Archive for December, 2014
UK to Establish £15m Permanent Mid East Military Base
December 6th, 2014Via: BBC: Britain is to establish its first permanent military base in the Middle East since it formally withdrew from the region in 1971. The base, at the Mina Salman Port in Bahrain, will host ships including destroyers and aircraft carriers. The UK said it was an “expansion of the Royal Navy’s footprint” and would […]
Camp Pendleton Marines To Conduct Training In Downtown Los Angeles
December 6th, 2014Via: CBS: Residents in and around downtown Los Angeles could hear helicopters or other military aircraft over the coming days as Marines and sailors from Camp Pendleton train in preparation for a deployment. The training is part of a two-week military exercise that starts Friday and extends through Dec. 16 and involves about 2,400 members […]
Enphase Says Solar + Solar Market “Infinite,” Ahead of Australia Battery Pilot
December 5th, 2014Disclosure: I sell solar power systems in NZ. Via: RenewEconomy: When the world’s biggest supplier of solar inverters (sometimes described as the “brains” of solar PV systems) sets up camp in Australia, it’s probably a development worth noting. California-based “solar-tech” company Enphase opened offices in Sydney and Melbourne around 18 months ago, and since then, […]
Sears to Accelerate Closings, Shutter 235 Stores
December 5th, 2014Via: CNBC: Sears shares fell Thursday, after the struggling department store announced an adjusted net loss of $296 million—in line with the updated guidance it gave in November. The retailer also said it’s accelerating the number of stores it plans to close this year, boosting its list from the 130 underperforming stores it announced in […]
Chinese Economy Now Largest in the World
December 4th, 2014Via: Marketwatch: The Chinese economy just overtook the United States economy to become the largest in the world. For the first time since Ulysses S. Grant was president, America is not the leading economic power on the planet. It just happened — and almost nobody noticed. The International Monetary Fund recently released the latest numbers […]
The Smart Mouse with the Half-Human Brain
December 4th, 2014Via: New Scientist: Mice have been created whose brains are half human. As a result, the animals are smarter than their siblings. The idea is not to mimic fiction, but to advance our understanding of human brain diseases by studying them in whole mouse brains rather than in dishes. The altered mice still have mouse […]
Discarded Laptop Batteries Keep the Lights On
December 4th, 2014Via: MIT Technology Review: Many of the estimated 50 million lithium-ion laptop batteries discarded every year could provide electricity storage sufficient to light homes in poor countries, researchers at IBM say. In work being aired this week at a conference in San Jose, researchers at IBM Research India in Bangalore found that at least 70 […]
Mexico Federal Police, Troops to Patrol Acapulco
December 3rd, 2014Via: AP: Federal police and soldiers will take over policing duties in the resort of Acapulco to ensure the safety of tourists amid a wave of violence and protests that has scared away visitors, Mexican authorities said Wednesday. Troops and federal police will also take over policing in 20 more townships north of Acapulco in […]
Mystery Surrounds NASA’s Secret Mission in Africa
December 3rd, 2014Via: ABC: A NASA official recently confirmed that one of the agency’s aircraft had been spotted on an American military airstrip in eastern Africa a few weeks ago, but like a series of U.S. military officials, declined to say what the space agency’s high-tech bird was doing there. “I really can’t give you any of […]
Iraqi Army ‘Had 50,000 Ghost Troops’ on Payroll
December 3rd, 2014Via: BBC: An investigation into corruption in the Iraqi army has revealed that there were 50,000 false names on its payroll. Known in the military as “ghost soldiers”, they either did not exist or no longer reported for duty, however their salaries were still paid. A statement from the PM’s office said the payments have […]
