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August 27 Strange Clouds At The Edge Of SpaceStrange Clouds At The Edge Of Space
Huntsville AL (SPX) Aug 26, 2008 When in space, keep an eye on the window. You never know what you might see. Last month, astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS) witnessed a beautiful display of noctilucent or "night-shining" clouds. Atmospheric scientist Gary Thomas of the University of Colorado has seen thousands of noctilucent cloud (NLC) photos, and he ranks this one among the best. "It's lovely," he says. "And it shows just how high these clouds really are--at the very edge of space." He estimates the electric-blue band was 83 km above Earth's surface, higher than 99.999% of our planet's atmosphere. The sky at that altitude is space-black. It is the realm of meteors, high-energy auroras and decaying satellites. What are clouds doing up there? "That's what we're trying to find out," says Thomas. Ice Cold Sunrise On MarsIce Cold Sunrise On Mars
Tempe AZ (SPX) Aug 27, 2008 From the location of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander, above the Martian arctic circle, the sun does not set during the peak of the Martian summer. This period of maximum solar energy is past -- on Sol 86, the 86th Martian day after the Phoenix landing, the sun fully set behind a slight rise to the north for about half an hour. This red-filter image taken by the lander's Surface Stereo Imager, shows the sun rising on the morning of sol 90, Aug. 25, 2008, the last day of the Phoenix nominal mission. The image was taken at 51 minutes past midnight local solar time during the slow sunrise that followed a 75 minute "night." The skylight in the image is light scattered off atmospheric dust particles and ice crystals. The setting sun does not mean the end of the mission. In late July, the Phoenix Mission was extended through September, rather than the 90-sol duration originally planned as the prime mission. The mission is led by the University of Arizona, Tucson, on behalf of NASA. Project management of the mission is by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. Spacecraft development is by Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver. PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR ALL STORY. August 26 Israel's Barak stresses military option over Iran during Rice meetIsrael's Barak stresses military option over Iran during Rice meet
Jerusalem (AFP) Aug 25, 2008 Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that it will never accept Iran developing a nuclear weapons capability, according to a statement issued after a dinner meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "Mr. Barak has once again underlined the fact that Israel cannot accept that Iran acquires nuclear (capability). Israel refuses to rule out any options" in its handling of the issue, the defence ministry statement said, an allusion to a previously-stated threat to use force. "The United States must continue to impose effective economic sanctions on Tehran with the goal of preventing Iran from building nuclear arms," Barak told Rice during their meeting, according to the release. Rice arrived in Tel-Aviv on Monday in a bid to kickstart stalled Middle East peace negotiations. Israel, the region's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state, considers Iran its main strategic threat because of its nuclear programme, which Israel and its staunch US ally suspect is aimed at developing weapons. Iran has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting its nuclear drive is aimed solely at providing electricity for its growing population when its fossils fuels run out. The United States has never ruled out military action against Iran over its defiance of international demands for it to freeze uranium enrichment, but so far is pursuing the diplomatic route. "The position of the United States is well known. They do not want, for the time being, any (military) action against Iran," Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told army radio on August 13. "Our position is that no option is to be taken off the table but in the meantime we have to make diplomatic progress," he said. Pls visit here for full story. August 22 How to stop a new type of heart attackHow to stop a new type of heart attack
Earlier this year, a team led by William Maisel at Harvard Medical School demonstrated how a commercial radio transmitter could be used to modify wireless communications from a pacemaker (New Scientist, 22 March, p 23). Doctors normally use these signals to monitor and adjust the implanted device, but a malicious hacker could reprogram the pacemaker to give its wearer damaging shocks, or run down its batteries. Such irresponsible attacks might seem inconceivable, but Tamara Denning, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, points out that in 2007 hackers posted flashing images to the Epilepsy Foundation's website, apparently with the aim of triggering attacks in people with photosensitive epilepsy. Pacemaker users could be similarly targeted, and there are a growing number of other implantable medical devices (IMDs) - such as drug pumps, neural stimulators, swallowable cameras and prosthetics - which could also be undermined by pranksters or even killers. Researchers like Denning believe it's worth being prepared. "We wanted to draw attention not to a prevalent threat, but to a possible future one," she says. Securing IMDs is problematic, however, because it is difficult to distinguish between malicious and benevolent communications. Some seemingly obvious solutions are unsuitable: for example, encrypting the IMD signals would be risky because doctors might not be able to get hold of the encryption key in an emergency. Denning and her colleagues have proposed that IMD users wear a "cloaker" device that tells the IMD to ignore any unexpected instructions. When doctors need to talk to the device, they can simply remove the cloaker. Designing the system poses unique challenges. The cloaker itself has to be resistant to electronic attack, and the system must "fail open" rather than "fail closed", allowing doctors access to the IMD if the cloaker breaks down or is lost. And continual communication with the cloaker will eat into the IMD's battery life. The researchers have built a PC-based simulation of how a cloaker might work, and suggest that it could be worn like a wristwatch. Maisel,
however, thinks the proposal is unrealistic. In an emergency, the
cloaker might be hard for doctors to find - hidden in the patient's
clothing, for example. "You're asking hundreds of thousands or millions
of people to wear something every day for a theoretical risk."PLS CLICK HERE FOR READ ALL STORY FROM: August 01 PHR Calls for Investigations of CIA "Black" Site on British SoilPHR Calls for Investigations of CIA "Black" Site on British Soil |
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