Solar-powered Aircraft Lands in China

Setting off on 9 March from Abu Dhabi to circumnavigate the world, the Solar Impulse 2 (Si2) became the first ever single-seater solar aircraft to enter China in Chongqing airport early on Tuesday (31 March 2015) morning local time (1735 UTC). She made four stops before arriving in China. The distance of 1,468 kilometers from Muscat, Oman to Ahmedabad, India was the longest distance covered by a solar-powered flight. Another record was set for solar-powered flight with a speed of 117 knots (216 kilometers per hour) reached during the stretch from Varanasi, India to Mandalay, Myanmar.

With a width of about 72 meters, the Si2 is wider than a Boeing 747 jet. She only weighs 2.3 tons which slightly heavier than a sedan. She employed more than 17,000 solar cells on her wings to power up four electric motors. Solar Impulse 2 is expected to complete the 35,000 km journey within five months [see my previous blog]. It had charted an average speed is 70 kilometers per hour. The Si2 was created by Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg of Switzerland will take turns to pilot the plane in the round the world trip.

The flight from Myanmar to Chongqing took 20-and-a-half hours. Flying above the mountainous Chinese provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan meant a steep climb at the beginning of the journey. Flying at high altitude, Piccard had to wear an oxygen mask in the 3.8 square-meter, unpressurized cockpit as temperatures dropped to minus 20 degrees celsius on the 1,375-kilometer (854-mile) route. Strong low-level winds greeted the flight as it arrived in Chongqing. It flies next to the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing before heading to Hawaii. It is due back in Abu Dhabi in August after its journey of 12 stages, the Deutshe Welle reported.

Anything Under the Sun: Gambling Requires Skills

REBLOG>Anything Under the Sun: Gambling Requires Skills

SavySeph's Original Blog

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I tried to convince my readers that gambling requires skill. There are tons of researches that would conclude otherwise. In a recent (2012) study Professor Gerhard Meyer, of the University of Bremen's Institute of Psychology and Cognition Research, suggested that poker was chiefly a game of chance. There were 300 participants in Prof Meyer's research. They played 60 hands poker each, on tables of six. The players were classified as 'expert' and 'average' players based on their ability to make money from good, bad and average hands. The research found that 'expert' players lost less money on bad hands, but did no better than 'average' players on mediocre hands - and made slightly less on good ones. Prof Meyer concluded that 'poker players overestimate the skill factor in their play'.

A research studied 456 million hands of poker from a year's worth of online game. In just a few hands the better-performing players fared better half the time. Their success rate gradually increased until they played 1,471 hands. Given that frequency, they could do better at least 75 per cent of the time. Dr Dennie van Dolder, of the University of Nottingham's School of Economics, said the study showed 'skilled players will consistently outperform less skilled players if enough hands...are played.'

Researchers from the University of Nottingham, working with colleagues from Erasmus University Rotterdam and VU University Amsterdam, also noted that players who finished in the top one per cent in the first half of the year were 12 times more likely than others to repeat the feat in the second half. Writer and TV presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, one of Britain's top professional players, has won more than £1.5m - including £400,000 at a single event. Dr van Dolder said, "It's up to legislators to decide whether the role of chance diminishes fast enough for poker to be considered a game of skill," the Daily Mail reported on 25 March 2015.

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My Comments

The taxman will surely be at the door of poker players when more researches concurs with this finding.

Middle-class Kids' Poor Academics

According to the Department of Education 40% of middle-class college entrants who were high school graduates in 2004 had obtained bachelor's degrees by 2012. This implies that the ability to maintain status quo or achieve upward social mobility on the economic ladder is endangered. A college degree used to be a stepping stone to the middle class. Today had become a prerequisite to sustain the status.

The reasons for the failure were not known as researchers focus were on lower-income children getting through college. The Department of Education tracks high school graduates for the year 2004 whose families earned between $46,000 and $99,000 for the first case periodically check on them until 2012. In the second study they kept track of freshmen in 2003 from families with incomes between $60,000 and $92,000 and check on them until 2009. Both stats found that fewer than half leaving with a bachelor's degree. The first case recorded 40 percent graduated while the second chalked 45 percent.

Anthony Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce said bachelor degree holders earn $2.3 million over their lifetime, on average. That's $600,000 more than someone with an associate degree and $800,000 more than those who left college with no diploma. "It's a lot harder to maintain your middle class status without a degree," Carnevale told CNN Money on 25 March 2015.

Jack of All Trades: China: Mummified Monk Statue Stolen

REBLOG> Jack of All Trades: China: Mummified Monk Statue Stolen:


Jack Omnitrade's Original Blog

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China claims that the Buddha statue, exhibited at the Hungarian Natural History Museum, was stolen from Fujian Province. This statue was a phenomenon because a 1,000-year-old mummified monk was found encased in it. The China Daily reported on 24 March 2015 that China's State Administration of Cultural Heritage had taken the necessary steps to retrieve the statue.

The mummified monk statue is now in the possession of a Dutch collector. The mummified monk statue made its debut when it first showcased at Drents Museum in the Netherlands last year. The mummy was discovered when a collector brought it to an expert for restoration. Subsequently a team of researchers and scientists was brought in to do a comprehensive study. CT scan show the mummy sitting on a bundle of cloth covered in Chinese inscriptions, revealing its identity as a Buddhist monk called Liuquan, the CNN reported on 23 March 2015.

China's Claim

According to the documents, the monk was a local man who gained a reputation for curing diseases and promoting Buddhist principles. He passed away at the age of 37. Pictures provided by the Da Tian Museum, Fujian and those taken during the exhibition were found to have identical facial expressions as well as scratches on the stomach and the hand. The shape, height and weight of the Dutch collector's statue matches the measurements provided by the Da Tian Museum. The same Chinese character is also carved on the cushion that the Buddha sits on. "There are five proofs of evidence that show that the Buddha statue is the relic stolen in 1995 from a Chinese ancestral temple in Fujian province's Yangchun village," said a spokesman of the Da Tian Museum in Fujian.

The Dutch Collector's Claim

On March 23, the Dutch collector issued a statement saying the statue was acquired in 1994 from a sincere Chinese friend in the art circles. The statue was shipped to his residence in Amsterdam from a workshop in Hong Kong in 1995. Coincidentally, a Buddha relic was reported stolen in China in 1995. The Chinese and Dutch governments will seek a diplomatic solution to address the issue.

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My Comments

CNN claims that, "It's unclear exactly when or how the statue made its way to a market in the Netherlands where a private buyer bought it in 1996." I think tracking how the statue left China would be as exciting. Looking for trails on how it get to Hong Kong from China should be the starting points for the Chinese cops. Back in 1996, they had no clue where to start when it was reported missing. Now they should have information on who the Dutch collector brought it from.

Anything Under the Sun: Twitter Bans Revenge Porn

REBLOG> Anything Under the Sun: Twitter Bans Revenge Porn:

SavySeph's Original Blog

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Revenge porn is spreading intimate photos or videos without the subject's consent. In a memo to employees last month, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said he was embarrassed about the company's reputation and took "personal responsibility" for the company's failure to address the problem. Costolo wrote, "We suck at dealing with abuse and trolls on the platform and we've sucked at it for years," CNNMoney reported on 12 March 2015.

The CDA 230

Section 230 Communications Decency Act (CDA 230) is perhaps the most influential law to protect the kind of innovation that has allowed the Internet to flourish since 1996. It states that, "No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider." This gives immunity to online intermediaries that host or republish speech that might otherwise be used to hold them legally responsible for what others say and do, [Electronic Frontier Foundation]. CDA 230 makes America a safe haven for websites that want to provide a platform for controversial or political speech and a legal environment favorable to free expression. Propagating pornographic materials was not on the intention of the CDA 230. Costolo did the right thing by admitting shame.

Yishan Wong and Reddit

Revenge was not the motive behind last year's major hack of celebrity photos. These images were heavily distributed on Reddit, and the company was criticized for being slow to remove them. Yishan Wong, Reddit's CEO said there was no plan to change policy to keep Reddit's anything goes image. "We will try not to interfere - not because we don't care, but because we care that you make your choices between right and wrong," Wong said in a blog post. Later Wong resigned abruptly and Ellen Pao takes over as interim CEO CNNMoney 25 Feb 2015. Neither vengeance nor pornography are acceptable norms of society. Costolo must have taken Wong's sudden resignation as a warning.

Law against Revenge Porn

Revenge porn is a crime in Israel that faces a maximum sentence of 5 years imprisonment but the punishment had not deter the crime. In October 2013 California had passed law to make revenge pornography illegal but it was criticized for not being comprehensive. The law only prosecute if the distributor is the photographer. Posting your ex-girlfriend's selfie does not count. According to a survey by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), up to 80% of revenge porn victims had taken the photos of themselves. The CCRI is a group founded by revenge porn victims and activists to push for legal reform in the United States. [CNN, October 2013].

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My Comments

On each of every women issue there will always be a view that will put the blame on women.

Solar-powered Plane Takes First Trip Round-the-world

First Solar Power Plane Circumnavigate the World

A solar-powered aircraft took off successfully from Abu Dhabi on 9 March 2015 in its first attempt to fly around the world without any conventional fossil fuel. Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg of Switzerland will take turns to pilot the plane dubbed Solar Impulse 2 (Si2). Piccard and Borschberg, co-inventors of the Si2, will visit India, China and America before flying back to Abu Dhabi through South Europe or North Africa. The activities of the Si2 will be monitored by her control center at Monte Carlo of Monaco the Xinghua reported. Conor Lennon, communications manager of the Si2 project, told Xinhua that the control center is in charge of "meteorological data monitoring, air traffic control, mission control and flight strategy control", adding that many promotional activities would take place during the aircraft's stopover in Nanjing, China.

Plane's Specifications

With a width of about 72 meters, the Si2 is wider than a Boeing 747 jet. She only weighs 2.3 tons which slightly heavier than a sedan. She employ more than 17,000 solar cells on her wings to power up four electric motors. Solar Impulse 2 is expected to complete the 35,000 km journey within five months.

Attempts to Fly

This first attempt to fly using power from the sun reminds me of the first successful attempt to fly by the Wright brothers. While Orville and Wilbur are always depicted as a two-man team chasing a crazy dream, Piccard and Borschberg had a great team to support them. As long as their communication do not fail, the Swiss would be rescued if there is any failure. Nonetheless, it is still a courageous project that these two Swiss are taking. Their success would make air travel cheaper in future. It may pave the way for Gene Roddenberry's USS Enterprise. Leonard Nimoy should had seen this before departing.