british

The Stanley Steamer may have finally been dethroned.

After holding onto its land speed record for 103 years, the homegrown Stanley automobile from the early days of motoring has been overtaken by a late-model import. The British Steam Car team said Tuesday that, earlier in the day, in the two runs required to be considered for the record, the Steam Car averaged 139.843 mph over a measured mile.

Tuesday's achievement still awaits official confirmation from the certifying agency, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile.

The steam-powered mark to beat was 127 mph, set in 1906 by Fred Marriott, … Read more

In this day and age, it's hard to imagine that there might be an automotive speed record left that's only slightly north of 100 miles per hour. Heck, I've been passed by Audis on the autobahn that seemed to be going twice that fast.

But then, we've grown accustomed to cars with internal combustion engines. The record in question, which could finally fall this month after standing for more than a century, is held by a Stanley Steamer. In 1906, a gent named Fred Marriott drove a cigar-shaped steamer at Daytona Beach, Fla., to the then … Read more

British Airways will not extend in-flight mobile communication to any of its aircraft already in service, CEO Willie Walsh says.

The airline is planning to launch a mobile e-mail, Web browsing, and texting service from OnAir on two new Airbus A318 aircrafts in September.

However, it would cost the airline too much to fit similar systems to its current aircraft, Walsh said Wednesday at the Sita Air Transport IT Summit 2009 conference in Cannes, France.

"We are not planning to retrofit the equipment to existing aircraft because we believe it will be too expensive," he said.

He added … Read more

Islam is getting a little help from Britain's Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism, which says it plans to train government-approved groups to "flood the Internet" with "positive" interpretations of that religion in an online fight against radicalization.

The OSCT plans to coach moderate Islamic groups on how to manipulate the Google rankings of their Web sites in order to boost the online profile of moderate voices in the Muslim community, reports The Register, a British online investigative newspaper.

It is widely understood that terrorists use the Web to radicalize and recruit the vulnerable and disaffected; … Read more

Meet the British Steam Car, which looks a bit like the love child of the Batmobile and an F-15 fighter jet. The goal for this sleek, modern-day automotive design is to break the 127 mph land speed record set by a Stanley Steamer in 1906.

The vehicle, which uses superheated steam as its driving force, this week passed a milestone with a run of better than 80 mph on a test track in England. Next month, the British Steam Car will be shipped from England to the U.S. The goal is to make the record attempt in a dry … Read more

Support is building in the British Parliament and from legal experts for self-confessed NASA hacker Gary McKinnon to be tried in the U.K.

Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile of Berriew, Queen's Counsel, the independent reviewer of Britain's antiterror laws, told CNET News sister site ZDNet UK on Wednesday that McKinnon's diagnosis with Asperger's Syndrome, a condition on the autistic spectrum, means he should be tried in Britain rather than in the U.S.

McKinnon was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome last summer by Cambridge University autism expert Simon Baron-Cohen. Despite the diagnosis, the Home Office … Read more

If you thought the British Army's upper lip was always stiffer than its bayonets, then you might be jolted upright by a new development.

The British Ministry of Defense has expressed its concern that soldiers might betray the nation's secrets on Facebook and MySpace. Many British newspapers are relaying soldiers' dismay at a new directive that appears to prevent them from networking socially.

A serviceman enjoying the winter in Afghanistan told the Sun: "The fun police have taken over. I can't talk to my wife and kids or even play Call of Duty 5. Do they … Read more

British Airways announced this week that it would initiate limited cell phone use on an upcoming route between London and New York City. Voice calls will not be permitted, but passengers will be allowed to send and receive text messages and e-mails.

The airline will limit the service to twice-daily flights between London City Airport and New York's JFK that are due to start in September. The all-business class route is flown by a narrow-body Airbus A318 aircraft that must make a stop in Ireland on the westbound leg. The configuration will allow for just 32 seats.

British Airways … Read more

Bucking the open-source trend, the British Royal Navy has developed a modified version of Microsoft Windows XP and has begun installing it on its fleet of nuclear submarines.

The new Submarine Command System Next Generation (SMCS NG) employs standard multifunction consoles with double LCD screens, linked with "commercial grade" cables and software to internal Ethernet local area networks (LANs) aboard each sub.

Ever thrifty, the spit-and-baling-wire Brits went with Windows in part because it was cheaper to maintain. The use of commercial off-the-shelf technology is expected to save the U.K. taxpayers up to $32 million over the … Read more