schwit1 writes What was first thought to be a piece of debris left over from the launch of three Russian military communication satellites has turned out to be a fourth satellite capable of maneuvers: “The three satellites were designated Kosmos-2496, -2497, -2498. However, as in the previous launch on December 25, 2013, the fourth unidentified object was detected orbiting the Earth a few kilometers away from ‘routine’ Rodnik satellites. Moreover, an analysis of orbital elements from a US radar by observers showed that the ‘ghost’ spacecraft had made a maneuver between May 29 and May 31, 2014, despite being identified as ‘debris’ (or Object 2014-028E) in the official U.S. catalog at the time. On June 24, the mysterious spacecraft started maneuvering again, lowering its perigee (lowest point) by four kilometers and lifting its apogee by 3.5 kilometers. Object E then continued its relentless maneuvers in July and its perigee was lowered sharply, bringing it suspiciously close to the Briz upper stage, which had originally delivered all four payloads into orbit in May.” This is the second time a Russian piece of orbital junk has suddenly started to do maneuvers. The first time, in early 2014, the Russians finally admitted five months after launch that the “junk” was actually a satellite. In both cases, the Russians have not told anyone what these satellites are designed to do, though based on the second satellite’s maneuvers as well as its small size (about a foot in diameter) it is likely they are testing new cubesat capabilities, as most cubesats do not have the ability to do these kinds of orbital maneuvers. Once you have that capability, you can then apply it to cubesats with any kind of purpose, from military anti-satellite technology to commercial applications. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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A Mysterious Piece of Russian Space Junk Does Maneuvers
Good news Microsoft Office power users! You’ll soon be able to use the new and improved Outlook for Mac. That’s good news, because the new Outlook for Mac looks pretty awesome . And since a lot of people use Outlook, this upgrade is going to improve a lot of email experiences. Read more… 
schwit1 writes with news about a flying defibrillator designed by a Dutch student. A Dutch-based student on Tuesday unveiled a prototype of an “ambulance drone”, a flying defibrillator able to reach heart attack victims within precious life-saving minutes. Developed by Belgian engineering graduate Alec Momont, it can fly at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour (60 miles per hour). “Around 800, 000 people suffer a cardiac arrest in the European Union every year and only 8.0 percent survive, the main reason for this is the relatively long response time of emergency services of around 10 minutes, while brain death and fatalities occur with four to six minutes, ” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Passenger rail has never been known for punctuality (at least in this century), but over the past year, Amtrak’s long distance passenger trains have reportedly gone from being late 35 percent of the time to being late 60 percent of the time. But don’t blame Amtrak—it’s being forced to make way for the thousands of trains carrying oil from the Midwest. Read more… 
Defense giant Lockheed Martin, Notre Dame University, DARPA and the Air Force Research Lab have begun flight testing a streamlined and greatly miniaturized airborne laser turret that has the potential to totally transform air combat as we understand it today. Read more… 
vinces99 writes: The number of California blue whales has rebounded to near historical levels, according to new research (abstract) by the University of Washington, and while the number of blue whales struck by ships is likely above allowable U.S. limits, such strikes do not immediately threaten that recovery. This is the only population of blue whales known to have recovered from whaling – blue whales as a species having been hunted nearly to extinction. Blue whales – nearly 100 feet in length and weighing 190 tons as adults – are the largest animals on Earth and the heaviest ever, weighing more than twice as much as the largest known dinosaur, the Argentinosaurus. They are an icon of the conservation movement and many people want to minimize harm to them, according to Trevor Branch, UW assistant professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. California blue whales, most visible while feeding 20 to 30 miles off the California coast, range from the equator to the Gulf of Alaska. Today they number about 2, 200, according to monitoring by other research groups, which is likely about 97 percent of the historical levels. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Your gadgets contain tiny specks of precious and rare earth metals—we rely on these dust-sized particles, which are so small they’re often not recycled because the cost of recycling outweighs the value of the metals. But according to the American Chemical Society, the overall value of these minute materials is massive. Read more… 
If your body is used to consuming alcohol every day, and you suddenly stop cold turkey, you’re going to experience withdrawal symptoms including tremors. They’re treatable with benzodiazepine drugs, but often times those can be abused by addicts who fake tremors in order to get a prescription. Spotting those fake tremors isn’t always easy, so researchers at the University of Toronto have created a smartphone app that’s incredibly hard to fool. Read more…