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

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NASA: The Only Thing Stopping A City-Destroying Asteroid Is Blind Luck

So you know how we all kind of thought that our odds of getting destroyed by an asteroid were remarkably low? Yeah, that was wrong. According to new research, the odds of a large-scale asteroid impact are actually three to ten times higher than we thought. And the only thing stopping total and utter destruction? Sheer, dumb luck.

The unsettling revelation, which will be presented in full by three former NASA astronauts this coming Tuesday, is the result of a new visualisation of data from a nuclear weapons warning network. The B612 Foundation found that 26 atomic-bomb-size explosions have happened around the world in (thankfully) remote locations since 2001. Ed Lu, the Foundation’s CEO, explains:

It shows that asteroid impacts are NOT rare — but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought. The fact that none of these asteroid impacts shown in the video was detected in advance is proof that the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a ‘city-killer’ sized asteroid is blind luck.

We’re not totally helpless, though. Funded by the B612 Foundation and Ball Aerospace, the Sentinel Infrared Space Telescope will head into a Venus-esque orbit around the sun when it launches in 2017. From orbit, the Sentinel should have a better vantage point for spotting rogue, humanity-destroying asteroids than we’ve ever had before.

We’ll get a better picture of what this all means come Tuesday, when the astronauts present their findings at the Museum of Flight in Seattle at 9pm EDT. So just to be safe, maybe hold off on rewatching Armageddon for now.

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Lost In A Maze Of Abandoned Stations Beneath The Streets Of Barcelona

The always interesting urban exploration crew at Trackrunners have assembled all of their various trips down beneath the streets of Barcelona into one long super-post, an epic catalogue of all things lost and subterranean in that Spanish coastal city.

The details are many, and they are awesome — from the long-exposure laser-like lights of passing trains to a whole generation’s worth of old advertisements plastered as posters to the grimy walls.

Ruined stations named after kings and architects vie for space with urban legends of subway cars full of money sliding from bank vault to bank vault in the darkness. Stalactites drip polluted rainwater on the floor creating weird new technocolor mineralogies spreading out like rings on the pavement.

The whole thing is worth a look — click through to see more (much more!). Read about the “guy who used to live there [who] has been organising and classifying his treasures for years”, who apparently (a myth?) would cook and eat rats before dying of the flu and becoming consumed himself by feral wildlife. Take a look at the unused private station built specifically for a local shopping mall. Step into the many other shuttered and dust-filled dreams all too briefly seen shining with trespassers’ torches below the streets.

And the post ends with its own unsolved mystery. “I can sleep better at night,” the author, identifying himself as Charles Bronson, writes, “after being there for myself and realising that no more metro derps are left behind. Well, there is still something to check, but not really fitting for this post. It remains an empty space which was earmarked for a new station in 2006. It was never even started and so is another story which will be held for another time, on another adventure.” [Trackrunners]

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Monster Machines: Northrop's Flying Ram Would Have Sliced Enemy Planes Midair

War drives technological innovation like little else. No proposal is too ambitious, impractical, or downright foolhardy for consideration if it provides a strategic advantage. This school of thinking has led to atomic bombs, autonomous vehicles, and, in 1945, a short-lived fighter prototype that could cut through enemy aircraft in midair.

Conceived by famed aircraft designer John K. Northrop in 1942, the XP-79 Flying Ram was actually more of an afterthought, originally offered up to the USAAF when the power plants for Northrop’s original Rocket Wing design — a flying-wing aircraft inspired by Germany’s Me-163 Komet and propelled by a pair of 2847Nm Aerojet motors — failed to pan out. But rather than scrap the entire project, Northrop instead slapped on two 1850Nm Westinghouse J30 turbojet engines, ditched virtually all of the platform’s existing weaponry, and instead armed it with magnesium-tipped wings capable of slicing through the tails and wings of enemy bombers. Its quartet of .50-cal machine guns only served to defend the XP-79B until it was within ramming range.

http://youtu.be/a0UtZ-wGQUo

The Flying Ram measured 4m long, 12m wide, and featured a number of unique design details including an unpressurized cabin wherein the pilot would lay prone. This allowed him to withstand far more G-forces — up to 21 G’s — than the traditional seated configuration. The plane also boasted magnesium construction for unparalleled structural strength, and, rather than a conventional rudder, it employed elevons and air intakes for lateral steering control.

In June of 1945, the XP-79B prototype arrived at the Muroc Dry Lake testing range but was almost immediately beset by technical problems. In fact, the plane had difficulty just getting off the ground due to the tires on its four-point landing gear routinely bursting while taxiing.

The XP-79B made its maiden flight in September of 1945 with pilot Harry Crosby at the helm. While the plane took off without incident, tragedy struck after just 15 minutes in the air when the XP-79B rolled out of control at a height of 2000m Crosby attempted to eject at a height of 600m but was struck by the falling aircraft and could not open his parachute. As for the plane, it exploded into a white hot ball of magnesium-fuelled flames upon impact. The horrific incident prompted the US Air Force to abandon the program altogether later that year; however Northrop persisted with its flying wing design, eventually developing the XB-35 bomber and the B-2 Spirit.

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The Largest Yellow Star Ever Could Almost Devour The Whole Solar System

A team of astronomers peering through Chile’s Very Large Telescope just realised that HR 5171 A, a massive star in the Centaurus constellation, is actually twice as big as previously thought. They already thought it was pretty big — but it’s actually the biggest yellow star they have ever seen.

How big is biggest? This star is 1300 times the size of the sun. It’s so big that it’s practically absorbing its smaller companion star. The two of them form a giant, peanut-shaped star system that’s so big it would devour nearly the entire solar system if it were located where our sun is. That’s why they call this size star a hypergiant.

That’s a lot of heat and fire. It is not, however, the biggest star ever discovered. A red star called UY Scuti currently holds the title of biggest star in the universe. It’s 1700 times larger than the sun. Nevertheless, HR 5171 A is big enough to be included in the top ten biggest stars found so far. Given the massive gulf between how big we thought this star was versus how big it actually is suggests that this list will need updating as we start peering into the cosmos with bigger better telescopes.

To be perfectly honest, though, big is too small a word to convey the sheer magnitude of the universe. Like, way too small.

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Rare Diamond Reveals Existence Of Water Deep Inside Earth's Mantle

This battered diamond has survived a journey to hell and back,” and it has a pretty specular story to tell. Spat out from deep inside the earth, it is our first direct evidence for a scientific theory that says that vast amounts of water are trapped deep inside Earth’s mantle.

Discoverd by miners who thought it was worthless, the diamond could be key for our understanding of our planet. Becky Oskin at Livescience explains:

The diamond from Brazil confirms that the models are correct: Olivine is ringwoodite at this depth, a layer called the mantle transition zone. And it resolves a long-running debate about water in the mantle transition zone. The ringwoodite is 1.5 percent water, present not as a liquid but as hydroxide ions (oxygen and hydrogen molecules bound together). The results suggest there could be a vast store of water in the mantle transition zone, which stretches from 254 to 410 miles (410 to 660 km) deep.

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Samsung Galaxy Owners Now Have A Custom Kindle Store With Free Stuff

Got a Samsung Galaxy device? You’re in for a treat: Amazon is building a custom Kindle store for you and your device — and it comes with perks.

The new store, announced this morning, will provide Galaxy users — initially just those with an Galaxy S5, but more will follow — 12 free books a year. You’ll get to choose from four “prominent” titles each month, which will be chosen specifically for Galaxy owners. Though quite what that means we’re not entirely sure. But we’ll soon find out though: the service launches in the next two weeks.

MIKA: NICE!

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This Drone Footage Showing The Aftermath Of A Fire Is Heartbreaking

Video: A fire in Valparaíso, Chile has destroyed more than 2500 homes, left 11,000 people homeless and killed at least 15 people. It’s an unfathomable tragedy that has destroyed an entire community. This drone footage from Skyfilms attempts to show the extent of the damage caused by the fire’s wrath. It looks like a set of an apocalyptic movie, only it’s real people and real lives on the ground.

MIKA: An absolute tragedy. We have family right there in Valparaiso and thus far have not been able to communicate with them to see if they are ok.

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The Most Haunted Place In The World Is For Sale

Like ghosts? Then you’ll love Poveglia, a small, deserted island in the Venetian lagoon that’s going on the auction block next month. It’s been called “the island of madness”, “Hell” and “the most haunted place on Earth”. You’d just love it to pieces.

No, but seriously, this place sounds scary. The trouble started back in the late 19th century when Poveglia served as a checkpoint for ships going to Venice. After a pair of ships carrying plague victims arrived in 1793, the island was sealed off and turned into a quarantine zone for people with infectious diseases, a role it served for over a century. It goes without saying that many of these people died on the island during this time, leading to the widespread belief that Poveglia is haunted. It didn’t help when the place was converted into a hospital for the mentally ill in 1922. Rumour has it, the hospital was home to a number of crude lobotomies, performed by a doctor who’d been driven mad by the ghosts. He later flung himself off the bell tower.

These days, Poveglia’s pretty quiet. Still owned by the Italian government, it’s been abandoned for the past 50 years, though ghost hunters like to make the pilgrimage whenever they can. One TV presenter even says he was briefly possessed while visiting the island. The Italian government is now offering a 99-year lease to whomever’s brave enough to take it over. No price information is available yet — but they think it would make a great destination hotel.

But it’s a gem. It really is. St Marks Square is a stone’s throw away. The landscaping is just gorgeous, and just think of all the stories you’d be able to tell after a few years living amongst the spirits of old plague victims and mental patients. Of course, you may have to perform an exorcism or two, but hey, nothing’s perfect. Call it a fixer-upper.

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Gold bars removed from Indian man's stomach

Twelve bars of gold have been recovered from the stomach of a businessman in the Indian capital, Delhi, a surgeon treating him has said.

The 63-year-old man was admitted to hospital after complaining of vomiting and difficulty defecating.

He told his doctor that he had swallowed a bottle cap in anger, after a fight with his wife.

But when surgeons operated they found gold bars weighing nearly 400g (14oz) in his stomach instead of a bottle cap.

Doctors, who performed the operation on 9 April, told the BBC that police and customs authorities had questioned the businessman and confiscated the gold.

India, the world's largest consumer of gold, has seen a record rise in smuggling after a rise in duty on imports of metal to curb the current account deficit.

Dr CS Ramachandran, a senior surgeon at Delhi's Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, said he had never seen a "case like this in my life".

"This is the first time I have recovered gold from the stomach of a patient. I remember having taken out a bladder stone weighing 1kg from a patient. But finding gold in a patient's stomach was something unbelievable," he said.

"It was a tedious three-hour-long operation. He is an old patient and we had to be careful. We found 12 gold bars lying in a stack in his stomach."

The businessman, who had undergone four stomach surgeries in the past and is a diabetic, was admitted to the hospital earlier this month, with symptoms of "acute intestinal obstruction", Dr Ramachandran added.

Last year India's government hiked the import duty on gold three times to curb demand for the precious metal. Gold imports, which had peaked at 162,000kg in May 2013, came down to 19,300kg in November after the hike.

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SUNTORY 3D-MILLED ICE CUBE SCULPTURES

Perhaps one of the reasons we love crushed ice so much is that it finally smashes the boring right out of the typical rectangular ice cube. Japanese brewers/distillers Suntory have found their own way to make ice even nicer with these stunningly intricate ice cube sculptures.

Teaming up with a Japanese ad agency, these are said to be the world’s first 3D-milled ice cubes, and they look sensational, with an astounding level of detail. It’d almost be a shame to pour whisky over the Statue of Liberty, Michelangelo’s David, or a ferocious shark lunging out of the water. [Purchase]

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VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R 400

Volkswagen shows that they are ready for the big leagues with the official unveiling of their Volkswagen Golf R 400, a German-built hatchback concept that’s ready to run with the best of them.

The German auto makers at VW made a huge splash at this past weekend’s New York Auto Show by pulling the curtain back on this beauty you see pictured here. Don’t be fooled by her good looks though, the Golf R 400 means business. Powered by a turbo charged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, this Golf puts down a monstrous 395 horsepower along with 332 lb-ft of torque. So what kind of numbers can you expect with such a setup? VW says this 2-door can sprint to 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds, and will reach a top speed of 174 miles per hour. Now we just gotta get those German geniuses to take thing thing from the concept stage to the production line.

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TADO | THE HEATING APP

Tado is an app that controls your heating, saves energy, and saves you money. The Tado Connector Kit is compatible with most heating systems, and once paired with the smartphone app, the temperature of the home is adjusted precisely to the behavior of the residents in a fully automatic process. With the smart device paired to all residents phones, it detects when the last person has left the house and turns the temperature down, the same happens when someone returns home, Tado reacts and warms up the house to the desired temperature. The clever system also learns other home habits ensuring you´re only consuming the amount of energy thats really required. It also adapts to weather conditions by checking the weather forecast online.

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BOOKARC MOD

Another stylish Mac accessory has been released by Twelve South, the new BookArc möd is a beautiful and meticulously crafted hardwood stand for the MacBook laptop range(compatible with all MacBooks). The wooden dock is available in three natural finishes, a light, bright Birch, a soft brown Walnut or a rich, dark Espresso.

MIKA: Very nice indeed.

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Ultra-Realistic Drawing Shows The Amazing Skills Of A Teenage Girl

This is not a black and white photo but a pencil illustration by 16-year-old Shania McDonag based on a photo of James Fennell. It took her a month to complete and made her win the Texaco Children’s Art Competition in Ireland.

Shania — who has been drawing for “as long as she could remember” — says she spends most of her free time drawing, most of the time working on three drawings. It shows.

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This Bionic Ankle Walks Like It's Alive

http://youtu.be/AFeBi1lpXsQ

The human lower leg is a marvel of biological engineering — it lets you have a long, strong stride while minimising exertion and joint strain. But conventional spring and hydraulically-driven prosthesis worn by amputees offer no such benefit and can cause osteoarthritis-inducing skeletal strains. The BiOM T2 system aims to rectify that.

The last time we discussed the BiOM company, it was still calling itself iWalk, and had just begun rolling out the T2 system. Today, more than 900 such devices have been distributed with nearly half being employed by US veterans.

The T2 system essentially replaces the function of its wearer’s lost calf and tendon, providing more energy than it stores. See, when you stride, your trailing leg calf and achilles tendon flex, propelling you forward. Since this requires more energy than what is absorbed during the stride, it can’t be accurately replicated by a passive system of springs and hydraulics.

The T2 however, employs a pair of microprocessors and six environmental sensors to adjust the bionic ankle stiffness, contraction power, position and damping thousands of times each stride. It stiffens the ankle at heel strike to dampen the shock, then softens and flexes the joint to propel the user forward in an easier gait. The system can adapt nearly instantly to changing terrain and walking cadence and is programmed to match the wearer’s walk during its initial fitting, or “Personal Bionic Tuning” as the company calls it.

Still, the benefits come hard and fast once the users get used to the system. The system is much easier to adapt to than conventional peg legs. “Often, within minutes, a patient is walking around, even running around,” Hugh Herr, an Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and BiOM’s CTO, said in a press release. Other models can take weeks or even months to get used to. And since the T2 delivers a more natural gait than passive prostheses, stress on the rest of the leg and lower back is reduced, which potentially can slow or delay the onset of osteoarthritis, endemic among ageing amputees.

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The New Ford Mustang Lets You Rip Burnouts With The Touch Of A Button

If you’ve got cash to burn on spare rear tyres, don’t mind a bit of excess wear on your brakes, engine and drivetrain, and want to impress your mates in front of Maccas on a Friday night, then the 2015 Ford Mustang is the car for you. It has an electric line lock feature that clamps the front brakes, holding the car still while you step on the gas and light the rears up.

The new Mustang is beautiful. Even better, it’s coming to Australia next year. You’ll be able to pick it up with a turbocharged 2-litre EcoBoost or Ford’s excellent 5-litre Coyote V8, but in either spec, it’s a rear-tyre-smoking, two-door-slamming, all-American muscle car. And now it has Burnouts For Dummies installed as standard.

An electronically-actuated line lock applies hydraulic pressure to the front brakes, but not the rears, letting the engine freely spin the driven tyres while the car itself stands still. Of course, line lockers are nothing new; professional burnout artists (is that a thing?) and drag racers have been using them for years. A line lock is used to activate only one pair of brakes on a car — locking the front brakes while letting the rear wheels spin freely, making for an impressively stationary burnout.

While there is a minor advantage to ripping a quick skid before blasting down the drag strip at full noise — the extra heat softens your car’s tyre compounds, helping them grip the road a little more effectively — there’s no denying that Ford’s electric line lock on the 2015 Mustang is a party piece for an already impressively high-tech vehicle. Check it out in the video below.

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Holy Crap, Watch This Man Narrowly Escape Getting Hit By A Train

This 77-year-old man from the Czech Republic has never been luckier. As he foolishly scurries across a train track, the man mis-times his walk and almost gets killed by a speeding train. The train comes so close to hitting him on the tracks that it actually does. His foot is clipped by the train and you can see one of his shoes fly across the video. Judging by how fast his shoe is catapulted, you can imagine what would have happened to the rest of his body if he was half a step slower.

MIKA: IDIOT! Age hasn't made this guy any wiser...

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Yes, It’s Illegal for a Captain to Abandon Ship in South Korea

South Korean law differs from international maritime standards regarding a captain abandoning ship, but that's the least of the charges facing Captain Lee Jun-seok, who allegedly decided to flee to safety as his passengers were left to die below

As the death toll rises from the sinking of South Korea’s Sewol ferry, which left 300 dead or missing, blame has been placed on the captain accused of abandoning ship as his passengers were left to die below — reportedly told by the crew to stay put inside the boat.

Captain Lee Jun-seok’s actions have not only been derided as the “evil of Sewol” by the public and “akin to murder” by the country’s President, but also led to his arrest on suspicions of negligence and abandonment. Crew members are facing charges as well. This has led to a widespread discussion as to whether a civilian captain abandoning their ship is not just a cowardly act, but a criminal one as well.

In spite of a historic precedence of valor — the Titanic’s captain is an iconic example of honorably going down with the ship — there aren’t international laws that require a captain to remain on board. “There is nothing in any [international maritime agreement] to specifically require a captain to stay on board the vessel in the event of an incident such as this, however he or she does retain full responsibility for the safety of the vessel and those on board,” International Maritime Organization spokesman Lee Adamson told ABC News.

But according to Rod Sullivan, a professor specializing in maritime law at Florida Coastal School of Law, these laws do exist on a country-by-country basis — and South Korea is an exception to the general rule.

“Specifically under Article 10 of the Korean Seaman’s Act, it makes it a crime to go ahead and depart the vessels ahead of the passengers,” Sullivan, who has also taught in South Korea, tells TIME. “I know of no other country besides South Korea that has this specific provision requiring the captain to stay on board. There is no counterpart in U.S. law or an international law that would apply.”

Violating Article 10 would result in a maximum fine of $5,000. But Lee, the Sewol captain, stands accused of far greater crimes, under various maritime laws that are applicable both in South Korea and internationally. Sullivan tells TIME that Article 11 of Korea’s Seaman’s Act mandates the “captain has a duty to take all necessary measures to save the lives” of those aboard a ship, and breaches of these duties could lead to a maximum of five years in prison.

“Clearly there was a major mistake on behalf of the captain,” Sullivan says. “I think that the thing up for question is whether this constitutes negligent homicide or manslaughter. If it was gross negligence or negligence it could be up to a life imprisonment.”

There are comparable laws internationally and in the U.S. U.S. Code Title 46 Section 2303 lays out a captain’s duties relating to marine casualties and assistance, which amounts to getting everyone on board out of danger to the best of their abilities, or face a $1,000 fine and/or up to two years in jail. Lee apparently failed one of the first tests of being a captain, the way some sailors see it. “That guy’s an embarrassment to anybody who’s ever had command at sea,” John Padgett, a retired United States Navy rear admiral and former submarine captain, told the New York Times.

While Sullivan says that his gut reaction would be similarly negative, he wonders if he might feel different six months from now. While both Joseph Hazelwood, the captain of Exxon Valdez, and John Lerro, the captain in the Sunshine Skyway Bridge disaster that killed 35, faced public scrutiny for their role in deadly accidents, Hazelwood was acquitted of all felony charges (he was convicted of misdemeanor negligence) and Lerro was cleared of all wrongdoing by the Coast Guard and a grand jury.

“The lesson to be learned here is that in times when we are passionate about ship collisions, we tend to think everything that is done wrong is a crime,” Sullivan says. “But with the passage of time and before a neutral decision make like a judge and jury [is involved], more often than not they are not criminal convictions.

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OLE SMOKY CHARRED MOONSHINE

We’re not sure where the phrase comes from, because on our big list of fun things, “a barrel of monkeys” ranks pretty low. It’s not even in our top 10 list of fun things to do with a barrel, and that’s especially true now with the introduction of Ole Smoky Charred Moonshine.

The rural scientists at Ole Smoky in Tennessee age 105 proof mountain whiskey in charred oak barrels – which are totally monkey-free – and then put it in authentic mason jars to round out the experience. How you enjoy the smooth flavors of this moonshine is up to you, but we’d recommend leaving primates and wooden containers out of the equation.

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GAME GOLF

GAME GOLF is a a wearable golf performance monitoring system, designed to change the way golf is experienced. Improvement comes from knowing your game, this innovative system captures your scores, trends, driving distances, greens in regulation, club performance, GAME GOLF analyses every shot you make and allows you to compare them to the best golfers in the world, compete with your friends and track your performance.

[MIKA27]

NOCS NS500 EARPHONES

Apple's EarPods were a big step up from their old-school pack-in white earphones — but if you're looking for better-than-decent sound, you're going to want better buds. And these Nocs NS500 Earphones are a great choice. They boast CNC-machined, Chamfered-cut aluminum housings in iPhone- and iPad-matching black, silver, grey, or gold, as well as Kevlar-reinforced, tangle-free cables, three-button remotes with MEMS microphones, custom dynamic 8mm speakers with titanium coated diaphragms, and four different-sized ear tips included with each set, ensuring a comfortable, noise-blocking fit.

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iOS 7.1.1 Is Available This Morning For Compatible Apple Devices

iOS: Feel like an update? iOS 7.1.1 is available this morning for compatible Apple devices.

The small update includes improved Touch ID performance as well as some bug fixes.

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STAG HORN WHISKEY FLIGHT

This Stag Horn Whiskey Flight is made by hand from genuine stag horn in Scotland – the original home of the nectar of the gods. Each flight includes 4 whiskey tasting glasses designed to fit perfectly and offering the whiskey connoisseur a serving option that’ll impress everyone, up to and including Ron Swanson.

Grab yours here

[MIKA27]

This Sci-Fi Helmet Could Give Firefighters Predator Thermal Vision

When firefighters have to enter a burning building, much of their job still involves blindly feeling their way through dense plumes of toxic fumes in search of those trapped inside. However, a novel new helmet design could one day give firefighters the ability to see through the smoke and hear beyond the roar of the flames.

Dubbed the C-Thru, this helmet-visor-respirator concept offers a host of integrated functions that are currently only available as standalone devices — such as handheld thermal sensors and communication devices. So rather than having to crawl under the smoke while constantly checking a hand held thermal sensor and trying not the lose the rest of the team behind him in thick smoke, a lead firefighter with a C-Thru helmet could just look around, but with super vision.

Basically, the helmet would wirelessly transmit environmental and video data to a cloud-based analysis service via the firefighter’s mobile computing device. Then, the processed information would be distributed to every member of the team and displayed on their HUD visors as a wireframe overlay of their surroundings — similar to the current generation of HUDs employed by the USAF. This would free both of the firefighter’s hands for more important tasks, like dragging people to safety. Plus, the recorded video data could be saved for future reference and training — potentially even as evidence in lawsuits against the fire department as the SFFD’s helmet cam footage of that Asiana crash was.

What’s more, the C-thru will reportedly feature a noise-cancelling function that could drown out the crackle of the burning building so firefighters could listen for cries for help as well as the telltale crunch of timbers before they collapse. That would also free firefighters from having to scream at each other through their walkie-talkies to be heard. And since the entire system is integrated into the helmet itself, it’s just as easy to wear as the existing generation of firefighting helmets.

With this all-in-one headgear at their disposal, fighting fires could be easier and safer than ever, leaving firefighters free to fight their favourite foes — cops.

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Watch Portugal Launch A Drone And Immediately Fail By Crashing It

Video: Well, that’s not how drones work guys. Supposedly, this video shows Portugal attempting to launch a naval drone by giving it a running start. As the drone is thrown in the air to fly, it immediately nosedives and crashes into the ocean. What a wonderful failure.