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This article was first published on sister site Green Building Elements.

A novel, transparent, two-layer solar film ? possessing an impressive efficiency conversion of 7.3% ? has been created by researchers at the University of California?Los Angeles. This is about double the transparent solar cell efficiency the researchers had previously achieved.?The solar film can be placed on windows, buildings, sunroofs, electronics displays, etc; harvesting energy while still at the same time allowing light to pass through and visibility/transparency to be maintained.

The new solar film is essentially an improved form of the??breakthrough photovoltaic cell design? that the same researchers unveiled last year?? an improved form with nearly double the efficiency, that is. It consists of two thin polymer solar cells that work together to maximize sunlight collection and conversion to electricity ? the two cells absorb more light than single-layer solar devices do because together they absorb light from a wider part of the solar spectrum. There?s also a thin layer of ?novel materials? present between the two cells that works to reduce energy loss.

?New solar cells. UCLA researchers have developed photovoltaic cells with twice the energy harvesting capacity of cells developed in 2012. The cells, which can be processed to be transparent or in shades ranging from light green to brown, could be used to make building windows, smartphone screens, car sunroofs and other surfaces into sources of sustainable energy.?
Image Credit: Solar Cell, Yang Yang, 2013

The University of California?Los Angeles has more:

The tandem polymer solar cells are made of a photoactive plastic. A single-cell device absorbs only about 40% of the infrared light that passes through. The tandem device ? which includes a cell composed of a new infrared-sensitive polymer developed by UCLA researchers ? absorbs up to 80% of infrared light plus a small amount of visible light.

While a tandem-structure transparent organic photovoltaic (TOPV) device developed at UCLA in 2012 converts about 4% of the energy it receives from the sun into electric power, the new tandem device ? which uses a combination of transparent and semi-transparent cells ? achieves a conversion rate of 7.3%.

Researchers say that the new cells could serve as a power-generating layer on windows and smartphone displays without compromising users? ability to see through the surface. The cells can be produced so that they appear light gray, green or brown, and so can blend with the color and design features of buildings and surfaces.

?Using two solar cells with the new interfacial materials in between produces close to two times the energy we originally observed,? stated Yang Yang, the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr, Professor of Engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. ?We anticipate this device will offer new directions for solar cells, including the creation of solar windows on homes and office buildings.?

The researchers also note that, thanks to the fact that the materials involved can be processed at low temperatures, they are relatively easy to manufacture, as compared to most other solar cell designs. A fact that should help to keep the cost of producing them relatively low.

It all sounds pretty good. This sort of solar cell sounds like a good fit for dense urban areas, where economy of space is an important factor in decisions concerning solar energy. And as we?ve reported before, solar-skinned buildings are becoming increasingly common and should continue to do so well into the future ? leaving lots of room for new transparent solar cell designs.

The new research was funded primarily by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Office of Naval Research, and EFL Tech.?The new research was published online July 26th in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Energy & Environmental Science.

Tags: see-through solar cells, see-through solar film, Solar Cells, tandem-structure transparent organic photovoltaic, TOPV solar energy, transparent solar cells, Transparent solar film, UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, UCLA transparent solar cells doubled efficiency

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Nathan For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity. - Ecclesiastes 3:19

Source: http://cleantechnica.com/2013/07/30/transparent-solar-cells-efficiency/

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Beverly Hills Cop IV in Development Again

EXCLUSIVE: Though it recently looked like the Beverly Hills Cop saga would continue on television, Paramount Pictures has begun moving fast on another movie. The studio has enlisted Eddie Murphy to reprise his role as Axel Foley, and they?ve set Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec to write that script. That duo has done very well at the studio, with recent script credits that include Mission: Impossible?Ghost Protocol and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remake.

Related: SHOCKER: ?Beverly Hills Cop? Gets Pass At CBS, Likely To Be Shopped Elsewhere

The series began in 1984, tailor made for Murphy as the tough talking Detroit cop who was an outsider and excoriated by authority, but who was the smartest cop on the block. Martin Brest directed the first one, Tony Scott helmed the second, and the last one was directed by John Landis in 1994, back when Murphy was one of the studio?s biggest stars. The series grossed near $750 million collectively. Paramount adds that to another retro project that originated in the ?80s, a sequel to 1986?s Top Gun, which has been in limbo since the film?s director, Scott, committed suicide. Tom Cruise was ready to star at that point.

We hear the newest installment in the film franchise was fueled by the interest sparked by the Beverly Hills Cop pilot this past season. The project, written by Shawn Ryan and executive produced by Murphy and Ryan, ignited a bidding war before landing at CBS last fall where it went to a pilot starring Brandon T. Jackson as Axel?s son. Murphy reprised his role in a scene-stealing turn that had people talking. It showed that the character and Murphy?s portrayal are still pretty potent. The pilot was produced by Sony Pictures TV, with Paramount, as rights holder, coming on board after the pilot green light for what the company billed as its re-entry into television. (Paramount is restarting a TV production operation.) For whatever reason, Paramount-CBS politics or pilot testing depending who you ask, the project shockingly did not go to series. But it drew enough attention to the franchise to spawn a new movie.

Appelbaum, Nemec and Murphy are all repped by WME.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1927984/news/1927984/

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Overstock.com CEO Explains Anti-SAC Ad - Business Insider

Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne colorfully explained in his own words why he took out a full page ad in the Wall Street Journal mocking SAC Capital's Steve Cohen Saturday.

"Cohen's life work is being destroyed," he wrote in a note to Business Insider, "I feel good.?Shooting SAC Capital dead and throwing all of its employees into the streets is simply civilization scraping some dog--- off its shoe. ?I felt it was time I spent $100k on a derisive ad in order to say that."

A Federal Grand Jury indicted SAC Capital on charges of insider trading this week after years of investigation.

Meanwhile, since 2005 Byrne has been saying that powerful market actors have been working to destroy his company. In 2010 he identified them as Michael Milken and SAC's Steven Cohen.

Two years later, emails accidentally leaked by lawyers representing a number of Wall Street banks described how the banks were allegedly naked short-selling Overstock.com stock and advising their hedge fund clients on how to do the same.

SAC Capital, as you know, is one massive hedge fund client.

"Eight?years ago I was roundly criticized by coming out publicly and saying, in brief: A network of dirty hedge funds were practicing all kinds of dicey practices, including insider trading and naked short selling (and being serial killers of firms in the process)," Byrne wrote. "The SEC was not doing its job protecting our markets because it is a captured regulator, and this combination was destabilizing the system."

He continued: "Also that the mastermind, the Napoleon of crime, so to speak, was someone I initially identified as the "Sith Lord" of all that was evil and wrong on Wall Street. In the months after, I gradually dropped broader and broader public hints that I was talking about Stevie Cohen. Of course, through all of this my claims were spun,?ridiculed, and mocked."

If the documents leaked by bank lawyers are any indication, Overstock was not only being ridiculed by the media, but also by insiders at Wall Street banks. Naked short selling (or "failing" a stock) is the practice of shorting a stock that has never actually been borrowed. It's illegal, in part, because it creates fake supply of a stock, and in 2005 and 2006 Overstock.com claims naked short-selling created six times the actual supply of its stock in the market.

Someone might choose to naked short sell a stock when the stock is a?negative rebate stock ? too expensive to borrow. That's why it sounded so damning when the emails leaked from banks said things like this:

"We are NOT borrowing negatives... I have made that clear from the beginning. Why would we want to borrow them? We want to fail them," said one Merrill exec.

Now that you're clear on that, this portion of Byrne's note will make more sense (emphasis ours):

"Cohen is directly responsible for corruption in our capital markets that has cost hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people, their jobs," he said. "Now SAC has been indicted, and Cohen's life work is being destroyed, I feel good: Shooting SAC Capital dead and throwing all of its employees into the streets is simply civilization scraping some dogs--- off its shoe.?I felt it was time I spent $100k on a derisive ad in order to say that."

"Besides," Byrne added, "if you're not going to kick a man when he's down, when?are?you going to kick him?"

So that explains that, then.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/overstockcom-ceo-explains-anti-sac-ad-2013-7

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Woman wins $18.6 million for two-year battle over credit report

credit-and-debt

The Associated Press Staff

3 hours ago

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A federal jury in Oregon has awarded $18.6 million to a woman who spent two years unsuccessfully trying to get Equifax Information Services to fix major mistakes on her credit report.

Julie Miller of Marion County was awarded $18.4 million in punitive damages and $180,000 in compensatory damages, though Friday's award against one of the nation's major credit bureaus is likely to be appealed, The Oregonian reported.

The jury was told she contacted Equifax eight times between 2009 and 2011 in an effort to correct inaccuracies, including erroneous accounts and collection attempts, as well as a wrong Social Security number and birthday. Her lawsuit alleged the Atlanta-based company failed to correct the mistakes.

"There was damage to her reputation, a breach of her privacy and the lost opportunity to seek credit," said Justin Baxter, a Portland attorney who worked on the case with his father and law partner, Michael Baxter. "She has a brother who is disabled and who can't get credit on his own, and she wasn't able to help him."

Tim Klein, an Equifax spokesman, declined to comment on specifics of the case, saying he didn't have any details about the decision from the Oregon Federal District Court.

Miller discovered the problem when she was denied credit by a bank in early December 2009. She alerted Equifax and filled out multiple forms faxed by the credit agency seeking updated information. She had found similar mistakes in her reports with other credit bureaus, Baxter said, but those companies corrected their errors.

A Federal Trade Commission study earlier this year of 1,001 consumers who reviewed 2,968 of their credit reports found 21 percent contained errors. The survey found that 5 percent of the errors represented issues that would lead consumers to be denied credit.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2f3d72f9/sc/8/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cwoman0Ewins0E180E60Emillion0Etwo0Eyear0Ebattle0Eover0Ecredit0E6C10A772195/story01.htm

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Bradley Manning trial: Leakers Julian Assange and Daniel Ellsberg weigh in

Bradley Manning is a patriot responsible for 'the most influential leak in history,' WikiLeaks' Assange argues. Ellsberg warns the trial has grave consequences for democracy and journalism.

By Anna Mulrine,?Staff writer / July 26, 2013

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted out of a courthouse at Fort Mead, Md, Thursday. Charged with indirectly aiding the enemy by sending troves of classified material to WikiLeaks, Manning faces up to life in prison.

Cliff Owen/AP

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The outcome of the Pfc. Bradley Manning trial has broad and grave consequences for America as a democracy, warns Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the classified Vietnam-era Pentagon Papers some 40 years ago, exposing widespread governmental misconduct.

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Mr. Manning, the Army intelligence analyst who released some 700,000 classified documents online, is charged with violating the Espionage Act and aiding the enemy and could face life in prison.

In a conference call with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Friday afternoon, Mr. Ellsberg pointed out that President Obama has charged twice as many people under the Espionage Act as all previous presidents.

Yet Manning, rather than someone interested in aiding America?s enemies, is a patriot responsible for ?without a doubt the most influential leak in history,? Mr. Assange argues.?

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki cited documents given by Manning to WikiLeaks in his decision not to renew a Status of Forces Agreement with the US military, which in turn led to the formal end of the Iraq War, Assange noted.?

According to Amnesty International, the leaks were one of the leading factors in triggering protests that led to the Arab Spring, he added.

Mr. Ellsberg also reiterated warnings about the chilling impact the Manning trial could have on journalism and the interpretation of the First Amendment protecting freedom of the press.

?If the ?aiding the enemy? charge is permitted to stand, this case will forever change the ability of journalists to reveal the most important crimes of the state,? and, in so doing, to change the course of US foreign policy with which the public might disagree.

That?s because the US government is increasingly naming journalists as co-conspirators in whistle-blowing cases, Assange argues, which in turn has the effect of embroiling journalists in prosecutions that could potentially carry the death penalty.?

?It directly connects journalists and publishers into the Obama administration?s new attempt to define journalism about national security as conspiracy to commit espionage.??

If Manning is found guilty of aiding the enemy ?it will be the end of national security journalism in the US,? he adds, ?at a time it is needed the most.??

The US government?s disregard for the press has been evident in its treatment of journalists covering the Manning trial, Ellsberg said further, noting that armed US troops have been patrolling the courtroom.

In a Twitter feed Thursday, New York Times reporter Charlie Savage wrote, ?Creepy having armed MPs [military police] in camo [camouflage] patrolling behind each row of reporters and looking over shoulders as we take notes on Manning trial.??

Ellsberg and Assange pushed back, too, against the picture painted by US government prosecutors of Manning as an attention-seeker interested in basking in the glory of his WikiLeaks revelations.

To make their case that he was hungry for glory rather than an intelligence analyst with a conscience, the prosecution, for example, cited a note from Manning to a colleague in which he wrote, ?If you had unprecedented access to classified networks, 14 hours a day, seven days a week ? for eight plus months ? what would you do?

Yet defense attorney David Coombs argued that prosecutors intentionally left out far more relevant writings from Manning, in particular one in which he asked the same colleague, ?Hypothetical question: If you had free reign over classified networks over a long period of time ? if you saw incredible things, horrible things, things that belonged in the public domain and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington, D.C. ? what would you do??

Given this reasoning, Manning is a ?hero,? Ellsberg says. ?He doesn?t owe a debt to society, in my opinion. Society owes a debt to him.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/XX-6cleoSLM/Bradley-Manning-trial-Leakers-Julian-Assange-and-Daniel-Ellsberg-weigh-in

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NCAA requests that Paterno family lawsuit be dismissed

From our ?no kidding? file, we bring you the following.

In a release, the NCAA has requested the lawsuit filed by the?estate of Joe Paterno and others in late May be dismissed ?due to a lack of legal standing, a failure to add necessary defendants, and various significant legal deficiencies.? The request comes a year to the day after?NCAA president Mark Emmert was given unprecedented authority to?levy numerous sanctions against Penn State?in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and the Freeh Report which followed.

You can read more of the NCAA?s request HERE.

The Paterno family?s lawsuit claims, among other things, that Emmert and the NCAA essentially?forced Penn State?s hand into signing a consent decree for sanctioning based on the Freeh Report. By doing so, the plaintiffs believe the NCAA failed to follow its own rules. The Association, as one would expect, objects to that line of thought.

?Penn State leaders determined the consent decree was the best course for the university and its community to put the devastating Sandusky affair behind them,? Donald Remy, the NCAA?s?Chief Legal Officer, writes.?Those who continue to challenge Penn State?s right to make that decision only prolong the pain and delay the recovery.?

A judge already dismissed a case filed by Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett?which?asked for the NCAA sanctions to be overturned. While the Paterno family suit seeks some similar results, it?s nearly impossible to tell if it will wind up with the same fate as Corbett?s suit.

Source: http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/07/23/ncaa-requests-that-paterno-family-lawsuit-be-dismissed/

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Eagan: Tom Brady should follow coach?s lead

When a man is murdered ? and your superstar tight end is charged with the killing ? business as ?usual is out the window.

Bill Belichick showed he understood that yesterday. The coach who?s become a caricature of brusque, monosyllabic obnoxiousness spoke with what seemed like genuine pain and sadness.

?A young man lost his life and his family suffered a tragic loss and there?s no way to understand that,? he told reporters.

Today, Tom Brady will be on the firing line in Foxboro.

In his only statement so far on the slaying of Odin Lloyd and the arrest of Aaron Hernandez, Brady told Sports Illustrated?s Peter King, ?I?m focusing on the great teammates I have who are committed to helping us win games. The only thing I care about is winning. Nothing is going to ever get in the way of that goal.?

The superstar quarterback said he?s ?moved on? from the Hernandez mess.

Well, he can?t.

Not yet.

When Brady and his fellow team captains face the media today ? the first time they?ll be pressed on the Hernandez case ? they should follow Belichick?s lead. Forget football. Forget who?ll replace Hernandez in the team?s quest for another Super Bowl championship.

Hernandez is under investigation not just for one murder, but three. And in new court documents, Hernandez?s friend Carlos Ortiz ? arrested, too, in connection with Lloyd?s murder ? said Hernandez?s Franklin ?flop house? was a favorite stomping ground for other football players.

The line to date is that Hernandez did not socialize with other Patriots. So were those football players Hernandez?s teammates from high school or college? Semi-pro players from Lloyd?s Boston team? Or a Patriot player, or two, who have since distanced themselves from the man now under investigation for the murder of two young Cape Verdeans last year in Boston?s South End?

These are questions that are likely to be fired at Brady and his fellow Patriots captains this morning.

I hope Tom Brady ? known as much for his nice-guy charm as Belichick is for his glum demeanor ? figures out that the football boilerplate he gave to Peter King won?t cut it at today?s press conference.

Surprisingly, unexpectedly, defying nearly all prognosticators, the sour and sullen Bill Belichick set the bar for leadership yesterday.

Tom Brady needs to meet it.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bostonherald/sports/football/patriots/~3/O8GNNTuozhg/eagan_tom_brady_should_follow_coach_s_lead

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Stocks wilt as weak factory data offsets strong earnings

stocks

JeeYeon Park CNBC

2 hours ago

Stocks finished flat in lackluster trading Tuesday, but the Dow posted a fresh closing high, as investors weighed a handful of upbeat earnings against a weak regional factory report.

(Read more: Four stocks Wall Street is keeping to itself )

"This week, we're entirely focused on a market that is luckily treating earnings on a case-by-case basis," said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets. "You've got a general market trend where investors are comfortable with stocks for now?for now, we've a better understanding of Fed tapering means."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished 22 points higher at 15,567.74. United Tech gained, while Travelers slumped. The blue-chip index traded in a tight 60-point range.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed slightly lower. Earlier, the S&P 500 traded within two points of touching the 1,700-point mark. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, dipped near 12.

(Read more: 'Walking Dead' market: Why the rally keeps going)

Among key S&P sectors, telecoms led the gainers, while consumer staples dipped.

DuPont rallied after the chemical company edged past earnings expectations by a cent and said it is exploring selling its performance chemicals unit. Fellow Dow component United Technologies rose after the multinational conglomerate beat profit estimates and lifted the lower end of its yearly forecast and said it is well positioned for a return to organic growth in the second half of the year.

So far this quarter, technology has been one of the most disappointing sectors so far, with results from Microsoft, Google, and Intel missing analysts' forecasts.

(Read More: Earnings deluge begins today?here's what to expect)

On the economic front, manufacturing activity in the central Atlantic region contracted in July, dropping to minus 11 from a downward revised plus 7 in June, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. Above zero indicates an expansion.

Treasury prices remained lower after the government auctioned $35 billion in 2-year notes at a high yield of 0.336 percent. The bid-to-cover ratio, an indicator of demand, was 3.08, versus a recent average of 3.54.

In global markets, Chinese stocks boosted shares across Asia following market rumors that China could take stimulus measures to boost its economy.

Chinese shares outperformed after state newspaper Beijing News reported that Chinese Premier Li Keqiang had said the government would not allow the country's gross domestic product growth to fall below 7 percent.

Comments from China's vice-premier, Zhang Gaoli, also bolstered sentiment this week. He reiterated Beijing's commitment to supporting the export and services industries, while steering the economy towards consumer-oriented growth, according to Reuters.

The Shanghai Composite rallied 2 percent on Tuesday, while the Hang Seng Index jumped 2.5 percent. Elsewhere, South Korea'sKospi hit a five-week high.

"Momentum remains positive for equities, which were given a further boost this morning as Premier Li confirmed that the minimum level for growth in China would be 7 percent, raising the potential prospect of stimulus measures to support the Chinese economy and its bottom line growth target," said Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2f0fa80b/sc/2/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cstocks0Ewilt0Eweak0Efactory0Edata0Eoffsets0Estrong0Eearnings0E6C10A713867/story01.htm

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Harassment claim is latest blow to San Diego mayor

SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Irene McCormack Jackson says she endured months of harassment from Mayor Bob Filner while serving as his communications director, and the turning point came at a staff meeting in June when another top aide confronted the mayor over his behavior and quit.

"You are running a terrible office. You are treating women in a horrible manner. What you are doing may even be illegal," Allen Jones, then Filner's deputy chief of staff and a longtime confidante, is quoted saying in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by McCormack.

McCormack chimed in, "I agree with Allen. You are horrible." When the mayor challenged her for an example, she said she replied, "How about when you said that I should take my panties off and work without them."

The episode is described in the lawsuit McCormack filed Monday against Filner, dealing another blow to San Diego's first Democratic leader in 20 years. His own party appears split on his leadership, though many Democrats have joined Republicans in calling for the former 10-term congressman to resign less than eight months into a four-year term.

McCormack is the first person to publicly identify herself as a target of Filner's advances, suing nearly two weeks after some of the mayor's prominent former supporters said he sexually harassed women and demanded he resign.

Filner rejected McCormack's claims in a brief statement that once again signaled he had no plans to step down. He didn't address any specific allegations.

"I do not believe these claims are valid. That is why due process is so important. I intend to defend myself vigorously and I know that justice will prevail," he said.

McCormack worked for nine years at the Port of San Diego, most recently earning $175,000 a year as vice president of public policy, and was previously a journalist for 25 years. She took an annual pay cut of $50,000 to join Filner's inner circle in January.

U-T San Diego, the city's dominant newspaper and her onetime employer, editorialized that she came across as "composed and highly credible" at a news conference Monday with her high-profile attorney, Gloria Allred.

"She is well-known, liked and respected in the city's political, business and media circles," the newspaper wrote in an editorial that concluded, "Unless there is a dramatic development helping Filner, we suspect the conventional wisdom about the difficulty of mounting a successful mayoral recall will soon change."

The lawsuit brought renewed calls from two city councilmen for Filner to step aside. Kevin Faulconer and Todd Gloria said the mayor's office was paralyzed.

"This is taking critical attention from the issues that affect San Diego families," said Gloria, a Democrat who, as council president, would be interim mayor if Filner resigned.

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/01/don-mattrick-leaving-microsoft/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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A UK Minister Just Broke the Electric Car Land Speed Record

If there are two things in this world that folks just do not respect, it's the US Congress and the obscene amounts of torque that an electric engine can produce. And like its two-wheeled brethren, the Lola B12 69/EV has more than enough torque to spare. Enough, even, to propel a former UK government official to over 200 MPH and into the history books.

The Lola B12 69/EV is built by Drayson Racing Technologies (as in Lord Drayson?he's also the company CEO and former minister for the Labour government) in Kidlington, Oxfordshire. The firm has been in operation since 2007 and focuses on sustainable automotive technology, demonstrating its latest advancements through the firm's race team.

And to demonstrate the potential of electric vehicles, Dayton just went ahead and set a land speed record last week at RAF Elvington in Yorkshire. There, the Lola B12 69/EV hit a top speed of 204.2 MPH, beating the previous 175 MPH record set in 1974 by a General Electric Battery Box car.

To do so, the Drayson team had to modify an existing Le Mans prototype that used a bio-ethanol engine with a 20 kWh (850 HP) electric power plant and modified the recycled carbon fiber chassis to minimize drag and to get it under the 1,000 kg limit to qualify for the FIA (Federation Internationale de l?Automobile) record.

"What it, I hope, shows to people is just what the future potential of electric cars is,? Drayson told the BBC. ?[It] is a pointer to the future ? the technology that we developed for this car will filter down to the cars we use every day.?

While the presence of Google's Eric Schmidt might lead to dreams of driverless car races, Drayson racing will be sticking with human drivers for the time being. In fact Lord Drayson is working to start up a new FIA Formula E competition (open only to electric vehicles) for the 2014 season. Reportedly the races will be 45 minutes long and won't include traditional pit stops. Since you can't very well recharge or swap a battery in a pit stop, racers will instead hop out of the expired car, run 100 meters (which is going to be hilarious), and get into a freshly charged car. Each racer will race three separate cars and get two pits per race. No word yet on whether they'll be allowed to pit for tire changes.

The races are set to start in London in the fall of next year, followed by Rome, Miami, Beijing, Rio de Janeiro (if Brazilian society hasn't collapsed by then) and three other TBD locales. Hopefully they'll be traveling from venue to venue by more conventional means. [Extreme Tech - BBC]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-uk-minister-just-broke-the-electric-car-land-speed-re-613121273

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Syrian fighter jets hit central city of Homs

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian warplanes and ground forces bombarded rebel-held neighborhoods in Homs on Saturday as part of the military's campaign to push opposition fighters out of the country's third largest city, activists said.

The army of President Bashar Assad has been on the offensive in recent weeks, reclaiming some of the territory it has lost to the rebels in the past year.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes hit two districts in the center of the city, a rebel stronghold since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. It said the army also fired mortar shells into the neighborhoods.

An activist from one of those neighborhoods, Khaldiya, said tanks were also involved in the bombardment, and that the military was trying to push into the area from all sides.

Shelling has been continuous since 10 a.m. in that area and in nearby Old Homs, activist Tariq Bardakhan told The Associated Press via Skype.

"Today is one of the most violent days that Homs has witnessed since the beginning of the revolution," he said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the fighting. Syrian state TV said the army has had "great success" in the battle for Homs after "killing many terrorists in the Khaldiya district."

Syrian state media refers to rebels fighting to oust Assad from power as "terrorists" and say they are mercenaries of the West and their Gulf Arab allies who are conspiring against Damascus.

The Observatory says more than 100,000 people have been killed in the Syrian conflict since it began as peaceful protests against the Assad regime more than two years ago. It has become an armed rebellion in the past year after the opposition supporters took up arms to fight the government crackdown.

The United Nations puts the number of civil war casualties at 93,000.

The military has gained momentum after capturing the key town of Qusair outside Homs earlier this month with the help of fighters from Lebanon's Hezbollah group, capturing villages on the roads linking the capital to the border area with Jordan and Lebanon.

The rebels have also claimed some victories, marking a successful end to a two-week battle in the south Friday by capturing an army checkpoint in the city of Daraa, the provincial capital of the region that carries the same name.

Daraa is the birthplace of the uprising against Assad and rebels hope to one day launch an offensive from the area to take the capital.

The Observatory reported heavy fighting around the province on Saturday with clashes between the rebels and army troops concentrated in the town of Jassem after the army brought reinforcements.

___

Associated Press writer Yasmin Saker in Beirut contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-fighter-jets-hit-central-city-homs-092130939.html

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