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

[MIKA27]

Hilarious Australian Ad Shows What Happens When A Stuntman Screws Up All The Time

Probably inspired by the thousands of YouTube videos featuring daredevils failing in their stunts, the ad agency 303lowe created this hilarious ad for Australian insurance company Budget Direct — the story of Captain Risky and his clumsy stunts. It is brilliant.

[MIKA27]

Ford GT Finally Resurrected As An EcoBoost-Powered Supercar

Unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show overnight, the weaponised GT is astonishing. It doesn’t have the V8 engine we’re used to, rather a twin-turbo EcoBoost engine capable of producing a reported 600 BHP on the trot.

It’s a remarkable piece of design too, taking elements from other beautiful supercars, a helping of carbon fibre and two amazing-looking air channels in the sides of the car to channel air over the wheels and generate downforce.

Ford says it’s going into production next year, and I want to drive it so badly.

Just clap your eyes on the thing. It’s gorgeous.

To find out why the Ford GT brand is so special, check out this great retrospective from Top Gear.

[MIKA27]

How Not To Smuggle 94 iPhones Through Chinese Customs

When customs officers at Futian Port in China saw a male passenger with “weird walking posture, joint stiffness, muscle tension…” they got suspicious. Turns out, he was attempting to smuggle 94 iPhones into the country — all of them strapped to his body.

Having travelled in from Hong Kong, the suspect arrived with two plastic shopping bags. They were checked and nothing suspicious found, but when forced to walk through a metal detector, the suspect set off the alarms in some style. Still, at least he’s in more comfort now he doesn’t have them strapped to his body — even if he is in a cell.

[MIKA27]

Why NASA Crashed A Plane In The Desert Thirty Years Ago

Thirty years ago NASA carried out a controlled impact demonstration, known as “the crash in the desert”, in which researchers essentially crashed a Boeing 720 into an dry lake bed. We take a look at every aspect of this crazy experiment and what the aerospace engineers learnt after completing it.

When

The impact occurred on the morning of the 1st of December 1984, after spending nine minutes in the air.

Although crashing a plane sounds (reasonably) easy, preparation began four years before the final test-flight occurred. During testing the Boeing spent a total of 16 hours and 22 minutes in the air, including 10 takeoffs and 69 approached landings.

Where

The controlled impact took place on Rogers Dry Lake, at the Dryden Flight Research Facility in Edwards, California. This is an area of arid land located 16 miles south-east of the Mojave Desert.

The facility was originally named after Hugh Dryden, a prominent aeronautical engineer who passed away in 1965. Unfortunately for Dryden and his family, the site was renamed on the 1st of March 2014, this time after Neil Armstrong.

Who

The controlled impact was a joint project between NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The Langley Research Center, Dryden Flight Research Center and General Electric were also involved in the experiment.

The aircraft was flown by NASA research pilot Fitzhugh Fulton. Fulton started his career as a pilot in the US Airforce, where he took part in hundreds of combat missions over Berlin and North Korea for which he earned a Distinguished Flying Cross and five Air Medals.

After retiring from service Fulton became a test pilot for the Air Force, where he was involved with the B-58 supersonic bomber. During these experiments Fulton set an international altitude record by flying at a height of 26 kilometres (85,301 feet) in 1962.

Fulton moved to NASA in 1966 and earned the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for his contribution towards the Boeing 747 Space Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. In 1980, he started work on the Controlled Impact Demonstration.

What (Happened)

In 1960 the FAA purchased a brand new Boeing 720 to use as a training aircraft. After spending over 20,000 hours in the air and performing 54,000 takeoff and landing cycles, it started looking a bit tired, so was given to the Dryden Flight Research Center in 1981.

NASA adapted the plane to fly via remote control, similar to an unmanned drone. The plane was controlled from a model cockpit and a CRT monitor (pictured above). The first full-scale test flight was cancelled due to a failure with the uplink connection; if the uplink had failed in-flight, Fulton would have lost control of the aircraft and the Boeing 720 would be independently roaming US airspace.

On the day of the last flight, the aircraft took off and climbed to a height of 700 metres. Upon approaching the specially designed runway, Fulton was given the go-ahead, data acquisitions systems were activated and the aircraft was committed to impact.

As the plane passed the point of no return, 46 metres up, the aircraft made contact with the ground. The initial plan was for the plane to land completely level, allowing the fuselage to remain intact while the wings were sliced open by eight cement ‘rhino horns’ in the runway.

The left wing touched the ground first, causing the plane to skid sideways on the runway. Because the aircraft landed off-centre, one of the horns sliced through the plane’s right side engine and continued into the fuselage, causing fuel to enter the cabin.

Cutting through the engine generated enough heat to ignite the fuel, this created an impressive fireball which took over an hour to extinguish.

As well as a great (if a bit creepy) set of images, researchers also managed to capture video from a number of different viewpoints, including from the cockpit, and the plane’s tail. It’s definitely not for those with a fear of flying:

Why

NASA didn’t do it just because they had a spare Boeing 720 and a GoPro laying around, the primary object of the experiment was to investigate an additive that retards fuel flammability.

The additive was called FM-9, and when combined with Jet-A fuel creates an anti-misting kerosene (AMK). AMK demonstrated flame-inhabiting properties in the lab, but the FAA wanted to experiment with them in a real-world test.

Because things like this don’t happen very often, the plane was also packed full of new safety innovations ready for testing. These included updated seat belt designs, flight-data recorders, fireproof cabin materials and burn-resistant windows.

The plane was also fitted with structural load measuring equipment, including a horde of instrumented crash dummies in the passenger seats.

Conclusion

The final conclusion on AMK was that it does not provide a sufficient enough benefit in the event of a crash; the FAA concluded that 25 per cent of the passengers would have survived. The organisation estimates passengers in the forward cabin would have had just five seconds before smoke obstruction; passengers in the rear had a leisurely 20 seconds.

Repeat Experiments

A repeat experiment was held in 2012, when a television company bought a Boeing 727 and crashed it in the Mexican desert. This experiment was decidedly less scientific than the previous attempt, with the documentary film-makers examining where the best place to sit on a plane is in the event of a crash.

The show came to the conclusion that the safest location is where the plane hits last, which isn’t really a revelation. The documentary aired on Channel4 in the UK.

[MIKA27]

This Aussie Zombie Movie Looks Pretty Funny!!

The Walking Dead shows us what the zombie apocalypse would do to America; 28 Days Later shows us how Britain would cope, and now we have a horrifying vision of the undead taking over Australia with Wyrmwood: a new Aussie zombie movie.

The full title is Wyrmwood: Road of the Dead and critics are calling it “Mad Max meets Dawn Of The Dead”.

It hits cinemas in March.

I personally love the medical kit as shown in the trailer.

[MIKA27]

A Robot Fights For His Right To Live In The Latest Chappie Trailer

“I Am Consciousness. I Am Alive. I Am Chappie.” This new second trailer looks awesome! Written and directed by Neill Blomkamp, the man behind District 9, Chappie stars Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel, and Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$USer from South African electro-rap duo Die Antwoord. It premieres March 12 in Australia.

The second trailer for the upcoming sci-fi gives us some background on the smart lil badass robot who just wants to live, man.

Things we learn in this trailer:

• Neil from The Newsroom is Chappie’s dad.
• Anderson Cooper will still be alive in 2016.
• Sigourney Weaver is not down with hyper-intelligent, cute-as-**** robot prodigies.

“Destroy that robot! Burn it to ash!” she yells.

[MIKA27]

Budweiser Is Building A Life-Size Pacman Arena For The Super Bowl

Every year, the US gets to watch a series of commercials interspersed with occasional shots of people running into each other. But for this year’s Super Bowl commercial, Budweiser has upped the ante: it’s built a life-size Pac-Man game.

As I4U have noticed, a few photos of the maze have been surfacing on Twitter and Facebook. It’s definitely a Pac-Man game, complete with light-up walls, jellies, and apparently, one poor victim actor trying to escape, presumably thanks to the jelly-melting magic of Bud Lite or something.

Although, on the one hand, this is an ad (an ad for lite beer, at that) and I should feel only visceral hate and rage towards it, there’s something deeply childhood-fulfilling about a lifesize Pac-Man arena. Hopefully, they will leave it up and invite the public in at some point. I have some high scores to defend.

[MIKA27]

This Spinal Implant Is Letting Paralysed Rats Walk Again

The ability to internally bridge the gap between two ends of severed spinal cord — not just rely on the support of an external carapace like the Ekso-Suit — would be nothing short of revolutionary for the neurosurgical field. Oh wait, looks like a team from the EPFL has just invented a way to do just that — in mice.

The implantable device, dubbed e-Dura, is the brainchild of professors Stéphanie Lacour and Grégoire Courtine from Switzerland’s École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne research institution. The team had already developed a means of reinvigorating the function of partially severed spinal columns in lab rats through a combination of electrical and chemical stimulation — an incredible feat in its own right. But in order to apply the same method to humans, they’d need to implant a stimulation device directly to the spine for long periods of time.

This has never been possible before — especially in the delicate neurological system beneath the brain and spine’s protective “dura mater” level — because any foreign body left in there causes near immediate inflammation and rejection. But the EPFL team’s e-Dura device has been designed specifically to avoid rejection. They did so by making it stretchy.

They made it exactly as stretchy as the tissue surrounding it so that rather than sit atop the site like a medical-grade lump, it moves and flexes with the rest of the spine, minimising friction with the dura mater.

“Our e-Dura implant can remain for a long period of time on the spinal cord or the cortex, precisely because it has the same mechanical properties as the dura mater itself. This opens up new therapeutic possibilities for patients suffering from neurological trauma or disorders, particularly individuals who have become paralysed following spinal cord injury,” Stéphanie Lacour, co-author of the paper explained in a press release.

The team has already successfully implanted a prototype of the device in a rat subject. It’s not only been it there for more than two months without the threat of rejection, the device helped get the rat up and walking around again after just a few weeks of training. Should this technology make it past human safety trials, paralysis may one day be as common as polio.

[MIKA27]

This McLaren 650S Is Sporting The Dashboard Of The Future

Kenwood has taken a McLaren 650S and filled it to the doors with future, and it looks incredible.

Kenwood’s new dashboard concept has seen the car audio company strip the gorgeous 650S down to its carpets and completely replace the instrument cluster, console screen and other buttons with an array of screens, cameras and tablets.

The central idea is that everything you need is projected in front of the driver, with all the relevant information from the mirrors, screens and instruments being placed within a 45-degree wedge of vision.

The traditional speedometer has been replaced by a 10-inch TFT screen which shows anything from RPM through to speed and even navigation and entertainment information.

Above that is a series of three screens that are fed by cameras mounted around the car. There’s no rearview mirror or side mirrors on Kenwood’s McLaren 650S. Instead, there are cameras on the aerodynamic wings, as well as two cameras up front, two underneath and two on the back. Those front, back and rear cameras are particularly handy: you run a risk with a car this low that you’ll catch it on a gutter or a pebble and injure it at great personal expense.

Those cameras also allow for night vision to see what’s ahead of you, as well as a cumulative top-down view of the car when you try to park it.

Finally, the Christmas tree of screens is topped off with a 6-inch head-up display that shows you your speed and other relevant information.

The screens change based on the mode the driver’s in, be it road, sport or track.

Kenwood haven’t said they’ll ship this exact system in future, rather it’s something they’ve built as a proof-of-concept to show what they’re working on. Now all you need is a McLaren 650S to put it in.

[MIKA27]

Guy Straps Fireworks To His Ankles For Insane Breakdance Performance

Lil Amok — a professional dancer based in Berlin, Germany — strapped fireworks to his ankles, lit them up and performed this insane breakdance show.

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What It’s Like Living in the Coldest Town on Earth

It got down to -24 degrees Fahrenheit in Oymyakon, Russia, over the weekend. As frigid as that seems, it’s typical for this town, long known as the coldest inhabited place on Earth. If that kind of number is hard to wrap your brain around, such a temperature is so cold that people here regularly consume frozen meat, keep their cars running 24/7 and must warm the ground with a bonfire for several days before burying their dead.

It’s hard to know why anyone would want to live in such a place, and harder still to imagine why anyone would want to visit. But photographer Amos Chapple just couldn’t resist.

Alexander Platonov, 52, a retired teacher, dressed for a quick dash to the outdoor toilet at his home in Oymyakon.

“I shoot travel photos aimed at the news sections of papers and need a headline to hang a story on,” the New Zealander said. “‘The coldest place on Earth’ is pretty irresistible.”

He traveled more than 10,000 miles to reach this village of 500 residents tucked away in a remote corner of Siberia. It’s so nasty that planes can’t land during the winter, and it takes two days to arrive by car from Yakutsk, the nearest major city (it’s 576 miles away). Chapple spent several weeks shooting in Oymyakon and Yakutsk during the long, dark month of January in 2013 and 2014. His remarkable photos capture the cold, bleak landscape and the hardy residents who brave unimaginable conditions.

The soviet era sign reading "Oymyakon, the Pole of Cold" in the centre of Oymyakon

Oymyakon sits at a 63.4608° N, 142.7858° E latitude, just a few hundred miles from the Arctic Circle. It’s dark — completely, utterly dark — for up to 21 hours a day during the winter, and the temperature averages -58. That’s balmy compared to one February in 1933, when Oymyakon earned its title as the coldest place on Earth when the mercury plunged to -90.

Here arctic chill is simply a fact of life, something to be endured. People develop a variety of tricks to survive. Most people use outhouses, because indoor plumbing tends to freeze. Cars are kept in heated garages or, if left outside, left running all the time. Crops don’t grow in the frozen ground, so people have a largely carnivorous diet—reindeer meat, raw flesh shaved from frozen fish, and ice cubes of horse blood with macaroni are a few local delicacies.

A man walks away from Oymyakon's general store.

A digger piles coal ash on a heap near the Oymyakon heating plant

Chapple found it difficult to speak with the people he encountered, as many people were rushing as fast as possible from one oasis of warmth to another. Those willing to chat warned him about the rampant alcoholism, particularly during the holiday months.

Oymyakon weather played hell with Chapple’s camera. He faced unending challenges while shooting. “There was a lot to learn, it took several days to figure out some tricks to be able to keep working,” he said. “From the moment I left the hotel in the morning the temperature of the camera would begin to drop. Once the guts of the camera froze, that was it for the day.”

Overview of Oymyakon at dusk. The town's heating plant is at left. While taking this photo Chapple's thumb nearly froze solid

An Uazik van in the tundra outside of Oymyakon. The soviet-era vans are widely favored in Siberia for their ability to stand up to the cold. They are often equipped with industrial-sized heating fans in the passenger compartment. They are known as "loaves" for their distinctive shape.

Chapple would wander around with his jacket half open, trying to keep the camera warm against his body and drawing it out only when he had a shot. He also had to hold his breath when snapping frames, as the steam from his mouth would “swirl around like cigar smoke” and ruin the images.

He experienced the reality of Oymyakon’s bitter cold firsthand when he tried to take an overview shot of the town. There were no accessible hills near the village, so Chapple climbed up a radio mast in the center of the village, swinging nearly 50 feet above the ground. Still unable to get his shot, he hastily pulled off his outer gloves and took the photo.

Petrol station midway between Oymyakon and Yakutsk. Extremely remote petrol stations such as this one are open 24 hours and staffed by men who have two-week on two-week off shifts.

A toilet on the tundra, midway between Oymyakon and Yakutsk. Inside are two wooden slats above a pit. A sharp spire of frozen excrement rose almost to ground level within the pit

“I could then shoot with some dexterity but by the time I got down to the ground my thumb had frozen,” Chapple said. “I had to make a dash for my guesthouse with my hand shoved down my trousers. For the next two weeks the skin on that thumb peeled like some kind of terrible sunburn.”

In the city of Yakutsk, a woman walks over a frost-coated bridge

A woman holds up an arctic hare for sale along with stacks of frozen fish in a market in the centre of Yakutsk

Warm draughts of air escaping this house freeze into puffs of ice which form, fall and reform throughout winter in Yakutsk

Frost-crusted statues in a Yakutsk park commemorating WWII.

Ice-crusted traffic light in Yakutsk. The freezing fog which settles on the city in January coats everything in a sugar-like frost

A local woman enters Yakutsk's Preobrazhensky Cathedral on Christmas Day (January 7th in Russia) in a swirl of freezing mist.

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BAC TSR-2: THE UNTOLD STORY – FULL DOCUMENTARY

TSR-2: The Untold Story is a fascinating documentary about an aircraft that almost no one outside the world of aviation-history-geekage has heard of. It would have been years, perhaps even decades, ahead of its time if it had been cleared for production but sadly the approval stamp never landed and it was relegated to the scrap heap.

Official Description:

The TSR2 was a technological triumph for Britain; a world beating tactical, strike and reconnaissance aircraft years ahead of its time. It carried four on-board digital computers to process radar information. It could deliver its weapons load to a target 1000 nautical miles away from a runway just 600 yards long. Flying at ultra low level at the speed of sound it would have been able to pass under Soviet radar/air defence screen undetected. It would have been the most powerful weapon in the NATO arsenal. And yet it was destined never to see service. Why?

The fascinating story behind the cancellation of the TSR2 project is one of international intrigue and high stake politics. It ended in 1965 when a 200,000,000 pound aircraft project was reduced to just 50,000 pound worth of scrap metal and the future of Britain as a world leader in aviation was put in jeopardy.

When the order came for the TSR2’s cancellation, the prototype, construction jigs, design papers and film records were all ordered to be destroyed. Despite this, unique film material did escape destruction and has remained hidden in vaults – until now.

[Fuzz]

A Robot Fights For His Right To Live In The Latest Chappie Trailer

Number 5 is alive... and kicking some serious ass!

[MIKA27]

Picture of The Week: Monaco, Yacht Parking

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AMSTERDAM GARAGE BACHELOR PAD BY BRICKS

Amsterdam gets a lot of mentions for its Red Light District and the anything goes situation happening over there, but if you think this nook of the Netherlands doesn’t have its share of hard working, fully sober citizens, then check out this renovation prject right here.

Interior designers BRICKS (Kelly Hoppen and James van der Velden) have magically transformed a local garage into a swank bachelor pad, while still paying homage to the history of the space with a few classic nods. The roomy kitchen and living area are decorated to the nines, including a cool oversized clock that looks like it came from a 1940s train station. And yes, it looks tailor-made for a bachelor, but the spacious walk-in shower says guests are welcome too.

[MIKA27]

THE BOMB DRINKS CABINET

This thing is The Bomb. No, we’re not resurrecting mid-90s slang, it’s actually called The Bomb, and if we were still saying “it’s all that,” we might be inclined to utter that phrase too right now.

UK-based Fallen Furniture specializes in turning pieces of old military and civilian aircrafts into eye-grabbing modern furniture, and they’ve hit the bulls eye with this 7’2 tall drinks cabinet made from a R.A.F. MK1 Practice Cluster Bomb. Open up the mirror-polished aluminum and steel exterior and a gorgeously crafted interior awaits your beverages, with a polished brass and lacquered black American walnut shelving unit and door inlays. It all gets topped off with custom-made, copper cocktail utensils. The only question now is, do you have any spirits worthy of residing in this beauty? [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

EARIN WIRELESS EARBUDS

Love music but hate cables? Earin may well be the perfect solution if that´s your case! These are the world´s smallest wireless earbuds, as they say, and we can attest to it! Incredible sound quality, nice playtime, between 2,5 to 3 hours, with just 5 grams on your ears! All of this with the easiness of Bluetooth pairing with your playing devices. It works with an app, that exists for IOS, Android and Windows Phone. Simple, easy and intuitive. Earin comes with two wireless earpieces and a compact capsule that works both as a storage device and charger, it´s quite small and will easily fit in your pocket or purse. It also has a great design, so we´re sure we´ll definitely hear more about it…

Their webshop opened yesterday and the Earbuds are already sold out! (it seems 1000 units were gone in less than 30 minutes!), so act quick when the next batch comes along…

[MIKA27]

ZOLT CHARGER

Your devices are only useful if they are charged, and we all know how vital keeping them at optimum power levels can be. Zolt Charger is not only the smallest, lightest, laptop charger we've seen, but it's also a multi-tasker — allowing you to charge up to three devices at once. And with their Efficient Resonant Control technology, the Zolt analyzes each charging device and prioritizes an optimal charge for each one. Small, productive, and smart enough to keep your devices powered up and ready to use.

[MIKA27]

Iceland: Brewery makes 'whale ******** beer'

An Icelandic micro-brewery has announced its new beer will be flavoured with smoked whales' testicles, it's been reported.

The Stedji brewery's Hvalur 2 beer is being sold for a limited period to mark the Icelandic midwinter month of Thorri, the Visir website reports. The testicles of fin whales - which are an endangered species - are cured "according to an old, Icelandic tradition" before being salted and smoked, with one being used per brewing. "We want to create a true Thorri atmosphere, and therefore we decided to use smoked testicles from fin whales for flavouring the beer," says Dagbjartur Ariliusson, a co-owner of the brewery. "We put a lot of effort into this and it's a long process." In 2013, Iceland resumed commercial fin whaling after a two-year suspension. Most of its whale meat is exported to Japan.

The Stedji brewery angered conservationists in 2014 by making a beer which contained other whale parts, including bones and intestines. At the time, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation group described it as"immoral and outrageous" to use whale meat to make beer. The product was temporarily banned by public health authorities, but later sold out in alcohol shops. This time around, all the permissions are already in place, the brewery says.

[MIKA27]

New Avengers: Age Of Ultron Trailer Looks Really Disturbing And Awesome

This movie can’t come fast enough because each trailer unveils a new layer and just adds to the sure to be epic-ness of The Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. The latest trailer shows off some more action sequences, and reveals a lot of infighting and gets quite tense thanks to every character giving their best worry face.

[MIKA27]

This Alien Combination Of Solar Phenomena Is A Real Earth Sunrise

Many of us have seen a 22-degree halo, that surreal circle of rainbow-coloured light around the sun, in real life. Some of us have seen a sun pillar in real life. A lucky few have seen a sun dog in real life. But I doubt any of you have seen them all of these super rare phenomena — and more! — in one sunrise.

The above photograph was taken in Red River, New Mexico by Joshua Thomas on January 9 and provided to the National Weather Service in Amarillo, Texas, who posted it to Facebook. While the snowscape itself is beautiful in its own rite, the sky looks simply alien. How could one sun produce so many different optical illusions at once? There’s a 22º halo, a sun pillar, a sun dog, infralateral arcs, supralateral arcs, and more! The NWS in La Cross, Wisconsin was nice enough to annotate the phenomena:

Earth pretty.

[MIKA27]

The Golden Gate Bridge Gets The Massive Median Mover It Needed

After a marathon weekend installation, the Golden Gate Bridge has finally gotten the $US30 million movable median barrier system that it so desperately needs. These are the oversized mechanical zipper pulls that will be in charge of changing lanes (quite literally) twice a day to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

The Golden Gate Bridge employs six traffic lanes along its single deck with the center-most lane dedicated to separating the flows of traffic. Its lane configuration can be adjusted to accommodate traffic conditions — they will roll out four Southbound lanes (into the city) during the morning commute and reverse that in the afternoon, but leave three lanes apiece during the weekend — but they’re really only separated by a series of plastic pylons. So even though they’re limited to 72km/h, the chances of a driver accidentally crossing into oncoming lanes is quite high and happens with tragic regularity. 36 people in total have died on the GGB since 1971, 16 of which lost their lives in head-on collisions.

It will take a Sherman tank to break through the new Moveable Median Barrier system from Barrier Systems, however. The system consists of more than 3200, 12-inch wide by 32-inch high units linked together to form a semi-rigid barrier. Each steel-wrapped, concrete-filled unit weighs 680kg.

It takes a 27-tonne, 18m long hulk of a truck to shift the new barrier back and forth among the lanes. Caltrans has two such vehicles dedicated to working on the GGB, and it’s a good thing too because each Zipper Truck as they’re known (technically they’re “barrier transfer machines”), has a top speed of 16km/h and gets just 8km to the gallon.

Each truck is equipped with an S-shaped channel running the length of its undercarriage. As the truck moves past/over a barrier unit, the segment is lifted up and shoved over to the other side of the lane before being set back down as it exits the rear of the vehicle.

This is far from the first such movable barrier system. Similar systems have been installed throughout North America, from Hawaii to Boston. In fact, the system is already in use along Presidio Boulevard (as you can see above), the main thoroughfare leading up to the GGB’s southern entrance.

[MIKA27]

Porsche Gives Us a Sexier, Faster 911 Targa—For a Price

Just when you thought Porsche’s 911 Targa couldn’t get any better, along comes the Targa 4 GTS.

The 911 Targa, unveiled a year ago with its seemingly magical pop-top, was the most beautiful open-top 911 since the original Targa appeared in 1967. But Porsche upped the ante yesterday at the Detroit auto show with 911 Targa 4 GTS, the long-awaited marriage of Targa style and the sharpened handling and performance of the company’s GTS models.

That extra power is especially appealing here because the Targa's sweet roof opening mechanism adds a bunch of weight

GTS stands for grand touring sport, which means making a sexy and fast car sexier and faster. The extra power is especially appealing in the Targa, since the mechanics that open and close the roof make it a bit pudgy. The curb weight of the Targa GTS is roughly 3,500 pounds, about 400 more than than a 911 Carrera GTS. But it’s got a 3.8-liter boxer six instead of the 3.4, which is good for 430 horsepower if you’re willing to rev it to 7,500 RPM—which you should be, because few things sound so glorious as a flat six at full song.

The rear-mounted six-cyclinder, 3.8-liter engine produces 430 hp and 325 pound-feet of torque

You’ll really want the seven-speed manual transmission, which comes standard as God and Ferdinand Porsche intended. But if you can’t handle three pedals, get the PDK (Porsche Doppelkupplung) double-clutch gearbox that changes gears in milliseconds. Letting the computer do the shifting for you shaves your zero to sixty time another three-tenths to a mere 4.1 seconds. You won’t be able to go quite that fast with the top down, but it’ll feel a heck of a lot faster when you can hear the air molecules bum rushing each other to get out of your way.

The rear engine layout leaves just 4.4 cubic feet of trunk space at the front of the car. That’s just enough room for an overnight bag and a few essentials, which sorta belies the “grand touring” part of the equation. But with a car like this, who cares? It’s all about having fun. Porsche hasn’t released MPG numbers for the car, but the regular Targa 4 gets just 18 mpg in the city and 26 on the highway. If you’re driving this car the way you should, you’ll be well south of those numbers.

The car hits American dealerships in late April, so start saving up

The GTS package also tacks on 20-inch center wheel locks, a sportier front end design, piles of black Alcantara, and GTS logos (of course) on the doors, rear, and Targa bar. All of this boosts the Targa 4’s base price from $101,600 to $132,800, though Porsche promises an “extensive package of standard features.” The car hits American dealers in late April, so start saving up.

[MIKA27]

Church Refuses Funeral for *** Woman

The minister of a church in Lakewood, Colorado refused to hold a memorial service on Saturday because the deceased woman was ***, according to the woman’s family and friends. “Her casket was open, flowers laid out and hundreds of people sitting in the pews,” supporters wrote in a Facebook post, noting that the service was canceled 15 minutes after it was supposed to begin. “He collected money for the funeral and has yet to return it.” The deceased was 33-year-old Vanessa Collier, who died in late December and left behind a wife and two children. A "Dignity in Death" rally was held on Tuesday to protest the church's decision.

MIKA: Truly horrible!

[MIKA27]

ENKO RUNNING SHOES

Enko is a revolutionary running shoe that further enhances your running experience, the concept is both simple and ingenious. The shoe embodies both comfort and speed, it features an innovative shock absorption system (adapted to runner´s weight) that absorbs impact for a smoother landing, offering comfort and protection for your joints. The impact energy is contained and conserved in a stride, and then released for that desired acceleration, making your running extremely efficient.