RS-25 Engine Testing Blazes Forward for Space Launch System
Stennis Space Center MS (SPX) Jan 11, 2015 -
The new year is off to a hot start for NASA's Space Launch System (SLS). The engine that will drive America's next great rocket to deep space blazed through its first successful test Jan. 9 at the agency's Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.
The RS-25, formerly the space shuttle main engine, fired up for 500 seconds on the A-1 test stand at Stennis, providing NASA enginee ...
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NASA Robot Plunges Into Volcano to Explore Fissure
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 08, 2015 -
Volcanoes have always fascinated Carolyn Parcheta. She remembers a pivotal moment watching a researcher take a lava sample on a science TV program video in 6th grade. "I said to myself, I'm going to do that some day," said Parcheta, now a NASA postdoctoral fellow based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Exploring volcanoes is risky business. That's why Parcheta an ...
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Pro-IS hackers take over US Centcom social media accounts
Washington (AFP) Jan 12, 2015 -
A group declaring support for Islamic State jihadists hacked US Central Command's social media accounts on Monday, forcing the military to take down the command's Twitter feed.
In an embarrassing propaganda setback for the US military, a black-and-white banner with the words "CyberCaliphate" and "I love you ISIS" replaced Central Command's usual logo on Twitter and YouTube before the pages w ...
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West facing 'payback' for colonialism, says China paper
Beijing (AFP) Jan 13, 2015 -
The religious and cultural tensions the West faces are "payback" for slavery and colonialism, a Chinese state-run newspaper said Tuesday in the wake of the Islamist attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine.
The editorial in the Global Times newspaper - which often takes a nationalistic tone - dismissed the weekend's huge marches in Paris and elsewhere as "painkillers" that cannot halt the intensif ...
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Russia's Strategic Missile Forces to Conduct Over 100 Drills in 2015
Moscow (Sputnik) Jan 13, 2015 -
The Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) of Russia are planning to conduct over 100 drills at various levels in 2015, SMF spokesperson Col. Igor Yegorov said Sunday.
"In 2015, SMF will conduct over 100 command and staff, tactical and specialized drills. The drills will be conducted in complex and tense conditions," Yegorov told the press.
The spokesperson added that the purpose of the plan ...
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Iran calls for greater Russian role in nuclear talks
Tehran (AFP) Jan 12, 2015 -
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday that a more active role for Russia could speed up talks aimed at sealing a comprehensive deal on Tehran's disputed nuclear programme.
With meetings between Iran and world powers to resume in Geneva on Wednesday, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov was visiting Tehran, with both sides seeking a breakthrough.
"A more acti ...
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SmartRounds intros non-lethal, non-impact stun projectiles for police
Brighton, Colo. (UPI) Jan 12, 2015 -
A line of non-impact, non-lethal projectiles for use by law enforcement and the military was introduced Monday by SmartRounds Technology LLC.
The ShockRound and a PepperRound are 18mm bullets designed for use with 12 gauge shotguns. Each features two solid state sensors - essentially a bullet-borne digital camera - that activate the bullet when it is fired and then activate the bullet ...
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Obama: US focused on 'comprehensive' Iran deal
Washington (AFP) Jan 13, 2015 -
US President Barack Obama told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that America was committed to a "comprehensive" nuclear deal with Iran, and said that Palestinian ICC membership was not "constructive," officials said.
"The United States is focused on reaching a comprehensive deal with Iran that prevents Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon and verifiably assures the international com ...
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Damascus denies nuclear plant report
Damascus (AFP) Jan 12, 2015 -
Syria on Monday denied a report that President Bashar al-Assad's regime is building a secret underground plant with the aim of developing nuclear weapons, state news agency SANA said.
"Syria denies these allegations," said SANA.
It accused German news magazine Der Spiegel of publishing "lies and ridiculous allegations, like the idea that Syria is building a nuclear plant."
Citing inf ...
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USAF awards support contract for space launch and test sites
Dules, Va. (UPI) Jan 12, 2015 -
A joint venture company of Raytheon and General Dynamics is to operate, maintain and sustain U.S. Air Force launch and test ranges in Florida and California.
The $1.5 billion award – the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center's Launch and Test Range System Integrated Support contract – has a one-year base performance period with nine one-year options.
The contract co ...
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Shanghai cancels lantern festival after stampede
Shanghai (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
China's commercial hub Shanghai has cancelled a popular annual outdoor festival over safety concerns, after a New Year's eve stampede in the city killed 36 people.
Organisers called off the lantern festival event at the Yu Gardens "based on considerations of safety," they said on an official microblog on Saturday.
A New Year's stampede on the city's historic waterfront killed at least 36 ...
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World powers jostle for influence in AirAsia plane hunt
Jakarta (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
US and Chinese warships have rushed to help Indonesia search for a crashed AirAsia plane, but analysts say more than altruistic motivations are at play with world powers jostling for influence.
On the surface, the sight of naval vessels from the world's strongest nations sailing close to each other in the Java Sea, with Russian military planes flying above, shows their willingness to unite i ...
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Sierra Leone now has means to control Ebola epidemic
Freetown (AFP) Jan 10, 2015 -
Sierra Leone now has the means to curb the Ebola epidemic, the new head of the UN mission for the fight against the disease and a senior World Health Organization official said Friday.
"Sierra Leone is in much better shape today to control Ebola than it was a few weeks ago," UN Ebola mission chief Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said at a press conference in the capital Freetown Friday, on his firs ...
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US okays Roche test to identify HIV, hepatitis viruses
Geneva (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
US authorities have approved a test developed by Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche that can detect both HIV and hepatitis viruses, the company said Friday.
The Cobas Taqscreen MPX is the only test approved by the US Food and Drug Administration that can simultaneously detect the HIV, hepatitis B and C viruses in human blood and plasma, Roche said.
Having a single test eliminates "the need ...
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Sirisena to be sworn in as Sri Lanka's new president
Colombo (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
Maithripala Sirisena will be sworn in as Sri Lankan president Friday after a shock victory over veteran strongman Mahinda Rajapakse in an election dominated by charges of corruption and growing authoritarianism.
A top aide to Rajapakse said the outgoing president accepted the decision of voters who turned out in force on Thursday, in a remarkable reverse for a leader who had appeared certain ...
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Contaminated equipment behind Cambodia HIV outbreak
Phnom Penh (AFP) Jan 10, 2015 -
A mass HIV outbreak in a Cambodian village was most likely caused by contaminated medical equipment, the World Health Organization and Cambodian health ministry said Saturday.
Hundreds of panicked residents of the remote Roka village in western Battambang province have flocked for testing since news of the infections first emerged in late November.
An unlicensed Cambodian doctor has been ...
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At least 26 US kids die of flu in 'bad' season: officials
Miami (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
A particularly bad flu is sweeping the United States, killing 26 children so far this season and nearly doubling hospitalizations among people over 65 in the past week alone, officials said Friday.
The reason is the predominant strain of flu this year is H3N2, a variety that has shown itself in prior years to be more virulent than other kinds.
Even more, the vaccine that is supposed to p ...
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Five years after quake, cholera epidemic haunts Haiti
Port-Au-Prince (AFP) Jan 10, 2015 -
Five years after an earthquake demolished its capital, Haiti's efforts to get back on its feet are still hampered by an epidemic blamed on the UN troops there to help.
The United Nations has denied legal responsibility for the ongoing cholera outbreak that has killed 8,000 Haitians, but all scientific evidence points to poor sanitation at a peacekeeping base.
Victims of the disease are a ...
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Thousands more poultry culled as bird flu fears grow in Taiwan
Taipei (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
Taiwan on Sunday ordered the slaughter of 16,000 geese and ducks to try to curb a bird flu outbreak that has already led to the culling of 120,000 chickens.
Aauthorities on Friday ordered the culling of the chickens at a farm in the southern county of Pingtung after samples tested positive for H5N2, one of the less virulent strains of avian flu.
Officials Sunday ordered the slaughter of ...
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Brazil drought brews trouble for coffee market
Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Jan 11, 2015 -
Brazil's coffee harvest last year was hit by one the country's worst droughts in decades, with effects on the world's largest producer now threatening to spill over into this year, pushing prices ever higher.
Brazil's 290,000 growers produce around a third of the world's coffee - out-producing the country's nearest competitor, Vietnam, by more than three times.
But last year's total yie ...
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Beating back the desert in Burkina Faso, field by field
Rim, Burkina Faso (AFP) Jan 9, 2015 -
In Burkina Faso, what was once stony semi-wasteland is now covered in verdant crop fields, rescued from relentless desertification.
Using simple agricultural techniques largely spread by word-of-mouth, this tiny West African state has rejuvenated vast stretches of scrubby soil over the past 30 years, proving they are not doomed and giving hope to other vulnerable areas in the region.
One ...
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Mapping snake venom variety reveals unexpected evolutionary pattern
Washington DC (SPX) Jan 11, 2015 -
Venom from an eastern diamondback rattlesnake in the Everglades is distinct from the cocktail of toxins delivered by the same species in the Florida panhandle area, some 500 miles away. But no matter where you go in the Southeastern United States, the venom of the eastern coral snake is always the same.
The results of a large-scale survey of venom variation in the two snake species, publis ...
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Ancient maize followed two paths into the Southwest
Davis CA (SPX) Jan 11, 2015 -
After it was first domesticated from the wild teosinte grass in southern Mexico, maize, or corn, took both a high road and a coastal low road as it moved into what is now the U.S. Southwest, reports an international research team that includes a UC Davis plant scientist and maize expert.
The study, based on DNA analysis of corn cobs dating back over 4,000 years, provides the most comprehen ...
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Algae blooms create their own favorable conditions
Hanover NH (SPX) Jan 11, 2015 -
Fertilizers are known to promote the growth of toxic cyanobacterial blooms in freshwater and oceans worldwide, but a new multi-institution study shows the aquatic microbes themselves can drive nitrogen and phosphorus cycling in a combined one-two punch in lakes.
The findings suggest cyanobacteria - sometimes known as pond scum or blue-green algae - that get a toe-hold in low-to-moderate ...
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Fossils reveal past, and possible future, of polar ice
Gainesville FL (SPX) Jan 11, 2015 -
The balmy islands of Seychelles couldn't feel farther from Antarctica, but their fossil corals could reveal much about the fate of polar ice sheets.
About 125,000 years ago, the average global temperature was only slightly warmer, but sea levels rose high enough to submerge the locations of many of today's coastal cities. Understanding what caused seas to rise then could shed light on how ...
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