News

"A peace activist defies sanctions to save lives"

By Rob Winters - Published on Monday, 15 August 2011 21:00

"Peace activist Bert Sacks says “We live in a very violent country, and we don’t realize it so much.” Sacks, a retired engineer, will appear in federal court in September to appeal a $16,000 fine for violating U.S. economic sanctions when he delivered medicine to an Iraqi hospital in 1997.

For more than a decade, the sanctions caused shortages of clean water, medicine, and other necessities for Iraqis. UNICEF reports that the sanctions, combined with Gulf War bombing of infrastructure, caused the deaths of over 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 from 1991 to 1998. Sacks argues that this mass killing was terrorism.

After 15 years as a humanitarian activist and witness to atrocities, Sacks believes unconditional benevolence—as practiced by Gandhi—is the only remedy to personal and global violence."

"It’s electric: Wireless ‘tattoo’ sticks to skin"

By Rob Winters - Published on Monday, 15 August 2011 20:51

"A new wireless electronic tattoo is so flexible and thin it can easily be applied to the skin—and just as easily removed.

The system could be used for monitoring heart, muscle, and brain activity. It also could have applications for chemical and biological sensing, wound treatment, and even computer gaming.

“The blurring of electronics and biology is the key point here,” says Yonggang Huang, who led the theory and design work at Northwestern University. “All established forms of electronics are hard, rigid. Biology is soft, elastic. It’s two different worlds. We found a way to truly integrate them.”

The high-performance epidermal electronic system mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility, and comfort of a temporary tattoo."

"F1 team helps boy get bionic hand"

By Rob Winters - Published on Monday, 15 August 2011 20:38

"A Formula One fan has had his wish of a new bionic hand fulfilled after a plucky letter to Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn.

Matthew James, a 14-year-old from Wokingham in Berkshire, was born without a left hand.

He had his eye on an i-Limb Pulse from Touch Bionics, a firm in Scotland. His family had raised some money, but nowhere near the £30,000 needed."

"Tories tussle with asbestos widow over logo"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:54

"The federal Conservative party has sent a threatening email to the widow of an asbestos victim in the latest chapter of Canada's debate over the hazardous mineral.

A top Tory official is warning the woman to stop using the party logo in an online ad campaign against the controversial industry - a campaign she started after her husband died of an asbestos-related cancer.

Michaela Keyserlingk, whose husband Robert died in 2009 of mesothelioma, has been running an online banner since the spring that reads, "Canada is the only western country that still exports deadly asbestos!"

Conservative party executive director Dan Hilton warned Keyserlingk to stop using the Tory symbol immediately."

"Fastest experimental aircraft lost during test flight"

By Rob Winters - Published on Sunday, 14 August 2011 09:28

"An experimental aircraft touted as the fastest plane ever built failed a test flight Thursday, according to officials with the Pentagon.

The Falcon HTV-2 is an unmanned aircraft that can travel about 20 times the speed of sound, or about 21,000 kilometres per hour. With that speed, it could deliver a nuclear warhead to any point on Earth within 60 minutes.

The aircraft's designer, the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), had tracked the test on its Twitter feed.

DARPA officials launched the HTV-2 from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California early Thursday morning. It was taken to its ascent into the atmosphere on a rocket, where it was then supposed to detach and glide at hypersonic speeds to the Pacific Ocean."