Daily Archives: August 6, 2017

Pop music moves a step closer to eternal life – The Columbian

Posted: August 6, 2017 at 3:00 am

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Today, well be discussing how a Selena Gomez song might foreshadow humanitys triumph over biological death but first, raise your hand if you remember EDM. It was short for electronic dance music, a style once poised to eat the planet for lunch, and then eat itself for dessert.

Five summers ago, as a new league of superstar DJs were being paid astronomical amounts of money to perform at packed festivals the world over, the musics sustainability didnt appear to be at the forefront of anyones mind. In 2015, Forbes reported that the EDM bubble was about to burst. In 2016, Pitchfork made the case that it had.

But this unofficial collapse hasnt forced the star producers of EDM to unplug their laptops and register for the GRE. In fact, plenty are faring exceptionally well this summer, taking up residence on the Billboard Hot 100 after partnering up with an array of willing pop vocalists Calvin Harris with Pharrell, the Chainsmokers with Coldplay, David Guetta with Justin Bieber.

These kinds of genre-splicing collaborations arent anything new, but with EDM now in decline, theyve quietly reversed their polarity. Instead of making dance tracks that behave like pop songs, these producers now appear to be making pop songs that behave a little more like dance tracks.

In most instances, the result is just a mirror-image of the same old thing, but for a certain class of pop singers, it seems to be changing the way they apply their physicality to a geometric dance rhythm. You can hear it on the radio this summer whenever Gomez goes hopscotching across the grid of Kygos It Aint Me, or when Alessia Cara leans hard against the right-angles of Zedds Stay, or in the way Halsey seems to be gasping for air in the digital vacuum of her solo single, Now or Never. All three songs are delivered with mechanical clarity, with all three vocalists making direct lyrical references to eternity. Are they singing about transhumanism?

Not long after our species learned how to dream, we were probably dreaming of ways to exceed the limitations of our bodies. Its the stuff of religions and comic books. Now, its the work of Silicon Valley, where a growing number of transhumanists believe that mankinds next evolutionary leap will occur once we figure out how to convert consciousness into code, allowing for a digital transmigration of souls.

In his recent book, To Be a Machine, author Mark OConnell describes transhumanism as a liberation movement advocating nothing less than a total emancipation from biology itself. That emancipation means eternal life inside a supercomputer. Heaven is a hard drive.

The idea isnt so shocking if you watch Black Mirror, or if you listen to pop music. For well over a decade now, Auto-Tune software has been narrowing the musical gap between humans and machines, generating signature hooks for everyone from T-Pain to Future.

However, whether we as listeners embrace Auto-Tune as a tool or denounce it as a crutch often depends on whos singing through it. When Kanye West uses computer software to manipulate his voice, hes an artist. When Britney Spears does the same thing, shes a girl who cant sing.

That double standard helps to explain why Ellie Goulding hasnt been recognized as one of the more significant pop vocalists of our time. The British singer always had bright ideas about phrasing, but it wasnt until she loaned her voice to a few juggernaut EDM singles that her singing began to feel totally frictionless. And it had more to do with Gouldings inflection than whatever digital processing she was applying to it. By the time she released her 2015 album, Delirium, Goulding was weaving the curves of her voice through a world of clean-edged rhythms as if drawing a map to the future.

With Now or Never, Halsey has that map folded-up her back pocket. Its a slower, stronger, smarter, more spacious song than Closer, her massive EDM hit with the Chainsmokers, and it gives the 22-year-old the opportunity to do some captivating things with her breath. When shes breathing in, shes all human, taking sharp little hits of oxygen that dramatize the ballads sustained romantic ache. But when shes breathing out, shes at least half-machine, singing about pain with precision. Listen close to how she lingers on the words now, time and forever. The grain in her voice sounds like its pixelating.

Alessia Caras Stay a collaboration with the German EDM producer, Zedd addresses the gap between data and soul in the form of a simple duet, with a refrain thats delivered in two parts. First comes Cara pushing her voice especially hard into the songs rigid architecture. Then comes a gush of synthesized melodies pantomiming what the 21-year-old just sang. Its a game of call-and-response, but the call sounds big-hearted, and the response sounds no-hearted, giving the dialogue a sinister glint. Cara is singing about forestalling a separation, but she might as well be teaching the HAL 9000 how to sing Daisy.

With It Aint Me, Norwegian producer Kygo isnt playing a game so much as conducting a test one in which Selena Gomez must first coo alongside a gently-plucked guitar, and then over the relentless thuds of sub-woofing bass. As the song builds its graceless crescendo, the coffee shop turns into a rave, with the most promising 25-year-old in pop showing us how she can make her voice feel artificial in an intimate setting and expressive in an anonymous one.

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Pop music moves a step closer to eternal life - The Columbian

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Nocturnes Mist announce Sept 15th release of "Diabolical Baptism" – The Gauntlet

Posted: at 2:59 am

On September 15th, Seance Records is proud to present the highly anticipated third album of Nocturnes Mist, Diabolical Baptism. Following quickly on the heels of last year's scorching second album, March to Perdition, Diabolical Baptism completes an unholy trinity of albums that forever establishes Nocturnes Mist as one of the darkest and most uncompromising antipodean forces. More savage, more immediate, and more engaging, the band goes from strength to strength here, heralding a new era for their characteristically Aussie black metal.

Nocturnes Mist's Diabolical Baptism is a work of traditional black metal inspired by the occult and Satan. After watching The Omen trilogy, the band was inspired to write a song based upon the iconic film score, "Ave Satani," and in doing so, this song influenced the tone of the album. Diabolical Baptism is a work inspired by high Satanism, both its medieval origins as well as the presence of Satan and the occult in the contemporary world: from The Omen trilogy to Ken Russels classic The Devils (from which a sample is used on the song "Barbs of Sadism) to the illustrations from the works of Lord of De Lancre, the infamous French witch-finder and demonologist of the 17th Century. His image of the Black Mass, the witches Sabbath in addition to horror, both fictional demonic terror and the real life terrors of the medieval age and inquisition, coupled with a fascination for clandestine ceremonies of the left-hand path - all come together with each song representing another page of Nocturnes Mists musical grimoire, a tale written in homage to Satan and the vivid imagery that he has inspired throughout the ages.

The lavish artwork throughout Diabolical Baptism, by the hand of modern master Jenglot Hitam, is a re-imagining of Lord of De Lancres Black Mass and Witches Sabbath - and here, from Satanic inspiration emerges a new level of primal energy and brutality for Nocturnes Mist. Harsh compositions and raw fury have engulfed symphonic elements, with keyboards only momentarily emerging to highlight mood and atmosphere. The transition of style was not intentional; rather, it's a subconscious evolution reflecting the bands collective energy whilst writing the album. As a result, Diabolical Baptism is a natural manifestation of evil and hatred, a return to the raw, unadulterated energy of early '90s black metal and a vehement outpouring sparked by frustration with the continued dilution of the genre. Diabolical Baptism is a rekindling of Nocturnes Mist's devotion to black metal, its roots, the feeling and conviction stemming back to the origins of the band, their influences, and the energy that originally galvanized them in the '90s.

Nocturnes Mist was formed in Adelaide, South Australia in 1997 and have since remained veiled in mystery and fog. The band was ignited amidst a strong movement of bands from South Australia such as Stargazer, Cauldron Black Ram, Mournful Congregation, Darklord, and Beyond Mortal Dreams among others. However, Nocturnes Mist remained undeservedly underrated and overlooked, as black metal had yet to reach the peak of its popularity in Australia and Australian bands were hindered by isolation, great distance between states, and poor distribution in the days before the internet was widely available in households.

Embodying the spirit of '90's black metal, Nocturnes Mist's music unites ferocity with darkness, cold vengeance with symphonic poetry, and chilling atmospheres with sheer heaviness. Truly borne from the '90s and the influence of first- and second-wave black metal, early on, Nocturnes Mist created symphonic black metal in the style of early Emperor, Satyricon, Abigor, and Nazxul. Denying the lightweight flourishes of what symphonic black metal evolved into by the end of the '90s, Nocturnes Mist remained firmly rooted in the traditional style and ideals of black metal, incorporating rawness, heaviness, dark atmosphere, and a true feeling of aggression characterized within the Australian scene.

The Southern Storms demo EP was released in 1998 by the band and limited in availability, only being traded via mail and sold at the few shows which the band played between 1999-2000. These shows were some of the first black metal shows in South Australia and are now legendary landmarks in the evolution of OZBM. Armed with a full lineup and instilled with the aesthetic ideals of traditional black metal, these shows were impressive rituals of dark, intense heaviness as the band performed in full corpsepaint, gauntlets, and created a lavish scene of gothic candelabras and candlelit atmosphere. Two self-titled demos followed in 2000 and 2004, but these were not widely circulated, and the songs were later reworked & re-recorded in 2009 to become part of what is now the As Flames Burn album, which remained unreleased until 2013.

Nocturnes Mist predated most of the bands that form the current Australian black metal scene, but in a case of being ahead of their time, they slowly slipped into obscurity. Seance Records reignited the flame in 2013 with the first official release of As Flames Burn. The songs were remixed and mastered yet stylistically represent the early era of this band and their body of work to date. The CD also included the Southern Storms tracks as a bonus. Forging ahead, the band soon recorded their second full-length, March to Perdition, released in 2016 by Seance Records. The ten new songs comprising the album were characteristic of the bands style: unpretentious and atmospheric, yet instilled with a raw, savage element to surpass what has come before. Each song was crafted with skillful writing and musicianship while not losing the energy and spontaneity that fortified the band's lofty position as forerunners of OZBM.

Whereas March to Perdition solidified their style within classic, '90s-rooted symphonic black metal, on Diabolical Baptism, Nocturnes Mist strip back everything to the rawest, blood-red essentials, maintaining exemplary songwriting and their established identity whilst uncovering new, previously-unexplored territory by, paradoxically, going more primitive. Subtle synth touches still exist, of course, but Diabolical Baptism is aptly fucking titled: this is a torrential rebirth.

MORE INFO: Facebook: HERE! Seance Records: HERE! Seance Facebook: HERE! Seance Bandcamp: HERE!

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Israel’s ‘crown prince’ Netanyahu under fire for crude post – Fox News

Posted: at 2:58 am

JERUSALEM Since becoming an adult, the eldest son of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly drawn media criticism for what has been portrayed as a life of privilege at taxpayers' expense.

Yair Netanyahu, 26, has been described as someone who hobnobs with world leaders and enjoys a state-funded bodyguard, while living at the prime minister's official residence.

But his recent behavior, including a crude social media post, has now drawn public rebuke from the children of a former Israeli leader, along with threats of a libel suit. It has also revived criticism of the Netanyahu family's perceived hedonism and sense of entitlement, at a time when the prime minister faces multiple corruption allegations.

Israeli police on Thursday disclosed that Netanyahu is suspected of fraud, breach of trust and bribes in a pair of cases, just as his son was being pilloried in the press.

The younger Netanyahu hit the tabloids last weekend when a neighbor posted an account of how he refused to pick up after the Netanyahu family dog at a public park and then, when confronted, gave the neighbor the finger.

Yair Netanyahu then lashed out on Facebook at a website run by a liberal think tank that detailed what it said was his lavish lifestyle at taxpayers' expense.

In the post, Netanyahu alleged the site is funded by what he claimed are foreign interests, referring indirectly to the dovish New Israel Fund, which he renamed the "Israel Destruction Fund." He signed the post with emojis of a middle finger and a pile of excrement.

The Times of Israel said Thursday that the Molad organization which runs the site served the younger Netanyahu with a notice of intent to sue. The notice reportedly said that his posts "had no iota of truth to them" and that Molad stopped receiving money from the NIF last year.

Representatives of Molad could not be reached for comment.

The New Israel Fund noted that Yair Netanyahu made the comments on Tisha B'Av, the day Jews mourn the destruction of their biblical Temples, brought upon by internal divisions and hatred.

"On this day ... it would be appropriate for the prime minister to educate his son to spread the love of Israel," the fund said in a statement.

But perhaps the harshest reactions came from some of the other targets of his post, in which he claimed the children of former Israeli leaders Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert did not come under such scrutiny.

It included an insinuation that one of Olmert's sons had an "interesting relationship with a Palestinian man" that affected national security.

Olmert's son Ariel fired back on Facebook, denying he was gay, dismissing the claims as a fabrication and accusing the younger Netanyahu of "racism and homophobia."

"I've ignored that until now, maybe because in my opinion there's nothing negative about being either gay or Palestinian," he wrote. "Your attempts to drag me into your twisted reality are doomed to fail."

Ariel Olmert added that he works for a living, never slept in the prime minister's residence and "on principle, try to pick up my dog's doody."

His older brother Shaul then chimed in, calling Yair Netanyahu a fascist thug.

Their sister Dana Olmert declined comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

The online exchanges highlighted Yair Netanyahu's pronounced presence of late around his father.

In May, he was on hand to welcome President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump at the official Netanyahu residence and was heard telling Mrs. Trump how he related to their youngest son Barron's struggle with the spotlight.

He has also reportedly taken a leading role in his father's social media platform.

Yair Netanyahu has also been questioned though not as a suspect about a corruption scandal in which his father was asked by police "under caution" about ties to executives in media, international business and Hollywood.

Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are said to have received more than $100,000 worth of cigars and liquor from Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who reportedly asked Netanyahu to press the U.S. secretary of state in a visa matter.

Australian billionaire James Packer has reportedly lavished Yair with gifts that included extended stays at luxury hotels in Tel Aviv, New York and Aspen, Colorado, as well as the use of his private jet and dozens of tickets for concerts by Packer's former fiancee, Mariah Carey.

Police are trying to determine whether these constitute bribes, since Packer is reportedly seeking Israeli residency status for tax purposes.

The prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, portraying the accusations as a witch hunt against him and his family by a hostile media.

His office declined comment Thursday on the latest affair.

David Bitan, the coalition whip from Netanyahu's Likud party, said Netanyahu's son was not involved in policy and dismissed the chatter as kid's stuff on Facebook.

"He's a private person and that is how it should be treated," he told Israel's Army Radio.

Others disagreed.

Columnist Sima Kadmon wrote in a front-page piece in the Yediot Ahronot daily Thursday that the prime minister's plea to the media to leave his family alone had no merit once his son had written "one of the nastiest and most vile posts ever."

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FAMILY AND MARRIAGE: Where are you in the tree? – Aiken Standard

Posted: at 2:58 am

You can't build marriage on a foundation of selfish hedonism, because that would be to promise people only roses, and marriage is also thorns. Alan Keyes

the tree of life [was] also in the midst of the garden, Bible

All of us live and make our decisions according to some rationale. Perhaps its arbitrary and capricious, changing day by day. Or maybe we have a stronger set of standards that we have developed and utilize because they seem to work for us. At the extreme, we may accept and adhere to a more rigid set of rules established by a higher authority, which may include consequences for both good and bad behavior.

Our life-behavior is like a tree. This tree has three basic components: the fruit and leaf-bearing branches, the trunk, and the roots.

The branches (fruits, leaves) are what we enjoy in life. They may be all those blessings God gives us (whether or not we know God), such as health, success, happiness, etc. They may be the fruits of our own labors. They may be our family and friends. They are frequently the consequence of obeying the rules of society, adhering to common-sense rules and life styles, or following the Bible.

These branches are subject to the storms of life, however. We remember the ice storm of a few years ago. I lost lot of branches out of my trees. And then there was the late freeze this spring. The peach crop is not nearly as plentiful this year.

The trunk is also exposed to the tempests and vagaries of life. But its a lot sturdier. I didnt lose any tree trunks during the ice storm, and the peach trees will live to see another year.

The root is the foundation of the tree. The branches may be gone, and the trunk may be destroyed, but the roots are HARD to permanently remove if they are firmly entrenched in the soil. I tried to destroy an undesirable tree by cutting the trunk off at the base, but the next year I see little tree sprouts coming up from the base of the tree its not dead!

Our lives are a lot like the tree. If our life choices are based on our own definition of whats OK, we may get along for a while, but the storms will come. If we live in the branches we will get blown away. Divorce, abuse, and untold distress come from the storms because our way doesnt work it has no authority, no basis.

Now if we live in the trunk we have a lot better chance for surviving the storms. Society provides us with significant help if we are willing to seek it. Doctors are there to help with physical healing. Therapists are available to deal with emotional turmoil. We may have decided to follow some set of rules that seems good to us.

Our best chance for survival, however, (let me assert the only chance) is to live in the root. We have an established foundation that isnt affected by the surface storms of life. That foundation must be something that doesnt change. It isnt based on our opinion. It comes from a much higher authority. For example, it doesnt come from knowing whats in the Bible (or some arbitrary rule book). It comes from knowing the authority behind the rule book. The Bible is the only rule book with the authority that we need, that being the Word Jesus Christ.

If you are living your marriage in the branches, look out. The storms will come and the branches will fall and so will you.

If you are living in the trunk, you will benefit from much of the help available in the world, and may survive for a while. But a forest fire will destroy the trunks as well as the branches.

Choose to live your marriage in the root and make it the Bible. It doesnt change, and the storms dont affect it. In fact it becomes stronger, and so do you.

Roger Rollins is the executive director of The Family and Marriage Coalition of Aiken, Inc. Contact him at 803-640-4689, rogerrollins@aikenfamco.com or http://www.aikenfamco.com.

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The ethics of creating GMO humans | The Spokesman-Review – The Spokesman-Review

Posted: at 2:55 am

(PHOTO)

Los Angeles Times (TNS)

The following editorial appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Friday, Aug. 4:

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In a process that can be likened to the creation of GMO crops, scientists have edited genes in human embryos in order to eliminate a mutation that causes thickening of the heart wall. The embryos were created solely for the scientists study and will not be implanted. Nonetheless, the research offers hope that in years ahead, science could prevent many serious genetic diseases at the stage in which people are a microscopic cluster of cells in a petri dish. Whats more, because those edited genes would be carried forth into new generations, the disease might eventually be eliminated altogether.

Is this a glorious new frontier or a troubling situation? Unequivocally, the answer is yes to both.

The research results by an international team of U.S., Chinese and South Korean scientists were enormously exciting medically. Beyond the technical achievement involved, the teams work hastened the arrival of a revolutionary form of treatment: removing genes that can lead inexorably to suffering and premature death.

Public policy and the field of bioethics have not caught up with the science of genetic intervention.

But there is also a great deal we still dont know about how minor issues might become major ones as people pass on edited DNA to their offspring, and as people who have had some genes altered reproduce with people who have had other genes altered. Weve seen how selectively breeding to produce one trait can unexpectedly produce other, less desirable outcomes. Remember how growers were able to create tomatoes that were more uniformly red, but in the process, they turned off the gene that gave tomatoes flavor?

Another major issue is the ethics of adjusting humans genetically to fit a favored outcome. Today its heritable disease, but what might be seen as undesirable traits in the future that people might want to eliminate? Short stature? Introverted personality? Klutziness?

To be sure, its not as though everyone is likely to line up for gene-edited offspring rather than just having babies, at least for the foreseeable future. The procedure can be performed only on in vitro embryos and requires precision timing.

But even with this early study, problematic issues already are evident. Gene editing isnt the only method to protect against certain hereditary conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which was edited out in this study. Children stand a 50 percent chance of inheriting the condition; if a couple produces several embryos through in vitro fertilization, half of those already would theoretically be free of the mutation, and those are the ones that would be selected for implantation. Gene editing made the process more efficient, but it did not offer hope where there was none, Jennifer Doudna, a molecular and cell biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, observed.

In fact, six months ago, the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine recommended that scientists involved in germline editing that is, making changes that would be passed down to future generations should limit their work to diseases for which there are no other reasonable treatments. The most recent embryo study began before that recommendation was delivered.

Thats emblematic of the real problem: Public policy and the field of bioethics have not caught up with the science of genetic intervention. Yes, federal money cant be spent on research involving human embryos even when they are still at the stage of a clump of undifferentiated cells. FDA approval would be needed for any actual human therapies, which would be years off.

Still, the technology is advancing more rapidly than societys discussions about human genetic engineering, the specter of eugenics and even the seemingly mundane topics of who will own the patents on customized genes and who will have access to gene editing once it is approved.

The answers arent easy, but the discussions have to take place and decisions need to be made, probably through an international convention that includes governments, researchers, physicians and consumer advocates. Taking the research to the next level should mean experimentation with animals rather than humans. They should then be followed for generations to see whether unexpected health issues arise. Gene editing on humans should be introduced one step at a time, starting with the most disastrous diseases and conditions that cannot be tackled in any other way, then tracked long term to ensure safety.

We all would love to eliminate disabling deformities, painful conditions that shorten lives or genetic mutations that predispose us to various fatal diseases. Although science has a long way to go before such miracles are achieved, research is moving fast. Its paramount that we get human gene editing right rather than just getting it soon.

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)2017 Los Angeles Times

Visit the Los Angeles Times at http://www.latimes.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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James Webb Space Telescope may be delayed again – SpaceFlight Insider

Posted: at 2:54 am

Joe Latrell

August 5th, 2017

Artists rendition of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in space. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman

The much delayed and over budget next-generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has suffered another setback prior to itsjourney to the launch pad: the October 2018 launch may be in conflict with Europes BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Both spacecraft are to be flown on Ariane 5 boosters, but the spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, cannot support two flights in the same month. BepiColombo has priority due to the tight launch window to reach Mercury. This will result in the JWST having its launch date pushed back to 2019 at the earliest.

The JWST is a space-based infrared telescope. To operate properly, it needs to maintain a temperature of 37 kelvins (236 C / 393 F). In order to achieve this when in space, the telescope relies on a large tennis court sized sunshield to protect it from external heat and light sources, such as the Sun as well as the Earth and Moon.

Light gathered from the segmented 6.5-meter (21-foot) diameter mirror is directed to the four science instruments: Fine Guidance Sensor / Near InfraRed Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (FGS/NIRISS), Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), and Near InfraRed Spectrograph (NIRSpec). Due to the requirement of the MIRI to operate at an even lower temperature than the other science instruments, it will utilize a cryocoolerto decrease its temperature to less than 7 kelvins (266 C / 447 F).

While smaller than telescopes here on Earth, the JWST is the most powerful space telescope ever constructed and is the science successor to the Hubble telescope.

Originally projected to cost $1.6 billion, the telescopes price tag has ballooned to over $8.8 billion. Several factors, from delays in choosing a launch vehicle to management issues, contributed to the soaring costs. Additionally, the vehicle proved harder to construct than originally envisioned. For example, during vibration testing, the spacecraft experienced several anomalies that required NASA engineers to stop the test. After analysis and modifications, the tests resumed and the JWST was given a clean bill of health.

Despite the technical issues and threats of cancellation, the project continued and the cost estimates grew. A launch delay into 2019 will only add to that dollar figure.

Artists depiction of the BepiColombo mission, with the MPO (left) and MMO (right). Image Credit: NASA

BepiColombo is a mission to explore the planet Mercury that is being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The mission is actually two spacecraft: the Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) and the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). The objective is a comprehensive study of Mercury, including the planets surface, magnetic field, and interior structure.

The MPO is a solar-powered spacecraft carrying 11 scientific instruments. These instruments include laser altimeters, spectrometers, magnetometers, as well as several cameras. It has a mass of 1,150 kilograms (2,540 pounds) and is capable of producing 1,000 watts of power for onboard instruments.

The MMO has a mass of 285 kilograms (628 pounds) and carries five scientific payloads. Built mostly by Japan, this spacecraft will study plasma particles including high-energy ions and electrons emanating from the planet. A third spacecraft, the Mercury Surface Element (MSE), a small lander craft, was removed due to budgetary issues.

The two Mercury spacecraft are scheduled to arrive at the planet in 2025 after performing numerous flybys: one at Earth, two at Venus, and six at Mercury. The craft must launch sometime between October 5, 2018, and November 28, 2018, to reach the planet as scheduled.

Both missions as slated to fly on the Ariane 5 booster. The 52-meter (171-foot) vehicle is capable of lifting over 10,500 kilograms (23,100 pounds) to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

Currently, the JWST is undergoing low-temperature checks at NASA Johnson Space Centers Chamber A. The temperature of the chamber is steadily being reduced to approximately 20 kelvins (253 C / 424 F) the same temperature that the JWST will be when operating in space. These tests will validate that the JWST instruments can operate properly at the extremely low temperatures.

Unlike Hubble, the JWST will be positioned at the Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L2) which is 1,500,000 kilometers (930,000 miles) from Earth. That location is currently beyond NASAs manned space capabilities; therefore, precluding the JWST from being serviced on orbit.

The new WebbCam overlay displays the temperatures in Houston and in Chamber A, in degrees Fahrenheit, degrees Celsius, and on the Kelvin scale. Image & Caption Credit: NASA

Tagged: BepiColumbo ESA James Webb Space Telescope Lead Stories NASA

Joe Latrell is a life-long avid space enthusiast having created his own rocket company in Roswell, NM in addition to other consumer space endeavors. He continues to design, build and launch his own rockets and has a passion to see the next generation excited about the opportunities of space exploration. Joe lends his experiences from the corporate and small business arenas to organizations such as Teachers In Space, Inc. He is also actively engaged in his church investing his many skills to assist this and other non-profit endeavors.

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NATO soldiers suppress attempted insider attack in Afghanistan – Reuters

Posted: at 2:54 am

KABUL (Reuters) - Romanian soldiers from the NATO-led Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan killed an Afghan policeman who was trying to carry out an insider attack after a training session in the southern province of Kandahar on Saturday, officials said.

One Romanian was wounded in the attack while an Afghan policeman was wounded in the crossfire, a statement from Resolute Support headquarters in Kabul said.

"The advisers had completed a scheduled law enforcement training and were preparing to return to base when they were attacked by a member of the Afghan National Civil Order Police," the statement said.

Romanian soldiers providing security returned fire and killed the attacker, it said.

The attack, which came as the United States is considering increasing the number of troops it has in Afghanistan, was the latest in a series of so-called "green-on-blue" incidents that have complicated the training and assistance mission.

In June, three American soldiers were killed and seven wounded in two separate incidents, a week apart. In May last year, two members of the Romanian special forces were killed and a third was wounded when a local policeman opened fire on them.

Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Stephen Powell

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What happens when a Texas 2nd Amendment woman meets New York City? – SOFREP (press release) (subscription)

Posted: at 2:51 am

Ive noticed something about being in the gun industry. Everyone has a story, and more often than not they are more than willing to share it with you. Well I would like you to meet Antonia Okafor and her story. Antonia is a black woman who is often criticized and belittled because of her beliefs. Mainly because she is a major advocate for the Second Amendment. She is the founder of emPOWERed, which is an organization aimed at bringing campus carry to colleges around the country. As a woman who went to college and also as a woman who has had her own experiences where I realized how important self-defense was, I could totally get behind this.

Recently Antonia wrote an article for the illustrious New York Times about why she carries a gun to school. Me being the common sense, gun loving, Second Amendment advocate that I am LOVED it. Even more so that it was attached to something that was near and dear to my heart, New York.

I thought this was awesome, living in New York City, its not often you see a pro 2A article in any newspaper from here. After reading the article I did something I normally do after reading an article, I read the comments.

What I saw in those comments honestly disturbed me on so many different levels. The comments that I read were from mostly men telling her that she shouldnt be able to keep her guns, telling her shes not strong enough and that she would be overpowered anyway and shot with her own firearm so dont even try.

Praying they werent in the same parking lot as her in fear she would accidentally shoot them because of her emotional instability. Men who were envisioning her attack and telling her to be more realistic about her protection choices. Well guess what, THIS IS REALISTIC. This is the reality for so many women.

I consider myself an old age feminist, where I believe I can do anything a man can do. Which includes taking her own self-defense into her own hands. I think what bothered me most about those comments were theyre written by the very people who claim to praise women and respect their choices. But because a WOMAN wants to exercise her Constitutional right that they dont agree with, now shes suddenly weak, uneducated, nave, and even mentally ill.

The women fighting for our Second Amendment right have a much larger fight than we all may realize. Were fighting to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States and were also fighting for our rights as women. Its a disgrace that an educated, respected woman is accused of being a pawn for the NRA and being told to depend on college escort programs, which essentially means relinquishing your ability to defend yourself to some college campus peace officer, which is also probably a male. No thanks. Ill continue exercising my rights how I see fit, which includes the first AND second Amendments.

Antonia, like so many other women in the gun industry are often criticized, ridiculed and belittled often by people who scream womens rights. If theres one thing I have to say to ANYONE who claims they are a feminist or a womans right activist is this; If you want the government to stay out of my body, then dont tell me how to defend my body.

http://www.antoniaokafor.com/empowered

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Letter: Anti-boycott law violates the First Amendment – Santa Cruz Sentinel

Posted: at 2:51 am

The Israel anti-boycott law penalizes boycotts, which are a nonviolent and legal freedom of expression. That violates the First Amendment. People complain about the over-regulation of business. This bill is a prime example. It would be an expensive, time consuming, and intrusive process for a court or other government agency to determine why a business was not doing business with Israel or Israeli companies. No matter what your views are on the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement are, I hope that people can agree that we need to protect our constitutional rights, especially in todays political climate.

Dorah Rosen Shuey, Davenport

The Sentinel welcomes your letters to the editor. Letters should be short, no more than 150 words. We do not accept anonymous letters. Letter-writers should include their full name as well as a street address and telephone number. We dont publish those details in the newspaper, but need the information for verification purposes. Occasionally, we reject letters simply because weve had so many on the same subject. Submit your letters online at santacruzsentinel.com/submit-letters.

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Why Is the Kremlin Suddenly Obsessed With Cryptocurrencies? – Daily Beast

Posted: at 2:49 am

In early June, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The headline moment at the event was a wide-ranging and at times combative interview with Megyn Kelly. But Putin quietly made news in another wayhe signaled an official volte-face on the issue of cryptocurrencies, digital financial instruments such as bitcoin.

As recently as a year ago, the Russian government had threatened to jail users of bitcoin for up to seven years. The Kremlin had also toyed with the idea of creating its own digital currency to compete with bitcoin. Many observers speculated that Russia would then make all other digital currencies illegal to force adoption of its coin.

But sometime last year, something changed. Perhaps the Kremlin realized that creating a proprietary digital ruble defeated the purpose of having a dispersed-ledger digital currency. Possibly they observed the huge sums of money being poured into blockchain technology by Silicon Valley, and resolved to make sure Russia didnt get left behind when the technology became popular. (The blockchain is essentially a ledger with thousands of copies that gets updated every time a transaction takes place.)

Or maybe they just woke up to the vast array of possibilities that cryptocurrencies could offer in the service of money laundering.

Putinand the rest of his oligarch friendshave a problem. The Magnitsky Act, which established strict sanctions on named Russian citizens, and the Russian hacking scandal currently consuming American politics, have woken up governments to the colossal amount of ill-gotten Russian cash being invested within in their borders.

Many countries, including France, Switzerland, Ukraine, and Poland, have launched investigations into Russian money passing through their banking systems, while others, such as Cyprus, Greece, and China seem to still be looking the other way. In March, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project published a study entitled, The Russian Laundromat Exposed, revealing the vast and complex banking mechanisms that oligarchs use to skirt international financial controls.

From Putins perspective, the solution to this dilemma could be cryptocurrencies. And the Ethereum platform (which is based on the blockchain model) appears to be the Russians digital currency framework of choice. Ethereum allows clients to create their own digital smart contracts which can have a multitude of uses that transcend mere currency applications. Using Ethereum, for example, a startup recently raised nearly $4 million in an initial coin offering (think IPO) to begin manufacturing zirconium in Magnitogorsk, Russia. Each ZrCoin, issued by the company represents 1 kilogram of synthetic zirconium.

At a forum in Moscow in April, a Russian politician named Andrei Lugovoi sang the praises of the blockchains versatility. He cited a World Bank study predicting that 10 percent of world GDP would be stored with the help of the blockchain as early as this year. He also said he expected a draft bill in the Russian Duma on regulation of cryptocurrencies would be made public in the second half of 2017.

If Lugovois name sounds familiar, its probably because he was one of two men implicated in the 2006 death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinienko in London, via radioactive polonium-210 poisoning. A former KGB officer himself, Lugovoi is now an MP in the far-right LDPR party. Hes also deputy chairman of the Duma committee on security and anti-corruption.

Last year, Lugovoi told a conference that blockchain-based currencies could become the best way to get around U.S. and EU sanctions. This is is [sic] a rare situation where the sanctions policy of the West gives rise to the opportunity for homegrown business to create something new and allow the national economy to move forward, Lugovoi said, according to Newsweek.

And the Russian blockchain community is indeed growing. A conference held in Moscow in May attracted hundreds of people; another is planned for September. And a group of banks working under the supervision of the Russian Central Bank is currently testing a proprietary Ethereum-based masterchain. Not only that, but Russias largest online retailer, Ulmart, is expected to begin accepting bitcoin in September. And another politician suggested setting up a Crypto Valley on the Crimean Peninsula to raise regional funding in the part of Ukraine that Russia annexed in 2014.

At the St. Petersburg forum, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov enthused that Putin had caught the digital economy bug, and that the president had attended a small closed working group on the subject in which he kept them talking about the technology well past midnight. Putin even met privately with the founder of Ethereum, 23-year-old Canadian-Russian Vitalik Buterin on the margins of the conference.

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Its no surprise Putin is excited. Even Ethereums most ardent supporters will admit that once money is in the cryptocurrency loopthat is, after its been exchanged for fiat moneyits devilishly hard to track, by design. Cryptocurrency transactions are anonymous, dont respect national borders, and are now nearly instantaneous. In theory, at least, its the holy grail of money laundering.

As I write this, the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is still relatively modest, just under $100 billion, approximately what shoe-maker Nike is worth. But the market is growing by leaps and bounds. Ethereums flagship token, the ether, was up 4,000 percent for the year earlier this summer.

Most cryptocurrency transactions are perfectly trackable, thanks to a distributed ledger. (That sort of verification is part the appeal.) But trackable is not attributable. And in order for financial laws to function properly, some level of attribution must be built into the system.

As more governments agree on regulatory regimes to integrate cryptocurrencies into their business, more money will flow into them. Oligarch-sized transactions that would be difficult to impossible now will become more and more possible.

This isnt a problem in countries that operate under the rule of law. The United States and others are already working on laws and regulatory frameworks that will eventually be able to fully accommodate cryptocurrencies and take advantage of their unique properties. For example, its now possible to trade bitcoin and ether as easily as yen and euros.

But what about in kleptocracies like Russia, where laws are bent and molded to facilitate, rather than prevent, corruption? Its not hard to imagine a situation where regulations are either designed to be ignored for the benefit of certain people, or are simply toothless and thus throw the door open to all manner of illicit activity.

The Magnitsky Act has been a thorn in the side of Putin and his cronies for a long time. But as we stand at the threshold of a new era in the world of finance, he may think hes found a way to beat it.

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