Iran unveils combat UAV based on captured US spy drone design(VIDEO)

Iran unveils combat UAV based on captured US spy drone design

Published time: 1 Oct, 2016 14:32

A scale model of the US RQ-170 unmanned spy plane is displayed during a ceremony to mark the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, in Tehran's Azadi square February 11, 2012. © Raheb Homavandi / Reuters

Iranian engineers have weaponized the drone they built after reverse-engineering the American RQ-170 Sentinel, which the Islamic Republic captured in 2011, Iranian media reported.

The drone has high endurance and can carry a payload of four smart guided bombs, Press TV reports. The aircraft is dubbed Saeqeh (Tunderbolt) and was made public on Saturday by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) as part of an exhibition of advanced military hardware.

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'No way!': Pentagon trashes Iranian replica of US drone

The design of the new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is based on the RQ-170 Sentinel, a US surveillance drone, which Iran captured in 2011. Earlier unarmed versions of the aircraft were demonstrated by the Iranians, with Pentagon officials describing it as inferior to the American version.

Commenting on the new weapon, IRGC’s Aerospace Division chief Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh said that he considered Iran one of the world’s top four drone producers.

Iran is pursuing self-reliance in military production, seeking to make an entire range of hardware domestically. The country’s ability to purchase foreign military technology is limited by international sanctions, which are meant to stall Iran’s progress in sensitive areas like rocketry.

Tehran insists that its military does not pose a threat to any foreign nation. But Iran is apparently irritated by the presence of US military assets close to its borders, and has been showing their displeasure in particular by staging maneuvers close to American warships deployed in the Strait of Hormuz lately. In January, it flew a large drone apparently capable of carrying air-to-surface missiles over the USS Harry S. Truman.

Footage has resurfaced online showing two freight trains collide head-on on a Californian track

Footage has resurfaced online showing two freight trains collide head-on on a Californian track. One of the freight trains was scheduled to pass the other, but the crew on-board the second train misread a signal. After a collision was inevitable both trains went into emergency stopping mode which reduced their speeds to approximately 30mph. All three crew-members on-board the second train then jumped out before impact, while the crew on the first train decided to withstand the crash. Miraculously, everyone involved survived but with various injuries. The cost of this accident is estimated to be about 5 million dollars.

Massive Earthquake Along the San Andreas Fault Is Disturbingly Imminent

The USGS estimates a 1 in 100 chance of the San Andreas Fault rupturing between now and October 4. (Image: SanAndreasFault.org)

A series of quakes under the Salton Sea may be a signal that the San Andreas Fault is on the verge of buckling. For the next few days, the risk of a major earthquake along the fault is as high as 1 in 100. Which, holy crap.

The United States Geological Survey has been tracking a series of earthquakes near Bombay Beach, California. This “earthquake swarm” is happening under the Salton Sea, and over 140 events have been recorded since Monday September 26. The quakes range from 1.4 to 4.3 in magnitude, and are occurring at depths between 2.5 to 5.5 miles (4 to 9 km).

Quakes recorded under the Salton Sea on September 27, 2016. (Image: USGS)

For seismologists, these quakes could represent some seriously bad news. The swarm is located near a set of cross-faults that are connected to the southernmost end of the San Andreas Fault. Troublingly, some of these cross-faults could be adding stress to the San Andreas Fault when they shift and grind deep underground. Given this region’s history of major earthquakes, it’s got some people a bit nervous.

Calculations show that from now until October 4, the chance of a magnitude 7 or greater earthquake happening along the Southern San Andreas Fault is as high as 1 in 100, and as low as 1 in 3,000. On the plus side, the likelihood of it happening decreases with each passing day. These estimates are based on models developed to assess the probabilities of earthquakes and aftershocks in California.

“Swarm-like activity in this region has occurred in the past, so this week’s activity, in and of itself, is not necessarily cause for alarm,” cautions the USGS.

That being said, this is only the third swarm that has been recorded in this area since sensors were installed in 1932, and it’s much worse than the ones recorded in 2001 and 2009. This particular stretch of the San Andreas Fault hasn’t ruptured since 1680, and given that big quakes in this area happen about once every 150 to 200 years, this fault line is considerably overdue.

'Double-Fault' Earthquake Could Devastate Southern California

A geophysicist in California says the San Andreas fault could be triggered into rupturing by the…Read more

A big fear is that the rupturing of the southern portion of the San Andreas fault could cause a domino effect along the entire stretch, cracking the fault from Imperial County through to Los Angeles County. Another possibility is that the Salton Sea swarm could cause the nearby San Jacinto fault system to rupture,which would in turn trigger the collapse of the San Andreas Fault.

Should the Big One hit, it won’t be pretty. Models predict a quake across the southern half of California with a magnitude around 7.8. Such a quake would cause an estimated 1,800 deaths, 50,000 injuries, and over $200 billion in damage.

But as the USGS researchers point out, this is far from an inevitability. The swarm under the Salton Sea may subside, or fail to influence the gigantic fault nearby. Moreover, the estimates provided by the scientists are exactly that—estimates. The science of earthquake prediction is still very much in its infancy, and these models are very likely crunching away with insufficient data. No need to panic just yet.

A quake swarm in the Salton Sea that lasted over 24 hours from Monday into Tuesday has created a short-term increase in the risk of waking up the San Andreas fault.

“A swarm is when you have, in a tight geographic region, a cluster of earthquakes happen in rapid succession," says Kate Scharer, a research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "It’s an area that often just has generic background seismicity but, for some reason, sort of pipes up for a while and lets off earthquakes.”

By the time all was said and done, over 200 earthquakes had been recorded in the more than day-long period.

The reason, Scharer says, is because the quake swarm happened below the southernmost tip of the San Andreas fault, an area that hasn’t produced a quake since 1680. They say that the odds of a magnitude-7 quake or larger happening in the southern area of the fault is as high as 1 in 100 and as low as 1 in 3,000.

“That’s related to the general statistics of how these swarms happen," says Scharer. "Some of the folks at the USGS collect data on this type of behavior, the swarm behavior, and then try to understand and model what you can expect from the future. So, in general, they would have similar forecasts, given that the magnitude distribution is fairly similar.”

The good news is that these odds decrease over time, but researchers say that it’s still a real enough risk to worry, and that a quake swarm like the one earlier this week are worth watching because, as Scharer notes, these smaller quakes could be what sets off a larger quake along San Andreas.

“Worldwide, you can see lots of cases where you have an earthquake on a subsidiary fault that’s not on the main strand that then is followed in short order by a larger rupture. The earthquakes that they had in Christchurch in New Zealand happened this way, or in kind of a bigger way, the Denali Fault rupture was kind of like that. We know that there’s some transfer of stress from these faults onto the main San Andreas due to their orientation, so there is some communication between them.”

Seismologists say the San Andreas fault is long overdue to rupture since a large-scale quake happens in the area every 150-200 years.

Mitsubishi GT-PHEV Concept - interior Exterior and Drive

The MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept is a high-end next-generation crossover SUV that easily takes many road surface conditions in stride. Featuring Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC)’s latest design language together with MMC’s advanced and proprietary electric and all-wheel control technologies, the MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept empowers drivers to pilot their car with confidence under a wide range of driving conditions. It stirs the driver’s curiosity and sense of adventure as they seek to go further, as they seek to take a step beyond anything they have experienced before.
In its overall design, the MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept projects the image of a “ground tourer” – a car made for cruising across a vast land – expressing Functional Beauty, Augmented Possibility, Sculptured Dynamism, Japanese Craftsmanship.
The front visage with its forceful presence employs MMC’s Dynamic Shield front design concept that portrays the front end’s function of protecting both people and the car. From the side, the MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept uses horizontal lines to convey its high-end crossover SUV styling and vehicle stability. With a muscularity and intensity that gives the impression it has been carved from a single ingot of steel, the body is clothed in classy styling that flourishes sculptured dynamism highlighted by precise detailing.
Inside, the MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept uses a horizontal dashboard that creates a spacious ambiance, making it easier for the driver to sense changes in vehicle attitude. Together with an instrument panel with a high center console, the cockpit-like interior wraps around its people, providing a sense of solace and security. Generous use of Burgundy*1 genuine leather trim, color coordinated with the exterior roof color is another touch in creating a classy and comfortable interior space.

• *1 : A deep and rich reddish purple similar to that of wine

On the technology front, in addition to outstanding environmental performance MMC’s advanced triple-motor PHEV system delivers superior motive performance to empower drivers of any skill level to confidently follow new paths as they like through a multitude of different weather and road surface conditions, for an enjoyable and rewarding driving experience.
This PHEV system comprises a next-generation high-capacity drive battery package, three high-output and high-efficiency motors and an engine designed especially for the PHEV system featuring improved electricity generation performance and motive performance. This combination delivers the punchy performance ideal for a “ground tourer” and makes for comfortable driving on longer trips as well with an electric-only range of 120 km and a combined hybrid cruising range of over 1,200 km. The triple-motor powertrain, with one unit at the front and two at the rear, delivers a dramatic improvement in the performance of its full-time four-wheel drive powertrain and MMC’s own Super All Wheel Control (S-AWC) integrated vehicle dynamics control system, bringing new levels of handling stability.
The MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept also adopts the latest in connected car technology in extracting its performance and functionality to the full. The technology feeds to the car route information as well as data on weather and road surface conditions acquired from information networks and from on-board sensors and cameras in order to closely manage energy consumption such as electricity consumption and fuel economy as well as to provide all-wheel control best-suited to many motoring situations.

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• MITSUBISHI GT-PHEV Concept (English ver.)
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The Interview / Tsunehiro Kunimoto, Corporate General Manager of design office, Mitsubishi Motors

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Σκοτώνοντας πέντε στρατιώτες και τραυματίζοντας 10 ένοπλη επίθεση στο βόρειο Μεξικό(video)

Τελευταία Ενημέρωση: 01/10/2016 | 11:34 είναι GMT |News of the World

Reuters Daniel Becerril

Μεξικού δυνάμεις ασφαλείας

Τοπικό γραφείο αντιπροσωπείας αξίωση στο Μεξικό ανακοίνωσε την Παρασκευή 30 Σεπτεμβρίου / Σεπτεμβρίου ότι μια ένοπλη επίθεση σε στρατιωτική φάλαγγα στην πολιτεία Σιναλόα βόρειο τμήμα της χώρας, σκοτώνοντας πέντε στρατιώτες και τραυματίζοντας 10 άλλους, τουλάχιστον.

Η επίθεση έλαβε χώρα νωρίς το πρωί στα περίχωρα της πόλης της Κουλιακάν προπύργιο της συμμορίας «Σιναλόα», με επικεφαλής τον Joaquin Guzman El Chapo, ο οποίος συνελήφθη εκ νέου τον περασμένο Ιανουάριο.

Ένας υπάλληλος στο γραφείο του εισαγγελέα: «Ήταν μια ενέδρα προφανώς, πιστεύουμε ότι η επίθεση πραγματοποιήθηκε από μια τοπική συμμορία."

Guzman, τη στιγμή κρατείται σε μια φυλακή στη Σιουδάδ Χουάρες, μια βόρεια πόλη στα σύνορα των ΗΠΑ, εν αναμονή της έκδοσης με τις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες.

Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες απαιτεί την παράδοση του Joaquin Guzman, τον αρχηγό της συμμορίας των «Σιναλόα», κατηγόρησε σε ένα μεγάλο αριθμό αδικημάτων, όπου η συμμορία του λαθραία ναρκωτικά αξίας δισεκατομμυρίων δολαρίων στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, που θεωρεί υπεύθυνο για το θάνατο χιλιάδων ανθρώπων λόγω του εθισμού και της βίας που προκαλούνται από πρακτικές της συμμορίας.

Οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες έχουν ζητήσει Μεξικό Guzman παραδοθεί στα τέλη του περασμένου Ιουνίου, μόλις λίγες εβδομάδες πριν από την απόδρασή του από την περίεργη φυλακή υψηλής ασφαλείας μέσω μιας σήραγγας επεκταθούν σε περισσότερες από ένα χιλιόμετρο και ένα μισό και ακόμα κελί του.

Πηγή: Reuters

Volkswagen’s First All-Electric Car Can Run 300 Miles on Just a 15-Minute Charge

IN BRIEF

Amidst an emissions cheating scandal, Volkswagen aims to deliver fully-electric and hybrid models by 2020. With a new chief executive on board, the company is starting to try and regain trust and competence starting with unveiling their first fully electric car—which would supposedly run 480 KM on a 15-minute charge.

RECOVERING FROM A SCANDAL

Volkswagen isn’t a newbie when it comes to scandals. In the past year or so, the automobile company has been haunted by an emissions cheating scandal, and issues with system vulnerability that jeopardize the security of 100 million Volkswagen.

The company admitted that 11 million Volkswagen cars in the US and Europe were equipped with a “defeat device,” which puts the car on some sort of safe mode when it detects conditions consistent with a standard emission testing. This allows their cars to cheat such tests by improving performance and emitting pollutants below the standard limit, which then radically changes when the testing mode is no longer detected. 

Former chief executive Martin Winterkorn. AFP.

As a result, Volkswagen emissions went 40 times over the limits in the US, substantially damaging the company’s reputation and credibility. Subsequently, then chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigned and was replaced by Matthias Mueller, formerly from Porsche. 

“My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group—by leaving no stone unturned,” Mueller said.

And now it seems they are trying to make amends for this breach of trust and environmental violation: they are unveiling their first fully electric car at this year’s Paris motor show.

DELIVERING ON PROMISES

It will be the size of the Golf while having the spacious interior of the Passat, but its most remarkable feature will be its charging time—it can take you 480 kilometers (300 miles) on a 15-minute charge, an impressive attribute for a production car.

Early this year, Volkswagen made a pledge to deliver an environment-friendly lineup in North America by 2020, which includes 20 different EV and plug-in hybrid models. In line with this pledge, their first all-electric car is set to launch sometime between late 2018 and early 2019.

The credibility of Volkswagen’s emissions labels has suffered significantly. AP.

Of course, the question remains: will they actually deliver as promised? With a new chief on the post, hopefully consumers can start trusting emissions level labels on their cars.

Tropical Storm in Taiwan !!!

Typhoon Megi slammed into the coast of northeast Taiwan on Tuesday, injuring dozens and leaving almost a million homes without power. At least 38 people had been reported injured on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the tropical storm made landfall, according to Taiwan's Central News Agency. Almost 1,000,000 homes were without power in the storm's wake, after some 38 inches (1000 millimeters) of rain fell in Yilan County. The typhoon is the third storm system to hit the island in two weeks, lashing Taiwan with winds up to 143 miles per hour (230 kilometers per hour).
The typhoon made landfall at 1.30 p.m. (1.30 a.m. ET) on the island's less heavily populated east coast. "Winds and flooding rain continue to be a problem with this system," CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. "Landslides are also a major concern with the typhoon."

China Completes Largest Radio Telescope In The World

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September 25, 20164:00 PM ET

REBECCA HERSHER

The Five-hundred-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Pingtang county, China.

STR/AFP/Getty Images

The largest radio telescope in the world officially opened on Sunday,according to China's official Xinhua News.

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, is named after its diameter, which, at 500 meters, is 195 meters wider than the second-largest telescope of its kind, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

Xinhua reports the telescope cost $180 million and 8,000 people were displaced from their homes to create the necessary 3-mile radius of radio silence around the facility. It will be used for "observation of pulsars as well as exploration of interstellar molecules and interstellar communication signals."

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Pulsars are imploded cores of stars slightly larger than the sun, which emit radiation that can be detected from Earth, if your telescope is sensitive enough. A researcher with China's National Astronomical Observation, Qian Lei, told Xinhua the new telescope is so sensitive, in a test it detected radio waves from a pulsar 1,351 light-years away.

Like radio telescopes in other parts of the world, FAST will study interstellar molecules related to how galaxies evolve. For example, this summer a team using data from the Very Large Array, a collection of radio antennas in the New Mexico desert, picked up what scientists describe as"faint radio emission from atomic hydrogen ... in a galaxy nearly 5 billion light-years from Earth." In the paper describing their findings, the team writes that the "next generation of radio telescopes," like FAST, will build on their findings about how gases behave in galaxies.

As for FAST's final use, studying interstellar communication signals, it could be more simply referred to as searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life. "In theory, if there is civilization in outer space, the radio signal it sends will be similar to the signal we can receive when a pulsar ... is approaching us," Qian told Chinese state media, according to the science news website Phys.org.

Such communication could go both ways. In 1974, the Arecibo radio telescope sent a signal deep into space with a graphic containing, among other things, images of "the Arecibo telescope, our solar system, DNA, a stick figure of a human, and some of the biochemicals of earthly life,"according to the SETI institute, a scientific organization devoted to the search for extraterrestrial life.

In an interview with the BBC, the deputy project manager for the new Chinese telescope, Peng Bo, said the project was exciting for Chinese scientists. "For many years, we have had to go outside of China to make observations — and now we have the largest telescope," he told the BBC.

China's investment in space exploration is not limited to earth-based telescopes. Although it is not one of the countries that helps run theInternational Space Station, China launches its own rockets carrying satellites. Earlier this month, China launched Tiangong-2, its second space lab, shortly before its first space lab fell back to earth.