Thursday, December 15, 2011
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Developer Closed Down
There is no official confirmation yet and conflicting reports are still circulating, but we are quite confident now that the studio is in fact closed/closing now.
A tweet made by the studio’s director Dmitri Bourkovski said (in Russian): “Not PR. GSC closed.”
Additionally, Ukrainian news site, UkraNews, reported that the studio’s owner, Sergei Grigorovich, has decided to close it and promised to pay employee wages through February 2012.
The studio was working on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
Giant plumes of methane bubbling to surface of Arctic Ocean
Igor Semiletov of the Russian Academy of Sciences tells the UK's Independent that the plumes of methane, a gas 20 times as harmful as carbon dioxide, have shocked scientists who have been studying the region for decades. "Earlier we found torch-like structures like this but they were only tens of meters in diameter," he said. "This is the first time that we've found continuous, powerful and impressive seeping structures, more than 1,000 metres in diameter. It's amazing."
Semiletov said that while his research team has discovered more than 100 plumes, they estimate there to be "thousands" over the wider area, extending from the Russian mainland to the East Siberian Arctic Shelf.
"In a very small area, less than 10,000 square miles, we have counted more than 100 fountains, or torch-like structures, bubbling through the water column and injected directly into the atmosphere from the seabed," Semiletov said. "We carried out checks at about 115 stationary points and discovered methane fields of a fantastic scale — I think on a scale not seen before. Some plumes were a kilometer or more wide and the emissions went directly into the atmosphere — the concentration was a hundred times higher than normal."
Satellite gets pic of Chinese carrier
A commercial U.S. satellite company said it has captured a photo of China's first aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea off the Chinese coast.
DigitalGlobe Inc. said Wednesday one of its satellites photographed the carrier Dec. 8. A DigitalGlobe analyst found the image Tuesday while searching through photos.
Stephen Wood, director of DigitalGlobe's analysis center, said he's confident the ship is the Chinese carrier because of the location and date of the photo. The carrier was on a sea trial at the time.
DigitalGlobe, based in Longmont, Colo., sells satellite imagery and analysis to clients that include the U.S. military, emergency response agencies and private companies. DigitalGlobe has three orbiting satellites and a fourth is under construction.
The aircraft carrier has generated intense international interest because of what it might portend about China's intentions as a military power.
The former Soviet Union started building the carrier, which it called the Varyag, but never finished it. When the Soviet Union collapsed, it ended up in the hands of Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.
China bought the ship from Ukraine in 1998 and spent years refurbishing it. It had no engines, weaponry or navigation systems when China acquired it.
China has said the carrier is intended for research and training, which has led to speculation that it plans to build future copies.
China initially said little about its plans for the carrier but has been more open in recent years, said Bonnie S. Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"It wasn't until the Chinese actually announced they were sending it out on a trial run they admitted, 'Yes, we are actually launching a carrier,'" she said.
China publicly announced two sea trials for the carrier that occurred this year, she said.
The carrier's progress is in line with the U.S. military's expectations, said Cmdr. Leslie Hull-Ryde, a Defense Department spokeswoman.
A Defense Department report to Congress this year said the carrier could become operationally available to the Chinese navy by the end of next year but without aircraft.
"From that point, it will take several additional years before the carrier has an operationally viable air group," Hull-Ryde said in an email.
She declined to comment on the DigitalGlobe photo, saying it was an intelligence matter.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
UFO filmed hovering over Russian protesters
Here is a somewhat blurry video capture of the scene, taken by a person in the crowd:
Several demonstrators in the crowd espied the hovering object, with reflecting blue and red lights. Descriptions of the object--which observers say was definitely not a helicopter--included "five extended tendrils or pylons emanating from the body of the vehicle."
View the Video Here
But just because it was a UFO, doesn't mean it was extraterrestrial.
The UFO was in sight long enough for some protesters to climb trees for a closer look. Russian news site RT.com's Vitaliy Matveev disputes the UFO theory, saying the object was at worst, a Russian government spy drone or simply a news media camera filming the protests:
On the other hand, wouldn't the aliens want the crowds below to be distracted by earthly political conflicts as the space craft hatched bigger plans for Planet Earth? We're just saying. . . .
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Jennifer Lopez Owns Britney And Beyonce Looks In ‘T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)’ Video
Apparently, the flesh-toned body suit Jennifer Lopez wore during her performance at the American Music Awards last month was a hit. The 42-year-old mother of toddler twins looks incredible suited up in a similar one piece, this one black and lace, for will.i.am's new video, "T.H.E. (The Hardest Ever)," for which she sings the chorus.
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