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Friday, March 9, 2007

Imagine coming back from a camping trip in the desert. Then a few months later you notice in your photos from the trip that you camped inside a giant impact crater so big that no one documented it before. Could it happen?

During several trips to the Black Rock Desert, mostly while supporting the Stratofox Aerospace Tracking Team for suborbital space rocket launch efforts, Ian Kluft KO6YQ noticed some oddities in rock formations. He had a little experience with volcanoes, and some rocks in the area looked unusual. There seemed to be some lava here and there – but where was the volcano? He observed that even a large caldera should have mostly volcanic rocks. He then noticed some curved geographic structures in satellite imagery which made him curious if it might be an impact crater.

A TV documentary about meteor impacts mentioned some characteristics of impact craters. He went to the Internet to learn more. He noticed some of his own pictures of the area had cone shaped structures which might be “shatter cones” due to an impact shock wave that passed through the rocks. Discussion with others produced suggestions and volunteers who joined the effort. More circular features in satellite photographs were found. Igneous dikes through white layers of rock had been described and were visible in many photos.

The possible impact crater is 30 miles (48 km) wide east-to-west and 40 miles (64 km) north-to-south centered around 40.984045 N, 118.916016 W. That is in northwestern Nevada halfway between Reno and the Oregon border. The apparent ancient geological structure is so old that much of it is eroded away. The forces that eroded the Black Rock Desert itself, whether glacier or stream, have apparently cut through the crater rims and floor to do it.

Following an expedition to the area in late January, more possible shatter cones were observed in one of the rock samples collected. These are only formed by the shock wave of an impact event or nuclear explosion. The nearest nuclear test was underground at Sand Springs Range in central Nevada. Atmospheric tests at the Nevada Test Site were at the southern, and opposite, end of the state. So that points toward an impact if confirmed. But professional geologists will want to have the final word on confirming them.

In addition to shatter cones, rock samples were thought to contain shocked quartz because the criss-cross fractures looked like examples in online documents. But this group of volunteers doesn’t have equipment for proper photography of shocked quartz. If found, that would be another way to prove the impact origin of the rocks.

Columnar jointed columns hundreds of feet tall appear on some bluffs in locations that appeared consistent with part of a slowly cooling crater floor. But that alone only helps as part of a bigger picture, because volcanoes can have lava cool in columnar joints as well.

They also found local geological studies which described oddities which could be explained by an impact event. Layers of rocks in the mining district called Sulphur left geologists with a mystery about the cause of chemical alterations since 1980. The group compared it with information in online geological texts like “Traces of Catastrophe” by Dr Bevan M French of the Smithsonian Institution. Layers of impact ejecta seemed to explain the rock layers better than the previous theory about acid uniformly cooking the rocks across the region, and only in one layer of rocks. A separate 1980 study 40 miles away identified an immense air-fall tuff layer in the Soldier Meadows area as having been deposited in a single unit, yet couldn’t locate the volcano which produced this enormous volume. Fault diagrams published online by a mining operation at Sulphur on the edge of the circular structure from the satellite photo also look like curved terraced faults in the wall of a crater.

The mining geologists who wrote papers from 1980 to 2002 had not mentioned the possibility of a crater. But they were each gathering single puzzling pieces of information. A larger image seemed to be forming when putting the pieces together. The group hopes the information will be helpful to geologists who do further work in the region.

The theory hasn’t been put to any test by professionals yet. Some responses point out that the elliptical region reported as the possible impact crater could also be the volcanic caldera that the 1980 study was looking for. If so, such a large volcanic caldera would still be a significant discovery for the region.

This will remain officially a mystery for a while until the professional geologists get to study it. There is a lot of information available online for those who are interested.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

On Saturday, Argentine forward Lionel Messi signed a contract extension with Spanish football club FC Barcelona, the club announced via their official website. The new contract runs until 2021.

30-year-old Messi joined Blaugrana from Argentine club Newell’s Old Boys in 2000 at the age of thirteen and made his professional debut at the age of seventeen. In his tenure at Camp Nou, the Argentine international has won four UEFA Champions League titles, eight Spanish LaLiga titles, five Copa del Rey trophies, seven Supercopa de España (Spanish Super Cups), three European Super Cups, and three FIFA Club World Cups. Along with Barcelona’s midfielder Andrés Iniesta, Messi has won 30 trophies with the Catalans, the most in the club’s history.

Messi has played 603 games in the Catalan jersey, scoring 523 goals in all competitions including 361 goals in LaLiga. All time top-scorer in LaLiga and FC Barcelona’s history, Messi won his fourth European Golden Shoe on Friday for finishing as the top-scorer in all European leagues, scoring 37 goals in LaLiga last season.

Per the previous contract, Messi was tied to FC Barcelona until June 2018. Per the new contract, the Argentinian’s buy-out clause is set to €700 million which was previously set to €300 million. After penning the three-year extension, Messi said, “I’m happy to continue with the club, which is my home. My dream was to finish my career at Barca and we are moving down that path.”

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Every September, the Apple iPod is redesigned. Last year saw the release of the iPod Nano 5th generation, bringing a video camera and a large range of colours to the Nano for the first time. But as Apple again prepares to unveil a redesigned product, the company has released their quarterly sales figures—and revealed that they have sold only 9m iPods for the quarter to June—the lowest number of sales since 2006, leading industry anylists to ponder whether the world’s most successful music device is in decline.

Such a drop in sales is not a problem for Apple, since the iPhone 4 and the iPad are selling in high numbers. But the number of people buying digital music players are concerning the music industry. Charles Arthur, technology editor of The Guardian, wrote that the decline in sales of MP3 players was a “problem” for record companies, saying that “digital music sales are only growing as fast as those of Apple’s devices – and as the stand-alone digital music player starts to die off, people may lose interest in buying songs from digital stores. The music industry had looked to the iPod to drive people to buy music in download form, whether from Apple’s iTunes music store, eMusic, Napster or from newer competitors such as Amazon.”

Mark Mulligan, a music and digital media analyst at Forrester Research, said in an interview that “at a time where we’re asking if digital is a replacement for the CD, as the CD was for vinyl, we should be starting to see a hockey-stick growth in download sales. Instead, we’re seeing a curve resembling that of a niche technology.” Alex Jacob, a spokesperson for the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the worldwide music industry, agreed that there had been a fall in digital sales of music. “The digital download market is still growing,” they said. “But the percentage is less than a few years ago, though it’s now coming from a higher base.” Figures released earlier this year, Arthur wrote, “show that while CD sales fell by 12.7%, losing $1.6bn (£1bn)in value, digital downloads only grew by 9.2%, gaining less than $400m in value.”

Expectations that CDs would, in time, become extinct, replaced by digital downloads, have not come to light, Jacob confirmed. “Across the board, in terms of growth, digital isn’t making up for the fall in CD sales, though it is in certain countries, including the UK,” he said. Anylising the situation, Arthur suggested that “as iPod sales slow, digital music sales, which have been yoked to the device, are likely to slow too. The iPod has been the key driver: the IFPI’s figures show no appreciable digital download sales until 2004, the year Apple launched its iTunes music store internationally (it launched it in the US in April 2003). Since then, international digital music sales have climbed steadily, exactly in line with the total sales of iPods and iPhones.”

Nick Farrell, a TechEYE journalist, stated that the reason for the decline in music sales could be attributed to record companies’ continued reliance on Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, saying that they had considered him the “industry’s saviour”, and by having this mindset had forgotten “that the iPod is only for those who want their music on the run. What they should have been doing is working out how to get high quality music onto other formats, perhaps even HiFi before the iPlod fad died out.”

When Jobs negotiated a deal with record labels to ensure every track was sold for 99 cents, they considered this unimportant—the iPod was not a major source of revenue for the company. However, near the end of 2004, there was a boom in sales of the iPod, and the iTunes store suddenly began raking in more and more money. The record companies were irritated, now wanting to charge different amounts for old and new songs, and popular and less popular songs. “But there was no alternative outlet with which to threaten Apple, which gained an effective monopoly over the digital music player market, achieving a share of more than 70%” wrote Arthur. Some did attempt to challenge the iTunes store, but still none have succeeded. “Apple is now the largest single retailer of music in the US by volume, with a 25% share.”

The iTunes store now sells television shows and films, and the company has recently launced iBooks, a new e-book store. The App Store is hugely successful, with Apple earning $410m in two years soley from Apps, sales of which they get 30%. In two years, 5bn apps have been downloaded—while in seven years, 10bn songs have been purchased. Mulligan thinks that there is a reason for this—the quality of apps simply does not match up to a piece of music. “You can download a song from iTunes to your iPhone or iPad, but at the moment music in that form doesn’t play to the strengths of the device. Just playing a track isn’t enough.”

Adam Liversage, a spokesperson of the British Phonographic Industry, which represents the major UK record labels, notes that the rise of streaming services such as Spotify may be a culprit in the fall in music sales. Revenues from such companies added up to $800m in 2009. Arthur feels that “again, it doesn’t make up for the fall in CD sales, but increasingly it looks like nothing ever will; that the record business’s richest years are behind it. Yet there are still rays of hope. If Apple – and every other mobile phone maker – are moving to an app-based economy, where you pay to download games or timetables, why shouldn’t recording artists do the same?”

Well, apparently they are. British singer Peter Gabriel has released a ‘Full Moon Club’ app, which is updated every month with a new song. Arthur also notes that “the Canadian rock band Rush has an app, and the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, led by Trent Reznor – who has been critical of the music industry for bureaucracy and inertia – released the band’s first app in April 2009.” It is thought that such a system will be an effective method to reduce online piracy—”apps tend to be tied to a particular handset or buyer, making them more difficult to pirate than a CD”, he says—and in the music industry, piracy is a very big problem. In 2008, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry estimated that 95% of downloads were illegitimate. If musicians can increase sales and decrease piracy, Robert says, it can only be a good thing.

“It’s early days for apps in the music business, but we are seeing labels and artists experimenting with it,” Jacob said. “You could see that apps could have a premium offering, or behind-the-scenes footage, or special offers on tickets. But I think it’s a bit premature to predict the death of the album.” Robert concluded by saying that it could be “premature to predict the death of the iPod just yet too – but it’s unlikely that even Steve Jobs will be able to produce anything that will revive it. And that means that little more than five years after the music industry thought it had found a saviour in the little device, it is having to look around again for a new stepping stone to growth – if, that is, one exists.”

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

General Motors (GM) announced on Tuesday a recall of 1.3 million Chevrolet and Pontiac cars in the US, Mexico, and Canada over problems with the power steering system.

The models, the 2005–2010 Chevrolet Cobalt and 2007–2010 Pontiac G5 in the US, the 2005–2006 Pontiac Pursuit in Canada and the 2005–2006 Pontiac G4 in Mexico, were affected by a fault that causes the power steering in the vehicles to fail. The company says that cars can still be safely controlled even after the loss of power steering, although more effort to turn the car would be required.

GM is currently working on developing a fix for the problem, after having conducted an internal investigation for more than a year, beginning last January. In addition to GM’s investigation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also conducted an investigation on the Cobalt, which began in January 2010. The investigation was begun after more than a thousand complaints about the model were received by the agency, including reports of 14 crashes caused by the fault. GM contacted the NHTSA about the problem on Monday.

GM blamed the issues on an external supplier partially owned by Toyota, another company currently in the process of a major recall of more than eight million vehicles. According to GM vice-chairman Bob Lutz, the supplier, which was not named, had not met “all requirements for reliability and durability.” In his comments, given at the Geneva Motor Show, Lutz also said that financial responsibility for the recalls had yet to be determined.

• A Chevrolet Cobalt

• A Pontiac G5

Friday, January 10, 2020

On Tuesday, the Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis reasserted the openness of the EastMed project, which is aimed at connecting the Eastern Mediterranean gas fields with the European mainland via a pipeline through contested waters.

In his Tuesday live-streamed talk at the United States think tank Atlantic Council’s Washington headquarters, Mitsotakis reaffirmed that the EastMed project, which currently involves Greece, Cyprus and Israel, is open for other countries to join. “We don’t seek to exclude anyone from energy cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean provided they respect international law”, he said, repeating his January 2 remarks made on the EastMed signing ceremony.

He also commented on the Turkish-Libyan maritime border agreement, calling it “null and void” and “geographically ridiculous”. “The agreement assumes that our islands, including our biggest island Crete, does not have an exclusive economic zone, which goes against everything we know in international law”, he added. He also noted that the Libyan House of Representatives rejected the demarcation, and that Greece and Turkey might end up before International Court of Justice in the Hague if talks would fail. Mitsotakis underlined they keep channels to Turkey open for dialog and that he would be “very-very happy if Turkey were to reconsider its overall approach”.

Later on Tuesday Mitsotakis met with the International Monetary Fund, then with President Trump, where he denounced the border agreement again. In regard of clashing exclusive economic zone claims, he noted “it is important to point out that the agreement signed between Turkey and Libya infringe upon Greece’s sovereign rights”.

On last Thursday, the delegations of Cyprus, Greece and Israel had met for their seventh trilateral summit, that time in Athens at the Zappeion Hall, to sign an agreement to construct the EastMed pipeline by 2025. The meeting was attended by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and energy minister Yuval Steinitz, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and energy minister Konstantinos Hatzidakis, and Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades and energy minister Georgios Lakkotrypis. The agreement was signed by the energy ministers. Greek daily Kathimerini said Greece and Cyprus had to speed up to counter possible Turkish interference with the project.

Earlier that day, the Greek gas producer Energean signed a letter of intent on selling two billion cubic meters of gas per year to the Greek gas supplier DEPA. The planned pipeline capacity is 10 billion cubic meters per year. Energean has committed 1.7 billion dollars in the Karish and Tanin fields.

With this forming of political and economic alliance with Hellenic countries, Netanyahu envisioned the pipeline to end their “fringe country” status. Netanyahu called on Italy and Egypt to join the project, adding “We call on any other country that wishes to join us to do so”. In Cyprus, the ruling Democratic Rally in Cyprus hailed the pipeline as an advancement in the nation’s sovereignty. Progressive Party of Working People, the main opposition force, underlined that the agreement is only a legal framework, and actual construction is in the hands of still undecided private investors. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy underlined Turkish and Turkish Cypriot mining rights in the region, and projected a failure if these would be overlooked.

Otranto, Italy is a proposed end point for the pipeline, and Italian economic development minister Stefano Patuanelli sent a letter of support prior to the signing, but the minister said they are to build another pipeline to Igoumenitsa, Greece. The United States expressed its support via the December 20 signing of the Eastern Mediterranean Bill, a July 25 quadrilateral meeting in Washington, and sent Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to join the trilateral meeting of EastMed countries on March 20 last year. The EU partially funded the feasibility studies, as it considers the EastMed pipeline to be a Project of Common Interest (PCI), ending the energy isolation of Crete and Cyprus, and diversifying the gas supply of Europe, when completed.

In December, a Turkish official said that the trans-Anatolian pipeline, which is already up and running, renders the EastMed building effort unnecessary, Cyprus Mail reported. On November 27, Turkey and Libya signed a maritime border agreement, according to which a section between Crete and Cyprus would cross the Turkish economic zone. Athens expelled the Libyan ambassador to Greece over this issue. Turkey maintains a position that only Northern Cyprus, which is recognized only by Turkey, has the right to the exclusive economic zone around the island. Because of its drilling operations there, Turkey is already under EU sanctions, and was condemned in a joint statement by Egypt, Greece and Cyprus on October 8.

In 2017, a memorandum of understanding about the pipeline was signed between Cyprus, Greece and Israel.

According to the Cyprus Mail, the 2000 km long pipeline is to connect the fields with Crete, the Greek mainland, and would end in Otranto, Italy. The May 2019 map of gas routes by Gas Infrastructure Europe draws the pipeline between the Aphrodite gas field and Thesprotia, Greece, where it merges with the Poseidon line en route to Italy.

Alex Lagakos, deputy director of the Greek Energy Forum, said the project has a geopolitical significance rather than an economic one. He called it unlikely that the EU would finance the project, as it has committed itself to green energy. The estimated cost is six billion euros, but the saturation of the gas markets and competition from liquid natural gas (LNG) terminals are likely to keep private investors away, he noted. Egypt has two usable terminals in the Nile-Delta, in Damietta and Idku. On September 19, 2018, Cyprus and Egypt had signed an alternative deal to export Aphrodite gas through these ports via a new pipeline.

Haifa University geostrategy expert and former Israeli security official, Avinoam Idan, said the new EastMed supply can’t be considered a significant geopolitical change to Europe’s energy market, as it would not affect the market share of Russian gas. In the analysis of the German Institute for Economic Research, the high costs and technical challenges render the project unrealistic.

During the trilateral meeting of Cyprus, Greece and Israel on January 28, 2016, the then-envisioned EuroAsia Interconnector was considered as an alternative route to export the gas as electricity. The 1000 megawatt underwater cable connecting the three power grids is to be completed by December 2023. The estimated cost is 2.5 billion euros, and the EU considers it a PCI. EuroAfrica Interconnector, a similar project between Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, is also in its planning stage.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Today, the nominees for the 78th Academy Awards were announced in Los Angeles, California.

Best Picture nominees this year are Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck., and Munich. The director of each of these films received director nominations. Nominees include George Clooney (Good Night, and Good Luck.), Paul Haggis (Crash), Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Bennett Miller (Capote), and Steven Spielberg (Munich). This is the first time since 1981 that every Best Picture nominee also received a nod for Direction.

Brokeback Mountain leads this year’s Oscar pack overall, with eight nominations. Brokeback is followed by Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck., and Memoirs of a Geisha, who each earned six. Capote, Munich, and Walk the Line each received five nominations. King Kong, Pride and Prejudice, and The Constant Gardener picked up four nominations, while Cinderella Man, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and War of the Worlds pick up three. A History of Violence, Hustle & Flow, Mrs. Henderson Presents, North Country, Syriana, and Transamerica each received two nods each.

Best Animated Feature Film nominees are Howl’s Moving Castle, Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. None of these films used primarily CGI-animation, the first year this can be claimed, since the 2001 creation of the award category. Corspe Bride marks both Tim Burton and Mike Johnson’s first nominations. Wallace & Gromit’s Steve Box is celebrating his first nomination, while co-producer Nick Park has three Oscars for Best Animation Short, a fourth nomination, of which he lost to himself in 1990. Hayao Miyazaki won the Best Animated Feature award in 2002, for Spirited Away.

Uniquely neither animation powerhouse, Disney or DreamWorks, is directly nominated in the category. Disney’s Buena Vista Entertainment distributes Miyazaki film Howl’s Moving Castle, while DreamWorks distributed Wallace and Gromit, animated by Aardman Animations.

Best Foreign Language Film nominees include Italian film Don’t Tell, France’s Joyeux Noël, Palestine’s Paradise Now, Germany’s Sophie Scholl – The Final Days, and South Africa’s Tsotsi. Italy has been up for an Oscar 27 times, France 34 times, and Germany has had six nominations. This is only South Africa’s second nomination, with the first coming last year, and Palestine’s first ever Academy Award nomination.

Nominees for Best Documentary Feature are Darwin’s Nightmare, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, March of the Penguins, Murderball, and Street Fight. March of the Penguins, produced in France, actually grossed more than any of the Best Picture nominees, the first time in history such an occurrence has happened.

The top 19 films in box office received a total of only 14 nominations, with a majority of these in the categories of Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

Perhaps one of the most interesting stories for Hollywood as a whole, is the tremendous success of Participant Productions in its first year of operation. eBay founder Jeff Skoll‘s movie house produced nominees Good Night and Good Luck. (6), North Country (2), Syriana (2), and Murderball (1). The company aims to fund feature films and documentaries that promote social values while still being commercially viable.

The 78th Academy Awards presentation will be held on Sunday, March 5.

• Philip Seymour Hoffman – Capote
• Terrence Howard – Hustle & Flow
• Heath Ledger – Brokeback Mountain
• Joaquin Phoenix – Walk the Line
• David Strathairn – Good Night, and Good Luck

• George Clooney – Syriana
• Matt Dillon – Crash
• Paul Giamatti – Cinderella Man
• Jake Gyllenhaal – Brokeback Mountain
• William Hurt – A History of Violence

• Judi Dench – Mrs. Henderson Presents
• Felicity Huffman – Transamerica
• Keira Knightley – Pride & Prejudice
• Charlize Theron – North Country
• Reese Witherspoon – Walk the Line

• Amy Adams – Junebug
• Catherine Keener – Capote
• Frances McDormand – North Country
• Rachel Weisz – The Constant Gardener
• Michelle Williams – Brokeback Mountain

• Brokeback Mountain
• Capote
• The Constant Gardener
• A History of Violence
• Munich

• Crash
• Good Night, and Good Luck
• Match Point
• The Squid and the Whale
• Syriana

• Good Night, and Good Luck
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
• King Kong
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Pride & Prejudice

• Batman Begins
• Brokeback Mountain
• Good Night, and Good Luck
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• The New World

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Mrs. Henderson Presents
• Pride & Prejudice
• Walk the Line

• The Death of Kevin Carter: Casualty of the Bang Bang Club
• God Sleeps in Rwanda
• The Mushroom Club
• A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

• Cinderella Man
• The Constant Gardener
• Crash
• Munich
• Walk the Line

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• Cinderella Man
• Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

• Brokeback Mountain
• The Constant Gardener
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Munich
• Pride & Prejudice

• In the Deep – Crash
• It’s Hard Out Here For a Pimp – Hustle & Flow
• Travelin’ Thru – Transamerica

• Badgered
• The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation
• The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
• 9
• One Man Band

• Ausreisser (The Runaway)
• Cashback
• The Last Farm
• Our Time is Up
• Six Shooter

• King Kong
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• War of the Worlds

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• King Kong
• Memoirs of a Geisha
• Walk the Line
• War of the Worlds

• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
• King Kong
• War of the Worlds

Friday, December 12, 2008

The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) has revealed the details of the cost-cutting measures for Formula One that were agreed on Wednesday in talks with the teams. The new measures are expected to save the manufacturer teams at least 30 percent of their budgets next season, with the savings increasing as more of the measures are introduced in the future. The raft of agreements has saved the teams from the threat of standardised engines until at least 2013 and savings for independent teams are predicted by the FIA to be even higher.

For next season the engines will now have to last 3 races, rather than thee current 2 race requirement, and each driver is allowed up to 8 engines throughout the year and the team is allowed a further 4 for testing. Engines will now be rev limited to 18,000 rpm and Renault managed to obtain agreement from the other teams for modifications of its engine to bring it into line with the other engines in the sport. Testing will be affected, with in season testing banned and wind tunnels not to exceed 6:10 scale or 50 metres per second. Teams will be expected to share fuel and tyre data at grand prix in an effort to save on the manpower requirement at the race weekends. The teams will also have to close their factories for 6 weeks a year. The FIA will also be conducting research into the possibility of using a medal system for F1 next season, an idea championed by Bernie Ecclestone, the boss of Formula One Management.

Starting in 2010 more changes will come into force, with the introduction of the cheaper engines being made available to independent teams, costing less than €5 million per season. Any contracts for the cheaper 2010 engines will have to be signed by the 20th of December, 2008. Another engine freeze will occur at the start of the 2010 season, with the engines from 2010 continuing through to the end of 2012. The FIA also intends to try to introduce standardised transmission systems in 2010 and will look at chassis design to determine which aerodynamic parts will be standardised or allowed to be competitive differentiators. Races will see more changes in 2010 with the use of tyre warmers and refuelling banned, and the possibility of shorter race distances has been put forward pending market research. What work the teams can engage in at the factories will also be further limited this season to reduce the manpower and other running costs.

The FIA has raised the possibility of a new power train entirely to be developed for the 2013 season, in consultation with the Formula One Teams Association, and will also discuss making Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) compulsory from 2010. KERS, which is being introduced as a voluntary measure in 2009, has divided the teams with some embracing the technology while others, such as Ferrari, have criticised it.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

17-year-old Jack Streat has accomplished something some people spend a lifetime reaching for: he’s a published author. Streat’s book, “LEGO Heavy Weapons: Build Working Replicas of Four of the World’s Most Impressive Guns”, was released in May by indie publisher No Starch Press. The book features detailed drawings and explanations on how to build highly sophisticated working models of 4 assault weapons, including the Desert Eagle handgun, among others. Wikinews interviewed Jack, to learn more about his passion for building.