NASA wants to grow potatoes on Mars

In Ridley Scott’s science fiction drama The Martian, Matt Damon’s character plays a botanist who discovers how to grow potatoes on the Red Planet. Now, scientists are conducting an experiment that will bring them a step closer to making that a reality.
NASA and the Peru-based International Potato Centre (CIP) will start cultivating potatoes in Mars-like conditions on Earth, with the hope of eventually building a controlled dome on Mars capable of farming the ancient crop.
The team will replicate Martian atmospheric conditions in a laboratory, using soil from Peru’s Pampas de La Joya desert —reportedly nearly identical to that found on the Red Planet.
“The increased levels of carbon dioxide will benefit the crop, whose yield is two to four times that of a regular grain crop under normal Earth conditions. The Martian atmosphere is near 95 percent carbon dioxide,” CIP explained in a recent press release.
By understanding atmospheric changes on the surface of Mars, the team hopes it will help build more dynamic and accurate simulation centres on Earth. If successful, the experiment could see CIP and NASA pioneer space farming for future manned missions to not just Mars, but other planets and moons in the solar system.
“The extraordinary efforts of the team have set the bar for extraterrestrial farming. The idea of growing food for human colonies in space could be a reality very soon.” said Chris McKay, planetary scientist of the NASA Ames research centre.
A second goal of the project is to highlight the role of potatoes in improving global food security.
“How better to learn about climate change than by growing crops on a planet that died two billion years ago?” said Joel Ranck, CIP’s head of communications. “We need people to understand that if we can grow potatoes in extreme conditions like those on Mars, we can save lives on Earth.”
Agronomists have long advocated potato farming in areas rife with malnutrition, poverty and pasture scarcity due to its high nutrient levels and the ability to grow in challenging conditions. The earliest known record of potatoes dates back to around 2500 BC when the indigenous Aymara Indians in modern-day Peru and Bolivia were cultivating the vegetable.

Drone helps icebreaker navigate treacherous Antarctic

Australia’s flagship icebreaker has for the first time used drone technology to navigate treacherous Antarctic waters, overcoming significant technical hurdles, officials said Wednesday.
The Aurora Australis is on an annual resupply voyage to Australia’s Casey research station with images of sea-ice conditions from the quadcopper drone helping navigation decisions.
The Australian Antarctic Division said the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was proving to be a valuable addition to the current suite of sea-ice navigation tools, which include satellite imagery and radar.
But it has not been plain sailing in the sub-zero conditions.
“The electronics do not like snow, the batteries do not like the cold, and the drone’s compass did not like the ship’s thousands of tonnes of steel,” Australian UAV director James Rennie said.
“Because the compass couldn’t calibrate on the ship and its need to work alongside the unit’s GPS, there was potential for the UAV to behave unpredictably.
“We found that by disabling the GPS and flying the drone in full manual mode enabled the drone to operate successfully and deliver the required footage.”
The drone carried out five missions during the nine-day voyage to Casey, with a decision on its more permanent use for navigation to be made after a review of the inaugural flights.
Australia has four stations in the Antarctic wilderness and Aurora Australis has already made a resupply run to its Davis outpost. It is also scheduled to visit Mawson and Macquarie Island, delivering fuel, supplies and expeditioners for the year ahead.

Dying Pakistani man’s family granted Australian visas after initial ‘callous’ rejection

The Australian government on Wednesday caved in and granted visas to the mother and brother of a dying Pakistani man after being accused of “a callous decision” condemning him to a lonely death.
Hassan Asif, a 25-year-old who came to Australia on a student visa in 2014, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and told he has just weeks to live.
His mother and brother wanted to be with him in his final days, but they were refused visas as they were considered at risk of overstaying.
But the decision sparked an outcry with the Melbourne City Mission homeless refuge, which is caring for Asif, urging Immigration Minister Peter Dutton to “show some compassion”.
“Hassan faces a lonely death as immigration department refuse mum’s visa,” it said on its Facebook page. “We urge Peter Dutton to intervene and reunite Hassan with his family one last time.”
The Labour opposition demanded Dutton “sort out this bureaucratic bungle” .
“On the face of it, it seems a cruel and callous decision to refuse his Pakistani-based mother and brother a visa to visit Mr. Asif,” said shadow immigration minister Richard Marles.
“This appears to be a disgraceful and heartless decision.”
Dutton, holding a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, said it was the “right decision” to refuse the visas based on the information that was provided.
But within half an hour he had changed his mind.
“I’d asked the post in Islamabad to have a look at the case, to ask for additional information. That’s happened and the visas have been approved,” he told Sky News.
“I’m hopeful that they can arrive in Australia soon and spend some time with their terminally ill son and brother. I think that’s what most Australians would expect.”
Melbourne City Mission’s Sherri Bruinhout said Asif cried when he heard the news.
“There were tears all round when his brother called Hassan, the family are thrilled and delighted to be able to come Australia,” she told Fairfax Media.
“When we heard the news everyone was crying.”

FB users solve mystery of ‘ancient’ relic unearthed in Jerusalem

Israel’s Antiquities Authority spent six months trying to identify the object. Within hours, Facebook users had named it as a New Age ‘energy harmoniser’
Israel’s Antiquities Authority says Facebook users have solved the mystery of a gilded object thought to have been an ancient Jewish relic.
But far from being a rare historical artefact, the sabre turned out to be a device claimed by New Age advocates to be an “energy healer”.
Amir Ganor, the authority’s director of theft prevention, says police alerted his office six months ago to a gold sceptre with seven grooves found in a Jerusalem cemetery.
It was discovered by a groundskeeper, who initially called the police, fearing it was an explosive device.
Once the 8kg, solid metal object was given the all-clear, it was handed to the Antiquities Authority, which x-rayed the sceptre and analysed its materials. Ganor said he mused whether it was used in the biblical Jewish temples.
Remains have previously been found in the cemetery dating back to the Roman, Byzantine and Crusader periods. But experts did not recognise this item.
Six months on, and with no further ideas, the authority posted a picture on Facebook asking for help. Suggestions were plentiful, with commenter’s wondering if the gold-plated object could be a cattle insemination instrument, a tool for rolling dough, a piece of industrial machinery, a massage object, or some kind of temple relic.
But within hours, one of over 300 responders identified the object as a Weber Isis Beamer, a device that claims to create “a protective field” against radiation and is, according to the authority’s Facebook update, “intended for the use of naturopaths and people dealing with energy healing”.
The beamer is named after Isis, the Egyptian goddess of medicine, magic and nature. It can be purchased from German firm Weber Bio from 67 Euros (£50/US$74) for a pendant to over 1,000 Euros for the largest version, which, the seller claims, “may harmonise even extremely strong geopathic and electromagnetic radiation fields”.
“The wisdom of the masses has done its part,” the authority said on Tuesday. It said an Italian man named Micah Barak was the first to crack the mystery, and has invited him to visit Jerusalem to see it in person.
The question of why the device was buried in the cemetery remains unsolved, however, with the authority appealing to those involved to “contact us and inform us why it was buried in an ancient structure and to whom of the dead they wished to give positive energy”.

Malaysia’s first Islamic-compliant airline takes off

Malaysia’s first Islamic-compliant airline Rayani Air began operations Sunday with its maiden flight taking off from the capital to the resort island of Langkawi, local media reported.
In-flight meals served on board its flights are completely Halal, with alcohol consumption strictly prohibited.
Muslim flight crew must don the hijab while non-Muslim crew are to be decently dressed, managing director Jaafar Zamhari told reporters.
There will also be prayer recitals before take-off. “We are the first Malaysian airline to be shariah-compliant based on guidelines by relevant authorities.
“We are proud of this,” Jaffar was quoted as saying by The Star newspaper.
“The shariah-compliant aspects will be refined as time goes by,” he added using the Arabic word for Islamic law.
There are already other shariah-friendly carriers operating around the world, and UK-based Firnas Airways is planning to offer similar flights next year, according to a Bloomberg news agency report.
Under the concept of Halal — meaning “permissible” in Arabic — pork and its by-products, alcohol and animals not slaughtered according to Islamic procedures are all “haram” or forbidden.
Halal standards also apply to products such as cosmetics, which may contain animal-derived ingredients, and the conditions under which they are prepared and stored.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has long practised a moderate form of Islam but conservative attitudes are rising.
A company recently introduced Halal bottled mineral water in Malaysia, and Islamic speed dating sessions — where single women are chaperoned — have been embraced.
A Halal convention in Kuala Lumpur earlier this year, which drew thousands of delegates and hundreds of exhibitors, showcased products ranging from food and cosmetics to collagen produced from yaks in Tibet.

Enraged cabbies unite worldwide against Uber in 2015

From London and Paris to New Delhi and Sao Paulo, traditional taxi drivers united worldwide against Uber in 2015, a year that saw riots, legal battles and even a kidnapping in protest against the start up.
Since first winning customers in San Francisco five years ago, Uber has enjoyed spectacular global growth by allowing customers to hail drivers using a smart phone app and bypass traditional taxi services.
But the company, now operating in 58 countries and valued at more than $50 billion, has suffered a bumpy ride on the road to success, infuriating conventional cab firms and battling regulators across numerous nations.
The firm’s safety standards have also been called into question after Uber drivers were accused of abduction and sexual attacks of female passengers in India and the United States.
In New Delhi authorities attempted to ban the firm, after it was accused of failing to conduct adequate background checks on a driver who last month was jailed for life for the rape of female passenger in his car. But Uber has flouted the ban much to the outrage of traditional car services.
In many countries, cabbies say Uber represents unfair competition because its drivers are not subject to the often-strict rules and restrictions that govern conventional firms.
Their anger boiled over in 2015, notably in Paris where rioting by heavily unionised taxi drivers and the arrest of Uber executives in June led the start up to suspend its low-cost UberPOP service — six months after it was banned.
Licensed cabbies, who in some countries must undergo hundreds of hours of training, accuse Uber of endangering their jobs by flooding the market with cheaper drivers who only need a GPS to get around.
“Taxi drivers, alright — they’ve got big mouths — but normally they’re not aggressive,” said Malia, who has driven a taxi in Paris for three years said of the riots in the city, which included torching of cars.
“But these guys have families to feed, debts. They’ve been pushed to the brink.”
Uber does not employ drivers or own vehicles, but instead uses non-professionally licensed contractors with their own cars, allowing them to run their own businesses.
In London, 1,500 of the city’s iconic black cabs blocked streets in September, while Mayor Boris Johnson raised drivers’ ire after calling those opposed to new technology “Luddites”.
Black cabbies spend three years studying for “The Knowledge”, a gruelling test that requires them to memorise every street in London before gaining a licence, a tradition dating back to the 1800s.
They say they are being squeezed by the popular, cheaper Uber.
In New Delhi, the ban authorities set out in the aftermath of the rape case has not been strictly enforced and Uber has continued to operate in the city.
Traditional taxi drivers lounge on their black and yellow Ambassador taxis, a familiar sight in the Indian capital for generations, waiting for fares.
“I don’t get customers for days. We sit idle for hours waiting for customers who book Uber even before they step out of their homes,” Sharad Kumar, a driver for 27 years, said at a stand.
“Uber and other taxis are getting money from foreign companies and are providing services at much cheaper rates. We cannot compete with them,” he said.
The 53-year-old, who earns 15,000 rupees ($224) a month, acknowledged that old-style cabbies needed to embrace new technology to compete, but said they lacked funds to do so.
Simran Singh, 25, represents the new breed of taxi driver. He quit his job as a sales executive two months ago to become an Uber driver, using his own car, and now earns a daily wage of around $30 through fares and incentive payments, compared to around $22-a-day previously.
“It’s only been a few days but the earnings are promising,” Singh said.
Uber pays sums on top of fares to woo drivers, part of aggressive expansion plans that this year saw it reach 22 cities in India alone, its largest market by cities outside the United States.
Uber chief adviser David Plouffe has defended the firm, saying debate had been heavily focused on the startup’s effect on traditional cabbies.
“There has been much less focus on Uber’s broader impact on the economy, especially the scale of that impact,” he said in Washington, DC in November, with its 1.1 million drivers worldwide earning more than $3.5 billion this year.
Uber has vowed to fight back against a mountain of legal challenges, especially in Europe, after quickly expanding often in brazen violation of local laws.
In October police raided the company’s European headquarters in the Netherlands while in London, officials proposed a 27-page set of regulations that Uber said made “no sense”.
In Germany, a court in March ordered the company outright to stop its service.
Fighting back, Uber has turned to the European Union to help undo the bans and filed complaints in Germany, France and Spain.
But worldwide, traditional taxis remain fiercely opposed to Uber, with violent protests as far afield as Brazil, including a brief kidnapping of an Uber driver in Sao Paulo.
In the capital of neighbouring Uruguay, hundreds of cabbies blocked a central street in November to prevent Uber from training new drivers.
“They came here to take away all the jobs in the formal sector,” taxi union president Oscar Dourado said.

Arabic fastest-growing language in US: analysts

COURTESY AL JAZEERA
Arabic is now the fastest-growing language in the United States with over one million speakers across the nation, according to analysts.
Despite the language being spoken less than English, Spanish, Chinese or even Tagalog, the country saw a rise of 252,000 speakers from 2010 to 2014, according to census data.
According to the Modern Language Association, the number of students enrolled in Arabic college courses tripled to more than 32,000 from 2002 to 2013. The language is also increasingly being taught in kindergartens and colleges across the country.
Analysts point to a spotlight on the Middle East after the 9/11 attacks, for the rise in the number of people wanting to learn the language and the Arabic culture.
“Some people study Arabic for professional reasons or to get a government job, but most are the true Americans who are open to other cultures,” Mahmoud al-Batal, a Lebanese-American Arabic professor at the University of Texas at Austin said.
Despite Republican front-runner Donald Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, many are not convinced by his remarks and want to understand the culture themselves. “They are not convinced by what Donald Trump tells them or by the two-minute media reports of car bomb explosions they see on the news. They want to understand the culture and language for themselves,” Al-Batal said.
He added that college enrolments slumped slightly after US forces withdrew from Iraq in 2011 and study trips for Americans, to areas like Syria and Egypt, became riskier following the chaos around the Arab Spring.
However, despite the figures an Algerian-American expert in Arabic teaching, Mouna Mana, doubts the numbers and said US census data counts few undocumented Hispanics, whereby Spanish could be a faster growing language.
Nevertheless, Arabic made gains despite widely-reported hostility towards Islam, the Middle East and its people.
Further, an Arabic professor, Kristen Brustad, said Muslim bashing by Trump as well as the San Bernardino attack which left 14 people dead, could hurt Arabic learning in the not so distant future.

King Tut’s wet nurse may have been his sister: expert

An archaeologist said Sunday that Maia, Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun’s wet nurse, may have actually been his sister Meritaten, reviving speculation about the identity of the mother of the boy king.
DNA tests have proved that the pharaoh Akhenaten was the father of Tutankhamun, but the identity of his mother has long been a mystery.
On Sunday, Egyptian officials and French archaeologist Alain Zivie unveiled Maia’s tomb to journalists ahead of its opening to the public next month.
The tomb was discovered by Egyptologist Zivie in 1996 in Saqqara, a necropolis about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Cairo.
Maia was the wet nurse of Tutankhamun, whose mummy was found in 1922 by renowned British Egyptologist Howard Carter in the Valley of Kings in Luxor along with a treasure trove of thousands of objects.
“Maia is none other than princess Meritaten, the sister or half-sister of Tutankhamun and the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti,” Zivie told AFP.
He said his conclusion was based on the carvings of Tutankhamun and Maia on the walls of Maia’s tomb.
“The extraordinary thing is that they are very similar. They have the same chin, the eyes, the family traits,” he said.
“The carvings show Maia sitting on the royal throne and he is sitting on her” lap, said Zivie, director of the French Archaeological Mission of Bubasteion.
Similar carvings were in Akhenaten’s tomb at the Tel el-Amarna archaeological site in modern-day Minya province where the pharaoh had his capital city, he said.
A DNA analysis in 2010 revealed that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, who temporarily converted ancient Egypt to monotheism by imposing the cult of sun god Aton.
The tomb of Akhenaten has carvings showing the death of princess Maketaten — the second daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Zivie said.
“In these scenes there is a woman who is breast-feeding a baby, and this woman shown as a wet nurse is princess Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten,” he said.
The mummy of Meritaten has not been found, but Antiquities Minister Mamduh al-Damati said on Sunday it could be in a secret chamber in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
Archaeologists are currently scanning Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of Kings after British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves claimed that it has a secret chamber.
Reeves says the chamber could be the burial site of Nefertiti, whose mummy also has not been found.
“All these possibilities exist. Step by step we will be able to better understand the time of king Tutankhamun,” Damati said.
Tutankhamun died more than 3,000 years ago aged 19 in 1324 BC after reigning for nine years.

Introduction To SEO For Internet Marketers

Details:


Introduction To SEO For Internet Marketers
2 Hours | Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, 2 channels | Video: h264, yuv420p, 1152x720 | 270MB
Genre: eLearning | Language: English | Intermediate level

In this course you will learn how to do proper SEO and walk away with a better understanding of the structure of SEO and why it works.


I'm sure if you're on this page or are interested in enrolling in this course, you've probably gone through other SEO courses, watched YouTube videos, and purchased other products claiming to teach you SEO, but most leave something out or do not fully explain why it works the way it does.

The goal of this course is to demystify the mysterious world of SEO and to have you walk away with a solid understanding of how SEO works and how you can use it to build simple profitable niche websites for yourself.

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Basic SEO and online marketing knowledge
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Patience (SEO is NOT an overnight or get rich quick thing)
What am I going to get from this course?

Over 12 lectures and 1.5 hours of content!
To educate you on how to properly and effectively build profitable niche websites
What is the target audience?

People who are somewhat experienced and proficient online, have a basic understanding of SEO and want to know and understand really why it works and how
Curriculum

Youtube SEO 2015 - Dominate YouTube Search Results Today

Details:

Youtube SEO 2015 - Dominate YouTube Search Results Today
Duration: 1h 30m | Video: h264, yuv420p, 1280x720, 30fps | Audio: aac, 44100 Hz, 1 ch | 515MB
Genre: eLearning | Language: English


Learn how to increase organic search engine traffic to your videos and channel on Youtube to increase profits.

This course is a complete guide to learning how to rank your YouTube Videos high in not just YouTube Search but Google search as well.

This is all simple things that anyone can do and in this course I will show you exactly how you can do it. I guarantee that if you follow the strategies and techniques I outline throughout this course you will increase your organic views across your channel on YouTube tremendously.

At the end of this course I will give you a checklist you can use to follow along and SEO optimize each individual video on your YouTube channel.

What am I going to get from this course?
Over 22 lectures and 1.5 hours of content!
Get more views and traffic to your Youtube videos
Increase your brands exposure on the Internet
Get targeted organic search visitors that are highly targeted to your videos
A complete checklist you can use to SEO optimize your videos

Search Engine Optimization SEO Keywords Internet Marketing

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[INFO:]
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Search Engine Optimization: SEO Keywords Internet Marketing
MP4 | Video: 1280x720 | 63 kbps | 44 KHz | Duration: 4 Hours | 256 MB
Genre: eLearning | Language: English

S.E.O. training simplified for Authors, Trainers, Coaches and Consultants who want to sell more online in less time


Search Engine Optimization: S.E.O. Keywords Internet Marketing Course was created by Louise Anne Maurice of 90 Day Guru E-Learning for you.

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This is why you are here because you want to know about Search Engine Optimization specifically for Kindle Authors, Udemy Instructors, Life Coaches and Consultants. The best part is; every piece of advice, strategy and logical approach to S.E.O. keywords and internet marketing has been tested; none of this is theory.

The Art of SEO Mastering Search Engine Optimization

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[INFO:]
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The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization by Eric Enge
English | 5 Sept. 2015 | ISBN: 1491948965 | 976 Pages | EPUB/MOBI/PDF (True) | 275.83 MB


Three acknowledged experts in search engine optimization share guidelines and innovative techniques that will help you plan and execute a comprehensive SEO strategy. Complete with an array of effective tactics from basic to advanced, this third edition includes updates on SEO tools, and new search engine ranking methods that have reshaped the SEO landscape.Novices will receive a thorough SEO education, while experienced SEO practitioners get an extensive reference to support ongoing engagements.Comprehend SEO’s many intricacies and complexitiesExplore the underlying theory and inner workings of search enginesUnderstand the role of social media, user data, and linksDiscover tools to track results and measure successExamine the effects of Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithmsConsider opportunities in mobile, local, and vertical SEOBuild a competent SEO team with defined rolesGlimpse the future of search and the SEO industryVisit the book website (http://www.artofseobook.com) for FAQs and to post your own burning questions. You’ll have access to special offers and discounts on various SEO tools and services. You can also get exclusive access to instructional videos related to the concepts in the book by sending an email tobonuses@artofseobook.com.

Learn SEO to Grow Your Website

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[INFO:]
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Learn SEO to Grow Your Website
Duration: 1h 25m | Video: AVC (.MP4) 1280x720 15fps | Audio: AAC 48KHz 1ch | 735 MB
Genre: eLearning | Language: English

Search engine optimization or SEO for short has been around for quite some time, but not till recently has the search engines really cracked down on how they rank websites. Ranking for keywords is one of the most important and basic steps to growing visitors to your website.


Just for an example if you type in google "basketball shoes" - you will see that footlocker comes up number one in the organic search results. There are roughly 33,000 searches a month with this exact set of keywords. Can you imagine how many footlocker shoes are being sold because of this traffic?

Here is a lesson breakdown:
What is SEO and how do search engines rank websites
Setting up our project website
Measure Existing Traffic with Analytics
Choosing Keywords
Onsite SEO (Internal Linking, Content, Meta Tags...)
Offsite SEO (Link Breakdown, Building Backlinks...)
SEO Tools for keyword rankings and backlink checkers
Measure Traffic and Keyword Rankings
Do's and Do Not's, Tips and Tricks

Youtube SEO Secrets Plus How To Rank Page No1 Google

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[INFO:]
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Youtube SEO Secrets Plus How To Rank Page #1 Google
Lectures 21 | 2Hours | Video: AVC (.mp4) 1280x720 30fps | Audio: AAC 44.1KHz 2ch | 617MB
Genre: eLearning | Language: English

Google & Youtube Rank #1 + SEO Strategies For More Youtube Traffic: Learn To Rank Every Video Better In Search Results
Learn all the concepts and strategies needed for ranking videos on Youtube.
Build a full understanding of Youtube Video Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for beginners.
What Students will learn:
*How Videos Rank on Youtube
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*Optimizing Youtube Factors such as Title, Tags, and Description for SEO
*Effectively using annotations for SEO
*Thumbnail Designs do improve SEO
*How To Design Youtube Thumbnails for better SEO