Pakistan Buying Chinese Z-10 Attack Helicopters?

Pakistan’s closest friend China is expected to give another gift this year, in shape of their famous helicopter Z10. According to reports, three Z10 helicopters are expected to be included in Pakistan Army aviation fleet, which will be helpful in cleaning the terrorism in the county.

Pakistan showed interest in purchasing Z10 helicopters, sources said. The helicopter is capable of targeting the enemy with a range of 3 to 4 kilometers without coming in reader. It is also capable of targeting in the air as well as on ground from air.

With the induction of Z10, Pakistan Army’s capability of targeting the terrorists will increase. Pakistan is already using the helicopters effectively in the war against terrorism.

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Redesigned Kill Vehicle: Ground-Based Missile Defense Replacing Exoatmospheric Kil Vehicle

The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is weighing two options for the long-awaited procurement of a new Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV)—dubbed the Redesigned Kill Vehicle—for its Ground-Based Missile Defense system, a shield for the U.S. against ICBM attack.

In 2014, the GMD program was under intense scrutiny until its successful intercept of a complex, long-range target in July, ending an unsuccessful flight test streak that stretched from December 2008.

The test allowed program officials to turn their attention toward envisioning an improved, more reliable vehicle. Previously, they were consumed with trying to fix reliability problems and a decade-long problem with EKV vibrations impacting the inertial measurement unit in the guidance section.

The procurement strategy likely will be released with the fiscal 2016 budget plan early next year. The Pentagon is exploring two options: a full competition or picking the best attributes of existing design options and having the government manage them to produce a best-of-breed option, MDA Director Vice Adm. James Syring said in December.

MDA is also expected to soon release a request for proposals for a new Long-Range Discrimination Radar (LRDR), which will be installed in Alaska; a contract award is slated by the end of fiscal 2015.

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Chinese Wing Loong MALE UAV Demonstrates Formation Flying

Atlantic Current Remained Strong During Most of the Last 140 Thousand Years

Strong and deep Atlantic meridional overturning circulation during the last glacial cycle

Authors:

Böhm et al

Abstract:

Extreme, abrupt Northern Hemisphere climate oscillations during the last glacial cycle (140,000 years ago to present) were modulated by changes in ocean circulation and atmospheric forcing. However, the variability of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), which has a role in controlling heat transport from low to high latitudes and in ocean CO2 storage, is still poorly constrained beyond the Last Glacial Maximum. Here we show that a deep and vigorous overturning circulation mode has persisted for most of the last glacial cycle, dominating ocean circulation in the Atlantic, whereas a shallower glacial mode with southern-sourced waters filling the deep western North Atlantic prevailed during glacial maxima. Our results are based on a reconstruction of both the strength and the direction of the AMOC during the last glacial cycle from a highly resolved marine sedimentary record in the deep western North Atlantic. Parallel measurements of two independent chemical water tracers (the isotope ratios of 231Pa/230Th and 143Nd/144Nd) which are not directly affected by changes in the global cycle, reveal consistent responses of the AMOC during the last two glacial terminations. Any significant deviations from this configuration, resulting in slowdowns of the AMOC, were restricted to centennial-scale excursions during catastrophic iceberg discharges of the Heinrich stadials. Severe and multicentennial weakening of North Atlantic Deep Water formation occurred only during Heinrich stadials close to glacial maxima with increased ice coverage, probably as a result of increased fresh-water input. In contrast, the AMOC was relatively insensitive to submillennial meltwater pulses during warmer climate states, and an active AMOC prevailed during Dansgaard–Oeschger interstadials (Greenland warm periods).

Martian Glaciation in the Late Noachian Icy Highlands

Glaciation in the Late Noachian Icy Highlands: Ice Accumulation, Distribution, Flow Rates, Basal Melting and Top-Down Melting Rates and Patterns

Authors:

Fastook et al

Abstract:

Geological evidence for extensive non-polar ice deposits of Amazonian age indicates that the current cold and dry climate of Mars has persisted for several billion years. The geological record and climate history of the Noachian, the earliest period of Mars history, is less certain, but abundant evidence for fluvial channels (valley networks) and lacustrine environments (open-basin lakes) has been interpreted to represent warm and wet conditions, including rainfall and runoff. Alternatively, recent atmospheric modeling results predict a “cold and icy” Late Noachian Mars in which moderate atmospheric pressure accompanied by a full water cycle produce an atmosphere where temperature declines with elevation following an adiabatic lapse rate, in contrast to the current situation on Mars, where temperature is almost completely determined by latitude. These results are formulated in the Late Noachian Icy Highlands (LNIH) model, in which these cold and icy conditions lead to the preferential deposition of snow and ice at high elevations, such as the southern uplands. What is the fate of this snow and ice and the nature of glaciation in such an environment? What are the prospects of melting of these deposits contributing to the observed fluvial and lacustrine deposits?

To address these questions, we report on a glacial flow-modeling analysis using a Mars-adapted ice sheet model with LNIH climate conditions. The total surface/near-surface water inventory is poorly known for the Late Noachian, so we explore the LNIH model in a “supply-limited” scenario for a range of available water abundances and a range of Late Noachian geothermal fluxes. Our results predict that the Late Noachian icy highlands (above an equilibrium line altitude of approximately +1 km) were characterized by extensive ice sheets of the order of hundreds of meters thick. Due to extremely cold conditions, the ice-flow velocities in general were very low, less than a few mm/yr, and the regional ice-flow pattern was disorganized and followed topography, with no radial flow pattern typical of an equilibrium ice sheet. Virtually the entire ice sheet is predicted to be cold-based, and thus the range of wet-based features typically associated with temperate glaciers (e.g., drumlins, eskers, etc.) is not predicted to occur. Wet-based conditions are predicted only locally in the thickest ice (on the floors of the deepest craters), where limited subglacial lakes may have formed.

These LNIH regional ice-sheets provide a huge reservoir of potential meltwater as a source for forming the observed fluvial and lacustrine features and deposits. Top-down melting scenarios applied to our LNIH ice sheet model predict that periods of punctuated warming could lead to elevated temperatures sufficient to melt enough snow and ice to readily account for the observed fluvial and lacustrine features and deposits. Our model indicates that such melting should take place preferentially at the margins of the ice sheets, a prediction that can be tested with further analyses.

Feeding Biomechanics and Dietary Ecology of Paranthropus boisei

The Feeding Biomechanics and Dietary Ecology of Paranthropus boisei

Authors:

Smith et al

Abstract:

The African Plio-Pleistocene hominins known as australopiths evolved derived craniodental features frequently interpreted as adaptations for feeding on either hard, or compliant/tough foods. Among australopiths, Paranthropus boisei is the most robust form, exhibiting traits traditionally hypothesized to produce high bite forces efficiently and strengthen the face against feeding stresses. However, recent mechanical analyses imply that P. boisei may not have been an efficient producer of bite force and that robust morphology in primates is not necessarily strong. Here we use an engineering method, finite element analysis, to show that the facial skeleton of P. boisei is structurally strong, exhibits a strain pattern different from that in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and Australopithecus africanus, and efficiently produces high bite force. It has been suggested that P. boisei consumed a diet of compliant/tough foods like grass blades and sedge pith. However, the blunt occlusal topography of this and other species suggests that australopiths are adapted to consume hard foods, perhaps including grass and sedge seeds. A consideration of evolutionary trends in morphology relating to feeding mechanics suggests that food processing behaviors in gracile australopiths evidently were disrupted by environmental change, perhaps contributing to the eventual evolution of Homo and Paranthropus.

During Pleistocene Megafauna Extinction, Coyotes Became More Gracile, Omnivorous

Ecological Changes in Coyotes (Canis latrans) in Response to the Ice Age Megafaunal Extinctions

Authors:

Meachen et al

Abstract:

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are an important species in human-inhabited areas. They control pests and are the apex predators in many ecosystems. Because of their importance it is imperative to understand how environmental change will affect this species. The end of the Pleistocene Ice Age brought with it many ecological changes for coyotes and here we statistically determine the changes that occurred in coyotes, when these changes occurred, and what the ecological consequences were of these changes. We examined the mandibles of three coyote populations: Pleistocene Rancho La Brean (13–29 Ka), earliest Holocene Rancho La Brean (8–10 Ka), and Recent from North America, using 2D geometric morphometrics to determine the morphological differences among them. Our results show that these three populations were morphologically distinct. The Pleistocene coyotes had an overall robust mandible with an increased shearing arcade and a decreased grinding arcade, adapted for carnivory and killing larger prey; whereas the modern populations show a gracile morphology with a tendency toward omnivory or grinding. The earliest Holocene populations are intermediate in morphology and smallest in size. These findings indicate that a niche shift occurred in coyotes at the Pleistocene/Holocene boundary – from a hunter of large prey to a small prey/more omnivorous animal. Species interactions between Canis were the most likely cause of this transition. This study shows that the Pleistocene extinction event affected species that did not go extinct as well as those that did.

Jawless Fish (Ostracoderms) Went Extinct due to Environmental Factors, Range Restriction, not Competition With Jawed Fish

Discriminating signal from noise in the fossil record of early vertebrates reveals cryptic evolutionary history

Authors:

Sansom et al

Abstract:

The fossil record of early vertebrates has been influential in elucidating the evolutionary assembly of the gnathostome bodyplan. Understanding of the timing and tempo of vertebrate innovations remains, however, mired in a literal reading of the fossil record. Early jawless vertebrates (ostracoderms) exhibit restriction to shallow-water environments. The distribution of their stratigraphic occurrences therefore reflects not only flux in diversity, but also secular variation in facies representation of the rock record. Using stratigraphic, phylogenetic and palaeoenvironmental data, we assessed the veracity of the fossil records of the jawless relatives of jawed vertebrates (Osteostraci, Galeaspida, Thelodonti, Heterostraci). Non-random models of fossil recovery potential using Palaeozoic sea-level changes were used to calculate confidence intervals of clade origins. These intervals extend the timescale for possible origins into the Upper Ordovician; these estimates ameliorate the long ghost lineages inferred for Osteostraci, Galeaspida and Heterostraci, given their known stratigraphic occurrences and stem–gnathostome phylogeny. Diversity changes through the Silurian and Devonian were found to lie within the expected limits predicted from estimates of fossil record quality indicating that it is geological, rather than biological factors, that are responsible for shifts in diversity. Environmental restriction also appears to belie ostracoderm extinction and demise rather than competition with jawed vertebrates.

Rhyacian PaleoProterozoic Carbon Dioxide Levels Were 3.7x Modern

Metasaprolite in the McGrath Gneiss, Minnesota, USA: viewing Paleoproterozoic weathering through a veil of metamorphism and metasomatism

Authors:

Medaris et al

Abstract:

A 2100 Ma, 420 cm–thick metasaprolite, which is devoid of plagioclase but contains abundant microcline, occurs in the Archean McGrath Gneiss beneath the overlying Paleoproterozoic Denham Formation. Despite being recrystallized under amphibolite–facies conditions and chemically modified by potassium metasomatism, mass fluxes related to weathering and metasomatism of the McGrath metasaprolite can be estimated by judicious application of several geochemical parameters and the A–C*N–K plot (Fedo et al., 1995). The metasaprolite yields values of 67–94 for the Plagioclase Index of Alteration, 62–72 for the Chemical Index of Alteration, and 47 for the Feldspar Index of Weathering, and the total mass flux removed by weathering is a minimum of 2.4 moles/cm2. Such values correspond to an intermediate degree, or intensity, of weathering compared to other, more intensely weathered paleosols in the region, such as those beneath the Baraboo and Sioux quartzites. Potassium metasomatism occurred at 1742 Ma during the geon 17 Yavapai tectonothermal event, when a minimum of 0.33 moles/cm2 K2O was added to the metasaprolite. Although the absence of pedogenic textures precludes interpretation of climatic conditions during weathering of the McGrath Gneiss, the level of atmospheric pCO2 can be estimated by application of Sheldon's (2006) method, which yields a minimum of 3.7 × PAL for a weathering duration of 100,000 years.

What Language Will the World Speak in 2215?

Thankfully, fears that English will become the world’s only language are premature. Few are so pessimistic as to suppose that there will not continue to be a multiplicity of nations and cultures on our planet and, along with them, various languages besides English. It is difficult, after all, to interrupt something as intimate and spontaneous as what language people speak to their children. Who truly imagines a Japan with no Japanese or a Greece with no Greek? The spread of English just means that earthlings will tend to use a local language in their own orbit and English for communication beyond.

But the days when English shared the planet with thousands of other languages are numbered. A traveler to the future, a century from now, is likely to notice two things about the language landscape of Earth. One, there will be vastly fewer languages. Two, languages will often be less complicated than they are today—especially in how they are spoken as opposed to how they are written.

Some may protest that it is not English but Mandarin Chinese that will eventually become the world’s language, because of the size of the Chinese population and the increasing economic might of their nation. But that’s unlikely. For one, English happens to have gotten there first. It is now so deeply entrenched in print, education and media that switching to anything else would entail an enormous effort. We retain the QWERTY keyboard and AC current for similar reasons.

Also, the tones of Chinese are extremely difficult to learn beyond childhood, and truly mastering the writing system virtually requires having been born to it. In the past, of course, notoriously challenging languages such as Greek, Latin, Aramaic, Arabic, Russian and even Chinese have been embraced by vast numbers of people. But now that English has settled in, its approachability as compared with Chinese will discourage its replacement. Many a world power has ruled without spreading its language, and just as the Mongols and Manchus once ruled China while leaving Chinese intact, if the Chinese rule the world, they will likely do so in English.

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Fraud, not Hacking, Took Most of Mt Gox's Missing Bitcoins

Nearly all of the roughly US$370 million in bitcoin that disappeared in the February 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox probably vanished due to fraudulent transactions, with only 1 percent taken by hackers, according to a report in Japan’s Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, citing sources close to a Tokyo police probe.

Of the 650,000 bitcoins unaccounted for—worth about US$208 million today—only about 7,000 appear to have been purloined by hackers, the newspaper reported on New Year’s Day, adding that investigators have yet to identify who was responsible.

That conflicts with the explanation by Mt. Gox, which blamed a bug in the Bitcoin system when it filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 28.

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The Impacts of Increasing Carbon Dioxide on the Terrestrial Carbon Cycle

Effect of increasing CO2 on the terrestrial carbon cycle

Authors:

Schimel et al

Abstract:

Feedbacks from the terrestrial carbon cycle significantly affect future climate change. The CO2 concentration dependence of global terrestrial carbon storage is one of the largest and most uncertain feedbacks. Theory predicts the CO2 effect should have a tropical maximum, but a large terrestrial sink has been contradicted by analyses of atmospheric CO2 that do not show large tropical uptake. Our results, however, show significant tropical uptake and, combining tropical and extratropical fluxes, suggest that up to 60% of the present-day terrestrial sink is caused by increasing atmospheric CO2. This conclusion is consistent with a validated subset of atmospheric analyses, but uncertainty remains. Improved model diagnostics and new space-based observations can reduce the uncertainty of tropical and temperate zone carbon flux estimates. This analysis supports a significant feedback to future atmospheric CO2 concentrations from carbon uptake in terrestrial ecosystems caused by rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This feedback will have substantial tropical contributions, but the magnitude of future carbon uptake by tropical forests also depends on how they respond to climate change and requires their protection from deforestation.

A Look at the Russian Reform of the Russian Air Forces into the Russian Aerospace Forces

At some point, probably next summer, the Air Forces (VVS) will cease being one of Russia’s three armed services. The Aerospace Forces (VKS or ВКС) will take their place. The Aerospace Defense Troops (VVKO) will likewise disappear as a branch and get rolled into the new VKS. Russia will be left with three services and two branches (not three of each).

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War is Boring's take is Russia is recreating the US Air Force.

Taiwan Kicks off Conventional Attack Submarine Program After US Failure to Deliver

After waiting on the U.S. to make good on plans to develop a diesel electric attack submarine (SSK) for almost 15 years, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence announced it was kicking off its own domestic attack submarine construction program this week, the agency told Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan.

Defense officials told the legislative body preparation work would begin this year starting with a modest $315,000 start into a $94.46 million four-year effort, beginning in earnest in 2016.

The planned result would be around four SSKs to replace the island’s current boats — two Dutch-built, 1980s vintage 2,600-ton Hai-lang-class SSKs and two World War II era U.S. Guppy-class boats used for training.

“At present the navy’s demand is submarines ranging from 1,200-3,000 tons,” Vice Adm. Hsiao Wei-min with the Republic of China Navy (RoCN) told the legislator on Monday.

The new boats are a long awaited hedge against the expansion of China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and the looming threat of an amphibious assault from the mainland.

“After Taiwan has lost air and sea control, it’s the subs that will still be able to attack groups of amphibious landing aircraft,” Wang Jyh-perng, RoCN reserve captain told the Asia Times in 2011.

In 2001, the Bush administration promised Taiwan eight U.S.-built SSKs but the boats never materialized for several reasons.

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Oy, Something More? F-35 Can't Fire its Gun Until 2019

America’s $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, is slated to join fighter squadrons next year—but missing software will render its 25mm cannon useless.

The Pentagon’s newest stealth jet, the nearly $400 billion Joint Strike Fighter, won’t be able to fire its gun during operational missions until 2019, three to four years after it becomes operational.

Even though the Joint Strike Fighter, or F-35, is supposed to join frontline U.S. Marine Corps fighter squadrons next year and Air Force units in 2016, the jet’s software does not yet have the ability to shoot its 25mm cannon. But even when the jet will be able to shoot its gun, the F-35 barely carries enough ammunition to make the weapon useful.

The JSF won’t be completely unarmed. It will still carry a pair of Raytheon AIM-120 AMRAAM long-range air-to-air missiles and a pair of bombs. Initially, it will be able to carry 1,000-pound satellite-guided bombs or 500-pound laser-guided weapons. But those weapons are of limited utility, especially during close-in fights.

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Defense tech has a good follow-up given the politics of pushing to retire the A-10.

The Chase for Federal Dollars for the Dream Ends: GAO Denies Sierra Nevada's Protest Over Commercial Crew Contract Selection

On January 5, 2015, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) denied a protest filed by Sierra Nevada Corp., of Louisville, Colorado, challenging the award of contracts to The Boeing Co., Space Exploration, of Houston, Texas, and to Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), of Hawthorne, California, by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for NASA’s Commercial Crew Transportation Capability Contract (CCtCap). Sierra Nevada argued, among other things, that NASA’s evaluation departed from the solicitation’s stated evaluation and selection criteria by significantly elevating NASA’s stated “goal” of obtaining an integrated crew transportation system no later than the end of 2017, and by failing to put offerors on notice that the agency’s goal would be central to the evaluation and selection decision.

As explained in our decision, in this procurement, Sierra Nevada offered its Dream Chaser crew transportation system (a lifting body spacecraft), launched using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle, and landed horizontally on normal runways. Sierra Nevada’s price was $2.55 billion.

Boeing offered its CST-100 crew transportation system (a capsule spacecraft), also launched using United Launch Alliance’s Atlas 5 launch vehicle, and landed using parachute and airbag systems for hard-surface landings, or contingency water landings. Boeing’s price was $3.01 billion.

SpaceX offered its Crew Dragon crew transportation system (also a capsule spacecraft), launched using SpaceX’s Falcon 9 launch vehicle, and landed using parachutes and propulsive soft landing systems for hard-surface landings, or contingency water landings. SpaceX’s price was $1.75 billion.

In making its selection decision, NASA concluded that the proposals submitted by Boeing and SpaceX represented the best value to the government. Specifically, NASA recognized Boeing’s higher price, but also considered Boeing’s proposal to be the strongest of all three proposals in terms of technical approach, management approach, and past performance, and to offer the crew transportation system with most utility and highest value to the government. NASA also recognized several favorable features in the Sierra Nevada and SpaceX proposals, but ultimately concluded that SpaceX’s lower price made it a better value than the proposal submitted by Sierra Nevada.

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The Paleoenvironment of Barremian/Albian Cretaceous East Asia

Environment and ecology of East Asian dinosaurs during the Early Cretaceous inferred from stable oxygen and carbon isotopes in apatite

Authors:

Amiot et al

Abstract:

During the cold Late Barremian–Early Albian interval, terrestrial environments in East Asia were populated by rich and diverse vertebrate faunas characterized by a strong provincialism. The latitudinal gradient of temperature and the existence of geographic barriers likely accounted for some aspects of this heterogeneous distribution of faunas. Other factors, however, such as local environmental conditions and interactions within vertebrate communities, which could have influenced their distribution, have not yet been fully identified and understood. Therefore, new and published oxygen and carbon isotope compositions of apatite from Chinese and Thai reptiles (dinosaurs, crocodilians and turtles) have been analyzed and interpreted in terms of ecology, local air temperature and precipitation amounts. Differences in carbon and oxygen isotope compositions between various groups of sympatric plant-eating dinosaurs (sauropods, ornithopods and ceratopsians) indicate food resources partitioning among them most likely to avoid competition. Mid-latitude environments, where the Jehol Biota flourished, were submitted to cool temperate climatic conditions with Mean Air Temperature (MAT) of 10 ± 4 °C and Mean Annual Precipitations (MAP) of about 600 mm/yr compatible with the existence of forest environments. By contrast, sub-tropical regions, characterized by MAT of about 20–25 °C were either submitted to high amounts of seasonal precipitations (of about 1200 mm/yr in Thailand) or to significant aridity (MAP of about 400 mm/yr in South China). This difference in precipitation regime between Thailand and South China may be attributed to the occurrence of the Coastal Cordillera extending along the East margin of the South China block. These mountain ranges likely prevented humid air masses from the Pacific to penetrate some parts of South China, thus generating a “rain shadow effect”. Mosaic environments characterizing East Asia during the Late Early Cretaceous may have acted as a cradle for the origination of advanced dinosaur taxa that subsequently radiated over Eurasia and North America during the Late Cretaceous.

The Winds of Venus

Six years of Venus winds at the upper cloud level from UV, visible and near infrared observations from VIRTIS on Venus express

Authors:

Hueso et al

Abstract:

The Venus Express mission has provided a long-term monitoring of Venus atmosphere including the morphology and motions of its upper clouds. Several works have focused on the dynamics of the upper cloud visible on the day-side in ultraviolet images sensitive to the 65–70 km altitude and in the lower cloud level (50 km height) observable in the night-side of the planet in the 1.74 μm spectral window. Here we use VIRTIS-M spectral images in nearby wavelengths to study the upper cloud layer in three channels: ultraviolet (360–400 nm), visible (570–680 nm) and near infrared (900–955 nm) extending in time the previous analysis of VIRTIS-M data. The ultraviolet images show relatively well contrasted cloud features at the cloud top. Cloud features in the visible and near infrared images lie a few kilometers below the upper cloud top, have very low contrast and are distinct to the features observed in the ultraviolet. Wind measurements were obtained on 118 orbits covering the Southern hemisphere over a six-year period and using a semi-automatic cloud correlation algorithm. Results for the upper cloud from VIRTIS-M ultraviolet data confirm previous analysis based on images obtained by the Venus Monitoring Camera (Khatuntsev et al. (2013). Icarus 226, 140–158). At the cloud top the mean zonal and meridional winds vary with local time accelerating towards the local afternoon. The upper branch of the Hadley cell circulation reaches maximum velocities at 45° latitude and local times of 14–16 h. The mean zonal winds in the ultraviolet cloud layer accelerated in the course of the 2006–2012 period at least 15 ms−1. The near infrared and visible images show a more constant circulation without significant time variability or longitudinal variations. The meridional circulation is absent or slightly reversed in near infrared and visible images indicating that, either the Hadley-cell circulation in Venus atmosphere is shallow, or the returning branch of the meridional circulation extends to levels below the cloud level sensed in near infrared images. At subpolar to polar latitudes the three wavelength ranges show similar features and motions which is a signature of small vertical wind shear and may be affected by vertical convergence of both layers. At the clod top level observed in UV images there are signatures of a long-term acceleration of the zonal winds at afternoon hours when comparing zonal winds from the first years of Venus Express observations (2006–2008) to later dates (2009–2012) with a mean acceleration of zonal winds of 17±6 ms−1 between both time periods.

Modern Human Bone Density Evolved After Agriculture's Development

New research shows that modern human skeletons evolved into their lightly built form only relatively recently--after the start of the Holocene about 12,000 years ago and even more recently in some human populations. The work, based on high-resolution imaging of bone joints from modern humans and chimpanzees as well as from fossils of extinct human species shows that for millions of years extinct humans had high bone density until a dramatic decrease in recent modern humans. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings reveal a higher decrease in the density of lower limbs than in that of the upper limbs, suggesting that the transformation may be linked to humans' shift from a foraging lifestyle to a sedentary agricultural one.

"Despite centuries of research on the human skeleton, this is the first study to show that human skeletons have substantially lower density in joints throughout the skeleton, even in ancient farmers who actively worked the land," said Brian Richmond, an author of the study, curator in the American Museum of Natural History's Division of Anthropology, and a research professor at George Washington University.

Compared to our closest living relatives--chimpanzees--as well as to our extinct human ancestors, humans are unique in having an enlarged body size and lower-limb joint surfaces in combination with a relatively lightweight skeleton. But until now, scientists did not know that human bone joints are significantly less dense compared with those of other animals, or when during human evolution this unique characteristic first appeared.

"Our study shows that modern humans have less bone density than seen in related species, and it doesn't matter if we look at bones from people who lived in an industrial society or agriculturalist populations that had a more active life. They both have much less bone density," said Habiba Chirchir, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, who started the work at George Washington University with Richmond. "What we want to know now is whether this is an early human characteristic that defines our species."

To explore this question, Chirchir, Richmond, and an international team of researchers used high-resolution computed tomography and microtomography to measure trabecular, or spongy, bone of the limb joints in modern humans and chimpanzees, as well as in fossil hominins attributed to Australopithecus africanus, Paranthropus robustus, Homo neanderthalensis, and early Homo sapiens. Their results show that only recent modern humans have low trabecular density throughout limb joints, and that the decrease is especially pronounced in the lower joints--those in the hip, knee, and ankle--rather than the upper joints in the shoulder, elbow, and hand. The appearance of this anatomical change late in our evolutionary history may have been a result of the transition from a nomadic to a more settled lifestyle.

"Much to our surprise, throughout our deep past, we see that our human ancestors and relatives, who lived in natural settings, had very dense bone. And even early members of our species, going back 20,000 years or so, had bone that was about as dense as seen in other modern species," Richmond said. "But this density drastically drops off in more recent times, when we started to use agricultural tools to grow food and settle in one place."

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Week of Vintana: Dental Enamel Morphology Compared to Other Gondwanatherians

Enamel Microstructure of Vintana Sertichi (Mammalia, Gondwanatheria) From the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

Authors:

von Koenigswald et al

Abstract:

The enamel microstructure of the molariform cheek teeth of Vintana sertichi (Gondwanatheria, Mammalia) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar retains many of the plesiomorphic characteristics of mammalian prismatic enamel (e.g., single-layered schmelzmuster; non-decussating, small prisms). However, V. sertichi exhibits a relatively derived condition and resembles Lavanify miolaka (Late Cretaceous, Madagascar), Bharattherium bonapartei (Late Cretaceous, India), and an indeterminate sudamericid (Late Cretaceous, Madagascar) in possessing modified radial enamel, consisting of prisms separated by prominent interrow sheets of interprismatic matrix. A second group of gondwanatherians (Ferugliotherium windhauseni, Gondwanatherium patagonicum, Sudamerica ameghinoi, Greniodon sylvaticus), all from the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene of Argentina, retains relatively primitive, ‘normal’ radial enamel, in which the interprismatic matrix anastomoses around the prisms and does not form interrow sheets. The prisms of gondwanatherian molariforms generally become wider from the enamel-dentine junction to the outer enamel surface, dramatically so in Gondwanatherium. Seams are very rare; tubules are more common. Prism decussation has not been found in any gondwanatherian enamel. Gondwanatherian molariforms lack or have only a thin layer of external prismless enamel, although it is thick in the incisors of Sudamerica. Despite their apparent utility in differentiating among gondwanatherian taxa, or gondwanatherians as a whole from other clades, many of the derived characteristics of gondwanatherian enamel microstructure are found in other mammalian groups and may reflect a high degree of homoplasy.

Evidence of Parallel Evolution in Synapsids From Caseid Casea broilii

New Postcranial Material of the Early Caseid Casea broilii Williston, 1910 (Synapsida: Caseidae) with a Review of the Evolution of the Sacrum in Paleozoic Non-Mammalian Synapsids

Authors:

LeBlanc et al

Abstract:

Here we use the description of a new specimen of the small caseid synapsid Casea broilii that preserves the sacral, pelvic and hind limb regions in great detail and in three dimensions, as a unique opportunity to reevaluate the early stages in the evolution of the sacrum in the lineage that led to mammals. We place this new material in the context of sacral evolution in early caseid synapsids and conclude that the transition from two to three sacral vertebrae occurred in small-bodied species, suggesting that it was not an adaptation to heavy weight bearing. Furthermore, we compare descriptions of sacral anatomy among known early synapsids, including caseids, ophiacodontids, edaphosaurids, varanopids, and sphenacodontians and review sacral evolution in early synapsids. Based on the descriptions of new species of caseids, edaphosaurids, and varanopids over the past several decades, it is clear that a sacrum consisting of three vertebrae evolved independently at least four times in synapsids during the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian. Furthermore, similarities in the morphologies of the sacral vertebrae and ribs of these early synapsids lead us to conclude that an anterior caudal vertebra had been incorporated into the sacral series convergently in these groups. Given the repeated acquisition of a three-vertebra sacrum in early synapsids and no apparent link to body size, we argue that this sacral anatomy was related to more efficient terrestrial locomotion than to increased weight bearing.

The Earth did NOT Flip 90 degrees During the Ediacaran NeoProterozoic

A stable Ediacaran Earth recorded by single silicate crystals of the ca. 565 Ma Sept-Îles intrusion

Author:s:

Bono et al

Abstract:

The archetypical example of inertial interchange true polar wander (IITPW), the rapid rotation of the entire solid Earth by 90°, is based on two nearly orthogonal directions seen in paleomagnetic studies of the Sept-Îles (ca. 565 Ma) intrusion (Quebec, Canada). This motion has also been proposed as the driving force for the early Cambrian explosion of life. Others have challenged these interpretations, linking the data instead to flips between an axial and equatorial dipole field configuration. We examine this enigma using single silicate crystal paleomagnetic analyses. We conclude that only one of the previously reported magnetic directions is carried by single domain magnetic grains and can be considered primary. Thus, the Ediacaran diversification occurred on a rotationally stable Earth driven by biotic and longer term abiotic forcing. Whether IITPW ever occurred in the past on Earth remains uncertain.

Shoot for the Moon

And #SupportSpaceManSal. 

Don't Buy it, but...: Possible Psychology of a Matrioshka Brain

Randy McDonald links to an article about the possible psychology of a Matrioshka Brain.

I don't buy it. And we're very, very sure there's none out there, at least within our observable space.  However, some may find the vision of the ability to run around 4* 10^17 human minds within a Dyson sphere enthralling. 

A Good Thing This Would *NOT* Have Worked in Los Alamos

As people become more eco-friendly and environmentally aware, the idea of making living, breathing graffiti has become an exciting outlet for graffiti artists. Also called eco-graffiti or green graffiti, moss graffiti replaces spray paint, paint-markers or other such toxic chemicals and paints with a paintbrush and a moss "paint" that can grow on its own. It can also be considered another form of guerrilla gardening. Learn more about this simple technique after the jump.

link.

Its a VERY good thing Los Alamos was NOT located in the Pacific Northwest "like" Eureka. We were enough trouble as it was as teenagers...

China's Rustbelt Rusting Once More

The north-east’s provinces—Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning—ranked in the bottom five of China’s 31 provinces for GDP growth in the first three quarters of 2014. Their growth of 6% was 1.4 percentage points less than the national rate. Worse, their industrial output rose just 0.5% year-on-year in October, far below the national average of 7.7% (see [link]).

It is a troubling regression for China’s old rustbelt, which is home to 110m people. Until recently the north-east appeared to be experiencing a renaissance after a difficult couple of decades. The question now is whether its lapse is a passing phase, as it makes the transition from being a base for heavy industry to a centre for modern manufacturing and entrepot for north-east Asian trade; or whether its problems are chronic, the legacy of a centrally planned past in which it remains partially trapped.

Endowed with coal and oil, the north-east industrialised under Japanese military control in the 1930s. Mao Zedong later made it the heartland of heavy manufacturing. But its star faded as China opened to the world in the 1980s. The deltas of the Yangzi and Pearl rivers made more fertile ground for entrepreneurs; the government-led heritage of the north-east became a millstone. When Zhu Rongji, China’s then prime minister, took a knife to loss-making state-owned companies in the late 1990s, about a quarter of the 30m lay-offs were in the north-east. Unemployment soared and mass protests spread.

The government responded in 2003 with a plan to “revitalise the old north-east industrial bases”. The idea was to transform state factories into lean, modern entities; foster trade with nearby countries; and to broaden the economy by cultivating new industries, from tourism to software.

Judging by growth alone, the government achieved almost instant results. The north-east caught up with the average national growth rate of 10%, and then pulled ahead. Its average growth of 12.4% in 2008-12 was nearly three percentage points above the national pace, making it China’s fastest-growing region.

A little slowdown for the north-east might have been fine after such a period of outperformance—in line, moreover, with the central government’s efforts to steer the national economy back to a more sustainable pace of growth. But compared with the rest of the country, the north-east’s downturn has been unusually sharp and painful. It has exposed unresolved problems in its efforts to reinvent itself.

link.

India's Negotiations for French Rafale Fighters Hits Complications

India's long-delayed procurement of 126 Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft has once again run into "complications", defence minister Manohar Parrikar admitted on 30 December.

Parrikar did not specify these difficulties at a press conference in New Delhi, but tellingly stated that additional licence-built Sukhoi Su-30MKI multirole fighters would be "adequate" for the Indian Air Force (IAF) in the event of the Rafale deal being scrapped.

"The Su-30MKI is an adequate aircraft for meeting the air force's needs," Parrikar said, adding that at INR3.58 billion (USD59.66 million) each, the unit cost of the Su-30MKIs being licence-built by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was less than half that of a Rafale.

link.

US Navy Wants Railguns on Ships Between 2020 to 2026 for AntiAir, Surface Bombardment & Missile Defense

Clues to the direction of travel for the US Navy's (USN's) electromagnetic railgun programme have emerged via a request for information (RFI) issued in error by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA).

Posted on the government's FedBizOpps website on 22 December 2014 and cancelled less than four hours later, the notice invited industry and academic institutions to submit ideas for the development of a railgun fire-control sensor (FCS) to support the detection, tracking, and engagement of surface, air, and ballistic missile threats.

link.

Rethinking the American Land Based Portion of the Nuclear Triad? or not?

The United States Air Force needs to replace the Minuteman III ICBM fleet at the three nuclear missile bases in Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. Critics decry the cost of a proposed replacement, thought to be in the range of several hundred billion dollars. Their main argument against replacing ICBMs is not the cost of replacing the Minuteman III. The critics say we just don’t need them. They are, they say, a “Cold War relic.”

The fact that nuclear peer Russia and near-peer China are modernizing their ICBM forces is often lost on those critics. While the reasons why are debatable, Russia’s recent aggression on a variety of fronts has left many Russia apologists dumbfounded. Russia isn’t just modernizing its ICBMs. At a frequency unprecedented since the Cold War, Russian nuclear-capable bombers are penetrating the American Air Defense Identification Zone’s (ADIZ) in both the continental United States and around Guam. Russia, unlike the US, is investing heavily to modernize their nuclear triad — delivery vehicles and weapons. The Russians seem intent on relying on their nuclear force to counter American conventional military superiority.

China likewise is improving its nuclear forces. The DF-41— a multiple reentry vehicle ICBM — was recently tested successfully. They are also working on improving their nuclear submarine capability, placing new submarine-launched ballistic missiles on Jin class nuclear submarines. To deter such capabilities America requires a secure and reliable nuclear deterrent for decades to come.

link.

Boeing Teaming With AirBus, Korean Airlines for Korean KF-X Stealth Fighter Bid

Airbus and Boeing are jointly attempting to unseat Lockheed Martin from South Korea’s KF-X indigenous fighter program, offering technology from Europe that could not be supplied from U.S. sources, industry officials say.

With Korean Airlines as the local partner, the pair are likely to be proposing the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet as a base design for the KF-X.

The defense ministry’s procurement office, the Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA), issued a request for proposals for KF-X development on Dec. 23.

The Boeing-Airbus KF-X proposal should be an economical alternative to a fighter design of the defense ministry’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) that Korea Aerospace Industries has been expected to build with technical assistance from Lockheed Martin.

The U.S. limits the technology that its companies can transfer abroad. South Korea lacks technology in many fields, such as active, electronically scanning radar. But Airbus, as an airframe company, is probably involved in the Boeing bid as a supplier of stealth know-how that the U.S. company is not authorized to provide.

link.

When did Carnivory Arise in Modern Plants?

New evidence on the origin of carnivorous plants

Author:

Givnish

Abstract:

Carnivorous plants have fascinated scientists and the general public since the pioneering studies of Charles Darwin (1). No doubt part of their wide appeal is that carnivorous plants have turned the evolutionary tables on animals, consuming them as prey, with the green predators often equipped with remarkable lures, traps, stomachs, and—in a few cases—extraordinary speed of movement. To be considered carnivorous, a plant must be able to absorb nutrients from dead bodies adjacent to its surfaces, obtain some advantage in growth or reproduction, and have unequivocal adaptations for active prey attraction, capture, and digestion (2, 3). Some carnivorous species [e.g., Pinguicula (butterworts), Philcoxia] lack obvious attractants; some rely on passive pitfalls [e.g., Cephalotus (Australian pitcher plant), Sarracenia (American pitcher plants)] rather than active traps based on sticky tentacles [e.g., Byblis, Drosera (sundews)] or snap traps [e.g., Dionaea (Venus fly-trap), Utricularia (bladderworts)]; and some lack digestive enzymes and instead depend on commensal microbes or insect larvae to break down prey (e.g., Brocchinia, Darlingtonia, some species of Sarracenia). Based on these criteria, today we recognize at least 583 species of carnivorous plants in 20 genera, 12 families, and 5 orders of flowering plants (Table 1). Based on DNA sequence phylogenies, these species represent at least nine independent origins of the carnivorous habit per se, and at least six independent origins of pitfall traps, five of sticky traps, two of snap traps, and one of lobster-pot traps. To the extent to which molecular phylogenies have been calibrated against the ages of fossils of other plants, these origins of carnivory appear to have occurred between roughly 8 and 72 million years ago (Mya). In PNAS, Sadowski et al. (4) contribute to our understanding of the origins of plant carnivory by describing the first fossilized trap of a carnivorous plant, a fragment of a tentacled leaf preserved in Baltic amber from 35 to 47 Mya, and allied to modern-day Roridula of monogeneric Roridulaceae (Ericales) from South Africa.

Evidence of a Hadley-like Cell in Venus' Atmosphere?

The radiative forcing variability caused by the changes of the upper cloud vertical structure in the Venus mesosphere

Authors:

Lee et al

Abstract:

The upper cloud layer of Venus is a key factor affecting radiative energy balance of the mesosphere. Observations of the temperature and the cloud top structure by Venus Express revealed their strong variability with latitude. We used the 1-D radiative transfer model to study the dependence of the radiative forcing on the cloud top structure. The cloud top altitude effectively controls outgoing thermal fluxes. Sharp cloud top boundary can produce a pronounced peak of both solar heating and thermal cooling that suggests a radiative origin of temperature inversions in the cold collar. Strong diurnal variation of net forcing at low latitudes can be responsible for the origin of convective cells observed in UV images. Latitudinal contrasts in the radiative forcing in the mesosphere can drive meridional Hadley-type circulation with meridional winds of few m/s and vertical motions with speed of few cm/s.

HIP 85605 is Will Pass by the Solar System at 8,000 AU in 1/4 to 1/2 Million Years From now

It’s known as HIP 85605, one of two stars that make up a binary in the Hercules constellation roughly 16 light years away. And if a recent research paper produced by Dr. Coryn Bailer-Jones of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany is correct, it is on a collision course with our Solar System.

Now for the good news: according to Bailer-Jones’ calculations, the star will pass by our Solar System at a distance of 0.04 parsecs, which is equivalent to 8,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun (8,000 AUs). In addition, this passage will not affect Earth or any other planet’s orbit around the Sun. And perhaps most importantly of all, none of it will be happening for another 240,000 to 470,000 years from now.

“Even though the galaxy contains very many stars,” Bailor-Jones told Universe Today via email, “the spaces between them are huge. So even over the (long) life of our galaxy so far, the probability of any two stars have actually collided — as opposed to just coming close — is extremely small.”

However, in astronomical terms, that still counts as a near-miss. In a universe that is 46 billion light years in any direction – and that’s just the observable part of it – an event that is expected to take place just 50 light days away is considered to be pretty close. And in the context of space and time, a quarter of a million to half a million years is the very near future.

link.

I do wonder about the Sun's orbital perturbation from the encounter though.

Oh and this is to be followed by Gliese 710 in around 1.3 million years at 20,000 AU.  

Week of Vintana: Sudamericid Gondwanatherian Vintana's Dental Morphology

Dental Morphology of Vintana Sertichi (Mammalia, Gondwanatheria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

Author:

Krause

Abstract:

The cranium of Vintana sertichi preserves the first associated upper dentition of a gondwanatherian mammal. Gondwanatherians are known almost exclusively from isolated teeth, particularly molariforms. As such, referral of V. sertichi to the Gondwanatheria, differentiation of V. sertichi from other gondwanatherians, and determination of the relationships of V. sertichi to other gondwanatherians must rely heavily on dental morphology. The hypsodont nature, gross morphology, enamel microstructure, and wear pattern of its molariform teeth serve to unequivocally identify the cranium of V. sertichi as that of a sudamericid gondwanatherian. Based on available morphology, V. sertichi appears to have had an upper dental formula of 2.0.1.4. There are two long, curved alveoli in each premaxilla for enlarged, buccolingually compressed, procumbent incisors that were well separated from the cheek teeth by a long diastema. There is no evidence of a canine. The single premolariform tooth appears to have been small and two-rooted, but neither the left nor the right crowns are preserved. Of the eight upper molariform alveoli, four are preserved with teeth in situ, three in the left maxilla (antepenultimate, penultimate, and ultimate) and one in the right (penultimate). The molariform cheek teeth have several salient characteristics: large size, hypsodont crowns, roughly quadrangular outlines, occlusal surfaces worn essentially flat, numerous cementum-filled infundibula, cementum-filled furrows that invaginate from the buccal side but do not extend to the base of the crown, and multiple, short root apices. The relative amounts of wear on the molariform cheek teeth of V. sertichi indicate a mesial-to-distal eruption sequence.

Xinpusaurus Revisited: A Carnian Triassic Thalattosaur From China

On the morphoplogy and taxonomic status of Xinpusaurus kohi JIANG et al., 2004 (Diapsida: Thalattosauria) from the Upper Triassic of China

Author:

Maisch

Abstract:

Additional preparation has revealed new information on the cranium and the vertebral column of the type and only specimen of Xinpusaurus kohi JIANG et al., 2004, a thalattosaur from the Upper Triassic Xiaowa Formation of Guanling County (Guizhou, south-western China). The new data allow to supplement existing descriptions and to decide on some controversial points raised in recent discussions. Although the skeleton is almost complete, there is some reconstruction, which makes the low presacral vertebral number and the narrow proximal end of the femur, originally regarded as diagnostic characters, doubtful. All other diagnostic characters of the species are valid. Comparison to another thalattosaur species from the Xiaowa Formation, Xinpusaurus bamaolinensis, shows great similarities, but is limited due to its insufficient description. Hence, it cannot be excluded that X. kohi is a junior subjective synonym of X. bamaolinensis. However, the recent claim that X. kohi and X. bamaolinensis are synonyms of X. suni, the type species of the genus, is not supported by the new data. The description of X. bamaolinensis leaves many points unclear. Pending a re-description of that specimen that may allow for a more meaningful comparison, X. kohi should be allowed to stand.

Orosirian Paleoproterozoic Fe-rich Mafic Sills From the Zhongtiao Mountains

Geochronology and geochemistry of the Paleoproterozoic Fe-rich mafic sills from the Zhongtiao Mountains: Petrogenesis and tectonic implications

Authors:

Li et al

Abstract:

Despite the existence of the Trans-North China Orogen (TNCO) in the middle part of the North China Craton (NCC) is widely accepted, its formation timing and mechanism are still controversial. A suite of Paleoproterozoic Fe-rich mafic sills in the Zhongtiao Mountains (ZTM) in the southern TNCO has been investigated to constrain the formation of the TNCO. Our new zircon U–Pb dating on these sills has yielded a Paleoproterozoic age of 1897 ± 30 Ma, and our new geochemical data have suggested an arc-affinity with significant Nb, Ta and Ti depletions. Geochemical evidence further reveals that the mantle source of the ZTM Fe-rich mafic sills was mainly composed of spinel lherzolite, and may have been metasomatized by reduced subduction-related fluids. With these age and geochemical data, we propose a genetic model for the ZTM Fe-rich mafic sills: (1) Subduction-related fluids may have transported Fe from the subducted plate and the overlying mantle wedge to generate the Fe-enriched source at the upper part of mantle wedge; (2) Partial melting of the Fe-enriched source may have generated the primary magmas of the Fe-rich mafic sills, which has evolved under a low oxygen fugacity (fO2) condition and eventually formed the Fe-rich mafic sills. The ZTM Fe-rich mafic sills have moderate Ti/V values (28–36) and La/Nb values (2.3–3.3), suggesting that they may have formed in a back-arc setting. The existence of a back-arc basin at ∼1900 Ma in the ZTM indicates that the TNCO was formed during the ∼1850 Ma final collision between the Western- and Eastern blocks of the NCC.

Big Finance Coming to Big Agriculture

IN THE next 40 years, humans will need to produce more food than they did in the previous 10,000 put together. But with sprawling cities gobbling up arable land, agricultural productivity gains decreasing, and demand for biofuels increasing, supply is not keeping up with demand. Clever farmers, scientists and entrepreneurs are bursting with ideas. But they need money to make this jump.

Financiers more often found buying and selling companies have cottoned on to the opportunity. Farm gates have traditionally been closed to capital markets: nine in ten farms are held by families. But demography is forcing a shift: the average age of farmers in Europe, America and New Zealand is now in the late fifties. They often have no successor, because offspring do not want to farm or cannot afford to buy out family members. In addition, adopting new technologies and farming at ever-greater scale require the sort of capital few farmers have, even after years of bumper crop prices.

Institutional investors such as pension funds see farmland as fertile ground to plough, either doing their own deals or farming them out to specialist funds. Some act as landlords by buying land and leasing it out. Others buy plots of low-value land, such as pastures, and upgrade them to higher-yielding orchards. Investors who are keen on even bigger risks and rewards flock to places such as Brazil, Ukraine and Zambia, where farming techniques are often still underdeveloped and potential productivity gains immense.

Farmland has been a great investment over the past 20 years, certainly in America, where annual returns of 12% caused some to dub it “gold with a coupon”. In America and Britain, where tax incentives have distorted the market, it outperformed most major asset classes over the past decade, and with low volatility to boot (see chart). Those going against the grain warn of a land-price bubble. Believers argue that increasing demand and shrinking supply—as well as urbanisation, poor soil management and pressure on water systems that are threats to farmland—mean the investment case is on solid ground.

link.

Ukraine Arranges for Purchase of American Nuclear Fuel, Angers Russia

Russia says Ukraine's deal to buy U.S.-made nuclear fuel for its Soviet-built reactors could trigger a nuclear accident.

Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk of Ukraine announced Tuesday that his nation has reached a deal on nuclear fuel deliveries with Westinghouse to reduce dependence on Russian supplies.

Russia's Foreign Ministry deplored the move as a "dangerous experiment that threatens safety and health of the Ukrainian citizens and peoples of Europe." It said nuclear fuel produced by the U.S. company doesn't quite fit Soviet-built nuclear reactors that Ukraine has.

The ministry said Ukrainian authorities must take a responsible approach to nuclear safety, or risk disasters such as the 1986 Chernobyl one, which was a result of a flawed Soviet reactor design coupled with serious mistakes made by the plant operators.

In a statement Tuesday, Westinghouse said it "has been working in the Ukrainian market since 2003, and brings diversification of suppliers, global best practices and technology to the Ukraine market. Westinghouse fuel is currently operating safely and efficiently at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant without any defects in performance."

link.

The End of the 'Made in China' Era is at Hand

These are not the best of times to be one of China's massive, state-owned steel mills. The domestic economy is slowing, competition is increasing, and there's widespread disgust and impatience with the smog pouring out of their stacks. In short, their lucrative business model for the past three decades is slowly dying. So what’s a manager of a Chinese steel mill to do?

One surprisingly popular option is to bid China goodbye. In November, Hebei Iron & Steel Co Ltd, a provincial-owned company and China’s largest steelmaker by production, announced that it was moving 5 million tons of its annual production -- roughly 11 percent of the 45 million tons of steel it makes every year -- to South Africa. According to press reports, it won’t be going abroad alone. By 2023, Hebei Province -- China’s most polluted province -- plans to export 20 million tons of steel, 30 million tons of cement and 10 million weight boxes of glass capacity (a weight box equals roughly 50 kilograms) to points still not named.

link.

India Forms Constortium for Next Gen Submarines

Three state-owned Indian companies have formed a consortium to meet the Indian Navy's requirement to procure six next-generation submarines, it was announced on 30 December.

Engineering group Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), metal producer Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (Midhani) and Hindustan Shipyards Limited (HSL) said they are bidding to be "considered as a prospective bidder" for the Project 75I (India) programme.

The three companies said in a statement that their joint bid - facilitated through a memorandum of understanding signed on 26 December - will "provide the country with a credible domestic alternative" to build submarines.

link.

Two Different Takes on Russia's New, Official Military Doctrine

On December 25, 2014 President Putin approved a new version of the military doctrine. It replaced the document approved by his predecessor in February 2010.

Most of the changes are editorial. The most significant ones emphasize the immediacy of the threat posed by the West - if the 2010 document talked about "weakening of the ideological confrontation," the new version replaced this with a sentence that says that "the global competition is on the rise". In 2010, NATO only aspired to use its military potential to break the international law and move its military infrastructure toward Russian borders; in 2014 NATO is already doing all that.

via Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces.

How paranoid is the Kremlin getting?

Its new military doctrine—which Russian president Vladimir Putin approved on Dec. 26—presents a world in which Russia is besieged by NATO, and where young people are a threat to national security. Especially if they’re not religious or patriotic.

To be sure, much of what’s stated in the doctrine is not new—as a matter of practice—except that it’s now in the written record and has Putin’s signature on it. This is because military strategy tends to evolve at a faster pace than official doctrine, which is an overarching set of guidelines that armies use to inform strategy.

The most consequential part of the doctrine refers to Russia’s aim to protect its citizens abroad.

This is through the “lawful use of the armed forces … to ensure the protection of its citizens, outside the Russian Federation in accordance with the generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation.”

via War is Boring.

The NSA Eats VPNs for Breakfast

The National Security Agency’s Office of Target Pursuit (OTP) maintains a team of engineers dedicated to cracking the encrypted traffic of virtual private networks (VPNs) and has developed tools that could potentially uncloak the traffic in the majority of VPNs used to secure traffic passing over the Internet today, according to documents published this week by the German news magazine Der Speigel. A slide deck from a presentation by a member of OTP’s VPN Exploitation Team, dated September 13, 2010, details the process the NSA used at that time to attack VPNs—including tools with names drawn from Star Trek and other bits of popular culture.

OTP’s VPN exploit team had members assigned to branches focused on specific regional teams, as well as a “Cross-Target Support Branch” and a custom development team for building specialized VPN exploits. At the regional level, the VPN team representatives acted as liaisons to analysts, providing information on new VPN attacks and gathering requirements for specific targets to be used in developing new ones.

While some VPN technologies—specifically, those based on the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPTP)—have previously been identified as being vulnerable because of the way they exchange keys at the beginning of a VPN session, others have generally been assumed to be safer from scrutiny. But in 2010, the NSA had already developed tools to attack the most commonly used VPN encryption schemes: Secure Shell (SSH), Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.

link.

DefenseTech's Top Five DARPA Projects to Watch in 2015

The Pentagon’s research and development arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is out with a list of its 10 most popular stories from 2014.

Here at DefenseTech, we want to see more of all of these stories in the New Year. Indeed, we hope to interview the managers, engineers and tinkerers who are working on some of these projects to better understand their potential defense applications.

The following five are the ones we’re particularly excited about in the realm of weapons technology:

Read more at the link.

First Frog Found Which Live Births Tadpoles

University of California, Berkeley, herpetologist Jim McGuire was slogging through the rain forests of Indonesia's Sulawesi Island one night this past summer when he grabbed what he thought was a male frog and found himself juggling not only a frog but also dozens of slippery, newborn tadpoles.

He had found what he was looking for: direct proof that the female of a new species of frog does what no other frog does. It gives birth to live tadpoles instead of laying eggs.

A member of the Asian group of fanged frogs, the new species was discovered a few decades ago by Indonesian researcher Djoko Iskandar, McGuire's colleague, and was thought to give direct birth to tadpoles, though the frog's mating and an actual birth had never been observed before.

"Almost all frogs in the world - more than 6,000 species - have external fertilization, where the male grips the female in amplexus and releases sperm as the eggs are released by the female," McGuire said. "But there are lots of weird modifications to this standard mode of mating. This new frog is one of only 10 or 12 species that has evolved internal fertilization, and of those, it is the only one that gives birth to tadpoles as opposed to froglets or laying fertilized eggs."

link.

Volcanically Embayed Craters on Venus

Volcanically embayed craters on Venus: Testing the catastrophic and equilibrium resurfacing models

Authors:

Ivanov et al

Abstract:

Two major types of volcanic units, older regional plains and younger lobate plains, make up ∼50% of the surface of Venus and represent different epochs of volcanism. The abundance of impact craters partially embayed from the exterior by each of these two types of units permits the testing of the key points of the model of equilibrium resurfacing. The proportion of craters embayed by the older regional plains is ∼3%, which requires the typical size of a volcanic resurfacing event to be ∼2700 km (∼25° of angular diameter) in the framework of the equilibrium model. These event dimensions are inconsistent with the quasi-random spatial distribution of the craters. The proportion of craters embayed by younger lobate plains is 33%, which can be achieved if the characteristic size of the resurfacing event is less than ∼160 km (∼1.5° of angular diameter). Events of this size do not disturb the character of the spatial distribution of craters. We conclude that the style of volcanic resurfacing on Venus has changed significantly during its observable portion of the geologic history. During the global volcanic regime when regional plains were emplaced, volcanism acted in large regions and the process of formation of regional plains was more intensive than accumulation of impact craters. This led to the very small proportion of embayed craters (∼3%). Later, during the network-rifting and volcanism regime (emplacement of lobate plains), volcanic sources were localized at distinctive centers, the net volcanic intensity decreased and became comparable to the rate of accumulation of craters, which resulted in much larger percentage (33%) of craters embayed by lobate plains.

Humans can see in the Near Infrared

Human infrared vision is triggered by two-photon chromophore isomerization

Authors:

Palczewska et al

Abstract:

Vision relies on photoactivation of visual pigments in rod and cone photoreceptor cells of the retina. The human eye structure and the absorption spectra of pigments limit our visual perception of light. Our visual perception is most responsive to stimulating light in the 400- to 720-nm (visible) range. First, we demonstrate by psychophysical experiments that humans can perceive infrared laser emission as visible light. Moreover, we show that mammalian photoreceptors can be directly activated by near infrared light with a sensitivity that paradoxically increases at wavelengths above 900 nm, and display quadratic dependence on laser power, indicating a nonlinear optical process. Biochemical experiments with rhodopsin, cone visual pigments, and a chromophore model compound 11-cis-retinyl-propylamine Schiff base demonstrate the direct isomerization of visual chromophore by a two-photon chromophore isomerization. Indeed, quantum mechanics modeling indicates the feasibility of this mechanism. Together, these findings clearly show that human visual perception of near infrared light occurs by two-photon isomerization of visual pigments.

Week of Vintana: Did the Modern Mammalian Ear Evolve Before the Allotherian/Cladotherian Mammal Split?

Endocranial and Inner Ear Morphology of Vintana Sertichi (Mammalia, Gondwanatheria) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar

Authors:

Hoffmann et al

Abstract:

We present the first digital reconstruction of the endocranial cavity and endosseous labyrinth of the Late Cretaceous gondwanatherian mammal Vintana sertichi from the Maevarano Formation of Madagascar. The Malagasy specimen is exceptionally well preserved and represents the only described cranium known for Gondwanatheria, an enigmatic clade from the Late Cretaceous and Paleogene of Gondwana. The endocranial cast of Vintana is relatively small for an animal of its estimated body mass. Its encephalization quotient is 0.28–0.56 for a range of body mass estimates, which is similar to that of basal mammaliaforms. The olfactory bulbs are very large, occupying over 14% of the endocranial volume. The cerebral hemispheres are only slightly expanded, more similar to the condition in Morganucodon than to that in multituberculates and monotremes. Unlike the condition in other Mesozoic mammaliaforms, the endocast is greatly flexed at the circular fissure. The osseous labyrinth displays a mixture of derived and primitive features. The cochlear canal is only slightly curved and short compared with that of extant therians. The ratio between total cochlear canal length and maximum cranial length is smaller than in basal mammaliaforms and approximates that of non-mammaliaform cynodonts. By contrast, the presence of both primary and secondary osseous laminae, the tractus foraminosus, and Rosenthal's canal represent derived characteristics of the mammalian inner ear typical of cladotherians. A modern innervation of the cochlea has either evolved independently in Vintana and cladotherians or was already present in the last common ancestor of both clades.

Major Clades of Archaea Originated by Pursuing Bacteria Down Alleyways to Beat Them Unconscious and Riffle Their Genetic Pockets

Origins of major archaeal clades correspond to gene acquisitions from bacteria

Authors:

Nelson-Sathi et al

Abstract:

The mechanisms that underlie the origin of major prokaryotic groups are poorly understood. In principle, the origin of both species and higher taxa among prokaryotes should entail similar mechanisms—ecological interactions with the environment paired with natural genetic variation involving lineage-specific gene innovations and lineage-specific gene acquisitions. To investigate the origin of higher taxa in archaea, we have determined gene distributions and gene phylogenies for the 267,568 protein-coding genes of 134 sequenced archaeal genomes in the context of their homologues from 1,847 reference bacterial genomes. Archaeal-specific gene families define 13 traditionally recognized archaeal higher taxa in our sample. Here we report that the origins of these 13 groups unexpectedly correspond to 2,264 group-specific gene acquisitions from bacteria. Interdomain gene transfer is highly asymmetric, transfers from bacteria to archaea are more than fivefold more frequent than vice versa. Gene transfers identified at major evolutionary transitions among prokaryotes specifically implicate gene acquisitions for metabolic functions from bacteria as key innovations in the origin of higher archaeal taxa.

Evidence of the Oblique Collision of Volgo-Sarmatia and Fennoscandia Continents During the Assembly of PaleoProterozoic Supercontinent Columbia

Trans-Baltic Palaeoproterozoic correlations towards the reconstruction of supercontinent Columbia/Nuna

Authors:

Bogdanova et al

Abstract:

A comparative study of the Palaeoproterozoic accretionary the central and southern parts Svecofennian orogen in the Baltic/Fennoscandian Shield and the platform area to the east and south of the Baltic Sea indicates that at least of these parts of the orogen are built up of several NW-SE trending, 100 to 300 km wide tectonic megadomains separated from each other and complicated by major zones of mostly dextral shearing. The generation of these zones occurred successively between 1.86 and 1.75 Ga, concomitantly with continuing crustal accretion consistently younging toward the southwest. Even considering the distorting presence of a number of microcontinents, this indicates the one-time existence and repeated episodic activity of a master subduction zone stepwise falling back toward the present south-southwest. At 1.82–1.80 Ga, the continent-continent oblique collision of megacontinent Volgo-Sarmatia with the preexisting Fennoscandia interrupted the accretionary growth of the crust in the Svecofennian orogen. In the west, the system of Svecofennian tectonic domains and shear zones is delimited by 1.70–1.55 Ga rock belts marking part of the Laurentia-Greenland-Baltica margin of Columbia. Altogether, the present U-Pb zircon datings and studies of key rocks and structures in the South Baltic region allow more detailed Trans-Baltic correlation and the creation of new integrated models of the structural and tectonic evolution of the Svecofennian orogen in particular and northern Europe in general. The new findings will be important also in the continuing study of supercontinent formation and supercontinent cycles, and the drifting of Palaeoproterozoic protocontinents during the assembly of Columbia/Nuna.

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