It’s been in the news today (although perhaps rather more quietly than I’d expect) that Russia has test-fired a new ICBM from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

The new missile is said to be able to carry up to 10 nuclear multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) although there is no information on per-warhead yield. The missile is also described as being capable of avoiding anti-ballistic-missile systems so it would appear that this test is a direct show of strength to the USA who are currently looking to site elements of their ABM system in Poland and the Czech Republic.

The missile itself is described as an RS-24 which is a Russian designator (NATO designations seem to begin SS-). Googling around, the news outlets appear to be the only source of reference to ‘RS-24′. My best guess is that this ‘new’ missile is a variant of the current Topol-M 3-stage solid propellant missile which Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov stated would be equipped with MIRVs “in a few years” (I suppose a few years could mean this year too).

For reference, the Russian designation for the Topol-M is RT-2UTTH, the Nato designation is SS-27 and the ‘Bilateral’ name from FAS.org is RS-12M2. Quite how would relate to a Russian RS-24 designation I am not sure.

The RS-24 is reported as a replacement for the SS-18 Satan and SS-19 Scalpel ICBMs which are both liquid fueled rockets. With the RS-24 presumably being a solid-fuelled rocket, this will offer the advantage of much faster launching times.

It seems that Russia and America are pining for the days of the Cold War much to the detriment of the world’s population.

Update: I’ve found an article (translated from German) which appears to back up my hypothesis that the RS-24 is based on the Topol-M

The rocket RS-24 equipped with a multiple warhead was developed in the Muscovite Institut for thermodynamics under line of the technical designer Juri Solomonow on the basis of the rocket system Topol m.

Full text of the German article (Google translation)

Update: Some more information and discussion about the RS-24 over at Pavel Podvig’s blog, he is of the opinion that this missile is designed to work around START Treaty requirements. Also, some discussion of possible US ramifications at Science and Global Security.

Update 30/5/07 RS-24 Launch Video: I found this video from Russian Television via an update on Pavel Podvig’s blog. The video shows what is reported to be [Google Translation] the launch of the RS-24.

The video literally shows just the first couple of seconds of launch with some military personnel looking on. The launcher and rocket itself look (having viewed some Topol-M launches last night on youtube) just like a Topol-M and Pavel Podvig speculates that, seeing as the Topol-M can already carry MIRVs, the RS-24 designation may be ‘just a name’ to work with the START Treaty requirement.

If the launch video does not show here, try going directly to the Russian language article

A new website just cropped up called propertysnake.co.uk. A play on the board-game “Snakes and Ladders“, propertysnake.co.uk is obviously the opposite of a Property Ladder.

As of writing, the site shows records of around 150,000 properties across the UK. You can search by post-code to find out how much the prices of properties in your area have fallen.

House prices in my area area down around 4% since the start of the year but some bright spark still paid nearly £10,000 for a single garage on block.

Update: It appears that propertysnake is running extremely slowly due to the huge number of visits they are receiving. If you really want to see it running at full speed, I’d recommend visiting during the small hours when the load seems to be less.

It can’t be bargained with, can’t be reasoned with and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead…

…and even then it will probably come back and pump the still-warm corpse of a once great franchise.

That’s right, they are going to mug the Terminator franchise again. This time it’s for a TV series inspiringly entitled “The Sarah Connor Chronicles”. The series covers events between Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Although it appears to be set in 2007 rather than 1997, John Connor is 15 years old (work that one out!).

None of the principal cast from the movies will be involved in this production and likewise no writers. It also appears that James Cameron has no association with the Chronicles.

Linda Hamilton’s role as Sarah Connor is now taken up by Lena Headey (33) who could, in my opinion, really do with pulling some weights, even if only to improve her arms, if she’s going to fill the hard-woman role of Sarah successfully.

John Connor will be played by Thomas Dekker (19)

This series has such incredible potential to be utter rubbish that it is hard to see how it can succeed.

As of today, a pilot episode has been produced and Fox has ordered 13 episodes.

The Terminator is out there…

…at least it was until late yesterday but it appears that Warner Bros. Television has rushed around making Youtube et al take down the official trailer to the extent that I can’t find it anywhere now. Perhaps even they are thinking this series could be ill-advised. When I watched the trailer, I had to do so with the sound off (at work). However, I lip read one of the characters uttering the phrase “Come with me if you want to live” which at least put a smirk on my face

There are some clips which I am yet to watch (at work again) over at IGN but the official trailer is absent.

Despite a petition earlier this year against road pricing on the Downing Street website signed by 1.8million citizens, government ministers have decided to go ahead with ‘trial’ expansion of road pricing/congestion charging to UK cities outside London.

Up to 10 cities may be included in the initial ‘trial’ with Birmingham and Manchester being mooted as likely candidates to be first. Such congestion charges could be enforced by Automatic Number Plate Recognition cameras of the type used for the London Congestion Charge.

Of course, this is quite likely to preceed a ’stealth’ roll-out of national road pricing after this ‘trial’ because once any two cities have a congestion charge perimter enforced by ANPR, it would be trivial to charge motorists when they drive between two major centres.

The upshot of this method of implementing national road pricing is that it boils the frog slowly and the UK motorist may not notice that while still paying the classic ‘pay as you drive’ (fuel tax) he is now to be ‘double-dipped’ for road pricing. It also allows the government to track all vehicle movements with an extended ANPR system instead of a potentially more costly in-car GPS+GPRS or tagging system.

The minutes for the May Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the Bank of England show that the committee voted 9 to 0 in favour of the .25% increase in UK interest rates to 5.5%

Two members of the committee were considering voting for a .50% increase.

If the Committee had been reasonably confident about the need for another interest rate rise soon, then a strong case could have been made for an increase of 50 basis points this month. But those members who had considered voting for 50 basis points preferred to wait for more data to assess the impact of past increases in Bank Rate.

Reference to post at HPC forum

Tux 500 are a previously little-known Indianapolis 500 racing team.

Their express aim is the marketing and promotion of Linux in mainstream media and they have just qualified 31st for the 2007 Indianapolis 500 race on the back of just $12,500 worth of donations (presumably they have permanent backers to enable them to afford the car and run the team)

Good luck to the Tux 500 team on May 27th!