Month: September 2017

US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigns over misuse of private jets for business trips

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US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has resigned from his post, amidst fierce controversy over his use of private jets to travel on business trips.

Price, a former surgeon with an estimated wealth of $14m, is currently under investigation by watchdog authorities in the US, after choosing to fly on private jets on routes covered by commercial airlines and clocking up a $400,000 bill in chartered aircraft. As comparison, Price’s predecessors in the Obama administration, Sylvia Mathews Burwell and Kathleen Sebelius, always flew commercial.

Mr. Price’s actions, while far from unique among top political figures in the Trump administration, have further eroded public confidence in the changes proposed by Mr. Trump, particularly the ‘drain the swamp’ pledge.

The scandal echoes a similar misdeed here in Ireland back in 2001, by the then Minister for Health Mary Harney. In that instance, Ms. Harney availed of an Air Corps plane to attend the opening of a friend’s off-licence in Co. Leitrim.

Ms. Harney did not resign over the controversy.

 

Entrepreneur Elon Musk announces plans to send manned flights to Mars by 2024

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Billionaire entrepreneur and SpaceX owner Elon Musk has today announced his ambitious plans to put humans on Mars by 2024.

The plans call for two cargo craft to be dispatched to the Red Planet by 2022. These ships would ferry power units, mining rigs, and life support systems to be used by Mars pioneers arriving later in manned flights.

Musk’s visionary plan involves the development and construction of a brand new rocket, dubbed the BFR. Officially, BFR stands for Big Falcon Rocket, though SpaceX staff knows it by a more colourful name.

The BFR craft would carry one hundred passengers accomodated across 40 private cabins all the way to Mars. Ideally, the BFR would be a reusable craft, to reduce costs.

Thus Musk spoke at the International Astronautical Congress in Australia, though his words, while brave and inspirational, must perhaps be taken with a certain degree of skepticism.

SpaceX’s track record is peppered with both great successes and well publicized failures, and Musk himself is known for issuing ambitious deadlines that have come and gone without delivering on their intentions.

Nevertheless, the race to the Red Planet is well and truly underway.

Speaking at the same event was a representative from Lockheed Martin, who said that the company is working on a ‘Mars Base Camp’, a sort of mini space colony being developed for NASA. The components for the camp may be developed in the new Deep Space Gateway, the brand new spaceport intended to be put into the Moon’s orbit in the near future.

Leslie Van Houten: Natural Born Killer, or Victim?

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Photo: Leslie van Houten, circa 19 years old

The recent news that Leslie Van Houten has been approved for parole after almost 50 years of incarceration has been met with huge debate worldwide.

The former Charles Manson follower was born into a middle-class but dysfunctional existence. Her parents divorced while she was quite young, and Van Houten eventually transformed from wholesome all-American Homecoming Queen into a completely divergent being; her life changed irrevocably. After dabbling with various drugs, further misdemeanours led to her involvement with Charles Manson, and down the path which would eventually ruin her life and those of numerous others.

In 1968, she was introduced to the “Christ-like” Manson by her new-found friends, Bobby Beausoil and Catherine “Gyspy” Share. Soon, Van Houten joined “The Family” at their ranch in Los Angeles. Charles Manson, who had already been convicted multiple times for various felonies, was also bitter and hateful, having tried but failed to secure a music career (despite having one of his songs recorded by The Beach Boys). His talent for manipulation turned this following, his “Family”, into a cult – a conduit for his malevolence, which saw him carry out crimes through them.

The Family listened to The Beatles, to Manson’s predictions of a “race war”, and to his plans to incite one, starting with the murders of Sharon Tate and others, in which Van Houten was not involved. She did however play an active role in the following night’s bloodshed, when Leno and Rosemary LaBianca were brutally assaulted and murdered.

The “Family” were finally arrested and charged towards the end of 1969, leading to a trial widely regarded as a chaotic circus, due mostly to the behaviour of the defendants, in particular Van Houten and her numerous attempts to exculpate Manson.

Van Houten was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder, and received the death penalty. This was later commuted to life with the possibility for parole, following a ban on capital punishment in 1972.

While imprisoned at California Institute for Women in Frontera, California, Van Houten married and got divorced, obtained a degree in counselling, and participated in regular counselling sessions for other inmates. On 6, September 2017 the board granted her parole a second time, starting a 150-day review process, during which California Governor Jerry Brown will decide whether or not to release her, having already reversed a successful parole hearing the previous year.

So, what of a pending decision to grant parole to a person who is causing such a divide in public opinion? There are those who say that her involvement in one of the most heinous crimes in American history is enough to keep her locked up for life, as called for by her sentence. Certainly, the remaining family, associates, and friends of those killed would be of this opinion. She did directly cause the violent death of another human, and so the argument might be that this can never be mitigated simply by reason of manipulation and subsequent “good behaviour”.

Then there is the suggestion that Van Houten was a vulnerable young girl who, though born into a comfortable life, had experienced a difficult childhood, which had led to bad decisions including drug taking and a downward-spiral lifestyle. If she was “groomed” by Manson and moulded through brainwashing and drugging into becoming one of many killer puppets, the arguing point arises that she was not fully aware of her actions and their consequences while in Manson’s thrall.

Manson himself has never shown any outward signs of remorse, but Van Houten has, and told her two-person parole panel, “To tell you the truth, the older I get the harder it is to deal with all of this, to know what I did, how it happened”.

Is she likely to be a threat to society now, if released – or is that even the point? Does remorse and turning her life around in prison exonerate her to a degree, if she was indeed the victim of a clever manipulator? Should she be afforded the opportunity as with any other released prisoner to try and integrate back into society to live the rest of her life, and attempt to reconcile with her past as best she can?

Had she never met Manson, one has to wonder if she would ever have committed any crime, compared to the man himself – a multiple felon, with a dogged hunger for disorder and carnage. Perhaps she was a victim too, a troubled young woman who became radicalised by a man with whom she was infatuated, and for whom she would have done anything.

Even if she had turned down a similar path, but never known him, would public opinion be so harsh if she had been convicted of crimes never connected to the notorious Manson?

It is hard to have a black and white opinion on a story comprised of such a spectrum of events and chaotic circumstances. What is certain is that a decision needs to be made and whatever that decision is, it will be one of the most talked about points for many years to come.

POTUS v The Rocket Man: A study in Government-sponsored lunacy

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I’m not the man they think I am at home
Oh no no no I’m a rocket man…

Thus goes the song Rocket Man, written by Elton John back in 1972. Itself inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story ‘The Rocket Man’, John’s ballad talks about the conflicting feelings of an astronaut traveling to Mars, as he ponders whether or not is worth to leave his family behind to fulfill his job.

Yet, this well known song was likely not in Donald Trump’s mind when he branded North Korean’s leader Kim Jong-Un a ‘little rocket man’.

The two men, and I’m using the term ‘men’ very loosely here, are engaged in regular name-calling nowadays, a sort of tit for tat routine pitting two bullies who forgot to grow up locking horns in turf wars around the schoolyard.

POTUS v Rocket Man is now a thing, a melodramatic reality with fathomless viewership prowess. It would almost be funny, were it not for the rather sinister overtones that permeate this international tug of war.

So the world watches as these two sycophant-ridden leaders take to the airwaves to pour scorn on each other. POTUS uses tweet to unload his crude verbal vitriol. Half a world away, Kim uses the more traditional approach of televised speech to retort, and his words resonate with the cheap bubble gum quality of Google-translated foreign speech: ‘I will surely and definitely tame the mentally deranged US dotard with fire.’

POTUS recently used a perhaps overly-generous time allocation at his maiden UN speech to proclaim that the US would ‘totally destroy North Korea’ if the latter ever dares to attack US soil, or any of the country’s allies. During the same speech, POTUS actually referred to the North Korean leader as ‘Rocket Man’. Well now. Take that, UN protocol and statesmanship.

It is hardly news that world leaders do sometimes get a little hot under the collar while speaking inside the UN chamber. Soviet Premier Nikita Krushchev starred in the infamous shoe-banging incident at the UN in 1960, for instance. Krushchev started banging his shows hard against his desk, in angry response to comments uttered by the then Filipino leader Lorenzo Sumulong. And in 2006, inflammatory words spoken by President George W. Bush about Fidel Castro’s ailing health prompted the entire Cuban delegation to storm off the chamber, throwing down their ear pieces as they did so.

All those high-profile shenanigans notwithstanding, no US President had ever used any pejorative term when addressing another head of state. The words ‘rocket’ and ‘man’ had certainly never been used in such derogatory fashion at Chez UN. Say it isn’t so, Kim perhaps thought, but nonetheless took POTUS’ speech as a ‘declaration of war’.

And what’s with ‘dotard’ anyway. Is it perhaps a portmanteau or ‘doting retard’? Or maybe a poor translation of an ancient North Korean insult? Not so. Turns out that such obscure term means ‘an old person with declining mental capabilities’. In the slightly unhinged POTUS v Rocket Man theater of horrors, the dotard is king, it seems.

The latest episode in the POTUS v Rocket Man serial sees the man with the weird black bouffant brand POTUS a ‘mentally deranged megalomaniac’.

The world tunes in, Truman Show style, to watch as both world leader caricatures blast each other with rhetorical salvos.

And all the while, the unspeakable gravity of war smears the men’s cartoonish faces.

 

Octopolis: Octopus species observed vying for living space in underwater city of their own making

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Octopuses are a fascinating species that ranks amongst the most mysterious and intelligent of all invertebrates.

They are also loners, preferring to spend their usually short lives in isolation.

There is an exception to this rule, it seems, as fifty feet below the surface in Jervis Bay, Australia, marine biologists have observed what appears to be an underwater city built by octopuses.

The area in question is barely a few square meters wide, and has been dubbed Octopolis due to the unusual octopus activity observed there.

Groups of local gloomy octopus (Octopus tetricus) are regularly seen congregating in Octopolis, sometimes fighting for control of a small patch of seabed, and other times mating around their little plot of underwater real state.

This rather gregarious behavior is highly unusual for a species that prefers solitude, so it has piqued the curiosity of the scientific community.

Octopolis seemingly started life as a man-made object stuck at the bottom of the bay. It soon became covered in clams and other debris apparently brought by the animals themselves, forming a town center of sorts for the gloomy octopus. Soon, Octopolis became a hub of social activity.

The cephalopods have even been observed hurling objects at each other using water jets blasted from a siphon-like organ in their bodies, in an apparent effort to protect their own turf. Few species outside apes are able to intentionally use items as missiles.

And it appears that Octopolis is not the only underwater city built by gloomy octopuses. A nearby site has also been erected using scallop shells and other maritime debris, in an apparent effort to form a defensive structure against sharks and other predators.

Whatever the purpose may be, this is yet another fascinating facet of a highly intelligent and always surprising creature.

 

 

Cassini’s 20-year-long journey across the Solar System came to a fiery end today as the probe burned in Saturn’s atmosphere

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The Cassini craft no longer exists, after taking a final dive into Saturn’s atmosphere.

Its instruments maintained contact with Earth until the last seconds of the probe’s remarkable journey across the Solar System, sending data back to Earth in almost real time.

The craft travelled nearly 5 million miles since its launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida back in 1997. During this time, Cassini beamed home over 250 million images, uncovering amazing facts about Saturn, its moons, and other celestial bodies in the Solar System.

The nuclear-propelled craft had almost exhausted its fuel, a point after which it would have become uncontrollable. To avoid a random collision with one of Saturn’s moons or Saturn itself (which could have led to contamination of the soil by Earth bacteria), engineers decided to put Cassini in a terminal dive through Saturn’s atmosphere, to ensure it burned completely.

Cassini’s grand finale took place earlier today. Ground control confirmed it lost contact with the probe at exactly 11.55am GMT.

Cassini probe will vanish in a blaze of glory on September 15, after a two-decades long journey through space

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The Cassini mission will make its last transmission ever in less than 48 hours, after a journey of nearly 5 billion miles across space.

Cassini’s grand finale will come on September 15, when the craft plunges down Saturn’s atmosphere, destroying itself in the process.

The probe was launched on October 15, 1997, and completed a series of flybys of Venus and Jupiter before setting course to Saturn, the planet where it spent most of its mission time.

In April this year, Cassini was set on a collision course with Saturn. The probe’s final destination saw it fly 22 times between the planet and its rings, sending never-before-seen close-up images of such enigmatic celestial body.

Cassini’s swan song will be the transmission of scientifically valuable data during its terminal dive into Saturn, for as long as the craft’s thrusters can keep its antenna pointed towards Earth.

Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten has been granted parole after almost 50 years behind bars, but State Governor Jerry Brown may still deny her freedom

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Leslie Van Houten, the youngest member of the so-called ‘Charles Manson Family’, has been granted parole after spending nearly five decades in custody.

A two-person parole board ruled that Van Houten, now aged 68, is no longer a threat to society. Her release now hinges on the decision of California Governor Jerry Brown.

Van Houten was raised in a privileged but troubled family. Her parents’s divorce when she was just 14 triggered a pattern of erratic behavior. She began using drugs at a young age, became a hippie, and joined a commune. Van Houten then followed another of Manson’s disciples, Catherine Share, into Charles Manson’s own commune.

On August 9, 1969, Van Houten and several others headed into Los Feliz, a wealthy hillside district of Los Angeles, under Charles Manson’s orders. There, they committed murder when they savagely killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

Van Houten was convicted and sentenced to death for first degree murder. Her sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

During her 14th parole hearing, Van Houten spoke about the events, saying that “I feel absolutely horrible about it, and I have spent most of my life trying to find ways to live with it“.

According to the parole board, the decision to grant Van Houten’s request for freedom was supported by her exemplary behaviour and accomplishments while incarcerated. She has reportedly earned a bachelor’s degree in counselling, and has spearheaded a large number of related programmes for inmates.

Governor Brown will issue a final ruling on Van Houten’s bid for freedom in the near future. Nobody involved in the Tate-LaBianca’s murders has ever been released from prison.

 

LEGO announces its latest addition to the Ultimate Collectors Series, a revamped Millenium Falcon clocking up over 7,000 pieces

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LEGO has just announced its latest addition to the Ultimate Collectors Series (UCS), and it’s the largest and most expensive set ever released.

Ahead of the arrival of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the new chapter in the long-running sci-fi saga, LEGO has created a new Millenium Falcon set.

Clocking up at over 7,000 pieces, the legendary craft includes massive amounts of detail and moving parts, along with a number of classic minifigures like Han Solo and Princess Leia.

The bad news is that this magnificent set will cost somewhere in the region of $800, so it will be one for hardcore builders with very deep pockets indeed.

The UCS Millenium Falcon (set number 75192) will go on sale on October 1.

Scientists confirm the presence of a supermassive black hole near the center of the Milky Way

Astronomers now have strong evidence about the presence of a supermassive black hole near the very center of the Milky Way.

The invisible monster is a superdense area of space with a mass equivalent to about 100,000 suns. It is hiding inside a cloud of toxic gases drifting near the center of our galaxy.

A black hole is an anomaly created when a celestial body, usually a star, runs out of fuel and collapses unto itself under the force of gravity. Over time, gargantuan amounts of matter are compressed into a relatively small area of space, creating a super-dense region with such colossal gravitational pull that not even light can escape. It is because of this trait that black holes are only revealed through special equipment and by observing the behavior of nearby space bodies.

In this case, the presence of the black hole was given away by the unusually fast-moving gases surrounding it. Astronomers in Japan observed that the elements wafting around this particular cloud formation, which is a gigantic gas behemoth 150 trillion kms. wide and is located about 200 light years from the heart of the Milky Way, were moving way quicker and at totally different speeds that those in similar clouds elsewhere in space. The researchers ran computer models based on the data gathered, and the most likely result was that the gases were being subjected to enormous gravitational forces exerted by an unseen object.

Further proof of the presence of a black hole was obtained when radio waves that typically originate inside these galactic anomalies were picked up.

This is the second largest known black hole present in the Milky Way, after Sagittarius A, a cosmic monster lurking at the very heart of the galaxy, 26,000 light years away from us.