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

[MIKA27]

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR TRAILER

While rumors have been running rampant for years about a ‘Sin City’ sequel, for us – we just weren’t believing it until we actually saw it for ourselves. We can now call it official as the first ‘Sin City: A Dame To Kill For’ trailer has been released.

Originally not set to premiere until this evening at 8:00pm ET, the internet just couldn’t wait long enough for the follow up to the 2005 film. The latest installment in the franchise is directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, taking us on the same wild black and white ride that made the first one famous.

The movie is packed with a ton of big names that includes the likes of Josh Brolin, Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Jessica Alba, Rosario Dawson, and a whole lot more. Thew new ‘Sin City’ film has been given a release date of August 22nd, 2014.

[MIKA27]

UNDER COVER CAMPER: TWO PERSON CANVAS TENT

You thinking ‘bout hitting Bonaroo this year? Elton John and Kayne West will be there. Oh, and Lionel Richie. And Skrillex. As you try to imagine the guy who lists that outlandish quartet as his favorite four artists, remember: If you’re gonna spend four days on a farm in Tennessee, you’re gonna need something to sleep in.

The Under Cover Camper is a two-person canvas tent that seems more than up to the task of providing music festival shelter for a few days. Designed with a focus on sustainability, style, longevity, and quality, this tent features a marine ply frame and canvas fly, making it strong and waterproof. The brass and leather trim might even win you the affection of a fewElton John Skrillex groupies.

And during the day, as Lionel Richie schmalztes his way through “Hello,” you’ll be able to say “goodbye” to the sun, as the front wall can be unzipped and rolled up, providing a nice piece of shade. Not to be sold to any Bruce Springsteen fans... [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

RUSTIC TREEHOUSE CABIN IN COLORADO

No matter how old we get, our love for treehouses never seems to fade. The problem is most treehouses are built for children, but not this one in Vail, Colorado.

Designed by architect Missy Brown, this is a real deal, adult orientated, elevated living space in the middle of the great outdoors.

The tiny getaway is anchored to a 90 foot spruce tree on the owner’s property, and has been stabilized by several fallen/dead pine trees for extra support. The spiral stair case leads right to the front door, where guests are welcomed with an open living space.

There’s a sleeping quarters and writing desk, but the real treat is the rooftop patio – perfect for popping open a cold one on a hot summer day. To combat the cold temperatures in Colorado, Missy installed an electrical baseboard that will help keep the timber tiny home warm.

[Fuzz]

Nice one mate BUT.... Does it beat this one I have? (For my son of course! )

Buy them at Hot Toys

There's only one man who could play Superman...

[MIKA27]

14 Compelling Moments In History From Around The World

Whether it’s the underground opium dens of New York, the unearthing the buried treasures of Egypt or an ominous Nazi ceremony these 14 compelling vintage photographs will change the way you view the past.

Each highlight unique flashpoints in popular culture, our ever-changing values and above all, provide a yardstick to measure the progress and evolution society has undergone.

American girl running the gauntlet of Italian men, 1951

Passengers aboard a spacious Braniff International flight 1967

Mahatma Gandhi is greeted by a crowd of UK female textile workers in 1931

Jackie Kennedy kisses the casket of JFK in the Capitol rotunda. Nov. 24, 1963

Howard Carter Looking through the Open Doors of Tutankhamun’s Second Shrine, January 1924

Che Guevara and Fidel Castro fishing, 1960

Berga Concentration Camp Survivors, 1945

Two girls walking down the street in Cape Town in 1965

American Patrons Smoking Opium in an Opium Den, Chinatown, New York, 1925

Al Capones Soup Kitchen During Great Depression, Chicago Illinois in 1931

A Japanese plane is shot down during the Battle of Saipan in 1944

“Old ladies” of the Hell’s Angels waiting outside a club meeting, 1965

Annual midnight swearing-in of Nazi SS troops, Feldherrnhalle, Munich, 1938

[MIKA27]

Get Ready to Book Yourself a Room at the Waverly Sanatorium

We’ve all had nights at good hotels that turned bad and nights at bad hotels that turned into nightmares from hell that made you wish you were in a nice cozy crypt instead. Soon you’ll be able to have both and probably pay handsomely for the privilege.

This week, the Metro Council of Louisville, Kentucky, unanimously approved a zoning change allowing the notoriously haunted Waverly Hills Sanatorium to be converted into a 4-star hotel, convention center and liquor bottling business. Even without the distilled spirits, this former tuberculosis hospital and geriatric center with a patient abuse reputation has been featured on many popular paranormal shows and regularly lives up to its reputation as one of the most haunted places in the U.S.

Owners Charlie and Tina Mattingly have plans to remodel the first floor into a restaurant and conference rooms, the second and third into 120 luxury hotel rooms and the fourth into meeting rooms and a museum about the hospital. They promise to continue to offer the tours that have attracted an estimated 10,000 visitors a year to search for apparitions and evidence of the thousands of patients and others who died there, including the nurse pregnant with the baby of the owner and diagnosed tuberculosis who hanged herself outside Room 502.

A place where paying customers are ecstatic to find scary evidence of previous residents sounds like the dream of every cheap hotel manager I’ve ever known, but the Mattinglys seem sincere in their promise to preserve the paranormal prominence that the Waverly Hills Sanitarium holds today. Let’s see what happens the first time someone says the loud noise and cold air isn’t coming from the ice machine.

[MIKA27]

Will the Real El Chapo Please Stand Up?

Joaqim “El Chapo” Guzman, the notorious and deadly leader of Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel, was captured in late February at a hotel in Mazatlan in a joint operation conducted by U.S. and Mexican authorities and is now awaiting his trial that will take place in either Mexico or the U.S. Or is he?

The Latin Times reports that the man in custody is not El Chapo but an imposter – not quite 3D printer quality but close enough for the government work of fooling the public and bringing fame and glory to the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, who could use some good publicity in his war on keeping his voters from getting killed by cartels before they can re-elect him.

The report compares 10-year-old photographs of Guzman with those of the captured man and points to differences in the shapes of their jaws, ears and noses as well as the curly hair now on the head of El Chapo. While every CSI fan knows that blurred images aren’t the same as DNA evidence, they certainly generate questions among people who have seen Guzman escape from prison in 2001 and avoid capture until now due to another pretty strong theory that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency looked the other way in return for leads on other cartels.

More media-oriented conspiracy theories speculate that Mexican police were timing El Chapo’s capture for when El Presidente Barack Obama was in their country. This resembles a previous theory that he would be captured in 2012 in Baja California while Hillary Clinton was visiting there. Then there’s that timely TIME magazine cover article and photo of President Nieto with the caption “Saving Mexico” which some believe TIME was bribed to run.

If the man in prison is not Guzman, where is the real El Chapo?

[MIKA27]

Is America Building Iron Man?

So last week, President Obama announced—tongue firmly planted in cheek—that defense contractors are building Iron Man:

He’s probably referring to this Broad Agency Announcement regarding research proposals having to do with Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) technologies. Specifically, the U.S. military is looking for new armor-integrated technology in the following areas:

• Improved strength and durability ;
  
• Mobility/agility tech, including use of electronics and hydraulics ;
  
• Situational awareness and augmented reality technology ;
  
• Stealth technology ;
  
• Communications technology ;
  
• Portable power systems ; and
  
• Thermal and medical safeguards.
  

One item that isn’t on the list is jet boots, perhaps in part because launching the wearer into the air without providing enough fuel for a safe landing wouldn’t be practical. The repulsors are still firmly in the realm of science fiction, too—the technology behind portable beam weapons is still in its infancy.

The TALOS funding proposal comes with a delightfully cheesy video, featuring a soldier who bursts into a room wearing impenetrable body armor and presumably just kind of stands there until his assailants run out of bullets:

The call for proposals ends in September, and may ultimately lead to technology with non-military applications—though it’s very clear, judging from the video above and the agency responsible for producing it, that the TALOS program focuses exclusively on military applications for now.

[polarbear]

There's only one man who could play Superman...

...why does he look cross eyed?

[Fuzz]

...why does he look cross eyed?

Just the angle of the pic.

[MIKA27]

...why does he look cross eyed?

Because his outfit is too tight! Or maybe Fuzz keeps staring at his package!

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You Must Read This Test Pilot's Story Of An SR-71 Disintegrating Midair

This story has been kicking around the internet for a while, but man oh man oh man is it worth a read. Test pilot Bill Weaver was flying an SR-71 Blackbird on an experimental evaluation flight when a malfunction at Mach 3.18 caused the plane to literally tear apart. Yet somehow, Weaver survived.

Here’s the moment when things went swiftly south, in Bill’s own words:

The cumulative effects of system malfunctions, reduced longitudinal stability, increased angle-of-attack in the turn, supersonic speed, high altitude and other factors imposed forces on the airframe that exceeded flight control authority and the Stability Augmentation System’s ability to restore control. Everything seemed to unfold in slow motion. I learned later the time from event onset to catastrophic departure from controlled flight was only 2-3 seconds.

Still trying to communicate with Jim, I blacked out, succumbing to extremely high g-forces. Then the SR-71. . literally. . disintegrated around us. From that point, I was just along for the ride. And my next recollection was a hazy thought that I was having a bad dream. Maybe I’ll wake up and get out of this mess, I mused. Gradually regaining consciousness, I realised this was no dream; it had really happened. That also was disturbing, because I COULD NOT HAVE SURVIVED what had just happened.

You really must read the whole account. It’s astounding — both in the magnitude of how things went so out-of-control so quickly, and in the sheer astounding unlikeliness that Weaver was actually able to survive.

The SR-71 was, and still is, a magnificent beast of a plane, and the pilots who flew it were truly strapped in to the bleeding edge of aeronautical achievement. We spoke with a Blackbird pilot back in 2012 , and his stories, just like Bill Weaver’s, will make the most exciting day you ever had in your life seem utterly mundane.

2nd Update: Our resident lover of all flying things Attila Nagy found these two great photographs. Here’s Bill Weaver posing with a Blackbird:

And a shot of the actual plane that disintegrated with Weaver inside:

[MIKA27]

The Tiny Figure On This Watch Gets Tired When It Needs A Winding

When you’re wearing an old-school watch that requires winding every few days, the last thing you want is to look down to discover it stopped ticking hours ago. That’s why mechanical watches usually include a power reserve indicator, but none are as unique as the tiny creature on MB&F’s new Legacy Machine N°1 Xia Hang.

Designed by Chinese artist Xia Hang, the watch features one of his ‘comma men’ creatures that he’s been working with for a few years now. It actually looks more like a tiny E.T.-like alien, but we’re happy to play along.

MB&F refers to the little guy as Mr Up and Mr Down because as the watch’s power reserve gets lower and lower, the figure slowly slumps forward as if he’s too exhausted to prop himself up. And then when you wind it back up, he perks back up again letting you know you’re good for a few days.

As far as expensive luxury watches go this isn’t the most obscene timepiece you can buy, but at $US107,000 (limited to just 24 pieces in two different finishes) it isn’t cheap either. But for your money you do get a pretty unique design with two separate dials for the minutes and hours, overshadowed by a hypnotic oscillating balance wheel that’s put front and center on the watch’s face. Not to mention, as long as you’re wearing it you’ll always have a tiny bit of company.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: The 800km/h Superplane That Bugatti Had To Hide From The Nazis

This is the Bugatti Model 100P: a 900hp, 800km/h, race plane imagined by none other than legendary automotive designer Ettore Bugatti, so technologically advanced that it could have single-handedly dominated the skies of WWII for Germany, had the Nazis ever gotten their hands on it. But after more than seven decades of obscurity in a French barn, the “Veyron of the Skies” is ready to finally take flight for the first time.

In 1938, Ettore Bugatti enlisted the help of his chief engineer, Louis de Monge, to do something the pair had never attempted before: build an aeroplane. And not just any aeroplane, a screamingly fast racer capable of beating his counterparts in Deutchland’s most prestigious air race: the Coupe Deutsch. And they almost did too.

The Model 100P that Bugatti devised was the SR-71 of its day — an aircraft packed with technology ludicrously advanced beyond the existing state of the art. Measuring a stout 7.6m long with an 8.5m wingspan, the 100P Its fuselage and forward-swept wings were formed from multi-layer wood laminate — sandwiching balsa and hardwoods — a manufacturing technique still widely used today but practically unheard of in the 1940s.

The 100P was exceptionally streamlined thanks to its revolutionary inline engine design — wherein the 100P’s pair of 4.9-litre, 450hp, eight-cylinder racecar engines were positioned behind the cockpit — that drove a pair of counter-rotating props. It also included a 102-degree V-tail, a zero-drag cooling system that ejected air from the trailing edges of the wings, and computer-directed flight controls that automatically changed the wing profile to produce extra lift or reduce drag and acting as an airbrake when pulling out of dives. Even the automatic landing gear took orders from the plane’s computer system.

The airspeed record in 1939 stood at 754km/h, set by a German Messerschmitt. Had the 100P flown in 1940 at the Coupe Deutsch, the maths suggests it would have topped 800km/h. However, the 100P never did fly in 1940, having just missed the entry deadline in September 1939 due to manufacturing delays.

While this was a disappointment to Bugatti, this delay may well have changed the outcome of World War II. During development, the French government learned of the project and approached Bugatti with an offer to use the technology for a new generation of highly manoeuvrable, lightweight fighter planes. He turned them down but as the second World War broke out in June 1940 and Germany invaded France, there became a very real chance that the Germans could learn of and seize the 100P, using the technology as their own war machine to decimate the Allied air fleet, Spitfires and all.

But Bugatti, who became a French citizen after WWI and who rarely hide his distaste for the Germans, wasn’t having any of that mess. Rather than let the plane fall into Nazi hands, he decided to hide the nearly-completed aircraft in a barn somewhere in the French countryside. And that’s where it stayed throughout the war.

After its rediscovery at the end of the War, the 100P was sold and auctioned numerous times before finally coming to rest in the EAA Airventure Museum, where it has been restored and is currently on display. However, this septuagenarian aircraft is far too old and delicate to fly anymore, which is why a dedicated team of classic plane enthusiasts have spent the better half of a decade building an exact, full-scale replica capable of flight.

“The vision, the courage, the entrepreneurial spirit, those things. That’s where the focus is,” Scotty Wilson, a former Air Force pilot and historical plane enthusiast from Tulsa, Oklahoma involved in the replica project, dubbed Le Reve Bleu, told KFOR. “It’s an aeroplane at the end of the day. But it happens to be a very cool aeroplane with an interesting story.”

“The Bugatti 100P was 85 per cent complete when the Germans invaded,” ex-RAF engineer John Lawson, who built the replica’s gearbox, told Metro UK. “If it had flown in 1940 then it would have been a revolution. It was an incredible aeroplane and Louis de Monge, who worked on it with Ettore Bugatti, was a brilliant engineer.”

“The plane was designed to fly very fast but the gearbox wouldn’t have much longevity,”Lawson continued. “I reverse-engineered it from plans and pictures and designed one which runs perfectly.” The Le Reve Bleu team hopes to have the replica finished by this fall and will be making appearances in the skies above the Farnborough Air Show and Goodwood Revival for years to come.

[MIKA27]

World's Oldest Underground Fire Has Been Burning For 6000 Years In Australia

If you’ve heard of underground coal fires, then you’ve probably heard of the one raging under the abandoned town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, since 1962. Fifty-two years is a long time — and a lot of coal — but that’s barely a blink compared to Burning Mountain in Australia, which has been ablaze for 6000 years.

Coal seam fires are incredibly common, as it happens, and thousands of them are now burning underground across the world. A coal seam some 11,000km south of Australia’s Burning Mountain caught fire a month ago, spewing poisonous gases and prompting intense firefighting efforts. Once a subterranean coal seam fire gets out of hand — as in Centralia, as in Burning Mountain — it’s nearly impossible to put out

The coal seam fire at Hazelwell Mine in Australia, which firefighters have been trying to put out for over a month.

At Burning Mountain, also known as Mount Wingen, sulphur-tinged smoke is the only hint of a massive coal seam burning 21m under the ground. Heat and toxic gases from the fire have left it rocky and jagged in parts, and the land has caved in.

How the mountain was first set ablaze is a mystery. It could have been a lightning strike, forest fire, spontaneous combustion, or even aboriginal burning practices could even have been the initial spark.

At Germany’s Brennender Berg — literally “Burning Mountain” in German — the coal has been on fire since 1688. Legend has it a shepherd set the initial blaze, but spontaneous combustion may be a more likely cause.

It’s with human intervention that coal seam fires have really caught on, so to speak, in the past century. Mining exposes coal to oxygen, and coal, as we know, burns very, very easily. With plenty of fuel and oxygen, a small spark can ignite a blaze that grows to cover miles and miles.

China, with its thousands of small-scale mines, and India, with its crumbling old and large mines, have the most serious underground fire problems. The burning coal releases potentially toxic elements like arsenic, fluorine and selenium into the air.

The American West is also smouldering with underground fires in abandoned coal mines. They melt snow in the winter, set grass fires in the summer, and spew poisonous elements all year around. One energy company actually wants to set more of the coal ablaze, “mining” it by capturing the gas emitted from the burning coal.

Even more remarkably, ancient subterranean fires shaped the very landscape of the West. “Much of the landscape of the American West — its mesas and escarpments — is the result of vast, ancient coal fires,” writes Kevin Krajick in Smithsonian Magazine. “Those conflagrations formed ‘clinker’ — a hard mass of fused stony matter. Surfaces formed in this way resist erosion far better than adjacent unfired ones, leaving clinker outcrops.”

Long before we began excavating coal to burn in our factories, coal seams have been hidden rivers of underground flame — usually dormant but occasionally destructive. Poking holes in the ground with mines has only awakened the fiery potential of coal.

[MIKA27]

Here's 4 Minutes Of Captain America Kicking Arse In The Winter Soldier

A trailer’s one thing , but to get a feel for just how badass Captain America: The Winter Soldier will be, might we recommend this four minute scene? Why yes, yes we might!

http://youtu.be/6k0kkSHiiPE

Captain America: The Winter Soldier debuts in Australia on 3 April, which is plenty of time to write up your Robert Redford fan fic in anticipation. What we’re treated to here is actually one extended shot of Cap and Black Widow invading an enemy ship, followed by lots and lots of shots of good ol’ fashioned fights and explosions, including our best look yet at

our metal-armed baddie.

[MIKA27]

Hail Catzilla! Two-Limbed Kitty Walks On Hind Legs, Attacks Like A T-Rex

What started off as a tragic early childhood accident for a young kitten has done nothing to dampen his spirits as the comeback cat adapts to his new life. A family in Oklahoma took him in when he was just about four days of age “a little over 5 ounces, with his eyes still shut, missing both front legs and all but one toe on one of his back legs” after the feisty kitty survived an apparent hit from a weed whacker.

“We fed him around the clock, and cleaned his wounds multiple times a day until they fully closed over. As far as bottle babies are concerned, he was actually very calm and content, only crying when he was hungry or wanting a cuddle,” said the family in a Facebook page they set up to document the cat’s road to recovery.

Recent health checks show the kitty — whom they’ve dubbed ‘Mercury’ — is doing well. As you can see from the random YouTube videos the family has posted <>, he’s been finding his groove at moving about while his injuries no longer cause him any pain. Looking at how he absolutely stakes out and rips apart a miniature city made out of toy blocks, you’d think you were really looking at a furry T-rex on a rampage.

[MIKA27]

Real Military Images Feel Like Lost Frames From The Empire Strikes Back

I came across some wintertime military photographs that looked like lost frames from the Battle of Hoth, in The Empire Strikes Back. So much, in fact, that I couldn’t resist adding some laser gun turrets and AT-ATs. Check them out and post your mashups in the comments.

A US Air Force airman defrosts a C-130J Super Hercules at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.

US Soldier from 56th Engineer Company spreads water to thicken a path of the Tanana River’s frozen surface during an ice-bridge construction project in Fort Wainwright, Alaska.

US special operations forces (USSOF) personnel wade into the snow-covered village of Cabalaq, Afghanistan, during a personnel recovery mission.

Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS) conducting live firing break contact drills on the Setermoen exercise areas, Norway.

South Korean soldiers standing guard on a peak near the North Korean border.

Cold weather training of Republic of Korea Army Special Warfare Force.

US soldiers make their way through knee-deep snow, during a patrol in Chamkani district, Paktiya province, Afghanistan.

Paratroopers climb over a hill in order to secure an airfield near Fort Carson’s Camp Red Devil training area.

Afghan National Army commandos patrol Khakrez district, Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Two crew members keep watch on the rear ramp of a CH-47 Chinook while flying over the mountains in the Khas Uruzgan district of Afghanistan.

South Korean soldiers standing guard.

e attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN 22) submerging under the ice at the Applied Physics Laboratory Ice Station in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.

Royal Marines with the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron (SRS) conducting Ski-Doo driving drills on the Asegarden exercise areas, Norway.

Runway clearance vehicles keeping RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire operational.

A US Special Forces officer waits for helicopters to arrive after a clearing operation in Jafare Sufla, Shah Joy district, Zabul province, Afghanistan.

Marines patrol through strong winds and heavy snow in Hokkaido prefecture, Japan.

OK, this is not a winter scene, but you know why has to be here: a soldier in Afghanistan watches as a Tarantula-Hawk (T-Hawk) remote piloted air system (RPAS) hovers over the desert during an operation.

[MIKA27]

How It’s Possible to Lose an Airplane in 2014

In an era when we’ve all got GPS in our pockets, OnStar in our cars and the NSA tracking anyone, anywhere, it is still possible–although rare–for an airliner to seemingly vanish.

That appears to be what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which disappeared about an hour after leaving Kuala Lumpur for Beijing on Friday night. As of Monday, search and rescue teams from nine countries including the United States had not found any trace of the Boeing 777-200 or the 239 people aboard. There are many theories about what went wrong, but the airline, Boeing and investigators in Malaysia have so far refused to speculate or offer any insights.

Whatever happened, it happened quickly, aviation experts said, and catastrophically. The fact it happened over the ocean–presumably the South China Sea, but possibly the Gulf of Thailand–means it could be months or years before we know exactly what went wrong. The ocean is a very big place, and finding clues will be slow. It took investigators two years to recover the black box data recorder from Air France Flight 447, which went down over the Atlantic on June 1, 2009.

“The simple hard truth is it’s very difficult to find things in the water,” said retired Col. J. Joseph, a former Marine Corps pilot and aviation consultant.

The most chilling thing about this is the fact the plane seemingly vanished without a trace. The captain, who had more than 18,000 hours of flight time, gave no warning, issued no mayday. There was no indication anything was amiss. This is not terribly unusual, because a flight crew’s first priority in an emergency is dealing with the situation at hand. “Aviate, navigate, then communicate” is the mantra. Airline pilot and blogger Patrick Smith says the radio silence “doesn’t startle me.”

“It’s actually uncommon for there to be a distress message,” he said. “It goes one of two ways. The first is something happens so catastrophically and so suddenly that there wasn’t time for it. Secondly, crews are trained so that communicating with the ground is secondary to dealing with whatever urgency is at hand.”

That might explain why Capt. Zaharie Ahmad Shaw and First Officer Fariq Ab.Hamid didn’t tell air traffic control what was wrong, or issue a call for help. But how is it possible that air traffic control didn’t know exactly where Flight 370 was when it went down?

Because it was over the ocean.

There’s No Radar Tracking Airliners Over the Ocean

It is a misconception that airline pilots are in constant communication with air traffic control, or that planes are constantly watched on radar. Once a plane is more than 100 or 150 miles from shore, radar no longer works. It simply doesn’t have the range. (The specific distance from shore varies with the type of radar, the weather, and other factors.) At that point, civilian aircraft communicate largely by high-frequency radio. The flight crew checks in at fixed “reporting points” along the way, providing the plane’s position, air speed, and altitude. It isn’t uncommon to maintain radio silence between reporting points because cruising at 35,000 feet is typically uneventful. Some aircraft communication systems don’t require pilots call in; flight management computers transmit the info via satellite link.

Although modern flight management systems use GPS for navigation, that only tells the airplane where it is–it does not tell air traffic control where the plane is. It’s a bit like taking your iPhone into the heart of the Mojave desert: Your GPS will tell you where you are, but you can’t use Find My Phone because there’s no cell coverage. Although it would be possible to stream data from an aircraft in real time via satellite, implementing such a system across the industry would cost billions of dollars, Smith said.

Still, it is highly unlikely that Flight 370 went down silently, Joseph said. Many commercial aircraft have an emergency locator beacon that the flight crew can trigger in an instant. It also will activate under certain circumstances, such as impact with water–though it isn’t effective a great depths. And although civil aviation systems don’t have radar or other tracking technology at sea, military and security agencies almost certainly do. It’s possible a government ship, airplane or satellite captured some clues, as was the case when a Soviet fighter jet brought down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 in 1983.

“I would be very surprised if, on somebody’s radar data, this event was not recorded,” Joseph said.

Other data streams might provide insight. Reuters reported Flight 370 was equipped with ACARS, a maintenance computer capable of transmitting data to the airline, alerting mechanics of needed repairs or adjustments. Although the system does not typically transmit data in real time, it does send info periodically during a flight. Such data can provide clues, but only after the fact. ACARS helped investigators determine why Air France Flight 447 crashed. Although Boeing offers a more advanced system, called Airplane Health Management, that provides real-time troubleshooting and monitoring of flights, Flight 370 did not use it.

The Debris Field Is Big, And the Ocean Is Bigger

Still, if a plane goes down, it’s gotta land somewhere, which means there should be something out there. But after three days of searching, investigators still hadn’t found any sign of the plane. This is unusual, but not unprecedented.

The most obvious explanation is search and rescue vessels aren’t looking in the right place because they aren’t sure where the plane went down, Smith said. It’s also possible, though highly unlikely, that the plane remained largely intact after hitting the water and sank.

There’s been a lot of speculation about what might have happened, and airliners have been brought down by everything from an onboard fire to an intentional crash by the pilot and, of course, terrorism. A catastrophic failure of the airplane–the failure or loss of an essential component, for example, or explosive decompression–is another possibility.

Aviation experts said it is far too soon, and too little is known, to speculate on what might have happened. But many agree that whatever happened was sudden and almost certainly occurred at high altitude, scattering the debris over a vast area.

“If something catastrophic happened, that’s seven miles up,” Joseph said. “Winds at that altitude are sometimes over 100 knots.

Based on that wind, small pieces are going to be moved a lot of different places.”

Any aerodynamic pieces–wing sections, say, or pieces of the tail–will be blown around like a bag in the wind. Heavier pieces like an engine or landing gear will fall straight down. Fuel and other fluids will be scattered, leaving little evidence below. This is what happened when the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry on February 1, 2003. The difference there was the disaster occurred over land. Spotting debris on open ocean is much, much harder.

“It’s very very difficult to spot things in the water unless you’re on top of it,” Joseph said.

MIKA: There are a number of news feeds coming up with all sorts of conspiracies additional to the most negative that being the plane simply crashed. Here is an interesting clip indicating something else...

[MIKA27]

TOVOLO ICE SPHERE MOLD

Ice cubs may not seem like an interesting topic, and normally they aren’t. But you wouldn’t believe how many times I get asked the question, “Where’d you get that?” when it comes to my Tovolo Sphere Ice Molds set.

It’s a known fact that due to the smaller surface area, massive sphere ice cubes melt much less slowly than your typical ice cubes.

The goal of course, is keeping your spirit chilled without diluting it. The problem with ice sphere mold kits is that they are all extremely overpriced, with some of them reaching as much as $1,000 (no that’s not a typo). Thankfully the team at Tovolo decided to do something about it. This ice mold kit is completely leak free, is crafted from BPA free silicone/plastic, and is dishwasher safe – so cleanup couldn’t be easier.

At just over $10, this thing will be the best investment you make for your home bar. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

BERGGASTHAUS AESCHER HOTEL BUILT INTO SWISS ALPS

I’ve found the perfect place to take your Swiss Miss: the Berggasthaus Aescher. OK, so she won’t coo with anticipation when she hears you butcher that name, but when you tell her the two of you will be spending the weekend in a 170-year-old guest house built into a cliff in the Swiss Alps, you’ll have a handful of putty to play with.

Situated just below the Ebenalp Cliff, the northernmost summit of the Appenzell Alps, this rustic retreat is all about the unbelievable view from the cliffside terraces. There’s no Wi-Fi or TV, but those are features your girl will probably love (no TV means no Xbox, right?). There are three rooms which come with a half dozen or so mattresses for your sleeping bag to rest on. There are no true showers, and the water comes from the mountain. This is ‘getting away’ in its most sincere form. Berggasthaus Aescher – and unlimited hand putty — is only a two-hour ride from Zurich.

[MIKA27]

OMEGA SEAMASTER PLANET OCEAN CERAGOLD WATCH

With a generations-long history of producing fine maritime timepieces, it should come as no surprise that Omega would create something as stunning and innovative as the Seamaster Planet Ocean Ceragold Watch.

Made with the ocean in mind, this watch features water resistance down to 2,000 feet, a helium escape valve, and an 18-karat red gold diving scale on the bezel. Made from an 18-karat gold-encrusted ceramic known as Ceragold, it has a domed scratch-resistant sapphire crystal, a red gold case, a black dial, and a transparent case back. With a self-winding chronograph movement and a power reserve of 60 hours, you'll be ready for any adventure — aquatic or otherwise.

[MIKA27]

Can a Wall Stop a Tornado?

I’ve never witnessed a tornado but I’ve seen the destruction they can cause in news reports and in “The Wizard of Oz” and “Sharknado,” so I’m interested in anything that can keep them and their killer winds, flying fish and phony wizards away from my house.

Physicist Rongjia Tao of Temple University claims he has an odd but viable solution: 1000-foot-high walls in strategic windy locations like the tornado alleys of the American Midwest.

Tao presented this idea at a recent meeting of the American Physical Society. While not a meteorologist, it sounds like he knows tornadoes.

“The strong wind changes direction and increases in speed and height. As a result, it creates a supercell, violent vortex, an invisible horizontal spinning motion in the lower atmosphere. When the air tilts the spinning air from horizontal to vertical, tornadoes with radii of miles are formed and cause tremendous damage.”

He believes his wall idea will work based on observations of east-west mountain ranges in China that seem to protect nearby areas from tornadoes. Tao claims the lack of east-west mountains in the U.S. is the problem and that the same thing can be accomplished with man-made structures that would not block the tornadoes but diminish the winds that cause them.

“If we build three east-west great walls, one in North Dakota, one along the border between Kansas and Oklahoma, and the third in the south in Texas and Louisiana, we will diminish the threats in Tornado Alley forever.”

With all due respect to the actual Great Wall, this idea seems walleyed to actual meteorologists who point out that China has a lot of tornado-prone areas that are also near east-west mountains. Tao says he can’t respond to this since his paper is currently under consideration for publication.

Or perhaps he’s getting ready to launch a Kickstarter project to fund his OWN wall!

[MIKA27]

Hyper-Dimensional Portraits Seen on the Streets of São Paulo

Imagine walking down a busy, metropolitan street and suddenly looking up to see a huge, hyper-dimensional photograph of a person staring down at you. Street artist Raquel Brust has been introducing this kind of experience in São Paulo, Brazil since 2008 with Projeto Giganto, which she describes as "a hyper-dimensional photography intervention project that uses the urban scene and the city’s architecture as a platform for photographic exhibition."

Brust takes black-and-white photographs of Brazilian residents, prints them in huge dimensions, and glues them to public spaces all over the city. The subjects of her photos are usually elderly people who live in the rural countryside of Brazil, people who will probably never be able to travel to the city that their portraits are exhibited in because of factors like health, age, distance, or cost. The project is a lesson in contrasts—contrasts between old and young, urban and rural life, modernization and tradition, and so on.

The artist was inspired to create Giganto because of her own experience of feeling overwhelmed and anonymous upon moving to the sprawling metropolis of São Paulo. “I wanted to shut my ears and myself off from the outside world," she says, “I couldn’t stand the noise, the chaos—everything going on all at once.” With Giganto, she says she seeks to "create an odd dialog with the environment" and to generate "a reflection about the life in the city and its scary structures."

[MIKA27]

The Porsche 919 Hybrid and the Future of Le Mans

Audi has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans 12 out of the last 14 years, a feat that cannot be understated, especially since Le Mans is one of the most challenging endurance races in the world. But there’s another brand whose record at the race is yet unmatched: Porsche, which has 16 wins total.

But those came during a different era. It all started with the iconic 917 in 1970; the last Porsche entry and victory was way back in 1998 with the smashing 911 GT1. This year, Porsche re-enters the Le Mans fray with a brand new car that will compete in the LMP1-H (Le Mans Prototype 1 – Hybrid) category, the spectacular 919 Hybrid car, just unveiled in Geneva.

Porsche might have an unrivaled Le Mans history, but the 919 Hybrid is all about the future. The entire car is brand new, including the 200 or so team members who helped bring the race car to reality, along with new manufacturing equipment at Porsche Motorsport’s facility. The 919 is a direct evolution of the 918 Hybrid supercar; Porsche calls it the most advanced race car they’ve ever built. It’s a combination of Porsche ingenuity and the very stringent new regulations for the category.

Those new regulations for Le Mans 2014 were announced by FIA and require manufacturers to build cars that more closely represent road cars (by consumption and technology, not aesthetics). This means consumption or energy limits per lap. Diesel cars can use 3.99 liters per lap, while gasoline-powered cars are allotted 4.95 liters per lap. The fuel tank size has been reduced by 12 percent, and the cars can no longer use “super-exotic materials”, staying more in line with technology that’s available on modern road cars.

If this sounds restrictive, remember that the FIA has completely removed any regulations on engine design. Still, no one’s gonna stick a thirsty V12 in their car — think of how that would stand up to the fuel consumption rules. Teams can, however, increase airflow and turbo pressure without limitation, and the type of engine is up to the manufacturer. But the name of the game is still efficiency, and that makes building the right car harder than ever. It’s all about how well each car uses what it has to achieve victory, and the regulations are meant to bring Le Mans into the modern automotive mindset. All these changes make Porsche’s re-entry into Le Mans rife with challenges before the ignitions even fire.

One thing is certain — the Porsche 919 looks serious. But it’s less about sexy lines and beautiful proportions and more about pure speed and righteous handling. The massive vertical quad-beam headlights look like they came right out of a Pacific Rim Jaeger, while the intimidating front and rear spoilers provide the additional downforce needed for a big and challenging track. The 919 uses a 2.0-litre turbocharged V4 gas engine and adds two energy recovery systems (hence the hybrid title). The first captures thermal energy from exhaust gases; the second stores kinetic energy from braking, similar to what’s found on the 918 Hybrid supercar. The small gas engine is lightweight and spools up to a crazy 9,000 rpm. Total output is about 500 horsepower, and the 919 can even send power to the front wheels, like the Toyota TS040, providing all-wheel drive power and traction when needed.

Porsche claims that the 919 is not really about winning Le Mans. Of course, the supremacy of Audi will make victory no easy task, but we also don’t believe that Porsche isn’t serious about getting on the podium. The daunting design and engineering feats of the 919 car signify an in-it-to-win-it mentality. Porsche has always been and still is very much about victory in racing, and this new foray in the LMP1 category presents just the kind of challenge they’re looking for. Audi and Toyota should be sweating in their Nomex suits.