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

[MIKA27]

How Fighter Jets Lock On (And How The Targets Know)

The primary technology that a military aircraft uses to lock and track an enemy aircraft is its onboard radar. Aircraft radars typically have two modes: search and track. In search mode, the radar sweeps a radio beam across the sky in a zig-zag pattern. When the radio beam is reflected by a target aircraft, an indication is shown on the radar display. In search mode, no single aircraft is being tracked, but the pilot can usually tell generally what a particular radar return is doing because with each successive sweep, the radar return moves slightly.

This is an example of the fire control radar display for an F-16 Fighting Falcon when the radar is in a search mode:

Each white brick is a radar return. Because the radar is only scanning, not tracking, no other information is available about the radar targets. (There is one exception: The Doppler shift of the radar return can be measured, to estimate how fast the aircraft travelling towards or away from you, much like the pitch of an oncoming train’s whistle can tell you how fast it’s coming at you. This is displayed as the small white trend line originating from each brick.)

Note that the cursors are over the bottom-most brick (closest to our aircraft). The pilot is ready to lock up this target. This will put the radar into a track mode. In track mode, the radar focuses its energy on a particular target. Because the radar is actually tracking a target, and not just displaying bricks when it gets a reflection back, it can tell the pilot a lot more about the target. This is what the F-16′s fire control radar display looks like when a target is locked:

Along the top we have a lot of information about what our radar target is doing:

• Its aspect angle (angle between its nose position and our nose position) is 160° to the left,
• its heading is 190°,
• its airspeed is 450 knots,
• and our closure rate is 828 knots.

With this information, the pilot gets a much better idea of what the aircraft is doing, but at the expense of information about other aircraft in the area.

Note that in the above picture, the bottom-most (closest) target is locked (circle around it), the two targets further away are tracked (yellow squares), and there are two radar returns even further away (white bricks). This is demonstrating an advanced feature of modern radars, situational awareness modes. A radar in SAM combines both tracking and scanning to allow a pilot to track one or a small number of “interesting” targets while not losing the big picture of what other targets are doing. In this mode, the radar beam sweeps the sky, while briefly and regularly pausing its scan to check up on a locked target.

Note that all of this comes with tradeoffs. In the end, a radar is only as powerful as it is, and you can put a lot of radar energy on one target, or spread it out weakly throughout the sky, or some compromise in between. In the above photo you can see two vertical bars spanning the height of the display — these are the azimuth scan limits. It’s the aircraft’s way of telling you, “OK, I can both track this target, and scan for other targets, but in return, I’m only going to scan a 40° wide cone in front of the aircraft, instead of the usual 60°. Radar, like life, is full of tradeoffs.

An important thing to note is that a radar lock is not always required to launch weapons at a target. For guns kills, if the aircraft has a radar lock on a target, it can accurately gauge range to the target, and provide the pilot with the appropriate corrections for lead and gravity drop, to get an accurate guns kill. Without the radar, the pilot simply has to rely on his or her own judgement.

As an example of that, let’s take a look at the F-16′s HUD (heads-up display) when in the process of employing guns at a radar-locked target:

It becomes incredibly simple; that small circle labelled “bullets at target range” is called the “death dot” by F-16 pilots. Basically, it represents where the cannon rounds would land if you fired right now, and the rounds traveled the distance between you and the locked target. In other words, if you want a solid guns kill, simply fly the death dot onto the aeroplane. Super simple.

But what if there’s no radar lock? Well now the HUD looks like this:

No death dot — but you still have the funnel. The funnel represents the path the cannon rounds would travel out in front of you if you fired right now. The width of the funnel is equal to the apparent width of a predetermined wingspan at that particular range. So, if you didn’t have a lock on your target, but you knew it had a wingspan of 35 feet, you could dial in 35 feet, then fly the funnel until the width exactly lined up with the width of the enemy aircraft’s wings, then squeeze the trigger.

And what about missiles? Again, a radar lock is not required. For heat-seeking missiles, a radar lock is only used to train the seeker head onto the target. Without a radar lock, the seeker head scans the sky looking for “bright” (hot) objects, and when it finds one, it plays a distinctive whining tone to the pilot. The pilot does not need radar in this case, he just needs to manoeuvre his aircraft until he has “good tone,” and then fire the missile. The radar only makes this process faster.

Now, radar-guided missiles come in two varieties: passive and active. Passive radar missiles do require a radar lock, because these missiles use the aircraft’s reflected radar energy to track the target.

Active radar missiles however have their own onboard radar, which locks and tracks a target. But this radar is on a one-way trip, so it’s considerably less expensive (and less powerful) than the aircraft’s radar. So, these missiles normally get some guidance help from the launching aircraft until they fly close enough to the target where they can turn on their own radar and “go active.” (This allows the launching aircraft to turn away and defend itself.) It is possible to fire an active radar missile with no radar lock (so-called “maddog”); in this case, the missile will fly until it’s nearly out of fuel, and then it will turn on its radar and pursue the first target it sees. This is not a recommended strategy if there are friendly aircraft in close proximity to the enemy.

As to the last part of your question — yes, an aircraft can tell if a radar is painting it or locked onto it. Radar is just radio waves, and just as your FM radio converts radio waves into sound, so can an aircraft analyse incoming radio signals to figure out who’s doing what. This is called an RWR, or radar warning receiver, and has both a video and audio component. This is a typical RWR display:

Although an aircraft’s radar can only scan out in front of the aircraft, an aircraftcan listen for incoming radar signals in any direction, so the scope is 360°. A digital signal processor looks for recognisable radio “chirps” that correspond to known radars, and displays their azimuth on the scope. A chirp is a distinctive waveform that a radio uses. See, if two radios use the same waveform simultaneously, they will confuse each other, because each radio won’t know which radar returns are from its own transmitter. To prevent this, different radios tend to use distinct waveforms. This can also be used by the target aircraft to identify the type of radar being used, and therefore possibly, the type of aircraft.

In this display, the RWR has detected an F-15 (15 with a hat on it indicating aircraft) at the 7-o’clock position. The strength of the radar is plotted as distance from the center — the closer to the center, the stronger the detected radar signal, and therefore possibly the closer the transmitting aircraft.

Detected at the 12- to 1-o’clock position are two surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites, an SA-5 “Gammon” and an SA-6 “Gainful”. These are Russian SAM launching radars and represent a serious threat. The RWR computer has determined the SA-6 to be the highest priority threat in the area, and thus has enclosed it with a diamond.

RWR also has an audio component. Each time a new radar signal is detected, it is converted into an audio wave and played for the pilot. Because different radars “sound” different, pilots learn to recognise different airborne or surface threats by their distinctive tones. The sound is also an important cue to tell the pilot what the radar is doing: If the sound plays once, or intermittently, it means the radar is only painting our aircraft (in search mode). If a sound plays continuously, the radar has locked onto our aircraft and is in track mode, and thus the pilot’s immediate attention is demanded. In some cases, the RWR can tell if the radar is in launch mode (sending radar data to a passive radar-guided missile), or if the radar is that of an active radar-guided missile. In either of these cases, a distinctive missile launch tone is played and the pilot is advised to immediately act to counter the threat. Note that the RWR has no way of knowing if a heat-seeking missile is on its way to our aircraft.

Aside from radar, there are other technologies that are used to lock on to enemy aircraft and ground targets. A targeting pod is a very powerful camera mounted on an articulating swivel that allows it to look in nearly every direction. This camera is connected to image processor that is able to tell apart vehicles and buildings from surrounding terrain, and track moving targets. This is the SNIPER XR targeting pod:

And this is what the pilot sees when he operates it:

The pod is able to track vehicles day and night, using visual or infra-red cameras. Heat-seeking missiles obviously use this same technology to home in on aircraft, and electro-optical missiles use this technology to track ground targets.

Lastly, there are laser-guided missiles as well. These “beam riders” follow a laser beam emanating from the aircraft to the target. Many ground vehicles use laser rangefinders as well, and some aircraft include a laser warning system (LWS) that works similarly to an RWR, but displays incoming laser signals instead.

[MIKA27]

Spectacular Swedish Marines Ad Mocks US Military Recruitment Ads

You have to give it to those Swedes: Behind those chiseled marble faces with platinum blonde hair and cold steel blue eyes there’s a great, almost British sense of humour that takes the piss out of everything. This Swedish marines commercial mocking Hollywood-style US military recruitment ads is a good example.

[MIKA27]

This Life-Like New Prosthetic Hand Lets Amputees Feel Texture

Using Star Wars as a way to track progress in the prosthetics is almost a cliché, but boy are we getting close. A new mind-controlled prosthetic hand from researchers at Case Western Reserve University is so advanced that amputees can feel detailed textures and handle delicate objects. And, yes, it sort of looks like Luke Skywalker’s hand.

This was no overnight breakthrough. The prosthesis has been in development for over two years, during which time the Case Western Reserve team learned more about the parts of the brain that handle sensation and written algorithms that help translate input from over a dozen sensors on the hand into electrical signals that the brain can understand. These patterns are sent through a cuff that’s attached to the remaining part of the amputee’s arm, and the subjects involved in the test case say they were able to feel for the first time since their accidents.

Of course, we’ve seen bionic hands with a sense of feeling before. Earlier this year, a team from Europe developed a less realistic-looking and less advanced prosthetic for one man. Case Western’s made-in-America advance goes well beyond that, though. The texture sensation is so sophisticated that doctors could a cotton ball over the prosthesis and the hair on the amputee’s arm would stand up straight. “I knew immediately it was cotton,” one of the amputees said after a test. And the simple fact that the technology works with multiple amputees — two in the case — also shows that many more could also benefit.

That’s not all. Unexpectedly, the new prosthetic also makes the amputees phantom limb pain disappear. It’s a nice trade off, getting rid of pain and restoring feeling. The sense of feeling is so acute that the amputees were able to pick up and hold delicate objects like grapes and tomatoes without damaging them. Other bionic hands tend to crush things.

Of course, it will take more time and testing before this technology makes it to market. But we know that the FDA is down with mind-controlled prosthetics. They’re going to love this fist from the future.

[MIKA27]

NASA Will Use UAVs To Hunt Down Baby Forest Fires

Finding forest fires when they’re big is relatively easy — you can see them from space. Or, y’know, just follow the burning smell. But if firefighters can identify a burn when it’s just started, it’s obviously far easier to nip in the bud. Sounds like a job for our old friend Mr Drone.

The technology NASA are going to use is nothing groundbreaking — a UAV with a 180cm wingspan, flying low and slow (like, 60km/h slow) can use an infrared camera to scan forests, spotting for any big fire in the making. It makes a ton of sense: firefighters already use spotter planes on aerial patrols to hunt for fires, but UAVs can do exactly the same job, but orders of magnitude cheaper (and for far longer).

At the moment, the Fish and Wildlife service is trialling the NASA drones to patrol forests after thunderstorms, but in theory, the price could fall low enough that a fleet of UAVs could stay on 24-hour patrol over high-risk areas, with computers monitoring the infrared video feed. Although that would undoubtedly make firefighters’ lives easier, telling people that a fleet of constantly-watching, all-seing drones is just there for your own safety might not go down all that well. [Defence Talk]

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This Mountain Hut Looks Like An Ice Cube Perched In The Snow

With its sharp peak and angles, this mountain hut designed by Atelier 8000 both mirrors and complements the icy mountains surrounding it. To use the studio’s evocative description, it sits like “an erratic block left behind by the retreating glacier.”

Atelier 8000 designed this cube for the Kežmarská Chata (Kežmarská Hut) international competition. The winning hut will be built in the High Tratas, a mountain range on Slovakia’s norther border that is dotted with ski resorts.

Inside features a restaurant, sleeping areas, and of course ski storage space for visitors. Thanks to its tilted cube shape, none of the rooms are your regular old rectangle. The top floor, especially, becomes all topsy turvy as the ceiling slant as unusual angles.

The building itself is wrapped in shiny aluminium squares, occasionally broken up by windows and solar panels. It glints and glimmers like an artificial ice cube perched at an impossible angle in the mountains.

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This Fighter Jet Film Is So Amazingly Perfect You'd Think It Is 3D

I have a hard time believing that some of the sequences in this video are not rendered in 3D software. They are just impossibly perfect — but yes, they’re real. Most of them are fighters like the Mirage, F-16, F-18, F-15 — but you can see some bombers, like the B-2 and F-117. Pure plane porn.

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The Best Job In The World Is Surely Being A Test Driver For Pagani

Davide Testi probably has the best job in the world. He’s the test driver for exotic hypercar company, Pagani. Here’s how he got that freaking amazing job.

In this awesome chat with /DRIVE, Testi tells of how he first got his job at Pagani. When he was young he started learning how to be a mechanic, before one day bumping into Mr Pagani himself to ask him about his car. Upon hearing of his studies, Pagani told Testi that when he graduates, he should come back for a job with the hypercar company. And that’s exactly what he did.

But it wasn’t straight into the cockpit of multi-million dollar machinery, however. Testi’s first job at Pagani was cleaning the floors, he says, followed by several stints building the cars themselves so he could figure out how they worked.

As a result of his extensive knowledge building and fixing Pagani hypercars, he now knows how to feel problems on the track before they happen so that the engineers can fix them.

His top priority isn’t to figure out how to make the car go faster, according to Testi. Pagani himself told Testi his primary role is make the car safer.

The best perk of the job is that Testi gets a Pagani of his choice to drive around as his daily commuter. Rather than fly from Italy to Paris to help a customer, for example, he’ll take his Zonda Revolution. “It’s part of my job!” he says, with a massive smile on his face.

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Viking treasure haul unearthed in Scotland

A haul of Viking treasure has been unearthed from a field in south west Scotland by an amateur using a metal detector.

Derek McLennan, a retired businessman from Ayrshire, made the find in Dumfriesshire in September.

In total, more than 100 items were recovered, including armbands, a cross and brooches.

Experts have said the discovery is one of the most important Viking hoards ever found in Scotland.

Derek McLennan made the find in Dumfriesshire in September

The items are believed to be worth a six-figure sum.

Mr McLennan last year uncovered Scotland's biggest haul of medieval silver coins.

Among the objects within the hoard is an early Christian cross thought to date from the 9th or 10th Century.

The solid silver cross has enamelled decorations which experts consider to be highly unusual.

The haul also includes possibly the largest silver Carolingian pot ever discovered, with its lid still in place.

The pot is likely to have been around 100 years old when the hoard was buried in the mid 9th or 10th Centuries.

Stuart Campbell, National Museum of Scotland's head of Scotland's treasure trove unit, said: "This is a hugely significant find, nothing like this has been found in Scotland before in terms of the range of material this hoard represents.

"There's material from Ireland, from Scandinavia, from various places in central Europe and perhaps ranging over a couple of centuries.

Large Silver alloy Carolingian Lidded Vessel

"So this has taken some effort for individuals to collect together."

Mr McLennan said he had dragged himself out of his sick bed to pursue his passion for metal detecting on the day he found the Viking treasure.

He had been given permission to search the site and after an hour he found a silver object, at first he thought it was a spoon but when he rubbed the surface he recognised the Viking decoration.

Further excavation unearthed more than a hundred items of silver and gold including a bird pen, metal vessel, armbands, cross and brooches. Experts say it's one of the most significant Viking hoards ever found in Scotland.

He said: "I dragged myself out of my sick bed because I had two friends that wanted to detect and I'm a bit of an obsessive.

"I unearthed the first piece, initially I didn't understand what I had found because I thought it was a silver spoon and then I turned it over and wiped my thumb across it and I saw the Saltire-type of design and knew instantly it was Viking.

"Then my senses exploded, I went into shock, endorphins flooded my system and away I went stumbling towards my colleagues waving it in the air."

Among the objects within the hoard is an early Christian cross thought to date from the 9th or 10th century

Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs said: "The Vikings were well known for having raided these shores in the past, but today we can appreciate what they have left behind, with this wonderful addition to Scotland's cultural heritage.

"It's clear that these artefacts are of great value in themselves, but their greatest value will be in what they can contribute to our understanding of life in early medieval Scotland, and what they tell us about the interaction between the different peoples in these islands at that time.

"The Dumfries hoard opens a fascinating window on a formative period in the story of Scotland and just goes to show how important our archaeological heritage in Scotland continues to be."

"As ever, the Scottish government will work to facilitate and support the discovery, analysis and exhibiting of finds like this, for the benefit of people here and abroad.

"With that in mind I would like to echo the praise for the responsible behaviour of the metal detectorists: without their continued cooperation this would not be possible."

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The Surreal Underwater River of Mexico

Imagine you are scuba diving. Now imagine that the water is completely, totally clear, with practically no floating particles, silt, or any other material that would impede the crystal clear visibility you now enjoy. It seems you are not swimming, but rather soaring through the air, unfettered by gravity or the rocky ground below. Now imagine that you come across a sight that you know must be odd because despite being lost in the sensation of flight, a part of you still remains aware that you are still in fact underwater. You might blink your eyes in bewilderment at the unearthly sight that lies before you but no amount of blinking will erase it from existence. It is there, 90ft below the surface of the water and as real as you are; a swirling, mist-like river meandering along the bottom, complete with trees jutting from its depths. You have come across the beautiful and haunting underwater river of Cenote Angelita, in Yucatan, Mexico.

The underwater river of Cenote Angelita

Angelita means “little angel” in Spanish and is what is called a cenote. A cenote is a sinkhole where limestone bedrock has collapsed and exposed groundwater below or accumulated rainwater over large amounts of time. These pools of water can measure tens of meters in diameter, and were often used by the ancient Mayans as a water source, as the Yucatan Peninsula has no rivers and few lakes. They were also sacred places for the Mayan people, with some of them thought to be gateways to the afterlife and thus the location of various rituals and rites. They have a great deal of archeological importance, since it was common practice for the Mayans to throw valuable objects into them as part of their rituals, whereupon they settled to the bottom and remained in a remarkably well-preserved state. Archeological excursions into cenotes have turned up rare relics, golden artifacts, and even human skeletons from the time of the Mayans lying at the bottom.

A typical cenote

Cenotes are renowned for their remarkably crystal clear water, due to the water mostly coming from rain trickling down from above through the rocks, where it is naturally filtered and therefore retains nearly zero particulates. They are also known for their often complex systems of flooded, underwater caves, many of which are unexplored and can stretch for incredibly long distances. Some of the cenote caves have been recorded as extending for 100 km (62 miles) or more. Due to the fantastic visibility and large number of extensive, unmapped caves, cenotes are popular destinations for cave divers, who come from around the world to dive within them.

Cenote diving

The Cenote Angelita is located on the east coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, not far from the ancient Mayan city of Tulum. The cenote itself is a cavern that was formed due to a rock collapse long ago, and it is somewhat unique in that it has slowly trapped both saltwater from the nearby sea and freshwater from the rain within a massive subterranean pool that measures a dizzying 55m (180ft) deep. What makes Cenote Angelita special is not even its size, but rather the mystifying, surreal sight that lies in wait 30m (100ft) down; what appears to be an unearthly, greenish river meandering along the bottom.

The underwater river of Cenote Angelita

This mesmerizing phenomenon is not in fact a real river in the strict sense, but rather an illusion created by the cenote’s unique water composition. Since the cenote integrates both freshwater and saltwater, the different densities of the two causes the freshwater to float up to the top layer and for the saltwater to sink to the bottom, causing vertical stratification between the two. The interface between these two layers forms what is called a halocline, which is basically where there is a very sharp change in salinity over a small range of depth. Contained within this halocline, right where the saltwater meets the freshwater, is suspended a thin layer of misty hydrogen sulfate, which is often created when the bacterial breakdown of organic matter happens in a low oxygen environment and dissolves.

The layer of hydrogen sulfate has a striking visual contrast with the clear water around it and is heavy enough to move independently of the water around it, thus appearing to follow its own current as if it is a river flowing underwater. The illusion is made even more complete by the presence of leaves and small branches perched within the layer atop rubble from when the limestone that formed the cenote collapsed, creating the effect that they are floating on water or even washed up on its “banks.” There are even sunken trees penetrating through the layer to emerge as if from underwater. Divers can even swim through the layer, which is about 6 feet deep, to the other side, where clear saltwater awaits and they can look up at the river flowing above them.

The overall effect is a somewhat jarring, yet achingly beautiful and majestic sight that has drawn cave divers from far and wide to experience the unreal phenomenon for themselves. The sight of this bizarre swirling river contrasted with the totally clear water around it is truly stunning. One only has to look at some of the breathtaking photos to really become entranced and immersed in this mystical underwater landscape. If one did not know these were taken underwater, they might think they were looking at a real river. The presence of divers ethereally floating above the “bank” only adds to the enchanting, magical quality of this place.

Have you booked your ticket to Mexico yet? Are you already packing your gear? If you don’t have one, are you finally convinced to get that scuba diving license? Although the attraction of diving here is certainly apparent, it is recommended only for very advanced divers, as the caves and the depths involved pose great dangers for novices. Anyone who is qualified and brave enough to take the risk in order to see this magical sight can do so through several diving outfits that offer tours to the cavern. For those without the means to make the journey themselves, perhaps they can take comfort enough in just knowing that in this world of ever increasing environmental destruction, water pollution, and urban sprawl, a place as pure, clean, and stunningly gorgeous as this still exists out there.

[MIKA27]

The Best Way To See The UK Is In A Low Altitude Fighter Jet

Fancy taking a quick tour through the UK without leaving your desk? You’re in luck: jump in this Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jet and tour the Lakes District at insanely low altitudes.

The amazing thing is the narration in this video. The pilot not only tells you where you are along the way, but also tells you just how many G-Forces you’d pull if you were in the passenger seat for these manoeuvres. Insane.

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The New Ariel Atom Looks Bonkers

The Ariel Atom is insane. It corners on a knife’s edge and gets up to speed like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It’s built for tearing track records to pieces and putting a giant smile on your face while turning it inside out. Now the road-going go kart of myth and legend has a new model, and somehow it’s faster than ever before. Meet the Atom 3S.

With a name that sounds like the new iPhone and a design that almost looks half-finished in a bid to save weight, the Atom 3S is powered by a turbo-charged Honda engine that produces 365 horsepower on the trot.

That means the 3S is capable of blistering acceleration. It covers ground like a bullet with wheels, covering 0-60mph in 2.8 seconds. For a car that’s priced under $US100,000, that’s pretty goddamn impressive.

Obviously, the Atom isn’t going to be your daily driver. It’s held together by scaffolding and features two seats left completely open to the elements. There isn’t even a visor or makeshift windscreen to hide behind when the elements turn on you. It’s a track-muncher at heart.

As you can see from the video above, it’s true to its identity, hitting every single apex with beautiful precision.

All I know is that I want one to turn my face inside out.

[MIKA27]

Fireballs And Wolves: The Horrifying Story Of The First Spacewalk

Almost 60 years ago, we took our first steps into the big, black nothingness of space. Or more specifically, Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov had the honour of taking the very first space-dip. But this was a rush job — a means for the Soviet Union to shame the US and win the space race once and for all. Which they did! While nearly killing every single astronaut on board in the process.

This was years before the US (or anyone for that matter) knew what really went on onboard the Voskhod 2 mission to space. But now that the Cold War is long over and his memories are, thankfully just that, Leonov spoke to the BBC about his historic, horrifying ordeal. As it turns out, while he did indeed complete a spacewalk, “success” might be a bit too strong of a word.

The chaos had all started when Leonov’s 10 minutes were up and it was time to head back inside.According to the BBC:

The lack of atmospheric pressure in space had slowly caused his spacesuit to inflate like a balloon. He recalls, “My suit was becoming deformed, my hands had slipped out of the gloves, my feet came out of the boots. The suit felt loose around my body…”

…In five minutes he would be in the Earth’s shadow, and plunged into total darkness. Without telling ground control, the cosmonaut decided to bleed half of the air out of his spacesuit through a valve in its lining. This risked starving his body of oxygen, but if he couldn’t get back inside the capsule, he’d be dead anyway.

Leonov let out a little oxygen at a time to reduce the pressure. But as he did so, he started to feel the first hints of decompression sickness.

Although he was unable to see due to profuse perspiration, Leonov did eventually make it back on board. The troubles didn’t end there, though; once back inside, the cosmonauts realised that their air pressure and oxygen levels were climbing dangerously high — and consequently, things were getting wildly flammable.

During training, cosmonaut Valentin Bondarenko died after dropping a piece of alcohol-soaked cotton in an oxygen-filled training chamber, producing a massive fireball. And so everyone was painfully aware that a single spark here would have “vaporized” the soon-to-be heroes.

And then the reentry system failed — they had no real way of controlling where they actually landed.

The best they could hope for was that the craft would touch down somewhere in the Soviet Union’s vast landmass.

And they did. Right in the middle of Siberia. Which was full of wolves and bears. During mating season — the most aggressive of seasons.

Fortunately for the cosmonauts, their signal did eventually get picked up, and they were taken home as the well-deserved heroes they were — but not before spending two nights in the freezing Siberian forest.

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MIT Study Says Mars One Colonists Would Starve (Among Other Things)

Mars One may have taken us by surprise when the non-profit organisation boldly announced that it would put colonists on Mars in the 2020s. We were even more amazed when legions of amateur astronauts signed up for a one-way ticket to the red rock. However, MIT students believe the effort, in its current form, is doomed to fail.

Using publicly available info on the space mission, the researchers developed what they call a “Mars settlement analysis tool” and discovered that this frontier expedition will end up more like the Donner Party than anything else. After crunching the numbers, the students found a number of “failure conditions” that would doom the Mars One crew. First, the required caloric intake of the astronauts compared to the mission’s food store estimates don’t match up, meaning the astronauts would simply starve.

But that’s not the only issue. Indoor crops would create a high oxygen atmosphere and the technology needed to filter oxygen while maintaining nitrogen, needed for air pressure, isn’t nearly efficient enough, according to the researchers. The group also estimates that for a colony to be successful it will require at least 15 Falcon Heavy launches totalling near $US4.5 billion.

Popular Science spoke with Mars One CEO Bas Lansdorp about the study and claimed that the students’ estimates were incorrect and based on incomplete data. However, he did acknowledge the mission faces one tricky obstacle: replacement parts. MIT used the International Space Station to create estimates for how often parts need replacing, and the study concluded that spare parts would need to be 62 per cent of the initial payload if no follow-up mission was planned for the next two years.

MIT Researcher Sydney Do tells Popular Science that they’re more than happy to update their findings based on Mars One’s own data, so hopefully this brave and bold space mission didn’t make an enemy but an invaluable ally.

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Bulgaria's military warned of Soviet-era 'catastrophe'

"Catastrophic consequences" await the Bulgarian armed forces if they are not weaned soon from dependence on old Russian equipment and repairs, according to outgoing Defence Minister Velizar Shalamanov.

He was speaking in a BBC interview amid a war of words that has broken out between Bulgaria and Russia over Russian involvement in Ukraine and Russian pressure to speed up work on the South Stream gas pipeline, which will cross Bulgaria.

As an EU and Nato member with strong traditional links to Russia, Bulgaria is walking a tightrope between East and West.

Bulgaria was said to have frozen work on the Russian gas pipeline project in August, under EU and US pressure. According to Russia, work on the ground continues.

'Extremely unworthy'

Tensions between Bulgaria and Russia grew when President Rosen Plevneliev described Russia as "a nationalist and aggressive state" for its involvement in Ukraine.

Earlier this year a Soviet war memorial in Sofia was repainted in Ukrainian colours

Suggestions from outgoing Defence Minister Shalamanov that Bulgaria might buy used F-16s from Italy or Greece, or Eurofighters from Portugal, prompted Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin to tweet: "News from Bulgaria: a certain Shalamanov has convinced Prime Minister Bliznashki to once again betray Russia... in favour of second-hand eagles."

That comment sparked a reaction from Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov who said such comments were "extremely unworthy, contrary to good manners and show… a lack of respect for Bulgarian institutions".

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Mr Shalamanov, here with his Italian counterpart, is set to leave office shortly

Mr Shalamanov told the BBC that reliance on outdated Soviet-era equipment, which still needs spare parts and maintenance in Russia, was the result of 10-15 years of mismanagement of the Bulgarian armed forces.

As a result, he said, in the current Nato standoff with Russia over its role in the conflict in Ukraine, Bulgaria was having to depend on its neighbours, Greece and Romania, to help police its own Black Sea borders.

'High vulnerability'

Following the 5 October elections, a new government is to be formed in Bulgaria, leaving Mr Shalamanov unusually free to speak his mind over the state of the armed forces.

"The critical area is especially air defence. Because all the radars, all the surface-to-air missile complexes and fighters were produced in the Soviet Union," he said. "And maintenance, especially of the fighters, depends very much on overhaul of the engines and other equipment in Russia."

He highlighted in particular Bulgaria's ageing fleet of MiG-29 fighters.

Bulgaria currently spends only 1.3% of its annual budget on defence, compared with a Nato target of at least 2%, re-inforced at its recent summit in Wales. The size of Bulgaria's armed forces has fallen below 30,000, down from 110,000 in 1999. The target figure was 45,000.

Bulgaria is a member of Nato and now takes part in joint military exercises with the US

The outgoing defence minister spoke of Bulgaria's "high vulnerability" because of the conflict in Ukraine, although he said the situation facing its land forces was "not so dramatic" as its military industry could largely service its Soviet-era equipment such as the T-72 tank.

But he expressed concern over pro-Russian sentiment in Bulgaria.

In last week's elections "several parties… gave a higher priority to co-operation with Russia and joining a Eurasian Union, than improving our level of integration in Nato and the EU", he said.

"This creates tension and… misunderstandings, including inside the armed forces."

Asked to respond to Mr Shalamanov's comments, Volen Siderov, leader of the pro-Russian Ataka party, described the defence minister as "an American agent".

Other former Warsaw Pact armies have devised various strategies for ending their dependence on Soviet-era equipment.

In 2013 Poland launched the biggest military procurement of any Nato member, and its defence budget reached 1.95% of GDP. Hungary replaced its MiGs with Gripen fighters in 2009.

After Bulgaria, Slovakia is the most vulnerable Nato force in terms of outdated military hardware.

Around 70% of the Slovak army's land vehicles and 90% of its ammunition are past their shelf life, according to the Central European Policy Institute (CEPI) in Bratislava.

[MIKA27]

Woman finds three-inch leech in nose after South East Asia trip

A backpacker found a 3in (7.5cm) leech that had been living up her nose for a month after a trip to South East Asia.

Daniela Liverani, 24, from Edinburgh, had been having nosebleeds for weeks but put them down to a burst blood vessel from a motorbike crash.

Ms Liverani was having a shower last Thursday when she was realised the dark shape wriggling in her nose was actually an animal.

Hospital staff used forceps and tweezers to remove the parasite.

Ms Liverani believes she picked up the leech in Vietnam or Cambodia, but even when she felt it moving up and down her nostril, she thought it was a blood clot.

She told BBC Radio Scotland: "Your initial reaction isn't to start thinking, oh God, there's obviously a leech in my face."

It was when Ms Liverani was in the shower that the leech's presence was most noticeable.

She said: "Obviously my nasal passages would open up because of the steam and the heat and the water, and it would come out quite far, about as far as my lip.

"So I could kind of see it out of the corner of my eye but still didn't think it was a worm because it just looked like a blood clot.

"On Thursday I jumped out the shower and I unsteamed the mirror and I had a proper good look, and I could see little ridges on him."

That was the moment when Ms Liverani realised she was housing a parasite.

'Strange situation'

She went to accident and emergency where doctors removed "Mr Curly" - as Ms Liverani nicknamed the leech - with forceps and tweezers.

"The doctors did a great job, hats off to them, because obviously they don't see something like that every day", she added.

"They did what they could in a strange situation while trying to keep their cool."

Ms Liverani then took the leech home for the night, at the doctors' suggestion. However, Mr Curly did not live to see another day.

"He's in an Edinburgh City Council bin," said Ms Liverani. "He's probably long gone by now. I boiled him first."

[MIKA27]

Training for the End of the World as We Know It

A visit to "prepper camp," a four-day session on surviving super viruses, natural disasters, socioeconomic collapse, world war, and more

A shot rings out in the Orchard Lake Campground. The crack ricochets off of evergreens and elms and oaks. No one hits the ground, screams, or ducks for cover. None of the 600 campers even seems fazed by the blast piercing through the stagnant humidity. After all, it’s just target practice.

Welcome to prepper camp.

For four days last month, the campground—nestled in a remote part of the foggy Blue Ridge Mountains in western North Carolina—hosted a crash course in survival. Organized by “Prepper Rick” Austin and his wife, a blogger who goes by “Survivor Jane,” the weekend attracted participants from Tennessee, California, Kentucky, Texas, Ohio, and Georgia. When the sole Yankee outs herself, one person jokingly threatens to lynch her with a paracord.

Preppers have their own language. They carry “BOBs,” or “bug-out bags,” knapsacks stuffed with provisions necessary to “get out of dodge” when “TSHTF” (the **** hits the fan). “TEOTWAWKI” is instantly recognizable as shorthand for “the end of the world as we know it.” But that “end” means something different to everyone. They’re not all anticipating a rapture. Preoccupations range from super-viruses like Ebola to natural disasters (solar flares, hurricanes) to man-made catastrophes (an ISIS attack, socioeconomic collapse leading to utter mayhem).

Ultimately, preppers are united by the goal of not going down without a fight. Some, like Rick and Jane, fled self-described “cushy, corporate lives” after a traumatic incident—in their case, getting roughed up in a parking garage. They left Florida for a 53-acre homestead in North Carolina, where they’ve planted “gardens of survival” designed to look like overgrown underbrush. Others come from a long line of live-off-the-land folk who want to continue the lineage and become less dependent on store-bought, prepackaged foods. Most distrust the political climate here and abroad.

If a disaster happens, they fear that neighbors will turn on each other. For most preppers, densely populated areas are nightmare scenarios. “Get you a paintball gun with pepper-spray balls, then get to New Jersey, steal a car, and head for the mountains,” suggests Doug, a potbellied, disheveled man staffing the Carolina Readiness Supply tent, peddling how-to manuals and dehydrated foods. There’s a sense of righteousness, of arrogance, of smug pity for people who don’t share the same certainty about the impending descent into anarchy. Many people are proudly wearing t-shirts emblazoned with the phrase “I’ll Miss You When You’re Gone.” One presenter sums up the preppers’ rallying cry: “If someone from the city tries to come to the rural areas we’ve settled, we’ll stand on the county line with our shotguns and tell them no.”

But the people at prepper camp are rational, reasoned, and eager to share their knowledge and skills, swapping tips about purchasing things like German surplus military phones—untraceable by the NSA—or night-vision goggles for spotting a sentry standing guard in a tree. They trade tips for stockpiling antibiotics without tipping off doctors or law-enforcement officials. These preppers are impassioned, but not hysterical or anxiously raving about the end of days—very different from the sensationalized caricatures portrayed on National Geographic’s hit TV show Doomsday Preppers. And they’re not so rare as you might think: In a 2012 nationally representative survey by Kelton Research, 41 percent of respondents said they believed stocking up on resources or building a bomb shelter was a more worthwhile investment than saving for retirement.

Six white tents are lined with folding chairs set up for rapt lecture audiences. In one, the lecturer keeps his dark sunglasses on. He’s not trying to conjure an air of mystery: Dale Stewart recently burned his retinas while kayaking in South Africa and shooting footage for an upcoming IMAX movie. It’s hard to imagine this calm man with a congenial Southern drawl, beatnik white beard, black tunic, and neckerchief grappling with hippos in the Nile or tagging vicious polar bears on ice floes. Although he has a homestead in Asheville, the former rodeo clown—who also happens to have a master’s in physics—spends much of his time on solo kayaking expeditions or teaching fear-inoculation tactics to the military.

Here, Stewart is lecturing about emergency conditioning. “You can have all the great gear, but if you don’t have the right mindset, you’re not gonna make it,” he says. He poses a question that preppers reiterate again and again: How far would you go to keep your family safe? The key is figuring out what will motivate you to fight, imagining every possible horrific scenario, and fantasizing about it in lurid detail until you’ve overridden your flight-or-fight response and replaced it with a carefully choreographed plan. This method of visualizing the worst altercation is called “battle-proofing.” Stewart’s rationale: If you play the scenario out in your head, it becomes part of your retinue of experiences, and you can practice reacting.

It’s not about tuning fear out. "I hope I never lose fear," he says. "Fear is a warning that something is about to happen." Instead, Stewart wants to teach people how to harness fear as a catalyst for action. Stewart wants to teach people how to combine physical prowess with thoughtful rationality. “You can drop me pretty much anywhere on the planet, and I’d be fine,” he says. “My wife would get lost in a parking lot.”

One observer’s cell phone keeps ringing. In an ironic ode to self-reliance and resilience, the sound is the Mockingjay’s song from The Hunger Games films, which imagine what it would be like to flourish in a post-apocalyptic world.

Thunder rolls gently in the distance as two dozen attendees walk through the rain to meet Richard Cleveland at the edge of the pond. Unsurprisingly, preppers aren’t fazed by a little drizzle. Most continue to stroll the knolls as though it’s 80 degrees and sunny. Cleveland has angry, red wounds on his knees—probably a result of enthusiastic off-road foraging. The founder of the Earth School in Asheville, North Carolina, has been teaching programs about wild edibles for more than two decades. His slate-blue eyes blaze when he complains that Big Pharma won’t subsidize studies about herbal medicines—he claims that he has a number of friends who have cured their prostate cancers by infusing their diet with dandelion leaves, something the University of Windsor is looking into. The group follows his lead, scanning the ground for trampled herbs. He stoops every few feet to scoop and chomp on a plant like jewelweed, after which he elicits a jovial whoop. “Luscious!” he exclaims.

The foragers tromp past the pond, where kids in bright bathing suits splash in the shallow water or drift in kayaks, their yellow paddles and orange life vests popping against a sea of khaki, army fatigues, and black t-shirts bearing the phrase, “It Wasn’t Raining When Noah Built The Ark.” Richard points to an evergreen, encouraging people to guess its medicinal use. Turns out the tree is tsuga canadensis, or eastern hemlock: The needles can be steeped in boiled water for an emergency dose of vitamin C as a way of preventing scurvy.

At its core, prepping is about wanting to be self-sufficient and self-reliant. The preppers aren’t all brawny men whose quick-twitch muscles appear ready to activate at a moment’s notice. Some are elderly, like a well-coiffed woman in her eighties with manicured nails and wrinkled fingers stacked with onyx-and-gold costume jewelry. It’s hard to envision her swinging a gun, but she carries one in her tasteful leather purse. Others are wheelchair bound, unable to navigate the grounds’ hilly terrain on their own.

On the final evening, people bundle up in heavy sweaters and coats and pack into the main tent for the keynote lecture by Dr. William R. Forstchen, a 63-year-old novelist and professor of history at Montreat College. His novel One Second After tracks the hypothetical aftermath of a fictional electromagnetic-pulse event in a sleepy American town. The gathering has the feeling of a sermon, with an impassioned question-and-answer session conjuring an evangelical call and response. There’s a sense of solemnity, responsibility, and chosen-ness hanging in the air. There’s also a feeling of painful loneliness—ostracism from other family members, the awkwardness of explaining your cache of semi-automatic weapons to a prospective lover—temporarily assuaged by this community, where everyone understands, and agrees. “Forget about political correctness,” Dr. Forstchen begs. “You are the future of America, and America is worth fighting for.”

As the fog rolls in again and lightning crackles higher up in the mountain, the crowd retreats to tents, trailers, and cars. Suddenly, the parking lot is empty and dark, the beam of a flashlight revealing just a swath of grass at the end of a dirt road in a small Southern town.

[MIKA27]

The Everlasting Lightning Storm of Venezuela

There is a place in Venezuela that is home to a bizarre, raging storm that almost never ceases. It is a vast, throbbing beast of a storm that thrums with continual lightning and bellows forth with thunder; an object of singular, electrifying intensity that seems more like an angry living thing than a mere weather phenomenon. In this place, for sometimes up to nearly 300 days a year, the lightning sizzles across the sky and licks at the earth below in a dazzling display of nature at its rawest and most furious. Here, in one, tiny, swampy corner of Venezuela the storm beast makes its lair, and produces the most breathtaking spectacle of a natural light show on earth.

This mesmerizing atmospheric phenomenon is known as Relámpago del Catatumbo, or Catatumbo lightning, and it only occurs in one very defined area of Venezuela, at the mouth of the Catatumbo River where it empties into Lake Maracaibo, in the state of Zulia. Here, the lightning almost never stops and it is startling in its intensity. For between 200 and 300 days a year, the storm produces an average of 28 strikes of lightning per minute for up to 10 hours at a time, sometimes unleashing up to 3,600 bolts of lightning per hour, or roughly one per second during particularly explosive displays, culminating in upwards of 40,000 lightning strikes a night. The National Weather Service calls 12 strikes per hour “excessive,” so yeah, it’s a lot of lightning. This immense amount of lightning is the single largest natural source of ozone in the world and is unique on this planet.

This lightning is not only produced in excessively large amounts, but is also remarkably powerful, with each bolt ranging from between 100,000 to 400,000 amps, far beyond the norm. This frighteningly potent lightning is so incredibly bright and constant that it is visible from up to 250 miles away, as a haunting, angry, flickering glow upon the horizon. This long distance visibility has led to the commonly held myth that the Catatumbo lightning is silent, since it can be seen from much farther away than its thunder can be heard. However, it does produce thunder, as all lightning does, in a a cacophony of unfettered, undiluted, raw noise. Nowhere else on Earth does lightning strike in such concentrations and with such relentless ferocity. The storm is also remarkably predictable, occurring in the exact same place every time, and starting practically on cue at around the same time, every time, just about an hour after dusk.

The Catatumbo lightning phenomenon has been well known for centuries. Natives of the region once referred to it as rib a-ba, or the “river of fire,” and revered it as a sign from the gods. Later, during the colonial period of the Caribbean, the highly visible light show was used as a means of navigation by sailors, who called it the “Lighthouse of Catatumbo” and the “Maracaibo Beacon.” The perpetual lightning storm also had a hand in changing history itself, as it was instrumental in the failure of at least two attempted surprise nighttime invasions of Venezuela. The lightning first betrayed the English Sir Francis Drake in 1595, lighting up the nocturnal invasion fleet and alerting nearby Spanish forces. In 1823, the Catatumbo lightning once again worked to thwart an invasion when it illuminated a Spanish fleet trying to sneak ashore under the cover of darkness during the Venezuelan War of Independence.

In addition to the sheer, staggering intensity of the storm is its continually shifting appearance. Depending on the level of humidity in the air on a particular night, the lightning bolts appear as different colors, and can even phase from one color to another in a single night. When air moisture is high, the minuscule airborne droplets of water act as a prism to scatter light and cause the lightning to become stunning explosions of brilliant red, pink, orange, and purple. When the air is dry, the lightning becomes crackling shocks of stark white in the absence of the prism effect.

This natural display of spectral beauty has its share of mysteries. For all of its majestic beauty and terrifying power, it has long been unclear as to what actually causes this ongoing storm to become so amped up and only in one small, well defined area. The most common explanation is that a combination of the unique topography and atmospheric conditions of the area, such as wind and heat, cause and feed the terrifying storm. The Lake Maracaibo Basin is surrounded on three sides by the Andes mountains, which form a sort of V that traps warm trade winds from the Caribbean. This hot air meets the cooler air descending from the mountains and the clash causes condensation. This condensation, plus the updrafts created by the additional moisture evaporating from the lake itself, creates the perfect recipe for the formation of thunderstorms.

It is also believed that the unique concentration and intensity of the lightning here can be attributed to the large reserves of methane that lie in the ground beneath the area. The Maracaibo basin sits atop one of the largest oil fields in the world, which produces vast quantities of methane gas. The theory is that this methane may seep into the atmosphere and increase conductivity, giving the thunderstorms and lightning an extra boost. Methane has sometimes been attributed to the myriad colors the lightning takes on as well. While undoubtedly there is a lot of methane to be found here, and it is now understood in particular concentrations under the epicenter of the storm activity, it is unclear how much of an influence, if any, it exerts on the storm. One popular theory in the 1960s was that uranium embedded in the bedrock of the basin might have some effect on the storm. Yet for all of the ideas put forth, at this point, it is not totally understood what causes the storm to rage so consistently and violently.

Another mystery to be found in the storm of Catatumdo is its tendency to suddenly stop for long periods. Although the lightning occasionally abates for short times, in 2010, after over a century of consistent, almost daily barrages of lightning, the Catatumbo storm suddenly and inexplicably ceased for over 6 weeks. With completely dark skies lasting from the end of January to the beginning of March, 2010, it was the longest calm in 104 years, so long in fact that scientists and people of the region feared that the rage of the storm had finally been spent. It was speculated that climate change and a drought caused by 2009′s powerful El Niño had conspired to snuff the lightning out forever. Then, as suddenly as it had gone quite, the storm once again roared to life to scorch the skies with its crackling lightning. No one is quite sure why the storm suddenly goes through quiet periods such as this, but they occur from time to time without warning. It is feared that ever increasing climate change could one day put an end to this unique and miraculous natural wonder forever.

For now, the Catatumbo lightning storm continues to light up the sky as it always has. It has become such a valued part of the country that Venezuela considers it a gift and a national treasure. The state where the storm occurs, Zulia, even features the lightning on its flag. The country is so proud of its never ending storm that it is actually pursuing plans to register the storm and its area as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a classification that would be completely new for the organization as it typically only recognizes actual physical places. So far, these plans have not gone through, but the area does have the distinction of holding the Guinness World Record for most lightning strikes per square kilometer per year.

The Maracaibo Lake region and its Catatumbo lightning have become a big draw for tourists and scientists from all over the world, who come to study and experience the awe of this unrivaled natural spectacle. The country has made efforts to develop the area and turn the region into an eco-tourism zone to capitalize on the interest the storm has generated. This has proven to be difficult, as the region is infamous for harboring a myriad of drug dealers and armed guerilla groups, to the extent that the U.S. State Department advises against travel into the area. Nevertheless, looking at the raw power and beauty of this incredible natural phenomenon, one wonders if it may actually be worth it to make the journey.

This place is truly a unique, beautiful, and sometimes terrifying example of nature at its most furious. One can only hope that the continual transformation of our climate by humankind does not one day extinguish this unparalleled natural wonder forever.

[MIKA27]

Parents Release ISIS Hostage's Letter

The parents of an Indianapolis man being held captive by ISIS have released additional portions of their son’s letter from captivity.

Ed and Paula Kassig, the parents of hostage Abdul-Rahman Kassig, released more of their son’s letter on Monday. Kassig, 26, was working on a project for the non-governmental organization he founded, Special Emergency Response and Assistance (SERA), when he was detained on Oct. 1, 2013, on his way to Deir Ezzour in eastern Syria.

The family had previously released excerpts from their son’s letter last week. The Kassigs confirmed on Monday that they received an audio recording of their son via email about two weeks ago, a few days before his identity was made public by his captors. In the recording, Abdul-Rahman Kassig says his time is running out.

No other information about the audio recording or what it said has been released by the family.

Below is the letter written by Abdul-Rahman Kassig. The portions in bold include the new information released on Monday. The excerpts have been edited for length and to remove sensitive information, but the words were all written by Abdul-Rahman Kassig, formerly known as Peter:

It is still really hard to believe all of this is really happening… as I am sure you know by now, things have been getting pretty intense. We have been held together, us foreigners … and now about half the people have gone home. … I hope that this all has a happy ending but it may very well be coming down to the wire here, and if in fact that is the case then I figured it was time to say a few things that need saying before I have to go. The first thing I want to say is thank you. Both to you and mom for everything you have both done for me as parents; for everything you have taught me, shown me, and experienced with me. I cannot imagine the strength and commitment it has taken to raise a son like me but your love and patience are things I am so deeply grateful for. Secondly, I want you to know about things here and what I’ve been through straight from me so you don’t have to wonder, guess, or imagine (often this is worse than the reality). All in all I am alright. Physically I am pretty underweight but I’m not starved, & I have no physical injuries, I’m a tough kid and still young so that helps. Mentally I am pretty sure this is the hardest thing a man can go through, the stress and fear are incredible but I am coping as best I can. I am not alone. I have friends, we laugh, we play chess, we play trivia to stay sharp, and we share stories and dreams of home and loved ones. I can be hard to deal with, you know me. My mind is quick and my patience thinner than most. But all in all I am holding my own. I cried a lot in the first few months but a little less now. I worry a lot about you and mom and my friends. They tell us you have abandoned us and/or don’t care but of course we know you are doing everything you can and more. Don’t worry Dad, if I do go down, I won’t go thinking anything but what I know to be true. That you and mom love me more than the moon & the stars. I am obviously pretty scared to die but the hardest part is not knowing, wondering, hoping, and wondering if I should even hope at all. I am very sad that all this has happened and for what all of you back home are going through. If I do die, I figure that at least you and I can seek refuge and comfort in knowing that I went out as a result of trying to alleviate suffering and helping those in need. In terms of my faith, I pray everyday and I am not angry about my situation in that sense. I am in a dogmatically complicated situation here, but I am at peace with my belief. I wish this paper would go on forever and never run out and I could just keep talking to you. Just know I’m with you. Every stream, every lake, every field and river. In the woods and in the hills, in all the places you showed me. I love you.

MIKA: Heart breaking stuff - God bless this man

[MIKA27]

How the Pentagon Strangles Its Most Advanced Stealth Warplanes

The U.S. wants to keep its $55 billion bomber program under tight wraps. But that’s hardly ever worked before. And it is almost certain to fail this time.

The Long Range Strike Bomber may be the most secretive Pentagon aviation program in decades. But a top general, U.S. Strategic Command vice-chief Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, recently insisted that “what is publicly available on the bomber is sufficient.”

Kowalski may have a point from an operational-security perspective. What is more important is that the current security policy all but guarantees that the Air Force won’t get its new bomber at all, or will (once again) end up with an unsupportably small force.

The Air Force has tried four times in the past 60 years to develop a new bomber. With one exception, the B-1B, the projects were canceled or truncated. It took four years, starting in 1988, for the last new project, the B-2 stealth bomber, to get hacked down to 21 aircraft from 132.

The B-2’s development started in late 1981, but for more than six years after that, all that was said was that it existed, that Northrop was building it and that the effort was expected to cost more than $36 billion. Nobody mentioned that the bomber had been redesigned to meet new requirements, which had already raised the cost considerably.

No one ever planned to keep the B-2 secret after it rolled out in 1988. As it emerged, so did new cost numbers. They were not only startlingly high—a projected total of $75.4 billion in then-year dollars—but the plan to build 132 aircraft in six years called for annual spending that threatened everyone else’s programs. At the same time, the Warsaw Pact threat was disintegrating.

The media-Congress complex piled on. 60 Minutes—and this was in those far-off times when people paid a lot of attention to 60 Minutes—hit the program in February 1990 with the studied fairness of a Stalinist show trial. One on-air critic was an Oklahoma congressman, but the show did not mention that the Navy’s A-12 carrier-based bomber (which **** Cheney, then Bush 1’s defense secretary, scrapped a year later) was being built in Tulsa and would be a beneficiary of B-2 cuts. An independent “stealth expert” was a writer whom nobody had heard from before, and nobody heard from afterward. The great thing about a show trial is that you pick your witnesses and questions.

But none of that was, or is, unusual. That’s why industry media-relations people get the big bucks and why Pentagon media people retire and become industry media people.

The Pentagon and industry hit back: Without revealing radar-absorbent material formulas or radar-cross-section numbers, they explained that building a 180-ton stealth bomber was damned difficult, more so than anyone expected, but that now that so much had been spent and achieved, there was an economic case for building a sensible number of aircraft, so that (for example) we wouldn’t have to do it all over again in 2015.

Who am I kidding? In the real world, the pro-B-2 case was a security-muffled squeak. On 60 Minutes, the program was represented by retired Adm. William Crowe, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Tied to a Pentagon script, Crowe did not stand a chance.

A couple of years later, the stealth world did start to open up. Lockheed hosted a technology day where smart, articulate engineers such as Alan Brown, Paul Martin, and other veterans of the F-117 program talked about how the aircraft had been made to work. Irving Waaland and fellow top Northrop engineers discussed B-2 design and testing at technical conferences. No secrets were revealed, beyond what anyone with photographs and a computer already knew, and the message spread worldwide. It was too late for the B-2: Politically, the game was over in early 1992.

LRS-B is likely to be technically fascinating. Its core information—materials, processes, electronic tricks, and RCS numbers—needs to be protected. But the best way to do that is to protect that information inside a narrow cordon, not to attempt to run a strand of barbed wire around the entire $80 billion effort and tens of thousands of participants.

These days, the espionage threat is 1,000 geeks in an office block in Shanghai, rather than an insider with an expensive vice and a Minox camera. Which means counterintelligence starts with shrinking the “attack surface,” or the number of doorways through which the adversary can attack. If you want to do that, one place to start (after you have filled every USB port in the program with superglue) is to ban political engineering: No nominal subcontracts in every state or to every supposedly underserved group.

If the LRS-B is a technological breakthrough (and it may turn out to be a remarkable story, one of decades of quiet persistence leading to the big win) that story can be told as it was 20 years ago, without compromising operations. And then, when overruns and delays occur, or the world changes and people ask again why we need the bomber at all, it will be a fair debate. And that’s necessary, because if you ever thought 60 Minutes was bad, you haven’t been on the Internet in the past few years.

[MIKA27]

MUJJO LEATHER WALLET CASE FOR IPHONE 6

What else do you need in life, really, besides your phone, ID, and a credit card? Oxygen? Way overhyped. Food? Sex? OK, we don’t have time to go through all of these, and we didn’t anticipate this level of nitpickery. Point is, Mujjo’s leather wallet/case for the iPhone 6 has you covered as you leave the house.

The suede-lined case interior is made from Mujjo’s signature vegetable-tanned leather, which is waxed and treated with aniline oil. The result is a smooth surface with a nice soft touch and a satin-like finish. Your iPhone 6 will enjoy it, as well as your hands. As you’d expect there are openings that expose the volume rockers, headphone-jack, and lighting connector. It’s also designed to hold two or three of your essential cards; nothing bulky at all going on here. It’s available in black or chestnut. [Purchase: Black | Tan]

[MIKA27]

Badass Aeroplane Pilot Extinguishes Truck Fire With One Water Drop

http://youtu.be/OTJ1SSZog_0

Aerial firefighters are some of the most badass pilots out there, flying through smoke, extreme heat and turbulences, in often battered aeroplanes to drop water with amazing skills and courage. Sometimes, however, they get to do fun stuff like this: put out a semi truck fire on a road in the middle of nowhere.

From the YouTube description:

This pilot has skills. The fire boss called for a direct drop on a semi that was on fire. People cleared out because the force of the drop would’ve thrown them to the ground.

[Fuzz]

MUJJO LEATHER WALLET CASE FOR IPHONE 6

Pickpockets rejioce! Pinch somebody's shiny new iPhone6 and get their credit card too!

[MIKA27]

Pickpockets rejioce! Pinch somebody's shiny new iPhone6 and get their credit card too!

Mate, why pick a pocket when most cards these days have paywave! One can easily just scan nearby cards, you'd be none the wiser my friend.

[Fuzz]

Not if your wallet is shielded.

[MIKA27]

Not if your wallet is shielded.

Do you also wear a foil cone on your head Fuzz?