Undated artist rendering provided by EADS Astrium shows the scientific satellite Rosat. The German Aerospace Center said the retired satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces could crash into the earth as early as Friday. Spokesman Andreas Schuetz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 that most of the satellite named ROSAT, which is about the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry. (AP Photo/EADS Astrium)
Undated artist rendering provided by EADS Astrium shows the scientific satellite Rosat. The German Aerospace Center said the retired satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces could crash into the earth as early as Friday. Spokesman Andreas Schuetz told The Associated Press on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011 that most of the satellite named ROSAT, which is about the size of a minivan, will burn up during re-entry. (AP Photo/EADS Astrium)
BERLIN (AP) ? A defunct satellite is hurtling toward the atmosphere and pieces of it are expected crash to the Earth on Sunday, according to the German Aerospace Center.
Pieces of the ROSAT scientific research satellite are expected to hit sometime Sunday morning European time, or between about 0000 and 0500 GMT (8 p.m. EDT Saturday or 1 a.m. EDT Sunday), the agency said late Saturday.
Most parts of the minivan-sized satellite will burn up during re-entry into the atmosphere but up to 30 fragments weighing 1.87 tons (1.7 metric tons) could crash into Earth at speeds up to 280 mph (450 kph).
The satellite orbits every 90 minutes and it could hit almost anywhere along its path ? a vast swath between 53-degrees north and 53-degrees south that comprises much of the planet outside the poles, including parts of North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
"According to the data we currently have, we expect it not to hit over Europe," agency spokesman Andreas Schuetz said. "The satellite is still orbiting and we are observing the data for other parts of the world," he added.
Fluctuations in solar activity and the fact that scientists are no longer able to communicate with the dead satellite render predictions of where and when it will come down yet more difficult.
The 2.69-ton (2.4 metric ton) scientific ROSAT satellite was launched in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being used for research on black holes and neutron stars and performing the first all-sky survey of X-ray sources with an imaging telescope.
The largest single fragment of ROSAT that could hit into the earth is the telescope's heat-resistant mirror.
During its mission, the satellite orbited about 370 miles (600 kilometers) above the Earth's surface, but since its decommissioning it has lost altitude, circling at a distance of only 205 miles (330 kilometers) above ground in June for example, the agency said.
A dead NASA satellite fell into the southern Pacific Ocean last month, causing no damage, despite fears it would hit a populated area and cause damage or kill people.
Experts believe about two dozen metal pieces from the bus-sized satellite fell over a 500-mile (800 kilometer) span of uninhabited portion of the world.
The NASA climate research satellite entered Earth's atmosphere generally above American Samoa. But falling debris as it broke apart did not start hitting the water for another 300 miles (480 kilometers) to the northeast, southwest of Christmas Island.
Earlier, scientists had said it was possible some pieces could have reached northwestern Canada.
The German space agency puts the odds of somebody somewhere on Earth being hurt by its satellite at 1-in-2,000 ? a slightly higher level of risk than was calculated for the NASA satellite. But any one individual's odds of being struck are 1-in-14 trillion, given there are 7 billion people on the planet.
___
Online:
The German space agency on ROSAT: http://bit.ly/papMAA
ALAMEDA, Calif.?? Once again, the world failed to end, despite a high-profile prediction from a radio preacher in California.
Harold Camping, the 90-year-old leader of Family Radio International, stirred a global frenzy when he predicted that the Rapture would take 200 million Christians to heaven on May 21. When the Rapture didn't occur, Camping said he got his Bible-based calculations wrong and revised his prophecy to set the world's end on Friday, Oct. 21.
But as Friday morphed into Saturday around the world, there was no sign that doomsday had come. Two moderate quakes jolted the San Francisco Bay area on Thursday, and floods threatened to swamp Bangkok, but no world-shattering changes took place ? sparking this typical Twitter refrain: "Dear Harold Camping, Worst. Apocalypse. Ever."
Millions of dollars had been spent by Family Radio and its followers to get the world out about May's date with doomsday. Some quit their jobs, or donated retirement savings or college funds for the more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs that were plastered with Judgment Day messages.
This time around, Camping took a lower profile ? perhaps because he was chastened by the mockery he suffered in May, or perhaps because of his health.
Camping suffered a mild stroke in June. His daily radio program, "Open Forum," is no longer aired on the Family Radio syndication network, which includes more than 60 U.S. radio stations.
Contacted by telephone on Thursday, Family spokesman Tom Evans declined to comment on Camping or his prophecies ? except to say that he had "retired" as a radio host but remained chairman of the board of Family Stations Inc.
'Nothing to report' Camping himself had little to say when he answered the door of his home in Alameda, wearing a bathrobe and leaning on a walker. "We're not having a conversation," he told a Reuters reporter, shaking his head with a chuckle. "There's nothing to report here."
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Municipal records show that a Sunday prayer group led by Camping, the Alameda Bible Fellowship, has continued to meet on a weekly basis in a large ground-floor room of the Veterans Memorial Building leased by the city Recreation and Parks Department.
Marcia Tsang, a facilities coordinator for the department, said receipts show that Camping's group has been renting that space since at least 1996, paying the standard fee of $45 an hour. The room remains assigned to his fellowship under an evergreen reservation that extends beyond this week, she said.
Local American Legion officer Ron Parshall, 70, part of a veterans group that meets at the same building in an adjacent room one Sunday a month, said he has seen Camping leading his Bible services there regularly.
He said Camping's congregation has dwindled since the failed prophecy in May ? down to about 25 attendees on a typical Sunday, plus about 20 youngsters who attend Sunday school classes in conjunction with the prayer group.
Parshall said he thought Camping was "a nice man."
"He was just too radical for me," he said. "Anyone who claims to be that close to God, I take it with a grain of salt."
Calculating the endtime
Most Christian interpreters of the Bible ? even those who believe the end is truly near ? say the precise date for Judgment Day cannot be predicted. They generally point to a passage in the Book of Matthew in which Jesus says "no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen."
Camping, however, based his prophecies on an idiosyncratic calculation of the number of years since the Noah's Ark flood and the number of days since Jesus' crucifixion, plus a healthy dose of numerology. If it weren't for the multimillion-dollar publicity campaign, his prediction might have attracted little notice in May.
In a message on the Family Radio website, Camping tried to explain his revised math. He said that God's judgment and salvation were actually completed on May 21, but that a reinterpretation of the dates in the Bible pointed to an Oct. 21 doomsday.
"Thus we can be sure that the whole world, with the exception of those who are presently saved (the elect), are under the judgment of God, and will be annihilated together with the whole physical world on Oct. 21," he said on the website.
Camping said he didn't think doomsday would be marked by natural disasters or blasts of hellfire. "I really am beginning to think as I've restudied these matters that there's going to be no big display of any kind," he said. "The end is going to come very, very quietly."
Camping, a retired civil engineer, also prophesied that the Apocalypse would come in 1994, but he said later that didn't happen because of a mathematical error.
More about doomsday:
This report includes information from Reuters, The Associated Press and msnbc.com.
Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of a 1,000-year-old Viking in Scotland, along with his boat, ax, sword and lots of other nifty Viking stuff. More »
Remember that 3D TV bundle that Sony announced at E3? Well, it's finally arriving. A little later than we'd hoped, but at least it's out in time for the holidays. According to the Playstation Blog, the 32" TV should be generally available on November 13th. They also answer a busload of questions about the TV, in case you were curious about the inputs, 3D glasses, and so on.
The eyes have it: Computer-inspired creativityPublic release date: 19-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paula Gould p.a.gould@leeds.ac.uk 44-113-343-8059 University of Leeds
Constraints on creativity imposed by computer-aided design (CAD) tools are being overcome, thanks to a novel system that incorporates eye-tracking technology.
'Designing with Vision', a system devised by researchers at The Open University and the University of Leeds, is breaking down rigid distinctions between human and machine. This should help designers to recover intuitive elements of the design process that are otherwise suppressed when working with CAD.
Traditional design tools, such as pen and paper, are increasingly being replaced by 2D and 3D computerised drawing packages. The uptake of CAD is helping to increase productivity and improve the quality of designs, reducing errors and unnecessary wastage when the goods are made.
However, the switch to CAD may have a downside too. The introduction of digital technologies often forces people to change how they work so they fit with the technology, rather than the other way around. In creative disciplines, this inevitably constrains the results produced a scenario that would be a disaster for designers, according to Steve Garner, Professor of Design at The Open University.
"Creativity is a fundamental building block of the design process," Professor Garner said. "The eye-tracking system identifies which part of the design sketch the user is drawn to, making the human-machine interface far more fluid. The result is a synergy between human ingenuity and machine-based digital technology."
Professor Alison McKay, Professor of Design Systems at the University of Leeds, added: "The digitisation of design could potentially stifle innovation and exclude people with a lot to offer but who work in ways that are not compatible with machines. Instead, we want to create digital design systems that are themselves designed in response to the needs of real designers."
In the 'Designing with Vision' project, researchers focused on an early stage in the design process that involves drawing, viewing, selecting and manipulating shapes. This process is common to designers working in areas such as fashion, graphics and consumer goods packaging.
Designers who work with shapes tend to intuitively home in on certain areas in initial sketches, using these as a starting point to move forward.
However, this element of subconscious selection is difficult to replicate with CAD, because the software package is unable to 'see' what might be catching the designer's eye.
To redress this, researchers added eye-tracking technology to a CAD system, giving the digital technology a more fluid human-machine interface. This produced a design system that could identify and select shapes of interest automatically within a drawn sketch, according to the designer's gaze.
The system was put through its paces by groups of professional and student designers to check that it worked in practice. The tests confirmed that the combination of eye-tracking technology and conventional mouse-based input allowed initial design sketches to be manipulated and developed according to the user's subconscious visual cues.
"We are not Luddites, we want to work with technologies like CAD," Professor McKay said. "We envisage a future for design that combines creativity and digital technologies, and in this scenario, is able to support designers working with shapes early in the design processes, before the shape has been fixed."
'Designing with Vision', is being funded by The Leverhulme Trust.
###
The prototype design system is free to download from the project web site.
For further information:
Paula Gould, University of Leeds press office: Tel +44 113 343 8059, email p.a.gould@leeds.ac.uk
Notes for Editors
1. 'Designing with Vision' builds on a prototype CAD system funded through the Designing for the 21st Century programme, a joint initiative between the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Led by Professor McKay, the Design Synthesis and Shape Generation project (DSSG) produced the world's first 3D shape grammar-based design system, which succeeded in overcoming a major limitation in current shape grammar-based systems - that of recognising 'sub-shapes' in early design sketches.
2. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Leeds is amongst the top 10 in the UK for research, according to 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), with 75% of its activity rated as 'internationally excellent' or 'world leading'. The Faculty includes the Schools of Computing, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering. www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/
The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015. www.leeds.ac.uk
3. The cross-disciplinary Design Group at the Open University is ranked 3rd in the UK for the quality of its research out of a field of 72, with 80% of its research graded as world leading or internationally excellent (2008 Research Assessment Exercise). It aligns closely with the OU's Centre for Research in Computing which is in the UK top 20 for its field, with 70% of its research world leading or excellent.
The Open University is the UK's largest university and a world leader in distance education, with more than 250,000 students in over 40 countries. over 1300 of whom are postgraduate research students. The University celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009.
4. The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the Will of the first Viscount Leverhulme. It is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing funds of some 50 million every year. For further information about the schemes that the Leverhulme Trust fund see www.leverhulme.ac.uk
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
The eyes have it: Computer-inspired creativityPublic release date: 19-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paula Gould p.a.gould@leeds.ac.uk 44-113-343-8059 University of Leeds
Constraints on creativity imposed by computer-aided design (CAD) tools are being overcome, thanks to a novel system that incorporates eye-tracking technology.
'Designing with Vision', a system devised by researchers at The Open University and the University of Leeds, is breaking down rigid distinctions between human and machine. This should help designers to recover intuitive elements of the design process that are otherwise suppressed when working with CAD.
Traditional design tools, such as pen and paper, are increasingly being replaced by 2D and 3D computerised drawing packages. The uptake of CAD is helping to increase productivity and improve the quality of designs, reducing errors and unnecessary wastage when the goods are made.
However, the switch to CAD may have a downside too. The introduction of digital technologies often forces people to change how they work so they fit with the technology, rather than the other way around. In creative disciplines, this inevitably constrains the results produced a scenario that would be a disaster for designers, according to Steve Garner, Professor of Design at The Open University.
"Creativity is a fundamental building block of the design process," Professor Garner said. "The eye-tracking system identifies which part of the design sketch the user is drawn to, making the human-machine interface far more fluid. The result is a synergy between human ingenuity and machine-based digital technology."
Professor Alison McKay, Professor of Design Systems at the University of Leeds, added: "The digitisation of design could potentially stifle innovation and exclude people with a lot to offer but who work in ways that are not compatible with machines. Instead, we want to create digital design systems that are themselves designed in response to the needs of real designers."
In the 'Designing with Vision' project, researchers focused on an early stage in the design process that involves drawing, viewing, selecting and manipulating shapes. This process is common to designers working in areas such as fashion, graphics and consumer goods packaging.
Designers who work with shapes tend to intuitively home in on certain areas in initial sketches, using these as a starting point to move forward.
However, this element of subconscious selection is difficult to replicate with CAD, because the software package is unable to 'see' what might be catching the designer's eye.
To redress this, researchers added eye-tracking technology to a CAD system, giving the digital technology a more fluid human-machine interface. This produced a design system that could identify and select shapes of interest automatically within a drawn sketch, according to the designer's gaze.
The system was put through its paces by groups of professional and student designers to check that it worked in practice. The tests confirmed that the combination of eye-tracking technology and conventional mouse-based input allowed initial design sketches to be manipulated and developed according to the user's subconscious visual cues.
"We are not Luddites, we want to work with technologies like CAD," Professor McKay said. "We envisage a future for design that combines creativity and digital technologies, and in this scenario, is able to support designers working with shapes early in the design processes, before the shape has been fixed."
'Designing with Vision', is being funded by The Leverhulme Trust.
###
The prototype design system is free to download from the project web site.
For further information:
Paula Gould, University of Leeds press office: Tel +44 113 343 8059, email p.a.gould@leeds.ac.uk
Notes for Editors
1. 'Designing with Vision' builds on a prototype CAD system funded through the Designing for the 21st Century programme, a joint initiative between the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Led by Professor McKay, the Design Synthesis and Shape Generation project (DSSG) produced the world's first 3D shape grammar-based design system, which succeeded in overcoming a major limitation in current shape grammar-based systems - that of recognising 'sub-shapes' in early design sketches.
2. The Faculty of Engineering at the University of Leeds is amongst the top 10 in the UK for research, according to 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), with 75% of its activity rated as 'internationally excellent' or 'world leading'. The Faculty includes the Schools of Computing, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, and Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering. www.engineering.leeds.ac.uk/
The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University's vision is to secure a place among the world's top 50 by 2015. www.leeds.ac.uk
3. The cross-disciplinary Design Group at the Open University is ranked 3rd in the UK for the quality of its research out of a field of 72, with 80% of its research graded as world leading or internationally excellent (2008 Research Assessment Exercise). It aligns closely with the OU's Centre for Research in Computing which is in the UK top 20 for its field, with 70% of its research world leading or excellent.
The Open University is the UK's largest university and a world leader in distance education, with more than 250,000 students in over 40 countries. over 1300 of whom are postgraduate research students. The University celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2009.
4. The Leverhulme Trust was established in 1925 under the Will of the first Viscount Leverhulme. It is one of the largest all-subject providers of research funding in the UK, distributing funds of some 50 million every year. For further information about the schemes that the Leverhulme Trust fund see www.leverhulme.ac.uk
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Remember that 3D TV bundle that Sony 
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Public release date: 19-Oct-2011
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