Tag: journalism

Mars’ surface is covered in UV-activated chemicals that inhibit the development of living organisms -Exomars rover will target subsoil in search for extraterrestrial life

Terraforming Mars may have to wait yet a while longer.

The Martian surface is covered in UV-activated chemicals that inhibit the development of any lifeforms, as recent tests of the topsoil have shown.

ESA’s Exomars rover will now begin digging under Mars’ toxic surface, searching for any proof of current or past life on the planet.

Recent tests conducted on Martial soil have confirmed that oxidant compounds known as perchlorates permeate the the Red Planet’s surface.

Perchlorates are highly oxidized forms of chlorine, a chemical commonly used in household cleaning products and also as a disinfectant in swimming pools. The downside of it is that at high concentrations, chlorine is extremely toxic. It was weaponised and used as a chemical warfare agent during the First World War, for example.

Perchlorates were first thought to be present on the Martian soil as far back as 1976, when the Viking probes landed there. The compounds were detected again by the Curiosity rover, which is still marauding around Mars today.

The bad news is that when perchlorates are hit by UV radiation, which occurs on Mars pretty much all the time, the compounds become activated and turn into a particularly effective bactericide, killing off most microbial life.

This effect is a double edge sword. While the chemicals present on the Martial soil will destroy any microbe brought from Earth, thus preventing the contamination of Mars with exogenous bacteria, it also means that life on the surface is all but impossible at this point in time.

Scientists will now have to dig deep into the Martian subsoil to try and find any trace of life, past or present.

Wargames: Russian Su-27 ‘Flanker’ fighter aircraft intercepts US B-52 bomber flying over the Baltic Sea

su27

Sources inside the Russian Defense Ministry have confirmed that a Su-27 jet was launched to intercept a long-range B-52 bomber flying over the Baltic Sea.

The Su-27 jet, codenamed ‘Flanker’ in NATO nomenclature, shadowed the US warplane on Monday morning until the B-52 left neutral airspace near the Russian border.

The Su-27, manufactured by Sukhoi, is a fixed-wing, twin-engine, air superiority war machine, designed to outmaneuver America’s fourth generation fighter aircraft such as the F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 Eagle.

The incident is the latest is a series of wargames and mid-air interceptions that highlight the inherently dangerous cat-and-mouse game played by the major superpowers on contested airspace.

There has been a significant buildup of American and NATO forces across countries bordering with Russia in recent times, amidst heightened international tensions concerning North Korea, Syria, and their allies.

 

 

B-52 bombers to be deployed to the UK as part of joint NATO exercises

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A number of long-range B-52 bombers will be deployed to the UK to take part in upcoming joint wargames with NATO forces.

The deployment takes place against a backdrop of uncertainty about the future role of US forces in the defence of the continent.

President Donald Trump has alienated many European countries with comments about the perceived obsolescence of NATO, and his views that Germany is not ‘paying enough’ towards defence spending.

Nevertheless, a number of bombers and up to 800 troops will soon arrive in the UK. The upcoming wargames will take place across the Baltic region, right on Russia’s borders, later this month.

The B-52 Stratofortress is one of the US Air Force’s longest serving aircraft.

It first entered active service in 1955, and carried out a large number of bombing operations throughout the Vietnam War, notably during sustained bombardment campaigns as part of operations Rolling Thunder and Arc Light.

The aircraft, which completed its sixtieth operational year in 2015, has seen action as recently as 2016, conducting sorties in Afghanistan.

Having undergone a large number of modifications throughout its long history, the B-52 is likely to remain operational at least until 2045, some 90 years after the aircraft first entered service. This is an unprecedented length of service for any aircraft, civilian or military, in history.

Trump accelerates climate apocalypse after announcing that the US will withdraw from Paris Agreement

climate

The end of days inches yet a bit closer after US President Donald Trump announces that his country will no longer abide by the Paris Agreement on climate.

Trump, who is almost as oblivious to scientific reality as our very own Danny Healy-Rae from the Kingdom, has unilaterally decided that the US will withdraw from the historic deal on climate reached in Paris in 2015.

The agreement was reached after decades of wrangling and toing and froing regarding global warming and climate change. Those countries responsible for producing 55% of the global carbon and gas emissionns ratified it, and the agreement became legally binding a few months later. Only two countries -Syria and Nicaragua- opted out.

The overall aim of the deal is to keep global temperature increases to less than 2C, with particular effort put into maintaining the figure at 1.5C.

The US will now be free from such obligation. It is worth mentioning that energy companies poured tens of millions of dollars into supporting the president during his campaign, lobbying hard to exert influence over future decisions that could potentially affect their own coffers.

It is now clear that such covert moves paid off, as energy giants stand to gain big time financially after today.

Enemy of his own state: The end of the Trump era is nigh

 

Donald Trump

‘I hope you can let this go’

So President Trump allegedly told the now ex-FBI Director James Comey, referring to the bureau’s probe into Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn. ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,’ Trump was quoted as saying in a private meeting with Comey. ‘He (Flynn) is a good guy.’ Comey was cleverly selective with his answer. ‘I agree he is a good guy.’

That one sentence, which essentially amounted to a thinly veiled attempt to shut down an FBI investigation into Flynn’s murky liaisons with Russian personnel, is likely to become Trump’s political epitaph.

The revelation that the 45th President uttered these words came in the form of a memo written by Comey, on foot of the alleged conversation that took place during a meeting back in February, exactly the day after Flynn resigned. Comey was reportedly shocked that the President would ask something that could be interpreted as intimidation, and took down notes after the meeting ended. Comey wanted to ensure that a paper trail existed, as current notes taken by an FBI agent usually hold up in court.

James Comey’s habit of writing down conversations that may later come into question was well known among his associates. In this case, such work practice may very well bring about the end of Donald Trump’s Presidency.

Despite Trump’s attempts to derail the probe into Flynn’s activities, the investigation continued. Indeed, a federal grand jury in Virginia has recently issued subpoenas relating to material involving Mr. Flynn.

Trump shoots himself in the head, politically speaking: The firing of James Comey

Donald Trump pressed the nuclear button and fired Director Comey on May 9th, immediately sending shockwaves across Washington. The official reason given for the man’s dismissal quoted Comey’s work performance, particularly in relation to the controversial decision not to prosecute Hilary Clinton over the use of public email servers during her presidential campaign. According to Clinton, Comey’s intervention costed her the election, and Trump had nothing but admiration and praise for Comey at the time.

But things had changed by May 10th: ‘He wasn’t doing a good job,’ Trump said about Comey on that date, a day after the drama began to unfold.

The official reason notwithstanding, the White House was thrown into disarray over the issue 24 hours later, as conflicting reports about the reason for Comey’s dismissal began to emerge. One spokesperson after another attempted to justify the President’s decision to get rid of Comey, to little avail.

So intense was the fallout that the White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, was seen hiding from the press to avoid questioning. This would later be lampooned by Melissa McCarthy’s portrayal of Spicer on the SNL show. A newspaper went as far as saying that Spicer ‘hid in the bushes.’ The paper was later forced to issue a retraction to change ‘in‘ for ‘among.’

Yet, all attempts to protect the President would be swiftly dismantled by the President himself, when he revealed during a TV interview that he targeted Comey over the probe into collusion with Russia during the presidential campaign.

Trump said during the interview that ‘this Russia thing‘ was one of the reasons he fired Comey, adding that the whole Russia issue was a ‘made-up story.’ This revelation pretty much destroyed whatever little credibility the White House had managed to hold on to up to this point. To add insult to injury, Trump referred to Comey as “a showboat” and “grandstander.” Both the press and the Trump camp were left aghast at the statement.

Architect of his own demise: Trump reveals classified information to Russia

When it comes to torpedoing his own tenancy as President of the United States, nobody does it better than Trump himself.

Still reeling from the Comey scandal, the latest shot under the White House’s waterline came in the form of highly classified intel openly spoken about in the presence of Russian representatives.

The top secret material, relating to an intelligence operation against ISIS, was discussed in plain English during a meeting between Trump and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Trump was on a roll at the time. The fateful meeting took place less than 24 hours after the termination of FBI Director Comey.

The White House, and the intelligence community as a whole, was left speechless after Trump’s blunder. The President’s basic competence was quickly called into question.

Trump’s fundamental ignorance about history is well documented. The President, a self-confessed TV addict, openly admitted that he believed Frederick Douglass to be still alive and that ‘he is doing an amazing job,’ for example. And he has also made some bizarre comments about the Civil War.

But despite these obvious academic shortcomings, one would think that Trump, as a security-obsessed American and as President, would have enough intellect to mind his mouth when it comes to matters of national security. Not so, apparently. The untold damage caused by the security breach is likely to ‘cost American lives,’ according to security analysts.

Obstruction of Justice and possible impeachment

It is hard to see Trump’s alleged attempts to meddle into the Flynn investigation first, and then into the probe of whether or not Russia had any role to play in the presidential election, as anything other than interfering into the FBI’s and Department of Justice’s dealings with these matters.

Comparisons have been drawn between these issues and the Watergate, the scandal that culminated in Richard Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974, days before an imminent impeachment.

Back then, journalists and law enforcement organizations untangled a complicated trail of illicit activities that led all the way to the White House.

With the scandal out in the open, Nixon and a few other top political associates were accused of obstruction of justice, after it emerged that Nixon planned to use the CIA to stop an impending investigation by the FBI.

Nixon was pushed into a corner, and with the threat of impeachment looming closer, he chose to resign. Though later pardoned for his involvement in the shady affair, the Watergate legacy stayed with Nixon until his death in 1994.

Impeachment proceedings have been initiated against several US presidents, though only two -Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton- have ever been successfully impeached.

There are now sufficient grounds to impeach the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, in light of his alleged intervention in the FBI’s affairs, and the recent alleged leak of classified information.

The seventh trumpet is about to blow for Mr. Trump.

Technical writing: The arcane art of making sense

writing

‘What is it you do again?’, they would ask with a squint and slight tilt of the head.
‘Technical Writing.’
‘Oh,’ they would say, as the squint usually turns into a look of puzzlement. ‘What’s that?’

I’d wager that every Tech Writer out there has been through this very same interaction a great deal of times throughout his/her professional life. We are odd creatures, alienated by our very own professional choice. We tend to sit in a dark corner of the client’s office, working alone, with a half-full cup of coffee as our only company. We only look up from the worn keys of our laptop when someone comes and asks ‘Need to make a change to that decision matrix again.’

But what is Technical Writing?

If you google these two words, you are bound to open a Pandora’s Box of technobabble and long- winded definitions, the very anathema to the concept of technical writing.

Defining Technical Writing is simple: It’s the art of making sense.

Why Technical Writing is good for you

A lot of people enjoy and own consumer electronics. Tablets, laptops, smartphones, DSLR cameras, etc. And all these things usually come with a sizable instruction manual that shows how to get the best out of whatever item it refers to.But many people would not be technically minded. These manuals could explain and list every last feature included, and the user might still be none the wiser. It’s all gobbledygook to them, so such manual would be no good.

For you see, an instruction manual must make sense. There is no point writing a complicated and convoluted set of rules that only a few chosen ones would understand. Use simple, everyday language. Leave the flourishing for those secret moments spent in the dark, writing poetry or words of wisdom. And yet, we are all guilty of slipping in the odd darling word here and there, aren’t we. But be firm. Murder those darlings, as someone once said.

And don’t even get me started on adverbs. Slippery rascals they are, all of them. Those dastardly traitors give you away spectacularly, don’t they. Off with their heads I say.
Summarily.

So you see, technical writing is good cause it helps you. And anything that helps you must, by
definition, be good.

So I want to be a technical writer…what now?

Pick up your phone. Yes, you. Pick up that piece of smart technology that goes everywhere you go. Now, send a text to your friend, girlfriend/boyfriend, or to that soccer coach who always seems up for a chat. Easy, right? Type the text and press ‘Send.’ Done.

But hang on a minute. What if you had never sent a text before? Or had a mobile phone, for that matter. A lot of things must happen before you can send the text. You must switch on the phone. And for the phone to come on, its battery must be charged. And where is the battery? And the charger? Am I using the right charger? And after all that, you must find the texting feature. What does it look like? How do I use it? And by God, what if the phone does not come on at all? How do I troubleshoot it? Where is that damn manual?!

Not so easy all of a sudden, right?

If you want to be a Technical Writer, you must be two things, at least: Patient, and curious. You
can’t learn patience, nor can you acquire curiosity. Either you are, or you are not. If the
latter, pursue some other career. The world is full of seemingly successful people who cannot spell for their life, after all. I’m sure you will find your place in the world some day.

If you are the patient and curious kind though, well, then we can do business together and make sense of it all.

Sirtuins: Miracle protein or Pandora’s Box?

eternally

It seems that the answer to that quandary would depend on your point of view. Sirtuins are the talk of the town these days. Fierce controversy rages on about whether or not they do (or could do) what some scientists speculate they do.

Because you see, sirtuins could prolong life.

Longevity, and the curse of aging that we’re all stuck with from the moment of our birth, have for centuries been a subject of fervent research and heated discussion, both from the scientific and religious fields. People just do not want to get older, it seems.

Enter sirtuins, the fulcrum upon which may swing the next step of human evolution.

But what exactly are sirtuins?

Without descending into purely academic territory, sirtuins are a class of proteins that regulate some important biological pathways in certain organisms. The name “sirtuin” is a portmanteau of the name for the yeast gene ‘silent mating-type information regulation 2’, the gene that is responsible for cellular regulation in yeast.

Scientific research has associated sirtuins (sirtuin 6, SIRT6, in particular) with influencing certain cellular processes, including aging. SIRT6 has been proved to lengthen the lifespan of male mice by as much as 15.8%, for instance

But don’t go planning your 250th birthday bash just yet. While initial results are encouraging, we still are a long way off from opening a new chapter in the very definition of human life as we know it. The strain of mice used in such research is prone to tumours, for instance, specially the males. Since SIRT6 may also have an anti-cancer effect, it is conceivable that the test mice may have lived longer because they did not become ill, as opposed to not aging.

Sirtuins also do not prevent aging, only appear to slow it down (in test male mice, remember. This thing has yet to be tested on humans, assuming it ever does). Thus, you shall not stay forever looking as you did when you were 19, nor will eternal life be granted unto you, thus challenging all known laws of Nature. Your lifespan may be extended, by how much (if at all), nobody knows.

These musings do pose some interesting questions and challenges, however.

If society were to become a huge community of 200-plus year old geriatrics, how, and when and for how long would our pensions be funded, for example? What would the legal retirement age be, then? 90? 150? 300? Or how about the prison system? Would our jails be inhabited by 400 year old undying ‘old timers’, languishing in 3×3 cells, and wishing they had never set their thieving eyes on those blue pills a couple of hundred years earlier? Perhaps prison authorities could introduce a mandatory prisoner cull, anyone over the age of 275, let’s say, if only to make room for the next batch of walking mummies.

And what about the holy institution of marriage? Take the vows and you’re doomed to have sex with the same person for the next 400 years. How does that sound? Though perhaps some legislation could be introduced to force a mandatory divorce every hundred years or so, if only to keep the statistics of spousal murder rate at an acceptable level.

More interesting concepts: How long would females remain fertile? Until they’re in their hundreds, perhaps? Would centuries pass between siblings? It is conceivable that women could be churning out babies for hundreds of years. The nappy industry would collapse with the demand. If one follows that train of thought, what would the nurseries of this topsy-turvy world of unprecedented longevity look like? Mega-locales where thousands of screaming and shitting babies would have to be looked after for decades, since they age slowly (assuming they are given the wonder pill at birth, that is)? The same concept applies to schools all over the world. How long would you be on your teens? A firestorm of raging hormones lasting 15, 25 years, who knows.

The nursery idea raises the question, would everyone be given sirtuins at birth (i.e., would it be a right, a natural entitlement like your individual freedom), or would the privilege of ancestral longevity have to be ‘earned’, somehow, or paid for? If it’s the latter, would only the richest in society be able to live until well past their sell-by date? Where is the moral demarcation?

Pharmaceutical companies would sell their souls to be the first to commercialize a sirtuin-based drug that really prolonged longevity. The profits would rank in the hundreds of billions. And indirectly, the very raison-de-etre for those same companies would become their leitmotif. The equation would go somewhat like this: Humans would live longer. A lot longer. Longevity means more time and frequency to become ill. Frequent and abundant morbidity requires plenty medicinal drugs output. K-ching!

It is unlikely that any of us will see any significant development in the sirtuin front in our lifetime. But one day, mankind may rise to challenge the very immortality of the gods.

The question, however, is, do we want to?

 

Four ballistic missiles launched from North Korea splash down inside Japan’s territorial waters

thaad

The reclusive country of North Korea launched four ballistic missiles early on Monday morning. The barrage landed just 200 miles out from the Japanese coastline, sparking outrage and a strong criticism from Japan’s leader Shinzo Abe, who said the development signifies “an extremely dangerous action,” and a “new level of threat.’

US military observers confirmed that the ballistic weapons originated in North Korea and flew almost 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) towards the Sea of Japan. All four missiles splashed down within Japan’s territorial waters. A fifth missile failed to launch, analysts confirmed.

None of the weapons involved are thought to be Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), nor did they belong to the newer Musudan-class intermediate ballistic missile. Musudan weapons have a range of about 4,000 km, which puts them within striking distance of China and most of Russia, but it’s just short of the necesary range to hit the United States.

International observers agree that the launch of four ballistic missiles in the direction of Japan is a response to joint military exercises recently conducted between South Korea and the United States. North Korea saw these exercises as a ‘provocation’ and a ‘prelude to invasion.’

This latest show of force by the DPRK has caused renewed calls to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) grid in South Korea and Japan, both allies of the United States in the area.

THAAD batteries are essentially mobile weapon platforms that target incoming missiles in their terminal approach. THAAD rockets have no warhead. Instead, they rely on sheer kinetic energy to destroy an incoming missile before it reaches its intended target. A kinetic impact minimizes the chances of detonating conventional weaponry, and a nuclear warhead will not explode after a kinetic strike.

State-sponsored media in North Korea reported that Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the launch operation.

Life finds a way: Ancient fossils dating back 4.2bn years prove that life thrived on Earth much earlier than previously thought, and may also hint at living organisms in Mars’ distant past

mars4

Life finds a way, mathematician Ian Malcolm utters in Jurassic Park.

Though a scientific fantasy, the film -based on a bestselling novel by Michael Crichton- did postulate on the dangers of genetic tinkering, and how such transgression may endanger our very survival.

But life does indeed find a way, no matter how adverse the environmental conditions might be, as recently found fossils seem to prove.

The fossils, dating back 4.2 billion years, are the oldest ever found on Planet Earth, and show that life thrived even back then, when our planet was little more than a swirling cauldron of magma.

These fossilized organisms were found inside rock formations in Quebec, Canada, and have shocked scientists as they date back hundreds of millions of years earlier than the lifeforms known thus far.

A research team from University College London, partly funded by NASA, made the fascinating discovery.

They released a statement saying “Early Mars and early Earth are very similar places, so we may expect to find life on both planets at this time”.

“We know that life managed to get a foothold and evolve rapidly on Earth. So if we have life evolving in hydrothermal vent systems maybe even 4.2 billion years ago when both planets had liquid water on their surface, then we would expect both planets to develop early life.

“If we do future sample returns from Mars and look at similarly old rocks and we don’t find evidence of life then this certainly may point to the fact that Earth might have been a very special exception, and life may just have arisen on Earth.”

The evidence seems to point out that these organisms may prove that life once existed on Mars. Though a dead planet now, it is thought that Mars once had an atmosphere and contained vast oceans, both conditions favorable for life to thrive.

The next step would be to search for similar fossils around Mars, to prove beyond doubt that alien life does -or at least, did- exist in the distant past. Such endeavor however, may prove a challenging undertaking.

But if such evidence were to be found, it would potentially suggest that life on Earth actually originated in Mars, or elsewhere in the Universe, and that the building blocks were deposited here by comets or other celestial bodies.

We may all be from Mars, after all.

Cosmic fury: Titanic struggles in deep space, as black holes consume stars more often than previously thought

tidal

New deep-space research has concluded that black holes are consuming stars at an alarming rate, way faster than astronomers previously thought.

A brand new study has found that supermassive black holes lurk in dark regions of space, always ready to trap nearby stars and slowly consume their matter, a la galactic Venus Flytrap.

This phenomenon was well known, but it is the frequency at which it happens that has stunned the research community at the University of Sheffield, the conductors of the study.

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. Eventually, 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 surrounding space.

When a star wanders in the vicinity of one of these cosmic monsters, it becomes trapped in an inescapable gravitational pull, slowly dwindling away as the black hole swallows it whole.

In scientific terms, such predation is called a Tidal Disruption Event (TDE). Prior knowledge stated that one such event would happen once every 10,000 to 100,000 years per galaxy.

However, it has now transpired that TDEs occur about 100 times more often, particularly as galaxies collide with one another.

TDEs are exceptionally violent episodes of utter chaos at cosmic level, with devastating consequences. When galaxies collide, their structure warps, ripping stars out of their orbits, and often throwing them into the ravenous maws of lurking black holes. The outcome of such cataclysmic events is a single, enormous new galaxy risen from the remnants of the two colliding titans.

And the bad news is that our very own galactic home, the Milky Way, is on an inexorable collision course with Andromeda, the closest spiral galaxy. This end-of-days event will happen in about 5 billion years though, so don’t go making plans for your TDE blaze of glory just yet.