Nexus - 1805 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

GLOBAL NEWS answering the phone or even publishing Twitter posts. The system was developed as par‘ of a pan-European project called Smart Homes for All, and is the firs time the latest BCI technology has been combined with smart-home technology and online gaming. | uses electroencephalograph (EEG caps to pick up brain signals, which it translates into commands that are relayed to controllers in the building, or to navigate and communicate within Second Life and Twitter. (Source: New Scientist, issue 2819, 5 July 2on1, http://tinyurl.com/3zgswzu) US MILITARY SPENDS $20 BILLION A YEAR ON AIR CONDITIONING IN MID-EAST Anderson has calculated that more than 1,000 troops have died in fuel convoys, which remain prime targets for attack. Free-standing tents equipped with air conditioners in 125°F [~51.7°C| heat require a lot of fuel. Anderson said that by making those structures more efficient, the military could save lives and dollars. Still, his $20.2 billion figure raises stark questions about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. (Source: NPR.org, 25 June 2011, http://tinyurl.com/stsabgk; BBC News, 29 June 2on, http://tinyurl.com/6ybn4gc) Tis amount that the US military spends annually on_ air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan has been calculated at USS20.2 billion. That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia. “When you consider the cost to deliver the fuel to some of the most isolated places in the world— escorting, command and control, medevac support—when you throw all that infrastructure in, we're talking over $20 billion," said Brigadier General (Ret.) Steven Anderson, who served as General David Petraeus's chief logistician in Iraq. Why does it cost so much? To power air conditioners at remote outposts in land-locked Afghanistan, a 9,000-gallon fuel tanker has to be driven 800 miles from Karachi, Pakistan, over 18 days to Afghanistan on roads that are sometimes little more than “improved goat trails", Anderson said. "And you've got risks hat are associated with moving the uel almost every mile of the way." VACCINE-AUTISM RESEARCHER INDICTED FOR FRAUD merican prosecutors are attempting to extradite Danish scientist Poul Thorsen, who has been charged with 13 counts of wire raud and nine counts of money aundering. A federal grand jury alleges that Thorsen stole over USS1 million from autism research unding between February 2004 and une 2008. Thorsen is said to have used the proceeds to buy a home in Atlanta, Georgia, two cars and a Harley- Davidson motorcycle. He is said to ave stolen the money while serving POWERFUL ELECTRIC CURRENTS LINK SATURN WITH ITS MOON ENCELADUS ata from NASA's Cassini spacecraft have revealed that Enceladus, Saturn's sixth-largest moon, is linked to Saturn by powerful electrical currents—beams of electrons that flow back and forth between the planet and moon. Researchers have found that jets of gas and icy grains emanate from the south pole of Enceladus, which become electrically charged and form an ionosphere. The motion of Enceladus and its ionosphere through the magnetic bubble that surrounds Saturn acts like a dynamo, setting up the newly discovered current system. Scientists already knew that the giant planet Jupiter is linked to three of its moons by charged current systems set up by the satellites orbiting inside its giant magnetic bubble, the magnetosphere, and that these current systems form glowing spots in the planet's upper atmosphere. The latest discovery at Enceladus shows that similar processes take place within the Saturnian system, too. The finding is part of a paper published in the 21 April edition of the journal Nature. (Source: Physorg.com, 20 April 2o11, http://tinyurl.com/3/8rl2v) "I don't know...the place hasn't been the same since we transitioned from fossil fuel to solar." NEXUS ¢ 7 AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 2011 www.nexusmagazine.com