Microsoft founder's space venture

13 December 2011 Last updated at 19:51 ET

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen has announced plans to launch unmanned rockets and carry cargo into space.

The 58-year-old plans to develop a giant aircraft that would put spaceships into orbit, rather than lifting them off from a launch pad.

Other moguls are in the private space race, too, after Nasa this year ended its 30-year space shuttle programme.

Virgin Galactic is working on a commercial space venture which aims to fly passengers into sub-orbit by 2013.

Aerospace pioneer Burt Rutan is a partner on Mr Allen's project, which is called Stratolaunch Systems.

The project is the latest to be led by Silicon Valley tycoons who think they spy a gap in demand opened by the retirement of the US government's space shuttle programme.

'Never stop dreaming'

While Nasa put rockets into space from a launch pad, the Stratolaunch plan is to launch unmanned rockets from high-flying aircraft, and eventually undertake manned missions too.

The developers said their aircraft could ferry cargo for the commercial satellite industry and the International Space Station.

The giant plane would be powered by six 747 jumbo jet engines and have a wingspan of 385ft (117m), developers said.

It would be wider than the biggest aircraft ever, legendary Hollywood tycoon Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.

The first test flights are scheduled to begin in 2016.

Mr Allen and Mr Rutan said that preliminary designs for the Stratolaunch aircraft have been put together over the course of 10 years.

Construction has begun on a hangar in California's Mojave Desert, they said.

In 2004 the duo created SpaceShipOne, a sub-orbital rocket that became the first privately financed, manned spaceship.

"When I was growing up, America's space programme was the symbol of aspiration," Mr Allen said at a news conference in Seattle.

"For me, the fascination with space never ended. I never stopped dreaming what might be possible."

Stratolaunch's plane will carry a booster rocket on its belly, to be built by a space company owned by Elon Musk of PayPal, who has already built a successful commercial rocket.

Other technology titans who have made forays into the private space industry include Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com.

British tycoon Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic aims to take passengers into sub-orbital space.

Dropping rockets into space is not a new technique, but can offer more launch flexibility and minimise weather constraints, developers said.

It can also save on rocket fuel.

Orbital Sciences Corp, an older rocket company, has used this method of launching payloads such as unmanned rockets and satellites.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/world-us-canada-16171482

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Russian aid convoy stuck on Serbia-Kosovo border (AP)

JARINJE, Kosovo ? A stranded Russian aid convoy for Kosovo Serbs is at the center of an escalating dispute Wednesday between Moscow and international peacekeepers, with a top Western official casting doubt on the humanitarian goal of the aid mission.

The convoy of more than 20 Russian trucks was stopped Tuesday by U.S. soldiers guarding the Kosovo border with Serbia, increasing tensions in the volatile region. It remained stranded Wednesday.

Moscow has become the champion of Serb defiance against Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia. Local Serbs are frustrated by Belgrade's refusal to use force to save them from ethnic Albanian rule, and have turned to the Kremlin for help.

The minority Serbs, who reject Kosovo's statehood, have been blocking roads in the Serb-run north of the country to prevent Pristina authorities from taking control. The peacekeepers say the convoy's cargo consisting of canned food, blankets, tents and power generators appears like it is intended for those manning the roadblocks, and not for the general Kosovo Serb population.

"I don't know if the Russian aid is a propaganda trick or something else," the top Western official overseeing Kosovo's independence, Pieter Feith, told Serbian reporters. "Although not surprising, the (Russian aid) initiative is not practical."

"Poverty and misery exist in Kosovo, but the U.N. and the EU have not proclaimed the north of Kosovo as a zone of a humanitarian catastrophe," Feith said.

Russian officials escorting the convoy accused Kosovo's peacekeepers of blocking passage. EU officials in Kosovo said the Russians can pass if they allow an international police escort.

Russia's ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandr Konuzin, who is leading the convoy, refused an EU escort and accused the peacekeepers of "political blackmail."

Serbia's state Tanjug news agency said Konuzin asked for help from top Moscow officials.

Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, called the stoppage of the convoy "a humanitarian crime." He told Russian news channel Vesti-24 that such actions by Western countries "lead the Serbian minority in Kosovo to extinction."

The spokesman for the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, Nicholas Hawton, said "there are two options for the convoy.

"Either they have a EULEX police escort to the destination following customs control, or proceed to Merdare," he said referring to Kosovo's eastern border crossing with Serbia that is manned by ethnic Albanian customs officials.

"It is a normal EU standard for a convoy of this size to have a police escort," Hawton said.

Konuzin has refused the alternative border crossing, saying the controls there are done by Pristina authorities, which are not recognized by Russia and Serbia.

Russia is considered a traditional Serb ally because of common Slavic roots and the Christian Orthodox religion.

___

Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade and Nebi Qena in Pristina contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111214/ap_on_re_eu/eu_kosovo_russian_aid

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Maltreated children show same pattern of brain activity as combat soldiers

Monday, December 5, 2011

Children exposed to family violence show the same pattern of activity in their brains as soldiers exposed to combat, new research has shown.

In the first functional MRI brain scan study to investigate the impact of physical abuse and domestic violence on children, scientists at UCL in collaboration with the Anna Freud Centre, found that exposure to family violence was associated with increased brain activity in two specific brain areas (the anterior insula and the amygdala) when children viewed pictures of angry faces.

Previous fMRI studies that scanned the brains of soldiers exposed to violent combat situations have shown the same pattern of heightened activation in these two areas of the brain, which are associated with threat detection. The authors suggest that both maltreated children and soldiers may have adapted to be 'hyper-aware' of danger in their environment.

However, the anterior insula and amygdala are also areas of the brain implicated in anxiety disorders. Neural adaptation in these regions may help explain why children exposed to family violence are at greater risk of developing anxiety problems later in life.

Dr Eamon McCrory, lead author from the UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences and the Anna Freud Centre, said: "We are only now beginning to understand how child abuse influences functioning of the brain's emotional systems. This research is important because it provides our first clues as to how regions in the child's brain may adapt to early experiences of abuse in the home".

Dr McCrory added: "All the children studied were healthy and none were suffering from a mental health problem. What we have shown is that exposure to family violence is associated with altered brain functioning in the absence of psychiatric symptoms and that these alterations may represent an underlying neural risk factor. We suggest these changes may be adaptive for the child in the short term but may increase longer term risk".

In the study, which is published in the journal Current Biology, 43 children had their brains scanned using an fMRI scanner. 20 children who had been exposed to documented violence at home were compared with 23 matched peers who had not experienced family violence. The average age of the maltreated children was 12 years old and they had all been referred to local social services in London.

When the children were in the scanner they were presented with pictures of male and female faces showing sad, calm or angry expressions. The children had only to decide if the face was male or female ? processing the emotion on the face was incidental. As described, the children who had been exposed to violence at home showed increased brain activity in the anterior insula and amygdala in response to the angry faces.

Professor Peter Fonagy, Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre and professor of psychology at UCL, said: "Dr McCrory's groundbreaking research has undoubtedly taken us an important step closer to understanding the devastation which exposing children to violence can leave in its wake. His exciting findings confirm the traumatic effects these experiences have on brain development.

Professor Fonagy added: "The report should energize clinicians and social workers to double their efforts to safeguard children from violence. By helping us understand the consequences of maltreatment the findings also offer fresh inspiration for the development of effective treatment strategies to protect children from the consequences of maltreatment."

Dr McCrory said: "Even though we know that maltreatment represents one of the most potent environmental risk factors associated with anxiety and depression, relatively little is known how such adversity 'gets under the skin' and increases a child's later vulnerability."

"The next step for us is to try and understand how stable these changes are. Not every child exposed to family violence will go on to develop a mental health problem; many bounce back and lead successful lives. We want to know much more about those mechanisms that help some children become resilient."

###

University College London: http://www.ucl.ac.uk

Thanks to University College London for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115724/Maltreated_children_show_same_pattern_of_brain_activity_as_combat_soldiers

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Urban Outfitters Wants $45 for an iPhone Case Glued to a Retro Handset [Cases]

This isn't the only way to recreate the feeling of talking on an old clunky landline handset with your iPhone, but this overpriced $45 creation from hipster factory Urban Outfitters is certainly the most ridiculous. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/SLXEHbwnZ5A/urban-outfitters-wants-45-for-an-iphone-case-glued-to-a-retro-handset

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Joe Stump And Graham Blache Launch Sprintly, Project Management Streamlined

It's been only a month since SimpleGeo co-founder Joe Stump?left his last company, following its acquisition by Urban Airship, but he's already launching a new product (and company) today called Sprintly. The company was actually founded in March by Stump's co-founder Graham Blache, and Stump tells me he's "been plotting this product for nearly a decade." ?The startup is completely bootstrapped so far. Sprintly is a simple project management tool that is built for both software developers and other people in a company who rely on them. It is designed to remove the frustrations developers have with working in their own silo.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cAbetXakwIs/

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Oklahoma State Fans Injured Celebrating Bedlam Win Over Oklahoma: REPORT

STILLWATER, Okla. ? Thousands of fans stormed the field and tore down goalposts after Oklahoma State's 44-10 victory over archrival Oklahoma, leaving at least 13 people injured, including two in critical condition, medical authorities said early Sunday.

Michael Authement, who heads the command post at emergency medical provider LifeNet EMS, told The Associated Press that a throng so big took to the field as the game ended that some fans were trampled and one person fell at least 15 feet onto concrete during a wild celebration by Oklahoma State fans.

No. 13 Oklahoma State routed the Sooners on Saturday night to win the Big 12 championship and make its case to play for the BCS national title. The Cowboys (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) snapped an eight-game losing streak in the rivalry and won their first outright conference title since 1948 in the three-team Missouri Valley.

"They won the game and stormed the field and ripped down the goalposts and some were jumping off the stands and hit the field and others got trampled. It was a nasty deal," Authement said.

He said the crowd was so big it took police at least 45 minutes to clear fans from the field at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater. "There were thousands of people. Thousands of people stormed the field. You couldn't move there were so many people," he added.

AP photographs showed fans climbing atop the yellow goalposts and tearing them apart amid a crush of people on the field. Scores of hands stretched out to pull down the goalposts during the celebration.

Authement said nine ambulances, including six from LifeNet, rushed 11 of the injured away and the two in critical condition were flown to Oklahoma City hospitals. He said he knew of leg fractures but didn't have any details on the extent of the injuries, though two of the 13 had minor injuries and were treated at the scene and released.

Lesser injuries included broken ankles, ankle sprains and back sprains, said Shyla Eggers, public relations director for Stillwater Medical Center, adding eight injured came to her hospital. She told AP that her hospital received six of the injured in ambulances, two in private vehicles and at least two of the patients have been admitted and would undergo surgery on broken ankles.

"Our staff that was on hand took care of it. They were just very busy," Eggers said. "Game day is always busy."

She had no immediate details on the more serious injuries, saying two people were flown from the scene to hospitals in other cities in Oklahoma.

An Oklahoma State University police central dispatcher said she had no immediate details to release when contacted by AP and the public information officer did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Stillwater police and the Oklahoma highway patrol also had no immediate comment.

Authement said the fans began storming the field with about 20 seconds left in the game. He said he had reports of people falling and being trampled in the surge. "It lasted 45 minutes, I'm sure before they got the field cleared," he said.

He said he was handling game night duty when a magnitude-5.6 earthquake rocked central Oklahoma and the same stadium as fans departed minutes after Oklahoma State had beaten Kansas State. The Nov. 5 temblor, which could be felt as far away as Wisconsin, was the strongest in the state's history when it rattled players in the locker room and set the stadium press box rippling as the last of some 58,000 fans cleared out.

"This was way worse than the earthquake," Authement said.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/04/oklahoma-state-fans-injured-celebration-bedlam-oklahoma_n_1127798.html

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Fact Checking Newt Gingrich's Food Stamps Claims (ABC News)

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