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

[MIKA27]

METAL GEAR SOLID V: THE PHANTOM PAIN SPECIAL EDITION PS4

Arguably the biggest game on the 2015 release calendar is Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. It’s due in September for the PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC, but only PS4 owners in Asia (at least for now) will be able to play Solid Snake’s latest action-espionage adventure on this tasty special edition console.

Made in collaboration with Konami, the maroon and black unit is colored the same way as Snake’s red Bionic Arm is in the game, with some nice gold striping and a few game-related logos scattered about. The accompanying DualShock 4 also gets a modest makeover, as it’s now the color of Snake’s right-hand gun with his unit logo on it. Please, no matter how many times you get killed, don’t throw this controller at the TV.

[MIKA27]

HEMISFERIO CRIATIVO NIMBUS E-CAR

It might look like a child's toy, but we'd happily spend our playtime behind the wheel of the Hemisferio Criativo Nimbus E-Car.

This hybrid concept relies on a 180hp electric engine and lithium-ion battery to move around, with a micro combustion generator, solar panels, and regenerative braking to keep it charged up. This, combined with a strong, lightweight build made from carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum, lets it achieve the equivalent of 180 mpg, while four selectable driving modes, ranging from Energy Saver to 4WD, adapt to the terrain. Add in the panoramic windows, room for up to five passengers, and well-appointed interior, and you have a concept we'd love to see become reality.

Panel

Nimbus™ has a Multi Function Convex Driver Dashboard made with flexible screen, which allows a clear view of important information for the driver, including Velocimeter, Batteries Level, GPS, Engine Temperature and more. It also has auto sound/display alerts for other important information and GPS Commands. The driver can easily change functions on the display anytime with a simple touch on the 4 configurable buttons on the steering wheel, using the touchscreen, or voice commands.

The Central Display and Controller is a removable touchscreen (7" diagonal) from which the driver or front seat passenger can control the sound system, interior lights, air conditioning, routes, clock and also access the media browser, inclinometer, altimeter, weather, general vehicle info (tire pressure, washer fluid level, maintenance schedule, etc) and Internet services (such as Skype/social media/E-mail). This central display and controller is integrated with an analog selector for better gradual selection of sounds (music/phone) volume/balance/equalizer, A/C intensity and temperature.

Nimbus™ has Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, 4 USB conectors (2 for front and 2 for back seats) for media browser and recharging, as well as 1 conventional 12V power conector.

It has Self-Cleaning Surfaces, for less water use, and Anti-theft System, with Remote Power Blocker and Location Detection.

Details

A/C Cold/Hot
Electric doors, Windows and Mirrors
Front/Back Screens Wiping/Defrost
Tyre Pressures and Washer Fluids Level Sensors
Fog Lights (4)
Winnowers (2)
Mini Refrigerator (capacity for 8 cans)
Cup/Bottle-Holders (6)

Specs

Dimensions 2.10 x 4.20 x 2.60 m
Weight 1.620 kg / 3 570 lb
Layout Rear engine
Doors 5
Autonomy 260 to 320 km (160 to 200 mi)
Max Speed 130 to 160 km/h (80 to 100 mph) - 0 to 100 km/h (0 to 60 mph) in 13 seconds
Baggage loading 470 lt (Internal) / 300 lt (Top Suitcase) / 200 lt (Reck) - 600kg / 1322 lb total
Tyres Semi-cross
Brakes ABS
Suspensions Independent

[Fuzz]

HEMISFERIO CRIATIVO NIMBUS E-CAR

Panel

Nimbus™ has a Multi Function Convex Driver Dashboard made with flexible screen, which allows a clear view of important information for the driver, including Velocimeter, Batteries Level, GPS, Engine Temperature and more.

Velocimeter? Why would one want to measure the velocity of fluids or gases, whilst driving?

[MIKA27]

Velocimeter? Why would one want to measure the velocity of fluids or gases, whilst driving?

Maybe because you might have gas?

[MIKA27]

This Tiny Multi-Function Cube Can Save A Dying Smartphone

There is no shortage of tiny USB charging and sync cables available for your smartphone, but the makers of the aptly-named WonderCube have managed to squeeze a surprising amount of functionality into a tiny one-inch cube you’ll never want to leave home without.

The WonderCube is smaller than most keychains, but does far more than remind you about your trip to Florida a decade ago. One side of the cube is covered in a grippy material so that it can be used as a stand to perch your phone at the perfect angle for watching videos. Or you can use it as a compact flashlight with its built-in LED.

But unfolding the WonderCube reveals its best-kept secrets. One side has a Lightning or microUSB connector while the other has standard USB allowing you to charge a smartphone or tablet when connected to a power adaptor, or sync the device with a computer. The USB port even has a slot for a microSD card letting you use the cube as a card reader, or as a way to back up data from your mobile device — if supported.

And for those times when your smartphone is nearly dead and there’s no outlet or computer to be found, the top of the WonderCube opens to reveal an adaptor letting you use a common 9-volt battery to revive your device. It’s a last resort for a dying phone, but there’s certainly some peace of mind knowing it’s an option.

The WonderCube is available through an Indiegogo campaign that launched today, and the first 100 backers can pre-order the tiny wonder for just $US40. But if you’d rather hold off on committing any money until the cube is officially shipping, it will cost you $US70 instead. So despite the risks, this might be one of those crowdfunding campaigns you’ll want to jump on now instead of later. [Indiegogo - WonderCube]

[MIKA27]

Solar Impulse Just Broke A World Record For Solar-Powered Flight

The Solar Impulse plane took off on its mission to fly around the world without using any fuel on Monday morning, and it’s already breaking records. As part of the journey from Oman to India, it flew the longest ever distance for a solar powered plane going point-to-point.

The plane took off from Muscat, Oman at 0235, landing in Ahmedabad 13 hours and 20 minutes later. That’s a journey of 1468km, which pilot Bertrand Piccard (son of another famous explorer, but no, notthat Picard) flew at about 185km/h for the majority of the flight, cruising at around 8500m.

The plane will continue on its around-the-world trip with a series of point-to-point for the next five months, hopefully finishing back in Abu Dhabi. You can (and should) follow along on the Solar Impulse website — there’s all manner of live tracking, overlaying the plane on satellite imagery, as well as a complete logbook, live tracking of the plane’s battery systems and telemetry data. You can even see if the pilot remembered to eat lunch.

[MIKA27]

INSTRUMENT 1

INSTRUMENT 1 by Antiphon is the latest project taking Kickstarter by storm. The revolutionary musical instrument uses a patented technology that turns basic musical gestures into any sound you want to create, strum a guitar, bow a violin, tap a piano, loop a beat, all this on a single instrument! The innovative device can connect to hundreds of apps on mobile devices and computers, and can literally make any sound imaginable.

[MIKA27]

Morning News Show Sees UFO and Russia Builds UFO-Like Drone

The good people of Oklahoma could use something to take their minds off of the latest news about racist fraternities and this may do the trick. A local television morning news program broadcast a UFO flying over Oklahoma City and none of these crack journalists can figure out what it was. What it’s not – at least not yet – is a new monster drone unveiled in Russia that’s sure to have Muscovites calling in UFO sightings.

The UFO was seen speeding across the pre-dawn sky on March 12th on KOCO 5 News in the Morning. The superfast UFO is reminiscent of the still-unexplained hypersonic one spotted flying over Silicon Valley last week and the story is similar to the one about the UFO seen on an Argentine newscast (later revealed to be a hoax). In an unusual twist for UFOs on TV news shows, KOCO 5 actually admitted on its website that they saw this one but have no idea what it was and asked viewers for their input. The comments ranged from meteors to alien spacecrafts with no consensus. Oh, and no comments from any military or government agencies.

Meanwhile, in Russia …

1:5 scale model of the Chirok drone

Watch for UFO sightings to go up in Russia once the full-sized Chirok reconnaissance and strike UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) starts flying. A 1:5 scale model was unveiled last year and a full-sized operational prototype with a 10-meter (33 foot) wingspan will be flying at the 12th International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS this August. The 750 kg (1653 pound) Chirok has a hovercraft skirt that allows it to takeoff and land on any surface from water to sand to snow to rough terrain. The stealth-capable drone can fly at an altitude of 6,000 meters, has a range of 2,500 km and is powerful enough to carry 2-3 people or their weight in weapons and equipment.

If that’s not scary enough, the so-called ‘”little Chirok” is itself a model for a monster 2-ton version that is in the planning stage at United Instrument Corporation, a division of the state-owned Rostec company.

Any ideas on what that UFO over Oklahoma was? Whatever it is, let’s hope it will help protect us from the Chirok.

MIKA: Sorry guys, unsure why media isn't showing today, embed codes are fine, maybe the forum?

Edited March 13, 2015 by Fuzz
Fixed it for you, Mika.

[MIKA27]

The Ancient Secrets Of A 'Bleeding' Glacier Are Finally Being Revealed

Against vast whiteness of Antarctica, Blood Falls bleeds a deep dramatic red. The colour comes from iron-rich ancient seawater trapped under the ice for two million years. For the first time, scientists have been able to take a sample from deep under the ice.

The five storey tall Blood Falls was first discovered in 1911. In 2004, a team including Jill Mikucki, a microbiologist now at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, sampled the microbial life at the mouth of the falls. Because the microbes oozing out normally live in dark, oxygen-less and extremely salt places, Blood Falls is a unique place to study extremophiles outside of their inaccessible natural habitat.

Mikucki went on to publish her work in Science, but there was still a problem: Exposure to the light and oxygen at the mouth of the falls could skew the results. This winter (or summer in Antarctica), she returned with a team and the IceMole, which the Antarctic Sun describes:

The IceMole is a long rectangular metal box with a copper head and ice screw at one end capable of melting its way through ice — but not just straight down like a conventional electro-thermal drill. Differential heating at the tip allows IceMole to change directions. It looks a bit like a very large hypodermic needle poised to inoculate a glacier.

Using the IceMole, Mikucki’s team directly sampled a major vein that leads from the buried brine reservoir to the falls. (The reservoir itself is even further up the glacier and buried below even more ice, making it a considerable challenge.) To locate the liquid veins and guide the IceMole, the team used thermometers placed in boreholes in the ice.

The team will be analysing these new, uncontaminated samples for chemical content and microbial life. Blood Falls is pretty much unlike any other place on Earth, so the extremophiles that live in it, isolated for millions of years, are likely to be pretty unique too.

[MIKA27]

Rogue One: Here's The First Standalone Star Wars Movie

Not hyped for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? Try this: the good people at Disney have just announced the title for the first standalone Star Wars universe titled Rogue One. And we all know what that means: X-WINGS!

Rogue One will be directed by Gareth Edwards who has credits including Godzilla and Monsters, and will “explore the characters and events beyond the core Star Wars saga,” according to Disney. Felicity Jones (The Theory Of Everything) is the first actor attached to the project.

Disney wrote in a release today that the idea for Rogue One came from the head of Industrial Light and Magic, John Knoll, which can only mean one thing: X-Wings and explosions!

Rogue One will hit screens on December 16, 2016.

[MIKA27]

Robert Downey Jr Delivers Real Iron Man Bionic Arm To Armless Kid

I’m a sucker for happy stories, I make no excuses. So, when I saw Alex — a seven-year-old boy who was born with a partially developed arm and loves superheroes — meeting with Tony Stark himself — played by Robert Downey Jr — my heart started to melt.

Edited March 13, 2015 by Fuzz

[MIKA27]

Assembly refuses James Bond film access to Senedd chamber

A request to film scenes for the next James Bond movie at the Senedd chamber in Cardiff Bay was rejected by the National Assembly for Wales.

BBC Wales understands that assembly officials were approached by the makers of Spectre, which stars Daniel Craig as 007, in late 2014.

But the request to film Bond in the Senedd's debating chamber was turned down.

The assembly said the chamber "is not a drama studio".

The Bond production team turned down its offer of using other locations within the assembly's estate.

Filming has already begun on Spectre, the 24th James Bond film, which is due to be shown in cinemas in November.

Sony Pictures has been asked to comment.

The assembly statement said: "The Senedd's Siambr [chamber] is the home of Welsh democracy and seat of government for Wales.

"Some media activity is allowed in the Siambr when it relates to the work of the assembly or reflects the Siambr's status as the focal point of Welsh civic life.

"It is not a drama studio.

"Decisions on requests from the creative industries to use the assembly's estate are made on a case by case basis, and we are proud to have collaborated with many television and film companies on drama productions such as Sherlock and Dr Who.

"The request by James Bond to use the Siambr was turned down and they were offered alternative locations on the estate which they subsequently declined."

MIKA: Really...? It's James Bond people!

[MIKA27]

The Insanely Complicated Logistics Of Building A Planetarium

Miami’s building a new science museum, and it seems hell bent on making the construction process as interesting as possible.

A few months ago, I posted a video of the concrete being poured for the museum’s crazy, martini-glass-shaped aquarium. It took 25 hours of continuous, hyper-precise pouring to finish the job. This week, the construction team at Skanska sent along an update detailing the latest stage of the building’s progress: The planetarium.

Unlike most planetariums, which are constructed inside an existing building that serves as a structural framework, the museum’s concrete orb will support itself — which made constructing it a logistical challenge.

Think of it as re-assembling an orange that you’ve already peeled. The main structure of the orb is made up of 32 concave pieces of concrete, each of which weighs 23,000kg. First, the team at Skanska had to set up the orange’s fake “core”, a metal tower that would serve as the stabilising element as the skin was put into place. Then, the company explains, each massive section was lifted carefully into place by a 500-tonne hydraulic crane.

But the real kicker was that crews had to work around the clock — seamless day and night shifts — over the course of more than two weeks to finish the job. “The team erected panels during the day and welded the panels at night so they could be ready to erect new panels in morning and maintain schedule,” says Skanska. Let’s just hope some of the people attending midnight Pink Floyd light shows in this thing will appreciate the round-the-clock work that went into building it.

[MIKA27]

Shipwreck explorers solve 75-year-old mystery surrounding William B. Davock freighter sunk in Lake Michigan

A group of West Michigan-based shipwreck explorers have solved a mystery that has puzzled historians for more than 75 years.

It was during the Armistice Day storm of 1940 when the freighter, the William B. Davock, disappeared beneath the waves of Lake Michigan after being caught in 80-mile per hour winds and 30-foot waves.

Thirty-two years later, the 420-foot Davock was discovered in 200 feet of water just off the coast of Pentwater, but how it met its final demise could not be determined.

"Visibility in those days was pretty bad," said Valerie van Heest, a maritime historian and director of Michigan Shipwreck Research Association (MSRA), a nonprofit underwater archaeological organization. "All the divers could see and report was that the wreck in one piece and was upside down."

Recently, members of MSRA have revealed what they believe caused the vessel to sink after observing the wreck on a crystal-clear day in the fall of 2014. MSRA diver Jeff Vos, of Holland, was the man who captured the only known footage of the wreck.

His findings revealed the cause of the wreck occurred at the stern where the vessel's rudder is seen broken and one of the four blades of the propeller is snapped.

"The waves were so strong, they must have snapped the rudder's connection, at which point it swung so far over that it struck the propeller," Vos, who is also an engineer and avid boater said in a news release. "With no power or steering, the Davock would have been at the mercy of the storm."

The rudder of the William B. Davock

Craig Rich, MSRA board member, further explained what caused the ship's demise.

"It would have sent the ship into what we call a shivering mode," he said. "Without the rudder, it wouldn't have been able to steer and without the propeller working properly you can't drive it forward. The ship would have gone into the trough of the wave sideways which would have swamped the ship."

Rich was not part of the dive team that discovered the cause of the ship's sinking but was present the day it happened.

But why hasn't it been until now that the wreck has been further examined?

The answer to that is two-fold. According to van Heest, the fact that the wreck is so deep and upside down has detered divers from even trying. In the past, those that have even tried have encountered such bad visibility they could barely even find the wreck, much less film it. At the time of the MSRA crew's discovery, that wasn't the case.

Rich said Lake Michigan has become increasingly clear in recent years thanks in part to the presence of Zebra Mussels that, while invasive, have helped clean up some of the murk of the water. At times, there is visibility in water 80 to 100 feet deep, Hill said.

"We decided to give it a shot," Rich added. "The divers didn't even use a light for the discovery. It's not as warm as it is in the Caribbean, but it's certainly starting to rival it in clarity. It was a warm, sunny day. The ambient light was amazing."

MSRA plans to present the entire story of the Davock, as well as those of the several other ships lost during the Armistice Day storm, at its annual show. The event, titled "Mysteries and Histories beneath the Inland Seas" is scheduled to take place at the Knickerbocker Theater in Holland at 7 p.m. on March 21.

For the members of MSRA, the thrill of discovering and solving mysteries surrounding sunken vessels on the Great Lakes is what continues to motivate them. And for the families of the men and women lost at sea, the significance of those revelations cannot be understated.

Arnold Johnson is the son of one of the crewmen aboard the Davock. His father's body was never recovered. Johnson was waiting for the divers at the dock in Pentwater following their discovery, according to Rich. He was the first person to see video of the wreck that took his father's life.

"My dad is still down there," Johnson reacted, according to a news release. "This shipwreck is his grave."

At least now, the cause of his passing is no longer a mystery.

[MIKA27]

Ghosts of a nuclear disaster: Haunting scenes from Japan’s Fukushima ruins

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake. A towering tsunami. And a partial nuclear meltdown. Four years to the day after disaster struck the coast of northern Japan, killing nearly 20,000 people, the country continues to struggle with its aftermath.

Workers show up, day after day, for the painstaking, dangerous and decades-long process of decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Clean-up activities are underway in the 12-mile evacuation zone surrounding the reactor, but a quarter of a million people have yet to return to their homes. Visiting the contaminated ruins as they exist now, UCLA researchers Yoh Kawano and Arfakhashad (“A.K.”) Munaim told Salon, can best be described as “surreal.”

A formerly bustling urban centre Namie City

“Imagine traveling through what, visually, can only be described as a thriving urban core,” said Kawano of driving through an evacuated city, “and yet there isn’t the sound of a single other vehicle, laughter…any human noise. Just birds chirping.”

A huge field of debris remains to be cleared

Kawano and Munaim spent 11 days this past December touring the Fukushima facility — the disaster’s “ground zero” — and exploring Namie, a city of 21,000 less than two miles from the plant, which has been reduced to a ghost town. Both have been to the area several times since the original catastrophe, and what they saw, they told Salon, is testament to the long road to recovery lying ahead.

Clean-up work in Namie only began in December 2014, Kawano said. The effort involves cleaning up the tons of debris littering the landscape and building facilities for dealing with the radiation, such as an incinerator in which to burn contaminated soil. Parts of the city escaped the radiation plume, and a small group of government officials are based there; the city hopes to welcome back its exiled residents by 2017.

At the reactor itself, where much criticism has surrounded both the management’s prudence and the working conditions, he could cite at least one positive development: they’re (finally) about to open a cafeteria that serves hot food.

Kawano and Munaim started a website documenting their trip and continuing research efforts: their goal is to use the lessons from Fukushima to help guide response and recovery when disaster strikes elsewhere. You can see more of their photos from Namie below:

[MIKA27]

Hover X is the crazy desk that turns your lap and anywhere you sit into a PC gaming space

Lapboards aren’t necessarily new — Razer has a fancy one coming up, and Phantom Entertainment has a really nice one — but these are lap-friendly keyboard and mouse solutions, and they do nothing for the notebook user.

While the idea of a laptop computer for PC gaming seems nice, there’s one huge problem: What about the mouse? Playing an action-heavy multiplayer battle arenas like League of Legends or Dota 2 or a first-person shooter with a touchpad is next to impossible. This means that you’ll need to put that laptop on a desk or table and plug in a mouse, which kind of goes against the idea of a laptop computer in the first place.

A new creation called Hover X saves the day. Creator Nathan Mummert has seen his modest $5,000Kickstarter for a lap-friendly notebook desk fund fully (and then some) in a day. Made of premium bamboo and featuring cooling vents, a mouse pad, and a mobile dock, the Hover X LapDesk can fully facilitate the couch gaming experience for notebook users. For some, this could negate the need for a living room PC as well as the required adapters and controllers.

Different builds of Hover X are available for 13- or 15-inch laptops and larger 17-inch models. Retail prices range from about $150 to $200, but early backers can get in starting at $88 as a pre-order.

[MIKA27]

Fast And Furious 7 Actually Dropped Cars From A C-130 Plane

The Fast & Furious movie franchise is consistently the most fun anyone can have in a movie theatre because the stuff they do is completely ridiculous and borderline insane. Like do you remember that scene from the Furious 7 trailer where they dropped cars from an aeroplane? That wasn’t CGI, that actually happened.

We’ve seen vehicle drops from the military and others before, of course, but this Furious stunt is especially nuts because of the choreography (luck? regular gravity?) required for all the moving parts: multiple skydiving cameramen trying to get the best shot, the planes that dropped the cars manoeuvring out of the way, the helicopter hovering around making sure everythings good and oh yeah, those falling cars on parachutes. Who needs CGI (actors, apparently).

Crazy dudes jump right before the car goes and other crazy dudes chasing after the car drop:

Here’s a behind the scenes look of how they pulled it off:

[MIKA27]

Watch A B-2 Bomber Refuel And Then Make Its Fuel Receptacle Disappear

Damn, that thing really is stealth. This video shows how the B-2 stealth bomber refuels and rotates its fuel receptacle so that it can maintain its stealth. You see the receptacle in clear view when it’s ready for fuel but after it’s all filled up, it’s gone and the whole plane is back to being undetected.

Must be so awesome to fly a stealth bomber, I mean, even getting fuel is cool.

[MIKA27]

Watching Obama Read Mean Tweets About Himself Is So Good

Thank God US President Barack Obama doesn’t have a Google Alert set up with his name on it: the amount of crap he’d read about himself would be off the charts. Jimmy Kimmel has instead nabbed a few mean tweets and got the President in to read them. He’s so salty about it, too.

Thanks, Obama.

[MIKA27]

Here's What The Night Sky Would Look Like With Much Better Eyes

Not too long ago, most people on Earth could look up at night and see the Milky Way’s stunning ribbon of stars. But if you live in a modern city or suburb awash in light pollution, that dazzling view of the night sky is about as rare as a wild predator sighting.

The Orion Nebula as seen through a DSLR and 600mm zoom lens.

However, we can still appreciate our gorgeous galaxy from Earth, thanks to the work of astrophotographers like Adam Woodworth. In fact, Woodworth strives to make his photographs more vibrant than anything ever seen by the naked eye. He explains how he does so, by combining multiple images with long exposure times:

All night images combine multiple exposures of the sky to pinpoint stars, and the non-panoramas also use multiple exposures of the foreground to get the foreground well exposed and in focus. Our eyes cannot see the sky like this due to the limitations of human vision, but a camera has no such limitation and with a long exposure (anywhere from 10 – 30 seconds) and high ISO [a measure of the sensitivity of the camera to available light] the camera can see much more detail in the night sky than the human eye.

Because of the rotation of the Earth, the stars appear to move through the sky, so the exposure for the stars has to be short enough to avoid long star trails. I often take 10 exposures at ISO 5000 or 6400 for 5 or 10 seconds each and stack, align, and average them to get pinpoint stars and a lower signal to noise ratio.

All of the photos shown here were taken by Woodworth, using a Nikon D800E digital SLR camera.

The Milky Way as seen from a sea cave in Maine.

180 degree Panorama of the Milky Way over the Rockland Breakwater in Maine.

The Milky Way over Newport Cove and Great Head in Acadia National Park, Maine.

You can check out more of Woodworth’s work on his website. And if you’re more than casually interested in astrophotography, Woodworth has recently released a video tutorial outlining the process that goes into creating his spectacular starscapes.

Personally, I just like to be reminded every now and then that our modern, electrified world pales in comparison to the brilliance of the stars.

[MIKA27]

Breitling's First Smartwatch Isn't Overloaded With Functionality

Many have criticised Apple for trying to cram too much functionality into a wearable device with a tiny touchscreen and short battery life. Breitling’s first smartwatch is simpler: the B55 Connected will wirelessly communicate with your smartphone too, but only to make the watch’s core functionality easier to use.

First and foremost, the B55 Connected is still a genuine Swiss-made timepiece for enthusiasts and collectors who are sticklers about where their watches come from. However, since it’s packed full of accurate timekeeping functionality and targeted at pilots — Breitling’s bread and butter — the B55 features the company’s B50 calibre super-quartz movement instead of being purely mechanical. So you get your Swiss pedigree plus modern reliability.

In terms of smart features, the B55 wirelessly connects to a new Breitling smartphone app that shares the majority of the watch’s timekeeping and timing functionality. Want to adjust the time when you land in a new time zone? Just tweak it on the app and the watch’s digital display and analogue hands will automatically adjust themselves.

The same goes for other functionality like alarms, which can be set using the app and automatically synced to the phone. Timing flights or denoting the exact minute when a plane left the ground can all be done using the B55′s minimal buttons, but the app backs up that data, making it easier to log when you land and share it with other people.

Missing are most of the things you’d expect a smartwatch to do: no text messages, social media updates, health monitoring, or superfluous apps like games to drain the watch’s battery. But perhaps that makes sense: when it comes to companies like Breitling, Rolex, and even Swatch, this is the kind of ‘smart’ functionality we’ll be seeing. Instead of turning timepieces into over-burdened personal assistants, apps will simply make them easier to use and maintain.

Pricing and availability for Breitling’s new B55 Connected will most likely be revealed at next week’s Baselworld show in Switzerland, but don’t expect it to compete with Apple Watch on price either. The B55 will surely be as expensive as every other Breitling timepiece, because that’s part of the appeal. And don’t expect a gold model.

[MIKA27]

Crazy Guy Rode His Snowmobile Off A Cliff And Then Started Flying

A snowmobile weighs nearly 225kg and isn’t meant for flying and yet, that’s what professional crazy person Antti Pendikainen did with his snowmobile. He gunned it down the mountain and then launched it off a cliff and then started soaring, reaching heights in the air typically meant for helicopters and planes.

You know, things meant for flying. The snowmobile had the assistance of a parachute (obviously) but that initial jump is so crazy and so fast.

[MIKA27]

California Has Just One Year Of Water Reserves, So... Water Cannons?

Jay Famiglietti, a senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, has a terrifying piece in the Los Angeles Times about the future of California’s water. According to Famiglietti, the state has just one year of water in reserves.

Data from NASA satellites show that the total amount of water stored in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river basins — that is, all of the snow, river and reservoir water, water in soils and groundwater combined — was 34 million acre-feet below normal in 2014. That loss is nearly 1.5 times the capacity of Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir.

Statewide, we’ve been dropping more than 12 million acre-feet of total water yearly since 2011. Roughly two-thirds of these losses are attributable to groundwater pumping for agricultural irrigation in the Central Valley. Farmers have little choice but to pump more groundwater during droughts, especially when their surface water allocations have been slashed 80% to 100%. But these pumping rates are excessive and unsustainable. Wells are running dry. In some areas of the Central Valley, the land is sinking by one foot or more per year.

And it gets worse. Apparently we have no real plan for dealing with the continuation of our current drought. So what’s Famiglietti’s solution to this problem? Immediate mandatory water rationing, the acceleration of legislation that focuses on sustainability, and the creation of a new state task force to come up with long term solutions. Pffffft. Good luck.

That all sounds hard. Like really hard. Even in a state that didn’t have completely dysfunctionalgovernment, that would be hard. So may I suggest an idea from history?

In the early 1950s a construction engineer by the name of Sidney Cornell proposed shooting man-made geysers from Northern California to Southern California. The illustration above ran in the October 1951 issue of Mechanix Illustrated magazine, showing how this whole thing was supposed to work. The system would leapfrog water down the state, with plants spaced one mile apart. Of course, with Northern California also struggling, we’ll have to pull that water from somewhere else. Alaska, maybe?

Yes, it’s a really idiotic idea. But it seems about as likely as getting anything done politically at any level in California’s government right now. Forget the Hyperloop. Bring on the water cannons!

[MIKA27]

The UK Is Hosting Cyber War Games In A Decommissioned Battleship

Wargames used to — and still often does — mean legions of tanks roaming across battlefields, and a bunch of soldiers playing make-believe with really big guns. These days, it’s all about corralling a bunch of nerds into an old tin can, and giving them a doomsday scenario straight out of 24.

Recently, our friends over the pond in the UK have been freaking out about their lack of cyberwarfare capabilities. To try and plug the gaping hole, the government (and interested private companies) have been trying to attract up-and-coming amateur hackers into their ranks.

The culmination of this effort is the Cyber Security Challenge: a year-long series of competitions between amateur hackers in various scenarios, culminating in a two-day challenge on board HMS Belfast, a retired battleship moored in the heart of London.

The candidates are faced with a classic Hollywood dilemma: the bad guys have got control of a naval gun system, and the only thing standing between them and large-calibre destruction are our amateur cyber-heroes. In a less apocalyptic side-challenge, the competitors also need to scan for vulnerabilities with IT and healthcare systems, to make sure the ‘Flag Day Associates’ don’t shut down anyone’s life support too soon.

The challenge also focuses on white-hat hacking within an appropriate legal and ethical framework: it isn’t some kind of ends-justify-the-means Bond rampage (sadly).

While the winner isn’t guaranteed a job at the end, the long list of sponsors — GCHQ (the UK NSA), the National Crime Agency (FBI wannabes), and companies like Lockheed — shows just what an interest the government and private sector take in hiring competent IT security folk these days. The US might not be having war games on the steps of the Capitol just yet, but you can bet they’re watching proceedings on the Thames with a keen eye.

[MIKA27]

Microsoft's Digital Assistant Cortana Is Likely Headed To Android, iOS

Microsoft’s answer to Siri is powerful and increasingly pervasive. Now, reports Reuters, the company is working on an advanced version “using research from an artificial intelligence project called ‘Einstein’”, and it’s set to appear on Android and iOS.

Exact details of project Einstein remain unclear. But the new version of Cortana will, according to “people familiar with the project”, first appear on Windows 10 in the fall. Later, the report claims, it will be available as a standalone app for Windows Phone — but also iOS and Android. Given Microsoft’s take on the digital assistant is so advanced, its arrival on other devices could ruffle feathers.