http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/china-says-first-aircraft-carrier-entering-service-although-questions-linger-over-planes/2012/09/25/f266f50e-06d1-11e2-9eea-333857f6a7bd_story.html?hpid=z3

By Associated Press, Published: September 24 | Updated: Tuesday, September 25, 2:10 AM BEIJING — China formally entered its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, underscoring its ambitions to be a leading Asian naval power, although the ship is not expected to carry a full complement of planes or be ready for combat for some time. The Defense Ministry’s announcement had been long expected and was not directly linked to current tensions with Japan over a disputed group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea. In a brief notice on its website, the ministry said the carrier’s commissioning significantly boosted the navy’s combat capabilities and its ability to cooperate in responding to natural disasters and other non-traditional threats. “It has important significance in effectively safeguarding national sovereignty, security, and development benefits, and advancing world peace and common development,” the statement said. China had partly justified the launching of a carrier by pointing out that it alone among the five permanent United Nations Security Council members had no such craft. That had been particularly glaring given the constant presence in Asia of carriers operated by the U.S. Navy, which maintains 11 worldwide. President Hu Jintao, also chairman of the commission that controls the military, presided over a ceremony Tuesday morning at the ship’s home port of Dalian, along with Premier Wen Jiabao and top generals. Hu “fully affirmed” the efforts of those working on the ship and called on them to complete all remaining tasks according to the highest standard, the Defense Ministry said. The carrier is the former Soviet navy’s unfinished Varyag, which was towed from Ukraine in 1998 minus its engines, weaponry and navigation systems. Christened the Liaoning after the northeastern province surrounding Dalian, the ship began sea trials in August 2011 following years of refurbishment. So far the trial runs of the aircraft carrier have been to test the ship’s propulsion, communications and navigation systems. But launching and recovering fixed-wing aircraft at sea is a much trickier proposition. It will take years to build the proper aircraft, to train pilots to land in adverse weather on a moving deck, and to develop a proper carrier battle group. China is developing a carrier-based fighter-bomber, the J-15, derived from Russia’s Sukhoi Su-33, along with a prototype stealth carrier fighter, the J-31. Beijing hasn’t said what role it intends the carrier to fill other than helping safeguard China’s coastline and sea links. The Liaoning has also been portrayed as a kind of test platform for the future development of up to five domestically built Chinese carriers. Writing in Tuesday’s China Daily newspaper, retired Rear Adm. Yang Yi said the carrier will be used to master the technology for more advanced carriers. He said it also will be used to train in how to operate such a craft in a battle group and with vessels from other nation’s navies. Without specifically mentioning China’s territorial disputes, Yang acknowledged other countries’ concerns about its growing military might, but said Beijing wouldn’t shy from flexing its muscles. “When China has a more balanced and powerful navy, the regional situation will be more stable as various forces that threaten regional peace will no longer dare to act rashly,” Yang wrote. Whatever its practical effects on China’s global status, the carrier embodies huge symbolism for China’s political and military leaders as a totem of their country’s rise from weakness to strength, according to Andrew S. Erickson, a China naval specialist at the U.S. Naval War College. “While (Chinese navy) acceptance of this ‘starter carrier’ is the first step in a long journey, it is a journey that will take place in full view of the world, and one that will ultimately take Beijing to a new place as a great sea power,” Erickson wrote on his blog. The carrier’s political importance was highlighted in Wen’s remarks to the ceremony, in which he said it would “arouse national pride and patriotic passion.” “This has mighty and deep significance for the opening of a new facet in our enterprise of socialism with Chinese characteristics,” he said. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

I recently gained access to some CNC Machining equipment, which is capable of processing IGES Files. I would love for some of you to point me to the right direction, concerning which Software I would use to create 3D IGES Files from my Ideas.

I am familiar with Photoshop and Cinema 4D, but this seems to be another story, thanks in advance for your advice! :)

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201120120HR35

After simplifying its submission process by integrating with Dropbox last month, Vimeo is moving on to its next project: paid video content. The premium video hosting service has announced new pay-to-view and tip jar features, which will allow content creators to earn revenue from their submissions by locking it behind a paywall or by gathering donations.

Later they stated that the service will be available for Vimeo plus accounts which cost 199$. I think they mean the new PRO accounts...

The idea of a tip/donate service is good but the idea of pay to view content is not (IMHO)

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/19/3354580/vimeo-tip-jar-pay-to-view-content

What's about rolling shutter?

http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/2012/DES-DECam-201209.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1209/selfportrait_iss032_4288.jpg

http://www.fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/2012/DES-DECam-201209.html

And here is one of its new pictures -- try pixel peeping this mother!!! The numbers are pretty interesting. It has 62 CCDs making up its sensor, and its lens has a mirror 13 feet across. Built in Illinois, and now sitting on a mountain top in Chile.

http://fnal.gov/pub/presspass/press_releases/2012/images/DES-DECam-201209/DECam_NGC1365-medres.jpg

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/us/in-struggling-mendota-california-another-loss.html?pagewanted=1&hp

The New York Times Some describe Mendota as the Detroit of California. More Photos » Fresh milk was the next casualty. No one ever seemed to hurt for money for beer, but Westside Grocery eventually stopped selling that, too. “Too many alcoholics stinking of urine and worse,” said Joseph Riofrio, who took over the business from his father, who had taken it over from his. “But the truth is that the electricity for the cooler was getting expensive.”

Now Westside Grocery is gone. Last month, Mr. Riofrio, a City Council member and former mayor of this Central Valley town, where a street is named after his grandfather, pulled the plug — done in by a 38.7 percent unemployment rate, the foreclosure and credit crises and hoped-for economic help that never came. “How can a community in the heart of the most abundant farmland on earth suffer this way?” Mr. Riofrio said, fighting back tears.

Another question: If Mr. Riofrio, 50, cannot make it here, can anyone?

The Detroit of California. The Appalachia of the West. This town of 11,100 has been called both, and it is not an exaggeration. About half of Mendota’s residents, according to city officials, live below the poverty line. Alcohol abuse is unbridled. A recent killing appeared to be tied to the violent street gang MS-13.

Mendota has garbage collection, but you would not know it from looking at some of the front yards along Juanita Street. A squalid trailer park greets people arriving from Fresno, about 35 miles to the east; to the south is a prison, built in a former cotton field. Shopping is mostly done at Dollar City or the 99 Cents Store, both competitors of the 98 Cents Store.

Although Mendota is in especially bad shape, the entire Central Valley has been hit hard by the recession and sluggish recovery. Unemployment for the region is about 15 percent. Stockton, on the valley’s northern end, filed for bankruptcy protection in June. A homeless camp continues to grow at a Fresno exit along Route 99. Bakersfield, to the south, has perked up lately, but it has something the rest of the valley does not: oil and natural gas fields and proximity to Los Angeles.

Unemployment has long been a reality in Mendota, which was first settled in the 1890s as a railroad stop. California’s agricultural towns rise and fall depending on what crop needs picking and how much water is available for irrigation. Social problems are nothing new, either. “The fields have always been a magnet for impoverished people trying to find a way out,” said Rick Wartzman, the executive director of the Drucker Institute at Claremont Graduate University and the author of several books examining the Central Valley.

Still, Mendota’s unemployment rate is high even by farming community standards, which typically see a seasonal average of about 20 percent. As the worst of the worst, Mendota has gotten its share of attention over the years; in 2009, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger needed a backdrop to announce that he had petitioned President Obama to declare Fresno County a drought disaster area, he chose Mendota.

But nothing ever seems to get better here. That disaster request was declined. Thousands of acres of surrounding farmland — once used to grow corn, bell peppers, tomatoes and melons — have been forced out of production because of salt buildup, the result of flawed irrigation and drainage systems. Thousands of additional acres have been left fallow because of a lack of water. This part of the Central Valley relies almost exclusively on federal irrigation supplies that have been curtailed amid environmentalist pressure to restore fish habitat.

“There is more than one root problem, which is what makes Mendota so tricky to deal with,” Mr. Wartzman said. “Immigration, water politics, labor patterns, the tendency for California to forget its middle, farm legislation — it all contributes to the downward spiral.”

Faced with vanishing farm jobs and the shuttering of related businesses, like a box-folding plant and the Spreckels sugar factory, Mendota has worked to lure prison builders, a frequent solution for struggling rural communities.

A for-profit prison company started construction on a facility but stopped, saying it had overextended itself. A 1,152-inmate federal prison opened here last year, but the expected jobs have yet to materialize. About half of the workers have been transferred from other facilities, and most of the jobs that are available require a college degree; fewer than 31 percent of Mendota residents have even graduated from high school, according to census data.

Westside Grocery, a caramel-colored building topped with a 7Up sign, stands at the corner of Stamoules and Seventh Streets. In recent years, Mr. Riofrio sold snacks, dry goods, cold medications and hardware items like work gloves. He extended credit, with some accounts allowed $600. Mr. Riofrio also served as a type of amateur pharmacist and translator, helping Spanish-speaking immigrants read their utility bills.

But on Aug. 10, “as the heat was approaching 111 and I sat alone in my store, I knew that the buck had finally stopped,” he said.

Mr. Riofrio locked the front door and went home. “He walked in the house at 1 p.m. and just kept repeating, ‘I’m done,’ ” said his wife, Paula Riofrio. “I said: ‘Done? With what? Joe, talk to me.’ ”

SNIP

I did a small test to record in RAW 2.5K with the GH2 as the BMCC and i was surprised that it work perfectly, not because of the sensor but because the GH2 can offer a decent resolution with a awesome stability.

I was wondering what is the real limit of the GH2 in term of resolution ? (i'm talking about record video) ;)

I was thinking to make some footage with the GH2 in 2.5K Resolution, any risk ?

Can we leave this topic to discut about the resolution possibilities on the GH2 with hack ?

Thanks

The posibilites are quiet large.

http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/PlanAVisit/Exhibitions/LeeAndTurner.aspx

http://www.pcworld.com/article/262071/fbi_rolling_out_hightech_big_brother_monitoring_system.html

FBI rolling out high-tech 'Big Brother' monitoring system The FBI's Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is raising concerns among some privacy advocates.

Thanks to the FBI, the United States government will soon have a nationwide system in place capable of monitoring and identifying “persons of interest” virtually anywhere. The Next Generation Identification (NGI) system is designed to aid the FBI in tracking down and capturing criminals.

NGI is designed to integrate with surveillance camera systems across the country. An algorithm will be used to automatically scan surveillance video and compare faces to criminal mugshots to alert authorities when wanted suspects are identified. The FBI database will also have the ability to identify unique scars or tattoos on potential suspects.

http://cargocollective.com/iovokitangra/Snima-Iris-concept-camera

http://kinonation.com/

this might be useful for some of us...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002ADD7N2/?tag=093-20&seller=A5KZDQNU0OEW9

http://www.youtube.com/user/keshefoundation

Since we are basically ALOT of water, i thought it would be importat to share to the comunity more info about this basic element that we ingest as a daily basis.

It can become poisonus and the best antibiotic only by giving it some feelings sound wired but true.

All i can say about this is worship your water more. For real.

FACTS: The Liquid with more tension, water has memory, The only who can be in three states, Only material to expand when freezed, When reached any metrial it aquire it properties ( even baterial ) mainting its H2O properties. Its structure is more important than its composition, Water is kind of a magnetic tape, since it record structuraly the material that has pase though it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tB-YPDIrNH0#!

• iPhone4S 1.4µm
• LX7 1.85µm
• X10 2.2 µm
• RX100 2.5µm
• GH2 3.6µm
• NX200 4.25µm
• 650D 4.3µm
• 5N 4.75µm
• X-Pro1 4.8µm
• D800 4.88µm
• X100 5.5µm
• 5DmkIII 6.25µm
• BMCC 6.5µm

Would a bigger pixel pitch take longer to refresh a sensor? Or technically more difficult to implement faster refresh rate?

Is there a mini guide on tags that can be used in post? Quoting, italics, bold, colors, underscore...

Thanks

http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Encoding-for-YouTube-How-to-Get-the-Best-Results-83876.aspx

The operating system is very fast in the instalation process, also the boot time. The new interface is a little bit misleading at the begining, but when you actually get over it you understad something like this:

Metro is host, and everything else is applications, just like regular Explorer in windows xp vista or win 7, but in this case Desktop for example is app not an user interface, wich can run apps until a limit, and give you the sense of being in windows but you are in metro, that handdles everithing in a macro level, you mail acounts, facebook acount, videos, cloud drive, everithing is now between your ID and what microsoft can get from it. Aplications like premiere runs free outside the desktop, but can be seen in desktop as regular but is only an ilution. Its seems like they have learned from Facebook that user is willing to give info in exchage of access.

Ive noticed that the video playback not only is natively more smooth, but also i dont know how to tell but the detail is better, my eye has memory of my own video shots, and they look much crisper in win 8, 1080p is more detailed in the same monitor while using same codecs, metro is doing something better with the hardware it has. The OS is very fast, and flows easy, even though glitches are evident, they come to ocurre in very wired ways. Its evident how they have done the OS to take multiple plataforms in acount, and multiple tasks. They take virtualization aproach very sirius and so dont expect any perfect scenario.

As premiere, CS5.5 runs smooth, but havent try hours editing yet.

The overral feeling is rapid response, low use of memory and the feeling of being not in deep control for advance users as previous versions.

Edit: Also the color space seem to be better handle, since i see more Dynamic range in some shoot i thought where crushed. Its strage, really. (As making this edit the Os crushed 2 times while running CPU-Z.)

System specs: Core i5 2500k at 4.3ghz 16gb Ram at 1333 1TB HDD capacity at 7200rpm as main drive Gforce GTX560 1024mb DDR5 Asus p67 deluxe

Thanks in advance

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/photography/la-sci-bw-mars-curiosity-pano,0,5525118.htmlstory