1/30/2018

UN WORKERS PROTEST AGAINST US.


GAZA CITY'S FUNDING FREEZE.

THOUSANDS of employees at the United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees protested on Monday in Gaza against-

*US President Donald Trump's suspension of millions of dollars in aid*.

The United States suspended $65 million to the United Nations Relief Work Agency [UNRWA]  earlier this month, as well as a separate $45 million in Food Aid.

THOUSANDS of teachers, medical professionals and other staff gathered in Gaza City to protest the cuts that UNRWA officials have warned could threaten the *education of more than half a million children*.

The Agency provides support for more than three million Palestinian across the Middle East.

''By turning out in such huge numbers and peacefully you are giving a powerful message to the world,'' Matthias Schmale, UNRWA's director in Gaza, told the crowd.

Addressing the United States, he warned Trump of politicizing the humanitarian aid, for millions of impoverished people.

- AFP.

Headline Jan 31, 2018/ ''' ROCKETS TAUNT ROMANCE '''


''' ROCKETS TAUNT ROMANCE '''




GLOBAL POVERTY is on the rise, and will continue to rise, no matter what mankind does to control it, there are just no easy solutions, nowhere.

In the decades ahead, most and many countries, could most easily break up into chaos and even get consumed by utter poverty.

In the days ahead, very few countries in the world, would truly know, what to do for a living.

ONE possible solution, in the years ahead, would be to leave Mother Earth for other planets, and begin anew. To begin afresh. It is to these great efforts that this research publishing and this writing is dedicated.

IF in doubt,..... *Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a wise man*,... If in doubt, just go ask him, how much he truly fears poverty, - for now and for the future.

So, the world must succeed with Rocket Science, to have an outside chance for a getaway. The World Students Society honors, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and all the great pioneers, looking the right way.

IN 2011, Mr. Musk said he expected the Heavy to have its first flight in 2014. Now he admits that putting together the falcon Heavy proved more daunting than he initially expected.

''We were pretty naive about that,'' Mr. Musk said in July at a press conference in Washington.

''At first, it sounds really easy. Just stick two first stages on as strap-on boosters. How hard can that be? But then everything changes. All the loads change. Aerodynamics totally change. You've tripled the vibrations and acoustics.''

The central core was redesigned and reinforced to handle the stresses, one of the key reasons that the  Heavy is more than three years behind schedule.

While the two side boosters are reused from earlier Falcon 9 launchings, the core is all new, as is the  second stage.

Another tricky aspect is the large number of rocket engines. A Falcon 9 booster has nine of  SpaceX's Merlin engines, each putting out 190,000 pounds of thrust.

The Heavy triples that to 27 engines and a total of more than five millions pound of thrust.

All of the parts of the Heavy finally arrived in Florida late last year. Since then, SpaceX has been modifying the launchpad to handle the larger rocket. In the coming days, the company is expected to conduct a critical test that would light all 27 engines at once with the rocket anchored to the pad.

IF the test flight succeeds, SpaceX has four additional Heavy launchings on its manifest, including one for the United States Air Force.

SpaceX also announced last year that a Heavy would be used to sling two space tourists on a weeklong trip around the moon, although it has offered no further information in almost a year.

GOING BIG, THEN. . 

Some wonder how much business exists for a rocket as big as the heavy. ''I've always scratched my head : ''Why would you do this?'' said Jim Cantrell, who was part of the  founding team of SpaceX in 2002 but soon left.

He is now chief executive of Vector, which is building rockets much smaller than SpaceX's.

With advances in electronics and  miniaturization, satellites have been getting smaller and, and the trend among rocket start-ups has been smaller and smaller rockets. [Jeffry P. Bezos Blue Origin is a notable exception].

FOR $1.5 million, Vector will launch a 140-pound payload, with flights beginning this year. Other new companies aiming at small payloads include Rocket Lab, which over the weekend had its first successful orbital test flight and Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit.

''There's pretty good financial and technical reasons for going smaller,'' Mr. Cantrell said.

Some suggest that NASA could take advantage of the Falcon Heavy as a cheaper alternative to the  Space Launch System it is developing to launch robotic probes and astronauts out into the solar system.

Although the NASA rocket would be larger and more powerful than the Heavy - in fact it would rival the Saturn 5 -it is also much more expensive and would fly only once every few years at a cost likely to exceed $1 billion at launching.

The Trump administration has declared that sending astronauts back to the moon is a priority and has advocated a greater role in the space program for private companies.

Its budget proposal for 2019, which can be released next month, should include more details what it plans to do.

Charles Miller, a former NASA official who served in the trump administration's transition team, thinks the agency should consider turning to cheaper, commercial alternatives like the Falcon Heavy.

''It's a core around which I would build a near-term return-to-the-moon strategy,'' Mr. Miller said.

So far, support for the Space Launch System has remained strong in Congress, and Jim Bridenstine, an Oklahoma congressman who has been nominated to be NASA's next administrator, has stated he favors the program.

But the first launching of the much-delayed NASA rocket, without any astronauts aboard, most likely will not occur until 2019, and the first crewed flight would follow several years later.

Beyond the uncertain commercial prospects, Mr. Musk may be driven more by his long-term dreams of colonizing the solar system.

He has already described plans of an even larger rocket that could be used for sending people to Mars.

THIS YEAR, will be a busy one for SpaceX, which is aiming for more than 30 flights.

It has already started in a cloud of mystery, with launching a highly classified payload code named Zuma, which was built by the defense contractor Northrop Grumman.

Soon after the launching, rumors swirled that Zuma was a failure and and had already fallen out of  orbit. SpaceX strongly stated that the rocket that had taken Zuma to space had performed without issue.

SpaceX has also scheduled test flights of the Crew Dragon, the capsule it is building to carry NASA  astronauts to the International Space Station, although that date may slip again into 2019.

For the first flight of the Heavy, Mr. Musk has tampered down expectations.

There is ''a real good chance that vehicle does not make it to the orbit,'' Mr. Musk said in his July remarks.

''I hope it makes it far enough from the pad that it does not cause pad damage. I would consider that a win, to be honest.''

With respectful dedication to the Leaders, Scientists, Space Pioneers, Inventors, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter-!E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Davos & Drums '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless

NEW GLOBAL PANDEMICS FEARED

Red Cross volunteers fight the flu pandemic, 1918.

DAVOS : Ebola, Zika, SARS a century after the 'Spanish flu' killed 50 million people, humanity now risks a new wave of  deadly diseases, and-

In today's globalized world another such pandemic may be unavoidable, experts warned at the Davos summit this week.

''Pandemics are becoming a real threat to humanity,'' Elhadj As Sy, secretary general of the  International Federation of  Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told AFP at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss Resort.

ONE Davos discussion titled : ''Are We Ready For the Next Pandemic?'' was joined by experts including Sylie Briand, a specialist in infectious diseases at the World Health Organization [WHO].

''We know that it is coming, but we have no way of stopping it,'' she said.

This year marks the centenary of the worst epidemic in history : the so called Spanish Flu -an outbreak that experts say was actually imported to Europe by troops from the United States coming to fight in WW1.

Across the world, the disease killed more people in two years than the four years of fighting had.

Richard Hatchett, director of the public-private Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness innovations [CEPI], said India lost five percent of its population in 1918-

The only time in the country's history that its population declined.

Agencies.

INDIA CAMBODIA INFOS


NEW DELHI : India and Cambodia agree to expand ties in IT, infrastructure sectors.

The leaders of India and Cambodia agreed to work toward a bilateral investment treaty that could see tens of millions of dollars pour into the Southeast Asian nation.

The meeting between Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi saw Cambodia invite Indian investment in-

Information Technology, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and horticulture, infrastructure and small and medium enterprises.

A broader treaty will take time but India agreed to provide lines of credit, including nearly $37 million to finance a Cambodian water project.

India also offered lines of credit for setting up specialty hospitals, expanding road, rail and digital connectivity and construction of high-powered electric line.

A joint statement said Modi also offered to train Cambodian youth in information technology.

Agencies.

MOURNS -AFGHANISTAN- MOURNS


KABUL: Afghanistan on Sunday declared a day of national mourning as the toll of those killed by a huge bomb hidden in an ambulance in Kabul topped-

100 people, sharply raising tensions after insurgents struck in the city for the second time in a week.

AT LEAST 103 people were killed and 235 wounded in Saturday's lunchtime attack claimed by the Taliban, which caused panic in the war-torn capital and overwhelmed its hospitals.

Kabul remained on high alert as the presidential palace declared a national day of mourning for Sunday, with flags flying at half mast.

The attack was one of the worst to strike the capital in recent years.

Central Kabul was unusually quiet on Sunday, a normal workday in Afghanistan with little traffic and few people in the street.

In contrast, security checkpoints have been beefed up, particularly in the streets near the blast scene, as the city braced for the possibility of further violence.

A security alert issued on Sunday warned that the Islamic State group- which claimed a deadly attack on Save the Children's office in Afghanistan's east on Wednesday-

Was planning to attack supermarkets and shops in Kabul frequented by foreigners.

US President Donald Trump called for ''decisive action'' against the Taliban over the assault as other international leaders also condemned the attack.

The World Students Society shares the morning and grief of the Afghan people, Students, Professors and Teachers.

KUMAIL NANJIANI'S KAMAL


PAKISTANI-AMERICAN actor Kumail Nanjiani excited on being nominated for an OSCAR

THIRTY-NINE year old Pakistani American comedian and actor Kumail nanjiani cannot contain his excitement and joy on being nominated for the-

Coveted and and highly prestigious Academy Award in the category of Best Original Screenplay for his film ''The Big Slick''.

The film is written by Kumail Nanjiani himself along with his wife Emily V. Gordon.

Nanjiani, who is known for his epic comic timings and funny oneliners, on hearing o f his nomination took to Twitter to congratulate his wife by Tweeting : ''How's it going?''

Nanjiani is based in the US but is originally from Pakistan. He does standup comedy however, romantic comedy ''The Big Slick'' is truly one of his noteworthy works.

Nanjiani is also a podcast host.