Human Rights Watch group launches campaign to ban 'killer robots'

A mock "killer robot" pictured in central London on April 23, 2013 during the launch of the Campaign to Stop "Killer Robots". 

A global rights group launched the campaign on Tuesday to ban Terminator-style "killer robots" amid fears the rise of drone warfare could lead to machines with the power to make their own decisions about killing humans.

A global rights group launched a campaign on Tuesday to ban Terminator-style "killer robots" amid fears the rise of drone warfare could lead to machines with the power to make their own decisions about killing humans.

Human Rights Watch said it was creating an international coalition to call for a global treaty that would impose a "pre-emptive and comprehensive ban" on artificially intelligent weapons before they are developed.

The New York-based group also warned of a possible "robotic arms race" if even one country took the step to allow such machines to enter service.

Steve Goose

"Lethal armed robots that could target and kill without any human intervention should never be built," said Steve Goose, arms division director at Human Rights Watch, said at the launch in London of the "Campaign To Stop Killer Robots".

"A human should always be 'in-the-loop' when decisions are made on the battlefield.

"Killer robots would cross moral and legal boundaries, and should be rejected as repugnant to the public conscience."

The campaign includes several non-governmental organisations involved in previous successful efforts to ban anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions, and blinding lasers.

Activists wheeled out a home-made robot outside the Houses of Parliament in London for the launch of the campaign.

The United States has led the way in military robots such as the unmanned drone aircraft that carry out attacks and surveillance in countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen.

According to Britain's Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA drone attacks in Pakistan have killed up to 3,587 people since 2004, up to 884 of them civilians but these are controlled by human operators in ground bases and are not able to kill without authorisation.

Scientists organise groundbreaking Saturn's Aurora observational campaign

Auroral formation on Saturn. 

Credit: Jonathan Nichols, NASA, ESA, University of Leicester 

University of Leicester planetary scientists have collaborated with an international team of researchers to organise the largest ever observational campaign of Saturn's auroras. 

The month-long project will see a host of space and ground-based telescopes focus on the ringed gas giant in order to expand our knowledge of the planet's northern lights.

A team of scientists from the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy has collaborated with NASA and the European Space Observatory (ESO) on the project.

The instruments involved include NASA and ESA's Hubble Space Telescope, the NASA/ESA/ASI Saturn-orbiting spacecraft Cassini, the ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) in Hawaii.

Saturn's Aurora
Each instrument will make different observations of Saturn's aurora covering a variety of wavelengths and view points – potentially giving the most comprehensive set of data on the phenomenon to date.

The team hope the observations will tell us more about how the auroras are formed and the way energy flows from the solar wind and Saturn's magnetic field into the planet's ionosphere and atmosphere.

This could tell us more about other auroras – including those on Earth. The group of instruments will observe Saturn's northern aurora and southern aurora at several points between April 19 and May 21.

The team chose this period to observe Saturn as it is the time of year when the planet is closest to the Earth and at its largest in the night's sky.

Dr Tom Stallard is leading the ground-based observations from IRTF over 74 hours and the VLT over 15 hours – both of which will observe Saturn's northern aurora.

Dr Jonathan Nichols is leading on the Hubble, which will observe the planet's northern ultraviolet aurora for a total of 11 hours, and Dr Sarah Badman has co-ordinated with the Cassini team to help plan observations in both the northern and southern aurora over 142 hours.

In addition, Dr Kevin Baines, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is leading on Keck observations over 24 hours, and will work closely with Dr Tom Stallard.

At the end of the observations, the findings from each instrument will be collated. The researchers will then be able to view and compare the observations of auroral events from many different angles.

Dr Stallard, of the Radio and Space Plasma Physics Group within the University of Leicester's Department of Physics and Astronomy, said: "Up until now, it's like we have been looking at the aurora in black and white – and now we're trying to look in colour."

"We're hoping to get much more depth to the observations we have taken - filling in a far more complete picture of the aurora as a whole, rather than disconnected parts."

"What we hope to gain from this observing campaign is a way to link different auroral and magnetospheric events, following the flow of energy through the system, from the solar wind and magnetic field of Saturn down into the ionosphere and atmosphere. "

"By understanding the way this energy flows at Saturn, we should also gain real insight into the interaction between the Sun and other planets."

Golden Spike: Private Moon Travel Startup Launches Crowdfunding Campaign

An artist's illustration of a Golden Spike Company moon lander on the lunar surface.

CREDIT: Golden Spike Company

A private startup aiming to launch manned lunar expeditions has started a crowdfunding campaign to get the public involved.

The company, Golden Spike, aims to get its first mission off the ground by 2020.

To help achieve that goal, the startup's leaders are reaching out via the crowdfunding site Indiegogo in hopes of raising $240,000 ­— "a dollar for every mile on the way to the moon," said Golden Spike's president and CEO, planetary scientist Alan Stern.

"Ever since we launched the company, we've been getting emails and tweets and Facebook posts about, 'How can I help?'" Stern reported.

"It just seems like there's a hunger out there to participate in grand exploration."

Contributors during the 10-week campaign can secure rewards ranging from printed "thank you's" and subscriptions to Golden Spike's mailing list (for a $25 donation), to VIP trips to see the company's first moon launch (for a contribution of $50,000).

Other options include nominating names for the lunar test vehicles, and having your name flown to the moon during Golden Spike's first lunar landing mission.

Stern said the money raised would be used to help Golden Spike get off the ground. But moreover, he added, it's a way for people excited about the idea of private moon travel to get involved, and a way to raise awareness about the venture.

"We hope that this campaign and all the projects it enables will generate a degree of participation in space exploration that has never existed before," Gerry Griffin, former Apollo flight director and the chairman of Golden Spike's board of directors, said in a statement.



Golden Spike plans to use existing or already-in-development rockets and space capsules to transport crews to and from the moon.

The firm plans to build its own lunar lander, though, and has hired veteran aerospace firm Northrop Grumman, which built NASA's Apollo moon landers, to work on the design.

The missions will sell for around $1.5 billion and will be aimed at corporations, countries without their own space programs and even some wealthy individuals.

"I think people are really excited about the idea of sending human expeditions to the moon from countries all over the world," Stern said.

"It could be all different kinds of people, for all different kinds of purposes. It's a very different, forward concept."

To help keep costs down, Golden Spike plans to sell branding opportunities and advertising time during live broadcasts of missions.

"We plan to make these lunar expeditions television extravaganzas, like the Olympics," Stern said. "We'll sell the advertising time like they do with the Super Bowl."

To learn more about the company, visit Golden Spike's Indiegogo campaign page.

Nuclear-Waste Train Glows Red Hot in Infrared

Railroad cars carrying some 123 tons of nuclear waste glow red-hot in an infrared picture taken in Valognes (map), France, in November and released by Greenpeace International as part of an antinuclear-power campaign that included arranging protests that delayed the train's progress.

The train is hauling a so-called CASTOR convoy, named after the type of container carried: Cask for Storage and Transport Of Radioactive material. These trademarked casks have been used since 1995 to transport nuclear waste from German power plants to France for reprocessing, then back to Germany for storage.

"High-level waste is in fact hot," said nuclear energy and proliferation expert Matthew Bunn. "It doesn’t mean anything in particular in terms of how dangerous it is."

(Related pictures: "Leaking Nuclear Waste Fills Former Salt Mine.")

UN: Yao Ming in campaign to fight HIV stigma in China

UNAIDS said Friday it had launched a campaign to address rampant discrimination against people living with HIV in China, with the help of Chinese NBA megastar Yao Ming.

The campaign, launched with China's health ministry, will see posters and videos of Yao and his fans, including some with HIV, displayed on giant screens in 12 cities across China, the United Nations agency said in a statement.

People who are HIV positive in China experience high levels of stigma and discrimination.

According to a report by UNAIDS, a quarter of medical staff and over a third of government officials and teachers developed negative and discriminatory attitudes towards people living with HIV after learning their status.

More than 12 percent of people with HIV had also been refused medical care at least once since they tested positive, UNAIDS said in their China Stigma Index report emailed to AFP.

"These results really underscore the importance of ensuring health care professionals receive appropriate training to reduce stigma and discrimination and increase their ability to provide appropriate services to people living with HIV," UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe said in the statement.

The report was based on a survey of more than 2,000 people living with HIV in China and is the first of its kind in the Asian nation.

It also found that more than 34 percent of those of working age had stopped working as a result of being HIV positive and over 55 percent had chosen not to attend social gatherings or had isolated themselves from family and friends.

"Building understanding and care from society as a whole for people living with HIV, together with eliminating discrimination, are key elements of the AIDS response," Huang Jiefu, China's vice minister of health, said in the statement.

The campaign will also see more than 30,000 posters distributed across China, the statement said.

China's health ministry estimates that at the end of 2009, 740,000 people were living with HIV in the country, and according to the latest data, 48,000 were infected this year, according to UNAIDS.

Biologist Brings Down the Berlin wall: Green Chain reaction

The fall of the Berlin Wall was part of a chain reaction started by biologist Janos Vargha and his campaign to stop construction of a dam (Sipa Press/Rex Features)

THE story behind the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 began nine years earlier, when Janos Vargha, a biologist from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences began a new career as a writer with a small monthly nature magazine called Buvar. In an early assignment, he went to a beauty spot on the river Danube outside Budapest known as the Danube Bend, the site of an ancient Hungarian capital, to interview local officials about plans for a small park.

Hum-Drum
It was humdrum stuff - until one official mentioned in passing that this tree-lined curve in the river, a popular picnic spot for Hungarians, was to be drowned by a giant hydroelectric dam being planned in secret by a much-feared state agency known simply as the Water Management.

Green Issues

Green issues seemed to be east European communism's soft underbelly in its final years. Under the auspices of the Young Communist Leagues, a host of environment groups had become established during the 1970s. Party officials saw them as a harmless outlet for youthful idealism - a cross between Boy Scouts and natural history societies.

Green Idealism

This green idealism gradually became a rallying point for political opposition. In Czechoslovakia, the human rights organisation Charter 77 took up environmentalism. Polish and Estonian greens joined Friends of the Earth International to protest against air pollution. Bulgarian greens formed an opposition group called Ecoglasnost, which held huge rallies in 1989. Big water engineering projects were especially potent symbols of the old Stalinism and when Mikhail Gorbachev began his reforms in Russia, one of his first acts was to cancel a huge project to divert Siberian rivers south to irrigate cotton fields around the Aral Sea.