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

[Duxnutz]

The FAA Warned Boeing About The Flaw That Caused A 777 To Explode In Las Vegas

When a jetliner’s engine explodes moments before take off, people ask questions. Now, less than a week after that very thing happened to a British Airways 777, answers are starting to emerge — and they’re scary.

Turns out the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) warned both Boeing and General Electric, the 777’s engine-maker, about a flaw in the plane’s engine design that could result in the very catastrophe that took place last week at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas.

What’s worse is that the safety warning was issued over four years ago. The FAA warned that cracks could form in the engine’s high-pressure compressor spool causing “uncontained engine failure and damage to the aeroplane.” In other words, the FAA knew that the engine’s turbines could fail under stress, causing an explosion and a shower of debris big enough to set the rest of the plane on fire.

That’s exactly what happened to the 777 in Las Vegas. The good news is that the British Airways pilots saved the day by acting fast, extinguishing the fire and slamming on the brakes so that passengers could evacuate should the fire get anywhere close to the fuel tanks in the wings. If that had happened, the entire plane would have been engulfed in flames, likely burning up completely in just a few minutes. This almost happened. Miraculously, all 159 passengers and 13 crew members escaped with their lives.

The FAA issued a new airworthiness directive for the 777 engine in question that required additional inspections to spot the cracks before they caused a catastrophic event. It’s so far unclear whether inspectors simply missed seeing a crack or the FAA should have required more frequent inspections. Boeing told The Daily Beast that it was “is providing technical assistance to the NTSB,” while GE and the FAA did not respond to comment. Regardless, one thing is clear: Boeing and GE knew about this problem years ago.

Then again, Boeing doesn’t have a super great track record when it comes to using defective parts on planes full of people.

Puff piece. Most accidents are caused by humans or weather not defective parts. Also interesting there was no mention of the A380 engine design and wing cracks!

[MIKA27]

As previously reported: More information on Porsche Mission E: The Tesla-Killing Sports Car Of The Future?

The Tesla Model S is the electric car to beat right now. It smashes its competition in terms of battery range, speed and comfort. Porsche thinks it’s high time the Tesla was knocked off its pedestal, and it might have the hammer with which to do it. Albeit an incredibly stylish, fast and futuristic hammer in the new Mission E concept.

Unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, the Porsche Mission E is a (very) toned-down, hardtop, all-electric version of the car company’s 919 Spyder, which features a dual-electric motor system cranking out up to 600 horsepower.

It has a reported range of around 500km, but it’s unlikely we’ll ever see it cruising around the streets.

The Porsche futurecar is only a concept, and even if it gets built we won’t see it cruising about until at least 2019. Boo.

Still, it’s mighty pretty to look at between now and then.

[Fuzz]

The Murder Castle – Chicago’s Real Life House of Horrors

Feh. You want a real House of Horrors? Take a trip to Canberra!

As previously reported: More information on Porsche Mission E: The Tesla-Killing Sports Car Of The Future?

Ho-hum. Not as good as China's Qiantu K50 Event! electric supercar. I mean, c'mon! It has an exclamation mark in the name!!

[Maxismoke]

Puff piece. Most accidents are caused by humans or weather not defective parts. Also interesting there was no mention of the A380 engine design and wing cracks!

Was this caused by weather or human error?

[MIKA27]

Why Do Some People Take Selfies In Emergencies?

When a United Airlines flight made an emergency landing this summer due to medical situations on board, as the oxygen masks fell down, some passengers’ phone cameras went up. But psychologists say the instinct to snap a selfie in a near-death experience isn’t all narcissism — it’s also about survival and self-preservation.

The ‘Survival Selfie’

Our friends over at Jezebel have written about this strange phenomenon, in which people take and post a selfie during or after an emergency. Such as in July, when United Flight 447 from Denver to LA made an emergency landing in Colorado because of several spontaneous medical situations as a result of oxygen problems on board. A few passengers whipped out smartphones as they affixed their masks.

Other oxygen mask selfies were taken in 2014 during emergency landings for a Singapore-bound flight and another headed for the Netherlands, when both experienced sudden losses in cabin pressure.

Meanwhile, last September, JetBlue Flight 1416 filled with smoke after an engine malfunctioned, forcing an emergency landing and prompted actor Jackson Rathbone to document the trauma in a series of photos and selfies.

Also last year, a US Airways Flight 1702 in Philadelphia aborted takeoff after the plane skidded into the runway nose-down and started smoking, but a Twitter user posted two selfies that went viral, after she safely evacuated and was a way’s away from the plane.

Finally, in the most stunning and saddest example, one man actually survived a small plane crash andtook a selfie floating on a life raft in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, even filming some of the incident on his GoPro. Tragically, one person passed away in the incident.

It’s easy to roll your eyes at society, scoffing:”Taking a selfie is the last thing I’d be doing,” or “Wow, so it’s come to this.” But while danger isn’t new, smartphones and selfies are relatively so, and that’s sparked a new type of behaviour among some people faced with crises. We asked a couple psychologists why folks do this.

Some of it is narcissism, yes

“In general, the compulsion to take a picture of yourself during an emergency is unlikely to help your situation. It is possible that documenting other details in an emergency would be useful — odd noises, the visage of an attacker — but turning the camera on yourself is suggesting that you are the only (or the most important) detail in this situation,” says Jesse Fox, an associate professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University.

Back in January, Fox led a study about selfie psychology that was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. In it, it was revealed that men who took more selfies are more likely to suffer from problems like narcissism and psychopathy. But in the case of survival selfies? Fox says that while there could definitely be some posterity or journalistic motivation behind them, the practice might also involve some innate level of self-involvement.

“Making this documentation about the self — rather than the situation — indicates that a certain level of narcissism is still at play,” she explains. “People may be thinking ahead that their photos may be widely shared, and thus want to embed themselves as part of the action. Alternatively, they may be trying to prove that they were actually there.”

If the picture’s taken after the emergency, not during, the motives might be different. “Perhaps you want to offer friends and family evidence that you’re ok — or not,” she says. “Or, [you might want to] preemptively address questions regarding the trauma you just experienced.”

It’s that need to document yourself in the face of death (or what you perceive to be the face of death) that taps into a psychological theory that might suggest survival selfies tap into a human need to self-preserve.

Selfies can be a legit coping mechanism

On a subconscious level, the instinct to snap a so-called survival selfies goes beyond simply jonesing for likes or shares or retweets. “I don’t think this is simple narcissism,” says Susan Krauss Whitbourne, professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “I think it’s related to this idea that when your mortality salience is heightened, you seek to preserve and protect your identity.”

What is “mortality salience,” you say? Whitbourne explains that it’s rooted in something called Terror Management Theory. It’s a school of thought that suggests fear of death is major driver behind human behaviour.

“Basically, TMT proposes that when we’re faced the prospect of our own mortality — mortality salience — we act in ways to try to preserve our sense of self or identity,” Whitbourne says.

That’s why snapping selfies could be considered a coping mechanism for humans facing a terrifying scenario. In some cases, people could even be posting selfies to give loved ones something to remember them by if worst comes to worst. Meanwhile, according to TMT, humans have a basic, survivalist compulsion to protect their self-identities in a life-or-death scenario. And what’s interesting is that, before selfies, humans didn’t really have the tools to act on their subconscious TMT compulsions in a dire event.

“No one is going to take a selfie while they are being robbed or attacked by a wild animal,” Fox says. (Apparently taking one moments before a wild animal attack is a different story, however.)

Smartphones have changed how we respond to danger

At the end of the day, the reasons people choose to self-document the things they do — especially if they just survived a brush with death — can be varied and nuanced and complex. For example, some folks might not even think they’re in any real danger, despite emergency procedures, and want to take a fun little selfie. Others might be seeking something familiar and banal that they can control in an obviously completely unusual and uncontrollable situation.

But generally, social media puts us in feedback loops that prompt selfies, in any circumstances. And if you’re taking a picture of yourself in a scary situation that elicits concern or interest from others on a wide scale, the need to take a selfie gets exacerbated.

“As long as people keep ‘liking’ those photos, sharing them, or making positive comments, selfies will continue,” Fox says. “If everyone cut off the social rewards for posting selfies and just ignored those posts entirely, they’d die off pretty quickly.”

Coming face-to-face with your mortality adds a new dynamic, though. If you’re the one in the trauma, the ‘survival selfie’ can be just that: proof of your survival. It’s proof that you went through some gnarly **** and came out on the other side ok. In the moment or in the immediate aftermath, it might be a raw human emotion — but perhaps days later, “the photos make an impressive addition to their social media feeds,” Whitbourne says.

“As the saying goes,” Fox says, “pics or it didn’t happen.”

[MIKA27]

Look Inside The First Ever U.S. Airbus Assembly Plant

This is the brand new Airbus U.S. Manufacturing Facility — where you seem to be able to eat your lunch from the floor. The European aircraft manufacturer inaugurated its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Mobile, Alabama on 14th September.

Three types of aeroplanes — the A319, A320 and A321 — will be assembled in this plant. Already, over 250 Airbus manufacturing employees are working on the first U.S.-made Airbus aircraft.

[MIKA27]

Here Are 5 Alternate Movie Endings That Would Have Been Way More Bad Arse

Sometimes movies change their original, director intended endings because the audience gets too attached to characters or studios want to leave room open for sequels or we all just want a teeny bit of happiness after we sit in a dark room for two hours. But some endings shouldn’t change because the alternate endings were better than what we saw. Here are a few movies with bad arse alternate endings.

The list compiled from ScreenRant, shows the alternate endings from Terminator 2, I Am Legend, 28 Days Later, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and First Blood.

[MIKA27]

Jeff Bezos' Space Company Now Has A Launchpad

Space is about to get crowded with the ventures of billionaire tech entrepreneurs. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has just announced that his private space company Blue Origin will be taking over a launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Florida that hasn’t been used in a decade.

Launch Complex 36, a facility once patronized by NASA’s Atlas rockets and Martian Mariner probes, is about to become commercial space company Blue Origin’s new digs. With a $US200 million dollar capital investment, the complex is getting a makeover and a flashy new name, “Exploration Park.”

Blue Origins is hoping to blast people to the edge of space later this decade using its New Shepard suborbital launch system. New Shepard, which consists of a booster rocket and a three person crew capsule, is designed to ferry people into low Earth orbit for several minutes and then (gently!) fall back to Earth will the aid of parachutes. The vehicle had its first uncrewed test launch in April and Bezos says he plans additional details public sometime next year.

[MIKA27]

Bangkok's Homeless Are Turning These Decommissioned Aeroplanes Into Makeshift Homes

Somewhere in the outskirts of the Thai capital, unused aeroplanes stored in a private field have become homes for three poor families. This is the darker side of the most populous city in Thailand.

Over 8 million people live in Bangkok, in a city where migration, unemployment and poverty force tens of thousands to live in extremely poor conditions. The three families you can see in the photoset below can’t afford to rent any flat, so they decided to move in the discarded aeroplane bodies, a rusty Boeing 747 jet reincarnated. They collect and recycle garbage for a living, and earn a few dollars a day.

Getty photographer Taylor Weidman documented the family’s daily life among the dismantled airliner fuselages.

Photos: Taylor Weidman/Getty Images

[MIKA27]

The World's Two Largest Beer Makers Brew Up a Merger

AB InBev plans to make a bid for SABMilller, a move that will bring Budweiser, Coors, Miller, and Blue Moon all under one roof.

Make mine a … eh, what does it matter? If the options don’t all come from the same place, they might soon.

AB InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, said Wednesday that it will approach SABMiller, the world’s second-largest beer maker, with an offer to buy the company. It’s unclear what the deal would be worth, though AB InBev had $47 billion in revenue in 2014, while SABMiller brought in $22.1 billion in a fiscal year that ended in March. Moreover, the deal would bring all of the following brands together under one roof: Bud, Bud Light, Corona, Michelob, Stella Artois, Becks, Hoegaarden, Leffe, Coors, Coors Light, Grolsch, Icehouse, Keystone, Milwaukee’s Best, Blue Moon, Foster’s, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni, Miller Lite, and of course the champagne of beers, High Life. And that’s only a partial list.

Rumors about further consolidation in the beer industry have been swirling, like so many unfiltered particles in a fermentation tank, for years. Bloomberg reports:

The acquisition of SABMiller would be the biggest in the industry’s history and cap more than a decade of consolidation across brewing companies. A potential combination of the beermakers had been seen as likely for years as they have limited geographical overlap and are not controlled by a family foundation like their main competitors, Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S.

The companies control a complicated patchwork of market dominance—for example, SAB Miller is particularly strong in Africa. The two companies both have strong sales in Latin America, but not always in the same countries.

Market reaction to the idea was positive—stock in both companies rose—but there are questions about whether regulators would approve a merger without some serious strings attached. Because the two companies are so large, officials in both the U.S. and Europe might force the combined behemoth to sell off certain assets to avoid antitrust concerns.

For any red-blooded, blue-collared, or bleary-eyed American, there’s a momentous symbolism to the idea of Miller and Anheuser-Busch merging: the two great giants of U.S. beer, no longer in competition. A regal Midwestern marriage of the two leading cities of American mass-market beer, St. Louis and Milwaukee. But symbolism is all there is to it. AB InBev was formed when the Belgian-Brazilian InBev bought Anheuser-Busch in 2009, and the company is based in Belgium. SABMiller—the “SAB” stands for South African Breweries—bought Miller in 2002, and is based in London.

Consolidation is the order of the day in the booze industry, and economic slowdowns in Brazil and China, which have driven a great deal of beer-market expansion in recent years, are said to have accelerated this merger. The results of earlier mergers have been celebrated by the market, but not always by beer drinkers, who complain of changes to their favorite swill, and not for the better. In 2012, BusinessWeek reported on “the plot against American beer.”

The consolidation trend extends to craft breweries. While the raw number of craft breweries continues to grow, the big conglomerates have started snapping up the most successful of them. Just last week, Lagunitas sold a 50 percent share to Heineken, the world’s third-largest beer maker. In 2011, AB InBev’s purchase of the beloved Chicago craft brewer Goose Island brought out the Chicken Littles, who were convinced it was a death knell for Honker’s Ale. But as Jordan Weissmann notes, Goose Island’s beer has remained pretty good.

If you’re a Keystone fan, however, you’re not probably not too worried about that sort of thing. So if the market’s up, bottoms up!

[MIKA27]

Florida’s Giant Land Snails May Be Part of an Odd Ritual

Just as Florida’s Department of Agriculture revealed it may have finally turned the slimy corner on controlling its giant African land snail infestation, word comes out that the creatures may have been brought to the state to be used in a strange religious ritual.

Last week, Florida’s Department of Agriculture commissioner Adam Putnamannounced that 159,000 giant African land snails have been killed since they were first discovered in the state four years ago and their numbers are dwindling. Living up to their name, the snails can reach 10 inches in length and live up to nine years while eating over 500 different kinds of plants, chewing the stucco off the sides of houses and spreading a parasite lined to meningitis. Who would bring a monster like this to Florida?

Charles L. Stewart – that’s who. During the eradication process, investigators traced a trail of slime back to Hialeah where Stewart practiced a religion known as Ifa Orisha. Calling himself “El Africano” or “Oloye Ifatoku,” Stewart had giant African snails smuggled into Florida in 2010 to perform a so-called healing ritual where he cut the heads off of the snails and his followers – skip this part if you have a weak stomach – drank the internal fluids and guts.

Did it work? Well, it did if the violent retching, lumps in the stomach and loss of weight was better than whatever was ailing you. After his followers ended up in emergency rooms, federal authorities raided his home and confiscated 20 snails and a number of eggs. Unfortunately, more snails were discovered in the wild a year later and the destruction and multi-million dollar eradication began.

Is a snail in the hand better than two eating your garden?

Snails are used as part of Santeria rituals but they are small snails that are dried, pulverized and mixed with herbs before using being used topically, but never as a drink. While sometimes compared to Santeria, Stewart said that Ifa Orisha is an African religion.

Speaking of El Africano, what happened to him? After possibly causing millions of dollars in damages and costing the state more millions to eradicate the giant African snails … nothing. As of November 2014, Stewart was not charged with illegally importing the snails.

Perhaps Stewart is the only one who was helped by drinking the guts of the giant snails.

[MIKA27]

Kit Harington Confirms Jon Snow’s ‘Game of Thrones’ Return

The Bastard of Winterfell is (maybe) not dead, and will (probably, definitely) be returning for Season 6 of the HBO fantasy epic. Warning: spoilers for Season 5 and beyond!

Pity the man named Kit Harington, that prettily coiffed Game of Thrones know-nothing unwillingly burdened with guarding the worst-kept secret in Westeros: that Jon Snow, who we last saw getting stabbed to death by mutinous Night’s Watchmen in the show’s Season 5 finale, is not gone for good.

The worldwide Jon Snow truther movement—which maintains that the former Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch might transform into a White Walker, warg his way into his direwolf’s body, or be revived via Melisandre’s holy connection to the Lord of Light—has kept obsessive tabs on Harington’s every globetrotting move, social interaction, and hair trim since the finale aired.

By now, with production on Season 6 in full swing, Harington knows full well whether or not Snow lives, dies, zombifies or simply makes a cameo appearance as a corpse on a funeral pyre or in a vision or a flashback. Which is what makes a recently surfaced interview the actor gave to a Belgian magazine while promoting Testament of Youth so interesting.

In the middle of griping yet again about his obligation to the show—the man would just like to cut his hair without setting off an international crisis, thank you—Harington seemed to accidentally reveal that he’s still signed up for future appearances.

“I often felt frustrated as well. I had to pass on amazing parts because I was attached to Game of Thrones,” he said, according to Dutch-translating Redditors. “So the show is like a double-edged sword to me: I owe a lot to it, but at the same time it has almost completely drained me. Oh well, I try not to think about it too much. The important thing is that I now know exactly how long I am still under contract, and in the meantime—”

And in the meantime, he said, leisurely steamrolling through HBO’s already threadbare veil of secrecy. His interviewer interrupted, “How many more seasons would that be?”

“Nice try [laughs]. I can’t talk about that,” Harington said, before talking about it. “Let’s just say that Game of Thrones will remain a part of life for a while, I’ll probably be in my thirties when it’s over. One thing’s for sure: The day I’m no longer on Thrones is the day I’ll bury myself in movie projects.”

A few caveats: The interview is described as “recent,” though no exact date is given. And that “contract,” a potential seven-season-long commitment Harington and other Game of Thrones actors renegotiated with HBO last year, does not necessarily mean Harington will appear onscreen throughout all seven seasons. (One cynical Reddit user even goes so far as to suggest the contract’s length might be a clever way of keeping characters’ lifespans under wraps.)

But no matter what, Harington's tone is strikingly different from the answers he gave during post-finale interviews, when he maintained, “I’m dead. I’m not coming back next season,” an HBO-sanctioned PR line that Watchers on the Wall, a fan site with more intel-feeding little birds across the world than Lord Varys, claims to have already debunked.

Last week, the site reported a “massive” battle being filmed in Northern Ireland involving northern armies “including the Umbers, the Boltons, wildlings” and everyone’s favorite sadsack bastard, who was also seen on set. By then, Harington had already been spotted in and around Belfast—where many of the show’s Winterfell and Castle Black-set scenes are filmed—a number of times: once disembarking the same plane Iwan Rheon aka Ramsay Bolton was on, once chatting happily with Rheon and some friends on a street corner at night, and once, according to a hawk-eyed Twitter fan, “at the fruit shop. He was wearing a jaunty wee flat cap.”

Whether Snow lives or dies is up in the air. But like an aging C-3PO actor rolling his eyes at studios’ “ludicrous” obsession with secrecy (let Anthony Daniels speak, Disney!) Harington seems less than invested in maintaining the ruse anymore. For that matter, so are we.

[MIKA27]

8.3 Earthquake Off Chile's Coast

A powerful 8.3-magnitude earthquake struck off Chile's coast on Wednesday, triggering a tsunami alert and coastal evacuations.

A woman was killed in the city of Illapel, Chilean National Police spokesman Oscar Llanten told CNN sister network CNN Chile. At least seven people were injured in the quake, he said, three of whom are in serious condition.

There were also reports of damages to homes in Illapel, Interior Minister Jorge Burgos told reporters.

According to a preliminary assessment from the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake's epicenter was about 54 kilometers (34 miles) west of Illapel. It occurred around 7:54 p.m. (6:54 p.m. ET) and had a depth of 33 kilometers (20.5 miles), USGS said.

Chile's national emergency agency issued a tsunami alert, ordering evacuations in coastal areas from Arica to Puerto Aysen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_m4V-UXHN0

Flooding, power loss

Large tsunami waves have been observed along the Chilean coast, near the quake's epicenter. Near Coquimbo, Chile, waves were measured at 3.11 meters (10.2 feet), according to the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Pictures taken inside a shopping mall in La Serena, in the coastal city just north of Coquimbo, showed walls and signs toppled to the floor, ceiling tiles caved in as well as chairs, benches and tables covered in rubble.

Mall de la serena @24HorasTVN @christianpino @biobio @

Coquimbo Mayor Cristian Galleguillos told CNN Chile the city was starting to see flooding and 95% of the city had lost electrical power. Residents had evacuated before waves started hitting the coastline, he said.

At least 12 aftershocks of magnitude 4.9 or higher rattled residents in the area around the first quake's epicenter within less than two hours, according to USGS.

A series of aftershocks could be felt in the country's capital, about 230 kilometers (145 miles) away from the quake's epicenter, CNN Chile reported.

"Everybody ran outside. The windows rattled. Things fell. ... The impact was strong," said Emily Hersh, who lives in Santiago. "Even after I stepped outside, I felt the ground moving."

Fabrizio Guzman, emergency communications manager in Chile for World Vision, said the the earthquake hit during rush hour, causing traffic snarls that left many people stuck in the streets as they tried to get home.

"There were many people afraid, running in the streets, when the shaking started," he said in a written statement. "The earthquake felt really intense and seemed to last for several minutes."

Tsunami watch

"Widespread hazardous tsunami waves are possible" along the coast of Chile and Peru, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said, and a tsunami watch is in effect for Hawaii.

A tsunami watch is issued "to alert emergency management officials and the public of an event which may later impact the watch area," the center says. A warning is issued when a "potential tsunami with significant widespread inundation is imminent or expected."

Even New Zealand, which is some 6,000 miles away from the quake's epicenter, is on guard for possible tsunami waves.

The country has issued a tsunami warning. Shane Bayley of New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management told CNN strong tidal currents and large waves are expected in some areas.

Ring of Fire'

Chile is in one of the most earthquake-prone regions in the world.

The country sits on an arc of volcanoes and fault lines circling the Pacific Ocean known as the "Ring of Fire." The area experiences frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Since 1973, Chile has had more than a dozen quakes of magnitude-7.0 and above.

[MIKA27]

JAGUAR F-PACE

After leaking concept images over the past few months, the fine folks at Jaguar have used the 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show to debut their first ever crossover, the F-Pace.

This beautiful new vehicle will be offered up in six different models including the standard F-Pace, F-Pace Premium, Prestige, R-Sport, S, and the First Edition. Based on the C-X117 concept, the all-wheel drive five-seater will come in several different powerplant configurations from the 180 horsepower 2.0-liter Ingenium diesel engine all the way up to the top of the line 3.0-liter V6, a setup that pumps out 380 horsepower. The crossover will feature a brand new InControl Touch Pro infotainment system along with a a wearable, waterproof Activity Key that was designed to let outdoor junkies gain easy entry to their vehicle while doing everything from surfing to hiking. The British auto maker plans on releasing the F-Pace next spring, with a price tag starting at $40,990. Check out the new F-Pace setting a world record for the largest 360-degree loop in the video below.

[MIKA27]

THE ULTIMATE JAMES BOND COLLECTION

As fans prepare for the very much anticipated release of the new bond movie SPECTRE, Amazon, have just released the exclusive Ultimate James Bond Collection, with all 23 Bond films to date, together in a Blu-ray box-set! The one-of-a-kind set also features a Bond poster book, and an exclusive bonus disc with a 90-minute documentary "Everything or Nothing” plus further bonus materials.

[MIKA27]

Somehow these kayakers survived having a massive humpback whale land on them

It’s all fun and games until someone gets jumped on by a humpback whale.

We’re not sure how, but these two kayakers survived the mammoth beast landing on them as they cruised around Moss Landing harbour in California.

The incredible scene was filmed by Larry Plants, a passenger on Sanctuary Cruises, who was out whale watching with a group at 8am.

The firm uploaded to YouTube and wrote: ‘On our 8am Sanctuary Cruises whale tour, just outside the harbor in Moss Landing, two kayakers on a tandam kayak were almost crushed to death by a massive, near full-size humpback whale.

‘We stopped to see a large aggregation of humpbacks feeding and carrying on with random acts of hijinks. There were also a lot of kayakers right in the middle of it all.

‘Humpbacks were coming up next to and in the middle of many kayakers. The next thing we knew, this thing launched right on top of these two kayakers. That was heavy.’

[MIKA27]

The Insane 1920s Plan To Dam The Mediterranean And Form A Supercontinent

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris recently announced plans to buy a Greek island to give refugees from the Middle East and Africa a country of their own. Though he referred to his proposal as a “crazy idea” on Twitter, Sawiris is serious.

As a radical solution to providing land for the peoples of a war-torn continent, it certainly pales in comparison to an earlier plan from the first half of the 20th century, which was seriously considered by heads of state and, at one point, even the United Nations: the plan for Atlantropa, which would have involved the partial draining of the Mediterranean Sea and the creation of a Eurafrican supercontinent.

Atlantropa was the brainchild of the German architect Herman Sörgel, who tirelessly promoted his project from 1928 until his death in 1952. His experience of World War I, the economic and political turmoil of the 1920s and the rise of Nazism in Germany convinced Sörgel that a new world war could only be avoided if a radical solution was found to European problems of unemployment, overpopulation and, with Saudi oil still a decade away, an impending energy crisis. With little faith in politics, Sörgel turned to technology.

Dams across the Strait of Gibraltar, the Dardanelles, and eventually between Sicily and Tunisia, each containing gigantic hydroelectric power plants, would form the basis for the new supercontinent. In its final state the Mediterranean would be converted into two basins, with the western part lowered by 100 meters and the eastern part by 200 meters and a total of 660,200 km2 of new land reclaimed from the sea — an area larger than France.

Later plans for Atlantropa also included two dams across the Congo River and the creation of a Chad and Congo Sea, which Sörgel hoped would have a moderating influence on the African climate making it more pleasant for European settlers. In line with the colonial and racist attitudes of the times, Sörgel envisaged Africa with its resources and its land to be entirely at the disposal of Europe, a continent with plenty of space to accommodate Europe’s huddled masses.

While Sörgel’s proposal may sound absurd to our ears, it was taken seriously by architects, engineers, politicians and journalists at the time. The extensive Atlantropa archive in the Deutsche Museum in Munich abounds with architectural drawings for the new cities, the dams and bridges of the future continent as well as letters of support and hundreds of articles about the project, which appeared in the German and international popular press as well as in specialised engineering and geographical magazines.

What made Atlantropa so attractive was its vision of world peace achieved not through politics and diplomacy, but with a simple technological solution. Atlantropa would be held together by a vast energy net, which would extend from the gigantic hydroelectric plant in the Gibraltar dam and provide the entirety of Europe and Africa with electricity. The power plant would be overseen by an independent body who would have the power to switch off the energy supply to any individual country that posed a threat to peace. Moreover Sörgel calculated that the construction of the supercontinent would require each country to invest so much money and people power that none would have sufficient resources to finance a war.

Putting his faith in the peoples of Europe and their desire for peace, Sörgel dedicated a large part of his work to the promotion and dissemination of the project through the popular press, radio programmes, films, talks, exhibitions and even poetry and an Atlantropa symphony. He hoped popular support would help him get the backing of politicians, which he needed in order to start construction.

Unsurprisingly, in the eyes of his contemporaries the required collaboration between nation states always appeared even more utopian than the vast technological dimensions of Atlantropa. As the New York-based UN World observed in 1948:

Harnessing Gibraltar for mankind’s good does sound like a dream, but in this 20th century no dream — not even that of cooperation among nations — is quite impossible.

By 2012, when the European Union was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in acknowledgement of its contribution to lasting peace in Europe, the hope expressed by the UN World appeared to finally have come true. However, in 2015, cooperation among nations sadly looks like a distant dream once again. Where once Herman Sörgel had used the image of a Europe bursting at the seams that is saved by a peaceful merger with the African continent, we are now confronted with the mirror image as people from across Africa and the Middle East stream towards Europe.

Now would be the time to prove that the Peace Prize was indeed deserved. Now would be the time to show solidarity and unity. Instead, the EU appears on the brink of being torn apart over its inability to find a communal solution to accommodate a group of refugees, whose number ultimately comes to no more than a meagre 0.11% of the overall population of the Union. Sadly European unity, and with it a solution for the refugee crisis, once again appears more utopian than Sörgel’s plans for draining the sea.

[MIKA27]

The US And China Just Made A Deal To Build High-Speed Rail Between LA And Vegas

Americans could one day soon cruise between two major cities in the western US on a mega-fast train at 150 mph, thanks to a new agreement between a private US venture and a consortium led by China Railway Group.

It will be called XpressWest, and it will link the 230 miles separating Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The train will get you there in 80 minutes, versus a four-hour car ride. Construction’s set to kick off next September, and comes on the heels of four years of negotiations. It’s China’s first high-speed rail project in the US, and Bloomberg reports that $US100 million in initial capital will get the project off the ground. (Though that will be just a teeny drop in the bucket — the project is expected to cost upwards to $US7 billion). To date, only private sector funds have covered the bill, but the project’s applied for loans with the Federal Railroad Administration.

The cost, benefits, and logistics of setting up speed demon trains in the sprawling US has sparked huge amounts of debate. Proponents of high-speed rail say it will create jobs and bring American infrastructure and technology up to speed (so to speak) with those nations. Opponents either don’t want construction in their area, or think it’s a waste of money, or think that high-speed rail doesn’t make sense in a big, spread out country like America. Meanwhile, supporters counter that high-speed rail is designed to link metros that are both large and close, like Boston to DC — not Missoula to Tampa.

Regardless, this agreement could bring at least one high-speed rail project closer to reality. Other advanced economies, like Japan, Germany, and France, have been running systems of their own for decades. Japan, for example, debuted its bullet trains way back in 1964.

In fact, China isn’t the only Asian country looking to bring its style of high-speed rail stateside. Earlier this year, we reported on two major high-speed rail plans already in motion in the US: A private venture in Texas that proposes linking Dallas and Houston — two of America’s fastest-growing urban centres — with a replica of Japan’s famed shinkansen, or bullet train. Meanwhile, California officially started rail construction on its own high-speed rail project in January, despite having not yet chosen a country’s trains to model its system on.

China, which overtook Japan as the world’s second largest economy in 2010, has been operating high-speed rail since 2004, and even has the world’s longest-running maglev train in Shanghai. Last year, China signed a $US567 million deal to bring regular-speed trains to Boston, marking China’s first rail deal in America. We’ll see wait and see how far the XpressWest project goes, and how Americans will respond to it.

[MIKA27]

This Warship Looks Like A Scene From Tron

You’d be forgiven for thinking this was a scene from a Hollywood movie, but in fact it’s the the guided-missile destroyer USS Gravely as it sails through the Atlantic Ocean on training operations.

The MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter sits atop the ship as it refuels, while sailors take part in a training exercise with the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group.

[MIKA27]

Behold The Ghostly Glow Of A Bioluminescent Coastline Under The Milky Way

Astrophotographer Adam Woodworth’s exquisite shots of the aurora borealis and the Milky Way have lit up Gizmodo before. But he’s outdone himself with his latest reminder that Earth is the most goddamn beautiful planet you’ll ever live on: An electric blue strip of bioluminescent coastline under a dazzlingly starry night sky.

Bioluminescence, the production of light by living organisms, is found across the tree of life from marine invertebrates to mushrooms to fireflies. Paradoxically, the most spectacular chemical light shows nature has to offer come courtesy of teensy tiny microbes. You can’t see these critters individually, but by the billions, their shimmery waterways are a sight to behold.

According to Woodworth, long exposure shots helped bring out the brilliant blue critters that colour this particular stretch of Maine coastline:

This is a blend of 10 exposures for the sky and 2 foreground exposures. 10 shots for the sky were each taken at ISO 10,000, 10 seconds, f/2.8, and then stacked with Starry Landscape Stacker for pinpoint stars and low noise. The 2 foreground exposures were taken at lower ISO and longer shutter speeds for a cleaner foreground, 1 at ISO 1600 for 20 minutes and another at ISO 6400 for 2 minutes, both at f/2.8. The exposures were then blended in Photoshop to create a single image with low noise and sharp focus. All shots were taken with the Nikon D810A and Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 lens at 14mm.

While the glow in the photo is brighter and much more blue than it was in person due to the limitations of human vision, and the fact that that camera can see more with long exposures, it was still intense to see in person and the photo doesn’t do the experience justice.

[MIKA27]

This Chameleon-Like Material Could Give Robots Skin That Camouflages In Real Time

A new chameleon-inspired “e-skin” that changes colour the longer and harder you press on it could help engineers design wearables, prosthetics, and robots that are better at sensing pressure and temperature — just like human skin can.

Published last month in the journal Nature Communications, the Stanford University research paper describes the stretchy, colourful polymer. Aside from adding a decorative, customisable coating to smart watches or phones, lead researcher Ho-Hsiu Chou told Phys.org that the e-skin could help us measure pressure applied to a surface, useful for smart prosthetics, exoskeletons, and robots. He says the e-skin could even provide a camouflage function for such devices.

Similar materials have been made in the past, but this stuff is entirely stretchable and better copies organic matter.

The team demonstrated the stuff by giving this teddy bear’s paw, which was outfitted with a pressure-sensitive polymer, a handshake. That polymer was connected to another polymer on the bear’s belly: an electrochromic one that changed colour depending on how much pressure was applied to the bear’s paw. The change in pressure — that is, the strength of the handshake, along with the handshake itself — altered the voltage of the sensor. Those fluctuations altered the chemical makeup of the electrochromic polymer, which caused oxidation that resulted in the colour change.

Why is the colour-changing important? Because it signals to us how much pressure is being applied to a surface. The technology is still experimental, with red and blue as the only two colours. I’m also guessing it will help us control how smart exoskeletons and robots handle, grip, or press objects. And since it’s so stretchy, we could wrap it over curvy or irregular surfaces. Colour me impressed.

[MIKA27]

The Mysterious Real Superhero of WWII

It seems that in this day and age, in an unstable and often violent world, there is a powerful attraction to the idea of a hero battling oppression in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Indeed this has always been an attractive notion for humankind. The image of the lone savior rising up and valiantly fighting against those who would subjugate them is an immensely potent one that seems to be deeply and firmly rooted in the human imagination. Who hasn’t ever imagined having the power to stand up to and fight back against a bully, crime, violence, or even something as simple as the person who cut you off on your way to work or a horrible boss? Who hasn’t at some point daydreamed about being some sort of superhero themselves, empowered with the courage and the means to exert themselves against the things which would bring them down? It is undeniably a firmly entrenched human desire, a part of the very fiber of our being hand a notable feature upon the terrain of our psyche. This desire would have been certainly present in war-torn Czechoslovakia during the days of World War II, when the Germans had descended upon them and subjected them to cruel oppression, and from the battle scarred streets of wartime Prague comes an interesting, amazing tale of one lone hero with apparent super powers who allegedly appeared from seemingly nowhere to lock into battle with diabolical Nazi forces. It is a tale that would grow into legend, and which captivates and stirs that part of our soul that needs heroes.

The bloody fighting that was taking place all over the European continent during World War II inevitably came lumbering to Czechoslovakia’s doorstep. The Nazis relentlessly and brutally moved in to occupy the country between the years of 1938 to 1945, and the horrible conditions this meant for the people were everything you might expect from Hitler’s ruthless invading forces. The occupation of Czechoslovakia was seen as a great military advantage for Germany because at the time it was a major producer of tanks, guns, and artillery, and the oppressed and conquered Czechoslovakian people were forced into hard labor to keep this manufacture of instruments of death moving along at a steady pace. These captured Czech factories and their enslaved workers would eventually manufacture an immense amount of weaponry, including 2.175 field canons, 469 tanks, 500 anti-aircraft artillery pieces, 43.000 machine guns, 1.090.000 military rifles, 114.000 pistols, about a billion rounds of ammunition and three millions of anti-aircraft grenades for the German forces, and indeed these Czech produced arms would prove to be instrumental in the subsequent German conquest of Poland and France.

Nazis in Prague

All through this, the Czech people were subjected to numerous, countless cruelties, offenses, and human rights abuses, and the occupying Nazi forces in Czechoslovakia were quick to deal out death to those who would dare to oppose them. A man by the name of Edvard Beneš had managed to keep a functioning government-in-exile for the country, and a resistance movement loyal to Beneš took hold against the Nazis, often engaging in guerilla maneuvers against the enemy. Although the resistance movement was a constant thorn in the Nazis’ side, things would come to a head with the orchestration of what was known as Operation Anthropoid in Prague on 27 May 1942, in which SS leader Heinrich Himmler’s deputy and Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, Reinhard Heydrich, was assassinated and which subsequently provoked one of the most vicious and brutal reprisals of the entire war. Originally the furious Hitler ordered the random bloody execution of 10,000 Czech citizens but later he decided to just settle on the total destruction of the villages of Lidice and Ležáky, which were razed to the ground after every single male living there over the age of 16 was mercilessly killed and the rest of the citizens sent to concentration camps. In total, the repercussions of Operation Anthropoid amounted to 1,300 ruthlessly murdered and 10,000 arrested and sentenced to rot in camps without trial.

These were dark times for the Czech people.

It was somewhere around this time, when the people of Czechoslovakia were lost in despair, without hope, and with their villages in ruins, that a curious, enigmatic stranger began to make his presence known. Reports began to circulate of a shadowy figure lurking in the shadows, darkened alleyways and rooftops of Prague, usually depicted as a somewhat spectral man dressed all in black and wearing a strange mask with shiny red eyes. Most notably, this stranger was said to have the astounding ability to make superhuman leaps of extraordinary magnitude, with witnesses describing the way he could bound across rooftops, over speeding trains, high gates, and even buildings with ease. In at least one report the black-clad figure was said to be able to leap completely over the Vitava River at its widest point, during which he was said to fly effortlessly through the air “like a shuttlecock” and to unleash an ear shattering, unearthly whistling sound. This power to leap great distances with ease led the stranger being called Pérák, or literally “Springer” or “Spring Man,” with the name deriving from the Czech word péro, meaning “spring.” Adding to this impressive leaping ability was Pérák’s alleged phenomenal speed, stamina and agility, all of which were said to make him impossible to follow or capture.

At first, Pérák was seen by the populace as a menacing, almost demonic figure to be feared. Early versions of the story have the mysterious apparition scaring or chasing innocent people, terrorizing the citizens, and even killing or raping citizens, and people began to avoid going out at night or refusing to go to work night shifts at the weapons factories to the extent that it even had a negative impact on the Nazi arms production output. However, this image as a sinister and diabolical boogieman quickly changed. Word began to spread that Pérák was starting to turn his attention on the German occupying forces, sabotaging their equipment and even leaping from the shadows to slit their throats before bounding away. It was rumored that during these encounters he seemed to be impervious to bullets when fired upon by the Nazis, with some accounts even describing German bullets ricocheting off of him to hit other soldiers, and he was always able to use his amazing jumping abilities to easily evade pursuit.

Additionally, Pérák was said to sometimes come to the aid of Czech citizens who were being attacked or harassed by the Nazis and either fend off or outright slaughter the oppressors before bounding away into the night, often emitting an ear piercing wail or whistle as he did so. Although he is mostly portrayed as preferring to remain stealthy and unseen, Pérák was known to be very adept at hand to hand combat and knife fighting. He also showed great skill with explosives and pyrotechnics, being credited with blowing up German supply lines, vehicles, and even destroying a tank in Grébovka Park. In a few stories he was seen to use some sort of fireworks as a weapon, spewing flames from his wrists at the enemy. He was also known to allegedly steal secret Nazi documents, such as the plans to an unspecified German secret weapon from the ČKD factory in Vysočany. There were even those who went so far as to claim that it had in fact been Pérák who had assassinated Reinhard Heydrich rather than the agents of Operation Anthropoid. Throughout all of this one-man struggle against the juggernaut German war machine, Pérák was said to leave bold, taunting anti-Nazi graffiti on walls or gates in normally inaccessible places, further strengthening his legend.

This growing image of him as a sort of superhero for the Czech people led to Pérák evolving to be a potent symbol of resistance against the Nazi regime, a savior for the people, and the stories quickly fanned out across the countryside to embed themselves firmly within the collective consciousness of the oppressed populace. Pérák seemed to be everywhere. It got to the point where nearly every problem, mishap, accident, or death the Germans suffered was attributed to the Spring Man of Prague, and he was widely seen as a hero and a ray of hope piercing through the gloom and death of the Nazi occupation. The legend of Pérák steadily gained momentum until the end of the war, when he seemed to vanish as suddenly and mysteriously as he had appeared.

However, although he may have disappeared from the shadows of Prague’s streets he did not disappear from the hearts of the Czech people. In May of 1945, practically as the smoke and dust was clearing in the trail of departing German forces, Czech cartoonists Jiří Brdečka and Jiří Trnka created a 14-minute animated film entitled Pérák a SS (“Springman and the SS”), which depicted the titular hero as a man who maintained a secret identity as a chimney sweep and dressed all in black, attached springs to his shoes, and ventured forth into the night to do battle with the Nazis. This same creative team would go on to publish a popular series of comic strips depicting Pérák, called Pérákovi další osudy (“The Other Fates of Pérák”), and the hero became an icon in popular culture. It was a trend that would continue on even when these representations of Pérák came to be discouraged by the new communist regime that came into power after the war, and indeed he is still a very popular character that inspires artists, writers, TV, movies, theater, and comics to this day.

The question that looms over all of this is just who or what Pérák was. Over the years it has been oft suggested that this valiant figure was merely an urban legend circulated by the weary, suffering people to give them hope in the face of the Nazi scourge, a savior in a time when these subjugated people needed one most desperately. This theory is given weight by the fact that the archetype for a spring-footed, or “leaping ghost” tradition was found to already predate World War II in the Czechoslovakian region. Ethnographer Dr. Miloš Pulec conducted an investigation into the lore of Pérák in the 1960s and found that the tradition of these leaping specters in the region went as far back as the 1920s and perhaps even beyond. It was also discovered that in the face of increasing atheism amongst the people, vergers of the Roman Catholic Church in northwestern Bohemia had once attached springs to their feet and dressed up in scary costumes to become “jumping devils” in order to scare everyone into piety.

While it seems the idea has caught on that this is all mere urban legend, there are others who disagree and believe that Pérák actually really existed in some form and to some extent, although it is unclear just who exactly he could have been. One idea is that he was a disgruntled citizen, an American secret agent, or a British paratrooper who had taken matters into his own hands, and that his various powers and agility could be explained by the vigilante being an acrobat or gymnast and having developed a variety of gadgetry to explain his amazing powers, such as real spring loaded boots, pyrotechnic weapons, and perhaps even some sort of body armor, sort of like a WWII era Batman. It has even been suggested that the whistling or wailing sound often attributed to Pérák could have been from some sort of spring-loaded machinery or even a weapon in itself for the purpose of startling, frightening, or disorienting enemies. These attributes could have subsequently been possibly exaggerated over retellings as the tales took off in the peoples’ imagination. More fringe beliefs say that Pérák was an actual ghost, demon, or even an alien. Interestingly, although citizens often spoke of Pérák and his deeds, the official police stance was that he did not exist. George Zenaty, an authority on the policing of Prague during World War II, has stated:

… in 1940-1942 none of our police precincts in Prague informed us in their daily reports of the existence of a ‘Spring Man’. This does not mean that such rumours might not have circulated; however, it would have been impossible to include [them] in the reports without tangible proof.

This does not necessarily equate to Pérák not existing. The police of the time in this occupied land would have been the very Germans who were being attacked by the enigmatic hero, and it would have not been wise of them to encourage the citizens by acknowledging his existence. They would have wanted to keep the people docile and obedient, not give them hope, seed potential unrest, or even inspire copycats by officially talking about this vigilante savior of the people. It makes sense that if Pérák did ever exist at all, then the police of the time would have gone through some degree of effort to discourage rumors and initiate a cover-up. Even if it was indeed all mere urban legends and rumors it seems that it would have been in the best interest of the authorities to keep a lid on it and squash such rumors as much as possible so as to quell the concepts of hope and rebellion. It should not be too surprising at all that the police would want to ignore or deny the stories.

It is certainly worth mentioning the clear parallels between the stories of Pérák and yet another legend in the form of the notorious Spring-heeled Jack of the United Kingdom. Beginning in 1837, the industrial suburbs of London, Sheffield, and Liverpool, as well as the Midlands and even as far away as Scotland became the stomping grounds for a mysterious figure with the remarkable ability to make enormous leaps via springs attached to his feet, who persistently terrorized residents and was known to make his escape by swiftly bounding away. This specter quickly became known as Spring-heeled Jack, and was depicted as having a frightening appearance, with metal claws attached to his hands and in some accounts glowing red eyes and the ability to shoot blue and white flames from his mouth. Spring-heeled Jack was far from a noble hero, and was mostly seen as a decidedly malevolent force which sowed mayhem and misery wherever he went, but it was a very widespread tale all the way up to the early 1900s and word of this scary entity spread throughout Europe, including the region of Bohemia. Considering this, it seems plausible that considering the similarities in the use of apparent use of pyrotechnics, or jumping to attack or evade capture, the stories of Spring-heeled Jack may very well have influenced those of Pérák. After all, even Pérák started off as a menacing, demonic figure, and the striking similarities between the two are obvious.

Spring-heeled Jack

Is there any grain of truth to the fantastic story of Pérák the Spring Man? Is so, who or what was he? It certainly seems like an alluring, even romantic notion, this idea that in the midst of war torn Prague a brave superhero rose up and struck back in the dark of night with amazing powers at his disposal. Whether he really existed or not, it is undoubtedly a powerful image that resonates with people, and it is easy to see why it became so entrenched in the public consciousness here. We as a species certainly have a strong, universal attraction to, and almost a need for, the archetype of a hero rising up against his or her oppressors, which seems to transcend borders. It is an inclination that can be seen all around us in art, fiction, the movies, and comics, with the popularity of superheroes and notably the ones that involve someone we can relate to, a regular person earning his powers through physical effort, mental discipline, and ingenuity, such as Iron Man or Batman. These are the ones that truly reverberate within us. Although the origins and whether he ever existed or not remain murky, the very idea of Pérák was probably just as effective in holding the oppressed people of the occupation together through the dark days of the war. In the end, there is much that remains mysterious about Pérák. We don’t know if there was ever a real Czechoslovakian superhero during World War II. We don’t know if he ever really existed. But I for one sure do rather like to think that he did.

[MIKA27]

Fukushima Waters Spawn Monstrous Fish

The radioactive waters off the coast of Japan created by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown in 2011 may be responsible for the unusually large fish caught recently by a Japanese fisherman. Hirasaka Hiroshi reeled in a massive wolfish that is very close to record size. Is this another example of the consequences of the nuclear disaster?

Map showing Hokkaido’s proximity to Russia

Hiroshi caught the monster fish off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost and second-largest island, and near the coast of Russia. After posting photographs of it on Twitter, the fish was identified as a wolfish of the Anarhichadidae family. These increasingly rare bottom-feeders prefer the colder waters of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

What’s unusual about this particular wolfish is its massive size. Northern wolfish and Bering wolfish average 1.2 meters in length. The wolf eel (Anarrhichthys ocellatus) tops out at two meters. Whichever species it was that Hiroshi pulled in, it would be a record or close to it since the fish measured 2 meters in length.

Is this wolffish’s unusual size due to Fukushima? As a bottom-feeder, it’s eating the crustaceans and mollusks on the sea bed that filter out whatever sinks down there. That makes them prime collectors and repositories of radioactive waste, which is then passed on to the fish that feed on them.

Giant lettuce may be the result of Fukushima disaster

Since the waters off the coast of Japan were fouled by Fukushima, there have been numerous reports of unusual or possibly mutant animals and plants, including giant lettuce, deformed radishes and double daisies. While nuclear industry experts and skeptics regard these as coincidences or anomalies that can occur without the presence of radiation, the number of them keep adding up. Is it a cover-up?

Mutant daisies growing near Fukushima

How much bigger do the wolfish have to get before an alarm goes off? Or is it already too late?

[MIKA27]

TECH DOPP KIT

Tech Dopp Kit by This is Ground was thought with traveling arrangements in mind. It´s a fact we all love to travel, one of the things we do love is to make all the preparations and planning the trip arrangements require…thinking about what you´ll need and organizing everything is almost just as fun as the trip itself. Tech Dopp Kit is the perfect add on for all your tech peripherals and more, a luxury pouch that has loads of dedicated small places to arrange your cables, headphones or sunglasses, plus you also get a zipper bag between the two sides, that can work as a wallet for important documents, and as a protective film between sides. Made in premium quality leather, with three available colors, a light brown, grey or black and in two different sizes regular or grand. Your new best friend to get your stuff luxuriously organized.

[MIKA27]

This Is The Most Complicated Pocket Watch Ever Made

To help celebrate 260 years of watchmaking, Vacheron Constantin actually spent the last eight years leading up to its anniversary designing, engineering, and building what it claims is the most complicated mechanical pocket watch ever created.

The Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 pocket watch was actually commissioned by a secret collector, presumably with infinitely deep pockets because commanding the attention of a watchmaker for the better part of a decade for a one-off creation certainly can’t come cheap. But the results have earned the pocket watch a place in the record books.

Functions in addition to simply displaying the current time (hours, minutes, seconds) are referred to as complications on a mechanical watch. The previous record holder, the Patek Philippe Calibre 89 pocket watch, boasted 33 complications in total. But the new Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 ups that to 57 complications, which are slowly being revealed on the watchmaker’s website over the coming months.

However, aBlogtoWatch’s David Bredan has already compiled a list of about 27 different complications you’ll find on the record-breaking timepiece. Most of this functionality could be easily replicated via a single smartwatch app, but you need to keep in mind that everything here is strictly being accomplished through nothing but springs, gears, and cogs:

· Hours, minutes, seconds

· Armillary sphere tourbillon

· Triple-axis tourbillon

· World Time Indication with separate 12 hours and minutes, day, and day-night display

· Balance wheel with variable inertia and spherical hairspring

· Triple-column-wheel split-second “rattrapante” chronograph with 60-minute and 12-hour totalizers

· Perpetual Gregorian Calendar

· ISO 8601 Financial “Business” Calendar with number of the day and week indication

· Indications for the day of the week, date, weeks, months, leap years

· Retrograde Date

· Hebraic Perpetual Calendar with date, name of the day and month, number of months (12 or 13) in the Hebraic year; secular calendar, century, decade and year

· Golden Number indication with 19-year cycle

· Sky chart showing the constellations visible in the night sky from the owner’s city

· Indications for seasons, equinoxes, solstices, signs of the Zodiac

· Sidereal time measuring 23 hours, 56 minutes and 41 seconds per day

· Sunset and Sunrise indications

· Length of day and length of night

· Phases of the Moon that needs to be adjusted by 1 day every 1,027 years

· Petite Sonnerie

· Grande Sonnerie

· Minute Repeater

· Westminster chime for the sonnerie and repeater with 5 gongs and 5 hammers, playing the same tune as London’s Big Ben. The Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 can chime the time on demand, or “en passant,” i.e., as it passes

· Striking barrel disengaging system to prevent damage to the barrel when fully wound

· Silence, Chiming, and Night time modes for the sonnerie, the latter making the sonnerie silent between 10PM and 8AM

· Alarm with power-reserve and strike-silence indications and with two different tones that can be chosen when setting the alarm: Westminster chime or single-strike alarm

· Power reserve indicator for the main barrel and the striking mechanism

· Crown position indicator

As for pricing? Don’t bother asking, you definitely can’t afford it. Even if you and 10,000 friends were willing to pool your money together to try and buy one, there’s little chance that Vacheron Constantin will ever agree to build a second one. Unless you intended to work with the company to help it one-up the Vacheron Constantin Reference 57260 — but keep in mind, you’ll be waiting at least another eight years before you can ever slip it into your pocket.