Do yetis exist after all?

Fresh footprints of a yeti have recently been found in the region of Gornaya Shoria in Siberia. This picturesque mountainous area is sometimes dubbed a “Siberian Switzerland”. A group of Italian scientists plans to visit Gornaya Shoria to look for more evidence that yetis really exist. This is not the first time that footprints which are believed to belong to these mysterious creatures have been discovered in this region. Some local residents claim that they have seen yetis with their own eyes. As a rule, yetis’ footprints are
found in the vicinity of the Azasskaya Cave and the Karatag Mountain. Yetis’ footprints are bigger than those of humans – they can reach 45 cms in length. That’s why yetis are also called “Bigfoot”. Gornaya Shoria has already become to be associated with claims of evidence that yetis exist. Every year, the tourist season in the local mountains opens with a celebration of ‘Yeti Day’, when tourists can find yeti souvenirs all over Shoria. Local hunters call Bigfoot “the spirit of the taiga”. In October 2011, a delegation of US, Canadian, Swedish, Estonian and Russian scientists explored the Azasskaya Cave. They didn’t find a yeti, but discovered a large footprint and small samples of hair inside it. The hairs were up to 8 cms long, curly, gray along the whole length except at the root which was black. The hair samples were taken to St. Petersburg and thoroughly examined at a local zoological institute. It turned out that they were identical to which was thought to be yetis’ hairs found earlier in California in the US, as well as outside St. Petersburg and in the Ural Mountains in Russia. One of the members of the expedition, a member of St. Petersburg and New York academies, Valentin Sapunov says: “These hairs are very similar to the other hairs which were found in 4 different parts of the world and are believed to be yeti hairs. The results from the tests conducted by the scientists indicate that these hair samples are very likely to belong to creatures of one and the same species. A scientific mistake would be highly unlikely.” However, only genetic testing can prove or disprove that yetis are related to the Homo Sapiens. An attempt made by Russian scientists to examine the DNA of yetis’ hair samples found near St. Petersburg and in the Urals was unsuccessful due to lack of appropriate equipment. But when US scientists announced that the results of their testing apparently proved that the DNA of the yeti’s hair from California was in no way different to that of the Homo Sapiens, very few people actually believed them. At present, Russian scientists are trying to extract DNA from the hair samples believed to be those of a yeti, which were found in the Azasskaya Cave. In the meantime, a well-known genetic Professor Bryan Sykes from Oxford University is concluding his own tests. Using equipment of the latest generation, Professor Sykes is trying to prove that yetis really exist. As a sample, he uses what is believed to be yeti remains, which are held at the Museum of Zoology in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Professor Sykes has posted a request on the museum website, which asks everyone, who may possess what they believe to be yeti remains, to send them to Professor Sykes for testing. He promises to announce the results of the testing in December. Source: Voice of RussiaSource: Image
Read More........

Launch of GPS IIF-3 on Delta IV Medium Rocket

GPS constellation
Boeing was contracted with options for up to 33 Block-IIF satellites in 1996, but in 2001 the contract was reduced 12 Block-IIF satellites. In July 2006, satellites 10, 11 and 12 were contracted. The first Block-IIF satellite was originally scheduled to launch in 2006, but was finally launched in 2010. 
Delta IV Medium rocket description
Lift off occurred from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral.: A Delta IV Medium rocket in the (4,2) configuration launched today, October 4th 2012 at 12:10 UTC with the GPS IIF-3 spacecraft for the U.S. Air Force.The United Launch Alliance Delta 4 rocket will deploy the Air Force's third Block 2F
Launch of GPS IIF-3 on Delta IV Medium Rocket
navigation satellite for the Global Positioning System. The rocket will fly in the Medium+ (4,2) configuration with two solid rocket boosters. Delayed from Sept. 20. GPS IIF satellite by Boeing: PS -2F (Global Positioning System) or Navstar-2F (Navigation System using Timing And Ranging) satellites are the fourth evolution stage of the second generation of the GPS satellites. Improvements
GPS 2F-3 satellite
included an extended design life of 12 years, faster processors with more memory, and a new civil signal on a third frequency. The GPS-2F satellites do not need to carry an apogee kick motor, in contrast to the earlier generations, as the launch vehicles provide direct insertion into the GPS orbit. Originally the Delta-4M version was to be used for the Delta launches, but a mass growth of the satellites required a switch to the more powerful Delta-4M+(4,2) version. For Atlas launches, the Atlas-5(401) version is used. Source: Orbiter.ch Space News
Read More........

FBI moves forward with plans to build $1billion database of Americans' photographs for new facial recognition software


FBI plans to create a database of criminals' faces are well under way. The $1billion scheme will help officials fight crime by matching surveillance photographs with images of known offenders. But privacy advocates have decried the wide-ranging project as 'a national photographic database' which will eventually encompass the innocent as well as criminals. The Next Generation Identification programme has been in the pipeline for several years and is now coming to fruition, according to the New Scientist. The plan involves using several hi-tech identification measures such as DNA analysis, voice recognition and iris scans to help fight crimes. But the centrepiece of the project is facial recognition, a technological breakthrough which the FBI says will be invaluable in solving and preventing crime in the future. The software has two primary uses - one is to allow officials to pick out an individual from a crowd to facilitate surveillance. The other new step is the ability to take a photograph and compare it against a database of faces which would in theory contain all former criminals, like fingerprint databases do today. Source: The Coming Crisis
Read More........

Telescopes: the change of generations

космос нло физика наука открытия телескоп 2012 март коллаж
The US National Science Foundation recommends stopping financing six ground-based observatories in order to save money to build and operate new stations. At the same time in Africa former communications antennas are re-equipped to study far space objects. And China has announced a project to build a new solar telescope to surpass the existing ones.
In mid-August the US National Science Foundation published a report entitled “Advancing astronomy in the Coming Decade: Opportunities and Challenges”. The 170-page document contains a review of financial opportunities, scientific tasks, instruments and some other aspects related to research in astronomy. Among the recommendations issued by the committee is the proposal to stop financing of the six ground-based observatories, while spending the remaining funds to build and operate new ones. Two radio telescopes will be affected by that funding cut that is proposed to be spread over the next 5 years: telescope Green Bank (the diameter of the antenna is 100 m, in operation since 2000) and VLBA, short for Very Large Base Array (includes 10 antennas 25 m in diameter, in operation since 1993). Also included in the plan are four optical telescopes that belong to the Kitt Peak National Observatory: Nicholas Mayall telescope (4 m in diameter, in operation since 1973), the WIYN telescope owned by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Indiana University, and Yale University and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (3.5 m in diameter, constructed in 1994), a 2.1 meter telescope and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope (1.6 meters in diameter, in operation since 1962). The stations that according to the plan would be financed by the saved funding include the ALMA observatory (a network of telescopes in Chili, an international cooperation between the USA, Canada, East Asian countries, Europe and Chili). The observatory was opened in 2011 and is scheduled to become fully operational by the end of 2012. Also covered by the new funding would be the LSST, an optical telescope 8.4 meters in diameter that is being built in Chili. The choice of the Green Bank observatory and the VLBA observatory can but be called nothing but strange: the first one is one of the two largest radio telescopes with a turning antenna, while the second is also of a record size among radio antenna observatories with extra long baselines (the distance between its telescopes is about 8,000 km). Thus, it comes as no surprise that the NSF committee recommendations already caused serious dispute among the scientists, who are worried that due to the closing down of these observatories, the workload at the remaining observatories will go up so much that there will be problems with getting access to the observatories. In theory, the end of the state support does not mean that the observatories need to be closed down, but then the managers of those observatories face the need to raise money – from businesses or individuals. The latter is quite widespread in the USA – a great number of scientific facilities have been designed and operated with sponsors' funding. On the other side of the Atlantic, specifically in Africa, the change of the generations of the equipment is done by the method of continuous upgrade. This year it was Africa that together with New Zeeland and Australia got selected for the sites of a huge radio observatory - SKA (Square Kilometer Array), the construction of which is scheduled to be completed in mid-2020s. Specialists are required for the management and processing of the data, but today there are very few radio observatories on the continent. That is why a decision has been made to re-orient radio antennas that have been used in telecommunications that have been replaced by fiber optics. The re-equipping of the first antenna located in Ghana for astronomical needs is scheduled to begin already next month. It will become operational by June next year. In May Vodafone Ghana, a telecoms company, handed over the antenna to the Ministry of Science of the country. Three more dishes will be added in Kenya, Zambia and Madagascar, as well as four new antennas in Namibia, Botswana, Mauritius and Mozambique. In July the project received funding of about 14.6 million USD (or 120 million South African Rand) from the Africa Renaissance Foundation (sponsored by the South African Republic). It is stated that the price of the new telescope can exceed 6 million USD, while refurbishing the existing one costs 2.5-3 times less. An interesting fact is that about the same time, a few days ago, China announced its plans to build a new solar telescope 8 meters in diameter. It was just announced the beginning of the search for the construction site somewhere in Western China, which will take about four years. According to the announcement, the Chinese specialists are planning to surpass the other solar telescopes with a diameter within 4 meters that are being designed. In the era of space ships ground-based observatories remain one of the most important tools for astronomers despite their work range limitations and seriously dependent on the weather. Their advantage is the ability to be constantly upgraded (some of the world's telescopes are half a century old or older). In Russia the largest optical telescope is the Big Azimuth Telescope with a 6-meter diameter of the main mirror, which became operational in 1975. Its main mirror is currently undergoing upgrade at the Lytkarino optical glass plant – after it is re-polished the quality of images should improve significantly. Source: Voice of Russia
Read More........

NASA shells out award for 'ninja star' supersonic plane design

NASA has awarded a $100,000 grant for the development of a ‘ninja star-shaped’ plane capable of supersonic travel. The groundbreaking aircraft is capable of turning at 90 degree-angles mid-flight, transforming it into a supersonic jet. The creators of the new plane have designed it to fly like a normal aircraft, but upon reaching supersonic atmosphere levels the craft rotates, and then flies at twice the speed of sound. "We are inventing the ways in which next-generation aircraft and spacecraft will change the world and inspiring Americans to take bold steps," Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program told the Huffington Post. The plane’s rotation is designed to reduce air resistance during faster-than-sound flight. In order to take off, the craft uses its two longer wings to achieve subsonic speeds. The larger wingspan would cause unwanted drag in supersonic flight, so the plane spins 90 degrees in order to give itself a more aerodynamic profile. The revolutionary dual-design means that the plane poduces "virtually zero sonic boom" when it breaks the sound barrier, its creator claims. Gecheng Zha of the University of Miami, the plane’s designer, said that the mid-flight rotation would not be uncomfortable for passengers, and would reduce G-force pull on takeoff. “Imagine a flight from New York to Los Angeles that only takes two hours instead of six, and from New York to Tokyo in just five instead of fifteen,” Professor Zha said. The planned plane design is still a work in progress, and is not expected to see a working model for at least a few decades.Source: Sam Daily Times
Read More........