US spacecraft sparks arms race concerns

Space plane can 'help launch space weapons, be used for anti-satellite purposes'

 

BEIJING - The latest spacecraft launched by the United States has triggered concerns over a new arms race in space that could jeopardize world peace, Chinese military researchers said on Friday. 

The US Air Force launched unmanned spacecraft X-37B with a rocket from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday evening local time, media reported. The spacecraft is designed to fly in low orbit for as long as nine months. 

The X-37B looks like a space shuttle orbiter, with a similar shape and payload bay for cargo and experiments. But unlike US space shuttles that can stay in orbit for only about two weeks and are costly to maintain, X-37B can reportedly be used repeatedly with less costs. 

The space plane is meant to serve as a test platform for unspecified experiments before gliding to an autonomous runway landing, the US Air Force said. 

The US military has only made the general description of the mission objectives of its latest space launch public - to test of guidance, navigation, control, thermal protection and autonomous operations in orbit, re-entry and landing, media reported. 

"This launch helps ensure that our warfighters will be provided the capabilities they need in the future," said Colonel Andre Lovett, a launch official and vice-commander of the Air Force's 45th Space Wing, in a statement on Thursday. 

However, the ultimate purpose of the X-37B and details about it remain a mystery. 

Experts said the spacecraft is also intended to speed up the development of combat-support and weapons systems. 

The spacecraft is the world's only reusable operational spaceship and "an important breakthrough of space technologies", said Zhao Xiaozhuo, a research fellow of military studies under China's Academy of Military Science of the People's Liberation Army. 

The space plane is considered to hold potential military value as it can serve combat-support systems and become a platform for launching space weapons, Zhao said. 

It can also be easily used for anti-satellite purposes, he said. 

"As a superpower, the US has been calling for nuclear disarmament all these years and urged other countries to be more responsible for world peace and safety," Zhao said.

"But in the meantime, its development of the space plane may lead to an arms race in space." 

Zhai Dequan, deputy secretary-general of the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said the impact of the space plane "may not be serious enough to trigger an arms race in space", but it has demonstrated US resolve to take a leading position in it. 

"The US has previously said that it would slow down the pace of developing the space plane project. But now with the launch, it shows the US has never really slowed down," Zhai said.

The space plane has the potential to destroy other nations' satellites, which will help the US take the lead in space, he said. 

"China has always insisted on the peaceful exploration of outer space," Zhai said.

"It is urgent for all countries to reach an agreement to avoid weaponizing outer space."

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-24 06:46

AP contributed to the story.

CHINA DAILY

College Students 'Addicted' to Social Media, Study Finds

American college students are "addicted" to the instant connections and information afforded by social media, a new study suggests.


According to researchers, students describe their feelings when they have to abstain from using media in literally the same terms associated with drug and alcohol addictions: in withdrawal, frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy.

In the study, University of Maryland researchers conclude that most college students are not just unwilling, but functionally unable to be without their media links to the world. However, the study was based upon self-report by students engaging in a set of unnatural and largely unrealistic behaviors.

"I clearly am addicted and the dependency is sickening," said one person in the study.

"I feel like most people these days are in a similar situation, for between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin."

In the new study, "24 Hours: Unplugged," 200 students at the College Park campus were asked to give up all media for 24 hours. After their 24 hours of abstinence, the students were then asked to blog on private class websites about their experiences, report their successes and admit to any failures.


The 200 students wrote more than 110,000 words: in aggregate, about the same number of words as a 400-page novel.

"We were surprised by how many students admitted that they were 'incredibly addicted' to media," noted project director Susan D. Moeller, a journalism professor at the University of Maryland and the director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda which conducted the study.

"But we noticed that what they wrote at length about was how they hated losing their personal connections. Going without media meant, in their world, going without their friends and family."

Building upon that observation, an alternative explanation is that the students may have identified the "media" as what they were craving, but were actually missing the social connections afforded by the media. In other words, the students were "addicted" to the social ties — friendships and relationships — with others.

"The students did complain about how boring it was go anywhere and do anything without being plugged into music on their MP3 players," said Moeller.

"And many commented that it was almost impossible to avoid the TVs on in the background at all times in their friends' rooms. But what they spoke about in the strongest terms was how their lack of access to text messaging, phone calling, instant messaging, e-mail and Facebook, meant that they couldn't connect with friends who lived close by, much less those far away."

"Texting and IM-ing my friends gives me a constant feeling of comfort," wrote one student. "When I did not have those two luxuries, I felt quite alone and secluded from my life. Although I go to a school with thousands of students, the fact that I was not able to communicate with anyone via technology was almost unbearable."

The student responses to the assignment showed not just that 18-21 year old college students are constantly texting and on Facebook — with calling and e-mail distant seconds as ways of staying in touch, especially with friends — but that students’ lives are wired together in such ways that opting out of that communication pattern would be tantamount to renouncing a social life.

Very few students in the study reported that they regularly watched news on television or read a local or national newspaper (although a few said they regularly read The Diamondback, the University of Maryland student newspaper).

They also didn't mention checking mainstream media news sites or listening to radio news while commuting in their cars. Yet student after student demonstrated knowledge of specific news stories.

How did they get the information? In a disaggregated way, and not typically from the news outlet that broke or committed resources to a story. "To be entirely honest I am glad I failed the assignment," wrote one student, "because if I hadn’t opened my computer when I did I would not have known about the violent earthquake in Chile from an informal blog post on Tumblr."

"Students expressed tremendous anxiety about being cut-off from information,” observed Ph.D. student Raymond McCaffrey, a former writer and editor at The Washington Post, and a current researcher on the study.

“One student said he realized that he suddenly ‘had less information than everyone else, whether it be news, class information, scores, or what happened on Family Guy.”

"They care about what is going on among their friends and families and even in the world at large," McCaffrey said. "But most of all they care about being cut off from that instantaneous flow of information that comes from all sides and does not seem tied to any single device or application or news outlet."

That's the real takeaway of this study for journalists: students showed no significant loyalty to a news program, news personality or even news platform. Students have only a casual relationship to the originators of news, and in fact rarely distinguished between news and more general information.

While many in the journalism profession are committing significant resources to deliver content across media platforms – print, broadcast, online, mobile — the young adults in this study appeared to be generally oblivious to branded news and information.

For most of the students reporting in the study, information of all kinds comes in an undifferentiated wave to them via social media. If a bit of information rises to a level of interest, the student will pursue it — but often by following the story via "unconventional" outlets, such as through text messages, their e-mail accounts, Facebook and Twitter.

Students said that only the most specific or significant news events — for example, a medal event at the Olympics — merited their tuning into to a mainstream outlet. Even news events that students cared about were often accessed via their personal interactions.

To learn about the Maryland vs. Virginia Tech basketball game, for example, one student told of "listening to someone narrate the game from a conversation they were having on their own phone" (although he would have preferred watching it on TV), and another student told of calling her father to learn more about the earthquake in Chile.

By Rick Nauert, PhD, Senior News Editor, PsychCentral.com

Source: http://newscri.be/link/1081802

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Boom Times For Chinese Internet Start-Ups

China's vast and growing number of web users is driving demand for tech services.

HONG KONG -- In a crowded office in suburban Beijing, a dozen young computer programmers are busy trying to make their first million with an Internet startup.

An Ran founded website design and develop company Alltosun two years ago. He formerly was R&D supervisor at Sina SINA ( SINA - news - people ), one of China’s most-visited online portals, and the project director at UUSee, one of China’s largest live TV broadcasting websites. “Most of our clients are young start-ups," said An, whose clients include Chinese, British and German companies.

An’s Alltosun is a snapshot of what is taking place in China’s Internet business landscape.

The IT design and development sector alone reaped 7.27 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in revenue in January and February, with an annual growth of 24.5%, according to the latest government data. Alltosun’s revenue last year reached nearly 400,000 yuan ($58,000) is expected to exceed one million yuan ($146,000his year. Urbanites in China’s 60 biggest cities spent over 70% of their spare time on the Internet, according to a March survey by McKinsey & Co.

China’s expanding internet users’ guarantee potential success for the country’s internet start-ups. Official statistics showed that China’s internet users have reached 384 million by the end of 2009, more than the total population of the United States.

American International Data Group saw an investment opportunity in China’s Internet industry back in 1992, when Patrick McGovern decided to set up IDG Venture Capital and invested in start-ups like Tencent QQ and Baidu.com, ( BIDU - news - people ) which have since grown into China’s leading internet services portal and search engine, respectively.

DG VC now manages a $2.5 billion fund in China with a large proportion in the IT sector. Of the 200 companies it has backed, fifty have gone public or been bought by other companies.

Another Chinese start-up is Nanjing-based china-tomb.cn, an online mourning website.

“I saw people discussing where they could sweep their ancestors’ tombs without going back home on an overseas online forum four years ago, and that’s how I got the idea of setting up an online tomb-sweeping website.” said Yuan Jun.

For 10 yuan ($1.40), mourners can set up online memorials and tombs for their late relatives, upload photos and videos of them and burn virtual incense and offerings of money. Page views per day reached over 10,000 during the Qingming festival, when Chinese families traditionally visit their relatives' gravesites and practice rituals such as kowtow and money offering.

“Our customers are primarily from Japan, U.S., and Chinese coastal cities like Fujian, who cannot get back home during China’s tomb-sweeping festival,” said Yuan. “They are happy to pay for online mourning as they find it convenient and easy to use.”

Jennifer Po-ying Chueng, 04.23.10, 12:30 AM EDT

Source: http://newscri.be/link/1080471
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