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bananas's JournalU.S. Air Force Prepares to Send SpaceX Stock Into Orbit
U.S. Air Force Prepares to Send SpaceX Stock Into Orbit
By Rich Smith | More Articles
May 23, 2015 | Comments (2)
It's official now -- SpaceX is a contender.
Last week, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration officially "certified" SpaceX as one of its preferred contractors, allowing the upstart space launch company to bid against the United Launch Alliance (ULA) of Boeing (NYSE: BA ) and Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) on almost every kind of space mission in NASA's inventory. As reported on SpaceflightNow.com, SpaceX will from here on out be able to bid on "medium-risk" missions, including the launching of "most" Earth observation satellites and "many" interplanetary probes aboard SpaceX Falcon 9 lift vehicles.
SpaceX's new "Category 2" certification does not, however, allow the company to bid on any "multibillion-dollar interplanetary flagship missions." (Yet.) For the time being, only ULA, with its Atlas V and Delta II rockets, and Orbital ATK (NYSE: OA ) , which flies the Pegasus XL rocket, are allowed to bid on such "Category 3" projects.
What's next for SpaceX?
You might expect the answer to this question to be "Category 3, of course!" But in fact, SpaceX has one more trophy to collect before seeking Cat-3 certification from NASA. This one will come from the U.S. Air Force -- and it could be worth even more than NASA's Cat-3 stamp of approval.
As confirmed by the Air Force Times earlier this month, SpaceX is entering the final lap in its race to win Air Force certification to launch some of America's most sensitive spy satellites into orbit. Testifying before Congress last month, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James confirmed she is confident that SpaceX's Falcon 9 will win certification by June -- in time to compete against ULA for at least two Air Force space launches this year, and more in years to come.
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Secret Bank of England taskforce investigates financial fallout of Brexit
Secret Bank of England taskforce investigates financial fallout of Brexit
News of undercover project emerges after Bank staff accidentally email details to the Guardian including PR notes on how to deny its existence
A secret Bank of England taskforce is researching the possible financial shocks of the UK’s exit from the EU. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images
Phillip Inman Economics correspondent
Friday 22 May 2015 14.11 EDT
Bank of England officials are secretly researching the financial shocks that could hit Britain if there is a vote to leave the European Union in the forthcoming referendum.
The Bank blew its cover on Friday when it accidentally emailed details of the project – including how the bank intended to fend off any inquiries about its work – direct to the Guardian.
According to the confidential email, the press and most staff in Threadneedle Street must be kept in the dark about the work underway, which has been dubbed Project Bookend.
It spells out that if anyone asks about the project, the taskforce must say the investigation has nothing to do with the referendum, saying only that staff are involved in examining “a broad range of European economic issues” that concern the Bank.
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When 'sati' became McMindfulness, something got lost in translation
When ‘sati’ became McMindfulness, something got lost in translation
Many of the benefits of mindfulness are little more than hype.
Denyse O'Leary | May 5 2015
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The term “mindfulness” is said to have originated in 1881, with a British magistrate in Ceylon, who began to learn about Buddhist culture while adjudicating disputes between clergy. He considered it an approximate translation for a Buddhist concept sati, which cannot be defined in words, only understood in experience.
It is a reasonable assumption that, in a pragmatic secular culture, the further the concept strays from its original indefiniteness the more likely it will warp into something like “McMindfulness.” That’s the main concern with the “mindfulness” programs sweeping corporate America and finding their way into military training and prisons as well. Sati may be hard to define but the goals of business, the military, and prisons are not (or should not be). So the potential for losing the plot is obvious.
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And as commentator Matthieu Ricard, notes,
It is a bit too optimistic to take for granted that the practice of mindfulness will automatically make you a more caring person. A calm and clear mind is not, in and of itself, a guarantee for ethical behavior. There can be mindful snipers and mindful psychopaths who maintain a calm and stable mind. But there can not be caring snipers and caring psychopaths.
Such criticisms of mindfulness meditation are not necessarily aimed at the practice itself—which has brought acknowledged benefits to many—but rather at hype and pop culture travesties. Especially those that are marketed in an authoritarian setting such as the military or prisons, or the lifetime jeopardy game of high corporate business. To say nothing of “self-enlightenment” projects that attempt to evade the demanding life and attitude changes that a more orthodox therapy might require.
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How A Machine Learned To Spot Depression
How A Machine Learned To Spot Depression
By Stacey Vanek Smith | NPR
Thursday, May 21, 2015
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I'm in a booth with a computer program called Ellie. She's on a screen in front of me.
Ellie was designed to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder and depression, and when I get into the booth she starts asking me questions — about my family, my feelings, my biggest regrets.
Emotions seem really messy and hard for a machine to understand. But Skip Rizzo, a psychologist who helped design Ellie, thought otherwise.
When I answer Ellie's questions, she listens. But she doesn't process the words I'm saying. She analyzes my tone. A camera tracks every detail of my facial expressions.
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Legal Marijuana Cultivation Is Driving A Technology 'Revolution' In Industrial Agriculture
Legal Marijuana Cultivation Is Driving A Technology 'Revolution' In Industrial Agriculture
By Maria Gallucci on May 17 2015
Deep within a cedar forest in British Columbia, Dan Sutton is building what he hopes will be the most energy-efficient, high-technology greenhouse for growing cannabis. Spurred by the booming market for medical marijuana, he and a group of biologists and engineers have experimented for almost three years with digital sensors, lighting arrays, software programs and ventilators to design a greenhouse system with the lowest energy costs and highest crop yields.
“We said, ‘Let’s assume everything that’s ever been done in cannabis cultivation is wrong, and we have to build from the ground up,’” said Sutton, the 28-year-old managing director of Tantalus Labs in Vancouver. “We have this broad realm of science that no one has been able to previously explore.”
The startup is among a growing number of companies in North America designing new products and systems specifically for the cultivation of cannabis, a finicky crop that needs a precise balance of light, moisture and water to thrive. Although these cannabis ventures aren’t exactly reinventing the wheel -- greenhouse technologies have existed for decades -- they are injecting the kinds of capital and brainpower into the field of industrial agriculture that simply wasn’t there a decade ago.
They’re also adding a new level of urgency. As more countries and U.S. states soften their policies on both medical and recreational marijuana, companies are racing to become the industry leaders in data-mining software, ultraefficient lamps and water-sipping irrigation systems. These tools will benefit more than marijuana growers alone: Industrial food producers and tree growers could adapt the same technologies to cut energy costs and boost their crops. Operators of large buildings could use the systems to lower their electricity use.
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This technology will also be important for Mars colonies
Japan takes South Korea to WTO over Fukushima-related food import restrictions
Source: Reuters
Japan launched a trade complaint at the World Trade Organization on Thursday to challenge South Korea's import bans and additional testing requirements for Japanese food after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
South Korea expressed regret at Japan’s action and said its ban on some Japanese seafood was necessary and reflected safety concerns.
Japan says several measures taken by South Korea violate the WTO's sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) agreement and Seoul has failed to justify its trade restrictions as required, the WTO said in a statement.
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"In upcoming talks with Japan, we plan to explain fully that the import ban is necessary for people's safety, and actively deal with Japan over the issue they raised based upon WTO's dispute settlement procedures," South Korea’s trade, agriculture, foreign affairs and other related ministries said in a joint statement.
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Read more: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/japan-takes-south-korea-wto-over-fukushima-related-130125131--business.html
I hope South Korea wins.
This is another reason to be against the TPP.
John Glenn: Evolution should be taught in schools
Source: Associated Press
John Glenn, who declared as a 77-year-old in a news conference from space that “to look out at this kind of creation out here and not believe in God is to me impossible,” says facts about scientific discovery should be taught in schools — and that includes evolution.
The astronaut, now 93 with fading eyesight and hearing, told The Associated Press in a recent interview that he sees no contradiction between believing in God and believing in evolution.
“I don’t see that I’m any less religious by the fact that I can appreciate the fact that science just records that we change with evolution and time, and that’s a fact,” said Glenn, a Presbyterian. “It doesn’t mean it’s less wondrous and it doesn’t mean that there can’t be some power greater than any of us that has been behind and is behind whatever is going on.”
Glenn — the first American to orbit the Earth, a former U.S. senator, a onetime Democratic presidential candidate, flier of combat planes in two wars, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom — ruminated on many other topics in the interview last week with the AP, including:
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Read more: http://www.limaohio.com/news/home_top-news/153619668/John-Glenn:-Evolution-should-be-taught-in-schools
California joins other states, provinces in climate change agreement
Source: Los Angeles Times
Gov. Jerry Brown signed an agreement Tuesday with leaders from 11 other states and countries pledging cooperation to battle climate change.
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The agreement includes the states of Oregon, Washington and Vermont, as well as the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario in Canada, the states of Baja California and Jalisco in Mexico, and the British country of Wales. Also involved are states and provinces in Brazil, Germany, and Spain.
"We will strive to bring more states into this agreement," Brown said at the event.
Although the terms are not legally binding, by signing the agreement the leaders are committing to specific targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. At that point, emissions would either need to be at least 80% below 1990 levels, or less than 2 metric tons per capita.
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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/political/la-me-pc-jerry-brown-california-international-climate-change-20150519-story.html
Mort Sahl explains what a "Social Democrat" is.
A lot of people have been wondering what a "Social Democrat" is.
Mort Sahl gave a good explanation back in 1967.
Morton Lyon "Mort" Sahl (born May 11, 1927) is a Canadian-born American comedian and actor, widely considered the first modern stand-up comedian. He was the first comedian to dress casually and speak about current events in a matter-of-fact style. He helped to get Lenny Bruce some gigs at the hungry i, and occasionally wrote jokes for speeches delivered by President John F. Kennedy.[1][2] Sahl got deeply involved in the post-Warren Commission investigation of Kennedy's death.
An interview with a 16-year-old who created something beautiful after losing her dad.
Why Can’t I Be You: Genevieve Liu
An interview with a 16-year-old who created something beautiful after losing her dad.
05/19/2015
Genevieve Liu is a 16-year-old high school sophomore from Chicago, Illinois, where she lives with her mom and younger brother and sister. Last year, she founded an organization and website called Surviving Life After a Parent Dies (aka SLAP’D) to give teenagers who are grieving the loss of a parent, or both parents, a place to talk to each other about what they’re going through, and to provide them resources and professional support. SLAP’D came about when Genevieve was 13 and first processing her own grief over the death of her dad, Dr. Donald Liu, who drowned saving two boys from a strong current in Lake Michigan.
We call this series “Why Can’t I Be You,” and though I can’t imagine what it’s like to “be” someone who has lost a parent, I admire Genevieve immensely for creating something that is helping grieving teens, including herself. Here’s what she has to say about it.
LENA: Hi, is this Genevieve? This is Lena calling from Rookie.
Oh, awesome! I’m excited to get your call.
Genevieve, before we get started—how do you pronounce your name?
John-vee-ev. It’s the French way of pronouncing Genevieve.
Thank you! OK, let’s talk about when you started working on SLAP’D.
A little over six months after my dad died, I knew that I wanted to do something for teens [who were also grieving for their parents]. Even though I had an incredible community here in Chicago, I still felt very alone, and like no one really understood. I had friends who were my everything, but I felt like I couldn’t relate to them very well anymore. I felt like I couldn’t reach out to my siblings in many ways because they were still trying to figure things out. Talking to the guidance counselor was awkward. It was awful. The people who were most helpful to talk to were teens who were in a similar situation. So that’s the concept—the hope for connection, and to foster a sense of community. I guess it started as, Let’s make a blog. But then it really evolved into something a lot more interactive—more of a community and an online resource for teens who have lost a parent, which is what SLAP’D is now. I started working on it a year and a half ago, but the website only really came to fruition about a year ago.
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