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 Chief Hubertus Andrae said.
Based on surveillance video and witness statements, police concluded he was the sole gunman, Andrae said. The unidentified attacker was an 18-year-old German-Iranian who had lived in Munich for more than two years. The man was not known to police and his motives are unclear, authorities said. No group has claimed responsibility. Many children were among the casualties. Police said 16 people remain hospitalized.
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AFP: Three Suspected Gunmen in German Shooting
#BREAKING Three suspected gunmen in German shooting: police
— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 22, 2016
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Update: GSG9 Has Responded
On this Daily Mail article, I’m pretty sure the guys in the dark green are GSG9.
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Via: NBC:
Several people were dead or injured after shots rang out at a shopping center Friday evening in Munich, Germany, police said. Multiple gunmen were believed to be on the loose.
“At the moment we don’t know where the perpetrators are. Take care and avoid public places,” Munich police tweeted.
Munich police confirmed to NBC News that there were casualties, but didn’t give an exact number.
According to a police spokesperson, the shooting started at a McDonald’s attached to the mall before the shooters made their way into the mall.
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 Facebook calls the laser communication system that a team is building in Woodland Hills, CA. In July 2015, the team announced that its lasers could deliver data at tens of gigabytes per second, about 10 times faster than the previous standard. And the lasers are quite precise, able to target an area the size of a dime from 10 miles away. (The lasers connect with base stations on the ground to supply internet access.) Facebook says the system has performed well in independent tests.
When will a fleet of Aquila drones bring data to the world? Facebook won’t say. There are several technical challenges remaining in getting Aquila to reliably fly 90-day stretches. The team hasn’t yet implemented solar panels on the prototype — the test flight plane ran using batteries only. The team is still working out how to build batteries with a density high enough to sustain lengthy missions. Then there’s the cost — Facebook says Aquila needs to be much cheaper if the world is going to deploy a fleet of them. “We need to develop more efficient on-board power and communication systems; ensure the aircraft are resilient to structural damage to reduce maintenance costs and able to stay aloft for long periods of time to keep fleet numbers low; and minimize the amount of human supervision associated with their operation,” Cox wrote in a blog post today.
Aquila is also likely to face regulatory obstacles, which could rival the laws of physics in terms of the challenges they present.
$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 and recover aircraft, mount a defense and move munitions, according to the Pentagon’s top weapons tester. On-board systems for those tasks have poor or unknown reliability issues, according to a June 28 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
“These four systems affect major areas of flight operations,” Michael Gilmore, the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation, wrote Pentagon and Navy weapons buyers Frank Kendall and Sean Stackley. “Unless these issues are resolved, which would likely require redesigning” of the aircraft launch and recovery systems “they will significantly limit the CVN-78’s ability to conduct combat operations,” Gilmore wrote, using a technical name for the carrier.
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 Edward Snowden and Bunnie Huang’s iPhone modification, showing the SIM card slot through which their hardware add-on would access the phone’s antennae to monitor them for errant signals. Andrew Huang & Edward Snowden
When Edward Snowden met with reporters in a Hong Kong hotel room to spill the NSA’s secrets, he famously asked them put their phones in the fridge to block any radio signals that might be used to silently activate the devices’ microphones or cameras. So it’s fitting that three years later, he’s returned to that smartphone radio surveillance problem. Now Snowden’s attempting to build a solution that’s far more compact than a hotel mini-bar.
On Thursday at the MIT Media Lab, Snowden and well-known hardware hacker Andrew “Bunnie” Huang plan to present designs for a case-like device that wires into your iPhone’s guts to monitor the electrical signals sent to its internal antennas. The aim of that add-on, Huang and Snowden say, is to offer a constant check on whether your phone’s radios are transmitting. They say it’s an infinitely more trustworthy method of knowing your phone’s radios are off than “airplane mode,” which people have shown can be hacked and spoofed. Snowden and Huang are hoping to offer strong privacy guarantees to smartphone owners who need to shield their phones from government-funded adversaries with advanced hacking and surveillance capabilities—particularly reporters trying to carry their devices into hostile foreign countries without constantly revealing their locations.
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 one square mile (though the definition of a mile has changed slightly), and that the design should be replicated worldwide. Written in the style of 15th century English, it reads: “When this square is thus laid off and supplied, lay off another in the same way, and so fill up the world in these last days, and let every man live in the city, for this is the city of Zion.”
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 not provide information on the severity of injuries sustained by the home-invaders, however, it is known that they survived the event.
The attackers were also convicted for felony home invasion and assault, yet their punishments are much less harsh.
All three received one-year-and-two-month conditional sentences, which is similar to probation or house arrest in Finland, depending on the case. The offender serves the sentence outside of jail, but has to follow strict jail-like rules.
The trio was also ordered to pay the homeowner damages, but their combined fine was ruled to be €3,000 (US$3,300).
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 will come to their defense if they are attacked, just as they came to our defense after 9/11. Donald Trump was asked if he would honor that guarantee. He said … maybe, maybe not.”
The statement added: “Ronald Reagan would be ashamed. Harry Truman would be ashamed. Republicans, Democrats and Independents who helped build NATO into the most successful military alliance in history would all come to the same conclusion: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our Commander in Chief.”
Evoking the ghost of Ronnie Ray-Gun to get people to vote for Hillary? Priceless.
Via: USA Today:
Donald Trump appeared in an interview to set conditions on coming to the aid of NATO allies while touting a foreign policy approach that would see the United States “fix our own mess” before intervening to help solve problems in other countries.
Trump said that if Russia were to attack the Baltic States — new NATO members whose friendly relations with the West Moscow views as a threat — he would decide on coming to their aid only after assessing how those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us.” He characterized these obligations in mostly economic terms.
He spoke to the New York Times ahead of his acceptance of the Republican nomination for president on Thursday. He told the publication how he would make international partners contribute more to defense costs, pull out of treaties such as the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada if they don’t meet U.S. interests and redraw the terms of long-held global cooperation.
He said he would “prefer to be able to continue” with existing agreements but on specific terms: “We are going to take care of this country first before we worry about everyone else in the world.”
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 industry is changing.
Via: Tesla:
So, in short, Master Plan, Part Deux is:
Create stunning solar roofs with seamlessly integrated battery storage
Expand the electric vehicle product line to address all major segments
Develop a self-driving capability that is 10X safer than manual via massive fleet learning
Enable your car to make money for you when you aren’t using it
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 in the NATO country. Turkish commanders at the site were later arrested and led away after they were accused of allowing at least one tanker aircraft to refuel jets involved in the thwarted mutiny.
As the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deepens its purge of military and civilian officials accused of being involved in the putsch, there were few indications when exactly electricity to Incirlik would be turned back on.
Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday that he was confident that power would be restored, and it could happen within a day or so.
No one is locked anywhere on the base, which has about 2,700 Defense Department civilians and military personnel, officials said. But people were not permitted to leave Wednesday for security reasons.
Amazon Wants Drone Docking Stations
July 19th, 2016Via: CNBC:
Amazon has been awarded a patent for “docking stations” for its delivery drones that will be built on tall structures such as lampposts or churches and allow the unmanned machines to recharge and pick up packages.
“The docking stations may incorporate a number of features to enable UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to fly longer routes, to fly routes more accurately, and to provide shelter during adverse conditions,” Amazon’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing said.
Amazon is currently grappling with regulators on getting regulation passed that supports its plan to deliver parcels by unmanned flying machines. Toward the end of June, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued new rules that essentially killed off Amazon’s drone plans.
Still, the U.S. e-commerce giant has been filing patents and testing out its drones.
The latest patent describes docking stations which could be installed on cell towers, church steeples, office building, electric poles, and generally tall structures. It would allow a drone to land, avoid bad weather, recharge or refuel and drop off and pick up packages.
Amazon outlines the idea of a “central control system” which could communicate with each docking station. The system would calculate the most direct route for a drone to follow, and be able to redirect it along a path with the most favorable conditions, for example, with the least wind.
The ability to recharge is also very useful as the drones are unlikely to be able to travel very large distances.
