The solar win is 396 km/sec and the proton count is around 0.8. There are six sunspot clusters on the sun right now crackling with “C” class flares. There was a giant magnetic filament stretching across the Sun, but it dissipated without a CME. The sun’s maximum is gearing up, and no scientist knows what is going to happen. We’re in uncharted territory, but I would hold to the conclusion in the Ark of Millions of Years.

Earth is passing through a stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Worldwide observers are now reporting more than 100 Perseids per hour. Forecasters recommend looking during the dark hours before dawn when activity is expected to be highest.

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Darrell Issa is going to Sue Holder Tomorrow!

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa plans to sue Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday for refusing to provide documents related to the "Fast and Furious" gun-smuggling operation.

"The committee expects to file the civil contempt suit against the attorney general Monday," a Republican source said. The suit will be filed in the federal district court for the District of Columbia.

The action is the latest escalation in the dispute between House Republicans and the Justice Department over the documents, which relate to a botched gun-smuggling operation.

On June 28, the House voted to hold Holder in contempt of Congress and authorized the Oversight panel to bring suit to enforce its rights.

In Fast and Furious, agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed assault guns to "walk," which meant ending surveillance on weapons suspected to be en route to Mexican drug cartels.

The tactic, which was intended to allow agents to track criminal networks by finding the guns at crime scenes, was condemned after two guns that were part of the operation were found at Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's murder scene.

In the most recent conflict between Congress and the president over a Congressional subpoena, Democrats' and Republicans' roles were reversed.

The Democratic-led House held two White House aides, Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten, in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas issued to the George W. Bush administration. Republicans, including Issa, defended the administration, while Democrats said it was unlawful.

After the House held Miers and Bolten in contempt, the Judiciary Committee sued the two aides in federal district court.

In August 2008, a federal judge ordered Miers to testify and Bolten to turn over documents, overruling the administration's claim of executive privilege. That ruling was appealed.

In March 2009, a year after the suit was filed, Miers and Karl Rove, who had also become ensnared in a separate contempt proceeding, agreed to testify behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee. The deal broke the stalemate.

SYLHET, Bangladesh (AP) -- At least 13 devotees have been killed by lightning outside a mosque in northeastern Bangladesh.

Local police chief Bayes Ahmed says 20 other people were injured by the lightning late Friday in Sylhet district. The victims were struck by the lightning as they were exiting the mosque following special prayers tied to the holy month of Ramadan.

Ahmed said Saturday that some of those who were killed died at the scene, while others died on the way to the hospital. He said the imam who led the prayers was among the dead.

The fasting month of Ramadan is being observed across Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation.

Sylhet district is 192 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of the capital, Dhaka.

CIVIL WAR OF 2016

Imagine Tea Party extremists seizing control of a South Carolina town and the Army being sent in to crush the rebellion. This farcical vision is now part of the discussion in professional military circles.

At issue is an article in the respected Small Wars Journal titled “Full Spectrum Operations in the Homeland: A ‘Vision’ of the Future.” It was written by retired Army Col. Kevin Benson of the Army's University of Foreign Military and Cultural Studies at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and Jennifer Weber, a Civil War expert at the University of Kansas. It posits an “extremist militia motivated by the goals of the ‘tea party’ movement” seizing control of Darlington, S.C., in 2016, “occupying City Hall, disbanding the city council and placing the mayor under house arrest.” The rebels set up checkpoints on Interstate 95 and Interstate 20 looking for illegal aliens. It’s a cartoonish and needlessly provocative scenario.

The article is a choppy patchwork of doctrinal jargon and liberal nightmare. The authors make a quasi-legal case for military action and then apply the Army’s Operating Concept 2016-2028 to the situation. They write bloodlessly that “once it is put into play, Americans will expect the military to execute without pause and as professionally as if it were acting overseas.” They claim that “the Army cannot disappoint the American people, especially in such a moment,” not pausing to consider that using such efficient, deadly force against U.S. citizens would create a monumental political backlash and severely erode government legitimacy.

The vision is hard to take seriously. As retired Army Brig. Gen. Russell D. Howard , a former professor at West Point, observed earlier in his career, “I am a colonel, colonels write a lot of crazy stuff, but no one listens to colonels, so I don’t see the problem.” Twenty years ago, then-Air Force Lt. Col. Charles J. Dunlap Jr. created a stir with an article in Parameters titled “The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012.” It carried a disclaimer that the coup scenario was “purely a literary device intended to dramatize my concern over certain contemporary developments affecting the armed forces, and is emphatically not a prediction.”

The scenario presented in Small Wars Journal isn’t a literary device but an operational lay-down intended to present the rationale and mechanisms for Americans to fight Americans. Col. Benson and Ms. Weber contend, “Army officers are professionally obligated to consider the conduct of operations on U.S. soil.” This is a dark, pessimistic and wrongheaded view of what military leaders should spend their time studying.

A professor at the Joint Forces Staff College was relieved of duty in June for uttering the heresy that the United States is at war with Islam. The Obama administration contended the professor had to be relieved because what he was teaching was not U.S. policy. Because there is no disclaimer attached to the Small Wars piece, it is fair to ask, at least in Col. Benson’s case, whether his views reflect official policy regarding the use of U.S. military force against American citizens

RARE SNOWFALL STUNS MUCH OF SOUTH AFRICA

BY JON GAMBRELL ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- People slowly came outside despite the cold wind Tuesday across South Africa, pointed their mobile phone cameras to the sky and opened their mouths to taste a rare snowfall that fell on much of the country.

The snow began Tuesday morning, part of an extreme cold snap now biting into a nation still in its winter months. By mid-afternoon, officials recorded snowfall across most of South Africa. However, forecasters acknowledged snow remains so unusual that they typically aren't prepared to provide details about snowfall in the nation.

The snow closed some roads and at least one high-altitude pass. The snowfall also

closed several border posts in the country.

As the snow fell, workers at offices in Johannesburg rushed outside. Some twirled and danced as the flakes fell. One man rushed to the top of a snow-covered hill and slid down, using a cardboard box as an improvised toboggan. Despite the cold and the snow, beggars who line traffic lights in the city continued to ask passing motorists for cash.

The snow grew heavier in the afternoon in Johannesburg, covering rooftops and slicking roads. Snowflakes are a rare commodity in Johannesburg, even during winter. South African Weather Service records show it has snowed in Johannesburg on only 22 other days in the last 103 years. The last snow fell there in June 2007.

In Pretoria, the country's capital, flurries filled the sky during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. It was the first snowfall there since 1968, the weather service said.

The cold weather is expected to last a few days.

July was hottest month ever for continental U.S.: NOAA

By Deborah Zabarenko | Reuters – 2 hrs 7 mins ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - July was the hottest month in the continental United States on record, beating the hottest month in the devastating Dust Bowl summer of 1936, the U.S. government reported on Wednesday.

It was also the warmest January-to-July period since modern record-keeping began in 1895, and the warmest 12-month period, eclipsing the last record set just a month ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said.

This is the fourth time in as many months that U.S. temperatures broke the hottest-12-months record.

The average temperature for July across the contiguous 48 states was 77.6 degrees F (25.3 degrees C), or 3.3 degrees F (1.7 degrees C) above the 20th century average. The previous warmest July, in 1936, averaged 77.4 degrees F (25.2 degrees C).

Along with record heat, drought covered nearly 63 percent of the 48 contiguous states, according to NOAA's Drought Monitor, with near-record drought conditions in the Midwest, where 75 percent of the U.S. corn and soybean crops are grown.

Analysts expect the drought, the worst since 1956, will yield the smallest corn crop in six years, meaning record-high prices and tight supplies. It would be the third year of declining corn production despite large plantings.

The government will make its first estimate of the fall harvest on Friday. It already has cut projections for corn yields by 12 percent due to hot, dry weather in the Farm Belt.

Drought and heat fed each other in July, according to Jake Crouch, a scientist at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.

Dry soils in the summer tend to drive up daytime temperatures, and because dry soils prevailed over so much of the United States, that helped make things hotter over a wide area, Crouch said by telephone.

"The hotter it gets, the drier it gets, the hotter it gets," Crouch said.

What made this year different from the Dust Bowl summer of 1936 was nighttime temperatures, he said. In the Dust Bowl years, the warmth was largely driven by daytime highs. This July, the record heat was also pushed by warm nighttime temperatures -- the overnight lows weren't that low.

President Barack Obama called on Congress on Tuesday to pass a farm bill so disaster aid can flow to livestock producers. Crop insurance will provide a safety net for row-crop growers but ranchers have much less of a federal cushion. Crop insurance indemnities could be double or triple last year's level because of the wide-spread drought, say initial estimates by economists.

The drought triggered a surge in the prices for U.S. corn and soybeans to record highs last month, with values rising about 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively, over the past two months.

Sharp price increases the United States, the world's largest grower and exporter of these two commodity crops, have sparked global concern over potential increases in food prices after a similar surge led to food riots in dozens of countries in 2008.

 THE SOUND OF THE AURORA

The aurora borealis l sounds that have been described in folktales and by wilderness wanderers are formed about 70 meters above the ground level in the measured case.

 

The team located the sound sources by installing three separate microphones in an observation site where the auroral sounds were recorded. They then compared sounds captured by the microphones and determined the location of the sound source.

 

The aurora borealis was seen at the observation site. The simultaneous measurements of the geomagnetic disturbances, made by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, showed a typical pattern of the northern lights episodes.

 

«Our research proved that, during the occurrence of the northern lights, people could hear natural auroral sounds related to what they see,” said

 

Prof Unto Laine of the Aalto University. “In the past, researchers thought that the aurora borealis was too far away for people to hear the sounds it made. This is true.”

 

“However, our research proves that the source of the sounds that are associated with the aurora borealis we see is likely caused by the same energetic particles from the sun that create the northern lights far away in the sky. These particles or the geomagnetic disturbance produced by them seem to create sound much closer to the ground.”

Details about how the auroral sounds are created are still a mystery. The sounds do not occur regularly when the northern lights are seen.

The recorded, unamplified sounds can be similar to crackles or muffled bangs which last for only a short period of time. Other people who have heard the auroral sounds have described them as distant noise and sputter.

 

Because of these different descriptions, researchers suspect that there are several mechanisms behind the formation of these auroral sounds.

 

These sounds are so soft that one has to listen very carefully to hear them and to distinguish them from the ambient noise.

The findings of the study will appear in the Proceedings of the 19th International Congress on Sound and Vibration (will be held 8 to 12 July 2012 in Vilnius, Lithuania).

Quantum Matter

With headlines proclaiming the discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson, particle physics has captured the imagination of the world. But this is only one puzzle seemingly solved in physics. The team of Dartmouth physicists delves into another enigmatic particle, predicted in 1937 by the brilliant Italian physicist Ettore Majorana.

Majorana is a mysterious particle that may exist on the boundary of matter and antimatter. Curiously, it is thought to be both a material particle and its own corresponding antiparticle. Matter and antimatter have long been a cause célèbre in both scientific and science fiction circles. When matter and antimatter collide, they typically disappear in a burst of energy – not so with the Majoranas, thought to be stable and robust.

By virtue of these attributes, the mysterious Majoranas may be instrumental in solving other mysteries, perhaps even redefining the nature of the Universe. Some astrophysicists suggest that Majorana particles comprise the elusive ‘dark matter’ thought to form more than 70 percent of the known Universe. Despite intensive searches, no elementary particle has so far been found that is a Majorana particle. Over the last few years, however, condensed-matter physicists have realized that Majorana could collectively form as quasiparticles, built out of ordinary electrons in matter, under appropriate physical conditions. Thanks to their reputed robustness, these Majorana quasiparticles are believed to be suitable as the building blocks of quantum computers. Though theoretical at the moment, quantum computers have the potential to be orders of magnitude more powerful than our current digital devices. As envisioned, they would have immense capacities to store information and the ability to solve important computational problems with unprecedented efficiency. “The challenge we have is that we work with the microscopic, not something like stars and galaxies that you can see and relate to,” explained Lorenza Viola, a professor of physics at Dartmouth College, who co-authored a recent paper published in Physical Review Letters (arXiv.org version). “I tell my students we are so big, this is so microscopic, and we just don’t have enough imagination to visualize things at this level. But if we could be tiny as an electron, we could understand the quantum world much better.”In the paper, Prof Viola and her colleagues suggest a locale where Majoranas may be found. They propose a theoretical model to support Majorana quasiparticles forming a class of exotic materials known as topological superconductors. The team describes the topological superconductors as having a ‘split personality.’ Their outside surfaces conduct electricity like a metal, but inside they are superconductors. The scientists hypothesize that Majoranas should occur only on the surface or on the interior-exterior interface. 

Remarkably, unlike existing proposals, Prof Viola and colleagues’ proposal requires only conventional superconductivity in the bulk of the material, and no application of strong magnetic fields, preserving the important fundamental symmetry of ‘time reversal.’The hunt for Majoranas is currently under way in laboratories across the world. In a recent experiment conducted by Dutch researchers, a semiconductor nanowire covered with a superconducting film was cooled in a strong magnetic field and found to possibly support Majoranas, as signaled by a peak in the conductance at zero energy. As additional experimental evidence is collected and scrutinized, Prof Viola believes that s-wave topological superconductors will provide another rich arena in which to explore Majorana physics and further uncover new fundamental properties of topological quantum matter

Tropical Climate in Antarctica 52 Million Years AgoAn iceberg floating near the Antarctic coast (Roy Davis / Integrated Ocean Drilling Program)Given the predicted rise in global temperatures in the coming decades, climate scientists are particularly interested in warm periods that occurred in the geological past. Knowledge of past episodes of global warmth can be used to better understand the relationship between climate change, variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the reaction of Earth’s biosphere.

The study, published in the journal Nature , shows that tropical vegetation, including palms and relatives of today’s tropical Baobab trees, was growing on the coast of Antarctica 52 million years ago. These results highlight the extreme contrast between modern and past climatic conditions on Antarctica and the extent of global warmth during periods of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.

Around 52 million years ago, the concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was more than twice as high as today.

“If the current carbon dioxide emissions continue unabated due to the burning of fossil fuels, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere, as they existed in the distant past, are likely to be achieved within a few hundred years,” said lead author Prof Jörg Pross, a paleoclimatologist at the Goethe University.

“By studying naturally occurring climate warming periods in the geological past, our knowledge of the mechanisms and processes in the climate system increases. This contributes enormously to improving our understanding of current human-induced global warming,” he added.

52-million-year-old palm pollen, left, and pollen from the ancestors of today’s baobab trees, found by the team (Lineth Contreras / Goethe University Frankfurt)The scientists analyzed rock samples from drill cores on the seabed, which were obtained off the coast of Wilkes Land, Antarctica, as part of the Integrated Ocean

Drilling Program. The rock samples are between 53 and 46 million years old and contain fossil pollen and spores that are known to originate from the Antarctic coastal region. The researchers were thus able to reconstruct the local vegetation on Antarctica and, accordingly, interpret the presence of tropical and subtropical rainforests covering the coastal region 52 million years ago.

The scientists’ evaluations show that the winter temperatures on the Wilkes Land coast of Antarctica were warmer than 10 degrees Celsius at that time, despite three months of polar night. The continental interior, however, was noticeably cooler, with the climate supporting the growth of temperate rainforests characterized by southern beech and Araucaria trees of the type common in New Zealand today. Additional evidence of extremely mild temperatures was provided by analysis of organic compounds that were produced by soil bacteria populating the soils along the Antarctic coast.The findings also imply that the temperature difference between the low latitudes and high southern latitudes during the greenhouse phase 52 million years ago was significantly smaller than previously thought._______

Artifacts Point to Modern Culture 44,000 Years AgoAn international team of scientists has substantially increased the age at which we can trace the emergence of modern culture, all thanks to the San people of Africa.

Artifacts from Border Cave. 1–8: implements made on warthog or bushpig lower canines, and 9-12: notched bones (d’Errico F et al / PNAS)

The results by the team, consisting of scientists from South Africa, France, Italy, Norway, the USA and Britain, are published in two papers online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (paper1, paper2).

“The dating and analysis of archaeological material discovered at Border Cave in South Africa, has allowed us to demonstrate that many elements of material culture that characterize the lifestyle of San hunter-gatherers in southern Africa, were part of the culture and technology of the inhabitants of this site 44,000 years ago,” said Dr Lucinda Backwell, a senior researcher in paleoanthropology at the Wits University’s Bernard Price Institute for Paleontological Research and co-author of both papers.

A key question in human evolution is when in prehistory human cultures similar to ours emerged? Until now, most archaeologists believed that the oldest traces of San hunter-gatherer culture in southern Africa dates back 10,000, or at most 20,000 years.

Now the team has dated and directly analyzed objects from archaeological layers at Border Cave. Located in the foothills of the Lebombo Mountains in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, the site has yielded exceptionally well-preserved organic material.

Dr Backwell said their results have shown without a doubt that at around 44,000 years ago the people at Border Cave were using digging sticks weighted with perforated stones, like those traditionally used by the San.

“They adorned themselves with ostrich egg and marine shell beads, and notched bones for notational purposes. They fashioned fine bone points for use as awls and poisoned arrowheads. One point is decorated with a spiral groove filled with red ochre, which closely parallels similar marks that San make to identify their arrowheads when hunting,” Dr Backwell explained.

Chemical analysis of residues on a wooden stick decorated with incisions reveals that, like San objects used for the same purpose, it was used to hold and carry a poison containing ricinoleic acid found in castor beans. This represents the earliest evidence for the use of poison.

A lump of beeswax, mixed with the resin of toxic Euphorbia, and possibly egg, was wrapped in vegetal fibers made from the inner bark of a woody plant. “This complex compound used for hafting arrowheads or tools, directly dated to 40,000 years ago, is the oldest known evidence of the use of beeswax,” Backwell said.

Warthog tusks were shaped into awls and possibly spear heads. The use of small pieces of stone to arm hunting weapons is confirmed by the discovery of resin residue still adhering to some of the tools, which chemical analysis has identified as a suberin (waxy substance) produced from the sap of Podocarpus (yellowwood) trees.

Artifacts from Border Cave. 1–7: bone awls and points, 8–21: beads of ostrich eggshells, 22-23: Nassarius kraussianus beads, 24: lump of organic material bound with vegetal fibers, 25: digging stick, 26: poison applicator. Scale bars: 1 cm (d’Errico F et al / PNAS)

The study of stone tools found in the same archaeological layers as the organic remains, and from older deposits, shows a gradual evolution in stone tool technology. Organic artifacts, unambiguously reminiscent of San material culture, appear relatively abruptly, highlighting an apparent mismatch in rates of cultural change.

This finding supports the view that what we perceive today as ‘modern behavior’ is the result of non-linear trajectories that may be better understood when documented at a regional scale.

Melanin as New Material for BioelectronicsMelanin – the pigment that colors skin, eyes and hair – could soon be the face of a new generation of bio-friendly electronic devices used in applications such as medical sensors and tissue stimulation treatments.

Melanin, a dark granular material in the center of image, in a pigmented melanoma (Nephron)

A study, published in the journal    Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences   , for the first time gives remarkable insight into the electrical properties of this pigment and its biologically compatible “bioelectronic” features.

 

“Semiconductors are arguably the most important modern day high-tech material – they drive all modern electronics,” said study co-author Prof Paul Meredith of the University of Queensland. “The majority of semiconductors are made from inorganic elements or compounds such as silicon or gallium arsenide.”

Organic semiconductors, on the other hand, are a relatively new member of the semiconductor family and are composed of molecules containing carbon, hydrogen and other elements.

 

“There are very few examples of natural organic semiconductors and melanin was thought to be the very first example, demonstrated to be such in the early 70s,” Prof Meredith said.

Co-author Ben Powell, an associate professor at The University of Queensland, said that in semiconductors, such as those found in computers and mobile phones, electrons carry the electrical current. However, in biological systems, such as brains and muscles, ions carry the current.

“We’ve now found that in melanin, both electrons and ions play important roles,” the scientist said.

 

The study points to a new way of interfacing conventional electronics to biological systems using a combination of ion-and-electron conducting biomaterials such as melanin.

 

“Melanin is able to ‘talk’ to both electronic and ionic control circuitry and hence can provide that connection role,” said Prof Meredith about the study’s finding, the culmination of ten years of research and experiments. “There are very few materials that meet these compatible bioelectronic requirements, 

and an insight into melanin’s important biological functions and properties has been really crucial in this study.”

In recent years, the electronics industry has been driven to develop materials and components that are cheaper and more environmentally friendly.

 

“There is a realization that in many such applications, we should move on from the relatively more expensive inorganic semiconductors. We need cheaper, safer electronic materials with greener credentials,” Prof Meredith said.

 

“Organic conductors and semiconductors are widely viewed has having enormous potential in this regard, and in the area of medical sensors and devices, biocompatibility will be a key requirement.”

The team is currently working on creating ion-based electrical devices using melanin, with a view to ultimately connect them to actual biological systems.

 

“A critical area that one could foresee for bioelectronics is stimulating or repairing signal-carrying pathways in tissues such as muscle or brain,” Prof Meredith concluded.

World’s Lightest Material DevelopedResearchers from University of California Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have developed the world’s lightest material with a density of 0.9 mg/cc.

The new material redefines the limits of lightweight materials because of its unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The researchers were able to make a material that consists of 99.99 percent air by designing the 0.01 percent solid at the nanometer, micron and millimeter scales.

New Metal on Dandelion (Dan Little/HRL Laboratories LLC)

“The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” said Dr. Tobias Schaedler of HRL.

The material’s architecture allows unprecedented mechanical behavior for a metal, including complete recovery from compression exceeding 50 percent strain and extraordinarily high energy absorption.

“Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale,” explained UCI mechanical and aerospace engineer Lorenzo Valdevit, UCI’s principal investigator on the project. “Combine this with the possibility of tailoring the architecture of the micro-lattice and you have a unique cellular material.”

The novel material could be used for battery electrodes and acoustic, vibration or shock energy absorption.

William Carter, manager of the architected materials group at HRL, compared the new material to larger, more familiar edifices: “Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge, are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture. We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales.”

Aerographite is water-repellent, jet-black and electrically conductive (Kiel University)Produced by researchers from Kiel University and Hamburg University of Technology, it weights only 0.2 milligrams per cubic centimeter, but it is very strong nevertheless. The new carbon-made material, called ‘Aerographite’, is described in a paper in the journal Advanced Materials.It is jet-black, electrically conductive, ductile and non-transparent. With these unique properties and very low density the material clearly outperforms all similar materials.

“Our work is causing great discussions in the scientific community. Aerographite weights four times less than world-record-holder up to now,” said co-author Matthias Mecklenburg, a PhD student at the Hamburg University of Technology.“The hitherto lightest material of the world, a nickel material that was presented to the public about six months ago, is also constructed of tiny tubes. Only, nickel has a higher atomic mass than carbon. Also, we are able to produce tubes with porous walls. That makes them extremely light,” said co-author Arnim Schuchard, a PhD student at Kiel University.

Despite of its low weight, Aerographite is highly resilient. While lightweight materials normally withstand compression but not tension, Aerographite features both: an excellent compression and tension load. “It is able to be compressed up to 95 percent and be pulled back to its original form without any damage,” said Prof Rainer Adelung of Kiel University. “Up to a certain point the Aerographite will become even more solid and therefore stronger than before.”“Other materials become weaker and less stable when exposed to such stress. Also, the newly constructed material absorbs light rays almost completely. One could say it creates the blackest black”, said Hamburg’s Prof Karl Schulte.“Think of the Aerographite as an ivy-web, which winds itself around a tree. And than take away the tree”, Prof Adelung said.According to the scientists, further areas of application could be the electrical conductivity of synthetic materials. Non-conductive plastic could be transformed, without causing it to gain weight. Static, which occur to most people daily, could hence be avoided.Due to its unique material characteristics, Aerographite could fit onto the electrodes of Li-ion batteries. In that case, only a minimal amount of battery electrolyte would be necessary, which then would lead to an important reduction in the battery’s weight.

Seeds of Supermassive Black Holes Discovered at Milky Way’s CenterJapanese astronomers using two radio telescopes have produced a map of carbon monoxide distribution in the central region of our Galaxy. While mapping the region, they identified three huge gas clumps and a number of intermediate-mass black hole candidates.

An artist’s impression of one of the discovered large gas masses containing IMBHs (Keio University)

From 2005 to 2010, the team using the Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment in Chile and the Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO) 45-m telescope observed emission lines at wavelengths of 0.87 and 2.6 mm, emitted from carbon monoxide molecules in an area of several degrees that includes the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

By comparing intensity values of emission lines at different wavelengths, the astronomers were able to estimate temperature and density of molecular gas. In this way, they succeeded in drawing detailed distribution maps of ‘warm, dense’ molecular gas at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy for the first time ever.

“The results are astonishing,” said Dr Tomoharu Oka of Keio University, lead author of a paper reporting the results in the    Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series   . “The ‘warm, dense’ molecular gas in that area is concentrated in four clumps (called Sgr A, L=+1.3°, L=–0.4°, L=–1.2°). Moreover, it turns out that these four gas clumps are all moving at a very fast speed of more than 100 km/s. Sgr A – one of the four gas clumps – contains ‘Sagittarius A*,’ the nucleus of the Milky Way Galaxy.”

“The remaining three gas clumps are objects we discovered for the very first time. It is thought that ‘Sagittarius A*’ is the location of a supermassive black hole that is approximately 4 million times the mass of the Sun. It can be inferred that the gas clump ‘Sgr A’ has a disk-shaped structure with radius of 25 light-years and revolves around the supermassive black hole at a very fast speed,” Dr Oka added.

On the other hand, the team found signs of expansion other than rotation in the remaining three gas clumps. This means that the gas clumps, L=+1.3°, L=–0.4°and L=–1.2°, have structures that were formed by supernova explosions that occurred within the gas clumps. The gas clump “L=+1.3°” has the largest amount of expansion energy, equivalent to 200 supernova explosions. The age of the gas masses is estimated at about 60,000 years.

The researchers used the NRO 45-m Telescope again to further examine the molecular gas’s distribution, motion and composition to determine whether supernova explosions caused the expansion.

“Observation clearly showed that the energy source of L=+1.3° is multiple supernova explosions. We detected multiple expansion structures and molecules attributed to shock waves,” Dr Oka said. “Based on the observation of L=+1.3°, it is also natural to think that the expanding gas clumps L=–0.4° and L=–1.2° derived energy from multiple supernova explosions.”

A supernova is a massive explosion that occurs when a star with more massive than eight to ten times the mass of the Sun ends its life. Such a high occurrence of supernova explosions – once per 300 years – indicates that many young, massive stars are concentrated in the gas clumps. In other words, this means that there is a massive ‘star cluster’ in each gas clump. Based on the frequency of the supernova explosions, the team estimated the mass of the star cluster buried in L=+1.3°as more than 100,000 times the mass of the Sun, which is equivalent to that of the largest star cluster found in the Milky Way.

“The Solar System is located at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy’s disk, and is about 30,000 light-years away from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. The huge amount of gas and dust lying between the Solar System and the center of the Milky Way Galaxy prevent not only visible light, but also infrared light, from reaching the Earth. Moreover, innumerable stars in the bulge and disc of the Milky Way Galaxy lie in the line of sight. Therefore, no matter how large the star cluster is, it is very difficult to directly see the star cluster at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy,” Dr Oka explained.

“Huge star clusters at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy have an important role related to formation and growth of the Milky Way Galaxy’s nucleus,” he said.

According to theoretical calculations, when the density of stars at the center of star clusters increases, the stars are merged together, one after another. Then, it is expected that intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) with several hundred times the mass of the Sun are formed. Eventually, these IMBHs and star clusters sink into the nucleus of the Milky Way Galaxy. It can be thought that the IMBHs and star clusters are then merged further, and form a massive black hole at the Milky Way Galaxy’s nucleus. Alternatively, the IMBHs and star clusters could help expand an existing massive black hole.

It can be thought that the supermassive black hole at Sagittarius A*, the nucleus of our Galaxy, has also been grown up through these processes. In summary, the new discovery is the finding of ‘cradles’ of IMBHs that become ‘seeds’ of the supermassive black hole at the nucleus.

“We would like to observe IMBHs in the star cluster. Actually, our observation data have already indicated traces of IMBHs,” Dr Oka said. One of the newly discovered gas masses, ‘L=–0.4°,’ contains two small gas clumps moving at a very fast speeds. If it is confirmed that these small gas clumps are rotating, it can be inferred that there are ‘invisible huge masses’ at the center of the gas clumps.

Spatial distribution of molecular gas at the center of the Milky Way. The mark indicates the position of Sagittarius A*, the nucleus of our Galaxy (Keio University)

These ‘invisible huge masses’ are likely to be IMBHs hidden in the center of the star cluster.

“In order to confirm the existence of IMBHs, we are planning to conduct further observations,” Dr Oka said. “The new discovery is an important step toward unraveling the formation and growth mechanism of the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way Galaxy’s nucleus, which is a top-priority issue in galactic physics.”

VLT Data Suggest Brightest Stars Have Close CompanionsA multinational team of researchers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope has discovered that almost three quarters of high-mass stars have close companions, far more than previously thought.

New research using data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope has revealed that the hottest and brightest stars, which are known as O stars, are often found in close pairs. Many of such binaries transfer mass from one star to another, a kind of stellar vampirism depicted in this artist’s impression (ESO / M. Kornmesser / S.E. de Mink)

 

Surprisingly most of these pairs are also experiencing disruptive interactions, such as mass transfer from one star to the other, and about one third are even expected to ultimately merge to form a single star.

 

The Universe is a diverse place, and many stars are quite unlike the Sun. An international team has used the VLT to study what are known as O-type stars, which have very high temperature, mass and brightness. These stars have short and violent lives and play a key role in the evolution of galaxies. They are also linked to extreme phenomena such as ‘vampire stars,’ where a smaller companion star sucks matter off the surface of its larger neighbor, and gamma-ray bursts.

 

“These stars are absolute behemoths,” said Dr Hugues Sana of the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, who led a study published in the July 27 issue of the journal    Science   . “They have 15 or more times the mass of our Sun and can be up to a million times brighter. These stars are so hot that they shine with a brilliant blue-white light and have surface temperatures over 30 000 degrees Celsius.”

The astronomers studied a sample of 71 O-type single stars and stars in pairs in six nearby young star clusters in the Milky Way.

 

By analyzing the light coming from these targets in greater detail than before, the team discovered that 75% of all O-type stars exist inside binary systems, a higher proportion than previously thought, and the first precise determination of this number. More importantly, though, they found that the proportion of these pairs that are close enough to interact is far higher than anyone had thought, which has profound implications for our understanding of galaxy evolution.

“The life of a star is greatly affected if it exists alongside another star,” said co-author Dr Selma de Mink of the Space Telescope Science Institute. “If two stars orbit very close to each other they may eventually merge. But even if they don’t, one star will often pull matter off the surface of its neighbor.”

 

Mergers between stars, which the team estimates will be the ultimate fate of around 20–30% of O-type stars, are violent events. But even the comparatively gentle scenario of vampire stars, which accounts for a further 40–50% of cases, has profound effects on how these stars evolve.

 

Until now, astronomers mostly considered that closely-orbiting massive binary stars were the exception, something that was only needed to explain exotic phenomena such as X-ray binaries, double pulsars and black hole binaries. The new study shows that to properly interpret the Universe, this simplification cannot be made: these heavyweight double stars are not just common, their lives are fundamentally different from those of single stars.

'Bullingdon Club' dolphins form elite societies and cliques, scientists findDolphins form cliques based on their skills, scientists have found, suggesting they could be the only non-human mammals to indulge in elite societies.

Dolphins form cliques as a result of learned behaviour, scientists find Photo: ALAMY

By Hannah Furness

8:56AM BST 01 Aug 2012

Wild bottlenose dolphins bond over their use of tools, with distinct cliques and classes forming over decades as a result of their skills, scientists have found.

The communities, which have been compared with societies such as the Bullingdon Club in humans, mean the aquatic animals share their knowledge only with those in their own circle, passing it down the family line.

The findings mean the traits of “inclusive inheritability” and culture are no longer considered exclusive to human beings.

Observing wild dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, researchers from Georgetown University used hunting tools as a marker of dolphin societal habits.

Noticing some dolphins in the area used a sponge to protect their beaks while hunting, they attempted to discover why the practice had not spread.

They found the useful tool had first been used by a single dolphin nicknamed “Sponging Eve”, after she scrape her nose while foraging for food in rough sand.

To solve the problem, she broke off a piece of sea sponge to protect her, going on to teach the behaviour to her offsping.

But two decades later, knowledge of the tool had not spread among the whole dolphin population in the area.

Scientists observed 36 spongers and 69 non-spongers in the area over a 22 year period, taking careful note of their relationships.

They found: “Spongers were more cliquish, had more sponger associates and stronger bonds with each other than with non-spongers.

“Like humans who preferentially associate with others who share their subculture, tool-using dolphins prefer others like themselves, strongly suggesting that sponge tool-use is a cultural behaviour.”

This tendency to associate with those most like themselves is, scientists believe, a “critical role in human (sub)cultures”, and “may be true for dolphin society as well”.

Writing in the journal Nature Communications, a team led by Janet Mann reported: “To date, no material subcultures have been identified outside of humans.

“Recently, many biologists are moving beyond genetic inheritance to examine the processes involved in inclusive heritability, which includes culture.

“We sometimes think that traits such as culture are exclusively human, but a growing body of literature proves otherwise.”

Remarkably, researchers believe the cliques are formed for social reasons rather than practical, saying: “As sponging is a solitary behaviour, affiliation between spongers would not be based on collective foraging, but rather on identifying other individuals as spongers”

“We suggest that spongers also share in-group identity, but affiliation is a consequence of similarity in the socially learned trait, a scenario that resonates with human culture,” they said.

The study also found the behaviour was stronger in females, who were better at maintaining alliances, noting: “Once sponging behaviour is established, female spongers formed clear cliques.”

Although in-group identity has been noted in other animals, such as killer whales and budgerigars, the dolphin sub-cultures are believed to be the result of socially-learned behaviour rather than inate traits

To Infinite and Beyond

U.S. astronauts won't land on Mars by themselves but with international partners in the 2030s, NASA's chief said Wednesday.

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The NASA Curiosity rover's risky landing on the Red Planet is scheduled for 1:31 a.m. ET Monday morning. NASA chief Charles Bolden focused on Mars as the "ultimate destination for now" for human space exploration, in a meeting with the USA TODAY Editorial Board."I have no desire to do a Mars landing on our own," Bolden said. "The U.S. cannot always be the leader, but we can be the inspirational leader through international cooperation" in space exploration.Obama administration plans are for the $17.7 billion space agency to land an astronaut on an asteroid in 2025, then go to Mars by the middle of the 2030s.The mission inevitably will be international, as will any future human landings on the moon, Bolden said. "We already have gone there first," he said.The Obama administration's space plans have attracted criticism this year from some space-state senators such as Richard Shelby, R.-Ala., who disagreed with its emphasis on private space rockets to resupply the International Space Station, rather than a heavy rocket that would send a spacecraft to circle the moon in 2017.NASA science chief John Grunsfeld put the odds as "very high" of the Curiosity mission's finding chemical signs of a habitable environment on the Red Planet perhaps 2.5 billion years ago.A human mission to Mars would send six astronauts, who would take six months to get there and stay a month before returning on an eight- month trip back to Earth. "I believe that most westerners presume that a human mission to Mars will quite likely be multinational. I certainly think so, and indeed would prefer this approach," says former NASA chief Michael Griffin, who has criticized the administration's manned spaceflight plans in the past."I do not believe that China makes such a presumption," Griffin adds, by email. "I suspect that when China believes it is ready as a nation to go to the Moon, it will do so, and later on exactly the same thing will be true of Mars." China announced plans on Tuesday to launch its third lunar probe next year, part of an effort aimed at a manned moon landing in the next decade.NASA has safely landed three mobile spacecraft on Mars since 1997, including Opportunity, still roving after eight years. NASA announced Wednesday it will televise the landing of the $2.5 billion Curiosity rover in New York City's Times Square. "We're going to

put this thing on Mars like Buck Rogers used to do in the science fiction books," Bolden said

Drone Wars

The Dark Sword model portrays an elongated delta airframe with highly swept aft-mounted wings. It has four cantilevered tail fins, the larger two of which are mounted at the top of the main delta wing, with the other two mounted beneath. The forward fuselage is dominated by an extremely large belly-mounted intake and two apparently retractable canards.

No size or powerplant notions have been released for the design. The large intake is consistent with Western concepts for fourth-generation turbofan-powered fighters optimised for use in close combat roles. Its shape also clearly reflects a desire to reduce radar cross section, but its location and size is at odds with the bulk of Western thinking about UCAV signature suppression, which has seen the uniform adoption of above-fuselage intakes. It also contrasts with other notional Chinese UCAV designs that have emerged from the nation's AVIC 1 industrial grouping, with these tending to illustrate air vehicles similar to those now under development by European and US industry.

The aircraft's rear fuselage poses other questions: unlike the rest of the airframe, the area around where the engine nozzle would be located has simply been left as a vertical surface with a recess indicating the exhaust. This contrasts with the considerable efforts made at streamlining the remainder of the design, as it would generate considerable drag.

The inclusion of the canard surfaces reiterates the development links between current Chinese manned fighter aircraft. Western UCAV designs in contrast rely on inherent airframe instability and advanced fly-by-wire controls, leading to completely tailless configurations. However, all current Western UCAV designs are optimised for suppression of enemy air defences, rather than air-to-air combat, which is seen as a long-term operational capability, rather than an immediate development priority. In this respect the Dark Sword concept is being pitched against a mission that Western developers do not expect to emerge for at least another two decades.

If Dark Sword is a future air-to-air combatant, its emphasis on control surfaces is indicative of a type that would be capable of highly dynamic operational performance if developed using current Chinese technologies. However, if manufactured, its debut flight would come at a time when Chinese industry is likely to have parity with current Western avionics, and could therefore offer an air vehicle noticeably cleaner in profile and provide advanced manoeuvrability. That "break" between expected technical capability development and the Dark Sword concept is perhaps the strongest grounds on which to dismiss the model as a chimera.

It is as an illustration of Chinese thinking about high-speed long-range strike, however, that the model offers the most interesting interpretations. Dark Sword has an uncanny resemblance to a variety of conceptual very high supersonic and hypersonic air vehicle designs which circulated in Western circles in the late 1980s, particularly those powered by ramjets.

Ramjet propulsion would explain not only the large intake and its positioning, but also the abrupt termination of the aft fuselage, as any airflow cavity caused by the design would be rendered meaningless by the sheer speeds being travelled. It would also explain the multiple control

surfaces and in particular the underside fins to assist in manoeuvring in extremely thin atmospheric conditions.

The canard surfaces would have application in low-speed profiles, but by retracting would significantly reduce drag in the deployment phase of a mission. An aircraft of this type would have extremely long range and be capable of meeting very rapid deployment goals, and conceivably could then support air-to-air operations after reaching its deployment area.

In that context Dark Sword hints at an operational concept that has little to do with operations in the near vicinity of China, and is instead part of developing ideas for the conduct of extremely long-range deployments followed by highly dynamic operations. That concept is equally technologically challenging, but has a precursor in previously seen Chinese military ideas for being able to engage a future adversary at extreme distances.

Drones have had a profound effect on the way America fights its wars, allowing it to fight in new theaters while minimizing the risk to troops. The U.S. has used drones for decades, with early versions flown during World War II and the Vietnam War. But over the past decade, the Defense Department's development and production of drones has rapidly increased. The U.S. military has gone from having just a few drones at the outset of the Iraq War to now over 7,000.

And we're not alone, not by a long shot. The lure of enduring overhead surveillance and strike capability at a safe remove -- and at a relative bargain -- is just as appealing to the rest of the world's militaries as it is to us. Sure, American drone technology is a sought-after brand on the international arms market, but other countries have and increasingly are developing their own platforms. Allies like Israel and adversaries like Iran have used reconnaissance drones in combat since the 1980s and continue to turn out new models. China is taking its lead from American drone models with knockoff Predators and Global Hawks.

Today, more than 50 countries are using or developing unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs. Here are some of the most interesting.

Israel's Heron TP

The Heron TP (a.k.a. "Eitan"), built by Israeli Aerospace Industries, boasts an impressive array of features. It can fly for up to 36 hours at heights of over 40,000 feet carrying a payload of over a ton. For snooping from above, the Heron is chocked full of sensors and reconnaissance gear, including forward-looking infrared, laser ranger finder, electro-optical, maritime patrol and synthetic aperture radar, among others. Significantly, it's also capable of carrying weapons and can reach targets as far away as Iran. The Heron might even lead an attack on the Mullahs' nuclear facilities, jamming cellphone networks and spoofing air defense systems.

It's a step up from its predecessor, the similarly titled Heron-1 reconnaissance drone. Unarmed, it can fly for four hours longer than its more advanced cousin and carries only a quarter of the payload. Still, the original Heron has proven a popular export around the world, providing Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance unmanned spying capability to India, Turkey, Brazil and other countries. Israel successfully leveraged sales of the Heron-1 to a drone-hungry Russia in order to dissuade it from arming Iran with sophisticated air defense missiles.

Israel's been a leader in drone technology for quite some time now, even supplying America with a fair share of its robotic planes. (U.S. drone maintenance crews used to have to learn

Hebrew is order to keep the UAVs flying.) In early October, the Israeli Air Force celebrated the 40th anniversary of its first drone unit, Squadron 200. The unit was created in order to help the Israeli air force spy on neighboring air defense missiles without risk to pilots. Squadron 200 first used an Israeli-modified version of the U.S. Ryan Firebee UAV, the Firebee 1241, bought from the U.S. in 1970. Following the Yom Kippur war in 1973, Israel purchased a number of other American UAVs and began developing one of its own reconnaissance models, the Scout, which became operational in June of 1981

Israel and Russia: once Cold War enemies, now partners-in-drone. Only the Russians want Israel to let the Kremlin in on its most powerful unmanned spy plane.

As part of a $400 million deal the two countries inked last fall, Israel just sent its first round of twelve drones to Russia. Included are the short-range Bird-Eye 400 and I-View Mk 150, as well as the Searcher II — a 300-kilometer range spy plane that Israel’s used in Lebanon to spy on Hezbollah from as high as 23,000 feet.

But what Russia’s really after, according to SpaceDaily and Jane’s, is the Heron TP. Also known as the Eitan, the Heron’s a powerful drone. It carries up to 1000 kilograms’ worth of sensors; flies at over 40,000 feet; stays aloft for up to 36 hours; and can perform complex tasks like midair refueling. And it’s a lethal one, too, capable of firing air-to-ground missiles.

Under last year’s deal, Russia will get the earlier, unarmed model of the Heron. But the Russians want to manufacture the Heron TP independently. It’s not hard to see why. As SpaceDaily notes, the Russian air fleet has fallen into disrepair, having barely received any new fighter aircraft since 1994. The once-fearsome Russian military-industrial complex is moribund enough that short-range nuclear weapons are actually a favored method for Russia to project military force. Tiny Georgia made such good use of advances in drone tech — purchased from the Israelis — during the 2008 summer war with Russia that Moscow promptly inked deals with Jerusalem to get up to speed on the revolution in unmanned aircraft.

It’s uncertain whether the Israelis will want Russia to be able to build and operate a drone it just started flying in 2006. But Israel has made aggressive diplomatic use of Russia’s desire to get out of the drone dark ages. WikiLeaks revealed that the prospect of Israel-Russia drone sales — and Israeli intimations of military cooperation with Georgia — helped convince the Russians not to sell Iran a powerful air-defense system.

There are more opportunities for follow-up pressure: Russia is still scheduled to sell Israeli foe Syria a powerful anti-ship missile, the P800 Yakhont. And the Israelis have proven capable at getting the Russians to think that arms sales to Israel’s enemies — once a Cold War given — aren’t worth losing access to Israel’s advanced drone technology. Could a Russian-made Heron TP be the latest instance of that trend?

 The BAE Systems Taranis is a British demonstrator programme for Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) technology. A semi-autonomous unmanned warplane, it is designed to fly intercontinental missions, and will carry a variety of weapons, enabling it to attack both aerial and ground targets. It will furthermore utilise stealth technology, giving it a low radar profile, and it will be controllable via satellite link from anywhere on Earth.[1][2] The Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicles (Experiment) Integrated Project Team, or SUAV(E) IPT, is responsible for auditing and

overseeing the project.[3] The aircraft, which is intended to demonstrate the viability of unmanned multi-role systems, is named after the Celtic god of thunder, Taranis.[4

The Boeing X-45 unmanned combat air vehicle is a concept demonstrator for a next generation of completely autonomous military aircraft, developed by Boeing's Phantom Works. Manufactured by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, the X-45 was a part of DARPA's J-UCAS project.

Boeing developed the X-45 from research gathered during the development of the Bird of Prey. The X-45 features an extremely low-profile dorsal intake placed near the leading edge of the aircraft. The center fuselage is blended into a swept lambda wing, with a small exhaust outlet. It has no vertical control surfaces — split ailerons near each wingtip function as asymmetric air brakes, providing rudder control, much as in Northrop's flying wings.

Boeing built two of the model X-45A; both were scaled-down proof-of-concept aircraft. The first was completed by Boeing's Phantom Works in September 2000.[1] The goal of the X-45A technology demonstrator program was to develop the technologies needed to "conduct suppression of enemy air defense missions with unmanned combat air vehicles."[1] The first generation of unmanned combat air vehicles are primarily planned for air-to-ground roles with defensive air-to-air capabilities coupled with significant remote piloting.

Future Drone

The attempted Convention by 40 States to amend the Constitution was stopped by presidential executive order and a full-court press by Homeland Security. Fleets of federal and UN drones patrolled the interstates highways and known rural strongholds looking for known for constitutionalist organizers. The market for drone killers blossomed and brought innovative technology to the forefront.

Constitutionalist activists were targeted by federal drones at first for surveillance and subsequent arrest on grounds of inciting an overthrow of the government. One of the drones was shot down by territorial guards and successfully back-engineered. The firmware was hacked, and hours after the plans were posted on a self-cloning blog, the workshop was destroyed by a drone attack using a hellspark missile. The hellspark missile is a twenty-four inch long version of the hellfire missile designed to incinerate a radius of about 100 feet. Two engineers were killed including one son and one nephew; all Americans.

The recovered firmware plans allowed the development of the Remora drone killer. The ship has two motors. One is electric with a flying time of about 12 hours at virtually unlimited altitude. The second is a catalytic solid fuel motor that burns for about ten seconds capable of propelling the craft to about Mach 2.5. The 48 inch swept-winged craft has a super lightweight carbon body made of woven micro-tube fabric. With a capacitor that discharges seconds before impact, the carbon is energized into a solid crystal that can pierce titanium-skinned aircraft. The Remora is small enough to be undetectable when in flight. Completely radio silent, the Remora is designed to track the flight signals of drones and follow that signal directly to the aircraft.

When the trajectory is locked, the solid fuel booster fires, and the Remora destroys the targeted drone like a super-sonic kamikaze .

Developed and built by small shops all over the country, the supply chain was impossible to stop. They could be set up on rooftops, in trees, and hidden in open fields with a minimum of camouflage. The Remora would self-launch when a drone guidance handshake signal was detected, or descend from aloft leaving no possibility for defense. The Remora is cheap to build and when released to the air would patrol for 10 to 12 hours before self-conflagration upon battery exhaustion. The craft burned up entirely high above the ground, leaving no trace. The Remora is the States’ only defense against the fleets of federal and UN drones that constantly hunt for Constitutional defenders.