Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 25 May 2015 05:36 AM PDT
Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered surprising new clues about a hefty, rapidly aging star whose behavior has never been seen before in our Milky Way galaxy.
Astronomers at NASA have used the Hubble Space Telescope to capture a very rare event: A star, dubbed ‘Nasty 1,’ cannibalizing another star nearby, and producing a giant, pancake-shaped gas disk in the process.
The cannibal star, discovered several decades ago, was called “Nasty 1,” not only because its catalogue name of NaSt1, but also because of its weird behavior.
It was described as a Wolf-Rayet star, a massive rapidly evolving star that quickly sheds its hydrogen-filled outer layers, which leads to an explosion of its super-hot and extremely bright helium-burning core.
However, Nasty 1 turned out to be nothing like the well-researched Wolf-Rayet candidate, Eta Carinae, which has twin lobes of gas flowing from opposite sides.
The NaSt1 star surprised the astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope by having a vast pancake-shaped gas disk of gas, nearly 2 trillion miles wide, encircling it.
The scientists said that the disk may have formed from an unseen companion star that snacked on the outer envelope of Nasty 1.
“We think there is a Wolf-Rayet star buried inside the nebula, and we think the nebula is being created by this mass-transfer process. So this type of sloppy stellar cannibalism actually makes Nasty 1 a rather fitting nickname,” study leader Jon Mauerhan, of the University of California, was cited as saying by NASA’s website.
The nebula around Nasty 1 and its companion, located some 3,000 light-years from Earth, is believed to be just a few thousand years old.
“We were excited to see this disk-like structure because it may be evidence for a Wolf-Rayet star forming from a binary interaction,” Mauerhan said.
Observing Nasty 1 one has been a tough task even with the capabilities provided by the Hubble Telescope.
The team is still unable to establish the mass of the stars and the distance between them as their system is heavily cloaked by gas and dust.
However, the effort was worth it as “there are very few examples in the galaxy of this process in action because this phase is short-lived, perhaps lasting only a hundred thousand years, while the timescale over which a resulting disk is visible could be only ten thousand years or less,” Mauerhan said.
The disk around Nasty 1 will dissipate due to the Wolf-Rayet star, eventually running out of material.
“What evolutionary path the star will take is uncertain, but it will definitely not be boring,” Mauerhan said. “Nasty 1 could evolve into another Eta Carinae-type system.”
He added: “To make that transformation, the mass-gaining companion star could experience a giant eruption because of some instability related to the acquiring of matter from the newly formed Wolf-Rayet. Or, the Wolf-Rayet could explode as a supernova.”
Mauerhan also pointed to a stellar merger as another potential outcome, “depending on the orbital evolution of the system.”
He said: “The future could be full of all kinds of exotic possibilities depending on whether it blows up or how long the mass transfer occurs, and how long it lives after the mass transfer ceases.”
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Posted: 25 May 2015 05:29 AM PDT
A neuroprosthetic device implanted in Erik Sorto’s brain allowed him to drink unaided for the first time in 13 years.
Researchers in the United States have developed a new kind of brain implant that helps patients move robotic arms.
Researchers said Thursday the brain implant offers new promise to disabled people with spinal injuries to seamlessly control robotic limbs or even entire body suits in the future.
The clinical trial of the neuroprosthetic device was done by a team from the California Institute of Technology, the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center.
Erik Sorto, who has been paralyzed from the neck down for 13 years after a gunshot wound, is “the first person in the world to have a neural prosthetic device implanted in a region of the brain where intentions are made,” they said in an article published by the journal Science.
Researchers say the device enables the 34-year-old patient to make a hand-shaking gesture, grab a cup to drink from and even play “rock, paper, scissors” with his robotic arm.
Researchers had previously inserted implants in the motor cortex, which controls motion, to control prosthetics.
In the latest trial, however, they placed two micro-electrode arrays in “higher” brain region, called the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), which processes plans for movements including reach and grasp.
Richard Andersen, who led the trial at the California Institute of Technology, said, “When you move your arm, you really don’t think about which muscles to activate and the details of the movement – such as lift the arm, extend the arm, grasp the cup, close the hand around the cup, and so on. Instead, you think about the goal of the movement, for example, ‘I want to pick up that cup of water.’”
“So in this trial, we were successfully able to decode these actual intents, by asking the subject to simply imagine the movement as a whole, rather than breaking it down into a myriad of components,” he said.
Researchers surprised
Sorto’s ability to control the robotic arm in the laboratory after recovering from surgery surprised the researchers.
“It was a big surprise that the patient was able to control the limb on day one – the very first day he tried,” said Andersen. “This attests to how intuitive the control is when using PPC activity.”
The team also released a footage showing Sorto controlling a computer cursor, drinking a beverage and making a hand-shaking gesture with the arm.
“I was surprised at how easy it was,” said Sorto, a single father of two.
“I think that if it were safe enough, I would really enjoy grooming myself — shaving, brushing my own teeth. That would be fantastic,” he said.
“These very important early clinical trials could provide hope for patients with all sorts of neurologic problems that involve paralysis such as stroke, brain injury, ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and even multiple sclerosis,” said co-author Christianne Heck, an associate professor of neurology at the USC.
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Posted: 25 May 2015 04:59 AM PDT


The battlefield of tomorrow will also be driven by target identity and biometric data, you know, to stop terrorists.
Along with formidable future weapons, super soldiers, armed drones of every size and autonomous robots executing lethal missions, the battlefield of tomorrow will also be driven by target identity and biometric data – you know, to stop terrorists.
Gizmodo reports:
The United States’ most elite soldiers have been collecting DNA samples from suspected terrorists for years. But because analysis normally takes three weeks, it’s been a pretty useless chore. Now, however, U.S. Special Operations Command is testing a machine that can do it in 90 minutes. Get ready for advanced biometric warfare.
The basic idea is not dissimilar to the way that Osama bin Laden’s body was ultimately identified. […] nothing beats DNA in terms of accuracy. Terrorists also leave trails of it everywhere they go.
So the military is testing DNA identification in the field. This test is only a stepping stone, too. The devices in the field now are still pretty slow and hulking for what special ops soldiers could be carrying by 2020.
[…]
In the next five years, the military hopes to develop a battery-operated DNA analysis device that’s the size of a cell phone and finds a match in seconds.
The terrorist pretext is a bit of ruse, as the real goal seems to be total information collection on entire populations – whether friend or foe – in distant battlefields (and eventually at home, too), in order to better sort out who is who. Domestically, it could pinpoint who is wanted for crimes or payments and who is authorized to be there.
Defense One reports:
The devices are the RapidHIT 200 from IntegenX, a California-based company, and the DNAscan from Massachusetts-based NetBIO. Both are about the size of a copier, but compared to an entire DNA lab, require far less manpower. A single operator can get quick results. “In the past, when we captured DNA, the guy would put it in an envelope, send it back to the States and two or three weeks later, he would get a result on who it was that he had. By then, he moved on to other missions and he had forgotten who the guy was,” said Fitz.
The database for DNA is currently not as complete as they like – so it virtually guarantees an expansion of sample collection wherever it can be done.
“Right now the database is a criminal database: U.S. people. We haven’t been collecting DNA, in part because it’s been a cumbersome and lengthy process to do that. There was no reason for the units to go out and collect DNA because the results were so slow,” Fitz said.
The effort to populate databases for biometric identification has already taken great strides with iris scans – with a military flair that would be very costly to civil liberties were it done at home on U.S. soil:
The instant, advanced imaging tech has scanned the faces of one in six fighting-age men in Afghanistan, and a staggering one in four in Iraq. That’s millions and millions of eyes and faces, along with matching fingerprints. The military’s database means insurgents, prisoners, and other figures of note can be identified with near absolute certainty—making forged papers and trickery futile.
But you can bet that where they are testing terrorist DNA to match against their watch lists, they’ll be collecting and testing it from ordinary citizens, as well – once it becomes acceptable to do. Once commercial databases hold the data, government agencies will, too.
The age of biometric surveillance has been slowly creeping towards us for some time, but few foresaw teams of soldiers and police with rapid or instant field devices to make DNA, iris and fingerprint scanning an everyday part of patrols.
It appears that if privacy isn’t dead now, it is on its deathbed.
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Posted: 25 May 2015 04:48 AM PDT


The Pentagon is planning to send nuclear bombers to Sweden for a military exercise next month amid growing tensions with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.
The warplanes, the B-52 Stratofortress, will participate in a naval exercise on June 13, Swedish general Karl Engelbrektson said.
They are set to fly from the United States nonstop and simulate a drop of anti-ship mines near Ravlunda on the Baltic Sea.
The US forces are planning to simulate the defense of the coast in case of an attack by amphibious forces.
Engelbrektson said the goal of the exercise “is to increase the different operative capabilities, but also to send clear security political signals that we do these things together with others.”
“How Russia interprets that, they can decide for themselves,” Engelbrektson added.
This is while the United States deployed more warplanes to other countries in Europe for military maneuvers.
At least four US Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II arrived at Ämari Air Base in Estonia on April 30.
The aircraft are set to stay in the European country for six months in order to reassure regional allies for Operation Atlantic Resolve.
The United States army began its military drills, called Operation Atlantic Resolve, more than one year ago following the conflict in Ukraine.
Relations between Washington and Moscow have deteriorated over Ukraine.
The United States accuses Russia of sending troops into eastern Ukraine in support of the pro-Russian forces, an allegation denied by the Kremlin.
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Posted: 25 May 2015 02:56 AM PDT


Greece will not be able to make next tranche of debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as the country has no money to pay, the Interior Minister said.
“The four installments for the IMF in June are 1.6 billion euros ($1.8 billion), this money will not be given and is not there to be given,” Nikos Voutsis told Greek Mega TV’s weekend show on Sunday.
Asked about the timing of talks on repayment, Voutsis said that they may be extended until the end of June or early July.
His statement comes as Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said that Athens have made “enormous strides” at reaching a deal with its international creditors.
“It is now up to the institutions to do their bit. We have met them three-quarters of the way, they need to meet us one-quarter of the way,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show on Sunday.
According to Varoufakis, it would be “catastrophic” if Greece left the euro, saying that it would be “the beginning of the end of the common currency project.”
On Thursday, a spokesman for the left-wing Syriza party said that Greece won’t be able to pay the next tranche of 300 million euros to the IMF on June 5 unless it receives extra financial aid from creditors.
“Now is the moment that negotiations are coming to a head. Now is the moment of truth, on June 5,” Nikos Filis, spokesman for Syriza party lawmakers, told ANT1 TV channel. “If there is no deal by then that will address the current funding problem, they won’t get any money.”
Greece is struggling to repay its multi billion euro debt to the troika of international lenders – the IMF, the ECB and the European Commission, and is trying to find a way to get a further €7.2 billion bailout unlocked.
Talks between Athens and its international lenders reached a stalemate over refusal of Greek authorities to carry out labor and pension reforms, as well as to lower fiscal targets established within the framework of the bailout program.
However, Athens has made a number of concessions, including the imposition of a special tax on bank transactions to help raise revenue.
On Wednesday, Varoufakis told Britain’s Channel 4 that if Greece fails to reach negotiations with lenders, the government will have to give pensioners and public sector workers priority.
“If we can, on June 5, repay the IMF and pay pensions and salaries as well as the other obligations we have to our internal creditors, we shall. If not, we will have to prioritise pensioners and public sector workers,” he said.
On May 11, Athens began repaying some €750 million in debt interest to its creditors, just days before the deadline.
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Posted: 24 May 2015 03:34 PM PDT



A Romanian inventor who lives in the French part of Canada has set a new world record by gliding a few hundred meters over a lake on his self-designed hoverboard. The flight caught the attention of all the Back To The Future fans just months before the movie’s iconic October 21, 2015 date.
Guinness World Records confirmed that Catalin Alexandru Duru piloted his propeller-powered hoverboard 275.9 meters (905 ft 2 in), more than the length of two full sized football fields, and then smoothly landed on Lake Ouareau in the French-speaking province of Quebec, Canada.
The flight set a new record for ‘Farthest’ flight by hoverboard. In order to beat the old record, Duru had to glide over 50 meters.
“I wanted to showcase that a stable flight can be achieved on a hoverboard and a human could stand and control with their feet,” Duru said when describing his achievement.
The footage released on YouTube shows Duru flying at a height of 5 meters.
Duru said it took him a whole year to build his homemade device, which can be used anywhere and reach “scary heights.”
A Guinness World Records spokesperson said the organization was impressed with the invention.
“This is a truly mesmerizing and incredible feat in the world of engineering and transportation. It’s always pleasing to see individuals such as Catalin Alexandru Duru achieve a Guinness World Records title such as this in which personal endeavor continues to amaze us all.”
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Posted: 24 May 2015 03:15 PM PDT


Germany and France are now preparing to jointly develop a new main battle tank, the Leopard 3, to replace its ageing Leopard 2 military vehicle by around 2030, which would be able to compete with Russia’s next-generation Armata tank, recently showcased at the Victory Day parade commemorating the end of World War Two in Moscow.
The German Defense Ministry has announced its plans for the “Leo 3″ (as it’s likely to be nicknamed in Germany) to replace its main battle tank, the Leopard 2.
The main reason for the modernization is believed to be the Leopard 2 service life, which is set to expire by 2030.
The German media, however, suggest that the real reason is the recently-presented analysis by Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) on Russia’s reinforced combat strength and its recently showcased T-14 Armata tanks, which were presented during the country’s Victory Parade in Moscow on May 9.
A column of Armata tanks, equipped with 125mm cannons, rolled through Moscow’s historic Red Square on May 9 as Russian President Vladimir Putin and a number of foreign heads of state, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping, watched on.
The BND analysis suggests that even though the combat vehicles unveiled at the parade are still somewhat pre-production models, when completed, it will be a tank with the highest levels of armaments.
According to Deutsche Welle, the manufacturer of the current Leopard 2, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, is scheduled to fuse with the French firm Nexter Systems over the course of this year.
This has prompted the German media to report that the new Franco-German firm, with more than 6,000 staff and a combined turnover of around 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion), could be a strong candidate to win the contract to develop a new battle tank for the German Bundeswehr.
Just before the Victory Day Parade in Moscow, the US bimonthly magazine The National Interest reported on why America should really fear Russia’s Armata T-14 tank.
The magazine suggested that Russia actually might be able to deliver in the field the tank of greater speed, maneuverability, firepower and survivability vis-à-vis anything being produced for Western armies.
The Armata is a Russian prototype of a heavy tracked vehicle platform that will be used in the construction of a next-generation main battle tank and a range of other combat vehicles.
The tank’s main armaments include a 7.62mm remote-control machine gun and a 125mm smoothbore cannon. The tank is operated by a crew of three, which are housed in an armored capsule in the front.
The military vehicle is also equipped with active counter-mine defense and a suit of circular-view high resolution cameras. It can fire rounds while in motion and travels at a speed of up to 50 miles (80.47 km) per hour.
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 09:25