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Science
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
International
Bali News
International
British robot helping autistic children with their social skills
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
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LONDON - “This is nice, it tickles me,” Kaspar the social robot tells four-year-old Finn as they play together at an autism school north of London. REUTERS/Gregg Newton
A recycled SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soars toward space above a Virgin Airlines passenger jet, which had just departed Orlando International Airport, in Orlando, Florida, March 30, 2017. The launch marked the first time ever that a rocket was reused for spaceflight.
Extra portion of SpaceX rocket recovered from launch, Musk says
CAPE CANAVERAL - Elon Musk’s SpaceX on Thursday salvaged half of the $6 million nosecone of its rocket, in what the space entrepreneur deemed an important feat in the drive to recover more of its launch hardware and cut the cost of space flights. Shortly after the main section of SpaceX’s first recycled Falcon 9 booster landed itself on a platform in the ocean, half of the rocket’s nosecone, which protected a communications satellite during launch, splashed down via parachute nearby. “That was the cherry on the cake,” Musk, who serves as chief executive and lead designer of Space Exploration Technologies, told reporters after launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Measuring 43 feet (13 meters) long and 17 feet (5 meters) in diameter, the nosecone is big enough to hold a school bus. It separates into two pieces, exposing the satellite, about 4 minutes after liftoff. As a test, SpaceX outfitted the fairing with thrusters and a steerable parachute. “It’s its own little spacecraft,” Musk said. “The thrusters maintain its orientation as it re-enters and then ... the parachute steers it to a particular location.” SpaceX has focused most of its efforts and more than $1 billion into developing technologies to recover the Falcon 9’s main section, which accounts for about 75 percent of the $62 million rocket. Musk’s goal is to cut the cost of spaceflight so that humanity can migrate beyond Earth. “I hope people will start to think about it as a real goal to establish a civilization on Mars,” he said. LANDING ON ‘BOUNCY CASTLE’ After some debate about whether the nosecone could be recovered, Musk said he told his engineering team, “Imagine you had $6 million in cash on a pallet flying through the air that’s just going to smash into the ocean. Would you try to recover that? Yes, you would.” Musk envisions deploying a kind of “bouncy castle” for the fairing to land on so it can be recovered intact and reused. The company plans up to six more flights of recycled boosters this year, including two that will strapped alongside a third, new first-stage for the debut test flight of a heavy-lift rocket. Originally slated to fly in 2013, Falcon Heavy is now expected to fly late this summer. “At first it sounded easy. We’ll just take two first stages and use them as strap-on boosters,” Musk said. “It was actually shockingly difficult to go from single core to a triple-core vehicle.” SpaceX also may try to land the rocket’s upper-stage section, a feat the company has never attempted. “Odds of success low, but maybe worth a shot,” Musk wrote on Twitter on Friday. Privately owned SpaceX also is developing a commercial space taxi to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, a venture to send two space tourists on a trip around the moon and a Mars lander that is slated to launch in 2020. (rtr)
Kaspar, developed by the University of Hertfordshire, also sings song, imitates eating, plays the tambourine and combs his hair during their sessions aimed at helping Finn with his social interaction and communication. If Finn gets too rough, the similarly sized Kaspar cries: “Ouch, that hurt me.” A therapist is on hand to encourage the child to rectify his behaviour by tickling the robot’s feet. Finn is one of around 170 autistic children that Kaspar has helped in a handful of schools and hospitals over the last 10 years. But with approximately 700,000 people in Britain on the autism spectrum, according to the National Autistic Society who will mark World Autism Day on Sunday, the university want Kaspar to help more people. “Our vision is that every child in a school or a home or in a hospital could get a Kaspar if they wanted
to,” Kerstin Dautenhahn, professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Hertfordshire, told Reuters. Achieving that goal will largely depend on the results of a two-year clinical trial with the Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust, which, if successful, could see Kaspar working in hospitals nationwide. TRACKS, an independent charity and specialist early years centre for children with autism in Stevenage, have seen positive results from working with Kaspar, who sports a blue cap and plaid shirt for play sessions. “We were trying to teach a little boy how to eat with his peers. He usually struggled with it because of his anxiety issues,” said deputy principal Alice Lynch. “We started doing it with Kaspar and he really, really enjoyed feeding Kaspar, making him eat when he was hungry, things like that.
Now he’s started to integrate into the classroom and eat alongside his peers. So things like that are just a massive progression.” Many children with autism find it hard to decipher basic human communication and emotion so Kaspar’s designers avoided making him too lifelike and instead opted for simplified, easy to process features. Autism support groups have been impressed. “Many autistic people are drawn to technology, particularly the predictability it provides, which means it can be a very useful means of engaging children, and adults too,” Carol Povey, director of the National Autistic Society’s Centre for Autism, told Reuters. “This robot is one of a number of emerging technologies which have the potential to make a huge difference to people on the autism spectrum.” (rtr)
IBP/kmb45
Grape growers at Dencarik village, Banjar, Buleleng, are incapable of smiling happily ahead of Galungan feast day. This happens because their harvest drops significantly.
Ahead of Galungan, price of grape sluggish GRAPE growers at Dencarik village, Banjar, Buleleng, are incapable of smiling happily ahead of Galungan feast day. This happens because their harvest drops significantly. In addition, the selling price is also quite cheap. A local farmer, Made Padma, said that selling price of grape in this harvest season at farmer level lies in the range of IDR 9,000 per kilogram. The price is quite cheap when compared to last year’s season reaching IDR 20,000 to IDR 25,000 per
kilogram. “The current price is quite cheap. We do not enjoy the impact of Galungan,” he explained. In addition to the price, the volume of grape harvest this season also dropped about 60 percent. Besides, the quality is
quite bad. A lot of fruits have perished and fell off since they were green. “Previously, we could harvest up to six times in a season. Now, three times have been maximal,” he said. Emergence of such condition poses the impact of bad weather
having lasted long enough. Responding to this, farmers have actually been intensifying the maintenance with regular spraying of pesticides. However, it did not help produce maximum results. “The weather really does not support because it rains quite long time. As a result, fruits remaining green have perished and fell off,” said this farmer of
Subak Culuk. In the meantime, another farmer, Made Suka, stated that when faced with such a harvest result, he could not enjoy the advantages at all. The proceeds can only be used to cover the maintenance costs, reaching IDR 100,000 per 100 square meters. “Now, it is difficult to get profit. Some farmers also face harvest failure,” he added. (kmb45)
Taken over by non-Hindus
Ranging from ritual raw materials to canang making
REUTERS/Matthew Stock
Harrison, 5, who is autistic, plays with Kaspar, a child-sized humanoid robot developed at the University of Hertfordshire to interact and help improve the lives of children with autism, in Stevenage, Britain January 30, 2017.
DENPASAR - Aside from bringing in raw materials from outside Bali, in the long run the making of ritual oblation, preparation of canang or oblation will be taken over by non-Hindu residents. The informal sector to meet the needs of the Hindu religious ceremony is performed by non-Hindu communities. Mrs. Tomy, 48, the owner of the Sumber Rejeki kiosk at Anyar Sari Market, said that she is now turning to sell young coconut leaf, sampian penjor paraphernalia and palm leaf. Young coconut leaf is brought in from Malang, while palm leaf from Madura and Sumba. Meanwhile, the arrangement to make it into sampian is worked on by local residents and those from outside Bali. “If we give an example to our colleagues from outside Bali, they will be able to make,” he said. According to her, the pungent odor of palm leaves probably has caused many Balinese people to be unwilling to take the job of making the sampian. Almost half of the craftworkers are from outside Bali. “In the past, many Balinese people made this oblation. Approximately since 2010, many people from outside Bali began to make it,” she said. Not only that, some merchants of canang are not just Hindu residents. However, non-Hindu residents also take the opportunity to sell this ritual oblation. (kmb42)
IBP/kmb
In the long run the making of ritual oblation, preparation of canang or oblation will be taken over by non-Hindu residents.