Welcome to the Overnight News Digest (OND) for Tuesday, December 03, 2013.
OND is a regular
community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
Creation and early water-bearing of the OND concept came from our very own Magnifico - proper respect is due.
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This diary is named for its "Hump Point" video: Giants by Bear Hands
News below Aunt Flossie's hairdo . . .
Please feel free to browse and add your own links, content or thoughts in the Comments section.
Any timestamps shown are relative to each publication.
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Top News |
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BPA Sales Are Booming
By Tom Philpot
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Bisphenol A, a chemical used in can linings and plastic bottles, is pretty nasty stuff. Last year, the Food and Drug Administration banished it from baby bottles (at the behest of the chemical industry itself, after baby bottle producers had already phased it out under consumer pressure). BPA, as it's known, is an endocrine-disrupting chemical, meaning that it likely causes hormonal damage at extremely low levels. The packaging industry uses it to make plastics more flexible and to delay spoilage in canned foods.
You might think that such a substance would lose popularity as evidence of its likely harms piles up and up. Instead, however, the global market for it will boom over the next six years, according to a proprietary, paywall-protected report from the consultancy Transparency Market Research. The group expects global BPA sales to reach $18.8 billion by 2019, from $13.1 billion in 2012—about a 44 percent jump.
. . . As for the United States, the report says that North America is the globe's "third largest regional market for BPA," behind Asia and Europe. North American BPA consumption is growing, but a "at a very slow rate," the report states. As a result, our share of the global BPA is expected to experience a "slight decline" by 2019. Not exactly comforting.
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Americans see a US in decline, finds Pew survey
By (BBC)
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For the first time in 40 years, a majority of Americans say the US plays a less important and powerful role in the world than it did a decade ago.
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Fifty-three percent of the public felt the US played a less important or powerful role as a world leader than a decade previously. The last time more than half of the public held that view was in 1974.
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But the US decline is only relative; projections of China's inexorable rise are all very well but there is no indication as yet that China harbours ambitions of playing the kind of global role traditionally the preserve of Washington. The survey results are arguably the product of two failed wars; political gridlock at home and an uncertain economic outlook.
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Republicans were more likely to view the US as having declined in influence - 74% of them thought so. But 55% of independents said the same thing, up from 23% in 2004.
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While Islamic extremist groups such as al-Qaeda were still considered the top threat by survey respondents, 70% ranked cyber-attacks from other countries as a major threat, placing them on par with concerns about Iran and North Korean's nuclear programmes.
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China: Judges banned from extravagant spending
By (BBC)
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Judges may not buy fireworks, cakes or greeting cards with public money under austerity measures imposed by the Supreme People's Court in China, it's reported.
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Austerity has emerged as official policy throughout China as President Xi Jinping aims to rein in the perceived extravagances of public servants. In September, state-run China Central Television slashed the budget for its usually spectacular Mid-Autumn Festival gala programming, cancelling fireworks and pop stars in response to the new policy of frugality. Earlier in the year, the country's broadcast regulator barred advertising that promotes "extravagant gift giving", while top military officials have been banned from holding elaborate state-funded banquets. According to China Daily, austerity measures form part of the Communist Party of China's move to eliminate the four "evil winds" of formalism, bureaucracy, hedonism and extravagance.
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International |
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Tensions in Ukraine mount amid political deadlock
By Dan Peleschuk
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Opposition lawmakers failed to hammer through a no-confidence vote in the government on Tuesday, a development observers say will probably exacerbate the political crisis here and further inflame the largest protests since the Orange Revolution in 2004.
The vote marked the first attempt by Ukraine’s three main opposition parties to seek a formal political resolution that would put the former Soviet republic back on track toward European integration after the government’s refusal last month to sign wide-ranging political and trade agreements with the European Union.
But President Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of Regions, which controls a majority in parliament, was able to stop the measure. That, combined with recent police violence against mostly peaceful protesters, is emboldening anti-government protesters in a political standoff experts say is only intensifying.
. . .
Experts don’t exclude the possibility of another crackdown.
They say the authorities’ lack of flexibility — especially on the part of the ruling Party of Regions — is only exacerbating the blooming political crisis.
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Syrians beyond the reach of humanitarian aid
By (Al Jazeera)
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An estimated 250,000 people in besieged communities in Syria remain beyond the reach of aid, the UN, humanitarian chief has said in a closed-door Security Council briefing that one member called "chilling."
Deep divisions in the council have kept it from taking more action on the civil war that activists say has killed more than 120,000 people.
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For those that do have access to aid, what there is is stretched very thin, highlighted by the fact that international aid workers have been rushing to prepare the Zaatari camp, a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan attempting to avoid repeat of last year when three days of torrential rain turned the camp into a muddy swamp.
Warm clothing, blankets and electric heaters are being prepared for distribution to the desert camp's 120,000 residents, mostly women and children.
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Amazon UK reports 'Cyber Monday' as busiest shopping day in its history
By Jennifer Rankin
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Amazon UK has reported its busiest shopping day as consumers took to the internet on Cyber Monday.
The internet retailer said orders came in at a rate of 47 items a second, racking up 4.1m sales during the day and peaking at 9.22pm.
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Amazon's bumper sales figures underline how online retail is changing the way people shop at Christmas. Visa Europe had forecast that this year's Cyber Monday would see UK online shoppers spend £450m.
More than a quarter of all Christmas spending is done online compared with just 1% three years ago, according to the industry association for e-retail IMRG. Online shopping is already up 10% this year compared with 2012, according to Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of all card transactions in the UK.
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USA Politics, Economy, Major Events |
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After Years of Troubles, Largest Student-Loan Servicers Get Stepped-up Oversight
By Marian Wang
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Sallie Mae and other large student-loan servicers -- the companies that act as a go-between for borrowers and lenders -- will soon be getting some regular oversight from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the watchdog agency announced this week.
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The CFPB has been logging thousands of complaints about the companies that service both private and federal student loans. It has issued a number of reports detailing common complaints, including trouble accessing the loan-repayment options to which they are entitled, problems processing payments, difficulty getting accurate information from servicers, and servicers ignoring the protections due to active-duty service members. Such mistakes can leave already indebted borrowers further burdened with administrative hassles or penalized with additional fees.
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The Education Department had authority over their contracts to service federal student loans. And both the CFPB and the Federal Trade Commission had the authority to investigate specific violations of consumer protection laws. But no agency was consistently monitoring for violations.
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Some servicers that work with federal student loans will likely still fall under the threshold for getting the stepped-up oversight. That’s because, as we’ve noted, the Education Department has in the last few years expanded its stable of loan servicers to roughly a dozen.
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First, Last, and Always, Obamacare is About Politics
By Kevin Drum
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Here's the nickel summary: The text of the Affordable Care Act states that taxpayers are eligible for subsidies if they buy a health plan via "an Exchange established by the State under section 1311." But Section 1311 is the one that sets up state exchanges, and there's no similar language for the federal exchange, which is set up under Section 1321. So conservatives are now arguing that this means subsidies aren't available to anyone in the states which are served by the federal exchange. The IRS doesn't agree, and has issued a rule saying that subsidies (actually tax credits) will be available to anyone who buys a plan from any exchange.
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The Supreme Court has always been a politicized body, but my take is that over the past decade it's become almost completely politicized. In big cases, the justices simply decide what result they want and then write language justifying it. For that reason, I suspect that the purely legal arguments here don't matter very much. (Yes, this is a very cynical position. But I think it's pretty close to true.)
There's a sense in which Chief Justice John Roberts "owns" Obamacare, since he was the swing vote that ruled it constitutional last year. Given this, how likely is it that a mere year or two later, he'll be willing to cast a vote that cripples the law? Sure, this time around the legal case is different, but it still boils down to the same basic question: will the law go forward? Having already ruled once that it can, I'm not sure he'll be open to letting opponents take a second bite at the same apple. Stripped to its core, conservative lawyers are pressuring Roberts to admit that he was wrong in 2012, and I'm not sure he'll be willing to cave in to that pressure.
This case won't be heard by the Court until at least 2015. This means that Obamacare will already be in effect and people will already be receiving subsidies. I think this makes it even less likely that Roberts will vote to essentially overturn the law.
Still, suppose he does. Would it, in fact, cripple the law? Or would we end up with Obamacare being available only to about half the country? . . .
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Welcome to the "Hump Point" of this OND.
News can be sobering and engrossing - at this point in the diary, an offering of brief escapism:
Random notes related to this video:
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AMBY: “I am loving you more” keeps ringing in my head, and I’m loving it! What inspired your new single?
Bear Hands: Not sure, late night in my basement at my parent’s house.
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AMBY: Does hailing from Brooklyn have an influence on your sound? And if so, how?
Bear Hands: I dunno, been here too long and I’m losing objectivity. Love it here tho, excellent pals and nightlife.
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AMBY: It seems that the band loves typing in capital letters, is there a particular reason for this? Or can you not contain your excitement?!
Bear Hands: I’ve always been a capital guy. I know it’s considered rude on the internet but I dunno, it doesn’t offend me. It’s not like someone actually shouting in your ear. Plus we need to differentiate our identities on Twitter.
Back to what's happening:
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Environment and Greening |
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Miners preach gospel of restraint
By Nils Pratley
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Big miners, who were too loose with their spending in the boom years, are all now preaching a gospel of restraint, capital-discipline and cost-cutting. But when your sins against shareholders are as grave as Rio Tinto's you are obliged to be doubly repentant.
Chief executive Sam Walsh, the iron ore boss promoted after Tom Albanese did one duff deal too many, is making a reasonable fist of the task. Capital expenditure will fall 20% to $14bn this year and continue to fall at the same rate to $8bn in 2015.
Of course, the sums are still huge. But there is no point slamming on the brakes entirely when iron ore can be dug out of the Australian desert for $25 a tonne, shipped for China for another $20 and sold to steel-makers for $135. . .
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How scientists are using drones to fight the next big oil spill
By Todd Woody
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More than three-and-half years after the Deepwater Horizon disaster spewed millions of gallons of petroleum into the Gulf of Mexico, scientists are launching drones and ocean-going sensor arrays off the Florida coast in an effort to map the path of future oil spills before they devastate beaches and coastal ecosystems.
Researchers from the University of Miami and other scientists are placing 200 GPS-equipped “drifters” in the surf zone just off Fort Walton to map where the ocean currents take the devices. Sensors placed on the ocean surface and seabed will track the movement of colored dye that will be released during the three-week experiment that began on Monday. Two drones outfitted with GoPro cameras will also monitor where the currents take the drifters and dye. Since the drones can only stay aloft for an hour at a time, a camera-carrying kite will also be deployed.
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The Surfzone Coastal Oil Pathways Experiment is part of a larger $500 million effort funded in part by oil giant BP in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. Depending on the strength of the currents, the drifters and drones will be deployed over an area that could stretch from hundreds of square yards to many square miles, according to Özgökmen.
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Science and Health |
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Studies: Moral Outrage May Influence Jurors
By (ScienceDaily)
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Think about the last time you were morally outraged. Chances are you felt angry, but did you also feel disgust? Consider how you might feel in a court of law after watching a video of a heinous crime.
Two new studies point to important legal implications when moral outrage is generated through the interactive effect of anger and disgust. Research points to the need for judges to carefully consider the admissibility of evidence likely to elicit moral outrage in jurors in a world where phone and security cameras increasingly catch horrible crimes on camera and therefore may be entered as evidence.
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"Moral outrage affects confidence in a guilty verdict. All participants saw the same evidence, but those who experienced the combination of anger and disgust were more confident in a guilty verdict because they were more morally outraged about the crime," Salerno said. "This may not be in jurors control and they may not be aware that their emotions are influencing their decisions."
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New male birth control pill would block sperm, not kill them
By (globalpost.com)
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A new study offers the best hope yet for a male birth control pill, one that would block sperm by preventing them from being ejaculated during sex — similar to a temporary vasectomy.
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"Most of the previous strategies to make a male contraceptive have either been hormonal strategies, which would produce a lot of sexual side-effects or effects on masculinity, or they would make sperm dysfunctional, which might produce long-term effects on offspring. Our strategy avoids all those problems," lead researcher Dr. Sabatino Ventura told the Daily Mail.
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Scientists at Monash University used mice in their research, genetically modifying them to block two proteins found on the smooth muscle cells that trigger the transport of sperm.
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He believes a male contraceptive pill could be a reality in about 10 years.
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Domestication of Dogs May Have Elaborated On a Pre-Existing Capacity of Wolves to Learn from Humans
By (ScienceDaily)
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Wolves can learn from observing humans and pack members where food is hidden and recognize when humans only pretend to hide food, reports a study for the first time in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology. These findings imply that when our ancestors started to domesticate dogs, they could have built on a pre-existing ability of wolves to learn from others, not necessarily pack members.
The wolves were less likely to follow dog demonstrators to hidden food. This does not necessarily mean that they were not paying attention to dog demonstrators: on the contrary, the wolves may have been perceptive enough to notice that the demonstrator dogs did not find the food reward particularly tasty themselves, and so simply did not bother to look for it.
The researchers conclude that the ability to learn from other species, including humans, is not unique to dogs but was already present in their wolf ancestors. Prehistoric humans and the ancestors of dogs could build on this ability to better coordinate their actions.
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Fancy espresso machines are leaching lead into your coffee
By Holly Richmond
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Berlin’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment says the problem is primarily with plumbed-in, pump driven espresso machines — the kind in cafés, not your Keurig at home. After these commercial espresso makers are cleaned for limescale — that chalky stuff that builds up inside your kettle — the super-strong cleaning agents react with coffee machine parts and release lead. LOTS of lead:
Researchers measured the concentrations of lead in water going through the machine immediately after cleaning at up to 100 times the limits recommended by the EU.
Even secondary tests several days later revealed lead content was still up to five times higher than the European benchmark.
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U.K.’s Landmark Case on Withholding Treatment Affirms the Importance of Patients’ Values
By Celia Kitzinger and Jenny Kitzinger
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Families in the U.K. do not have the right to make decisions about medical treatments (or anything else) for adult patients lacking capacity unless they have taken specific legal action to acquire the right (and very few people do – or are even aware that they can). Therefore, it is usually the responsibility of the senior treating clinician to decide what treatment to give, as well as what treatment to withhold/withdraw for patients without capacity to make their own choices. Although clinicians in the U.K. are supposed to take into account the patient’s prior expressed wishes, values, and beliefs as part of their “best interests” decision-making, such wishes do not legally determine treatment. In practice, this means that clinicians – and the courts - often make decisions opposite to those which (according to family reports) patients would have made for themselves.
. . . In Aintree v James the judgment was ultimately that it was legal to withhold treatment even though the patient probably would have wanted it. In W v M, the judgment was that treatment must be continued even though the patient probably would have wanted to refuse it.
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When the hospital appealed, the three judges in the Court of Appeal were unanimous that the trial judge had erred and that CPR (and some other treatments) could be legally withheld. According to two of the judges, these treatments would be futile because they would not restore David James to “such a state of good health as will avert the looming prospect of death.” If David James had capacity and “full informed thought” he would understand that “his position was hopeless.” One of the judges, Lady Justice Arden, argued that the court “should proceed on the basis that the individual would act as a reasonable individual would act,” which in her view meant that David James (contrary to the views of his family) would reject the treatments.
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Although neither David James, nor the patient in W v M were treated medically as they would have wished, the reasoning behind these two court decisions reads very differently. In W v M the judge stated that, while he took the patient’s prior statements into account, “I do not consider they carry substantial weight in my decision.” By contrast, Lady Hale gave them considerable weight and emphasized their centrality (even as she made a decision which supported withholding the treatments the patient had wanted on the grounds that his condition had deteriorated significantly since the earlier court decisions and that courts cannot compel doctors to give treatments against their professional judgment).
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How The Platypus And A Quarter Of Fishes Lost Their Stomachs
By Ed Yong
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The platypus is an anthology of weirdness. It has a leathery duck-like bill, a flattened tail and webbed feet. The males have a venomous claw on their hind feet, and the females lay eggs. And if you look inside a platypus, you’ll find another weird feature: its gullet connects directly to its intestines. There’s no sac in the middle that secrete powerful acids and digestive enzymes.
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Castro and Wilson suspect that diet is part of the answer. We know that animals evolve very different sets of pepsinogen genes to cope with the proteins in their specific diets. Perhaps the ancestors of stomach-less species shifted to a different diet that made these enzymes worthless. Over time, they built up debilitating mutations, and were eventually lost.
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So, why bother acidifying your stomach if your food immediately undoes all that work? The gastric pumps are superfluous, so they are soon lost. And without an acidic environment, the pepsinogen genes are also useless, so they follow suit. “Diet most likely has a predominant role, but we’re still working out what that role is,” says Wilson. He notes that all the stomach-less species live in the water (or, like the echidna, had aquatic ancestors). “My gut feeling is that it’s something related to that,” he says.
For now, one thing is clear: many animals cope quite well without a stomach. There are many possible workarounds. The intestine has its own protein-busting enzymes. The throats of some fish have an extra set of teeth that help to break down what they swallow. “You can have a shift of function to other areas of the gut,” says Wilson. “Every which way you turn, there are species that do perfectly fine without a stomach. They aren’t aberrations; they’re quite common.”
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Technology |
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Why Don't We Design a Better Wheelchair?
By Adam Clark Estes
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The Atlantic's Rebecca Rosen recently interviewed Sara Hendren, who runs a blog about assistive technologies called Abler. (Abler also recently joined the Gizmodo family as a new subdomain, so we were particularly excited to read this.) But, actually, Hendren thinks the term "assistive technology" is all wrong. . .
By returning "assistive technology" to its rightful place as just "technology"—no more, no less—we start to understand that all bodies are getting assistance, all the time. And then design for everyone becomes much more interesting.
In addition to the cognitive shift involved in seeing any technological innovation as an "assistive technology"—earbuds assisting you with listening to music on the subway, or elevators assisting in your ability to travel 8 floors in your building without taking the stairs—just imagine what society would be like if we paid as much design attention to technology for so-called disabled people as we do to smartphones and drones. |
Russian Cosmobot SAR-401 Clones NASA Robonaut, But Adds a New Trick
By Jason Mick
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Android Technics is building the Russian robot on behalf of The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and plans to field it sometime in late 2014 or early 2015.
Cosmobot borrows liberally from The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) "Robonaut 2", a humanoid robot co-designed by General Motors Comp. (GM). Robonaut 2 is scheduled to get a new pair of legs and a fresh battery backpack, which will transform him from a mere torso into a walking 8-foot-tall Android that can operate for longer periods between charges.
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Many at NASA and partner space agencies are eager to get robots to perform spacewalks. Astronaut Cady Coleman told ABC News in an interview earlier this month:
There is no question in my mind that bringing robots outside and having them do spacewalks would be a great use of robots in space. A spacewalk takes a lot of consumables, we breathe, we have to check out the spacesuits. We have to be triple sure that everything is right because we don't want to lose anyone on a spacewalk.
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The Cosmbot SAR-401 is designed to be able to operate in the vacuum and perform approximately 90 percent of the spacewalk duties that are currently performed by humans. During these operations it will offer remote spacewalk capabilities to the station's residents, moving its limbs under the control of the astronauts with some help from onboard artificial intelligence, which makes the motions smoother and more precise.
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Social media users warned over court case comments
By (BBC)
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The (UK) attorney general is to publish guidance on Twitter to help prevent social media users from committing a contempt of court by commenting inappropriately on criminal cases.
Dominic Grieve QC said it was designed to make sure fair trials took place.
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Instant publication on the internet can go viral at an astonishing rate but so too can the message that the criminal and civil law applies to it as much as to a considered newspaper article. Education on the law of contempt is likely to spread very rapidly online.
But Facebook and Twitter are publications subject to the same laws that in practice used to apply only to the mainstream media.
Anyone commenting about a case or defendant in a way that could prejudice a trial could be prosecuted for contempt and imprisoned.
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Cultural |
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Umakant Mishra: Indian postman cleared of stealing less than $1 after 29 years
By (BBC)
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An Indian postal worker who was accused of stealing less than $1 in 1984, has been cleared by a court after nearly 350 court hearings over 29 years.
Umakant Mishra was suspended from his job after being charged with fraud when 57 rupees and 60 paise (92 cents; 56 pence) went missing in his post office.
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Correspondents say cases in Indian courts can drag on for years, even decades, and official figures show that more than 30 million cases are pending in Indian courts, some dating from 1950.
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He was absolved of all charges last week after the prosecution could not produce any witnesses in the case.
"I was suspended when I was in my 30s. Now that I have been absolved, I should be compensated. I should get all the money that is due to me," he says.
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Letter from Africa: In fear of child-snatchers
By (BBC)
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In our series of letters from African journalists, Adaobi Tricia Nwabani considers the issue of child protection in Nigeria as the authorities in the east of the country crack down on "baby factories".
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I was taken aback when one of the community leaders called me aside during one of my recent visits.
He explained that the parents were worried because I had been giving the children snacks.
They were suspicious that I may have mixed some sort of juju, or magic potion, into the food - perhaps to steal the children's destinies as they ate, thereby increasing my own chances of success in this world, or for some other unknown diabolical purpose.
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Even more recently, in 2011, when the governor of the south-eastern Imo state decided to offer each child 100 naira ($0.65, £0.40) to encourage them to attend school, the rumour circulated that the monthly stipend was simply a voodoo ploy by governor Rochas Okorocha to siphon the children's destinies.
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I was able to convince the community leader during our long chat that, even though there are all sorts of wicked people perpetrating all manner of evil around Nigeria, I am not one of them.
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Meteor Blades is known to offer an enlightening Evening Open Diary - you might consider checking that out tonight if you haven't already. |