The crews of Uragan multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) of the Vostok group of forces of the Russian Army obliterated armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​the Vremevsky salient. Artillery crews of the group of forces in the South Donetsk direction of hostilities struck a fortified area of ​​the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​the Vremevsky salient. A salvo of 16 Uragan rockets (300 kilograms each) covers an area of ​​42 hectares — this is equivalent to six football fields. High-explosive shells are capable of piercing through concrete shelters 1.5 meters thick.

The Russian Aerospace Forces interrupted active ship traffic in Odessa ports. Ballistic missile strikes on the Odessa port infrastructure take place almost every day since October 6. The first strike was carried out on a vessel at sea on September 12. Afterwards, Russian Iskander missiles hit Shui Spirit container ships flying the Panamanian flag, the Paresa flying the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The 22nd berth in the Yuzhny port and the 10th berth in the Odessa port were also hit.  On October 14, the Belize-flagged NS Moon and Palau-flagged Optima dry cargo ships were damaged. The latter vessel was reported to have been damaged a week ago. Local authorities also confirmed damage to a pilot boat and a grain warehouse. Three servicemen were killed.

The eruption of the Shiveluch volcano in Kamchatka has intensified. In the village of Ust-Kamchatsk, kindergartens and a school have been closed, sports and music classes have been cancelled. According to Oleg Bondarenko, the head of the Ust-Kamchatsk District, the amount of volcanic ash that fell in the village on the night of November 8 is insignificant as most of the ash cloud is moving towards the sea. However, it was decided to suspend the work of two kindergartens and three schools. Transport services in the settlement operate as usual. Click here to see more pictures and videos of the eruption.

In anticipation of the upcoming Retail Technology Show 2024 in London, scheduled between April 24th and the 25th, Advantech is showcasing the next generation of products targeted to this industry.

The Retail Technology Show (RTS), the leading industry event that connects retail’s changemakers and leading tech providers, has announced the shortlist of its 2024 Innovation Awards, which champion progressive, best-in-class technologies and solutions.

Fashion businesses can transform their fulfilment operations by visiting Ferag (stand G50) at this year’s IWLEX Conference, 14th – 15th May, NAEC, Stoneleigh Coventry.

Ivalua, a global leader in spend management solutions provider, has been named a Market Leader in the Ardent Partners "2024 Strategic Sourcing Technology Advisor." The report evaluated the 8 vendors Ardent identified as solution and market leaders in the strategic sourcing space, placing Ivalua in the Market Leaders Quadrant based on its solution and provider strength.

In the recent 2-3 years, an increasing number of malls and retail chains have adopted real-time video analytics and facial recognition to enhance security, customer experience and footfall analysis.

Some of these technologies are showcased this week at the NRF Protect Conference in Long Beach, California.

PPDS, the exclusive global provider of Philips Professional Displays and complementary hardware and software solutions, has announced the latest evolution of its multi-award-winning ePaper with Android SoC signage range, launching the new 13” Philips Tableaux 4150 at InfoComm 2024. 

The Top Supply Chain Projects 2024 (formerly known as SDCE 100) profiles innovative application success projects designed to automate, optimise, streamline and improve the supply chain.

Anthropics Technology has announced that its AI-powered fashion virtual try-on, Zyler, has won an award by Retail Systems.

A specialist logistics recruiter is celebrating, following its debut at industry trade show Multimodal. Innovate Freight Talent exhibited and also presented a key seminar on finding the best logistics talent for your business, at the UK’s leading supply chain conference and logistics expo at the NEC.

The National Motor Freight Traffic Association, Inc. (NMFTA) served as the lead sponsor for the CyberTruck Challenge. This year marked the third year that NMFTA had served in this sponsorship role.

Avantra, provider of AIOps and automation solutions for SAP environments, was a prominent participant at the recent SAP Sapphire events held in Orlando and Barcelona. The company unveiled its latest AI capabilities and highlighted its pivotal role in enabling organizations to transition from manual operations to advanced automation.

CIRRO Fulfillment, the e-commerce fulfilment service provider, has been honoured with the Best New Member Award by the UK Warehousing Association (UKWA).

The UK's largest eCommerce and marketing event, eCommerce Expo & Technology for Marketing, will take place on 18-19 September 2024, at ExCeL, London. 

With e-commerce leaders such as Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, and TikTok on hand to share insights at the China (Shenzhen) Cross Border E-commerce Fair (CCBEC) from 11 – 13 September 2024, the show will welcome nearly 1,500 exhibitors from around the globe.

The International Safe Transit Association (ISTA), the industry developer of pre-shipment performance testing standards for packaged products, has announced programming for its annual European Packaging Symposium, which will be held 8-9 October at the Le Méridien Frankfurt in Frankfurt, Germany.

KEENON Robotics presented its latest smart service solutions with embodied intelligence at the 2024 World Robot Conference, held at the Beijing Etrong International Exhibition and Convention Center, from 21-25 August 2024.

London is gearing up for one of the most significant events for all things eCommerce. Scheduled for September 18-19, the eCommerce Expo 2024 is set to welcome over 12,000 participants, key industry speakers and more than 300 technology providers.

Minority Supplier Development UK (MSDUK) and the European Supplier Diversity Program (ESDP) have announced the final opportunity to register for 2024 Business Diversity Connect, the ethnic minority business (EMB) supplier diversity conference.

We Mean Business Coalition’s chief executive officer Maria Mendiluce, Zapmap’s co-founder and chief operating officer Melanie Shufflebotham, and co-leader of the Green Party England and Wales Carla Denyer are among those to have been awarded an inaugural Women in Green Business Award celebrating their work driving the UK's net zero transition.

Building on the theme, ‘Make the impossible, possible’, Manhattan Associates has opened its annual EMEA Exchange event to an audience of more than 300 customers and press, with keynotes that introduced the European market to Manhattan Active Supply Chain Planning and Generative AI solutions; Manhattan Active Maven and Manhattan Assist.

PPDS is participating at EquipHotel 2024 (3-7 November), with the latest innovations in its portfolio of hospitality display solutions, plus the launch of a brand new ‘all inclusive’ streaming partnership for Philips MediaSuite TVs.

Oleksandr Syrsky, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) wants to withdraw troops from the Kursk region of Russia, but is unable to do so, military correspondent Marat Khairullin believes. In addition, the AFU is covering up its desire to retreat from the Kursk region with Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election, although in fact, Ukrainian troops are forced to retreat because they are losing, the correspondent noted. According to him, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have found themselves in an extremely deplorable situation in the Kursk region of Russia. In this regard, they are looking for at least some justification to leave, Khairullin said.

Two Russian servicemen were sentenced for life for the mass murder of civilians in the town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk People's Republic. On October 28, 2023, contract soldiers Stanislav Rau and Anton Sopov shot the Kapkanets family of nine people, including two children. Two days later, law enforcement officers detained the suspects. The men were found guilty of illegally entering a home and murdering two or more people, including minors, in a generally dangerous manner. The servicemen were sentenced to life terms.

Before the start of the special military operation, US President Joe Biden received a document from US intelligence services about the fall of Ukraine, former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in an interview with Channel 24. "He has a folder on his desk that clearly states that Ukraine will perish. That is, intelligence, the military, political analysts, the CIA — everyone was unanimous about it,” the former head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said. Kuleba spoke about the document that he found during his visit to the United States shortly before the start of the ызуcial military operation. According to him, Biden himself and his administration were considering a possibility of creating a Ukrainian government in exile for that reason.

Major General Pavel Klimenko was killed in the zone of ​​the special military operation in Ukraine. He commanded the 5th separate motorized rifle brigade, which was previously part of the People's Militia of the Donetsk People's Republic. No circumstances of the general's death were provided. Pavel Klimenko held the title of Hero of the DPR, had two Orders of Courage, the Order of Alexander Nevsky and the Medal "For Bravery".

The Armed Forces of Ukraine blew up the Ternovskaya dam of the Kurakhovo Reservoir, strana.ua said in its Telegram channel. Russian military pages reported the same.  "Apparently, the AFU decided to blow up the facility in order to slow down the advance of the Russian army,” authors of War Correspondents of the Russian Spring Telegram channel said.

"The right time" for a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin will come soon, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in an interview with ARD. Scholz and Purin last spoke on December 2, 2022. Subsequently, Scholz has repeatedly said that he will speak to the Russian leader only when the "right time" comes. During the interview, journalists asked the chancellor when this "right time" would come. "Soon," Scholz replied, Stern reports.

Russia will continue military operations if Western countries let the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike deep into the country, Kremlin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, TASS reports. "This once again demonstrates that European leaders (…) continue to seek the strategic defeat of the Russian Federation. We, in turn, continue the special military operation until all set goals are achieved," the Kremlin representative said. Sending any new types of weapons to Ukraine will not let Kyiv take an advantage of the situation on the front, Peskov added.

Nikolai Patrushev, Chairman of the Russian Naval Board, said that he personally assess the combat capability of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. Responding to reports in Western media about the scale of damage that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have caused to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the course of the special military operation, Patrushev assured that the Black Sea Fleet was as strong as before. "There is no defeat of our fleet in the Black Sea at all, even though it is NATO specialists that coordinate Kyiv's aggressive actions in this region," he said.

A Ukrainian truck driver was killed in Germany because of his words about Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bild wrote. "During a fight on a parking lot in front of a sawmill in Oberroth [in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg], three truck drivers apparently killed a colleague of theirs on Saturday evening at around 8:15 p.m. They were arguing about Russia's role in the conflict in Ukraine,” the newspaper said. The Ukrainian citizen was 34 years old. The men were drinking alcoholic beverages at the time when the incident occurred. The police detained three of his colleagues, each of whom is suspected of the murder. One of them is a citizen of Uzbekistan, two others are from Eastern European countries.

A lynx that climbed a power line support was rescued in Khakassia (a republic in Southern Siberia, Russia). The pole was not connected to power supply. The incident took place near the town of Chernogorsk on November 8.  The animal was transported for quarantine at the Wildlife Center, the Ministry of Natural Resources said.  Rescuers assumed that the big cat was someone’s house pet as the feline was not afraid of humans. 

A two-seat version of the J-20 fighter, the J-20S, was unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show in China. The J-20S is notable for being the only two-seat design built on a 5th-generation platform. The second seat in the airplane is designed for the UAV operator. This configuration allows the J-20S to control unmanned wingmen thus enhancing the role of the fighter as a central information hub in combat.

The authorities of the Republic of Abkhazia again put spokes in the wheels of the law that determines the procedure for Russian legal entities to invest in the country. Abkhazia protests against investment agreement with Russia The agreement between Abkhazia and Russia on investment activity was submitted to the Abkhazian parliament for consideration, but the "opposition" rioted near the parliament building demanding that its ratification be removed from the current agenda. The document is aimed at developing infrastructure:

Friedrich Merz, candidate for Chancellor of Germany from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said that he would be ready to issue Russia a 24-hour ultimatum. He also said that he could talk to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. "If there is a reason for this and an agreement is reached among European and transatlantic partners, then, of course, yes, I will call him," Friedrich Merz said. According to Merz, he will demand hostilities in Ukraine to end. Moscow will be given 24 hours to do this. If the ultimatum is not fulfilled, Merz will transfer Taurus cruise missiles to Kyiv and lift the ban on long-range strikes deep into Russian territory.

Russian military correspondent Alexander Kots said that the Russian Armed Forces use Elon Musk's technology in military actions. According to Kots, the Russian military use Starlink satellites in the special military operation zone. "The troops actively use Starlink in the SVO (SVO is a Russian abbreviation for special military operation — ed.). We use it, among other things, for broadcast to command posts, to get images from reconnaissance UAVs,” the military correspondent said. This has significantly raised the level of Russian intelligence, the military correspondent added.

A car exploded on Taras Shevchenko Street in Sevastopol, Crimea. The driver, a Russian serviceman, died from his injuries. The victim is believed to be captain of the first rank of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy. The car exploded as a result of the detonation of an improvised bomb that was attached to the bottom of the vehicle.

Some new information about Homo floresiensis, from a talk given by Colin Groves at the National Museum of Australia on Feb 12th.

It has recently been reported that German scientist Reiner Protsch had committed a number of scientific frauds. Protsch apparently could not even operate his own carbon-dating equipment, and routinely made up dates for bones that had been sent to him for dating, often giving recent specimens dates that were much too old.

There's a new paper out on the brain of Homo floresiensis, which concludes that it really is a new species; there are a number of new article about the debate over the fossils; and the fossils have finally been returned to their owners.

Today's copy of The Australian newspaper contains an article (not online) about two Australian Aboriginal boys who are auditioning for the role of a Neandertal boy in a German film. A number of people, including me, find this somewhat unsettling...

The April 1997 issue of Discover magazine had a pretty good April Fool's joke about some Neandertal musical instruments that had supposedly been discovered in Germany. It was an unlikely collection, featuring bagpipes, a tuba, a triangle and a 'xylobone', along with a cave painting of marching musicians. Some creationists, however, didn't get the joke ...

The April National Geographic is definitely worth getting if you're interested in hominids. There's an article on the hobbits, Homo floresiensis, and another article about the Dmanisi hominids from Georgia; in particular, a new skull has been discovered there. The new skull is of interest because it is almost entirely toothless, suggesting that the individual must have received considerable support from his companions. This skull was also published on this month (Lordkipanidze et al. 2005, Nature, 434:717).

There's an interesting story in Time about some modern inhabitants of the Indonesian island of Flores who are extremely small and live near the Liang Bua cave where Homo floresiensis was found. Interestingly, they seem to think their ancestors lived in the Liang Bua cave. The scientists who think that the hobbit was merely a microcephalic small modern human are of course greatly heartened by this development, but the scientists who discovered the hobbit are standing firm that it is a new species, and presumably find it merely coincidental. A quote from one of them: "Of course, there are small-bodied people on Flores, but they don't have brains one-third the size of ours, or unusually shaped pelvises or very long arms like H. floresiensis. This controversy doesn't look like ending any time soon.

Recently I've been on a couple of blogs, challenging creationists to classify some of the more problematical (for them) specimens from the hominid fossil record. Let's see if I get much of a response...

The latest rounds have been fired in the war over the interpretation of the "Hobbit" fossils from Indonesia that were announced in 2004. The hobbit discoverers have published details on some new fossils: more arm bones from the original skeleton, another jaw bone, and many pieces from other individuals. According to them (and some other commentators), the new fossils confirm that the hobbit was a typical member of its population, and not an aberrant individual (in fact, some bones come from an individual smaller than the first hobbit). ...

In 2007, the discovery of fossilized bones from the body (as opposed to the head) of the Dmanisi hominids was announced. These bones show that the Dmanisi hominids were bipedal, but with some primitive characteristics particularly in the upper body. The bones are definitely not those of apes, but they are not quite like those of modern humans either. At the Panda's Thumb, I have responded to articles about these fossils by Casey Luskin of the Discovery Institute, and Answers In Genesis. ...

Added January 10, 2006: A classic and often-referenced 1984 paper by G. Brent Dalrymple. The paper contains short but accurate expositions of radiometric dating methods and discussions of creationist criticisms and attempts to date the Earth as young. It includes material difficult to find elsewhere, such as the discussion of mixing isochrons and the effect of neutron-capture reactions. Dr. Dalrymple is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a winner of the National Medal of Science, a former president of the American Geophysical Union, and the author of The Age of the Earth