Thursday, September 30, 2010

Mid Day International News

Mid Day International News

Aircraft pollution 'to kill 8,000 people this year'

Posted:

A recent study has estimated that at least 8000 people will die this year due to pollution emitted by aircrafts.

Researchers from MIT say that nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides emitted by aircraft at approximately 35,000 feat combine with other gases in the atmosphere to create noxious particulate matter.

Earlier studies of the effects of aircraft pollution on air quality have focused on landing and takeoff emissions as most airline fuel gets burned at high altitudes.

"Anything above that [altitude] really hasn't been regulated, and the goal of this research was to determine whether that was really justified," CBS News quoted lead author Steven Barrett.

But the risk isn't necessarily greatest over the northern hemisphere, where the heaviest concentration of commercial aviation flights take place. Taken eastward by high-speed winds, the emissions spread to other continents where they extract a proportionately heavier toll in China and India, according to the study.

"Even though the amount of fuel burned by aircraft over India and China accounts for only 10 percent of the estimated total amount of fuel burned by aircraft across the globe, the two countries incur nearly half - about 3,500 - of the annual deaths related to aircraft cruise emissions," he added.

The report is published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.


'Horny' ghost spooks woman

Posted:

A Northern Territory woman has claimed that a horny ghost is haunting her

Jennifer Mills-Young has said that the ghost, named Kevin, once tried to drag her out of bed in the middle of the night.

"I was asleep. I woke up when someone grabbed my wrist," the Daily Telegraph quoted her as saying.

"I though, ''Hmmm, hubby wants a bit of romance'', when I suddenly remembered he wasn''t even at home," she told the NT News.

Jennifer said she could feel the hand around her wrist trying to pull her up and out of bed.

"The moment I opened my eyes, the grip was gone and the room was empty," she said.

"I yelled at Kevin that he was not welcome in my bedroom and that he couldn''t come into bed with me.

"I told him to f*** off and to close the door behind him. A moment later I saw how the bedroom door slowly was closed.

"I jumped up and locked it - not that it makes much of a difference when you''re dealing with a ghost," she added.

Julia Roberts to adopt child from India?

Posted:

Julia Roberts, who recently converted to the Hindu faith, is now trying to adopt a child from India, according to sources.

The 42-year-old, who already has three children with cameraman Danny Moder - twins Hazel and Finn, five, and Henry, three, suffered from complications during her previous pregnancies but is still keen to add to her brood.

"Julia has wanted more children for years. But her past pregnancies were fraught with complications and she was forced into an extended hospital stay right before she had her twins. After all she has been through, she realises that adoption is perhaps the best way forward," the Daly Express quoted a friend as saying.

"She has a special affinity with India and has contacts exploring the possibilities," the friend added.

She is also said to have contacted an adoption agency in Bali, where she spent time filming Eat Pray Love.

"Julia and Danny love the idea of their kids having another baby in the house. And it feels so right that the next member of the family should come from a different culture," the pal said.

US losing competitive edge to India, China, fears Obama

Posted:

With countries like India, China and Brazil focusing hard on education, research and development and exports, the US is losing its competitive edge, fears US President Barack Obama.

Middle-class families in America were generally having a very difficult time even before the global financial crisis hit, he said during a discussion on the economy in Richmond, Virginia.

"And obviously the crisis just made things worse. And this is all at a time when we've got increased global competition," he said.

"You've got countries like China and India and Brazil that are really moving. They're educating their kids much more aggressively than they ever were. They are exporting much more than they ever were," Obama said.

"And so we're having to compete at levels that we didn't have to compete before," he said seeking more investment in research and development on clean energy lest the US is overtaken by others.

"Sooner or later, the world passes you by. China, India, Japan - all these countries are all thinking about new ways to find clean energy," Obama said.

"And if we're not the ones who get there first in terms of figuring this stuff out, then they're the ones who are going to get the jobs of the future. And I don't want them to get those jobs. I want us to have those jobs right here in the United States."

People were anxious about the future of the country, he said, "because if you don't have confidence that the country can pull together and you know that the problems are hard to solve and you know that we've got competition from China and India and Brazil and Europe, then you start thinking, well, maybe we're not going to be the same land of opportunity 20 years from now or 30 years from now as we were."

Earlier, making a similar pitch at a public meeting in Iowa, Obama said: "You saw countries like China, India and Brazil investing heavily in their education systems and in infrastructure...And where we used to be ranked number one, for example, in the proportion of college graduates, we now rank number 12."

"So slowly all the things that had made us the most productive country on earth were starting to slip away. And we were losing that competitive position," he said.

Russian firm to build space hotel

Posted:

Moscow-based company Orbital Technologies has said it will build an orbiting hotel in space by 2015-2016.

The project will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, Orbital Technologies' CEO Sergei Kostenko said on Wednesday without disclosing a figure. "Russian and US investors have already been found," he added.

Individuals, professionals and explorers interested in implementing their own research programmes are expected to be the first clients of the tourist hub, Kostenko said.

The Space Adventurers Company, the longstanding partner of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) in selecting clients for space tours, is expected to select clients for the new hotel.

So far, several super-rich businesspeople have been the only space tourists, travelling into space with professional cosmonauts, but if the project is implemented the space tourism market is likely to develop rapidly.

The tourist hub will not become a rival to the International Space Station (ISS) as they are designed to serve different aims, Kostenko said. "The ISS was designed to carry out scientific and research work at the request of the government. We plan to create a space hotel."

In comparison with the ISS, the space hotel will be much more comfortable. "The tourist hub will not resemble the International Space Station: it will be comfortable inside, and tourists will view the Earth through large portholes," Kostenko said. The hub will be designed to accommodate seven people, he added.

The project will be implemented in cooperation with the state-controlled RKK Energia company and Roscosmos.
Posted by Harshad at 7:20 AM

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)