Space station's Canadian cameras not working after spacewalk

A marathon spacewalk met with disappointment after a failed effort by two Russian cosmonauts to install a pair of Canadian-made, high-fidelity cameras outside the International Space Station. 

The medium- and high-resolution cameras did not respond as expected and, some five hours into Friday's spacewalk, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy were told by mission control in Russia to unhook both units and return them to the space station's airlock. 

The cosmonauts, who were orbiting more than 400 kilometres over the Great Lakes at the time, first took photos of the connections in the hope of diagnosing the problem with help from mission control.

"The crew ran into roadblocks mating the connectors," NASA's announcer noted during the space agency's broadcast of the spacewalk, while Kotov and Ryazanskiy discussed the problem, in Russian, in the background. "Some connectors were very stubborn, very difficult." 

'I never thought I'd have to take one of these off again.'- Unidentified cosmonaut

The cosmonauts left the ISS at 8 a.m. ET with plans to install a pair of new cameras on the station's Zvezda module — part of a commercial effort by Vancouver-based Urthecast, working in co-operation with the Russian space agency, to stream detailed views of the Earth from orbit. 

"I never thought I'd have to take one of these off again," one remarked, through a translator, at one point. It was unclear which cosmonaut had spoken. 

A medium-resolution still camera is meant to take a continuous, 50-kilometre wide shot of the Earth as the ISS orbits 16 times each day.

The second, higher-resolution video camera will allow people to see things as small as cars, boats and small groups of people, though not individuals. Many of the images will be available free in "near real time" — just a few hours after they were captured.

The pair also installed new earthquake-monitoring equipment outside the ISS, which worked properly. 

Rigorous testing

Speaking to CBC News shortly before the problems arose, Urthecast CEO Scott Larson described the cameras' rigorous pre-flight testing. 

Both were "put into a space environment here on Earth," he said. "Hot and cold — they warm them up and cool them down, because it gets very hot and cold in space, and they vibrate them and blast them with radiation to make sure the cameras, when they get into space, will work. It's a long process." 

Larson said the cameras are intended for environmental and educational efforts, among other things. Groups including the UN want to use them to monitor animal migration, earthquakes and the weather, for example, though the company has other, loftier goals. 

Astronauts, he said, often come home with a different worldview and a new sense of "stewardship" for the Earth. 

"One of the goals we have at Urthecast is to take the astronaut's view and give it to everyone here on Earth," he said. 

Record-breaker

The installation effort marked the third recent spacewalk outside the ISS, after U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins went out twice to repair a conked-out component of its cooling system. 

It also broke the record for the longest spacewalk by Russians. The pair spent eight hours and seven minutes in space, well past the previous record of seven hours and 29 minutes. 

If all had gone according to plan the spacewalk was expected to last some seven hours. 

It was not possible, given the limits of their spacesuits, for Kotov and Ryazanskiy to break the all-time spacewalk record of just under nine hours. 

"We feel good. We're ready to keep going," said one of the cosmonauts as they worked to return the cameras to the ISS. 

A piece of equipment, bearing the Urthecast logo, is visible as cosmonauts install cameras from the Vancouver-based company outside the International Space Station. (NASA)

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Canadians keep their smartphones close

Almost half of those surveyed keep phones within reach almost 24/7

The Canadian Press Posted: Dec 27, 2013 1:10 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 27, 2013 1:13 PM ET

If you can't bear to let your smartphone out of your sight for even a few minutes, you're not alone.

According to the results of a recently released online poll, almost half of Canadian smartphone owners said they keep their device with them pretty much 24/7.

About 42 per cent of the respondents in the survey, conducted by Harris-Decima for Rogers, said they keep their phone within reach for 90 to 100 per cent of the day.

The average response was 70 per cent of the day, or almost 17 hours.

And when people said they took their phone everywhere, it seems they meant it.

Only one in four respondents said they never take their phone into the washroom, while a similar number said they do so all the time or often.

Three in four respondents between 16 and 44 said they do it all the time or often.

Comments on this story are pre-moderated. Before they appear comments are reviewed by moderators to ensure they meet our submission guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Chris Hadfield urges space co-operation with China

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is calling for more co-operation with China in space and he wants it to be part of any international effort to return to the moon.

And he's not alone in his thinking. Space experts agree the Chinese can no longer be left out.

"I think right now a lot of people see it as kind of crazy to co-operate with the Chinese, but I think it's the next logical step," Hadfield recently told The Canadian Press.

China sent its first astronaut into space in 2003 and Hadfield noted the country's ambitious space program aims to eventually put an astronaut on the moon.

On Dec. 15, a Chinese Chang'e 3 rocket landed a rover on the lunar surface, making China the third country to do so after the United States and the former Soviet Union.

It was the world's first soft landing of a space probe on the moon in nearly four decades.

Offer to train foreign astronauts

He also pointed out that China launched an experimental space station in 2011. It will be replaced with a more permanent one which will be completed in 2020.

A Chinese astronaut said in September his country is willing to open its space station to foreign astronauts and even train them for such missions.

Retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield is now an adjunct professor with the University of Waterloo in Ontario. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

China was barred from participating in the current orbiting space station, largely because of U.S. objections over political differences.

Hadfield added that after the Russians launched the Mir Space Station in February 1986, other nations dropped in for a visit during its 15 years in orbit.

NASA says on its website that Mir hosted 125 cosmonauts and astronauts from 12 different nations before it was deorbited and sunk into the ocean in 2001.

Hadfield, who became a Canadian astronaut in 1992, visited Mir in November 1995 on the U.S. Space Shuttle Atlantis. He was the only Canadian to ever board the Russian space station.

"If you predicted in 1989 that I would fly on an American shuttle to go build a Russian spaceship, people would have said you were crazy," said Hadfield, who last March became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station.

"So I think looking forward, there's a great opportunity to include the Chinese in the world space program — the international space program."

To the moon

Hadfield said a logical progression would be to include as many countries as possible in an international mission beyond Earth — "hopefully including China and India and the other countries that have launch capability and then progress to the next stepping stone, the next natural waypoint out to space, which is the moon."

Iain Christie, executive vice-president of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada, says China's presence in space cannot be ignored. The association represents the interests of more than 700 aerospace companies across Canada.

'I think China is back where we were in North America 50 years ago. They're excited about space.'- Iain Christie, Aerospace Industries Association of Canada

"I think China is back where we were in North America 50 years ago," he said in an interview from Ottawa. "They're excited about space, they're not spending their time justifying why they're in space, they're spending their time justifying why they're not doing more.

"I am hopeful that their enthusiasm for space becomes infectious to the rest of us."

Christie said decisions will have to be made in the coming years.

"We're going to have to decide what to do about engaging with China in space — whether it's to be more collaborative or more competitive," he said. "I don't know which one we'll choose."

Walt Natynczyk, the new president of the Canadian Space Agency, was in China in September to attend the annual International Astronautical Congress in Beijing. It was described as an opportunity to visit some major space actors in the country.

Meantime, as Natynczyk continues work on a long-term space plan, Hadfield said Canada must look at where the world's space program is headed.

"Canada needs to choose what makes sense to us," he said. "There's so much technology that we need in power generation, in navigation, in communications, in environmental recycling — there's all sorts of technical issues that we need to solve that will also have use for us here back in Canada."

Hadfield attracted worldwide attention with his dramatic photos of the Earth, his tweets and his Space Oddity video during his space station visit which began when he blasted off in December 2012. He returned to Earth in mid-May 2013. The David Bowie cover has had close to 20 million views on YouTube.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Space station's Canadian cameras not working after spacewalk

A marathon spacewalk met with disappointment after a failed effort by two Russian cosmonauts to install a pair of Canadian-made, high-fidelity cameras outside the International Space Station. 

The medium- and high-resolution cameras did not respond as expected and, some five hours into Friday's spacewalk, cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy were told by mission control in Russia to unhook both units and return them to the space station's airlock. 

The cosmonauts, who were orbiting more than 400 kilometres over the Great Lakes at the time, first took photos of the connections in the hope of diagnosing the problem with help from mission control.

"The crew ran into roadblocks mating the connectors," NASA's announcer noted during the space agency's broadcast of the spacewalk, while Kotov and Ryazanskiy discussed the problem, in Russian, in the background. "Some connectors were very stubborn, very difficult." 

'I never thought I'd have to take one of these off again.'- Unidentified cosmonaut

The cosmonauts left the ISS at 8 a.m. ET with plans to install a pair of new cameras on the station's Zvezda module — part of a commercial effort by Vancouver-based Urthecast, working in co-operation with the Russian space agency, to stream detailed views of the Earth from orbit. 

"I never thought I'd have to take one of these off again," one remarked, through a translator, at one point. It was unclear which cosmonaut had spoken. 

A medium-resolution still camera is meant to take a continuous, 50-kilometre wide shot of the Earth as the ISS orbits 16 times each day.

The second, higher-resolution video camera will allow people to see things as small as cars, boats and small groups of people, though not individuals. Many of the images will be available free in "near real time" — just a few hours after they were captured.

The pair also installed new earthquake-monitoring equipment outside the ISS, which worked properly. 

Rigorous testing

Speaking to CBC News shortly before the problems arose, Urthecast CEO Scott Larson described the cameras' rigorous pre-flight testing. 

Both were "put into a space environment here on Earth," he said. "Hot and cold — they warm them up and cool them down, because it gets very hot and cold in space, and they vibrate them and blast them with radiation to make sure the cameras, when they get into space, will work. It's a long process." 

Larson said the cameras are intended for environmental and educational efforts, among other things. Groups including the UN want to use them to monitor animal migration, earthquakes and the weather, for example, though the company has other, loftier goals. 

Astronauts, he said, often come home with a different worldview and a new sense of "stewardship" for the Earth. 

"One of the goals we have at Urthecast is to take the astronaut's view and give it to everyone here on Earth," he said. 

Record-breaker

The installation effort marked the third recent spacewalk outside the ISS, after U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins went out twice to repair a conked-out component of its cooling system. 

It also broke the record for the longest spacewalk by Russians. The pair spent eight hours and seven minutes in space, well past the previous record of seven hours and 29 minutes. 

If all had gone according to plan the spacewalk was expected to last some seven hours. 

It was not possible, given the limits of their spacesuits, for Kotov and Ryazanskiy to break the all-time spacewalk record of just under nine hours. 

"We feel good. We're ready to keep going," said one of the cosmonauts as they worked to return the cameras to the ISS. 

A piece of equipment, bearing the Urthecast logo, is visible as cosmonauts install cameras from the Vancouver-based company outside the International Space Station. (NASA)

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Canadians keep their smartphones close

Almost half of those surveyed keep phones within reach almost 24/7

The Canadian Press Posted: Dec 27, 2013 1:10 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 27, 2013 1:13 PM ET

If you can't bear to let your smartphone out of your sight for even a few minutes, you're not alone.

According to the results of a recently released online poll, almost half of Canadian smartphone owners said they keep their device with them pretty much 24/7.

About 42 per cent of the respondents in the survey, conducted by Harris-Decima for Rogers, said they keep their phone within reach for 90 to 100 per cent of the day.

The average response was 70 per cent of the day, or almost 17 hours.

And when people said they took their phone everywhere, it seems they meant it.

Only one in four respondents said they never take their phone into the washroom, while a similar number said they do so all the time or often.

Three in four respondents between 16 and 44 said they do it all the time or often.

Comments on this story are pre-moderated. Before they appear comments are reviewed by moderators to ensure they meet our submission guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

$4,000 for a new TV — if you find it on sale

There probably aren't huge numbers of Boxing Day shoppers scouring flyers for a deal on a 4K Ultra HD TV, the next standard of high definition video.

Dec. 26 is a day for seeking out bargains and history has shown crowds of consumers will shiver for hours in the cold if it means snagging a cut-rate TV — even if it's a low-end model made by an obscure manufacturer — for a few hundred bucks.

4K Ultra HD TVs, which display four times as many pixels as 1080p HD TVs, will attract a different kind of shopper.

The cheapest 4K Ultra HD TV sold through a big box store retails for about $4,000 for a 55-inch set — when it's on sale — while the top-of-the-line 85-inch model made by Samsung goes for a dollar shy of $40,000.

That's not a typo: $39,999, plus tax.

And much like when the original high definition TVs first went on sale, there's not a ton of content available to take advantage of the new standard.

Netflix hopes to change that, at least gradually.

Unlike 3D TV, which has been a total flop, Netflix believes 4K adoption is inevitable and is investing in producing and delivering Ultra HD content.

"Whether it takes 18 months or five years people are going to adopt this technology. It's something we want to be on the forefront of, it's our guess that ultra high definition is going to happen in a pretty significant way, unlike 3D," said chief product officer Neil Hunt in an interview earlier this year.

Netflix is shooting its original drama House of Cards in Ultra HD, banking that the format will eventually catch on with viewers. (Melinda Sue Gordon/Netflix/Associated Press)

"We're not doing everything [in Ultra HD] but certainly the significant stuff, so House of Cards is one of those things we're shooting in 4K. And as we look to new shows, we have a couple of other things lined up for shooting later this year or early next year that we hope to be doing in 4K as well."

For those who haven't seen 4K Ultra HD in person yet — which is most consumers — Hunt promises the enriched level of detail will be impressive, which is posing challenges for filmmakers.

"We certainly found even with some of the original stuff we've done that the sets didn't stand up to ultra high definition," he said.

"So it really is something that starts right with the cast and the makeup and the set and then the cameras and the editing and the special FX all the way through to the coding, the staging, the delivery."

Of course, data consumption will be a major concern when Netflix begins offering the new format to customers. The current highest quality stream eats through about 2.5 gigabytes an hour, while an Ultra HD stream is expected to use up to seven gigabytes an hour.

It would also require a very fast and steady Internet connection to play without buffering, but Hunt believes ISPs will be offering more robust plans by the time Ultra HD is ready to be fully rolled out.

"Moore's Law is the rule of thumb that says technology seems to advance by doubling in price performance every 18 months and you can pretty much plot the performance of broadband on that spectrum over a 10- to 20-year period and it does seem to track," he said. 

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cosmonauts spacewalk outside ISS

Live

Installation of new cameras part of Canadian commercial TV project

CBC News Posted: Dec 27, 2013 9:32 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 27, 2013 9:34 AM ET

Russian cosmonauts are performing a spacewalk outside the International Space Station this morning to install a pair of high-fidelity cameras on the Zvezda service module, part of a Canadian commercial television project. 

Commander Oleg Kotov and flight engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy exited the space station at about 8 a.m. ET and are expected to be outside for about seven hours.

They are installing a pair of cameras on the station's Zvezda module — part of a commercial project designed to capture "Earth observation imagery," according to a statement from NASA. 

The job marks the third recent spacewalk outside the ISS, after U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins went out twice to repair a conked-out component of its cooling system. 

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

A real Rudolph the reindeer captured on video?

On mobile? Click here to see the video

Can Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer be real and not just a holiday tale?

Video footage of real reindeer with glowing noses has been captured by a Swedish research team using a thermographic camera.

The noses of reindeer at the Zoo of Nordic Animals in southern Sweden appear very bright compared to other parts of their bodies, in the video released by researchers at Lund University last week. The camera "sees" the heat given off by different parts of an animal's body, causing warmer parts to appear brighter and colder parts appear darker.

The fact that reindeer noses appear bright is consistent with a study published by Dutch and Norwegian researchers last year in the journal BMJ, which found that reindeer have a very rich blood supply to their noses.

"That means it can actually be a bit reddish because of the strong blood flow," said Ronald Kroger, a zoologist at Lund University who helped capture the new video footage.

Reindeer forage for food in the snow, and need to keep their noses warm in order to know what they're eating, researchers say. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

He said reindeer need to keep their noses warm in order to prevent them from going numb as they snuffle through the snow looking for food.

"They have to prevent them from freezing and to keep the sensitivity to know what they're eating," Kroger said in the video.

Reindeer's warm, glowing noses are just the opposite of the cold, wet noses of dogs. In the researchers' thermographic video footage, a dog has a very dark nose.

"Nobody really knows why it's cold in the dog," Kroger said. "That's what we want to find out."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

10 most-read science stories of 2013

Stories about a dinosaur dug up by a pipeline crew and a body heat-powered flashlight are among those that caught the eyes of CBCNews.ca readers most often this year. Here's a roundup of some of the most-read science stories of 2013.

1. Giant squid

In January, a team from Japan's National Science Museum announced they had captured what is considered the first ever film footage of a giant squid in its natural habitat, 900 metres below the surface of the ocean.

2. Exploding meteor

The Chelyabinsk meteor, seen here through the windshield of a vehicle, caused an estimated $33 million in damage.

A bus-sized meteor injured over 1,000 people and caused more than $33 million in damage after it streaked through the sky and exploded near Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February.

Large chunks of the meteor were recovered from a nearby lake in October.

3. Higgs boson

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider, the world's most powerful particle collider confirmed in March that they had made a physics breakthrough. They had discovered the elusive Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle." That left a lot of readers wondering what the big deal was, making this a particularly popular article:

The researchers who first predicted the Higgs boson went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in October.

4. Penis size study

A University of Ottawa researcher provided scientific evidence in April of what many people quietly suspected — size does matter to women. Men with larger flaccid penises were generally rated more attractive by women, but there was some complexity to the results. 

5. Teenage girl's bright invention

The flashlight invented by 15-year-old Ann Makosinski doesn't need batteries. It's powered by the heat of your hand. (YouTube)

A 15-year-old girl from Victoria, B.C., made headlines in June when her hollow, body heat-powered flashlight made the finals for the Google Science Fair. 

In September, Ann Makosinski won her age category at the science fair..

6. Ice-free Antarctica

Ever wonder what Antarctica would look like without ice? In June, NASA revealed an animation showing what lies beneath the continents snowy and icy cover. If you missed it, here it is:

7. Celestial show

A shooting star spectacular takes place every August, but that doesn't make it any less special. Astronomers say the Perseid meteor shower produces more extra-bright "fireballs" than any other meteor shower. CBC readers were eager to find out the best places to view the meteor shower, making this one of the top stories of the year.

8. Dinosaur discovery

The 10-metre-long fossil skeleton of a dinosaur was unearthed in October by a backhoe operator who was part of a crew installing an oil pipeline near Spirit River, Alta. 

9. Sun preps for a flip

The sun's magnetic field is poised to flip. (ESA/NASA)

The sun is ramping up to the peak of its solar cycle and the dramatic flip of its magnetic field. This happens every 10 to 13 years, but this year solar physicists are especially anxious to see what happens, as the sun has been behaving very strangely since the last time its magnetic field flipped.

"As you can imagine, we're concerned about what's going to happen next," Ken Tapping, a researcher at the National Research Council told CBC News in a story in November.

10. Comet Ison

A much-anticipated comet grazed past the sun in late November. The entire world was watching Comet Ison carefully because if it survived the encounter, astronomers predicted it might be visible to the naked eye in December.

Unfortunately, shortly after the comet's closest approach to the sun, astronomers were unable to see it and concluded it probably hadn't survived.

The next day, the comet surprised everyone by being visible in some images, suggesting that at least part of its nucleus may have made it past the sun. Unfortunately, since then, the comet's remains have been fading, suggesting that we've probably seen the last of Ison.

If you're interested in reading more big science stories from last year, check out the personal list compiled by Bob McDonald, host of CBC's Quirks & Quarks.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Model trains go high tech

For some families, setting a model train up around the Christmas tree is a tradition. But times are changing, and so are those trains. 

They are going high tech — and the younger generation is catching on. 

"This is engineer to dispatch, we're on track four heading onto Track 5, over."

Robby Gale knows more about model trains than most adults. In his engineer hat, the 11-year-old manoeuvres several large model trains at once using a complex remote control. He brings the train to life using sound, smoke, and lights.

"They are run by what's called a DCS system — it's controlling every train on this layout through a digital system so it's like being in real life controlling your own train."

Gale's dad, Rob, owns hobby shop Chinook and Hobby West. He's been collecting model trains since he was a child.

"I was blown away when I first powered up and you see the lights, smoke and all the lights come on and everything else, I'm 10-years-old at the Christmas tree again," says Rob.

Eleven-year-old Robby Gale showcases new model trains at his dad's hobby shop, Chinook and Hobby West. (CBC)

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Model trains go high tech

For some families, setting a model train up around the Christmas tree is a tradition. But times are changing, and so are those trains. 

They are going high tech — and the younger generation is catching on. 

"This is engineer to dispatch, we're on track four heading onto Track 5, over."

Robby Gale knows more about model trains than most adults. In his engineer hat, the 11-year-old manoeuvres several large model trains at once using a complex remote control. He brings the train to life using sound, smoke, and lights.

"They are run by what's called a DCS system — it's controlling every train on this layout through a digital system so it's like being in real life controlling your own train."

Gale's dad, Rob, owns hobby shop Chinook and Hobby West. He's been collecting model trains since he was a child.

"I was blown away when I first powered up and you see the lights, smoke and all the lights come on and everything else, I'm 10-years-old at the Christmas tree again," says Rob.

Eleven-year-old Robby Gale showcases new model trains at his dad's hobby shop, Chinook and Hobby West. (CBC)

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Where Arctic camels once roamed, coal mining can wait

A coal exploration project proposing to tread the same ground as the ancient fossil forests on Nunavut's Ellesmere Island has been temporarily put on the shelf.

Canada Coal has delayed its exploration program on Ellesmere Island for at least a year, and withdrawn its application to Nunavut regulators, saying it needs more time to address a host of concerns raised by people in nearby Grise Fiord and scientists across Canada and the U.S.

Canada Coal's active exploration licenses cover more than 7000 square kilometres, mostly on Ellesmere's Fosheim Peninsula. The company had proposed to set up a 20 to 30-person field camp next summer in order to map and drill for coal the region.

However, the project was controversial.

The Fosheim Peninsula is a renowned source of unique fossils, including alligators, turtles and primates that lived on the Arctic Island 50 million years ago, as well as beavers and horses that occupied the site just a few million years ago.

'A paleobiological hotspot'

Jim Basinger spent years digging up fossilized plants on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands. (Courtesy Jim Basinger)

​"Frankly, when you discover something new, something people have never seen before, or something that really fills in an important piece of a puzzle, it's a thrill," says Jim Basinger, a paleontologist at the University of Saskatchewan.

Basinger spent years digging up fossilized plants on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands and is one of several scientists and scholars who've written to Nunavut regulators, stressing the region's scientific importance.

"These fossils give us tremendous insight into polar climates, and polar climate change," Basinger says.

In March, researchers at Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Nature made international headlines when they found ancient, mummified camel bones in the Strathcona Fiord region — the most northerly region to ever yield camel bones. 

Mark Graham, the Museum's Vice President of Research and Collections, calls the Fosheim Peninsula "a paleobiological hotspot".

"It's a hotspot just because of the diversity of things that can be found," he says, "but also because of the kinds of information that it brings us that allows us to comment on previous climates, and make predictions about what might happen."

Home to polar bears, Peary caribou

The Fosheim Peninsula on Ellesmere Island contains both coal and unique fossils, including alligators, turtles and primates that lived on the Arctic Island 50 million years ago. (N. Rybczynski)

Canada Coal's proposal has also sparked concern within Nunavut.  

The territory's environment department says the area targeted for drilling is home to animals listed under the Species At Risk Act, including polar bears and the endangered Peary caribou.

The region is also home to several bird species listed under SARA: Peregrine falcons and Red Knot (both listed as species of "special concern"), and Ross's Gull (listed as "threatened").

Inuit in the nearby community of Grise Fiord have echoed the concerns about wildlife.  

"Some of [Canada Coal's] work plans, we want to be able to look at them closely," says Larry Audlaluk of Grise Fiord. "For example, their water delivery program in their camp will involve helicopter use. That creates noise. We want to make sure that if they're going to go and do their thing, the disturbance levels will be minimized."

Canada Coal plans more consultation

Eocene Age leaf litter, estimated to be 50 million years old, was found on Ellesmere Island's Fosheim Penisula. (N. Rybczynski)

​By delaying its project, Canada Coal is aiming to avoid the fate of Weststar Resources, a company that previously held the exploration licences on the Fosheim Peninsula.

In early 2010, Nunavut regulators rejected Weststar's proposed exploration plans, citing similar concerns. Soon after, Weststar sold its licences to Canada Coal.

Canada Coal says it will now set up a "working group" with representatives from the company, Grise Fiord, and regulatory agencies.

This doesn't mean the project will come to a halt.

"We're not against them," says Audlaluk. "We're not against development."

Rather, Audlaluk says people in Grise Fiord don't want to be rushed.

Basinger also says his goal is not to kill the coal project. He thinks the key paleontological sites can be identified and preserved, while also allowing some development.

"In a region that large, the fossil resource is actually quite confined," says Basinger. "You couldn't justify, on the basis of paleontology, an exclusion of mining from the entire region. But I think I can justify preserving an area, a certain area."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

A real Rudolph the reindeer captured on video?

On mobile? Click here to see the video

Can Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer be real and not just a holiday tale?

Video footage of real reindeer with glowing noses has been captured by a Swedish research team using a thermographic camera.

The noses of reindeer at the Zoo of Nordic Animals in southern Sweden appear very bright compared to other parts of their bodies, in the video released by researchers at Lund University last week. The camera "sees" the heat given off by different parts of an animal's body, causing warmer parts to appear brighter and colder parts appear darker.

The fact that reindeer noses appear bright is consistent with a study published by Dutch and Norwegian researchers last year in the journal BMJ, which found that reindeer have a very rich blood supply to their noses.

"That means it can actually be a bit reddish because of the strong blood flow," said Ronald Kroger, a zoologist at Lund University who helped capture the new video footage.

Reindeer forage for food in the snow, and need to keep their noses warm in order to know what they're eating, researchers say. (Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)

He said reindeer need to keep their noses warm in order to prevent them from going numb as they snuffle through the snow looking for food.

"They have to prevent them from freezing and to keep the sensitivity to know what they're eating," Kroger said in the video.

Reindeer's warm, glowing noses are just the opposite of the cold, wet noses of dogs. In the researchers' thermographic video footage, a dog has a very dark nose.

"Nobody really knows why it's cold in the dog," Kroger said. "That's what we want to find out."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Astronauts make rare Christmas Eve spacewalk

Two space station astronauts ventured out on a rare Christmas Eve spacewalk Tuesday, hoping to wrap up urgent repairs to a cooling system.

It was the second spacewalk in four days for U.S. astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, and only the second Christmas Eve spacewalk in NASA history.

NASA ordered up the spacewalks to revive a critical cooling loop at the International Space Station. All nonessential equipment had to be turned off when the line conked out Dec. 11, and many science experiments halted.

'It is Christmas Eve ... and in this holiday way of giving, we're giving you a spacewalk today'- Rob Navias, NASA

Mastracchio and Hopkins removed a faulty ammonia pump at the International Space Station during Saturday's outing. On Tuesday, they'll work to install a new pump 428 kilometres above the planet.

"It's like Christmas morning opening up a little present here," Mastracchio said as he checked his toolkit.

Astronaut Rick Mastracchio performs a space walk outside the International Space Station on Saturday. He and Michael Hopkins are making a second trip today outside the station to try to revive a crippled cooling line. (NASA/Associated Press)

Mission Control in Houston was in a festive mood during Tuesday's spacewalk. Tabletop Christmas trees, Santa dolls and red Santa caps decorated the desks.

"It is Christmas Eve ... and in this holiday way of giving, we're giving you a spacewalk today," said commentator Rob Navias.

NASA's only previous Christmas Eve spacewalk occurred in 1999 during a Hubble Space Telescope repair mission.

But NASA's most memorable Christmas Eve was back on Dec. 24, 1968. Apollo 8 astronauts read from Genesis, the first book of the Bible, as they orbited the moon on mankind's first lunar flight.

Space station managers considered waiting until January for the repair spacewalks, so an unmanned rocket could blast off with supplies from Virginia. But flight controllers were unable to patch the cooling line by remote control, and the orbiting outpost was considered in too vulnerable a state to put off the spacewalking repairs. The delivery mission was bumped, instead, to January.

A bad valve in the ammonia pump caused the breakdown.

Another team of spacewalking astronauts installed that pump just three years ago, and engineers are perplexed as to why it didn't last longer. NASA hopes to salvage it in the years ahead.

The 2010 replacement required three spacewalks because of the difficulty in removing pressurized ammonia fluid lines. This time, NASA reduced the pressure and the task was simplified, allowing the astronauts to get ahead Saturday. Although three spacewalks were scheduled this time around, Mastracchio and Hopkins' advance work allowed NASA to squeeze everything into two, barring any problems Tuesday.

The second spacewalk was supposed to take place Monday, but was delayed a day to give Mastracchio time to switch to another suit. He inadvertently hit a water switch in the air lock at the end of Saturday's excursion, and a bit of water entered his suit, making it unusable this week.

During the rest of the spacewalk, however, the suits remained dry. Last July, an astronaut almost drowned when water from his suit's cooling system flooded his helmet. Makeshift snorkels and absorbent pads had been installed in the suits as a precaution.

A Moscow-led spacewalk, meanwhile, is set for Friday. Two Russian crew members will install new cameras and fresh experiments outside.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Neanderthal's incest, interspecies sex revealed by genome

Neanderthals liked to keep it in the family with DNA sequencing of an ancient toe revealing long-term inbreeding amongst a Siberian-based population.

The sequencing results, published today in the journal Nature, also reveal Neanderthals, early modern humans and a sister group to Neanderthals, Denisovans, met and reproduced in the Late Pleistocene between 12,000 and 126,000 years ago.

'Everyone is bonking everyone else … it's quite impressive.'- Alan Cooper, University of Adelaide

Alan Cooper, a professor at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, says the study "completely rewrites what we know about human evolutionary history".

"We now have a reasonably definitive picture of the mixing and matching of [hominin] groups through time," he says.

And according to Cooper, the research reveals that "everyone is bonking everyone else … it's quite impressive".

First author of the paper Kay Prufer, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany says the findings are based on DNA extracted from a toe bone found in the Siberian cave where the first Denisovan fossils were discovered in 2008.

The toe bone belonged to a Neanderthal woman who they estimate lived about 50,000 years ago, he says, adding that DNA analysis shows the woman's parents were very closely related.

"We conclude the parents of this Neanderthal individual were either half-siblings who had a mother in common, double first cousins, an uncle and a niece, an aunt and a nephew, a grandfather and a granddaughter, or a grandmother and a grandson," the researchers write.

Reason for extinction?

Prufer says the analysis shows this inbreeding was not a rare event.

"The parents were very closely related, but even if you ignore that [DNA analysis shows] … the past parents of the parents were related," he says.

Prufer says the inbreeding suggests the Neanderthal population was quite small or fragmented and this may have played into their demise.

"Of course if you have a small population size you begin to move into the danger zone [for extinction]," says Prufer.

Cooper, who was not involved in the study, agrees: "If you are breeding with your uncle, your population is on the way out. The fact this group has been doing it for a while suggests it was in decline."

Interbreeding across species

As part of the study, the international team also compared genomes of Neanderthals, Denisovans and modern-day humans.

Previous research has shown that while Neanderthals contributed to the genetic heritage of all modern populations outside Africa, Denisovans contributed exclusively to populations in Southeast Asia and Oceania.

However Prufer says the analysis reveals the picture may be more complex.

Their study shows gene flow from Neanderthals to Denisovans indicating interbreeding between the two groups.

The Denisovan DNA also contained genetic material from an "unknown archaic human that lived a million years ago", says Prufer.

He says this "unknown archaic human" could be Homo erectus, but further analysis is needed to determine its origins.

Prufer says by comparing the genome of the various hominin groups, researchers will also be able to pinpoint the "defining changes" in genome that genetically make modern humans.

Their work suggests the proportion of Neanderthal-derived DNA in all people outside Africa is about 1.5 to 2.5 per cent.

'Complicated and messy'

Cooper says the findings show evolution works in a "complicated and messy fashion".

"And when you try and reconstruct evolutionary history by looking at modern genetic data you get it completely wrong," he says.

While the work is "very convincing" Cooper says it is unlikely to be the final version of evolution.

"Five years ago we didn't even know of the existence of the Denisovans," he says.

"It is an incremental process [but] these discoveries are really changing how we think about human evolution."

Cooper says the sequencing of the genomes also opens up the possibility to "identify what bits of Neanderthal and Denisovan DNA survive in us and what they might be doing".

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Where Arctic camels once roamed, coal mining can wait

A coal exploration project proposing to tread the same ground as the ancient fossil forests on Nunavut's Ellesmere Island has been temporarily put on the shelf.

Canada Coal has delayed its exploration program on Ellesmere Island for at least a year, and withdrawn its application to Nunavut regulators, saying it needs more time to address a host of concerns raised by people in nearby Grise Fiord and scientists across Canada and the U.S.

Canada Coal's active exploration licenses cover more than 7000 square kilometres, mostly on Ellesmere's Fosheim Peninsula. The company had proposed to set up a 20 to 30-person field camp next summer in order to map and drill for coal the region.

However, the project was controversial.

The Fosheim Peninsula is a renowned source of unique fossils, including alligators, turtles and primates that lived on the Arctic Island 50 million years ago, as well as beavers and horses that occupied the site just a few million years ago.

'A paleobiological hotspot'

Jim Basinger spent years digging up fossilized plants on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands. (Courtesy Jim Basinger)

​"Frankly, when you discover something new, something people have never seen before, or something that really fills in an important piece of a puzzle, it's a thrill," says Jim Basinger, a paleontologist at the University of Saskatchewan.

Basinger spent years digging up fossilized plants on Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg islands and is one of several scientists and scholars who've written to Nunavut regulators, stressing the region's scientific importance.

"These fossils give us tremendous insight into polar climates, and polar climate change," Basinger says.

In March, researchers at Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Nature made international headlines when they found ancient, mummified camel bones in the Strathcona Fiord region — the most northerly region to ever yield camel bones. 

Mark Graham, the Museum's Vice President of Research and Collections, calls the Fosheim Peninsula "a paleobiological hotspot".

"It's a hotspot just because of the diversity of things that can be found," he says, "but also because of the kinds of information that it brings us that allows us to comment on previous climates, and make predictions about what might happen."

Home to polar bears, Peary caribou

The Fosheim Peninsula on Ellesmere Island contains both coal and unique fossils, including alligators, turtles and primates that lived on the Arctic Island 50 million years ago. (N. Rybczynski)

Canada Coal's proposal has also sparked concern within Nunavut.  

The territory's environment department says the area targeted for drilling is home to animals listed under the Species At Risk Act, including polar bears and the endangered Peary caribou.

The region is also home to several bird species listed under SARA: Peregrine falcons and Red Knot (both listed as species of "special concern"), and Ross's Gull (listed as "threatened").

Inuit in the nearby community of Grise Fiord have echoed the concerns about wildlife.  

"Some of [Canada Coal's] work plans, we want to be able to look at them closely," says Larry Audlaluk of Grise Fiord. "For example, their water delivery program in their camp will involve helicopter use. That creates noise. We want to make sure that if they're going to go and do their thing, the disturbance levels will be minimized."

Canada Coal plans more consultation

Eocene Age leaf litter, estimated to be 50 million years old, was found on Ellesmere Island's Fosheim Penisula. (N. Rybczynski)

​By delaying its project, Canada Coal is aiming to avoid the fate of Weststar Resources, a company that previously held the exploration licences on the Fosheim Peninsula.

In early 2010, Nunavut regulators rejected Weststar's proposed exploration plans, citing similar concerns. Soon after, Weststar sold its licences to Canada Coal.

Canada Coal says it will now set up a "working group" with representatives from the company, Grise Fiord, and regulatory agencies.

This doesn't mean the project will come to a halt.

"We're not against them," says Audlaluk. "We're not against development."

Rather, Audlaluk says people in Grise Fiord don't want to be rushed.

Basinger also says his goal is not to kill the coal project. He thinks the key paleontological sites can be identified and preserved, while also allowing some development.

"In a region that large, the fossil resource is actually quite confined," says Basinger. "You couldn't justify, on the basis of paleontology, an exclusion of mining from the entire region. But I think I can justify preserving an area, a certain area."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple signs iPhone deal with China Mobile

Apple and China Mobile announced a long-anticipated agreement Monday to bring the iPhone to the world's biggest phone company.

The deal might help to boost iPhone sales in a market where Apple Inc. faces intense competition. The iPhone already is available in China through two smaller carriers but the latest deal links it with a bigger network and state-owned China Mobile Ltd.'s marketing power.

The iPhone is popular with Chinese customers who can afford it but it has been eclipsed by lower-priced smartphones from Samsung and local brands.

The iPhone 5S and 5C will go on sale in Apple and China Mobile stores beginning Friday, Jan. 17. China Mobile customers can register for phones starting Wednesday.

The companies didn't announce pricing or the terms of the agreement.

The deal comes a month before China's Lunar New Year holiday in late January, a big gift-buying season. That "will provide an immediate boost to Apple's share in China," said analyst Nicole Peng of Canalys, a research firm.

Forecasts of possible increased iPhone sales under a deal with China Mobile vary widely, from 10 million to 40 million. A key issue is whether it leads to additional sales or only prompts existing users to switch to China Mobile.

The iPhone will help China Mobile promote a new fourth-generation network that received government approval this month. But analysts say Apple needed the agreement more than the Chinese carrier. That gave China Mobile leverage in negotiations over how to split costs, which for the high-priced iPhone usually includes subsidizing handset sales.

The iPhone faces tough competition from cheaper smartphones running Google's Android software. Collectively, Android phones far outsell Apple's iPhone.

Apple CEO Tim Cook told the official Xinhua News Agency in January that he expects China to surpass the United States as its biggest market. About 50 million iPhones have been sold in China in the past 2 1/2 years, according to analyst estimates.

China Mobile has more than 750 million mobile accounts. However, a survey by Bernstein Research said some China Mobile customers use smaller carriers for data service. Apple already has agreements with China Telecom Ltd. and China Unicom Ltd., which have about 455 million mobile accounts.

Apple's share of China's smartphone sales declined to 6.2 per cent in the third quarter from 7.9 per cent a year earlier, according to Canalys. Samsung's share expanded from 14.1 per cent to 21.2 per cent over the same period.

The iPhone once was so popular with Chinese gadget fans that eager buyers in Beijing waited overnight in freezing weather for the 4S model. But that excitement had faded by this September's release of the 5S. Customers said it offered too few improvements.

Samsung's advantages include being able to offer carriers a mix of phones priced as low as 1,000 yuan ($150) while Apple competes only in the highest market tier, according to Wang.

Any boost Apple gets by becoming China Mobile's new high-end phone could quickly fade, he said.

"We expect this advantage can only last three months and Samsung will bring out its next flagship model soon," said analyst James Wang of Canalys.

As for subsidies, Unicom pays 2,500 yuan ($410) of the iPhone's 5,499 yuan ($900) cost in exchange for a customer signing a two-year contract to pay a minimum of 186 yuan ($30) per month.

Analysts say China Mobile will have to match those terms to achieve significant sales.

China Mobile wants to have the world's largest 4G network. It plans to have 4G services available in 16 cities by the end of 2013 and to provide coverage for 340 cities by the end of 2014.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

NASA astronauts finish spacewalk after repairs

Astronauts removed an old space station pump Saturday, sailing through the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks to revive a crippled cooling line.

The two Americans on the crew, Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, successfully pulled out the ammonia pump with a bad valve — well ahead of schedule. That task had been planned for the next spacewalk on Monday.

"An early Christmas," observed Mission Control as Mastracchio tugged the refrigerator-size pump away from its nesting spot.

If Mastracchio and Hopkins keep up the quick work, two spacewalks may be enough to complete the installation of a spare pump and a third spacewalk will not be needed on Christmas Day as originally anticipated.

Mission Control wanted to keep the spacewalkers out even longer Saturday to get even further ahead, but a cold and uncomfortable Mastracchio requested to go back. The spacewalk ended after 5 1/2 hours, an hour short on time but satisfyingly long on content.

This May 23, 2010 image provided by NASA shows the International Space Station with the Earth in the background. The first of a series of urgent spacewalks to fix a broken cooling line takes place today. (NASA/Associated Press)

The breakdown 10 days earlier left one of two identical cooling loops too cold and forced the astronauts to turn off all nonessential equipment inside the orbiting lab, bringing scientific research to a near-halt and leaving the station in a vulnerable state.

Mastracchio managed to unhook all four ammonia fluid lines on the pump with relative ease, occasionally releasing a flurry of frozen ammonia flakes that brushed against his suit. Next he undid the electrical connections. A small O-ring floated away, but he managed to retrieve it.

"I got it, I got it, I got it. Barely," Mastracchio said as he stretched out his hand.

"Don't let that go, that's a stocking stuffer," Mission Control replied.

"Don't tell my wife," Mastracchio said, chuckling, as he put it in a small pouch for trash.

False alarm

Mastracchio, a seven-time spacewalker, and Hopkins, making his first, wore extra safety gear as they worked outside. NASA wanted to prevent a recurrence of the helmet flooding that nearly drowned an Italian astronaut last summer, so Saturday's spacewalkers had snorkels in their suits and water-absorbent pads in their helmets.

Midway through the spacewalk, the spacewalkers were still dry. But Mastracchio's toes were so cold that he had to crank up the heat in his boots. Mission Control worried aloud whether it was wise to stretch the spacewalk from the planned 6 ½ hours to seven hours or more to get ahead, given Mastracchio's discomfort.

Not quite two hours later, Mastracchio had enough as he clutched the old pump. When Mission Control suggested even more get-ahead chores, he replied, "I'd like to stow this old module and kind of clean up and call it a day." He said a couple of things were bothering him, not just temperature, and declined to elaborate when asked by Mission Control what was wrong.

Flight controllers obliged him. Once the old pump was secured to a temporary location, the spacewalkers started gathering up their tools to go in.

Adding to the excitement 418 kilometres up, a smoke alarm went off in the space station as the astronauts toiled outside. It was quickly found to be a false alarm.

Spacewalks on hold since July

The pump replacement is a huge undertaking attempted only once before, back in 2010 on this very unit. The two astronauts who tackled the job three years ago were in Mission Control, offering guidance. Mastracchio promised to bring back a wire tie installed on the pump by the previous spacewalkers. "Oh, awesome, thanks Rick," replied the astronaut in Mission Control who put it on.

The 354-kilogram pump is about the size of a double-door refrigerator and extremely cumbersome to handle, with plumbing full of toxic ammonia. Any traces of ammonia on the spacesuits have to be dissipated by the time the astronauts go back inside, to avoid further contamination.

NASA's plan initially called for the pump to be disconnected Saturday, pulled out Monday and a fresh spare put in, and then all the hookups of the new pump completed Wednesday in what would be the first Christmas spacewalk ever. But if the work is finished on the first two spacewalks, the third won't be needed.

In the days following the Dec. 11 breakdown, flight controllers attempted in vain to fix the bad valve through remote commanding. Then they tried using a different valve to regulate the temperature of the overly cold loop, with some success. But last Tuesday, NASA decided the situation was severe enough to press ahead with the spacewalks. Although the astronauts were safe and comfortable, NASA did not want to risk another failure and a potential loss of the entire cooling system, needed to radiate the heat generated by on-board equipment.

NASA delayed a delivery mission from Wallops Island, Virginia, to accommodate the spacewalks. That flight by the private firm Orbital Sciences Corp., which should have occurred this past week, is now targeted for Jan. 7.

Until Saturday, U.S. spacewalks had been on hold since July, when an Italian astronaut's helmet was flooded with water from the cooling system of his suit. Luca Parmitano barely got back inside alive.

Engineers traced the problem to a device in the suit that turned out to be contaminated — how and why, no one yet knows.

For Saturday's spacewalk, Hopkins wore Parmitano's suit, albeit with newly installed and thoroughly tested components.

Just in case, NASA had Mastracchio and Hopkins build snorkels out of plastic tubing from their suits, before going out. The snorkels will be used in case water starts building up in their helmets. They also put absorbent pads in their helmets; the pads were launched from Earth following the July scare.

Besides the two Americans, three Russians and one Japanese are living on the space station, all men.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Indiegogo stops B.C. woman's 'Operation Iran' campaign

A Vancouver woman trying to raise money online to fund a trip to Iran to reunite with her estranged mother says her fundraising account was frozen because of U.S. sanctions against that country.

Alaleh Sahabi, 29, says she is worried she will lose the money she has already raised on the U.S.-based crowdsourcing website Indiegogo.

She hasn't seen her mother in more than 20 years and managed to get in touch with her via Facebook. She then launched an Indiegogo campaign called "Operation Iran," and family and friends donated more than $800.

But last week, Sahabi says an Indiegogo staffer contacted her and told her to change the account name and sign an agreement pledging that "no funds from the campaign shall be sued to finance travel to or activities in Iran."

It also asks her to promise she isn't an official or agent of the government of Iran and that the campaign was independent of that government.

"They're making me jump through hoops for something that's … a little bit ridiculous," Sahabi told CBC News.

"I think this whole situation is a little bit racist because I'm a Canadian and you're basically calling me a criminal and making me sign this thing saying I'm not a criminal."

Sahabi said she hasn't heard from Indiegogo about what will happen to the funds.

Indiegogo did not reply to CBC News' request for an interview.

See the "compliance certificate" from Indiegogo here

Indiegogo Compliance Certification Iran 2013 (PDF)
Indiegogo Compliance Certification Iran 2013 (Text)

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

3D print your next meal

3D printing is poised to revolutionize not only the manufacturing world but the food industry as well, says CBC science columnist Torah Kachur.

She thinks the Foodini 3D printer may just be the thing to get the nerdy chef on your list this year. Boasting the ability to print a pizza or a chocolate replica of your child's face, the Foodini, manufactured by Barcelona-based Natural Machines, promises to transform your kitchen into a hub for clever food creations.

CBC science columnist Torah Kachur.

"You can eat your mistakes, so that's good," she told CBC Ottawa's All in a Day. "And you'd have just the holiday treats that are the envy of everyone on the block."

Kachur says 3D printing of food is not without its drawbacks, as the preparation can be elaborate and there still isn't a robot to do the cooking or cleaning of your printed masterpieces.

But she adds that using the technology is simpler than you might think. 

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

NASA astronauts finish spacewalk after repairs

Astronauts removed an old space station pump Saturday, sailing through the first of a series of urgent repair spacewalks to revive a crippled cooling line.

The two Americans on the crew, Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins, successfully pulled out the ammonia pump with a bad valve — well ahead of schedule. That task had been planned for the next spacewalk on Monday.

"An early Christmas," observed Mission Control as Mastracchio tugged the refrigerator-size pump away from its nesting spot.

If Mastracchio and Hopkins keep up the quick work, two spacewalks may be enough to complete the installation of a spare pump and a third spacewalk will not be needed on Christmas Day as originally anticipated.

Mission Control wanted to keep the spacewalkers out even longer Saturday to get even further ahead, but a cold and uncomfortable Mastracchio requested to go back. The spacewalk ended after 5 1/2 hours, an hour short on time but satisfyingly long on content.

This May 23, 2010 image provided by NASA shows the International Space Station with the Earth in the background. The first of a series of urgent spacewalks to fix a broken cooling line takes place today. (NASA/Associated Press)

The breakdown 10 days earlier left one of two identical cooling loops too cold and forced the astronauts to turn off all nonessential equipment inside the orbiting lab, bringing scientific research to a near-halt and leaving the station in a vulnerable state.

Mastracchio managed to unhook all four ammonia fluid lines on the pump with relative ease, occasionally releasing a flurry of frozen ammonia flakes that brushed against his suit. Next he undid the electrical connections. A small O-ring floated away, but he managed to retrieve it.

"I got it, I got it, I got it. Barely," Mastracchio said as he stretched out his hand.

"Don't let that go, that's a stocking stuffer," Mission Control replied.

"Don't tell my wife," Mastracchio said, chuckling, as he put it in a small pouch for trash.

False alarm

Mastracchio, a seven-time spacewalker, and Hopkins, making his first, wore extra safety gear as they worked outside. NASA wanted to prevent a recurrence of the helmet flooding that nearly drowned an Italian astronaut last summer, so Saturday's spacewalkers had snorkels in their suits and water-absorbent pads in their helmets.

Midway through the spacewalk, the spacewalkers were still dry. But Mastracchio's toes were so cold that he had to crank up the heat in his boots. Mission Control worried aloud whether it was wise to stretch the spacewalk from the planned 6 ½ hours to seven hours or more to get ahead, given Mastracchio's discomfort.

Not quite two hours later, Mastracchio had enough as he clutched the old pump. When Mission Control suggested even more get-ahead chores, he replied, "I'd like to stow this old module and kind of clean up and call it a day." He said a couple of things were bothering him, not just temperature, and declined to elaborate when asked by Mission Control what was wrong.

Flight controllers obliged him. Once the old pump was secured to a temporary location, the spacewalkers started gathering up their tools to go in.

Adding to the excitement 418 kilometres up, a smoke alarm went off in the space station as the astronauts toiled outside. It was quickly found to be a false alarm.

Spacewalks on hold since July

The pump replacement is a huge undertaking attempted only once before, back in 2010 on this very unit. The two astronauts who tackled the job three years ago were in Mission Control, offering guidance. Mastracchio promised to bring back a wire tie installed on the pump by the previous spacewalkers. "Oh, awesome, thanks Rick," replied the astronaut in Mission Control who put it on.

The 354-kilogram pump is about the size of a double-door refrigerator and extremely cumbersome to handle, with plumbing full of toxic ammonia. Any traces of ammonia on the spacesuits have to be dissipated by the time the astronauts go back inside, to avoid further contamination.

NASA's plan initially called for the pump to be disconnected Saturday, pulled out Monday and a fresh spare put in, and then all the hookups of the new pump completed Wednesday in what would be the first Christmas spacewalk ever. But if the work is finished on the first two spacewalks, the third won't be needed.

In the days following the Dec. 11 breakdown, flight controllers attempted in vain to fix the bad valve through remote commanding. Then they tried using a different valve to regulate the temperature of the overly cold loop, with some success. But last Tuesday, NASA decided the situation was severe enough to press ahead with the spacewalks. Although the astronauts were safe and comfortable, NASA did not want to risk another failure and a potential loss of the entire cooling system, needed to radiate the heat generated by on-board equipment.

NASA delayed a delivery mission from Wallops Island, Virginia, to accommodate the spacewalks. That flight by the private firm Orbital Sciences Corp., which should have occurred this past week, is now targeted for Jan. 7.

Until Saturday, U.S. spacewalks had been on hold since July, when an Italian astronaut's helmet was flooded with water from the cooling system of his suit. Luca Parmitano barely got back inside alive.

Engineers traced the problem to a device in the suit that turned out to be contaminated — how and why, no one yet knows.

For Saturday's spacewalk, Hopkins wore Parmitano's suit, albeit with newly installed and thoroughly tested components.

Just in case, NASA had Mastracchio and Hopkins build snorkels out of plastic tubing from their suits, before going out. The snorkels will be used in case water starts building up in their helmets. They also put absorbent pads in their helmets; the pads were launched from Earth following the July scare.

Besides the two Americans, three Russians and one Japanese are living on the space station, all men.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

U.S. begins killing barred owls to help spotted owl

An experiment to see if killing invasive barred owls will help the threatened northern spotted owl reverse its decline toward extinction is underway in the forests of Northern California.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Friday that specially trained biologists have shot 26 barred owls in a study area on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation northeast of Arcata, Calif.

They plan to remove as many as 118 barred owls from the area, keeping the 55 known barred owl nesting sites open over the next five years to see if spotted owls increase, said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Robin Bown. Contractors go to an area that barred owls are known to be in, play a digital caller to attract them, and shoot the birds with a shotgun.

The service is spending $3.5 million over six years to remove 3,600 barred owls from sites in Oregon, Washington and California.

Barred owls migrated from the East in the 1950s and have become the single biggest threat to spotted owl survival.

Major cutbacks in logging in old growth forest that spotted owls prefer as habitat have not turned around their population decline, and scientists want to see if removing competition from the more aggressive barred owl will make a difference.

In British Columbia, the northern extent of the northern spotted owl's range, the provincial government approved the shooting of barred owls earlier in 2013. The provincial government had previously tried relocating the invasive owls but, with only an estimated 10 spotted owls remaining in the wild in southwestern B.C., a new policy authorizing the removal of barred owls within 5 kilometres of spotted owl territory went into effect in January.

Under the U.S. program, barred owl removal at research sites in Oregon and Washington state is set to begin next fall.

By then, the group Friends of Animals hopes to persuade a federal judge to issue a court order stopping the experiment in the U.S.

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif., argues the permits for killing barred owls issued under the Migratory Bird Act are invalid. The research does not benefit the barred owl, said Friends of Animals attorney Michael Harris.

It is not unusual to kill one species to help a threatened or endangered one: Cormorants and sea lions are regularly killed to help salmon.

Bown said blood and genetic samples are taken from each barred owl that is killed, and the frozen carcasses are sent to the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, where they are available for further research.

Among other things, scientists are checking the barred owls for toxins from prey contaminated with rat poison put out by illegal marijuana growers to protect their crops. Scientists hope to get a better picture of whether the rat poison is killing spotted owls, which eat similar prey. Scientists rarely get a dead spotted owl they can test for toxins.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Most potent greenhouse gas found in atmosphere

A long-lived greenhouse gas more potent than any other — at least by one measure — has been detected in the atmosphere by Canadian researchers.

Perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) has a radiative efficiency of 0.86 — the highest of any chemical found to date, reported chemists from the University of Toronto in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters. Radiative efficiency is one measure of a chemical's effectiveness at warming the climate, per part per billion of volume.

Greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by absorbing and trapping heat that would otherwise escape from the atmosphere. The biggest contributor to climate change is carbon dioxide because its concentrations are so high — 393.1 parts per million in 2012 — and growing, thanks to human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels. However, many other gases with smaller concentrations also contribute.

Concentrations of PFTBA in the atmosphere are very small — about 0.18 parts per trillion by volume in the atmosphere, at least in Toronto, where it was detected.

"We recognize that it's very low," acknowledged Angela Hong, a PhD student at the University of Toronto's department of chemistry and the lead author of the paper.

But even though the overall contribution of PFTBA is small compared to that of major greenhouse gases such carbon dioxide and methane, because it is so powerful, its effect is "on the same scale as some of the gases that the monitoring community is aware of."

Those include gases recognized by the Kyoto protocol, such as nitrogen trifluoride, and various chloroflurocarbons (CFCs).

Chemical sold for 30 years

According to 3M, a producer of PFTBA, the chemical has been sold for more than 30 years, mainly for cooling semiconductor processing equipment and specialized military equipment such as electronic radar and guidance systems. It is effective at transferring heat away from electronic components, and is stable, non-flammable, non-toxic, and doesn't conduct electricity.

The greenhouse gas PFTBA has an average lifespan of about 500 years in the lower atmosphere. (The Associated Press)

​

The chemical has long been known to have the potential to cause damage to the ozone layer. But up until now its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere had not been measured, nor had it been detected in the atmosphere.

The reason PFTBA is so potent compared to other greenhouse gases is that it absorbs heat that would normally escape from the atmosphere, Hong said.

Heat or infrared radiation comes in different colours, and each greenhouse gas, including carbon dioxide, only absorbs certain colours of heat. The other colours pass right through.

PFTBA happens to absorb the colours that other greenhouse gases don't.

"If you're suddenly going to add a greenhouse gas and it absorbs in that region," Hong said, "it's going to be very potent."

Hong said PFTBA is sometimes used as a solvent for specialized chemical reactions. When her supervisor, University of Toronto chemistry professor Scott Mabury found a bucket of it in the chemistry building, he wondered if it might be getting into the atmosphere.

Cora Young, a member of his research team who is now at Memorial University in St. John's started by studying the molecule's properties, discovering its record-breaking radiative efficiency.

Detected at 3 sites in Toronto

Hong then tried to find out if she could detect any of it in the air. She used a pump to suck in air from the University of Toronto campus, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and Woodbine Beach. She condensed and concentrated the samples by cooling them to very cold temperatures. She then used a technique that separates chemicals roughly by weight.

Each molecule of PFTBA is about 15 to 25 times heavier than molecules of most gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide. The separated gases were fed into a mass spectrometer, which breaks up the molecules into pieces that produce a characteristic fingerprint for that gas.

The PFTBA was found in all samples, including those upwind from the University of Toronto, suggesting that it wasn't just coming from the chemistry building.

However, Hong acknowledged that the measurements were local and not representative of the global average concentrations of PFTBA.

Its effect is far more intense if its effect per molecule is considered, since it is about 15 times heavier than carbon dioxide, and therefore there are far fewer molecules of PFTBA than carbon dioxide per kilogram.

Because many greenhouse gases are far lighter than PFTBA, some of them remain more potent greenhouse gases than PFTBA when a kilogram of each gas is compared, rather than a single molecule. For example, over 100 years, each kilogram of PFTBA is expected to have the potential to warm the climate as much as 7,100 kilograms of carbon dioxide, whereas each kilogram of nitrogen trifluoride can warm the atmosphere as much as 16,100 kilograms of carbon dioxide, the paper reported.

Unfortunately, PFTBA survives hundreds of years in the atmosphere, which means its effects are long-lasting.

Fortunately, its use has been regulated under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program that promotes alternatives to chemicals that deplete the ozone layer.

"That regulation stipulates that PFCs [the class of chemical that PFTBA belongs to] should be used only where there are no other alternatives on the basis of performance and safety," said a statement from 3M. "3M adheres to that policy globally."

It added that the company "has worked to limit the use of these materials to non-emissive applications" and emphasized that the concentration of PFTBA found in the atmosphere is very low.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

3D print your next meal

3D printing is poised to revolutionize not only the manufacturing world but the food industry as well, says CBC science columnist Torah Kachur.

She thinks the Foodini 3D printer may just be the thing to get the nerdy chef on your list this year. Boasting the ability to print a pizza or a chocolate replica of your child's face, the Foodini, manufactured by Barcelona-based Natural Machines, promises to transform your kitchen into a hub for clever food creations.

CBC science columnist Torah Kachur.

"You can eat your mistakes, so that's good," she told CBC Ottawa's All in a Day. "And you'd have just the holiday treats that are the envy of everyone on the block."

Kachur says 3D printing of food is not without its drawbacks, as the preparation can be elaborate and there still isn't a robot to do the cooking or cleaning of your printed masterpieces.

But she adds that using the technology is simpler than you might think. 

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

NASA astronauts begin urgent spacewalking repairs

Two NASA astronauts, their spacesuits newly modified with snorkels in case of another water leak, floated outside the International Space Station on Saturday to begin a marathon three-day task to fix the outpost's cooling system.

The spacewalk, which is being broadcast live on NASA Television, is the first for NASA since July when the spacesuit helmet worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano began filling with water, a situation that could have caused him to drown.

Saturday's spacewalk was prompted by the Dec. 11 shutdown of one of the station's two ammonia cooling systems, which forced the crew to turn off non-essential equipment and shut down dozens of science experiments.

While the six-member crew is not in danger, the remaining cooling system cannot support the three laboratories and other modules on the U.S. side of the $100 billion station, a project of 15 nations. The Russian side of the station has a separate cooling system.

Engineers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston tried devising ways to bypass a suspected faulty pump valve, but with time running short, managers decided to have astronauts replace the pump, located outside the station, with a spare.

The work is expected to take station flight engineers Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins three spacewalks to complete, the first of which began at 7:01 a.m. ET on Saturday as the station sailed 418 kilometres over the southern Atlantic Ocean.

"Beautiful day. Awesome view," Mastracchio, a veteran of six spacewalks, said as opened the airlock's hatch to begin the planned 6.5-hour outing.

He and Hopkins wore spacesuits that were modified to protect them from another possible water leak. The problem in July was traced to contamination in piece of equipment called a fan pump separator, which circulates water and air in the spacesuit and removes moisture from air.

How the water-separator portion of the device became clogged remains under investigation, but NASA managers say they are confident the problem will not reoccur during Saturday's spacewalk.

Hopkins, who is making his first spacewalk, is wearing Parmitano's spacesuit, but it has been outfitted with a new fan pump separator.

In addition, both Hopkins and Mastracchio rigged their helmets with homemade snorkels, fabricated out of pieces of plastic tubing and Velcro, which they can use for breathing in case of another water leak.

The helmets also now include water-absorbent pads that can hold up to 800 millilitres of water, said NASA's lead spacewalk officer Allison Bolinger.

The pads are attached to the back of the astronauts' helmets. During the spacewalk, Mastracchio and Hopkins periodically will test if the pads are squishy by leaning their heads back.

"This is our first line of defense," Bolinger told reporters during a press conference on Wednesday.

"As soon as the crewmember senses squishiness ... that's the sign that there is a problem in the (spacesuit) and it's time to come inside," she said.

During Saturday's spacewalk, Mastracchio and Hopkins are expected to prepare the 354-kilogram, 1.5-metre wide cooling system pump for removal. A spare will be installed during two more spacewalks, scheduled for Monday and Wednesday.

The failed pump, which is located on a pallet on the right side of the station's external truss, will be stored outside the station for possible future repair and reuse.

It was installed in 2010 during an unexpectedly difficult series of spacewalks by astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson.

"What makes this pump very difficult [to work on] are [the] fluid disconnects because they are so large and they are pressurized and they contain liquid ammonia, so that's a hazard for us if it were to come in contact with us or our suits," Caldwell Tyson said in an interview with a NASA TV mission commentator.

Maintaining focus also can be a challenge, she added. "When you're on one of those pallets, you really have that sensation that you are sticking out on the edge of a skyscraper. Especially when you look down, you see your feet and then you see the Earth going [28,164 km/h] beneath you, it really does get your attention," Caldwell Dyson said.

"You tend to slow down and be a lot more careful when you have a backdrop like that," she said.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Elk rescued after Christmas lights, candy canes get stuck in antlers

An elk that got tangled up in some Christmas lights and decorations put on an unusual holiday display this week for Banff residents. 

The bull elk was spotted wandering near the Alberta mountain town with lights and candy cane ornaments strung up in his antlers. 

Parks Canada, which responded to a resident's call, tranquillized the elk to get him untangled. About 4½​ metres of lights were trailing behind him. 

"We thought that it could get wrapped up in its legs and cause some injury and/or get wrapped up in a bush," said resource management officer Blair Fyten. 

"This elk is one that frequents the edge of the town site and we just thought there could be another possibility that he could find himself wrapped up in some more Christmas lights," said Fyten. "So instead of putting him through the drugging situation again we decided to cut his antlers off." 

The elk is doing fine without his antlers, said Fyten. Elk lose their antlers every year, normally around March or April.

Antlers are primarily used for asserting dominance to secure a mate, which normally happens in September.

"At this time of year, antlers don't serve a lot of purpose, so that's why we decided to cut them off," said Fyten.

"Every couple of years we'll get an animal that's got Christmas lights on him and sometimes they're able to shed the lights themselves, and sometimes they're wrapped up so tight that we have to intervene."

This year, at least two animals have been trapped in Christmas lights, he said. 

Parks Canada is warning residents who live in areas frequented by deer or elk to string lights onto their houses rather than trees or shrubs, where some wildlife feed.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Most potent greenhouse gas found in atmosphere

A long-lived greenhouse gas more potent than any other — at least by one measure — has been detected in the atmosphere by Canadian researchers.

Perfluorotributylamine (PFTBA) has a radiative efficiency of 0.86 — the highest of any chemical found to date, reported chemists from the University of Toronto in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters. Radiative efficiency is one measure of a chemical's effectiveness at warming the climate, per part per billion of volume.

Greenhouse gases make the Earth warmer by absorbing and trapping heat that would otherwise escape from the atmosphere. The biggest contributor to climate change is carbon dioxide because its concentrations are so high — 393.1 parts per million in 2012 — and growing, thanks to human activity such as the burning of fossil fuels. However, many other gases with smaller concentrations also contribute.

Concentrations of PFTBA in the atmosphere are very small — about 0.18 parts per trillion by volume in the atmosphere, at least in Toronto, where it was detected.

"We recognize that it's very low," acknowledged Angela Hong, a PhD student at the University of Toronto's department of chemistry and the lead author of the paper.

But even though the overall contribution of PFTBA is small compared to that of major greenhouse gases such carbon dioxide and methane, because it is so powerful, its effect is "on the same scale as some of the gases that the monitoring community is aware of."

Those include gases recognized by the Kyoto protocol, such as nitrogen trifluoride, and various chloroflurocarbons (CFCs).

Chemical sold for 30 years

According to 3M, a producer of PFTBA, the chemical has been sold for more than 30 years, mainly for cooling semiconductor processing equipment and specialized military equipment such as electronic radar and guidance systems. It is effective at transferring heat away from electronic components, and is stable, non-flammable, non-toxic, and doesn't conduct electricity.

The greenhouse gas PFTBA has an average lifespan of about 500 years in the lower atmosphere. (The Associated Press)

​

The chemical has long been known to have the potential to cause damage to the ozone layer. But up until now its ability to trap heat in the atmosphere had not been measured, nor had it been detected in the atmosphere.

The reason PFTBA is so potent compared to other greenhouse gases is that it absorbs heat that would normally escape from the atmosphere, Hong said.

Heat or infrared radiation comes in different colours, and each greenhouse gas, including carbon dioxide, only absorbs certain colours of heat. The other colours pass right through.

PFTBA happens to absorb the colours that other greenhouse gases don't.

"If you're suddenly going to add a greenhouse gas and it absorbs in that region," Hong said, "it's going to be very potent."

Hong said PFTBA is sometimes used as a solvent for specialized chemical reactions. When her supervisor, University of Toronto chemistry professor Scott Mabury found a bucket of it in the chemistry building, he wondered if it might be getting into the atmosphere.

Cora Young, a member of his research team who is now at Memorial University in St. John's started by studying the molecule's properties, discovering its record-breaking radiative efficiency.

Detected at 3 sites in Toronto

Hong then tried to find out if she could detect any of it in the air. She used a pump to suck in air from the University of Toronto campus, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery and Woodbine Beach. She condensed and concentrated the samples by cooling them to very cold temperatures. She then used a technique that separates chemicals roughly by weight.

Each molecule of PFTBA is about 15 to 25 times heavier than molecules of most gases in the atmosphere, including carbon dioxide. The separated gases were fed into a mass spectrometer, which breaks up the molecules into pieces that produce a characteristic fingerprint for that gas.

The PFTBA was found in all samples, including those upwind from the University of Toronto, suggesting that it wasn't just coming from the chemistry building.

However, Hong acknowledged that the measurements were local and not representative of the global average concentrations of PFTBA.

Its effect is far more intense if its effect per molecule is considered, since it is about 15 times heavier than carbon dioxide, and therefore there are far fewer molecules of PFTBA than carbon dioxide per kilogram.

Because many greenhouse gases are far lighter than PFTBA, some of them remain more potent greenhouse gases than PFTBA when a kilogram of each gas is compared, rather than a single molecule. For example, over 100 years, each kilogram of PFTBA is expected to have the potential to warm the climate as much as 7,100 kilograms of carbon dioxide, whereas each kilogram of nitrogen trifluoride can warm the atmosphere as much as 16,100 kilograms of carbon dioxide, the paper reported.

Unfortunately, PFTBA survives hundreds of years in the atmosphere, which means its effects are long-lasting.

Fortunately, its use has been regulated under a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program that promotes alternatives to chemicals that deplete the ozone layer.

"That regulation stipulates that PFCs [the class of chemical that PFTBA belongs to] should be used only where there are no other alternatives on the basis of performance and safety," said a statement from 3M. "3M adheres to that policy globally."

It added that the company "has worked to limit the use of these materials to non-emissive applications" and emphasized that the concentration of PFTBA found in the atmosphere is very low.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Robot shares thoughts on weightlessness during space chat

On mobile? Click here to view the video.

The first humanoid robot in space made small talk with a Japanese astronaut and said it had no problem with zero gravity on the International Space Station.

Footage released by the robot's developers on Friday showed Kirobo performing its first mission on the station, talking in Japanese with astronaut Koichi Wakata to test its autonomous conversation functions.

Wakata says he's glad to meet Kirobo, and asks the robotic companion how it feels about being in a zero-gravity environment.

Kirobo and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata made small talk in Japanese at the International Space Station. (Associated Press/Kirobo Robot Project)

"I'm used to it now, no problem at all," Kirobo quips.

Kirobo is programmed to process questions and select words from its vocabulary to construct an answer, instead of giving pre-programmed responses to specific questions.

The creator of the robot, Tomotaka Takahashi, said the autonomous functions meant nobody knew how well Kirobo would be able to answer Wakata's questions.

Though Kirobo had some awkward pauses and Wakata spoke more slowly than usual at times in their chat earlier this month, Takahashi said conversations smoothed out over time.

"Through layers of communication, we were able to observe the initial stages of a relationship begin to develop between a human and a robot, and I think that was our biggest success" he said.

Kirobo took off from Japan's Tanegashima Space Center for the International Space Station this summer aboard a space cargo transporter. Wakata arrived in November and will assume command of the station in March.

The project is a joint endeavor between advertising company Dentsu, automaker Toyota, and Takahashi at the University of Tokyo's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology.

Experiments with Kirobo will continue until it returns to Earth at the end of 2014.

In the meantime, Kirobo says he wants to ask Santa for a toy rocket this Christmas.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Apple's Mac Pro desktop computer goes on sale

New

Device on sale in Canada starting at $3,099

The Associated Press Posted: Dec 19, 2013 9:22 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 19, 2013 9:43 AM ET

External Links

(Note: CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external links.)

Apple started taking orders for its high-end Mac Pro desktop computer today.

The black, cylinder-shaped machine is being assembled in Austin, Texas, the first Apple device to be partially made domestically as part of the company's pledge to move manufacturing of an existing Mac line to the U.S.

The enclosure for the computer is about 25 centimetres tall and one-eighth the volume of the previous, boxy model. (Apple)

The Mac Pro, long considered a work horse among graphics and film professionals, is now a cylindrical device one-eighth the volume of the previous, boxy model and is about 25 centimetres tall. The lowest-end quad-core version starts at $3,099 in Canada, the six-core version starts at $4,099, and eight- and 12-core versions are also available. The computer can also be configured with more memory and other attributes.

Apple isn't making the Pro available for immediate pick up at a retail store. Customers must order online or at a store for delivery or store pickup. Initial orders will be shipped right away, but backups of days or weeks are possible.

With a file from CBC News

Comments on this story are pre-moderated. Before they appear comments are reviewed by moderators to ensure they meet our submission guidelines. Comments are welcome while open. We reserve the right to close comments at any time.

Submission Policy

Note: The CBC does not necessarily endorse any of the views posted. By submitting your comments, you acknowledge that CBC has the right to reproduce, broadcast and publicize those comments or any part thereof in any manner whatsoever. Please note that comments are moderated and published according to our submission guidelines.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More