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Sunday, May 5, 2013

7 American service members killed in Afghanistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks during a news conference in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 4, 2013. Karzai says the director of the CIA assured him that regular funding his government receives from the agency will not be cut off. He says Afghanistan has been receiving such funding for more than 10 years and expressed hope at a Saturday news conference that it will not stop.(AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Seven U.S. soldiers and a member of the NATO-led coalition were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest days for Americans and other foreign troops in Afghanistan in recent months, as the Taliban continued attacks as part of their spring offensive.

The renewed violence came as Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged at a news conference that regular payments his government has received from the CIA for more than a decade would continue. Karzai also said that talks on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement to govern future American military presence in the country had been delayed because of conditions the Afghans were placing on the deal.

The U.S.-led coalition reported that five international troops were killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan, and coalition spokesman Capt. Luca Carniel confirmed that all five were American.

The coalition did not disclose the location of the roadside bombing. However, Javeed Faisal, a spokesman for the governor of Kandahar province, said the coalition patrol hit the bomb in the Maiwand district of the province, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.

Later, the coalition reported that a soldier with the Afghan National Army turned his weapon on coalition troops in the west, killing two in the most recent of so-called insider attacks. Such attacks by members of the Afghan security forces against their fellow colleagues or international troops have eroded confidence in the Afghan forces as they work to take over from foreign forces.

Both killed were American, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the nationalities ahead of an official announcement.

Another coalition service member was killed in an insurgent attack in northern Afghanistan, the NATO-led force said. It did not provide any further details of the incident.

It was the fourth time since last summer that seven Americans have been killed on a single day in the war.

On March 12, a Black Hawk helicopter crashed outside Kandahar, killing five U.S. troops. Two more U.S. troops were killed that day by an insider attack.

And on April 6, Afghan militants killed six Americans, including a young female diplomat, and an Afghan doctor in a pair of attacks in southern Afghanistan. The three U.S. service members, two U.S. civilians and the doctor were killed when the group was struck by an explosion while traveling to donate books to a school. A seventh American, a civilian, was killed in a separate insurgent attack in the east.

On Aug. 16, 2012, seven American service members were killed in two attacks in Kandahar province. Six were killed when their helicopter was shot down by insurgents and one soldier died in a roadside bomb explosion.

At the news conference, Karzai said he had met earlier in the day with the Kabul station chief of the CIA and was reassured that the agency's payments to the Afghan government would continue. The New York Times had reported that for more than a decade, the CIA had given the Afghan National Security Council tens of millions of dollars in monthly payments delivered in suitcases, backpacks and plastic shopping bags.

Karzai said he told the station chief: "'Because of all these rumors in the media, please do not cut all this money because we really need it. We want to continue this sort of assistance.' And he promised that they are not going to cut this money."

Karzai described the payments as a form of "government-to-government" assistance, and while he wouldn't say how much the CIA gave to the National Directorate of Security, which is the Afghan intelligence service, he said the financial help was very useful. He claimed that much of the money was used to care for wounded employees of the NDS, Afghanistan's intelligence service, and operational expenses.

"We have spent it in different areas (and) solved lots of our problems," Karzai said.

He said the CIA payments were made in cash and that "all the money which we have spent, receipts have been sent back to the intelligence service of the United States monthly."

The CIA declined to comment on Saturday.

During the news conference at the presidential palace, Karzai also discussed ongoing negotiations on a U.S.-Afghan bilateral security agreement. He said talks had been delayed because of certain conditions that Afghanistan was insisting be included in the pact, which will govern a U.S. military presence after 2014 when nearly all foreign combat troops are to have finished their withdrawal from Afghanistan. The talks, which started in late 2012, are set to last up to a year.

President Barack Obama has not said how many troops will remain, although there have been estimates ranging from 8,000 to 12,000. It is unlikely such an announcement will be made until the security agreement is signed. Those troops would help train Afghan forces and also carry out operations against al-Qaida and other militant groups.

Karzai said Afghanistan was ready to sign a deal as long as the American government in exchange for being able to stay on bases in the country agrees to terms of Afghan security, funding assistance and help with training and equipping Afghan security forces. It is thought that the contentious issue of providing U.S. troops immunity from Afghan law is a low priority for the Afghan government in the negotiations.

The Afghan government has not said how much rent it would want for three or four U.S. bases, but it is believed to be in the billions. Afghanistan is also thought to be seeking security guarantees to protect its porous borders, including the frontier with Pakistan that is the main infiltration route for insurgents who retain sanctuary in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas.

It was unclear how Karzai expected the United States or any of its allies to guarantee Afghanistan's borders against attack.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-04-AS-Afghanistan/id-3c7c975cbc20430b84a3ea21fa8c6dde

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Solar-powered plane takes off for flight across U.S.

By Laila Kearney

SAN FRANCISCO | Fri May 3, 2013 7:06pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A solar-powered airplane that developers hope to eventually pilot around the world took off early on Friday from San Francisco Bay on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States with no fuel but the sun's energy.

The plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, departed shortly after 6 a.m. local time from Moffett Field, a joint civil-military airport near the south end of San Francisco, heading first to Phoenix on a slow-speed flight expected to take 15 to 20 hours.

The spindly looking plane barely hummed as it took flight in the still northern California morning as the sun was just beginning to peek out over the Santa Cruz Mountains to the east.

After additional stops in Dallas, St. Louis and Washington, D.C., with pauses at each destination to wait for favorable weather, the flight team hopes to conclude the plane's cross-country voyage in about two months at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Swiss pilots and co-founders of the project, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, will take turns flying the plane, built with a single-seat cockpit, with Piccard at the controls for the first flight to Arizona. He is tentatively scheduled to land in Phoenix at 1 a.m. local time on Saturday.

The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros ($112 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay - backers who want to test new materials and technologies while also gaining brand recognition.

Project organizers say the journey is also intended to boost worldwide support for the adoption of clean-energy technologies.

"I hope people understand the potential of this technology and use it on the ground," Borschberg, who flew for the Swiss Air Force for more than 20 years, told reporters as Piccard suited up for the flight nearby. "If we don't try to fly today using renewable energy, we never will."

With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car, the Solar Impulse is a test model for a more advanced aircraft the team plans to build to circumnavigate the globe in 2015.

The plane made its first intercontinental flight, from Spain to Morocco, last June.

SOLAR CELLS BUILT INTO WINGS

The aircraft runs on about the same power as a motor scooter, propelled by energy collected from 12,000 solar cells built into the wings that simultaneously recharge batteries with a storage capacity equivalent to a Tesla electric car.

In that way, the Solar Impulse can fly after dark on solar energy generated during daylight hours, and will become the first solar-powered aircraft capable of operating day and night without fuel to attempt a U.S. coast-to-coast flight.

But the plane, which from a distance resembles a giant floating insect in the sky, is unlikely to set any speed or altitude records. It can climb gradually to 28,000 feet and flies at an average pace of just 43 miles per hour (69 km per hour).

The current plane was designed for flights of up to 24 hours at a time, but the next model will have to allow for up to five days and five nights of flying by one pilot - a feat not yet accomplished.

Meditation and hypnosis were part of the training for the pilots as they prepared to fly on very little sleep.

Asked about the downside of solar-powered flight at a news conference in March to unveil the current plane, Piccard acknowledged there was a price paid for the tiny carrying capacity and massive wings.

"In that sense, it is not the easiest way to fly," he said. "But it is the most fabulous way to fly, because the more you fly, the more energy you have on board."

He added: "We want to inspire as many people as possible to have that same spirit: to dare, to innovate, to invent."

The plane's four large batteries, attached to the bottom of the wings along with the plane's tiny motors, account for a quarter of its overall heft.

The aircraft's lightweight carbon fiber design and wingspan allow it to conserve energy, but also make the plane vulnerable to being tipped over.

A ground team of weather specialists, air traffic controllers and engineers track the plane's speed and battery levels and help the pilot steer clear of turbulence. Solar Impulse cannot fly in strong wind, fog, rain or clouds. Its machinery is not even designed to withstand moisture.

(Additional reporting by Braden Reddall; Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Lisa Shumaker, Nick Zieminski and Alden Bentley)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/scienceNews/~3/ioSM0kQOgZA/story01.htm

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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Southern Calif. wildfire threatens 4,000 homes

By Alex Dobuzinskis

CAMARILLO, California (Reuters) - A fierce, wind-driven wildfire spread on Friday along the California coast northwest of Los Angeles, threatening 4,000 homes and a military base as residents were evacuated ahead of the flames and a university campus was closed.

By nightfall more than 950 firefighters had built containment around about 20 percent of the inferno, which has blackened more than 43 square miles (111 square kilometers) of dry brush and chaparral since erupting on Thursday morning.

More firefighters were said to be on the way and fire officials said they hoped that diminishing winds and higher humidity would help them make headway overnight and on Saturday.

Fire managers said they expected it would take until next Monday to fully contain the blaze, which sent a pall of thick smoke drifting over the beach community of Malibu and farther inland across Los Angeles County.

Several farm buildings and recreational vehicles were engulfed and fire officials said 15 homes were damaged, along with five commercial properties. While 25 outbuildings were destroyed, no residential structures were lost and no injuries had been reported.

Some 4,000 homes were considered threatened, with evacuations ordered for about a quarter of those residences, the Ventura County fire and sheriff's departments said.

The so-called Springs Fire and a flurry of smaller blazes around the state this week marked a sudden start to a California fire season that some weather forecasters predict will be worsened by a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the U.S. West.

'IT'S ONLY MAY'

"We're seeing fires burning like we usually see in late summer, at the height of the fire season, and it's only May," Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke said.

The temperature in Camarillo hit a record high of 96 degrees F (36 degrees C) by late morning on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Strong, erratic winds that complicated efforts to combat the Springs Fire through much of the first day were calmer on Friday, officials said. The improved wind conditions allowed several air-tanker planes equipped for dumping payloads of fire-retardant chemicals to return to the air along with a fleet of eight water-dropping helicopters.

The Springs Fire, which may have been ignited by a tossed cigarette butt, broke out at 6:30 a.m. local time (1330 GMT) on Thursday beside the U.S. 101 freeway, less than 10 miles from the Pacific coast. It spread quickly to the edges of the communities of Camarillo and Newbury Park.

By Friday morning, flames had advanced to within a short distance of the ocean's edge in some places, forcing authorities to close several miles of Pacific Coast Highway.

At the Point Mugu U.S. Naval Air Station on the coast, all non-essential personnel were ordered to stay home for a second day as flames encroached on a firing range at the extreme western end of the base, spokeswoman Kimberly Gearhart said.

She said no ammunition was stored at that location, bordered on two sides by coastline and wetlands.

HORSES EVACUATED

But a base housing unit that is home to 110 active-duty military personnel and their families was evacuated on Friday because of heavy smoke, Gearhart said, adding there was no immediate fire threat to that vicinity and military aircraft were continuing routine flights between the base and a communications post on San Nicolas Island offshore.

In mid-afternoon, residents were ordered to clear out of more than 900 homes in Hidden Valley, an enclave of ranches and estate-type properties southeast of Camarillo. Some 200 dwellings were evacuated earlier along the coastal highway and adjacent canyon roads, sheriff's Sergeant Eric Buschow said.

Horse trainer Bryon Wilson, 36, and his wife drove two trailers into an area of multimillion-dollar ranches around Hidden Valley Road that was later ordered evacuated.

"As we were loading the horses in (the trailers) this afternoon, the fire was right at the back of the barn, so we were in amongst it already," Wilson said.

Previous evacuation orders for two housing subdivisions at the northern end of the fire zone closer to Camarillo were lifted, but those neighborhoods remained restricted to residents carrying identification, Buschow said.

California State University at Channel Islands campus, including student housing, was closed for a second day, the university said, although official evacuation orders for the school were lifted.

A separate late-afternoon brush fire in the hills above Glendale, a suburb just north of Los Angeles and about 50 miles east of Camarillo, prompted the evacuation of a number of homes and an elementary school. But water-dropping helicopters and ground crews moved in to quickly contain it.

A larger fire in Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, on Thursday destroyed two houses and damaged two others before firefighters halted its spread, and at least five other wildfires burned in Northern California.

Hot, dry conditions in Southern California were fed largely by Santa Ana winds blowing in from desert areas to the east.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Colleen Jenkins, Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, David Gregorio and Xavier Briand)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/southern-california-coast-wildfire-threatens-4-000-homes-003615255.html

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Israel enforces 'red line' with Syria airstrike

This photo released on the official Facebook page of Syrian President Bashar Assad, shows Syrian president Bashar Assad, right, surrounded by bodyguards as young people, wave at him during the inauguration ceremony on Saturday of a statue dedicated to "martyrs" from Syrian universities who died in the country's two-year-old uprising and civil war, in Damascus, Syria, Saturday, May. 4, 2013. Assad's second public appearance in a week came as Israeli officials confirmed the country's air force carried out a strike against Syria, saying it targeted a shipment of advanced missiles bound for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. (AP Photo)

FILE - In this June 3, 2012 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad delivers a speech at the parliament in Damascus, Syria. Israel launched an airstrike into Syria, apparently targeting a suspected weapons site, U.S. officials said Friday night, May 3, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA, File)

BEIRUT (AP) ? With a second airstrike against Syria in four months, Israel enforced its own red line of not allowing game-changing weapons to reach Lebanon's Hezbollah, a heavily armed foe of the Jewish state and an ally of President Bashar Assad's regime, Israeli officials said Saturday.

But the strike, which one official said targeted a shipment of advanced surface-to-surface missiles, also raised new concerns that the region's most powerful military could be dragged into Syria's civil war and spark a wider conflagration.

The missiles were believed to be m600s, a Syrian version of Iran's Fatah 110 missile, an extremely accurate guided missile capable of traveling roughly 300 kilometers (190 miles) with a half-ton warhead, an Israeli official said.

Fighting has repeatedly spilled across Syria's borders into Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights during more than two years of conflict, while more than 1 million Syrians have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

The airstrike, which was carried out early Friday and was confirmed by U.S. officials, comes as Washington considers how to respond to indications that the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options ? including possible military action.

Israel has said it wants to stay out of the brutal Syria war, but could inadvertently be drawn in as it tries to bolster its deterrence and prevent sophisticated weapons from flowing from Syria to Hezbollah or other extremist groups.

Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in mid-2006 that ended in a stalemate.

Israel believes Hezbollah has restocked its arsenal with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated the Jewish state would be prepared to take military action to prevent the Islamic militant group from obtaining new weapons that could upset the balance of power.

It is especially concerned that Hezbollah will take advantage of the chaos in neighboring Syria and try to smuggle advanced weapons into Lebanon. These include anti-aircraft missiles, which could hamper Israel's ability to operate in Lebanese skies, and advanced Yakhont missiles that are used to attack naval ships from the coast.

While Israeli officials on Saturday portrayed the latest airstrike as the continuation of Israel's deterrence policy, more Israeli attacks could quickly lead to an escalation, leaving open the possibility of retaliation by Hezbollah or even the Assad regime and Syria ally Iran.

In January, Israeli aircraft struck a shipment of what was believed to be Russian-made SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah, according to U.S. officials. Israeli officials have strongly hinted they carried out the airstrike, though there hasn't been formal confirmation.

Neither Hezbollah nor Syria responded to that strike.

In a warning to Israel earlier this week, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said his militia "is ready and has its hand on the trigger" in the event of an Israeli attack on any targets in Lebanon.

Details about Friday's strike remained sketchy.

The U.S. officials said the airstrike apparently hit a warehouse, but gave no other details.

Israeli officials did not say where in Syria the Israeli aircraft struck or whether they fired from Lebanese, Syrian or Israeli airspace.

Israel possesses bombs that can travel a long distance before striking their target. The use of such weapons could allow Israel to carry out the attack without entering Syrian skies, which would risk coming under fire from the regime's advanced, Russian-made anti-aircraft defenses.

The Israeli and U.S. officials spoke anonymously because they had not been given permission to speak publicly about the matter.

Obama said Saturday it was up to Israel to confirm or deny any strikes, but that the U.S. coordinates very closely with Israel.

"The Israelis, justifiably, have to guard against the transfer of advanced weaponry to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah," Obama told the Spanish-language TV station Telemundo.

The Syrian government said it had no information on an Israeli attack, while Hezbollah and the Israeli military spokesman's office declined comment.

Amos Gilad, an Israeli defense official, would not confirm or deny the airstrike, but played down cross-border tensions.

Hezbollah has not obtained any of Syria's large chemical weapons arsenal and is not interested in such weapons, Gilad said. Instead, the militia is "enthusiastic about other weapons systems and rockets that reach here (Israel)," he said Saturday in a speech in southern Israel.

Assad "is not provoking Israel and the incidents along the border (between Syria and the Israeli-controlled Golan) are coincidental," Gilad said.

After Hezbollah's military infrastructure was badly hit during the 2006 war, the group was rearmed by Iran and Syria ? with Tehran sending the weapons and Damascus providing the overland supply route to Lebanon.

"This is a very sophisticated network of Iranian arms, Syrian collection, storage, distribution and transportation to Hezbollah," said Salman Shaikh, director of The Brookings Doha Center and in 2007 involved in U.N. weapons monitoring in Lebanon.

Shaikh said Israel had detailed knowledge of weapons shipments to Hezbollah at the time and most likely has good intelligence now. "The Israelis are watching like hawks to see what happens to these weapons," he said.

With Israel apparently enforcing its red lines, much now depends on the response from Hezbollah and Syria, analysts said.

Israeli officials have long feared that Assad may try to draw Israel into the civil war in hopes of diverting attention and perhaps rallying Arab support behind him.

But retaliation for Israeli airstrikes would come at a high price, said Moshe Maoz, an Israeli expert on Syria.

"Bashar has his own problems and he knows that conflict with Israel would cause the collapse of his regime," Maoz said. "He could have done that long ago, but he knows he will fall if Israel gets involved."

Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside Assad's troops, appears to have linked its fate to the survival of the Syrian regime. Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief, said this week that Syria's allies "will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of America or Israel."

On the other hand, Hezbollah could endanger its position as Lebanon's main political and military force if it confronts Israel, and it's not clear if the militia is willing to take that risk.

Hezbollah isn't Israel's only concern. Israeli officials believe it is only a matter of time before Assad's government collapse, and they fear that some of the Islamic extremist groups battling him will turn their attention toward Israel once Assad is gone.

Reflecting Israel's anxiety, the Israeli military called up several thousand reservists earlier this week for what it called a "surprise" military exercise on its border with Lebanon.

Obama has said the use of chemical weapons would have "enormous consequences," but has also said he needs more definitive proof before making a decision about how to respond.

Obama said Friday that he didn't foresee a scenario in which the U.S. would send troops to Syria. Instead, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has said Washington is reviewing its opposition to arming the opposition.

The U.S. so far has balked at sending weapons to the rebels, fearing the arms could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-linked groups or other extremists in the opposition ranks.

Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, is heading to Moscow next week to try to persuade Russian President Vladimir Putin to support, or at least not veto, a fresh effort to impose U.N. penalties on Syria if Assad doesn't begin political transition talks with the opposition.

Russia, alongside China, has blocked U.S.-led efforts three times at the United Nations to pressure Assad into stepping down.

In Syria, about 4,000 Sunni Muslims fled the coastal town of Banias on Saturday, a day after reports circulated that dozens of people, including children, had been killed by pro-government gunmen in the area, activists said.

Also Saturday, Assad made his second public appearance in a week in the capital Damascus. Syrian state TV said Assad, who rarely appears in public, visited a Damascus campus, and footage showed him being thronged by a large crowd. The report said Assad inaugurated a statue dedicated to "martyrs" from Syrian universities who died in the country's uprising and civil war.

___

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ian Deitch in Jerusalem, Bassem Mroue in Beirut, and Bradley S. Klapper and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-04-Israel-Syria/id-3ded894d23d04f4b8adf925e6b36d3cf

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I'm Too Old For This Week in Gaming Apps S**t - Kotaku

You kids get off of my lawn! Damn, that really does feel good. I turned 40 on Wednesday, so excuse me if I didn't play as many gaming apps this week as you young people did. These old eyes aren't what they used to be.

Okay, not an excuse. If anything I should be playing more apps, what with all the time sitting out on the back porch (we don't have a front porch), rocking back and forth in my chair and watching the weather. Or The Weather Channel app.

Hell, technically old men don't even have to go outside anymore. In a few years I'll be downloading an app that delivers the same experience as walking outside and sweeping the leaves out of the driveway every 15 minutes, without having to deal with any whippersnappers. Some would argue that app is already here several times over.

But it's none of this week's apps. These are spritely, virile games, filled with action and adventure and carefully considered strategy and wisdom ? all hallmarks of a newer generation, except for the second two.

Back in my day we would have skipped the first few paragraphs and gone straight to...

What We Played This Week

Angry Birds Friends - iOS, Android - Free

The weekly Facebook tournament spills over onto Android and iOS, where the Angry Birds series has been just a little bit popular. A tad.

Zoombies: Animales de la Muerte! - iOS - $2.99

Normally I take my own screens, but then normally I charge my iPad. Zoombies is another fresh game from High Voltage Software, who've been doing some great things on mobile lately. Take this, for instance ? zombie animals. Why aren't there more zombie animals?

Candymeleon - iOS - Free

See, he's a chameleon, but he eats candy! CANDYMELEON! He's adorable, it's mindless fun, and it's free. I like that combination.

Dark Avenger - iOS - Free

The free-to-play Diablo clone with the amazingly generic name. Nice polish, good action, wildly derivative.

Eclipse: New Dawn for the Galaxy - iOS - $6.99

The incredibly complicated board game is now an incredibly complicated mobile game. An amazing digital translation, but you've got to be sharp and patient to win.

LEGO Star Wars: the Yoda Chronicles - iOS - Free

Star Wars is great. LEGO is great. The mini-games here? Not so great, but LEGO. Also, Star Wars.

Rocket Patrol - iOS - Free

A neat little fast-paced card game about the race across space. One of those quick-and-dirty affairs, where the players must choose to drop a travel card or drop a screw-with-your-opponent card.

App Reviews for the Week of April 29 - May 3, 2013

Every level of They Need To Be Fed 2 ends with you hurling your big-headed black and white body into the gaping maw of a carnivorous plant. Trust me, it's for the best. Read?

If Talisman Prologue is any indication of how the full version of the classic fantasy board game will pan out, then fans are in for a real treat when Talisman Digital Edition launches this summer. Until then, they can re-learn the ropes in this single-player boot camp.Read?

I was a little over 13 when I read the first book in UK game designer Steve Jackson's Sorcery! series of Fighting Fantasy books. Enhancing the page-turning elements of the Choose Your Own Adventure books with pen-and-paper role-playing game mechanics, the series instilled in me a voracious appetite for interactive?Read?

I stare at the glorious handcrafted world of Blitz Games' Paper Titans for hours, lazily rotating each colorfully cobbled-together stage. I would gladly take a large stack of proto-form Titans, popping them out of their paper prisons and folding them to life with a flick of my finger. This striking setting cries out? Read?

There's quite a lot of extra content available for purchase inHaunted Hollow, the spooky new iOS strategy board game from Firaxis, creators of XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Between new creatures to add to your arsenal and special item unlocks, you could spend upwards of $17 on the free-to-play game, but that'd be stupid ? the? Read?

For the last few days, I've been playing Star Command, a mobile game that's had people excited for a very long time now. Beginning life as a Kickstarter project, it's gone through several major delays, and arrives this week on the App Store an example not just of excellent portable strategy, but of the realities of? Read?

There are times I want to explore near photo-realistic ancient temples, battling terrifying enemies with the aid of powerful magical artifacts. I have moments where all I want to do is spend hours building armies, evaluating troop strength and capabilities and devising strategies to take advantage of my findings. Read?

Every level of They Need To Be Fed 2 ends with you hurling your big-headed black and white body? Read?If Talisman Prologue is any indication of how the full version of the classic fantasy board game? Read?I was a little over 13 when I read the first book in UK game designer Steve Jackson's Sorcery! ? Read?I stare at the glorious handcrafted world of Blitz Games' Paper Titans for hours, lazily? Read?There's quite a lot of extra content available for purchase in Haunted Hollow, the spooky new? Read?Star Command is like Game Dev Story. Only instead of running a games studio, you're running a? Read?For the last few days, I've been playing Star Command, a mobile game that's had people? Read?There are times I want to explore near photo-realistic ancient temples, battling terrifying enemies ? Read?

Source: http://kotaku.com/im-too-old-for-this-week-in-gaming-apps-s-t-489665955

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Mozilla shows off 'Epic Citadel' web version ported with Unreal Engine 3 (video)

Mozilla wants to quell any doubt that its Unreal Engine 3 Firefox port works well, so it's just released a demo browser version of Epic Citadel so you can see for yourself. The game was ported to Javascript using the technology, and will run in HTML5 on most browsers without any plugins -- though using the latest nightly build of Firefox is recommended. Epic says that the performance of such games "rivals native" with "stunning" visuals, and in a short test, we managed to get about 16fps on a reasonably equipped PC. Mozilla wants to recruit more developers to the new platform as part of its Emscripten project (see More Coverage link), but meanwhile you can grab the game at the source or see the video after the jump -- just don't count on wreaking any havoc, as the demo's strictly a scenic tour.

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Source: Mozilla (blog)

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/WXNLHT5IbGA/

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Air Force's X-51A Hypersonic Scramjet Makes Record-Breaking Final Flight

The U.S. military launched an experimental hypersonic aircraft on its swan song test flight Wednesday (May 1), accelerating the craft to more than five times the speed of sound in the longest-ever mission for a vehicle of its kind.

The Air Force's X-51A Waverider?reached a top speed of Mach 5.1 during the test flight, traveling more than 230 nautical miles in just over six minutes before crashing into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast as planned, Air Force officials announced today (May 3).

Wednesday's flight used the last of four X-51A vehicles built by Boeing for the Air Force experiments. While the previous test, in August 2012, was a failure, Wednesday's mission pulled off the longest air-breathing hypersonic flight ever, officials said.?[See Video of the X-51A's Final Flight]

"It was a full mission success," Charlie Brink, X-51A program manager for the Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate, said in a statement.

The X-51A took off Wednesday morning from Edwards Air Force Base in California under the wing of a B-52H Stratofortress. The Waverider was released at an altitude of approximately 50,000 feet (15,000 meters) and used a solid rocket booster to accelerate to Mach 4.8 in just 26 seconds.

The Waverider then separated from the rocket and sped up to Mach 5.1 at an altitutde of 60,000 feet (18,300 m), powered by its air-breathing supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) engine, officials said.

The X-51A burned up the scramjet's four-minute fuel supply and was destroyed as expected upon impacting the Pacific Ocean. All told, the vehicle returned 370 seconds of flight data.

While there is no plan to build any more X-51A vehicles, officials said the $300 million technology demonstration program, which began in 2004, leaves a valuable legacy.

"I believe all we have learned from the X-51A Waverider will serve as the bedrock for future hypersonics research and ultimately the practical application of hypersonic flight," Brink said.

Hypersonic flight?is generally defined as anything that reaches speeds above Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound. (The speed of sound at sea level is about 762 mph, or 1,226 km/h.)

While most other hypersonic vehicles use hydrogen propellant, the X-51A's scramjet is powered by hydrocarbon fuel, which Air Force officials say is more logistically feasible and could allow the technology to be applied on a broader scale.

The first X-51A test flight occurred in May 2010. It was hailed as a success, as the vehicle flew for more than three minutes and reached Mach 4.88. The next two flights, in June 2011 and August 2012, both failed.

The U.S. military has been studying hypersonic flight in order to develop new weapons capable of striking targets anywhere on Earth within an hour. In addition to the Air Force's work with the X-51A, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched two test flights of its HTV hypersonic bomber prototype, which reached Mach 20 in an August 2011 test flight before losing control.

While that 2011 HTV mission lasted nine minutes, the vehicle only demonstrated controlled flight for three minutes during the test. The HTV was also a glider vehicle, and not an air-breathing scramjet.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter?@michaeldwall?and?Google+.?Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published on?SPACE.com.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/air-forces-x-51a-hypersonic-scramjet-makes-record-214158445.html

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