As your faithful scribe, I welcome you all to another edition of Overnight News Digest.
I am most pleased to share this platform with side pocket, maggiejean, wader, rfall, JLM9999 and Neon Vincent as our editor-in-chief. I also wish to recognize our alumni editors palantir, Bentliberal, Oke, Interceptor7, and ScottyUrb along with annetteboardman as our guest editor.
Special thanks go to Magnifico for starting this venerable series.
Lead Off Story
Cosmic 1st: European Spacecraft Lands On Comet
Hundreds of millions of miles from Earth, a European spacecraft made history Wednesday by successfully landing on the icy, dusty surface of a speeding comet — an audacious first designed to answer big questions about the universe.
Indications were that the spacecraft touched down almost perfectly, save for an unplanned bounce, said Stephan Ulamec, head of the lander operation.
But thrusters that were meant to push the lander, called Philae, onto the surface, and harpoons that would have anchored it to the comet failed to deploy properly. Initial data from the spacecraft indicated that it lifted off again, turned and then came to rest.
"Today we didn't just land once; we maybe even landed twice," said Ulamac.
Scientists were still trying to fully understand what happened but so far most of the instruments are working fine and sending back data as hoped, he added.
msn
World News
Russia Sends Warships Towards Australia Before G20 Meeting
Russia has sent a fleet of warships towards Australia in an apparent display of muscle-flexing ahead of the G20 meeting amid tensions between the two countries over the MH17 crash.
Defence announced late on Wednesday it is "monitoring Russian naval vessels that are currently transiting through international waters to the north of Australia".
It stressed: "The movement of these vessels is entirely consistent with provisions under international law for military vessels to exercise freedom of navigation in international waters."
[...]
"Russian naval vessels have previously been deployed in conjunction with major international summits, such as the APEC meeting in Singapore in 2009. A warship from Russia's Pacific Fleet also accompanied former Russian President Medvedev's visit to San Francisco in 2010," its statement said.
[...]
It comes as Prime Minister Tony Abbott had a sharp meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing on the sidelines of the APEC summit, during which they discussed the MH17 crash.
Asked if it was a show of force, Air Marshall Binskin said: "You'd have to ask the Russians."
smh
.
O---O---O
.
Nato Reports Sightings Of Russian Tanks And Troops Entering Eastern Ukraine
Nato has observed columns of Russian tanks, artillery and troops entering eastern Ukraine in the past two days, the military alliance’s senior commander in Europe said.
Observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) reported on Tuesday seeing a convoy of 43 unmarked military lorries – five towing heavy artillery howitzers and another five with multiple rocket launchers – travelling into the rebel stronghold of Donetsk.
General Philip Breedlove said in Sofia: “Across the last two days we have seen the same thing that OSCE is reporting. We have seen columns of Russian equipment – primarily Russian tanks, Russian artillery, Russian air defence systems and Russian combat troops – entering into Ukraine.
“We do not have a good picture at this time of how many. We agree that there are multiple columns,” the US general added.
[...]
Moscow has consistently denied that it is involved in the fighting in east Ukraine. But it openly gives political backing to the self-declared separatist statelets, and it is unclear how else the rebels could have acquired the heavy weaponry typical of a regular army.
theguardian
.
O---O---O
.
Israel Approves 200 New East Jerusalem Settler Homes Amid Turmoil
An Israeli planning committee on Nov. 12 approved plans to build 200 homes in a Jewish settlement neighbourhood of annexed east Jerusalem, a city councillor told AFP.
Arab east Jerusalem has been shaken by months of clashes and city councillor Yosef Pepe Alalu told AFP that plans to build in the Ramot neighbourhood would cause further tensions.
"This is a new building plan and we are at the preliminary stage," said Alalu of the leftwing Meretz party.
"It is a decision which is going to cause great harm."
[...]
Israel seized east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It views the entire city as its "united, undivided capital" and does not see construction in the eastern sector as settlement activity.
The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as capital of their promised state and vehemently oppose any Israeli attempt to build or purchase property there
hurriyet
U.S. News
Obama’s Call For An Open Internet Puts Him At Odds With Regulators
Hours after President Obama called for the Federal Communications Commission to pass tougher regulations on high-speed Internet providers, the agency’s Democratic chairman told a group of business executives that he was moving in a different direction.
Huddled in an FCC conference room Monday with officials from major Web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Etsy, agency Chairman Tom Wheeler said he has preferred a more nuanced solution. That approach would deliver some of what Obama wants but also would address the concerns of the companies that provide Internet access to millions of Americans, such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
“What you want is what everyone wants: an open Internet that doesn’t affect your business,” a visibly frustrated Wheeler said at the meeting, according to four people who attended. “What I’ve got to figure out is how to split the baby.”
[...]
Wheeler, a former lobbyist for the cable and telecommunications industry, has floated proposals that aim to limit the ability of service providers to charge Web companies, such as Netflix or Google, to reach their customers. But critics have argued that his approach would give the providers too much leeway to favor some services over others.
Given the high stakes, White House aides had wrestled over whether Obama should publicly prod the FCC to adopt the strongest rules possible on the “net neutrality” issue. Ultimately, aides felt that a public stance would galvanize allies in Congress as well as young, tech-savvy progressives, a key part of the Democratic base, according to several people familiar with the matter. The decision to speak out also comes as Democrats are aggressively courting Silicon Valley in preparation for the 2016 campaigns.
wapo
.
O---O---O
.
U.S., China Reach 'Historic' Deal To Cut Emissions
The United States and China, the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases, announced new targets Wednesday to cut such emissions in a bid to halt climate change and persuade other nations to take equally ambitious measures ahead of a major climate treaty to be finalized next year.
The two nations have achieved "an historic agreement," President Obama said in a joint news conference here with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the final day of his three-day China visit. The deal represents "a major milestone in the U.S.-China relationship," said Obama in the Great Hall of the People. "It shows what's possible when we work together on an urgent global challenge."
[...]
China intends to peak carbon dioxide emissions around 2030, and increase the non-fossil fuel share of all energy to around 20% by 2030, said Obama, in what the White House called the first ever Chinese agreement to set a ceiling on its CO2 limits.
Republican Party criticism quickly followed, as Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the next majority leader, called it "unrealistic." The plan, McConnell said, "would ensure higher utility rates and far fewer jobs."
"Our economy can't take the president's ideological War on Coal that will increase the squeeze on middle-class families and struggling miners," McConnell said.
usatoday
.
O---O---O
.
Democrats Say Obama Must 'Go Big' On Immigration Relief
As Republicans threaten obstruction, lawsuits and even impeachment if the president acts on his own on immigration, Democrats urged him on Wednesday to make good on his promise to shield as many people as possible from deportation.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus, chaired by Reps. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), sent a memo to President Barack Obama asking for swift and comprehensive executive action on immigration.
"Expansive and robust action that addresses the economic, family, community and national problems we now face is urgently needed," the memo reads. "Republicans in Congress have made it clear they will not engage in a good faith effort to fix our broken immigration system. The president has the legal authority and moral imperative to provide relief for over 7 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the shadows."
Obama promised earlier this year that he would take executive action on immigration -- which could include protecting millions from deportation -- between the elections and the end of the year. After major Democratic losses last week put the Senate in control of Republicans, Obama said his plans were unchanged. But Republicans have said repeatedly since that should Obama act on his own, he would "poison the well" for any immigration reform, and some advocates fear that the president could be persuaded to scale or delay his plans.
The Progressive Caucus memo calls for Obama to create a new program that would allow undocumented immigrants to apply for relief, similar to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, or DACA, that allows undocumented young people who came to the U.S. as children to stay and work legally. The Progressive Caucus said that program should be open to those who would be eligible for legal status under a Senate-passed immigration bill; immediate family members of citizens, green card holders and DACA recipients; undocumented immigrants who are "regularly employed," such as farm workers; and people who are ineligible for DACA but meet its education requirements. They also called for Obama to expand DACA to eliminate age limits, cut off dates and other barriers that prevent some undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children or teenagers from applying.
huffpo
Science and Technology
The Best Of What's New [12 Categories]
Engineering
Kone Ultrarope: A Cable That Will Reshape Skylines
Of all the physical constraints that dictate our cityscapes, perhaps the most counterintuitive is the elevator cable. Very long standard cables become too heavy to haul, a limitation that restricts the height of buildings. But UltraRope, a new cable with a carbon-fiber core and high-friction coating, could double elevator heights to 3,280 feet. UltraRope weighs 80 percent less than a standard cable, with no loss in strength, and designers are already using it to build higher than ever; with UltraRope, the elevator shafts in the new Kingdom Tower in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, will reach a record 2,165 feet. The lighter material also helps new buildings reduce energy consumption by up to 45 percent.
Gadgets
Sony alpha 7S: A Camera That Sees In The Dark
The α7S is the first camera—DSLR or otherwise—that can capture images in almost complete darkness. It has a full-frame sensor that’s only 12.3 megapixels—about half the typical pixel density. The lower density allows for larger pixels that can capture more light. Because the camera body is a trim 1.9 inches, the sensor sits closer to the lens, which also permits light from oblique angles. In the end, the α7S boasts a peak sensitivity of ISO 409,600, which means that photographing a moonlit beach is as simple as point and shoot. $2,500 (body only).
Green
Newlight Technologies Aircarbon: Plastic from Thin Air
Typically, plastic is made by exposing hydrocarbons from fossil fuels to tremendous pressure and energy. Newlight’s first commercial plant, in California, captures methane generated by a dairy farm’s waste lagoon and transports it to a bioreactor. There, enzymes combine the gas with air to form a polymer. The resulting plastic, called AirCarbon, performs identically to most oil-based plastics but costs less—creating a market-driven solution to global warming. Companies have already signed on to use AirCarbon in their products, including KI desk chairs, Dell computer packaging, and Sprint smartphone cases.
popsci
.
O---O---O
.
Controlling Genes With Your Thoughts
It sounds like something from the scene in Star Wars where Master Yoda instructs the young Luke Skywalker to use the force to release his stricken X-Wing from the swamp: Marc Folcher and other researchers from the group led by Martin Fussenegger, Professor of Biotechnology and Bioengineering at the Department of Biosystems (D-BSSE) in Basel, have developed a novel gene regulation method that enables thought-specific brainwaves to control the conversion of genes into proteins -- called gene expression in technical terms.
"For the first time, we have been able to tap into human brainwaves, transfer them wirelessly to a gene network and regulate the expression of a gene depending on the type of thought. Being able to control gene expression via the power of thought is a dream that we've been chasing for over a decade," says Fussenegger.
A source of inspiration for the new thought-controlled gene regulation system was the game Mindflex, where the player wears a special headset with a sensor on the forehead that records brainwaves. The registered electroencephalogram (EEG) is then transferred into the playing environment. The EEG controls a fan that enables a small ball to be thought-guided through an obstacle course.
Wireless Transmission to Implant
The system, which the Basel-based bioengineers recently presented in the journal Nature Communications, also makes use of an EEG headset. The recorded brainwaves are analysed and wirelessly transmitted via Bluetooth to a controller, which in turn controls a field generator that generates an electromagnetic field; this supplies an implant with an induction current.
A light then literally goes on in the implant: an integrated LED lamp that emits light in the near-infrared range turns on and illuminates a culture chamber containing genetically modified cells. When the near-infrared light illuminates the cells, they start to produce the desired protein.
sciencedaily
.
O---O---O
.
A Band-Aid That Could Suck Bugs Out Of Your Wound
Medical engineers have long used nano-sized fibers as sturdy scaffolds for growing tissues. Now, researchers are developing nanofiber meshes that might suck bugs out of wounds and accelerate healing, they report here this week at the 61st annual AVS meeting. Scientists have injected cell-carrying nanofibers into wounds to jump-start tissue repair, but to design a truly smart dressing, they need to know how the material interacts with bacteria. After testing nanofibers of various sizes, researchers found that bugs transfer most easily to nanofibers with diameters that match the bacteria’s sizes. When the scientists placed nanofibers in a petri dish of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium involved in chronic infection, the bugs quickly attached themselves to 500-nanometer-wide fibers, but hardly onto fibers with larger diameters. When the researchers coated the nanofibers with different compounds and tested them on the bacteria Escherichia coli, also responsible for chronic wounds, the bugs formed bridges on fibers coated with allylamine, a colorless organic compound, but stayed away from fibers coated with acrylic acid. The researchers, who plan to test the meshes on composites that resemble human skin, hope that they will eventually lead to smart wound dressings that could prevent infections. Doctors could stick the nano–Band-Aid on a wound and simply peel it off to get rid of the germs.
sciencemag
Well, that's different...
Recurring Themes
Angry taxpayers and retail customers sometimes protest their debt by paying the bill with containers of coins (especially pennies), but what if a company did that to a customer? A court had ruled that Adriana's Insurance Services in Rancho Cucamonga, California, had unjustifiably ejected (and assaulted) 74-year-old Andres Carrasco from its office when he complained about a canceled policy, and ordered Adriana's to pay him about $21,000. Consequently, in August, the still-irritated company dropped off at least 16 buckets full of coins at the customer's lawyer's office.
newsoftheweird
Bill Moyers and Company:
Facing Down Corporate Election Greed
On Election Day, a small California city took on one of the biggest corporations in America… and declared victory.