Pat Bagley for the Salt Lake Tribune, please look closely.
OND is a community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00AM Eastern Time.
OND Editors consist of founder Magnifico, regular editors jlms qkw, maggiejean, wader, Oke, rfall, and JML9999, alumni editors palantir, BentLiberal and ScottyUrb, guest editor annetteboardman, and current editor-in-chief Neon Vincent. We invited our readers to comment & share other news.
I generally survey a number of news sites around the world and country, choose around 15 articles I can quote, and a few links. Sometimes I editorialize.
NASA photo
Remembering Fallen Heroes: A Tough Week for NASA
NASA’s First Disaster Happened on the Launch Pad
In NASA’s early years, the agency learned by doing; developing tests and procedures as programs wore on. One test developed and used in the Mercury program was the “plugs-out test,” a prelaunch test of the spacecrafts systems through a simulated countdown on launch. It was never considered a dangerous test, but on Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1′s plugs-out test claimed the lives of the crew.
Typical for the first flight of a new program, the plan for Apollo 1 was a simple shakedown cruise. The crew – Mercury astronaut Gus Grissom, Gemini veteran Ed White, and rookie Roger Chaffee – would take just the Command and Service Module (CSM) into Earth orbit.
The plugs-out test started out routinely with the flight-ready spacecraft mounted on its unfueled Saturn IB rocket. The umbilical power cords that supplied power were removed – the plugs were out – putting the spacecraft on its internal batteries and the crew cabin was pressurized with 16.7 pounds per square inch of pure oxygen. As the crew entered the spacecraft around 1pm that afternoon, a full launch-day staff of engineers in mission control took their positions for the test. There was also a staff of men in the White Room; the room that gave the astronauts passage to the spacecraft remained attached to the vehicle.
Is the ISS today a high-oxygen interior? Was this changed?
AROUND THE WORLD
New Zealand Herald: APNZ
Body recovery delayed until October
The bodies of the three Canadian men who were killed when their plane crashed in Antarctica last week won’t be collected until late this year or early next year.
A rescue mission was launched by New Zealand’s Rescue Coordination Centre (RCC), with the help of United States and Canadian officials for the Twin Otter plane and its three crew after the flight from the South Pole failed to arrive at Terra Nova Bay on Wednesday.
On Saturday the wreckage was located 3900m up a very steep slope near the top of Mt Elizabeth, halfway between the South Pole and McMurdo Station.
The plane had suffered a major impact with the aircraft is firmly embedded in the snow, Antarctica New Zealand spokesman Graeme Ayres said.
Sydney Morning Herald:
Teen missing since November found in bushland
A teenager who survived for nearly nine weeks in bushland in Sydney’s north was found covered in leeches and bites and had lost nearly half of his weight during his incredible ordeal, rescuers say.
Matthew Allen, 18, is also believed to be suffering from gangrene to his feet and lower legs and was suffering from partial blindness when he was discovered by hikers lying in the bush in Westleigh on Saturday afternoon.
The teenager, an accountancy student who lived with his family less than two kilometres away in Westleigh, told his rescuers that he had survived only by drinking water from a creek bed that was almost dry.
He was not living under any shelter and was suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration when he was winched out of the bushland on Saturday afternoon.
Also, Brisbane is flooding and Sydney is getting a giant storm.
Hindustan Times: Vanita Srivastava
India foils US firm bid to patent turmeric
The claim made by a US multinational company on the usefulness of turmeric, apple, basil (tulsi) for the treatment of inflammation, psoriasis and gastritis has been foiled by India, thanks to the efforts of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library.
Metaproteomics had filed a patent application at the Canada Intellectual Property Office. The patent title “Curcuminoid compositions exhibiting synergistic inhibition of the expression and/ or activity of Cyclooxygenase-2” claimed the usefulness of turmeric, apple, basil, kalamegha and licorice for the treatment of inflammation, psoriasis, gastritis and as anti-inflammatory to be novel.
Copyright and patent reform – I can haz?
Dramatic demographic changes in Asia, coupled with persistent social inequality, require countries to urgently tackle population concerns with foresight and justice, the head of UNFPA said today at a regional gathering of experts in the field.
Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, UNFPA Executive Director, spoke at the opening of the Asian Population Association’s second conference. Hundreds of demographers and population experts from throughout Asia are attending the four-day event.
In a wide-ranging speech, Dr. Osotimehin addressed the rapid drop in fertility rates that has slowed population growth in the region. This shift, he noted, will sharply increase the proportions of older people in many countries by 2050, and demands “timely and adequate policy measures on health care, and family and social support systems”.
The UNFPA leader highlighted other important trends, including urbanization and international migration, that urgently call for proactive policies. Sex selection at birth due to son preference has skewed sex ratios in some countries; a newly published analysis by UNFPA indicates that if marriage patterns by age and sex were to remain as they are today, there could be 50 per cent more single men than women trying to marry in China and India by 2030.
This is from last August, but I think it speaks to China, India, and increased military programs.
Times of India: Saibal Dasgupta
China’s new carrier extends military modernization drive
China successfully tes
ted an indigenously-built freight plane capable of airlifting tanks and combat troops to difficult and inaccessible mountainous areas like its Tibet border with India. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the test took place on Saturday in northwest China.The transporter, Y-20, puts China in the exclusive club of countries having large air lifters like the United States’ C-17 and Russia’s Il-76. And it also gives a boost to the country’s efforts to use homegrown technology to expand defense capacity. The Y-20 is also likely to cause a cringe in Tokyo and Manila, which are involved in island disputes with China.
This is the second major piece of military hardware that China is showcasing since the recent launch of its first aircraft carrier. The “strategic airlifter” will seriously augment China’s military capabilities, which made several advances since the launch of the direct railway line to Tibet over five years ago.
More big military “toys” – and remember Tibet & the islands . . .
Hurriyet Daily News
Turkey to explore fuel with Shell in Black Sea
Turkey’s state-run oil researcher TPAO prepares to search for oil in the Black Sea with the Anglo-Dutch Shell, after failed attempts by international energy companies, according to sources.The ministerial sources said TPAO and the Holland-United Kingdom-based Shell have been in contact for an oil exploration partnership in the Black Sea. The contract date has been determined to be Feb. 14, when the two companies will reveal their search and production deal to the public, sources said.
Furthermore, TPAO, which has carried out oil and natural gas exploration by itself, has received a proposal from Shell to work together in the Gulf of Mersin, alongside the other companies’ proposals, sources say. TPAO might strike a deal with Shell or another company for a partnership in Mersin, as it had talks with 13 companies for exploring in the İskenderun-Mersin Gulf last year.
Mail & Guardian: Rukmini Callimachi
News Africa The ‘purest apprentices’ caught up in Mali’s dirty war
The boy sits with his knees tucked under his chest on the concrete floor of the police station here, his adolescent face a tableau of fear. He’s still garbed in the knee-length tunic he was ordered to wear by the Islamic extremist who recruited him.
It’s these same clothes, styled after those worn by the Prophet Muhammad in the 7th century, which gave him away when he tried to flee earlier this week. They have now become his prison garb.
Adama Drabo is 16, and his recruitment into the ranks of a group designated as a terrorist organisation, followed by his violent interrogation at the hands of the Malian army, underscores the obstacles faced by France as it tries to wash its former West African colony clean of the al-Qaeda-linked fighters occupying it.
Al Jazeera
Berlusconi defends ‘good’ Mussolini
Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s former prime minister, has triggered outrage with comments defending fascist wartime leader Benito Mussolini at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust.
Speaking at the margins of the event in Milan on Sunday, Berlusconi said Mussolini had been wrong to follow Nazi Germany’s lead in passing anti-Jewish laws but that he had in other respects been a good leader.
“It’s difficult now to put yourself in the shoes of people who were making decisions at that time,” said Berlusconi, who is campaigning for next month’s election at the head of a coalition that includes far-right politicians whose roots go back to Italy’s old fascist party.
“Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler’s Germany rather than opposing it,” he said.
“As part of this alliance, there were impositions, including combatting and exterminating Jews,” he told reporters.
He must have Mitt Romney’s campaign advisers.
NTN24.com
Death Toll At 232 In Brazil Nightclub Fire
A fire in a nightclub killed at least 232 people in southern Brazil on Sunday (January 27).
Local officials blamed a band’s pyrotechnics show for the fire, and said fleeing partygoers stampeded toward blocked and overcrowded exits in the ensuing panic.
Video shot in the immediate aftermath of the fire showed chaotic scenes as the injured were rushed to local hospitals.
Local fire officials said at least one exit was locked and that bouncers, who at first thought those fleeing were trying to skip out on bar tabs, initially blocked patrons from leaving.
The security staff relented only when they saw flames engulfing the ceiling.
The Guardian: Jon Boone
Zero Dark Thirty: the view from Pakistan
Pakistan’s security establishment is still seething over the Americans’s decision to mount a massive operation without bothering to involve the Pakistanis, nominally allies in the war against al-Qaida.
So, in Pakistan many people are making do with illegal downloads and pirated DVDs. In my local video shop it comes in two different cases. One has the original artwork on the cover; the other features a large portrait of Bin Laden, a character whose face is never actually shown in the film.
“For me the biggest problem was that the production design was so weak,” says Wajahat Khan, a television journalist. Not only is he unconvinced by many of the locations used to stand in for Pakistan, Khan is, like many others, bemused by the depiction of Pakistanis speaking Arabic to each other. And he thinks the film-makers are guilty of “imagining Pakistan to be what they want it to be”.
“It does a disservice to how complex the society is,” Khan explains. “This society may have housed Bin Laden but it’s not the backyard of a local mosque in Jeddah.”
Expatriate life is also shown to be grimmer than the reality of large and spacious houses enjoyed by diplomats in Kabul. Perhaps the foreign press corps is to blame for disabusing Zero Dark Thirty’s screenwriter, Mark Boal. During a visit to Pakistan before filming began, Boal asked a group of hacks whether foreigners in Islamabad enjoy “crazy parties where everyone gets naked in the pool”. The poor man looked crestfallen when told the (all too depressing) truth that Islamabad is a pretty subdued place.
Der Spiegel: Joel Stonington
Wake-Up Call: A Disastrous Week for Carbon Trading
Indeed, the market for carbon credits has reached new lows. On Thursday, the price of carbon credits dropped 40 percent within 30 seconds before regaining most of the losses. In an indicator of just how vulnerable ETS threatens to become, the volatility followed a nearly meaningless vote for a non-binding recommendation by the industry committee of the European Parliament that the backloading plan be rejected.
Energy-heavy industries and coal-dependent countries like Poland argue against market intervention in the ETS while noting that higher carbon prices leads to higher energy costs that result in a burden on businesses while European economies remain weak. The arguments against intervention may be working, as Germany — which also harbors deep concerns about the burden cap-an
d-trade could have on industry — continues to stall, and the ETS remains mostly useless. A failure on backloading would likely drop carbon credits to a level only slightly above penny stocks.“This should be the final wake-up call,” said EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, according to wire reports. “Something has to be done urgently. I can therefore only appeal to the governments and the European Parliament to act responsibly.”
ACROSS THE STATES
AP: Roxana Hegeman
Suit reveals ties among radical abortion opponents
A federal grand jury began investigating in 2010 whether Tiller’s murder was connected to a larger case involving radical anti-abortion activists. Though no public charges have been filed, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, Dena Iverson, said the investigation is still open.
The lawsuit against Dillard was filed in April 2011 under a federal law aimed at protecting access to reproductive services. It seeks a court order keeping her from coming within 250 feet of the doctor, along with damages of $5,000 and a civil penalty of $15,000. The case is scheduled for trial in October.
Dillard had been under government scrutiny even before she mailed the letter to the Wichita doctor, and the FBI had interviewed her several times after she first wrote Roeder in prison.
“I think they just wanted to check us out and make sure that we weren’t nuts who were planning to pick up where they think Roeder left off,” Dillard told The Associated Press in 2009, adding that she and her husband had no plans to “do anything of violence to anyone” and wanted to minister to Roeder. Dillard also said she admired Roeder and developed a friendship with him.
http://www.examiner.com/article/bay-area-art-2013-openings-closings-and-the-sound-of-silence
Ring them bells and bring out your calendars. The Bay Area art scene is barely into 2013 and it’s already hopping.
First on the list is the news of two big closings – the Exploratorium and SFMOMA.
Yesterday, crowds jammed the Exploratorium to celebrate the last day at its old location. After 43 years at the Palace of Fine Arts, it’s moving to larger digs at Pier 15. The new, nine-acre campus is a 10 minute walk from the Ferry Building and is more accessible to the public. The new space is expected to cost about $300 million. Founded in 1969, at first it attracted little attention. Now, it has 550,000 visitors a year, a number likely to grow in the new building.
—–
In June, SFMOMA will be closed for three years, with a projected reopening in 2016. The plans are to expand the museum to accommodate the Fisher collection and increase the galley space. The atrium is likely to be a casualty of the expansion, to be replaced by a more welcoming and light filled entrance.To fill in the gap until the projected reopening in 2016, SFMOMA has planned for various outdoor installations and shows in partnership with other venues. It remains to be seen how well that will work out.
Thank you to friend Gary who posted this on FB.
Mercury News: Charlie Brennan Boulder Daily Camera Staff Writer
Exclusive: JonBenet Ramsey grand jury voted to indict parents in 1999, but DA refused to prosecute
In an email, University of Colorado Law School professor Mimi Wesson, who has followed the Ramsey case over the years, wrote, “The Colorado statute governing grand jury practice says … that ‘(e)very indictment shall be signed’ by the foreman of the grand jury and the prosecuting attorney.”
In the event that the grand jury voted to indict on charges that Hunter did not believe he could prove at trial, Wesson said it is her opinion that proper legal procedure would have been to sign the document, file it with the court and then move in open court to dismiss the charges.
“That would be the more transparent and responsible course, in my opinion,” Wesson wrote.
Hunter, who left office in 2001 after 28 years as Boulder County’s district attorney, declined to discuss the grand jury’s actions, but he did issue the following statement last week via email:
“Colorado statutes, the ethical canons which govern the practice of law, and the Boulder District Court’s oaths, instructions and orders in the JonBenet Ramsey grand jury proceedings, are well established and absolutely clear with respect to the various participants’ legal obligations, duties and responsibilities, including the inviolate secrecy of the proceedings and the differing burdens of proof applicable to jurors and prosecutors.
“As the duly elected district attorney at the time and as an officer of the court then and now, I must respectfully decline further comment.”
Government spending on elderly and children
Big gap in spending on young, old
The numbers we present here may seem very straightforward. But they’re not. As we discussed them with experts all along the ideological spectrum, several of them raised warning flags about taking these figures uncritically.
For starters, choosing which factors to count, and which to exclude, can make a difference. As we see in these tables, adding in state and local expenditures greatly reduces — but certainly doesn’t eliminate — the spending gap between elderly recipients and children.
And boiling it down to a zero-sum game between young and old can make it seem as if those were the only choices. Indeed, other portions of the federal budget could be targeted instead, from defense spending to interest on the debt. Or people might be willing to pay higher taxes for government to do more.
Perhaps most crucially, if you spend dollars on the old, that can indirectly aid the young, and vice versa.
Imagine you’re a teenager. If the government didn’t spend Social Security on your elderly grandfather or your disabled brother, your parents would have to pick up the slack — and your parents would have less money to spend on you. The reverse is also true: If your local government didn’t spend money on your public school, your grandfather might have to shell out more money for your education, which would reduce the money he can spend on food and housing. Or perhaps you wouldn’t be well educated at all and would be less likely to become a productive member of society. It has been estimated that spending three dollars for an elder saves one dollar for a child, and vice versa.
There are infographics at the link.
HERE IN UTAH
Waging Nonviolence.org: Jessica Lee
Utah climate activists infiltrate a truly unconventional energy summit
(Peaceful Uprising / David Andreason)
Earlier this month, during the opening session of the 2013 Utah Energy Development Summit, two activists with Utah Tar Sands Resistance took to the stage in order to present Utah Gov. Gary Herbert – the host of the summit – with a very special award: Polluter of the Year. After commandeering the microphone, the presenters called upon “Dirty Herby” to accept the rather dubious distinction. After all, they argued, Herbert is working to grab more than 30 million acres of federal public lands in order to open them up to private fossil fuel development, which includes
the first tar sands strip mine in the U.S.Despite his dedication to the energy industry, Herbert was apparently late to his own summit and thus unable to physically accept the award. Instead, he tweeted: “Utah is committed to protecting our beautiful environment, so we want only RESPONSIBLE energy development.”
Such good intentions, however, were not enough for the activists. Raphael Cordray of Utah Tar Sands Resistance maintains that nothing about tar sands mining is responsible. “Everything from the mining process to the transportation of the bitumen to the refining will only add to the environmental issues we already face here in Utah,” she said. And, as a recent study has shown, tar sands are increasing the levels of cancer-causing compounds in the lakes of Alberta. “This isn’t something we want to happen in Utah,” Cordray added.
Deseret News: Lisa Riley Roche
Coming legislative decisions could impact your food, gas, schools and job
There are new worries that state revenues may end up falling far short of projections and stall action on issues key to Utah families, as lawmakers ready for the start of the 2013 Legislature on Monday.
“We could see this going south,” Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said. “We could have a deficit, so we have to cautiously, very cautiously, look at any expenditure increases.”
That caution could have big impacts on spending, including for initiatives aimed at helping Utah families prepare their children for school and careers, enjoy a stronger economy, access health care and deal with the lingering impacts of poverty.
While Niederhauser and other leaders of the GOP-dominated Legislature expressed frustration at the prospect of a lean budget year, they also made it clear they’d rather cut spending than raise taxes.
You think New Mexico and Texas are bringing all the crazy? Open bottles, prepare to drink!
Salt Lake Tribune: Lee Davison
Scott Sommersdorf for the Salt Lake Tribune
Legislature: Really Republican, mildly moderate?
While Utah’s second-most Republican Legislature in the past 80 years convenes Monday, some leaders surprisingly say it still may act more moderate than in recent years – and be less prone to enact recent right-wing “message bills” on such things as federal lands, abortion or gun rights.
That’s because most former big-name conservative leaders will be gone – and one of every four lawmakers will be new. They were elected as the tea party and other ultraconservatives saw their power diluted at party caucuses through what many call the “Hatch effect.”
New GOP majorities in the Utah Legislature are 61-14 in the House and 24-5 in the Senate. The Legislature will be 82.6 percent GOP overall, the second-most-Republican in the past 80 years. Also, 25 of the 104 lawmakers will be new. Only two of the newcomers are Democrats.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, spent millions to recruit new people to party caucuses last year to vote out right-wing activists, who had dominated the nominating process in recent years and had helped dump Sen. Bob Bennett in 2010. The LDS Church also repeatedly urged members to attend in greater numbers to ensure party nominees represent majority views.
It is interesting: Orrin Hatch’s ideas trickled down to the state legislatures positions.
Park City Record: Jay Hamburger
Coming soon: negotiations to keep Sundance in Park City
City Hall and Sundance Film Festival organizers could restart discussions within weeks about the long-term future of the festival in Park City, something that has been looming for months but remains unresolved as Sundance’s 2013 edition ends.
The talks will likely cover numerous issues, including what has appeared to be a point of contention centered on the frequent overlapping of the festival and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day national holiday.
The discussions could restart as early as February. A timeline for a resolution has not been outlined. Much of the negotiating will occur in private sessions, and it is not known how much information will be released as the talks are ongoing. The Park City Council would be required to approve an agreement during a public meeting.
City Hall and Sundance in 2005 inked an agreement to hold the festival in Park City through 2018 with a 10-year option attached to the deal. Notice that the 10-year-option will be exercised must be given by 2015. The deal in 2005 also made it possible for Sundance to move its year-round headquarters to Park City from Salt Lake City.
OTHER
Air & Space Magazine: Tim Wright
The 727 that Vanished
Seven years after her brother disappeared from Quatro de Fevereiro International Airport in Angola, Benita Padilla-Kirkland is trying to persuade the FBI to re-open his case. She believes she has the “new information” agents told her they require. But she suspects that the agency already has more information than agents will admit to.
Kirkland’s brother, Ben Charles Padilla, a certified flight engineer, aircraft mechanic, and private pilot, disappeared while working in the Angolan capital, Luanda, for Florida-based Aerospace Sales and Leasing. On May 25, 2003, shortly before sunset, Padilla boarded the company’s Boeing 727-223, tail number N844AA. With him was a helper he had recently hired, John Mikel Mutantu, from the Republic of the Congo. The two had been working with Angolan mechanics to return the 727 to flight-ready status so they could reclaim it from a business deal gone bad, but neither could fly it. Mutantu was not a pilot, and Padilla had only a private pilot’s license. A 727 ordinarily requires three trained aircrew.
According to press reports, the aircraft began taxiing with no communication between the crew and the tower; maneuvering erratically, it entered a runway without clearance. With its lights off and its transponder not transmitting, 844AA took off to the southwest, and headed out over the Atlantic Ocean. The 727 and the two men have not been seen since.
This article is from September 2010, there are extensive comments, and it reads like a novel. H/t to kos-friend terry pinder, who tweeted this.
WATCH: “I Was Here,” The History Of The Gay-Rights Movement Captured In Photos In honor of my congregation celebrating Reconciling in Christ Sunday
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