2016 - news

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phys.org/news/2016-04-blue-rocket-successful-vertical.html

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www.ibtimes.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-announces-third-successful-rocket-landing-2347466

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www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/joe-medicine-crow-the-last-living-plains-indian-war-chief-di#.pypml4GVb

www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/04/04/joe-medicine-crow-a-war-chief-historian-and-the-last-link-to-the-battle-of-little-big-horn-dies-at-102/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Medicine_Crow


www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35956842

www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/revered-indian-leader-joe-medicine-crow-last-crow-war-chief-n550046


www.spiegel.de/panorama/leute/usa-letzter-indianer-krieger-joe-medicine-crow-ist-tot-a-1085299.html

www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/letzter-indianer-kriegshaeuptling-joe-medicine-crow-gestorben-14159815.html

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vergessene-fronten.eu/en/2015/09/22/halbach-interview/

www.nytimes.com/2016/04/05/world/europe/ethnic-conflict-between-armenia-and-azerbaijan-flares-anew.html

www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/berg-karabach-wirft-aserbaidschan-beschuss-mit-schwerer-artillerie-vor-a-1085472.html

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www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/nature17159.pdf

www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/04/04/473004808/human-sacrifice-is-linked-to-social-hierarchies-in-new-study

www.mpg.de/10415274/menschenopfer_hierarchische_gesellschaft

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www.zeit.de/politik/ausland/2016-04/arctic-russia-america-conflict-zone

Is this icy wasteland the most dangerous armory in the world? This seems quite possible to the traveler, the longer he crosses the chill landscape around the Russian city of Murmansk. An overland road from the Norwegian border passes by miles of double-row fences with frosty crowns of barbed wire, warning signs and modern surveillance cameras. Soldiers march with bushy fur caps along the streets of the rare towns that have been wrested from the desolate landscape of crippled birches and frozen lakes.

The Kola Peninsula, which extends from here eastward into the Barents Sea, is a sort of gigantic pier. Bathed in the Gulf Stream, its fjords scarcely ever freeze over. That makes the Murmansk region Russia's gateway to the Atlantic and the most important staging post for its largest naval unit, the Northern Fleet. Submarines carrying atomic weapons are stationed here along with long-distance bombers and army units.

The Kremlin recently began bringing in at least 6,000 additional soldiers to the area. They are only part of an Arctic army that is growing along the Arctic coastline of White Russia, also because of the treasures of raw materials that are hidden here. Six new military bases are being built; old runways from the Cold War are being renovated; new icebreakers are being built; modern submarines loaded with even more atomic warheads are being put into service. Both Russia and NATO have recently conducted increasingly elaborate military maneuvers in the far North.

What's going on here?

Something is occurring that the world hasn't seen for a long time: a massive new border exploration. For decades, it was thought that the Earth's surface had for the most part been divided up between nations; but then climate change came along and began to thaw the Arctic. If the North Pole is viewed from outer space, the Arctic Ocean looks like a cake that has just been taken out of the freezer. Five powerful and less powerful countries are reaching for their pieces: Russia, the USA (via Alaska), Canada, Denmark (via Greenland) and Iceland. Because slumbering beneath the ice are huge quantities of oil, cobalt, gold and nickel. On account of its abundance of raw materials, geologists are already calling the Arctic "Ali Baba's cave."

What is more, nothing less than a new ocean is opening up in the far North. The receding ice is freeing up what may very well be the quickest maritime route between the richest countries of the world. Hovering above all these tangible interests is the prestige-linked question about who the North Pole actually belongs to: NATO or Russia?

After the Ukraine crisis, must the world ready itself for a de-freezing conflict – this time, a purely meteorological one?

Things don't have to turn out that way. Because there are rules on how the Arctic should be divvied up, formulated according to scientific criteria by the United Nations. But what if ultimately no one adheres to these peaceful rules? Or if the competitors assume that their counterparts aren't doing so? The danger of the Nordic gold rush lies not so much in what actually happens along the Arctic Ocean, but in dangerous interpretations. Who is taking what steps? And for what possibly hidden purpose?

Above all, the two superpowers, Russia and the United States, are providing each other with many grounds for suspicion, with uncertainties that can be turned into unbending conviction.

For example, there’s the behavior of the Alaskan senator, Republican Dan Sullivan. In his opinion, the somnolent government in Washington isn't taking note of what is happening in the far North. He believes that Russia is planning its next "land grab" in the Arctic, and that the correct response is to increase the U.S. military presence in the area, in order to counteract Russian preponderance if necessary. What is Barack Obama doing instead? The senator believes the president is constantly speaking about climate change: "The Russians are playing chess in the Arctic and our Administration still seems to think it’s tic-tac-toe."

Is this paranoia or realism?

Two years ago, scarcely any European could have guessed what symbolic and strategic value a peninsula by the name of Crimea could have for Russia. Is the value that Russia attaches to the Arctic Ocean being similarly underestimated?

As recently as 2007, Moscow made it clear that it considers the North Pole to be just as Russian as the Crimea. At that time, Arctic explorers used a submarine to place a metallic Russian flag on the seabed at a depth of more than 4,000 meters, supposedly right at the North Pole. The action was purely symbolic; the North Pole doesn't belong to the Russians any more than the Moon belongs to the Americans. But the claim was laid out for all to see.

"The North Pole has a symbolic importance for Russia," believes the Russia expert Kararzyna Zysk from the Norwegian Defence University College. "Claiming it as Russian fits in with the patriotic agenda of the Kremlin."

One could call Vladimir Putin's ideology itself Arctic: The world is a rough place where the strong have the best chances and where military power is a virtue. Fitted out with these convictions, Russia is currently attempting to assert its place in an alternative world order. From a coolly calculating, geopolitical perspective, what the largest country on earth has painfully lacked up to now is sufficient access for its fleet to the world's oceans. This access would be important in order to be able to counter the many military bases that the United States possesses across the globe with at least a few floating staging posts.
Europeans are pinning their hopes on friendship between peoples

The Black Sea Fleet stationed on the Crimea can't do that. In a conflict situation, NATO member Turkey could block passage through the Bosporus into the Mediterranean. Russia's Baltic Fleet can be sure of meeting the same obstacle because NATO could likewise close the Skagerrak, the strait between Denmark and Norway. So the best strategic option is the Arctic Ocean – it offers unimpeded access to the Atlantic.

What Mr. Putin intends in the far North is already apparent in how he "turns refugees into weapons," says Philip Breedlove, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe. In fact, in recent months Russia has sent thousands of migrants westward across the borders to Norway and Finland. "We should expect the unexpected in the Arctic," believes Bobo Lo, a Russia expert at the British think tank Chatham House. "Russia's Arctic policies will become tougher, because except for strength, Russia doesn't have any strategic instruments, that is, friends."

This is the West's projection. But what on the other hand does the Russian government see when it looks at the North Pole?

Nikita Lomagin makes a face and nods impatiently when listening to the litany of Western fears. Yes indeed, says the professor of political science from St. Petersburg, he's heard all this a hundred times. Let's turn things around, suggests Mr. Lomagin: Russia feels itself to be not on the offensive, but in a defensive position regarding a NATO that has repeatedly proven that it doesn't keep to the rules. "After the Iraq War in 2003, Russia's foreign policy changed," says the Kremlin analyst. "Russia doesn't like American global dominance."

But this doesn't mean that Mr. Putin is seeking conflict. It's just that Russia's president doesn't believe he can count on "soft security" alone. This is why "free access to the Atlantic" has such a high priority in the maritime policy of the Kremlin. Mr. Lomagin says that with its entire deployment in the Arctic, Russia simply wants to protect its northern border against an America that doesn't recognize any borders when push comes to shove.

Okay – but why the nuclear buildup? Why all the new submarines? Mr. Lomagin replies that on the one hand, this is part of a comprehensive modernization of the Northern Fleet. But on the other hand, it is also a response to NATO's missile defense shield. Russia fears that its atomic capabilities could be reduced. Hence it is seeking to strengthen its nuclear triad, the triple launch-possibilities offered by bombers, submarines and land-based missiles.

The missile-defense argument may be implausible (in fact, NATO's shield couldn't stop Russia's modern multiple warheads). But it is also true that the United States has not taken a crucial step to transform a possible polar confrontation in the 19th-century style into an assured cooperation worthy of the 21st century. The United States is the only country bordering the Arctic Ocean that up to now hasn't signed the United Nations rules that offer a peaceful resolution of conflicts in the region. These rules state that neither submarines nor warhead detonators or fur-capped soldiers should decide about ownership rights at the North Pole, but instead geologists.

According to maritime law, territorial claims – also at the North Pole – depend on how far the respective continental shelf of a country extends below the sea. Specifically in the Arctic, it is a matter of the Lomonosov Ridge, a submerged ridge that extends across the North Pole. The largest part of the Arctic north of the 70th parallel will belong to the country that can lay claim to the Lomonosov Ridge. The scientists of the U.N. Continental Shelf Commission are currently investigating which country that is.

This sort of geological research takes lots of time: Up to now, the examination has been completed only for Norway (the findings: the North Pole doesn't belong to it). Canada, Denmark and Russia are still waiting for their results. The territorial claims of the two NATO members overlap with those of Russia; all three say that the Lomonosov Ridge is a continuation of their mainland, so that the North Pole is theirs. It is undisputed that Russia has by far the longest Arctic coastline. But the geologists commissioned by the United Nations must do further research and analyze rock samples before making a decision.

In order to be able to participate in this peaceful test process, a country must be party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Obama government would have liked to sign the agreement long ago, but Congressional Republicans continue to block ratification. They believe that the United States should seek bilateral agreements with its neighbors about economic borders rather than leaving such decisions to a supranational body.

Admiral Robert J. Papp, the U.S. Special Representative for the Arctic, no longer knows how to explain what he believes to be a grievous sin of omission. "In the meantime," he says despairingly, "I wish Congress would ratify the agreement simply so that I'll no longer be asked when it will finally do so."

Amid all this, Europeans are pinning their hopes on friendship between peoples. As it did across Europe after 1989, NATO reduced its northern capabilities as well. Today Norway has almost a third less troops than back then, Denmark has kept around half as many, and the non-NATO country Sweden even reduced its army from 60,500 to 20,500. In contrast to Russia, NATO and the European Union are not seeking to upgrade this reduced northern presence. Right now, the bloc is fully occupied with increasing the number of its troops in Central Europe after the annexation of Crimea.

The fact that an even greater military imbalance is arising in the Arctic is giving rise to calculated optimism among Norway’s inhabitants. In the harbor at Tromsø, a Norwegian city at the 69th parallel, two tiny naval vessels bob up and down alongside what might be three times as many whale-watching boats. In the fjord alongside the town, herds of humpback whales abound. The skippers say that actually now, at the end of January, the creatures should have migrated far to the south. But their continued presence brings a welcome extension of the season for photographic excursions. The tourist boats are well-booked.

Business people in Tromsø anticipate that other commercial opportunities could arise if climate change continues. The city could become an important logistics and transfer hub for the so-called northeastern passage. They expect increased cooperation with Russia instead of conflict. Tromsø is accordingly only too pleased to be the host city for conciliatory talks.

Nuritdin Imanov, a director from the Russian ministry for international cooperation, has just arrived in order to nourish this very hope. "We aren't pursuing any secret agenda in the far North," he assures his audience at a conference.

And geopolitical risks? "Well, yes," says Mr. Imanov, "we also of course ask ourselves about them as well." There is much murmured speculation, but for the purpose of creating dramatic headlines. He says that what Russia actually wants is an industrialization of the region, more trade and tourism and – of course – environmental protection. The Russian functionary cuts an official figure just like that of Obama.

Translated by George Frederick Takis

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www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/09/brexit-nightmare-remain-camp-denial-cameron-panama-papers

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www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/10/nasa-kepler-spacecraft-emergency-mode

Nasa scrambles to save Kepler spacecraft from state of emergency

Spacecraft, which has detected almost 5,000 planets, remains in lowest operational mode to conserve fuel while Nasa assess issue that began last week

The Kepler spacecraft was launched in 2009 to discover planets. Last year it discovered what Nasa scientists called the Earth’s ‘closest twin’ outside the solar system. Photograph: AP

Sunday 10 April 2016 20.55 BST
Last modified on Monday 11 April 2016 10.09 BST

Nasa was on Sunday trying to save its Kepler spacecraft, the ageing planet hunter that has survived several crises and has once again slipped into a state of emergency, nearly 75 million miles away from Earth.
Earth 2.0: Nasa says scientists have found 'closest twin' outside solar system
Read more

The spacecraft, which has detected nearly 5,000 planets outside our solar system, was found to be in its emergency mode sometime last week. Scientists last made regular contact with it on 4 April, when there were no signs of distress.

In a weekend update from the Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, Nasa reported that Kepler remained in its “lowest operational mode”, which is “fuel intensive”.

“Even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back,” mission manager Charlie Sobeck said in a statement. Recovering from this emergency condition “is the team’s priority at this time”, Sobeck said.

Ground controllers discovered the problem on Thursday, not long before they were due to point Kepler towards the center of the Milky Way as part of a new planetary survey.

Nasa had planned for Kepler to join ground observatories searching millions of stars in our galaxy for stray planets wandering between stars; Earth-like planets that orbit at middling range from their sun; and outer planets that swirl at a distance from the center of their solar systems.

Kepler has survived several crises. Launched in 2009, it completed its original mission in 2012, finding more than 1,000 confirmed planets – including the first confirmation of a rocky planet outside our solar system and the first discovery of a planet in the habitable zone of a star.

Despite repeated breakdowns, the spacecraft then began a mission called K2, aiming to not only scan for planets but to collect data on supernovas, the formation of stars and asteroids and comets.


Last year alone, Kepler discovered what Nasa’s scientists called the Earth’s “closest twin” outside the solar system; a rocky world in the habitable zone of another star; a bizarre dimming pattern from a faraway star; and the first supernova shockwave ever seen with visible light.

Kepler accomplished all this two years after Nasa thought it was beyond all repair, when its guiding wheels broke down. Engineers saved the spacecraft by using the light of the sun as force to push Kepler’s solar panels, then using the surviving wheels to push against that force and point the telescope again.

The enormous distance between the Earth and Kepler, now in deep space, makes it more difficult to fix.

The craft is named after Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer who helped revolutionize science alongside Galileo despite the political and religious upheaval of the 17th century.

www.slashgear.com/houston-we-have-a-problem-kepler-spacecraft-in-emergency-mode-11435614/

www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/weltall/kepler-weltraumteleskop-hat-auf-notfallmodus-geschaltet-a-1086513.html





www.nasa.gov/feature/mission-manager-update-kepler-recovered-from-emergency-and-stable

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www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36041970



en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallis_and_Futuna

www.schudak.de/timelines/wallis&futuna1616-1961.html

www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Wallis_and_Futuna_Islands.aspx

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www.thezimbabwean.co/2016/03/yamamoto-president-bob-must-be-fired/

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www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/strong-quake-hits-kyushu-region-no-tsunami-danger

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/14/japan-earthquake-kyushu-people-feared-trapped-under-rubble

www.zeit.de/gesellschaft/zeitgeschehen/2016-04/japan-erdbeben-insel-kyushu-verletzte


www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckpLIgKuJ2s


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu

www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/routes/g_route/golden_28.html

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www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36034807

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cache1.asset-cache.net/xd/105669953.mp4?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=62CA815BFB1CE480043783181B444F296ADD405C56CDAC57C8E71015642B52DEE54E74A8A028AC4A

www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-czech-republic-is-changing-its-english-name?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=atlas-page

czech out ...

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/15/czech-republic-czechia-new-name?CMP=fb_gu


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www.dpa-international.com/news/top_stories/panama-vows-to-comply-with-international-tax-reporting-measures-a-48968211.html

www.dw.com/en/panama-agrees-to-adopt-global-tax-reporting-standards/a-19190015

www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/panama-will-automatischem-informationsaustausch-beitreten-a-1087324.html

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themindunleashed.org/2016/04/invisible-train-japan-2018.html

any pedestrians and / or animals to think of?