Blue Origin dishes more details on its Bezos-backed spacecraft

Blue Origin typically keeps pretty tight-lipped about its projects. The private space-travel firm claims it prefers to talk about what is has done, rather than what it hopes to do. As such, We recently heard about its "Space Vehicle" (that's its actual name,) having completed wind-tunnel testing, and now the firm (partly funded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos) has revealed a little more. The craft in question is a seven-seater, and it took 180 rigorous tests to get to the final design. Blue Origin has been working with NASA under the agency's CCDev program, which awarded the firm $22 million to develop the project. Under the same initiative, Blue Origin is about to start testing on its BE-3 engine thrust chamber, which will help give the BE-3 rocket motor its 100,000 pounds of thrust. Once complete, this engine will be used in the company's multi-launch vehicle, and is currently on the test stand at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. We'll spare you the puns about it not being "rocket science".

Blue Origin dishes more details on its Bezos-backed spacecraft originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 May 2012 02:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Union files grievance in bounty case

FILE - This June 21, 2011 file photo shows NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a news conference at the NFL football owners meetings in Rosemont, Ill. NFL players' union files a grievance challenging Goodell's authority to suspend four current and former New Orleans players who took part in the Saints' bounty program from 2009-11. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

FILE - This June 21, 2011 file photo shows NFL commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during a news conference at the NFL football owners meetings in Rosemont, Ill. NFL players' union files a grievance challenging Goodell's authority to suspend four current and former New Orleans players who took part in the Saints' bounty program from 2009-11. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? The NFL players union has challenged Commissioner Roger Goodell's authority to suspend players who participated in the New Orleans Saints' pay-for-pain scandal and wants him removed from hearing appeals.

The union filed a grievance late Thursday, one day after Goodell suspended four players who participated in bounties from 2009-11. The complaint says Goodell is prohibited from punishing players for any aspect of the case occurring before the new collective bargaining agreement was signed last August. It argues that a CBA system arbitrator, and not Goodell, has the right to decide player punishment under such circumstances, as well as rule on any appeals.

In a document obtained by The Associated Press, the union told the league Goodell "released all players from conduct engaged in prior to execution of the CBA."

"Thus, even assuming for the sake of argument that the commissioner had the authority to punish players for conduct detrimental under the alleged facts and circumstances of this particular situation ? he does not ? he nevertheless would be prohibited from punishing NFL players for any aspect of the alleged 'pay-for-performance/bounty' conduct occurring before Aug. 4, 2011," the union said.

Last August, the league agreed not to file lawsuits against players regarding detrimental conduct that occurred prior to signing the new CBA. But the clause the union cites doesn't deal with conduct detrimental to the league that endangered player safety over three seasons.

Earlier this week, Goodell suspended linebacker Jonathan Vilma for the 2012 season; defensive lineman Anthony Hargrove, now with Green Bay, for eight games; defensive end Will Smith, for four games; and linebacker Scott Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, for three games.

The union said the suspensions violate the league's "duty of fairness to players," and that the process "violated various procedural requirements of the collective bargaining agreement, including limits of Goodell's authority over the matter and failure to disclose sufficient evidence of the violations."

"There is an article in the CBA that the players release certain claims against the league and another that says the league releases all claims for conduct that occurred prior to the new CBA," union lawyer Jeffrey Kessler said.

Asked what conduct that covers, he responded, "Anything."

The league said its investigation showed "a significant number of players participated" in the bounty system ? by ponying up cash or collecting it ? but noted that "the players disciplined participated at a different and more significant level." The league said anywhere from 22 to 27 Saints players participated.

The suspended players haven't filed appeals, league spokesman Greg Aiello said Friday. The deadline is Monday and Vilma and Smith have already said they plan to file.

Vilma tweeted Friday: "NFL needs to publicly release evidence of players' bounty involvement if it exists."

Aiello said the union is seeking immunity for the four suspended players, "a position it never advanced during the months of discussion on this matter."

The union letter said the NFL must begin proceedings before arbitrator Stephen Burbank, a University of Pennsylvania law professor, and that he "would ultimately determine whether and to what extent the players should be punished."

"We expect that the arbitrators will reject the union's efforts to protect players from accountability for prohibited and dangerous conduct directed against other players," Aiello said, "and uphold the disciplinary process that was so carefully negotiated in the Collective Bargaining less than a year ago."

Even if the arbitrator finds that Goodell had the authority to punish the players, the union maintained that appeals for on-field behavior should be heard by Art Shell and Ted Cottrell, not Goodell. Shell and Cottrell are employed by the NFL and the NFLPA as independent hearing officers when players are fined or suspended for flagrant hits during games.

The union also urged an expedited hearing of its grievance before another arbitrator, Shyam Das, on May 16.

___

AP Sports Writer Richard Rosenblatt contributed to this story.

Associated Press

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Using electrons to map nanoparticle atomic structures

ScienceDaily (May 4, 2012) ? With dimensions measuring billionths of a meter, nanoparticles are way too small to see with the naked eye. Yet it is becoming possible for today's scientists not only to see them, but also to look inside at how the atoms are arranged in three dimensions using a technique called nanocrystallography. Trouble is, the powerful machines that make this possible, such as x-ray synchrotrons, are only available at a handful of facilities around the world. The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory is one of them -- home to the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) and future NSLS-II, where scientists are using very bright, intense x-ray beams to explore the small-scale structure of new materials for energy applications, medicine, and more.

But a Brookhaven/Columbia Engineering School team of scientists, in collaboration with researchers at DOE's Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Northwestern University, has also been working to develop nanocrystallography techniques that can be used in more ordinary science settings. They have shown how a powerful method called atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis -- which normally requires synchrotron x-rays or neutrons to discern the atomic arrangements in nanoparticles -- can be carried out using a transmission electron microscope (TEM) -- an instrument found in many chemistry and materials science laboratories.

The researchers describe the TEM-based data-collection technique and computer-modeling analyses used to extract quantitative nanostructural information in a paper just published in the May 2012 issue of the journal Zeitschrift fur Kristallographie.

"The ability to collect PDF data using an electron microscope places this powerful nanocrystallographic analysis method into the hands of scientists who need it most -- the people synthesizing novel nanoparticles and nanostructures," said Simon Billinge, a researcher at both Brookhaven and Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science and a long-term user of the NSLS, who led the research.

"State-of-the-art experiments will still be carried out at x-ray synchrotrons and high-tech neutron-scattering facilities," said Billinge, a professor of Materials Science and Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics at Columbia Engineering. "But this new development removes significant barriers to more widespread use of the method, potentially making PDF part of the standard toolkit in materials synthesis labs. It's rather like moving nanocrystallography from being available only with a prescription to being available over the counter," he said.

In both the synchrotron and TEM-based methods, the essential technique is the same: bombard a sample with a beam -- x-rays, in the case of a synchrotron, or electrons at a TEM -- and measure how the rays/particles interact with and bounce off the atoms in the sample. The result is a diffraction pattern that can be translated into measurements of the distribution of distances between pairs of particles within a given volume -- the atomic pair distribution function (PDF). Scientists then use computational programs to convert the PDFs into 3-D models of atomic structure.

Electron diffraction had been used to study the structure of molecules in the gas phase and amorphous thin films, but initially, scientists didn't think that electrons would be appropriate for obtaining reliable PDFs from critical nanocrystalline materials because, unlike x-ray photons, electrons scatter strongly, distorting the diffraction pattern. This new work demonstrates that, under the right circumstances and with the correct data processing, quantitatively reliable PDFs of small nanoparticles -- precisely the ones that are difficult to characterize using standard methods -- can be obtained with the TEM.

Another advantage is that the technique allows analysis of atomic-level structural arrangements using the same tool already used to obtain low- and high-resolution images and chemical information for nanostructures -- that is, the same TEM can be used to provide complementary kinds of information.

"The fact that the real-space images and the diffraction data suitable for structural analysis can be obtained at the same time from the same region of a material results in more complete information for the characterization of the sample," said Milinda Abeykoon, a postdoctoral researcher at Brookhaven and the first author of the paper.

In the current study, scientists working with co-author Mercouri Kanatzidis at Northwestern University and ANL synthesized nanocrystalline thin films and gold and sodium chloride (NaCl) nanoparticles and used a TEM at Northwestern to acquire PDFs of these samples. The Brookhaven/Columbia group studied similar samples using synchrotron x-rays at NSLS, and analyzed all the data before comparing the resulting PDFs and atomic structures.

The PDFs from the x-ray and electron data were highly similar.

"In some cases the strong electron scattering did introduce some distortions in the PDF, as originally feared," Billinge said. "However, surprisingly these problems only affected certain less important structural parameters -- and even resulted in an enhancement of the signal in a way that may be used in the future to yield a higher resolution measurement. That was an unexpected gift!"

The research team is continuing to look for ways to remove barriers to data processing to make the method more straightforward -- and move it from proof-of-principle concept into widespread standard use.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by DOE/Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

---

Journal Reference:

1. A. M. Milinda Abeykoon, Christos D. Malliakas, Pavol Juh?s, Emil S. Bozin, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis, Simon J. L. Billinge. Quantitative nanostructure characterization using atomic pair distribution functions obtained from laboratory electron microscopes. Zeitschrift f?r Kristallographie, 2012; 227 (5): 248 DOI: 10.1524/zkri.2012.1510

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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CDC links eye infections to troubled Fla. pharmacy

MIAMI (AP) ? Federal health officials confirmed 33 cases of a rare fungal eye infection across seven states on Thursday, stemming from products mixed in a Florida pharmacy that also mixed supplements that killed 21 elite polo horses in 2009.

The patients had all undergone some type of eye procedure, including surgery or injections. Twenty-three suffered some degree of vision loss and 24 patients had to undergo another eye surgery, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials traced many of the cases to a dye and an injection including triamcinolone and other products from Franck's Compounding Lab in Ocala. The Food and Drug Administration tested unopened bottles and unused syringes of the dye collected, finding multiple bacterial and fungal species.

California health officials first alerted the CDC after nine patients developed the eye infection in March. Franck's recalled dye lots that same month. A single lot of triamcinolone was recalled on Mar. 31.

CDC officials said the investigation to identify the root cause is ongoing and warned doctors and patients to stay away from "compounded products labeled as sterile from Franck's," according to the report.

The pharmacy has not recalled or halted production of other sterile compounded products, which chemotherapy and other injectables.

Pharmacy officials said in a statement they have conducted a thorough investigation and traced the cause of the contamination to a dye used in eye injections of triamcinolone and formulas containing that drug.

The pharmacy says it has resolved the issue and made several changes, including hiring a new pharmacist to oversee quality assurance. It says it has cooperated with federal health officials "in an effort to isolate the source of contamination and prevent future occurrences."

Compounding is a process in which pharmacists mix drugs using bulk ingredients. Patients usually turn to compounders when they are allergic to inactive ingredients in FDA-approved medicines. They are also used when a patient needs a different dose or a different form of delivery ? such as a cream, powder or injectable liquid ? than what is commercially available.

State health officials said they can't confirm whether they are investigating Franck's or any pharmacy until 10 days after the alleged investigation and only if probable cause is found. If they do determine a pharmacy poses an immediate threat, the agency can immediately suspend the facility's license.

Franck's came under intense scrutiny in 2009 after 21 polo horses died before a championship match near West Palm Beach. The horses from the Venezuelan-owned Lechuza Caracas team had just been given a cocktail of vitamins and minerals compounded by the pharmacy on order from the team's veterinarian.

Franck's later acknowledged using too much selenium in the mix. Florida's top veterinarian blamed the deaths on an overdose of the mineral often used to help horses recover from fatigue.

The horses' owners have since filed a lawsuit against the pharmacy.

Following the horse deaths, the FDA accused Franck's of illegally creating copies of similar drugs. The agency also says the pharmacy is mixing brews outside of federal guidelines and is compounding animal products from drugs that have not been approved for use in the U.S. Officials warned pharmacies can circumvent the statutory drug approval process by manufacturing drugs under the guise of pharmacy compounding.

The FDA says Franck's was also warned in 2005, four years before the horses' deaths, that it was compounding animal drugs illegally. The agency warned the pharmacy again in December 2009, according to the complaint.

But a federal court disagreed with the FDA in 2011, ruling the agency did not have jurisdiction over the longstanding practice of pharmacists filling veterinary prescriptions for animals by compounding from bulk substances.

Associated Press

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Can You Decode This Probably Made-Up Text Lingo? [Wtf]

Teens today! What are they even saying on those new-fangled computer phones? LOL, amirite? Parents just can't keep up with all those crazy indecipherable abbreviations swift-thumbed kids are tapping at every hour of the day. Good thing this handy primer of 92 commonly text terms exists. If only it weren't packed with phrases no one's ever heard of. More »

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How Romney should have handled the Bin Laden raid (Americablog)

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Cornell students steer Pong using brain waves, can't quite play during naps (video)

We here at Engadget are always fans of brain wave experiments, and so we were delighted when two Cornell University electrical engineering students, Chuck Moyes and Mengxiang Jiang, wrapped up a final project using brain waves in the best way possible: playing Pong. Their experiment links a baseball cap full of EEG-scanning electrodes to a computer, letting the cap wearer control a paddle using Alpha or Mu waves. Depending on the waves you use, you can move the paddle either by changing your concentration level or by thinking about moving your feet. You won't rack up a high score while napping (or with a teammate narrating over your shoulder), but with a budget under $75, it's hard to find fault. You can grab the source code below, and check out a video of Jiang and Moyes' handiwork after the break.

[Thanks, Chuck and Mengxiang]

Continue reading Cornell students steer Pong using brain waves, can't quite play during naps (video)

Cornell students steer Pong using brain waves, can't quite play during naps (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 May 2012 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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