Archive for July, 2016
Super-Hard Metal ‘Four Times Tougher Than Titanium’
July 24th, 2016Via: BBC: A super-hard metal has been made in the laboratory by melting together titanium and gold. The alloy is the hardest known metallic substance compatible with living tissues, say US physicists. The material is four times harder than pure titanium and has applications in making longer-lasting medical implants, they say. Conventional knee and hip […]
Germany: Several Dead, Injured After Shots Fired at Munich Shopping Center
July 22nd, 2016Gunman Found Dead Via: CNN: At least nine people were killed and 21 others hurt Friday in a shooting rampage at a busy shopping district in Munich, Germany, police said. Police searched for attackers, thinking there might be three, and found a man who’d killed himself on a side street near Olympia shopping mall, police […]
Inside the Test Flight of Facebook’s First Internet Drone
July 21st, 2016Via: The Verge: In its first flight, Aquila exceeded engineers’ expectations for its energy efficiency. More test flights are planned, aimed at flying Aquila “faster, higher, and longer,” says Jay Parikh, Facebook’s vice president of engineering, in a blog post today. And then Aquila will have its next big test: flying with the “payload,” as […]
$13 Billion Aircraft Carrier Struggles with Air Operations, Can’t Defend Itself, Systems ‘Likely Require Redesigning’
July 21st, 2016Well, the good news is that $13 billion looks like pocket lint compared to the cost of the F-35 catastrophe. Have a nice day. Via: Bloomberg: The U.S. Navy’s newest aircraft carrier isn’t ready for warfare. The $12.9 billion USS Gerald R. Ford — the most expensive warship ever built — may struggle to launch […]
iPhone Case to Monitor Device’s Radios for Surveillance Activity
July 21st, 2016Of course, inexpensive signal blocking pouches can prevent phones from communicating. You have to test them to make sure that they’re actually blocking the signals. See: Black Hole Faraday Bags, for example. This thing below, however, will tell you when something dodgy is happening. (Much better than my warm-to-the-touch-dead-battery indicator.) Via: Wired: A mockup of […]
A Mormon Tycoon Wants to Build Joseph Smith’s Mega-Utopia in Vermont
July 21st, 2016Via: Bloomberg: As the story goes, the plat plan appeared to Smith while he was studying Enoch, an Old Testament prophet who designed a city so perfect it was whisked off to heaven. The text accompanying the blueprint, written out by Smith and his comrades, says each plat should house 15,000 to 20,000 people within […]
Finland: Man Jailed for Defending Himself Against Armed Home Invaders
July 21st, 2016Via: Russia Today: The homeowner has been convicted of “excessive self-defense and attempted manslaughter,” Helsinki news reports. He will serve an unconditional sentence for four years and two months, which he has to spend in prison. The man also has to pay damages to his attackers, with the fine totaling €21,000 (US$23,000). The newspaper does […]
Trump Appears to Put Conditions on Aiding NATO Allies
July 21st, 2016The U.S. has always run protection rackets with its “international partners.” Does Trump coming out and practically saying, We’re going to run protection rackets, make the situation any worse? Here’s the shock and hysteria from the Clinton camp over this: “For decades, the United States has given an ironclad guarantee to our NATO allies: we […]
Tesla: Master Plan, Part Deux
July 20th, 2016Musk’s hopes and dreams may or may not happen, but I enjoyed reading this anyway. While some people out there seem to have full time jobs bashing Tesla, I think of Musk as a hero. There would be virtually no movement toward mass adoption of electric vehicles if it wasn’t for Tesla. Now, the whole […]
Incirlik Air Base: Post-Coup Power Cut Remains at U.S. Site, 2,700 Personnel Confined
July 20th, 2016Via: NBC: A Turkish air base widely believed to house U.S. nuclear weapons continued to rely on backup generators Wednesday, five days after a failed coup plunged the country into crisis. Commercial power was cut to Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey and the airspace above it closed within hours of Friday’s attempted military takeover […]
