See a saber duel through Darth Vader's eyes

What would a lightsaber battle look like from Darth Vader's perspective? A fun video gives you the chance to see.

In the "Star Wars" universe, Jedi and Sith usually settle a score with a good old-fashioned lightsaber duel. Even though all six movies featured lengthy confrontations filled with sizzling sabers, George Lucas never showed an angle of how that type of fight would appear through the eyes of a dueler.

This sapphire smartphone screen is strong, strong, strong

Want a phone screen that really won't break? Make it out of tougher stuff than glass.

BARCELONA, Spain--The smartphone screen on the iPhone above may look like it's made of glass, but it isn't. It's made of sapphire. That's right, the same aluminum oxide compound(AL₂O₃) better known for brilliant blue gemstones that dangle from ears and throats and can cost a small fortune.

But this particular screen bears little resemblance to Earth-mined rock. Synthetically grown from a "mother" or starter crystal, companies that manufacture synthetic sapphire melt and cut the material (with diamond-tipped saws) into wafers, sheets, you name it.

Man-and-woman Mars trip by 2018? Can you say 'couples counseling'?

Wealthy space buff makes serious announcement about sending a man and woman on a bare-bones flyby past the Red Planet. But building a cheap, reliable spacecraft in five years is just one issue facing planners.

A wealthy space tourist announced plans today to launch a high-risk manned flight to Mars in 2018, sending a man and a woman on a bare-bones 501-day round-trip flyby, passing just 100 miles above the Red Planet before heading back to Earth.

China blames U.S. for most cyberattacks against military Web sites

China's Defense Ministry claims that almost two-thirds of the cyberattacks against its military sites have come from the United States.

China has accused the U.S. for most of the cyberattacks launched against its own military networks.

In a statement released today, China's Ministry of National Defense said thatcyberattacks against its military sites have increased over the past few years. Based on checks of IP addresses, the Defense Ministry claimed an average of 144,000 cyberattacks per month last year, according to Reuters.

And it fingered the U.S. for almost 63 percent of them.

Our Milky Way's giant black hole

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, has captured these first, focused views of the supermassive black hole at the heart of our galaxy in high-energy X-ray light. The background image, taken in infrared light, shows the location of our Milky Way's humongous black hole, called Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A* for short. NuSTAR is the first telescope to be able to focus high-energy X-rays, giving astronomers a new tool for probing extreme objects such as black holes. 

GIF of the Day: Volcanic eruption seen from the ISS

On June 12, 2009, astronauts aboard the International Space Station just happened to pass over Sarychev Peak. The volcano, located in Russa's Kuril Islands, was just beginning to erupt when this image was captured.

GPS walking cane makes sure the elderly never get lost

Japanese companies are coming up with a number of ways to make aging gracefully a tech-powered breeze, but many senior citizens are still uncomfortable with the idea of strapping on anexoskeleton or using robot companions to make life easier. However, a new device from Fujitsu called the Next Generation Cane may prove to be hit by embedding cutting-edge technology into a familiar form. 

Vimeo users can now jazz up their videos with over 500 filters

These days, anyone can become a video editing wizard with easy-to-use apps like iMovie. But getting the right "Hollywood-style effect" still requires some advanced technical know-how. It's a good thing Vimeo just updated its Enhancer toolbox with over 500 "high quality, stylistic visual effects" for users to play around with.

Arrow exec explains latest shocking, secret identity reveal

To be a “secret” identity, the list of people who know about Oliver Queen’s (Stephen Amell) alter ego on Arrow is getting longer by the minute. But the latest reveal might just be the most surprising yet. Spoilers ahead!

Budget Cuts Will Mean Delays for Burials at Arlington Cemetery

The cuts to the military budget scheduled to take effect for Friday can seem abstract — or even, sometimes, breathless. But one impact will be a somber one: The cuts will mean delays for veteran funerals at Arlington National Cemetery.

Army’s Demonic Numbers for Budget Cuts: 6, 6, and 6

The entire U.S. military is terrified of the impending budget cuts scheduled to hit Friday. But the Army thinks the cuts are demonic.

“The fiscal crisis that we face today can be summed up by three numbers: six, six and six,” Maj. Gen. Karen E. Dyson, the director of the Army’s budget office, told reporters on Wednesday. Seriously.

Kenyan boy invents system to protect cattle from lion attacks

Richard Turere is a 13 year old Maasai boy who, since age nine, has had to help protect the family cattle herd from lions. But there's only so much you can do to keep a lion from eating a cow, and often the lions would attack in the middle of the night when there was no way to stop them. However, Richard noticed that if he walked around the cattle pen with a flashlight, the lions would stay away, so a couple of years ago, he came up with an automated lighting system to deter the attacks.

Is Your Kid Addicted to the iPad?

You need not look any further than YouTube to see young kids hooked on their parents' iPad. Frustrated parents are posting video of their toddlers demanding the high-tech tablets.

You might have seen the outbursts yourself at the mall, restaurants, and maybe even your own house.

Three-year-old Xavier gets angry when his mom, Waisheung Diaz, takes away the iPad.

End of the Line for Online Passwords?

According to David Marcus, President of Paypal, online passwords are on their way out and much sooner than you think. Biometrics and other technology will be the wave of the future with smartphone Apps and fingerprint scanners beginning to appear on phones as early as this year.

The fact is that the way we users typically deal with having multiple passwords for our online accounts makes us too vulnerable to spyware, phishing and identity theft.

Out: Latin American Drug Cartels. In: African Drug Cartels

For years, West African cocaine traffickers have worked as mules for Latin American drug cartels seeking to smuggle their powder to Europe. But now the mules are going independent — and muscling their former bosses out of some of the world’s most in-demand drug turf.

In North Korea, Dennis Rodman Finds New Ways to Embarrass Himself

North Korea’s reward for its recent nuclear test is a visit from the Worm.

All-time NBA great Dennis Rodman has arrived in Pyongyang for a publicity stunt and a bit of basketball diplomacy. Invited a month ago by a North Korean basketball association — which is apparently a thing — the fierce rebounder told reporters at the airport that he’s just trying to put on a good show for the kids. “Hopefully, it’ll be some fun,” Rodman said.

Physicist builds machine to strip cream out of Oreos

Physicist David Neevel dislikes the cream part of Oreos with a level of passion only exploitable by professional scientists. So, he did what any cookie-loving physicist would do: he came up with a way to maximize his cookie input while minimizing his cream input. Although his preference for the cookie is disturbing to me, his creation is awesome.

Google co-founder says Glass can reverse our smartphone addiction

If this isn't a clear indication that Google wants Glass to replace smartphones (even though it will need to be wirelessly connected to one), we don't know what is. Speaking at a TED talk in California today, Google co-founder and unabashed Glass wearer Sergey Brin told the audience that wearable computers like Google Glass will liberate us from being consumed by our smartphones.

According to Wired's recount, Brin said: "You're actually socially isolating yourself with your phone. I feel like it's kind of emasculating…You're standing there just rubbing this featureless piece of glass."

North Korea, as seen through an iPhone and Instagram in real-time

North Korea's had a busy month. After conducting a third nuclear test and angering just about everyone, North Korea is finally letting foreigners access the Internet on their cellphones through Koryolink, the country's only mobile provider.

With the new relaxed mobile policy, foreigners will be able to present the real unaltered North Korea, as it happens. The Associated Press' chief photographer for Asia, David Guttenfelder, is one of the first people to post photos taken with his iPhone directly toInstagram. 

McLaren P1 claims mantle of world’s ultimate supercar — for now

Writing about supercars can be like doing a radio show about cooking; words only go so far to describe the experience and appeal of the real thing. So when McLaren starts promoting its P1 supercar as a world-beating successor to the McLaren F1, those of us who follow the industry have few ways of validating McLaren's boasts. Today, McLaren gave out the recipe for the P1, and if the numbers are true, it's one for the ages.

WWII Purple Heart found in flea market record player and returned after 70 years

A World War II Purple Heart awarded to Sgt. James Carithers, was found rattling around in a record player bought at the Anderson Jockey Lot, a flea market in Belton, South Carolina. The unnamed man who made the find wanted to return the medal to its rightful heirs, so he began a search online. A visit to the genealogy site Geneaologytrails.com connected him with Andrew Staton, a 17-year-old site volunteer, who eventually united the medal with the recipient’s family. Staton was able to find a post dating back to 2000, from a woman who was searching for information about her family, including her uncle James E. Carithers. Arrista Pottle, Carithers’ niece, was overjoyed to make a connection with the uncle she was never able to meet. Pottle said that she couldn’t be more proud that her mother’s brother was a war hero saying, “I was so excited when I opened it. It was so beautiful. It just, it amazed me.” VIDEO

Rough life: After skipping the Oscars, Leo DiCaprio is spotted filming on a yacht with bikini-clad women

If Django Unchained" star Leo DiCaprio was sore about his Oscar snub, he wasn't showing it. After all, what better way to handle disappointment than lounging on a docked yacht surrounded by bikini-clad women?

Foreign brands shut out Detroit in Consumer Reports’ 2013 top car rankings

Every year, Consumer Reports lists its picks for the best cars and trucks for sale based on a combination of road test and reliability surveys from its 8 million subscribers. This year, for the first time since 2007, every top spot was taken by Asian and European automakers — and by its measures, every Detroit automaker has a long road back to the top.

Consumer Reports' 2013 brand report cards show who makes the best car

With a current crop of luxury models that are quiet, comfortable, fuel efficient, and among the most reliable, Lexus has earned the best overall score in Consumer Reports 2013 Car Brand Report Cards.

The Lexus overall score of 79 was earned on a foundation of plush and very reliable vehicles. A further distinction: Consumer Reports currently Recommends 100 percent of the Lexus vehicles it has tested.

NYPD has man in custody in dismembering of woman

NEW YORK (AP) — A man out walking his dog early Tuesday morning made a gruesome discovery: the dismembered remains of a woman in a heavy duty plastic garbage bag, police said.

Hours later, a suspect was in custody, and police said he had made statements implicating himself. His name wasn't immediately released.

Police believe the victim was 45-year-old Tanya Byrd, a home health aide who was last seen Monday. Her remains were stuffed in four bags and scattered along four blocks, police said. The medical examiner's office was working to make a formal identification and determine a cause of death.

Dreams of gas riches fading for NY landowners

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (AP) -- When word spread about the potential natural gas riches of the Marcellus Shale, Kimberly More saw it as the hope for saving her horse farm.

She figured that leasing her 170 acres to a drilling company could bring an upfront bonus of nearly half a million dollars, plus a monthly royalty when gas starts to flow, enough to pay for a new house, a new barn and her own riding business.

"I have three young girls. My husband left," More said. "I don't want to be on social services. I want to take care of my family with my own land."

Vegas murder suspect brags online about fast life

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Las Vegas triple murder suspect Ammar Harrishas a smirk on his face in a 90-second YouTube video that shows him flashing a thick stack of $100 bills.

The video is just one of many online displays of bravado being examined by police in which Harris boasts of a high-rolling lifestyle of luxury cars, prostitutes and boat trips with scantily clad women. The 26-year-old is the subject of a multi-state manhunt after a Maserati driver was shot dead on the Las Vegas Strip last Thursday and a taxi driver and passenger died in the fiery chain reaction crash that followed.

2nd winter storm in days blasts central US

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — The second major snowstorm in a week battered the nation's midsection Tuesday, dropping up to a foot or more of heavy, wet snow that strained power lines and cut electricity to more than 100,000 Midwesterners. At least three deaths were blamed on the blizzard. Gusting winds blew drifts more than 2 feet high and made driving treacherous for those who dared the morning commute.

Chinese official flips out at airport after missing flight

A high-ranking official in the Chinese government lost his cool (and then some) when he and his family missed their flight at the Kunming Wujiaba International Airport in Yunnan Province, China.

A video shows the man, identified as Yan Linkun, standing near a boarding gate. There is no sound, but reports from Beijing Cream suggest he'd just learned that he and his family had has missed their flight—for the second time.

'Gigantic Jet' Lightning Spotted Over China

A rare glimpse of a "gigantic jet" — a huge and mysterious burst of lightning that connects a thunderstorm with the upper atmosphere — was made over China in 2010 and was recently described by scientists.

The gigantic jet took place in eastern China on Aug. 12, 2010 — the farthest a ground-based one has ever been observed from the equator, according to the research team.

Set pics reveal 1st look at Amazing Spider-Man 2's new Mary Jane

We’ve been wondering how director Marc Webb would adapt Spider-Man’s other leading lady Mary Jane Watson for months, and now we finally have out first look at the fiery red head on the set of Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Gates and Zuckerberg want everyone to learn to code

Right now, there's a big trend in Silicon Valley that's all about lobbying the government to relax immigration rules in order to bring in more highly qualified programming talent from abroad. However, some believe this overlooks the masses of unemployed workers here in the U.S. who could really use those jobs, if they only had the necessary skills. To address this issue, a new initiative called Code.org has been launched to help spur more interest in teaching people, especially kids, how to program.

Why Thrones director thinks those illegal downloads don't matter

Game of Thrones was the most-pirated show on television last year, but at least one member of the hit series' crew isn't too worried.

Speaking at a writers festival at the University of Western Australia, David Petrarca -- who directed the season two Thrones episodes "The Ghost of Harrenhal" and "Garden of Bones" -- said all those illegal downloads don't matter much, so long as "cultural buzz" keeps propelling the show's popularity.

9 real zombie survival kits you can buy to fight the walking dead

Don't underestimate the possibility of a zombie apocalypse. Between 28 Days Later, I Am Legend and The Walking Dead, a legitimate fear is brewing.

New Falling Skies S3 footage teases much bigger problems ahead

For the most part, Falling Skies has been about humans vs. aliens. These creatures have killed innocent men and women, while kidnapping their children. Tom Mason (Noah Wyle) and his 2nd Mass militia have struggled to put up a fight. Everytime they think they've made progress, they discover something worse on the horizon.

Japan rolls out self-driving truck caravans

Whether it's from Toyota or Google, it's clear that self-driving cars are inevitable. Companies in the United States are working on ways to create invisible chauffeurs for individual commuters, but Japan is focusing on a similar solution geared more toward industrial matters.

‘Data-Entry Error’ Led Military to Falsely Claim Taliban Attacks Are Down

The U.S. military proudly touted a 7 percent drop in Taliban violence in 2012 as a measure of progress in America’s longest war. Only one problem: The drop never happened.

Its explanation: a data-entry error.

The Associated Press’ Robert Burns discovered the mistake, which undercut a January claim by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO military command in Afghanistan. In reality, Burns reports, there was no substantive change in the level of “enemy-initiated attacks” in Afghanistan during 2012.

Supreme Court Throws Out NSA Surveillance Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a lawsuit that challenged the National Security Agency's surveillance program.

A majority of the justices ruled (PDF) that the lawsuit, brought by human rights advocates and journalists who believed their electronic communications sent abroad would be intercepted, was "too speculative" to proceed based on fears of "hypothetical future harm."

Hello, my name is iPad, and I’ll be your server this evening

Customers at D-Dog House in Brickell aren’t greeted by a waiter. Nor do they step up to a counter like in a fast-food restaurant.

Instead, each table is equipped with an iPad, from which customers can order their food with no human intervention.

Waiters confirm orders with customers, bring the food from the kitchen when it’s ready, and are available to accept payment and help customers who need it. But customers can enter and leave the eatery with little interaction with a human employee.

Air Force to Stealth Fighter Pilots: Get Used to Coughing Fits

The Air Force has some bad news for the pilots of its F-22 Raptor stealth fighters: Your planes are going to make you feel crappy and there’s not much anyone can do about it. And the message to the maintainers of the radar-evading jet is even more depressing. Any illness they feel from working around the Raptor is apparently all in their heads, according to the Air Force.

Those admissions, buried in newly released Congressional records, represent the latest twist in the years-long saga of the F-22′s faulty oxygen system, which since at least 2008 has been choking pilots, leading to confusion, memory loss and blackouts — combined known as hypoxia — that may have contributed to at least one fatal crash. Ground crews have also reported growing sick while working around F-22s whose engines are running.

Darpa Wants to Rethink the Helicopter to Make It Go Way Faster

Helicopters are great. They’re maneuverable in very tight spaces, they haul heavy things relative to their small sizes — and, very importantly, they take off and land vertically, removing the need for a big airstrip or aircraft-carrier deck. That function is so important to the military that the U.S. designed fixed-wing aircraft to do the same thing, like the Marines’ iconic Harrier jet or their weird tilt-rotor Osprey.

And they actually all suck, according to the Pentagon’s blue-sky researchers at Darpa, who are launching an effort to blow up and re-imagine helicopters, jump jets and tilt-rotors. It’s time to make these “VTOL” aircraft — the collective term for Vertical Take-Off and Landing — way, way faster, without sacrificing their ability to hover or other functionality.

The Navy Is Sick of the One-Person Subs It Uses for Deep-Sea Diving

Moving around underwater in a diving suit is a lot less fun than it sounds. To survive at the deepest depths, divers need enormous, cumbersome, pressure-resistant suits that limit their mobility. But the Navy is sick of trading survivability for flexibility, no matter how far into the briny deep its divers wade.

Pentagon Wants A ‘Family of Devices’ As It Makes Big Move Into Mobile Market

The next big customer for smartphones and tablets? The U.S. military. Finally.

The military has begun talks with device and mobile operating-system manufacturers, as well as the major carriers, to supply troops with secured mobile devices. The idea is for the manufacturers to offer the Pentagon an already-secure device and OS, rather for the military to laboriously build a bespoke mobile suite that inevitably won’t keep pace with commercial innovation.

And the military has a significant amount of purchasing power on its side: hundreds of thousands of customers for the winning bid.

Skyflash jetpack wants to take off from ground like a plane

It's inevitable to draw parallels between Fritz Unger's Skyflash jetpack and Yves "Jetman" Rossy. But unlike Rossy's jetpack, Unger's Skyflash is designed to take off from the ground, as opposed to being dropped out of an aircraft.

The 55-pound jetpack has wings that span over 11 feet across and is powered by two micro-turbine diesel jet engines. Unger's Skyflash can reportedly hit cruising speeds of 78 miles per hour, reach an altitude of 11,800 feet, and fly a total of 62 miles within one hour. Skyflash is also said to be capable of carrying a maximum weight of 354.94 pounds (that's including the pilot) and taking off from the ground using an undercarriage with 10-inch wheels.

How Disney used 3D CG to create the 2D world of 'Paperman'

Seth MacFarlane's hosting duties at last night's 85th Academy Awards might have been questionable, but there was no doubt Disney's "Paperman" was the favorite to win the award for "Best Animated Short."

Sony patent analyzes loading times to detect pirated games

We never thought we would say this, but maybe game load times aren't so bad — if it means the end of video game piracy. A Sony patent filed in 2011, but recently made public suggests Sony could use load times to determine the authenticity of video games.

Razer Edge pre-orders begin March 1

Razer PR sends word that its versatile Windows 8 gaming tablet is due for a first quarter launch as promised. Pre-orders being March 1st, and the company says the units will ship out to customers "later that month."

As announced at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the Edge is due to ship with two configurations, the vanilla Razer Edge, with an Intel Core i5 CPU and a 64GB solid state hard drive for $999, and a higher-end Razer Edge Pro with a Core i7 chip and 128 or 256GB SSD options for a price to be determined.

New titleholders to vye for crown of fastest spacecraft ever

Upcoming NASA missions clock in at 160,000 miles per hour and 450,000 mph, respectively.

Of all the spacecraft humans have launched, there have been some impressively fast movers. But which holds the record?

It's not an entirely idle question. Apart from the wow factor, it's an interesting yardstick for gauging our capacity to explore the cosmos, from familiar planets to the icy depths of space.

(Credit: NASA)

However, as I quickly discovered in writing this post, it's not always an easy quantity to evaluate. For one thing, launch velocities differ from eventual cruise velocities. And fancy interplanetary maneuvers like the "gravity assist" can provide temporary speed boosts that have to be taken into account.

It also depends on what you measure velocity relativeto. Far away from the Earth it makes more sense to work with heliocentric (sun-relative) measurements. And (as you'll see) you need not be zooming away into the void at all to reach the highest sustained speeds.

We can start off easy though. Launch velocity is something very definite, tuned to the finest level possible in order to insert a mission into its optimal trajectory. The record holder is also easy to find -- it's the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt.

UNC sexual assault victim faces possible expulsion for speaking out

A University of North Carolina sexual assault victim has been charged with violating the school's honor code and creating a hostile environment for her attacker, according to Jezebel.com.

The charge came approximately a month after Landen Gambill, a sophomore at UNC—who last spring reported being raped by a student she says is still on campus—filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights. She, as well as others who filed with her—including current and former students, and Melinda Manning, the school's former assistant dean of students—allege that the school had pressured Manning into underreporting sex offense cases.

Egypt hot air balloon crash death toll rises to 19

LUXOR, Egypt (AP) -- A hot air balloon flying over Egypt's ancient city of Luxor caught fire and crashed into a sugar cane field on Tuesday, killing at least 19 foreign tourists in one of the world's deadliest ballooning accidents and handing a new blow to Egypt's ailing tourism industry.

‘Stand your ground’ laws survive debate one year after Trayvon Martin’s death

One year after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by an armed neighborhood watchman, setting off a national debate about race and gun laws, the campaign to change state self-defense laws in Martin's name has petered out.

George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer facing second-degree murder charges, said he shot Martin in self-defense last Feb. 26 after he decided to follow him in the Sanford, Fla., gated community because Martin looked suspicious. Zimmerman called the police and then approached Martin, and they ended up in a physical fight. Zimmerman, saying he feared for his life, then shot Martin. He was not charged with a crime for several weeks, and his defense attorneys argue he's immune from prosecution under Florida's "stand your ground" law.

Donkey, buffalo found in South African meat products

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Donkey, water buffalo and other unconventional ingredients have been found in almost two thirds of hamburgers and sausages tested in South Africa, a study released on Tuesday showed.

The tests by the University of Stellenbosch were planned before a scandal broke out in Europe over horsemeat labelled as beef that raised concerns worldwide over the risks to human health from a complex and nebulous meat supply chain.

"Our study confirms that the mislabelling of processed meats is commonplace in South Africa and not only violates food labelling regulations, but also poses economic, religious, ethical and health impacts," co-author Louw Hoffman of the university's Department of Animal Sciences, said in a statement.

Inside North Korea

Associated Press photographer David Guttenfelder is in North Korea and has been documenting scenes around the country that offer a glimpse into a largely unseen side of North Korea, capturing images of daily life that are at times quirky, at other times haunting.

Female North Korean traffic police officers gather in front of bronze statues of the late leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il to pay their respects in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday, Feb. 16, 2013. North Koreans turned out to commemorate what would have been the 71th birthday of Kim Jong Il who died on Dec. 17, 2011. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder) PHOTOS

Women train hard at Marine bootcamp

Male and female recruits are expected to meet the same standards during their swim qualification test. All female enlisted Marines and male Marines who were living east of the Mississippi River when they were recruited attend boot camp at Parris Island. About six percent of enlisted Marines are female. PHOTOS

The Pirate Bay Flees Sweden

Apparently all that talk from Sweden's Pirate Party about "we will fight them in the courts or out" talk last week was just a stalling tactic so TPB could get out of town.

Following threats of legal action in its traditional home of Sweden, a few hours ago The Pirate Bay set sail for pastures new. Sweden’s Pirate Party had been providing bandwidth to the site for the last three years but came under intense pressure last week when a local anti-piracy group threatened to sue. The Swedish pirates have now stepped aside and handed the responsibilities to pirate parties in Norway and Spain.

Illegal Music Downloading Decreased Significantly In 2012

Uh oh, what is the RIAA going to complain about now? Okay, that was a stupid question, they are still going to complain. 

According to The NPD Group, a global information company, illegal music file sharing declined significantly in 2012. Last year the number of consumers using peer-to-peer (P2P) services to download music declined 17 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year. When P2P file sharing peaked in 2005, one in five Internet users aged 13 and older (33 million people) used P2P services to download music; however, last year that number fell to 11 percent (21 million people).

China’s Increasingly Good Mock Air Battles Prep Pilots for Real War

For 11 days in November, the sky over the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu witnessed some of the most intensive dogfighting to ever take place in China. Jet fighters screamed overhead, twisting and turning in complex aerial maneuvers. Heavily laden bombers lumbered through the tangle of fighters, dodging enemy defenses as they lined up for bombing runs.

The warplanes and their crews were the real deal. It featured the best of the best of the Chinese military, which with 2,700 aircraft possesses the world’s third largest aerial arsenal, after the U.S. and Russia. But the combat over the sprawling Dingxin Air Force Test and Training Base was simulated. Despite the ferocity of the maneuvers, no live weapons were fired. The mock battles of the annual “Red Sword/Blue Sword” exercise are meant to prepare the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) for the possibility of actual high-tech combat.

In terms of authenticity, China’s pretend air battles are getting pretty close to the real thing. That improving realism, combined with Beijing’s new fighters and other hardware, has some observers in the U.S. feeling uneasy. For decades the Pentagon has counted on highly realistic aerial training to mitigate the increasing age and decreasing size of its warplane holdings. “That [training] used to be a significant advantage U.S. air forces held relative to the PLAAF,” Dave Deptula, a retired Air Force general who flew F-15 fighters, tells Danger Room.

Mexico Captures Drug Lord ‘Zero Five,’ But Sparks More Cartel Violence

As this story was being filed Thursday, reports began circulating of an explosion at the Mexico City headquarters of state oil company Pemex. The cause of the explosion is unknown. The blast killed at least 32 people and injured more than 100, and reportedly occurred inside a basement garage next to Pemex’s 54-story office tower.

The Mexican army has captured a drug lord who once had ties to the powerful Sinaloa Cartel. But that’s where the good news ends. Already, his competition is going to war for his territory. VIDEO

Jose Angel Carrasco, known by the nicknames “El Changel” and “The Zero Five,” was arrested on Jan. 18 after a firefight with the army, Mexican authorities revealed this week. Carrasco was allegedly in charge of a drug gang that has been waging a bloody turf war in Mexico’s western state of Jalisco, and formed the gang as a splinter group after the death of his uncle, Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel, a notably ruthless kingpin in the Sinaloa Cartel whom the army killed more than two years ago. Zero Five been one of the top drug lords fighting to control one of Mexico’s most populous states.

Microbes look beautiful rendered in blown glass

Would we think differently about microbes if we could see them in 3D and could look inside how complex they are? Instead of seeing them as abstract, colored little "bugs" in a textbook would we realise how tough they are and how they can ravage out bodies? That's the mission behind the glass artwork of Luke Jerram.

Here’s What Your $97 Million Drug War in Central America Actually Bought

The U.S. isn’t just shoveling cash to stem the tide of narcotics in Mexico and Colombia. Quietly, it’s built up its drug war in Central America, too — spending nearly $100 million over four years on advanced gear for local forces. Not that Washington has any idea what it’s gotten for its money.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office provides a rare glimpse into the Central American war on drugs. Between 2008 and 2011, the report finds, the government spent $97 million for gear and training for its Central American partners. On the plus side, it’s laughably low compared to the more than $640 billion (and rising) the U.S. has spent on the war in Afghanistan.

Starfish closeups reveal vibrant otherworldly patterns

Chances are you've probably never seen a starfish up close. That's okay; I was in the same boat. But now that I've seen Russian biologist and photographer Alexander Semenov's macro photos of starfish, I feel a strange compulsion to get suited up and go diving with an underwater camera.

Marvel exec responds to Iron Man/Guardians of the Galaxy rumor

There’s a rumor making the rounds that a certain member of The Avengers could hook up with Marvel’s other big screen super-team to help kick off 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel’s film consultant Brian Michael Bendis has now tackled that report, and his response is definitely intriguing.

Next-gen Xbox reportedly has advanced voice command system

Xbox 360 owners can already use voice commands with a Kinect (albeit with mixed results). Arguably, the biggest flaw in its current state is that the software can only recognize specific commands, and not natural human lingo. In addition to Blu-ray support and supposedly requiring an Internet connection, sources tell The Verge the next Xbox will have a sophisticated voice recognition system that's not too dissimilar to Siri on the iPhone.

1st intense footage from BBC's new cloning drama Orphan Black

After borrowing from the mothership for much of its existence, BBC America is finally diving head-first into making its own shows—and one of the first projects is a sexy, high-concept sci-fi thriller about human cloning. Want to see the first footage from Orphan Black?

Watch this tiny, tiny car brave busy streets and highways

The U.K. television show Top Gear is a regular source of interesting automotive factoids and innovation, and one of its latest experiments is no exception. BBC host Jeremy Clarkson decided to insert himself into what may be the world's smallest car, the P45, and take to the streets of London to see if such a vehicle is a viable form of transportation.

First complete 'bionic man' unveiled in U.K.

With his realistic face and functional artificial blood-circulatory system, a $1 million artificial human on display in London is a sight to see.
He's got blood flowing through him, but he sure isn't human. Meet Rex, the world's first complete "bionic man."

Rex has the face of a man; prosthetic limbs; a functional artificial blood-circulatory system; and artificial organs including a pancreas, kidney, spleen, and trachea. At 6.5-feet tall, Rex is valued at a whopping $1 million.

Created for the TV documentary series "How to Build a Bionic Man," Rex was constructed by a team of roboticists. The researchers say they wanted to test scientific boundaries and demonstrate how modern science is beginning to catch up with sci-fi in the race to replace body parts with man-made alternatives.

NASA Poised to Launch Powerful New Earth-Watching Satellite Monday

NASA is gearing up for the Monday (Feb. 11) launch of an Earth-observation satellite that will continue a celebrated 40-year project to monitor our planet's surface from space.

The Landsat Data Continuity Mission is slated to blast off Monday at 1:02 p.m. EST (1802 GMT/10:02 a.m. PST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The LDCM satellite is the eighth overall in the Landsat program, which has been scrutinizing Earth from orbit continuously since Landsat 1 launched in 1972.

Mission team members call LDCM the most advanced and capableLandsat spacecraft ever built. It should help the United States and other nations around the world monitor environmental change and better manage their natural resources, they say.

Fugitive's rant puts focus on evolving LAPD legacy

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fugitive former Los Angeles police officerChristopher Dorner's claim in an online "manifesto" that his career was undone by racist colleagues conspiring against him comes at a time when it's widely held that the police department has evolved well beyond the troubled racial legacy of Rodney King and the O.J. Simpson trial.

Dorner, who is suspected in a string of vengeance killings, has depicted himself as a black man wronged, whose badge was unjustly taken in 2008 after he lodged a complaint against a white female supervisor.

"It is clear as day that the department retaliated toward me," Dorner said in online writings authorities have attributed to him. Racism and officer abuses, he argued, have not improved at LAPD since the King beating but have "gotten worse."