Nuclear War Rattle; China's Heavy Rocket; Goofy Mars; Light Hack; and Jacket Tent Bag

Russia

Russia holds large-scale nuclear war games washingtontimes

The unannounced war games were called strategic operation of nuclear forces and took place between Oct. 10 and Oct. 12 throughout Russia. The exercises appear to be the latest round of nuclear saber-rattling against the United States by President Vladimir Putin.

One official said the exercises, involving numerous launches of nuclear missiles, were gauged to be at levels that reached or exceeded the kind of Soviet strategic force exercises held during the Cold War.

China

China launches first heavy-lift rocket phys.org

The Long March 5 rocket spaceflight101 can carry up to 25 tons—around the same weight as 16 cars—into low earth orbit (LEO), state-run China Radio International said.

By contrast the US's Saturn V, which delivered astronauts to the moon in 1969, was designed to deliver some 154 tons of payload to LEO.

Space

NASA's Curiosity rover eyes goofy little meteorite on Mars cnet

"On Mars, iron meteorites dominate the small number of meteorites that have been found. Part of the explanation could come from the resistance of iron meteorites to erosion processes on Mars," NASA noted in 2014 when Curiosity discovered a large iron meteorite named "Lebanon."

Drones

Watch a drone hack a room full of smart lightbulbs from outside the window theverge

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science weizmann.ac.il and Dalhousie University dal.ca were able to execute the chain-reaction attack by exploiting a vulnerability in the ZigBee wireless communications protocol, a widely used home automation protocol found at the core of millions of today’s most popular smart home devices — Philips Hue lighting is just one example. The infected payload was delivered by exploiting a weakness in Philips’ encryption to force an over-the-air firmware update using an "autonomous attack kit" built from "readily available equipment" costing just a few hundred dollars. In other words, anyone with the knowledge and motivation could execute a similar attack.

Unusual Tech

This jacket can transform into a sleeping bag or tent in just one minute businessinsider

When you unzip the side of the hood and zip up the bottom, the jacket forms a sleeping bag (with the hood as a triangular piece to rest your head). To transform it into a tent, you fill an inflatable frame with air by blowing into a mouthpiece, which gives it a rigid structure. The original prototype used rods to prop it up as a tent, but using air means its wearer doesn't need to carry anything extra.