Wed, Jul 13, 2016

Senate Approves FAA Reauthorization Bill

Now Goes To President Obama For Signature, Funds Agency For Just Over A Year

U.S. Senate has given final approval to the “FAA Extension, Safety and Security Act of 2016.” The legislation extends the FAA’s funding and aviation taxes at current levels through September 30, 2017. The legislation includes provisions addressing the challenges of integrating unmanned aerial vehicles into the national airspace, bolstering airport security, and streamlining the third-class medical process for general aviation pilots.

The Senate passed the legislation two days after the House passed an identical bill.

The third class medical reform included in the bill will save general aviation pilots time, money, and frustration while giving them tools they need to take charge of their health and fitness to fly. For most pilots who have held a valid FAA medical certificate within 10 years from the date the legislation is signed into law, the reforms mean they will never again need to see an FAA aviation medical examiner (AME). Most other pilots who have never held an FAA medical certificate will need to go through the medical certification process only once. Even pilots who have a medical condition that requires a special issuance medical certificate will only have to go through the process once in most cases.

“We are grateful to Sens. Jim Inhofe (R-OK), and Joe Manchin (D-WV), two general aviation pilots who led the third class medical reform effort in the Senate, along with all of their colleagues who have helped make medical reform a reality,” said AOPA president and CEO Mark Baker (pictured). “In addition, we appreciate the hard work of Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Ranking Member Bill Nelson (D-FL) for their tireless work in advancing an FAA reauthorization bill through the Senate and including third class medical reform in the FAA extension.” 

“NATA thanks Congress for taking swift action on the bipartisan agreement reached last week by the House Transportation and Senate Commerce Committees,” stated William R. Deere, the association’s Senior Vice President for Government and External Affairs. “Lawmakers have long-considered aviation a non-partisan matter and the legislation now before the President for signature represents the hard work of congressional members and staffs from both sides of the Capitol and political aisles. However, some key aviation issues remain unresolved so we will continue to work with Congress toward enactment of more comprehensive, long-term legislation that includes improving the agency’s regulatory consistency and other provisions that will assist the agency and aviation businesses to operate more efficiently.”

READ MORE: Aero News

Sat, Jul 09, 2016

WingX Pro7 Releases Version 8.6.5

Several New Features Included In Latest Update

WingX Pro7 Version 8.6.5 is now available on the Apple App Store. The company says it has added some new capabilities including TFR Events (aka Stadium TFRs) - we even tell you who is playing, the new FAA Airman Certification Standards (ACS) which replaces the older FAA Practical Test Standards (PTS), and WingX Pro7 can now update Stratux firmware wirelessly with just a couple of taps.

With all the sporting events that are held throughout the US, it can sometimes be tricky to come up with a flight plan or route that will not interfere with these events and find yourself flying in a TFR. WingX Pro7 displays red rings on the moving map to indicate a Stadium TFR. Tapping on the TFR provides detailed TFR information - it even shows who is playing in the NFL or MLB game.

WingX Pro7 has had airport geo-referencing for many years (without upgrading to a 'Pro' subscription), but sometimes you need more than that. Let's say you want to go to a specific FBO at the airport. Now with WingX Pro7 you can select a specific business on the airport and WingX Pro7 will drop a pin on the business's exact location right on the Airport Diagram. Tap on the pin and WingX Pro7 displays the business phone number, website, physical address, hours of operation, facilities, amenities, and even rental car information. And on your iPhone, tap on the phone number and WingX Pro7 will automatically call the business.

Read More: AeroNews

Muhammad Ali - Was and IS THE GREATEST!

Rest in Peace! You are one of a kind.

Fasting Boosts the Immune System and Creates New Stem Cells

by Tony Isaacs

(The Best Years in Life) Fasting has long been popular for the things it helps us eliminate, mainly weight and toxins. Now, exciting new research has found that what fasting adds may be even more important because it induces the body to create new stem cells and regenerate our vital immune system that is our first line of defense against disease and illness.

In what promises to be one of the most important medical discoveries of our time, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles have found that fasting (food deprivation) for 2 - 4 days in both humans and mice resulted in the creation of new stem cells and a renewed immune system. The implications for this discovery are huge: increased longevity and overall health as well as use against specific conditions such as cancer and other diseases – and might even help brain cell regeneration to help combat dementia and brain trauma.

Details of the Study

In the study published in the June 5th edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers cut off the food source for both mice and humans in separate trials. When they cut off the food source, white blood cell counts dropped. White blood cells are the cells the body uses to fight disease and infection. However, instead of the body being less able to fight infection due to lower white blood cells, just the opposite happened: the fasting cycle naturally "flipped a regenerative switch" on.

With each fast the depletion of white blood cells resulted in new cells in the immune system. When researchers found reduced levels of the enzyme PKA (Protein kinase A), which regulates glycogen, sugar, and lipid metabolism in the cells, they realized that there was a switch being turned on. This switch enabled the creation of new cells and also lowered the levels of IGF-1, a hormone that has been linked to aging, tumor growth, and cancer risk.

As corresponding study author Valter Longo explained, "PKA is the key gene that needs to shut down in order for these stem cells to switch into regenerative mode," Longo said. "It gives the 'OK' for stem cells to go ahead and begin proliferating and rebuild the entire system. And the good news is that the body got rid of the parts of the system that might be damaged or old, the inefficient parts, during the fasting. Now, if you start with a system heavily damaged by chemotherapy or aging, fasting cycles can generate, literally, a new immune system."

"When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged. What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?"

“We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system,” said Longo.

Source: http://www.tbyil.com/Fasting_Boosts_the_Immune_System_and_Creates_New_Stem_Cells_Tony_Isaacs.htm

Ransomware 'Petya' Encripts Your Hard Drive!

If malware that holds the files on your computer to ransom isn’t bad enough, news that there’s a new variant in the wild that locks down the whole of your computer by taking over the boot process just made the situation a whole lot worse.

Called ‘Petya’, the new threat bypasses looking for the most important files to encrypt, and just goes ahead and locks up the entire drive instead, according to G Data Software.

Find out how to avoid being a victim of this attack; It's as easy as 123.

READ MORE: TheNextWeb

Historic Discovery of Einstein's Gravity Waves

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced the detection of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), a pair of ground-based observatories in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana.

Albert Einstein predicted the existence of gravitational waves in his general theory of relativity a century ago, and scientists have been attempting to detect them for 50 years. Einstein pictured these waves as ripples in the fabric of space-time produced by massive, accelerating bodies, such as black holes orbiting each other. Scientists are interested in observing and characterizing these waves to learn more about the sources producing them and about gravity itself. 
An artist's impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. 
An artist's impression of gravitational waves generated by binary neutron stars. 
Credits: R. Hurt/Caltech-JPL

The LIGO detections represent a much-awaited first step toward opening a whole new branch of astrophysics. Nearly everything we know about the universe comes from detecting and analyzing light in all its forms across the electromagnetic spectrum – radio, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, X-rays and gamma rays. The study of gravitational waves opens a new window on the universe, one that scientists expect will provide key information that will complement what we can learn through electromagnetic radiation.

Just as in other areas of astronomy, astronomers need both ground-based and space-based observatories to take full advantage of this new window. LIGO is sensitive to gravitational waves within the range of 10 to 1,000 cycles per second (10 to 1,000 Hz). A space-based system would be able to detect waves at much lower frequencies, from 0.0001 to 0.1 Hz, and detect different types of sources. NASA is working closely with the European Space Agency (ESA) to develop a concept for a space-based gravitational wave observatory.

ESA is currently leading the LISA Pathfinder mission, launched last December and now in its commissioning phase, to demonstrate technologies that could be used for a future space-based gravitational wave observatory. NASA contributed its ST-7 Disturbance Reduction System to the payload as part of that demonstration.

NASA missions are searching the sky for fleeting X-ray and gamma-ray signals from LIGO events. Detecting the light emitted by a gravitational wave source would enable a much deeper understanding of the event than through either technique alone.

For more information, please visit:

https://www.ligo.caltech.edu/news/ligo20160211

http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=137628