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

[MIKA27]

My go-to thread. Love this stuff. Thanks Mika27

Mate, many thanks and you are most welcome.

[MIKA27]

Human Experiments: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Research involving human subjects is littered with a history of scandal that often shapes people’s views of the ethics of research. Often the earliest cited case is English physician Edward Jenner’s development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, where he injected an eight-year-old child with the pus taken from a cowpox infection and then deliberately exposed her to an infected carrier of smallpox.

Although Jenner’s experiment was, fortunately, successful, the method of exposing a child to a deadly disease in this way would undoubtedly nowadays be seen as unacceptable. Perhaps the most notorious cases of unethical research were revealed during the Nuremberg trials concerning Nazi experiments on concentration camp prisoners. This “research” included involuntary sterilisation, inducing hypothermia, and exposing subjects to diseases such as tuberculosis.

There are also examples of government-run research that took advantage of the vulnerability of the subjects to ensure their participation and which resulted in the subjects experiencing severe harms, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis trials or the UK-run Porton Down chemical experiments in which 11,000 military personnel were exposed to mustard and nerve gas between 1939 and 1989.

Human subjects

Yet, despite the litany of failures to maintain ethical standards in research, these remain the exceptions and a focus on scandals can seriously distort proper discussion about research ethics.

Research involving human subjects is not intrinsically ethically dubious. That is not to say it doesn’t contain ethical challenges, but these concerns can often be met. Nor does it diminish the immense social importance of involving human subjects in experiments and the huge improvement in the quality of lives and number of lives saved through such research.

The most pressing question in research ethics is often not whether we should be doing research but how can we balance or justify exposing individual human subjects to risk for the sake of the advancement of science?

Sometimes, in the case of therapeutic trials, research subjects potentially stand to benefit should the treatment prove successful (some have argued that this should go even further with the recruitment of the terminally ill for experimental drugs). However, such cases are rare when considered against the time it takes for the results of research to be fully developed. The benefits are therefore often distributed among future populations rather than the individuals taking part in the trial. Matters are made even more complicated in cases where trials are conducted on subjects who are potentially vulnerable or desperate.

Balancing tensions

The crucial feature about research ethics is to understand that in order to carry out ethically justified research, we have to be particularly aware of where the imbalances lie between researchers and their subjects and what might be best done to avoid ethical conflict. Much of the ethical conflict is based in the tension that arises between the researcher’s concerns for the interests of the subject on the one hand and the interests of science, society and future patients on the other.

Unethical practice can still occur where this hasn’t been properly thought through — especially when it comes to exposing study participants risk through placebos. In 2014, a trial for an experimental vaccine for rotavirus in India was heavily criticised for giving more than 2,000 children a placebo. In 1997, one US government-funded trial into preventing HIV spread from pregnant women to their babies saw them given a placebo instead of a known drug that was effective in prevention.

The role of the committee

Abuse can also happen because researchers themselves may, consciously or unconsciously, favour the interests of carrying out research over the interests of the subjects involved in the research.

Research ethics committees (RECs) are widely used to assess and review trial designs. These committees are designed to scrutinise with a broad societal view — including both professional and lay perspectives — as to whether the research is ethically acceptable. In many cases, this involves ensuring that many of the standard safeguards, such as proper consent or anonymising data, are in place to protect research subjects, and ensuring that subjects are not exposed to unnecessary risks.

There will inevitably be cases where research cannot meet the usual ethical safeguards, for example, when the very nature of the research requires that the subjects do not know they are participating in research (as in the case of certain kinds of behavioural study, where knowing that you were the subject of research would change your behaviour patterns and render the research useless).

It then becomes a much more demanding question as to whether the potential benefits of the research are sufficiently great to justify overriding standard practices, and whether there are ever limits to the sorts of risks we are willing to allow human subjects to undertake.

The limits of consent

We tend to deem it much too risky to allow those those least able to protect their own interests, such as children, adults with cognitive impairments, or those whose circumstances that leave them more open to harm, to participate in research. But it is not unheard of when the research cannot be done on any other subject population other than the vulnerable group.

Research into dementia treatments, for instance, or research into child behavioural disorders would each require at least some involvement of vulnerable groups to be effective. For such research to be ethically acceptable, the methodological necessity of using members of these groups as subjects must also go hand-in-hand with a range of safeguards to protect them from harm.

As these subjects are less able to protect their own interests adequately, these safeguards must also be much more stringent and wide-reaching than might be the case for research involving less vulnerable research subjects.

Even in cases of studying particular conditions, such as childhood diseases, research is usually only seen as ethically justified if it imposes no real risk of harm or is likely to have some direct therapeutic benefit. The drawback, some argue, is that this inhibits drugs being developed that are targeted at specific populations such as children. This has led to changes in law in cancer trials, for example, that make it easier to include children.

When it comes to well-informed, competent adults, some believe that any level of risk is acceptable as long as the subject agrees to it. Others think that the degree of risk needs to be offset by particular gains for the individual taking part — as was the case with the recent use of an experimental Ebola vaccine on healthcare workers exposed to the virus in Africa.

Ultimately, there is no universally accepted position as to how such research should proceed. Laws and codes are far too general for deciding such cases, which is where ethical judgements, committees, and arguments come in that allow agreement to be reached. These can delay research or draw on resources available for a trial, but they are essential if we are to maintain a high level of scrutiny in often complex situations and prevent further scandalous cases from arising.

[MIKA27]

Watch This Guy Free-Climb A Giant Redwood

Can tree bark work as well as granite to provide handholds? Legendary climber Chris Sharma thought so, and set out to climb this 77m tall redwood in northern California.

To find the right tree, make sure he could climb it without hurting it and to learn more about his subject, Sharma reached out to Dr Anthony Ambrose and Wendy Baxter of the University of California, Burbank. They have dedicated their careers to studying the trees and are experienced at climbing them using the traditional, arborist method — with ropes and pulleys.

I’ve never seen or heard of anybody trying to actually free climb up the bark of a redwood,” Ambrose said. “I didn’t think it would be possible, not because I doubted Chris’ abilities, but because I wasn’t sure the bark would support his weight.”

“The specific tree Chris chose was good because it was fire-scarred,” said Ambrose, who estimated the tree to be around 600 or 700 years old. “It didn’t have a lot of lichen and moss growing on the trunk. And the bark was solid. But because of that, the fissures and grooves in the bark weren’t that deep. It was also overhanging. It made the climb hard for him.”

[MIKA27]

Eerie Images Of America's Abandoned Amusement Parks Will Haunt You

Certain parts of the US have teetered into decline. Places designed to bring joy are now rotting quietly, wrapped in weeds. Seph Lawless, an artist and chronicler of all things ruin-related, recently visited several of these abandoned amusement parks. He returned with some pretty creepy pictures. We’ve got a gallery.

Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of American ruin porn — so much that the genre borders on cliché. We get it. Everyone fled Detroit, and its once bombastic grandeur now lies in tatters. Old sports stadiums have turned to trash heaps and historic sites are being lost to the twisted economics of real estate. Don’t even get me started on abandoned malls.

But the photographs taken by Lawless tell this larger story in a uniquely poignant way. His work is not just about gawking at individual sites of decaying buildings but rather striving to encapsulate the larger story of America’s rise and fall. That’s why he didn’t just visit one abandoned amusement park for his latest book Bizarro. In the artist’s own words, “This project showcases America’s economic decline that rips into heart and soul of our country.”

For Bizarro, Lawless tracked down as many as he could find in the United States and even travelled abroad for some perspective. The story the photos tell isn’t just one of abandonment; it’s also a chronicle of disaster and rebirth.

These photos from the Six Flags in New Orleans, which was deserted after Hurricane Katrina, express the sentiment well. The paint on the rides and buildings is still bright enough that you could imagine riding one of the rollercoasters …

Or hopping in a bumper car.

However, the abandoned Six Flags is so far gone, that there are now live alligators living in the pools around the park:

All that remains is destruction and decay.

Lawless also chose the timing of his photoshoots very deliberately. “I chose to shoot the images at sunset and thunderstorms because I wanted to do something really special with this project,” Lawless told Gizmodo. “I thought a good way to truly bring about that eerie feeling of an abandoned amusement park was to shoot it at sunset and during thunderstorms.”

This feeling is perhaps best captured at Joyland, an abandoned amusement park in Kansas. One of the storm cells that Lawless captured in his photographs later turned into 18 tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma.

Not that the scene at Joyland wasn’t already awfully dark.

Still not creepy enough for you? Check out this image from an abandoned Wizard of Oz theme park in North Carolina. It’s located near the highest peaks in the Eastern United States, so the thin air and unique foliage add to the allure. Plus, as Lawless explains, there is no easy escape: “The abandoned Land of Oz theme park was only accessible by ski lift at the time of its opening so it was a challenge on a lot of levels.”

From here, the series gets even bleaker. The roller coasters at Geauga Lake amusement park in Ohio are still intact, and you can almost hear the screams:

It’s actually spookier when viewed from the tracks themselves.

Meanwhile, Funtime amusement park and zoo doesn’t look very fun at all.

All of the above parks still seem to be winning the war against nature. However, in older parks, the trees are closing in and the weeds are engulfing the old rides. The remains of this spinning swing in West Virginia’s Shawnee amusement park will disappear in a few years.

It seems like some sort of miracle that the Ferris Wheel at Chipewa Lake in Ohio is still standing.

Inevitably, Lawless hoped to put the American condition in perspective by visiting Spreepark, the infamously abandoned theme park in the middle of Berlin. Lawless told me that he was arrested for photographing the ruins there. As police dragged him away, he snuck one last shot of Spreepark’s own dilapidated Ferris Wheel.

When he was being handcuffed, Lawless said that police kept yelling, “Americans are arrogant!”

[MIKA27]

Intimidating Head-On View Of An F-16

I wouldn’t want to stand in front of a fighter jet like this or see one in my rear view for fear of soiling my pants. The F-16 is just on the ground and undergoing pre-flight inspection and it still has such a commanding presence. Killer machine birds.

[MIKA27]

Gorgeous 4K Footage Of A Volcano Erupting

Whenever I see an epic volcano explosion, such as this one of Volcano Calbuco in Chile exploding for the first time in 40 years, from the comforts of my own home through a glorious timelapse video shot in 4K, I can’t help but wonder about a time without video cameras, the internet, cities and light pollution, and imagine what I would feel if I saw mountains literally explode with lava and ash for the first time.

I’m already impressed with them through these wires and pixels, I think I’d start worshipping them if I saw them in real life hundreds of years ago.

[MIKA27]

MOTORCYCLE BACKPACK BY OSYB

The Quest is a new motorcycle backpack by OSYB designed to be used both during your daily commute, and on those slightly longer moto-adventures when you’ll need to pack some tools and camping gear. The upper section of the bag is an easy access tool section that doubles as a waterproof “roof” for the rest of the pack, the main chassis of the Quest is made from water-resistant waxed canvas and the base is rubber – so you can put it down anywhere.

OSYB is currently running a funding campaign for the new design, and they’ve surpassed their funding goal by a factor of 300% with 3 days remaining – this means that the Quest backpack is definitely going into production, so this could be a good time to get in early and pick up a hefty discount.

[MIKA27]

Dropped by the U.S. Military, Colt Goes Bankrupt

After decades arming American soldiers, first with the Vietnam era M16 and later the modern M4 rifles carried in Iraq and Afghanistan, famed gun manufacturer Colt lost its contract with the military in 2013. It never recovered. Last Sunday Colt Defense LLC filed for bankruptcy after 179 years in business.

Colt’s chapter 11 filing comes after earlier, failed attempts to restructure its $350 million debt were rejected by the company’s bondholders. Last November, The Wall Street Journal reports, Colt borrowed $70 million from Morgan Stanley in a bailout loan to allow the company to pay down interest on its debts. Under an article of the bankruptcy code, Colt is now headed to auction, where it’s hoping for a quick sale. The company lists its sponsor Capital Management LLC, as its “stalking horse bidder,” meaning that Sciens, which which owns close to 90% of the company, has agreed to buy out Colt’s assets and secured liabilities.

The downturn for Colt seems to have started after the company, which had relied on sales to the government, lost a multimillion-dollar bid to arm the military.

Following a drawn-out and contentious bidding war, Colt lost its contract to provide the Pentagon with M4 rifles in 2013. The $77 million contract went instead to a Belgian company, F.N. Herstal.

A source familiar with Colt’s financial situation characterized the 2013 loss of the contract to provide the military with M4s as “tough to quantify” but called it “definitely the main contributing factor to the business being where it is.”

Problems had plagued Colt’s version of the M4 for years before it lost the bid.

Among soldiers who relied on it, the rifle was often criticized as being unreliable—good in sterile conditions but prone to malfunctioning once it got dirty, as it often did in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2007, Colt’s M4 finished last in an “extreme dust test” that pitted the rifle against models made by rival manufacturers. Despite the poor showing, Army leaders said they were still confident in Colt’s design.

The Colt M4 was good enough for the conventional military but special operations units with more money and latitude began ditching the weapon years before the Pentagon abandoned it. “The Army’s Delta Force replaced its M4s with the H&K 416 in 2004 after tests revealed that the piston operating system significantly reduces malfunctions while increasing the life of parts,” Army Times reported in 2007.

Losing the Pentagon’s business in 2013 may have been the worst blow to Colt, but the company faced other challenges.

Foreign Policy’s David Francis points out that it’s not just the military that has turned away from Colt. “Law enforcement officers are increasingly turning to Glock pistols as a sidearm,” Francis writes, “as opposed to Colt’s 1911 gun.” He attributes the shift to officers’ believing “the Glock to be a more reliable pistol,” and describes “a long record of complaints about the Colt gun jamming.”

On top of losing business from the military and police Colt’s corporate structure prevented the company from capitalizing on a boom in gun sales after the election of President Obama. Because the company had created separate entities for its military and private gun owner business, “the severed halves of Colt somehow missed the post-2008 “Obama surge” as much as other U.S. gun manufacturers,” Paul M. Barrett wrote last year in Bloomberg Business in an article warning about Colt’s financial decline.

On Colt’s missed opportunity to cash in on the post-Obama gun frenzy, Barrett wrote:

“Whipped up by NRA warnings that the Democratic president intended to toughen gun control, consumers cleared gun store shelves of ammunition and weapons. Better-prepared manufacturers such as Glock saw sales rise sharply. Under the terms of the Colt split, however, Colt Defense could reach the booming civilian market only by first selling its rifles to Colt’s Manufacturing, a debilitated company with sclerotic lines of distribution.”

Those missteps aside, Colt may be changing hands but the gun-making business does not appear to be threatened by the bankruptcy proceedings.

In an official statement, restructuring Officer Keith Maib said, “Colt remains open for business.” That’s thanks to a pending $20 million loan to keep its Connecticut-based manufacturing operations going. Colt’s future will depend on what happens next now that it’s up for sale.

[MIKA27]

Putin Built a New Amusement Park Where Kids Can Play with Grenade Launchers and Tanks

Judo lord-cum-soccer champ-cum-Russian leader Vladimir Putin debuted his latest gift to the Russian people on Tuesday—a militaristic, patriotic Disney World-esque park where families can kick back, relax, and play around with tanks and guns. They'll also be able to participate in extreme sports. It's all for the love of the country!

Patriot Park, as it's called, will be located about an hour outside Moscow in Kubinka, and is valued at 20 billion roubles (roughly $370 million). Along with the sweet tanks to climb in and grenade launchers to touch and guns to shoot, visitors will be able to buy all the Putin memorabilia the mind can dream up, including iPhone cases and bomber jackets.

"Children should come here, play with the weaponry, and climb on the tanks and see all the most modern technology, which they would not have known about before," Russian Orthodox priest Sergei Privalov said at the park's opening ceremony, according to theGuardian.

Visitors examine a self-propelled artillery gun at the Army 2015 forum at Patriot Park.

Completion of the park is set for 2017—for now, visitors can enjoy the display of tanks, armored cars, and missile launchers and peruse stands selling fridge magnets of Putin, Joseph Stalin, and Stalin's right-hand man Lavrenty Beria. Fun for the whole family!

[MIKA27]

SEAWOLF GOPRO SUBMARINE

No longer are you limited to just to aerial footage with your action camera as the Seawolf GoPro Submarine allows you to capture footage of what’s lurking under water.

Built by the team at TTRobotix, the 17-pound submarine is powered by a pump-drive ballast system that allows users to pilot the watercraft via remote control. The Seawolf is equipped with a 5,000-mAh battery that’s good for just under an hour (50 minutes to be exact) of use, with the ability to dive up to 33 feet at cruising speeds of 2 miles per hour. It works with both GoPro Hero3 and Hero4 models, and is set to hit the retail scene in August of this year. There will be several different models available, starting at $999. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

BARTESIAN CAPSULE COCKTAIL MACHINE

If you've ever wondered why there isn't an individual serving size machine for cocktails like there is for coffee, you can stop wondering. Bartesian Capsule Cocktail Machine takes that concept and brings it into the world of booze, turning you into a confident mixologist with the push of a button. Made from real, premium ingredients, each capsule arrives in liquid form and is prepared in seconds to your desired strength after mixing with the liquor that sits in the glass reservoirs on each side of the attractive Bartesian machine. Playing bartender for your next get together at home has never been easier.

[MIKA27]

KOKOON EEG SLEEP HEADPHONES

Normally, falling asleep with headphones on isn't a good thing — unless you enjoy cauliflower ear. But Kokoon EEG Sleep Headphones aren't your normal cans. Developed in conjunction with Onkyo, they're designed to be worn overnight, and pack in miniaturized dry EEG sensors that monitor your sleeping patterns. The companion app can adjust both volume and equalization as necessary to help you fall asleep, then block out potential disturbances while you sleep. And when it's nearing time to rise, it will choose the right moment in your sleeping patterns to wake you, providing a much better experience than a buzzing alarm.

[Orion21]

Eerie Images Of America's Abandoned Amusement Parks Will Haunt You

Certain parts of the US have teetered into decline. Places designed to bring joy are now rotting quietly, wrapped in weeds. Seph Lawless, an artist and chronicler of all things ruin-related, recently visited several of these abandoned amusement parks. He returned with some pretty creepy pictures. We’ve got a gallery.

Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of American ruin porn — so much that the genre borders on cliché. We get it. Everyone fled Detroit, and its once bombastic grandeur now lies in tatters. Old sports stadiums have turned to trash heaps and historic sites are being lost to the twisted economics of real estate. Don’t even get me started on abandoned malls.

But the photographs taken by Lawless tell this larger story in a uniquely poignant way. His work is not just about gawking at individual sites of decaying buildings but rather striving to encapsulate the larger story of America’s rise and fall. That’s why he didn’t just visit one abandoned amusement park for his latest book Bizarro. In the artist’s own words, “This project showcases America’s economic decline that rips into heart and soul of our country.”

For Bizarro, Lawless tracked down as many as he could find in the United States and even travelled abroad for some perspective. The story the photos tell isn’t just one of abandonment; it’s also a chronicle of disaster and rebirth.

These photos from the Six Flags in New Orleans, which was deserted after Hurricane Katrina, express the sentiment well. The paint on the rides and buildings is still bright enough that you could imagine riding one of the rollercoasters …

Or hopping in a bumper car.

However, the abandoned Six Flags is so far gone, that there are now live alligators living in the pools around the park:

All that remains is destruction and decay.

Lawless also chose the timing of his photoshoots very deliberately. “I chose to shoot the images at sunset and thunderstorms because I wanted to do something really special with this project,” Lawless told Gizmodo. “I thought a good way to truly bring about that eerie feeling of an abandoned amusement park was to shoot it at sunset and during thunderstorms.”

This feeling is perhaps best captured at Joyland, an abandoned amusement park in Kansas. One of the storm cells that Lawless captured in his photographs later turned into 18 tornadoes that ripped through Oklahoma.

Not that the scene at Joyland wasn’t already awfully dark.

Still not creepy enough for you? Check out this image from an abandoned Wizard of Oz theme park in North Carolina. It’s located near the highest peaks in the Eastern United States, so the thin air and unique foliage add to the allure. Plus, as Lawless explains, there is no easy escape: “The abandoned Land of Oz theme park was only accessible by ski lift at the time of its opening so it was a challenge on a lot of levels.”

From here, the series gets even bleaker. The roller coasters at Geauga Lake amusement park in Ohio are still intact, and you can almost hear the screams:

It’s actually spookier when viewed from the tracks themselves.

Meanwhile, Funtime amusement park and zoo doesn’t look very fun at all.

All of the above parks still seem to be winning the war against nature. However, in older parks, the trees are closing in and the weeds are engulfing the old rides. The remains of this spinning swing in West Virginia’s Shawnee amusement park will disappear in a few years.

It seems like some sort of miracle that the Ferris Wheel at Chipewa Lake in Ohio is still standing.

Inevitably, Lawless hoped to put the American condition in perspective by visiting Spreepark, the infamously abandoned theme park in the middle of Berlin. Lawless told me that he was arrested for photographing the ruins there. As police dragged him away, he snuck one last shot of Spreepark’s own dilapidated Ferris Wheel.

When he was being handcuffed, Lawless said that police kept yelling, “Americans are arrogant!”

At first glance I thought this was another photo exposition of Chernobyl! There is an eerie beauty in scenes of nature taking back civilization.

[TomF]

US Military Tested A Tsunami Bomb That Could Rival The Nuclear Bomb

We’ve all seen the destruction that tsunamis can cause. It doesn’t play around. But back in 1944, the US military wanted to play around with tsunamis in hope of creating a man made tsunami bomb — basically setting off 10 large blasts in the ocean to create a 10m tsunami that would pulverise and drown a city.

New Zealand author and filmmaker Ray Waru discovered these man-made tsunami bombs were set off in the top secret operation of “Project Seal” during World War II. Around 3700 bombs were detonated during the testing and the tests revealed that a successful tsunami bomb would require “about two million kilograms of explosive arrayed in a line about five miles from shore”. Not exactly chump change.

Waru told the UK Telegraph:

“Presumably if the atomic bomb had not worked as well as it did, we might have been tsunami-ing people,” said Mr Waru. “It was absolutely astonishing. First that anyone would come up with the idea of developing a weapon of mass destruction based on a tsunami … and also that New Zealand seems to have successfully developed it to the degree that it might have worked.”

Project Seal only lasted about a year and I’m kind of glad it never became a real weapon of mass destruction. We’ve seen what happens when real tsunami hits, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

Don't Tsunami's spread out in all directions?

[MIKA27]

What's Stopping Us From Building Cities In Space? No, It's Not Tech.

The US has a plan for Americans to live in space. In 2012, the National Research Council was commissioned by Congress to roadmap the future of human space exploration. Last June, the team published its findings in a massive report, which called for several action steps to be taken immediately. One year later, are we on track?

One of the report’s authors was designer and Spacehack founder Ariel Waldman, who works on ways to make technical concepts around space colonization more accessible to the public. In 2008 Waldman took a job at NASA to coordinate its CoLab initiative, which allowed NASA scientists to collaborate with outside communities through open-source projects.

The overall response to the report (which you can read in its entirety here) was good, says Waldman. “When the report came out, a lot of different parts surprisingly resonated well with Congress,” she told Gizmodo. In the year since, Waldman has witnessed some encouraging feedback — but also plenty of disheartening trends that are keeping the roadmap stalled.

Of course there are plenty of tech advancements that need to be made to get humans living in space — gotta figure out that radiation protection! — but those challenges aren’t the biggest things holding the US back. There are much bigger political, perceptual, and yes, economic shifts that need to occur to get us thinking about living off-Earth.

Start Cooperating Globally

Photos of Shenzhou 6 spaceship, China’s second human space flight mission, exhibited in Beijing, China in 2011

Statistically, China’s space program is a few decades behind the US, but consider these facts: In a span of ten years the country sent ten people into space. In 2013 they landed a rover on the Moon. The agency is currently working on a mission to Mars and a proposal for its own space station, which is planned for sometime in the 2020s. Soon, China will undoubtably surpass the US in its efforts for space colonization.

Thanks to a 2011 Congressional act that bars the US from collaborating with China’s space program, NASA is not allowed to work directly with the most quickly accelerating efforts to get humans into space. This is a huge problem. “There are only two places that are going into space,” says Waldman, referring to current crewed missions by Russia and China. “We’re not one of them, and we’re not in collaboration with the other one of them.”

Even more frustrating is the fact that certain politicians who are otherwise zealous about human spaceflight are voicing support for the China ban. Take Senator John Culberson, a Texas Republican who has been evangelistic about a mission to Europa. Since this Jupiter moon is thought to have liquid water and a climate which might support life, it’s currently second in priority in the roadmap, and NASA will soon need to make a critical decision about funding it. (Update: As of today, it’s moving forward.) But he has also been vocal about not working with the Chinese.

Many other political figures point to China’s human rights violations as a reason not to align with the country. Yet they seem to overlook the many human rights concerns when it comes to collaborating with Russia.

What could it take to change the US’s policy on going into space with China? A presidential order would help, but that doesn’t seem likely. What’s more plausible are some workarounds that may allow for indirect collaboration without bilateral cooperation. Our existing alliance with the ESA and Russian programs, which have been separately planning a Mars mission with China, might allow some American science to tag along somehow. But competition here is not the way forward. This isn’t a Cold War-era USSR-USA space race, this is all the world’s major space programs except ours working together.

Stop Saying It’s About Saving Humanity

When the roadmap named a human landing on Mars as the first priority for space colonization, the internet got excited. But a lot of the reasoning for going to Mars has been hyperfocused on a single issue: We must find a place to live when Earth no longer lets us live here.

Maybe we’ve all been watching too much Battlestar Galactica. But it’s not just pop culture. How many times have you heard Elon Musk talk about his dreams to live (and die) on Mars to “help ensure the survival of humanity”?

Thanks to a few very strong voices like Musk, the argument to ensure the survival of the human race has become the most-repeated reason for going to Mars. But it’s not a very good one, says Waldman: It’s not evidence-based. We have no idea if living on Mars is feasible, let alone a place where we should be relocating our entire civilisation. And that shouldn’t be the motivation behind investing billions of dollars and potentially sacrificing human lives.

“There’s a lot of talk about why we’re going to Mars from the blogosphere, which is a really good thing,” says Waldman. “But no single rationale alone argues for a continuation of human spaceflight.” In fact, the report gives a long list of reasons, which the team was able to track across demographic groups. Of course certain reasons will resonate more with certain people, but the overall answer is more nuanced. Just saying that we need to decamp to Mars as part of some kind of Noah’s Ark scenario isn’t the best one.

Forget the Flag Planting

Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan was the last human to walk on the Moon — on December 13, 1972.

So much of what seems to motivate any space exploration is the concept of flag planting, which the US pretty much invented: I HEREBY CLAIM THIS MOON FOR AMERICA. Take away these imperialistic aspirations and the goals of human spaceflight become unmeshed with these ideas of nation-building — and a lot more pragmatic.

This is the largest task we’ve undertaken as human race and it requires wider democratization, says Waldman. “If we want to make things like landing humans on Mars happen we will need more collaboration from more people, from more disciplines, from more countries than we currently have.”

What’s incredibly exciting right now is how many developing nations have access to space thanks to swiftly changing technology. It’s not just China’s speedy space timeline that’s an indicator of this. Five years ago India sent a mission to the Moon and now has a spacecraft orbiting Mars. This is not just a pursuit of the wealthy superpowers anymore. More than 70 countries now have space programs — the science that will get us to another solar system could come from any of them.

Just like “saving humanity” is not a good reason to go to Mars, this is not a pursuit to “discover” another planet — and we’re not taking our geopolitical baggage with us. Scientists need to work towards including more voices in these efforts without countries getting all wrapped up in the possibility of laying first claim to Martian mining rights.

Yes, OK, We Need Money

The roadmap’s pathway to Mars, showing NASA’s budget flat and adjusted for inflation

One of the largest criticisms of the NASA budget that it currently is not adjusted to keep pace with inflation, which is the most often-reported challenge in getting Americans onto other planets. As the report outlined in a series of charts, if the budget is even slightly adjusted for inflation each year, a pathway to Mars becomes much more feasible and much less risky.

In the past year, the Obama administration has championed a “re-energised space program” that has certainly achieved some notable milestones — like a test flight of the Mars-worthy Orion spacecraft and the development of the Space Launch System (SLS) to get it there, as well as several studies to see what happens to humans when they leave Earth for that long. Where the extra funding will come from in the next decade, though, is up to Congress. If the budget doesn’t increase, we’re not going anywhere.

What about corporations like Space X or Virgin Galactic? Commercial ventures might help in the sense that private companies might finance the spacecrafts themselves, says Waldman, but the programs themselves still require funding — and vision. “You’re still talking about hundreds of billions across decades even if it takes zero dollars to build.” And who knows, even companies backed by Elon Musk and Richard Branson could go bankrupt.

Other groups are trying to put numbers together to figure out how to get humans to Mars. Last month, Bill Nye presented a JPL-developed proposal for an orbital settlement around Mars at the Planetary Society’s Humans to Mars summit. Astronauts would leave in 2033 for a one-year stay in Martian orbit (the timing would coincide with the optimal Earth-Mars alignment every 26 months which makes the trip shortest), setting the stage for a landing mission in 2039 or later.

Nye’s full report will be issued later this year, but a proposed budget claims that it can be done using the funds from the human exploration program at NASA (as long as it is adjusted for inflation), if NASA stops investing in the ISS (which is already planned in 2024). One problem with this plan, however, is that it assumes the US will be working independently, not collaborating with other nations, which, as Waldman and others keep pointing out, is really the only way to make sure the US can mount a properly financed, sustained effort to live in space.

Remember, The Golden Age of Space Travel Is Still Coming

The Apollo 11 landing being celebrated at Mission Control, July 1969 - With cigars at the fore and back ground

There’s one final plea from Waldman, which I found myself thinking about quite a bit after our conversation. Many Americans like to believe that the 1960s were some kind of heyday for human spaceflight — we look back at this period and bemoan the fact that the space program will never be as exciting again.

Waldman says this is kind of a greater delusion that we’ve convinced ourselves of as a culture. Actually, NASA was very low priority for federal spending at the time and there was a lot of pessimism about it in general. In fact, we can only seem to get excited about the idea of human spaceflight when it’s wrapped up in nostalgia. The report compared contemporary public opinion polls about the space program with polls during the Apollo mission. “When asked if Apollo missions were worth the money, during that time people said no,” she says. “The only upticks are when we’re looking back.”

This is not bad news, says Waldman, and I agree. It means that the actions taken in the very near future will be able to change the way people think about going to space. Whether or not we land a human on Mars in our lifetimes, this Golden Age of space exploration is still to come — once we’ve decided as a civilisation that we’re committed to making it happen.

[MIKA27]

WHY IRON MAIDEN STILL RULES, AND HEAVY METAL WILL NEVER DIE

Earlier today, Iron Maiden made an announcement that sent the Metal Internet into a frenzy of excitement. Not only will the British heavy metal gods be releasing a new record later this year (on September 4, to be exact), they'll be marking a new milestone in their storied career by putting out their first-ever studio-recorded double album. Clocking in at 92 minutes, The Book of Souls will feature eleven new songs, including an 18-minute closing epic entitled "Empire of the Clouds."

That's a whole lot of Maiden, and fans are pumped. Ever since iconic vocalist Bruce Dickinson announced that he'd be undergoing treatment for cancer earlier this year, the band's future seemed to hang in the balance, but this new announcement makes clear that Bruce ain't going down that easy. His doctors have given him the all-clear, and according to the band's official website, "Due to Bruce’s illness the band had to delay touring plans but promise to be out on the road again early next year, giving time for Bruce to make a full physical recovery to be ready for the rigours of Maiden live performances."

The prospect of a new Iron Maiden album has resonated deeply with their many fans around the world. While news of upcoming new albums from even established veterans like Black Sabbath, Slayer, and King Diamond is routinely met with suspicion from fans who've lost the faith (or wised up to the fact that some bands just can't hack it anymore), there's something truly heartening about seeing the overwhelming excitement with which this new album has been greeted. It's almost surprising, too, given that Iron Maiden's first album came out in 1980, a full 35 years ago; its members are well past middle age, and this latest effort will mark the band's sixteenth studio album. They're not pushing boundaries anymore (I mean, ****, they set the goalposts to begin with); they're not extreme, or nihilistic, or brutal, and are most certainly not "hip" They play the same kind of music that they've always played, and save for Bruce Dickenson's temporary absence between 1993-1999 and the back-and-forth between guitarists Adrian Smith and Janick Gers, have kept a fairly stable lineup since the '80s. So why are people still so excited about this new album? Why do people still care?

Because it's Iron ******* Maiden, that's why.

Simply put, Iron Maiden rules. They're one of the original heavy metal bands, and still one of the absolute best. They were a leading light of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal that propelled those galloping guitars and lusty wails into the waiting ears of scores of angry, lost kids across the globe; a thinking person's metal band who pepper their rousing epics with hyperliterate lyrics and bombastic theatricality; the best damn live band you'll ever see, and the people who brought the coolest mascot ever, Eddie, to life. They've always seemed larger-than-life, and their catalogue is incredibly rich, varied, and honestly, timeless. Even their more lackluster latter-day albums retained the ambition and energy that made their earliest classics so compelling, and there's no reason under the sun why The Book of Souls would fall flat. Will it top The Number of the Beast or Powerslave? Perhaps not, but it will still be good, because Iron Maiden isn't the kind of band that would allow itself to release anything but a solid effort—and a solid effort from Iron Maiden is still leaps and bounds ahead of what most younger bands could ever hope to pull off on their best days.

Heavy metal still places a huge amount of significance on its past, in part because of the genre's own relative youth. It's not like the blues, or electronic music, or even rock'n'roll, whose histories have become just that—history. The first metal bands are still active, still kicking, and hell, Black Sabbath—widely regarded as The First Heavy Metal Band Ever—toured recently and is prepping a new album. Our history still walks out on stage and grabs the mic each night. The old guard is still standing, even as the ravages of time begin to take a toll. Our gods of war are beginning to show the cracks in their armor, their frail mortality becoming less of an idea than a fact. We're already haunted by the ghosts of heroes gone too soon, like Ronnie James Dio, Cliff Burton, Jeff Hanneman, Darrell "Dimebag" Abbott, and it's not a trend that shows any sign of slowing down.

If we count back from the earliest rumblings of Black Sabbath in 1968, heavy metal itself turned 47 this year. Allowing that most people start their first bands as teens or young adults—Tony Iommi was 20 in 1968—it's far from shocking that the past few years have seen an uptick in press releases about the medical problems plaguing our elder statesmen. Judas Priest's air raid siren of a vocalist, Rob Halford, has undergone multiple surgeries for his back and hips. Motorhead have had to cancel a slew of dates because of Lemmy—who's as close to God as most metalheads would ever want to be—and the health issues that persist even though the legendary hellraiser has cut back on his beloved white lines and Jack Daniels. Iommi, the iron man himself, was sidelined by a bout of Non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2012, and while he's back in action for now, his prognosis isn't as rosy as anyone would like. In 2011, King Diamond underwent open heart triple bypass surgery after a series of severe heart attacks; he's back in fighting shape now, but this and other stories underline the stark reality that our heroes are getting old. Despite the bravado and the power and the sheer might that is heavy metal, these men are made of flesh, not steel, and as their bodies start to fail them, we cling even harder to their myths. They have quite literally devoted their lives to heavy metal, and someday, they will die.

It will be sad, and we will mourn, but you know what will live forever? "Run to the Hills" will live forever. "Sweet Leaf," and "Raining Blood," and "Rainbow in the Dark," and "Cemetery Gates," and so many, many more will never be forgotten. A classic is a classic whether it's being heard for the first time or the five thousandth. Iron Maiden will never die, and neither will heavy metal, so bring on the new album. Bring on the new tour. Bring on a new Eddie shirt design, and new videos, and more photos of Bruce flying his ******* airplane. Bring on the metal.

Up the irons, now, tomorrow, and until the final note rings out.

[MIKA27]

Archaeologists Decipher Name of 'Ancient Astronaut' Maya Tomb

The funerary mask of K'inich Janaab' Pakal, one of the Maya civilization's best-known rulers, is made of jade.

MEXICO CITY — Researchers in Mexico say they have decoded the hieroglyphic name on the Palenque tomb of ancient Maya King Pakal, revealing it to read "The House of the Nine Sharpened Spears," more than 60 years after the crypt was discovered.

Mexican archaeologist Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovered the burial crypt in 1948 — and new research led by Guillermo Bernal from the National Autonomous University of Mexico made a link between an inscription in the tomb and other hieroglyphics of the same form. The key to deciphering the name was a hieroglyph that looked like a jaguar molar and was interpreted to mean "edge," as in a sharp-edged spear.

This is a name linked with war, and an aspect which was not previously known as the hieroglyphic [could not be] deciphered until now," Bernal, from the university's Mayan Studies Center, told a news conference in Mexico City on Monday. "'The House of the Nine Sharpened Spears' is a denomination represented by the nine warriors in the walls of the tomb."

The Maya civilization, which developed hieroglyphic writing, a calendar and astronomical system, reached its peak of influence between the year 250 and 900, extending its reach over what is now Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.

Born in the year 603, King K'inich Janaab' Pakal is said to have ascended to the throne at the age of 12. He led a prosperous government in the ancient city of Palenque and is believed to have been behind the building of its finest architecture. Pakal and his sarcophagus also have fueled decades' worth of speculation about "ancient astronauts."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omYzH65kHjA

[smokum]

Intimidating Head-On View Of An F-16

I wouldnt want to stand in front of a fighter jet like this or see one in my rear view for fear of soiling my pants. The F-16 is just on the ground and undergoing pre-flight inspection and it still has such a commanding presence. Killer machine birds.

Indeed. Always my favorite AF jet.

[MIKA27]

Latest Dashcam Compilation Shows That Aussie Drivers Aren't Getting Any Better - Warning: F*rk Heavy!

Jesus Christ, Australia: as a new compilation of dashcam douchbags shows, there are some appalling drivers out there.

Dashcam Owners Australia takes all the dashcam footage from Aussie sources and compiles into one massive shame reel showing our nation’s drivers at their worst.

Remember, if you catch someone being criminally stupid on the roads with your dashcam, send the footage to police as well as upload it on YouTube. Aussie state police forces are all looking to crackdown on idiots, and have signalled an intention to pursue idiots caught on dashcams around the country.

For more from Dashcam Owners Australia, check out the YouTube channel.

[MIKA27]

F-15 Jet's Aerial Refuelling From The Jet's Point Of View

Going to the petrol station in a car is a chore made to remind you of your own mortality. Going to the (metaphorical) gas station in a F-15 jet? That’s a delightful dessert made to show off our awesomeness. Here’s a video of a NASA F-15 jet taking a pit stop to get refuelled while in mid-flight mid-air from the jet’s point of view.

[MIKA27]

NASA: We Are Going To Europa

Jupiter’s moon Europa is covered in a thick layer of constantly-shifting ice which appears to be floating atop a deep, warm ocean. Scientists have long suggested that it’s the most likely place that life might have evolved beyond Earth. And now, at last, NASA has confirmed our first mission to Europa has entered the development phase.

Today marked the first day of development for the mission, which will be launched in the 2020s. Europa’s oceans might be twice as big as Earth’s oceans, and scientists speculate that Europa’s seas have a rocky floor and even tides created by Saturn’s gravitational pull.

John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in a release:

Today we’re taking an exciting step from concept to mission, in our quest to find signs of life beyond Earth. Observations of Europa have provided us with tantalising clues over the last two decades, and the time has come to seek answers to one of humanity’s most profound questions.

So this is explicitly a mission to find life. JPL will be handling the construction of the as-yet-unnamed Europa space vessel, with instruments provided by a variety of labs.

It’s worth noting that there’s been a longstanding trope in science fiction about how Europa is inhabited and humans shouldn’t go there. Perhaps the best known is in the movie 2010, when the aliens say to humanity, “All these worlds are yours except Europa. Attempt no landings there.” More recently, there’s the indie flick Europa Report, where humans attempt a landing and, well … you can see the movie if you want to know the rest.

Perhaps in deference to this scifi tradition, NASA’s mission will attempt no landing on Jupiter’s icy ocean moon. Instead, it will do about 45 flybys, zipping around Jupiter in the process, with instruments that can do everything from visual maps of Europa’s surface, to spectral analysis, radar, soundings, magnetic field analysis, temperature sensing, and more.

But even if we don’t find life on Europa, there are a few other watery places to explore. Most notably, Jupiter’s moon Enceladus is known for spewing vast plumes of water into space, which hint at oceans beneath its crust.

[MIKA27]

Cuba's Finally Doing Something About Its Insanely Expensive Internet

Getting online is damn near impossible in Cuba — unless you’re very rich. That’s because the state-run run telecom company, Etecsa, has historically limited access and charges exorbitant fees for connectivity. Faced with growing international pressure, the company is finally going to add Wi-Fi hotspots and drop prices — but not by much.

Internet in Cuba was expensive and rare throughout the government’s last bastion of communism. Now, Etecsa says it will install 35 Wi-Fi hotspots in parks and recreational areas around Cuba. Prices to connect will drop from the current price of $US4 an hour to $US2 an hour.

Since the average salary in Cuba is only about $US20 a month, that’s still pretty damn expensive. Nevertheless, it’s an improvement over a couple years ago when there was just one internet cafe in Old Havana. Things have been so bad there in recent years that young Cubans have taken things into their own hands and built an elaborate mesh network to create their own thriving underground internet. They also pass internet content around via USB sticks.

Things did get a little bit better earlier this year, when Cuban artist Kcho installed a free Wi-Fi hotspot in a Havana cultural centre. (That’s a young Cuban — and apparently a fan of the United States — enjoying the free Wi-Fi pictured above.) Of course, you’d need to live in Havana or travel to Havana in order to enjoy the free connection. The fact that the government is finally connecting the rest of the island is an encouraging step forward.

All that said, it’s unclear exactly how quickly the Cuban government will conduct the expansion and how well the connections will actually work. “Their model was, ‘Nobody gets Internet,'” Ted Hencken, a professor at Baruch College and expert on the Cuban internet, told The New York Times. “Now their model is, ‘We’re going to bring prices down and expand access, but we are going to do it as a sovereign decision and at our own speed.'” Regardless of how things pan out, some expensive internet is still better than no internet at all.

[MIKA27]

Polish LOT aeroplanes grounded by computer hack

Some flights operated by Poland's national airline, LOT, were grounded on Sunday after hackers attacked its computer system.

The hacking attack targeted computers issuing flight plans at Warsaw's Okecie airport.

More than 1,400 passengers were affected, with 10 flights cancelled and another 12 delayed.

Services were getting back to normal on Sunday evening. The attack is now being investigated by airline authorities.

Flights to Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Copenhagen and Polish cities were affected, although LOT stressed that the glitch did not affect the airport or aeroplanes that were already in the air.

"We're using state-of-the-art computer systems, so this could potentially be a threat to others in the industry," said LOT spokesman Adrian Kubicki.

The source of the hack is not yet known.

[MIKA27]

ARNIE PRETENDS TO BE A WAX TERMINATOR, SCARES THE HELL OUT OF FANS

The Madame Tussauds franchise is known around the world for being home to all manner of full-size lifelike wax sculptures of famous actors, musicians, world leaders and artists.

For many people, it's a close as they're ever likely to get to their favourite celebrity and lets face it, its a lot of fun posing alongside the likes of Elvis or Marilyn Monroe.

But for visitors to the Madame Tussauds in Hollywood got the shock and surprise of a lifetime when one of those waxworks suddenly sprung to life.

To help promote the upcoming Terminator Genisys film, Arnold Schwarzenegger underwent several hours of makeup to look exactly like the character from one of his most defining roles, The Terminator.

As expected, the general public think he's merely just another wax statute to have a fun photo alongside - but when he suddenly springs to life and scared the hell out of them, the results are hilarious.

Being the nice guy he is, Arnie then poses for a photo with everyone afterwards - a pretty cool souvenir to go home with. After all, it's not everyday you visit Madame Tussauds and literally bump into a living legend.

MIKA: He is indeed a Legend

[MIKA27]

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF CAPTAIN WINKLE BROWN

The story of Captain Eric Melrose “Winkle” Brown is one of the greatest WWII tales you’re every likely to come across. Many of us have seen dozens, perhaps even hundreds of documentaries about the Second World War, but this one is my favourite and I don’t think it’ll ever be usurped.

It’s difficult to condense the life of Captain Brown down into a blurb under a documentary so I’ll just tell you a few facts about him and let you make up your own mind. Eric Brown (known as “Winkle” to his friends due to his small stature) has flown 487 different types of aircraft – more than any other pilot, he’s also performed 2,407 aircraft carrier landings – which is also a world record. He’s the Fleet Air Arm’s most decorated living pilot and he achieved several firsts in the history of flying – including the first landing on an aircraft carrier of a twin-engined aircraft, an aircraft with a tricycle undercarriage and a jet propelled aircraft.

Trust me when I ask you to watch the documentary.