HAVANA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Cuba and Brazil are holding talks here to strengthen hi-tech cooperation in areas such as vaccines and other medical biotech products, local media reported on Wednesday. The meetings are chaired by visiting Brazilian Minister of Science Sergio Machado Rezende and his Cuban counterpart Jose Miyar Barrueco, and attended by working groups of science, technology and innovation from both countries, said the official daily Granma. Other topics at the talks include the development and applications of nanotechnology, renewable energy, biofuels, telecommunications, and the scholarships interchange. Machado said the bilateral science exchange will also contribute to the integration process in Latin America, one of the priorities of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Cuba and Brazil signed in Feb. 2008 an Amendment to the Convention on Science, Technology and Innovation, which mainly covers the fields of radiopharmaceuticals, nanotechnology and renewable energy.
quarta-feira, 23 de junho de 2010
Cuba, Brazil to increase hi-tech cooperation
Earth surface deformed by 7.2 quake on Mexican-U.S. border
2010-06-24
LOS ANGELES, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The magnitude 7.2 quake that rocked Mexico's state of Baja California and parts of the American Southwest on April 4 caused the deformation in Earth's surface, according to radar images released by NASA on Wednesday.
The data reveals that in the area studied, the quake moved the Calexico, California region in a downward and southerly direction up to 80 centimeters (31 inches).
The quake shifted the crust on the Mexican side of the border even more -- as much as 10 feet, said scientists at the Jet Propulsion Loboratory (JPL), headquartered near Los Angeles.
A science team at JPL used the JPL-developed Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) to measure surface deformation from the quake.
The radar flies at an altitude of 12.5 kilometers (41,000 feet) on a Gulfstream-III aircraft from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, according to the JPL.
The Easter Sunday quake killed two people, injured hundreds and caused substantial damage in the Mexicali area. There was more than 90 million dollars in damage in California alone.
The quake occurred along a geologically complex segment of the boundary between the North American and Pacific tectonic plates. The quake, the region's largest in nearly 120 years, was also felt in southern California and parts of Nevada and Arizona.
There have been thousands of aftershocks, extending from near the northern tip of the Gulf of California to a few miles northwest of the U.S. border.
The area northwest of the main rupture, along the trend of California's Elsinore fault, has been especially active, and was the site of a large, magnitude 5.7 aftershock on June 14.
Scientists are still working to determine the exact northwest extent of the main fault rupture, but it is clear it came within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the UAVSAR swath, close to the point where the interferogram fringes converge, the JPL said.
"Continued measurements of the region should tell us whether the main fault rupture has moved north over time," said JPL geophysicist Andrea Donnellan, principal investigator of the UAVSAR project to map and assess seismic hazard in Southern California.
Google Voice open to all in U.S.
BEIJING, June 23 (Xinhuanet) -- Google's telephony management application Google Voice is now open to all U.S. residents, according to media reports Wednesday. Previously, an invitation from a current user is required before users could sign on to use the innovative phone add-on service. The service can centralize users' multiple lines, such as their home, office and cellular phone. When callers dial a particular Google Voice number, the users'lines will ring either all at the same time or individually, depending upon their own preferences. Callers will no longer bother which numbers they should dial when they are not sure where person they wanted is. Google Voice also offers voicemail message transcription, free calls to the U.S. and Canada, low international calling rates, conference call capability and a central, Web-based voicemail inbox. And best of all, it's completely free. You just have to sign up in its website and complete some settings. "We're proud of the progress we've made with Google Voice over the last few years, and we're still just scratching the surface of what's possible when you combine your regular phone service with the latest web technology," wrote Google Voice Product Managers Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet in an official blog post.
Mexico, U.S. extend no-drilling pact on Gulf of Mexico oil at border
MEXICO CITY, June 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Mexico have agreed to extend a treaty on holding off from drilling oil close to their shared border in the Gulf of Mexico for a further three years, Mexico's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. It is the second time the two nations have agreed to extend the pact that covers an area commonly known as the "doughnut hole" that lies outside both countries' 200 nautical mile territorial limits in the Gulf of Mexico. The ministry said in a statement that both sides had a "shared intention to negotiate a treaty that regulates the use of hydrocarbon deposits that cross our shared maritime frontier." Oil drilling in shared water areas has been a hot issue in Mexico since 2000 when then-President Vicente Fox accused the U.S. of sucking up natural gas from exploration wells that cross under their shared border and selling it back to Mexico across the top. "No entity has recorded the presence of any cross-border deposit, but we consider it important to have a regime of rules with a bilateral character in case a discovery should occur in the future," said the statement. The ministry said the latest agreement was a follow-up to the work done by President Felipe Calderon and President Barack Obama when they met on May 19 in Washington. Mexico is not capable of exploring at the water depths in the area covered by the treaty due to lack of technology at Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), the only firm allowed to explore or exploit hydrocarbons on Mexican territory. There are plenty of firms on the U.S. side that can explore deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico, but such exploration activity has caused a massive ecological disaster this year. On April 20, a gas explosion on a rig called the Deepwater Horizon triggered an oil spill that is leaking thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico per day.
Fabio Assunção para S/Nº
22/06 por Redação
É nessa terça-feira (22.06), no Lions Nightclub, o lançamento de mais uma edição da S/Nº, uma parceria dos editores Bob Wolfenson e Helio Hara com o publisher Ricardo Feldman, aka Editora Livre, destaca aqui: Karina Tavares, namorada de Fábio Assunção, o fotografou íntimo, sem nenhum personagem por perto. O ator posa sozinho e com seu filho, João,. RG antecipa algumas imagens, aqui.
Acompanha as fotos um texto do ator sobre as coisas “à flor da pele”, tema da edição. “Uma sessão de fotos com minha fotógrafa predileta, com direito a muito flerte”, brinca Assunção “Quando penso em sentimentos à flor da pele, a primeira coisa que me aparece é a liberdade de vivê-los intensamente ou o poder de suportá-los. Tem sempre cara de risco, de perigo, porque nos marca e não sabemos direito pelo que ou por quem queremos ser marcados”. O resto você lê na revista, que chega às bancas logo mais, por R$48.