Air Force officials announced Friday that the X-51A WaveRider flew for more than three minutes Wednesday, a one point hitting a speed of Mach 5.1, according to the Associated Press. The successful flight marked a turning point for the X-51A, which was designed with scramjet technology that’s capable of delivering weapons strikes around the world in only minutes. The aircraft was designed to reach Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) but the Air Force deemed Wednesday’s flight a success because the previous three attempts either ended in highly publicized failures or failed to reach the desired top speed.“This test proves the technology has matured to the point that it opens the door to practical applications,” said Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, which designed the WaveRider, in a statement. He added that the flight, which saw the WaveRider travel more than 230 miles in six minutes, was “a historic achievement that has been years in the making.”While the immediate future for hypersonic scramjet propulsion will come in the form of faster and more effective cruise missiles, scientists have speculated that in the long term, the technology could make a London-New York passenger flight possible in under an hour. “I believe all we have learned from the X-51A WaveRider will serve as the bedrock for future hypersonics research and ultimately the practical application of hypersonic flight,” said Charlie Brink, program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate, in the aforementioned statement.Last year, when asked why such technology is necessary, Air Force officials cited a failed attempt of the life of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden in 1998. Upon learning of his location, military intelligence was able summon Naval ships to fire cruise missiles at the target within 80 minutes. This new technology, the Air Force told the Los Angeles Times in 2012, would cut that response time down to twelve minutes. The video below shows a Boeing jet lifting into the air before sending the missile-like scramjet into hypersonic speed. … Read More
L.A.-area hikers may have to pay portion of $160,000 manhunt after drugs were found in their car
Orange County officials are considering requiring two hikers to pay for a portion — or even all — of a $160,000 search party after a small amount of methamphetamine was found in their car, according to a Thursday report in the Los Angeles Times. Nicolas Cendoya, 19, and Kyndall Jack,…
Nuclear station insider says San Onofre should stay closed
The safety engineer, who has worked in the nuclear field for 25 years, told ABC 10 that due to broken tubes carrying scalding water, there could easily be a main steam line break, which would cause the nuclear reactor core to overheat and result in a Fukushima-like meltdown.The Los Angeles City Council last week demanded that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission refrain from making a decision about restarting the San Onofre unit until it conducts a “prudent, transparent and precautionary” investigation. Days after the unanimous city council decision, an insider from the San Onofre plant spoke to the media for the first time about the dangers associated with a restart.”There is something grossly wrong,” the inside source told ABC, asking for anonymity because of fears for his safety.Dr. Joe Hopenfeld, a former NRC employee, mirrored the insider’s fears, claiming that the manufacturer of San Onofre’s generators did not have experience in sizing the unit for the plant. In 2010 and 2011, San Onofre paid the Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) to build replacement generators, which were shut down in just 11 months due to a radiation leak.”The manufacturer didn’t have experience in this size unit,” Hopenfeld told ABC. “I have reviewed thousands of pages of assessment and reports that Edison has submitted.”Due to the leak, officials also discovered problems with the generator tubes carrying the hot water to and from the reactor core, which creates steam that turns the turbines and creates energy. The tubes operate under high pressure and are placed in rows, very close to one another. There is no protection between the tubes, resulting in many of them to hit each other and crack.An NRC report found that of the 19,400 tubes, more than 17 percent were damaged. The cracking caused several tube failures, and the worst case scenario is a main steam line break, Hopenfeld and the insider explained. ”Many tubes, and I don’t know how many, have exhausted their fatigue life – they have no fatigue life left,” Hopefeld said. With a main steam line break, the reactor core can quickly overheat and cause a Fukushima-like nuclear meltdown that would endanger the lives of those near the plant, which is located in San Diego County, Southern California.”If an accident like this happens, (an) emergency plan is not geared to handle such a public safety devastation,” the inside source said. “Those things have never been practiced or demonstrated in a drill scenario.”Officials at Southern California Edison, which owns the plant, have proposed a solution for a partial restart of the plant, claiming that operating Unit 2 at 70 percent capacity would ensure its safety by reducing the vibrations of the generator tubes. But Hofenfeld and the insider believe this would only reduce the risk – not diminish it.”Maybe the vibrations wouldn’t be as severe, but it doesn’t mean they are going away,” Hopenfeld said.”I am not trying to scare anybody — you can live there, but you should know what the risk is,” he added.In the coming weeks, the NRC is expected to make a decision on whether or not the San Onofre nuclear power plant should be allowed to partially restart its operations. It has been out of service since January 2012. … Read More
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s requests for lawyer were ignored
According to reports from the Los Angeles Times, highlighted by Glenn Greenwald this week, the delay in reading Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights may be the least in possible abrogations in constitutional legal procedure in the FBI’s interrogations. Tsarnaev reportedly requested an attorney repeatedly but was ignored. There has been some debate as to whether the “public safety exception” was appropriately invoked to delay Mirandizing the 19-year-old suspect, but, as Greenwald writes on denying requests for a lawyer, “this is much more serious”:If the LA Times report is true, then it means that the DOJ did not merely fail to advise him of his right to a lawyer but actively blocked him from exercising that right. This is a US citizen arrested for an alleged crime on US soil: there is no justification whatsoever for denying him his repeatedly exercised right to counsel.Continue Reading… … Read More
Tsarnaevs’ parents ‘shocked, in awful state’ after seeing Tamerlan’s body on TV
A crowd of news-hungry journalists surrounded the building where both parents, Anzor and Zubeidat, are staying in the capital of Dagestan, Makhachkala. However, the parents of the Boston marathon bombing suspects refused to speak to anyone and an arranged media conference was called off.Human rights activist Kheda Saratova, who came to support the Tsarnaevs’ parents, and lawyer Zaurbek Sadakhanov of the Moscow Interterritorial Bar Association, explained the situation briefly.“Currently, the family is unable to communicate with anyone, after they had seen a YouTube video of the body of their son [Tamerlan], which was in a terrible state,” Sadakhanov explained to the media.The elder Tsarnaevs are “shocked” and “in awful condition,” particularly the mother, Saratova added.The parents asked everyone “to leave them in peace for some time,” while they struggle to come to their senses, Saratova said.“We can’t give you any comments now… and we won’t be able to comment while the investigation is in progress,” she added.Sadakhanov also expressed his hopes that the American side will lead an objective and unbiased investigation, and provide the public with both the results and the evidence.He, however, confirmed that Anzor Tsarnaev, the father, spoke of his decision to go to the US “to seek the truth and justice.”The suspects’ mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva also said, she and Anzor would go to the US clear their sons’ names in court, according to Los Angeles Times. She added that a relative of her husband has promised to find them “a good lawyer” for their surviving son, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.Meanwhile, Tsarnaeva sent a message to Dzhokhar, when she spoke to RT earlier. “Save your life and tell the truth, that you haven’t done anything, that this is a set up!” she said.The surviving Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, has reportedly begun giving written testimony in a hospital on Tuesday, and has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction to kill people, while his elder brother Tamerlan, 26, died on Friday after a fierce gun battle with police. … Read More
Koch Brothers eyeing Tribune company
Word has circulated since at least March that the libertarian leaning, Tea Party backing Koch brothers wanted to buy the Tribune Company, the struggling newspaper outfit that owns the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and several regional papers. The New York Times reports today that gaining influence in the media is part of the brothers “three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.” The other two prongs are “educating grass-roots activists and influencing politics.”The Times reports:Continue Reading… … Read More
LAPD Cellphone Tracking Clarification Still Raises Concerns
In
my piece the other day covering courtroom revelations about the
FBI’s use of cellphone-tracking technology, often generically
referred to as “stingray” after one manufacturer’s product, I
mentioned the Los Angeles Police Department’s use of the same
tools. Soon after, I received an official LAPD fact
sheet that was prepared in response to an LA Weekly
article I referenced in an
earlier piece. The fact sheet helpfully clarifies not only the
details of the LAPD’s policy regarding cellphone tracking, but also
the capabilities of the same. But I’m not sure that it necessarily
settles concerns about how forthright the LAPD is being about the
tracking technology it uses, since the department admits it’s
describing the technology to judges in a way that federal agents
have been told is inadequate.
Stingray-type devices essentially emulate cellphone towers,
pinging mobile devices within their range and thereby locating
those devices. The LAPD fact sheet emphasizes that the
location-finding ability of the technology is imprecise — this is
why the FBI in the
Rigmaiden case started with a stingray device, and then went to
a shorter-range, hand-held device to find Rigmaiden.
Any electronic monitoring equipment/techniques utilized by the
LAPD can only gather data regarding the cellular phones in the area
of a particular cell tower and from a particular carrier at any one
time. This data only identifies the cellular phone by its carrier
(i.e. Sprint, Metro PCS, Verizon) and gives no information
regarding the subscriber’s identity or their location.
The fact sheet than goes on to explain something that hasn’t
been clear before — that cellphones might be pinged, but they can’t
be identified without the cooperation of a phone company.
In order to identify a particular handset, it is necessary to
have the cooperation of the cellular provider, which provides the
necessary identifiers. This cooperation will only occur after being
served with a signed court order. The cooperation of the cellular
provider is governed by the Communications Assistance for Law
Enforcement Act (1994), which mandates cellular providers to modify
the design of their equipment, facilities and services to allow law
enforcement to conduct electronic surveillance.
That may not sound like much of a safeguard, given the deference
most people display toward law enforcement and the legal
requirements under which telecoms operate. But we recently
discovered that many communications companies have been
unexpectedly protective of their customers’ privacy, or at least
surprisingly uncooperative with federal agencies, to the point that
both ICE and the FBI are upset. Cricket features in complaints
by both agencies, but so do several other companies that resist
over-broad requests for information and even ignore queries. So the
extra step of having to go through a telecommunications company in
order to identify the mobile devices pinged by a stingray does seem
to add an extra layer of protection — especially for people who
aren’t specific targets and don’t want their location information
vacuumed up as collateral damage.
Less reassuring is confirmation that requests to use stingray
technology are submitted to judges for approval under the umbrella
of older (and less intrusive) pen register requests.
The use of the term “pen register/trap and trace” is used to
describe the technology where by a cellular provider displays the
location of a cell tower used by the cell phone that is the subject
of court order. The term is related to older technology of landline
services but is now used to describe the interaction between
cellular towers and the cell phones that operate on them.
The LAPD is
probably following the FBI’s lead on this, but the federal
practice is pissing off judges so thoroughly that some U.S.
Attorneys have found it necessary to caution agents to specify the
technology they intend to use in their court submissions. If the
judicial system finds the term “pen register/trap and trace”
insufficient description for federal agents to use in describing
what are really a broad range of technologies with various
capabilities, the same concerns apply to the LAPD, too. … Read More
