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This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

Cuprous oxide crystal. (University of St Andrews) One of the ways we can fully realize the potential of quantum computers is by basing them on both light and matter – this way, information can be stored and processed, but also travel at the speed of light. Scientists have just taken a step closer to this goal, by successfully producing the largest hybrid particles of light and matter ever created. These quasiparticles, known as Rydberg polaritons, were made with the help of a piece of stone containing cuprous oxide (Cu2O) crystals from an ancient deposit in Namibia, one of the few...

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is denying allegations that he helped thieves steal thousands of dollars in merchandise, including a 400-pound crystal, from a yoga studio in southern California. According to The Associated Press, Ali Shah, the owner of Vibes Hot Yoga in Newport Beach, claims that Rodman and three others came into the studio last week and "worked together to distract an employee" as they stole the massive amethyst crystal and clothing. TMZ shared surveillance footage from the store that appears to show a man attempting to pick up the geode, which fell to the...

May 8 (UPI) -- The study of a unique crystalline material, composed of aluminum and platinum atoms, has revealed a pair of electronic properties that have never been seen before. The atoms in the new materials are crystallized in a special pattern, with each row offset from the other. The pattern creates a spiral staircase of aluminum and platinum atoms. According to the new study, published this week in the journal Nature Physics, the material's unique crystalline structure produces Rarita-Schwinger fermions in its interior and extremely long quadruple topological Fermi arcs on its surface. Rarita-Schwinger fermions are a type of...

Former NFL player Devon Cajuste is trading the ultraphysical for the metaphysical. Cajuste, a Seaford, LI, native, who walked away from the game in January, has spent the first few months of his retirement working as a crystal healer. He’s using his arsenal of 100 precious stones and gems — worth more than $20,000 — to tap into the transcendental energy of an entirely different fan base. “Football was not my passion,” says Cajuste, 26, a towering 6-foot-4 former tight end. “The feeling that I got from [crystals] was greater than any play I made in the game.” A little...

FINLAND will be opening its first sex doll BROTHEL later this week as demand for silicone companions blows up all over the world. Russian-owned Unique Dolls will open its doors in Helsinki on Thursday - charging frisky Finns €100 an hour with its demimonde dolls. The silicone brothel is located in a discrete location behind a shopping centre in the Finnish capital. And they say they'll only ever be allowing a maximum of four clients in the building at any one time to keep noise levels at a respectable level. Each of the four models has its own room at...

False accusers, administrators, prosecutors – no one learned from her lesson It appears to be the end of the road for Crystal Mangum. The accuser at the center of the Duke University lacrosse gang-rape hoax was denied another trial after her conviction for lethally stabbing her boyfriend five years ago. We last covered Mangum three years ago when she asked for a new trial, saying the jury was improperly informed of her attack on another man in 2010. Mangum claimed the butter-knife stabbing was an act of self-defense against a violent boyfriend, but the jury didn’t believe her and she...

BEIJING, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The Iran's Sanchi’ running 136,000 tonne ultra-light condensate, (in) an off record run, up the west China coast. In dark, rough seas just north of the Yang, Sanchi was rammed by US CF Crystal, carrying grain. Any chances of taming the fire or saving any of the 31 (all Iranian nationals except for two Bangladeshi) tanker crew members, is slim the Ministry of Transport said Tuesday… The flames are forcing South Korean Coast Guard to stay miles from the tanker.

Hillary Clinton's State Department spent millions of taxpayer dollars on lavish goods and frivolous initiatives, such as a $5.4 million "no-bid contract for crystal stemware" and $630,000 to "increase Facebook likes on four State Department pages." The expenditures appeared in a 21-page memo, prepared by the Republican National Committee, that documented the financial mismanagement that occurred at the State Department under Clinton's watch. While wasteful spending is a familiar find at most federal agencies, Clinton presided over particularly expensive unsuccessful reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her agency spent more than $600 million on failed projects in those two countries...

Cyrstal Pepsi is poised to make a comeback, thanks in part to efforts by competitive eater Kevin Strahle --aka L.A. Beast. Strahle is part of a group of loyal consumers who have been appealing to Pepsi to bring back the iconic drink, which tasted like Pepsi but was clear. The caffeine-free drink was originally introduced in 1992 to respond to health concerns about coloring in soda, but only lasted a year. It was considered a failure because it was believed it didn’t taste good.

In this extended interview, Tommy James talks about his days with the mob and how the rock'n'roll lifestyle almost derailed his life...

A team of researchers working in Hungary has proposed that a sun compass artifact found in a convent in 1948 might have been used in conjunction with crystals to allow Vikings to guide their boats even at night. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical & Engineering Sciences, the team describes theories they've developed that might explain how Viking sailors were able to so accurately sail to places such as Greenland. Since the discovery of the sun compass fragment, researchers have theorized that Viking sailors used them to plot their course—at least when the...

A tiny 4.4-billion-year-old crystal has been confirmed as the oldest fragment of Earth's crust. The zircon was found in sandstone in the Jack Hills region of Western Australia. Scientists dated the crystal by studying its uranium and lead atoms. The former decays into the latter very slowly over time and can be used like a clock. The finding has been reported in the journal Nature Geoscience. Its implication is that Earth had formed a solid crust much sooner after its formation 4.6 billion years ago than was previously thought, and very quickly following the great collision with a Mars-sized body...

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s State Department is spending $5.4 million to buy fine crystal stemware for American embassies — but it won’t give the US economy much of a boost. The contract was given to a tiny Washington, DC, interior designer, which in turn subcontracted the crystal work to a Swedish firm — snubbing such US companies as the famous manufacturer in Clinton’s own back yard, Steuben Crystal of upstate Corning. The firm didn’t even get a chance to bid on the contract, which will outfit embassies and ambassadors’ residences with fancy crystal for ritzy functions. Ironically, under the...

Scientists say that a perpetual motion machine is physically impossible, but a research team at the University of California Berkeley has just outlined an idea that comes pretty damn close. By proposing a 4D "space-time crystal," the engineers have designed a device that would operate at its lowest quantum energy state and exhibit a clock-like persistence that would theoretically exist even after the universe is exhausted of all its energy, the so-called heat death. Normally, crystals are comprised of atoms that are arranged in an orderly, repeating three-dimensional pattern. Earlier this year, however, MIT's Nobel-prize winning physicist Frank Wilcze outlined...

NewsBusters reported Friday that Oscars host Billy Crystal intended to mock GOP "idiots" during Sunday's awards presentation. Roughly forty-five minutes in, Crystal was true to his word taking a cheap shot at the Republican presidential candidates (video follows with transcript): Billy Crystal: A dark knight, an American psycho, a charismatic crack addict. You'll get to choose one on Super Tuesday. And of course the audience found it hysterical.

What does the 2012 crop of New Year's babies foretell? A quick glance will confirm that when it comes to the new generation of American baby names, creativity rules there's no longer such a thing as "normal." The first babies of the year include an Daytona, an Akier and an Envy (yes, Envy), but nary a John or Mary to be seen.

Superman's memory crystals may become reality in computers Computers may soon be saving their data onto hard drives made of glass following research by British scientists who have developed a way of storing information similar to the "memory crystals" seen in the Superman films. By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent 9:45AM BST 14 Aug 2011 Researchers at Southampton University used lasers to rearrange the atoms in pieces of glass, turning it into new type of computer memory. They claim the glass memory is far more stable and resilient than current types of hard-drive memory, which have a limited lifespan of a...

MORE proof that space is amazing, this time from the not-too-distant constellation of Orion, where one star is currently being bombarded with green crystal rain. The embryonic star is described as "Sun-like" - as in our Sun - and named HOPS-38. The crystals are a green mineral called olivine and have been spotted raining down from the clouds of gas engulfing HOPS-68 by NASA's Spitzer infrared detectors. Olivine can be found on Earth, in gemstones and on the green sand beaches of Hawaii. They've also been spotted before by NASA's Stardust and Deep Impact comet-watchers, but this is the first...