Daily Archives: December 24, 2013

12-19-13 Segment 1: Phil Robertson and the END of Free Speech – Video

Posted: December 24, 2013 at 4:40 pm


12-19-13 Segment 1: Phil Robertson and the END of Free Speech

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12-19-13 Segment 1: Phil Robertson and the END of Free Speech - Video

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Free speech on Earth, goodwill to men

Posted: at 4:40 pm

AS A GOOD PORTION of the world gears up for Christmas, "the war on free speech" got a bit of a present in Russia, of all places, when the last two imprisoned members of punk band Pussy Riot walked out of prison yesterday and then criticized the amnesty measure that released them as a publicity stunt.

Like a noted American duck caller, they won't back down.

Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova were granted amnesty last week in a move largely viewed as the Kremlin's attempt to soothe criticism of Russia's human-rights record before the Sochi Games in February.

"I'm calling for a boycott of the Olympic Games," Tolokonnikova said. "What is happening today - releasing people just a few months before their term expires - is a cosmetic measure."

The amnesty and President Vladimir Putin's pardoning last week of onetime oil tycoon and political rival Mikhail Khodorkovsky freed some of the most prominent convicts who were sentenced in politically tainted cases.

Khodorkovsky on Sunday also spoke up, saying at a news conference that his release shouldn't be seen as indicating that there aren't other "political prisoners" in Russia.

Russia's parliament passed the amnesty bill last week, allowing the release of thousands of inmates. Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, who were due for release in March, qualified for amnesty because they have small children.

*A court in the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, sentenced eight people including an American to up to a year in prison yesterday after being convicted in connection to a satirical video about youth culture in Dubai.

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Free speech on Earth, goodwill to men

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Free speech lessons learned from "Duck Dynasty"

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The A&E network has a real dilemma on its hands.

On one, it has made tons of money by airing a show about a Louisiana family that is anything but politically correct.

On the other, its got a show about a Louisiana family that is anything but politically correct.

True to form, the Phil Robertson, patriarch of the Duck Dynasty family, spoke his mind when asked about homosexuality in the January issue of GQ.

After a graphic discussion of conventional and alternative sexual options, Robertson expanded the exchange to include promiscuity and bestiality, before resorting to his usual source of moral guidance, the Bible: Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers they wont inherit the kingdom of God. Dont deceive yourself. Its not right.

Hollywood, naturally enough, was outraged, causing A&E to announce Robertsons suspension from the top-rated reality show.

Meanwhile Phil and the rest of the Robertson clan appeared on Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating People of 2013, taped pre-GQ interview, along with Miley Cyrus, who seems to have trouble dealing with her own sexuality, finding it necessary to display her flesh and flesh-toned body on national television in ways that would get her arrested in most even-keeled communities if they were performed in a public place.

Phil Robertsons explanation of his position, released before his hiatus was announced, has received scant attention:

I myself am a product of the 60s. I centered my life around sex, drugs and rock and roll until I hit rock bottom and accepted Jesus as my Savior. My mission today is to go forth and tell people about why I follow Christ and also what the Bible teaches, and a part of that teaching is that women and men are meant to be together. However, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me. We are all created by the Almighty and like Him, I love all of humanity. We would all be better off if we loved God and loved each other.

Season four of Duck Dynasty will likely include appearances by Phil, since production is largely wrapped, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

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Space walk may be required to fix space station cooling system – Video

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Space walk may be required to fix space station cooling system
A spacewalk may be ordered to fix the International Space Station #39;s cooling system. Jeffrey Kluger, editor-at-large at Time Magazine has more on this and oth...

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International Space Station (ISS) UK pass 19/12/2013 – Video

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International Space Station (ISS) UK pass 19/12/2013
The ISS passes over the UK, filmed with a Sony DSC-WX300 camera. Crystal clear against a black sky, even with a DSLR with standard lense.

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Kirobo Robot Chats With Astronaut On Space Station – Video

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Kirobo Robot Chats With Astronaut On Space Station
21 December 2013 A humanoid robot has held a conversation with an astronaut on the International Space Station, joking about life in a zero-gravity environme...

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Christmas Eve spacewalk aims to finish crucial space station repairs

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Cosmic Log

Alan Boyle, Science Editor NBC News

37 minutes ago

Nearly two weeks after a faulty coolant valve crippled the International Space Station, two NASA astronauts went on a Christmas Eve spacewalk to get things back to normal.

Spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins opened the air lock and set the clock running at 6:53 a.m. ET for what's expected to be a six-hour-plus outing. They're due to install a refrigerator-sized coolant pump module with an assist from Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who's operating the station's 58-foot-long (18-meter-long) robotic arm.

Mastracchio was in the holiday spirit as he unpacked his tools for the job. "It's like Christmas morning, opening up a little present here," he joked.

Tuesday's spacewalk follows up on Saturday's successful operation to remove the faulty pump module. A valve inside that apparatus failed on Dec. 11, forcing one of the station's two ammonia coolant loops to go offline.

The cooling system plays an essential role in keeping the onboard electronics from overheating. When the first loop failed, NASA had to shut down non-essential systems and switch other systems over to the second loop, reducing the station's safety margin in the process. If the other loop were to fail, that would spark an emergency that could have forced the six-man crew to abandon the station.

A similar situation required three difficult spacewalks in 2010, but this time around, the repairs have gone more quickly than expected. Aided by the robotic arm, Mastracchio and Hopkins are scheduled to pull a spare pump module out of storage, set it in place and get it hooked up on Tuesday.

"If the reconnections go as smoothly as the disconnections did, we should be able to do everything we need to do in less than the six and a half hours that's planned," NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told NBC News.

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Astronauts nail first spacewalk to fix station’s cooling system

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The spacewalk, which was broadcast live on NASA Television, was the first for NASA since July when the spacesuit helmet worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano began filling with water, a situation that could have caused him to drown.

The operation was prompted by the December 11 shutdown of one of the station's two U.S. ammonia cooling systems, which forced the crew to turn off non-essential equipment and shut down dozens of science experiments.

While the six-member crew is not in danger, the remaining cooling system cannot support the three laboratories and other modules on the U.S. side of the $100 billion station, a project of 15 nations. The Russian side of the station has a separate cooling system.

Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston tried devising ways to bypass a suspected faulty pump valve, but with time running short, managers decided to have astronauts replace the pump, located outside the station, with a spare.

The work, which began shortly after 7 a.m. EST, went smoothly, with station flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins finishing up an hour earlier than expected.

They were able to not only disconnect the old pump, but also remove it from its pallet on the station's exterior truss, a task slated for a second spacewalk originally planned for Monday and later delayed until Tuesday, NASA said late on Saturday.

A third spacewalk, if needed, presumably also would slip one day, from Wednesday to Thursday.

NASA said an extra day was needed to prepare a backup spacesuit for Mastracchio to use.

"During repressurization of the station's airlock following the spacewalk, a spacesuit configuration issue put the suit Mastracchio was wearing in question for the next excursion," NASA said in a statement.

The issue is not related to the water leak that was seen during the July spacewalk, NASA said.

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Ireland losing out because of irrational hostility to GM

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A crop being grown as part of a GM potato study in Ireland. Photographer: Dara Mac Dnaill/The Irish Times Photographer: Dara Mac Donaill / THE IRISH TIMES

Genetic engineering or modification (GE or GM) allows us, in principle, to purify any gene and place it in the chromosome of any organism, and thus programme that organism to make a product encoded by the gene. It is 40 years since the first GM organism (GMO) was made, 31 since the first major GM pharmaceutical (human insulin) was marketed, 30 since the first GM plant was made and 17 since the first commercial GM crops were released. In the last 40 years GM technology has revolutionised fundamental biology, medicine, agriculture and forensic science.

GMOs are used to produce many powerful medicines, including Enbrel, human papillomavirus vaccine and herceptin, most of which are entirely novel. Ten biotech (GM) production plants now account for a high proportion of Irish pharmaceutical production.

GM has had an equivalent effect on agriculture outside Europe. Today GM crops are sown on more than 170 million hectares, half in developing countries; they account for 80 per cent of soy and 35 per cent of corn planted. More than 90 per cent of Indian cotton was GM in 2012. New varieties of GM crop are being developed that are pest- and disease-resistant, drought-tolerant and salt-tolerant; others assimilate fertilisers more efficiently; and others are herbicide-tolerant, facilitating no-till farming.

Golden riceOne remarkable project, golden rice, illustrates the power of GM. Rice does not contain enough carotene, from which we make vitamin A. In places where people depend on rice, vitamin A deficiency each year causes 670,000 children to die and 350,000 to go blind. Drs Potrykus and Beyer invented a GM rice that makes more carotene and arranged for the rights to go to the not-for-profit project.

Dozens of authoritative reports have shown that GM is safe and valuable. In 2005 the World Health Organisation concluded: GMOs offer potential of increased agricultural productivity, improved nutritional values that can contribute directly to enhancing human health and development.

There is one exception to the general acceptance of GM Europe. The EU has adopted a highly politicised regulatory system that has made it almost impossible to grow GM crops in Europe. One GM corn is grown widely in Spain. Europe (reluctantly) imports GM food and animal feed, we use GM enzymes in food and drink production but our farmers are not allowed to grow GM crops. While US farmers have benefited by $78 billion (1996-2010), European farmers and consumers have been denied the use of this innovative science for nearly 20 years.

The original reason for opposing GM crops was a concern that they were, or might be, dangerous, to people or animals or the environment. This concern was not sound in the first place and has been shown to be unjustified. More than a decade of research in the EU, US and elsewhere has shown GM plants to be no more risky than conventional plants.

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Study: Some plants won’t cope with human-induced climate change

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GAINESVILLE, Fla., Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Human-induced climate change may pose a bigger threat than first believed to plants and global agriculture, a University of Florida scientist says.

Evolutionary genetics Professor Pam Soltis, co-author of a study published in the journal Nature, said most flowering plants, trees and agricultural crops may not have the evolutionary traits needed to rapidly respond to human-induced climate change.

Many of these plants needed millions of years to evolve mechanisms to cope with freezing temperatures as they radiated into nearly every climate during pre-historic times, she said, and likely acquired many of these adaptive traits prior to their movement into colder regions.

"Only some plants were able to make the adjustments to survive in cold climates," Soltis said in a university release Friday. "In fact, some had traits used for other purposes that they co-opted for cold tolerance. The results have implications for plant response to climate change -- some plant lineages, including many crops, will not have the underlying genetic attributes that will allow for rapid responses to climate change."

Because evolutionary strategies to resist cold would have taken millions of years, researchers said, it could mean many plants will have trouble with accelerating human-caused climate change.

"Some of these changes were probably not as simple as we once thought," Soltis said. "Adjusting to big shifts in their environments is probably not easy for plants to do.

"With climate change that is human-induced, all habitats will be affected over a short period of time, and plants and other organisms will have to adapt quickly if they are to survive," she said.

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