Thai coup dims allure of 'Land of Smiles'
Bangkok (AFP) June 07, 2014 -
Thailand's once-booming tourism industry is scrambling to arrest a slump in foreign visitor numbers after a military coup and a night-time curfew tarnished its reputation as the "Land of Smiles".
While most tourists in the Southeast Asian nation barely noticed when the generals suddenly seized power on May 22 in a bloodless coup, the impact is starting to be felt with many hotel rooms in the ...
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Ugandan HIV bill 'nonsensical', says health body
Kampala (AFP) June 06, 2014 -
Uganda's AIDS commission on Friday called an HIV bill passed by parliament "nonsensical", and urged the country's president not to sign it into law.
"My advice to the president is not to sign the bill," Vinand Nantulya, who chairs the Uganda AIDS Commission - a government-run body, told reporters.
Uganda's parliament passed new legislation criminalising the deliberate transmission of HI ...
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New Ichthyosaur Graveyard Found
Boulder CO (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
In a new study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, geoscientists Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of the University of Heidelberg and colleagues document the discovery of forty-six ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs (marine reptiles).
These specimens were discovered in the vicinity of the Tyndall Glacier in the Torres del Paine National Park of southern Chile. Among them are numerous ar ...
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Conserving migratory ungulates in Mongolia's grasslands
Vienna, Austria (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
Mongolian and international conservationists, including researchers from the Vetmeduni Vienna, have joined forces to raise awareness of the global importance of Mongolia's steppes. The Gobi-Steppe Ecosystem is home to a unique diversity of animal and plant species, among them several large migratory mammals.
The scientists recommend reconciling the rapid infrastructure development that is ...
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How Do Phytoplankton Survive a Scarcity of a Critical Nutrient?
Cape Cod MA (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
Phytoplankton-tiny, photosynthetic organisms-are essential to life on Earth, supplying us with roughly half the oxygen we breathe. Like all other life forms, phytoplankton require the element phosphorus to carry out critical cellular activity, but in some parts of the world's ocean, P is in limited supply. How do phytoplankton survive when phosphorus is difficult to find?
Phytoplankton can ...
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Making artificial vision look more natural
Bethesda MD (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
In laboratory tests, researchers have used electrical stimulation of retinal cells to produce the same patterns of activity that occur when the retina sees a moving object. Although more work remains, this is a step toward restoring natural, high-fidelity vision to blind people, the researchers say. The work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.
Just 20 years ago, bionic ...
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Brazil leads the world in reducing carbon emissions
San Francisco CA (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
As the world turns its attention to Brazil with the opening of the World Cup this month, many people around the globe know the country's soccer fame, but few realize that it is the world's leader in reducing carbon emissions. A new study published in Science magazine provides the first in-depth analysis of how Brazil reached this global-leader status and managed to increase its agriculture produ ...
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Looking for the best strategy? Ask a chimp
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
If you're trying to outwit the competition, it might be better to have been born a chimpanzee, according to a study by researchers at Caltech, which found that chimps at the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute consistently outperform humans in simple contests drawn from game theory.
The study, led by Colin Camerer, Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics, and appearing on Ju ...
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Has solar activity influence on the Earth's global warming?
Beijing, China (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
A recent study demonstrates the existence of significant resonance cycles and high correlations between solar activity and the Earth's averaged surface temperature during centuries. This provides a new clue to reveal the phenomenon of global warming in recent years.
Their work, entitled "Periodicities of solar activity and the surface temperature variation of the Earth and their correlatio ...
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Russia crisis boosts EU carbon deal: European Commission
Bonn (AFP) June 06, 2014 -
Worries about energy dependence on Russia have boosted prospects of EU leaders approving a package of proposals to cut carbon emissions by 2030, European Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said Friday.
Speaking to journalists at the latest round of UN climate talks, Hedegaard said the Ukrainian crisis has reinforced convictions that the European Union (EU) must ease its reliance on Russia ...
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Solving sunspot mysteries
Newark NJ (SPX) Jun 04, 2014 -
Multi-wavelength observations of sunspots with the 1.6-meter telescope at in California and aboard NASA's IRIS spacecraft have produced new and intriguing images of high-speed plasma flows and eruptions extending from the Sun's surface to the outermost layer of the solar atmosphere, the corona. Operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), BBSO houses the largest ground-based telescope ...
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Astronomers discover first Thorne-Zytkow object, a bizarre type of hybrid star
Boulder CO (SPX) Jun 05, 2014 -
In a discovery decades in the making, scientists have detected the first of a "theoretical" class of stars first proposed in 1975 by physicist Kip Thorne and astronomer Anna Zytkow. Thorne-Zytkow objects (TZOs) are hybrids of red supergiant and neutron stars that superficially resemble normal red supergiants, such as Betelguese in the constellation Orion. They differ, however, in their distinct ...
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Chandra Captures Galaxy Sparkling in X-rays
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
Nearly a million seconds of observing time with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has revealed a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way glittering with hundreds of X-ray points of light.
The galaxy is officially named Messier 51 (M51) or NGC 5194, but often goes by its nickname of the "Whirlpool Galaxy." Like the Milky Way, the Whirlpool is a spiral galaxy with spectacular arms of stars and ...
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NASA could not deliver humans to Mars
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 09, 2014 -
Landing humans on Mars is unattainable for NASA if the space agency's current strategy and level of funding are not modified in the near future, according to a new congressionally-mandated report. The US National Research Council's 18-month, $3.2 million investigation of NASA projects outlines three potential paths NASA could take it if want to have any chance of landing on Mars.
But the r ...
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Turbulent Black Holes
Waterloo, Canada (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
Fasten your seatbelts - gravity is about to get bumpy. Of course, if you're flying in the vicinity of a black hole, a bit of extra bumpiness is the least of your worries. But it's still surprising. The accepted wisdom among gravitational researchers has been that spacetime cannot become turbulent. New research from Perimeter, though, shows that the accepted wisdom might be wrong.
The resea ...
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Big Brother creators to document Mars One mission
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 09, 2014 -
The Dutch-based nonprofit Mars One, which aims to establish a human settlement on the Red Planet, has announced that it has signed a deal with Darlow Smithson Productions, an Endemol-owned company, to film its astronaut selection and training process.
Multi-award winning factual producer DSP will follow 705 highly motivated candidates, shortlisted from over 200,000 who applied to become fu ...
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Northrop Grumman To Develop Miniaturized Inertial NavSystem
Woodland Hills CA (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
Northrop Grumman has been awarded a contract from the U. S. Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center to develop a miniaturized navigation grade inertial system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
DARPA's Chip-Scale Combinatorial Atomic Navigator (C-SCAN) program aims to integrate micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) and atomic inertial ...
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Massive Beast asteroid to have close call with Earth
Washington (UPI) Jun 7, 2013 -
The so-called Beast asteroid is expected to miss Earth by about 777,000 miles, which is a good thing because the 1,100-foot wide behemoth could do serious damage.
There's no chance the asteroid will hit Earth, scientists say, but at 777,000 miles away - 3.25 times the distance from the Earth to the moon - it's a relatively close call.
The asteroid is about 10 to 20 times bigger ...
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NASA's human spaceflight program doomed to fail: study
Washington (AFP) June 06, 2014 -
The US space agency NASA has been warned that its mission to send humans to Mars will fail unless its revamps its methods and draws up a clear, well-planned strategy to conquer the red planet.
The National Research Council said in a congressionally-mandated report that Washington should use "stepping stones" to achieve its goal of a manned flight to Mars.
This could involve exploring an ...
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Northrop Grumman tapped for new miniature navigation system
Woodland Hills, Calif. (UPI) Jun 6, 2013 -
A miniature inertial navigation system is to be built by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency under an Army contract.
The award is for one year and has an initial value of $648,000. Its potential value, however, would be an estimated at $13.4 million if multiple contract options were exercised.
Northrop said that under the award it will develop ...
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Chatty Japan robot makes friends on first day at work
Tokyo (AFP) June 06, 2014 -
A chatty humanoid robot whose makers claim it can understand people's emotions made its first friends Friday as it struck up conversations with shoppers in Tokyo.
And the device - named Pepper by its designers - proved an effective marketing tool for mobile carrier SoftBank, delighting managers who put it to work collecting customer opinions.
"So you came to meet me today?" asked Peppe ...
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Inmarsat to deliver in-flight connectivity across EU
London, UK (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
Inmarsat is to deploy a unique integrated telecommunications network delivering aviation passenger connectivity across the EU. The company has placed an order for a new S-band satellite, called Europasat, and expects to complement this satellite with a fully integrated air-to-ground network across the European Union.
Inmarsat's new aviation network will deliver high-speed broadband service ...
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Alexander's first week in space
Paris (ESA) Jun 09, 2014 -
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst has now spent a week in space on the International Space Station. As he grows accustomed to floating in weightlessness, he has been busy learning about his new home, taking over experiments, drawing blood, keeping fit and, yes, cleaning the toilet.
Alexander arrived in the early morning 29 May together with NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and Roscosmos commander M ...
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Russia Mulls Privatizing ERA-GLONASS Emergency Network
Moscow (RIA Novosti) Jun 09, 2014 -
The Russian government will consider privatizing the state-owned ERA-GLONASS emergency calls network, according to the Russian newspaper Kommersant.
A source in the know told Kommersant Thursday, a plan to privatize ERA-GLONASS, a real-time satellite service for reporting and responding to traffic accidents, was recently discussed at a Kremlin meeting attended by President Putin's chief of ...
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Barriers to UAVs in US airspace
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 09, 2014 -
While civil aviation is on the threshold of potentially revolutionary changes with the emergence of increasingly autonomous unmanned aircraft, these new systems pose serious questions about how they will be safely and efficiently integrated into the existing civil aviation structure, says a new report from the National Research Council.
The report identifies key barriers and provides a res ...
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