A Russian Soyuz space capsule linked up with the International Space Station on Thursday, delivering three new residents to the orbiting laboratory.
The Soyuz TMA-06M spacecraft docked at the space station's rooftop Poisk module at 8:29 a.m. ET after a two-day orbital chase. Riding on the Soyuz were NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and Russian cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who are beginning a five-month mission to the space station.
"We can see you, everything looks fine," Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, who was already onboard the station, told the approaching crew before the two spacecraft docked about 230 miles (370 kilometers) over southern Ukraine.
After checking to all the connections were tight, the Soyuz crew floated into the space station for a round of greetings.
"We?ll stay until March," Ford said in a NASA interview before launch. "We?ve got some space station maintenance activities planned, some kind of periodic maintenance that we?ve trained for, but really the emphasis will be on getting the science rolling and getting as much utilization out of the flight as we can."
Ford, Novitskiy and Tarelkin launched into space on Tuesday atop a Soyuz rocket that blasted off from the Central Asian spaceport of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are the second half of the space station's six-person Expedition 33 crew, which is commanded by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide round out the crew. [Launch Photos: Soyuz Rocket Blasts Off With Station Crew]
The Soyuz spacecraft is bringing some fishy friends to the space station in addition to its human crew. The spacecraft is ferrying 32 small Medaka fish to the space station so they can be placed inside a tank, called the Aquatic Habitat, for an experiment to study how fish adapt to weightlessness.
Flurry of activity
Thursday's Soyuz docking at the space station kicks off a flurry of arrivals and departures at the International Space Station.
A robotic Dragon space capsule built by the private spaceflight company SpaceX will leave the space station on Sunday and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California. The Dragon capsule will return nearly 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms) of science experiment hardware and other gear back to Earth.
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On Oct. 31, an unmanned Russian Progress spacecraft will launch toward the space station and arrive six hours later to make a Halloween delivery of food, equipment and other Halloween treats. One day later, Williams and Hoshide will don bulky spacesuits and float outside the space station on a spacewalk to fix an ammonia leak in the orbiting lab's cooling system.
Williams, Hoshide and Malenchenko are in the final weeks of their mission to the space station, and will return to Earth Nov. 12. At that time, Ford will take command of the space station crew to begin the Expedition 34 mission.
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Veronique de Rugy sums up many points I continue to be thinking):
When I looked at the data?back in June, we saw that of the roughly ?40 billion that was shaved from the deficit during the 2010?2011 budget cycle, for every ?3 of new tax revenue, U.K. taxpayers got ?1 in cuts ? exactly the reverse of what was promised.
What?s more, the evidence indicates that U.K. has, at best, slowed down the growth of spending, but it has not?engaged in actual spending cuts. I documented the trend in British spending earlier this year:
A look at the data in Her Majesty?s Fiscal Year 2012?Budget shows (see table 2.3) that total managed expenditures will increase from ?696.4 billion in 2011?2012 to ?733.5 billion in 2014?2015, and further to ?756.3 billion in 2016?2017. Adjusted for population growth, this is slow growth, but not a savage cut. That table also shows a ?projected? drop in Public Sector Gross Investment between 2012?2013, but if it ever materializes, it will be contained to that year alone.
Spending cuts in the UK can?t be blamed for the weak growth path the country is on. On the other hand, tax increases can. Here is a list:
(For more, go here.) The bottom line is that the U.K. is another case of private-sector austerity (i.e.,?tax hikes) without public-sector austerity?(i.e., spending cuts).
For more detail, here is a new and very good paper by Anthony Evans.? Here are some interesting remarks from Nicholas Crafts.
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian troops bombarded a town near Damascus on Thursday and fighting raged in and around the northern city of Aleppo, a day before a proposed truce for a four-day Muslim religious holiday.
President Bashar al-Assad's government was expected to make a statement later in the day on whether it accepts the temporary ceasefire advocated by U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
The Syrian authorities said on Wednesday they were still studying the plan, but Russia's envoy to the United Nations said Damascus had indicated to Moscow that it would agree to it.
China urged all sides to respect a ceasefire, an idea also backed by Syria's main regional ally Iran, but there was no sign on the ground of any let-up in the violence on the eve of Eid al-Adha, the biggest feast on the Muslim religious calendar.
Syrian troops pounded Harasta, near Damascus, with tank and rocket fire, killing five people, after rebels overran two army roadblocks on the edge of the town, on the main highway from the capital to the north, opposition campaigners said.
Rebels tried to maintain pressure on two army bases on main roads leading to the contested city of Aleppo, a key prize in the 19-month-old uprising against Assad's authoritarian rule.
"No one is taking the ceasefire seriously," said Moaz al-Shami, an opposition activist in Damascus.
"How can there be a ceasefire with tanks roaming the streets, roadblocks every few hundred meters and the army having no qualms about hitting civilian neighborhoods with heavy artillery? This is a regime that has lost all credibility."
Even if Assad accepts a truce, there may be no unified response from Syria's fractured opposition. Some armed groups have said they will abide by a ceasefire. Others, including the Islamist militant Al Nusra Front, have rejected it.
In Aleppo, where opposition activists reported more fighting and shelling, the rebel Shining Aleppo Division said it would observe the ceasefire despite "doubts over the credibility of the regime" if Assad stopped moving armored units, halted air raids and released thousands of prisoners held without trial.
WAR CRIMES
Brahimi's predecessor, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan, declared a ceasefire in Syria on April 12, but it soon became a dead letter, along with the rest of his six-point peace plan.
Violence has intensified since then, with daily death tolls compiled by opposition monitoring groups often exceeding 200.
"Harasta is being pummeled by tanks and rocket launchers deployed on the highway. The rebels are putting up a fight and it does not seem the army will be able to enter the town this time," said a Damascus resident, who gave his name as Mohammed.
Assad's force pushed into Harasta a month ago in an operation which opposition activists said killed 70 people.
In Geneva, U.N. war crimes investigators said they had asked to meet Assad to seek access for their team, which has been excluded from Syria since it began work a year ago. There was no word on how the Syrian leader would respond.
The inquiry led by Brazilian expert Paulo Pinheiro has been investigating atrocities by both sides in the conflict
In their latest report in August, the investigators said that Syrian government forces and allied militia had committed war crimes including murder and torture of civilians in what appeared to be a state-directed policy.
In Harasta, an opposition group described the town as a "disaster zone" after the shelling. "An (army) roadblock had been set up next to the main bakery. There is no water, no food, no medicine and prolonged power cuts," it said in a statement.
Activists also reported army artillery on the town of Anadan northwest of Aleppo. To the southwest of the city, rebels have been surrounding army barracks at the town of Orum al-Sughra, on the road between Aleppo and the Turkish border.
Assad's forces appear to have curbed a two-week-old rebel offensive against an army base at Wadi al-Deif to the south, near Maarat al-Numaan on the Aleppo-Damascus highway.
Rebel commanders said an armored column sent to defend the base 10 days ago had arrived near Maarat al-Numaan despite rebel attacks. The column, now deployed just south for the town, is bombarding rebel forces operating near Wadi al-Deif.
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TORONTO ? Canadian cable, mobile and media giant Rogers Communications on Wednesday reported lower third quarter earnings, due in part to Canadian ad market softness.
Profits for the three months to September 30 were CAN$466 million ($463.2 million), down 5 percent from year-earlier earnings of $491 million ($488 million), on overall revenue up 1 percent to CAN$3.176 billion ($3.156 billion).
STORY: Canada's BCE Turns to Feds to Salvage $3.38 Billion Astral Media Takeover
After stripping out unusual items, a surge in smartphone use by Rogers subscribers helped the group post adjusted earnings up 1 percent to CAN$495 million ($492 million).
?While the competitive challenges and advertising market softness have not abated, we have strong execution which resulted in a further acceleration in the growth rates of both revenue and adjusted operating profits in our wireless and our cable segments, and also on a consolidated basis,? Rogers president and CEO Nadir Mohamed told analysts during a morning call.
Wireless revenue was up 3 percent to CAN$1.88 billion ($1.86 billion), as Rogers activated over 700,000 smartphones, mostly iPhones, during the latest frame.
STORY: Jack Tomik Leaves CBC to Lead Media Sales at Rogers Media
Cable revenue was up 1 percent to CAN$838 million ($833 million), while media revenue was off 4 percent to CAN$392 million ($389.5 million).
Creepy Close-Ups: Best Microscope Critter Photos Spiders, weevils, wasps, lice, mites and mosquitoes are among the creepiest subjects of the winners of Nikon's Small World microscope photography competition this year. Super-close-ups of eyes, tongues and silk spinnerets are amazingly beautiful, but also gross enough to induce shivers.
Source: Wired Posted on:
Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012, 9:27am Views: 14
Contact: Steve Hinnefeld slhinnef@iu.edu 812-856-3488 Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- It's time to establish a national network for wildlife conservation, bringing together state, federal and private initiatives to coordinate planning and work toward common goals, 11 prominent wildlife biologists and policy experts write in the journal BioScience.
Vicky Meretsky of Indiana University and her co-authors say established state wildlife programs provide "strong building blocks" for such a network. But they make a forceful argument that national cooperation and coordination are needed to protect at-risk wildlife species and habitat and to respond to threats such as novel diseases and climate change.
Amphibians such as frogs are one example cited by the authors. The nation's frog populations have been declining due to the spread of chytrid fungus, particularly in the western U.S. Limited baseline data and state-centered monitoring can obscure range-wide trends for these and other declining species.
"To date, state programs have been inconsistently and incompletely integrated into regional and national networks," they write. "In this era of reduced financing and increased threats, better, more consistent coordination of state-based efforts is increasingly necessary to maximize the effectiveness of limited conservation funds."
Meretsky, associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, is the lead author of the paper, "A State-Based National Network for Effective Wildlife Conservation." It is available online and scheduled for publication in the November 2012 issue of BioScience.
Co-authors are Lynn A. Maguire of Duke University, Frank W. Davis and David M. Stoms of the University of California at Santa Barbara, J. Michael Scott and Dale D. Goble of the University of Idaho, Dennis Figg of the Missouri Department of Conservation, Brad Griffith of the Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and the University of Alaska, Scott E. Henke of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Jacqueline Vaughn of Northern Arizona University and Steven L. Yaffee of the University of Michigan.
States have traditionally been responsible for wildlife conservation, although in the 20th century the federal government asserted authority over migratory birds, marine mammals, ocean fisheries and imperiled species. But a state-by-state approach isn't sufficient for protecting ecosystems and habitats that cross state boundaries; and neither does it allow for addressing problems for species that are declining throughout their ranges but not yet endangered or threatened.
While voluntary regional collaborations have had some success, the authors say, they are limited by uneven funding and capacity in different regions and by difficulties in sharing information.
They propose the following goals for a national wildlife conservation network:
Establish a common habitat classification map suitable for wildlife conservation.
Identify at-risk species.
Coordinate and leverage capacity-building opportunities.
Facilitate and enhance the dissemination of information.
Incorporate new data tools.
"Appropriately scaled conservation efforts make the most efficient use of limited funds, maintain ecological integrity and ecosystem services and reduce the need for more stringent environmental protections," the authors write. "Investing these funds in a collaborative structure linking state, federal and other conservation programs to enhance work at state to international scales will be far more efficient than piecemeal allocations to separate agencies and organizations -- and will be far more effective than waiting for species to decline into endangerment."
The article says an effective national network could be built on the basis of state wildlife action plans, or SWAPs, which have been developed through a federal grant program established in 2000. The authors do not recommend a new agency or oversight function, but rather a cooperative and coordinating group that can support and integrate state efforts. They point to NatureServe, a nonprofit supported by state and federal agencies in providing a national species-and-ecosystems database, as a possible model.
###
BioScience, a publication of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, has presented readers with timely and authoritative overviews of current research in biology since 1964. Research articles are accompanied by essays and discussion sections on education, public policy, history and the conceptual underpinnings of the biological sciences.
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Contact: Steve Hinnefeld slhinnef@iu.edu 812-856-3488 Indiana University
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- It's time to establish a national network for wildlife conservation, bringing together state, federal and private initiatives to coordinate planning and work toward common goals, 11 prominent wildlife biologists and policy experts write in the journal BioScience.
Vicky Meretsky of Indiana University and her co-authors say established state wildlife programs provide "strong building blocks" for such a network. But they make a forceful argument that national cooperation and coordination are needed to protect at-risk wildlife species and habitat and to respond to threats such as novel diseases and climate change.
Amphibians such as frogs are one example cited by the authors. The nation's frog populations have been declining due to the spread of chytrid fungus, particularly in the western U.S. Limited baseline data and state-centered monitoring can obscure range-wide trends for these and other declining species.
"To date, state programs have been inconsistently and incompletely integrated into regional and national networks," they write. "In this era of reduced financing and increased threats, better, more consistent coordination of state-based efforts is increasingly necessary to maximize the effectiveness of limited conservation funds."
Meretsky, associate professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, is the lead author of the paper, "A State-Based National Network for Effective Wildlife Conservation." It is available online and scheduled for publication in the November 2012 issue of BioScience.
Co-authors are Lynn A. Maguire of Duke University, Frank W. Davis and David M. Stoms of the University of California at Santa Barbara, J. Michael Scott and Dale D. Goble of the University of Idaho, Dennis Figg of the Missouri Department of Conservation, Brad Griffith of the Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and the University of Alaska, Scott E. Henke of Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Jacqueline Vaughn of Northern Arizona University and Steven L. Yaffee of the University of Michigan.
States have traditionally been responsible for wildlife conservation, although in the 20th century the federal government asserted authority over migratory birds, marine mammals, ocean fisheries and imperiled species. But a state-by-state approach isn't sufficient for protecting ecosystems and habitats that cross state boundaries; and neither does it allow for addressing problems for species that are declining throughout their ranges but not yet endangered or threatened.
While voluntary regional collaborations have had some success, the authors say, they are limited by uneven funding and capacity in different regions and by difficulties in sharing information.
They propose the following goals for a national wildlife conservation network:
Establish a common habitat classification map suitable for wildlife conservation.
Identify at-risk species.
Coordinate and leverage capacity-building opportunities.
Facilitate and enhance the dissemination of information.
Incorporate new data tools.
"Appropriately scaled conservation efforts make the most efficient use of limited funds, maintain ecological integrity and ecosystem services and reduce the need for more stringent environmental protections," the authors write. "Investing these funds in a collaborative structure linking state, federal and other conservation programs to enhance work at state to international scales will be far more efficient than piecemeal allocations to separate agencies and organizations -- and will be far more effective than waiting for species to decline into endangerment."
The article says an effective national network could be built on the basis of state wildlife action plans, or SWAPs, which have been developed through a federal grant program established in 2000. The authors do not recommend a new agency or oversight function, but rather a cooperative and coordinating group that can support and integrate state efforts. They point to NatureServe, a nonprofit supported by state and federal agencies in providing a national species-and-ecosystems database, as a possible model.
###
BioScience, a publication of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, has presented readers with timely and authoritative overviews of current research in biology since 1964. Research articles are accompanied by essays and discussion sections on education, public policy, history and the conceptual underpinnings of the biological sciences.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
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Public release date: 23-Oct-2012
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