Dubai is known for many things and now it can add the world champion drone competition to the list. On Friday and Saturday a grand competition was held to see who would grab the honour. One hundred teams descended on the Gulf State to try to claim some of the million dollars in prize money. The completion on Saturday was whittled down to 32 teams. Dubai constructed a challenging light filled course with hoops and sudden turns and climbs. The “pilot” wore special glasses and attempted to guide his craft over the course without crashing it. Cameras tracked the drones as they raced. Videos posted to FaceBook gave viewers a pilot’s eye view from cameras also attached to the tiny aircraft. The support crew had to land their craft partway through the race to replace batteries. At the end of the competition Team Tornado X-Blades Banni, from the UK was declared the winner. Their pilot, Luke Bannister, garnered $250 000 US for his team. The pilot is 15 years old. Next year in December Dubai plans to hold the World Future Sports Games. It will feature among other futuristic challenges, swimming robots. The eSports industry has blossomed as technology has improved. Last year eSports chalked up about $750 million in revenues. The majority from sponsors. For a non-gamer looking at a gaming website is a bewildering montage of news, new games, trading and more. There is money for gamers who are extremely good at what they do. Gosu Gamers site describes a competition this year – Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2016 -- at which US$500 000 prize money was offered. Tickets for this game fest are offered free in Poland, but for better seats and additional perks the price goes up. For the most expensive seating titled God Mode Pass, the cost was 4000 PLN or $1039 US. Sources: The Two Way ABC News Gosu Gamers
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The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) have launched a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against those countries that maintain a nuclear arsenal. Nine countries have been named in the UN court. The RMI allege that these countries are reneging on the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty designed to curb nuclear weapons and eventually eliminate them. The countries named in the suit are: USA, India, Pakistan, UK, France, Russia, China, N. Korea and Israel. Israel consistently denies owning nuclear weapons, but it is commonly believed that they acquired the technology from S. Africa. RMI was made a protectorate of the US at the end of the War in the Pacific. Since then, some of its coral atolls have been used for testing bombs and missiles. 1946 saw the first of the tests. In order to test the atomic weapons, the residents of the Bikini Atoll were removed and relocated to another island. The atmospheric testing continued until 1958, with a total of 67 atomic explosions tested on Bikini and Enowetak atolls. The largest of the tests was a massive hydrogen bomb which was equivalent to 15 million tons of TNT. That hydrogen bomb flare could be seen as far away as Okinawa and radiation was detected as far away as Tennessee. A Japanese fishing crew at only 60 miles away was showered with radioactivity. The radio operator died shortly after of multiple organ failure. Most of the crew died from cancers. Marshall Islanders on two islands were irradiated as well. Radioactive ash contaminated Rongelap and Utirik. Those islanders had to be evacuated and relocated on other, already occupied, islands. In the 1970s the residents of Rongelap were allowed to return but had to pick up stakes and be re-evacuated when alarming levels of radiation were detected in their food grown on the island. Utirik remains uninhabited. Those surviving irradiated residents receive a stipend from the US government of about $588 per year. The leading cause of death on the RMI is diabetes. The second is cancer. There is no permanent oncologist. There is no regular ability to administer chemotherapy or other advanced cancer fighting techniques. The US still uses Kajalein Atoll for missile testing. Non-nuclear missiles are sometimes fired from California and sometimes they are fired from the mid-Pacific towards California for interception practise. The Marshall Islands Nuclear Claims Tribunal awarded more than $2bn in personal injury and land damage claims arising form the nuclear tests but stopped paying after a compensation fund was exhausted. The Guardian The Cold War was a grim period that saw The Soviet Union, the US, UK and France testing atomic bombs in the atmosphere. Sources: UNESCO The Guardian International Court of Justice The Washington Post Multiple Sclerosis is a devastating disease that can cripple and kill its victims. It develops when the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the myelin sheath that protects and ensures quick nerve impulses reach their target. Researchers have noted that the disease is more prevalent in northern climates like N. America and Europe. It doesn’t occur with the same frequency in Japan and where a diet rich in oily fish is consumed. The researchers have long theorized that there was a link between the lack of Vitamin D and the disease. A small Finnish study published in the JAMA Neuology this month indicated a strong association with low levels of the “sunshine vitamin” in mothers of children diagnosed with MS. While no dosage could be measured, the most critical time for sufficient Vit D seems to be in the first trimester. Other studies did not find as strong a link. Vitamin D is important in many areas of health. Humans can produce their own supply of it by exposing the skin to the ultraviolet light of the sun, but overexposure can damage the skin. In the northern hemisphere, the sun’s rays are too weak to generate the needed reaction. Also we tend to cover our skin because of the colder temperatures. People with dark skin are more resistant to ultraviolet radiation and make the vitamin less well in northern latitudes. Those who spend most of their time inside and those who cover all or most of their skin are more at risk for low levels of the vitamin. People who restrict their diets to non-animal products may also need to supplement. We can gain Vit. D by taking supplements – cod liver and halibut liver oils are rich in the substance. A more palatable method might be to add a small vitamin pill to your winter diet. People with low levels of this vital substance are at risk for many health problems. Some of them are the following:
Sources: Harvard Chan School of Medicine Web MD Human rights activist Berta Caceres has been murdered in her home. Thursday night two thugs broke into her home, shot and killed her. She knew that her life was in danger because of her activism. There was supposed to be security for her, but apparently was either missing or ineffective. Amnesty International has called on the Honduran government to bring the assassins to justice. “The cowardly killing of Berta is a tragedy that was waiting to happen. For years, she had been the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment and threats to stop her from defending the rights of indigenous communities,” A witness to the assassination has sought refuge in a priest’s home. Caceres campaigned for indigenous rights, gender equality and environmental protection. The latest project that she was working on was to stop a dam being built in the Rio Blanco area. Originally funded by the World Bank, it has continued to be built in spite of the World Bank withdrawing its support. The dam when completed will cut off water supplies to the indigenous people who live in the area. In 2015 Caceres received the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s top environmental activism award. It is unlikely that the Honduran government will enthusiastically investigate and prosecute those who committed this latest murder. In 2013 a fellow activist, Tomas Garcia was shot dead by a military person. Activists in the central American country protest encroachment on their land at their peril. In the years between 2010 and 2014 there have been more than one hundred documented murders of activists. Honduran politics are turbulent. In 2009 a military junta arrested the elected president and flew him to exile in Costa Rica. Many countries refuse to recognize the current president. Honduras has become a very dangerous place. Gang warfare, military actions and ‘collateral murders’ make it one of the most dangerous places in the world. Its per 100 000 murder rate is 82.1 while the world average is 8.8 per hundred thousand. Several government advisory sites warn prospective travellers to Honduras to exercise a high degree of caution if you venture there. Sources: Hondura News Amnesty International The Guardian Latin American Herald Tribune The international sanctions against North Korea have prompted an aggressive response from Kim Jong Un, the country’s leader. The UN Security Council voted to tighten the sanctions against the secretive country after another rocket launch sent a satellite into orbit. A recent nuclear test was also part of the reasoning for the punitive actions. The Council voted to require that all cargo destined for N. Korea to be inspected. Some goods will be banned from importation as they are luxury goods likely headed for the ruling class. Another 16 individuals and 12 organizations have been blacklisted. Kim Jong Un responded by launching mulitiple short-range rockets into the Sea of Japan. The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted Kim as stressing "the need to get the nuclear warheads deployed for national defense always on standby so as to be fired any moment.” Radio Free Asia The annual enlisting of new military personnel has begun a month early this year. The official news service has announced that 1.5 million more youth have enlisted than previously. While the official news agency has said the enlistments were voluntary, other reports have said that if young men do not “volunteer” they will be labelled reactionary which will adversely affect them and their families. The rhetoric continues. Aspersions have been cast at the president of S. Korea. It will probably become even more heated next month when S. Korea and the US are planning to conduct joint military operations. Banned by UN Security Council (incomplete)
Sources: Radio Free Asia BBC |
Barbara McPherson
Blogger, gardener, farmer. Working toward food security and a 30 foot
diet. Addicted to reading. Love this planet, especially my little corner
on Vancouver Island, Canada Archives
October 2016
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