Smartphones and tablets have been gaining ground in the mobile gaming space for a while now — much to the dismay of Sony and Nintendo — but now Apple is really getting serious about this booming market with iOS 7. The upcoming software update for iDevices is said to have… … Read More
Bilderberg Caught Committing Dirty Tricks Against Press
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Don’t frack with our beer: German brewers warn Merkel against gas ventures
The Brauer-Bund association is worried that fracking for natural gas could pollute the ground water used in brewing beer and break a 500 year old industry rule on water purity; it was reported in the German press. Fracking involves pumping water and chemicals at high pressure into the ground and has been linked to the pollution of ground water and various health problems in the United States where it is common. “The water has to be pure and more than half Germany’s brewers have their own wells which are situated outside areas that could be protected under the government’s current planned legislation on fracking. You cannot be sure that the water won’t be polluted by chemicals so we have urged the government to carry out more research before it goes ahead with a fracking law,” a Brauer-Bund spokesman said to the Telegraph. Under the German purity law, known as the “Reinheitsgebot”, brewers are only allowed to produce beer using malt, hops, yeast and water. Pressure is mounting on German industry to explore the possibility of extracting its shale gas reserves and Merkel’s government is working on a law to set out conditions for exploration. But resistance from opposition parties, which could block the law in parliament, means that it unlikely a fracking law could be passed before September elections. Germany has more than 1,300 breweries, produces some 5,000 different beers and is Europe’s biggest producer of beer. The Munich beer festival the annual Oktoberfest, as it is known, attracts around 7 million visitors a year. … Read More
Assad skeptical about proposed Geneva peace talks
Speaking to Argentine newspaper Clarin and Telam news agency in Damascus, Assad said that “believing that a political conference will stop terrorism on the ground is unreal.”Washington and Moscow have been at odds since the beginning of the Syrian crisis, but are now aiming to find common ground as they push for talks to take place between Assad’s regime and the opposition. If the efforts are successful, there are hopes that talks could take place at the end of this month and could lead to a multilateral summit.“We welcome the Russian-US rapprochement and hope that an international meeting will take place to help the Syrians overcome the crisis ,” he said. “But we don’t think that a lot of Western nations really want to see a solution in Syria. And we don’t think that those many forces that help the terrorists want a solution to the crisis.”As world powers lock horns over the Syrian conflict, Assad stressed that foreign states will not act as decision-makers in the crisis and any decision about reform in Syria will come from within.He also reassured that he will not forsake his duty or his responsibilities. “The captain does not flee his ship during a storm. The first thing he does is face the storm and guide the ship back to safety,” Assad said. “I am not someone who flees from my responsibilities.”The president stated once again that he was open to dialogue, maintaining that he wanted what was best for the Syrian people. However he underlined that there would be no dialogue with terrorists.“Terrorism struck the United States and Europe – of course no government is willing to negotiate with terrorists. A dialogue with political force, but not with a terrorist who decapitates, murders and uses toxic gases which are chemical weapons,” he stated.Syrian leader stressed that foreign states will not act as decision-makers when it comes to Syrian reforms. He specifically addressed US Secretary of State John Kerry, who stated that Assad could play a major role in achieving peace by stepping down.“I wonder how Kerry or anyone else has received a mandate from the Syrian people to decide whether someone should stay or go. Any decision about reforms in Syria will come from Syria, and neither the US nor any other state can intervene,” he stated.The Syrian civil war has been raging for more than two years now, with more than 80,000 people killed, according to UN estimates. … Read More
Bitcoin drive gains currency in Germany
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US Navy’s liquid hydrogen drone flies for record 48 hours
Keeping a drone in the air as long as possible is a chief task for a UAV operator, especially in surveillance. One approach is to use fuel that packs a lot of energy for its volume, like hydrocarbons; drones like the MQ-9 Reaper can fly for 30 hours without landing for refueling.But combustion engines that use hydrocarbons to keep an aircraft flying are noisy, hardly ideal for a spy drone. Ion Tiger, a surveillance drone developed by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), the Navy’s research branch, uses an electric engine, which is quieter and has a smaller heat signature compared to traditional drones.A shortcoming with electric motors, however, is that onboard batteries are much less efficient than chemicals in packing energy, so drones using them can usually only operate for a handful of hours. But NRL’s aircraft uses hydrogen fuel cells to produce electricity, which improves the endurance trade-off.”Liquid hydrogen coupled with fuel-cell technology has the potential to expand the utility of small unmanned systems by greatly increasing endurance while still affording all the benefits of electric propulsion,” NRL principal investigator Dr. Karen Swider-Lyons said in a press release this week.Ion Tiger set the record for fuel cell UAVs in 2009, when it flew for just over 26 hours using gaseous hydrogen stored in a tank at 5,000 psi. This was replaced in a mid-April test with a tank that stores cryogenic liquid fuel, which is about three times denser than the pressured gas used in the 2009 run.NRL says their approach has additional logistic benefits, since liquid hydrogen can be produced from water on site rather than having to transport solid fuels in bulk.Other methods of boosting drone endurance include recharging them in flight with land-based lasers and installing solar panels. A drone using the latter, the British QinetiQ Zephyr, currently holds the endurance record for drones. In 2010, it flew continuously for 14 days over the US Army’s Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona. … Read More
First Chinese stealth drone ‘ready’ for test flight
China’s first unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), known as the Lijian (‘sharp sword’), is designed jointly by the Hongdu Aviation Industry Group and Shenyang Aviation Corporation. The project was launched in 2009 and the drone’s first ground test was conducted on December 13 last year.The Lijian, which makes China the third country to possess stealth drone capabilities, is now ready for flight testing, China Aviation News reported on Friday.The Chinese UAV is designed for use by the PLA Air Force and Navy Air Force for combat missions, China Aviation News reported. It may also be used for tracking and reconnaissance along China’s lengthy and occasionally contentious border.Beijing’s ambitious efforts at developing its drone capabilities have not escaped the attention of Taiwan, which has quarreled with Beijing in the past over questions of sovereignty and national identity.“Taiwan should be concerned about China’s development of large numbers of sophisticated military UAVs,” Ian Easton, a research fellow at the Project 2049 Institute, told the Taipei Times.China’s stealth drone is third such unmanned combat vehicle in existence, after the X-47 designed by the United States, and the nEUROn, a collaborative effort of various EU companies.The nEUROn was launched in 2005 following an order by the French Defense Procurement Agency. The program is a collaborative effort between French, Italian, Swedish, Spanish, Greek and Swiss defense companies.The US Pentagon’s X-47 stealth drone, designed by Northrop Grumman, began as part of DARPA’s J-UCAS program, and is now part of the US Navy’s UCAS-D (Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration) program. The X-47 is still undergoing flight testing.The unveiling of the prototype places the People’s Republic of China ahead of several nations in the development of stealth drone technology.India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Sweden and Russia also have their own stealth UAV programs. … Read More
