www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm

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                                                                    http://voaradiogram.net/

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:02Z MFSK-16 @ 17860000+1500>>

Welcome to program 23 of VOA Radiogram.

Here is the lineup for today's program:

2:20  MFSK16: Program preview (now)

1:46  MFSK32: Chinese text sample*

6:33  MFSK32: VOA News re robot, with image

6:39  MFSK32: VOA News re Kepler Telescope, with image

4:32  MFSK64/Flmsg: RFE/RL News re left-handers in former USSR

1:18  MFSK32: Image accompanying left-hander story

1:11  MFSK16: Closing announcements

1:24  MFSK16: VOA Radiogram logo (500x44)

*Use UTF-8 character set

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

And visit voaradiogram.net

Twitter: @VOARadiogram

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK32...

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:04Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

This is VOA Radiogram in MFSK32.

Next is another sample of VOA Chinese text. If the Chinese

characters appear as blocks in your decoding software, try

copying the blocks to a word processor or another application to

see if the characaters appear. You could also download the East

Asian language files for your operating system.

日本太空情感机器人被运往国际空间站

国之音

04.08.2013

日本成功地发射一枚装载国际空间站物资的火箭，其中包括一个提供给一位日本宇航员的陪伴机器人。

日本宇宙探索机构的官员说，这枚装载有食品、饮水和其他物资的H2B火箭，星期天凌晨从种子岛太空中心升空。

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:05Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

VOA NEWS

Robot With Human-Like Hands Could Tackle Dangerous Situations

George Putic, KI4FNF

August 19, 2013

WASHINGTON — Robo Sally is a remotely controlled humanoid robot

that may one day help law enforcement officials and emergency

technicians defuse bombs, patrol large spaces and do guard duty.

It was designed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University's

Applied Physics Laboratory [APL], outside Washington, D.C.

The robot is a versatile moving platform with a humanoid

attachment that looks like a modern day centaur. It can turn in

tight spaces, climb over small obstacles, closely examine objects

and even manipulate them with human-like hands.

But Robo Sally was not initially designed for sentry duties.

Mike McLoughlin, the principal investigator for APL's Prosthetics

Program, said, "The purpose of that program is to develop

prosthetic arms that have all the capability of your natural

arms, and you do all the complex motions that we can do with the

natural arm - with the robot. We had this idea if we did this for

prosthetics for humans, we could also put these on robotic

platforms and enable the robots to go out into dangerous

situations."

It was a complex task. McLoughlin said the device not only had to

have many small motors to mimic the flexibility of the human

hand, it needed human-like strength. The thumb was especially

difficult because it allows the hand to grasp objects. And

everything had to fit into a space about the size of a hand.

The next problem, McLoughlin said, was to figure out how to

control the artificial hand. "So we had to figure out how to make

the connection between the brain and this arm. We've done that

for spinal injury patients, where we can actually interface with

the brain and use the patient's thoughts to control the arm."

Of course, for search-and-rescue duties, Robo Sally will be

operated by wireless remote control, through special gloves and

glasses. The glasses allow the operator to see the robot's hands

and enables him to finely control their movement.

McLoughlin said robots like this could be used in "dull, dirty or

dangerous" situations where human dexterity is a requirement.

"So, for example, opening a door, or turning the valve or, you

know, going to a factory or a power plant like Fukushima, that

was all designed for humans. You need to be able to go in and

have the human-like capabilities in order to be able to work in

that environment."

McLoughlin said the technology is not ready for practical

application, but he predicts that within five years we will see

some amazing advances.

http://www.voanews.com/content/robot-with-human-like-hands-could-tackle-dangerous-situations/1732901.html

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:10Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

MFSK32 image of Robo Sally follows...

Sending Pic:256x162C;

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:12Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

VOA NEWS

Kepler Telescope's Planet-hunting Days End

Rosanne Skirble

August 16, 2013

NASA is ending its attempts to restore the Kepler Space Telescope

to full working order. The US space agency will now focus on

analyzing the data collected over the past four years as the

spacecraft searched for Earth-like planets around other stars in

our galaxy.

Launched in 2009, Kepler's mission was to find Earth-sized

planets in or near the habitable zone, the region around a

sun-like star where liquid water can exist on the surface of the

planet. The mission's principal investigator said Kepler has been

spectacularly successful.

"At the beginning of the mission, no one knew whether Earth-sized

planets were abundant or rare in our galaxy. Now at the

completion of the Kepler observations, we know that our galaxy is

filled to the brim with planets," William Borucki said. "It's

likely when you look up at the sky at night and see the sky

covered with stars, most of the stars have planets."

Kepler discovered 135 planets and over 3,500 planet candidates

with a wide range of sizes and orbital distances. Most of these

planets are small, like the Earth.

The four-year mission was extended in 2012, but ended last week

after engineers failed to repair two broken reaction wheels

necessary to precisely point the spacecraft. Deputy project

manager Charles Sobeck says the decision was obvious.

"The wheels are sufficiently damaged that they cannot sustain

spacecraft pointing control for any extended period of time,"

said Sobeck. 

With its observational capability compromised, the Kepler team is

looking into whether the space telescope can conduct a different

type of mission, potentially including an exoplanet search, using

the two operational reaction wheels and thrusters. NASA has

called on the science community for ideas.

"They are not proposals. They are not asking for funds," Borucki

said. "They are suggesting ideas and we look at them [and ask],

'Which of these would be practical? Which of these could we do at

a reasonable cost?'"

Kepler's scientific mission is not over. The scientific team is

now focusing on data collected by the spacecraft over the past

four years, which Borucki expects will yield hundreds if not

thousands of new discoveries.

"And so basically in the next few years when we complete this

analysis we will be able to answer the questions that inspired

the Kepler mission: Are Earths common or rare in our galaxy?" he

said.

Borucki sees Kepler's journey is a "critical first step in the

exploration of our galaxy." NASA is scheduled to launch a

follow-up mission to Kepler in 2017. The Transiting Exoplanet

Survey Satellite (TESS) will look for larger, brighter planets

closer to our solar system than Kepler did.

http://www.voanews.com/content/kepler-telescopes-planet-hunting-days-end/1731121.html

MFSK32 image follows: Artist's rendering of the Kepler Space

Telescope in orbit...

Sending Pic:256x144C;

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK64 for a VOA News story in Flmsg

format...

NO RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:19Z MFSK-64 @ 17860000+1500>>

... start

[WRAP:beg][WRAP:lf][WRAP:fn VOAR23_lefties.p2s]<flmsg>1.1.32

:hdr_fm:19

VOA 20132108200517

:hdr_ed:19

VOA 20132108200427

<plaintext>

:tt:51 Remembering When Right Was Right and Left Was Wrong

:to:28 Worldwide shortwave audience

:fm:13 VOA Radiogram

:dt:17 24-25 August 2013

:tm:34 UTC Sat 1600, Sun 0230, 1300, 1930

:sb:51 Remembering When Right Was Right and Left Was Wrong

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<polygon fill="#132FBE" points="126,28 137,68 161,68 139,1 115,1 91,68 115,68"/>

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<h2>Remembering When Right Was Right and Left Was Wrong</h2>

<b>Daisy Sindelar (RFE/RL)

August 13, 2013</b>

Growing up in the southern Kazakh village of Temirlan, Dina got

used to a series of daily corrections.

She'd pick up a fork with her left hand. Someone would move it to

her right. At school, she'd work on a lesson holding a pencil in

her left hand. Her teachers, worried, would urge her to switch to

the "normal" side.

"I was also trying to write with my right hand, but it didn't

work," she says. "I was the only one in my school who was

left-handed. So it was a hard time, because everyone was calling

me a lefty. 'Solaqay' - that's in Kazakh. It literally means a

person who writes with their left hand, but at that time it did

have some negative connotations."

Dina is one of an estimated 900 million people worldwide who are

"sinistral," or predisposed to using their left hand, rather than

their right, for writing and most manual functions.

Natural-born left-handers are believed to make up as much as 13

percent of the human population.

But as the world marks International Left Handers Day on August

13, some say the real number is in fact far higher, and that many

lefties have been forced to switch hands because of unfounded

fears that left-handers were somehow disabled, odd, or simply

unlucky.

<b>Language bias</b>

The stigma was especially widespread in the former Soviet Union,

where pedagogical trends stressed qualities like conformity,

discipline, and uniform penmanship.

"It was simply a lack of knowledge that played a role," says

Gennady Chichkanov, a Moscow-based clinical psychologist.  "It's

simpler when a child writes with his right hand. So it's easier

to put something in his right hand and say, 'Write.' That's how

it was in the Soviet Union."

But some say everything from language to religion has added to

the longstanding cultural preference for right over left.

In many languages, of course, the word for "right" is not only

used to designate a direction but to signify correctness,

truthfulness. By contrast, the word "left" in languages such as

Russian is often used to connote something fake or of poor

quality.

By extension, it is traditionally the right arm that is used in

hand-on-heart pledges, military salutes, and making the sign of

the cross. In Islam, standard etiquette dictates that a person

must enter a house or mosque right foot first, but use their left

foot to enter a lavatory.

With such traditions in mind, it might seem reasonable to

encourage left-handed children to switch to the right.

Science, however, provides its own compelling argument for

leaving left-handers alone. The brain, after all, is divided into

two hemispheres, each with its own distinct function and each

directing the motor functions of the body's opposite side.

In short, the left side of the brain - the hemisphere responsible

for language, math, and rational thought - controls the right

side of the body. The right side of the brain - more commonly

associated with creative, emotional impulses - controls the

body's left side.

<b>Accomplished lefties</b>

Forcing a child to switch the hand he or she writes with can

cause considerable chaos as the brain struggles to establish new

communication paths with the body.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that people also have a

dominant eye and a dominant foot, in addition to a dominant hand.

According to Chichkanov, tampering with the formula can have

devastating consequences on a child's ability to learn.

"If a lefty writes with his right hand, it's bad, because we're

changing the hand but not the leading eye or the leading foot,"

he says. "So a child who has had his hand changed is more prone

to distraction; he absorbs information more poorly. As a result,

he can become more irritable. That kind of process simply doesn't

improve his chances of success at school."

Any lingering doubts about left-handers is easily dispelled by a

look at some of the world's most accomplished people. Famous

lefties include Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Alexander

Pushkin, Paul McCartney, Barack Obama, and Martina Navratilova.

There is even speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin

is a closet leftie. Although the Russian leader writes with his

right hand, he also wears his watch on his right hand --

suggesting it is in fact his dormant side - and he has been seen

making the sign of the cross with his left.

<a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/rferl-remembering-when-right-was-r

ight-and-left-was-wrong/1728874.html">www.voanews.com/content/rferl-remembering-when-right-was-right-and-left-was-wrong/1728874.html</a>

This article originally appeared in the RFE/RL web site:

<a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/left-handers-day-forced-right-handed

ness/25074425.html">www.rferl.org/content/left-handers-day-forced-right-handed

ness/25074425.html</a>

[WRAP:chksum C829][WRAP:end]

... end

Remembering When Right Was Right and Left Was Wrong

TO: Worldwide shortwave audience

FROM: VOA Radiogram

SUBJ: Remembering When Right Was Right and Left Was Wrong

DATE: 24-25 August 2013

TIME: UTC Sat 1600, Sun 0230, 1300, 1930

MESSAGE:

Remembering When Right Was Right and Left Was Wrong Daisy Sindelar (RFE/RL) August 13, 2013 Growing up in the southern Kazakh village of Temirlan, Dina got used to a series of daily corrections. She'd pick up a fork with her left hand. Someone would move it to her right. At school, she'd work on a lesson holding a pencil in her left hand. Her teachers, worried, would urge her to switch to the "normal" side. "I was also trying to write with my right hand, but it didn't work," she says. "I was the only one in my school who was left-handed. So it was a hard time, because everyone was calling me a lefty. 'Solaqay' - that's in Kazakh. It literally means a person who writes with their left hand, but at that time it did have some negative connotations." Dina is one of an estimated 900 million people worldwide who are "sinistral," or predisposed to using their left hand, rather than their right, for writing and most manual functions. Natural-born left-handers are believed to make up as much as 13 percent of the human population. But as the world marks International Left Handers Day on August 13, some say the real number is in fact far higher, and that many lefties have been forced to switch hands because of unfounded fears that left-handers were somehow disabled, odd, or simply unlucky. Language bias The stigma was especially widespread in the former Soviet Union, where pedagogical trends stressed qualities like conformity, discipline, and uniform penmanship. "It was simply a lack of knowledge that played a role," says Gennady Chichkanov, a Moscow-based clinical psychologist. "It's simpler when a child writes with his right hand. So it's easier to put something in his right hand and say, 'Write.' That's how it was in the Soviet Union." But some say everything from language to religion has added to the longstanding cultural preference for right over left. In many languages, of course, the word for "right" is not only used to designate a direction but to signify correctness, truthfulness. By contrast, the word "left" in languages such as Russian is often used to connote something fake or of poor quality. By extension, it is traditionally the right arm that is used in hand-on-heart pledges, military salutes, and making the sign of the cross. In Islam, standard etiquette dictates that a person must enter a house or mosque right foot first, but use their left foot to enter a lavatory. With such traditions in mind, it might seem reasonable to encourage left-handed children to switch to the right. Science, however, provides its own compelling argument for leaving left-handers alone. The brain, after all, is divided into two hemispheres, each with its own distinct function and each directing the motor functions of the body's opposite side. In short, the left side of the brain - the hemisphere responsible for language, math, and rational thought - controls the right side of the body. The right side of the brain - more commonly associated with creative, emotional impulses - controls the body's left side. Accomplished lefties Forcing a child to switch the hand he or she writes with can cause considerable chaos as the brain struggles to establish new communication paths with the body. Adding to the confusion is the fact that people also have a dominant eye and a dominant foot, in addition to a dominant hand. According to Chichkanov, tampering with the formula can have devastating consequences on a child's ability to learn. "If a lefty writes with his right hand, it's bad, because we're changing the hand but not the leading eye or the leading foot," he says. "So a child who has had his hand changed is more prone to distraction; he absorbs information more poorly. As a result, he can become more irritable. That kind of process simply doesn't improve his chances of success at school." Any lingering doubts about left-handers is easily dispelled by a look at some of the world's most accomplished people. Famous lefties include Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Alexander Pushkin, Paul McCartney, Barack Obama, and Martina Navratilova. There is even speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a closet leftie. Although the Russian leader writes with his right hand, he also wears his watch on his right hand -- suggesting it is in fact his dormant side - and he has been seen making the sign of the cross with his left. www.voanews.com/content/rferl-remembering-when-right-was-r ight-and-left-was-wrong/1728874.html This article originally appeared in the RFE/RL web site: www.rferl.org/content/left-handers-day-forced-right-handed ness/25074425.html

VOA Radiogram now changes to MFSK32 for an image from RFE/RL

accompanying the previous story.

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:24Z MFSK-32 @ 17860000+1500>>

Sending Pic:320x180;

RSID: <<2013-08-24T16:27Z MFSK-16 @ 17860000+1500>>

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

And visit voaradiogram.net.

Twitter: @VOARadiogram

Thanks to colleagues at the Edward R. Murrow shortwave

transmitting station in North Carolina.

I'm Kim Elliott. Please join us for the next VOA Radiogram.

This is VOA, the Voice of America.

Sending Pic:500x44C;

www.rhci-online.net/radiogram/radiogram.htm