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https://briefnews.eu/a-costa-rican-company-just-went-public-and-is-set-to-disrupt-an-outdated-breast-implant-industry-esta/feed/0Report reveals outdated NASA policy poses contamination risk for Earth, universe
https://briefnews.eu/report-reveals-outdated-nasa-policy-poses-contamination-risk-for-earth-universe/
https://briefnews.eu/report-reveals-outdated-nasa-policy-poses-contamination-risk-for-earth-universe/#respondSun, 08 Jul 2018 22:42:24 +0000http://briefnews.eu/report-reveals-outdated-nasa-policy-poses-contamination-risk-for-earth-universe/ As humans boldly go where no one has been before, the guidelines on how to prevent contamination of these destinations with earthly microbes and vice versa do not meet the reality, according to a new report.
The National Academies of Sciences report shows that NASA’s so-called planetary protection policies form half a century ago are in need of reassessment, especially because of “sample return from, and human missions to, Mars” and missions to bodies “possessing water oceans beneath their icy surfaces,” for example Jupiter’s moon Europa.
Creatively named the Review and Assessment of Planetary Protection Policy Development Processes, the report adds that “such microbes might pose a health risk to the returning crew as well as the public on Earth,” hinting that prolonged exposure to space conditions could see microbes mutate, wreak havoc, and risk the health of billions of people.
Read more
Russian scientists have previously proven with an experiment called ‘Biorisk’ that various microorganisms from Earth were able to survive in the harsh conditions of space on the surface of the International Space Station (ISS). It was carried out starting in January 2005 from the Russian segment of the ISS and saw 68 different organisms, including bacteria, insects, vertebrate animal and higher plants, used as test subjects.
The mutated bacteria showed high aggressiveness and resistance to antibiotics on their return to Earth, the Russian report said.
Another concern is that the contamination may affect the assessment of the substances on other planets for the signs of life, in other words, researchers may not be sure if a discovered bacteria is native to a planet, or if it came down with Team Earth. “Soundly framed and executed planetary protection policies will play a critical role in ensuring that space exploration efforts will deliver unambiguous answers about the possibility of life elsewhere in the solar system,” said Joseph Alexander, chair of the committee that wrote the report.
The authors of the National Academies of Sciences report say while these policies have worked well for the last 50 years, times are changing: NASA is about to blast off on more complex space missions than ever before. A spacecraft will soon jet set to Jupiter’s moon of Europa to hunt for signs of life, and a new rover is set to blast off to Mars in 2020.
Professor of aeronautics at Stanford and one of the lead authors of the report, Scott Hubbard, told the tech and science publication The Verge that the need to update the policies is critical, as the space agency intends to bring samples back to Earth. “NASA is undertaking much more complex science missions than in the past, and at the same time they’re having to operate under cost restraints and schedule restraints,” he said. “These missions bring up all sorts of issues about possible contamination, both going there and bringing samples back.”
Authors of the report say that NASA needs more advice from external experts, like microbiologists and geneticists, about what kinds of microbes are resilient and could cause issues for spacecraft.
The report also claims that NASA should come up with a long-term plan and protocols and missions to ensure that regulations are prepared well in advance. “One of the problems we noted is that these planetary protection requirements tend not to be developed until the mission is already underway or getting started,” Hubbard said.
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]]>https://briefnews.eu/report-reveals-outdated-nasa-policy-poses-contamination-risk-for-earth-universe/feed/0Outdated and Outpaced: 2018 Subaru Legacy in Depth
https://briefnews.eu/outdated-and-outpaced-2018-subaru-legacy-in-depth/
https://briefnews.eu/outdated-and-outpaced-2018-subaru-legacy-in-depth/#respondWed, 28 Mar 2018 15:55:54 +0000http://briefnews.eu/outdated-and-outpaced-2018-subaru-legacy-in-depth/
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Subaru is fortunate to be one of the small group of carmakers that enjoy a cultlike following. Unlike most of them, however, Subaru won that status without a comprehensive lineup of exceptional performance cars. Yes, the thin sliver of car buyers who are enthusiasts have long embraced Subaru’s rally-inspired WRX models, but the Japanese carmaker has mainly earned its reputation by offering standard all-wheel drive across its lineup and targeting the highest possible safety ratings. It’s not surprising, then, that Subaru would follow this strategy exactly with the Legacy as a way of helping it make its mark in a highly competitive market segment. It’s one of the only cars in its segment to offer all-wheel drive for less than $ 30,000, and it earned the highest possible crash-test ratings from both U.S. agencies that do such testing. By other metrics, however, it struggles. Its performance on the track and during everyday driving fails to impress, the interior design and materials are dated, and several upscale features that have become common in mass-market cars are missing completely from Subaru’s family sedan. In ways large and small, the Legacy has failed to keep up with the rest of its class, which has been rapidly improving. READ MORE ››
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]]>https://briefnews.eu/outdated-and-outpaced-2018-subaru-legacy-in-depth/feed/0Richard Sherman rails against the NFL’s pre-draft process and explains why some of the combine is ‘outdated’
https://briefnews.eu/richard-sherman-rails-against-the-nfls-pre-draft-process-and-explains-why-some-of-the-combine-is-outdated/
https://briefnews.eu/richard-sherman-rails-against-the-nfls-pre-draft-process-and-explains-why-some-of-the-combine-is-outdated/#respondWed, 28 Feb 2018 17:47:39 +0000http://briefnews.eu/richard-sherman-rails-against-the-nfls-pre-draft-process-and-explains-why-some-of-the-combine-is-outdated/Otto Greule Jr/Getty
Richard Sherman gave a long, passionate criticism of the NFL combine and draft experts.
Sherman said the combine features “irrelevant” tests like the 40-yard dash which is not indicative of a player’s ability on the field.
Sherman also said the draft experts aren’t held accountable for overlooking great players who get drafted in later rounds.
As the NFL combine gets underway this week, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman won’t be following the results and ensuing analysis too closely.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/richard-sherman-rails-against-the-nfls-pre-draft-process-and-explains-why-some-of-the-combine-is-outdated/feed/0US war machine outdated & unprepared, report claims
https://briefnews.eu/us-war-machine-outdated-unprepared-report-claims/
https://briefnews.eu/us-war-machine-outdated-unprepared-report-claims/#respondThu, 05 Oct 2017 22:17:11 +0000http://briefnews.eu/us-war-machine-outdated-unprepared-report-claims/ While maintaining the most powerful armed forces in the world, the United States military is struggling to deal with shortages, out-of-date equipment and personnel issues, according to a new report by a conservative think tank.
In its 2018 Index of US Military Strength, the Hermitage Foundation warned that “informed deliberations on the status of the United States’ military power are desperately needed” and that the world faces a “significantly weaker America.”
The report graded aspects of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and nuclear weapons capabilities on a five-point scale between “Very Weak” and “Very Strong,” gauging the overall ability of the military to fight two capable foes simultaneously as “marginal.” Along the way, the report pointed out several aspects in which the armed forces were lacking.
The Army’s equipment is well maintained but is getting old and this poses long-term difficulties, with a reduced budget making new procurements more difficult, report claimed. Obama-era cutbacks have left the Army smaller and less prepared than it was before, with only one-third of its brigade combat teams (BCTs) being ready for deployment. There is also a shortage of heavy munitions such as Patriot and Hellfire missiles.
The Navy’s 276-ship fleet, though an increase from 2016, is not capable of maintain a global presence as it is mandated, while its readiness has suffered due to poor training. To illustrate this, Heritage gave the example of three incidents this year where Navy ships collided with other vessels, as well as another where a missile cruiser ran aground in Japan. Seventeen sailors were killed in the accidents.
“People were really quick to talk about readiness, and it was too low in the defense budget or [budget caps], but we did not make that jump because the investigation isn’t complete yet,” Heritage expert Dakota Wood told Defense News. “But it does indicate [a deficiency] in basic attention and ship-handling skills.”
This led the Navy’s ability to meet combat requirements being downgraded from “weak” to “very weak.”
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The Air Force, meanwhile, is gradually shrinking, and now is the smallest it has been for decades. Many of its planes are also old and outdated, with the average of an aircraft being 27. Here, too, there are readiness issues.
“Of 36 squadrons, only four are assessed as full-spectrum mission-capable, so pilots have enough hours to fly the various profiles, fly high, fly low, fly in contested airspace,” Wood explained. “If you aren’t flying as many hours, you have to pick and choose what you train to do.”
The Marines, too, suffer a shortage of dependable aircraft, as only 41 percent of its fixed-wing and rotary-wing planes are flyable. This has dropped it readiness rating from “marginal” to “weak.”
America’s nuclear arsenal fared slightly better than the other arms of the military, although there were still key issues. While the US still has enough nuclear firepower to do some serious damage to its opponents, most of its stockpile is from the Cold War and hasn’t been upgraded and modernized.
There are also demographic issues – the scientists who were original involved in developing nukes during the Cold War are getting old and retiring, so nuclear capabilities now lay in the hands of a younger generation with less hands-on experience. The US is also not currently testing nuclear weapons, which would be a setback if some technical problems arise.
Despite all these problems, the United States still has the most powerful military in the world, spending more money on its defense budget than Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, India, France, Great Britain and Japan combined. It also has the most military bases – nearly 800 in more than 70 countries – compared to a mere 30 from Great Britain, France and Russia combined.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/us-war-machine-outdated-unprepared-report-claims/feed/0Outdated Off-Roader: 2018 Toyota 4Runner, in Depth
https://briefnews.eu/outdated-off-roader-2018-toyota-4runner-in-depth/
https://briefnews.eu/outdated-off-roader-2018-toyota-4runner-in-depth/#respondSat, 09 Sep 2017 18:23:21 +0000http://briefnews.eu/outdated-off-roader-2018-toyota-4runner-in-depth/
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Don’t call it a comeback—the 4Runner’s been here for years. And you’d know it to look at the thing, with its burly, last-decade styling, its big, naturally aspirated V-6, and a transmission with an improbably low number of gears (five) for something that shares the road with the likes of the Tesla Model S. The 4Runner is purpose-built for off-roading, and it’s so numb and wandering on paved surfaces that it’s best for drivers who spend much of their time off the beaten path. There, buyers may be glad of its plastic-laden interior because it’ll be easy to clean when mud inevitably makes its way inside. The 4Runner is missing plenty of modern creature comforts and doesn’t have the comprehensive active safety tech that’s standard in so many other Toyotas, but it’s outfitted for rock crawling and dirt-track cruising like nothing else this side of a Jeep Wrangler. READ MORE ››
]]>https://briefnews.eu/outdated-off-roader-2018-toyota-4runner-in-depth/feed/0Google urges Congress to revise outdated overseas data laws
https://briefnews.eu/google-urges-congress-to-revise-outdated-overseas-data-laws/
https://briefnews.eu/google-urges-congress-to-revise-outdated-overseas-data-laws/#respondThu, 22 Jun 2017 22:30:29 +0000http://briefnews.eu/google-urges-congress-to-revise-outdated-overseas-data-laws/
Access to data stored overseas has become a contentious issue with tech companies and the US government. Today, in a speech given to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, Kent Walker, urged Congress to update the laws concerning this topic.
On this front, Microsoft scored a major victory last year. A New York court ruled that the company had to release data stored on servers located in Ireland, but that was later overturned by a federal appeals court. In January of this year, the court narrowly decided not to rehear the case and the US Justice Department has until the end of this week to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
But after the decision in the Microsoft case, other courts reached opposing rulings in similar trials. In February, a US District Court in Pennsylvania ruled that Google had to comply with an FBI warrant to hand over data stored on an overseas server. And additional cases involving Google and Yahoo came to similar conclusions in Wisconsin, Florida and California.
After the ruling against Google in Pennsylvania, a brief written in support of the company was filed by Apple, Amazon and Microsoft. In it, they make a statement that speaks to Walker’s announcement today.
The document says, “Equally troubling, it invites foreign nations to reciprocate by likewise demanding that local offices of US technology companies turn over US citizens’ private communications stored on US soil,” and adds, “Only Congress can update the Stored Communications Act to reflect the new technological landscape while at the same time appropriately balancing relevant interests. Congress should promptly do so; but until it does, courts may not extend the SCA to reach data stored in another sovereign country.”
Similar to those statements, Walker today urged Congress to change relevant laws, making it clear what tech companies are to do when faced with government requests for data. He also proposed that the US should allow countries that commit to privacy and human rights to directly request data from US companies without have to first consult with the US government. Walker added that oppressive regimes should not be eligible.
Whether Congress will take action is unclear, but the EU is currently working on a similar legal reboot.
]]>https://briefnews.eu/google-urges-congress-to-revise-outdated-overseas-data-laws/feed/0French politicians praise handling of Orly shooting as Le Pen attacks ‘outdated’ government
https://briefnews.eu/french-politicians-praise-handling-of-orly-shooting-as-le-pen-attacks-outdated-government/
https://briefnews.eu/french-politicians-praise-handling-of-orly-shooting-as-le-pen-attacks-outdated-government/#respondSun, 19 Mar 2017 00:52:05 +0000http://briefnews.eu/french-politicians-praise-handling-of-orly-shooting-as-le-pen-attacks-outdated-government/ French politicians have been united in their praise for soldiers who foiled a potentially deadly attack in Orly airport. Far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, however, engaged in a spat with the government over its “laxness” in allowing the incident to happen.
“I salute the courage and efficiency of police and military officers who faced the violence of a particularly dangerous individual,” tweeted President Francois Hollande, after Ziyed Ben Belgacem, a 39-year-old French citizen with a string of criminal convictions, who assaulted a police officer and then attempted to grab the gun of a soldier inside the airport, was shot dead.
Read more
Hollande, who introduced a state of emergency in France, following the Islamist attacks in Paris in November 2015, said the country “must remain extremely vigilant” ahead of the presidential elections scheduled for next month.
The frontrunner in that election, center-left independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, commended the “professionalism” of the soldiers, and used the opportunity to announce that he would return some form of compulsory military service to the country, “to make our democracy more united and increase our collective resilience.”
While National Front leader Marine Le Pen also paid tribute to those who confronted Ben Belgacem — who reportedly pointed the gun he grabbed at the soldiers who faced him — but was scathing on the center-left government.
“France is overwhelmed by violence, the consequence of the laxity of successive governments,” tweeted the politician, who, according to the polls, is expected to win the first round in April’s election, before losing to a more centrist candidate in the run-off.
“I want the state to take charge of ensuring safety for the French,” Le Pen, who has repeatedly warned of the dangers of militant Islam, said at a campaign rally in Metz on Saturday evening. “The French will not be protected by people who refuse to face up to reality.”
“The government is behind-the-times, bewildered, and paralyzed like a rabbit caught in headlights,” said Le Pen.
Bernard Cazeneuve, the Socialist Interior Minister, told AFP that Le Pen’s criticisms are “excessive,” and that the incident calls on politicians to maintain “dignity.”
The minister also accused the National Front of “spreading anxiety instead of voting for anti-terror laws proposed by the government to protect the French people.”
‘The new normal’?
Observers noted that while unsuccessful, the incident fits into the wider pattern of attacks, most notorious of them being the armed assault on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, and the deadly truck attack in Nice last year.
“Islamic terrorism is hitting France repeatedly, despite the government saying that these are just ‘deranged’ people,” Luc Rivet, editor-in-chief of right-wing Belgian newspaper Le Peuple told RT. “France has something like 10,000 people it considers dangerous, and a few thousand of those are very dangerous and could attack any time, but it doesn’t have the resources to follow them all.”
Doug Weeks, a counter-terrorism expert, told RT, that while Ben Belgacem had been on a terrorist watchlist, his actions suggest that the attack was “spur-of-the-moment” and poorly planned, making it difficult to prevent. Weeks also complimented the work of French security services, but noted that foiling such attempts seems to have become “the new normal.”
]]>https://briefnews.eu/french-politicians-praise-handling-of-orly-shooting-as-le-pen-attacks-outdated-government/feed/0The outdated US electric grid is going to cost $5 trillion to replace
https://briefnews.eu/the-outdated-us-electric-grid-is-going-to-cost-5-trillion-to-replace/
https://briefnews.eu/the-outdated-us-electric-grid-is-going-to-cost-5-trillion-to-replace/#respondFri, 17 Mar 2017 01:13:34 +0000http://briefnews.eu/the-outdated-us-electric-grid-is-going-to-cost-5-trillion-to-replace/Flickr/Kool Cats Photography
The electric grid is an amazing integrated system of machines spanning an entire continent. The National Academy of Engineering has called it one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century.
But it is also expensive. By my analysis, the current (depreciated) value of the US electric grid, comprising power plants, wires, transformers and poles, is roughly US$ 1.5 to $ 2 trillion. To replace it would cost almost $ 5 trillion.
That means the US electric infrastructure, which already contains trillions of dollars of sunk capital, will soon need significant ongoing investment just to keep things the way they are. A power plant built during the rapid expansion of the power sector in the decades after World War II is now 40 years old or older, long paid off, and likely needs to be replaced. In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers just gave the entire energy infrastructure a barely passing grade of D+.
The current administration has vowed to invest heavily in infrastructure, which raises a number of questions with regard to the electric system: What should the energy grid of the future look like? How do we achieve a low-carbon energy supply? What will it cost?
Infrastructure seems to be an issue that can gather support from both sides of the aisle. But to make good decisions on spending, we need first to understand the value of the existing grid.
Current state of transition
The electric grid is intended to last decades, yet few people realize the entire system must finely balance supply and demand across timescales as brief as a second. Every watt of electric power for lighting homes, operating laptops or running air conditioners is generated at the same time in different locations, mostly by burning fuels that spin magnets in generators. There is essentially no storage of electricity on the grid; instead most energy is stored in fuels – coal, natural gas, nuclear products and water behind dams, waiting for the command to be converted to electricity in real time.
In recent years, where we get our power has changed dramatically. The oldest generators are large power plants, with many located in the eastern part of the US Most recent additions have been smaller and more spread out – think rooftop solar panels or wind farms. Some experts have even said that this model of more distributed generation closer to where power is consumed – along the edge of the network, rather than central power plants – is the new norm.
Going forward, we can either build the grid back the same way we’ve done before or we can invest in new technologies that can bring the same service but at a lower cost.
But to answer what such transitions would cost, we need to know: What does the current grid cost? How much is all the concrete, steel, silicon, etc. that we have already installed in the ground currently worth? To help inform policymakers and planners grappling with their vision of the future, I set about to answer that question.
Flickr/woodleywonderworks
What makes up the grid?
For this exercise, I’ve limited “the grid” to the following parts:
Power plants
High and low-voltage transmission lines, which transport power over long distances
Distribution lines, which bring power directly to buildings or other end points
Substations for routing power on the transmission grid
Substations on the distribution grid
Transformers that change voltages on the distribution grid
This calculation leaves out additional and necessary components of the grid, such as the electric wire inside your home, meters at the electrical panels on homes and buildings and end-use devices that consume the electricity.
Combing through a variety of public reports and using updated estimates for new construction and standard approaches for estimating depreciation, we quantified the value of the nation’s assets for power generation, transmission and distribution.
The total capacity of these power plants is about 1.15 terawatts. That’s the generating capacity of about 1,000 nuclear power reactors (the US currently has about 100). As you can imagine, that would be costly to replace. For power plants alone, the replacement value is nearly $ 2.7 trillion, and the depreciated value, or the rough current value, is nearly $ 1 trillion. Overall, the breakdown of the value is about 56 percent power plant, 9 percent transmission system and 35 percent distribution system.
Western Area Power/flickr
What path forward?
If we want to have a cleaner energy future, there are multiple pathways to get there. However, I hypothesize that the cheapest and likeliest pathway will be the one that best leverages, not duplicates, the infrastructure we already have. One of the most “plug and play” pathways (and what we are seeing today) is a conversion from coal to gas-fired generation at power plants that can use existing wires, poles and water infrastructure.
At the other end of the spectrum, a hydrogen economy would require massive new investments in new kinds of technology, so it would leverage less of what we currently have. For instance, we’d need to build places to generate and store hydrogen. On the other hand, it has the potential to be more resilient and sustainable.
One area that does look promising for infrastructure investment is upgrading the bulk power transmission network. These upgrades could allow power to flow between regions of the US and would be similar to how the interstate highway system drove down business costs across the country by greatly reducing the time it took to transport goods and services across our vast country.
There are areas of the US where power is produced cheaper and with fewer environmental impacts than in other areas. Expanding transmission lines to areas of the country that have good wind and solar resources can bring very low-cost power to users. The problem is that these areas are not always where the people are, so to bring this power to the people, we need a strong transmission network.
Distribution networks – the part of the grid that delivers power directly to buildings – can also integrate more solar without much added cost to the grid’s operation. But once solar capacity reaches a certain percentage of power demand on the local network, which varies by location, then more costs are incurred.
In the end, consumers, or taxpayers, always end up paying for these upgrade projects, but the benefits can outweigh costs. Texas’ expansion of its electric grid has allowed for much more wind power to reach load centers which, along with a drop in natural gas prices, has driven down the wholesale electricity market costs. Those lower costs are then passed along to ratepayers.
There is no path that does not require investment – even just maintaining what we have will cost hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of dollars over the next decade. The bigger question is: As we continue to replace and rebuild this amazing grid, what technologies should we focus on?
]]>https://briefnews.eu/the-outdated-us-electric-grid-is-going-to-cost-5-trillion-to-replace/feed/0The Trump administration’s trade strategy is dangerously outdated
https://briefnews.eu/the-trump-administrations-trade-strategy-is-dangerously-outdated/
https://briefnews.eu/the-trump-administrations-trade-strategy-is-dangerously-outdated/#respondFri, 03 Mar 2017 01:00:45 +0000http://briefnews.eu/the-trump-administrations-trade-strategy-is-dangerously-outdated/
The trade guns of Navarro
ON THE campaign trail, Donald Trump’s trade policy was an alarming mixture of coruscating complaints and fierce threats of protectionist retaliation. But the world has been in the dark about how much of this rhetoric his administration might turn into reality. A flicker of light came on March 1st as the administration’s trade-strategy document was presented to Congress. Washington wonks see the hand of Peter Navarro, Mr Trump’s trade adviser and author of a book (and film) called “Death by China”. Robert Lighthizer, the nominee for the United States Trade Representative (USTR), has not yet been confirmed.
Little is new in the document’s promises of “ new and better trade deals” or of strict enforcement of American trade laws. But a preference for bilateral trade deals over multilateral ones is a change of tack. And the tone is certainly confrontational: “It is time for a more aggressive approach.” The document also gives an indication of how a Trump administration might take a trade fight to China: by using sections 201 and 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.