Το ξέσπασμα των εγκλωβισμένων οδηγών στα σύνορα με τη Βουλγαρία

Cyclone Winston Threatens Fiji

acquired February 19, 2016

Residents of the South Pacific island nation of Fiji are bracing for landfall from an intense tropical cyclone. Forecasters warned that the storm known as Winston could arrive on the main island of Viti Levu with sustained category 4 winds. It could be the strongest storm to cross the island since local meteorological records were first kept in 1941.

At 1:15 p.m. Fiji time (01:15 Universal Time) on February 19, 2016, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onSuomi NPP acquired this natural-color image of Tropical Cyclone Winston between several tropical Pacific islands. At the time, the storm had sustained winds of 110 knots (125 miles or 200 kilometers per hour). Eighteen hours later, winds had intensified to 145 knots (165 mph or 270 kmph), a category 5 storm.

The latest forecast from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center had the storm moving due west, with landfall on Viti Levu late on February 20 or early on February 21. The island is home to more than 600,000 people and the national capital, Suva. The storm track from the east to west is unusual, according to Brian Kahn of WXshift/Climate Central. Nearly all cyclones in recent records have approached Fiji from the west.

Meet The Swiss Mini Gun, Currently The World’s Tiniest Fully-Functioning Firearm

POSTED BY: DATTATREYA MANDAL FEBRUARY 16, 2016

Meet the Swiss Mini Gun, currently the world’s tiniest working revolver that can actually be clipped to your belt loop. Recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records, this impressive firearm measures only 5.5 cm in length, around 3.5 cm in height and approximately 1 cm in width. Boasting all the features that can be found in a normal-sized gun, it is in fact so small that it weighs less than 19.8 g (or one ounce).

Since 2005, Switzerland-based company SwissMiniGun has been manufacturing only a limited number of these minature double-action revolvers, about 100 per year. Sold primarily as collectors’ items, the guns also feature the world’s smallest ammunition, in the form of 2.34 mm rimfire cartridges. As the company’s owner Paul Erard points out, the firearm and its ammo are produced using the latest technologies of the Swiss jewelry and watch industries.

Once fired, each round of ammunition travels at a speed of around 400 feet per second, generating under one joule of energy and producing less than 0.71 foot pounds upon impact. Despite its small size, however, the revolver comes with a surprisingly big price tag. According to the developers, the standard C1ST model sells for approximately $6,200. Speaking about this ingenious contraption, Erard said:

Since the product’s launch, the firm had sold around 300 of the guns, mainly to collectors in the Middle and Far East. We are producing in very small quantities – perhaps 25 gold guns and 100 steel guns a year, and there is a six-month waiting list to get one.

Before you get your hands on this miniature revolver, however, it is important to note that both the US and the UK prohibit the importation of the gun. Furthermore, given its small size, the weapon does not meet the minimum requirements of a sporting revolver, as set by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The SwissMiniGun is so incredibly tiny that it can be easily concealed in the palm of an adult person, and actually comes with a key ring holster.

One of the main reasons the gun is banned in the US is the fact that the bullet shatters every time a cartridge is fired. This makes the task of tracing its fragments using ballistics investigation almost impossible. Still interested? Head over to SwissMiniGun’s official website.

Via: Wikipedia

Το Πρωτο Υδρογονοκινητο Ηλεκτρικο Αμαξι (A Spectacular Hydrogen-Powered Electric Car )

Rasa: A Spectacular Hydrogen-Powered Electric Car That Boasts The Lowest Carbon Emissions Ever Recorded

POSTED BY: SUKANYA MUKHERJEE FEBRUARY 17, 2016

The engineers at Wales-based company Riversimple have built a new and incredibly innovative hydrogen-powered car with impressive fuel economy of around 250 mpg (or 0.9 L/100 km). Known as “Rasa”, the electric car is currently being marketed as the world’s most eco-friendly vehicle, boasting very low carbon emissions of only 40g/km. Additionally, it features specially-designed in-wheel electric motors, lightweight carbon-fiber body, an array of supercapacitors powered by regenerative braking, and many other impressive properties.

Thanks to its highly-inventive design, the car is capable of covering up to 300 miles (around 483 km) on a single 3.3 lb (or 1.5 kg) hydrogen tank. The two-seater prototype is powered by means of an 8.5 kW (11.4 hp) fuel cell, which in turn expels nothing but water from its tailpipe. The electricity, produced as a result of reaction between hydrogen and oxygen, drives the four in-wheel motors, generating nearly 443 foot-pound of torque.

According to the team at Riversimple, the car was developed with the help of a £2 million (around $2.85 million) funding from the Welsh government. The company has also received a €2 million (or $2.22 million) grant from the European Union, and will soon commence a year-long trial of as many as 20 Rasa prototypes. If everything goes as planned, the vehicle will be available commercially sometime in the middle of 2018. Speaking about the project, Hugo Spowers, the head of Riversimple Movement Ltd. said:

The Rasa engineering prototype marks another key milestone in bringing an affordable and highly-efficient hydrogen powered car to market. We really have started from a clean sheet of paper.

Headquartered in the Welsh town of Llandrindod Wells, the company, which also has a design studio in Barcelona, was originally created as part of the SWARM (Small 4-Wheel fuel cell passenger vehicle Applications in Regional and Municipal transport) initiative. Aimed at building and expanding hydrogen filling stations across Europe, the collaborative project also focuses on developing eco-friendly and energy-efficient vehicles that run on hydrogen fuel.

In addition to its impressive sustainable credentials, the Rasa boasts a sleek low-slung design, complete with projector headlamps in the front, faired rear wheels, upward-swinging doors as well as a vented hatch at the vehicle’s rear. The car features a minimalist, yet well-equipped, interior with simple dash layout. Thanks to its powerful engine, the electric vehicle can attain speeds of up to 55 mph (around 89 km/h) in less than nine seconds. With maximum speed limit of about 60 mph (or 96 km/h), the Rasa offers a smooth, comfortable ride.

Weighing approximately 580 kg (about 1,278 lb), the car has a 39 kg (or 86 lb) carbon-fiber monocoque shell, while the fuel cell itself weighs nearly 19 kg (42 lb). The vehicle is programmed to recover over 50-percent of the energy generated during braking, storing it in supercapacitors that in turn facilitate acceleration. Come 2018, the company will manufacture 3,500 units of the Rasa, which will then be offered to customers through a “sale of service” scheme.

According to the developers, customers will be allowed to use the cars on a rental basis, by paying a fixed monthly fee. In exchange, the company will cover all maintenance, repair, fuel and insurance costs. Spowers explained:

Rather than trying to make money from our customers in the first few years of ownership, our business plan means we make more money by giving the customer the most affordable service we can. If the car is cheap to build, efficient and reliable, we make more money, and the customer is happier. All parties are working towards a common goal.

Via: Autocar Professional

Desde lo alto: el espectacular Centro Panruso de Exposiciones de Moscú a vista de dron

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 19 Φεβ 2016

Estas increíbles imágenes tomadas desde un dron nos muestran el hermoso VDNJ, el Centro Panruso de Exposiciones.
Verdaderamente desde lo alto se puede apreciar todo desde una nueva perspectiva.

Cortesía de TRIGGER AERO, www.trigger.aero

12 JANUARY, 2014 - 00:57 APRILHOLLOWAY

Who or what killed Alexander the Great?

(Read the article on one page)

In June 323 BC, Alexander the Great died in Babylon aged 32, having conquered an empire stretching from modern Albania to eastern Pakistan. The question of what, or who, killed the Macedonian king has never been answered successfully. However, new research may have finally solved the 2,000-year-old mystery.

Alexander III of Macedon, also known as Alexander the Great , was born in Pella in 356 BC and was mentored by Aristotle until the age of 16. He became king of Macedon, a state in northern ancient Greece, and by the age of 30 had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from the Ionian Sea to the Himalayas. Alexander is considered one of history's most successful commanders.  He conquered the whole of the Persian Empire but being an ambitious warrior, seeking to reach the 'ends of the world,' he invaded India in 326 BC but later turned back. He is credited with founding some 20 cities that bore his name, including Alexandria in ancient Egypt, and spread Greece's culture east.  However, before completing his plans to invade Arabia, Alexander the Great died of a mysterious death , following 12 days of suffering.

What is known from historical records is that Alexander was holding a memorial feast to honour the death of a close personal friend.  But around mid-evening, he was seized with intense pain and collapsed.  He was taken to his bedchamber where, after days of agony, high fever, convulsions and delirium, he fell into a coma and died. 

His initial systems were agitation, tremors, stiffness in the neck, and sharp pain in the area of the stomach.  He then collapsed and suffered acute and excruciating agony wherever he was touched.  He experienced an intense thirst, fever and delirium, and throughout the night he experienced convulsions and hallucinations, followed by periods of calm.  In the final stages of the condition he could not talk, although he could still move his head and arms.  Ultimately, his breathing became difficult and he died.

Alexander the Great on his deathbed. Image source.

The four most popular theories concerning his death are: Malaria, typhoid, alcohol poisoning, or being intentionally poisoned by a rival.  Three can probably be discounted. Malaria is carried by mosquitoes that live in jungle and tropical locations, but not in desert regions such as central Iraq where Alexander died.  Typhoid is transmitted by food or water contaminated by bacteria which causes epidemics and not just single, individual cases.  There is nothing in any of the historical accounts to suggest such outbreak in Babylon at the time Alexander died.  The main effect of alcohol poisoning is continual vomiting, but not once do any of the historical sources mention vomiting or even nausea as one of Alexander’s symptoms.

So what did kill Alexander? According to the historical accounts, Alexander’s body failed to show any signs of decay for six days after death, even though it was kept in a hot, sultry place.  One explanation is a lethal dose of a toxic substance that pervaded the corpse and slowed the rate of decomposition. This suggests that Alexander the Great was poisoned, but by what? 

Recent research conducted by Dr Leo Schep from the National Poisons Centre in New Zealand suggests that Alexander died from drinking poisonous wine from an innocuous-looking plant that, when fermented, is incredibly deadly.

Dr Schep, who has been researching the toxicological evidence for a decade, said some of the other poisoning theories - including arsenic and strychnine - were not plausible as death would have come far too fast, not over 12 days as the records suggest. The same applies to other poisons such as hemlock, aconite, wormwood, henbane and autumn crocus.

However, Dr Schep’s research, co-authored by Otago University classics expert Dr Pat Wheatley and published in the medical journal Clinical Toxicology, found the most plausible culprit was Veratrum album, known as white hellebore.  The white-flowered plant, which can be fermented into a poisonous wine, was well-known to the Greeks as a herbal treatment.

Dr Schep's theory was that Veratrum album could have been fermented as a wine that was given to the leader.  It would have tasted 'very bitter' but it could have been sweetened - and Alexander was likely to have been very drunk at the banquet.  The symptoms caused by consuming the plant also fit with the description of what Alexander experienced over the 12 days before he died.

However, even if Alexander were poisoned, there's no proof that he was murdered by conspiring generals. There have been documented cases of people accidentally poisoning themselves with Veratum album.  In 2010, Clinical Toxicology published a paper about four people in Central Europe who thought they were eating wild garlic. In about 30 minutes they were throwing up, in pain, partially blind, and confused. Unlike, perhaps, Alexander, they all survived.

Police: I-78 crash sent 73 to hospital, involved 64 vehicles

FREDERICKSBURG, Pa. — More than 70 people were treated following the huge pileup on a central Pennsylvania interstate that killed three people, authorities said Sunday.

The names of those killed would be released later in the day, said Trooper Justin Summa of the state police barracks in Lebanon County.

Saturday's crash on Interstate 78 during a snow squall involved 64 vehicles, including a dozen commercial vehicles such as tractor-trailers and box trucks, Summa said. A total of 73 people were taken for treatment at 11 hospitals.

At least one person remained in critical condition with injuries from the crash. Penn State Hershey Medical Center said two others taken to the hospital with critical injuries had improved and most of the 13 people brought to the hospital had been discharged.

The interstate reopened Sunday morning following the pileup, which left tractor-trailers, box trucks and cars tangled together across three traffic lanes and into the snow-covered median about 75 miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Trooper Adam Reed said investigators believe that "passing snow squalls played a role in causing the crash."

Police said more than 70 people were taken to a warming shelter operated by the American Red Cross at a firehouse in the area.

Among those caught in the pile up was the Penn State-Lehigh Valley men's basketball team. They were heading to a game in New Kensington when their chartered bus was hit by a tractor-trailer. The school reported no serious injuries.

___

This story has been corrected to say the interstate reopened Sunday, not Saturday.

Dramático rescate de una mujer y su bebé atrapados en un auto hundiéndose

Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 13 Φεβ 2016

Cuatro hombres lograron rescatar a una mujer y a su bebé que se encontraban atrapados dentro de un auto que había caído a un canal de Ámsterdam. A pesar de las heladas aguas, los valerosos hombres lograron romper la ventada posterior del vehículo con un martillo por donde sacaron a la madre y a su hija.