Tag Archives: foxnews.com

October 8, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Air Force Buys New Planes – Immediately Junks Them

The Air Force spent $567 million to buy new cargo planes it does not need.  They are going straight from the assembly line out to the Arizona desert to be stored with the surplus planes.  Nice to know there is NOWHERE to cut the federal budget to help the deficit, only higher taxes will do.  (heavy dose of sarcasm intended) Oh, and the manufacturing did not pay for jobs here, they were made in Italy.

New Air Force cargo planes fly straight into mothballs

Published October 07, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • C27J.jpg

    There’s nothing wrong with the C-27J, it’s just that the Pentagon doesn’t want it given budget constraints.

The Pentagon is sending $50 million cargo planes straight from the assembly line to mothballs because it has no use for them, yet it still hasn’t stopped ordering the aircraft, according to a report.

A dozen nearly new Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard,” and five more currently under construction are likely headed for the same fate, according to an investigation by the Dayton Daily News.  The Air Force has spent $567 million on 21 of the planes since 2007, according to purchasing officials at Dayton’s Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Of those, 16 have been delivered – with almost all sent directly to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, where some 4,400 aircraft and 13 aerospace vehicles, with a total value of more than $35 billion, sit unused.

The C-27J has the unique capability of taking off and landing on crude runways, Ethan Rosenkranz, national security analyst at the Project on Government Oversight, told the newspaper. But with sequestration dictating Pentagon cuts, the planes were deemed a luxury it couldn’t afford.

“When they start discarding these programs, it’s wasteful,” he said.

The planes are built by Rome-based Alenia Aermacchi, under what was initially a $2 billion contract, though that was scaled back.

Local politics appear to have played a role in the planes continued manufacture, according to the newspaper. Ohio’s senators, Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman, were both defenders of the C-27J when 800 jobs and a mission at Mansfield Air National Guard Base depended on it. Brown urged the military in a 2011 letter to purchase up to 42 of the aircraft, saying too few planes “will weaken our national and homeland defense.” Congress pulled the plug on the broader expenditure.

But canceling orders for planes already being built is not feasible — even if they are not needed, according to Air Force spokesman Darryl Mayer.

“They are too near completion for a termination to be cost effective and other government agencies have requested the aircraft,” Mayer told the paper.

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October 7, 2013 · 5:35 pm

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani girl shot by Taliban, under new death threat

Tell me again why the United States should get rid of evil Middle Eastern tyrants to replace them with theologies like this… Regardless of your faith, please join me in praying for this young lady whose only crime is advocating for women to be able to receive educations.

Malala Yousafzai, Pakistani girl shot by Taliban, under new death threat

Published October 07, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • Malala Honored Harvar_Leff.jpg

    Sept. 27, 2013 – Malala Yousafzai addresses students and faculty after receiving the 2013 Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The Pakistani teenager, an advocate for education for girls, survived a Taliban assassination attempt last year on her way home from school. (AP)

Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who inspired the world after surviving a Taliban bullet to the head, has again been targeted for death by the militant group.

Nearly a year after Malala was almost murdered by the Pakistan Taliban for defying a ban on female education, one of its leaders told the Daily Telegraph she’s still not safe.

“We are not against Malala herself but we are against her ideology,” Shahidullah Shahid told The Telegraph by telephone from an unknown location.

“Anyone who campaigns against our religion and criticizes Islam, like she is doing with her secular ideology, is our enemy and so we will target her again, and again,” Shahid added.

Malala, who is now 16, was shot in the head on October 9, 2012, while riding a bus from school in her home town of Mingora. A fierce supporter of girls’ education, she chronicled Taliban abuses and the challenges of daily life under Islamic rule in a blog, which made her a target.

“She accepted that she attacked Islam so we tried to kill her, and if we get another chance we will definitely kill her and that will make us feel proud. Islam prohibits killing women, but except those that support the infidels in their war against our religion,” Shahid said, according to a Sky News report.

Malala was flown to England after the shooting for extensive surgeries to repair her skull. Joined by her family, she now lives in Birmingham, England, where she returned to school in March and has been writing a book.

“I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up For Education And Was Shot By The Taliban,” will be released Tuesday, a day before the anniversary of her attack.

The teenager has received worldwide attention and praise from human rights groups for her outspoken stand on education. The latest Taliban comments follow efforts by Islamic militants to limit public criticism with a series of lengthy press releases attempting to justify why they shot a 15-year-old girl and two of her friends.

A senior Taliban commander wrote an open letter to Malala in July, expressing regret that he hadn’t warned her to end her campaign. “When you were attacked it was shocking for me. I wished it would never happened and I had advised you before,” wrote Adnan Rasheed, according to the Telegraph.

Malala spoke to the BBC recently about what she’ll do after completing her education.

“I will be a politician in my future. I want to change the future of my country and I want to make education compulsory,” she said. “I hope that a day will come [when] the people of Pakistan will be free, they will have their rights, there will be peace and every girl and every boy will be going to school.”

Malala is in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize, which will be announced Friday.

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October 3, 2013 · 3:56 pm

MIT, Harvard scientists accidentally create real-life lightsaber

MIT, Harvard scientists accidentally create real-life lightsaber

Published September 29, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • Star Wars Light Saber Fight

    Luke Skywalker engages in a perilous lightsaber duel with Darth Vader in ‘Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back.’ (LUCAS FILMS/ZUMA PRESS)

The force is clearly with them.

In a reported first, researchers at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a newfangled technology that theoretically could be used to construct an actual lightsaber.

Until now, photons, or the mass-less particles that constitute light, were thought to not interact, but rather simply pass through each other, just two beams of luminescence during a laser-light show.

“The physics of what’s happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies.”

– Mikhail Lukin, Harvard physics professor 

But according to the Harvard Gazette, scientists at the Harvard-MIT Center for Ultracold Atoms have improbably coaxed photons into hardened molecules you could, in fact, whack against each other in, say, a Bespin-based duel-to-the-death resulting in one person, sadly, losing a hand.

As a lightsaber-wielding Darth Vader once notably noted, “Don’t make me destroy you . . .”

“It’s not an inapt analogy to compare this to lightsabers,” Harvard professor of physics Mikhail Lukin told the Gazette.

“When these photons interact with each other, they’re pushing against and deflecting each other. The physics of what’s happening in these molecules is similar to what we see in the movies.”

Added MIT Professor of Physics Vladan Vuletic in an interview with WBZ-TV, “It has long been a dream to have photons of light beams interact with one another. . .We use laser beams and shine them in from six sides and these laser beams actually cool the atoms.

“Maybe a characteristic of a lightsaber is that you have these two light beams and they don’t go through each other as you might expect; they just kind of bounce off each other.”

However, don’t expect the new technology to soon result in a real-life, proverbial “elegant weapon for a more civilized age,” as exiled Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobe once put it.

Instead, the science behind the recent breakthrough will likely lead researchers to realizing the till-now coveted concept of quantum computing.

“What it will be useful for we don’t know yet,” Lukin reportedly said. “But it’s a new state of matter, so we are hopeful that new applications may emerge as we continue to investigate these photonic molecules’ properties.”

Now, if science would only allow the would-be smugglers out there to get their hands on a trusty blaster.

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October 2, 2013 · 1:02 pm

Beaver butts emit goo used in vanilla flavored foods

Beaver butts emit goo used in vanilla flavored foods

Published October 02, 2013

FoxNews.com
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    Beavers are among the largest of the rodents. (JOEL SARTORE/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC)

Next time you pick up a vanilla candy, think twice. A chemical compound used in vanilla flavored foods and scents comes from the butt of a beaver.

Castoreum comes from a beaver’s castor sacs, located between the pelvis and base of the tail. Due to its proximity to the anal glands, the slimy brown substance is often mixed with gland secretions and urine.

“I lift up the animal’s tail,” Joanne Crawford, a wildlife ecologist at Southern Illinois University told National Geographic. “I’m like, ‘Get down there, and stick your nose near its bum.'”

“People think I’m nuts,” she added. “I tell them, ‘Oh, but it’s beavers; it smells really good.'”

Beavers use the brown slime, often compared to a thinner version of molasses, to mark their territory. The musky, vanilla scent is attributed to a beaver’s diet of bark and leaves.

Manufacture have been using castoreum as an additive in foods and perfumes for at least 80 years, according to a 2007 study in theInternational Journal of Toxicology.

But getting a beaver to emit castoreum is not easy. Foodies are willing to “milk” the animals in order to get their hands on the gooey substance.

“You can milk the anal glands so you can extract the fluid,” Crawford said. “You can squirt [castoreum] out. It’s pretty gross.”

Only 292-pounds per year is collected because the milking method is unpleasant for all parties involved.

And the worst part? The FDA-approved castoreum is not required to be listed as an ingredient on food items. Manufacturers may list “natural flavoring” instead.

Perhaps a bit too natural for us.

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September 28, 2013 · 3:00 pm

NASA abandons hope for failing Kepler space telescope

NASA abandons hope for failing Kepler space telescope

Published August 15, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • NASA Kepler Space Telescope

    An artist’s interpretation of the Kepler observatory in space. (NASA)

  • Newly discovered planets named Kepler-62e and -f

    Two newly discovered planets named Kepler-62e and -f. Scientists using NASA’s Kepler telescope found the distant planets, which they say are in the right place and are the right size for potential life. (AP PHOTO/HARVARD SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS)

Efforts to save a $600 million tool in NASA’s quest for life elsewhere in the universe have been unsuccessful, the space agency said — but there’s still life left in the robotic planet hunter.

In May, a specialized gyroscopic wheel used to point the Kepler Space Telescope toward the sun failed, the second such failed wheel. And despite months of analysis and testing, the spacecraft will never be restored to working order. But despite the breakdown, Kepler has proven a remarkable success, NASA said.

“Kepler has made extraordinary discoveries in finding exoplanets including several super-Earths in the habitable zone,” said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “Knowing that Kepler has successfully collected all the data from its prime mission, I am confident that more amazing discoveries are on the horizon.”

NASA said its efforts will now turn to making the most of the research craft while it still can.

‘I’m confident that more amazing discoveries are on the horizon.’

– John Grunsfeld, associate administrator, NASA’s science mission directorate 

Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water. Launched in 2009, it has discovered thousands of such planets, including a pair just 1,200 light years away.

Called Kepler-62-e and Kepler-62-f, the news of their discovery came in April. But shortly after, Kepler’s mission ran into trouble.

Kepler is powered by four solar panels, and the spacecraft must execute a 90-degree roll every 3 months to reposition them toward the sun while keeping its eye precisely aimed. Kepler launched with four wheels to control that motion — two of them have now failed.

On Aug. 8, engineers conducted a system-level performance test to evaluate Kepler’s current capabilities. They determined that the wheel which failed last year can no longer provide the precision pointing necessary for science data collection. The spacecraft was returned to its point rest state, which is a stable configuration where Kepler uses thrusters to control its pointing with minimal fuel use.

“At the beginning of our mission, no one knew if Earth-size planets were abundant in the galaxy. If they were rare, we might be alone,” said William Borucki, Kepler science principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. “Now at the completion of Kepler observations, the data holds the answer to the question that inspired the mission: Are Earths in the habitable zone of stars like our sun common or rare?”

Kepler will continue working, and NASA will look to reduce fuel consumption to extend the lifespan of the spacecraft. For example, a different mode of steering Kepler will enable NASA to extend its life by years, explained Charles Sobeck, deputy project manager with Ames Research Center.

“We’re not down and out. The spacecraft is safe, it is stable,” Sobeck said in May. And regardless, Kepler is already a win for NASA.

“The mission itself has been spectacularly successful,” he added. Most other scientists agree.

The quest for “exoplanets” has generated enormous interest among the public and with scientists. And it will continue. A second mission will launch in 2017 and will use the same method that Kepler has used to continue the mission; it will seek the closest exoplanet — which may be under two dozen light years away.

The James Webb Space Telescope will also help in the quest for life in the universe.

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September 27, 2013 · 5:53 am

Human Smurf Dies from Heart Condition

Man with completely blue skin dies at 62

Published September 25, 2013

FoxNews.com

Paul Karason, a man made famous after his skin turned permanently blue 15 years ago, has passed away at 62 after suffering a heart attack, according to The Christian Post.

Karason’s skin turned blue after he used colloidal silver, a liquid made by extracting silver from metal, to treat his dermatitis – a condition that causes swollen, red and itchy skin. Karason reportedly drank the silver-based remedy and rubbed it on his skin.

“The change was so gradual that I didn’t perceive it and other people around me likewise,” said Karason in an earlier interview. “It wasn’t until a friend I hadn’t seen in several months came by my parent’s place to see me and he asked me, ‘What did you do?’”

After turning blue, Karason led a reclusive life until appearing on the Today show in 2008.

Karason suffered from heart problems and underwent a triple bypass five years ago, according to the Christian Post. He had also recently suffered a bout of severe pneumonia and a stroke.

The use of colloidal silver in oral drugs has since been banned by the FDA, according to the National Institute of Health.

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September 24, 2013 · 4:00 pm

California college bars student from handing out copies of Constitution

California college bars student from handing out copies of Constitution

Published September 19, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • modesto.jpg

    Robert Van Tuinen was stopped from passing out copies of the Constitution at Modesto Junior College.

The Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, but don’t try to pass out copies of it at Modesto Junior College in California.

A student at the school who tried to pass out pocket-size pamphlets of the very document that memorializes our rights got shut down on Sept. 17 – a date also known as Constitution Day.

Campus authorities told 25-year-old Robert Van Tuinen, who caught the whole thing on videotape, he could only pass out the free documents at a tiny designated spot on campus, and only then if he scheduled it several days in advance.

“Watching the video is a combination of depressing and nauseating, to see what rigamarole students have to go through just to express themselves on campus,” said Robert Shibley, senior vice president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has taken on campus speech codes around the nation.

Van Tuinen, who said he’d read up on the school’s regulations and expected to get chased away from outside the student center, went to FIRE with the video. The foundation penned an email letter to the school’s administration on Van Tuinen’s behalf early Thursday, but Shibley said there had been no response later in the day.

“Watching the video is a combination of depressing and nauseating, to see what rigamarole students have to go through to express.”

– Robert Shibley, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education 

A spokeswoman for the college tells FoxNews.com that students and the general public are permitted to pass out materials in areas on campus that are generally available to the public, as long as they do not disrupt the orderly operations of the college.

“In the case of the YouTube video, it does not appear that the student was disrupting the orderly operations of the college and therefore we are looking into the incident,” Modesto Junior College Marketing and Public Relations officer Linda Hoile said.

In the video, Van Tuinen is confronted by an unidentified campus police officer within minutes of passing out the pamphlets. When he protests, he is told “there are rules.”

“But do you know what this is?” he asks. “What are the rules? Why are the rules tied to my free speech?”

Van Tuinen explains that he wants to start an organization called Young Americans for Liberty.

“That’s fine, but if you’re going to start an organization like that you have to go through the rigamarole,” the police officer tells him.

“It was a tense situation,” Van Tuinen, who is from Modesto, told FoxNews.com. “To be told I can’t do something as basic as handing out the Constitution was frustrating.”

Eventually, the police officer escorts Van Tuinen into an administrative office, where an unidentified woman shows him a binder with rules she says govern free speech on campus. She explains that there is a designated place “in front of the student center, in that little cement area,” where free expression is allowed, but then notes that two people are already using it.

“You’d have to wait,” she says. “You could go on (Sept.) 20th, the 27th or you can go into October.”

Eventually he is advised to make an appointment with Brenda Thames, vice president of student services, who can explain the policy.

Shibley said he was angered by the video, but not surprised.

“One of the revealing things about this particular case is what students have to go through just to express themselves on campus,” Shibley said.

He said the very idea of speech codes on campus ought to be troubling to Americans.

“They are imposed in an attempt to sanitize the public space of anything that might offend somebody,” he said. “The fact is, no school specifically needs a speech code. They have the ability keep order on campus . Of people are too loud, harassing people, or blocking traffic they have the means to address that.”

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September 20, 2013 · 9:05 am

U.S. Military begins rolling on airless tires

U.S. Military begins rolling on airless tires

Published September 19, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • terrainarmor-mv850.jpg
    Polaris
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    Polaris
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    Polaris
  • airless-ford-660.jpg

Air compressor manufactures take note.

Polaris has begun production of a non-pneumatic tire for all terrain vehicles.

The company has begun deliveries of its MV850 ATV fitted with the flat-proof TerrainArmor tires to the U.S. Special Operations Forces, and plans to introduce a retail version soon.

The innovation is more of a wheel/tire combination that features a rubber tread band supported by a polymeric web for structure that is also able to deform like an air-filled tire as it rolls over obstacles to provide cushioning.

Polaris says the tires can take a shot from a .50 caliber round without failing, and one was driven on for over 1,000 miles off-road after it was punctured by a railroad spike. They’ve been tested up to 5,000 miles on ATVs packed with a full combat load.

Earlier this year, the company donated several of the vehicles to the Salvation Army to assist with relief efforts in the wake of the Moore tornado in Oklahoma, and says they performed perfectly while traversing the debris left by the storm.

A Polaris representative tells FoxNews.com that they are working on versions that will fit additional vehicles in the company’s lineup, including some of its side-by-side UTVs.

An official date hasn’t been announced, but he added that consumer sales could begin within six months.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2013/09/19/us-military-begins-rolling-on-airless-tires/?intcmp=features#ixzz2fPFr6wbG

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September 16, 2013 · 12:51 pm

World’s thinnest glass shatters records — by accident

World’s thinnest glass shatters records — by accident

Published September 13, 2013

FoxNews.com
  • researchers.jpg

    Cornell University graduate student Pinshane Huang and Professor David Muller with a model that depicts the atomic structure of glass. They were the first to directly image the world’s thinnest sheet of glass. (Jason Koski/University Photography)

  • glassscience.jpg

    A microscopic photo of a sheet of glass only two atoms thick blends with an artist’s conception to show the structural rendering. (Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science)

They’re shattering records. 

At just one molecule thick, researchers at Cornell and Germany’s University of Ulm have discovered the world’s thinnest sheet of glass — by accident.

‘This is the work that, when I look back at my career, I will be most proud of.’

– David A. Muller, director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science 

The unexpected discovery came after scientists notices “muck” on their graphene, a two-dimensional sheet of carbon atoms shaped in a chicken-wire crystal formation that they had been studying.

It turns out the smudge they thought they saw was actually a “pane” of glass so thin that its individual silicon and oxygen atoms are visible only via an electron microscope.

“It’s the first time that anyone has been able to see the arrangement of atoms in a glass,” director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science David A. Muller told the Cornell Chronicle. “This is the work that, when I look back at my career, I will be most proud of.”

Besides making it into the Guinness Book of World Records, the discovery may lead to the creation of ultra-thin material that could improve the performance of processors in computers and smartphones.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation through the Cornell Center for Materials Research.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/13/world-thinnest-glass-shatters-records-accident/?intcmp=features#ixzz2f5SV1BDb

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September 12, 2013 · 5:05 pm

Israeli archaeologist uncovers ancient treasure trove

Israeli archaeologist uncovers ancient treasure trove

Published September 09, 2013

FoxNews.com
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    A 10-cm gold medallion discovered in Hebrew University excavations at the foot of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Etched into the medallion are a menorah (Temple candelabrum), shofar (rams horn) and Torah scroll. (Ouria Tadmor/Hebrew University)

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    A few of the thirty-six gold coins found by Israeli Archaeologist, Eilat Mazar, near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (HebrewUniversity/Youtube)

JERUSALEM –  An Israeli archaeologist says she has uncovered a rare trove of ancient gold coins and medallions near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Eilat Mazar of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University says among the finds are jewelry and a gold medallion with the Jewish menorah symbol etched into it. Other findings include items with additional Jewish symbols such as a ram’s horn and a Torah scroll.

“I have never found so much gold in my life!” Mazar said at a press conference on Mount Scopus, the Times of Israel reported. “I was frozen. It was unexpected.”

Excavators uncovered a total of 36 gold coins marked with images of Byzantine emperors ranging 250 years from Constantine II to Mauricius. The Byzantine Empire ruled over Israel until Muslim leader Umar ibn Khattab conquered the city in 634.

Mazar said the treasure, which can be dated back to the seventh century, was discovered in a ruined Byzantine public structure a mere 50 meters from the southern wall of the hilltop compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount — where the two biblical Jewish Temples once stood.

The site is also considered holy by Muslims who call it the Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

At the same site, Mazar in July uncovered a 3,000-year-old inscribed piece of an earthenware jug dating back to the time of King David.

The ancient inscription is the earliest alphabetical written text ever found in Jerusalem, dating to the 10th century B.C. It is engraved on a large “pithos,” a type of ceramic jar, along with six others at the excavation site.

The inscription is written in the Canaanite language, which was spoken by a Biblical people who lived in the present-day Israel, and is the only of its kind to be found in Israel. The artifact predates the previously oldest inscription found in the area by 250 years and predates the Biblical Israelites’ rule.

Reading from left to right, the text is composed of a combination of letters that translate to m, q, p, h, n, (possibly) l, and n and have no known meaning in west-Semitic languages.

The meaning of the text remains a mystery but Mazar suspects it relates to the jar’s contents or the name of its owner.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/09/09/israeli-archaeologist-uncovers-ancient-treasure-trove/?intcmp=obinsite#ixzz2ej6PZ6bX

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