and Kris is one of six patients to have lost all motor and sensory function below the injury site that have shown additional motor function improvement after both six months and nine months of treatment with 10 million AST-OPC1.

The stem cell procedure received by the six patients is part of a Phase 1/2a clinical trial which is evaluating the safety and efficacy of escalating doses of AST-OPC1 cells developed by biotechnology company Biotherapeutics Inc.

The positive efficacy results from this study and the effect it has had on the five patients were announced on January 24 at a press conference held by Biotherapeutics Inc.

The positive results in regards to improvements in upper extremity motor function were measured using the International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury (ISNCSCI) scale. The trial saw improvements in Upper Extremity Motor Score and also Motor Level Improvement amongst the six patients.

For the five patients who completed at least six months of follow-up, all five patients saw early improvements in their motor score (UEMS) at three months maintained or further increased through their most recent data point of either six or nine months.

And for patients completing at least six months of follow-up, all five achieved at least one motor level improvement over baseline on at least one side, and two of the five had achieved two motor levels over baseline on at least one side, while one patient achieved a two motor level improvement on both sides.

The trial results reveal a positive safety profile for AST-OPC1, as there have been no serious adverse events from the study which indicates that AST-OPC1 can be safely administered to patients in the subacute period after severe cervical spinal cord injury.

Dr Richard Fessler is the professor in the department of neurosurgery at Rush University Medical Center, one of six centers in the US currently studying this new stem cell treatment.

Dr Fessler said the new treatment was bringing improvements to the patients lives involved in the trial: With these patients, we are seeing what we believe are meaningful improvements in their ability to use their arms, hands and fingers at six months and nine months following AST-OPC 1 administration.

Recovery of upper extremity motor function is critically important to patients with complete cervical spinal cord injuries, since this can dramatically improve quality of life and their ability to live independently.

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Experimental stem cell therapy brings positive results - Manufacturer.com

Workshop: You & Me +3, Science, Spirituality & Relationships – Times Colonist (blog)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Dana & Michael Simard will be doing a workshop this Sunday, February 12 at 2:30 at Cook St. Activity Centre -You & Me +3, Science, Spirituality & Relationships- and you're invited!

Dana's talk by the same title was well received last month. She skillfully combined studies, statistics, insight into human behavior, experience as a counselor, and the wisdom and beauty of the Baha'i teachings.

The workshop (2:30 - 4:30 pm) will delve further into these things, combined with Michael's experience as an educational consultant and longtime Baha'i. All are welcome - all you need to bring is your curiosity and sense of fun!

An RSVP is requested although not required. You can respond at the link above or by emailing Dana Oakley - or Reply All to this email. The workshop is presented compliments of the Victoria Baha'i community, with sincere thanks to Dana and Michael for contributing their time and expertise.

Such opportunities don't come every day! Hope to see you there! The Workshop will be in the auditorium, so please use the side door directly off the parking lot. Streetparking also available & the venue is easily accessible by public transportation.

Sheila Flood practices the Bah' Faith and is Secretary of the Victoria Multifaith Society.

You can read more articles on our interfaith blog Spiritually Speaking HERE.

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Workshop: You & Me +3, Science, Spirituality & Relationships - Times Colonist (blog)

UU Fellowship to Consider ‘Sexuality & Spirituality’ Pagosa Daily … – Pagosa Daily Post

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

The Pagosa Unitarian Universalist Fellowship invites you to attend a program titled Sexuality and Spirituality, with Durango visitor Anna Royer, this Sunday, February 5, for its regular service.

How do our values influence our understanding of our own and others sexuality? Join the Fellowship in reflecting on what we were taught, and on what we are teaching, about this vital dimension of being human. For a Welcoming Congregation, ongoing learning and social justice activism are vital. And yet those are only pieces of the puzzle, not the whole. How can we deepen our understanding of our sexuality in order to deepen our spiritual connection? We must dive deeper and wrestle with our own emotional and spiritual longings to create true social change.

Anna Royer has participated in the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango for the past three years and serves there as a volunteer Worship Associate and as a member of the LGBTQ Social Justice Team. She also attended the Pagosa Fellowship between 2005 and 2011. She draws on her life experience for this message, whether its growing up a child of the 1970s in California, serving as a case manager for homeless teens in Tucson, teaching sex education to the 9th grade wrestling team in Pagosa, or currently volunteering at the 4 Corners Rainbow Youth Center in Durango. She is a masters degree level social worker with 25 years experience working directly with youth and families who now works as a nonprofit consultant.

This program reflects the Unitarian Universalist principles of The inherent worth and dignity of every person and Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.

The Pagosa Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is a caring, inclusive fellowship dedicated to spiritual growth, justice and serving the needs of our larger community. As a Welcoming Congregation, we invite everyone to share in our faith community. We cherish diversity and foster a safe environment for all. Enjoy refreshments and conversation after services, which are held Sundays at 10:30am in Unit B-15 of the Greenbriar Plaza. From North Pagosa Boulevard, turn onto Park Avenue; then turn into the Greenbriar Plaza, drive to the east side of the parking lot and look for the Unitarian Universalist sign, facing north. For further information, see pagosauu.org or call 731-7900.

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UU Fellowship to Consider 'Sexuality & Spirituality' Pagosa Daily ... - Pagosa Daily Post

Spirituality has taught me to get away from chaos, hatred: AR Rahman – Khaleej Times

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

India's gift to world music , composer Allah-Rakha Rahman, aka AR Rahman, whose work is beyond legendary is set to dazzle the UAE next month. Mathrubhumi will be hosting the event at the Sharjah International Cricket stadium on March 17.

"I have been asked to do mostly South Indian songs, so it'll be mostly Tamil and a couple of Malayalam songs, and of course, there will be Hindi too," said AR Rahman while talking to City Times in Dubai yesterday.

The maestro also told us how, at 50, he finds the energy to compose music for millennial love stories like OK Jaanu, "I am a creative actor. I have to act whatever the script demands. I change myself as a composer leaving all the baggages aside." Excerpts from our conversation:

You do shows across the world, work in international and Indian movies, run your school and a production company. When do you sleep? I think you have to trust your team. Building a team is something that I learnt with time. We just started with two people in a studio, and now I have a school with many people. By having these people, we are training them and we are also getting something beautiful from their energy. This is how I have been handling so much work for the past 10 years. I have seen such growth by respecting human values. It is not easy, sometimes you get frustrated, but then you have more people so they can take turns not sleeping.

You come across as a calm person. Do you get angry at times? Anybody who is a leader has to get angry. Not angry, we have to become stern in our demands because ultimately we are like pilots and we have to handle the entire crew. In a way, I think I am a pilot whenever I take a project, because there is so much trust and money involved. When things don't get done, I get stressful and people get the message. I don't like to do that, but sometimes when you take a job, you are responsible for others' money. But I try to be as loving as I can.

You recently performed with Coldplay in Mumbai. Tell us a bit about the experience? It reflects the spirit of global citizenship. The organisers suggested that we do the song together. I thought it was a great idea. These things are said a lot of times and generally it never happens, but they kept their commitment. I was glad that we could do that. I felt happy when people said how great it was. It was two completely contrasting cultures meeting together and singing. It was very sweet of Chris Martin to do it.

You are extremely spiritual. Does that manifest in your work as well? It does. As an artist, I cannot run away from the reality of chaos. But in my mind, I can go to places, which are not here. The training of spirituality has taught me to get away from the chaos and the hatred. It allows me to separate myself from the negative energy and go to something that is beautiful and reflect that in my music so people can enjoy.

Can you update us on movies from your production company? The first movie that we started in 2010 is being made now. It took a lot of time to get the vision right. The second one is a virtual reality movie. The first release would be a movie titled One Heart, which is a concert movie.

The entry tickets for A R Rahman's concert will be available at platinumlist.net . The show will start at 7 pm.

AR Rahman on his 'crazy' experience of playing at Oscars

You performed at Oscars thrice. Once with the band there. What's your takeaway from the experience and being part of the orchestra with global musicians? I performed once with Hans Zimmer, once for 127 Hours and then for Slumdog Millionaire. I respect Hans for what he is. I also had a room in a Los Angeles studio for a couple of years in 2000 before I built my own place there. Hans and I were neighbours. We would drop into each other's studio. We share a comfortable relationship. He asked me if I was interested in being part of his band. We had the whole LA Session Orchestra, Sheila E on percussions and Esperanza Spalding on the bass. It was surreal. In Oscars, we need to have scores for all the films that are nominated, and whenever a movie's title is mentioned, we have to quickly move our sheets to that particular score and start playing. It was like a circus. It was exciting!

On collaborating with Iranian director Majid Majidi for two movies "Agreed Indian cinema has so many beautiful things while Hollywood has its own charm, so do French and Chinese cinema. But in Iran, with all those restrictions, they come up with some of the most beautiful movies. They stun you with their craft. Working with Majid gave me an opportunity to learn about their craft. I had heard about Iran being a very closed country and suddenly I get invited to the biggest movie ever made in Iran. I was pleased with the opportunity. There is so much beauty in their zone of love, beauty, food and ancient wisdom. I went to Iran three times, each time for around 15 days. I went to the city of Mashhad and the shrine to experience what the cast and crew were experiencing.

Yes, Rahman loves travelling ... I love travelling. I don't know how much more I can travel as we get older. Travelling exposed me and made me learn many things that I would have not learnt through books. Looking at people and how civilised they are in their own way. Their dos and don'ts. Their trials, sorrows, happiness. That's what teaches us the bigger picture about life. We start getting judgmental about one community, but when we put everything together, there is so much beauty in them.

arti@khaleejtimes.com

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Spirituality has taught me to get away from chaos, hatred: AR Rahman - Khaleej Times

Religion and Spirituality Events: 2/8 – Cecil Whig

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Low-cost, local events happening this week. To be included, your event must be family friendly, cost less than $25 per person and take place in Cecil County as well as adjoining areas within a 20-minute drive. Please submit the event title, time, address to accent@cecilwhig.com. Once approved by an editor, the event will be listed until its completion date. It will run in the print edition as space allows. You can also submit to a separate online calendar at cecildaily.com.

YOGA, 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at Painted Turtle Arts Studio, 13 N. Main St., North East. Ongoing $15 drop-in. Multi-level for everyone. Call instructor Laura Hannan at 1-540-421-0296.CLUTTERERS ANONYMOUS, 6 to 7 p.m. at Janes United Methodist Church, 213 N. Walnut St., Rising Sun. Clutterers Anonymous is a 12-step program to help people solve their problems with clutter/hoarding. There are no dues or fees. Contact Martha H. 443-350-1483.

YOGA, 7 p.m. weekly classes at Cecil County Arts Council, 135 E. Main St., Elkton. Intro class is free. Then pay $10 per class or buy five classes for $45. Classes are designed for new and experienced yogis. Contact class instructor Sarah Mester at smester@comcast.net.

IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH, 7 p.m. at 229 E. Main St., Elkton. Panic, fear, anxiety, depression. Attend a free weekly meeting with Recovery International.

FREE LUNCH, 12 to 1 p.m. every Friday at Elkton Presbyterian Church, 209 E. Main St. provided by Elkton Community Kitchen. All are welcome. For more information contact elktoncommunitykitchen@gmail.com.SATURDAY 11

YOGA, 9 a.m. every Saturday at Gracies, 213 North St., Elkton. $5 per class. Community Yoga Class. For more info call 443-257-0743.

SMART RECOVERY, 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Janes UMC in Rising Sun. This meeting is for those recovering from the disease of addiction. This is an open support group that meets every Saturday.

SATURDAY EVENING SERVICE, 5 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, 105 N. Bridge St., Elkton. Will recur every week at this time.

GOSPEL SINGING, 6 to 8 p.m. at Faith Baptist Church on Singerly Road in Elkton.

BALDWIN UMC, 9:15 a.m. service and Sunday school at Singerly Fire Hall in Elkton. Each Sunday until further notice.PARISH SUNDAY SCHOOL, 9:45 a.m. at Zion UMC in Cecilton. Recurs weekly.

LOVE YOUR LIFE WORKSHOP, 10:30 a.m. at Gracies 213 North St., Elkton. Free. Every Sunday. An alternative to traditional Sunday morning churches, an open honest discussion of life and faith. Come to listen or participate and share your story. facebook.com/theloveyourlifeworkshop or 443-257-0743.

DEBTORS ANONYMOUS, 6 to 7 p.m. at Janes United Methodist Church, 213 N. Walnut St., Rising Sun. Debtors Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who help each other solve their problems with debt. DA is a 12-step program. There are no dues or fees. Contact Martha H. 443-350-1483.NARANON MEETING, 7 p.m. at Bethel Lutheran Church, North East. Hope and Peace every Monday. Contact Lorri: 443-250-0909.

WOMENS NA MEETING, 7 p.m. at Bethel Lutheran Church, North East.

YOGA 4 SENIORS, 9 to 10 a.m. at Painted Turtle Arts Studio, 13 N. Main St., North East. Pre-registration is required. Call instructor Laura Hannan at 1-540-421-0296. $12 per class if all six are pre-paid or $15 drop-in.

SENIOR MEETING, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. every Tuesday at St. Stephens Church in Earleville. Anyone 50 or older is invited to attend. No registration or member fee. Lunch is served for $4. Come for the fellowship, speaker, see what events we are planning. Questions call 443-207-2011.

MENS YOGA CLASS, 11 a.m. at Painted Turtle Arts Studio, 13 N. Main St., North East. Pre-registration is required. Call instructor Laura Hannan at 1-540-421-0296. $12 per class if all six are pre-paid or $15 drop-in.

COMMUNITY ARTS AND CRAFTS, 1 p.m. free instruction at St. Stephens Church, 10 Glebe Road, Earleville. Ongoing drawing and painting classes for beginner or serious artists. bspelled123@gmail.com. http://www.communityartandcrafts.com. Call Jerry at 410-275-2945.

TOPS, 5:30 p.m. at Rosebank UMC, Rising Sun. Nonprofit weight-loss support group, meets weekly. $6 monthly fee. First meeting free. topsrosebank@gmail.com.

NARANON, 7 p.m. every Tuesday at Church of God, 1121 Singerly Road, Elkton. A Nar-Anon adult support meeting for those with addicts in the family.

MEDITATION, 7 p.m. every Tuesday with Three Roots Wellness at Painted Turtle Arts Studio, 13 N. Main St., North East. Learn basics of meditation practices and how to make it useful in your everyday life. Donation based. Registration is required email to angela@threerootswellness.com.

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Religion and Spirituality Events: 2/8 - Cecil Whig

With new airlock, International Space Station widens door for commerce – Christian Science Monitor

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

February 8, 2017 For Jeff Manber, a new era in spaceflight wont be signaled with a high-decibel rocket launch, but by the silent opening of airlock doors.

Mr. Manber serves as chief executive officer of NanoRacks, which on Monday announced plans to install a $15 million commercial airlock model on the International Space Station (ISS) in 2019.

The Texas-based aerospace company has already deployed almost 150 small satellites, known as CubeSats, from the airlock of the stations Kibo module. By working with Boeing Co. to build the new airlock, it aims to triple its deployment capability.

This addition will expand private firms presence in low-Earth orbit, which NASA hopes will allow it to focus on exploring the solar system. But the CubeSats have already encouraged the shift to commercial spaceflight.

Up until recently, we had what I always called a Socialist-designed space program, Mr. Manber tells The Christian Science Monitor in a phone interview. We had a group of people sitting in a room, telling you what the purpose of the hardware was for, and they would help design it. Now we have a much more commercial [program].

It is fair to say, he adds, that the [International Space Stations] first commercial success has been meeting the needs of governments and companies and universities to deploy satellites.

CubeSatswere first developed in 1999, a year after the first ISS modules were launched. Since then, 510 of these satellites have taken flight. Todays satellites arent just smaller, but cheaper. According to the Motley Fool, prices for CubeSats and other small satellites have dropped from $3 million to as little as $25,000.

Now, the race is on to reduce the cost of getting into orbit. A rocket currently in development by Vector Space Systems will carry a payload into orbit for $1.5 million to $2.5 million. But NanoRacks will see your 10- x 10- x 10-centimeter CubeSat off from the ISS for just $85,000, the companys marketing and communications manager, Abby Dickes, tells the Monitor in an email.

Few saw the rise of this market. For years and years, Mr. Manber remembers, we all thought, in the space community, that the first big commercial use of an orbiting space station would be breakthroughs in life-saving drugs.... However, in the mysterious way that the commercial marketplace works, the first big commercial hit, the first big legitimate demand for an orbiting space station has turned out to be deploying satellites.

Manber emphasized that NanoRacks also does considerable business for biopharma companies who use the companys products to run zero-gravity experiments within the ISS. Robyn Gatens, deputy director of NASAs International Space Station division, tells the Monitor that there is great interest in both internal experiments and satellite deployments.

But the development of small, inexpensive satellites could prove more significant for commercial spaceflight, because its spurring private companies to develop hardware that can be used on future spacecraft.

When the station was built, Manber says, the Japanese put up a small satellite deployer that could deploy a couple of satellites every so often. We saw that, and we recognized there's a market need to have a bigger deployer to take care of organizations and companies.

The first NanoRacks customers satellite deployed from Japans Kibo module in 2012. As the company builds a dedicated airlock for this purpose, Manber is already thinking about its longer-term significance.

That airlock can be taken off and put on a [different] platform, he says. I see a future very soon, within the decade, where we have a couple of space stations in orbit.

This vision lines up with one laid out by NASA associate administrator William Gerstenmaier in 2015, in which the ISS, following its expected retirement in the late 2020s, will be replaced by several single-purpose, small and entrepreneurial stations.

Private rocket operators like SpaceX will also be a part of this future, as may technology used in the public-private Bigelow Expandable Activity Module added to the ISS last year. But the new airlock, built entirely with private funds, marks a major step toward a privatized orbital sector.

But even if NanoRacks helped usher in this new era, it may need to adapt its business model.

Its not clear whether one of its key operations deploying constellations of small satellites for Earth-imaging or testing the components of larger satellites will always provide a reliable source of income.

Manber says that Earth-imaging companies like the low orbit provided by the ISS. But Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, points out that one of these firms, Planet, recently shifted from space-station deployment to regular rockets, which can bring satellites into higher orbits than the ISSs 400 kilometers, about 249 miles.

Some firms, he explains, would prefer to place their operational satellites at 500 to 600 kilometers, where theyll last longer before re-entering the atmosphere.

They'll still use the space station for when they want to test something out, Dr. McDowell tells the Monitor, but the bulk of their business is going away from the space station. And I wonder if that's going to be true for a lot of other companies in the long run, that the space station orbit is just going to be too low for the operational constellations, where the bulk of the business is going to be in five years.

But on the whole, he sees the new airlock as a logical next step for aerospace firms. All we need to do is get this thing up in the trunk of a Dragon, slap it on the spare port, and then getting the cargos up there, the satellites up there, is a proven path. So I think it's a pretty clear business case for them.

Manber, not surprisingly, agrees. "Every signal is that we're entering a new chapter of extraordinarily robust commercial [activity] in space, and this is what this airlock is all about.

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With new airlock, International Space Station widens door for commerce - Christian Science Monitor

Check out this breathtaking view of the Colorado Plateau, as seen from the International Space Station – Discover Magazine (blog)

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Nearly the full length of Lake Powell on the Colorado River in southern Utah and northern Arizona is visible in thisphotograph shot by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station, on Sept. 6, 2016. The view is toward the southwest. Water flow is from the lower right toward the top. (Source: NASA Earth Observatory)

When I first spotted this stunning image on NASAs Earth Observatory site, it stopped me dead in my tracks.Its a view over Lake Powell onthe Colorado River,the second-largest artificial reservoir in the United States, after Lake Mead further downstream.

Almost the entire lake is visible in this photograph, taken by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station last September. I was really struck by theclarity, the color, and the oblique angle at which it was taken. The photograph almost looks like it was taken from an aircraft not from orbit almost 25o miles above the surface.

Click on the image, and then click againin the lower right corner to enlarge it. You should be able to make out a white structure in one of the blue arms of the reservoir. This is the Bullfrog Marina. Are those little white specks seen in the lake near the marina houseboats? I think so.

Granted, this photo was taken with an 800 millimeter lens as glass goes, thats a monster! Even so. Small. Boats. Seen. From. Space

The same image as the one above, with geographic labels added. Click to enlarge. (Source: NASA Earth Observatory)

Of course, that little marina wasnt the first thing to grab my eye. It was the green plateau fingering into the image from the right. This is the Kaiparowits Plateau. It extends south for more than50 miles from near the town of Escalante, Utah almost to the shores of Lake Powell.There, at its southeastern end, the plateau rises nearly 4000 feet above Lake Powells waters.

Lake Powell itself also grabbed my attention. We can see much of its length here by my reckoning, about 60 miles as the crow flies from where the lake enters the frame at lower right to where it exits at the top.

When the reservoir isat full capacity which it most definitely is not right now it impounds 24,322,000 acre-feet of water. Thats nearly enough water to cover the entire state of Virginia to a depth of foot. After many years of drought, however, the lake is only at about 47 percent of capacity, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

A view of Lake Powell and the surrounding region, acquired on Jan. 31, 2016 by NASAs Aqua satellite. (Source: NASA Worldview)

Looking on the bright side, however, snowpack in the Colorado River Basin above the lake is at 157 percent of average. Lets hope that holds through the winter and into the spring.

Lake Powell is named after John Wesley Powell, the one-armed Civil War herowho in 1869 ledthe first group of white menthrough the canyons of the Colorado. The group braved rapids in Grand Canyon that threatened to smash their small dories to bits. But before he and his team even reached that point in their journey, they coursed through Glen Canyon now filled by Lake Powell.

Heres how Major Powelldescribed what he saw:

Past these towering monuments, past these mounded billows of orange sandstone, past these oak-set glens, past these fern-decked alcoves, past these mural curves, we glide hour after hour, stopping now and then, as our attention is arrested by some new wonder.

Most of that is now submerged under the blue waters visible in the stunningphotographshot by an astronaut orbiting Earth nearly 150 years later.

For more on the journey, and on Lake Powell, check out A Curious Ensemble of Wonderful Features on the Earth Observatory site.

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Check out this breathtaking view of the Colorado Plateau, as seen from the International Space Station - Discover Magazine (blog)

Mount Olive High School student helps with NASA space station project – New Jersey Hills

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

MOUNT OLIVE TWP. A piece of the NASA space station will be functioning better, thanks to 17-year-old Alfonso Carandang.

Carandang, a junior at Mount Olive High School, is among students involved in a special engineering program at County College of Morris (CCM) who are helping to craft a part of a stowage locker which will be aboard SpaceX-10 on its flight to International Space Station on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

Its absolutely incredible knowing that what we worked on is a technical innovation, Carndang said. I can tell people that my piece went into space.

Carandang is among 21 high school students who attend CCM five afternoons each week as part of the Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing (EDAM) program. The program is joint effort with the Morris County School of Technology.

The students participated in the High School Students United with NASA to Create Hardware or HUNCH Program to create parts for the International Space Station.

Carandang is in his first year at the program and said his group is creating the hinges for the locker. The HUNCH program provided the blueprints and students then made the parts.

The students were tasked with fabricating metal sleeves and nuts for the stowage locker. The locker will provide a safe and secure housing for hardware required for plant studies.

The biggest benefit of being a part of this program is that, not only do the students get to apply what they learn in the classroom and see their work come to fruition, they get to be a part of technological history, said Tom Roskop, assistant professor of engineering technologies at CCM, who has been teaching the students and overseeing their work through various stages of machining and finishing.

This is a fantastic opportunity for high school students like us, said Carandang. The exposure we receive through this program at CCM will serve as great preparation for college and beyond.

To celebrate the upcoming delivery of the stowage locker and its planned launch into space, the students were visited at CCM on Tuesday, Jan. 31, by Florence Gold, HUNCH implementation project manager; Stacy Hale, HUNCH founder; and Blake Ratcliff, HUNCH program manager.

We are extremely proud of these students who have shown remarkable ability and who are obviously future science and business leaders of our state and nation, said Morris County Freeholder Hank Lyon, who is the county governing boards liaison to CCM and the Morris County School of Technology.

The EDAM program is designed for students with an interest in engineering, computer applications and manufacturing. Upon completion of the two-year program, students earn 32 credits from CCM and a Certificate of Achievement in Mechanical Computer Aided Drafting and Engineering Technology.

Students may then enroll in CCMs engineering technology program for one additional year to earn their associate in applied science degree, apply to a four-year college or university, or pursue workforce placement.

Carandang said he plans to earn his associates degree and then enroll at N.J. Institute of Technology where he hopes to get a degree in mechanical engineering technology.

Ive wanted to be involved in engineering since I was in elementary school, Carandang said.

Carandang is the son of Allan, a registered nurse, and Amalia. He has two brothers, Paulo, 22, and Daniel, 13. The family moved to Budd Lake in 2002 from the Phillippines.

Roskop said CCM got involved in the HUNCH program after Eric Pederson, CCM lab assistant for engineering programs, attended a conference in 2015 and learned of the program.

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Mount Olive High School student helps with NASA space station project - New Jersey Hills

Spaceflight changes the shape of astronauts’ brains – CBS News

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

The International Space Station (ISS), photographed by an astronaut aboard the space shuttle Endeavour on Feb. 10, 2010. Astronauts who flew on ISS and space shuttle missions experienced changes in brain volume, a new study has found.

NASA

It appears that spaceflight really goes to astronauts heads.

Doctors and scientists have long known that exposure to a weightless environment causes muscles to atrophy, bones to weaken andvision to deteriorate, among other effects. Now, a new study has determined that spaceflight also causes some parts of the brain to expand and others to contract. [The Human Body in Space: 6 Wild Facts]

We found large regions of gray-matter volume decreases, which could be related to redistribution of cerebrospinal fluid in space, study principal investigator Rachael Seidler, a professor of kinesiology and psychology at the University of Michigan,said in a statement.

Gravity is not available to pull fluids down in the body, resulting in so-called puffy face in space, Seidler added. This may result in a shift of brain position or compression.

Seidler and her team studied magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of 26 astronauts -- 12 who flew on two-week-long space shuttle missions, and 14 others who lived aboard the International Space Station (ISS) for five to six months.

These MRI scans are the first images ever to show how spaceflight changes brain structure in humans. Blue shows areas of gray-matter volume decrease, likely reflecting shifting of cerebrospinal fluid. Orange shows regions of gray-matter volume increase, in the regions that control movement of the legs.

Koppelmans et al./Nature Microgravity

The brains of all 26 astronauts changed shape as a result of their off-Earth stints, and the magnitude of these changes was greater in the ISS crewmembers.

The brain regions that expanded are associated with the control of leg movement and the processing of sensory information from the lower body, team members said. Therefore, the MRIs are likely capturing the brain learning a new skill -- how to move inmicrogravity-- and doing so around the clock, Seidler said.

Its interesting, because even if you love something, you wont practice more than an hour a day, she said. In space, its an extreme example of neuroplasticity in the brain, because youre in a microgravity environment 24 hours a day.

Its unclear how long these changes last after astronauts come back to Earth, or how the shifts may affect cognitive ability, the researchers said. Seidler and her team are currently conducting another long-term study to look into these questions.

The new study was published in December 2016 in the journalNature Microgravity. The lead author is Vincent Koppelmans, of the University of Michigans School of Kinesiology.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwallandGoogle+. Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published onSpace.com.

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Spaceflight changes the shape of astronauts' brains - CBS News

Tornado strikes NASA’s Michoud plant in New Orleans – Spaceflight Now

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Employees and flight hardware for NASAs Space Launch System and Orion spaceship were mostly spared after a strong tornado struck the agencys Michoud plant in New Orleans on Tuesday, but crews planned to begin repairs immediately to plug holes in buildings housing parts and tools to build the new mega-rocket.

The tornado hit Michoud in East New Orleans around 11:25 a.m. CST (12:25 p.m. EST; 1725 GMT) Tuesday, NASA said, overturning cars, shattering windows and ripping roofs and siding off buildings at the sprawling 832-acre campus.

NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center, which manages the Michoud Assembly Facility, said in a statement Tuesday night that officials have accounted for all 3,500 employees who work at the site. Five of the workers sustained minor injuries, NASA said.

Our hearts go out to our employees and the people in New Orleans who have suffered from this serious storm, said Keith Hefner, director of Michoud, in a statement. The safety of our team is always our main concern, and we are pleased to report that weve identified only minor injuries.

Todd May, director of Marshall, told Spaceflight Now in an email that parts for the Space Launch System and Orion capsule dodged damage, along with a giant one-of-a-kind vertical weld tool needed to fuse together tanks for the SLS core stage.

But some of of the hardware is now indirectly exposed to the elements, May said, and workers on Wednesday would immediately start plugging the holes to shore up the cavernous structure named Building 103 housing the components and tools.

Michoud will be closed to all but emergency personnel Wednesday, NASA said, while crews continue damage assessments and try to restore power.

At this time, emergency personnel have identified damage to building numbers 103, 350 and additional structures, NASA said late Tuesday. Building 103, Michouds main manufacturing building, has roof damage in several areas. Approximately 200 parked cars were damaged, and there was damage to roads and other areas near Michoud.

The Pegasus barge parked at Michoud also weathered the storm with no damage, NASA said. The vessel was used to transport external tanks for the space shuttle built at Michoud to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the agency intends to repurpose the barge to ship SLS core stages between Louisiana, a test site at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, and the Florida launch base.

The SLS core stage, powered by four shuttle-era RS-25 main engines, will be sprayed with orange foam insulation like the shuttle tank and has the same 27.6-foot (8.4-meter) diameter.

NASA plans the first test launch of the huge rocket, which will tower 321 feet (98 meters) tall in its basic configuration, by November 2018 on an uncrewed demonstration flight to lunar orbit and back with an Orion capsule.

When it flies, the SLS will be the most powerful rocket in existence.

The test flight will be followed by a mission to the moons distance with up to four astronauts in some time between 2021 and 2023 aboard the following SLS and Orion launch.

NASA envisions future SLS flights will send astronauts to habitats constructed in deep space, and eventually to Mars in the 2030s.

Welding of the Orion crew module is also based at Michoud, with final outfitting and flight preps at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Michoud facility, located near the Mississippi River a few miles downstream for downtown New Orleans, was originally a World War II facility building boats, airplanes and tank engines.NASA took over the complex in 1961 for assembly of the huge first stage for the Saturn 5 moon rocket, then Michoud became home for construction of the space shuttles external tank for more than three decades.

Michoud last sustained major storm damage when Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast in 2005. Parts of the main factory buildings roof were peeled away, and concrete particles and rainfall fell into the external tank integration bay. One of tanks damaged, named ET-122, was eventually repaired and flew on the final launch of the shuttle Endeavour in 2011.

Michoud has a comprehensive emergency plan that we activated today to ensure the safety of our people and to secure our facilities, Hefner said in a statement after the tornado. I am proud of our dedicated team onsite who are successfully implementing that plan.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Tornado strikes NASA's Michoud plant in New Orleans - Spaceflight Now

Six New Horizons scientists propose geophysical planet definition – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Laurel Kornfeld

February 8th, 2017

Every discovered planet in the Solar System under 10,000 km in diameter, to scale. The geophysical definition of a planet includes ~110 known planets in the Solar System. Image Credit: Emily Lakdawalla / The Planetary Society

Six scientists who work on NASAs New Horizons mission propose a geophysical planet definition in a new article published in the journal Lunar and Planetary Science.

Their proposal addresses several issues they view as problematic regarding the 2006 International Astronomical Union (IAU) planet definition, which is considered a dynamical one because it places primacy on an objects location.

Among its problems are the fact that it recognizes only objects orbiting the Sun as planets, precluding the nearly 2,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars discovered over the last 20 years, as well as rogue planets, which float freely in space without orbiting any star.

The IAUs third criterion for planet status that an object hascleared its orbit also precludes all Solar System planets because all have small objects frequently enter their paths, the authors note. Also, the further an object is from the Sun, the larger an orbit it has to clear, meaning objects would have to get larger and larger to be considered planets the further from the Sun they orbit.

[E]ven an Earth-sized object in the Kuiper Belt would not clear its zone, the scientists note in the article.

As an alternative, the New Horizons scientists outline a definition centered on the physics of individual worlds and their intrinsic properties.

A planet is a sub-stellar mass body that has never undergone nuclear fusion and that has sufficient self-gravitation to assume a spheroidal shape adequately described by a triaxial ellipsoid regardless of its orbital parameters, they state. For teachers of elementary school children, this can be paraphrased as round objects in space that are smaller than stars.

Our geophysical definition is directly based on the physics of the world itself rather than the physics of its interactions with external objects, the scientists note.

Classification of brown dwarfs intermediate objects bigger than the largest planets but less massive than the smallest stars is left to the future, when more will be known about these enigmatic objects.

Pluto-Charon (false color) size comparison. Image Credit: NASA / JHUAPL / SwRI

The authors maintain that to much of the public, the term planet conveys a historic importance that inherently makes an object more interesting.

Additionally, the geophysical definition already predominates in common usage, not just among the public but also in the planetary science community.

To support this notion, the authors cite peer-reviewed articles that use the term planet for Saturns moon Titan and dwarf planets Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.

A new suggestion within the proposal calls for identifying spherical moons of planets as moon planets.

Noting the eight planets recognized by the IAU are all modified by adjectives, such as terrestrial, gas giant, and ice giant, they propose the same recognition for dwarf planets and moon planets.

Interestingly, spherical moons were considered secondary planets by many 19th century astronomers. Stern, who coined the term dwarf planet, intended it to designate a subclass of planets.

While their proposal results in the Solar System having a minimum of 110 planets, this should not be viewed as a problem because teaching students should center on giving them an understanding of the Solar Systems natural organization rather than asking them to memorize a list of objects, the authors state.

In their many discussions of the issue with members of the public, the New Horizons scientists point out that most people, including policymakers, resonate intuitively with the geophysical definition.

Planetary scientists, who often deal with the geology of other worlds, are also more aligned with the geophysical definition, they added.

No statement was made as to whether the group intends to present its definition to the IAU at a future General Assembly.

The writers include mission Geology and Geophysics Imaging team member Kirby Runyon of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; Principal Investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute of Boulder, Colorado; Geology and Geophysics Imaging team member Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona; Co-investigator Will Grundy of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona; Co-investigator Michael Summers of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and Co-investigator Kelsi Singer, also of the Southwest Research Institute.

Tagged: International Astronomical Union NASA New Horizons Pluto Solar System The Range

Laurel Kornfeld is an amateur astronomer and freelance writer from Highland Park, NJ, who enjoys writing about astronomy and planetary science. She studied journalism at Douglass College, Rutgers University, and earned a Graduate Certificate of Science from Swinburne Universitys Astronomy Online program. Her writings have been published online in The Atlantic, Astronomy magazines guest blog section, the UK Space Conference, the 2009 IAU General Assembly newspaper, The Space Reporter, and newsletters of various astronomy clubs. She is a member of the Cranford, NJ-based Amateur Astronomers, Inc. Especially interested in the outer solar system, Laurel gave a brief presentation at the 2008 Great Planet Debate held at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD.

Preliminary GAO report calls commercial crew vehicles into question – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

Bart Leahy

February 6th, 2017

Commercial Crew Program: CGI rendition of a SpaceX Crewed Dragon spacecraft in orbit above Earth. Image Credit: Nathan Koga / SpaceFlight Insider

The Wall Street Journalstatedin a recent report that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has expressed newconcerns about the safety of SpaceXsFalcon 9 launch vehicle in a preliminary report to the U.S. Congress. The early version of the GAO document, which has not yet been posted online, reportedcracks in the turbopump blades of the Merlin engine, among other faults.

NASA considers these types of cracks to be major threats to Falcon 9s safety and that the blades might need to be redesigned before the agency allows astronauts to ride on the rocket. The agency considers the turbopump blades, which direct propellants toward the Merlin combustion chamber, as presenting an unacceptable risk for crewed flights.

The Journal reported a SpaceX spokesman as saying, We have qualified our engines to be robust to these types of cracks but are modifying the design to avoid them altogether. The pending changes will be part of the final design for the Falcon 9. He added that SpaceX is working in partnership with NASA to qualify engines for manned spaceflight.

This preliminary report is becoming public two weeks after SpaceXs launch on January 14, the first successful launch since a Falcon 9 exploded during fueling on September 1, 2016. The next launch, scheduled to be the companys first from Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A, has been delayed until mid-February, at the earliest.

The Journal also reports:

Industry officials have known about problems with cracked blades on Falcon 9 versions for many months or even years. But cracks continued to be found during tests as recently as September 2016, Robert Lightfoot, NASAs acting administrator, confirmed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this week.

Mr. Lightfoot said were talking to [SpaceX] about turbo machinery, adding that he thinks we know how to fix them. In the interview, Mr. Lightfoot said he didnt know if the solution would require a potentially time-consuming switch to bigger turbopumps.

GAO likely will reportthat both companies willshift their first crewed flights under NASAs Commercial Crew Transportation Capability program to 2018.

The GAO is looking into issues with Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. For Boeing, officials close to the investigation told the Journal that GAO investigators raised questions about Boeings reliability tests of their parachute systems.

In addition to the turbopump blades, the Journal reported that GAO has cited SpaceXs frequent modifications of Falcon 9 designs as a potential source of delays in obtaining NASA certification for the vehicle.

Spaceflight Insider has reached out to SpaceXbut has not received a response yet.

AsSpaceflight Insiderreported onJan. 30, SpaceX has rescheduled their launch of the EchoStar communications satellite to late February, after the next cargo launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-February.

This schedule change allows time for additional testing of ground systems ahead of the CRS-10 Mission, SpaceX said in a statement. The launch vehicles, Dragon, and the EchoStar satellite are all healthy and prepared for launch.

Tagged: Boeing CST-100 Starliner Commercial Crew Program Falcon 9 Lead Stories SpaceX

Bart Leahy is a freelance technical writer living in Orlando, Florida. Leahy's diverse career has included work for The Walt Disney Company, NASA, the Department of Defense, Nissan, a number of commercial space companies, small businesses, nonprofits, as well as the Science Cheerleaders.

Preliminary GAO report calls commercial crew vehicles into question - SpaceFlight Insider

French Polynesia signs agreement for Floating Island Project – Bizcommunity.com

Posted on February 8, 2017 by Danzig

The French Polynesian government, earlier this year, officially signed an agreement with The Seasteading Institute to cooperate on creating legal framework to allow for the development of The Floating Island Project. The legislation will give the Floating Island Project it's own special governing framework creating an innovative special economic zone.

Last year, French Polynesian President Edouard Fritch invited an international delegation from The Seasteading Institute to examine several potential sites near the French Polynesian islands of Tahiti, Tupai, and Raiatea. The team met personally with Teva Rohfristch, minister for economic recovery, the blue economy, and digital policy; Sylviane Terooatea, mayor of Raiatea, and Gaston Tong Sang, former president and mayor of Bora Bora and Tupai.

The Seasteading Institute and the government of French Polynesia will draw from the best practices of more than 4000 existing special economic zones around the world to create a special economic seazone, said Hencken. The seazone will combine the advantages of French Polynesias geopolitical location with unique regulatory opportunities specifically designed to attract investors.

Seasteading investors will self-fund the initial studies and the construction of the floating islands. The pilot project is expected to cost between $10m and $50m.

Our sustainable modular platforms are designed by the Dutch engineering firm Blue21, who showcased their engineering ingenuity with the famed Floating Pavilion in Rotterdam, said Joe Quirk, co-author with Patri Friedman of the book, Seasteading: How Ocean Cities Will Change the World, to be published in March.

From left: Egor Ryjikov, Thierry Nhunfat, Joe Quirk, Karina Czapiewska, Randolph Hencken, Jean Christophe Bouissou, Montgomery Kosma, Suzanne Dokupil, Greg Delaune, Marc Collins, Michel Monvoisin, Chris Muglia, and Nicolas Germineau

Blue Frontiers will create new clean-tech and blue economy jobs that will attract both international and local investment. We need to create new clean-tech and blue economy jobs for our youth, and this project has the potential to be a real game-changer locally, Collins said. This project could help us retain our bright minds, who would otherwise emigrate for work.

French Polynesia signs agreement for Floating Island Project - Bizcommunity.com

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