Fed2 Star - July 15, 2018 - page 1 (of 2)
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Fiona Craig
Jul 15, 2018, 6:06:59 AM7/15/18
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Fed2 Star
Earthdate July 15, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
In this week’s Fed2 Star: not much to write about, space telescope nears
the end of its life, how to get rid of space junk, gang of rhino
poachers mauled to death by lions, using the wrong typeface proved
politician’s document was a fake, idiot criminal identified victim
before she could identify him, idiot tourists get up close and personal
with rivers of lava, banknotes in an ATM destroyed by rats, and a
complete archive of the comet pictures taken by Rosetta. Plus Winding
Down, the tech newsletter from Alan.
Official News part one
ALL QUIET ON THE DATASPACE FRONT
by Hazed
The summer lull is about to start, and while I have plenty of real life
news stories for you this week, I expect it to get harder to find things
to write about as the weeks goes on.
This is not helped by the fact that Alan is still under the weather
because of his shingles, and it is likely to be several more weeks (at
least) before he is well enough to do anything.
We’ve been sweltering through a heat wave in England the last few weeks,
with London in particular being very hot and sticky, so I’m not exactly
at my creative peak either.
All of which means I don’t have anything Fed-related to write about.
You’ll just have to content yourself with the usual fare of stories
about space, tales of dumb criminals, and pictures of the week.
REAL LIFE NEWS: KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE IS RUNNING OUT OF FUEL
by Hazed
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered thousands of planets
orbiting other stars since it was launched in 2009. But now it may be
reaching the end of its life, because it is running low on fuel.
Kepler staff announced last week that they had “received an indication
that the spacecraft fuel tank is running very low” and “placed the
spacecraft in a hibernation-like state in preparation to download the
science data collected in its latest observation campaign.”
The telescope doesn’t have a gas gauge so it’s impossible to determine
exactly how much fuel remains in the tank. The plan is to keep it in
hibernation until August, then turn it back on and use the Deep Space
Network to transfer all its mission data back to Earth. Then, assuming
that all goes well, they will start another observation campaign using
the remaining fuel.
Kepler is situated in deep space, trailing Earth’s orbit about 94
million miles away. There is no risk of it hitting anything out there,
so when it does die it can just be left to drift on its own.
Source:
https://gizmodo.com/nasas-kepler-space-telescope-is-running-out-of-fuel-and-1827419257
REAL LIFE NEWS: A PROJECT TO DEAL WITH SPACE DEBRIS
by Hazed
There is a big problem in Earth orbit – a whole lot of space junk that
poses a danger to satellites. Various projects have been suggested as a
way to deal with it, and a recent scheme, led by the UK, is now being
tested.
The RemoveDebris satellite was recently released from the International
Space Station using the station’s robotic arm. It consists of a net and
a harpoon.
For the next month to six weeks, ground controllers in Guildford in the
UK will monitor the satellite and check on its functions. Then it can
begin its experiments. It has been released with two small “cubesats”
which will be released and then can simulate space debris. For one of
these, RemoveDebris will demonstrate the laser ranging and camera
technology that will be needed to search for space junk. The other
cubesat will be snared by the net (hopefully).
The harpoon will be tested by extending an arm with a target attached to
its end.
All of these experiments will show whether this method is feasible to
capture and deal with space debris.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44550082
REAL LIFE NEWS: POACHERS GET EATEN BY LIONS
by Hazed
In a supreme example of poetic justice, a group of poachers who were
targeting rhinoceroses in South Africa have been found eaten by lions.
The remains of the poachers were thought to have been killed in the
early hours of the morning on Monday 2 July. They had been so severely
mauled it was impossible to tell how many poachers were killed, but Nick
Fox, who owns the eco reserve where they were found, said, “Judging from
the shoes and items found on the scene‚ I suspect it is about two or
maybe three (alleged poachers) who were killed. The remains were
scattered over a very wide area making it difficult to comb the scene
and get all the evidence.”
The items found along with the remains make it quite clear that they
were intent on killing rhinos and removing their horns. Fox said, “They
were armed with, amongst other things, a high-powered rifle with a
silencer, an axe, wire cutters and had food supplies for a number of days.”
Call it karma or cosmic balancing; all I can say it, good riddance!
Source:
https://www.sciencealert.com/gang-suspected-rhino-poachers-has-been-eaten-by-pride-lions-south-africa-sibuya-game-reserve-nick-fox
REAL LIFE NEWS: HOW THE WRONG TYPEFACE BROUGHT DOWN A PRIME MINISTER
by Hazed
Last year, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif was ousted from
his job on charges of corruption. What’s interesting is that a key part
of the evidence in the case against him was about the typeface used in a
document.
It hinged on a document that Sharif’s family produced which was meant to
distance the PM from questions about who owned four expensive London
properties. The document was dated 2006, but eagle-eyed investigators
appointed by the court noticed something dodgy about it: the typeface
used was Calibri, the default font used in Microsoft documents – but
that typeface didn’t become commercially available until after 2006!
Calibri first made its appearance in pre-release beta versions in 2004,
but was not commercially available until January 31 2007. Therefore the
document could not have been created in 2006, so was judged to be a forgery.
This was enough to prove the case against Sharif and oust him from office.
A typographer’s joke: Pakistan was then said to be “Sans Sharif.”
Source:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/how-a-microsoft-font-brought-down-pakistani-prime-minister-nawaz-sharif/article35828938/
Note: This story was published a year ago, but I only came across it
recently, and thought it was amusing enough to write about despite its age.
DUMB CRIMINAL OF THE WEEK: PUT IN A LINE-UP, HE IDENTIFIED HIMSELF
by Hazed
This dumb criminal managed to incriminate himself, which certainly made
the job of the police a lot easier.
A woman reported being sexually assaulted in the elevator of a Chicago
building, and based on her description, police thought they knew who the
culprit was. They nabbed Robert Skipper and brought him to the police
station, intending to put him in a line-up so the woman could identify him.
But when Skipper caught sight of the woman, he blurted out, “That’s her,
that’s the one I got, I stalk my prey.”
He also admitted to several other assaults that had been reported that
day, saying he was guilty of “groping all the girls”.
Skipper was arrested and charged with criminal sexual abuse, attempted
criminal sexual assault and unlawful restraint. He is in jail awaiting
trial.
Source: http://www.bnd.com/news/nation-world/national/article211088839.html
DUMB TOURISTS OF THE WEEK: VOLCANO SELFIES
by Hazed
The news out of Hawaii is shocking, with communities being evacuated as
the flow of lava from the erupting volcano encroaches. Police have
issued warnings that people should stay away from the lava. But tourists
are being arrested because they are ignoring the warnings.
The reason? They want to take volcano selfies. Yes, idiot tourists are
sneaking around the roadblocks and avoiding the checkpoints so they can
get up close and personal with the red hot lava.
At least 40 people, a mixture of tourists and locals, have been arrested
inside the lava zones, and are being charged with loitering.
Which is really dumb, because that lava is hot – it can be as hot as
1,200 degrees centigrade.
People put themselves in absurdly risky positions in pursuit of the
perfect selfie – which really is dumb – and worse, they put the people
who are in charge of keeping them safe at risk of injury or death when
they need to be rescued!
Source:
https://www.sciencealert.com/people-keep-risking-their-lives-to-take-lava-selfies-in-hawaii
Earthdate July 15, 2018
[This is a subscription mailing list. Details about how to stop
receiving it are at the foot of the email.]
For a fancy formatted version go the Fed2 Star website:
http://www.ibgames.net/fednews/current/index.html
In this week’s Fed2 Star: not much to write about, space telescope nears
the end of its life, how to get rid of space junk, gang of rhino
poachers mauled to death by lions, using the wrong typeface proved
politician’s document was a fake, idiot criminal identified victim
before she could identify him, idiot tourists get up close and personal
with rivers of lava, banknotes in an ATM destroyed by rats, and a
complete archive of the comet pictures taken by Rosetta. Plus Winding
Down, the tech newsletter from Alan.
Official News part one
ALL QUIET ON THE DATASPACE FRONT
by Hazed
The summer lull is about to start, and while I have plenty of real life
news stories for you this week, I expect it to get harder to find things
to write about as the weeks goes on.
This is not helped by the fact that Alan is still under the weather
because of his shingles, and it is likely to be several more weeks (at
least) before he is well enough to do anything.
We’ve been sweltering through a heat wave in England the last few weeks,
with London in particular being very hot and sticky, so I’m not exactly
at my creative peak either.
All of which means I don’t have anything Fed-related to write about.
You’ll just have to content yourself with the usual fare of stories
about space, tales of dumb criminals, and pictures of the week.
REAL LIFE NEWS: KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE IS RUNNING OUT OF FUEL
by Hazed
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered thousands of planets
orbiting other stars since it was launched in 2009. But now it may be
reaching the end of its life, because it is running low on fuel.
Kepler staff announced last week that they had “received an indication
that the spacecraft fuel tank is running very low” and “placed the
spacecraft in a hibernation-like state in preparation to download the
science data collected in its latest observation campaign.”
The telescope doesn’t have a gas gauge so it’s impossible to determine
exactly how much fuel remains in the tank. The plan is to keep it in
hibernation until August, then turn it back on and use the Deep Space
Network to transfer all its mission data back to Earth. Then, assuming
that all goes well, they will start another observation campaign using
the remaining fuel.
Kepler is situated in deep space, trailing Earth’s orbit about 94
million miles away. There is no risk of it hitting anything out there,
so when it does die it can just be left to drift on its own.
Source:
https://gizmodo.com/nasas-kepler-space-telescope-is-running-out-of-fuel-and-1827419257
REAL LIFE NEWS: A PROJECT TO DEAL WITH SPACE DEBRIS
by Hazed
There is a big problem in Earth orbit – a whole lot of space junk that
poses a danger to satellites. Various projects have been suggested as a
way to deal with it, and a recent scheme, led by the UK, is now being
tested.
The RemoveDebris satellite was recently released from the International
Space Station using the station’s robotic arm. It consists of a net and
a harpoon.
For the next month to six weeks, ground controllers in Guildford in the
UK will monitor the satellite and check on its functions. Then it can
begin its experiments. It has been released with two small “cubesats”
which will be released and then can simulate space debris. For one of
these, RemoveDebris will demonstrate the laser ranging and camera
technology that will be needed to search for space junk. The other
cubesat will be snared by the net (hopefully).
The harpoon will be tested by extending an arm with a target attached to
its end.
All of these experiments will show whether this method is feasible to
capture and deal with space debris.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-44550082
REAL LIFE NEWS: POACHERS GET EATEN BY LIONS
by Hazed
In a supreme example of poetic justice, a group of poachers who were
targeting rhinoceroses in South Africa have been found eaten by lions.
The remains of the poachers were thought to have been killed in the
early hours of the morning on Monday 2 July. They had been so severely
mauled it was impossible to tell how many poachers were killed, but Nick
Fox, who owns the eco reserve where they were found, said, “Judging from
the shoes and items found on the scene‚ I suspect it is about two or
maybe three (alleged poachers) who were killed. The remains were
scattered over a very wide area making it difficult to comb the scene
and get all the evidence.”
The items found along with the remains make it quite clear that they
were intent on killing rhinos and removing their horns. Fox said, “They
were armed with, amongst other things, a high-powered rifle with a
silencer, an axe, wire cutters and had food supplies for a number of days.”
Call it karma or cosmic balancing; all I can say it, good riddance!
Source:
https://www.sciencealert.com/gang-suspected-rhino-poachers-has-been-eaten-by-pride-lions-south-africa-sibuya-game-reserve-nick-fox
REAL LIFE NEWS: HOW THE WRONG TYPEFACE BROUGHT DOWN A PRIME MINISTER
by Hazed
Last year, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif was ousted from
his job on charges of corruption. What’s interesting is that a key part
of the evidence in the case against him was about the typeface used in a
document.
It hinged on a document that Sharif’s family produced which was meant to
distance the PM from questions about who owned four expensive London
properties. The document was dated 2006, but eagle-eyed investigators
appointed by the court noticed something dodgy about it: the typeface
used was Calibri, the default font used in Microsoft documents – but
that typeface didn’t become commercially available until after 2006!
Calibri first made its appearance in pre-release beta versions in 2004,
but was not commercially available until January 31 2007. Therefore the
document could not have been created in 2006, so was judged to be a forgery.
This was enough to prove the case against Sharif and oust him from office.
A typographer’s joke: Pakistan was then said to be “Sans Sharif.”
Source:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/how-a-microsoft-font-brought-down-pakistani-prime-minister-nawaz-sharif/article35828938/
Note: This story was published a year ago, but I only came across it
recently, and thought it was amusing enough to write about despite its age.
DUMB CRIMINAL OF THE WEEK: PUT IN A LINE-UP, HE IDENTIFIED HIMSELF
by Hazed
This dumb criminal managed to incriminate himself, which certainly made
the job of the police a lot easier.
A woman reported being sexually assaulted in the elevator of a Chicago
building, and based on her description, police thought they knew who the
culprit was. They nabbed Robert Skipper and brought him to the police
station, intending to put him in a line-up so the woman could identify him.
But when Skipper caught sight of the woman, he blurted out, “That’s her,
that’s the one I got, I stalk my prey.”
He also admitted to several other assaults that had been reported that
day, saying he was guilty of “groping all the girls”.
Skipper was arrested and charged with criminal sexual abuse, attempted
criminal sexual assault and unlawful restraint. He is in jail awaiting
trial.
Source: http://www.bnd.com/news/nation-world/national/article211088839.html
DUMB TOURISTS OF THE WEEK: VOLCANO SELFIES
by Hazed
The news out of Hawaii is shocking, with communities being evacuated as
the flow of lava from the erupting volcano encroaches. Police have
issued warnings that people should stay away from the lava. But tourists
are being arrested because they are ignoring the warnings.
The reason? They want to take volcano selfies. Yes, idiot tourists are
sneaking around the roadblocks and avoiding the checkpoints so they can
get up close and personal with the red hot lava.
At least 40 people, a mixture of tourists and locals, have been arrested
inside the lava zones, and are being charged with loitering.
Which is really dumb, because that lava is hot – it can be as hot as
1,200 degrees centigrade.
People put themselves in absurdly risky positions in pursuit of the
perfect selfie – which really is dumb – and worse, they put the people
who are in charge of keeping them safe at risk of injury or death when
they need to be rescued!
Source:
https://www.sciencealert.com/people-keep-risking-their-lives-to-take-lava-selfies-in-hawaii
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