A lightweight solar-powered plane has smashed the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight. UK defence firm Qinetiq, which built the Zephyr unmanned aerial vehicle, said it flew for 54 hours during tests. The researchers believe it is the first time a solar-powered craft has flown under its own power through two nights. The previous unmanned endurance record was set in 2001 by a jet-powered US Air Force Global Hawk surveillance aircraft which flew for more than 30 hours. The record attempt was announced very late FAI spokesperson The Zephyr’s 54-hour endurance flight will not enter the record books because representatives from the world air sports federation – the FAI – were not notified about the secretive test. However, they were informed about a second, 33-hour flight which could still become an official record. Zephyr’s development team say that whatever the result, it believes it has built a record breaker. ‘This aeroplane is going to go a lot higher and a lot further,’ Chris Kelleher, Zephyr’s technical director and ‘pilot’, told the BBC News website. ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’ Night flight Zephyr was originally developed to take pictures […]
In an interview with GQ magazine that’s scheduled to be put online here at 11 a.m. ET, former secretary of State and one-time potential presidential candidate Colin Powell has this to say about terrorism and the threat it poses to the USA: ‘What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it’s terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?’ Powell adds, in an interview with Walter Isaacson, that to improve its image in the world, the USA should focus on welcoming newcomers. He takes on the immigration debate that has become a hot-button issue in the presidential race: ‘America could not survive without immigration,’ he says. ‘Even the undocumented immigrants are contributing to our economy. That’s the country my parents came to. That’s the image we have to portray to the rest of the world: kind, generous, a nation of nations, touched by every nation, and we touch […]
WASHINGTON — The number of serious drug side effects and deaths reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration more than doubled over an eight-year period, according to an analysis of adverse-drug events reported to the agency. As part of the agency’s so-called MedWatch reporting system, drug companies, health-care professionals and the public can file reports when they think a drug is connected to a side-effect or fatality. Drug companies are required to file such reports while they are voluntary for health-care professionals. A study, published in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at reports that are considered serious from 1998 to 2005. The study was conducted by researchers at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., and Wake-Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C. Such reports also included reports of deaths in which people believe a particular drug might have contributed to, or caused, the death. Adverse-event reports have to be investigated by the FDA as the reports themselves don’t necessarily mean a particular drug or drugs caused a problem. A serious adverse drug event, defined by the FDA, means an event that resulted in death, a birth defect, disability, hospitalization, […]
ANN ARBOR, Mich.— A camper who chases a grizzly but won’t risk unprotected sex. A sky diver afraid to stand up to the boss. New research shows that not all risk is created equal and people show a mixture of both risky and non-risky behaviors. The survey also shows that men are significantly riskier than women overall. The University of Michigan research refutes the standard theories of risk that group people as either risk-seeking or risk-avoiding, and suggests that we can have a mix of both risky and non-risky behavior depending on the type. The study appears in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. Daniel Kruger, a research scientist at the U-M School of Public Health, and colleagues X.T. Wang, University of South Dakota, and Andreas Wilke, UCLA, identified areas of risk taking (risk domains) based on the types of challenges that our ancestors faced during many thousands of years of human evolution. ‘People are complex,’ said Kruger. ‘Just because somebody seems to be a big risk taker in one area doesn’t mean they will take risks in all areas.’ The types of risks identified include competition with other individuals; competition with other groups; mating and allocating […]
After falling over 28% during the period 1990 – 2003, suicide rates in America for males and females aged 10-24 climbed 8% – this is the largest single one-year rise in 15 years, says a CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) report ‘Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)’. In 1990 the suicide rate for 10-24 year-olds was 9.48 per 100,000 people; in 2003 it fell to 6.78 per 100,000 people; in 2004 it rose to 7.32 per 100,000 people. Dr. Ileana Arias, director of CDC²s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said ‘This is the biggest annual increase that we’ve seen in 15 years. We don’t yet know if this is a short-lived increase or if it’s the beginning of a trend. Either way, it’s a harsh reminder that suicide and suicide attempts are affecting too many youth and young adults. We need to make sure suicide prevention efforts are continuous and reaching children and young adults.’ The report is the result of a study of yearly data from the NVSS (National Vital Statistics System), which is run by the CDC. The NVSS consists of the following US records: fetal deaths, divorces, marriages, deaths and […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
