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

[MIKA27]

Photos Of NATO Fighters Intercepting Fully Armed Russian Jets

Fully armed NATO and Russian aircraft keep having encounters as the tension between both powers increase. These photos were taken yesterday by RAF Eurofighters over Baltic airspace. They intercepted four SU-27 Flanker fighters and a Tupolev Tu22 Backfire bombers, among others.

The Typhoon aircraft, from 3 (Fighter) Squadron, were launched after four separate groups of aircraft were detected by NATO air defences in international airspace near to the Baltic States.

Once airborne, the British jets identified the aircraft as a Russian Tupolev Tu22 ‘Backfire’ bomber, four Sukhoi Su27 ‘Flanker’ fighters, one Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ early warning aircraft and an Antonov An26 ‘Curl’ transport aircraft who appeared to be carrying out a variety of routine training. The Russian aircraft were monitored by the RAF Typhoons and escorted on their way.

A RAF Typhoon fighter with two Russian SU-27 Flankers on the forefront.

A fully armed Tupolev Tu22 Backfire bomber. Is that a cruise missile on its belly?

A Russian Beriev A50 ‘Mainstay’ airborne early warning and control aircraft.

MIKA: I must admit, I do love the Russian Sukhoi Su27's... These planes can out manoeuvre almost anything else in the sky.

[MIKA27]

How Scientists Will Look Inside Fukushima's Radioactive Cores

The inside of Fukushima’s three busted reactor cores are a big mess. It’s basically just hundreds of tons of very, very, very radioactive materials like uranium, plutonium and caesium. Workers want to clean it up, but they have a problem. It’s so dangerous, they can’t peek inside, much less go inside.

Don’t worry. Technology’s coming to the rescue in the form of plentiful particles named muons and some obscure laws of physics. Because the steel and concrete walls of the reactors are several feet thick, traditional imaging technology like X-rays won’t work.

Muons will, though. They’re subatomic particles that are about 200 times heavier than electrons. Muons are constantly raining down on Earth — and even passing through Earth itself — because they’re shaken loose from molecules in the atmosphere by cosmic radiation. How in the heck do the heck do these tiny things help us see inside impossible places? We just have to watch how they move.

The Los Alamos National Laboratory and Toshiba are putting the finishing touches on a muon-powered imaging device that they believe will let them see deep inside the reactors without putting any workers in danger or risking further radiation leaks. The technology basically spots muons when they go in one side of the reactor and checks to see if they bumped into any atoms inside and were diverted on the way through. Over time, this will help them map out the inside of the reactor.

It sounds a little confusing, but remember that this is some obscure physics here. The New York Times describes the device itself pretty clearly:

The accompanying apparatus, which has already been tried out on a small, intact reactor, consists of two billboard-size detectors, set up on opposite sides of the building. Each detector is like an array of pipes in a church organ, with each pipe filled with inert gases, including argon, that give an indication when a muon hits. The detectors keep track of which pipes were hit on the way in and on the way out, and at what angle.

Similar technology is currently used to check shipping containers for radioactive materials when they enter the US. So-called muon tomography was also used to scan the insides of the Great Pyramids in Egypt back in the 1960s. Whether or not it will be Fukushima’s saving grace remains to be seen. It’s certainly better than the alternative because there are none that don’t include certain death.

Now if only they could get that ice wall to freeze…

[MIKA27]

Skydiver Saves Himself Seconds Before Impact On Australian Soil

Watch this 27-year-old Canadian skydiver struggling with a tangled parachute during a 4000m jump near Sydney, Australia. He managed to cut the lines to open his emergency parachute with only a few seconds to spare.

[MIKA27]

The Insane Plan To Build The World's Tallest Towers In A Lake In China

These days, ambitious new skyscrapers are blanketed in a cloud of “green” buzzwords. Wind turbines! Hydrogen fuel cells! Insect farms! (Yes, insect farms.) Then there’s Phoenix Towers, which has all of the above and more and looks like this. Let’s call it what it is: a greenwashed ****-measuring contest.

The monstrosity, recently unveiled by the British studio Chetwoods, will rise one kilometer out of a lake in Wuhan, China — taller than the Burj Khalifa and as tall as the yet-to-be-finished Kingdom Tower in Jeddah. But Phoenix Towers’ vertical height isn’t about packing in office buildings, because it’s green. The entire upper half will be a “thermal chimney” that draws up cool air from the filtration system.

But wait, there’s more! The towers will have solar panels and wind turbines and rainwater harvesting systems and animal habitats and trees. It will filter water from the lake. Never mind it’s being built in a lake, sure to unleash tons of mud and destroy the lake habitat during construction.

“In China if you come up with a slightly mad idea, its almost not mad enough,” studio found Laurie Chetwood said to Dezeen, “We’ve applied as many environmental ideas as we possibly could to justify the shape and the size of them.” China envisions the towers as a statement, an icon, a tourist attraction. (Is that why it looks like offbrand Disneyland?)

To be fair, it sounds Chetwoods simply delivered the ridiculous plan the Chinese were asking for. China has certainly been good at dreaming up — and even building — gargantuan structures that boggle the mind. But as the New South China Mall and empty “eco-cities” cities throughout the country can attest to, even if you build it, they may not come.

Add as many environmental bells and whistles as you want: Huge empty towers are still bad for cities and bad for the environment.

[MIKA27]

Humans Will Land On Mars By 2026, Says SpaceX's Elon Musk

Elon Musk just said that his SpaceX spaceships will get humans to Mars by 2026, with or without NASA. It may seem cocky, but coming from a man who has built this entire company so he can die on Mars — and to “help ensure the survival of humanity” — those words are not to be taken lightly.

Talking today to CNBC, Musk said that he’s “hopeful that the first people could be taken to Mars in 10 to 12 years.”

I think it’s certainly possible for that to occur. But the thing that matters long term is to have a self-sustaining city on Mars, to make life multi-planetary.

A self-sustaining city… I like that he’s thinking big. I also like that he is conscious of the challenges that lie ahead, but confident that these targets are possible. He will be 50 years old by the time this hypothetical mission launches, giving him plenty of time to go there and complete his life dream. That kind of drive and commitment is too personal to ignore. People who are mad enough to think in these terms — and have the necessary means — are the people who can make the seemingly impossible happen.

The right pieces are starting to fall in place

SpaceX already has the Falcon Heavy rocket in development, which has the power to lift the kind of load needed for a Mars mission and first settlement. It’s expected to launch next year.

They are also working on Dragon V2, which is clearly designed with the idea of Mars (and Moon) landings thanks to a vertical rocket-based landing system that will allow for immediate fuel reload and relaunch.

Who will pay for it?

But who’s going to pay for his Mars dream? According to Musk, future stockholders will. It’s something ballsy, but he’s confident that once they demonstrate the reality, people will long-term investment goals will buy in:

We need to get where things are steady and predictable. Maybe we’re close to developing the Mars vehicle, or ideally we’ve flown it a few times, then I think going public would make more sense.

I never thought I’d say this about the man who created that hell on Earth that is PayPal, but I’m rooting for this guy.

[MIKA27]

Clamp-On Controller Bolsters The iPad Mini's Gaming Prowess

When it comes to mobile gaming, the iPhone gets all the glory, but the iPad Mini actually serves as a decent portable console as well, particularly with that larger display. The Gamevice, from the same folks responsible for the Wikipad, adds a much needed set of physical buttons and joysticks that clamp onto either side.

In fact, it adds dual analogue joysticks, an old-school directional pad, face buttons, shoulder buttons, and even triggers ’round back. Instead of battery-sucking Bluetooth, it simply interfaces with the iPad Mini’s Lightning port on the bottom, while remaining tethered to its other half via a flexible strap on the back.

Pricing details haven’t been revealed just yet, but the Gamevice is being targeted for a release just in time for Christmas. And it will arrive MFi-certified, for those of you who don’t like attaching strange peripherals to your tablet. Sure it might look awkward to use in public, but when has that ever stopped you?

[MIKA27]

U.S. Travelers Return Home With Tropical Disease. Will It Spread in the States?

If you happened to be reading state health departments’ outbreak announcements this past weekend, you might have seen something interesting.

(You don’t do this? Hmm.)

Three states — Rhode Island, North Carolina and Tennessee — all said that they have identified residents who have been diagnosed with the mosquito-borne tropical disease chikungunya. The states said all the victims had recently returned from the Caribbean, where the severe, painful illness has been spreading since late last year.

People in three states, all having visited the same place, all with the same illness: As a faithful armchair-epidemiologist, I couldn’t help but wonder whether they were linked in some manner, perhaps by a cruise or a church trip. As it turns out, the victims announced last weekend represent something more subtle and potentially more troubling: an increasing number of US residents acquiring the disease abroad and returning to the US with it — and posing the question of whether it will spread to mosquitos, and then to other humans, within this country’s borders.

What do I mean by “increasing”? This, for instance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report chikungunya among US residents weekly on their website. Last week, the count for this year was 39. On Tuesday, it doubled, to 80.

And those numbers may well be an underestimate, because chikungunya is not what public health authorities call a “notifiable” disease — meaning, when a case is diagnosed, no one at the CDC or in a health department needs to be told about it. So there may be cases that authorities don’t know about, not to mention ones that physicians have misdiagnosed or not recognized.

Chikungunya has been spreading in the Caribbean with incredible speed, as this piece published June 6 in the CDC’s weekly bulletin makes clear:

In December 2013, the World Health Organization reported the first local transmission of chikungunya virus in the Western Hemisphere, with autochthonous cases identified in Saint Martin. Since then, local transmission has been identified in 17 countries or territories in the Caribbean or South America (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Guyana, Haiti, Martinique, Puerto Rico, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Sint Maarten). As of May 30, 2014, a total of 103,018 suspected and 4,406 laboratory-confirmed chikungunya cases had been reported from these areas. The number of reported cases nearly doubled during the previous 2 weeks.

More than 95% of the cases have been reported from five jurisdictions: Dominican Republic (38,656 cases), Martinique (30,715), Guadeloupe (24,428), Haiti (6,318), and Saint Martin (4,113). The highest incidences have been reported from Saint Martin (115 cases per 1,000 population), Martinique (76 per 1,000), Saint Barthelemy (74 per 1,000), and Guadeloupe (52 per 1,000). Further expansion of these outbreaks and spread to other countries in the region is likely.

On Tuesday, just two weeks after that piece was published, the case count in the Caribbean was 165,990 suspected and 4,576 laboratory-confirmed.

I spoke to J.Erin Staples, MD PhD, a medical epidemiologist in the CDC’s arboviral diseases branch and one of the authors of that June 6 piece, about whether there is an explanation for the apparently rising number of US residents with chikungunya. The disease “was mostly in the French Caribbean territories to begin with,” she said. “But we have begun seeing more cases since it has moved into the Latin American countries. That is probably because those are places where a lot of American travelers go, either to go on vacation, to work or to visit family.”

To this point, all the US residents diagnosed with chikungunya were infected outside the country; there is no evidence that anyone has acquired the disease within the US. Health authorities wonder, though, whether that can happen. Once the virus multiples in someone’s blood enough to cause symptoms, it can be picked up by a mosquito that bites that person, and then transmitted when the bug bites someone else in turn. That pattern has caused the mosquito-borne disease dengue to become re-established in Florida. The same mosquito species that spread dengue spread chikungunya as well.

As Tennessee state health commissioner Dr. John Dreyzehner acknowledged over the weekend, regarding the possibility that chikungunya might find a home in the US: “It is, unfortunately, probably just a matter of time.”

[MIKA27]

Tequila, Booze, and Bats

It’s Pollinator Week, so how about celebrating with a toast to the bats that provided you with Margaritas! Tequila is made from Agave tequilana, a spiky, squat, blueish plant. It grows best in semi-arid soils, making it a great cash crop for marginal lands in Mexico.

Agaves are chiropterophilous; a fancy way of saying they’re bat-pollinated. These plants and their pollinators have shaped each other through coevolution. Blooming agaves grow a stalk up to 15 feet high, with candelabra-shaped flower clusters at the top. The flowers only open at night and smell like rotting fruit, signaling bats the nectar bar is open. pollinator weekAs they swoop in for a drink, bats get dusted with agave pollen, which they transport from plant to plant as sexual surrogates.

Agave nectar can be up to 22 percent sugar, and the pollen is 50 percent protein. The sugary treat keeps the bats fueled for flying, and leftover pollen is consumed when bats groom themselves. Multiple bat species pollinate agaves, and several migrate, following the bloom of agave and cactus through central Mexico to the Southwestern U.S. and back.

The BBC recently aired a wonderful documentary about the “Bat Man” of Mexico, Dr Rodrigo Medellin. Medellin has spent decades working to conserve the migratory “Tequila Bats” of Central America. This trailer gives you a close up look at the pollinating bats in question.

How do you make tequila? First, you get a whole bunch of blue agave plants, and a lot of really wicked-looking sharp utensils.

Is tequila cultivation bad for bats?

If you watch the tequila manufacturing video, you may notice a problem. Cultivation of agave for tequila involves actively preventing the plants from flowering. The harvest kills the plants completely. If there aren’t any flowers, and all the agave plants are regularly killed to make booze, how do tequila pollinating bats get enough to eat?

In the video, Don Julio Tequila’s plantation manager says he planted 1,700,000 agave plants that season. Propagating agave doesn’t require seeds; the plants can reproduce vegetatively by sending out little plantlets underground. If no bats are around, the plant can also produce clonal “bubils” from unfertilized flowers. Not a lot of agave is grown for seed, and that means not a lot of cultivated agave is flowering.

Both the Mexican Long-Nosed Bat, the primary pollinator of agave, and its relative the Lesser Long-nosed Bat are considered endangered species in the U.S. The corridor of blooming plants their migration once followed is now fractured into private farms and paved roads. Native plants like the agave that can fuel their journey are less common. These bats also keep their babies in cave crèches with thousands to hundreds of thousands of bats in a colony. Stashing all their children in one place makes them especially vulnerable to disturbance from miners or drug runners seeking shelter.

As cultivated agave becomes more genetically uniform because of inbreeding, pollinating bats may be valued once again, and practices may change. It’s certainly true that bats helped make agave the plant we grow and enjoy today. Here are two Smithsonian scientists discussing the biology of pollinating bats and their linkage to agave. Millions of years of evolution to bring you a fruity drink.

¡Salud!

[MIKA27]

Japan: Camera boat records tsunami coast

Camera-mounted boats are being used in a new attempt to map Japan's tsunami-hit coast from the sea, it's been reported.

The "Street View from the Ocean" programme will take panoramic photographs of the Sanriku coast on the north-east of Japan's main island of Honshu, says the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The craft will work its way along the coast recording how areas are recovering from the March 2011 tsunami disaster, with other land-based shots being taken by workers carrying recording equipment on their backs. The mayor of Kesennuma told the paper that the mapping project would show "future generations the mood of recovery in these coastal areas".

According to the Mainchi Shumbun, Google's Japanese arm has mounted one of the corporation's 15-lens street view cameras onto a boat, and have already used it to capture images of reconstruction work at a fishing port in the northern Miyagi prefecture. The images will appear online in January 2015.

It won't be the first time images of tsunami damage have appeared online.In December 2012, Google provided photographs which allowed viewers to "tour" the interiors of 34 damaged schools, city halls and other buildings in Iwate and Fukushima prefectures after obtaining permission from local authorities.

[MIKA27]

Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes

For 75 years, Finland's expectant mothers have been given a box by the state. It's like a starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that can even be used as a bed. And some say it helped Finland achieve one of the world's lowest infant mortality rates.

It's a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and it's designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they're from, an equal start in life.

The maternity package - a gift from the government - is available to all expectant mothers.

It contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing products for the baby, as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress.

With the mattress in the bottom, the box becomes a baby's first bed. Many children, from all social backgrounds, have their first naps within the safety of the box's four cardboard walls.

A 1947 maternity pack

Mothers have a choice between taking the box, or a cash grant, currently set at 140 euros, but 95% opt for the box as it's worth much more.

The tradition dates back to 1938. To begin with, the scheme was only available to families on low incomes, but that changed in 1949.

"Not only was it offered to all mothers-to-be but new legislation meant in order to get the grant, or maternity box, they had to visit a doctor or municipal pre-natal clinic before their fourth month of pregnancy," says Heidi Liesivesi, who works at Kela - the Social Insurance Institution of Finland.

So the box provided mothers with what they needed to look after their baby, but it also helped steer pregnant women into the arms of the doctors and nurses of Finland's nascent welfare state.

In the 1930s Finland was a poor country and infant mortality was high - 65 out of 1,000 babies died. But the figures improved rapidly in the decades that followed.

Mika Gissler, a professor at the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, gives several reasons for this - the maternity box and pre-natal care for all women in the 1940s, followed in the 60s by a national health insurance system and the central hospital network.

Contents of the box

• Mattress, mattress cover, undersheet, duvet cover, blanket, sleeping bag/quilt
• Box itself doubles as a crib
• Snowsuit, hat, insulated mittens and booties
• Light hooded suit and knitted overalls
• Socks and mittens, knitted hat and balaclava
• Bodysuits, romper suits and leggings in unisex colours and patterns
• Hooded bath towel, nail scissors, hairbrush, toothbrush, bath thermometer, nappy cream, wash cloth
• Cloth nappy set and muslin squares
• Picture book and teething toy
• Bra pads, condoms

At 75 years old, the box is now an established part of the Finnish rite of passage towards motherhood, uniting generations of women.

Reija Klemetti, a 49-year-old from Helsinki, remembers going to the post office to collect a box for one of her six children.

"It was lovely and exciting to get it and somehow the first promise to the baby," she says. "My mum, friends and relatives were all eager to see what kind of things were inside and what colours they'd chosen for that year."

Her mother-in-law, aged 78, relied heavily on the box when she had the first of her four children in the 60s. At that point she had little idea what she would need, but it was all provided.

More recently, Klemetti's daughter Solja, aged 23, shared the sense of excitement that her mother had once experienced, when she took possession of the "first substantial thing" prior to the baby itself. She now has two young children.

"It's easy to know what year babies were born in, because the clothing in the box changes a little every year. It's nice to compare and think, 'Ah that kid was born in the same year as mine'," says Titta Vayrynen, a 35-year-old mother with two young boys.

For some families, the contents of the box would be unaffordable if they were not free of charge, though for Vayrynen, it was more a question of saving time than money.

She was working long hours when pregnant with her first child, and was glad to be spared the effort of comparing prices and going out shopping.

"There was a recent report saying that Finnish mums are the happiest in the world, and the box was one thing that came to my mind. We are very well taken care of, even now when some public services have been cut down a little," she says.

When she had her second boy, Ilmari, Vayrynen opted for the cash grant instead of the box and just re-used the clothes worn by her first, Aarni.

A boy can pass on clothes to a girl too, and vice versa, because the colours are deliberately gender-neutral.

The contents of the box have changed a good deal over the years, reflecting changing times.

During the 30s and 40s, it contained fabric because mothers were accustomed to making the baby's clothes.

But during World War II, flannel and plain-weave cotton were needed by the Defence Ministry, so some of the material was replaced by paper bed sheets and swaddling cloth.

The 50s saw an increase in the number of ready-made clothes, and in the 60s and 70s these began to be made from new stretchy fabrics.

In 1968 a sleeping bag appeared, and the following year disposable nappies featured for the first time.

Not for long. At the turn of the century, the cloth nappies were back in and the disposable variety were out, having fallen out of favour on environmental grounds.

Encouraging good parenting has been part of the maternity box policy all along.

"Babies used to sleep in the same bed as their parents and it was recommended that they stop," says Panu Pulma, professor in Finnish and Nordic History at the University of Helsinki. "Including the box as a bed meant people started to let their babies sleep separately from them."

At a certain point, baby bottles and dummies were removed to promote breastfeeding.

"One of the main goals of the whole system was to get women to breastfeed more," Pulma says. And, he adds, "It's happened."

He also thinks including a picture book has had a positive effect, encouraging children to handle books, and, one day, to read.

And in addition to all this, Pulma says, the box is a symbol. A symbol of the idea of equality, and of the importance of children.

The story of the maternity pack

• 1938: Finnish Maternity Grants Act introduced - two-thirds of women giving birth that year eligible for cash grant, maternity pack or mixture of the two
• Pack could be used as a cot as poorest homes didn't always have a clean place for baby to sleep
• 1940s: Despite wartime shortages, scheme continued as many Finns lost homes in bombings and evacuations
• 1942-6: Paper replaced fabric for items such as swaddling wraps and mother's bedsheet
• 1949: Income testing removed, pack offered to all mothers in Finland - if they had prenatal health checks (1953 pack pictured above)
• 1957: Fabrics and sewing materials completely replaced with ready-made garments
• 1969: Disposable nappies added to the pack
• 1970s: With more women in work, easy-to-wash stretch cotton and colourful patterns replace white non-stretch garments
• 2006: Cloth nappies reintroduced, bottle left out to encourage breastfeeding

[MIKA27]

Anthrax risk for 75 scientists in US

As many as 75 people working at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) may have been exposed to live anthrax bacteria and are receiving treatment.

The US health agency said researchers in a high-level biosecurity laboratory failed to follow proper procedures and did not inactivate the bacteria.

CDC said the exposure occurred in Atlanta at the weekend and no-one has yet shown symptoms.

An internal investigation in under way, the CDC said.

"This should not have happened," Dr Paul Meechan, director of the environmental health and safety compliance told the Reuters news agency. "We're taking care of it. We will not let our people be at risk."

Dr Meechan said it was too early to determine whether the transfer was accidental or intentional.

Symptoms of anthrax exposure include skin ulcers, nausea and vomiting and fever, and can cause death if untreated.

What is anthrax?

Anthrax bacteria live primarily in inactive spores and are found naturally in the soil, but people can ingest or inhale spores, which can make the anthrax active.

Not all will be sickened when exposed to anthrax but left untreated, anthrax illness can turn very serious or lead to death.

Tests to confirm anthrax exposure include a blood swab test or by measuring antidotes in the blood.

Anthrax entered the US national consciousness in 2001, when shortly after the 9/11 attacks, letters containing powdered anthrax arrived at news organisations and the offices of US senators. Twenty-two people were sickened and of those, five people died.

In a statement, the CDC said the anthrax samples were moved from a high-security lab to a lower-security one at their Atlanta headquarters.

"Workers, believing the samples were inactivated, were not wearing adequate personal protective equipment while handling the material," the agency said.

"The unintentional exposure was discovered June 13 when the original bacterial plates were gathered for disposal and B. anthracis colonies [live bacteria] were found on the plates."

Although the CDC believes about seven researchers had direct contact with the anthrax it is casting a wide net in who may have been exposed.

About 75 individuals are being offered a course of the antibiotic ciprofloxacin as well as an injection with an anthrax vaccine.

The normal incubation period for anthrax illness can take up to five to seven days, Dr Meechan told Reuters, but there have been cases of illness occurring as much as 60 days after exposure.

[MIKA27]

PERSOL 649

Persol was originally founded to produce military-grade eyewear for pilots, as you might imagine the Italian version of aviator sunglasses looks a little different to the designs from Britain, Germany and the USA.

The Persol 649 has polarised lenses and brown tortoiseshell acetate frames, the build quality is amongst the best you’ll find anywhere in the world and they’ve been famously worn by men like Steve McQueen, George Clooney and Ryan Gosling.

Grab yours here

[MIKA27]

BREITLING AVENGER BLACKBIRD

Breitling have added a new version to their Avenger series, the black-cased stunner - Avenger Blackbird. This clean and smooth version has no chronograph and no 24h dial, ensuring optimal legibility. It still retains the utilitarian, military style, with a light and sturdy titanium case and comes equipped with a sturdy Military fabric strap. This companion for extreme missions features an embedded selfwinding movement and is water-resistant to 300 meters (1000 ft/30 bars).

[MIKA27]

MINISTATION AIR

The beautiful MiniStation Air by Buffalo Technologies is a sleek, minimal and compact wireless portable hard drive that provides up to 1 TB of storage for tablets, smartphones and computers. The portable storage solution is easy to use and highly convenient for users on the go, it enables travelers to easily transport their multimedia library and stream content wirelessly(without a Wi-Fi connection or using your data plan) to any computer, smartphone, tablet, smart TV or supported gaming console. The MiniStation Air also doubles as a portable battery charger, allows you to connect up to 8 devices at the same time, and lets you enjoy your content for up to 12 hours on a single charge!

[Fuzz]

Harley Davidson's Electric Motorbike Concept Sounds Incredible

They still need to tweak the sound so it sounds more like this...

[MIKA27]

This Is The Secret Of SpaceX's Falcon 9 Reusable Rocket Return Magic

See those black fins moving on the surface of this Falcon 9R rocket? That’s SpaceX’s magic sauce. These steerable surfaces will allow used rocket stages to safely land back on Earth, ready to be refilled and launched again. This on-board video of their new 1km high test show how they work.

According to SpaceX, this flight was their “first test of a set of steerable fins that provide control of the rocket during the fly back portion of return. The fins deploy approximately a minute and 15 seconds into the flight, and return to their original position just prior to landing.”

The next phase of development will be the testing of the retractable legs. Right now, the rocket launches with the legs already deployed, but soon the company will “transition to liftoff with legs stowed against the side of the rocket with leg extension just before landing.”

After that they will launch to higher altitudes, testing return without power, guiding the vehicle without the help of the rocket engine for most of its return trajectory.

I don’t know about you but I find this all terribly exciting.

[MIKA27]

The Sub That Took Russia 20 Years To Build Is Finally Ready

After more than two decades in development, Russia has finally inducted its newest submarine into the Northern Fleet — a massive nuclear-powered submarine hunter christened the Severodvinsk. Better late than never, I guess.

The K-329 Severodvinsk is the first of Russia’s Yasen-class nuclear attack submarines, successor to the older Akula-class and designed to counter America’s nuclear-powered Seawolf and Virginia class submarines. Construction on the K-329 began way back in 1993 but due to a number of budget issues stemming from the collapse of the Soviet Union, the project suffered continual delays. It didn’t even begin sea trials until 2011, and only entered service last Tuesday. However, the sub’s capabilities appear well worth the wait.

According to Russian state media, the Severodvinsk features “a large spherical sonar system, which occupies its entire bow” and provides a wider and more detailed view than what conventional cylindrical systems can produce. The nearly 120m long submarine is also reportedly armed with 533mm torpedoes, eight vertical launch tubes loaded with the supersonic Onyx and Kaliber cruise missiles, and potentially a 9K anti-air missile (an advanced surface to air missile) which would give this sub the ability to surface, shoot down an overhead aircraft, then duck safely under the waves again before a carrier fleet ever knew what hit it.

Luckily, the US already has 21 Virginia-class submarines actively serving, and another seven in the development pipeline. So while a Yasen-class sub could conceivably go toe-to-toe with a Virginia-class sub, the Russian Navy is still severely outgunned.

[MIKA27]

Spectacular New Video Of The Failed Longest Car Jump Record Attempt

This spectacular multi-angle video shows Guerlain Chicherit’s attempt to beat the world record for the longest car jump, which is now held by Tanner Foust at 101 metres. Chicherit tried save a 109.7m gap between an 18-tonne steel ramp and a concrete landing surface. Fortunately, he didn’t die.

There were other angles of the crash before, but this footage is so crystal clear and perfect. The slow motion anime-like shots are amazing. Action starts at 7:16, but I recommend watching the entire thing.

[MIKA27]

Max Planck and the Aliens

Max Planck is one of the biggest names in physics. Most famously, he was the first person to realize that electromagnetic radiation can only be emitted in discrete chunks in accordance with the fundamental parameter now known as Planck’s constant. This groundbreaking discovery paved the way to quantum theory, and earned him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. What is less well known, however, is that Planck was one of the first people to speculate on the practicalities of communicating with extraterrestrials.

The basic problem is to come up with some kind of “universal language”. It’s often said that certain forms of mathematics, such as binary arithmetic, are fundamental enough to be considered a natural language suitable for conversing with aliens. But there’s a problem. When people use numbers, they’re almost always referred to physical units of some sort. “Thirty miles per hour”. “Two liters”. “Twelve ounces”. “Sixty seconds”. Such phrases are easy enough for us to understand, but they would be meaningless to a entity from another planet. The units we use in everyday speech are essentially “anthropic” – human centered.

Scientists use rigorously defined SI (“Système International”) units such as meters, seconds and kilograms. But even these units have their origins in the human world. The meter was originally defined as a certain fraction of the circumference of the Earth, and the second as a certain fraction of the Earth’s rotational period. A kilogram was originally the mass of a certain volume of water – the volume being specified in cubic meters. So an alien culture that was unfamiliar with the planet Earth wouldn’t be able to make head or tail of measurements specified in SI units.

Standard units of measurement in Trafalgar Square, London

It’s possible to envisage “non-anthropic” units, based for example on the frequency or wavelength of certain types of radiation, or the mass of certain fundamental particles. But there are dozens of equally valid options to choose from. We could never be sure the aliens would choose the same frequencies, wavelengths or masses that we did.

Planck approached the problem from a different angle. His proposal for “natural measurement units” is tucked away at the end of a long paper on irreversible radiative processes that he presented to the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1899. Despite the early date – the last year of the 19th century – the application to extraterrestrial communication is made explicitly in the following quote from the paper: “Units for length, mass, time and temperature which, being independent of specific bodies or substances, retain their meaning for all times and all cultures, even non-terrestrial and non-human ones.”

So how did Planck do it? The key lies in that strange quantity called Planck’s constant. Usually represented by the symbol ħ, this has the value (in scientific notation) of 1.05E-34 kgm2s-1. That looks horribly obscure, but it’s a fundamental property of the universe. It’s so fundamental, Planck argued, that it really ought to be given the value 1. So he defined his units in such a way that ħ = 1.

But that’s not the end of the story. In order to pin down units of mass, length and time, we need to set three quantities to 1, not just ħ. The other two constants that Planck chose were the speed of light c, and the gravitational constant G. Like ħ, these are fundamental properties of the universe that any scientifically literate civilization would be aware of. In his original paper, Planck also added a fourth quantity – Boltzmann’s constant k – in order to add temperature to the mix as well as mass, length and time.

In Planck’s system, the fundamental units are called the Planck length, the Planck time and the Planck mass (he didn’t give them these names, but that’s how they’re known today). They’re not totally unambiguous – for example some people might argue for 2πħ instead of ħ, or 4πG instead of G. But the number of meaningful variations is still much smaller than with any other system of units.

So what are the Planck units? The Planck length and Planck time are both incredibly small quantities – much smaller than anything encountered in the “real world”. That’s not true of the Planck mass, however, which is about 22 micrograms – not much less than the mass of a flea. All the known subatomic particles are just a tiny fraction of the Planck mass. For quantum physicists the Planck mass is just as extreme as the Planck length or the Planck time… except that (by the standards of quantum systems) it’s extremely large, not extremely small.

Although Planck’s original motivation was simply to come up with a “universal” set of units, it’s possible the Planck units have a deeper physical significance. Because they combine both quantum effects (ħ) and gravity (G), some scientists believe they may point the way to quantum gravity – the long-sought “theory of everything”.

Quantum gravity may involve structures on a Planck scale

[MIKA27]

Does Earth’s Mightiest Ocean Predator Still Exist?

Recently here on the forum and in the media, there was a reported fascinating account of the mystery of the 9 foot great white shark that was attacked, pulled into the depths and apparently consumed by a mysterious predator. The report has sparked much discussion and debate as to the identity of the culprit, with one name in particular being thrown around- the giant prehistoric predator, Carcharodon megalodon.

Size comparison chart for Megalodon.

It certainly is an intriguing and perhaps somewhat frightening notion that this enormous underwater killing machine, often called the deadliest predator that ever lived, could be still roaming the Earth’s ocean’s and preying on great white sharks. In order to truly understand and form our opinions on this epic predator of the deep and the possibilities of its survival, perhaps it is necessary to take a good look at this creature and the modern evidence for its possible existence.

For readers unfamiliar with this creature, Carcharodon Megalodon, mostly referred to as simply the Megalodon, was a truly gigantic shark that prowled the Earth’s oceans during the Cenozoic Era, around 28 million to 1.5 million years ago. The Megalodon typically reached lengths of up to 60 feet long, with some estimates suggesting lengths of up to 80 feet, dwarfing even the largest of great white sharks and making Megalodon truly a formidable predator to contend with. In addition to its vast size, the Megalodon possessed giant, serrated teeth that were as long as a grown man’s hand, far bigger than the teeth of even the largest current sharks. The Megalodon’s size and deadly set of teeth were perfectly suited to capturing its prey, which mainly consisted of whales and other large sea animals. Such a monster would have been truly a terrifying sight to behold.

Size comparison of Megalodon teeth and those of a great white shark.

Although the exact causes remain unknown, it has long been commonly accepted that Megalodon went extinct approximately 1.5 million years ago. Even so, there are many who believe the Megalodon still exists out in the deep, dark waters of the world’s oceans, and it has been a common target of cryptozoologists seeking to uncover its continued existence. Yet how plausible is it that Megalodon still survives into the modern age? Let us look at the possibilities and available evidence.

Perhaps the first thing to look at is the physical plausibility that a long thought to be extinct, massive predator such as the Megalodon could still be out there. Looking at examples of other species of shark exhibiting ancient characteristics, so-called “Living Fossil Sharks,” such as the frilled shark, we can see that it is indeed possible for prehistoric, “primitive” sharks to survive into modern days. David Wong of the Natural History Museum in London explained to Discovery News:

“Up until recently, it was supposed that, like most marine organisms, sharks suffered a catastrophic extinction at the K/T boundary (when dinosaurs went extinct). However, the studies that suggested this did not take into account the changes in sea level, climate and the amount of the sedimentary record missing.”

He added that one recent study,

“demonstrates that there was very little extinction of deeper water sharks.”

Could this also describe Megalodon, which was a deep water shark as well? It seems plausible. Add in the fact that Megalodon had what is known as a cosmopolitan distribution, meaning it was found worldwide in a range of appropriate habitats, and you have a lot of possible areas for the massive shark to be hiding.

Finding such a large creature living undetected in the deep, or rediscovering a supposedly extinct marine animal would certainly not be unprecedented. In recent years, there have been a variety of such discoveries. The first actual footage of a giant squid was captured in 2004, and in 1952, an even larger squid, the colossal squid was discovered to lurking in the deep. Both animals are extremely elusive and very little is known about them. Additionally there is the megamouth shark, a large shark that can get up to 16 feet long, that was just discovered in 1976. Perhaps the most well-known example of a presumably extinct animal showing up after a long absence is the Coelacanth, a prehistoric fish thought to have been extinct for 65 million years before a live specimen was pulled up off the coast of South Africa in 1938.

In light of such discoveries, it certainly seems not totally beyond the realm of possibility that Megalodon could at least theoretically still be out there. However, just because it can still survive does not necessarily mean that it does. To make that determination, it is perhaps useful to look at any evidence of the continued existence of Megalodon in the form of both physical evidence and possible sightings.

Physical evidence of Megalodon, or any shark for that matter, is hard to come by. This is namely due to the fact that these are cartilaginous fish, which results in the body not preserving well at all. All we really have to go on with creatures such as Megalodon is their teeth. In that respect, one of the most exciting discoveries pointing to the Megalodon surviving into modern days was dredged up on a seabed near Tahiti in 1875, by the British ship the HMS Challenger. When analyzed and dated, the teeth were found to be only between 10,000 to 15,000 years old, putting them far beyond the established Megalodon extinction of 1.5 million years ago and concurrent with modern humans. Although further tests have given mixed results on the dating of these teeth, it certainly lends credence to the idea that these massive sharks could have survived into modern days.

Above and beyond this tantalizing physical evidence, there have been various accounts and sightings over the years that possibly point to a creature such as Megalodon.

Locals and fishermen of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez have long told seeing gargantuan sharks with lengths of up to 60 feet long, which they refer to as “Black Demons.” Sightings and even alleged collisions between boats and the huge monsters are so persistent that the popular TV show Monsterquest even launched an investigation of the area. Although they produced no evidence, the reports continue to come in from time to time.

Whether the Sea of Cortez harbors a remnant population of Megalodon, it certainly has its share of very large sharks nevertheless. In 2012, a truly huge great white shark measuring 20 feet long and weighing over 2,000 pounds was caught in a net in the Sea of Cortez near Guaymas. If the measurements are indeed accurate, then the shark would be one of the largest specimens of great white ever recorded.

The giant great white shark caught in the Sea of Cortez.

Other accounts of Megalodon sightings can be found from many parts of the world. Naturalist David Stead described in his book Sharks and Rays of the Australian Seas the 1918 account of fishermen of Broughton Island, New Zealand, who saw a frightening shark so incredibly enormous that they refused to fish the area. The shark had apparently destroyed fishing gear and devoured whole catches.

Another account comes from the author B.C. Cartmell, who in his 1978 book Let’s Go Fossil Shark Tooth Hunting, included this report:

“In the 1960s along the outer edge of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, an 85-foot ship experienced engine trouble, which forced it to weigh anchor for repairs. Although the men subsequently refused to openly report what they had seen for fear of public ridicule, the captain and his crew later told friends of sighting an immense shark as it moved slowly past their ship. Whitish in color, they were awed by its size. It was as long, if not longer, than their boat! Experienced men of the sea, they too were certain the creature was not whale.”

Another author, novelist Zane Grey, who also happened to be an avid angler, told of his own frightening account. He wrote of encountering what he referred to as a “man-eating monster of the South Pacific,” which he claimed was larger than his 40-foot-long boat. The shark reportedly was yellow and green in color, with some white spots. The monstrous shark was described as having huge pectoral fins, and a large, square head. Grey was a regular deep sea fisherman who was well acquainted with sharks and other sea life, and he specifically insisted that what he had seen was no mere great white shark.

South Africa has also had several sightings over the years of sharks far surpassing the sizes commonly seen in the great whites of the vicinity. Some of these accounts are truly harrowing. In August 2013, Discovery Channel aired a “Shark Week” episode entitled Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, which featured a story of the plight of a Cape Town fishing vessel that was allegedly attacked and capsized by a large animal speculated to have possibly been a Megalodon in Hout Bay. There were reportedly no survivors of the doomed vessel.

Are these sightings reports and accounts evidence that people are seeing surviving Megalodon? Is it difficult to say for sure. What is certain is that the world’s oceans are vast, deep places that we have barely scratched the surface of in terms of exploration and understanding. The old adage that we known more about the surface of the moon than our own oceans is not an exaggeration. The ocean’s are notoriously difficult to study, and we have a shockingly incomplete picture of what discoveries are there awaiting us.

With such mysterious expanses of our planet still largely uncharted and unexplored, it seems entirely possible that one day, we will find that the Megalodon still cruises the depths hunting its prey. Is such a creature responsible for the killing of the 9 foot great white shark? We don’t know. But it is certainly fun to think about.

[MIKA27]

One Of These 10 Designs Will Become An Actual Moto 360 Watch Face

Earlier this year, Motorola asked designers to submit face designs for its upcoming Moto 360 smartwatch. Overwhelmed by 1300 entries, the field has been whittled down to 10 — and you can vote to decide which one will actually ship with the watch.

There are some lovely designs in here, and they vary from analogue cool to strikingly modern. So Dave McCarthy’s face blends Braun and Swiss railway clock styling, while Paul Stringer’s looks like a speedometer. Elsewhere Layton Diamen’s striking “vanishing hour” (above) shows time disappearing before your eyes, and Jason Wang’s looks like a radar display.

You can read the design inspirations behind each of the watch faces over on Motorola’s Goolge+ page — where you can also vote for your favourite. The face with the most +1s on June 24th will be crowned the winner, shipping with the watch alongside Moto’s other official faces. Which do you like most?

MIKA: I Personally like these 2

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HILTON NUI RESORT IN BORA BORA

If you dream of white sand beaches, blue lagoons, and overwater bungalows, then you need to pencil in a vacation at the beautiful Hilton Nui Resort in Bora Bora.

Whether you like to lounge by the pool with a cold beer in hand, or hit the open waters for some snorkeling, this resort has it all.

This place has 800 meters of white sand beach along with some of the most breathtaking views on planet Earth. Guests can enjoy diving adventures, snorkeling sessions, water sports like jet skiing, shark and ray encounters for the nature lovers, and of course a spa for those really looking to relax. If you’re the type of person who can’t miss a day in the gym (even while in paradise) this place has you covered with a state of the art fitness center. Bungalow prices range depending on what you’re looking for, and you better believe we’ll be looking for the Presidential suite with several private jacuzzis overlooking the turquoise waters of the Pacific.

[MIKA27]

This Video Explains Why Everything Is Going To Hell In Iraq Right Now

It seems that after hundreds of thousands of deaths Iraq is in a worse state than before the 2003 invasion? How the hell did this happen? Who are these crazy ISIS killers terrorising everyone and taking over the country? You’ll understand it all after watching this easy-to-follow video explainer.

[MIKA27]

80 Years Of World Cup Ticket Designs

FIFA World Cup 2014 is underway, and for those lucky spectators who have managed to get a ticket for one or more of the tournament matches, it’s a little piece of print design they will probably cherish for years to come.

But one thing’s for sure, that design will be a long way from the ticket designs of the early years of the World Cup. In those first tournaments, tickets were printed with minimal branding and almost no focus on design. But over the years, they have become more elaborate and creative. When Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1970, official logos and branding were created specifically for the tournament and have continued to be produced for every tournament since.

some of these tickets are wonderful items whereas others look a little odd. Some contained useful information, whereas some were made to be small pieces of art. Let’s start at the beginning…

1930: Uruguay vs Argentina World Cup Final

This very first World Cup Final ticket, featuring a slab typeface and two-colour scheme, is pretty standard design-wise. Despite that, it now retails for £1,000 as a collector’s item.

1934: Spain vs Brazil first stage

The 1934 ticket provided more typographic variation, with four different styles of font (standard, italic, bold and calligraphy) and the venue location in a 3D font style. Host nation Italy is represented by the Roman artwork in the background and the mosaic tiling around the border, all using a blue and white colour scheme, which is still visible despite the age of the ticket.

1938: France vs Belgium first stage

An early sign of the influence of minimalism, this rare ticket has been preserved well as it still shows the original off-white card stock, the combination of font styles used and the unusually placed green stripe in the top right hand corner.

1950: England vs Spain first stage

After the World Cup had taken a break for 12 years, this collection of 1950 tickets built upon the style of the 1938 tickets. Using a three-tone colour scheme, this was the first World Cup ticket to contain a stub.

1954: West Germany vs Hungary World Cup Final

This 1954 Brazil ticket marks a return to a more stardard design style, with the stub design gone and just a couple of (fairly random) graphic elements to add interest.

1958: Sweden (various)

The 1958 World Cup saw a more attractive and thoughtfully designed set of tickets, with nice use of typography and the colourful horizontal stripe balanced nicely with the emblem in the top-right corner.

1962: Brazil vs Czechoslovakia World Cup Final

The 1962 ticket was styled upon a trading card game form factor, with a clean colour scheme rounded off with the white of the card stock. This example is a little faded, but the Pele signature makes up for that.

1966: England vs West Germany World Cup Final

This 1966 ticket expanded on the trading card form factor, with a stub-like design making it clear what entrance to use and where you should stand or sit down.

1970: Brazil vs England quarter-final

1970 marked the arrival of World Cup branding on the ticket designs. Note the addition of the logo design in the top-left and the time displayed in analogue format on the right-hand side of the date.

1974: Australia vs Chile first stage

The 1974 ticket also includes the logo, with its colour scheme informing the design. This ticket is particularly user-friendly for the spectator, with an analogue clock indicating the start time, and the seating display, plus corresponding seat numbers, making it easy to find where you need to be.

1978: Netherlands vs Argentina World Cup Final

1978 saw a new approach to ticket design, based on a traditional stadium scores and statistics board. There’s all the information you need, without the design seeming cluttered. The time is still displayed in analogue, as well as being displayed in 24-hour format above the clock and the date underneath.

1982: West Germany vs France semi-final

The ticket for the 1982 World Cup, hosted by Spain, is designed around the colours of that nation’s flag. Here we see the first use of digital clock, and for the first time the price of the ticket is displayed.

1986: Soviet Union vs Canada group stage

The 1986 ticket uses similar branding to the previous occasion Mexico hosted the World Cup in 1970 but retains the traditional scoreboard layout of the 1978 ticket.

1990: West Germany vs Argentina World Cup Final

With a slightly washed out colour scheme representing the colours of the Italian national flag, the 1990 ticket design sees the return of 3D text, as first seen in 1934.

1994: Brazil vs Italy World Cup Final

The 1994 ticket uses a huge splash of colours; including the red, white and blue of the national flag. The tickets were sold in two formats, portrait and landscape, both heavily branded with the World Cup USA logo and the FIFA World Cup logo. A series of different font weights, from light to bold, are used – even in the logo itself.

1998: France vs Brazil World Cup Final

The 1998 ticket combined a light blue and white colour scheme with a striking red globe (the colour has washed out over time). The text was printed using a dot matrix printer, which restricted what could be used: it was the first time since 1970 that a brand hasn’t been applied to the ticket design.

2002: Brazil vs Germany World Cup Final

The 2002 ticket is remininscent of heavy branding applied to the 1994 USA ticket. The ticket design incorporates the logo’s colour scheme of gold, purple, green, blue and red and reinstates the ticket stub. This cut the hologram in half, showing the ticket is authentic and allowing ground staff to check attendees into the match.

2006: Italy vs France World Cup Final

The 2006 ticket design is similar to that 2002′s, and features the same custom-made font used in the logo, venue and team names. Each ticket was given a number, which is the only item printed on the stub of the ticket; all other contents are held in the main body.

2010: Spain vs Netherlands World Cup Final

The 2010 ticket design combines design elements from the 2002 and 2006 tickets and borrows ideas from the 1994 USA ticket. Again using custom made typography, this ticket was printed vertically, with the stub being toned down into a barcode format, which corresponds with the barcode at the top of the ticket. The gold-yellow colour scheme fits in nicely with the green, red and purple used in the logo.

[MIKA27]

Germany's Puma Personnel Carrier Is Agile Like An Armoured Jungle Cat

Moving troops through hostile territory is a heck of a lot safer for everyone involved when they’re travelling in an armoured personnel carrier. But Germany’s new state-of-the-art APC does so much more than just move soldiers. It moves them in packs.

Built by the German PSM group, a 50-50 collaboration between defence contractors Krauss-Maffei Wegmann and Rheinmetall, the Puma IFV (Infantry Fighting Vehicle) is an armoured troop transport holding six soldiers that can also act as a main battle tank and unmounted troop support vehicle, or an air defence platform, should the situation require. The new generation of Pumas have been in development since the 1990s when they were proposed as a replacement to the existing, ageing fleet of Marder IFVs. The new platform underwent cold weather testing in 2012, hot weather testing last year, and has just recently been officially unveiled at this year’s Eurosatory show.

The Puma is designed as a common platform that can be adapted to a variety of roles and, as such, is highly adaptable. It can be outfitted with three different classes of armour (either entirely or piecemeal): Protection Class A is the basic component siding integrated into the design and weighs 31.5 tonnes. Class B was designed to allow the APCs to be rail transportable isn’t actually employed anymore because Class C, which adds another eight tonnes of composite and spaced armour wrapping around the entirety of the vehicle and roof, are still light enough to enable airlifts aboard A400Ms. The Puma is considered one of the most well-protected APCs in service today.

What’s more, the air conditioned, one-piece, nine cubic metre crew cabin can withstand NBC attacks while allowing the crew to communicate directly with one another, even swap out the driver or gunner — should there be a medical emergency — without having to break the cabin’s seal.

This cabin design has resulted in an interesting armament set up, relying on an off-center-mounted, remote-controlled Mauser 30mm turret as its main gun, an MG 4 machine gun situated opposite, and a fully stabilised 360-degree periscope between them. The 30mm autocannon can fire up to 200 rounds of air burst munitions per minute as far as 3000 metres away.

The vehicle is powered by a newly developed 1072 HP (800kW) diesel engine but even more impressive than its brawn is its brains. The new Pumas are “network-enabled warfare capable” according to PSM, which means they can act as communication relays and mobile command posts for the network connected ground troop of the future. What’s more, when they’re not on the front lines, up to four of these APCs can be linked up in “training mode” to act as combat simulators for crews and unmounted units.