World News Thread & Breaking News!!

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bladerunner

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Well I defintely know that its not April the 1st!




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Dutch venture known as Mars One aims for TV show and Red Planet settlers by 2023
 
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delft

Brigadier
Well I defintely know that its not April the 1st!




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Dutch venture known as Mars One aims for TV show and Red Planet settlers by 2023
I'm on their mailing list and I think it pretty bizarre. They would sent a number of unmanned space craft to land on the planet and then send every two years a space craft with a crew of four. All activity is on the surface of Mars, exposed to cosmic rays and meteorites ( remember the thin atmosphere of the planet and the lack of a magnetic field ). Also remember that a three man crew on board ISS has time for little more than maintenance. And they are backed up by a huge ground crew and regular resupply. Also to be on the surface of Mars and dependent on resupply every two years by a company that might have gone bankrupt or taken over by a hedge fund ....

My idea would be to have a more secure funding and, for geeks more interesting to think about, unmanned craft would take tunneling machines to bore tunnels sufficiently deep under the Martian surface so that no tension will occur in the walls of the living area.
To run a colony with some reliability one needs a crew of 20 to 60 I think, at least for the first few years, and increasing to a few thousand as soon as possible. How many people should be there before women dare to get pregnant and give birth?
Energy will initially be provided by Pu powered thermo electric generators, but when enough people live on the planet to man industrial plant solar thermal plants can be build using a maximum temperature of say 800 deg. K. As a minimum temperature of 200 deg. K should be available a thermal efficiency well over 50 % should be achievable. That means that such a plant would produce more electrical power per square meter of mirror surface than similar plants can achieve on Earth.
Other mirrors might send light into the tunnels to allow horticulture.
Thousands of details have to be thought of and have to be investigated in advance. But it seems to me we can reconnoiter the planet with unmanned probes in sufficient detail to start colonizing without having to prepare for the return of the crew, perhaps as early as 2050.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
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Gun violence is not limited to the US...

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Four people have been shot dead in the French Alps - with three of them found inside a British-registered BMW four-wheel drive.

The suspected assassination happened in a forest car park near the village of Chevaline, near Lake Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie region.

Three adults were found dead inside the vehicle, which had UK licence plates. A man was found at the wheel, and two women in the back.

A young girl was found near the car, and initial reports said she died later from her injuries. A local prosecutor has now said she is in a critical condition in hospital in the city of Grenoble.

The body of a cyclist was also found nearby.

The girl is believed to be around seven-years-old and was shot at least three times, according to reports quoting police sources.

The four bodies were riddled with bullets in what looked like a "deliberate assassination", the reports added.
 

bd popeye

The Last Jedi
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Unfortunately "breaking news" is often tragic..My condolences go out to the families of the victims.

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AHMETBEYLI, Turkey (Reuters) - At least 60 migrants, most of them Palestinian and more than half of them children, died after their overcrowded boat sank just tens of meters off Turkey's western Aegean coast on Thursday, a district official said.

Tahsin Kurtbeyoglu, governor of the coastal district of Menderes in Turkey's western Izmir province, said an initial investigation showed the small vessel sank due to overcrowding around dawn.

Its destination was unclear but the small Turkish town of Ahmetbeyli from where it left is only a few kilometers from the Greek island of Samos. Greece is a common entry point for migrants trying to get into the European Union.

"The latest death toll we have is 60 people, including 11 men, 18 women and 31 children, including three babies," Kurtbeyoglu told Reuters by telephone.

Turkish media said the reason the death toll was so high was because the women and children were in a locked compartment in the lower section of the vessel, although there was no official confirmation of this.

Kurtbeyoglu said 46 people had so far been rescued alive, including the ship's Turkish captain and assistant, who had been placed under arrest. He said there were no bodies left on the boat and he did not expect the death toll to rise any further.

Most of the migrants were Palestinian nationals, and the authorities were still trying to determine the nationality of the others, Kurtbeyoglu said. He said the survivors spoke Arabic and were of Middle Eastern origin.

Turkish media said there were also Syrians and Iraqis on the boat, although that could also not be confirmed.

Turkey is sheltering about 80,000 Syrian refugees near its southeastern border with Syria, several hundred kilometers away on the other side of the country.

Television footage showed small boats and diving teams searching for survivors just off Ahmetbeyli. The boat sank less than 100 meters from the shore after leaving at around 22:30 EDT, officials said.

Turkey's position as a bridge from Asia to Europe, as well as its wealth compared with neighboring states, has long made it both a destination and a transit point for migrants from the Middle East and as far afield as Africa and South Asia.

The Greek island of Samos is clearly visible from Ahmetbeyli, which lies in a popular coastal region frequented by foreign and Turkish holiday makers.

About 130,000 immigrants cross Greece's porous sea and land borders every year, the vast majority via Turkey.

Greece received more than 1,000 migrants by sea last year, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). Another 55,000 crossed the land border between Greece and Turkey at Evros, according to Greek government figures.

Greece opened its first purpose-built detention center for illegal migrants in April, the first of about 50 camps that Greek officials have said will be built by mid-2013.

(Additional reporting and writing by Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Andrew Heavens)
 
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