VoA radiogram #106

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RSID: <<2015-04-12T03:29Z OLIVIA 32-2K @ 9955000-1500>> [Audio O=1-2, SAM-LSB]

Aluminum composite panels provide color to this school in Ede,
the Netherlands, home of The Mighty KBC ...

Sending Pic:169x107C;

Welcome to program 106 of VOA Radiogram from the Voice of
America.

I'm Kim Andrew Elliott in Washington.

Here is the lineup for today's program, all in MFSK32 except
where noted ...

1:40 Program preview (now)
2:57 Anti-venom against sub-Saharan snakes*
8:47 New aluminum-ion battery*
13:58 Chinese TV broadcaster punished for comment*
18:47 Balloons send "The Interview" DVDs into North Korea*
21:56 Islamic State hacks TV5Monde TV*
25:35 Closing announcements*
28:18 Olivia 32-1000: Bonus mode of the week

* with image

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

And visit voaradiogram.net.

Twitter: @VOARadiogram

VOA NEWS

Scientists Work to Develop Anti-Venom Against All Sub-Saharan
Snakes

George Putic, KI4FNF
April 06, 2015

Thousands of people in sub-Saharan Africa die or are disabled
each year due to poisonous snake bites. Scientists in Britain
are working to develop a serum that will counteract the venom
from all sub-Saharan poisonous snake bites.

The Puff adder is only one of many venomous snakes native to
sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Robert Harrison, of the Liverpool School of Tropical
Medicine, says every year, puff adders and the other snakes kill
about 32,000 people.

"It's not only that; other people who survive the bite - about
100,000 of them - are living with severe disabled limbs or legs,
just really very disabling conditions," he said.

The current method of producing anti-venom - starting with the
venom itself - is time-consuming and costly, and the serum must
be refrigerated. Victims have to be treated multiple times and
there are possible side-effects. With the price of about $140
per single dose, the full treatment may cost more than $500,
which makes it unaffordable for most rural Africans.

In addition, because of the way they're produced, current serums
counteract poison from only one species, or a few related ones,
so doctors must determine what snake bit the victim.

The anti-venom developed by scientists at the Liverpool School of
Tropical Medicine specifically for Nigeria, proved to be cheap,
safe and effective.

Harrison says his team is using it as a basis for developing
universal anti-venom applicable to all venomous snakes in
sub-Saharan Africa.

"We're going to do that by identifying the proteins that are
unique to all the other species," he said. "And taking these
unique proteins. i.e. different from the Source Scale Viper, the
Puff Adder or the Spitting Cobra, and add that to the venoms of
the original three."

For this purpose the lab is regularly extracting venom from 450
snakes belonging to 21 of the most deadly species of sub-Saharan
African snakes.

Scientists say the universal anti-venom will be more affordable
than current serums and will be effective much longer.

Target date for the ultimate test - after a year of storage at
room temperature - is set for July 2018.

http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-work-to-develop-anti-venom-against-all-sub-saharan-snakes/2708922.html

Image: Screen capture from the video vision of this VOA News
story ...

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This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

New Device Batteries Last Longer, Charge Faster

Reuters via voanews.com
April 07, 2015

U.S. scientists said they have invented a cheap, long-lasting and
flexible battery made of aluminum for use in smartphones that can
be charged in as little as one minute.

The researchers, who detailed their discovery in the journal
Nature, said the new aluminum-ion battery has the potential to
replace lithium-ion batteries, used in millions of laptops and
mobile phones.

Besides recharging much faster, the new aluminum battery is safer
than existing lithium-ion batteries, which occasionally burst
into flames, they added.

Researchers have long tried but failed to develop a battery made
of aluminum, a lightweight and relatively inexpensive metal that
has high charging capacity.

Breakthrough discovery

A team led by chemistry professor Hongjie Dai at Stanford
University in California made a breakthrough by accidentally
discovering that graphite made a good partner to aluminum,
Stanford said in a statement.

In a prototype, aluminum was used to make the negatively-charged
anode while graphite provided material for the positively charged
cathode.

A prototype aluminum battery recharged in one minute, the
scientists said.

"Lithium-ion batteries can be a fire hazard," said Dai. "Our new
battery won't catch fire, even if you drill through it."

The new battery also is very durable and flexible, the scientists
said.

While lithium-ion batteries last about 1,000 cycles, the new
aluminum battery was able to continue after more than 7,500
cycles without loss of capacity. It also can be bent or folded.

Larger aluminum batteries also could be used to store renewable
energy on the electrical grid, Dai said.

http://www.voanews.com/content/reu-new-smartphone-aluminum-batteries-last-longer-charge-quickly/2709839.html

This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

China Broadcaster to Punish Anchor Who Insulted Mao

VOA News
April 09, 2015

A Chinese state television broadcaster says it will punish one of
its top anchors who was captured on video ridiculing Mao Zedong,
the founder of modern China.

In the video taken at a private dinner, China Central Television
host Bi Fujian can be seen parodying a Cultural Revolution-era
opera, Taking Tiger Mountain, before using an epithet to describe
Mao.

The video spread quickly on Chinese social media, prompting CCTV
to suspend Bi, according to some Chinese media reports.

In a statement late Wednesday, CCTV said Bi Fujian's remarks
"have had a serious social impact" and vowed to "seriously handle
the matter in line with related regulations and based on careful
investigation."

The 56-year-old Bi is known for hosting a talent show and the
CCTV Spring Festival Gala, according to the state-run Global
Times newspaper.

His comments reflect a division within Chinese society about the
legacy of Mao, who served as the chairman of China's Communist
Party since its establishment in 1949.

Mao, who died in 1976, oversaw the Great Leap Forward. During
that period, China was transformed from an agricultural to an
industrial economy, but millions died of starvation.

In the years following his death, the party has acknowledged Mao
made mistakes. Its official line is that Mao's policies were 70
percent correct and 30 percent wrong.

http://www.voanews.com/content/china-broadcaster-to-punish-anchor-who-insulted-mao/2712351.html

This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

Activists Send 'The Interview' DVDs Into North Korea

VOA News
April 08, 2015

A South Korean activist says he has launched balloons carrying
thousands of copies of the Hollywood film The Interview into
North Korea.

The film, which depicts a fictional CIA plot to kill North Korean
leader Kim Jong Un, was included in the balloons along with
anti-Pyongyang leaflets.

Lee Min-bok, a North Korean defector-turned activist, says he
sent the balloons in four separate launches. The most recent
occurred Saturday.

The North strongly opposes such launches. Last October it shot at
some of the balloons, triggering a brief exchange of fire with
Seoul forces.

The South Korean government has urged activists to refrain from
sending the balloons, but says the launches are an act of free
speech.

Some South Koreans living near the border have complained the
activists are putting local residents' lives at risk by making
them potential targets.

North Korea is particularly upset at any attempts to include The
Interview in the balloons, having declared the movie an "act of
terror."

U.S. officials have said North Korea is responsible for a massive
cyberattack against Sony Pictures, which produced the comedy
film.

http://www.voanews.com/content/activists-send-the-interview-dvds-into-north-korea/2710974.html

This is VOA Radiogram from the Voice of America.

Please send reception reports to radiogram@voanews.com.

Islamic State Hacks French TV5

VOA News
April 09, 2015

A French television channel says it was hacked Wednesday by
operators claiming to be part of the Islamic State terrorist
group.

The director of French-language TV5 Monde, Yves Bigot, said TV5
lost control of its TV station, website, and social media
accounts. Television programming was back on the air within a few
hours, but the website's operations were still on hold early
Thursday morning.

The hackers posted images of masked men on the TV5 Facebook page,
warning French soldiers not to join military operations against
the Islamic State. They posted ID cards that they said belonged
to French soldiers involved in anti-IS operations.

The hackers also accused French President Francois Hollande of
committing "an unforgivable mistake" and participating in "a war
that serves no purpose."

TV5 Monde is owned by a group of French-language broadcasters in
Europe and Canada. The French government is supportive of the
United States' military campaign against the Islamic State.

http://www.voanews.com/content/french-tv5-says-hacked-by-islamic-state/2712352.html

Image: Message at TV5Monde.com the morning of 9 April 2015 ...

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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.

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DRM-images - received via EASYPAL/DSSTV on 14233 kHz/USB (FRG-100 / Dipol for ~12 MHz)

Here are some pics of EA3HAR (FRANCESC / "Sisku", 08304 Mataro [capital del Maresme] Cataluña/Spain JN11FN) received in the last days:

QTH:	D-06193 Petersberg (Germany/Germania)
Ant.:	Dipol for 40m-Band & Boomerang Antenna 11m-Band
RX for RF:	FRG-100B + IF-mixer & ICOM IC-R75 + IF-mixer
Software IF:	con STUDIO1 - Software italiano per SDR [S-AM-USB/LSB]
Software AF:	Fldigi-3.22.07 + flmsg-2.0.8
OS:	German XP-SP3 with support for asian languages	German W7 32bit + 64bit
PC:	MEDION Titanium 8008 (since 2003) [ P4 - 2,6 GHz]	MSI-CR70-2MP345W7 (since2014) [i5 -P3560 ( 2 x 2,6GHz) ]

	Internet