Sepang MotoGP: Marc Marquez takes record-equalling 12th win of 2014

Marc Marquez took his first MotoGP victory since August as he defeated Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.

After his astounding streak of 10 wins in the first 10 grands prix of 2014, Marquez had only won once in the following six races, and crashed in three of them.

He finally put that right in Malaysia, though only after a first-corner brush with Lorenzo that dropped him to eighth.

Lorenzo had made a good start to put his Yamaha between Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Marquez as they approached Turn 1, where contact between the two champions sent both wide.

While Marquez dropped all the way to eighth, Lorenzo pulled back onto the line in third place, and then swiftly overtook both fast-starter Andrea Dovizioso's Ducati and Pedrosa to lead at the end of the opening lap.

Pedrosa then fell from second place at the final corner on lap two, but there was little respite for Lorenzo as Valentino Rossi and the recovering Marquez were soon on his tail.

The lead trio spent the first half of the race covered by just a few tenths as they ran in a very tense three-bike train.

After many, many attempts under braking, Rossi finally got ahead of Lorenzo at half-distance.

Marquez followed the Italian soon afterwards, with Lorenzo - who was running a harder front tyre than his rivals - then falling away in third place.

Rossi held on a little longer before Marquez made it past, although it took the final two laps of the race for the Honda to shake the Yamaha off completely.

Marquez's win draws him level with Mick Doohan for the record of 12 premier class victories in a single season, and he can now break that mark in the season finale at Valencia in a fortnight.

Rossi's second place increases his advantage over Lorenzo in the battle for the championship runner-up spot. This is now an all-Yamaha affair with Pedrosa out of contention after crashing for good when back up to 13th place.

Dovizioso developed a problem in the closing laps and tumbled right back to eighth place, which meant Stefan Bradl and Bradley Smith ended up battling for fourth, with the German coming out on top.

Pol Espargaro bravely rode to sixth despite breaking a bone in his foot in a Saturday practice crash and having some very close calls with Yonny Hernandez, who finished seventh.

Attrition levels were high again: in addition to Andrea Iannone non-starting due to arm injuries from a Friday clash with Marquez, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista collided early on, and Cal Crutchlow parked his Ducati from sixth with a mechanical problem.

Israel plans to build their angry Palestinians Yarusalem

pledged Monday to build more than 1,000 new settler homes in Arab east Jerusalem, in a move the Palestinians warned was likely to trigger an "explosion" of violence.
The announcement by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angered the Palestinians who said it would inflame tensions in the eastern sector of the city which has been plagued by almost daily clashes for the past four months.

"The government has decided to advance the planning of more than 1,000 units in Jerusalem -- roughly 400 in Har Homa and about 600 in Ramat Shlomo," a source in Netanyahu's office told AFP.
The source also confirmed Israel was to advance plans "for infrastructure projects in the West Bank," without giving further details.
The news emerged just weeks after hardline settlers took over 35 homes in Silwan, a densely populated Palestinian neighbourhood on the southern edge of the Old City, sparking fury in the West Bank city of Ramallah and condemnation from Washington.

Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, said the move was a "dangerous escalation" that could create an "earthquake" in the region.
And Jibril Rajoub, a senior member of Abbas's Fatah faction, warned it would likely fuel further violence.
"Such unilateral acts will lead to an explosion," he said just days after a 21-year-old Palestinian from Silwan rammed his car into a crowd of Israelis, killing an infant and a young woman.
"The Israelification of east Jerusalem is the most provocative act for us as Palestinians, as Muslims, as Christians, as Arabs," he said.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Washington was "deeply concerned" by Israeli settlement plans.
"Israel's leaders have said they would support a pathway to a two-state solution, but moving forward with this type of action would be incompatible with the pursuit of peace," she said.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Abbas had called for an emergency UN Security Council session over the east Jerusalem violence, as well as what he termed Israeli "aggression" at the nearby Al-Aqsa compound.

- The root cause -
"The root cause (of the ongoing unrest) is the Israeli occupation -- the frustration, the disappointment, losing hope in the future are all symptoms of what is going on on the ground," Rajoub said.
"Even the Americans have started to understand that Mr Netanyahu is responsible for what's going on."
Netanyahu denied Israel's actions in east Jerusalem had fuelled anger on the Palestinian street.
"The violence against us is not the result of construction in Jerusalem... it is because of our enemies' desire that we not be here at all," he said, pledging to crack down on the unrest until calm was restored to the city.
"You cannot build peace on a foundation of lies and illusions. And the root of this conflict always has been and always will be the refusal to recognise the Jewish state in any borders at all."

Over the weekend, police fired tear gas at hundreds of Palestinians at a "symbolic funeral" for the perpetrator of Wednesday's car attack, Abdelrahman Shaludi, who was shot by police as he fled and later died of his wounds.

The car attack sparked clashes between stone-throwers and police in Palestinian neighbourhoods which continued until Shaludi was buried late Sunday night under tight security restrictions, with the number of mourners restricted to 50.

- 'Jerusalem is burning' -
Lior Amichai of Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now also said the announcement on construction in Har Homa and Ramat Shlomo was likely to stir tensions.
"There is never a good time to do such things, now more than ever as Jerusalem is burning," he told AFP.
Israel seized east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community. It views the city as its undivided capital and does not consider construction in the east as settlement building.
But for the Palestinians, who want east Jerusalem as capital of their future state, Israel's ongoing construction there is a major issue.
Israel's settlement policy was one of the main reasons for the collapse of the latest US-led round of peace talks in April, prompting the Palestinians to push ahead with diplomatic plans to seek international recognition.

2014 SMMT day was like a hop _in car wash with 100mph speed limit

Usually getting soggy and cold isn’t very appealing to us but when we get the opportunity to test dozens of new cars back to back on a range of high-speed circuits at Millbrook in Bedfordshire it only seems to add to the fun! The SMMT (Society for Motoring Manufacturers and Traders) day then was off to a great start. We joined the sea of journalists on a conveyor belt of octane-induced hot laps where the keys to the McLaren 650S, Maserati Ghibli, Alfa Romeo 4C and BMW i3 were jangling at the next stop.

With a strict 15 minutes allotted for each test drive we had to form relations with the models pretty quickly and then learn how to tease out their best characteristics. Of course you can only get a snap-shot of the picture but by what we experienced all you new car buyers are in for a lot of fun!

Let’s start with the high-end McLaren 650S – what a machine! Despite its intimidatingly beautiful exterior it doesn’t give you the diva attitude you would expect. It is perfectly balanced, pretty comfortable, obviously very quick (0-62mph in 2.9 seconds), highly stable and has very authoritative brakes. The centralised navigation screen provides you with convenience while parking sensors and cameras are also available as an option. The cabin is race-focussed but it also feels luxurious and those scissor doors are a real crowd-pleaser too!

Now on to the Maserati Ghilbli diesel – yes a diesel – but trust us, it is a very slick one and your business associates are likely to be very impressed! It seems to blend performance, practicality and luxury very well although the interior materials were not quite as tactile as we would expect. The quad exhausts, furrowed headlamps and double-spoke alloys are sure to appeal to young execs with a £50K budget. The Diesel version will also return between 30 and 40mpg and boasts low C02 emissions too. It is still fairly weighty and could do with a bit more pace but it has pleasant driving manners and looks very prestigious.

The Renaultsport Megane 265 Cup Chassis is pure hedonismon wheels! Its neck-jerking acceleration and composed handling make you want to fling it around a lot but whether you could live with the firm ride probably depends on you being young and non-arthritic!

SEAT Leon FR’s 2.0 diesel TDi had us lusting for its 150 PS (147 hp) and 320Nm (236 lb ft) of torque which also translates to a pretty explosive jaunt around Bedfordshire’s countryside. Its 0 – 60 mph happens in a pretty decent 8.4 seconds (with either the manual or DSG gearboxes) and at top speed it is well planted. The level of grip is reassuring and the little hatch has a playful character although the steering feel could be a little sharper.

The V8 engine of the BMW M3 Coupe Limited Edition 500 is absolutely phenomenal; from the moment you fire it up you can just feel that 420bhp vibrating like a genie in a bottle and all we wanted to do is let it out to play! That seven-speed M double-clutch transmission with DRIVELOGIC emphasises that Germanic precision we all know and love and with 400Nm of pulling power, it will make light work of any over-taking scenario. The special edition model puts only a £1,000 premium on the price despite having £4,000 worth of extras. As well as the seven-speed M double-clutch transmission with DRIVELOGIC, it also boasts high-gloss black alloys, piano black BMW Individual trim with ‘One of 500’ cut into it by laser, electronic damper control as well as a wealth of technology and infotainment.

We are sure that recent pictures of the Citroen DS3 Cabrio Racing 1.6 200bhp model haven’t escaped your notice of late – all that brazen orange paint, those sporty alloys, carbon that fibre splitter, lowered body and side skirts are a boy-racer’s eye candy, right? Inside there’s plenty more faux carbon as well as body-hugging seats. You need the hugging too as it is a lively machine with a pretty formidable suspension, wider track and four-piston callipers. Even the ride is bearable!

We were also pleasantly surprised by the Corvette C7 Stingray 6.2 V8 manual model which feels very refined and has plenty of low-end torque. Its striking looks, elegant composure, smooth gear changes and innovatively-styled cockpit all work in its favour. There’s plenty of thrills to be had from that V8 but if you apply some restraint you can get fairly respectable fuel consumption from it too. There’s also a fair amount of boot space.

To mix up the experience the engines of some heritage models such as the Honda NSX, a 1989 Land Rover Discovery First-of-Line, a mk1 SEAT Ibiza and a classic Maserati Ghibli were also kept warm throughout the day. The first-generation Toyota RAV4 and Lexus LS400 were other classics we could compare with today’s standards. It certainly makes you realise how dependant we have become on electronic aids and touch-screen convenience!

As always the level of organisation, the hospitality and the experience as a whole was top-notch! Thank you SMMT and all the manufacturers for letting us play in your cars!

How to build your own mini-PC

The Raspberry Pi is extremely small, consumes almost no electricity and is extremely affordable at 35 euros. We tell you how to set up the mini-PC and extract the maximum. From "PC Magazine" author Tim Kaufmann

The MiniPC Raspberry Pi can do much: time he is a NAS, sometimes an IP surveillance camera or a media center with XBMC. We'll tell you where the differences between the various models are and what hardware you need for your own system. A whole PC for 35 Euro - no wonder that invites experimentation and tinkering. Hardly a day goes by that does not create a new, cool project, based on a Raspberry Pi. But what makes this piece of hardware really so useful? The Raspberry Pi is a little something like squaring the circle. He is extremely small, consumes almost no electricity is affordable at 35 € and yet so powerful that a graphical desktop including Office software runs on it. Leisurely, yes, but it runs. The heart of the Raspberry Pi is an ARM-based CPU. This means that Windows will not run on it. Instead, Linux is used as operating system. But this is less of a problem than you might think now. Because the hardware is fixed, there are virtually no problems with drivers and other things that might make it difficult to start. You can concentrate on your (maybe) first steps with the still foreign operating system, therefore. In addition, around the Raspberry Pi is a lively community is created that gives advice and assistance. In the gallery, we are in cooperation with the "PC Magazine" show, you know what Raspberry Pi Models are and what accessories you absolutely need.

Power Supply

Essential Accessories: The Raspberry Pi requires a 5V power supply with Micro-USB port. Theoretically, ranging from many mobile phone power supplies. But many of them deliver their power not from stable, which can lead to quite puzzling failure of the Raspberry Pi. Good experiences we have had with this power supply for about 10 euros.

Essential Accessories: SD-Card. If you for Raspberry Pi B + grab (he has 4 instead of 2 USB ports), you have to rely on a microSD card. Although theoretically enough a 4-gigabyte card. We advise you to at least 8 or better still 16 GB. Price makes it almost from nothing. The larger cards but keep longer because they contain more memory cells.

Housing

Essential Accessories: duty is a plastic housing into which you plug the Raspberry Pi. It protects the electronics from static electricity, among other things. An HDMI cable and a keyboard you need at least during installation. In addition, it is another PC (Windows, Mac or Linux) that has a card reader.

USB hard drive

What else do you donate a small PC to hardware depends on the application. Do you want to store larger amounts of data, a USB hard disk is recommended. This requires either a separate power supply or you have using a USB hub that has a power supply, connect to the Raspberry Pi.

Camera

for around 30 euros you get a camera module for the Raspberry Pi, either as a night vision camera and optional with camera housing.

WLAN & Bluetooth

A very popular accessory for the Raspberry Pi are also Wi-Fi adapter and Bluetooth adapters that are connected to the USB port (about 10 euros per).

Cooler

If you want to overclock the CPU of his Raspberry Pi, should also attach the heat sink available (about 2 euros).

UPS

In general: There is almost nothing that does not exist for the Raspberry Pi as an accessory. Even uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is available for some months. This is useful for example when used as a car PC.

XL SPORT OF THE GREEN CAR IN THE SPORTS CAR

The new concept car from Volkswagen is called XL Sport. She is the direct descendant of the XL1 which was presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2013 and had the distinction of consuming 1 liter per 100 km! Here, the chassis houses this time engine sports car or motorcycle instead!

XL Sport: A motorcycle engine under the hood

Volkswagen group counts among its ranks many car brands: Audi, Seat, Lamborghini or Bugatti but also one of the most prestigious brands of motorcycle since 2012 (through the purchase of the brand Italian by Audi). Ducati  

Precisely, the brand is now in the spotlight because, under the hood of the concept car fits a Ducati engine ! The engine is a V-twin 200 horsepower, which is also on the Ducati 1199 Panigale. It propels the XL Sport to nearly 270 km / h for a 0 to 100 in just 5.7 seconds shipped. This performance is amazing for an engine of this size. It also keeps the characteristics of a motorcycle engine Ducati top amount in the towers, where the red area is 11 000 r / min! Something so amazing but logical in view of the rise in the towers, the engine is equipped with a desmodromic distribution (rocker valve return instead of springs). This type of distribution is very rare in the automotive world because it involves a more complex mechanism and a very regular maintenance.  

This innovative concept car measures 4.29 meters long, 1.85 meters wide and 1.15 meters high. On balance, it displays a weighed 890 kg which is one of the keys to its amazing performance. XL Sport has a DSG transmission 7 reports that controls the propulsion system. 

In terms of design, the XL Sport stands out right away with its doors opening scissor which always effect. Compared to the XL1, the rear wheels are now in the open air but keeps the same aesthetic features such as optical long before, giving the impression of a continuous line framing the broad bonnet. Without being overwhelming, the aesthetics of the XL Sport is distinguished by its originality and it is perhaps the most important. This object from elsewhere will be sold for 500 lucky owners. In terms of price, the price of the XL Sport is expected to be in the range of 80 to € 100,000.