RAN frigate, oiler deploy for operations, drills
View post tag: HMAS Stuart Share this article Royal Australian Navy frigate HMAS Stuart and oiler HMAS Sirius got underway from Fleet Base West on August 22 for several months of operations.Despite sailing together for the Australian-hosted exercise Kakadu 2018 which will be held off Darwin, both ships will have a very different schedule of events over the next few months as their programs take them to various ports of call, both in Australia and overseas.Stuart is expected to return towards the end of the year. Following her deployment, Sirius will enter a period of maintenance on the east coast before returning to Fleet Base West next year.Speaking before Sirius slipped her lines, Senior Officer Western Australia, Commodore Brett Dowsing, said the deployment of these ships was a significant occasion.“The deployments of Sirius and Stuart today is extremely important to Australia’s national interests,” he said.“As well as participating in a number of significant exercises during their deployments, Sirius and Stuart will also be flying the flag for Australia.“As such, every member of these ships’ companies are ambassadors not only for your ships and Navy but also for our country.”Exercise Kakadu is a biennial, multi-national drill which grows in scale with every iteration. This year’s iteration is expected to host navies from some 27 countries for live fire exercises, submarine detection and deterrence, and aircraft operations. This year will also be the first time a Chinese frigate is taking part in the drill. View post tag: Royal Australian Navy
Photo: HMAS Sirius departs Fleet Base West, Western Australia, for a four-month deployment. Photo: Royal Australian Navy View post tag: HMAS Sirius
Lady Margaret Hall JCR have passed a motion urging the college to divest from companies on the Carbon Underground 200 list, which ranks the top 200 coal, oil, and gas companies by the size of their carbon reserves.The motion, passed on Sunday, stated that divestment would allow “LMH to align its investment with its ethical commitments.”JCR officer and proposer of the motion, Matthew Judson, told Cherwell: “I’m delighted that the JCR endorsed this motion so emphatically.“The LMH student body has sent a clear signal that we believe it is unacceptable to continue to profit from environmentally destructive activities.“I expect our college to take our views seriously and to immediately consider the appropriateness of its investment practices.“I hope students across Oxford will support the campaigns by Oxford SU and Oxford Climate Justice and take action in their own colleges.“It is vital that we use the voice we have to protect our planet, and I thank my peers at LMH for playing their part in advancing this important cause.”The motion extends its support to a recent paper authored by MCR Green Rep Julia Peck, outlining strategies the college may adopt in order to divest its portfolio from fossil fuels.Peck told Cherwell: “We are proud of the College’s history as an institution established to invest in the future it wanted. In the 19th century case, this meant the future of women’s education, an issue which other Oxonians at the time thought was too radical or complicated.“In today’s case, the imperative is a low-carbon future for a livable and just planet, and we believe it is LMH’s turn to become the first Oxford college to demonstrate what that looks like.”Peck’s paper was distributed to LMH fellows at the beginning of term. Amidst broadly positive responses, some concerns were raised about whether this might compromise the college’s returns.Peck added: “Thankfully, we have many successful models to point to: the University of Edinburgh, Cardiff, Sheffield, and SOAS have all fully divested their University endowments this year.“New York City is divesting five billion dollars from fossil fuel companies as well.“Designing a profitable, climate-just and future-friendly portfolio will certainly take work and collaboration within LMH, but we believe it’s absolutely worth it.”Part of LMH’s fossil fuel investments are managed by a subsidiary, which also manages assets for the University and 25 other colleges.LMH will become the 11th Oxford college to pass a fossil fuel divestment motion since the beginning of the academic year.
Signs were put up yesterday at the Applegreen service station located on the M1 just outside Lisburn, advertising a Greggs shop.Greggs opened its first location at Applegreen last year and, earlier this month, the high street bakery submitted a planning application for its third outlet in Belfast city centre. The bakery giant is eyeing as many as 50 locations across Northern Ireland, with around 10 in Belfast alone. Greggs has 1,670 stores located across Britain.
As the winter takes over America, fans continue to migrate South for carefully curated destination events in tropical locations. One of the most exciting destination events of the season is Los Muertos Con Queso, a new event that features headlining performances from both members of the Grateful Dead, as well as The String Cheese Incident. Dubbed “Los Muertos”, the new band will feature original members Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann alongside WSP’s Dave Schools, Almost Dead’s Tom Hamilton and Dead & Co’s Jeff Chimenti.What To Expect When Grateful Dead Members And String Cheese Incident Play The Beach In MexicoIn addition to Los Muertos and The String Cheese Incident, the event revealed Chris Robinson Brotherhood as part of the initial lineup. Today, Los Muertos con Queso has added Jackie Greene to the lineup, who will be performing with his own band throughout the weekend. Greene is no stranger to the Dead’s music, and it seems highly likely that collaborations are imminent.LMCQ is scheduled for January 25-28 in Riviera Maya, Mexico. For tickets and more information, head to the official website.
The Lexington Minutemen played a tune to usher him onstage, where he was given the key to the city by Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons.“I’ve never been given the key to any city before!” exclaimed Gordon-Levitt. “I wish I could build a fire for all of us! Go, L.A. Lakers!”But he also acted, too. During a “date” with one of the Hasty Pudding cast members, Gordon-Levitt planted a kiss on one very deserving gal.It was during the evening roast that Gordon-Levitt really raised the bar for “Men of the Year” to come. After being roasted well-done by Kennedy Edmonds ’17 and Lily Yarbrough ’17, he was put through a fiery obstacle course to receive his Pudding Pot. First he milked a cow, then he performed a sexy dance for Russian porn star David Sheynberg ’16, then, reprising his role as Robin from “The Dark Knight Rises,” he donned a skin-tight Robin costume and was told to break balloons printed with his own face.That’s when Gordon-Levitt switched up the game.He grabbed the balloons and darted into the crowd, climbing into the audience to wild chants of “Robin! Robin!”Next tasked with impersonating his friend and co-star Seth Rogen, Gordon-Levitt disrobed, down to Calvin Klein skivvies and mismatched socks.The crowd roared. The star, whose breakout dance routine of Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” for Spike’s “Lip Sync Battle” recently went viral, can seemingly do no wrong. Not even an impromptu song called “10 Things I Hate About Myself” could ruffle this Man of the Year.And so the Pudding Pot was offered, and received, joyfully.“I spent the last two days here,” said Gordon-Levitt. “There’s a thoughtfulness, optimism, passion, worldliness, sense of humor that leaves me feeling optimistic about people younger than I am. You guys are really doing great.” The Man of the Year found himself hugging his dance partner during one of the skits. Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer “I spent the last two days here,” said Joseph Gordon-Levitt after receiving the Pudding Pot. “There’s a thoughtfulness, optimism, passion, worldliness, sense of humor that leaves me feeling optimistic about people younger than I am.” Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer Not your average Joe Gordon-Levitt darted into the crowd, climbing into the audience to wild chants of “Robin! Robin!” Jon Chase/Harvard Staff Photographer In a humorous skit, Gordon-Levitt went on a “date” with a cast member from the Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Photo by Shraddha Gupta A performance by the Lexington Minutemen signaled the arrival of Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Joseph Gordon-Levitt during a special public performance. Photo by Shraddha Gupta
Gordon-Levitt braved the day’s wintry conditions. Photo by Shraddha Gupta Hasty Pudding Man of the Year Joseph Gordon-Levitt started the day off with a tour of Hasty Pudding headquarters. Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer Despite the weather, fans flocked to Harvard Square to catch a glimpse of the “Don Jon” actor. Photo by Shraddha Gupta Cambridge Mayor E. Denise Simmons presented the actor with the key to the city. Photo by Shraddha Gupta Harvard is Joseph Gordon-Loving It. The actor (real last name Gordon-Levitt) who made a name for himself over six seasons on “3rd Rock from the Sun” and starred in films like “10 Things I Hate About You” and the upcoming “Snowden,” visited campus today in another important role: as Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 50th Man of the Year.No amount of snow or slush could thwart his fête, as it nearly did for 2013’s honoree Kiefer Sutherland. To commemorate five decades of Hasty men — beginning with the first Man of the Year, Bob Hope, in 1967, Gordon-Levitt participated in a special outdoor event at the Hasty Pudding Theatricals headquarters.Gordon-Levitt — or Joe, as he’s known — first dropped by headquarters earlier this afternoon for a tour and a history lesson. Guides Dan Milaschewski ’17 and Betty Lema ’17 explained that the club, founded in 1795, was initially centered on pudding.“So it’s not originally a theater thing?” Gordon-Levitt wondered.That came later, Milaschewski and Lema clarified.In its new home at the site of the original House of Blues, the Hasty Pudding digs are a curiosity museum of its wacky antics and alumni — including, most notably, B.J. Novak and writers for Mindy Kaling’s “The Mindy Project.”“More and more, we’re seeing a lot of people come out of the Pudding and doing things in Hollywood,” said Lema.Gordon-Levitt is doing things outside of Hollywood, too. In 2011, he published “The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories,” the first of three volumes he edited from more than 8,500 submissions to his open-collaborative company hitRECord, which has also produced music, films, and the Emmy Award-winning series “Hit Record on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.”Curious and friendly, Gordon-Levitt seemed genuinely interested in Hasty Pudding’s evolution from a politics- and friendship-oriented society to a theatrical enterprise, one that often tests the boundaries of comedy and satire with its outlandish annual productions.,“I did a movie, and people did not appreciate it,” Gordon-Levitt told Milaschewski and Lema of his writing and directorial debut, “Don Jon,” alongside Scarlett Johansson.But he was appreciated at Harvard. After being whisked underground for a secret initiation into the club, Gordon-Levitt re-emerged to receive a medal and a few ties, for good measure.“Oh, sweet!” he said. “These are good ties! Thank you so much.”While Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year is traditionally paraded through Harvard Square, it’s unheard of for Man of the Year to make his public debut in anything other than the traditional evening roast. But throngs of fans braved the weather for a special afternoon event featuring the actor.
Researchers at the Georgia Envirotron in Griffin, Ga., saythe unique facility is helping them fight a costly foe of thepeanut industry.Aflatoxin is one of a group of extremely poisonous naturalmycotoxins produced by two common fungi, Aspergillusflavus and A. parasiticus.A Costly Problem”It’s one of the most expensive problems the peanut industryfaces,” said Keith Ingram, chair of the Georgia Envirotroncommittee. Ingram is an associate professor with the Universityof Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.U.S. peanut products don’t contain aflatoxin, a natural carcinogenwith tight regulatory limits here and abroad. But the industryfigures it costs about $1 billion a year to keep it out, Ingramsaid. Georgia produces 37 percent of U.S. peanuts.”Very few peanut seeds contain aflatoxin. But it doesn’ttake many seeds to cause major health and economic impacts,”he said. “If a farmer’s load is rejected because of aflatoxincontamination, he can still sell the crop for peanut oil, as aflatoxincan be removed from oil. But oil is a product of much lower value.”Farmers can’t even sell the hulls from rejected peanuts foranimals’ bedding, Ingram said, due to the risk of the animals’eating the hulls.”Aflatoxin restricts trade, too, which also affects thevalue of peanuts,” he said. “Many countries can’t exportpeanuts because of aflatoxin.”Searching for ResistanceResearchers have found that drought-resistant peanut varietiesand varieties with long root systems tend to also be aflatoxin-resistant.Ingram and U.S. Department of Agriculture research geneticistCorley Holbrook are working to identify peanut germ plasm withthese qualities.”We’ve identified peanut germ plasm lines with lower incidencesof aflatoxin and tested them in field conditions at the UGA CoastalPlain Experiment Station in Tifton, Ga.,” Holbrook said.”We are now conducting research at the Georgia Envirotronto gather root data.”The envirotron, a $1.26 million facility, allows researchersto study how a number of stresses affect plants.Using the envirotron’s facilities, scientists can control temperature,humidity, light, pollutants and atmospheric gases. Indoor growthchambers can be used to study plants, pests and diseases, whilegreenhouses allow researchers to simulate field conditions.Studying Peanut Plants From the RootsUp”The growth chambers will allow us to gather reliabledata on the peanut plant root growth,” Holbrook said. Throughobservation tubes in the growth chambers, the scientists can alsoobserve the roots and pods growing in the soil.”Gathering root data is extremely difficult in field plotsand really isn’t even feasible,” he said. “We triedto gather data using probes, but we weren’t happy with the results.”Peanut farmers worldwide will be happy once the research teampinpoints aflatoxin-resistant germ plasm.”Once we determine the best choices from the germ plasm,crop breeders across the globe can use this germ plasm to createnew resistant peanut varieties,” Holbrook said.The team also plans to study aflatoxin’s relationship to droughtconditions.”We know aflatoxin is associated with drought and otherstresses,” said Ingram. “We want to quantify how itreacts to different temperatures, levels of soil moisture andother environmental variables.”These conditions can all be replicated using the envirotron’sgrowth chambers.A Year-Round Growing Season”The envirotron also allows us to conduct our experimentsyear-round,” Ingram said. “We just harvested a cropin the middle of February, and we’re ready to plant another crop.Georgia farmers won’t plant their peanut crops until May.”Ingram says one of the strangest aspects of this research iscreating poor conditions to support the toxins.”We have to use poor management practices to weaken thepods and make them susceptible to the fungus,” he said. “Wealso have to innoculate the plants with the fungus. This is anotherreason the envirotron facility is perfect for this type of research.Inside the growth chambers, we know the fungus is contained.”
By Stephanie SchupskaUniversity of GeorgiaWorldwide, 25 percent of food — and in some case 50 percent — never reaches consumers because it spoils or is mishandled after harvest. One way to advance food security and feed the hungry is to reduce these losses, said Philip Nelson, the speaker at the 2009 D.W. Brooks Lecture held in Athens, Ga., Oct. 6.Presented by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the program is named in honor of Gold Kist Inc. founder D.W. Brooks.“In India, according to a 1999 World Bank Report, post-harvest losses amount to 12 to 16 million metric tons of food grains each year – an amount that the World Bank stipulates could feed one third of India’s poor,” said Nelson, a Purdue University food scientist.Seeing problemsThe infrastructure to preserve and transport food is simply missing in many countries. Food spoils. People go hungry.He gave examples:In a field in Africa, women pound millet grain by hand to produce flour. In some villages, grain is stored in mud huts suspended off the ground in an effort to keep out mice, rats and water. In another town, milk sits in large, covered metal canisters in the sun, without refrigeration.“Production alone is not the issue,” he said, although he does argue that genetically modified crops are important to solving the world’s food shortages. He’s seen rice, which has been modified to produce twice as much as normal, result in huge harvests and huge losses. The people growing it had nowhere to store it. The solutions can start simply, like with a 100-gallon, epoxy-lined tank in Nelson’s lab, or a sterile plastic bag that can be enlarged to hold 300 gallons of tomato paste.Nelson’s research has had a wave-like impact on farmers, industry and hungry people. Thanks to his work — and the 100-gallon tank in his lab — orange juice is now shipped fresh and pathogen-free around the world in 8-million-gallon container ships. His plastic bag experiments now allow rescue workers to more easily take supplies into disaster areas. In fact, sterile plastic bags containing clean water and emergency food were delivered to victims of the southeastern Asia tsunami in 2004 and of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.“While we didn’t discover aseptic packaging,” which is the type of packaging that those sterile bag-in-box packaging and million-gallon tanks provide, “my lab moved it forward,” he said.Because of his research, Nelson was named the 2007 World Food Prize Laureate, which is the food and agriculture equivalent of the Noble Prize. Nelson’s work “is making this planet a better place,” said UGA CAES dean and director Scott Angle.Finding answersSolutions of infrastructure and other problems, Nelson said, must come from different sources, not just food scientists. It has to be a step-by-step focus, not just the reduction of post-harvest losses.He gives Japanese tomato farmers as an example. There, farmers with half-acre lots put their produce in baskets, which they weigh. They then write the weight on a ticket and put it in the basket. A truck comes by, picks up the tomatoes and takes them to a plant that processes 20 tons an hour. And then the farmers get paid according to tomato weight.Cooperatives like these can happen around the world. “It has to be organized, but it can be done,” he said.Nelson’s plastic bag experiments lead to an industry standard called bag-in-box packaging. These days, instead of having to rely on easily damaged metal drums, 90 percent of tomatoes are aseptically boxed and sent worldwide, and bag-in-box packaging is used in more than 180 countries. It doesn’t stop with tomatoes. Mangoes from northern India are now finding their way – in the form of frozen chunks – into American smoothies. Nelson likens the process to the saying about teaching a man to fish. “I would like to add to that,” he said, “teach a man to preserve his fish, and he won’t only feed himself and his community, but he’ll have money in his pocket.” (Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
By Dialogo January 31, 2012 Technical teams from Central American countries met in Honduras on January 30 with experts from other countries and international organizations in order to promote the execution of joint plans for regional security. “In the context of Honduras’s term as president pro tempore of the Central American Integration System (SICA) during the first half of 2012 in the area of regional security, implementation of the Central American Security Strategy will begin,” a statement by the Honduran foreign ministry noted. Foreign ministry spokesperson Conchita Motoya told AFP that along those lines, representatives of the SICA member countries have been meeting in Honduras at the working-group level since January 27, while delegates from other countries and international organizations cooperating with the region are expected to join them for three days starting on January 30. The statement specified that during the meeting, “a series of working sessions will be held, with the aim of promoting dialogue among the countries of SICA and the Group of Friendly Countries and International Organizations regarding the first eight projects selected by the Central American Security Commission in November 2011.” During a meeting held in San Salvador, the members of SICA called on the international community to support Central America with financial and technological resources and training to confront drug trafficking and organized crime. They also noted the need to strengthen the institutions responsible for applying the law as a fundamental element of the security strategy. The Central American Security Strategy Group of Friendly Countries and International Organizations is made up of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, Spain, Chile, South Korea, Germany, Italy, Japan, England, Israel, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE), the World Bank, the United Nations (UN), and the Organization of American States (OAS).
continue reading » CUNA will join CUNA Mutual and the Financial Services Information Sharing Center (FS-ISAC) for a webinar Thursday on mitigating fraud risk in the wake of the Equifax data breach. Registration is now available for the call, which is open to FS-ISAC members only and is scheduled for 1 p.m. (ET) Thursday.Equifax announced a breach earlier this month that impacts 143 million American consumers, with an additional 209,000 credit card numbers also being stolen.The webinar will address:A background of recent events;A briefing on how stolen credentials can be re-used on the dark web;Ways to proactively change fraud strategy after a large data breach;Best practices in fraud monitoring/detection and identity theft; 11SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr
Boeing Co failed to submit certification documents to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) detailing changes to a key flight control system faulted in two fatal crashes, a long-awaited government report seen by Reuters has found.The flight control system, known as MCAS, was “not an area of emphasis” because Boeing presented it to the FAA as a modification of the jet’s existing speed trim system, with limited range and use, according to the report.The 52-page report by the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (IG), dated June 29 and set to be made public Wednesday, laid bare mistakes made by both the planemaker and FAA in the development and certification of Boeing’s top-selling aircraft. The FAA declined to comment beyond the department’s response attached to the report. The IG did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A Boeing spokesman said the company had taken steps to enhance safety and was committed to transparency. “When the MAX returns to service, it will be one of the most thoroughly scrutinized aircraft in history, and we have full confidence in its safety,” he said.The IG’s report is the latest of reports faulting the plane’s approval, while the Justice Department has an ongoing criminal investigation.The 737 MAX has been grounded from commercial flight worldwide since March 2019 after two crashes killed 346 people in Ethiopia and Indonesia over a five-month span.Boeing’s so-called MCAS stall-prevention system has been faulted in both crashes, when the system repeatedly and forcefully pushed down the jet’s nose as pilots struggled to intervene, among a cocktail of factors pinpointed by crash investigators. The inspector general report details activities from the early phase of the certification process in January 2012 through the second crash. It also details allegations of “undue pressure” from Boeing management on workers handling safety certification, though it adds that all “formally reported” instances of undue pressure were “satisfactorily addressed.”The IG’s office will issue recommendations to the FAA later this year, the Transportation Department said in comments about the draft report submitted on June 8.The FAA is currently evaluating the MCAS upgrades during a series of certification test flights this week that could pave the way for the jet’s return domestically by year end.Regulators in the darkIn response to the report, the Transportation Department said the FAA’s certification of the 737 MAX was “hampered by a lack of effective communication” between the agency and US planemaker.Crucially, that included the “incomplete understanding of the scope and potential safety impacts” of changes Boeing made to the jet’s flight control system to give it more power and authority, the agency said.”Boeing did not submit certification documents to FAA detailing the change,” the report said. “FAA flight test personnel were aware of this change, but key FAA certification engineers and personnel responsible for approving the level of airline pilot training told us they were unaware of the revision to MCAS.”The FAA conducted its first-ever detailed review of the system in January 2019, three months after the first crash in Indonesia. The review resulted in documentation that was never finalized, the report said.The report also noted that, after the Indonesia crash, the FAA completed a risk analysis that found that the uncorrected risk to the 737 MAX was 2.68 fatalities per 1 million flight hours, which exceeded the FAA’s risk guidelines of 1 fatality per 10 million flight hours.A December 2018 FAA analysis determined a risk of about 15 accidents occurring over the life of the entire 737 MAX fleet if the software fix was not implemented.After the crashes, Boeing proposed and FAA accepted a redesign of MCAS software that would include additional safeguards against unintended MCAS activation.Boeing also created a Product and Services Safety Organization for employees to raise concerns over safety and undue pressure, first reported by Reuters.Boeing agreed to develop the MCAS software update by April 12 and operators would have until June 18, 2019, to install the software. AsBoeing worked on proposed software upgrade for MCAS, a second plane crashed in March 2019 in Ethiopia.Topics :