STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

Is The Vacuum Of Space Strong Enough To Suck Up The Earth’s Oceans?

When you think of the vast emptiness of space, one of the first things to come to mind is probably violent decompression. But is the vacuum of space powerful enough that it could suck out an entire ocean through some sort of gigantic space straw?

Well, it’s not quite that simple, as Vsauce explains, because “sucking” isn’t quite what you think it is. Suffice it to say we’re in no danger, but the great void is still stealing our matter, bit by tiny bit.

[MIKA27]

NASA’s Next Big Mission Will Be To Capture An Asteroid

There have been rumours about NASA’s next major project ever since senator Bill Nelson of Florida mentioned some jazz about wrangling an asteroid. Now a White House official has confirmed the plans to NBC, explaining the goal is to get samples within the decade and then think about Mars.

The senior Obama administration official, who divulged the details on condition of anonymity, confirmed Nelson’s claims that the White House will seek over $US100 million in funding to lasso an asteroid and get some astronauts up there to check it out by 2025. Then and only then will NASA’s eyes turn to putting humans on Mars.

The idea has been kicking around for a while, but Russia’s recent brush with space-rock disaster seems to have kicked things into a higher gear. The plan would involve sending a probe out to a nearby, 500-ton asteroid around 2017, catching it in a giant space-bag by 2019 and then toting it back to live in stable orbit around the moon, where it could be studied. The whole production has been calculated to cost somewhere around two billion dollars, or as little as one billion on a very strict budget, which could be split into 100 million over a decade. This apparently, is the first step.

The official put it this way to NBC in an email:

This mission would combine the best of NASA’s asteroid identification, technology development, and human exploration efforts to capture and redirect a small asteroid to just beyond the moon to set up a human mission using existing resources and equipment, including the heavy-lift rocket and deep-space capsule that have been under development for several years

…We need to prove we’re smarter than the dinosaurs.

Nothing will be official until a budget request on Wednesday, but it looks like this is the real deal. We’ll be getting our very own pet asteroid sometime in the next 10 years if all goes well. Welcome to the future.

[MIKA27]

Russian Bears Are Hooked On Sniffing Jet Fuel Until They Pass Out

Russia’s bears, no longer able to resist the sweet temptation of jet fuel, have a drug problem. The bears living on the Kronotsky Nature Reserve have taken to huffing jet fuel out of old barrels until they pass out

The adorable, 550kg junkies will even go so far as to actively stalk helicopters for their fix, scavenging for and sucking up any excess fuel as it leaks onto the soil.

And this isn’t our large, furry friend’s first foray into the world of vice — Ukranian bears already have a reputation for going a little too heavy on the sauce. While an intervention is clearly in order, it might even help to stop leaving barrels full of discarded jet fuel around nature reserves. But we’re just tossing out ideas here.

So, Russian bears, remember: you’re not bad bears. You’ve just made some bad decisions. Stay tough — don’t huff.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: This Supersonic Fighter Has Never Seen Real Combat

The US Air Force’s armada are among the most advanced aircraft on the planet. As such, the USAF isn’t going to let just any schmuck fresh out of basic training take to the skies in an F-35. Instead wannabe Top Guns must first prove their mettle in a less expensive plane that’s trained more than 50,000 pilots since the Eisenhower administration.

It’s the Northrop T-38 Talon, a twin-engine, high-altitude supersonic jet trainer — the first supersonic trainer ever built, in fact, and remains one of the longest serving aircraft in the USAF fleet. The T-38 was originally designed as a low-cost, high-performance aerial fighter in the late 1950s, however, the USAF had no need for such a plane at the time. What it did need was a replacement for the ageing T-33 Shooting Star. After a trio of successful prototype flights in 1959, the T-38 Talon officially entered service in March of 1961. The trainers lacked armament, targeting, and other combat capabilities so each only cost $US756,000 to make.

Over its 11-year production run, nearly 1,200 T-38′s were made. It remains one of the few dedicated supersonic trainers in the USAF fleet.

The T-38 is utilised primarily by Air Education and Training Command (AETC) for undergraduate pilot training. The Talon is often used to simulate the F-15C Eagle, the F-15E Strike Eagle, the F-16 Fighting Falcon, B-52 Stratofortress, B-1B Lancer, B-2 Spirit, A-10 Thunderbolt, F-22 Raptor, and F-35 Lightning II. The AETC isn’t the only agency to employ Talon’s, though. NASA and Air Force Materiel Command also fly T-38′s in a variety of training missions as do the German, Portuguese, Turkish and Chinese Air Forces.

The only T-38s to sport a black and red pain scheme, however, are those flown out of Beale Air Force Base near Sacramento, CA, and used to train U-2 pilots.

The T-38 Talon is just over 14m long with an 8m wingspan and weighs just under 5500kg. A pair of General Electric J85-5A afterburning turbojets sit under the base of each wing and provide over 900kg of thrust. The two pilots — a trainee and a flight instructor — sit tandem in the pressurised, air-conditioned cockpit. A later iteration, the T-38C, also incorporated a “glass cockpit” that introduced integrated avionics, a HUD, and a bombless scoring system (in that it didn’t need to drop dummies).

To say that the Talon is a nimble jet does not do the aircraft justice. It requires just 700m of runway for takeoff — roughly half that of, say, an F-18 — and can climb over 30,000 feet in one minute. In fact, during its first full year of service in 1962, the Talon set time-to-climb records for four altitudes: 3000m, 6000m, 9000m and 12,000m — beating the previous record holder, the F-104. In all, the T-38 has a top speed of Mach 1.3, a range of 1800km, and an operational ceiling of 50,000 feet.

A vast majority of the T-38s produced were of the original A variety, however a small number have been converted into the weaponised B variant for training purposes. The T-38B includes a gun sight and the ability to carry a weapon pod. In 2001, another small portion of T-38As underwent modernisation upgrades including the installation of GPS and inertial navigation systems (INS).

These jets also had their engines overhauled to increase reliability as well as their performance — a thrust increase of 19 per cent while reducing takeoff distance by 9 per cent. These improvements should keep the T-38C flying until at least 2020.

[MIKA27]

Elysium Trailer Is Absolutely Stunning. You Need To Watch This Now

The trailer for Neill Blomkamp’s (District 9) new movie, Elysium has just hit the web, and it…is…awesome.

Here’s the synopsis:

In the year 2159 two classes of people exist: the very wealthy who live on a pristine man-made space station called Elysium, and the rest, who live on an overpopulated, ruined Earth. Secretary Rhodes, a government official, will stop at nothing to enforce anti-immigration laws and preserve the luxurious lifestyle of the citizens of Elysium.

That doesn’t stop the people of Earth from trying to get in, by any means they can. When unlucky Max is backed into a corner, he agrees to take on a daunting mission that if successful will not only save his life, but could bring equality to these polarized worlds.

In Greek mythology, Elysium is where the heroes and relatives of the gods hung out in total paradise, while everyone else was left in the equivalent of Hades or hell.

Interestingly, Blomkamp was meant to direct the Halo movie but chose Elysium instead. Not to worry though, Halo fans: this trailer packs in video game style like you read about. The space station looks like a cross between Halo and Mass Effect. The robots look like the first Mass Effect. The ships look likeFirefly/Serenity (take your pick, purists) and the exoskeleton is classic District 9.

Elysium stars Matt Damon and Jodie Foster and hits screens in the US in August.

[MIKA27]

This Is How Google Glass Actually Works

We all know Google Glass doesn’t need sorcery for you to comfortably see a digital image projected over reality. But just how does it work? This infographic lays out the way the magic happens in simple terms.

The most important part of the shades is a mini-projector that uses a semi-transparent prism to project the computer image directly onto your retina. Despite being super duper close to your peepers, the image is bright and clear. And because the image is slightly transparent, you can comfortably place it right in front of your eyes. So while there are still some challenges for Google to cater the glasses to people who wear prescription lenses, there’s no trickery involved — just simple science.

[MIKA27]

Winter Blues Are No Laughing Matter

Does the onset of winter leave you feeling glum and sullen? You’re not alone. New research has revealed that Google queries for mental health problems increase sharply in colder seasons. The findings suggest that our mental wellbeing can be directly hampered by dark and gloomy weather.

Researchers from San Diego State University monitored all Google mental health queries in Australia and the US from 2006 to 2010, including the phrases ‘anxiety’, ‘bipolar’, ‘depression’, ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘suicide’.

The report found that all searches followed seasonal patterns, experiencing winter peaks and summer troughs. For example, searches for ‘suicide’ declined 29 per cent in Australia during the summer, while searches for ‘schizophrenia’ dropped by more than a third.

Oddly, eating disorder queries were also significantly lower in the summer months (37 per cent). You’d think this would be a peak time for concern, what with it being bikini season and all. Go figure.

The report concludes that its methods could be a game changer for the medical profession when it comes to monitoring a population’s mental health patterns:

The current results suggest that monitoring queries can provide insight into national trends on seeking information regarding mental health, such as seasonality. Given their relatively anonymous nature, instantaneous availability, and the cost-effective manner by which the data are investigated, query trends have potential as an important adjunct to traditional surveillance.

If you’re dreading the impending gloom, we recommend stocking up on Vitamin D (a metabolite of sun exposure), surrounding yourself with friends and regularly curling up at home with a good book. Winter is what you make it.

[MIKA27]

Highly Autonomous ‘Taranis’ Stealth Drone To Be Tested In South Australia Later This Year

Turns out Australia isn’t a bad place to test your secret, supersonic drones! Well, at the very least BAE Systems is keen to put its unmanned “Taranis” stealth UAV through its paces by scooting around the atmosphere above Woomera in South Australia.

According to a story on News.com.au published today, Taranis will take to the air sometime this year to exercise its flying abilities — not such a bad idea considering it’s the world’s first supersonic UAV. The tests are to be carried out at a facility operated by the Royal Australian Air Force in Woomera, South Australia.

As you can see from the image above, Taranis is similar in appearance to a typical stealth bomber… except for the perhaps the creepy, HAL-like red “eye” where a cockpit would normally reside.

What makes the Taranis special — other than its cool name and sleek exterior — is its high degree of autonomy, as mentioned in this piece on Airforce Technology:

The design of the Taranis UAV onboard mission systems will include advanced and highly flexible open systems architecture based on architecture developed by BAE Systems for the Hawk advanced jet trainer and Typhoon aircraft.

An important advanced technology to be integrated into the Taranis system will be the systems intelligence which provides the high level of autonomy and improved operational effectiveness. For airborne surveillance and reconnaissance missions, BAE Systems’s image collection and exploitation (ICE) system allows autonomous collection and distribution of high-quality imagery with very low bandwidth allocation.

The News.com.au story also notes that the drone will be more defensively-minded and should be able to deal with threats against it better than other drones currently available.

In terms of dimensions, Airforce Technology compares it to BAE’s Hawk jet — so you’re looking at a 9.94m wingspan and length of 11.35m, which reportedly makes it among the biggest drones ever created.

[Fuzz]

Highly Autonomous ‘Taranis’ Stealth Drone To Be Tested In South Australia Later This Year

As you can see from the image above, Taranis is similar in appearance to a typical stealth bomber… except for the perhaps the creepy, HAL-like red “eye” where a cockpit would normally reside.

That "red eye" is just the intake cover. Cool nonetheless.

[CanuckSARTech]

Highly Autonomous ‘Taranis’ Stealth Drone To Be Tested In South Australia Later This Year

Turns out Australia isn’t a bad place to test your secret, supersonic drones! Well, at the very least BAE Systems is keen to put its unmanned “Taranis” stealth UAV through its paces by scooting around the atmosphere above Woomera in South Australia.

According to a story on News.com.au published today, Taranis will take to the air sometime this year to exercise its flying abilities — not such a bad idea considering it’s the world’s first supersonic UAV. The tests are to be carried out at a facility operated by the Royal Australian Air Force in Woomera, South Australia.

As you can see from the image above, Taranis is similar in appearance to a typical stealth bomber… except for the perhaps the creepy, HAL-like red “eye” where a cockpit would normally reside.

What makes the Taranis special — other than its cool name and sleek exterior — is its high degree of autonomy, as mentioned in this piece on Airforce Technology:

The design of the Taranis UAV onboard mission systems will include advanced and highly flexible open systems architecture based on architecture developed by BAE Systems for the Hawk advanced jet trainer and Typhoon aircraft.

An important advanced technology to be integrated into the Taranis system will be the systems intelligence which provides the high level of autonomy and improved operational effectiveness. For airborne surveillance and reconnaissance missions, BAE Systems’s image collection and exploitation (ICE) system allows autonomous collection and distribution of high-quality imagery with very low bandwidth allocation.

The News.com.au story also notes that the drone will be more defensively-minded and should be able to deal with threats against it better than other drones currently available.

In terms of dimensions, Airforce Technology compares it to BAE’s Hawk jet — so you’re looking at a 9.94m wingspan and length of 11.35m, which reportedly makes it among the biggest drones ever created.

Have these guys not seen the movie, "Stealth"??!??

[Fuzz]

Have these guys not seen the movie, "Stealth"??!??

Uh, if they're getting ideas from that movie, that thing ain't gonna fly.

[MIKA27]

PSY Has A Follow-Up To Gangnam Style, And It’s Already Really Popular

South Korean pop sensation Psy broke records with his viral smash Gangnam Style, amassing millions and millions of views. Now he has a follow-up called Gentleman M/V, and it’s already going nuts on YouTube. Bottom line? Psy is kind of a huge ****** in this new video.

The video already has around 40 million hits on YouTube after going up on Saturday evening.

[CanuckSARTech]

PSY Has A Follow-Up To Gangnam Style, And It’s Already Really Popular

South Korean pop sensation Psy broke records with his viral smash Gangnam Style, amassing millions and millions of views. Now he has a follow-up called Gentleman M/V, and it’s already going nuts on YouTube. Bottom line? Psy is kind of a huge ****** in this new video.

The video already has around 40 million hits on YouTube after going up on Saturday evening.

LOL.

Nice to see that Art brought his buddy back for this next video (from 0:42 to 0:45)....

But....I sure don't know about 'dem pants...they're like midget-MC-Hammer pants.

[polarbear]

PSY Has A Follow-Up To Gangnam Style, And It’s Already Really Popular

South Korean pop sensation Psy broke records with his viral smash Gangnam Style, amassing millions and millions of views. Now he has a follow-up called Gentleman M/V, and it’s already going nuts on YouTube. Bottom line? Psy is kind of a huge ****** in this new video.

The video already has around 40 million hits on YouTube after going up on Saturday evening.

Yeah... well, that happened...

[MIKA27]

A copy of the Bay Psalm Book could be the world's most expensive book at $30 million

A copy of the Bay Psalm book, dating back to 1640 known to be one of the 11 surviving copies today, is stated to become the most expensive book in the world, with an estimated value of $30 million. Stated to be put up for auction in November , this rare copy is known to be one of the first printed copies in the United States, and has been in the possession of the Old South Church in Boston, where one more such copy is known to exist. However, the other copy will not be put up for auction, as it will be kept as a heirloom object passed on from the 5th Minister of the church, Reverend Thomas Prince. However, if this book realizes the estimated value at the Sotheby's auction, it will sit on the top of the list of the most expensive books, a title earlier held by the 'Birds of America', created by John James Audubon.

David Redden, Vice-Chairman of the Sotheby's auction house has gone on record to say that, this is by far the most expensive book they will ever see exchange hands this November. Since the lower end of the estimated value stands at $15 million, he feels that the actual winning bid just might exceed the amount, as books far lesser rare have fetched near about this price, in the region of $11.5 million. What also makes it very desirable, is the fact that only 1,700 copies were printed originally out of which, only 11 are known to exist. Many institutions like Princeton and University of Texas are known keen to be ale to own a copy, as it relates to a historical time in America. It came into existence at a time, when America was still a colony of the British empire, and the Bay Psalm became the first American book to be published in America.

[Fuzz]

PSY Has A Follow-Up To Gangnam Style, And It’s Already Really Popular

Prefer this version...

[LLC]

I highly doubt anybody would be foolish enough to handle such an old and valuable piece of literary work without gloves. Those pics are suspect...

Just what I was thinking. I'd be wearing gloves.

[polarbear]

I'd say those photos are promotional and the book is a replica

[CanuckSARTech]

Prefer this version...

LOL. Love the cosplay involvement.

[MIKA27]

This Guy Is The Best Wingsuiter On The Planet

…or at least the craziest. This video will make your heart stop.

His name is Alexander Polli, and he’s a BASE jumper and wingsuit-extraordinaire who decided that he’d throw himself out of a helicopter in order to perfectly sail through a tiny hole in a giant rock wall in Spain.

If he gets it wrong, he hits a rock wall at 250km/h. If he gets it right, he’s a hero.

Watch the video and you will believe a man can fly.

[polarbear]

This Guy Is The Best Wingsuiter On The Planet

…or at least the craziest. This video will make your heart stop.

His name is Alexander Polli, and he’s a BASE jumper and wingsuit-extraordinaire who decided that he’d throw himself out of a helicopter in order to perfectly sail through a tiny hole in a giant rock wall in Spain.

If he gets it wrong, he hits a rock wall at 250km/h. If he gets it right, he’s a hero.

Watch the video and you will believe a man can fly.

Holy Crap!

[OZCUBAN]

Here is the original Man in a Winged suit

Here is the trailer for the new Super Man movie looks awesome

[CanuckSARTech]

WOW. That trailer looks freakin' epic!!!!

[MIKA27]

I cant wait for the new Superman Movie guys - Looks as epic as Christopher Nolans Batman.

Thanks for posting Steve.

[MIKA27]

Awesome Grandparents Build Awesome Treehouse Mansion For Grandkids

It’s nice to be a grandparent, because you can enjoy spending time with your grandkids without worrying about the minutia of parenting. Plus, it’s your second go around with little rascals, so you get to have fun with it. Like Steve and Jeri Wakefield, two grandparents who are having so much fun at being awesome grandparents that they built their grandkids this amazing treehouse mansion.

I don’t think kids have ever dreamt of tree houses this nice.

The Wakefield’s enlisted the help of architect James Curvan to get their project going, and boy oh boy it’s a sight to see. There’s different stories, staircases, a climbing wall, rope ladder, zip line and even a suspension bridge.

The air-conditioned, electricity-equipped treehouse took three months to build and measures 9sqm (huge in treehouse terms!) with two decks and two lofts for sleeping.

Even though their grandkids have grown up now, the treehouse is open for neighbourhood kids to play in. Man, grandparents are the best.