Manned Russian Rocket Launches from South America Look Doubtful (SPACE.com)

The European Space Agency has long harbored hopes that it could launch humans aboard Russian Soyuz spacecraft from its French Guiana spaceport, but this is likely impossible, SPACE.com has learned.

The agency has claimed in the past that such future manned Soyuz TMA flights need only infrastructure changes at the launch site to be realized, yet ESA has known since 2004 that the spacecraft can't be launched from the South American territory.

An ESA study conducted between 2002 and 2004 found that because the Soyuz has not been designed to land in the sea, a French Guiana launch that had to be aborted would endanger the spacecraft and its crew as it would likely have to ditch in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Soyuz spacecraft have always landed on land in the former Soviet territory of Kazakhstan.

Aiming for manned launches

Manned Soyuz launches from the French territory have been a declared aspiration for ESA ever since work began on the "Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre" program. This program culminated in the first unmanned launch of a Soyuz rocket from French Guiana Oct. 21, 2011. [Photos: Russian Rocket's 1st South American Launch]

The advantage of launching Soyuz rockets from this equatorial location is that their payload capacity to reach geostationary transfer orbits (not the International Space Station) is almost double compared with taking off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan or Plesetsk in Russia ? the other two Soyuz rocket-launch sites. Launches from near the equator get this payload boost from the Earth's rotation.

Despite knowing about the sea-landing problem, ESA's Soyuz information page states: "the [French Guiana] launch infrastructure has been designed so that it can be smoothly adapted for human spaceflight, should this be decided." No mention has been made of the fact that the Soyuz TMA would have to be extensively modified to land in the sea.

Report's findings

SPACE.com has obtained a technical paper about the 2004 study, which was conducted by ESA's launcher directorate and its "Soyuz at the Guiana Space Centre" program.

According to the paper, "the [Soyuz] re-entry capsule has not been designed to travelling on water and its evacuation following splash-down in the ocean in the event of an aborted launch may result in a particularly difficult experience for the crew." Such difficulty puts the lives of the crew at greater risk.

ESA has not made the full study report available in time for publication. Since 2004, ESA has done no further work to tackle this issue.

In response to the report's findings, ESA officials told SPACE.com, "theoretically all is possible but manned flights from [French Guiana] would be a major endeavor, requiring huge investments."

The agency officials also raised doubts about the feasibility of modifying the Soyuz for a sea landing. "In [the] case of sea landing [we would need] to verify whether the current capsule can be adapted," officials said. [The World's Tallest Rockets: How They Stack Up]

Infrastructure changes

In 2010, Russia launched the first of a new series of Soyuz TMA vehicles that have digital flight controls. The first flight of this version, denoted with the suffix "M," had problems.

During its Oct. 7, 2010 flight, the Soyuz TMA-01M's digital system suffered a computer-display malfunction, depriving cosmonauts of flight data. That spacecraft did land safely in March 2011, and the second digital Soyuz TMA-02M launched successfully later in June, but the problems of -01M show how difficult spacecraft adaptation is.

Meanwhile the Soyuz rocket itself has seen changes for ESA's needs.

The rocket, generically called Soyuz-ST, has two versions, the Soyuz 2-1a and Soyuz 2-1b. Both have an additional electronic flight-safety system that ESA required and larger fairings, while the 1a and 1b denote differences in their third stages.

While the French Guiana Soyuz launch site is largely a replica of those at Baikonur and Plesetsk, it has a mobile gantry tower that protects the rocket from rain.

In a change from Russian launch operations, ESA adds the payload stage to the rocket stack while it is vertical and in the tower. In Russia, payload stages are added while the rocket is still in a horizontal position, as a part of the overall assembly process.?

In addition to the difficulty in modifying the Soyuz for sea landings, many infrastructure changes would be necessary for a manned launch from South America.

The 2004 study details the need for astronaut-specific access platforms in the mobile gantry, an additional lift and astronaut escape-chute system, a new vacuum chamber for capsule-tightness checks, an electromagnetic-compatibility chamber, an additional S-band mobile station, electrical, fluid and mechanical ground-support equipment, deforestation of a circular area up to 3.1 miles (5 kilometers) around the launch pad for launch aborts that will result in a land landing, and a new container for Soyuz TMA transportation from Russia to French Guiana. All these issues are technically simpler than re-engineering a spacecraft for a sea landing.

For many years ESA has looked at manned operations from French Guiana using its Ariane 5 rocket, which is built by EADS Astrium.

It was originally conceived to launch the cancelled Hermes mini-space shuttle. In the last few years, ESA has studied a crewed evolution of its Automated Transfer Vehicle, which supplies cargo to the space station.

The French space agency CNES also funded a study into launching NASA's Orion capsule using Ariane 5.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter?@Spacedotcom?and on?Facebook.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/space/20120119/sc_space/mannedrussianrocketlaunchesfromsouthamericalookdoubtful

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Craftsman's Bluetooth Toolchest Lets Grease Monkeys Keep In Touch [Tools]

Gone are the days when a rolling toolchest only held tools. At CES Craftsman (which really should be updated to Craftsperson) unveiled its new Contour Powered Series Tool Storage that adds a charging station and a Bluetooth connected sound system. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/7yNQgUmFw7A/craftsmans-bluetooth-toolchest-lets-grease-monkeys-keep-in-touch

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Catholics in Poland parade a ?holy finger?

?It?s a finger from his right hand from which he often gave a blessing to St. Faustina.?

Roman Catholics in Poland is ready to take a "holy finger" out for a stroll.

The Most Rev. Edward Ozorowski, Archbishop of Bialystok, Poland, brought a relic of Blessed Michael Sopocko, who was St. Faustina?s confessor and spiritual director.

The principal celebrant at the Solemn Liturgy on Divine Mercy Sunday came bearing a special gift for the Marians of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

?It?s a finger from his right hand from which he often gave a blessing to St. Faustina,? explained Br. Andrew R. Maczynski, MIC, general promoter of the Association of Marian Helpers.

The relic, which came encased in a golden monstrance, is about 5 centimeters long. It will be placed in the National Shrine, which is administered by the Marians.

Bishop Ozorowski, in whose archdiocese Blessed Michael Sopocko was beatified Sept. 28, 2008, presented the gift during Holy Mass on Sunday.

?We express our sincere gratitude to His Excellency for making it possible that a relic of St. Faustina?s spiritual director will find its place here in the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy,? said Br. Chris Alar, MIC, during the presentation.

Source: Roman Catholic blogger

This is another detail worth mentioning. It is recorded by another Catholic news site

?The relic will join another relic in the Shrine ? the ?basal phalanx? of a great toe of St. Faustina, to be exact. A larger piece of her relic remains in a reliquary within the Shrine.

Source: padrimariani.org

My comment:

The skull and bone files on News That Matters will now include some hot stuff from Poland.

?Matthew 23:27
?Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

You have to be completely disconnected to dress up in parade uniform, and start to carry a bone on your shoulders.

?Blessed? Michael Sopocko might have put his finger into a lot during his lifetime. That one of his fingers has been cut of from his skeleton is yet another example of the how the bone collectors of Rome has looted corpses.

It is not so strange that Catholics wants to adore more than just a cut off finger. Inside the Shrine it will be entertained by a piece of a ?holy toe?

Was this toe just axed off, or did the priest take a big bite?

Written by Ivar

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Source: http://ivarfjeld.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/catholics-in-poland-parade-a-holy-finger/

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Lindsay Lohan Gets Thumbs Up, Looks Normal in Court!

Lindsay Lohan got the thumbs up from Judge Stephanie Sautner in her latest probation hearing this morning. This was expected, but you never know with her.

Her probation officer had written LiLo glowing probation report, to which Sautner added, "Keep doing what you're doing. You appear to be doing very well."

The model morgue employee is due back for another hearing Feb. 22, by which point she must finish an 15 additional days of community service, plus therapy.

She's really turning things around, and that includes her style!

Check out what Lindsay wore today and how it compares to some of her recent court appearances. What's her best courtroom look? You decide by voting below!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/lindsay-lohan-gets-thums-up-looks-normal-in-court/

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Asher Elias uses high-tech training to lift Ethiopian Jews in Israel

In Israel, most Ethiopian Jews are trapped at the bottom of society in dead-end jobs. Asher Elias gives them high-tech training to boost their upward mobility.

The poster in Tech-Career's simple office shows a young black man and woman, each with dreadlocks, leaning on each other as they work away on laptop computers.

Skip to next paragraph

"Narrow the digital gaps," it proclaims.

In an adjoining classroom, 20 Ethiopian-Israelis, who are listening intently to their instructor in a course titled "Introduction to Systems Activ?a?tion for Windows 7," are doing exactly that.

The course is part of Tech-Career, an intensive program of study designed to equip Ethiopian-Israelis ? who constitute the poorest segment of the Jewish population ? with the tools to join Israel's dynamic and high-paying high-tech industry. The program also aims to develop young leaders who will help lift the Ethiopian-Israeli community out of poverty, stagnation, and marginalization.

Asher Elias, whose parents were among the first Ethiopian Jews to immigrate to Israel in the 1960s, launched Tech-Career seven years ago, continuing his social activism, which began with his membership in an advocacy group called the Israel Association for Ethiopian Jewry (IAEJ).

In 2004, only four Ethiopian-Israelis worked in the high-tech sector here, all of them trained in Ethiopia. Now there are more than 200, the vast majority of them Tech-Career graduates. They work at leading companies such as Amdocs, Matrix, and the Israel Discount Bank.

Jolted into a path of activism

Mr. Elias, a soft-spoken, upbeat man who invariably answers with "superbly" when asked how he is doing, first became interested in computers as a teenager. After his mandatory military service, he graduated from Jerusalem's College of Management with a degree in business and computers and went to work for a marketing firm in Tel Aviv.

In 1996, he was jolted into pursuing the path of activism.

The Israeli government, it was revealed, had been discarding all blood donations from Ethiopian immigrants out of fear they were infected. Ethiopian-Israelis staged a huge protest that included clashes with police. Many in the Ethiopian community saw the government's actions as clear evidence of racism.

"The big protest came at a time when I had decided to do something meaningful with my life, and it struck me that I could play a role," Elias recalls. "On the one hand, there was this amazing [Ethiopian] community that arrived in the country and wanted to fit in. And on the other hand, there was this Israeli society that did not recognize it or know it.

"The sense was of a great loss, a missed opportunity. My feeling was to work on making this connection for the benefit of all."

To do this, Elias began working for the IAEJ as it strove to make gains for Ethiopian Jews in employment, housing, education, and other realms.

Ethiopian Jews arrived in Israel amid great fanfare: 14,325 were flown covertly from Ethiopia in 72 hours in a stunning 1991 operation when they were threatened by political instability there. But the community's integration into Israeli society has often been unsuccessful, especially compared with that of other groups, such as immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Many of the Ethiopians were uneducated, came from rural backgrounds, and lacked the skills needed to succeed in the Israeli economy.

Half the income of others

At first the government encouraged sending Ethiopian children to boarding schools that were often below standard and prepared them for only menial jobs. According to the IAEJ, today 60 percent of Ethiopian-Israelis work in unskilled jobs, often as cleaners or security guards. The average household income of Ethiopian immigrants is about half that of other Israelis, the IAEJ says.

Ethiopian Jews who search for work may encounter prejudice. A survey of employers two years ago showed that 53 percent preferred not to hire an Ethiopian immigrant.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/py3up6TEGYw/Asher-Elias-uses-high-tech-training-to-lift-Ethiopian-Jews-in-Israel

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Gambling priest gets 3 years prison in Vegas case (AP)

LAS VEGAS ? Muffled sobs erupted Friday in a courtroom packed with supporters of a Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison and ordered to repay $650,000 he acknowledged embezzling from his northwest Las Vegas parish to support his gambling habit.

Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, stood straight and offered no reaction as U.S. District Judge James Mahan credited him for accepting responsibility for looting parish votive candle, prayer and gift shop funds for eight years, but faulted him for "hedging his bet" by blaming it on a gambling addiction.

"You abused a position of trust, Mr. McAuliffe," the judge said. He dispensed with any church title for the priest who hid a weakness for casinos and video poker from parishioners who know him as Father Kevin. "You betrayed people who depended on you."

McAuliffe offered a remorseful apology, saying he felt "guilt, shame and self-loathing," and noting that he had "rightly" lost his positions of authority in the church. He asked the judge for leniency so he could make restitution, help others with gambling addictions "and atone for what I have done."

Defense attorney Margaret Stanish asked the judge for probation so McAuliffe could continue getting counseling for his gambling addiction, keep practicing as a priest and pay restitution to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Summerlin. He won't get treatment in federal prison, Stanish said.

"Is it all about retribution?" she asked the judge. "This court has the ability to fashion a punishment that takes into account not only the offense but the individual. He would not be here but for a gambling addiction."

Stanish brought in Dr. Timothy Fong, a psychiatry professor and chief of the gambling studies program at the University of California, Los Angeles, to testify that McAuliffe's gambling compulsion amounted to "self-medication" by a man masking feelings of stress, depression, sadness, social anxiety and inadequacy.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina Brown characterized McAuliffe as an opportunist and thief who didn't exhaust his own savings before taking church cash to fund gambling, cars and travel. She accused him of grasping at gambling addiction as "a hollow excuse offered now, when he's desperate for leniency from the court."

The prosecutor derided Fong's diagnosis as unsupported by a single 2 1/2 hour interview with McAuliffe, several telephone calls with his defense attorney and a review of self-assessments that McAuliffe provided in sessions with other counselors at a gambling addiction clinic in Las Vegas. Treatment only began after FBI agents questioned him last May about missing church funds, she said.

And Brown pointed to counseling reports that she said suggested McAuliffe was focused more during therapy on his legal predicament than on getting help for a gambling addiction.

"He did do good," she said. "But he also stood before his congregation preaching about sin, lies, theft and greed ... all the while deceiving them."

The judge referred to a parish rift over McAuliffe's crime when he said he received approximately 100 letters of support through the priest's defense attorney. Mahan also made part of the court record a stack of letters parishioners sent straight to the court saying McAuliffe should be punished.

"I expect the church to forgive him, and the parishioners by and large to forgive him," Mahan said from the bench. "That's different than the justice system."

McAuliffe pleaded guilty in October, before an indictment or criminal complaint was filed, to three counts of federal mail fraud for falsifying documents sent in 2008, 2009 and 2010 to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in San Francisco. Each count carried a possible sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Mahan handed down a 37-month sentence ? midway between the 33-month minimum and 41-month maximum recommended by federal probation officials ? along with the restitution order. The judge also sentenced McAuliffe to three years of supervised release following prison and banned him from gambling. McAuliffe was ordered to begin serving his sentence April 13.

Outside court, longtime parishioner Regina Hauck, 80, called the judge fair but the sentence unfair. She said she wanted forgiveness.

"I know him. He's a wonderful priest," Hauck said of McAuliffe. "But I think he's a sick man, and everyone makes a mistake."

McAuliffe had already been removed as pastor of the northwest Las Vegas congregation of more than 8,000 families and relieved of diocese duties.

Bishop Joseph Pepe, head of the regional church administration since 2001, issued a statement Friday saying he was "saddened that the actions of Monsignor McAuliffe have caused hurt to so many people" and saying he was praying for the congregation.

McAuliffe had complete control from 2002 to 2010 of church activities and finances at one of the largest Roman Catholic congregations in Nevada, and was able to hide his embezzlement because he was a signatory to financial statements to the Las Vegas diocese and San Francisco archdiocese, Brown said in presentencing documents.

When confronted by the FBI last May, McAuliffe spent two hours offering various explanations how his earnings supported his gambling, the prosecutor wrote.

"When these explanations failed, agents asked the defendant if he stole money from the church, which the defendant denied."

Stanish told the judge in court documents that McAuliffe began paying restitution to the church in May and has paid $13,420 so far.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_re_us/us_gambling_priest

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12 Coffins for the Not-So-Undead [Zombiepocalypse]

Look, we've got enough problems as it is with walking corpses rising from the grave and trying to eat us. Last thing we need is someone crawling out of the ground a week after the fact just because they were really, really drunk. Our friends at Oobject have 12 of the best safety coffins money can buy. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hiDVlqDfnhE/

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