Macron, Le Pen attend ceremony for slain policeman

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Macron, Le Pen attend ceremony for slain policeman

The two candidates vying to become France's next president attended a sombre ceremony Tuesday honouring the policeman killed on the Champs Elysees, as they ramp up a campaign marked by security jitters. Centrist politician Emmanuel Macron and far-right leader Marine Le Pen stood grim-faced among hundreds of mourners as Xavier Jugele's gay partner delivered a moving eulogy to the 37-year-old officer slain in the shooting claimed by the Islamic State group on the most famous street in Paris just days before the first round of the election. "I suffer without hatred," Etienne Cardiles said at the ceremony led by outgoing President Francois Hollande in the elegant courtyard of the Paris police headquarters.

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Senate gives limited resources to Russia election-meddling probe

By Dustin Volz WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate's main investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election is equipped with a much smaller staff than previous high-profile intelligence and scandal probes in Congress, which could potentially affect its progress, according to sources and a Reuters review of public records. With only seven staff members initially assigned to the Senate Intelligence Committee's three-month-old investigation, progress has been sluggish and minimal, said two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity. A committee aide, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said two more staff members were being added and a few others were involved less formally.

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3-Year-Old Boy Dies After Car Window Closes on His Neck

A toddler died after his neck became stuck in a car's power window, police said.

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The latest attempt at a flying car doesn’t really look like a car

Forget about self-driving cars for a second and imagine yourself “driving” a flying car. It may happen as soon as this year, as at least one company is looking to deploy a commercial version of a mini helicopter that you’d be able to fly yourself. However, it’ll be a few years until these flying cars will be allowed to merge with regular car traffic — if that will ever happen.

Kitty Hawk, a company that’s backed up by Google legend Larry Page, plans to launch the Flyer by the end of the year. You can already sign up for a three-year membership that costs $100 and will net you $2,000 off of the retail price. However, it’s unclear at this time how much the Flyer itself will cost.

For the time being, the Flyer won’t be allowed on public roads. Or above them. The device operates in the FAR 103 Ultralight Category of US FAA regulations, which means you won’t need a pilot’s license and may be flown in uncongested areas for recreational purposes.

The Kitty Hawk test flying car that was recently used in California “looked like something Luke Skywalker would have built out of spare parts,” according to The New York Times.

“It was an open-seated, 220-pound contraption with room for one person, powered by eight battery-powered propellers that howled as loudly as a speedboat,” the report notes.

The final version of the Flyer will likely be more quieter when it launches, though it might not look like a car at all.

The Times says that Page isn’t the only entrepreneur chasing this dream. There are plenty of companies in the US and around the world looking to develop flying cars. Airbus is one of the most prominent rivals, given their extensive expertise in making things fly.

In addition to regulation and safety, there’s one other concern that needs addressing before such devices become commercially available: battery life. It’s unclear how long a Kitty Hawk drone would be able to fly.

A video below shows Page’s flying contraption in action. And this is how it feels like riding one. Meanwhile, I can’t but wonder how much we’ll have to wait for self-driving flying cars to arrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMWh4W1C2PM

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