A burgeoning industry promises to help the wealthy defeat the ultimate equaliser: Death.

In the year 42 I.E. (Inequality Era, post-Piketty), mankind built its first hibernation machine. This allowed some to jump to the future. A brighter future, a better future. More precisely, hibernation machines became an actualisation of a powerful idea that tomorrow is better than today. A tomorrow that has a cure for cancer and diabetes, where strokes, respiratory diseases and heart attacks are a hazy remembrance (much as we think of typhoid and tuberculosis today), where longevity spans centuries, and Ray Kurzweil's Singularity, in which humans merge with A.I. to transcend biological limitations, is within reach. The end of Death and a future everlasting beckon.

But only a select few can afford hibernation machines and jump to the future: The rich and the powerful, the rentiers and the capitalists, the titans of industry and the masters of finance. Those who can afford it skip to a future paradise, while those who cannot remain in what they now perceive as a dark and depressing present, whilst building the paradise for the few.

This is a short chapter in Death's End, the culmination of Liu Cixin's stunning trilogy, Remembrance of Earth's Past. Former U.S. President Barack Obama recommended it, in a bygone era when leaders used to read, reflect, and write, rather than rant in 140 characters. It is fascinating to think systematically about . Are we willing to tolerate inequality in income and wealth as long as our basic needs in Maslow's hierarchy are satisfied? Or will we have a revolution in our hands when inequality is literally a matter of life and death?1 Hollywood which gave us Elysium which certainly sees revolution as the most probable outcome.

This is not some abstract sci-fi scenario. Today, there are four major companies that provide cryogenic or cryonic services Alcor in Arizona, Cryonics Institute in Michigan, American Cryonics Society in California and KrioRus in Russia. Alcor seems the most developed and well-funded. Morbid as it sounds, this could be you in the future, vitrified and then stored in a thermos. Their pricing policy has a weird two-part tariff structure an annual membership fee of US$525 and then an additional US$200,000 for Whole Body Cryopreservation. There is a discount if you only cryogenically freeze your brain; and a US$10,000 premium if you live outside the United States and Canada which rises to US$50,000 if you live in China. A topic for another day is whether this is price discrimination or whether the price differences reflect cost differences.

Interestingly, only 5 percent of the U.S. population has an annual income exceeding the US$200,000 charged by Alcor. But since the amount can be paid out of retirement savings, slightly more than 10 percent of U.S. households theoretically could afford to freeze at least one person (see below). Ironically, most would be bankrupted in the process, meaning they would thaw out to penury. Theyd have to hope that the utopian future awaiting them would be free of the sort of inequality that enabled them to cheat death in the first place.

Meanwhile in Silicon Valley...

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, are reading Homo Deus, by Yuval Harari. On page 28, the book predicts that they are going to die. Death, after all, is the ultimate equaliser. Steve Jobs was unable to beat pancreatic cancer. Harari is sceptical whether Googles Calico, short for the California Life Company and founded in 2013 with a billion dollars in funding, will solve death in time to make Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin immortal. This is immensely frustrating to the likes of Brin, Page, Jeff Bezos and Peter Thiel, all billionaires eager to stretch lives, or, at least their own, to forever in Thiel's words.

Many believe that aging is encoded in our DNA and if anything is encoded it can be cracked. If something can be cracked, then it can be hacked. Cue applause! And cue billions of dollars for aging research with Bill Maris, the founder and CEO of Google Ventures, leading the way. In the fall of 2016, the life extension start-up Unity Biotechnology raised an enormous round of funding from Silicon Valley billionaires interested in the prospect of humans living much longer lives.

Others are bringing big data and machine learning tools to bear. BioAge Labs, whose tagline is faster drug discovery for aging, has been using machine learning and crunching genomics data to search for biomarkers that predict mortality.

Venture Vampire Capital

In 1615, a German doctor suggested that the hot and spirituous blood of a young man will pour into the old one as if it were from a fountain of youth. In 1924, the physician and Bolshevik Alexander Bogdanov performed young-blood transfusions on himself. He claimed that his eyesight improved, that he stopped balding and a fellow-revolutionary wrote that he seems to have become seven, no, ten years younger. Ironically, Bogdanov injected himself with blood from a student who had both malaria and tuberculosis, and subsequently died. Today, this procedure goes by the innocuous-sounding name parabiosis a surgical union of two organisms sharing the circulation of blood. And the search for the fountain of youth continues.

Of mice and men

Researchers at Stanford University showed in a 2014 study that infusions of blood from young mice reversed cognitive and neurological impairments seen in older mice. These reinvigorated mice performed like ones half their age in memory based tests. Immediately, emails flooded the inbox of the lead researcher, Tony Wyss-Coray. Numerous billionaires, some of whom were experiencing onset of Alzheimers, wanted infusions of young blood. Some had even arranged for what the HBO show Silicon Valley termed blood boys.

There is currently a clinical trial called Young Donor Plasma Transfusion and Age-Related Biomarkers looking for participants. The trial, run by a start-up called Ambrosia, injects young people's blood into older people. Healthy participants aged 35 and older, pay US$8000 for a transfusion of blood plasma from donors under 25, and researchers monitor their blood over the next two years for indicators (biomarkers) of health and aging. Thiel (yes, him again) is looking seriously into parabiosis.

Today, most reporting on these advances takes one of two perspectives: weary scepticism or unadulterated wonder. In either case, my grim forecast is that a world where such miracles of longevity are confined to billionaires will see socio-political upheaval, the likes of which will make the current hand-wringing and brow-furrowing on the rise of inequality seem quaint in comparison. In the meantime, expect a lot of books and articles and blog posts, targeted at the thought-leader industrial complex, that will at the least, make for stimulating conversation.

Pushan Dutt is the Shell Fellow of Economic Transformation and a Professor of Economics and Political Science at INSEAD. Professor Dutt directs the Asian International Executive Programme.

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1Of course, with unequal access to health care in many countries, with direct consequences for differential mortality rates among the rich and the poor, we already live in such a world.

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From Inequality to Immortality - INSEAD Knowledge (blog)

Commissioned to breathe new life into a century-old cottage, Janik Dalecki devised a design that would make a statement while still respecting the character of the original building.

Mr Dalecki, of Dalecki Design, says the brief for the renovation was to turn the tired, run-down home into a modern abode perfect for entertaining and raising a family.

The existing home with three bedrooms, one bathroom and no storage had a dark, impractical layout with no breeze paths or natural light, he says.

The alteration and addition was to be sympathetic to the existing 100-year-old heritage-listed home, whilst still creating a bold design statement.

The extension of the home, which is on a 385sqm block in Mt Lawley, was to centre around an open-plan main living area, which would offer city views as well as a seamless indoor/outdoor connection.

Whilst the home was to be child-friendly, the owners also wanted to create a luxurious master retreat, where the adults of the house could escape to the privacy of their own space, Mr Dalecki adds.

The new main living area is the centrepiece of the renovation. North-facing windows edged with black powder-coated frames help flood the living zones with natural light, while sliding doors link the interiors to the garden.

The large sliding doors also frame the homes city views, allowing them to be seen from all entertaining zones, both indoors and outdoors, Mr Dalecki says.

The sleeping areas have been divided into two zones.

The existing two front bedrooms were retained, with a second bathroom added, while the main suite was positioned to the rear to create a private parents retreat.

A highlight of the main bedroom is a built-in window seat, which also conceals storage beneath its hinged base.

The idea was to create a cosy sitting space where you could retreat with a book and take in the backyard and city views, Mr Dalecki says.

It also serves to tie the bedroom in with the existing home, with the jarrah boards selected to match the existing internal flooring also used for the window-seat lining.

Such references to the original building were a key aspect of Mr Daleckis design.

Many of the heritage details were restored, such as a leadlight window and entry door and the external brickwork, which was re-tuckpointed.

Mr Dalecki says the contemporary, minimalist design of the Weathertex-clad addition helps highlight the heritage details.

In order to let the intricate heritage details shine, the addition incorporates contrasting materials and sharp, minimalist lines, creating a strikingly modern form, he says.

Whilst this creates a clear definition between the old and the new, a neutral colour scheme and the use of existing floorboards throughout provide a seamless transition between the two eras.

Tips for renovating a heritage property

- Find a local heritage advisor or designer who is familiar with the period of architecture and has previously worked both with this period or architecture along with the local council and various heritage bodies, Mr Dalecki says.

- If purchasing a heritage property check with council the type of heritage listing as this will dictate the extent of works that can be carried out on the home. You should also check whether the local council has any existing plans and photographs of the house. This will give you an idea of what the original building looked like and assist in any reconstruction work, he says.

- If adding on to the exiting heritage home add on in a style that provides a clear definition between what is new and what is old. Adding on a contrasting addition can highlight the existing heritage features both internally and externally.

- Replace like for like or where need be, remove non-original features and replace with what would have originally been there, Mr Dalecki says. Use original drawings or photos if you have these and if not use the local surrounding architecture to find a similar match to your house and replicate their details.

- Finally, do some research into any government or council grants that are available. Quite often there can be significant grants provided for restoration works.

Dalecki Design, 0410 100 096, daleckidesign.com.au.

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Dramatic extension breathes new life into century-old cottage - The West Australian

In BriefResearchers have identified a single gene deletion in E. colibacteria that influence longevity in C. elegans worms. This pointsto the role of gut bacteria in life extension and points to thepossibility of a life-extending probiotic in the future.

Researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine have found the key to longevity in Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) worms and maybe, someday, humans. The team noticed that genetically identical worms would occasionally live for much longer, and looked to their gut bacteria to find the answer. They discovered that a strain of E. coli with a single gene deletion might be the reason that its hosts lives were being significantly extended.

This study is one among a number of projects that focus on the influence of the microbiome the community of microbes which share the body of the host organism on longevity. Ultimately, the goal of this kind of research is to develop probiotics that could extend human life. Ive always studied the molecular genetics of aging, Meng Wang, one of the researchers who conducted the study, told The Atlantic. But before, we always looked at the host. This is my first attempt to understand the bacterias side.

Even in cases like this, where it seems fairly obvious that the microbiome is influencing longevity, parsing out the details of how and why this happens among a tremendous variety of chemicals and microbe species is extremely complex. The team, in this case, was successful because they simplified the question and focused on a single relationship.

Genetically engineering bacteria to support and improve human health and even to slow aging and turning it into a usable, life-extending probiotic wont be easy. It is extremely difficult to make bacteria colonize the gut in a stable manner, which is a primary challenge in this field. The team, in this case, is looking to the microbiome, because the organisms used would be relatively safe to use because they would originate in the gut.

Clearly, researchers dont know yet whether these discoveries will be able to be applied to people, though it seems promising. Despite the obvious differences between the tiny C. elegans worm and us, its biology is surprisingly similar; many treatments that work well in mice and primates also work in the worm. The team will begin experiments along these same lines with mice soon.

Other interesting and recent research hoping to stop or slow the march of time includes work with induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, antioxidants that target the mitochondria, and even somewhat strangework with cord blood. It seems very likely that we wont have a single solution offering immortality anytime soon, but instead a range of treatment options that help to incrementally hold back time. And, with an improving quality of life, this kind of life extension sounds promising.

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This Study Could Help Extend the Human Lifespan - Futurism

Wind turbine gearboxes once had a well deserved bad reputation for their short working lives. Not long ago, a two or three-year life was about normal.

Moventas ExtraLife gearbox will provide a four-fold overall life improvement according to computational testing by Sentient Science.

Things are looking up, however. Two companies recently announced improvements to gearboxes that stretch their working life to much longer periods. First, Moventas took the wraps off its Extra Life 1.5-MW gearbox last year and more recently, produced simulations by Sentient Science that point to a four-fold improvement in life. Then at the Wind Energy Update O&M Dallas conference, Gearbox Express unveiled an upgraded version of its proprietary gearbox, Revolution 2.0.

Moventas says that premature failures in the GE 1.5-MW gearboxes have led to unexpected downtime and increased costs. Moventas developed upgrades for the gearboxes, now called Extra Life, that can reduce premature failures on all types of gearboxes. To qualify its modifications, the company enlisted Sentient Science to validate the technology and life-extension claims and quantify the improvements in performance, durability, and reliability.

Computational testing shows a four-fold overall gearbox life improvement because of improvements made to the case-carburized ring gear, integrated planet-gear bearings, high-speed-stage bearings, tooth surface roughness, and material upgrades in bearings and gears. Sentient Science used its DigitalClone, a material science-based program that predicts the earliest time when cracks initiate in the microstructure of rotating gearbox components. The key analysis factors used in DigitalClone computational modeling included material quality, surface roughness, and stresses based on a full gearbox model subjected to real turbine operating conditions. These are not explicitly accounted in industry standards.

Simulation by Sentient Science shows that the planet bearing will have better load carrying capacity versus conventional bearings due to lower contact stress The results also showed an 8% reduction in contact stresses.

Take the case-carburized ring gear, for instance. The method is used instead of another, such as case hardening. To demonstrate improved durability, simulations considered case-carburized microstructure, geometry, operating conditions, lubricant properties, surface finish, and residual stresses. More than 1,000 contact and bending simulations were conducted in DigitalClone software. The results demonstrated an improved L10 life from seven to 20 years, mainly due to better surface finish and material quality without detrimental defects or inclusions.

Also, a two-row arrangement of cylindrical roller bearings is used in each planet of the new gearbox, instead of a four-row arrangement typical of conventional designs. About 2,000 fatigue-life simulations were conducted in DigitalClone to compare the two-bearing arrangement. The planet bearing showed better load-carrying capacity compared to conventional bearings, thanks in part to an 8% reduction in contact stresses. Moventas says its planet bearings now offer superior fatigue life and attribute it to cleaner material quality and relatively lower contact stress.

Gearbox Express says its Revolution 2.0 is available 1.0 to 2.3 MW across several platforms that the company supports, such as MHI 1000A, GE 1.5 S, Sle, Xle, 1.X, Vesta V80 and V82, and the Siemens 2.3. About 20 so far are in the field.

And speaking of cleaner material, a white-etching-resistance steel is used in the Extra Life gearbox instead of a black-oxide or a conventional bearing material. DigitalClone also validated that the white-etching resistance bearing material was superior to the black-oxide coating against white etch cracking due to heat treatment and improved microstructure. The black-oxide coating showed a 3% probability of failure in less than 20 years at the high-speed shaft and high-speed intermediate shaft positions due to non-metallic inclusions. DigitalClone verified the white-etching resistant bearing is superior to other bearing materials in these positions. Furthermore, Moventas can replace these bearings up-tower, which lowers O&M costs and downtime.

Moventas add that its Clean Steel tech has also been showing good result against IMS tooth fractures. The company reports no IMS tooth fractures with the upgraded material spec. In conventional steels, non-metallic inclusions can be as large as 100m on the intermediate-speed pinion. Contact fatigue life simulations in DigitalClone showed that the enhanced material doubles the life over the original design. Rolling contact fatigue simulations demonstrated that the sun pinion used in the new gearbox with an Ra (surface roughness) of 0.3 m increases L10 fatigue life by a factor of 2.2, compared to the original Ra of 0.6 m.

The Revolution 2.0 uses integral tapered rollers instead of cylindrical rollers. The tapers permit preloading, which increases system stiffness and improves load sharing.

The company adds that the Extra Life gearbox showed a lower cost of ownership compared to the legacy platform. Also, the units come with five-year warranties. ExtraLife features can be applied to larger gearboxes as well says the company. One example is Siemens 2.3 MW platform where Moventas has upgraded the design by using own core tech such as case carburized ring gear and combined two row bearing on the planet gears.

The more recent introduction comes from Gearbox Express. The wind industry has wrestled with gearbox failures since its inception, said Gearbox Express CEO Bruce Neumiller at the conference. That led us to create our company and meet these challenges head-on. We are succeeding. The company unveiled its initial Revolution gearbox in 2013 to address frequently seen failure characteristics. Since then, the company has successfully installed more than 200 of the designs across the United States. Neumiller says all are running well with the oldest about five years old.

For more than three years, we have has been researching why the planetary configurations in some gearboxes were not reaching half of their designed lifespan, said Neumiller. Those development efforts are now in the Revolution 2.0.

All planet gears in the Revolution 2.0 gearbox will have super finished gear teeth.

He says the top features of the new gearbox include:

A redesigned planetary gear and bearing interface in which the bearing outer races are machined into the gear. This reduces the number of components and opportunity for failure.

Integral tapered rollers are used in lieu of cylindrical rollers. The tapers permit preloading, which increases system stiffness and improves load sharing. The bearings also reduce internal bearing stresses, improve life 170%, and reduce rim deflection by 460%, which reduces bending stress and the propensity to crack planet gears.

The use of steel that is cleaner than ISO 6336-5 ME. Cleaner steel improves contact and bending-gear ratings, letting planet gears run with a higher safety factor and significantly reducing the risk of failing from material inclusions.

In-house super finishing improves as-ground surface finishes by 50%, ensuring bearing life while improving the gear rating.

Gearboxes are now outfitted with a metallic wear debris monitor from Poseidon Systems, letting GBX remotely monitor and proactively address oil cleanliness issues. In addition, the gearbox is backed by a five-year warranty, which includes crane and labor expenses.

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Short gearbox life now steadily lengthening as technology matures - Windpower Engineering (press release)

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Does doxycycline treat h pylori ulcers - Shelf life extension program doxycycline - Longboat Key News

HMS Montrose has undergone a major refit and the Type 23 frigate is expected to visit Angus in January 2018.

HMS Montrose is set to take to the seas tomorrow for the first time since a major refit which includes a new missile system.

The Royal Navy warship recently announced plans to return to the Angus town it is named after early next year.

It will sail from Plymouth on Friday as the latest stage of its testing after being equipped with the Sea Ceptor missile system and a new computerised command system.

A major programme of installing new steel to the ships frame, wiring and piping has also been completed.

The ships commanding officer Commander Conor ONeill said: Sailing this week is the culmination of years of hard work by all the partners in this project, both naval and industrial, and is the start of our journey back to the operational fleet.

Everyone on board has been looking forward to this moment, and it is a proud day for all of us.

The ship will spend the next few months in a period of operational sea training to ensure the ship and crew are fully trained and ready to deploy in support of operations anywhere in the world.

The ships many upgrades give the vessel at least a 15-year life extension her to operate in any of the worlds hot spots well into the future.

Other work carried out over the past two years included stripping the ship back to bare metal and inserting over 1,000 patches of new steel to replace worn out areas after her 25 years of service, since her launch in 1992.

More than 750,000 man hours of labour was spent working on the hull as well as power generation, a new galley, improvements to living quarters and with over 10km of electrical wiring and 5km of piping replaced.

The multi-million pound investment improves the capability offered by HMS Montrose, keeping her up to date until she is replaced by the new Type 26 frigates, the initial order for which was made at the start of July.

The Royal Navy has committed 3.7 billion to that project which, along with the recently sailed HMS Queen Elizabeth, the nations new aircraft carrier, will form the back bone of the Royal Navy into the future.

On a recent visit to Angus Mr ONeill said he hoped the ship will exercise its Freedom of Angus which will see its crew march through the streets of Montrose at some point during its week-long stay, which is likely to take place at the end of January.

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HMS Montrose set to sail for the first time following major refit - The Courier

Bambino Ges has offered to care for Charlie Gard. A childrens hospital renowned across Europe, Bambino Ges (Baby Jesus) is operated by the Holy See and located about half a mile south of the main entrance to Saint Peters Square.

That is the Catholic Church the world had come to expect.

Last week the Pontifical Academy for Life surprised and angered many people when it implied that Charlies parents should let go and let him die. Then on Sunday, to the joy of those who take a different view of the matter, the director of the Holy See press office issued this contrary statement:

The Holy Father follows with affection and emotion the situation of Charlie Gard, and expresses his own closeness to his parents. He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.

The outreach by Bambino Ges on Monday, via Twitter, reinforced the popes message. The hospital added its own warm words to his but, more important, also extended a professional helping hand.

Now the president of Bambino Ges reports that Charlies doctors in the U.K. wont let his parents move him from his intensive-care unit in London. If they prevail, his parents will be left to watch their infant son die as his doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children withdraw his life support.

Charlie Gards cause combines two large political causes, parental rights and the right to life. They comport in this instance, but they dont comport always or necessarily.

Parents can and sometimes do choose for their severely diseased newborn children outcomes that pro-life advocates think are wrong. Pro-choice advocates routinely insinuate and sometimes explicitly invoke the parental rights of women seeking abortion. Over the years, parental rights have been integral to arguments for abortion rights.

Pro-lifers are correct to call out double standards, as in this case. If parental rights are said to be sacrosanct when parents want to end the life of their child but not when they fight to preserve it, the principle is not really parental rights, is it?

Chris Gard and Connie Yates have privately raised funds to cover the cost of experimental treatment for Charlie in America, and it is reported that a U.S. hospital has offered to treat him for free, so containment of cost to the British taxpayer is not in any direct sense the rationale for the intransigence of the British doctors in this matter. Wesley Smith is right, however, that their attempt to frustrate these two parents in their quest to save the life of their child aligns with a broader, general campaign to discourage medical care when it is calculated, in cold terms, that the resulting extension or quality of life will probably be too short or too low to justify the expense.

Life is expensive, as we are reminded every time we join the debate about the latest national health-care proposal. To be pro-life is to take the strongest possible stand for life against even the most compelling economic arguments on the other side. It is cheaper certainly in the near term to abort a child who for the next decade or two would be a net drain on his parents resources of time and money. And always is it cheaper to hasten the death of the frail and elderly who will never again be net contributors to the material well-being of either their family or society.

It would have been easier for Chris Gard and Connie Yates not to buck the system. The course they have taken damn the hassle, damn the cost implies an extraordinary value that they put on life itself. The Catholic Church is the global institution most famous for honoring life itself against strong social and political pressures to abandon that principle, and so the gestures by Pope Francis and Bambino Ges have been reassuring.

It was a Catholic hospital and so of course they wouldnt let him die, a friend once said to me in the course of narrating the end-of-life agonies of a longtime colleague. She meant to be snide but unwittingly paid the Church what in its books counts as a compliment.

What unites the two main strands opposition to abortion and opposition to euthanasia of the pro-life movement is not a question of rights, as I explain in this blog post at The Human Life Review. Pro-lifers can invoke the right to life when defending unborn children, but rights talk is hardly the ticket for answering the movement for physician-assisted suicide and a right to die.

Ultimately the pro-life cause rests on a sentiment. If it can be reduced to a linear argument, I havent seen it. Charlie Gards parents are heroic not for insisting on reasonable (whatever that would be in this case) medical treatment for their child. They are extraordinary because against such enormous odds they have set out to preserve the flame of life still flickering in his fragile, tiny frame. We rightly cheer them for asserting their parental rights against the overreach of the medical establishment and the state. They do not, however, assert those rights as an end in itself. In their view, apparently, as in mine (and yours?), the end in itself is life itself.

Excerpt from:

Charlie Gard's Parents Assert Their Parental Rights but More Than That - National Review

The market for hemophilia treatments could see anemic growth over the next few years, according to a new analysis from research and consulting firm GlobalData.

Their report predicts the market value for treatments targeting each form of the blood disorder will go from $6.7 billion in 2016 to an approximate $8 billion by 2026 representing an uptick of about 1.8 percent.

Factors that will contribute to this small increase revolves around higher rates of routine prophlyaxis in children and adult patients diagnosed with hemophilia A and B as well as the introduction and uptake of novel drugs like long-acting factors and alternative coagulation promoters (ACPs).

Chiara Marchetti, Ph.D., the author of the report and a healthcare analyst for GlobalData, writes that the hemophilia A market, has historically been crowded with several comparable short-acting recombinant factor VIII (rFVIII) treatment options. Developers had hoped that the launches of long-acting rFVIII products since 2014 would stimulate this stagnant segment, but the transition to these drugs has been slower than expected.

Furthermore, Marchetti notes this stagnation is due to the limited half-life extensions of FVIII not being translated into meaningful reductions in dosing frequency in the prophylactic setting for hemophilia A patients.

Essentially, this aspect will help ACPs potentially gain a foothold in this space upon their anticipated launch in 2019 and take away their share of sales.

Marchetti elaborates that elements of these drugs, like the molecular structure and subcutaneous injections, will lead to better bleeding protection with a less-frequent dosing schedule dramatically improving convenience in a prophylactic setting.

Roche and Genzyme were highlighted as two firms with promising ACPs in their arsenal.

Roches emicuzumab is currently progressing through clinical development with interim results from a Phase III trial evaluating the drugs potential in children less than 12 years of age with hemophilia A and inhibitors to factor VIII.

Results indicated the treatment produced a clinically meaningful reduction in bleeds over time.

Genzyme is working with Alnylam on developing fitusiran, which is intended to treat hemophilia and other rare bleeding disorders. Findings from a phase II open label extension study showed that once-monthly subcutaneous administrations of fitusiran produced consistent lowering of AT and increases in thrombin generation in patients with either hemophilia A or B without inhibitors, according to an announcement.

Marchetti recommends these companies follow a unique pricing strategy in order to help these drugs become successful.

Because the costs associated with hemophilia care are constantly escalating, pricing strategy will be the key to the success of these new agents. Despite the advantages provided by the drug, GlobalData expects Roche to seek a limited premium over long-acting rFVIII. Given the high level of unmet need in the inhibitor segment and the good uptake expected among hemophilia A patients, emicizumab will be able to exploit cross-segment efficacy to become a blockbuster in the hemophilia space, with peak-year sales of $2.6 billion in 2026, wrote the analyst.

Hemophilia is a genetic bleeding disorder that prevents the body from producing normal blood clots. An estimated 20,000 people living in the U.S. are diagnosed with this disorder based on statistics gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Modest Growth Predicted for Hemophilia Treatment Space - Drug Discovery & Development

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23 Little Internet Browsing Tricks That Will Make Your Life Better - BuzzFeed News

Floyd is a horticulturist with Texas AgriLife Extension Service. He can be reached at 498-4071 in Ector County or 686-4700 in Midland County or by email at Jeff.Floyd@ag.tamu.edu

Floyd is an Agri-Life Extension agent for Ector and Midland counties. To learn more, call the Ector County Extension office at 432-498-4072, or the Midland County Extension office at 432-686-4700, or email jeff.floyd@ag.tamu.edu.

Posted: Sunday, July 2, 2017 3:00 am

GARDENING: Reviving St. Augustine grass By Jeff Floyd Odessa American

Weve discussed a lot of the problems that St. Augustine grass experiences in West Texas lawns but a recent question caused me to realize we havent talked about a basic St. Augustine maintenance schedule for our area.

Question: We have had great success growing Bermuda and St. Augustine, we have mostly shade, and the St. Augustine took over most of the yard. Last year we noticed the St. Augustine was not growing and yellowing and disappearing. It continues to get worse this year. This season I have fertilized, insect and bug killer granules, and Fungicide. No change. Last year I tried Ironite with no change. This month I laid down a strip of dolomite lime, and on the other side of yard a strip of aluminum sulfate. No detectable difference on either side.

Answer: Thank you for the question to Extension. Avoid applying any more amendments or fertilizers until youve gotten on track with a basic maintenance plan and start to see some recovery.

For St. Augustine lawns showing signs of stress, begin with a soil test. Visit http://www.soiltesting.tamu.edu for forms and instructions.

Call the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension office if you are having turf grass problems at 498-4071.

Posted in Gardening on Sunday, July 2, 2017 3:00 am. | Tags: Texas A&m Agrilife Extension Office, Jeff Floyd, Pecans, Pruning, Prune, Soft Landscape Materials, Landscape, Gardening, Gardener, Food, Integra, Repeat Applications, West Texas

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GARDENING: Reviving St. Augustine grass - Odessa American

Graduates of the UCLA Extension program got a shot of superhero power at their commencement ceremony Friday in Westwood.

Stan Lee, the 94-year-old co-creator of icons that are now Marvel Entertainment giants: Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, The Avengers and The Fantastic Four, told graduates at Royce Hall to Do your thing. Whatever you do, give it your best shot. Youll be glad you did.

About 2,000 students graduated from the Extension program this year, some transitioning to new careers and some exploring new interests. The program for working and mid-career professionals grants certificates rather than degrees, in areas like feature film writing and film scoring, marketing, real estate and finance.

Photos: Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee speaks At UCLA Extension Certificate Graduation

The Extension program is about life-long learning, Wayne Smutz, the schools dean told graduates. And Lee, who started at Timely Comics Marvel Comics predecessor when he was just 17, knows about career longevity.

Youre trying to ... add to what you already know, to make yourselves better workers, better contributors, Lee told the audience.

While Extension graduates got certificates Friday, Lee got an award of his own the Extensions first Icons of LA Award, coinciding with the programs 100th birthday.

Stan is considered the godfather of the modern-day superhero, Smutz said. He has exerted more influence over the comic book and entertainment industry than any other figure and is revered by fans of all ages, worldwide and of all cultures.

Related story: UCLAs largest ever class graduates with a message: Be relentless

Lee appeared at the commencement just two days after walking the red carpet at TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood for the premiere of Spider-Man: Homecoming, the latest incarnation of the super-successful character he co-created with Steve Ditko in 1962.

At UCLA, he sat in a high chair in the middle of the stage, relaxed and funny in a black sweater and tan chinos, and told the graduates how Spider-Man almost didnt come to be.

After the creation of The Fantastic Four, Lees publisher asked him to come up with a new superhero.

The most important thing in a superhero at first is the superpower. Once you get that, everything else comes along, Lee said. So I thought, What power will I give the new guy? And I saw a fly crawling on the wall. And I said, Hey, if can get a superhero that could stick to walls and crawl on them, man, that would be cool. Actually, he interrupted himself, I probably said it would be groovy!

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He chose the name Spider-Man, made the character a teenager at a time when there were no teenage superheroes and then, just for fun, gave him a bunch of personal problems.

Related story: Stan Lee dishes on his many Marvel-ous cameos

His publisher was nonplussed. Stan, that is the worst idea, he told Lee. First of all, people hate spiders. ... Teenagers can only be sidekicks. ... You want him to have personal problems? Stan, dont you know what a superhero is?

Still, Lee stuck Spider-Man into the final issue of the comic Amazing Fantasy, which was about to end its run. It was a huge success, and the rest is history.

If you have an idea that you genuinely think is good, dont let some idiot talk you out of it, Lee told the Extension graduates.

I think you can only do your best work if youre doing what you want to do, Lee said. You can look at it and say, I did that, and I think its pretty damn good. Thats a great feeling.

Continued here:

Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee spins web of inspiration at UCLA Extension graduation - LA Daily News

SES and MDA, a global communications and information company, has announced an agreement for an initial satellite life extension mission using an on-orbit refuelling vehicle being built by SSL, a US based subsidiary of MDA and a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems.

SES will be the first commercial customer to benefit from the satellite refuelling service, and will be able to activate the service whenever required with minimal disruption to spacecraft operation. The agreement also includes an option for further life extension missions.

SES will work with a new venture, Space Infrastructure Services (SIS), which will commercialise sophisticated satellite servicing capabilities. SIS has contracted SSL to design and build the highly-capable satellite servicing spacecraft vehicle to meet the needs of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)'s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) programme, which is designed to inspect, repair, relocate and augment geosynchronous satellites and plans to include a refuelling payload to extend the life of satellites that are low on propellant.

"Satellite in-orbit servicing is of upmost importance to next-generation architectures for communications satellites. It enables satellite operators like us to have more flexibility in managing our fleet and meeting our customers' demands," said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES.

"After witnessing the due diligence of SSL's and MDA's technical expertise, we are confident that its new venture is the best partner in the refuelling mission field, and will be able to help SES get more value out of an on-orbit satellite."

"As a pioneer in next-generation fleet capabilities, SES is clearly committed to improving the space and satellite ecosystem," said Howard L. Lance, President and CEO at MDA. "We are very pleased to have this refuelling contract with SES and are excited to provide them with more options in fleet management."

The satellite servicing spacecraft vehicle is planned for launch in 2021.

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SES and MDA Announce First Satellite Life Extension Agreement - Space Daily

Contractors and suppliers to Oceana Gold in Macraes, East Otago have been buoyed by news the mine could have its life extended to a decade.

Like Rio Tintos aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point, near Bluff, the company employs hundreds of staff but the flow-on effect of contract work accounts for many more pay packets overall.

Oceanas chief executive earlier this week raised the possibility of Macraes mine life being pushed out from beyond 2020 to 10 years, on the back of positive exploration results during the past quarter.

Oceana general manager at Macraes Dale Oram was contacted and confirmed exploration at Macraes was accruing at a rate that in two years could mean a formal five-year mine life.

Oceana has more than 500 employees at Macraes, using a further 60 contractors on site and for shut-down maintenance, and can employ a further up to 150 casual staff.

Skevington Contracting managing director Blair Skevington said the potential for a 10-year mine life was "pretty huge for us", being one of the larger contractors to Oceana.

"Yes, there should be some potential for [company] growth for us," he said.

Skevington is a preferred contractor at Macraes and has been there 14 years, employing up to 13 staff operating the smaller earthmoving equipment such as diggers, bulldozers and lighter trucks.

Amalgamated Workers Union secretary Calvin Fisher said "any life-of-mine extension had to be welcomed".

"There would be a significant economic down side to Dunedin, and wider Otago, if Macraes closed. They have one of the biggest payrolls in the area."

Because of the high pressure on cost controls, it was always "unsettling" for staff when they faced restructuring, such as changes to hours, rostering or salaries.

"We have differences of opinion ... but wed like to think we can do it collaboratively," Mr Fisher said.

Waikouaiti Auto & Engineers Dunedin workshop branch manager Barin Black said the potential extension was "great news for us and the community".

"People dont realise just how many jobs, directly and indirectly, there are," he said.

Between Dunedin and Waikouaiti the company had almost 40 staff, doing most of the engineering work on the Macraes ore-processing equipment.

Mr Black said the length of mine life was "all important", as Oceana was more likely to upgrade equipment sooner if the formal mine life was five years and not three years.

Waikouaiti Auto & Engineers also supplied casual staff for maintenance shutdowns when processing equipment was refurbished.

Mr Oram highlighted Macraes had to "compete" with Oceanas other sites for exploration cash each calendar year.

Exploration spending this year at Macraes is likely to come in at the budgeted $US8 million ($NZ10.9 million).

He was "hopeful" Macraes would attract similar, up to $US8 million, amounts for exploration for both 2018 and 2019.

He said not all areas had been explored as planned this year, but more drilling was proposed at the Round Hill site, where studies had been undertaken into dual tungsten and gold mining.

However, the price of tungsten had since fallen and there were processing issues that were still being studied, he said.

"More than likely it will be a gold site, but its make or break if it goes ahead."

He had appointed a community and environment manager this year, given the interaction with local stakeholders, such as farmers, who saw the greatest impact from mining activities, he said.

"Some locals mentioned the other day they were expecting us to be here for five or seven years, but here we are 27 years on," he said.

simon.hartley@odt.co.nz

More here:

Possible mine-life extension good news for contractors - Otago Daily Times

A U.S. military policeman stands in front of a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor fighter jet at the Siauliai airbase, some 230 km (144 miles) east of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Two US F-22 fighter, which are part of the Operation Atlantic Resolve, a U.S. commitment to NATOs collective security and regional stability, arrived from their base in Britain as a show of force to help Baltic members protect their borders with Russia. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

The United States Air Force will keep the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor in service until 2060, extending the life of the aircraft for another 43 years.

All of this is made possible thanks to a series of forthcoming upgrades that will maintain its already robust structure, known more specifically as its aircraft structural integrity program, or ASIP. To pay for it all, $624.5 million dollars in Research Development Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) money and $398.5 million in procurements for hardware and software upgrades are included in the FY18 budget.

As The National Interest reports, the F-22 was built with an 8,000-hour airframe life, but the jet can be flown safely without modifications for up to 12,000 hours and can even max out at 15,000 hours. Tom McIntyre, a program analyst for F-22 requirements at Air Combat Command, said 10 design missions were built into the structure during the late 80s and early 90s:

Thats what during EMD [engineering, manufacturing, development] we did the full scale testing on against those missions. We came to find out we have not been flying the Raptor nearly as hard as those design missions nor as what we found out during the structural testing, so actually the airframe itselfwithout any service life extension programis good out to approximately 2060.

Corrosion has not been a factor for the F-22 either, unlike the F/A-18 Hornets that the U.S. Navy uses.

In June of 2015, Navy Rear Adm. Michael Manazir said the Hornet fleet required far more maintenance than expected, according to Military.com. Part of the problem, Manazir said, was an assumption the Navy made decades ago that the Hornet, as a composite aircraft, wouldnt need the same level of corrosion-prevention work as older, mostly metal planes, such as the F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder and the A-7 Corsair II.

Metal tends to have problems with saltwater, you see.

As for the Raptor, most of its issues dealt with galvanic corrosion tied to the aircrafts stealth material, though none of it was on any critical airframe structures of the Raptor, McIntyre told The National Interest. To eliminate the corrosion problem, the Air Force is replacing a specific kind of conductive stealth coating.

So we know the Raptor has staying power, but the real challenge is if the upgrades it will undergo stand against China and Russia, both countries that are working to counter the Raptor. So far, the Raptor matches up pretty well against Russias Su-30SM Flanker-H and Su-35S Flanker-E, for example.

Additionally, as The National Interest notes, the F-22 may partner with the sixth-generation Penetrating Counter Air (PCA), similar to how fourth and fifth-generation aircraft are partnered up. It would take the place of the F-15C Eagle.

When the PCA comes online, it will be designed to operate and be interoperable with fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35, McIntyre said.

There will come a time whether it is 2030, 2040 or 2050 when the F-22 will be kind of like a fourth-generation aircraft today.

But dont expect new F-22 Raptors to roll of the assembly line. It is too expensive.

A new study released this month found that it would cost $50 billion to procure 194 F-22s, estimated to cost between $206 million to $216 million per jet. To put this in context, the F-35 cost per aircraft is around $100 million.

But, at least for folks who are fans of F-22 Raptor will have 43 more years to enjoy the aircraft. In the meantime, check out this mock dogfight between one F-22 against five F-15s:

View post:

The F-22 Raptor Will Fly For Another 43 Years - Jalopnik

Mark Tucker found his passion early, spending his entire 30-year career more than half his life working for the Forsyth County Cooperative Extension Service.

Tucker, the countys extension director, retires today, which he describes as bittersweet.

Every time Im working on a project it hits me that I wont be able to see this through and my stomach kind of sinks, Tucker said.

At the same time, Im looking forward to retirement and Im very confident everyone here will continue to do great things.

Working for the countys Cooperative Extension Service was Tuckers first job after graduating from N.C. State University with a Bachelor in Science degree and a masters degree in 1987.

The organization is made up of county agents, professors, scientists and volunteers who work to improve the quality of life in the state at an agricultural and environmental level.

The department is a partnership between county government, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State and the School of Agriculture at N.C. A&T State University.

Tucker said he spent the first half of his career working directly with farmers to increase profitability and sustainability.

Farming is hard work and not the highest-paid profession in the world, he said. Working hand-in-hand with farmers was enjoyable, helping with new techniques and new varieties to make their work easier and more profitable.

In the second half of his career, Tucker became director, which he said was gratifying in that he helped initiate new programs and projects.

Tony Bost, a retired extension agent who worked with Tucker for 20 years, said Tucker is leaving big shoes to fill.

As a person, you wont find a person with higher integrity or moral character, Bost said.

Marks fantastic, a gem of a person, and hes known locally and nationally for his leadership, Bost said.

Bost, the chairman of the Forsyth Soil and Water Conservation Districts board of supervisors, said perhaps Tuckers greatest legacy is helping local farmers transition from the tobacco quota program that was phased out roughly 20 years ago.

Mark helped farmers with the logistics of shifting from quota to contracts and understanding what their options are, Bost said. He has been a tremendous advocate for farmers.

Tuckers passion for farming is rooted in his childhood, which he spent on a 100-acre farm in Rockingham County. His parents grew grains, vegetables and tobacco a major cash crop at the time.

I was not the typical high school student. I lived and breathed farming, he said. I was lucky to be able to continue that with the extension service.

Some of Tuckers proudest career achievements include the establishment of Voluntary Agricultural Districts and the recently completed Farmland Protection Plan, which aims to preserve farmland in the county.

Will Strader, the director of the Rockingham County Cooperate Extension Service,said Tuckers dedication to the service will be missed.

He has been a huge asset to the organization over the years, and his leadership has really set an example for the rest of us, said Strader, who will be Forsyth Countys interim director during the search for Tuckers successor over the next couple months.

Im happy for his retirement, but sad to see him go, Strader said.

In retirement, Tucker plans to spend more time with his wife, Ronda, and three children, Kaitlyn, 26; Morgan, 23 and Luke, 21.

He is living on the same farm he grew up on and would like to devote more of his spare time to farming.

Thirty years is a good bit of time. Ive spent over half my life here doing this, Tucker said of his career. Ive been very fortunate to have a job Ive loved the entire time.

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Forsyth County's top agricultural adviser heads back to the farm after 30- year career - Winston-Salem Journal

SES (Euronext Paris:SESG) (LuxX:SESG) and MDA, a global communications and information company, announced today an agreement for an initial satellite life extension mission using an on-orbit refuelling vehicle being built by SSL, a US based subsidiary of MDA and a leading provider of innovative satellites and spacecraft systems.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170627006627/en/

SES to be first customer on refuelling spacecraft built by SSL- Credit: SSL

SES will be the first commercial customer to benefit from the satellite refuelling service, and will be able to activate the service whenever required with minimal disruption to spacecraft operation. The agreement also includes an option for further life extension missions.

SES will work with a new venture, Space Infrastructure Services (SIS), which will commercialise sophisticated satellite servicing capabilities. SIS has contracted SSL to design and build the highly-capable satellite servicing spacecraft vehicle to meet the needs of the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)s Robotic Servicing of Geosynchronous Satellites (RSGS) programme, which is designed to inspect, repair, relocate and augment geosynchronous satellites and plans to include a refuelling payload to extend the life of satellites that are low on propellant.

"Satellite in-orbit servicing is of upmost importance to next-generation architectures for communications satellites. It enables satellite operators like us to have more flexibility in managing our fleet and meeting our customers demands, said Martin Halliwell, Chief Technology Officer at SES. "After witnessing the due diligence of SSLs and MDAs technical expertise, we are confident that its new venture is the best partner in the refuelling mission field, and will be able to help SES get more value out of an on-orbit satellite.

"As a pioneer in next-generation fleet capabilities, SES is clearly committed to improving the space and satellite ecosystem, said Howard L. Lance, President and CEO at MDA. "We are very pleased to have this refuelling contract with SES and are excited to provide them with more options in fleet management.

The satellite servicing spacecraft vehicle is planned for launch in 2021.

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About SES

SES is the world-leading satellite operator and the first to deliver a differentiated and scalable GEO-MEO offering worldwide, with more than 50 satellites in Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) and 12 in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). SES focuses on value-added, end-to-end solutions in four key market verticals (Video, Enterprise, Mobility and Government). It provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators, governments and institutions, and businesses worldwide. SESs portfolio includes the ASTRA satellite system, which has the largest Direct-to-Home (DTH) television reach in Europe, and O3b Networks, a global managed data communications service provider. Another SES subsidiary, MX1, is a leading media service provider and offers a full suite of innovative digital video and media services. Further information available at: http://www.ses.com

About SSL MDA Holdings

SSL MDA Holdings Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. (MDA) and serves as the operating company for all MDA businesses.

About MDA

MDA is a global communications and information company providing operational solutions to commercial and government organisations worldwide. MDAs business is focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, primarily in the Communications sector and the Surveillance and Intelligence sector. In addition, the Company conducts a significant amount of advanced technology development. MDAs established global customer base is served by more than 4,800 employees operating from 15 locations in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The companys common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:MDA).

About SSL

Space Systems Loral (SSL) is a leading provider of commercial satellites with broad expertise to support satellite operators and innovative space related missions. The company designs and manufactures spacecraft for services such as direct-to-home television, video content distribution, broadband internet, mobile communications, and Earth observation. As a Silicon Valley innovator for 60 years, SSLs advanced product line also includes state-of-the-art small satellites, and sophisticated robotics and automation solutions for remote operations. For more information, visit http://www.sslmda.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170627006627/en/

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SES and MDA Announce First Satellite Life Extension Agreement - Markets Insider

During a recent Skype call with Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, he waved a tattered grey book in front of the camera.

Canavero said the book contained one of the keys to the outlandish procedure he claims to be on track to complete this year: the world's first full-body transplant.

The book was "Frankenstein," Mary Shelley's classic 1818 novel about a distraught scientist who discovers how to give life to inanimate matter.

Canavero sees his planned procedure in a similar light.

"I want to create a near death experience, actually a full death experience, and see what comes next," he told Business Insider.

This will happen, he said, when he successfully severs the spinal cords of two humans a Chinese national and a brain-dead organ donor and attaches the head of the former onto the body of the latter. He calls the procedure HEAVEN, short for head anastomosis venture. ("Head transplant," he said, is a mis-translation of his description of the procedure.)

"My first order of business is to see HEAVEN through. My goal is life extension," Canavero said.

This procedure could be used to cure spinal cord injuries, and although Canavero acknowledged that's a noble aim, he said he views it as a goal scientists should pursue so as not to "waste" his scientific efforts. But ultimately, Canavero believes humans will one day use full-body transplants to live forever by placing aging heads onto healthier bodies.

One day, we might even use clone bodies, he said.

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Canavero says that a series of his own recently published experiments are paving the way for him to move ahead with the first full-body transplant in a person.

In the first of these experiments, he claimed to have severed and then reconnected the spinal cord of a dog. Less than a year later, he published a paper detailing how he created a series of two-headed rodents. In June 2017, Canavero said he severed the spinal cords of a group of mice and then reattached them using a special solution he calls "glue."

Canavero says these experiments are proof that he and his research team have solved what's often considered the holy grail of spinal cord research: fusion.

"We have so much data that confirms this in mice, rats, and soon you will see the dogs," said Canavero. "This is the message. We have a cure for spinal cord paralysis."

Other experts don't buy Canavero's claims, citing a lack of evidence.

"I simply don't think the reports of joining spinal cords together are credible," James FitzGerald, a consulting neurosurgeon at the University of Oxford, told Business Insider.

Robert Brownstone, a professor of neurosurgery and the Brain Research Trust Chair of Neurosurgery at the University College London, agreed.

"Many great scientific ideas are born out of crazy ideas that turned out to be right so we can't completely turn a blind eye to this, but there has to be some mechanistic aspect to it, which I'm not seeing," Brownstone said.

Others, including University of Cambridge neurosurgery professor John Pickard, say the journal in which the studies were published is also a red flag. "I just don't think he's done the science," Pickard said.

The second word in the name for Canavero's procedure, anastomosis, is a combination of the Greek words "ana," meaning to place upon, and "stoma," meaning mouth. Together, the words essentially mean "a connection or opening between two things."

Canavero did not necessarily mean for the words to be taken literally about the head and body instead, he sees the procedure as a way to connect the realms of the living and the dead.

"I'm into life extension. Life extension and breaching the wall between life and death," he said. "My goal is not curing spinal cord injury. It is not curing medical conditions because there are not enough bodies. Even if you cure someone who's in bad shape, what about everyone else? Then you have to think about clones."

James FitzGerald also spends a significant amount of time thinking about how to cheat death, but he believes Canavero is taking the wrong approach. Instead, he says, the best route is technology like brain-computer interfaces that enable people with paralysis to power robotic limbs with their mind.

"This is all stuff we're going to be seeing in the next decade," said FitzGerald. "Full-body transplants, on the other hand, are nowhere in sight."

NOW WATCH: Scientists have developed a 'bionic spinal cord' to help paraplegics walk

See Also:

SEE ALSO: An outlandish surgeon who aims to perform the first head transplant gave a rat a second head

UP NEXT: The world's first head transplant surgery might be part of one giant marketing stunt

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The outlandish surgeon who aims to transplant human heads says his ultimate goal is beating mortality - AOL

WASHINGTON The House Armed Services Committee has taken its first steps toward preserving three A-10 Warthog squadrons that, without funding for new wings, could begin retiring as early as the mid-2020s.

The HASC chairmans mark of the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, released Monday, adds $103 million for an A-10 unfunded requirement. In its FY18 unfunded priorities list, the U.S. Air Force included an equivalent amount of cash, which if appropriated would be used by Boeing to restart its A-10 wing production line and manufacture four wing sets.

As of now, the Air Force plans on retaining its A-10s through at least the next five years. Past then, some parts of the fleet will need modifications to keep flying.

The service currently operates 283 Warthogs, but only 173 of those have had their wings replaced. Unless the remaining 110 A-10s about three squadrons worth are rewinged, those aircraft would come to the end of their service lives, U.S. Air Combat Command head Gen. Mike Holmes told Defense News in an interview earlier this month.

Click here for more budget coverage from Defense News.

HASC members had telegraphed that it would once again supply the funding needed to preserve the aircraft. During a hearing this month, Rep. Martha McSally, an Arizona Republican and former A-10 pilot, pointed out that testimony from Air Force officials committed to retaining only six squadrons. She then demanded to know the planning assumptions that had substantiated the decision to mothball one-third of the inventory.

From my view and my experience, if we need that capability until a proven, tested replacement comes along, nine squadrons is the absolute minimum, she said then.

Holmes has said the first A-10s could wear out their wings as early as five or so years from now, giving the service some time to figure out whether it should extend the lives of those three squadrons or replace them with F-35s or other platforms.

When their current wings expire, we have some flexibility in the depot; we have some old wings that can be repaired or rejuvenated to go on. We can work through that, so theres some flex in there," he said.

She also pointed out that the Pentagon has a defense strategy review underway a hint, perhaps, that the Air Forces budget planning assumptions could change after that analysis concludes, paving the way for an even longer lifespan for the Warthog. However, Wilson also acknowledged that the A-10 is just one of many Air Force platforms in need of revitalization.

With respect to the A-10 and its needs for continued life extension and those things, weve got a lot of equipment that needs either replacement or life extension. The A-10 is just one of them, but its a great airplane, and were committed to it, she said.

Read more here:

House lawmakers authorize $103M for A-10 wings to save 3 squadrons from retiring - DefenseNews.com

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The House Appropriations Committee today released its fiscal 2018 energy and water spending bill. Wikipedia; Ed Uthman/Flickr (Capitol Building)

Department of Energy research and renewable energy programs would see a major funding reduction under the fiscal 2018 House energy-water appropriations bill released today, while the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) would be eliminated entirely.

The $37.5 billion bill, set for subcommittee markup tomorrow morning, would give DOE $209 million less than the fiscal 2017 spending level but $3.65 billion above the administration's request, according to a GOP summary.

Funding priorities in the proposal include nuclear weapons activities and energy and water infrastructure, the summary said.

Nuclear weapons programs would see $13.9 billion under the bill, which House appropriators say equals a nearly $1 billion boost above fiscal 2017 enacted levels.

That amount includes $340 million for construction of South Carolina's Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, a perennial source of tension between Congress and the executive branch.

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Energy programs at DOE would see $9.6 billion next year under the bill, an amount the committee says represents a $1.7 billion cut from fiscal 2017 enacted levels but $2.3 billion more than the administration had sought.

The summary says the legislation prioritizes "early-stage research and development funding for the applied energy programs," intended to help advance "the nation's goal of an 'all-of-the-above' solution to energy independence."

In a statement, House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) noted the tight budget environment in which the measure was written.

"This bill prioritizes fulfilling our national security needs and maintaining critical investments to support American competitiveness within tight budget caps," he said. "It strikes a responsible balance between the modernization and safety of our nuclear weapons, advancing our national infrastructure, and strategic investments in basic science and energy R&D."

ARPA-E, a DOE office that funds innovative energy research and enjoys broad bipartisan support, is slated for elimination under the House bill.

That's likely to face pushback in the Senate, where last week Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said eliminating ARPA-E is "not what we are going to do." The agency currently is funded at about $300 million.

The House spending bill would increase funding for the Office of Science which oversees the national labs and research at the Office of Fossil Energy beyond President Trump's request.

The Office of Science would receive $5.4 billion, the same as in fiscal 2017. Fossil energy research and development would get $636 million.

"This funding supports basic energy research, the development of high-performance computing systems and research in the next generation of energy sources," the committee said.

Fossil research received $668 million in fiscal 2017. The office directs much of DOE's research on carbon capture and sequestration technology.

The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would be funded at $1.1 billion, a cut by half from this year's enacted level of $2.1 billion. The Trump administration had called for a larger cut of EERE, to $636 million.

In a statement, House appropriators said renewable energy programs "have already received significant investments in recent years."

Environmentalists disagree, saying EERE plays a critical role in lowering renewable costs for a low initial investment. The office also oversees efficiency standards for buildings and appliances, which supporters say saves consumers billions of dollars while cutting emissions.

House Republicans seized on President Trump's embrace of the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository that's stalled in Nevada.

The spending bill includes $90 million to advance the project northwest of Las Vegas, which the Obama administration deemed unworkable under the watchful eye of former Senate Democratic Sen. Harry Reid, a fierce opponent.

According to the bill, money would come from the Nuclear Waste Fund. The House measure would also provide $30 million for DOE's work on disposing of defense-related nuclear waste and $30 million for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to continue Yucca permitting activities.

The bill also lays out individual percentages that affected counties in Nevada would receive for hosting Yucca Mountain. Should the funding fail to be distributed, local officials would be cut off from future dispersals.

Furthermore, the spending bill stipulates that any money counties receive cannot be spent on litigation, interim storage or activities inconsistent with the legislation.

The bill does not otherwise include any money or language addressing interim storage of nuclear waste a hot issue for senators eager to see solutions move forward given that Yucca could take years to complete.

House lawmakers are already moving forward with legislation to jump-start the repository, and boosters have applauded Energy Secretary Rick Perry's backing.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) in an op-ed yesterday said Yucca's success is directly tied to removing waste from the Hanford Site in Washington state, where an accident occurred earlier this year.

"We're working towards a durable solution at the Energy and Commerce Committee and rest assured, we will get this waste consolidated and safely stored in its permanent home in Yucca Mountain," he wrote.

The House bill also includes language that would bar any federally appropriated money from being used to forge new contracts or agreements with Russia related to nuclear nonproliferation projects without approval from the Energy secretary.

House lawmakers appeared to buck the Trump administration's push to drain and sell off the nation's strategic oil reserves along the Gulf of Mexico.

The House bill would set aside $252 million for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve's operation and maintenance, a slight increase from the fiscal 2017 omnibus spending bill.

The House language would also allow the secretary of Energy to sell off up to $350 million worth of crude from the reserves in fiscal 2018, money that would then be used to carry out upgrades and life extension at the sites.

House support for the SPR is a sharp pivot from the Trump administration's conclusion the storage facilities are no longer needed and should be drained and sold off (E&E Daily, June 7).

The administration is pushing in its fiscal 2018 budget to sell off half the SPR's nearly 700 million barrels of oil over the next decade to raise more than $16.6 billion to help cut the deficit.

The bill would fund the Army Corps of Engineers at $6.16 billion, more than $1 billion above the Trump administration's budget request and $120 million above the 2017 enacted level.

That funding includes $2.8 billion for navigation projects and studies, $1.34 billion of which would come from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. Another $1.8 billion would go toward flood and storm damage reduction efforts.

The Bureau of Reclamation's Upper Colorado River Basin Fund would receive $67.693 million, while the Lower Colorado River Basin Development Fund would receive about $5.5 million.

The House bill reiterates that the Clean Water Act does not apply to farm ponds and irrigation ditches in agricultural areas. That provision is a repeat of one that was passed in the 2017 omnibus bill this spring (Greenwire, May 1).

The legislation also includes a provision authorizing U.S. EPA and the Army Corps to withdraw the Waters of the U.S. rule "without regard to any provision of statute or regulation that establishes a requirement for such withdrawal" (see related story).

Reporters Ariel Wittenberg and Hannah Northey contributed.

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House bill would slash key DOE programs - E&E News

The United States Air Force is planning to keep the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor in service though 2060.

The United States Air Force is planning to keep the Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor in service though 2060. To that end, the service is funding a series of upgrades that will keep the powerful fifth-generation air superiority relevant for decades to come. Indeed, the Pentagons fiscal year 2018 budget request is a down payment towards that goal.

We plan to retain the F-22 until the 2060 timeframe, meaning a sustained effort is required to counter advancing threats that specifically target its capabilities. The FY18 budget includes 624.5 million dollars in RDT&E and $398.5 million in procurement towards this goal, Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, and Lt. Gen. Jerry Harris, Air Force, deputy chief of staff for plans, programs and requirements, wrote in theirwritten testimony[before the House Armed Services Committee on June 7.

--- This Story Originally Appeared in TheNational Interest---

As Tom McIntyre, a program analyst for F-22 requirements at Air Combat Command, told me earlier today, while the year 2060 came as a surprise to the Raptor community, the airframe will be structurally sound until at least that time.

That came somewhat as a surprise to us, McIntyre said. We were not expecting 2060, but the F-22 program has a very robust structural integrity program known as ASIP (aircraft structural integrity program).

Robust Structure:

The Raptors airframe is incredibly robust due to the Air Forces extreme requirements for the design during the closing years of the Cold War. Though the F-22 was designed with an 8000-hour airframe life, real life-flying experience shows that the jet can be safely flown without modifications out to 12,000 hours at the low-end and as many as 15,000 hours on the high-end.

Way back in the late 80s and early 90s when we designed the F-22, we had about 10 design missions that we built the structure of the aircraft around, McIntyre said.

Thats what during EMD [engineering, manufacturing, development] we did the full scale testing on against those missions. We came to find out we have not been flying the Raptor nearly as hard as those design missions nor as what we found out during the structural testing, so actually the airframe itselfwithout any service life extension programis good out to approximately 2060.

Nor is corrosion a factor as has been the case on the U.S. Navys Boeing F/A-18 Hornets. Most of the issues that the Air Force found on the Raptor were related to galvanic corrosion due to the aircrafts stealth material. But none of the corrosion was on the critical airframe structures of the aircraft, McIntyre noted. In any case, the Air Force is taking actionwhich is to replace a particular conductive stealth coatingto eliminate the corrosion problem on the Raptor.

Those corrective actions are currently being done at the depot at Hill Air Force Base, McIntyre said.

Were also adding modifications to avoid future corrosion and all of those mods should be completed about mid-2020.

Tooling:

Moreover, the Air Force is auditing the Sierra Army Depot to make sure that the F-22 manufacturing tooling is secureand thus far everything is in order. The audit is 85 percent complete and thus far all of the tooling has been found. Earlier, some Air Force officials had expressed concerns that the equipment had been misplacedhowever, those concerns were unfounded as it turns out.

When you store 40,000 tools in a bunch of Connexes, its probably like my garage, I know something is out in it, but it takes me a while sometimes to find it, McIntyre said.

Theyve found no issues with finding any of the tooling.

As for restarting the F-22 production line, that is a non-starter for the Air Force.

The Air Force has no plans to restart the F-22 production line because it wouldnt make economic or operational sense to do so, Maj. Carrie Kessler, a spokeswoman for Air Combat Command told me.

The Raptor in 2060

Given that the F-22 airframe will easily make it to 2060, the question is what can the Air Force do to keep the Raptor tactically relevant into the later part of the 21st Century? The Air Force does not yet have an answer to that question, but it does have a plan to keep the Raptor relevant to the 2030s.

We dont have a crystal ball that goes out to 2060, McIntyre said.

Our organization is working the requirements for the F-22 to keep it operationally relevant for obtaining and maintaining air superiority between now and 2030.

Potential adversaries like Russia and China are designing measures to defeat the Raptor and American air superiority writ large. What might happen is that the F-22 would partner with the sixth-generation Penetrating Counter Air (PCA) in a teaming arrangement similar to todays partnership between fourth and fifth-generation aircraft. The Raptor would take the place of the F-15C Eagle as the lower-tier of a high-low mix with the PCA forming the upper-tier.

When the PCA comes online, it will be designed to operate and be interoperable with fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-22 and F-35, McIntyre said.

There will come a time whether it is 2030, 2040 or 2050 when the F-22 will be kind of like a fourth-generation aircraft today.

Nonetheless, based on the threats the Air Force sees becoming operational in 2019-2020, the service is looking at planning future upgrades for the F-22however those discussions are classified.

Those are classified capabilities, McIntyre said.

Following those, at some point in time, because the Raptor is going to be around a long time, we are looking at something that is tentatively known as mid-life update.

That mid-life upgrade will likely mean new computer hardware and new avionics such as modernized radars and antennas.

Sometime between 2025 and 2030 were going to have to take a serious look at the supportability of some of the systems onboard the Raptor and upgrading those, McIntyre said.

Were currently in the very early stage of looking at that.

The Immediate Future:

The Air Force is investing in keeping the Raptor ready for near term threats too. Increment 3.2Bwhich adds full integration of the Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder and the AIM-120D AMRAAM and a host of other upgradeswill be entering operational testing this summer before it starts to be fielded in fiscal year 2019. There is also a software only modification called Update 6 which will be fielded simultaneously that modernizes the Raptors cryptography, McIntyre said.

A more significant modernization effort after Update 6 is the Raptors TACLink-16 effort that will add Link-16 transmit capability to the F-22 in 2021. The Air Forceafter resisting incorporating the omni-directional Link-16 datalink for yearsis finally adding a transmit function to the Raptor. The reason is that as the service has gained more experience in operating the stealth aircraft, it has learned many operational lessons.

As we are finding out, the F-22 overall from a tactical employment standpoint is not afraid of operating with Link-16 transmit on almost all the time, McIntyre said.

Over time as we have learned more about the aircraft, the smart men and women flying it have developed tactics and found that some of our early concerns with Link-16 transmit were unfounded.

The Air Force had considered much newer and much more capable datalinks for the Raptor such as the F-35s Multi-Function Advanced Datalink (MADL) and the Navys high-speed, high-bandwidth Tactical Targeting Network Technologies (TTNT), but McIntyre said that he is not the expert on that particular aspect of the Raptor program and, thus, is not comfortable discussing that decision. But he did discuss why the Air Force is not relying only on the Talon HATE datalink pod on the F-15C to retransmit information from the Raptor to the rest of the fleet.

That is a capability that is only going to be fielded on a very limited number of F-15 aircraft, McIntyre said.

Unless youre operating with a very limited number of F-15 aircraft you would not be able to share the tactical picture the F-22 is able to gather with its sensors.

But the TACLink-16 program includes more than just the addition of the new data-link capability. The Air Force intends to fill the remaining empty avionics bays onboard the Raptorthe jet has three bays in totalwith an open mission systems (OMS) architecture as the foundation for future F-22 upgrades.

The OMS is an enabler for all future F-22 modernization, McIntyre said.

You can kind of think of itits grossly oversimplifiedlike its an iPhone that you can add applications to.

Immediately following the TACLink project is TACMANor Tactical Mandateswhich features the Pentagons mandatory Mode 5 Identification, Friend or Foe upgrade for both the interrogation and transmission functions. The upgrade also features advanced combat identification and electronic protection features, McIntyre said.

That will follow in 2022, so you see we kinda got an bang, bang right after TACLink-16 with TACMAN, McIntyre said.

Another piece of good news for Raptor pilotswhich is enabled by OMSis that the F-22 will finally receive a helmetmounted cueing systems (HMCS) to exploit the outer edges of the AIM-9X weapons employment zone. Development and integration of the HMCS are scheduled to start next year in 2018. The new system will be fielded in 2021 if all goes as planned. The Air Force has not picked which HMCS it will choose yet, but there should be down selection in the next year or so, McIntyre said.

The key enabler is the OMS, McIntyre said.

With the addition of the HMCS, the Raptor will almost be the aircraft that was originally promised to the Air Force when the Advanced Tactical Fighter program was awarded to Lockheed so many years ago.

--- This Story Originally Appeared in The National Interest---

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for the National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter:@davemajumdar[4].

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Air Force: F-22 Will Fly to 2060 - Scout