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

[MIKA27]

Virgin Is Cancelling Its Deep-Ocean Mission

In addition to Richard Branson’s lofty ambitions in space, the entrepeneur-explorer also has a project to send paying customers to the bottom of the ocean. Or, rather, had: it seems that very quietly, and with none of the fanfare surrounding the original launch, Virgin has shelved its current deep-sea project.

From a report in the Telegraph, it seems that Branson’s ambition was writing cheques that his (licensed) technology really couldn’t cash. While Branson was announcing that the DeepFlight sub would be making return visits to the bottom of the ocean, and talking about selling tickets for $US500,000, the manufacturers were insisting that the sub was single-use only.

The craft was originally designed to dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench with the late Steve Fossett on board. But after Fossett’s death, the submarine passed to Richard Branson’s estate, where the focus was less on the one-off record, and more about repeat missions. From the Telegraph‘s report, it sounds like DeepFlight, the manufacturers of the sub, had concerns about the cockpit’s performance at depth, but also any potential liability for paying customers:

“As soon as we heard about the five dives and that they wanted to repurpose it [the submarine] and sell tickets, we didn’t want to be associated with that. They were trying to sell tickets; they wanted to charge half a million dollars. We were extremely concerned about it… We didn’t want the liability of being the manufacturer of that vessel. Had the focus of the project been maintained to the initial purpose, it would have been totally different. The problem was not the technology or the lack of knowhow.”

It seems, however, that Virgin still has ambitions to explore the bottom of the ocean, however: the DeepFlight program was just “put on ice while [Virgin] looks at other technology that works”.

[MIKA27]

This Is Why You Should Stick To A Traditional Marriage Proposal

There is a growing trend, for which the internet is probably to blame, of people eschewing traditional, down-on-one-knee proposals for flash mobs and drones and giant Transformers robots. It was all bound to end in tears — specifically, with a crane smashing through an apartment building. In the name of love.

This dramatically screwed-up proposal comes to us courtesy of the sleepy Dutch town of Ijsselstein. According to a number of breathless media reports, the modern-day Romeo was trying to use a crane to lower himself outside the window of his beloved, before serenading her, and, presumably, offering some kind of ring.

Inevitably, the crane toppled over, crushing his neighbour’s house and causing the evacuation of nearby properties. Yes, there’s a video, and yes, it’s as hilarious as it sounds. It’s not all sadness, though: the woman apparently said yes, and the happy couple is apparently now celebrating in Paris. But let’s take this as a warning sign from the gods of marriage proposals: just give her the goddamn ring next time.

[MIKA27]

Close Encounters With Russian Warplanes As Tensions Rise In Europe

Things are not looking good over the Baltic Sea. Poland has announced that Russian naval and air force activity in the Baltic Sea region is “unprecedented”, with Sweden being the most affected country, which have resulted in numerous close encounters.

According to the BBC, these are some of the incidents we know about:

• On Tuesday the Norwegian military said one of its warplanes had a “near miss” with a Russian fighter which had ventured too close, north of Norway
• The Finnish air force said that there had been “unusually intense” Russian activity over the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, with most flights involving bombers, fighters and transport planes heading between the Russian mainland and the Kaliningrad enclave, between Lithuania and Poland
• Nato said on Monday the alliance’s jets intercepted Russian planes repeatedly in the Baltic, and reported more than 30 types of Russian military aircraft in the area

The Finnish Air Force’s F/A-18 combat jets had to intercept and follow Russian strategic nuclear bombers and fighter planes getting dangerously close to their airspace. Here are the photos they took.

In addition to this, two Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s based at Malbork in Poland scrambled to intercept two Russian Su-34 Fullback bombers over the Baltic Sea on what is now the second Dutch intercept in the area. They recorded this video:

As oil prices plummet and the covert war in Ukraine continues, Putin wagging his military **** all around the NATO-protected Baltic states is not good at all.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Used Sonar To Find San Francisco's Notorious Lost Shipwreck

In 1901, steamer ship City of Rio de Janeiro sank on its way into the San Francisco Bay, killing 128 passengers and disappearing into the ocean. The famous lost ship stayed disappeared for over 100 years, its location suspected but never confirmed. Now, thanks to a sonar technology called “Echoscope”, scientists have pinpointed the wreck’s location, and created a 3D map of the briny remains.

An archeological expedition led by the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries Maritime Heritage Program this past November used an Echoscope and a remote vehicle to trawl the bottom of the ocean. When they finally discovered the ship around 287 feet below the surface, there wasn’t much left. Just “a crumpled, scarcely recognisable iron hulk encased in more than a century worth of mud and sediment,” according to the agency’s report. But the sonar technology and 3D images it produced illuminated for researchers how the City of Rio sank; the way the ship is positioned indicates that it went down too quickly for most passengers to escape.

In the course of the City of Rio investigation the team found and mapped other wrecks, including the City of Chester, which sank in 1888 after colliding with another ship.

The Echoscope was developed by a company called CodaOctopus, and the real-time 3D imaging machine is one of the most powerful sonar tools around.

It’s not just used for shipwreck hunting and mapping: Lockheed Martin uses it for subsea inspections on oil and gas operations. It helps demystify the ocean floor… whether that’s a long-lost shipwreck or, someday, the lost city of Atlantis

[MIKA27]

Rare Photos Of The SR-71 Blackbird Show Its Amazing History

The SR-71 Blackbird is, without a doubt, the most advanced aeroplane ever built in relation to the technology available at the time. It broke all aviation records, it flew incredible missions, and it became the stuff of legend. Lockheed Martin published its history in this collection of high resolution scans of old photos.

Above:

The SR-71 was a technological marvel. Practically every area of design required new approaches or breakthroughs in technology. To withstand high temperatures generated by friction in the upper atmosphere during sustained Mach 3 flight, the Blackbird required an array of specially developed materials including high temperature fuel, sealants, lubricants, wiring and other components. Ninety-three per cent of the Blackbird’s airframe consisted of titanium alloy that allowed the aircraft to operate in a regime where temperatures range from 450 degrees Fahrenheit at its aft midsection to 950 degrees Fahrenheit near the engine exhaust. The cockpit canopy, made of special heat resistant glass, had to withstand surface temperatures as high as 640 degrees Fahrenheit.

The history of the SR-71 in photos

Two of the leading figures in the U-2 program, the CIA’s Richard Bissell and Lockheed designer Kelly Johnson, had as early as 1955 decided to explore a follow-on reconnaissance aircraft that would seek to remedy the U-2′s unexpected flaw — its easy tracking by Soviet radar.

On 24 July 1964, US President Lyndon B. Johnson publicly announced the existence of the classified Lockheed SR-71 program. The first flight of the SR-71 would come on 22 December 1964. Operational aircraft deliveries began in 1966. Throughout its career, the SR-71, unofficially, universally known as Blackbird, remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft.

The A-12 was a radical aircraft, with two large Pratt & Whitney J58 engines mid-mounted on the modified delta wing. Distinctive all-moving vertical tail surfaces were placed above the engine nacelles and canted inward. It was to be able to fly at Mach 3.2 at altitudes approaching 100,000 feet over a range of 3,800 miles. The most unusual element of the design was the elongated nose with its speedboat-like chines that gave it the appearance of a hooded cobra.

A-12, YF-12, and the initial SR-71 aircraft were built by Lockheed in Burbank, California, and then transported overland to Area 51 for flight testing.

The official first flight for CIA and USAF representatives took place on 30 April 1962, and went off smoothly. Eight days later, Lockheed test pilot Lou Schalk took the A-12 supersonic for the first time.

The A-12, which was operated by the CIA, was produced from 1962 to 1964. I performed operational missions from 1963 until 1968. The aircraft was the precursor to the twin-seat YF-12 prototype interceptor and the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. The A-12′s final mission was flown in May 1968. The program and aircraft retired that June.

The initial SR-71s were built in Burbank, California. The first prototype (Serial Number 61-7950) was delivered to Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, California, on 29 October 1964.

Ben Rich, who would later be in charge of the design team for the F-117 Nighthawk, led a small six-man engineering team through the endless iterations to arrive at the final configuration of the A-12. They worked on a door stretched between two desks, laying out the information that was derived from the intensive wind-tunnel tests. From the data, the shape of the A-12 was derived.

The YF-12A was a proposed interceptor version of the A-12, which was first flown 7 August 1963. It was similar in most respects to the A-12.

The YF-12 was developed as a high-altitude Mach 3 interceptor for defence against supersonic bombers. The YF-12A was the forerunner of the highly sophisticated SR-71 high-altitude strategic reconnaissance aircraft.

The ramjet-powered D-21 drone was developed as a high-speed, unmanned strategic reconnaissance platform. Originally designed to be air-launched from atop specially equipped A-12s, designated M-21, they were later modified for underwing carriage and rocket-assisted launch by B-52 bombers.

On 24 July 1964, US President Lyndon B. Johnson publicly announced the existence of the classified Lockheed SR-71 program. First flight of the SR-71 would come on 22 December 1964. Operational aircraft deliveries began in 1966.

The first operational SR-71 was a trainer version known as the SR-71B, which was delivered to Beale AFB, California, on 7 January 1966. The SR-71B had an elevated second cockpit for an instructor pilot.

SR-71B (Serial Number 17956) celebrated 1,000 missions at Beale AFB, California, in January 1982. The aircraft served under the USAF until the program was initially cancelled in 1990. It was then operated by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, CA from 1991 to 1997 and was used jointly by NASA and Detachment 2 at Edwards AFB when the USAF program was reactivated in 1995. This SR-71 had more flight hours than any other SR-71, 3,967.5 hrs. The last flight of this aircraft was on 19 October 1997 at an airshow at Edwards AFB.

Because they were powered by a uniquely formulated jet fuel, SR-71 Blackbirds were refueled exclusively by KC-135Q tankers.

The J58 engine, developed in the 1950s by Pratt & Whitney, was designed to operate for extended speeds of Mach 3+ and at altitudes of more than 80,000 feet. The J58 was the first engine designed to operate for extended periods using its afterburner, and it was the first engine to be flight-qualified at Mach 3 for the Air Force. The SR-71 as well as the YF-12A and most of the A-12s are powered by two J58s.

SR-71s logged a combined total of 53,490 hours of flight time, of which 11,675 had been spent at Mach 3 plus. They flew 3,551 operational sorties for a total of 17,294 hours, during which more than a thousand surface-to-air missiles had been fired at them. All missed.

The first of three reactivated SR-71s returned to the Air Force after extensive refurbishment on 28 June 1995 as Detachment 2 at Edwards AFB, California. The aircraft were being modified with datalinks when the Air Force program was defunded in October 1997.

Rare photos

On 24 July 1964, US President Lyndon B. Johnson publicly announced the existence of the classified Lockheed SR-71 program. First flight of the SR-71 would come on 22 December 1964. Operational aircraft deliveries began in 1966. Throughout its career, the SR-71, unofficially, universally known as Blackbird, remained the world’s fastest and highest-flying operational aircraft. The US Air Force terminated the program in January 1990, closing out a twenty-four year operational career. The Blackbird program was briefly revived in 1997 and a small number of training flights were made, but funding was zeroed out. The program officially ended in 1999.

Unusual shot of SR-71 Blackbird (Air Force serial number 61-7974) with one engine in afterburner and the other either shut down or in mil power at Beale AFB, California, circa 1983. Nicknamed Ichi-Ban, this aircraft was destroyed in an April 1989 accident near the Philippines. Both crewmembers ejected and were rescued unharmed. It was the last Blackbird accident before the aircraft was retired.

Three generations of aircraft developed by the Skunk Works, the Lockheed and Lockheed Martin Advanced Development Projects group in Palmdale, California, are shown in this photo from July 2000. At the top, one of the five full-scale development F-117 Nighthawks (Air Force serial number 79-0782), which was still being flown at at the time, is being towed back to the Air Force test squadron, also located at this site. At the bottom, an SR-71 is towed back to the hangar. This aircraft (Air Force serial number 61-7962) was one of the Blackbirds kept in storage at Palmdale after the fleet was retired. In the middle is the X-35A Joint Strike Fighter demonstrator, which at this point was still about four months away from its first flight.

The Advanced Tanker-Cargo Aircraft, or ATCA, was first proposed by officials from the US Air Force’s Strategic Air Command in 1967. The competition, originally intended to replace the KC-135 tanker, got underway in the mid 1970s, with a pair of wide-body commercial airliners, the 747 and DC-10, competing for the contract. The 747 prototype was fitted with an aerial refueling boom and a series of dry hook-ups were made with a number of different Air Force aircraft. Here, a crew in an SR-71 (Air Force serial number 61-7955) connects with the 747 while an F-111 crew flies safety chase. The Air Force selected the DC-10 as the ATCA winner and sixty KC-10 Extenders were eventually built.

A high definition panorama shot of the cockpit.

Lockheed was given the official go-ahead on the A-12 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft on 29 August 1959. The A-12′s design was dominated by the aircraft’s propulsion system, which would give it the power needed to set the world speed and absolute records for its class. The single-seat A-12 was the forerunner of the SR-71. This photo shows the YF-12A, a two-seat interceptor variant for the US Air Force, being built in a cordoned-off section of the facility in Burbank, California.

Business goes on as usual at the front of the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena (California) Airport while a crowd gathers on the roof to watch as a US Air Force SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ crew performs a high speed pass in this photo from December 1990. The Burbank Airport was the home of Lockheed Aircraft Company from 1928 until the early 1990s. The Blackbird family (A-12, YF-12, SR-71) was designed at the Burbank facility in the late 1950s/early 1960s and the aircraft were built there, so this flyby was a bit of a homecoming. Final assembly of the SR-71s took place at the Lockheed facility in Palmdale, California. The Blackbirds were operationally assigned to the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, California.

Thirty-five years ago, three US Air Force aircrews, flying the Mach 3+ SR-71 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, set three absolute world aviation records — the maximum performance by any type of aircraft — in two days. Capt. Al Joersz (pilot, right) and Maj. George Morgan (Reconnaissance Systems Operator, left) set the Absolute Speed record over Edwards AFB, California, on 28 July 1976. The officially recorded average speed of the two legs was 2,193.16 mph. The record still stands in 2011. Blackbird 958 is now on display at the Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins, Georgia.

Thirty-five years ago, three US Air Force aircrews, flying the Mach 3+ SR-71 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft, set three absolute world aviation records — the maximum performance by any type of aircraft — in two days. This image, taken from the high-speed cameras at Edwards AFB, California, shows Capt. Al Joersz (pilot) and Maj. George Morgan (RSO) setting the Absolute Speed record on 28 July 1976.

This image shows Blackbird 958 on landing after setting one of its two absolute aviation records on 27 and 28 July 1976. To set the Absolute Speed record, Capt. Al Joersz (pilot) and Maj. George Morgan (RSO) had to cross the electronic timing gate, travel the twenty-five meter course, cross a second timing gate, turn around, and repeat the course from the opposite end to negate the effect of winds. The officially recorded average speed of the two legs was 2,193.16 mph.

This image shows Blackbird 958 on landing after setting one of its two absolute aviation records on 27 and 28 July 1976. Maj. Pat Bledsoe (pilot) and Maj. John Fuller (RSO) set the Speed Over a Closed Course record on a 1,000 km (621 mile) circuit. Bledsoe completed the course at a speed of 2,092.29 mph breaking a record set by a Soviet pilot in 1967.

1988 photo shows SR-71 with TR-1 in the background. The TR-1, a larger and considerably upgraded version of the original U-2, was later redisignated as U-2R.

SR-71 in flight over California.

Blackbird and X-35B parked together in a hangar at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. The X-35B now resides at the National Air and Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.

After a forty-one year career, Lockheed Martin photographer Denny Lombard will retire on 30 January 2011. Since moving behind the camera in 1982, he created some of the most enduring images in aviation history. The Spotlight photo this week is Denny’s seven all-time favourite images. Here’s number four. This image from 23 May 1995 captures the pure power of an SR-71 ‘Blackbird’ high altitude reconnaissance aircraft on takeoff.

[MIKA27]

A Football With Wings Lets You Throw Farther Than An NFL Quarterback

The ultimate football fantasy involves throwing a last second Hail Mary pass into the endzone that ends up winning the Super Bowl. Such a fantasy usually requires you to have an NFL-calibre throwing arm, but the winged Raptor Football promises to give quarterback-like capabilities to almost anyone. Now we just need it approved by the NFL.

Looking like a cross between a toy glider and a football, the Raptor relies on a light but strong polymer wing to soar across a football field. Its creators claim the average person can easily throw the Raptor over 100 yards, or the entire length of a field, which is farther than even an NFL quarterback can muster. Don’t get too cocky though, because odds are the NFL isn’t going to be adopting the Raptor any time soon.

Before you can start throwing amazing 100-yard touchdown passes, the Raptor Football needs your help to raise $US193,000 on Kickstarter. That’s a lofty goal, but you can help its creators creep closer and closer to it with a $US29 donation that secures you one of the first Raptor Footballs to roll off the production line.

You’ll have to wait until March of next year for delivery, though, and that’s assuming everything goes smoothly once the Kickstarter campaign is successful. But if it does, this paves the way for baseballs, golf balls, even frisbees with wings that could fly farther than we ever thought possible.

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The Pentagon's New Non-Lethal Mortars Seem Like A Very Good Idea

An estimated 174,000 civilians have died in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Who knows how many of these casualties could have been prevented if the United States and its allies were using deadly weapons, especially in dense urban areas. So it’s great news that the Pentagon has developed a non-lethal mortar round.

These new 81mm mortar rounds recently underwent their first working demonstration in Quantico, Virginia. The weapons are dangerous, but they’re specifically designed not to be deadly. Each round carries 14 flash bang grenades that stuns, blinds, and deafens the enemy upon impact. In many cases, simply disorienting the enemy for a while is all it takes for soldiers to complete their mission. Ryan Faith at Vice News explains the objective well:

The basic point of engaging in a conflict is to use force, or the threat of force, to change someone’s behaviour — there’s nowhere in the rules where it says you have to end up with people actually getting maimed or killed. But because of the vagaries of human nature and psychology, killing the other guy has generally been perceived as the most surefire way to get the job done.

Again, these mortars aren’t entirely harmless. A well placed flash grenade can maim or kill an insurgent or an unsuspecting civilian. But a real grenades, bombs, and bullets does a much better job at taking lives.

The new non-lethal mortar joins gadgets like “pain rays” in a growing family of weapons in the Pentagon’s arsenal that aren’t designed for deadly force. The military even has a whole book about these weapons. Now if only we could figure out how to stop starting wars…

[MIKA27]

MONTELUZ PISCO

I came across Pisco back in 2010 for the first time when I travelled with my wife in her native, Chile and it seems like one of those things that everyone other than me already seemed to know about. For those of you who also like to drink unusual things and haven’t come across Pisco previously I’ve included a brief history of the spirit below with a link to the bilingual Monteluz Pisco website.

Pisco is a close relative of brandy that was originally developed by Spanish settlers in Peru and Chile – they needed to distill wine in order to move it long distances in high temperatures without it souring. Unlike traditional European brandies, Pisco isn’t aged in oak so it maintains more of the flavour from the grape varietals used during production which has resulted in it developing a cult following in the USA and Europe.

[MIKA27]

The Mystery Death Of A Female Firefighter

No one knows how Joyce Craig-Lewis died while battling a blaze on Dec. 9, but the first female firefighter to fall in the line of duty is being called a “hero.”

Firefighters came to North Philadelphia from as far as St. Louis on Saturday to pay their respects to a fallen comrade described by one family member as “tough as nails.”

A procession of emergency vehicles followed behind a fire truck carrying the body of 36-year old Joyce Craig-Lewis—who on Tuesday became the first female firefighter to die in the line of duty in Philadelphia history.

Uniformed mourners filed one-by-one past her coffin—graced by two honor guards—many of them standing at attention in a final salute.

Mayor Michael Nutter offered his condolences to the family and declared a 30-day mourning period during which all city flags will be flown at half-staff.

“Your loss is our loss and we are in this together,” Nutter said. “Please know she has a very special place in our collective hearts.”

Craig-Lewis was an 11-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department, a position she had aspired to since grade school. Family and friends describe her as highly dedicated to her job, if not borderline workaholic. In an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, her boyfriend, Jason Anderson, said Craig-Lewis was “all consumed” by her job.

She wasn’t even supposed to be working the night she was killed. A member of Engine Company 64, she was picking up an overtime shift at a neighboring firehouse on the morning of Dec. 9, when a call came in at 2:49 a.m. of a residential fire.

The truck Craig-Lewis was riding in was first on the scene, and she was part of a three-member “attack crew” responsible for getting the fire under control. She was separated from her colleagues after they were overcome by smoke and heat and ordered to withdraw.

“After the withdraw, they realized that firefighter Craig-Lewis was missing,” said Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Derrick Sawyer. “They went in to search for her and were not able to get her out before she passed.”

Several key details surrounding Craig-Lewis’s death remain unknown. The Philadelphia Fire Marshall—aided by agents from the federal department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms—is still trying to determine the cause of the blaze, which was confined to the basement. Autopsy results are pending, but according to preliminary reports Craig-Lewis was unresponsive when she was found near a window in the home’s dining room. Efforts to resuscitate her failed and she was pronounced dead at nearby Albert Einstein Medical Center.

What is not yet clear is how such an experienced firefighter got in trouble responding to what should have been a relatively routine call. Fire investigators are now working to piece together details of the Craig-Lewis’ final minutes as she struggled to escape the burning row house where she and her colleagues had just rescued an elderly woman.

Executive Fire Chief Clifford Gilliam would not identify the other two firefighters who were part of Craig-Lewis’s team, and declined to comment on details of the investigation beyond saying it is “ongoing.” But he insisted that there is nothing about her death to provoke additional scrutiny.

“This [investigation] is part of routine procedure following the death of any firefighter,” he told The Daily Beast.

Since the beginning of the year, 84 firefighters across the nation have died while doing their jobs, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

Craig-Lewis’s is the latest loss for a Philadelphia fire-fighting community that has already suffered several devastating fatalities over the past two years. In April, 2013, Capt. Mike Goodwin, a 29-year veteran of the department, died when a three-story building collapsed beneath him while he was fighting a fire in a South Philadelphia fabric shop.

Exactly one year earlier, the department lost two firefighters. Lieutenant Robert Neary, 60, and Daniel Sweeney—a 25-year old rookie—were killed while battling a massive 5-alarm blaze at an abandoned warehouse in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. Neary had held the rank of lieutenant since 1983 and received multiple commendations during nearly four decades on the job. His death was particularly difficult for the veteran firefighters who had spent years working alongside him.

“Each time this department loses a member we are all affected,” said Joe Schulle, President of the Philadelphia Firefighters Union. “The effects of a firefighter fatality on the men and women of the Fire Department are debilitating. Everyone feels it as though they lost a close family member.”

On Friday, black bunting graced firehouses across the city and flags flew at half-staff in remembrance of a firefighter who friends and neighbors are calling a “hero.” No one answered the door Friday morning at Craig-Lewis’s engine house in the Lawncrest section of the city. Outside, about a half-dozen former colleagues and well-wishers waited in the cold to pay their respects with care packages of food and soda.

Craig-Lewis is survived by two children, a 16-year old son and a 16-month old daughter. They will now face the holidays without their mother.

Chelle Auty—a firefighter in the Philadelphia suburb of Bensalem—has created a memorial fund Craig-Lewis’s name and is in the process of organizing several events to provide toys and gift cards for the dead firefighter’s children. Auty says a line-of-duty death resonates strongly with all firefighters, and the fund’s Facebook page has logged visitors from across the U.S.

“With a lot of firehouses, on a normal day there’s a lot of competition between different engine houses and municipalities,” she said, “but then something like this happens and it really brings everybody together.”

A longtime colleague and former Fire Academy classmate of Craig-Lewis—who asked not to be identified by name because her superiors requested she not talk to the press—said Craig-Lewis represented the “best of the job.”

“She had heart. She was always looking out for the next person,” she said. “A lot of people think females are too weak for the job, but I know that all the men she worked with saw her as one of the guys.”Schulle of the Philadelphia Firefighters Union says one PFD commander said Craig-Lewis “really had her **** together.”

“The best compliment a firefighter can be bestowed is that they’re a good firefighter,” he said. “Joyce was a good firefighter.”

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Here's A Tiny First Look At Top Gear's 2014 Christmas Special

Remember when Top Gear went to Argentina and were subsequently chased out of the country? Well, soon you’ll be able to watch it. Here’s a tiny sneak peek.

BBC2 posted a very short trailer for the Christmas special, which will this year be aired in two parts.

The first part will go to air on 27 December, with part two going up the day after. We’re chasing local air dates for these too.

[MIKA27]

Telstra Fined $102,000 Over Dodgy iPhone 6 Ad

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has rapped Telstra over the knuckles to the tune of $102,000 today, following the placement of misleading ad for the iPhone 6.

The ad was for Telstra’s iPhone 6 on the one of the carrier’s Mobile Accelerate plan, displayed in The Age. The ad prominently featured a price of $70 per month for the device and plan, when actually the plan featured a mobile repayment option of $11 per month, taking the total price up to $81 per month. Telstra disclosed the MRO, but only in the fine print, below the banner price of $70.

The ACCC has issued an infringement notice to Telstra, saying that the telco misrepresented the price of the bundle to its customers via the ad.

ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims, said in a statement:

Businesses must be careful about using attention grabbing headline prices to ensure that their advertisements do not mislead consumers about the actual price they will have to pay. This is especially the case for bundled goods and services like phones and plans.

The ad means that Telstra is going to be $102,000 poorer this Christmas.

Update: Telstra has responded to the fine notice, saying it was “surprised” to receive the infringement notice.

We were surprised to receive the infringement notice, as our ads prominently stated the mobile plan cost, the handset cost and the total minimum cost as legally required, and were in line with the way many others in the industry advertise mobile plans with handsets. The ad in question was displayed in a full newspaper page so all the text was much larger.

Even though we are strongly of the view our ads complied with the law, we have paid the notice. In addition, we’ve made some changes to our advertising to make it even clearer to customers what they will pay each month for a plan and handset. We now consider this matter closed.

We think there is scope for these sorts of issues to be resolved in the future through constructive engagement between industry and the regulator, rather than through the use of formal enforcement mechanisms.

MIKA: Haha! Take that Telstra, not that this is a big fine for them... Ken will be happy, he loves Telstra!

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This Is Where NASA's Super Guppy Gets Some Rest

NASA’s Super Guppy aircraft — the aeroplane that carries the space agency’s biggest loads — sits overnight at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, for a well-deserved break. In fact, it had carried the fuselage of… another aircraft, due to be tested at the centre.

The Guppy had shipped a “representative test article of a futuristic hybrid wing body aircraft,” according to NASA. “The large test article, representing the uniquely shaped fuselage cross-section, is made out of a low-weight, damage-tolerant, stitched composite structural concept called Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure, or PRSEUS.”

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A New Simulation Shows How The Alcatraz Escapees Could Have Survived

In 1962, three inmates at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary attempted one of the most daring and ingenious escapes of all time. They got out of Alcatraz, but where they ended up is still a mystery. The FBI concluded they most likely drowned. But the inmates did have a slim chance at survival, according to a few Dutch hydrologists who have reanalysed the tides that night.

The three men, Clarence Anglin, John Anglin and Frank Morris, concocted an elaborate and famous escape plan that included a homemade periscope, a raft made out of raincoats, and even dummy heads with real human hair. Once they made it out, though, they would have been at the mercy of the tides of San Francisco Bay.

At the American Geophysical Union conference this week, a group of Dutch scientists will present a reconstruction of the tides of that fateful night. Olivier Hoes of the Delft University of Technology was studying the flood risk to industrial sites around the Bay, when he realised his simulations might have some historical relevance.

Timing would have been key. If the escapees left before 11 pm and simply floated, they would have been swept out to the ocean with the tides. If they had left after midnight, the tides would have reversed, and they would have died of hypothermia swirling all night in the cold bay.

But if the inmates had left between 11pm and midnight and paddled north (paddles were found on an island in the bay), they would have reached the bay’s entrance just as the tide was reversing, allowing the escapees to land. Ultimately, we don’t know exactly when the three inmates left Alcatraz. There’s a chance they got lucky, but there’s a bigger chance that all their planning was ultimately foiled by tides.[AGU,]

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Jihadi Siege in Sydney Ends in Gunfight

Two hostages are dead and 15 others free after an Islamic radical took them hostage before police killed him. His motive is unknown.

SYDNEY—Gunfire and explosions rocked Sydney early Tuesday morning after an armed jihadi took 17 people hostage at a busy café.

Two hostages died en route to the hospital, while police said they killed gunman Man Haron Monis.

Monis walked into the café on Monday and took everyone inside hostage. He used some of the captives as human shields and forced others to hold a black flag with white Arabic writing against the window.

The drama transfixed the normally calm Sydney, known for its laid-back vibe and relaxed population. As Monday turned to Tuesday morning, five hostages had escaped and the Central Business District had turned into a ghost town.

Monis had been convicted on charges related to offensive letters he sent to the families of Australian soldiers who died serving in Afghanistan. He was out on bail as an alleged accessory to the murder of his ex-wife, as well as a string of 50 indecent and sexual-assault charges in connection to his time as a self-proclaimed spiritual leader.

Monis used a YouTube account to post a series of videos showing hostages reciting his demands, which included the delivery of the black flag of ISIS. He asked “to please broadcast on all media that this is an attack on Australia by the Islamic State,” and to speak to Prime Minister Tony Abbott. (YouTube has since removed the videos from the account.)

The incident began during the morning rush hour, when Monis entered the Lindt chocolate and coffee shop at Martin Place, a major transportation hub that typically teems with professionals and tourists.

The majority of the CBD remained closed for the day, with a group of onlookers calmly crowded behind police tape just one block from the shop. Several buildings, including the iconic Sydney Opera House and the nearby U.S. consulate, were shut down earlier in the day as a precaution, while policemen spread out across the city.

“There’s a lot of information and misinformation being passed around so it’s really a bit concerning,” said onlooker Aldy King, who works nearby. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence though that they chose the coffee shop right next to Channel 7 and right above the train station.”

Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione asked residents to remain calm, amid fears of unrest. “Clearly reprisal attacks are something that should not happen. At this stage, we need to let everyone just settle down,” he said.

Steve Garth, who works in Circular Quay, was inside the Cartier jewelry store near the café when the siege began.

“I didn’t realize the magnitude of what was going on until I got back to my office. There really was no sense of fear or panic on the street,” he said. “Australians are just not programmed for these things and look at it in general as something going on overseas.”

Australia’s Muslim community joined the nation’s most senior Muslim cleric, Grand Mufti Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, in condemning the siege. The grand mufti said he was “devastated” by the situation.

A Sydney television station near the café continued to show gripping images of hostages at the window, fists against the glass and a look of terror on their faces. At one point, Monis appeared to be holding a woman in front of him as he moved about the café, apparently using her as a human shield.

The flag was the most striking symbol of the drama. A black banner with white Arabic lettering that appears to be the Shahada, a central tenet of Islam that states: “There is no god but the God, Mohammed is the messenger of God.” The banner might perhaps be the flag of the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation), according to a tweet from The Sydney Morning Herald. The group is not known for espousing violence in the manner of al Qaeda or ISIS, but it does support the establishment of a caliphate uniting Muslims around the world.

Monis’s motive is still unknown.

[MIKA27]

6 Die in Pennsylvania Spree Killing

Six people are dead as a result of a killing spree in suburban Philadelphia. The casualties are related to what police are calling a domestic situation and have been reported at three different locations—in Souderton, Lansdale, and Lower Salford Township in Montgomery County. Police have identified the gunman as 35-year-old Bradley William Stone, who they say is still at large. Officers are extensively searching the area and say the current casualty count could climb.

MIKA: Truly horrible

[MIKA27]

HAZE PRO TACTICAL SMOKE GRENADE

So you’re walking in the mall with your mistress when suddenly you spot your wife making her way in your direction. First of all, shame on you for having a mistress. Secondly, we’re here to help (guy rule #226). Just whip out the Haze Pro and disappear behind a cloud of smoke into the nearest Brookstone.

This is a professional smoke grenade, the kind you’re used to only throwing in Call of Duty, and it’s now in your hands, ready for everything from training exercises to disaster film scenes to um, hiding from women we guess. It delivers a massive 40,000 cubic feet of smoke in just 100 seconds. It’s both non-hazmat and non-explosive, so it’s also a go for your 4th of July party next year [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

SHINOLA RUNWELL POCKET WATCH

It might be a throwback to a different time (or century), but the Shinola Runwell Pocket Watch surely performs like a modern instrument. Like the company's other watches, it's hand assembled in Detroit, and features an Argonite 1069 movement, a 49mm polished stainless steel case, a single curve sapphire crystal covering the dial, and a stainless steel ID link chain. It comes with a black leather pouch, but you likely don't need it — you've got a dedicated pocket for it on the jeans you're already wearing.

[NJP]

Haze Pro smoke grenade, I just need some for fun. I'm sure I'm already flagged by customs party poopers.

[MIKA27]

Sony Just Canceled The Interview's December 25 Release

Sony just confirmed that after major pushback from theatres, it’s no longer going to release The Interview on December 25th entirely.

The decision came as multiple major movie chains pulled out, announcing that they would no longer be showing the film after the hackers’ recent threats of terror attacks against any theatre caught doing so.

Here’s Sony’s full statement:

In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theatre-goers.

Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale — all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.

All of this is taking place just a few hours after today’s report that, despite the fed’s previous statements to the contrary, North Korea might have actually had some involvement in the unprecedented hack on Sony Pictures Entertainment after all.

As for what happens next, many on Twitter are calling for Sony to release the film on video-on-demand. And at this point, that may be the only viable option.

Regardless of what you think of the theatres’ and/or Sony’s various decisions, though, one thing is for certain: **** is falling apart — and fast. If we’re keeping score, the hackers definitely have the advantage right now. But on the bright side, at least we have less reason to have to leave our respective homes this holiday season.

[MIKA27]

Spectacular Photo Of Aeroplane Flying By Volcano's Molten Lava Eruption

I don’t know if I would be happy to fly so close of an active volcano that is ejecting lava like in this photo featured on National Geographic’s Your Shot. I know the plane is not flying over the lava, but you never know when Earth is going to get mad. For photographer Baldur Sveinsson, however, it’s business as usual.

Every Icelander has watched this from the day that the earthquakes under the Bárðarbunga volcano on the Vatnajökull glacier started. A pilot friend of mine wanted to have a look at the eruption, which is about an hour from Reykjavík. We weren’t able to find any other aircraft to accompany us but decided to go anyway, as there are almost always some in the vicinity for sightseeing. We found one doing its passes from north to south. It’s at least 300 meters [984 feet] in front of the lava spout.

Three hundred metres! That seems like a lot, but still way too close to something that can unexpectedly explode without warning.

[MIKA27]

Hot Toys' Temple Of Doom Indiana Jones Doesn't Come With A Single Snake

The tiny sixth-scale fedora alone makes Hot Toys’ Indiana Jones figure a worthy addition to any collection. But as with all the plastic doppelgangers the company sells, everything from the convincing Harrison Ford sculpt, to his tired and torn outfit, to Indy’s other iconic accessory, his whip, make this $US230 figure worth every cent.

The figure is fully articulated so you can pose Indy like he’s ready to take on a gang of attacking baddies, or to simply reflect how the miles, not the years, have taken their toll on Dr Jones.

The only caveat is that you’ll need a good deal of patience if you decide to pre-order the figure, as delivery isn’t expected until December of next year. Oof. That’s a long time to have to stare at nothing but a pre-order confirmation email in your inbox. But that tiny fedora, which would look great on every figure from Indy to Darth Vader, would definitely make the wait worthwhile. [Sideshow Collectibles]

[MIKA27]

This Amazing Photo Of A City Is Actually A Game World Map

When I first saw this my first thought was “wow, Shanghai is looking really crazy these days,” thinking that it was a photo. Then I zoomed in and saw it was a painting. The author is a young French artist named Klaus Pillon — who says it is the world map for an incoming indie video game. His work is great.

Klaus Pillon is a French freelance concept artist and illustrator who graduated in October 2011. He has been working with Rogue Moon Studio lately (the images above are from a game they are developing.)

You can follow him on his website, DeviantArt, ArtStation, and Facebook. Buy his prints here.

[MIKA27]

Curiosity Found Spikes In Methane That Could Signal Life On Mars

Ever since Curiosity landed on Mars, it has been in search of methane. It couldn’t find any for years, until a new set of experiments unveiled today that detected large spikes in methane. Scientists have no idea what caused the spikes, but the most intriguing explanation is “life on Mars.”

Much of the methane on Earth comes from microbes belching the gas into the atmosphere. NASA scientists caution there are still non-biological explanations for methane on Mars, such as ultraviolet radiation causing chemical reactions on Mars’s surface or trapped methane being released from lattices of ice.

Finding methane was not easy for Curiosity and its scientists. Although other missions have found trace amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere before, Curiosity had been unable to detect the gas because — as we now know — background levels were just a bit too low for the rover’s instruments. Instead, as Lee Billings at Scientific American explains, Curiosity had to strip carbon dioxide out of its gas samples to enhance the small amounts of background methane.

As the rover traveled across Mars over two months, its instruments also found four transient spikes in methane, about ten times the background level. These spikes suggest a source, but a still mysterious one at that. To get to the bottom of these bursts of methane, we may have to wait for the next Martian rover in 2020.

[MIKA27]

Terrifying Documentary On The Fire Bombs Roaming America's Railroads

Boom is a terrifying documentary on a problem that you may not be aware of: America has been invaded by hundred of thousands of moving fire bombs — freight trains with old, cheap tanker cars designed to transport corn oil filled with dangerous flammable oil. Logically, accidents are happening, people are dying and oil is spilling.

As production kept increasing, the oil-by-train transport business grew from 9500 carloads of crude oil in 2008 to more than 400,000 tankers in 2013, each carrying 114,000 litres. Many trains carry as much as one hundred cars. Naturally, the list of accidents keeps increasing:

• A train hauling 2.9 million gallons of Bakken oil derailed and exploded on November 8 in Aliceville, Alabama, and the oil that leaked but did not burn continues to foul the wetlands in the area.
• On December 30th, a train collision in Casselton, North Dakota 20 miles outside of Fargo, prompted a mass evacuation of over half the town’s residents after 18 cars exploded into fireballs visible for miles. 400,000 gallons of oil spilled after that accident, which involved two trains travelling well below local speed limits.
• Around 1AM on July 5, 2013, over 60 oil cars exploded after a runaway train derailed in Lac-Megantic, a Canadian town near the Maine border, levelling dozens of buildings and killing 47 of the town’s roughly 6,000 residents.

Sounds bad? It gets worse: The US government says that freight train accidents spilled over four million litres of crude oil just in 2013. For comparison, the average amount from 1975 to 2012 was 83,000 litres a year.

According to a New York Times’ story, the bad news don’t stop there: Not only they are putting every city and town with a railroad at risk, we are all paying for it: “States and the federal government have handed out tens of millions in public dollars to rail companies and government agencies to expand crude oil rail transportation across the country.”

I tell you who is not losing money and who is not going to give a damn about jobs and ruined nature once North Dakota dries up: the oil companies.

[MIKA27]

The Unlikely Story Of How Baseball Card Design Shaped Modern Fandom

Yesterday a 91-year-old former executive at the baseball card company Topps passed away in Long Island. You might not know Sy Berger’s name, but he was the person who turned baseball cards into a phenomenon — and, in some ways, defined baseball fandom. And he did it with design.

Baseball cards go back to the 19th century, but they weren’t like the cards you traded as a kid. These were tepid, monochromatic paper cards where you might find a photo of a ballplayer, but probably no stats, nicknames or detailed information. So how did the modern baseball card emerge? Why did bits of cardboard with player’s names and images suddenly explode in the years after World War II, instead of any number of other toys on the market?

It turns out, the development of modern cards wasn’t exactly spurred by the fans — it was spurred by a booming Brooklyn candy company and one of its brilliant employees, Sy Berger.

A Sugary Sales Ploy

Berger was a New Yorker: He was born in Manhattan and studied accounting, and after World War II, went to work for a company called Topps Chewing Gum, Inc. Topps is a Brooklyn company owned by four brothers which had, in the 1800s, started out as a tobacco company. In the 1930s, it had renamed itself and gone into the gum business — Bazooka was one of its first hits, and it sold hard chunks of the stuff with wrapper comics.

Baseball cards had been used to sell everything from cigarettes to “Post Toasties, Num Num Potato Chips and Red Heart Dog Food,” according to this great 1981 Sports Illustrated story. But candy seemed to hit just the right balance between the sugar and the sport for young fans, and the fact that confectioners could mould it to fit the size of the cards themselves was a major bonus. So in 1951, Berger decided to put out a pack of cards that let kids “play” a game of baseball. Each of Berger’s cards had a player and his name along with an action, like a strike or a foul ball. But the cards were sold with taffy, and according toThe New York Times, the taffy was disgusting disaster — because it “wound up picking up the flavour of the varnish on the cards.” Despite that — or maybe because of it — the cards are valuable collector’s items today.

Even Berger, then in his late 20s and pretty much winging it, knew it was a “disaster.” But the following year, he tried again — and struck what you might describe as pink gold. In the fantastic Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession, author David Jamieson explains how Berger leveraged design to build a card so successful that it would, eventually, be the subject of lawsuits alleging a monopoly on the business.

The Numbers Game

Berger and his collaborators developed their card around the table of his apartment in Brownsville, Brooklyn, during late-night design sessions. “The card they ended up developing included a number of features that rarely, if ever, turned up on earlier sports cards,” Jamieson writes. They included details like player autographs, team logos, and nicknames. They created a totally new design for the back of the cards, too:

As a youngster, Berger, the accountant, had been obsessed with computing his favourite players’ averages over the newspaper at the breakfast table. He thought that children might enjoy reading each player’s statistics in a more kid-friendly format.

So he created a page of stats about each player, including career highlights, that would usher in the now-familiar era of numbers-obsessed baseball.

Kids might have known their favourite ballplayers and their biggest wins before that, but Berger’s stats changed how young fans talked about and understood the game. As Sports Illustrated’s Jamal Green explained in 2000:

Kids across America suddenly could recite stats and recognise uniforms. They would learn nicknames like Choo Choo (Coleman) and how to spell Yastrzemski. They would revel in mistakes made by Topps: Hank Aaron batting as a lefty in 1957, Gino Cimoli swinging an invisible bat in ’58 and the ’69 Aurelio Rodriguez card that pictured a batboy, not Rodriguez.

Up until then, kids would need to dig through the papers to learn the current stats of their favourites. Berger tied the numbers to the players, and in doing so, created a phenomenon that introduced kids to the numbers behind their favourite game.

Another big part of Berger’s job was signing the players themselves — which he excelled at, offering cash or cards in exchange for exclusive signing rights. Some players were embarrassed or nervous to pose for the hero-shot photographs that would accompany their cards, as Al Kaline, pictured above, recalled to Franz Lidz recounted in 1981:

“I used to be embarrassed to go out and pose,” recalls Al Kaline. “They always got me before games on the road, and the fans would be yelling,’Hey, Kaline, you bum.’ I’d ask the photographer to use the card from the year before. Hell, I was on 21 of them.”

The Garbage Truck of Fate

The cards Berger designed around his table during those late-night sessions in the 1950s ended up becoming hugely influential in baseball culture, both in terms of how young fans got into the sport and how they understood that impact of stats. And his baseball card culture was the model for countless other toy franchises, from Pokemon cards to Pogs.

Still, Berger didn’t imagine the empire that he was building in those early years would turn into a multimillion-dollar collector’s market. Maybe one of the most famous anecdotes — and one recounted in nearly every obituary yesterday — about his work details an incident that illustrates just how unforeseen the baseball card market was.

In an story recounted in Mint Condition, we learn that Topps printed a series of late-season cards that featured future greats like Micky Mantle and Jackie Robinson in 1952. The cards didn’t sell terribly well, and in the 1960s, Berger had tons of the cards leftover. As Jamieson explains, Berger could find no buyers and didn’t want the old coupons inside the packs to find their way to purchasers. So instead of trashing them, he loaded up three whole garbage trucks and put them on a garbage boat leaving from Brooklyn — then dumped the remaining 1952 stock out at sea.

Incredibly, Mantle’s card from that year recently sold at auction for $US130,000. It’s impossible to say how many other $US130,000 cards were dumped into the Atlantic, thin cardboard disintegrating within days, somewhere off the coast of New Jersey.