News Stories

[Renegade334]

Antares rocket carrying supplies for the ISS blows up 6 seconds into launch.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A commercial supply ship bound for the International Space Station has exploded moments after liftoff.

Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned rocket blew up over the launch complex at Wallops Island, Virginia, just six seconds after liftoff.

The company says no one was believed to be hurt and the damage appeared to be limited to the facilities.

Flames could be seen shooting into the sky as the sun set.

The Cygnus cargo ship was loaded with 5,000 pounds of gear for the six people living on the space station. It was the fourth Cygnus bound for the orbiting lab; the first flew just over a year ago.

NASA is paying the Virginia-based Orbital Sciences and the California-based SpaceX company to keep the space station stocked in the post-shuttle era. This is the first disaster in that effort.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/NCWunnJXdm0

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Well, this one is just as spectacular as that Delta II failure a few years back that completely carbonized a NASA parking lot with car-sized burning debris. Sad to see the successful launch streak broken.

[Ithekro]

Come on people, its not rock...oh wait, it is rocket science.

[risingstar3110]

Originally Posted by Renegade334

Antares rocket carrying supplies for the ISS blows up 6 seconds into launch.

YouTube

https://youtu.be/NCWunnJXdm0

Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?

Well, this one is just as spectacular as that Delta II failure a few years back that completely carbonized a NASA parking lot with car-sized burning debris. Sad to see the successful launch streak broken.

Holy crap at that footage. I could see myself having nighmare standing underneath that flying rocket when it started to crash down.

[Yu Ominae]

Big stuff happened a few days ago in relation to the German fiancé of the dead transgendered woman.

http://m.philstar.com/314190/show/39...ee487ffe3c50/?

http://www.rappler.com/nation/73217-...ds-guard-award

----

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/113...y-deportation/

Sueselbeck's gonna be deported for his stunt, but some senators came to defend the guy...

[ganbaru]

The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here
http://www.theatlantic.com/internati...y-here/382031/

Over the years, Obama administration officials have described Netanyahu to me as recalcitrant, myopic, reactionary, obtuse, blustering, pompous, and “Aspergery.” (These are verbatim descriptions; I keep a running list.) But I had not previously heard Netanyahu described as a “chickenshit.” I thought I appreciated the implication of this description, but it turns out I didn’t have a full understanding. From time to time, current and former administration officials have described Netanyahu as a national leader who acts as though he is mayor of Jerusalem, which is to say, a no-vision small-timer who worries mainly about pleasing the hardest core of his political constituency. (President Obama, in interviews with me, has alluded to Netanyahu’s lack of political courage.)

“The good thing about Netanyahu is that he’s scared to launch wars,” the official said, expanding the definition of what a chickenshit Israeli prime minister looks like. “The bad thing about him is that he won’t do anything to reach an accommodation with the Palestinians or with the Sunni Arab states. The only thing he’s interested in is protecting himself from political defeat. He’s not [Yitzhak] Rabin, he’s not [Ariel] Sharon, he’s certainly no [Menachem] Begin. He’s got no guts.”

[LoveYouSaber]

Originally Posted by KiraYamatoFan

Badass 'til the very end and he is the definition of a large ham!

Nevertheless, it's nice to see Chow Yun-Fat always on the side of his homeland unlike *cough* Jackie Chan. Based on that article, I'm glad to see that Chow's old friends Tony Leung and Andy Lau also voiced support for the protesters.

And indeed us protesters are grateful that they are speaking out. There's also a few people from the entertainment industry who have been actively involved with the protests - like joining in and making speeches on stage. You're also spot on about Jackie Chan - it's not just that he sucks up to China too much, but he also doesn't use his brain much before speaking so what he says usually ends up being an embarrassment...

But on the other hand, I think these brave artists are a minority in the entertainment industry, because sadly, most do care about the China market more, so even if they do support the protest in their heart, it's quite unlikely they would voice their support.

[Xellos-_^]

Big stuff happened a few days ago in relation to the German fiancé of the dead transgendered woman.

http://m.philstar.com/314190/show/39...ee487ffe3c50/?

the guy is probably guilty but this "confrontation" smack of a publicity stunt.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

Big stuff happened a few days ago in relation to the German fiancé of the dead transgendered woman.

http://m.philstar.com/314190/show/39...ee487ffe3c50/?

http://www.rappler.com/nation/73217-...ds-guard-award

I don't disagree that it was the correct thing to do (or not do), but it looks like Filipinos have really, really low expectations of their soldiers. Seriously, decorated because he didn't fly into a berserker rage when a grieving, unarmed man shoved him and yelled at him?

[maplehurry]

Originally Posted by Anh_Minh

I don't disagree that it was the correct thing to do (or not do), but it looks like Filipinos have really, really low expectations of their soldiers. Seriously, decorated because he didn't fly into a berserker rage when a grieving, unarmed man shoved him and yelled at him?

Well, it makes a nice contrast to the US soldier who probably killed the trans because he couldn't hold his rage.

[Yu Ominae]

We're divided on if it's worth the time to award the soldier, but the majority are cool with it.

While we understand why the guy is upset, it doesn't justify his stunt. Bureau of Immigration is already going to deport him back to Berlin.

[GuZidi]

Over 1 million HK people sign up to support police

http://english.cntv.cn/2014/10/30/AR...19104456.shtml

HONG KONG, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- More than one million people in Hong Kong have signed a petition to support Hong Kong police force, announced the Alliance for Peace and Democracy here on Wednesday.

Robert Chow, spokesman of the alliance said the movement aims at collecting public opinion and demanding the Occupy Central protesters to return the roads to people, resume order and maintain rule of law.

The alliance said it had collected 1,097,176 signatures as of 7 p.m. on Oct. 29, of which 268,144 came from online and 829,032 from street stations.

"This proves that more and more Hong Kong people have begun to fight against the Occupy Central," said Robert Chow.

The Alliance for Peace and Democracy started the movement to collect signatures from Hong Kong citizens on Oct. 25, in order to support police's law enforcement efforts, and to resume social order. The movement will last 9 days.

[LoveYouSaber]

Originally Posted by GuZidi

Over 1 million HK people sign up to support police

http://english.cntv.cn/2014/10/30/AR...19104456.shtml

Not too surprised. But even if I did not question the authenticity (there are after all many people who don't support the Umbrella movement at all), I fear Chow is going to end up being a victim of his earlier "success" - he got 1.5 million signatures in August on the topic of anti-Occupy Central. It'll be difficult for him to explain if this time the number doesn't reach that earlier figure - especially considering the movement has occurred now and had brought real disruption.

Anyhow, the moral for me is this: the last time he came up with such a great number of signatures, we ended up getting a movement that was far larger than anyone's wildest dreams. So maybe he'll end up bringing luck to the democracy movement this time as well (coincidentally, that's what usually happens to Beijing every time they try to do something drastic that is anti-democracy in HK - it backfires spectacularly)

[Yu Ominae]

BBC podcast (a while ago) announced that a ROK soldier, a corporal, is sentenced to jail for 45 years for torturing and depriving a ROK army soldier in national service of food/drink and sleep for a month. He died from exhaustion on the spot.

Court charged him with homicide while prosecutors wanted the murder charges to stick. Victim's mom is upset over the court's decision.

[maplehurry]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

BBC podcast (a while ago) announced that a ROK soldier, a corporal, is sentenced to jail for 45 years for torturing and depriving a ROK army soldier in national service of food/drink and sleep for a month. He died from exhaustion on the spot.

Court charged him with homicide while prosecutors wanted the murder charges to stick. Victim's mom is upset over the court's decision.

Couldn't find anything on google. I will just assume it's about determining the corporal's intent to "train" the soldier or to bully the soldier.

Either way, 45 years is long enough for a lenient Canadian like me.

[Renegade334]

Looks like a tough week for the space exploration/exploitation industry...

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo exploded after takeoff, killing one crewmember.

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — A Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket exploded after taking off on a test flight in Southern California's Mojave Desert, a witness said Friday.

At least one was dead and another was injured, California Highway Patrol said. The SpaceShipTwo rocket is typically flown by a crew of two pilots and has been under development at Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert northeast of Los Angeles.

"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin Galactic tweeted Friday.

Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the crash, said the space tourism craft exploded after it was released from a plane that carries it to a high altitude.

The company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson would not say what happened other that it was working with authorities to determine the cause of the "accident."

Virgin Galactic has been the front-runner in the fledgling space-tourism industry.

SpaceShipTwo was designed to be carried aloft by a specially designed jet and then released before igniting its rocket for suborbital thrill ride into space and then a return to Earth as a glider.

Virgin Galactic, once it finished developing its rocket ship, was going to launch space tourism flights from the quarter-billion-dollar Spaceport America in southern New Mexico.

Link


And this comes hot on the heels of the Antares rocket crash (see top of the page), which is currently thought to have been caused by a faulty, Soviet-era (though refurbished in America and rebranded AJ-26 by Aerojet Rocketdyne) NK-33 engine.

[Ithekro]

I guess we either need more rocket scientists, or we need to take a step beyond rockets into something better.

[Dop]

I suspect the picture of the shattered tail with the 'Virgin' logo on it will do the same for Virgin Galactic as the Pan-Am logo on the nose of a shattered 747 did for Pan-Am.
Largely that a lot of the super-rich who might have bought tickets for this short hop might now be reconsidering it.

Space is hard, and getting there will always be hard with chemical rockets. We just don't have anything better, and have never really surpassed what was possible in the days of Wernher Von Braun.

Sympathies to the family of the deceased, and hopefully the survivor will be able to help piece together what happened.

[Yu Ominae]

Originally Posted by maplehurry

Couldn't find anything on google. I will just assume it's about determining the corporal's intent to "train" the soldier or to bully the soldier.

Either way, 45 years is long enough for a lenient Canadian like me.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...death-26565591

I got a recent one.

[JokerD]

Originally Posted by Yu Ominae

BBC podcast (a while ago) announced that a ROK soldier, a corporal, is sentenced to jail for 45 years for torturing and depriving a ROK army soldier in national service of food/drink and sleep for a month. He died from exhaustion on the spot.

Court charged him with homicide while prosecutors wanted the murder charges to stick. Victim's mom is upset over the court's decision.

I seem to recall seeing this news, but I thought it was a sgt. Convicted along with a few other platoon mates.
I think this might have gone undetected since SK servicemen don't go home for the entire 2 year period (with some exceptions) hence the family cannot check or question the condition of the servicemen...
Anyway, solution IMO? Demote and dishonorably discharge the commander of the unit this thing took place in (commander is usually a career soldier) and see how quickly the bullying gets cleaned up

[SaintessHeart]

The eight-day exercise in Nanjing, China from Nov 2-9 will involve around 70 personnel each from the SAF and the PLA.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) and China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are holding their third bilateral training exercise in Nanjing, China from Nov 2 to 9. Called COOPERATION 2014, the eight-day exercise will involve around 70 personnel each from the SAF and the PLA.

The training includes professional seminars and a company-level conventional infantry exercise featuring a live-firing demonstration. The SAF is represented by personnel from the 5th Battalion Singapore Infantry Regiment and 3rd Singapore Division. They will participate in the exercise alongside their Chinese counterparts from the PLA 179th Brigade and Nanjing Military Region.

Assistant Chief of General Staff (Operations) Brigadier-General Siew Kum Wong co-officiated the opening ceremony on Sunday (Nov 2) with Major-General Wang Chunning, Commander of 12th Mixed Group Army, Nanjing Military Region.

Sorry Taiwan. You are now part of China.