Engine Test Marks Major Milestone on NASA’s Journey to Mars

NASA successfully tested the first deep space RS-25 rocket engine for 500 seconds March 10, clearing a major milestone toward the next great era of space exploration. The next time engine rocket engine No. 2059 fires for that length of time, it will be carrying humans on their first deep-space mission in more than 45 years.

“What a great moment for NASA and Stennis,” said Rick Gilbrech, director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. “We have exciting days ahead with a return to deep space and a journey to Mars, and this test is a very big step in that direction.”

The hot fire marked the first test of an RS-25 flight engine for NASA’s new Space Launch System (SLS), being built to carry humans on future deep-space missions, including an asteroid and Mars. Four RS-25 engines will help power the SLS core stage.

The engines used on initial SLS missions are flight engines remaining from the Space Shuttle Program, workhorse engines that are among the most proven in the world, having powered 135 space shuttle missions from 1981 to 2011. For the SLS vehicle, the engines will fire at 109 percent thrust level and provide a combined two million pounds of thrust.

“Not only does this test mark an important step towards proving our existing design for SLS’s first flight,” said Steve Wofford, engines manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the SLS Program is managed for the agency. “But it’s also a great feeling that this engine that has carried so many astronauts into space before is being prepared to take astronauts to space once again on SLS’s first crewed flight.”

https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/engine-test-marks-major-milestone-on-nasa-s-journey-to-mars

7,827 Drug Cases Called into Question After Police Lab Tech Caught Faking Test Results

Passaic County, NJ — A lab technician for the New Jersey State Police’s Office of Forensic Science has ‘retired’ early after being caught falsely identifying a substance as marijuana without conducting the proper tests. On Monday, Deputy Public Defender Judy Fallon issued a memo to Public Defender Joseph Krakora explaining Kamalkant Shah’s falsified report:

“Laboratory Technician II Kamalkant Shah of the New Jersey State Police Laboratory (in Little Falls) has been found to have ‘dry labbed’ suspected CDS specimens. Basically, he was observed writing ‘test results’ for suspected marijuana that was never tested.”

According to NJ Advance Media, “Ellie Honig, director of the Division of Criminal Justice of the Attorney general’s office, said in [a] Feb. 22 letter to county prosecutor’s offices that Shah ‘failed to appropriately conduct laboratory analyses in a drug case.’”

The letter, released from the Attorney General to the news outlet on Wednesday, disclosed that “Mr. Shah was observed in one case spending insufficient time analyzing a substance to determine if it was marijuana and recording an anticipated result without properly conducting the analysis.”

“The letter advised prosecutors to disclose this information to defense counsel,”NJ Advance Media reported.

The former technician’s indiscretion in that singular marijuana case has now called into question thousands of drug cases he conducted tests for, as the one in question was only the first observed instance of his dishonesty.

As Fallon noted, “Mr. Shah was employed with the lab from 2005 to 2015; obviously all his ‘results’ have been called into question.”

“In Passaic County alone, the universe of cases possibly implicated in this conduct is 2,100. The Prosecutor’s Office is still in the process of identifying them. Their plan is to submit for retesting specimens from open cases,” she said.

Shah’s fraudulent testing, overall, may have affected 7,827 drug cases on which he worked. Fallon also indicated the Little Falls crime lab provides testing for other law enforcement agencies across the state, not just the State Police.

http://theantimedia.org/7827-drug-cases-called-into-question-after-police-lab-tech-caught-faking-test/

 

INFOWARS PROVEN RIGHT: AUTOMAKERS FAKING EMISSIONS TEST PREDICTED A MONTH BEFORE

 INFOWARS PROVEN RIGHT: AUTOMAKERS FAKING EMISSIONS TEST PREDICTED A MONTH BEFORE

Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Mazda and Mitsubishi have joined the growing list of manufacturers whose diesel cars are known to emit significantly more pollution on the road than in regulatory tests, according to data obtained by the Guardian.

http://www.infowars.com/infowars-proven-right-automakers-faking-emissions-test-predicted-a-month-before/

Over half of psychology studies fail reproducibility test

n the biggest project of its kind, Brian Nosek, a social psychologist and head of the Center for Open Science in Charlottesville, Virginia, and 269 co-authors repeated work reported in 98 original papers from three psychology journals, to see if they independently came up with the same results.

http://www.nature.com/news/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test-1.18248

OVER HALF OF PSYCHOLOGY STUDIES FAIL REPRODUCIBILITY TEST

 In the biggest project of its kind, Brian Nosek, a social psychologist and head of the Center for Open Science in Charlottesville, Virginia, and 269 co-authors repeated work reported in 98 original papers from three psychology journals, to see if they independently came up with the same results.

The studies they took on ranged from whether expressing insecurities perpetuates them to differences in how children and adults respond to fear stimuli, to effective ways to teach arithmetic.

http://www.infowars.com/over-half-of-psychology-studies-fail-reproducibility-test/

US Successfully Tests Anti-Ballistic Missile System in Pacific

A US guided missile destroyer deployed with the Aegis system successfully destroyed four missiles in separate tests of the ballistic missile defense system, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) said on Monday.

“The flight test… demonstrated successful intercepts of short-range ballistic missile and cruise missile targets by the USS [United States Ship] John Paul Jones,” the MDA stated.

Using the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, the Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer tracked and destroyed incoming ballistic missile threats in four separate events during tests in Hawaii.

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/us/20150803/1025358514.html#ixzz3ho6Eat8K

US SUCCESSFULLY TESTS ANTI-BALLISTIC MISSILE SYSTEM IN PACIFIC

“The flight test… demonstrated successful intercepts of short-range ballistic missile and cruise missile targets by the USS [United States Ship] John Paul Jones,” the MDA stated.

Using the Aegis ballistic missile defense system, the Arleigh Burke-class Guided Missile Destroyer tracked and destroyed incoming ballistic missile threats in four separate events during tests in Hawaii.

The tests come on the heels of more than 30 similar tests to improve the US ballistic missile defense system

http://www.infowars.com/us-successfully-tests-anti-ballistic-missile-system-in-pacific/

Wendy’s ditching chicken antibiotics in new test

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/27/wendys-ditching-chicken-antibiotics-in-new-test.html

WENDY’S DITCHING CHICKEN ANTIBIOTICS IN NEW TEST

Its current antibiotic plans bans some antibiotics but not all: “Wendy’s policy strictly prohibits the use of antibiotics that are medically important to humans for the sole purpose of growth promotion. We believe that antibiotics used in livestock and poultry should only be used for the prevention, control and treatment of disease.”

As part of the test, four test markets (Orlando, Gainesville, Kansas City and Austin) will sell grilled chicken raised without any antibiotics to gauge consumer perception and supply availability.

http://www.infowars.com/wendys-ditching-chicken-antibiotics-in-new-test/