More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal

More carmakers caught in headlights of VW engine-rigging scandal
Volkswagen has admitted it installed illegal software into 11 million 2.0 liter and 3.0 liter diesel engines worldwide (AFP Photo/Josh Edelson)

Volkswagen emissions scandal

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission

Iran's 'catastrophic mistake': Speculation, pressure, then admission
Analsyts say it is irresponsible to link the crash of a Ukraine International Airline Boeing 737-800 to the 737 MAX accidents (AFP Photo/INA FASSBENDER)

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts

Missing MH370 likely to have disintegrated mid-flight: experts
A Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 commercial jet.

QZ8501 (AirAsia)

Leaders see horror of French Alps crash as probe gathers pace

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Video: Elektra One All-Electric Plane Makes Successful Maiden Flight

Meanwhile, jet contrails found to be a worse climate-change culprit than carbon

POPSCI, By Clay Dillow, 03.30.2011


ELEKTRA ONE via PS-Aero


German company PC-Aero is trying to win NASA’s CAFE Green Flight Challenge, and Saturday they took a big step toward doing just that. The company’s ELEKTRA ONE aircraft, designed by PC-Aero’s founder and president Calin Gologan, made its successful first flight. But this one-seater isn’t your average single-prop. ELEKTRA ONE flies on electricity alone.

The Green Flight Challenge seeks a demo aircraft that can fly 200 miles in less than two hours on the energy equivalent of less than one gallon of fuel per person. ELEKTRA ONE didn’t push the envelope that far just yet--the maiden flight hit a ceiling just above 1600 feet and lasted just 30 minutes, burning just half the 6 kWh stored up in its batteries. But the fact that the lightweight aircraft was able to comfortably circle the airfield for half an hour-- more or less silently, we might add--is nothing short of impressive.

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And the timing for such a flight couldn’t be better. A study released Tuesday claims that airplane contrails--those long, white condensation trails jets leave in the sky--may warm the planet more on the average day than all of the carbon emissions spewed from airplanes in the history of modern aviation.

The carbon lingers longer of course--the contrails and any heat-trapping cirrus clouds they cause dissipate in hours or days, while the carbon remains for decades--but still, that’s a lot heat being trapped on any given day. Electric planes, as you may have surmised, wouldn’t contribute to warming on either front. See ELEKTRA ONE take flight in the video below.




Saturday, March 26, 2011

Lawmaker Involved in Another Plane Seat Incident

Jakarta Globe, March 26, 2011

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Indonesian Twitter users woke up on Satuday to an early morning plane seat mix-up incident that ended with lawmaker Roy Suryo being asked to leave a Lion Air flight.

Twitter user @ernestprakasa said he boarded the 6:15 a.m. flight to Yogyakarta with his friend only to find their seats occupied by the Democrat Party lawmaker and his wife.

“When it was checked, it turned out that Roy Suryo's tickets were for the 7:45 flight, instead of 6.15 a.m. but he refused to leave the plane, dropping the name of Lion Air's director,” Ernest wrote.

Ernest said he and his friend decided to just leave the plane, but suddenly some of the other passengers shouted, “Don't let officials beat you!” and “Hey, Roy Suryo, don't pull a Nurdin Halid. You must step down now!”

In the midst of the chaos, the pilot, identified only as Capt. Vino, came out to the cabin to ask what was going on because the flight was already 15 minutes late.

After receiving an explanation from a flight attendant, the captain walked into the cockpit, grabbed his bag and angrily walked over to the plane's door, cursing government officials as he did so.

The captain refused to take off if Ernest and his friend were not on the plane.

Shortly after, a group of airport officers approached Roy Suryo, and the lawmaker finally got up and apologized to the passengers.

“I am sorry for having disturbed your flight,” he said, to the applause of the passengers.

After Suryo left, the captain returned to the cockpit and started the take-off procedure.

However, Suryo said he was simply a victim of Lion Air's mistake.

“Tweeps, I was the one who became the bigger man and took the blame for Lion Air's mistake in the double-seat incident. As the people's representative, I know ethics require me to apologize and prioritize others,” he wrote on his Twitter account.

Roy claimed Lion Air has apologized to him for the "miscommunication."

Lion Air refused to comment on the incident, saying they will verify the flight documents first.


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Monday, March 21, 2011

Boeing's new 747 completes first test flight

Reuters, SEATTLE | Sun Mar 20, 2011

The Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental taxis down the runway before its maiden
 flight from Paine Field, in Everett, Washington, March 20, 2011.
(Credit: REUTERS/Robert Sorbo)

(Reuters) - Boeing Co's 747-8 Intercontinental, the new passenger version of its legendary jumbo jet, completed its maiden flight without a hitch on Sunday, marking a key milestone for the aircraft model more closely associated with Boeing than any other plane.

The behemoth began its first test flight from Boeing's Paine Field north of Seattle into clear blue skies at 9:58 a.m. local time. The take-off, witnessed by thousands of Boeing employees and aviation enthusiasts, occurred almost 42 years after the first flight of the original 747, which later became one of the most recognized planes in the world.

After almost four and half hours in the air, the red and white plane landed safely at Boeing Field just south of central Seattle.

The 747-8 Intercontinental will seat 467 passengers, 51 more than the current version of the 747. It promises to burn less fuel and offer more passenger comforts. The plane also boasts new wings, a new tail, state-of-the-art engines and a new cockpit.

The 747 was the world's largest airplane until 2005, when Airbus unveiled its 525-seat A380.

Boeing has taken orders for 33 747-8 passenger planes, according to the company website on Friday. The plane lists at $317.5 million.

Germany's Lufthansa has ordered 20 of the planes, and is set to be the first airline to bring the new jumbo into service early next year.

Production of the new 747 has been delayed as has the mid-sized 787 Dreamliner, a carbon-composite plane, which represents a bigger leap in technology than the revamped 747-8.

The stronger-selling freighter version of the 747 has already flown and is due to be delivered in mid-2011 -- 18 months later than first planned. Boeing has sold more than 70 747-8 freighters.

(Reporting by Bill Rigby in Seattle and Kyle Peterson in Chicago; Editing by Diane Craft)

Friday, March 18, 2011

Nissan scanning vehicles for radioactive material


CNN News, From Kyung Lah, March 18, 2011

Nissan Motors' pickup trucks line up for export to the Middle East
area as a freighter approaches to the Nissan pier at the Yokohama
port, Kanagawa prefecture, 15 September 2006.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • A company official says the measures aim to "reassure the public"
  • The monitoring for radioactive material started this week
  • Some Nissan production remains suspended

  
Tokyo (CNN) -- Nissan has started scanning vehicles made in Japan for traces of radioactive material, a company official said Friday.

"Looking ahead, we will continue to implement all appropriate measures to reassure the public that all products from our company remain within globally accepted safety standards and until we are confident that any risk of contamination is completely removed," said Simon Sproule, corporate vice president of marketing for Nissan Motor Company.

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Sproule said the monitoring began this week.

Sources inside the company said there is virtually no risk of contamination from a car and no potential health risk to customers, but testing began because of public concern.

Production at several Nissan facilities remains suspended after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake damaged plants and equipment on March 11, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Storm Chaos Reignites Calls for Relocation of  the Capital

The Jakarta Post, Dessy Sagita & Arientha Primanita | March 18, 2011

A tree collapsed in front of National Police headquarter in South Jakarta
on Wednesday. Extreme weather in the capital saw hail falling from the
sky, trees uprooted, widespread surface flooding and damage to the
exclusive Senayan City in South Jakarta. (JG Photo/Farouk Arnaz)
Related articles

The Jakarta administration is organizing compensation for vehicles and structures damaged by Wednesday’s freak weather, but frustrated Jakartans say more is needed: a capital relocation.

“Jakarta is under pressures it can no longer handle,” said Andrinof Chaniago, a public policy expert from the University of Indonesia, raising once again the debate of whether Indonesia needs to move its capital.

The sever weather on Wednesday afternoon quickly flooded roads throughout the capital, downed 42 trees and broke off branches from at least 100 more, damaging several cars and buildings in the process.

Catharina Suryowati, head of Jakarta’s Parks and Cemeteries Office , said the city would compensate the owners of each unit damaged by the trees with Rp 10 million ($1,140) each. “To claim it, the owners must give visual evidence in the form of photos, a police letter and the vehicle documents, while for buildings or houses, they must attach a letter from their neighborhood heads,” she said, adding that claims would be accepted for two months.

She acknowledged that more than 2,000 of the 70,000 trees in the city are at risk of collapse. “The trees are old, sick, rotten or tilting by more than 30 degrees. The trees’ trunks are prone to be broken,” she said.

Hari Sasongko Kushadi, head of the city’s Building Control and Monitoring Office, said owners of cars damaged by four collapsed billboards could also make claims with the city’s Tax Office against the sign owners.

Nirwono Joga, an urban planner from Trisakti University, said the city administration was always reactive to incidents like this, but rarely made attempts to prevent incidents. “It is not the trees’ faults but the planning of the trees planters,” he said.

But Andrinof said the problem was insufficient infrastructure and services creaking under the weight of a growing population.

Jakarta has become a magnet for people across the country because it is the center for both government and business. “It is now time to consider separating these two functions,” he said.

Intan Wibisono, a public relations consultant, agreed. “If the center of administration is relocated, development will spread to another part of the country and people wouldn’t flock to Jakarta,” she said. “It’s going to be a very big investment, and I know the transition period is going to be chaotic and painful, but it might pay off in the long run.”

The price of inaction, Andrinof said, was expensive for Jakartans who are forced to spend more for gas and medical costs. “Not to mention, wasting hours on the road makes people aggressive; Jakarta is full of angry, impatient people,” he said.

Emil Hartanto, an office worker who rides a motorbike from his house in Depok to his office in Pancoran, South Jakarta, every day, knows this all too well. “When you spend hours in the maze of traffic, your mood is ruined, you arrive in the office tired and grumpy, with not much energy left to stay productive,” he said.

The capital urgently needs to be relocated, Andrinof said. “There is no way to catch up, a breakthrough must happen,” he added.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Extreme Weather Causes Havoc in Jakarta

Jakarta Globe, March 16, 2011


The damaged Senayan City mall. Extreme weather in the capital on
Wednesday saw hail falling from the sky, trees uprooted, widespread
surface flooding and damage to the exclusive Senayan City in South
Jakarta. (Photo Amanda Valani)

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Extreme weather in the capital on Wednesday saw hail falling from the sky, trees uprooted, widespread surface flooding and damage to the exclusive Senayan City in South Jakarta.

Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) forcaster Bunga confirmed that hail had fallen in the Senayan and Thamrin areas in the central capital.

Bunga said hail would fall on rare occasions in Jakarta during the transition between the wet and dry seasons.

“It is also triggered by extreme weather like we are experiencing now,” she said.

Trees had also blown over throughout the capital, including at the Al Azhar Islamic School, Bunga said.

Miraculously, there no injuries when a tree was flown over at National Police headquarters, damaging 14 cars at 3 p.m.

Heavy winds also caused panels from the outside of Senayan City mall to peel away from the building. The ceiling to the Brewhouse cafe on the ground floor also collapsed. There were a number of shocked customers but no injuries.

Afdita Sari, a public relations consultant, said the hailstorm caused damage to buildings in the Senopati area in South Jakarta.

She said the thumb-sized hail broke windows in her office building at 3 p.m.

“My colleagues and I rushed out the building because of the clanking on the roof,” she said. “We saw ice pellets falling from the sky and the hailstorm lasted for about 15 minutes.”

Afdita said the hailstorm was followed by strong winds that lasted for 10 minutes.

“It was the first hail I’ve seen — very scary.”

She said a stall selling cigarettes in front of her building was damaged when a tree was blown over on top of it.

Bunga said the bad weather would continue tonight.

The Traffic Management Center said traffic from the Jalan Sudirman traffic circle to Senayan was at a standstill.

“Take the TransJakarta bus if you must,” the center said on its Web site.

The traffic is expected to be heavy this evening.


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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Flight ban imposed within 30km of Fukushima nuclear plant

Antara News, Tue, March 15 2011

Tokyo (ANTARA News) - The transport ministry banned aircraft on Tuesday from flying within 30 kilometers of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture, following a deepening crisis that has developed into brief leaks ofhigh-level radiation.

The move, imposed under the Civil Aeronautics Law, excludes aircraft engaged in search and rescue operations, and is not expected to have a large impact on scheduled commercial flights in the country, according to the Land, Infrastructure,Transport and Tourism Ministry.

Similar irregular flight bans have been imposed three times before, including one for the Group of Eight summit meeting in Hokkaido in 2008 and another for meetings of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Yokohama last October, Kyodo reported.

Editor: Suryanto

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Monday, March 7, 2011

Plane Forced to Land For Flying Without Permission

Jakarta Globe, Rahmat, March 07, 2011

Makassar. A charter plane headed for Malaysia was forced to land in Sulawesi on Monday for flying over Indonesia without proper permission.

The plane landed at Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport in Makassar, South Sulawesi, at 1.50 p.m. on Monday.

The were 49 passengers, all of which are Pakistani policemen who are serving in East Timor as part of the peacekeeping troops, and five crew members on board. They have been questioned by the authorities.

First Air Marshal Agus Supriatna, the commander of the airport, said the plane was a Boeing 737-300 owned by Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

“The airport radar detected the plane at 12 a.m. and the crew didn’t communicate with the control tower,” Agus told the Jakarta Globe.

He instructed a Sukhoi plane to chase the Boeing and force it to land at the airport.

“The plane landed at 1.50 p.m. It was piloted by Captain Tariq Khalil ur Rehman Awan,” he said, adding the plane took off from Dili, East Timor, and was headed for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The plane allegedly flew over Indonesia without fulfilling three requirements — namely diplomatic clearance, security clearance and flight approval.

“Every plane planning to fly over a foreign country must meet these three requirements,” Agus said.

The plane was parked at the airport while the crew and passengers were questioned by the airport authority, immigration and officials from the Indonesian Air Force.

“We have filed a report to the Malaysian Embassy, the Foreign Ministry and the Transportation Ministry to help the plane fulfill the clearances,” Agus said.


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Adjust your compass now: the north pole is migrating to Russia

Movement of the magnetic north is causing problems for aviation, navigation and wildlife

The Independent, by Guy Adams in Los Angeles, Sunday, 6 March 2011

It sounds unlikely but it's true: the magnetic north pole is moving faster than at any time in human history, threatening everything from the safety of modern transport systems to the traditional navigation routes of migrating animals.

Scientists say that magnetic north, which for two centuries has been in the icy wilderness of Canada, is currently relocating towards Russia at a rate of about 40 miles a year. The speed of its movement has increased by a third in the past decade, prompting speculation that the field could be about to "flip", causing compasses to invert and point south rather than north, something that happens between three and seven times every million years.

Already the phenomenon is causing problems in the field of aviation. Tampa International airport in Florida has just spent a month renaming its three runways, which in common with those at most US airports are identified using numbers that correspond to the direction, in degrees, that they face on a compass. "Everything had to be changed; it was a huge project," Brenda Geoghagan, a spokeswoman for the airport, said.

The current rate of magnetic north's movement away from Canada's Ellesmere Island is throwing out compasses by roughly one degree every five years, prompting the US Federal Aviation Administration to re-evaluate runway names across the country every five years. Similar changes were recently made to runways at Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach.

Geologists believe that magnetic north pole (which is different from the true North Pole, the axis on which the Earth spins) moves around due to changes in the planet's molten core, which contains liquid iron. They first located it in 1831, and have been attrying to follow its progress ever since.

Records indicate that the pole's location barely moved in the early decades, but in about 1904, it began tracking north-east at a rate of about nine miles a year. That speed increased significantly from about 1989, possibly because of a "plume" of magnetism deep below ground. The pole is now believed to be heading towards Siberia at about 37 miles each year. "Earth's magnetic field is changing in time. And as far as we know, it has always been changing in time," geophysicist Jeffrey Love of the US Geological Survey in Colorado told Discovery News, which investigated the issue last week.

GPS systems, which rely on satellites, have replaced compasses as the means by which the majority of professional navigators orientate themselves. But compasses are still valuable, and are widely used by hikers and other amateur map-readers. In some environments, such as underwater or beneath ground, which cannot be reached by satellite signals, they remain the only option. The oil industry, which uses magnets to determine which angle it should drill into the earth, needs to keep track of the exact location of magnetic north.

Birds that fly south for the winter, along with migratory sea creatures, could face confusion. Long-living animals, such as whales and turtles, may in future be required to recalibrate their navigational instincts.

Despite the cost and inconvenience of altering runway names, not to mention the indignity of losing magnetic north to Russia, inhabitants of North America stand to benefit from the changes in at least one respect: it will give them more opportunities to observe the aurora borealis.

No one can predict the impact of "polar reversal", during which magnetic north and south reverse, since one hasn't happened for 780,000 years, the longest stable period in the past 5 million years. Some geologists think we could be about to find out, though: they believe that the current changes to magnetic north could be the early stages of a "flip". But Mr Love says we shouldn't be too concerned. "Reversals typically take about 10,000 years to happen," he said. "And 10,000 years ago civilisation did not exist. These processes are slow, and therefore we don't have anything to worry about."

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