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

[MIKA27]

ORBITKEY

After a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, the Orbitkey is now available for purchase. The stylish accessory transforms your cluster of keys into a neatly organized stack, in your order of preference, allowing you to find the key needed without hassle. The clutter free key holder won´t rattle (it is truly silent), and protects your belongings such as smartphones from key scratches. Several styles are available to choose from and an optional USB key, screwdriver, and bottle opener are also available at the Orbitkey online store.

[MIKA27]

ORIS AQUIS DEPTH GAUGE

I love dive watches, and are currently drooling over this gorgeous timepiece by Oris, a brand renowned for producing specialist diving watches. The Aquis Depth Gauge is the first divers watch which measures depth by allowing water to enter the timepiece through a specially milled channel in the crystal, as you descend, water pushes the gauge along. The patented system eliminates the need for electronics and sensors that can add bulk to a watch. The Aquis Depth Gauge is water-resistant to 50 bar/500 meters and comes in a special waterproof case that includes a replacement steel bracelet and a set of tools to change the strap.

[MIKA27]

These Maniacs Cooked Steak With Molten Lava And Lightning

What have you grilled on lately? A propane burner? A charcoal fire? Maybe even a fire pit? How about A RIVER OF LAVA? That’s exactly how the gastronomical adventurers at Bompas & Parr recently cooked up two huge steaks — and then they used lightning.

Bompas & Parr, you may recall, make their living doing crazy things with foodstuffs. They have vaporized gin. They have created a high-voltage chandelier that runs on pickles. This summer, they decided to focus on a very different — but still very dangerous! — food project: Cooking With Lava.

To do so, they traveled to Syracuse University, where an art professor named Robert Wysocki and an Earth sciences professor named Jeff Karson lead the Syracuse University Lava Project, which includes a super-hot furnace that can pour realistic lava flows for both scientific and creative purposes, as well as making a lava air cannon, which is both art and science. The professors agreed to let the Bompas & Parr team use their furnace for cooking for the very first time.

In the video below, posted today on Design Boom, you can watch as carefully suited-up figures place a grill over the chute where the 2,100 degree Fahrenheit molten liquid exits the furnace, then place two beautiful ribeye steaks on top — accompanied later by some corn on the cob, of course.

http://youtu.be/Az_SqpZIltA

But if you’ve eaten one lava steak, you’ve eaten a million. What about lightning steak? In June, B&P traveled to University of Southampton’s Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory to carry out another delicious experiment, as reported in the June issue of Wired.

Here’s how the team describes the process of cooking with artificial lightning:

The lightning heats through the resistance of the medium of passage to electrical charge. The greater the resistance, the more intense the heat. So when lightning passes through air it can reach 50,000 degrees Fahrenheit, five times hotter than the surface of the Sun. Our steaks were seared in microseconds.

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be video of the process. But head over to Bompas & Parr’s website for more.

[MIKA27]

India landslide: Rescuers race to find survivors in Pune village as toll rises

Rescue workers in western India are working to locate survivors of a landslide that has claimed at least 30 lives and buried up to 200 people.

Eight people have been rescued from the wreckage in Malin village, near the city of Pune in Maharashtra state.

But more than 36 hours after Wednesday morning's landslide, chances of finding more people alive appear small.

Officials say rain is hampering efforts to search for scores of people presumed trapped under the mud and debris.

The landslide hit the village early on Wednesday while people were sleeping.

On Thursday, rescuers continued their search through heavy rains, but hopes of finding any more survivors were fading.

"Miracles do happen, we will keep looking, but under current conditions it is very, very bleak," AFP news agency quoted Alok Avasthy, regional commandant of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) at the scene, as saying.

Wailing relatives, mourning the loss of entire families, are at the scene, hoping and praying for some positive news. Survivors could be seen rummaging through the debris, trying to salvage their possessions.

Among the eight people saved were 25-year-old Pramila Lembe and her three-month-old baby, who were rescued eight hours after the landslide.

"I was breast-feeding the baby when I heard a loud thunder-like clap. I tried to run but the wall collapsed," Ms Lembe told AFP while recovering in hospital.

"I held the boy somehow. I tried to shout but heard no-one," she added.

Rescue teams had difficulty reaching the scene of the landslide due to damaged roads

Some 40 of the 70 homes in Malin have been buried in the landslide

A large part of a nearby hill collapsed on Malin, and its population of 150 to 200 tribal people were covered with tonnes of loose earth, mud and rocks.

"Everything on the mountain came down," said Suresh Jadhav, a district official, describing how a cascade of mud, rocks and uprooted trees swamped the area.

The disaster only came to light when a bus passed by and the driver saw that the village had disappeared under masses of mud and earth, officials said.

Rescue operations were disrupted several times on Thursday after "very heavy rainfall" in the area.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told the Press Trust of India news agency that more than 160 people were believed to be trapped in 44 houses buried under the rubble.

Race to find India landslide missing

At the scene: Devidas Deshpande, BBC Hindi

It was raining when I reached Malin village. The roads leading to it were clogged with ambulances and earth-moving vehicles.

What was once a thriving village ringed by mountains and hills has now turned into a dump of red mud and soil. The only temple here - 35ft (11m) tall - is buried in the sludge.

Rescue workers were hard at work trying to find survivors. Medics were treating the injured. As earth-movers cleared the debris, I could see the top of many homes buried in the mud.

A local villager said it had taken a lot of time for the rescue workers and their vehicles to reach the village on Wednesday.

Since most of the homes were buried with their occupants inside, there were no people at the site to claim the bodies that were being taken out.

At a local hospital, I heard doctors talking about a mass cremation of the bodies after the autopsies were completed.

line break

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the loss of lives in the landslide as "saddening". On Thursday, Home Minister Rajnath Singh travelled to Pune to assess the situation.

Landslides are common in some parts of India during the monsoon, which runs from June to September.

More than 500 people died and several thousand people were listed as missing after floods and landslides hit the northern state of Uttarakhand in June last year.

[MIKA27]

Taiwan gas blasts in Kaohsiung kill at least 22

A series of gas explosions in the southern Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung has killed 22 people and injured about 270, officials say.

The exact cause of the gas leaks is not clear, but reports say the blasts were caused by ruptured pipelines.

Images from the scene show major fires, cars overturned and significant damage to roads and buildings.

Dozens of those injured by the blasts were taken to hospitals for treatment, Taiwan's fire agency said.

"The local fire department received calls of gas leaks late Thursday and then there was a series of blasts around midnight affecting an area of two to three sq km [one sq mile]," the National Fire Agency added in a statement.

'A huge cave'

"I saw lots of cars and motorcycles with engines all over on the road, and doctors checking if bodies were dead or alive, "eyewitness Chen Guan-yuan, who was at the scene shortly after the blast, told the BBC.

"Because the explosion range is so far so it's really difficult to handle this situation immediately," Mr Chen said, adding that the blasts "caused a long range hole, like a huge cave".

Four firefighters are said to be among the dead.

People in the nearby area have been evacuated to schools, local officials say.

Despite firefighting efforts, fires were still out of control in two streets at 05:00 local time (21:00 GMT), five hours after the blasts, local media reported.

Firefighters are still trying to see if people are trapped under the rubble of the explosion, the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei reports.

The cause of the blast has not yet been identified but several petrochemical companies have pipelines running along the sewage system in the district, our correspondent adds.

The multiple explosions were sparked by gas leaks in the sewage system of Kaohsiung's Cianjhen District, Premier Jiang Yi-huah said, according to Taiwanese news agency CNA.

Hundreds of soldiers, and firefighters from neighbouring Tainan City and Pingtung County, had been deployed to assist rescue efforts, Mr Jiang added.

Scores of people have been wounded

A wide area has been affected by the blasts

People have been ordered to stay home from school and work in Kaohsiung's Cianjhen and Lingya districts on Friday, local media reported.

Kaohsiung mayor Chen Chu wrote on her Facebook page (in Chinese): "Rescue efforts are still underway."

She urged everyone to "follow the instructions of rescue teams at the scene, and avoid standing around and watching".

"The local government has already requested [gas suppliers] CPC and Hsin Kao Gas cut off the gas supply," she added, urging residents to stay calm.

The local government has set up an emergency response centre.

Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that before the explosion, smoke with a "gas-like smell" came out of drains.

Major fires could be seen at the scene of the blasts

[MIKA27]

South African giraffe dies after 'hitting bridge'

South Africa's animal rights body is probing the death of a giraffe that was reportedly injured as it was being transported on a motorway.

Eyewitnesses say the giraffe, one of two on a truck, hit its head on a bridge on Johannesburg's N1 motorway.

The vehicle then broke down and had to wait several hours to be repaired.

Both animals were then taken to a vet, but the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal (NSPCA) said one died on arrival.

The incident has created a stir on the social networking site Twitter.

Thinus Botha tweeted that he had been driving behind the truck when the animal struck its head on Garsfontein Bridge.

There was "lots of blood", he tweeted.

NSPCA's manager Rick Allen confirmed that the giraffe had sustained a head injury but said that an autopsy was necessary to determine the cause of death.

He said the animals were on route to a game farm in Warmbarths, about 160km (99 miles) outside Johannesburg.

[tmac77]

NSPCA's manager Rick Allen confirmed that the giraffe had sustained a head injury but said that an autopsy was necessary to determine the cause of death.

Seriously an autopsy... he hit his head on a bridge.

[MIKA27]

Step Inside The Macabre & Sinister Nightclubs Of 1920's Paris

Since the dawn of time, man has always been mesmerised with the dark side of nature. The realm of the supernatural, of the unknown, where nefarious and shadowy characters roam has fascinated and terrified society for eons.

Rewind to Paris in the 1920s and that same obsession with macabre and sinister was starting to gain mainstream appeal. It was during that era that several popular nightclubs mysteriously opened across the city.

Demonic faces and gargoyles decorated the exteriors, whilst all manner of ghouls, zombies and even vampires lurked deep inside waiting to prey on their unsuspecting guests.

Two of the most popular were the Cabaret de l’Enfer (Cabaret of Hell) and the Cabaret du Neant (Cabaret of Nothingness). Just to prove how eerie (yet impressive) there two venues were, here's a collection of vintage photographs taken during the 20th century.

[MIKA27]

Is Trial by Water Returning to the U.S.?

Fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail remember the scene where a mob accuses a woman of being a witch and discusses ways to tell if she’s a witch – one of which is to toss her into a pond and see if she sinks or floats. This is the famous “swimming test” or “trial by water” or “dunking” which was banned in Europe in the Middle Ages, revived in the 17th century witch hunts and is only seen today in movie comedies. And the U.S. Congress. Really.

Before we look at the history of trial by water, let’s see what Democratic congressman Tony Cárdenas of California proposed for some politicians.

We are picking winners and losers, when it is clearly obvious that witches can only be found by dunking them in water. If they float they’re a witch. If they don’t, installing a pool will allow us to retrieve the non-witch before he or she drowns.

The idea of letting water decide someone’s fate is an old and surprisingly common one. Submerging a suspected sorcerer in a stream and letting them go if they float is mentioned in the Code of Ur-Nammu, which dates back to 2100–2050 BC. In the 6th century, Gregory of Tours writes about the accused having millstone placed around their neck before the submerging. In the late Middle Ages, it’s reported that the accused was placed in a barrel first before being dunked three times. The practice is also mentioned in the Vishnu Smriti book of Hinduism.

The “logic” of trial by water was reversed in witch hunts, where it was believed that an innocent person would sink while a witch would float. This is derived from the idea that witches renounced baptism so the baptismal river would expel them. The Salem witch trials held in colonial America in 1692 and 1693 used both dunking and submersion – with the accused bound at the hands and feet and tied to a rock. Needless to say, none of the twenty accused witches, mostly women, survived.

Was Mr. Cárdenas just joking when he called for a revival of trail by water? That’s what they thought in Monty Python and the Holy Grail … until they brought out the duck.

[MIKA27]

Should We Be More Afraid of This Ebola Outbreak?

It’s being called the “worst Ebola outbreak in history,” yet information about it outside of Africa is sporadic at best. In the U.S., the news is mostly about two Americans who have been infected. Meanwhile, it has killed over 670 people in West Africa and over 1,100 more have been infected since the disease broke out in March. Is the news being covered up to avoid a worldwide panic?

Ebola kills anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of people infected, usually from the effects of fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Of the many ways it can be spread, the primary method is via bodily fluids, which puts medical personnel in danger – and not just from the virus.

The New York Times reports that armed militia have stopped aid workers from moving around, blaming them for spreading the disease.

It can take up to 21 days for Ebola symptoms to occur after an infection, which means a carrier can look healthy when he or she boards a plane, as a Liberian man did when he brought Ebola to Lagos, Nigeria, the biggest city in Africa. As a result, mobs have formed around hospitals treating patients, blaming foreigners for the disease. In Sierra Leone, which has the largest number of Ebola cases, police used tear gas on thousands of protesters at an Ebola treatment facility in Kenema during a demonstration started by a rumor that the disease was a cover-up for “cannibalistic rituals” inside the hospital.

Medical personnel inside a clinic taking care of Ebola patients in Sierra Leone.

More realistic conspiracy theories abound. In his book Emerging Viruses, Dr. Leonard Horowitz investigates numerous claims, such as the one that Ebola was created in a lab, possibly by the CIA, in response to threats in Central Africa.

Dr. Peter Walsh, a Ebola expert at Cambridge University, pulls no punches on its danger.

This strain of Ebola is probably the second most deadly virus in the world after canine rabies. If you get canine rabies, you’re going to die, but we also have vaccines for that. It’s possible someone infected will fly to Heathrow having infected other people sitting next to them or by using the toilet.

Walsh also believes the virus can be used as a weapon.

The bio-terror people are worried about somebody weaponising Ebola and being able to deliver it in an aerosol form. In that case it could be seriously nasty, because it would be just as deadly – but this way they’d have a means to really spread it.

Now you know a little more about this Ebola outbreak. Should we be more afraid?

[MIKA27]

‘SAFE HOUSE’ ZOMBIE-PROOF FORTRESS IN POLAND

Look people, the zombie apocalypse is coming. Whether you want to believe it or not, well that’s your choice. When **** does hit the fans though, one thing’s for certain; whoever owns this zombie-proof “Safe House” fortress up will be among the last to go.

Located on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland, this magnificent modern dwelling was built to withstand any disaster – and it looks great too. Spanning 6,100 square feet of living space, the home took 4 years to construct, and was built for an owner that wanted nothing but the best when it came to security. As you can see, by day this looks to be nothing more than a streamlined contemporary residence. Lock the doors, batten down the hatches, and you’ve got a completely zombie-proof, concrete constructed fortress. The home’s entryway, gate and even the bedrooms require a keycard to gain access, and high-resolution security cameras let you know exactly what’s going on outside your doors. And when everything is locked down, the home is equipped with a smart phone controlled industrial grade home generator along with a top notch fire suppression system.

[MIKA27]

JASPER SNAP WALLET BY MR. LENTZ

Our friend and neighbor Mr. Lentz is back to his old ways, rolling out a beautiful new slim-profile wallet for the summer season.

The Jasper Wallet is the latest creation to hit the scene from the San Diego cowboy, and it’s everything we expected from a man who prides himself on hand made goods. Staying true to his minimalistic form, this wallet is hand crafted from full-grain vegetable tanned leather, and hit with a coat of extra virgin olive oil, carnauba wax and beeswax to give it that worn look. Opening up the Jasper reveals 2 slots, one for cash, one for cards – it’s all you really need. Each and every wallet is riveted to ensure it will last for years to come, and can even be custom stamped with your name or initials. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

LEGO HEADQUARTERS IN DENMARK

Since 1949 the creative geniuses at LEGO have been keeping kids (and adults) busy with some of the greatest toys the market has to offer – their classic plastic bricks. Now we get a behind the scenes look of the LEGO’s headquarters, and it’s everything you’d expect.

Located in Billund, Denmark, this office space is the end result of a collaboration between Danish architects Rosan Bosch and Rune Fjord. The goal behind the space was to create a work environment that would help promote both innovation and imagination while also being a very fun place to punch the time clock every day. LEGO PMD spans several floors, and what better way to transition between floors than dropping in on your fellow LEGO creatives using a curved stainless steel slide?

[paulF]

BO18 NIGHTCLUB BEIRUT

Located at the north-eastern entrance of Beirut, B018 is a spectacular nightclub designed by Bernard Khoury (same genius that designed the amazing NBK Residence). B018 is one of Beirut´s most popular nightclubs and has been voted several times by Wallpaper Magazine as one of the best clubs in the world. B018 is shaped like a coffin, and looks like an old bomb shelter, but under what looks like a gloomy parking lot, lays a glamorous nightclub. The unassuming metal facade is equipped with a massive hydraulic apparatus that articulates the infamous retractable roof which gives revellers a mind-blowing night-time view of the stars and city lights.

This post brings back many good memories from home

[MIKA27]

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR REDBAND TRAILER

Holy crap. We’re not entirely sure what we just saw, but we do know the new trailer for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is a crowning technological achievement. My goodness. Wait, was that Lady Gaga in there? Let’s review:

Nine years after the original film, co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are taking us back to the gritty and gloriously neo-noir world of Basin City. Miller’s graphic novels certainly offer no shortage of shootouts and dangerous babes, and there’s plenty of danger and sex appeal to soak in with stars like Jessica Alba, Eva Green, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Ray Liotta, and Josh Brolin mixing it up. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For hits theaters on August 22. And yes, that was Lady Gaga we saw. Can’t win ‘em all.

[MIKA27]

TAG HEUER MERIDIIST INFINITE PHONE

t's definitely not an iPhone — hell, it's not really even a smartphone — but the Tag Heuer Meridiist Infinite Phone has a trick up its sleeve that should be the envy of any mobile device. And what might that be, you ask? An invisible photovoltaic component built into the sapphire crystal screen that produces enough juice to charge the phone, letting it hold its charge in standby mode. If that's not enough for you, it's also built entirely from Grade 5 titanium, carbon, and rubber, and is limited to just 1,911 pieces — since it celebrates the first dashboard chronograph made by the company in, you guessed it, 1911.

[MIKA27]

There Are Cells Inside Teeth That Can Turn Back Into Stem Cells

Inside each of our hard, calcified teeth is a small population of living stem cells that can differentiate into many types of tissue. The origin of those stem cells has long been unknown, but scientists may now have a completely surprising answer: Cells of the nervous system can migrate into the middle of a tooth and actually turn back into stem cells. If verified, this could be a possible new source for stem cells.

Teeth are connected to nerves, as anyone who’s had the misfortune of a toothache would know. Igor Adameyko of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and his team were studying glial cells, which support and protect neurons, in mice. By fluorescently labelling these glial cells, they could track the fate of these cells over time.

What they found was entirely surprising. Glial cells from nerves in the gums actually migrated into teeth, where they turned into mesenchymal stem cells and eventually into tooth cells. Stem cells differentiating into specific cells is to be expected, but glial cells turning into stem cells is the exact opposite of what we thought we knew.

The study published in Nature is definitely exciting, but it will of course need to be confirmed with follow-up studies. It’s possible we may have a new source for stem cells — right in our mouths.

[polarbear]

SIN CITY: A DAME TO KILL FOR REDBAND TRAILER

Holy crap. We’re not entirely sure what we just saw, but we do know the new trailer for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is a crowning technological achievement. My goodness. Wait, was that Lady Gaga in there? Let’s review:

Nine years after the original film, co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are taking us back to the gritty and gloriously neo-noir world of Basin City. Miller’s graphic novels certainly offer no shortage of shootouts and dangerous babes, and there’s plenty of danger and sex appeal to soak in with stars like Jessica Alba, Eva Green, Rosario Dawson, Powers Boothe, Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Ray Liotta, and Josh Brolin mixing it up. Sin City: A Dame to Kill For hits theaters on August 22. And yes, that was Lady Gaga we saw. Can’t win ‘em all.

Holy Crap is right!

[MIKA27]

Artist Transforms Real People Into 2D Living Paintings

Artist and photographer Alexa Meade creates art and optical illusions that let people walk right into her work. She paints portraits onto her subjects’ bodies and transforms their very 3D presence into two-dimensional images.

MIKA: WOW!

[MIKA27]

NASA Will Make Oxygen From CO2 On The Surface Of Mars

NASA has announced what the Mars 2020 rover will carry to the Martian surface, and one of them sounds like pure sci-fi: MOXIE, a machine that sucks in carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and pumps out pure oxygen for use in rocket fuel — or someday, for humans to breathe.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is one of seven instruments NASA will strap to the 2020 rover, totaling approximately $US130 million in value. Mars Exploration Project lead scientist Michael Meyer didn’t dance around the possibilities this device could open up:

It’s extremely useful for future production of rocket fuel, or for when humans explore Mars. It’s a real step forward in helping future human exploration of Mars, being able to produce oxygen on the surface of Mars.

Of course, when NASA lands the device on Mars in 2020, it will serve mainly as a test device, exploring how the Martian atmosphere, gravity, and other environmental conditions affect oxygen production. As NASA’s Bill Gerstenmaier explained:

We’re not so much using the oxygen, but seeing can we generate it, what’s the production rate, what’s the efficiency. Those are the general kinds of things we’re looking at with this in-situ device. If you can make propellant for a craft’s ascent stage to get off Mars, that really changes the mission design. Or if you can cache and store oxygen before a crew arrives, and have a habitable environment when we get there.

Similar tech has been used for years to make oxygen from carbon dioxide on the International Space Station, but 2020 will be the first time NASA plants such a device on another planet. Sounds like something out of the pages of a science fiction novel — say, Andy Weir’s The Martian.

[MIKA27]

Dad Builds Kids A NASA Simulator That Would Make Chris Hadfield Jealous

Remember that fridge box you turned into a rocket ship as a kid, complete with crayon-drawn control panels and a fancy sparkle glue paint job? Yeah, that was an embarrassment to our nation compared to this NASA simulator that Jeff Highsmith designed and built for his sons.

Inside the sim’s got authentic switches, buttons, dials, knobs, LED readouts, sound effects, a robot arm, and even a sub-woofer to recreate the rumble of a launch. Short of actually flying, it does everything a space-obsessed kid could possibly want

[MIKA27]

The Surprising Reason Why This Guy Runs Two Hours Every Day

Ronnie Goodman is not your usual runner. He trains hard every day on the streets of San Francisco for a couple of reasons. One is to raise funds for a charity called The Hospitality House, and the other, well, I will let you guys watch it to figure it out. But it’s truly unexpected and a beautiful story.

[MIKA27]

Rare View Of The Ocean Glowing Blue Against The Milky Way

Today’s Earth Picture of the Day is extraordinarily beautiful and rare: Fine art and landscape photographer Fefo Boouvier captured a large population of bio-luminescent noctiluca glowing against the Milky Way in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of the little town of Barra de Valizas, Uruguay.

From the EPOD site:

The photo above shows a stunning contrast of Noctiluca bioluminescence in the Atlantic Ocean at Barra de Valizas, Uruguay, and overhead, the glow of the Milky Way in one of the darkest skies in the world. Bioluminescent dinoflagellates are responsible for the electric blue light. Marine organisms may exhibit bioluminescence (cold light) to either attract prey or to discourage predators. This phenomenon occurs occasionally along the Uruguayan coast, but it’s rarely captured with such brilliance as is displayed here. Photo taken on June 27, 2014.

Noctiluca scintillans glow blue when disturbed, which is why they are commonly known as “sea sparkle.”

[MIKA27]

NASA: New 'Impossible' Engine Works, Could Change Space Travel Forever

Until yesterday, every physicist was laughing at this engine and its inventor, Roger Shawyer. It’s called the EmDrive and everyone said it was impossible because it goes against classical mechanics. But the fact is that the quantum vacuum plasma thruster works and scientists can’t explain why.

Shawyer’s engine is extremely light and simple. It provides a thrust by “bouncing microwaves around in a closed container.” The microwaves are generated using electricity that can be provided by solar energy. No propellant is necessary, which means that this thrusters can work forever unless a hardware failure occurs. If real, this would be a major breakthrough in space propulsion technology.

Obviously, the entire thing sounded preposterous to everyone. In theory, this thing shouldn’t work at all. So people laughed and laughed and ignored him. Everyone except a team of Chinese scientists. They built one in 2009 and it worked: They were able to produce 720 millinewton, which is reportedly enough to build a satellite thruster. And still, nobody else believed it.

Now, American scientist Guido Fetta and a team at NASA Eagleworks — the advanced propulsion skunkworks led by Dr Harold “Sonny” White at the Johnson Space Center — have published a new paper that demonstrates that a similar engine working on the same principles does indeed produce thrust. Their model, however, produces much less thrust — just 30 to 50 micronewtons. But it works, which is amazing on its own. They haven’t explained why their engine works, but it does work:

Test results indicate that the RF resonant cavity thruster design, which is unique as an electric propulsion device, is producing a force that is not attributable to any classical electromagnetic phenomenon and therefore is potentially demonstrating an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.

The entire idea that we have found something that seems to go against the the principle of conservation of momentum just seems crazy to me. But the fact that it has worked for two independent parties can’t be denied. That’s the laboratory speaking. Then again, perhaps both labs made a mistake. I’m sure this will be tested by the Russians and the Europeans too, but at least I’m glad we are working on it.

But the fact that we may be witnessing something completely new, something that may push us forward into sci-fi territory once again, is very exciting.

[MIKA27]

This Whale Of A Flying Boat Used To Fight Nazis, Now It Fights Fires

General Douglas MacArthur once famously quipped, “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.” Obsolete military equipment should be so lucky. While most outdated systems are simply scrapped, a lucky few find new purpose after their time in service — like the Martin JRM Mars, a coastal patrol bomber that now demolishes wildfires instead of invading armies.

At the outset of WWII, the US had yet to commit troops to the Allied effort but the American War Machine was already picking up steam. In 1938, the Navy commissioned the Glenn L. Martin Company to develop an oversized version of their existing PBM Mariner patrol bomber for use defending America’s lengthy coastlines.

The result, delivered to the US Navy in 1942, was the enormous XPB2M-1 Mars prototype. Nearly identical to the PBM Mariner in shape and construction, the Mars Prototype measured 36m long with a 60m wingspan and stood nearly 12m tall (that’s a two storey tall plane). Powered by a quartet of 2500 HP Wright 18-cylinder radial engines, the Mars offered an operational range in excess of 8000km at a cruising speed of 300km/h.

Unfortunately, over the five years it took to develop the Mars bomber, the US Navy’s defensive requirements evolved away from necessitating coastal patrol bombers, rendering the Mars prototype obsolete before it ever got off the ground. But rather than scrap the project entirely, the US Navy instead opted to convert the coastal bomber into a gigantic long-range transport aircraft.

The modifications were easy enough to make. As Old Wings explains:

Testing was concluded in November 1942, but by that time the war situation in the Atlantic and the Pacific had changed considerably. There was no more need for a slow patrolbomber, and the U.S. Navy decided to have the Mars prototype converted from a patrol bomber to a transport aircraft. This meant the removal of its gun turrets, fuselage and wing bomb bays, armoured plating and other offensive provisions. Instead, the aircraft received additional cargo hatches and cargo loading equipment, existing hatches were enlarged and the decking was reinforced. It was now redesignated as an XPB2M-1R, to signify its new transport role.

Still called the Mars, the newly minted cargo plane carried a crew of four (with enough room to accommodate a secondary relief crew for long-haul flights) as well as up to 133 troops, seven jeeps, or 84 litter patients and 25 medical personnel — 14,500kg of stuff altogether. The US Navy initially ordered 20 of the humungous planes in 1943, but as the war progressed and the Allies goose-stepped Hitler’s forces right the **** back to Berlin, need for these huge aircraft fell drastically. As such, the Navy reduced its order to just five units, essentially the aircraft already under construction.

Regardless of how many planes the Navy had, it certainly put them to good use. In 1949, the Caroline Mars set a world record by toting 269 people from San Diego to Alameda, CA. That doesn’t sound like much but realise this occurred in a plane bigger than a 737, carrying nearly 100 more people than a 737 can, and doing so nearly two full decades before the 737 ever got off Boeing’s drawing boards.

Despite the loss of the Marshall Mars in 1950 due to an engine fire (see above, no injuries to the crew), the remaining “Big Four” dutifully served the US Navy for another six years before being retired to NAS Alameda. There they sat for a number of years before being auctioned off in 1959.

Around this point in the mid-1950s, Western Canada was being decimated by raging wildfires. These fires proved incredibly difficult to fight given the region’s remoteness and challenging terrain. In response, a conglomeration of Canadian lumber companies including MacMillan Bloedel Ltd, TimberWest Forest Corp. and Pacific Forest Product Ltd, formed Forest Industries Flying Tankers (FIFT) — a privately-owned firefighting fleet. It was actually Dan McIvor, one of MacMillan’s most senior pilots, to strike upon the idea of converting these enormous transport craft into flying water bombers.

Unfortunately, McIvor was too late to get them direct from the Navy, Hugo Forrester of the Mars Metals Company has already snatched them up for a tidy total sum of $US24,000. Forrester, however, was willing to sell them to FIFT for $US25,000 a pop, which McIvor was able to swing with his superiors. And while he couldn’t get the planes themselves for cheap, McIvor did have the foresight to collect every single spare part he could get his hands on which is a big part of why the Big Four were able to operate well into the modern era.

The Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars in fact is still in service in Western Canada, working for FIFT’s successor, Coulson. They have, of course been continually upgraded since the middle of last century in order to keep up with evolving aviation safety standards. The modern Hawaii Mars boasts an all-glass cockpit, digital avionics and environmental monitoring, and GPS positioning.