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

[MIKA27]

The Real Highway To Hell Is In Russia

This is the Tolbachik volcano, laying down roads of magma over the Peninsula of Kamchatka for condemned Russians to drive on their way to hell in cars equipped with dashcams. At least, that’s what it looks like in Lusika33′s photographs. It’s truly pretty — in a Mordor kind of way.

[MIKA27]

Resurrecting Dinosaur-Age Proteins To Cure Human Disease

While dinosaurs have not yet been resurrected Jurassic Park-style, scientists fiddling with ancient DNA sequences have made a discovery that may turn out to be a tad more useful: a treatment for gout. That a 90-million-year-old protein could treat a modern disease is a fascinating window into evolutionary history.

If you’ve heard of gout, you may know it as a “king of diseases”. Those who have suffered through the disease’s swollen and painful joints include Charlemagne, Henry VIII and Benjamin Franklin — in short, the wealthy who could afford to eat and drink too much.

Overindulgence can lead to the disease, but that’s not the only biological cause for gout.

The ultimate reason humans are susceptible is, as Ed Yong lays out, “the legacy of evolutionary changes that took place more than 20 million years ago, which we’re still paying for now.” Gout is caused by a buildup of uric acid. Unlike other mammals, however, apes and their relatives don’t have a functional gene for uricase, the protein that gets rid of the toxic molecule. Over millions of years, the DNA sequence for the uricase gene in apes had so became riddled with mutations as to be useless, like a piece of text so filled with typos it’s illegible.

How to Resurrect a Bygone Protein

To figure out why this happened, scientists did some molecular paleontology. By comparing the differences between DNA sequences for uricase in modern mammals, scientists can go backwards, inferring what the uricase of their most recent common ancestor looked like. (The same technique has also been used to study hormone receptors.) Then they actually made the ancient proteins — or, rather, they put the DNA sequence into E. coli that translated ancient DNA into protein. This is how you resurrect a prehistoric protein.

With several different uricases of varying ancientness in hand, the scientists tested how well each protein worked on getting rid of uric acid. The best one was the oldest, which, at 90 million years old existed, at a time when dinosaurs still roamed the earth. Given the timing of when the uricase sequence then starting degrading, the researchers suspect it involves the rise of fruit in our ancestor’s diets, which you can read about in detail here.

But I want to go back to the idea of protein resurrection. The research team has since filed a patent on the ancient uricases and started a company to make the drug, according to Yong. Current gout treatments use uricases derived from pigs and baboons, but the ancient seems to work better in rat experiments so far. As these things go, it’ll be a long while before FDA approval even if everything works.

Bringing Viruses Back To Life In Our Own DNA

For me, someone who is admittedly more enamoured of biology than the average person, this is a fascinating example of how DNA is history. At the same time that the DNA in our cells is a roadmap for our bodies and the bodies of our future children, it is also a record of the evolutionary past, riddled with scars that tell a story.

We can even resurrect viruses hidden in our DNA. Incredibly, 8 per cent of human DNA actually comes from viruses, which insert their DNA sequences into our cells as part of their initial viral strategy. There, some have remained as molecular fossils — until scientists dug them up to resurrect in the lab. A virus the world hasn’t seen in millions of years can be found in and reconstructed right from our DNA. It can be mind-boggling to truly consider how much history is contained in every one of our microscopic cells.

[MIKA27]

Unified Weapons Master Combines MMA, High-Tech Armor And Deadly Armaments

There’s a new martial art in town. Unified Weapons Master takes the best parts of no-holds-barred MMA fighting, adds some high-tech armour, and spices things up further with a range of deadly weapons. Developed by Australian company Chiron Global, the upstart sport wants to bring traditional kendo and other armed combat sports into sync with MMA — while keeping everything safe with some amazingly advanced full-body armour.

The coolest part of UWM is the fact that each fighter is hooked up to a suite of impact sensors distributed throughout the armour’s plates, reporting every contact wirelessly to external computers. Imagine watching the sport on TV, with a live read-out of the strength and severity of impacts and blows displayed in real time.

The armour was developed by a Sydney team that includes one of the experts who designed some of the mail and plate for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.

[MIKA27]

Strangers Help A Freezing Child Keep Warm, Will Move You To Tears

This social experiment will likely reduce you to tears.

Today thousands of refugee children who have become homeless or displaced in Syria face several months of bitterly cold weather high winds and on-going blizzards. The vast majority of these children will have to face these disastrous conditions without any warm clothing or even a jacket. That leaves them exposed to diseases, hypothermia, frostbite and even death.

But one Norwegian charity is trying to change that. SOS Children’s Villages created a social experiment whereby they placed a local boy at the bus stop on a freezing afternoon in the streets of Norway. They then filmed strangers coming up and offering him help, warmth and comfort. Passers-by would willingly give him their gloves, scarves, hats and coats to make sure he didn’t freeze.

If people are willing and generous enough to help a child out in that circumstance, surely the same kind of compassion and kindness can be given to the children who are battling the odds in far more extreme conditions in Syria. Play a part by donating to the SOS Mayday campaign and together, lets make sure every child refugee has access and right to proper clothing and shelter.

[MIKA27]

BOBSLED RIDE EXPERIENCE

Winter Olympics got you in a sporting mood? Here's your chance to earn your own gold (participation) medal.

The Bobsleigh Ride Experience at the Whistler Sliding Centre gives you and a few friends/strangers the opportunity to rocket down the former Olympic track. The day begins with an orientation, helment fitting, etiquette discussion — no inappropriate touching inside the sled — and safety walkthrough. You'll then meet the track crew and be secured into the professionally-piloted sled for a run down the ice at speeds approaching 80mph. All of which sounds like way more fun than another night of Ice Dancing.

[MIKA27]

PHILIPS URBAN BEEHIVE

Most of the time you think of beekeepers as living out on large farms, tending to their hives with crazy hazmat-style suits on.

With the Philips Urban Beehive, you can become your own beekeeper — with the bees living inside your own house. This stylish concept consists of two parts: an entry passage and flower pot that sits outdoors, and a glass shell inside. The tinted glass shell filters light to let through the orange wavelength the bees use for sight, and holds an array of honeycomb frames inside. When it's time to harvest some honey, just pull on the smoke actuator chain and grab some out while the bees are happily sedated.

[MIKA27]

BOOKER'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY BOURBON

Already one of the best readily available bourbon's on the market, there isn't much that Booker's can do to improve on a high quality product. But it appears they have done just that with Booker's 25th Anniversary.

This limited edition release ranges between 9-11 years old with an unfiltered proof strength ranging between 121-130, depending on the bottle you wind up with. Available in early March, the juice pays homage to its namesake, 6th Generation Beam Master Distiller, Booker Noe and is taken from the center-cut of Booker's favorite rack house.

[MIKA27]

Samsung Gear Fit: The Future Lives On Your Wrist

Life trackers are all the rage right now, but why do they all have to look the same? Giant band, tiny screen (if any) and an obnoxious interface. What about designs direct from the future? Thankfully, there’s the new Samsung Gear Fit to the rescue: a curved OLED touchscreen for your wrist.

The Gear Fit is Samsung’s latest go at wearable tech announced at Mobile World Congress early this morning.

It’s a wristband with a 1.84-inch SuperAMOLED screen which curves around your wrist. It supports interchangable straps if you get tired of the black one it comes with, and supports a whole bunch of standalone fitness software.

The integrated Fitness Manager software promises “real-time” coaching on your wrist, by telling you your steps, your distance travelled as well as real-time instructions beamed onto the screen like “speed up” when you work out.

Underneath the band is an optical heart-rate tracker for measuring your pulse and recording it in the device, both when you’re resting and when you’re working out.

The integrated fitness manager also integrates with S-Health 3.0 for the Samsung Galaxy S5, also announced this morning at MWC in Barcelona. You can read all about that over here.

The Gear Fit also works with your Galaxy devices as a notification remote for your incoming calls, emails SMS messages, alarms, S-Planner (calendar) and other third party applications.

It pairs to your phone via Bluetooth 4.0 Low-Energy, meaning that compatibility will be limited to the Galaxy S4 and above.

Samsung is promising that the device’s battery will last for anywhere between three and five days of “ordinary usage” with low usage lasting for up to five days. Why you’d buy it only not to use it is baffling however.

The Gear Fit is also waterproof and dustproof so it can be worn all the time, and weighs a miniscule 27 grams. You barely notice it on your wrist.

Samsung won’t tell us the software it’s running on, saying only that it doesn’t run Tizen or Android. That’s curious considering that the Gear 2 and the Gear 2 Neo both run the Samsung-developed Tizen OS. We’ll see if we can get more on this.

MIKA: I'll be updating my S3 for the S5 and will no doubt grab one of these Gear Fits also for the monitoring aspects for my daily work out's.

[MIKA27]

Samsung Galaxy S5: Everything You Need To Know

Right on schedule: the Galaxy S5 is here, and we’ve got everything you need to know about the new waterproof, dustproof, fingerprint sensor-packing, HD screen flashing and rad software-toting flagship. In short? It’s freaking awesome.

Specs

Here’s the important stuff:

The Samsung Galaxy S5 will run a Qualcomm 2.5GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB and 32GB storage variants (expandable with MicroSD). Keeping it alive is a 2800mAh battery.

The screen itself is a 5.1-inch Full HD SuperAMOLED, with a resolution of 1920×1080. On top of it is Android 4.4 with Samsung TouchWiz.

It’s packing a 16-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2.1-megapixel front facing camera for video calls, and packs a USB 3.0 charging port which is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 ports.

It weighs just 145 grams.

Design

The Galaxy S5 is packing a 5.1-inch Full HD SuperAMOLED screen, making it 0.1 inches bigger than the Galaxy S4 in terms of screen size.

Samsung is changing its design language for the new Galaxy S5, once again taking design cues from the enormous Galaxy Note 3. Gone are the nature-inspired finishes, sounds and imagery.

Instead Samsung is calling its new design language “Modern Flash”. Basically it’s an attempt at fusing technology with high-street glamour with shiny finishes, bright colours and unique textures. The S5 will come in four colours, branded as Charcoal Black, Shimmery White, Electric Blue and Copper Gold.

New security options have been introduced into the handset, with the S5 packing a biometric fingerprint scanner under the home button.

Best of all, the S5 is now waterproof and dustproof, so you won’t get done for dropping your phone in the toilet now.

Connectivity

The Galaxy S5 will support 4G/LTE with compatibility spanning across 26 different markets around the world.

More importantly however, the S5 will support 802.11ac Wi-Fi and MIMO technology, meaning Multiple Input, Multiple Output for speeding up transfer speeds. Samsung is also sticking its download booster tech into the S5.

Basically, download booster mans that it uses both Wi-Fi and LTE to pull files over two different connections, which theoretically doubles your total speed.

Because it can potentially use a heap of your data across two different connections, Samsung says it’s disabled by default, but it isn’t a bad idea to boost your 4G connection however you can when you get to home, school or work.

Camera

Samsung really wants to leap ahead with its camera tech in the flagship Galaxy S5, and it’s looking at the capabilities of the compact mirrorless camera market to do it.

The 16-megapixel camera boasts phase detection auto-focus with a 0.3 second capture time.

Samsung’s new processor in the S5 also allows the camera to do real-time previews of HDR images before you capture them, rather than having to press capture and wait a few seconds to see how your photo came out.

The Galaxy S5 also has the ability to refocus an image after you’ve captured it. Don’t be fooled into thinking it’s the same as a Lytro light-field camera, however: it’s more like the Nokia Refocus app in the way it works.

The phone captures between three and four images and combines them into a single file. The Album app then allows you to “edit” the photo and select between Close, Near and Far focus presets. Because the Selective Focus images are four photos large, the file sizes range between 14MB and 20MB each shot.

The camera also has the ability to shoot 4K/UHD video at 30 frames per second. We can’t see any support for the H.265 compression codec, however, meaning that these file sizes will also likely be massive.

Software

Samsung is running Android 4.4 Kit Kat on the Galaxy S5, with a less obtrusive version of TouchWiz than we’ve seen on previous devices. Odds are that the bottom dock will still be locked in the Australian software version, however, which is disappointing.

The S5 will also carry an updated version of S-Health, with support for an optical heart rate monitor on the back of the device next to the flash for measuring your pulse.

TouchWiz also has a setting that lets you dynamically switch off features to enable a massive battery life in a new feature called Ultra-Power Saving mode. Ultra-Power Saving changes the screen to greyscale, limits the number of usable applications, prevents apps from using mobile data in the background and turns off Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. By doing so, the battery lasts for around 20 hours before dying. It isn’t meant to keep you alive with all the features you’d want, but it’s meant to give you basic phone features when you’re away from power for an extended period of time.

Samsung’s Flipboard skin, My Magazine, has been moved to the far left screen where Google Now is on the Nexus 5.

Pricing And Release Date

No word on price yet (likely to be expensive), but we’re hearing that it’s headed to all three major carriers — Optus, Vodafone and Telstra — for an April release date. We’ll update you when we hear more.

Update: Virgin Mobile has confirmed that it will be offering the S5, although there’s no firm release date available just yet.

[MIKA27]

The Moon Sets Behind Earth As A Storm Of Light Roars In Australia

Koichi Wakata — a Japanese astronaut now on board the International Space Station — just shared this incredible photo of the “moon setting on the blue Earth atmosphere”. He just snapped these two awesome shots of auroras over Australia.

“It looked like a storm of light,” he said.

[MIKA27]

This Is The Oldest Fragment Of Earth Ever Found

You’re looking at the oldest fragment of Earth ever found: a zircon 4.375 billion years old, something that has deep implications in our understanding of the planet’s formation. While some scientists said other samples weren’t genuine, new research just published in the journal Nature Geoscience proves that this isthe real McCoy.

John Valley — a geochemist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison — and his colleagues, used a new technique called atom-probe tomography. This technology allowed the scientists to count individual lead atoms within the zircons found in Jack Hills, a range in the midwest of Western Australia.

The previous method — which counted the number of lead isotopes — was imperfect because the radioactive uranium trapped inside the zircons moves lead isotopes around as it decays. According to Valley, “if there’s a process by where lead can move from one part of the crystal to another place, then the place where lead is concentrated will have an older apparent age and the place from where it moves will have a younger apparent age.”

Valley claims that atom-probe tomography doesn’t suffer from this defect, something that has allowed them to obtain the definitive age: “We’ve proved that the chemical record inside these zircons is trustworthy.”

Their research demonstrates that these zircons were formed only 100 million years after the massive cosmic impact that smashed Earth to create the Moon as we know it today. Since they think the crystals formed from granodiorite or tonalite — materials that are rich in water — this means that Earth cooled down really quickly. So fast, in fact, that it’s possible there was water on its surface, says Valley:

[MIKA27]

This Reflective Umbrella Surrounds You In A Super-Safe Halo Of Light

To me, whimsical umbrellas — you know, the kind printed with Starry Night or cats — have always seemed like a mockery of the rain-drenched commuter’s misery. But this reflective version actually makes practical sense, since it turns its owner into a glowing beacon of safety.

The umbrella was designed by British-born, Hong Kong-based designer Yee-Ling Wan, and it’s covered with tiny reflective beads that function just like the stuff you find on safety vests or bike reflectors. By capitalising on retroflection — the optical phenomenon of a material that returns light to its source without much scattering — it surrounds you in a halo of light on busy nighttime streets.

At $42, it’s a little more expensive than your average umbrella.

[MIKA27]

Did You Know That Meerkats Are Ticklish And Laugh Like Crazy?

I didn’t know that meerkats could laugh, let alone that they were this ticklish. It’s hilarious — and kind of freaky, actually. Does anyone know which other animals can laugh?

[MIKA27]

Sony Xperia Z2: The Best Of Sony Is Back

Back for another round, Sony? Let’s do it: the Sony Xperia Z family got a new member at Mobile World Congress today with the new Sony Xperia Z2. Here’s everything it can do.

The Xperia Z2 is packing a 1920x1080p, 5.2-inch Full HD screen with both TRILUMINOUS Display technology and Sony’s proprietary X-Reality engine from its BRAVIA TV line for better colour and image reproduction. It’s also got a 20.7-megapixel camera with a mobile CMOS sensor and the ability to capture 4K video.

Unlike a lot of Android handsets being released these days, the Z2 is mercifully running Google Android 4.4 KitKat out of the box.

Sony will likely still throw its own Android skin at the device, however. We’ll have to see how it runs when we go hands-on later.

On the inside you’ve got a 2.3GHz Qualcomm quad-core processor keeping everything ticking over, with a whopping 3GB of RAM and a 3200mAh battery to keep everything ticking.

The phone is still waterproof, but this time it comes with the IPX-5 rating, which means it’s protected against “water jets” rather than just splashes. It’s also still dust protected too.

Sony continues to draw on its many different businesses and their products to throw cool stuff into the Xperia devices. For example, the phone now has digital noise cancelling tech from the audio business which purports to let users listen to music even in high-volume external environments.

The audio business has also kicked in a new stereo microphone for high-quality sound recording on videos. Given Sony’s push towards high-resolution audio, it comes as no surprise that it’s lifting the standard for audio across the company.

The camera business has kicked in a 1/2.3-type Exmor RS sensor with the ability to capture images and videos at 4K (3840×2160) thanks to “advanced video mode. There’s also a new SteadyShot system which keeps everything on the level while shooting.

Speaking of the camera, TimeShift Video mode allows you to capture 120fps slow-motion video, as well as support for Vine out of the box.

There’s also 4G support and compatibility with the new SmartBand SWR10 for life recording.

The Xperia Z2 manages to pack all that in to a phone which measures just 8.2mm thin. Pretty impressive.

Both Telstra and Vodafone will carry the device locally. I'll have more info about an Australian release soon. Stay tuned.

[OZCUBAN]

MIKA: I'll be updating my S3 for the S5 and will no doubt grab one of these Gear Fits also for the monitoring aspects for my daily work out's.

What to and from the coffee shop

[OZCUBAN]

P.S I owe you one

[MIKA27]

MIKA: I'll be updating my S3 for the S5 and will no doubt grab one of these Gear Fits also for the monitoring aspects for my daily work out's.

What to and from the coffee shop

Hey....What did you say?

[Maxismoke]

BOOKER'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY BOURBON

Already one of the best readily available bourbon's on the market, there isn't much that Booker's can do to improve on a high quality product. But it appears they have done just that with Booker's 25th Anniversary.

This limited edition release ranges between 9-11 years old with an unfiltered proof strength ranging between 121-130, depending on the bottle you wind up with. Available in early March, the juice pays homage to its namesake, 6th Generation Beam Master Distiller, Booker Noe and is taken from the center-cut of Booker's favorite rack house.

IF only there was a way to get this in Sweden. :-(

[OZCUBAN]

Hey....What did you say?

Maybe you should have read the small print "Grasshopper"

[MIKA27]

Will This Watch-Controlled Smart Pistol Really Make Owning A Gun Safer?

Last week, a gun shop in California introduced a new addition to its stock: A .22-calibre pistol that only works when the user is wearing the accompanying RFID-enabled watch. It’s being heralded as the “iPhone of guns“.

The gun is called the Smart System iP1, a pistol made by the German company Armatix that retails for $US1399 (a significant price cut from its $US10,000 debut). The important bit is the watch — sold separatelyfor $US399 — which is activated with a pin number and contains an RFID chip. When the gun is near the watch, its internal safety mechanism releases and it’s able to fire. A small LED on the back of the gun blinks green to indicate when it’s shootable, and red to show when it’s locked:

The idea, of course, is to make a common tragedy — kids injured accidentally by guns — less common. It’s also intended to make it harder to steal, since if the robber doesn’t have the watch, they won’t be able to fire it. “As soon as the gun loses radio contact with the watch — e.g. if it is knocked out of the shooter’s hand or in case of loss, theft, etc — it automatically deactivates itself,” explains Armatix, which also offers a PIN-enabled case and other extras for the cautious gun owner.

But as the Washington Post points out, the main critics of smart guns aren’t gun owners — they’re anti-violence advocates. For example, the nonprofit Violence Policy Center argues that it won’t reduce gun deaths, just increase the number of firearms in circulation. “You’re really affecting a very small portion of the gun-buying public,” said Josh Sugarmann, the director of VPC, to the Post.

It’s hard to argue with his logic. But looking further down the road, using radio waves and other tech to better regulate gun use seems practically inevitable, even if it won’t fix gun regulation in the US. There are already a handful of companies hocking similar systems, like a ring-controlled version and a fingerprint-tethered system. After all, if James Bond is using one, you know the public can’t be far behind.

[MIKA27]

This Split-View Mountain Lodge Is The Ultimate Ski Shack

Somewhere hiding on a hillside northwest of Oslo, there’s a magical little lodge. Well, at 130sqm, this house, designed by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter, is actually a pretty decent-sized lodge. And, boy, is it pretty.

With four bedrooms already and plans in place for a fifth, this split-view mountain lodge is perfect for a family who wants bright but cosy common spaces and plenty of privacy at the same time.

The master bedroom and common area both open up into a gable-shaped wall of windows that look out onto the ski slopes.

The open-plan kitchen keeps things communal with a glass fibre reinforced concrete countertop that flows seamlessly into a two-sided fireplace.

There’s even a lofted space in the adjacent living and dining room that doubles as an extra space for guests to sleep.

The architecture follows a Norwegian tradition of adapting to and blending into the landscape which gives the lodge a natural flow.

The exterior is coated with a continuous skin of light-coloured timber that will turn grey over time, while the interior features a smoother coating knot-free timber that leaves the whole place feeling bright and energetic.

It’s hard not to believe that this would be a cheerful place to spend a ski trip — or a summer holiday.

But, alas, this lodge is not your lodge. It was built for a private family who should give themselves a pat on the back for picking the right architects. Meanwhile, however, you should feel free to steal ideas for your own Norwegian mountain home getaway. Or just fantasise. That’s what I do. [ArchDaily]

[MIKA27]

This Hearing Aid Connects To An iPhone And Adapts To Your Surroundings

For centuries, humans have been using technology to make up for their shortcomings. People missing limbs got prosthetics. People with weak hearts got pacemakers. But, at a certain point, becoming a cyborg is less like fixing something broken than it is like gaining new powers.

Such is the case with the brand-spanking new ReSound LiNX hearing aid. The futuristic device is equipped with a 2.4GHz wireless technology and Bluetooth so you can connect to your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. This lets the wearer stream sounds — music, phone calls, etc — straight to a hearing aid without wires or extra attachments. It also gives the hearing aid itself a whole new set of features thanks to a mobile app.

Most impressive: The app uses geotagging settings to remember the wearer’s optimal settings in frequently visited places like offices or restaurants. The hearing aid actually responds to what’s going on around you, and it remembers how you like things to sound in specific locations.

On top of all that, the ReSound LiNX also promises to be one of the best hearing aids on the market, as far as sound quality is concerned. It’s hard to know if that’s true without actually taking the thing out for a spin, but it’s also obvious that this is not the be-all and end-all of hearing aids. With all those features, the device is pretty bulky, and all that Bluetooth connectivity can’t be great for battery life.

Nevertheless, the idea of an automatic built-in equaliser for life sounds great even for people who aren’t hearing impaired. That’s one point for the cyborgs.

[MIKA27]

The Yotaphone Is Back With Two New Screens Built-In

The Yotaphone first caught my attention last year, with its seemingly crazy combination of 4.3-inch front-mounted LCD and 4.3-inch E Ink display around the back. At Mobile World Congress 2014, the Russian team from Yota Devices is back, with a redesigned and reinvigorated Yotaphone boasting larger displays and some seriously powerful hardware.

The new Yotaphone 2 has a 5-inch, 1080p AMOLED panel as its primary screen, and the electronic paper display on the back has been bumped up to 4.7 inches with an appreciably higher 960×540 pixel resolution. Processing comes courtesy of a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 and 2GB of memory; 32GB of onboard storage makes for plenty of media storage. LTE support and 802.11ac Wi-Fi means the Yotaphone 2 should be speedy over wireless networks, and a 2550mAh battery should provide enough capacity for all-day usage, especially if you’re using the e-paper display in preference to the LCD.

If you use your phone for a lot of reading, an E Ink display makes a lot of sense; they have significantly lower power consumption than LCDs, as well as reduced eye strain. It’s really a smarter choice to go for one or the other, though — the increase in production cost doesn’t seem worth the effort to us. We definitely applaud the Yotaphone team for their continued innovation.

[MIKA27]

Why The Same Side Of The Moon Always Faces The Earth

One moon “day” is approximately 29.5 Earth days. This rotation coincides with its orbit around the Earth so that we only see about 59 per cent of the surface of the moon from Earth. When the moon first formed, its rotational speed and orbit were very different than they are now. Over time, the Earth’s gravitational field gradually slowed the moon’s rotation until the orbital period and the rotational speed stabilised, making one side of the moon always face the Earth.

How does this work? Simply put -tidal friction. For a slightly less simple explanation, we’ll have to put our science caps on. But stick with it; it’s fascinating. I promise.

To start, think of how the moon causes major tides on the Earth due to the moon pulling at the Earth via its gravitational field. The Earth has this same effect on the moon and, being 81.28 times more massive, the effect is much more powerful.

So, as the mass of the moon is attempting to go one way (in a straight line), the Earth is simultaneously pulling it another way (towards the Earth). Further, the effect of the Earth’s gravitational field is stronger on the side of the moon closest to the Earth than on the far side (and the same with the moon’s gravitational field’s effect on the different parts of the surface of the Earth).

This combination essentially stretches the Earth and moon, creating tidal bulges on both celestial bodies. This occurs on both sides of each, with the bulge on the sides closest together from gravity and on the sides farthest away from inertia. In the latter case, the matter is less affected by the gravitational force with inertia dominating in this instance. To put it another way, the matter is trying to move in a straight line away from the Earth and the gravitational forces here aren’t as strongly able to overcome this, which creates the bulge on that side.

So back before the moon was tidally locked with the Earth, the bulge on the side of the moon nearest to Earth ended up slightly leading thanks to friction and the fact that the moon rotated faster than its orbital period around the Earth. So with this slightly leading bulge being offset from the line of gravitational pull between the moon and Earth, this created a torque, which overtime resulted in the moon’s rotation slowing until it became tidally locked with the Earth; thus, only one side faces the Earth. (Note: the bulge on the far side of the moon had the opposite effect, but the bulge closest to the Earth dominated the interaction.)

You’ll note, though, that I said we actually get to see about 59 per cent of the surface of the moon from Earth, not 50 per cent. The discrepancy comes from the fact that the moon’s orbit around the Earth isn’t perfectly circular, more of an ellipse. As the moon’s distance from the Earth increases and decreases, its angular speed changes, while its rotational speed stays the same. The result is that we get to see an extra 9 per cent of its surface than we would if it had a perfectly circular orbit.

The other side of this, as you may have guessed, is that the moon has the same effect on the Earth and is gradually slowing the Earth’s rotation in the exact same way the moon became tidally locked with the Earth.

Further, as the moon slows the Earth’s rotation, a small portion of the Earth’s rotational momentum gets transferred to the moon’s orbital momentum, with the result being that the average radius of the moon’s orbit increases at about 3.8 centimeters per year with the current continental positions and barring major geological events. (Contrary to what you’ll often read, the moon isn’t getting all the energy here, most of it is being converted to heat via friction, with only an estimated 3 per cent of the energy in the interaction being “stolen” by the moon.)

Thus, the distance between the moon and the Earth changes gradually and is more or less in step with the rotational period change. It should be noted, though, that it’s not a constant change as things like major earthquakes, glacial changes, continental drift, and other such geological events play a role here, which is why leap seconds aren’t added at regular intervals, but only when needed. But the overall effect is that over time, the moon is getting farther and farther away from the Earth every year, while the Earth’s rotation is slowing down.

In theory, at some point tens of billions of years from now (with the exact timeframe being extremely difficult to nail down due to so many unknowable factors) the same side of the Earth will always face the moon, with the Earth only rotating once per lunar cycle, which at that point most estimates indicate should be about 47 current Earth days long.

“In theory”… but this will likely never happen. Why? In about 1 to 2 billion years or so, the sun’s brightness will have increased sufficiently to vaporize all water on the surface of the Earth, getting rid of the ocean tides altogether, which is a huge factor in this interaction. However, there still would be some bulging of the Earth’s crust to continue the process to a much lesser extent.

In 5 to 6 billion years, the sun will be around the peak of its Red Giant phase, and according to the latest models, even with the sun losing quite a bit of mass during this process, thus making the Earth’s orbit farther out, the sun should just barely consume the Earth and moon many billions of years before such a dual tidal lock can occur.

Bottom line, at some point in the next billion years or so, humans will need to either find another home, or figure out how to manually move our current one to a farther out orbit, keeping Earth in the habitable zone of our solar system.

Bonus Fact:

• There is technically no true “dark side” of the moon. As noted, the moon is still rotating and, despite the fact that we don’t see it, the opposite side from our perspective still gets sunlight during that side’s “day”. In fact, the only time the “dark side” of the moon is truly totally dark is when we are seeing a full moon.
  

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American Supercar Takes Title of ‘World’s Fastest’ From Bugatti

The Hennessey Venom GT has set a speed record for a production car after hitting 270.49 mph on the space shuttle’s landing strip. At that speed, former race driver Brian Smith was covering nearly 400 feet per second while eclipsing the previous record of 268.86 mph held by the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport.

John Hennessey is a Texas boutique builder who believes that if more is better, too much is almost enough. The superlative Venom GT is a 1,244-horsepower monster fashioned by stretching a Lotus Exige, then stuffing it with a 7.0-liter Corvette ZR-1 engine with a pair of turbochargers. For those looking to own this kind of insanity, a Venom GT starts at $1.2 million.

That price is a bargain compared to Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport, the other supercar in the ongoing race for the top speed record.

Hennessey and Bugatti have been competing for years, with bragging rights going back and forth between their headquarters in Houston and Alsace, France. This latest round occurred on Valentine’s Day, when Hennessey’s crew and the independent speed recorders from Racelogic descended on the 3.2-mile landing strip at Cape Canaveral. By the end of the day, Smith had made a GPS-verified run of 270.49 mph (435.31 km/hr).

Hennessey’s data indicates the car was still accelerating at 1 mph per second, according to Car & Driver, and Smith said he could go faster still “if we could run on an eight-mile oval.” That’s a dig at Bugatti, which set its record on Volkswagen’s test track in Germany.

Of course, the term “production car” is generous, because the Venom GT, like other cars that have held the title, is a highly exclusive machine built one by one. Few people will ever see one, let alone drive one. None of this matters to the arbiters at Guinness, who have a broad definition of “production.” An automaker must build at least 30 cars to qualify, and the car making the run cannot be a one-off or a track-only machine. It must pass emissions tests, and it must have headlights, turn signals and all the basic amenities you’d expect in any car you’d drive on the street.

There are nuances, of course, and the rules have led to some very public arguments over the meaning of “production” and what it means to hold the title. It’s an interesting argument if you’re into that sort of thing, and has made for a compelling drama over the years.

The latest chapter opened in 2010, when the Veyron Super Sport set what everyone thought was the production car speed record of 267.81 mph (430.998 km/h) at the Ehra-Lessien test track owned by Volkswagen, Bugatti’s corporate parent. It turned out the Super Sport that made the run did so without the speed limiter that limits sultans, oligarchs and crown princes to a mere 258 mph. (Go faster than that and you risk having your tires disintegrate beneath you.) That prompted Guinness to deem the car a one-off, non-production model.

Even before Guinness started looking into the speed limiter issue, Hennessey announced the Venom GT had achieved 265.7 mph.

That’s nice, Guinness said, but that number is unsanctioned and unofficial, so no record for you. All of this meant that the 256.14 mph benchmark set in 2007 by the SSC Ultimate Aero, another American supercar few people have ever heard of, stood.

That didn’t last long. Guinness reassessed its decision to disqualify the Veyron Super Sport and awarded the “world’s fastest” title to Bugatti in 2013. “A change to the speed limiter does not alter the fundamental design of the car or its engine,” Guinness said of its decision. The trophy went back to France, along with bragging rights. Hennessey could not let that go unchallenged.

To further complicate the debate, this record is only for top speed only. While Bugatti held the title of “fastest,” the Venom GT earned the title of “quickest” production car when it went shot from zero to 200 mph in 14.51 seconds–more than three seconds faster than the Koenigsegg Agera R and more than seven seconds faster than the Veyron Super Sport.

Although Hennessey appears to hold a legitimate record, he may not hold the official record. To claim the Guinness record, a car has to surpass the previous benchmark twice, in back-to-back runs going opposite directions. Smith made his Valentine’s Day run in one direction only, Hennessey told Top Gear, because that’s all NASA would allow.

“We wanted to run in both directions, but the NASA guys wouldn’t let us,” Hennessey said.

“The morning was relatively calm, about a 3 mph quarter-crosswind. If we’d run in both directions, the result would have been pretty much the same.”

Even if Smith had made a second pass, Guinness almost certainly wouldn’t have recognized it. Hennessey plans to build just 29 Venom GTs, one short of the number Guinness requires for “production” classification. But don’t bet against Hennessey building just one more, if only to thumb his nose at Bugatti with another run for the official record.

Guinness’ record books won’t officially recognize the Venom GT’s performance.