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Sunday, March 3, 2013

Kerry In Egypt Among Bickering Politicians | Albany Tribune News

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds a joint press conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet. State Dept. photo.

By VOA -- (March 2, 2013)

By Edward Yeranian

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Egyptian government officials and a number of opposition politicians Saturday on his maiden visit to Cairo as the new top U.S. diplomat. The visit comes amid political turmoil in the run-up to controversial parliamentary elections scheduled to begin in April.

The visit of the new U.S. secretary of state met with some resistance from opposition political leaders, many of whom accuse Washington of taking sides with Egypt?s ruling Muslim Brotherhood group in the country?s ongoing political tug-of-war.

Mohamed ElBaradei, who heads the opposition National Salvation Front, refused to meet with Kerry, as did two other top leaders, Hamdeen Sabahy and Sayed al-Badawi. Other opposition figures, including Amr Moussa and Ayman Nour exchanged views with the secretary of state.

Arab media, quoting the Turkish Anadolu News Agency, reported that Kerry is trying to broker an agreement between Egypt?s rival politicians to form a national unity government. Opposition leaders are demanding that President Mohamed Morsi form such a government, in exchange for their participation in scheduled elections.

At the same time, the head of Egypt?s electoral commission told journalists Saturday that his office is working to prepare lists of judges and government employees to oversee the vote. He said that an eight-day window will begin next Saturday for candidates to register.

Regional issues, including the conflict in Syria, are also at the top of Secretary Kerry?s agenda as he meets with Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Araby and Egypt?s Foreign Minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr. Meetings with President Morsi and Defense Minister Abdel Fattah Said al-Sissi are expected Sunday.

Kerry?s visit came amid scattered unrest in the country, as opposition protesters in Port Said set fire to a police station Saturday after a police vehicle struck several demonstrators. Egyptian media also reported several casualties following clashes in Mansoura.

Veteran Egyptian editor and publisher Hisham Kassem argues that Kerry?s visit is not likely to break Egypt?s political logjam at a time when Egypt?s political crisis is evolving quickly:

?There is nothing specific that he?s going to be doing here except the meeting with the secretary general of the Arab League over Syria. But, most of the visit will be maybe to help him understand the situation that is not a permanent one and is likely to change in several weeks or so.?

Kassem also does not believe the U.S. is supporting the Islamists against the country?s secular opposition, despite accusations by different opposition groups:

?There is no indicator that the Americans have supported the Islamists in any way. There is no cash that has been transferred. There is no American satellite that has cast a beam on Egyptians heads and made them vote [for the Islamists],? he said. ?What can Americans do on the ground to help the Islamists win an electoral victory? Nothing.?

Kassem accuses the secularists of ?making unfounded accusations? and playing ?amateurish politics.? He argues that U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson ?was worried as to be perceived to be supporting the [secularists], so she made a lot of effort to stay on good terms with the Islamists.?

Source: http://www.albanytribune.com/02032013-kerry-in-egypt-among-bickering-politicians/

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Kyle Busch ends 24-race Nationwide winless streak

Kyle Busch, front leads Austin Dillon, center, and Parker Kligerman into Turn 1 during the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, March 2, 2013, at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz.(AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Kyle Busch leads a line cars out of Turn 4 during the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, March 2, 2013, in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Jamie Dick, front, climbs out of his car following a collision with Johanna Long, left rear, and Alex Bowman, right, on the front stretch on the second lap of the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, March 2, 2013, at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Johanna Long, left, spins form a collision with Alex Bowman, right rear, and Jamie Dick, right front, on the front stretch on the second lap during the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, March 2, 2013, at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

Pit crew members and fans listen to the national anthem before the NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race Saturday, March 2, 2013, at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Paul Connors)

AVONDALE, Ariz. (AP) ? Kyle Busch spun his wheels at the start/finish line for a few extra rotations, filling the track and grandstand with a fog of white smoke.

After waiting so long to win on the Nationwide Series again, it felt like the first time and he was going to enjoy it.

Overcoming a mid-race gaffe on pit road with a dominating performance, Busch led 142 laps at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday to end a 24-race Nationwide winless streak.

"It was a phenomenal day for us to get back to Victory Lane, feel the taste of it again," said Busch, whose last Nationwide win was Sept. 9, 2011 at Richmond. "I was almost nervous, feeling like it was my first win even though it was, I think, No. 52 in the series. It's nice to be back."

Busch had a rough 2012 by his own high standards, finishing 13th in the Sprint Cup standings with just one victory despite leading the second-most laps. He also failed to win in 22 Nationwide races for his own team and came up empty in three trucks races.

Busch signed a deal to stay with Joe Gibbs Racing to drive the No. 18 Sprint Cup car this season and agreed to race for the team on the Nationwide circuit.

He bounced back from a rough start at Daytona in the season opener by earning the pole at Phoenix and was clearly the fastest car all day during the 200-lap race around the mile oval.

Despite a penalty for entering pit road too fast, Busch eclipsed 11,000 career laps during the race and picked up his 52nd Nationwide victory, extending his own record. He's won seven times at Phoenix, including five in the Nationwide Series.

It also was Toyota's 75th Nationwide victory, 41 of those coming with Busch at the wheel.

"He's just gifted behind the wheel, so we're excited about that," JGR president J.D. Gibbs said. "Cup, Nationwide, truck, whatever he races, he's got a gift."

Brad Keselowski finished second and Justin Allgaier overcame body damage on his car from an early wreck to finish third. Trevor Bayne finished fourth, followed by Elliott Sadler.

Keselowski, Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers each led laps, but none of them had a shot at keeping up with Busch.

"It was pretty phenomenal how fast his car was and what he was able to do with it," Keselowski said of Busch.

The Nationwide Series got off to an awful start at Daytona last week, when Tony Stewart's season-opening win was marred by a 12-car crash on the final lap that left at least two dozen fans injured.

The wreck happened as the cars came around for the checkered flag and leader Regan Smith tried to block Keselowski. That triggered a chain reaction that piled up cars and sent rookie Kyle Larson's car airborne into the fence, shearing it into pieces that flew into the grandstand.

Two injured fans remain in the hospital.

The Phoenix race had a crash involving six cars on the fourth lap and 38 laps were under caution during the race on the slick track, but no one was injured.

"It was fun out there, slipping and sliding all over the place," Allgaier said.

Busch led the first 40 laps, but was sent to the back of the pack ? to 23rd ? for entering pit road too fast during a caution. He also overshot his pit stall, thinking it was the last one instead of the one before, but didn't seem bothered once he got back on the track.

"Oh, well, let's make a race of it," he said through the radio. "Let's go get it."

He did, ripping through the field, up to fifth within a few of laps off the restart, past Kenseth for the lead not long after that.

Busch finished 32nd in Daytona due to engine trouble after leading 22 laps, but had no problems down the stretch in the desert.

He dropped to fifth with about 50 laps left when he went into the pits, but was quickly back out front. He wasn't challenged again, finishing nearly 2 seconds ahead of Keselowski at the checkered flag before his smoky celebration that took a while to get going.

"I was a little rusty at the start and I needed help on it, said let me rethink," Busch said. "I went over and got my checkered flag, and it all looked good at the end."

Five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson, who won his second Daytona 500 last week, finished 12th in his first Nationwide race since 2011.

The News-Star

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-02-CAR-NASCAR-Phoenix-Nationwide/id-b4097079984442b8aac84555bdaa374c

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Saturday, March 2, 2013

NASA: SpaceX Dragon capsule to reach ISS on March 3rd at 6:01AM ET

Didn't get enough of the Dragon capsule launch this week? Good news, because after a day's delay due to (now remedied, according to NASA and SpaceX) faults with three clusters of its Draco thrusters, the capsule is set to be grappled by the International Space Station at 6:01AM ET on March 3rd (tomorrow morning). If you'll recall, the mission is mainly aimed at getting refreshed supplies and some experiments up to the space station. As an aside, NASA also notes that Dragon is still set to arrive back on earth for a splashdown on the 25th, as initially planned. If you're up for it, NASA TV coverage starts at 3AM the same say and the final berthing process (actually getting the capsule connected to the ISS) should happen at about 7:30AM -- all that said, initial "orbital manuevers" are set for 2AM, according to a tweet from Elon Musk. For more details on this stage of the mission, including those involved, blast over to the NASA source link below -- and make sure you've got enough coffee ready.

Filed under: Misc, Science, Alt

Comments

Via: The Verge

Source: NASA, SpaceX (Twitter), Elon Musk (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/02/nasa-spacex-dragon-capsule-to-reach-iss-on-march-3rd-at-6-01-et/

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Ethiopian runner wins Jerusalem marathon

Runners pass the Tower of David during the third annual marathon in Jerusalem, Friday, March 1, 2013. Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia has won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

Palestinians hold flags during a demonstration against the third annual marathon in Jerusalem outside the Damascus gate in Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, March 1, 2013. Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia has won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

A man on rollerblades in a Batman costume passes the Tower of David during the third annual marathon in Jerusalem, Friday, March 1, 2013. Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia has won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man looks at runners in Jerusalem's old city during the annual marathon in Jerusalem, Friday, March 1, 2013. Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia has won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

JERUSALEM (AP) ? Abraham Kabeto Ketla of Ethiopia has won the third Jerusalem marathon, setting a record for the race. About 20,000 runners took part despite protests by Palestinians.

Ketla finished in 2 hours, 16 minutes and 29 seconds Friday, beating the record by three minutes.

Luka Kipkemoi Chelimo of Kenya was second at 2:19:02. Vincent Kiplagat Kiptoo of Kenya finished third.

Mihiret Anamo Anotonios of Ethiopia set a record in the women's race with 2:47:26. Radiya Mohammed Roba of Ethiopia was second with 3:05:58.

Palestinians called for a boycott of the marathon because it passed through east Jerusalem, which they claim for a future capital. Palestinians held a small protest without disrupting the race, police said.

Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war. It claims the whole city as its capital.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-01-ML-Jerusalem-Marathon/id-30b47bbe7c674da28c46c44985c43f58

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Friday, March 1, 2013

Millionaire plans to send couple to Mars in 2018. Is that realistic?

The Inspiration Mars Foundation, led by space tourist and multimillionaire Dennis Tito, announces its plan to send a married couple on a flyby mission to the Red Planet beginning in 2018.?

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / February 27, 2013

A drawing provided by the Inspiration Mars Foundation shows an artist?s conception of a spacecraft envisioned by the private group, which wants to send a married couple on a mission to fly by the red planet and zip back home, beginning in 2018.

Inspiration Mars/AP

Enlarge

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy charged NASA with putting humans on the moon within the decade. Now, the world's first space tourist, multimillionaire Dennis Tito, formally unveiled plans to send two humans to Mars and back on a nonstop, 501-day mission, with the launch envisioned for January 2018.

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The audacious project, which Mr. Tito is bankrolling out-of-pocket for the first two years, is driven by a mixture of motives: part America first, part research, and an enormous dash of what he and his partners hope will be inspiration to a nation whose government space program is caught between tight budgets and an unclear direction for its human spaceflight effort.

NASA's current plans don't call for a human mission to Mars for more than a decade.

The Mars flyby mission announcement came Wednesday, shortly after the House Subcommittee on Space held hearings on the Space Leadership Preservation Act, a bill that would overhaul the way NASA is funded and how its leadership is structured.

During the hearing, Rep. Chris Stewart (R) of Utah spoke of goals for NASA and said, "It will be disappointing to some of us if Google goes to Mars before the government."

In this case, however, it's not Internet titan Google spearheading the mission, but the Inspiration Mars Foundation, a nonprofit group Tito and others established to execute the project.

A team from the foundation is presenting the results of a mission-feasibility study next weekend at an Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineering (IEEE) aerospace conference in Big Sky, Mont.

"All of the work done to date show the mission is possible, just barely," said Taber MacCallum, CEO and chief technology officer for Paragon Space Development Corporation and the Inspiration Mars Foundation's chief technology officer, during a press conference in Washington on Wednesday.

At the same time, however, the study also shows that it will take the Orion capsule and the space-launch system NASA is working on to pull off a mission to explore Mars with a crew of scientists, he said.

The Inspiration Mars mission is an austere one whose schedule is dictated by a very favorable alignment between Earth and Mars in 2018. The alignment allows a simple round trip to take 501 days, and the alignment won't appear again until 2031.

The two-member crew, a man and a woman, would launch Jan. 5, 2018, take one swing around Mars, coming to within 100 miles of the surface on Aug. 21, then return to Earth in an approach and reentry no one has tried before, landing on May 21, 2019.

In a version of the feasibility?study papered for?the IEEE presentation next Sunday, Tito and colleagues from three aerospace companies, NASA's Ames Research Center, and Baylor University's Center for Space Medicine in Houston envision a Spartan craft where sponge baths replace showers and the crew will recycle water and oxygen with technologies similar to those used on the International Space Station.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/science/~3/ZEDJ6a1i46U/Millionaire-plans-to-send-couple-to-Mars-in-2018.-Is-that-realistic

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Private groups respond to asteroid scare

NASA is slated to get some help in the search for potentially hazardous asteroids, which is probably a positive thing considering the space-rock drama that unfolded earlier this month.

On Feb. 15, a fireball exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk, damaging thousands of buildings and wounding 1,200 people. Hours later, the 130-foot-wide (40 meters) asteroid 2012 DA14 missed Earth by just 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers), coming closer than the ring of geosynchronous satellites circling our planet.

While astronomers had predicted 2012 DA14's close flyby, the Russian fireball caught them (and the residents of Chelyabinsk) completely off guard. The powerful explosion highlights the need for more intensive asteroid-detection efforts going forward, many researchers say.

The "meteor explosion over Chelyabinsk is a wake-up call that the Earth orbits the sun in a shooting gallery of asteroids, and that these asteroids sometimes hit the Earth," former astronaut Ed Lu, chairman and CEO of the nonprofit B612 Foundation, wrote in a blog post after the fireball. "We have the technology to deflect asteroids, but we cannot do anything about the objects we don?t know exist." [Russian Fireball: All You Need to Know (Video)]

NASA-backed ground-based searches have spotted the vast majority of potentially dangerous near-Earth objects to date. But the B612 Foundation aims to join the hunt soon, and a pair of asteroid-mining firms hope their efforts also help keep our planet safe from marauding space rocks.

Undiscovered asteroids

Mapping out the orbits of near-Earth asteroids is a big job. Astronomers think 1 million or more such space rocks are out there, and just 9,700 have been identified to date.

The good news is that NASA already has a handle on the biggest, most dangerous asteroids ? the ones at least 0.6 miles (1 km) wide, which might end human civilization if they hit us. Researchers have now identified roughly 95 percent of the 980 behemoths thought to cruise through Earth's neighborhood, and none of them pose an impact risk for the foreseeable future.

But the numbers get worse as the asteroids get smaller. Scientists have detected less than 30 percent of the 4,700 or so 330-footers (100 m) that come uncomfortably close at some point in their orbits. Such space rocks could destroy an area the size of a state if they slammed into Earth.

And less than 1 percent of asteroids the size of 2012 DA14 or bigger have been identified, B612 officials say. These space rocks can cause severe damage on a local scale, as the 1908 "Tunguska event" shows.

That year, a 130-foot-wide object exploded over Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River, flattening roughly 825 square miles (2,137 square km) of forest. [Asteroid 2012 DA14's Close Flyby (Photos)]

A civilian space telescope

What's really needed to make a dent in these numbers is a dedicated asteroid-hunting space telescope that would scan the sky in infrared light from a Venus-like orbit, said B612 co-founder and chair emeritus Rusty Schweickart.

Such a spacecraft could peer outward at Earth's neighborhood without having to contend with the sun's overwhelming glare, allowing many more space rocks to be detected.

Over the years, a variety of different studies and advisory groups have recommended that NASA mount such a mission, Schweickart told SPACE.com. But the agency hasn't had the funding to get it done, so the B612 Foundation decided to take action.

"We looked at the situation and said, 'Look, this is really the most important missing element, and it does not look as though ? given the chemistry in Washington and the priorities that NASA has and the total circumstance ? that this was going to get done anytime soon,'" said Schweickart, who is a former Apollo astronaut. "So we looked at that and said, 'Why don't we take that on?'"

The result is B612's infrared Sentinel space telescope, which the group plans to launch toward a Venus-like orbit in 2018.

In about 5 1/2 years of operation, Sentinel should detect 500,000 near-Earth asteroids, including the rest of the mountain-size space rocks and more than 50 percent of the 130-footers, B612 officials have said. The goal is to find big, dangerous asteroids several decades before they may hit us, giving humanity enough lead time to mount a?deflection mission.

Private funds will pay for the Sentinel mission, which will likely end up costing around $450 million.

Asteroid miners join in

Sentinel won't be the only civilian space telescope scanning for incoming space rocks, if an asteroid-mining firm's plans work out.

Planetary Resources, which counts Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt among its financial backers, says its fleet of prototype asteroid-prospecting spacecraft should aid in the search as well. The company aims to launch the first of these telescopes, known as Arkyd-100s, in 2014 or 2015.

The technology Planetary Resources develops to characterize and mine space rocks will also help protect Earth "by giving us the infrastructure to routinely and swiftly interact with and move asteroids, like 2012 DA14, which could someday pose a threat to Earth," company co-founder and co-chair Peter Diamandis said in a statement.

Planetary Resources' asteroid-mining rival, Deep Space Industries, is planning to launch its own prospecting craft, known as Fireflies, beginning in 2015. Fireflies could examine potentially dangerous asteroids up close, gleaning insights about their composition that may be vital to deflection efforts, company officials say.

"Placing 10 of our small Firefly spacecraft into position to intercept close encounters would take four years and less than $100 million," Deep Space CEO David Gump said in a statement. "This will help the world develop the understanding needed to block later threats."

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall?or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?and?Google+.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-hunt-private-groups-join-search-dangerous-space-191806767.html

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Freescale fashions world's smallest ARM-powered microcontroller

If you're looking for an exceedingly tiny ARM-based microcontroller, Freescale says it's just cooked up the world's smallest. Dubbed the Kinetis KL02, the piece of kit is 25 precent smaller than the previous record-holder and measures up at a 1.9 x 2.00 x 0.56 millimeters. Having trouble visualizing exactly how small that is? Just take a gander at the photo above. A 48 MHz ARM Cortex-M0+ processor has made it onto the wafer-level chip-scale package and it's paired with 32KB of flash memory and 4KB of RAM. The outfit reckons it'll be a good match for 'internet of things' devices that are tight on space, and says it beats its older L Series kin in power efficiency. Manufacturer sampling for the KL02 is slated for March, while wide availability is penciled in for July, and it'll set buyers back 75 cents a piece when purchased in 100,000-unit loads. Hit the jump for more details in the press release.

Filed under: Misc

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Source: Freescale

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/27/freescale-worlds-smallest-arm-powered-microcontroller/

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