The Pakistan floods..[ 1632 ]

UN boss to visit flood-ravaged Pakistan

By South Asia correspondent Sally Sara and wires

ABC/BBC  Saturday , Aug 14, 2010

Updated 33 minutes ago

UN officials estimate up to 6 million people are in need of food, water, medicine and shelter. 
(AFP: Arif Ali)

United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan later today in the wake of the nation's worst floods on record.

Mr Ban will meet Pakistani government officials before touring flood-ravaged areas tomorrow. 

He is leading a UN appeal for urgent international assistance for victims of the disaster.

Aid agencies are warning of a second wave of deaths from disease and hunger.

UN officials estimate up to 6 million people are in need of food, water, medicine and shelter.

Flood waters are receding in the north west of the country, but the River Indus is expected to reach dangerous levels in Punjab and the southern province of Sindh in the next two days. 

UNICEF spokesman Oscar Butragueno says the organisation is particularly worried about the welfare of children under five.

"Their defence system is very weak and they are susceptible to water-borne diseases," he said.

"When this is combined with malnutrition, it can increase significantly the mortality rate."

The Pakistani government has also scrapped Independence Day celebrations today to concentrate on the relief operation.

President Asif Ali Zardari says the directive means there will be no special official gatherings or flag-raising ceremonies or special parades at military corps headquarters.

- ABC/BBC

UK, Senior military chiefs "difficult decisions ahead" ..[ 1631 ]

Senior military chiefs 'facing axe'

The Ministry of Defence faces cuts to its backroom operations

the London Evening Standard.,13.08.10  

Senior military officers face a cull under plans to cut costs and make the Ministry of Defence "leaner", Defence Secretary Liam Fox has signalled.

Dr Fox said the MoD's backroom operations would have to shrink to ensure frontline troops got all the equipment and support they needed.

He indicated that top brass and civil servant numbers would be reduced to help tackle a £37 billion black hole in the department's finances.

The Defence Secretaetary did not comment on which military projects are facing the chop as part of massive Whitehall funding cuts ordered by the coalition Government. But he hinted there were still disagreements between the MoD and the Treasury over who will pay the £20 billion cost for replacing Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent.

Prime Minister David Cameron also admitted there were "difficult decisions ahead" as he attended a passing-out ceremony for Army officer cadets at the Sandhurst military training academy.

The scale of the savings defence officials need to make was highlighted by a report suggesting there could be a 20% cut to the budget for helicopters alone. A secret internal memo sets out demands for £3.96 billion of savings across the fleets of rotary wing aircraft operated by the Royal Navy, Army and RAF, according to the London Evening Standard. The MoD refused to comment.

Dr Fox used a speech in London to announce a wide-ranging reform of how the MoD is run to make it "leaner", less centralised and more transparent.

He said a visit to Afghanistan this week reminded him that supporting British troops on operations had to take priority over spending on staff in Whitehall. He said: "It brought home to me once again that the prime purpose of what we are doing is to make sure that our Armed Forces on the front line have everything they need, and all the support they require, to carry out their mission successfully and safely. That means that the backroom sometimes has to do without to make sure that the front line gets what it wants."

He said it would be "difficult and painful" to deal with this "dangerous deficit", but pledged a stop to the "endless salami slicing" of military budgets.

Dr Fox ruled out any merger of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF but suggested numbers of senior officers could be reduced. He said: "We will also consider whether the current senior rank structure across the services is appropriate for the post-SDSR world. We cannot demand efficiency from the lower ranks while exempting those at the top.

'Swastika' cause uproar in Sweden..[ 1630 ]

'Swastika' and 'Crematorium' mountains cause uproar in Sweden

A series of mountain crags called "Swastika" and "Himmler" have caused outrage in Sweden after a climber publicised the Nazi-inspired names given to the popular climbing area.

'Swastika' and 'Crematorium' mountains cause uproar in Sweden.Photo: REUTERS

Telegraph cp.uk.,,By Allan Hall in Berlin
Published: 4:24PM BST 13 Aug 2010

Following accepted climbing practice, the first person to tackle a route has the right to name it.

However, concerns have been raised after it was revealed that routes in the popular Järfälla climbing area outside Stockholm had been given names inspired by the Third Reich.

Between 1987 and 2001, climbers christened new routes "Kristallnacht", "Crematorium" and "Little Hitler".
Another was named "Zyklon B", after the cyanide gas the Nazis used to murder the Jews.
"I thought it rather unpleasant to climb through the 'Crematorium' or say that 'now I am going to do 'Kristallnacht'," Cordelia Hess, a climber, told Stockholm's Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
Christofer Urby, of the Swedish Climbing Association, said he was aware of the controversial names, but said his body could not authorise changes.
"It is the first climber who sets out a route and makes it available to others, who has the right to name it," he explained.
"It becomes a kind of footprint, but I personally think it is childish and disrespectful to put this type of name."
The routes on the range near the Swedish capital were named at various times and it is unclear whether the mountaineers who christened the rocky outcrops were politically-motivated.
Mikael Widerberg, a climber who named "Little Hitler" in 2001 dismissed the controversy, saying the names should be interpreted as an "internal thing between climbers", adding "there are other mountains around called worse things".
John Perwer, an official with the Swedish Forum for Living History, says that the names should be changed.
"A crag called 'Negro' near Karlstad was changed after a dark-skinned person said he was offended. To use loaded terms like that is simply rude," he said.

NASA Image of the Day, Aug 13th..[ 1629 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Testing for the Future

Testing advanced designs for high-speed aircraft in 1948, an engineer makes final calibrations to a model mounted in the 6 x 6 Foot Supersonic Wind Tunnel at the NACA 

Ames Aeronautical Laboratory, Moffett Field, California. NACA, NASA’s predecessor organization the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, was established in March 1913 by Congress to "supervise and direct the scientific study of the problems of flight, with a view to their practical solutions." 

The Ames Aeronautical Laboratory is now NASA’s Ames Research Center. 

Image Credit: NASA
Παρασκευή, 13 Αύγουστ

NASA Image of the Day, Aug 12th..[ 1628 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

50 Years of Communications in Space

The idea behind a communications satellite is simple: send a signal into space, and send it back down to another spot on the globe. In NASA's early days, engineers discovered the easiest way to accomplish this: bounce signals off a giant metal balloon floating in orbit. 

The concept was developed into the aptly-named Echo program, and Echo 1A became the first successful launch of the project on Aug. 12, 1960. Echo 1A, now commonly known as just Echo I, was a 100 foot diameter balloon made of mylar polyester. 

The spacecraft was designed as a passive communications reflector for transcontinental and intercontinental telephone, radio, and television signals. 

Pictured here is a scale prototype of the Echo satellite undergoing a Skin Stress Test on May 1, 1960. 

The prototype was 12 feet in diameter, with the size being chosen because that was the ceiling height in the NASA Langley model shop. After an unsuccessful launch attempt for the original Echo I satellite, Echo 1A and the follow-on Echo II were successfully launched. The Echo projects were instrumental in letting the world see that the U.S. was a major force in the space race not very far behind Russia. 

Among the many contributions of the Echo programs are the first voice communication via satellite which was made by none other than then President Eisenhower and the first coast-to-coast telephone call using a satellite. In addition, the Echo programs resulted in advances in atmospheric density, solar pressure, gossamer structures, solar sailing, and transmitting videos via satellites. 

The Echo 1A satellite re-entered the atmosphere on May 24, 1968. 

Image Credit: NASA
Πέμπτη, 12 Αύγουστος