Wednesday, January 29, 2020

UPDATED

Two defunct satellites narrowly miss collision: officials

NASA/AFP / HandoutThe Infrared Astronomical Satellites (IRAS) space telescope was launched in 1983 as a joint project of NASA, Great Britain, and the Netherlands, and its mission lasted only 10 months

Two decommissioned satellites sped past each other Wednesday after experts had warned they may collide at a combined speed of 33,000 miles (53,000 kilometers) an hour, sending thousands of pieces of debris hurtling through space.

The satellites -- a pioneering international space telescope and an experimental US craft traveling in opposing orbits -- "crossed paths without incident," a spokesman for US Space Command told AFP.

The crossover took place at 2339 GMT about 900 kilometers (560 miles) above the US city of Pittsburgh and came after experts had placed the risk of impact at between one and five percent, considered high in the space community.

Crashes involving large satellites at very high speeds (known as hypervelocity) are rare and dangerous, generating clouds of debris that endanger spacecraft around the planet.

The first time it happened was in 2009 when the active communication satellite Iridium 33 struck the decommissioned Russian satellite Cosmos 2251, resulting in a debris field of about 1,000 large objects in low Earth orbit.

The Infrared Astronomical Satellites (IRAS) space telescope was launched in 1983 as a joint project of NASA, Britain and the Netherlands, and its mission lasted only 10 months.

It weighs one tonne (ton), according to data provided by the European Space Agency and is about the size of a truck with measurements of around four meters by three meters by two meters (12 feet by 11 feet by seven feet).

The experimental US satellite, GGSE-4, was launched by the US Air Force in 1967 and weighs just 85 kilograms (190 pounds) but has an unusual shape -- just 60 centimeters (two feet) wide but 18 meters (60 feet) long, and it flies vertically.

If they had hit, they could have created around a thousand pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters, and more than 12,000 fragments bigger than one centimeter, astrodynamicist Dan Oltrogge told AFP.

There are around 20,000 catalogued pieces of debris bigger than a softball orbiting the planet, traveling at speeds up to 17,500 miles (28,000 kilometers) per hour, and satellite operators have to frequently adjust their trajectory accordingly, which isn't possible once a satellite dies.

Two defunct satellites speed toward possible collision

COMETS, ASTEROIDS, METEORS AND SATELLITES OH MY

Issued on: 29/01/2020

Washington (AFP)

Two decommissioned satellites sped towards each other Wednesday at a combined speed of almost 33,000 miles (53,000 kilometers) an hour, raising the risk of a collision that would send thousands of pieces of debris hurtling through space.

The satellites -- a pioneering international space telescope and an experimental US craft traveling in opposing orbits -- are expected to pass within 100 meters (yards) of each other at 2339 GMT, according to the space debris tracker LeoLabs.

Although the likeliest scenario is a near miss, experts are closely watching the rendezvous, which is set to occur about 900 kilometers (560 miles) above the US city of Pittsburgh.

Crashes involving large satellites at very high speeds (known as hypervelocity) are rare and dangerous, generating clouds of debris that endanger spacecraft around the planet.

The Infrared Astronomical Satellites (IRAS) space telescope was launched in 1983 as a joint project of NASA, Britain and the Netherlands, and its mission lasted only 10 months.

LeoLabs, which uses radar to calculate collision risk, placed the probability of their making impact at between one and five percent, based on the uncertain orientation of the GGSE-4. This is considered a high risk among the space community.

If they do hit, they could create around a thousand pieces of debris larger than 10 centimeters, and more than 12,000 fragments bigger than one centimeter, astrodynamicist Dan Oltrogge told AFP.

"We will know because especially for low Earth orbit, there is much radar coverage, and we would see fragmentation happening, we would see objects separating off," he said -- though it won't be visible to the naked eye.

The 900 kilometer altitude band is particularly crowded with satellites.

Adding a few thousand more pieces would create significant extra workload and risk, said Oltrogge.

"There's also the introduction of a lot of what we call lethal non trackable debris. It's debris that's big enough to kill your satellite, but not big enough to currently be tracked."

Turn back time: how quitting smoking reverses lung cell damage

Issued on: 29/01/2020

Tokyo (AFP)

Smokers can effectively turn back time in their lungs by kicking the habit, with healthy cells emerging to replace some of their tobacco-damaged and cancer-prone ones, a new study shows.

Smokers have long been told their risk of developing diseases like lung cancer will fall if they can quit, and stopping smoking prevents new damage to the body.

But a study published Thursday in the journal Nature found that the benefits may go further, with the body appearing to draw on a reservoir of healthy cells to replace smoke-damaged ones in the lungs of smokers when they quit.

The study's joint senior author, Peter Campbell of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, said the results should give new hope to smokers who want to quit.

"People who have smoked heavily for 30, 40 or more years often say to me that it's too late to stop smoking -- the damage is already done," he said in a statement issued by the institute.

"What is so exciting about our study is that it shows that it's never too late to quit."

Some of the people in the study had smoked more than 15,000 packs of cigarettes in their life, he said.

"But within a few years of quitting, many of the cells lining their airways showed no evidence of damage from tobacco."

- Healthy cells emerge -

The study analysed lung biopsies from 16 people, including current smokers, ex-smokers, adults who had never smoked and children, looking for the mutations that can lead to cancer.

Genetic changes that appear in the body's cells are a normal part of ageing, and many of these mutations are harmless so-called "passenger mutations".

But a mutation in the wrong gene in the wrong cell can "dramatically change the behaviour of the cells and instruct them to behave more like a cancer", Campbell told AFP.

"If enough of these 'driver mutations' accumulate, then the cell will become a full-blown cancer."

The study found nine out of every 10 lung cells in current smokers had mutations, including those that can cause cancer.

But in ex-smokers, many of those damaged cells had been replaced by healthy ones akin to those seen in people who had never smoked.

Up to 40 percent of the total lung cells in ex-smokers were healthy, four times more than in their still-smoking counterparts.

Campbell said the damaged cells had not been able to "magically repair themselves".

"Rather they are replaced by healthy cells that have escaped the damage from cigarette smoke."

- Small sample size -

The precise mechanism by which that replacement occurs is not yet clear, but the study's authors believe there may be a sort of reservoir of cells, waiting for a chance to emerge.

"Once the person quits smoking, the cells gradually proliferate from this safe harbour to replace the damaged cells," Campbell told AFP.

Gerd P. Pfeifer, professor at the Van Andel Institute's Center for Epigenetics, praised the study in a review published by Nature.

"It has shed light on how the protective effect of smoking cessation plays out at the molecular level in human lung tissue," wrote Pfeifer, who was not involved in the study.

Obtaining lung biopsies raises ethical concerns, meaning the researchers could only study 16 samples obtained from patients who had to undergo biopsies for separate medical reasons.

The small sample size could provide a caveat to the study's findings, Pfeifer wrote.

But it "raises many interesting questions worthy of further investigation".

Campbell said the key now would be to locate the reservoir of healthy cells and work out how they are able to replace damaged ones.

"If we can work out where they normally live and what makes them expand when someone stops smoking, perhaps we have opportunities to make them even more effective at repair."

© 2020 AFP

Greta Thunberg (C)(R)(TM) patents own name and 'Fridays for Future' (C)(R)(T)

CAPITALISM IS NOT SUSTAINABLE DESPITE FAME
PROTEST IS NOT A CHALLENGE TO CAPITALISM
ONE MORE STEP FROM PROTEST TO CREATING THE NEW SOCIETY

WITHIN THE SHELL OF THE OLD BY CREATING SELF MANAGED
ORGANS OF DUAL POWER

30/01/2020 ADDED MY MEMES BELOW

Issued on: 29/01/2020

Stockholm (AFP)

Teen eco warrior Greta Thunberg said Wednesday she has registered both her own name and her "Fridays For Future" global protest movement as trademarks in order to prevent them from being hijacked for fraudulent purposes.

"My name and the #FridaysForFuture movement are constantly being used for commercial purposes without any consent whatsoever," the 17-year-old Swede wrote on her Instagram account.

"I assure you, I and the other school strikers have absolutely no interests in trademarks. But unfortunately it needs to be done."

She complained that "there are still people who are trying to impersonate me or falsely claim that they 'represent' me in order to communicate with high profile people, politicians, media, artists etc."

There had also been instances of marketing, product selling and people collecting money "in my and the movement's name," she wrote.

"That is why I've applied to register my name, Fridays For Future,... as trademarks. This action is to protect the movement and its activities."

Thunberg, whose protests have attracted millions of young people across the globe, also said she was setting up a non-profit making foundation to handle the financial side of "Fridays for Future", such as book royalties, donations and prize money.

She insisted that the foundation would be "completely transparent," for example, with regard to the taxes it has to pay.

"The foundation's aim will be to promote ecological, climatic and social sustainability, as well as mental health," the campaigner wrote.

Thunberg's climate struggle began quietly in August 2018 when she skipped school for the first three weeks, and then on Fridays to spend the day outside Sweden's parliament with a sign labelled "School strike for climate".

Since then, she has become the face behind the global protest movement, particularly for young people.

Thunberg has also come under ferocious attack from climate changes deniers, who accuse her of being manipulated by a "green lobby".

© 2020 AFP

Greta Thunberg seeks to trademark her name and movement

The 17-year-old climate activist said the trademark was meant "to protect the movement" from being used for commercial purposes. Thunberg has also set up a foundation to be transparent about the movement's financing.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg is seeking to trademark her name and the Fridays for Future campaign in a move meant "to protect the movement and its activities," she wrote on Instagram on Wednesday.

In her post on the photo sharing platform, Thunberg said she and her fellow school strikers have "absolutely no interests in trademarks, but unfortunately it needs to be done."

The trademarks would cover the 17-year-old Swede's name, as well as the name of the "Fridays for Future" movement and 'Skolstrejk för klimatet' (which translates as "School strike for the climate" in Swedish), the slogan on a sign she held during her weekly solo climate protests outside of Sweden's parliament which inspired similar protests by other activists.

Thunberg was named Time's Person of the Year in 2019 for her climate action.

The climate activist said the trademark was needed because her name and that of the movement "are constantly being used for commercial purposes without any consent whatsoever."

"It happens, for instance, in marketing, selling of products and people collecting money in my and the movement's name," she wrote.

"Fridays For Future is a global movement founded by me. It belongs to anyone taking part in it, above all the young people. It can — and must — not be used for individual or commercial purposes," she added.

Thunberg also announced that she and her family were setting up a foundation "for handling money (book royalties, donations, prize money etc.) in a completely transparent way."

Thunberg was named Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2019 for her climate activism. Earlier this month she attended the Global Economic Forum in Davos, where she and her fellow activists urged world leaders and politicians to listen to climate activists and to take action on global warming.

More torrential rain in Brazil raises death toll to 54

Issued on: 29/01/2020

Belo Horizonte (Brazil) (AFP)

Another torrential downpour left the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte paralyzed Wednesday, with ruined cars abandoned on streets cake with mud, as the death toll from days of violent weather reached 54.

Another 47,000 people across Minas Gerais, the southeastern state where the city is located, have been forced from their homes since the rains began on Friday, civil defense officials said.

Tuesday evening's downpour was nothing short of spectacular: 117 millimeters (nearly five inches) of water in three hours.

Part of the roof of a shopping mall collapsed but no one was hurt. Torrents of muddy water rushed down streets, dragging cars with them, tearing up pavement and devastating the city of 2.5 million people.

With the new precipitation, January saw 930 milimeters of rain in Belo Horizonte, making it the wettest month here since record keeping began in 1910, the civil defense department said.

"We saw a wall of water that swept away cars and people," said restaurant waiter Bruno Almeida.

"Luckily I was able to rescue everyone and I carried three or four of them on my back."

The state civil defense department said the death toll since Thursday night stood at 54, with 46,860 forced from their homes.

The weather forecast for the next few days is for cloudy skies and scattered downpours.

© 2020 AFP

Finally free!': Asia Bibi on Pakistan prison, life in exile

Issued on: 29/01/2020

Paris (AFP)

Recounting the hellish conditions of eight years spent on death row on blasphemy charges but also the pain of exile, Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi has broken her silence to give her first personal insight into an ordeal that caused international outrage.

Bibi was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges by a Pakistani court in 2010 but then dramatically acquitted in 2018. She now lives in Canada at an undisclosed location.

French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet, who has co-written a book about her, was once based in the country where she led a support campaign for her.

She is the only reporter to have met Bibi during her stay in Canada.

In the book "Enfin libre!" ("Finally Free") -- published in French on Wednesday with an English version due out in September -- Bibi recounts her arrest, the conditions of prison, the relief of her release but also the difficulty of adjusting to a new life.

"You already know my story through the media," she said in the book.

"But you are far from understanding my daily life in prison or my new life," she said.

- 'Depths of darkness' -

"I became a prisoner of fanaticism," she said.

In prison, "tears were the only companions in the cell".

She described the horrendous conditions in squalid jails in Pakistan where she was kept chained and jeered at by other detainees.

"My wrists are burning me, it is hard to breathe. My neck... is encased in an iron collar that the guard can tighten with a huge nut," she wrote.

"A long chain drags along on the filthy ground. This connects my neck to the handcuffed hand who pulls me like a dog on a lead.

"Deep within me, a dull fear takes me towards the depths of darkness. A lacerating fear that will never leave me."

Many other prisoners showed her no pity. "I am startled by the cry of a woman. 'To death!' The other women join in. 'Hanged!' Hanged!'."

- 'At what price?' -

Blasphemy is an incendiary charge in Muslim-majority Pakistan, where even the whiff of an unsubstantiated allegation of insulting Islam can spark death at the hands of mobs.

Her acquittal on the charges, which stemmed from an incident in 2009 when she argued with a Muslim co-labourer, resulted in violent protests that paralysed the country led by firebrand cleric, Khadim Hussain Rizvi.

Bibi, who vehemently denied the charges against her, argued in the book that the Christian minority in overwhelmingly Muslim Pakistan still faces persecution.

"Even with my freedom, the climate (for Christians) does not seemed to have changed and Christians can expect all kinds of reprisals," she said.

"They live with this sword of Damcoles over their head."

And while Canada gives her a safer and more certain future, Bibi also has to come to terms with likely never setting foot in her homeland again.

"In this unknown country, I am ready for a new departure, perhaps for a new life. But at what price?

"My heart broke when I had to leave without saying goodbye to my father or other members of the family."

"Pakistan is my country. I love my country but I am in exile forever," she said.

Archaeology discovery: Major 59,000-year-old find sparks redefinition of Siberian history

SCIENTISTS uncovered ancient tools found in a cave high in the Siberia mountains that tell the story of an epic trek made by Neanderthals.

By JOEL DAY PUBLISHED: 03:13, Wed, Jan 29, 2020

Neanderthals: Expert discusses why species went extinct

The Neanderthals, an extinct species of archaic humans, trekked nearly 2,000 miles to some 59,000 years ago across Europe to their final destination - a cave in Siberia deep in the forest, at the foothills of the towering Altai Mountains. Now, an analysis of the tools found that the tools to have been formed in the same way as those used by Neanderthals in eastern Europe, rather than those commonly found elsewhere in Siberia.

The striking similarity has led researchers to conclude that there were two separate long-distance migrations of Neanderthals into Siberia, some 40,000 years apart.

The bombshell discovery reinforces the unfolding view within academic circles that Neanderthals were a sophisticated people who were skilled survivors and capable of such long journeys.

The Chagyrskaya Cave, first excavated in 2007, has since become an epicentre for pre-historic finds.

Some 90,000 stone artefacts and the remains of plants and animals have been recovered from the site, as well as 74 Neanderthal fossils.

The discovery rewrites our understanding of Neanderthals (Image: GETTY)

The Chagyrskaya Cave in Siberia (Image: Kolobova et al)

The Russian Academy of Sciences carried out analyses on more than 3,000 stone tools from the cave, Kseniya Kolobova among a team of experts who secularise in Neanderthal material culture.

The team used a method of time stamping known as optical dating, which measures the last time that individual grains of quartz were exposed to sunlight, to determine when different sediments, artefacts and fossils were deposited from the cave.

The method has proved especially useful to geologists and archaeologists alike in pinpointing when such an event in history occurred.

The recovered plant and animals remains also enabled researchers to recreate the environmental conditions of that time,

JUST IN: Archaeology news: Vesuvius victims were BAKED to death

An overview of the remains found in Chagyrskaya Cave (Image: Kolobova et al)

From this, a cold and dry climate was realised, one that Neanderthals would have used to their advantage to hunt bison and horses to survive.

And, separator to this discovery was how closely the tools - which date back to 59,000 to 49,000 years ago - resemble the so-called Micoquian tools used by Neanderthals in Eastern Europe, over 1,000 miles to the west of the cave.

Named after the La Micoque dig site in Dordogne, southwestern France, the Micoque was a period in history dating back 130,000 to 60,000 years ago which was characterised by distinctly asymmetrical two-faced tools.

Writing in the Conversation, Dr Kolobova wrote: “Their distinctive stone tools are dead ringers for those found thousands of kilometres away in eastern and central Europe.”

Neanderthal lower jaw bone fragments (Image: Kolobova et al)

Some of the items recovered from the cave (Image: Kolobova et al)

Meanwhile, in stark contrast, the team note that the tools found in the nearby Denison Cave are not Micoquian, despite it being home to Neanderthals more than 10,000 years ago.

The tools found there instead resemble the so-called Levallois style, in which flakes were cut off tools off of a pre-prepared stone core.

The researchers wrote: “The presence of Micoquian artefacts at Chagyrskaya Cave suggests at least two separate dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia.

“Sites such as Denisova Cave were occupied by Neanderthals who entered the region before 100,000 years ago, while the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals arrived later.”

Neanderthals from different periods created flints and tools in different ways (Image: GETTY)

DNA analysis of the Neanderthal fossils provided and supported a link between the Chagyrskaya Cave population and their counterparts in eastern Europe.

The team explained: “The Chagyrskaya Neanderthal [shares] closer affinities with several European Neanderthals than with a Neanderthal from Denisova Cave.

“When the Chagyrskaya toolmakers (or their ancestors) left their Neanderthal homeland in eastern Europe for central Asia around 60,000 years ago, they could have headed north and east around the land-locked Caspian Sea.”

This, they explained, “was much reduced in size under the prevailing cold and arid conditions”.

Neanderthals are now thought to have been much more intelligent than what was first thought (Image: GETTY)

The significance, then, is overwhelming, as the researchers noted the lack of any evidence for long-distance trekking and transcontinental journeys over thousands of miles from Neanderthals.

On this, the study added that it “highlights the value of stone tools as culturally informative markers of ancient population movements.

“Our discoveries reinforce the emerging view of Neanderthals as creative and intelligent people who were skilled survivors.

“If this was the case, it makes their extinction across Eurasia even more mysterious. Did modern humans deal the fatal blow? The enigma endures, for now."

French firefighters faced off against riot police in Paris on Tuesday.

The riot police deployed water cannons, smoke grenades and erected large metal barriers to block off the fire service protestors.

The riot police continue to use crowd control grenades despite controversies stemming from their use against both the Yellow Vest protestors and the pension reform protesters.

The video footage shows the moment riot police hit protestors with their batons.

Some firefighters can be seen stumbling and attempting to get back up at their feet while pushing the riot police back.

Macron’s riot squad break into violent clash with protesting firefighters - VIDEO (Image: Bryan MacDonald )

Multiple videos have been circulating on social media showing violent clashes break out between the two groups. (Image: Bryan MacDonald )

Multiple videos have been circulating on social media showing violent clashes break out between the two groups.

The police argued that many protesting firefighters had abandoned the prearranged route which ultimately resulted in fierce clashes with the riot police.

At one point during the protest, multiple firefighters symbolically set themselves on fire.

At one point during the protest, multiple firefighters symbolically set themselves on fire. (Image: Reuters)

Professional firefighters represent just 16 percent of the 247,000 firefighters in France, with the remainder comprising volunteers and military personnel.

Tuesday’s march was the second national demonstration by the professional firefighter's unions in less than four months; the strike movement began back in June 2019 after proposed reforms to the national pension scheme were announced.

Emmanuel Macron’s riot police have continuously come under criticism for using too much force against protestors. (Image: Bryan MacDonald )

Emmanuel Macron’s riot police have continuously come under criticism for using too much force against protestors.

Police have defended these actions by insisting officers had to “systematically intervene” to stop “abuses committed by violent groups.”

Yellow Vest protests have been taking to the streets to protests every weekend since November 2018 with many calling for Mr Macron to step down as President.

France: Clashes in Paris as firefighters and police face off

Ruptly

Published on Jan 28, 2020

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Tension erupted as police forces and firefighters clashed on a day of mass protests in Paris, on Tuesday.

Scuffles broke out when police reportedly fired water cannons at firefighters who had rallied in the French capital to demand better working conditions and a pay raise. Footage filmed on Tuesday shows police beating the firefighters with sticks and using what it appeared to be pepper spray.

Firefighters are demanding an increase from 19 per cent to 25 per cent in their 'risk pay', as they claim staff shortages have been making their job more difficult.

A previous protest held by French firefighters in October was marred by clashes with police in Paris and in the southern city of Dijon.

French riot police clash with protesting firefighters in Paris

The Telegraph

French riot police clashed with uniformed firefighters at protests in Paris on Tuesday, in extraordinary scenes where police used batons and shields against crowds of angry fire officers in helmets.

Thousands of firefighters held a demonstration in the French capital, as part of long-running protest movement asking for better pay and conditions, including an increase in their hazard bonus which has not changed since 1990.

Some firefighters set their uniforms alight as a symbolic gesture before colleagues put out the fires. But as a group of fire officers attempted to lead their demonstration into a sidestreet, riot officers pushed them back. Teargas was fired and scuffles broke out.