Marines experiment with robot capabilities
Quantico, Va. (UPI) Sep 18, 2015 -
A quadruped prototype robot has demonstrated its field capabilities in weeklong testing by the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory.
The testing of the 160-pound robot, nicknamed Spot, was conducted this week for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which trained the Marines on how to operate it.
"We want to continue to experiment with quadruped technology and ...
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One year on, Yemen rebels still hold Sanaa despite air campaign
Dubai (AFP) Sept 20, 2015 -
A year after overrunning Sanaa, Yemen's Shiite Huthi rebels have managed to remain in control of the capital despite months of fierce air strikes waged by a Saudi-led coalition.
The Iran-backed rebels occupied Sanaa unopposed last September 21 following months of clashes with tribes and Sunni militants in northern regions.
They went on to expand their hold over several Yemeni regions, ba ...
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15 killed as Arab coalition planes pound Yemen capital
Sanaa (AFP) Sept 19, 2015 -
Air raids by Saudi-led coalition warplanes killed 15 people in Yemen's capital in one of the heaviest nights of bombardment in months, aid workers and witnesses said Saturday.
One rescuer told AFP at least 10 civilians were among the dead.
"Ten members of the same family were killed in the Al-Falihi neighbourhood, in Sanaa's old town," he said.
Residents said four houses were destroy ...
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Canada rivals spar over F-35 purchase ahead of election
Ottawa (AFP) Sept 21, 2015 -
Prime Minister Stephen Harper shot down Monday a political rival's campaign pledge to scrap a multibillion-dollar purchase of F-35 fighter jets, saying it would "crater" Canada's aerospace sector.
Liberal leader Justin Trudeau had said he would take the Lockheed Martin's F-35 out of the running to replace the nation's aging fleet of fighter jets.
Trudeau says that helping develop the air ...
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US military women told it's good to 'Lean In'
Washington (AFP) Sept 21, 2015 -
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Monday encouraged women troops to participate in groups inspired by "Lean In," the best-selling female leadership and empowerment book written by Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg.
At a time when the US military is considering opening all combat roles to women, Carter said it is vital the armed services actively look for more women to fill leadership po ...
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Russia still arming Ukraine rebels despite truce: NATO chief
Yavoriv, Ukraine (AFP) Sept 21, 2015 -
Russia is still sending weapons to separatist rebels battling the Ukrainian government despite a fresh truce in the war-torn east of the country, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Monday.
"The ceasefire is mainly holding. This is, of course, encouraging because that was not the case before," Stoltenberg said on the first day of his visit to Ukraine.
"But the situation is very fragile," h ...
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Stemming the Syrian slaughter
Washington DC (UPI) Sep 20, 2015 -
In the past four and a half years, nearly 300,000 Syrians have been killed in a conflict largely waged by opposing evils against a civilian population. Some eight million Syrians have been displaced with about half fleeing that ravaged country. Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey have been pushed to the near breaking point in accommodating refugees. And Europe is crumbling under the weight of many hund ...
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DARPA taps Rockwell Collins for GPS backup technologies
Cedar Rapids, Iowa (UPI) Sep 21, 2015 -
Technologies that could serve as backups for the military's GPS system are to be developed by Rockwell Collins.
The development award was issued by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as part of its Spatial, Temporal and Orientation Information in Contested Environments, or STOIC, program, which seeks to reduce warfighter dependence on GPS for military operations.
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Xi to nurture pro-China allies on US trip
Washington (AFP) Sept 21, 2015 -
Chinese President Xi Jinping makes a high-profile state visit to the White House this week, but he stops first in Washington state on the west coast to shore up support among skittish allies, especially big business.
A 21-gun salute will ring out from the South Lawn of the White House, the staff will break out the new "Kailua blue" state china and, if you believe many analysts, little else w ...
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British Labour's anti-war leader faces rebellion on Syria: report
London (AFP) Sept 19, 2015 -
Senior members of Britain's opposition Labour Party are planning to defy their new pacifist leader and vote with the government to carry out air strikes against Islamic State extremists in Syria, the Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The paper said that half of the party's shadow cabinet would side with Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative government in a House of Commons vote it said ...
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Iran took samples for IAEA at suspect military site
Tehran (AFP) Sept 21, 2015 -
Iran said Monday it independently collected samples at a suspect military site where illicit nuclear work is alleged to have occurred and later handed them to the UN's absent inspectors.
The disclosure that international monitors were not physically present is likely to feed critics of a nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, who have poured scorn on measures used to check if Tehran's a ...
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Lockheed Martin, Roketsan to develop cruise missile for F-35s
London (UPI) Sep 17, 2015 -
A mid-range standoff cruise missile for use on F-35 fighters is being developed by Lockheed Martin and its Turkish partner, Roketsan.
The SOM-J will feature GPS guidance, aided by inertial, terrain-referenced and image-based navigation systems and an imaging infrared seeker. It will be based on the SOM missile developed by the Defense Research and Development Institute of Turkey and ope ...
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Lockheed Martin UAV becomes core British military capability
London (UPI) Sep 21, 2015 -
Lockheed Martin is to support Britain's Desert Hawk III unmanned aerial vehicles and establish them as a core defensive capability for the country's military.
Desert Hawk III is a small drone from the company's Skinks Work team and was used by British Army forces in Afghanistan for enhanced situational awareness, security and counter-IED operations, threat detection, route reconnaissanc ...
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Nuclear weapons capability stripped from some B-52 bombers
Barksdale Afb, La. (UPI) Sep 20, 2015 -
Thirty of the U.S. Air Force's fleet of more than 70 B-52 bombers have been converted to conventional-bombing capability only.
The work to eliminate the aircraft's capability to deliver nuclear weapons was conducted this summer at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to meet U.S. requirements under the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russia - known as the New START accord - ...
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RAND report: Chinese military could challenge U.S.
Arlington, Va. (UPI) Sep 18, 2015 -
A new report by global policy think tank RAND Corporation says the U.S. Armed Forces would face a considerable challenge in a hypothetical conflict with China's army.
"Over the past two decades, China's People's Liberation Army has transformed itself from a large but antiquated force into a capable, modern military," the report reads. "Its technology and operation proficiency still lag ...
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China in driving seat as Ethiopian capital gets new tramway
Addis Ababa (AFP) Sept 20, 2015 -
Sub-Saharan Africa's first modern tramway opened in the Ethiopian capital on Sunday, marking the completion of a massive Chinese-funded infrastructure project hailed as a major step in the country's economic development.
Even before the ribbon was cut, several hundred residents were queueing for a ride on the Chinese-driven trams, which have the capacity to carry 60,000 passengers a day acro ...
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Iran plans Airbus, Boeing purchases under finance deals
Tehran (AFP) Sept 21, 2015 -
Iran plans to buy Airbus and Boeing passenger planes through long-term payment agreements once a nuclear accord with world powers is implemented, the transport minister said.
Iran desperately wants to upgrade its ageing fleet, which has been hamstrung by nuclear-related and other sanctions, making even spare parts precariously difficult to source.
To purchase new planes, "our negotiation ...
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British Treasury guarantee to put Hinkley nuclear plant back on track
London (XNA) Sep 22, 2015 -
The British Treasury said Monday a government guarantee worth more than three billion U.S. dollars will help pave the way for the building of Britain's first new nuclear power plant in 20 years.
The guarantee came just weeks after the French-based energy company EDF announced the proposed Hinkley Point C plant will not start generating power as planned in 2023 because of concerns over inve ...
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Sky Solar and Hudson Clean Energy to fund up to $100 million in solar projects
Hong Kong (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
Sky Solar Holdings and Hudson Clean Energy Partners have formed a new strategic partnership to fund solar projects in Latin America and Japan with a total capital commitment from Hudson of up to $100 million. The two parties have also agreed to collaborate on an expansion into the U.S. solar market.
As part of this partnership, Hudson will invest $50 million in the construction of approxim ...
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UCLA physicists determine 3-D positions of individual atoms for the first time
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
Atoms are the building blocks of all matter on Earth, and the patterns in which they are arranged dictate how strong, conductive or flexible a material will be. Now, scientists at UCLA have used a powerful microscope to image the three-dimensional positions of individual atoms to a precision of 19 trillionths of a meter, which is several times smaller than a hydrogen atom.
Their observatio ...
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The structural memory of water persists on a picosecond timescale
Amsterdam, The Netherlands (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
A team of scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research (MPI-P) in Mainz, Germany and FOM Institute AMOLF in the Netherlands have characterized the local structural dynamics of liquid water, i.e. how quickly water molecules change their binding state. Using innovative ultrafast vibrational spectroscopies, the researchers show why liquid water is so unique compared to other molecu ...
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Fukushima disaster was preventable
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
The worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown never should have happened, according to a new study.
In the peer-reviewed Philosophical Transactions A of the Royal Society, researchers Costas Synolakis of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and Utku Kano?lu of the Middle East Technical University in Turkey distilled thousands of pages of government and industry reports and ...
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The precision of solar photovoltaic power measurements doubled
Brussels, Belgium (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
An analysis carried out by JRC scientists shows that the uncertainty in measurement of power generation from a photovoltaic (PV) cell can be more than halved, thus bringing an economic benefit to both manufacturers and investors.
With the annual world PV production exceeding 40 GW in 2014 and a market value of over euro 25bn, this is good news for customers, utilities, the production indu ...
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How social cues influence human-robot interaction
Santa Monica, CA (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
Robots are increasingly being considered for use in highly tense civilian encounters to minimize person-to-person contact and danger to peacekeeping personnel.
Trust, along with physical qualities and cultural considerations, is an essential factor in the effectiveness of these robotic peacekeepers. New research to be presented at the HFES 2015 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles in October exam ...
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A thermal invisibility cloak actively redirects heat
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 22, 2015 -
Light, sound, and now, heat - just as optical invisibility cloaks can bend and diffract light to shield an object from sight, and specially fabricated acoustic metamaterials can hide an object from sound waves, a recently developed thermal cloak can render an object thermally invisible by actively redirecting incident heat.
The system, designed by by scientists at the Nanyang Technological ...
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