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Monday, September 3, 2012

Private Manned Mars Mission Gets First Sponsors

A Dutch company that aims to land humans on Mars in 2023 as the vanguard of a permanent Red Planet colony has received its first funding from sponsors, officials announced this week.

Mars One plans to fund most of its ambitious activities via a global reality-TV media event, which will follow the mission from the selection of astronauts through their first years on the Red Planet. But the sponsorship money is important, helping the company ? which had been self-funded for the last 18 months ? get to that point, officials said Wednesday (Aug. 29).

"Receipt of initial sponsorship marks the next step to humans setting foot on Mars," Mars One founder and president Bas Lansdorp said in a statement. "A little more than a year ago we embarked down this path, calling upon industry experts to share in our bold dream. Today, we have moved from a technical plan into the first stage of funding, giving our dream a foundation in reality."

Initial sponsors include Byte Internet (a Dutch Internet/Webhosting provider); Dutch lawfirm VBC Notarissen; Dutch consulting company MeetIn; New-Energy.tv (an independent Dutch web station that focuses on energy and climate); and Dejan SEO (an Australia-based search engine optimization firm). [Video: 'Big Brother' on Mars?]

"Mars One is not just a daring project, but the core of what drives human spirit towards exploration of the unknown. We are privileged to be a supporter of this incredible project," said Dan Petrovic, general director of Dejan SEO.

Mars One aims to launch a series of robotic missions between 2016 and 2020 that will build a habitable outpost on the Red Planet. The first four astronauts will set foot on Mars in 2023, and more will arrive every two years after that. There are no plans to return these pioneers to Earth.

Company officials say they've talked to a variety of private spaceflight firms around the world and have secured at least one supplier for every major piece of the Mars colony mission. The corporate sponsorship money will be used mostly to fund the conceptual design studies provided by the aerospace suppliers, each of which require 500 to 2,500 man-hours to complete, officials said.

Mars One estimates that it will cost about $6 billion to put the first four humans on the Red Planet. The company hopes the "Big Brother"-style reality show will pay most of these costs. The televised action is slated to begin in 2013, when Mars One begins the process of selecting its 40-person astronaut corps.

Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/private-manned-mars-mission-gets-first-sponsors-125349095.html

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No clear winners in trial of Anders Behring Breivik

Breivik got 21 years, but was found sane as he wanted. Prosecutors saw him jailed, but mishandled the psychiatric findings. And now the prime minister is feeling heat for security's slow response.

By Valeria Criscione,?Correspondent / August 28, 2012

Defense lawyers Geir Lippestad (l.) and Vibeke Hein Baera stand together with mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik in the courtroom, Friday, Aug. 24, in Oslo, Norway.

Heiko Junge/NTB Scanpix/AP

Enlarge

Last week concluded what has been a confusing and all-consuming trial against Anders Behring Breivik in what was supposed to be a cut and dry case.

Skip to next paragraph Valeria Criscione

Correspondent

Valeria Criscione is a New Yorker currently working as a correspondent in Oslo for several US and British newspapers, including The Christian Science Monitor. Prior to 2002, Valeria was the Oslo correspondent for the Financial Times covering politics, business, and culture. She has been freelancing since 2008 and holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York.

Sunday, September 2, 2012

September News Briefs | The Health Journal

HAMPTON ROADS : NEWS BRIEFS

Riverside Regional Medical Center is among the first hospitals in Virginia to use a new cutting-edge tool in treating patients experiencing a stroke. Riverside endovascular surgeons used the Solitaire FR revascularization device to remove a blood clot and restore blood flow to a patient?s brain, saving the patient from what could have been a life-threatening stroke. The Solitaire device received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in March.

Stephanie B. Troy, M.D., an infectious disease specialist at Eastern Virginia Medical School, is receiving research support from a private foundation in her efforts to improve global health by studying the possible risks of polio vaccines and methods to improve them.

Riverside Health System was named among the most wired health systems in the Hospitals & Health Networks Magazine?s 2012 ?Most Wired? Survey and Benchmarking Study. The magazine recognizes most-wired hospitals because information technology enables caregivers to deliver improved patient care and enhance health system efficiency. This is the eighth consecutive year Riverside has made the list.

Three Sentara hospitals now offer ?smart room technology,? whereby all inpatient treatments or tests (30 minutes or longer) are planned and scheduled through the hospital system?s electronic medical record. Patients at Sentara CarePlex Hospital, Virginia Beach General Hospital and Williamsburg Regional Medical Center can see that schedule and plan their stay. All Sentara Hampton Roads hospitals are expected to have this technology by fall.

Riverside Regional Medical Center (RRMC) jumped to the No. 2 spot in the Hampton Roads region, up from No. 5, in the latest U.S. News & World Report?s annual Best Hospitals ranking.

Larger patients or those fearful of small spaces can rest easy: Sentara Norfolk General Hospital has added a new open MRI system.

Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center was recognized by the Critical Care Societies Collaborative and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for avoiding a single case of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) in the past eight years.

The EVMS Sleep Medicine Center, temporarily displaced from a fire in April, has reopened at the Fort Norfolk Plaza building in downtown Norfolk. The center specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders and sleep-related problems.

Chesapeake Regional ComfortCare Home Health and Hospice, formerly known as Chesapeake Regional Home Care Services, has achieved Partner Level Two status with We Honor Veterans, a program of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center is offering a new minimally invasive treatment for severe asthma, called bronchial thermoplasty. Sentara Williamsburg is the only hospital in the region and the second hospital in Virginia offering this promising asthma treatment.

RICHMOND : NEWS BRIEFS

Bon Secours Memorial College of Nursing has earned accreditation for its BSN and RN to BSN degree completion program by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education. After four years of planning and implementation, the College received a five-year accreditation, the longest duration a new program can receive.

U.S. News and World Report?s Best Hospitals edition ranked the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center the No. 1 hospital in Virginia and in the Richmond metropolitan area, reflecting four programs?nephrology, pulmonology, orthopaedic surgery and urology?in the top 50. Sheldon Retchin, M.D., CEO of the VCU Health System and vice president for VCU Health Sciences, said the No. 1 ranking in the commonwealth ?is a fantastic endorsement of our commitment to excellence in patient care.? He added that it also reflects ?our goal of bringing the latest and best therapies, treatments and cures to our patients and to the community.?

This month, Richmonder Deborah J. Johnston, R.N., founder of Care Advantage, Inc., will be featured on ABC?s Secret Millionaire, a nationally televised reality show where millionaires around the country are chosen to spend a week in the country?s poorest areas and ultimately reward some unsung community heroes with thousands of dollars of their own money. Johnston and her company have given over $1 million to local charities. Johnston was featured in the January 2012 issue of The Health Journal.

CarMax, Inc., the nation?s largest retailer of used cars, has awarded Sports Backers a $5,000 grant in support of its Kids Run RVA program. Kids Run RVA is the umbrella program for all of Sports Backers youth running programs that are designed to promote a physically active lifestyle to all youth in the Richmond region.

The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living have selected the Children?s Hospital of Richmond at VCU?Brook Road Campus as a 2012 recipient of the ?Silver?Achievement in Quality? award for its outstanding performance in the health care profession. The competitive award highlights select facilities across the nation that serve as models of excellence in providing high-quality long-term care.

Virginia Commonwealth University Medical?Center is one of approximately 20 institutions taking part in a national clinical trial evaluating a medical device that provides focused stimulation to the brain that may offer an effective therapy for people with severe depression.

Source: http://www.thehealthjournals.com/2012/09/september-news-briefs/

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Wildfire under control near Spain's Marbella

MADRID (Reuters) - Firefighters tamed a wildfire on Saturday that had threatened villages north of the upmarket beach resort of Marbella in Spain's southern Costa del Sol, allowing about 4,000 people who had been evacuated to return to their homes and hotels.

Emergency officials said one man was killed by the fire but his age and nationality could not be confirmed. He had originally been identified as a British citizen.

More than 400 firefighters and members of the armed forces fought the flames overnight, using eight helicopters and aeroplanes to help drench the flames when they approached towns and villages north of the coast.

Officials said it was the worst fire in memory in the coast province of Malaga, part of the Andalucia region.

Places threatened by the flames included Ojen, a village of white buildings perched on a mountainside where most of the evacuees lived.

Officials reopened the highway between Marbella and Ojen on Saturday morning and were allowing evacuees to return to their homes, a spokeswoman for the Andalucia regional government said.

The fire broke out on Thursday evening in the hills above the tourist mecca of Marbella and raced south and west through hilly, tinder-dry countryside, fanned by strong winds and high temperatures.

Every year millions of tourists visit the Costa del Sol, famed for its beaches and nightlife. Hundreds of thousands of expatriates from northern Europe live on the coastal belt.

Unusually dry weather in Spain has resulted in wildfires burning thousands of hectares of land this summer, and temperatures have hit record highs in some regions.

Thousands of people were evacuated because of wildfires earlier this month in the Canary Islands, and four people died in fires in the border area between France and Catalonia, in northeast Spain, in July.

(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wildfire-under-control-near-spains-marbella-101131998.html

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Saturday, September 1, 2012

Iran says reactor at Bushehr nuclear plant at full capacity

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's sole operational nuclear power reactor has reached full capacity, a senior official said Saturday.

Iran's deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Ahmadian, said the reactor at the Bushehr power plant was brought to its "full capacity of 1,000 megawatts" Friday evening. The reactor went into operation for the first time last year at minimum capacity.

The Islamic Republic built the nuclear power plant in the southern Iranian port city with Russian help. The facility is a cornerstone of Iran's drive to become a technological leader among Muslim nations, with efforts such as an ambitious space program and long-range missile development. Iran also runs smaller research reactors and is building another power reactor.

The United States and some of its allies believe the Bushehr plant is part of an Iranian attempt to develop nuclear weapons. Iran denies the accusation, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

The Bushehr project dates back to 1974, when Iran's U.S.-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi contracted with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. The company withdrew from the project after the 1979 Islamic Revolution brought hard-line clerics to power.

In 1992, Iran signed a $1 billion deal with Russia to complete the project and work began in 1995. Since then, the project has been beset by problems linked to construction and supply glitches. Under the contract, Bushehr was originally scheduled to come on stream in July 1999 but it was repeatedly postponed over technical glitches and financial disputes.

The reactor finally went into operation last summer operating with minimum capacity to undergo tests before full operation.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-reactor-bushehr-nuclear-plant-reached-full-011252800.html

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California Lawmakers Look to Approve Pension Reforms

California lawmakers were poised to pass a sweeping pension reform measure and a flurry of other bills on Friday as they prepared to break until after the fall elections.

The pension law, unveiled by Governor Jerry Brown on Tuesday after months of talks with fellow Democrats who control the legislature, would put new limits on pensions for future state and local government to save tens of billions of dollars in retirement-related spending.

Brown intends to promote those savings to help sell voters on his November measure to raise the state's sales tax and boost income taxes on wealthy Californians. Revenue from the measure would prevent further immediate cuts in spending on education programs and bolster the state's finances in coming years.

The tax measure has a modest lead in polls but support for tax initiatives in the California typically wanes as election day nears. Brown needs to hammer home to voters how he has tackled pressing fiscal concerns to rally them behind tax increases, analysts say.

Pension costs are one of those concerns--and not just in California. State and local governments around the country have struggled with lean revenue, requiring them to slash spending on services but at the same time honor promises to retirees.

Brown and top Democrats hailed the reforms in the legislation to be voted on Friday. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. public pension fund, said the plan could cut $40 billion to $60 billion in pension expenses for government employers over 30 years.

Public employee unions panned the agreement, complaining that Democrats who are routinely their legislative allies had sold them out by agreeing to the proposal.

But others said the changes do not go far enough, noting they do not include Brown's proposal for "hybrid" pensions combining features of traditional pensions and 401(k)-style retirement accounts.

"I hope people acknowledge there is much, much more work to be done," said Joe Nation, a former Democratic member of the state Assembly who now teaches public policy at Stanford University. "It's better than moving backwards but this barely moves the ball forward."

Nation in recent years has overseen studies warning California and its local governments face unfunded pension liabilities that stretch into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Pension costs are contributing to the financial hardship that pushed Stockton and San Bernardino, two sizeable California cities, to file for bankruptcy this year.

Tackling unfunded pension liabilities will require changes that effect the retirement benefits of current public-sector employees, not just the future employees targeted in the bill, according to Nation.

"Because we are so under water right now there just really has to be more," Nation said.

California lawmakers must vote on the pension bill by midnight Friday, the close of the legislative session.

The legislation will require new public-sector workers to split payments to their pension accounts at least evenly with employers.

Current employees would also be responsible for half their contributions as talks phase in higher payments. Savings to the state from its employees paying more toward their pensions will be used to reduce its unfunded pension liability.

The legislation also will raise retirement ages for new employees and impose new formulas for calculating pensions. That will leave the newly hired with less generous benefits than current workers.

The legislature will also be considering a workers-compensation reform measure.

Source: http://feeds.foxbusiness.com/~r/foxbusiness/economy/~3/oq8AZqjj5Lg/

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