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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Spiderman's webbing would be strong enough to stop a moving train, say physics students

Feb. 25, 2013 ? In Spiderman 2, the superhero uses his webbing to bring a runaway train to a standstill moments before it plummets over the end of the track. But could a material with the strength and toughness of spiders' web really stop four crowded subway cars?

According to University of Leicester physics students, the answer is yes.

A group of three fourth year MPhys students calculated the material properties of webbing needed in these conditions -- and found that the strength of the web would be proportional to that of real spiders.

Their paper, Doing whatever a spider can, was published in the latest volume of the University of Leicester's Journal of Physics Special Topics.

The journal is published every year, and features original short papers written by students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree.

The students are encouraged to be imaginative with their topics, and the aim is for them to learn about aspects of publishing and peer review.

Students James Forster, Mark Bryan and Alex Stone first calculated the force needed to stop the four R160 New York City subway cars.

To do this, they used the momentum of the train at full speed, the time it takes the train to come to rest after the webs are attached, and the driving force of the powered R160 subway car.

The students found the force Spiderman's webs exert on the train to be 300,000 newtons.

They were then able to calculate the strength and toughness of the webs.

They found that the Young's modulus -- or stiffness -- of the web would be 3.12 gigapascals. This is very reasonable for spider's silk, which ranges from 1.5 gigapascals to 12 gigapascals in the orb-weaver spiders.

The toughness of the silk was calculated as almost 500 megajoules per cubic metre. This is in line with web from a Darwin's Bark Spider -- an orb-weaver with the strongest known webbing of any spider.

They conclude that the "friendly neighbourhood" superhero's webbing is indeed a proportional equivalent of that of a real spider -- and, consequently, it would be feasible for him to stop a moving train.

Alex Stone, 21, from Kingston upon Thames, said: "It is often quoted that spider-webs are stronger than steel, so we thought it would be interesting to see whether this held true for Spiderman's scaled up version. Considering the subject matter we were surprised to find out that the webbing was portrayed accurately."

James Forster, 22, from Wisbech, said: "While our work may not seem to be very serious it has helped teach us about applying physics to varying situations as well as the peer review process through which scientific journals operate. This makes it an invaluable experience to anyone who wants to go into research later in life."

Course leader Dr Mervyn Roy, a lecturer at the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: "A lot of the papers published in the Journal are on subjects that are amusing, topical, or a bit off-the-wall. Our fourth years are nothing if not creative!

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Leicester, via AlphaGalileo.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Journal Reference:

M. Bryan, J. Forster and A. Stone. Doing whatever a spider can. Journal of Physics Special Topics, 2013 [link]

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/Pu8A4wmIYkA/130225092040.htm

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Monday, February 25, 2013

SKorea's new leader faces NKorea nuke crisis

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Even before she takes office Monday as South Korea's first female president, Park Geun-hye's campaign vow to soften Seoul's current hard-line approach to rival North Korea is being tested by Pyongyang's recent underground nuclear detonation.

Pyongyang, Washington, Beijing and Tokyo are all watching to see if Park, the daughter of a staunchly anti-communist dictator, pursues an ambitious engagement policy meant to ease five years of animosity on the divided peninsula or if she sticks with the tough stance of her fellow conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.

Park's decision is important because it will likely set the tone of the larger diplomatic approach that Washington and others take in stalled efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.

It will also be complicated by North Korea's warning of unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity," a threat that comes as Washington and others push for tightened U.N. sanctions as punishment for the Feb. 12 atomic test, the North's third since 2006.

That test is seen as another step toward North Korea's goal of building a bomb small enough to be mounted on a missile that can hit the United States. The explosion, which Pyongyang called a response to U.S. hostility, triggered global outrage.

Park has said she won't yet change her policy, which was built with the high probability of provocations from Pyongyang in mind. But some aren't sure if engagement can work, given North Korea's choice of "bombs over electricity," as American scientist Siegfried Hecker puts it.

"Normalization of relations, a peace treaty, access to energy and economic opportunities ? those things that come from choosing electricity over bombs and have the potential of lifting the North Korean people out of poverty and hardship ? will be made much more difficult, if not impossible, for at least the next five years," Hecker, a regular visitor to North Korea, said in a posting on the website of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.

As she takes office, however, Park will be mindful that many South Koreans are frustrated at the state of inter-Korean relations after the Lee government's five-year rule, which saw two nuclear tests, three long-range rocket launches and attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.

Park's policy calls for strong defense but also for efforts to build trust through aid shipments, reconciliation talks and the resumption of some large-scale economic initiatives as progress occurs on the nuclear issue. Park has also held out the possibility of a summit with new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Much is riding on Park's conclusion.

"The overall policy direction on North Korea among the U.S., Japan and South Korea will be hers to decide," said Victor Cha, a former senior Asia adviser to President George W. Bush. "If Park Geun-hye wants to contain, the U.S. will support that. But if Park Geun-hye, months down the road, wants to engage, then the U.S. will go along with that too. "

Engagement by Park would provide a sharp contrast with the rule of her father, Park Chung-hee, whose antipathy toward Pyongyang during his 18-year rule in the 1960s and '70s prompted a failed attack on the Blue House by 31 North Korean commandos in 1968. In 1974, Park's wife was shot and killed by a Japan-born Korean claiming he was acting on assassination orders by North Korea founder and then leader Kim Il Sung.

Critics say Park Geun-hye's North Korea policy lacks specifics. They also question how far she can go given her conservative base's strong anti-Pyongyang sentiments.

But Park has previously confounded ideological expectations. She travelled to Pyongyang in 2002 and held private talks with the late Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, and her gifts to Kim Jong Il are showcased in a museum of gifts to the North Korean leaders. During the often contentious presidential campaign, she responded to liberal criticism by reaching out to the families of victims of her father's dictatorship.

She said in her 2007 autobiography that she visited Pyongyang because she thought her painful experiences with the North made her "the one who could resolve South-North relations better than anyone else." She also wrote that Kim Jong Il apologized for the 1968 attack.

"I don't think this latest spike in the cycle of provocation and response undermines her whole platform of seeking to somehow re-engage the North," said John Delury, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. North Korea wants a return of large-scale aid and investment from South Korea.

Before the election, Pyongyang's state media repeatedly questioned the sincerity of Park's engagement overture. Since the election, however, although regular criticism of Lee as "human scum" continues, the North's official Korean Central News Agency hasn't mentioned Park by name, though her political party is still condemned.

Pyongyang sees the nuclear crisis as a U.S.-North Korea issue, Delury said. "From a North Korean mindset, ramping up the tension and hostility with the U.S. does not equal jettisoning relations with the South."

Park may take a wait-and-see stance in coming months.

A possible positive turning point could come if North Korea resists tests or launches during April, when it celebrates two state anniversaries ? Kim Il Sung's birthday and the army's founding anniversary ? according to analyst Hong Hyun-ik at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. Pyongyang conducted a failed long-range rocket launch during last year's celebrations.

Hong predicts that the United States will seek nuclear talks with North Korea in a few months, something that could help Park's efforts to engage North Korea.

"The nuclear test sets back and complicates but does not necessarily doom her engagement efforts over the long term," said Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, a Hawaii-based think tank.

Park warned after the test that North Korea faces international isolation, economic difficulties and, eventually, a collapse if it continues to build its atomic program. She also pressed Pyongyang to respond to her overtures.

"We can't achieve trust with only one side's efforts. Isn't there a saying that 'We need both hands to make a clapping sound?'" she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skoreas-leader-faces-nkorea-nuke-crisis-050243531.html

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Jennifer Lawrence Hot or Not At 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards

Jennifer Lawrence arrived at the 2013 Film Independent Spirit Awards wearing a super hot (or not) Lanvin dress. Check it out, what do you think? PR Photos On one hand she looks amazing, and maybe it is just the angle in my photo agency’s gallery, but in some she looks horrible. Jennifer showed some sideboob and a lot of skin in the backless Lanvin design, which also featured a metal, choker collar, bow at the waste, and asymmetrical skirt. Sometimes she looks like Katniss others, just an awkward girl not sure if this was the right option. I love the girl don’;t get me wrong, but I don’t think this was the best choice for her. What do you think is Jennifer hot or not? Sound off in the comments.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/yURYQORC-iE/

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=430703393672812&id=93486533659

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Vatican blasts 'false' pre-conclave reporting

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, right, delivers his message concluding a weeklong spiritual retreat, at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Benedict XVI has lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that has defaced God's creation in a final address to the officials who run the Vatican bureaucracy. Benedict spoke off-the-cuff Saturday at the end of a weeklong spiritual retreat coinciding with the Catholic Church's solemn Lenten season. For the past week, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi has led the Vatican on meditations that have covered everything from the family to denouncing the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI kneels in prayer at the end of a weeklong spiritual retreat, at the Vatican, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Benedict XVI has lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that has defaced God's creation in a final address to the officials who run the Vatican bureaucracy. Benedict spoke off-the-cuff Saturday at the end of a weeklong spiritual retreat coinciding with the Catholic Church's solemn Lenten season. For the past week, Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi has led the Vatican on meditations that have covered everything from the family to denouncing the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, ho)

Italian police, left, and carabinieri cars are parked outside St. Peter's Square, at the V atican, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 As 100.000 pilgrims are expected to crowd St. Peter's Square for the last Angelus prayer of Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday morning, the Rome municipality is expected to increase by more then 30% the law enforcement agents, volunteers and transportation, while more then 2000 cctv security cameras will monitor the Roman territory with dozens aiming only at the areas surrounding the Vatican. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? The Vatican lashed out Saturday at the media for what it said has been a run of defamatory and false reports before the conclave to elect Pope Benedict XVI's successor, saying they were an attempt to influence the election.

Italian newspapers have been rife with unsourced reports in recent days about the contents of a secret dossier prepared for the pope by three cardinals who investigated the origins of the 2012 scandal over leaked Vatican documents.

The reports have suggested the revelations in the dossier, given to Benedict in December, were a factor in his decision to resign. The pope himself has said merely that he doesn't have the "strength of mind and body" to carry on.

On Saturday, the Vatican secretariat of state said the Catholic Church has for centuries insisted on the independence of its cardinals to elect their pope. Now, it said, the "pressures of public opinion" is in play in a bid to influence their vote.

"It is deplorable that as we draw closer to the time of the beginning of the conclave ... that there be a widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions."

It was issued as Benedict met for the last time with the Vatican bureaucracy before stepping down Feb. 28. The occasion was the final session of the Vatican's Lenten spiritual retreat, a weeklong series of meditations composed by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, himself a papal contender.

In one of his final meditations Friday, Ravasi denounced the "divisions, dissent, careerism, jealousies" that afflict the Vatican bureaucracy ? divisions that were exposed by the leaks of documents taken from the pope's study. The documents revealed the petty wrangling, corruption and cronyism and even allegations of a gay plot at the highest levels of the Catholic Church.

The three cardinals who investigated the theft of the documents had wide-ranging powers to interview even cardinals to get to the bottom of the dynamics within the Curia ? the Vatican bureaucracy ? that resulted in the gravest Vatican security breach in modern times.

Benedict has referred obliquely to the Vatican's dysfunction in recent days, deploring how the church is often "defiled" by attacks and divisions and urging its members to overcome "pride and egoism."

On Saturday, in his final comments to the Curia, he lamented the "evil, suffering and corruption" that has defaced God's creation. But he also thanked the Vatican bureaucrats for eight years of work, love and faith and promised them he would continue to be spiritually close to them in retirement.

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-02-23-Vatican-Pope/id-22c00e4b7d1e4bc9af8dc0eefd6cc8af

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Authorities: Report of gunman at MIT was a hoax

Pedestrians on the MIT Campus in Cambridge, Mass., duck underneath police tape, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013, after police responded to reports of a gunman on campus that Cambridge police later said were unfounded. Police said that officers searched for a man reported to be carrying a long rifle and wearing body armor and found nothing. A spokeswoman for the university says the school also called off a campus-wide lockdown. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Pedestrians walk by police tape on the MIT Campus in Cambridge, Mass.,after police responded to reports of a gunman on campus that Cambridge police later said were unfounded, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. Police said that officers searched for a man reported to be carrying a long rifle and wearing body armor and found nothing. A spokeswoman for the university says the school also called off a campus-wide lockdown. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) ? An unfounded report of a gunman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that briefly caused a campus-wide lockdown Saturday stemmed from an electronic message sent to police, authorities said.

Officers searched for a man reported to be carrying a long rifle and wearing body armor but found nothing unusual, Cambridge police said. The report turned out to be a hoax, and there was no threat to public safety, state police spokesman David Procopio said.

Cambridge police received the tip in an electronic chat message around 7:30 a.m., but witnesses on the scene eventually contradicted it, spokesman Dan Riviello said. MIT sent two emergency alerts via text message, urging people to stay indoors. Less than an hour later, police posted on Twitter that the scene was clear.

Investigators are trying to identify the prankster and will pursue criminal charges if they do, Riviello said.

He declined to provide additional details or confirm reports that the IP address used by the prankster has been traced to New York, saying "as it is an active and ongoing investigation, I cannot release any additional information at this time."

About 11,000 people attend the prestigious school outside Boston where students are famous for their smarts as well as their stunts, including once putting a police car on top of a domed campus building.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-23-MIT%20Lockdown/id-243dcab91df74688b735f736bc918cdc

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Veterans & Military Affairs Advisory Board Meeting Feb. 20

The Veterans & Military Affairs Advisory Board invites the public to their meeting, Wednesday Feb. 20, from 9-11 a.m.?at the New Mexico Veterans? Memorial.

The meeting includes recognizing concerning issues of veterans and their dependents. As the Veterans & Military Affairs Advisory Board?s goal is to improve the value of life?for our veterans, the board also is a networking exchange for veterans? activities.

There will be no charge to attend this meeting.?

The New Mexico Veterans? Memorial is located at 1100 Louisiana Blvd, SE.

For additional information contact Roger Newall at 505-768-3000 or at rnewall@cabq.gov. ??

Source: http://eastmountains.kob.com/news/events/143087-veterans-military-affairs-advisory-board-meeting-feb-20

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