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

[MIKA27]

Scientists Have Found A Huge Underground Water Reserve In Kenya

This is incredible. Scientists have found an underground water reserve in Kenya so large that it could meet the entire country’s water needs for the next 70 years. Using satellite, radar and geological technology, scientists found an aquifer — an underground layer of water-bearing material — that contains 200 billion cubic meters of fresh water.

UNESCO and the Kenyan government put together a team to find water in Kenya. The just discovered Lotikipi Basin Aquifer, which is about 1000 feet underground, measures 62 miles by 41 miles and is significantly larger than other aquifers discovered in the region. In fact, it holds 900% more water than what’s in Kenya’s current reserves. Just look at the size of this thing:

For a country like Kenya that deals with droughts all too often, the discovery is life changing. Possibly even country changing. If Kenya’s government is able to create the proper infrastructure for the water, the nomadic tribespeople of the region can settle down instead of searching for rain which could lead to farms sprouting up, towns growing and a whole country developing. This won’t happen overnight, of course, but having a water supply that can last for more than half a century is definitely a jumpstart.

How did the aquifer get discovered? It sounds so simple. Alain Gachet, the CEO of Radar Technologies International and the guy behind the search for water in Kenya, and his team used a mapping system they called WATEX to find the water. WATEX basically uses existing satellite, radar and geological maps and combines them to see what’s underneath the ground. The mapping system was originally meant to find mineral reserves in Africa but is now being used to find water. UNESCO now hopes to take this system in hopes of finding water in other African countries.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: America's First Supersonic Interceptor Was A Flying Bottle Rocket

When the Soviet Tupolev Tu-4 bomber made its debut in 1949, it was more than a big deal. This reverse-engineered Boeing B-29 Superfortress gave the Russians intercontinental strategic strike capabilities that the existing US fleet of F-61 Black Widows and F-82 Twin Mustangs simply couldn’t compete with. The American response: Build a better interceptor. Enter the F-94 Starfire.

Developed in 1948 by the USAF in direct response to the the Tu-4 threat, the Starfire is the direct descendent of America’s very first jet fighter, the F-80 Shooting Star (though some inspiration also came from the later T-33A Shooting Star). In fact, the Starfire’s design is based on the two-seat trainer iteration of the F-80, and early F-94′s shared three-quarters of the same parts, which made converting them a simple matter and drastically reduced production costs.

The first prototype of the F-94, dubbed the YF-94A, replaced the existing F-80′s engine with an 7321Nm (8134Nm with afterburning) Allison J33-A-33 jet engine. The subsequent two F-94 iterations, A and B, both utilised this engine, making the F-94 the first full-production US aircraft to feature afterburners. In addition, the early F-94s were equipped with a pair of .50 cal, fuselage-mounted Browning machine guns, and could swap their 625-litre wingtip fuel tanks for 450kg bombs, turning them into supersonic bombers, although this didn’t happen often, and only 109 such bombers were ever produced. The F-94A entered service in 1951.

In all, 356 F-94A/B’s were produced.

The most well-known and well-used Starfire is the F-94C, though it bares such little resemblance to its precursors the the 94C was nearly designated to an entirely new family of F-97s. See, the USAF was none too impressed with the first two F-94s so Lockheed Martin, the defence contractor charged with their development, completely overhauled the platform for the 94C. It featured thinner, stronger wings, a swept tail, and bigger Pratt & Whitney J48 afterburning jet engine.

The 94C also received an upgraded fire control system and nose-mounted radar, though the plane flew so fast the onboard radar could was only effective at the terminal portion of the intercept and had to be guided by a ground-based data link (yet another first) for the rest of the mission. In all, the 14m long (11m wingspan) aircraft could be counted on to hit a top speed of 1030km/h, with a 16km service ceiling and a range of 2052km.

Interestingly, the F-94C wasn’t equipped with guns. The Brownings were removed in favour of an array of 48, 2.75-inch Folding Fin Air Rockets, early precursors to the unguided 70mm Hydra Rocket, in flip-up panels around the nose and under the wings. Unfortunately, the exhaust from nose-mounted rockets, under certain conditions, could cause the plane’s engines to flameout (when the pilot light of a jet engine is extinguished) and the jet to crash. Hence, the addition of the under-wing armament and judicious use of the nose flaps.

Despite all of the F-94′s revolutionary technologies, it fell victim to a quickening Cold War arms race. By the mid-1950s, guided air-to-air missiles were clearly the future of aerial combat, capable of locking onto and chasing down enemy craft while the F-94′s rockets only flew in a straight line. Luckily, we never had to find out if these could indeed take out a wing of nuke-toting Superfortress ripoffs.

[MIKA27]

9 Photos Of Grisly Vintage Crimes On Today's New York City Streets

On March 19, 1942 Edna Egbert fought with police after she climbed on her Dean Street ledge in Brooklyn.

For the first time in 12 years New Yorkers are electing a mayor who is not Michael Bloomberg, leading to all sorts of reminiscing about how he’s changed the city. These photos offer a twist: grisly historical crimes, juxtaposed against Bloomberg’s sanitised modern-day New York City.

Photographer and historian of the New York Press Photographers Association Marc Hermann dove into the New York Daily News archive to find historic crime scenes, and mashed them up with photographs of the same locations today. The resulting images provide a haunting window into the tragic events of the past, like a Noir film playing out in real time on an empty city block.

What’s perhaps most striking about these images is how much New York hasn’t changed. For the most part many of the buildings are still intact, and it’s delightful to see the subtle evolution of details like streetsigns. Plus there’s something about seeing the black-and-white crime scenes in contemporary settings, which desensitizes the violence somewhat by removing it from its context.

Documenting crime is a critical part of a city’s history, but Hermann hears plenty of reactions from readers who object to seeing these scenes so graphically portrayed. “People seem to have righteous indignation in the comments section of news stories when we show tragic scenes as they occur today,” he says. He produced these images, in part, to illustrate the timelessness of human suffering. “I often remind people that a victim in 1943 is the same as a victim in 2013, and today’s photographers are making an important record of history that will, with the passage of time, be regarded as ‘classic.’”

Gangster Salvatore Santoro lies dead in a Brooklyn vestibule on January 31, 1957.

Another gangster, Frankie Yale, killed by a drive-by in Brooklyn in 1928.

A stolen car smashed into the streetlight at Classon Avenue and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, 1957.

A tragic photo from 1959 after three-year-old Martha Cartagena was killed while riding her tricycle in Brooklyn.

In 1960, United Airlines Flight 826 and Trans World Airlines Flight 266 collided over Park Slope in Brooklyn, killing 130 people.

In 1958 there was a fatal fire at the Elkins Paper & Twine Co. on Wooster Street in SoHo. The building burned to the ground.

A gas explosion shattered this Court Street facade in Brooklyn on January 31, 1961.

1961 must have been a really bad year. Here is James Linares with his girlfriend Josephine Dexidor after being shot by her husband in a Bronx stairwell.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: GPS-Based Plane Tracker Makes Highways In The Sky

At bustling traffic hubs like O’Hare International, planes can spend an interminably long time waiting for their turn to land. And at airports like Rio de Janeiro — Galeão International, pilots must contend with tight flight paths to avoid crowded population centres and hills on their final approach. But thanks to a new hyper-accurate GPS-based tracking system, airliners will no longer have to contend with land-locked navigation beacons and overworked control towers.

The technology is known as Required Navigation Performance (RNP). Rather than the Eisenhower-era traffic management systems and land-based radio navigation beacons we’ve been using, RNP utilises GPS satellite navigation to track planes with an accuracy of 10m and within 10 seconds of their arrival. It also demands that the planes fly along specific three-dimensional flight paths (as seen in the above GIF), resulting in a more efficient flight path for the plane, shorter flight times for travellers, reduced fuel costs for the airlines, and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Everybody wins.

RNP is more a system than any one specific piece of technology. Developed by GE Aviation, it combines software, hardware, and procedure very similar to what’s known as area navigation (RNAV, which differs in that it doesn’t require on-board performance monitoring and alerting should the pilot screw up and fly outside the lines) to ensure that all aircraft operating within a specific airspace are doing so within bounds at least 95 per cent of the time. This allows air traffic controllers to develop specific landing approaches that avoid noise-sensitive areas and geographical obstacles.

Depending on the specific topological conditions, the level of tolerance an RNP allows can vary. For example if an area has an RNP of 10, such as over oceans, all aircraft operating within that space must be able to calculate their positions within a 10 nautical mile radius. An RNP of .1, as is the case in Rio de Janiero, means they have to resolve within a tenth of a nautical mile.

RNP technology has slowly been gaining traction at airports around the world in recent years but the pace of adoption is quickening, especially with the very real cost savings the system provides. In Brazil, which has installed the system at nearly a dozen airports around the country, planes travel 35km less and spend 7.5 fewer minutes per landing than before, translating into an estimated 735 fewer kilograms of emissions and $US24 million in operational savings over the next five years. In New Zealand’s Queenstown airport, the system reduced monthly cumulative delays from 2400 minutes to 200 minutes. In both Temuco, Chile and Cajamarca, Perú, the RNP system has drastically simplified approach patterns in these mountainous regions (see above), and in Cusco, Peru, on the slopes of Machu Picchu, the system has reduced weather-based flight cancellations by a whopping 60 per cent.

Now if only there were something we could do about the glue-sniffers running the control towers.

[MIKA27]

STRIDA FOLDABLE BIKE

Strida bicycles have been around for a while, winner of numerous awards, the first version was launched back in 87, and since then has evolved and been improved into today´s modern version. The triangle shape folding bike is ideally suited for commuting, it opens and folds in less than 10 seconds so you can bring it on a subway or bus, it´s also the worlds lightest folding production bike and can easily be rolled when folded.

[CanuckSARTech]

Hmmm... Do you like it now Keith?

NASCAR's Chase controversy: Is there more drama to come?

Almost as good as F1 now, huh????

[Habana Mike]

Always some great stuff Mika, one of my favorite daily go-to threads - do you research for a living?

[MIKA27]

Always some great stuff Mika, one of my favorite daily go-to threads - do you research for a living?

Hey Mike.

Thanks for reading, it's a great feeling to know people appreciate the thread.

As for researching, no, I don't research for a living however I guess my ambition for this thread is to try posting from numerous sources on a range/variety of topics in order to create a magazine sort of thread that would entail a variety of topics in the hope that the reader can read up on a mixture of news, reviews, stories, stuff for sale, gadgets etc.

Initially I started posting on this thread with topics that mostly interest myself and that's evolved based on the numerous PM's I receive where FOH members send a nice message and also often ask for "this or that" to also be possibly posted when available. It's a great compliment as well as rewarding to see so many people reading this thread. I really enjoy posting as I always have this image of members sitting outdoors enjoying their morning coffee with a cigar whilst reading this forum as well as this thread.

Thanks so much for your post Mike.

[MIKA27]

Almost as good as F1 now, huh????

Almost Keith...almost

[MIKA27]

This Guy Fought In WWII With A Sword And Bow

Running into battle armed with a broadsword, bow, and quiver of arrows was perfectly acceptable if you were fighting in the Hundred Years’ War or fending off some orcs on Middle Earth. But when it comes to World War II, such medieval weaponry looks like child’s play next to the technology of the time. A sword isn’t the most likely of defences against rifles and tanks. However, for John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, nicknamed “Mad Jack,” there was nothing he’d rather arm himself with than a trusty sword and bow.

Born into an old Oxfordshire family, he graduated from the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in 1926. Before his World War II fame, Mad Jack worked as an editor of a Nairobi newspaper, a model, and a movie extra, appearing in The Thief of Bagdad due to his expertise with a bow. That same talent with archery took him to Oslo, Norway where he shot for Britain during the world championships in 1939.

By this time, of course, Europe was fast approaching World War II. Mad Jack had left the army after 10 years of service, but happily returned to it because of the “country having gotten into a jam in my absence.”

By May 1940, Mad Jack was the second in command of an infantry company. He always marched into battle with a bow and arrows and his trusty basket-hilted claymore by his side. Despite these weapons being wildly outdated, Churchill defended them, saying, “In my opinion…any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.”

His medieval weaponry wasn’t just for decoration, either. During the 1940 Battle of Dunkirk — in which 300,000 troops became stranded on beaches and had to be evacuated — Churchill struck down a German soldier with a well-placed arrow. He was later seen chugging along on a motorcycle with his bow strapped to the side. A German officer’s cap was hanging on the headlight.

In 1941, Mad Jack volunteered for Operation Archery, an attack on a German garrison in Norway, in which he led two companies during the battle; no word on whether or not he was able to use his bow in the aptly named operation.

In the battle, he and his companies were in charge of taking out the German batteries on Maaloy Island. On the vessel bearing him to shore, Churchill stood at the front playing his bagpipes to the tune of “The March of the Cameron Men.” When they landed, he charged ahead of the rest of his men with his sword in hand.

His sword also served him well later, in 1943. At the time, Mad Jack was a commanding officer in Salerno when his troops were forced into line fighting — something for which they hadn’t been trained. Churchill went ahead of his soldiers wielding his sword. He leapt out at German sentries from the darkness, blade held high, and the Germans were so frightened by the “demon” that they surrendered. Churchill took 42 prisoners that night with the help of just one other companion and his trusty sword. This was inline with his philosophy on fighting the Germans, which he described after capturing the 42:

I maintain that, as long as you tell a German loudly and clearly what to do, if you are senior to him he will cry ‘jawohl’ (yes sir) and get on with it enthusiastically and efficiently whatever the situation.

Next, Churchill was sent off to Yugoslavia where he led a series of raids against the Germans from the island of Vis. In May 1944, a bigger operation was planned involving three attacks on separate hilltop positions. Mad Jack led one group up one hill, but only six of them managed to reach the target. Jack found himself in open view of the enemy with only a few able-bodied men to defend him, so he did what any sensible soldier would have done… he played his bagpipes — “Will Ye No Come Back Again” this time — until he was knocked unconscious by German grenades and captured.

Churchill was placed in Sachsenhausen concentration camp after being interrogated. The Germans had believed that he was some sort of relative of Winston Churchill, which wasn’t the case, but he was still considered a “prominent” prisoner due to his rank.

As you might expect, Mad Jack wasn’t one to be kept in a prison camp. He made a run for it that September by sneaking through an old drain under the barbed wire. He and a comrade were recaptured not long after and moved to a camp in Austria.

In April 1945, the Austrian camp’s lighting system failed. Churchill took advantage of the opportunity and melted into the darkness, walking away from his work detail. He simply kept walking, and eight days and 150 miles later, he ran into the armoured vehicles of the United States Army in Italy. He managed to convince them that he was a British colonel despite his scruffy appearance, and he was returned to safety.

Safety wasn’t exactly something Mad Jack was after, though. He was disappointed to learn that the war was winding down and that he had missed a year of it. Rather than return home, he got himself assigned to Burma where the war against Japan was still in full swing.

By the time he got over there, though, the bombs had been dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, meaning that the war was basically over.

An unhappy Churchill vented, “If it wasn’t for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going for another 10 years!”

The end of the war didn’t mean the end of Churchill’s adventures, though. He decided to train as a parachutist, and when he qualified, he was sent into Palestine as the second-in-command of the 1stBattalion. He later became a land-air warfare instructor in Australia, where he developed a love of surfing. He ended up retiring from the army in 1959 and died in 1998 in Surrey.

If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:

• The Canadian Man Who Single-handedly Liberated the City of Zwolle from German Occupation
  
• The Curious Practice of Execution by Golden Shower
  
• The Female Sniper Who Had 309 Confirmed Kills, Including Taking Out 36 German Snipers
  
• The Man Who Nearly Single-Handedly Captured 132 German Soldiers
  
• The Japanese Soldier Who Continued Fighting WWII 29 Years After the War Ended, Because He Didn’t Know
  

Bonus Facts:

• In the midst of the war, Mad Jack married the daughter of a Scottish ship building baronet, Rosamund Margaret Denny. Their happy marriage produced two sons, Malcom and Rodney.
  
• Churchill was awarded two Distinguished Service Orders during his time in the military.
  
• Not one to let his eccentricities go, Mad Jack was known for throwing his briefcase out of the train window. His reasoning? He was throwing it into his backyard, which happened to be right by where the train rode past. This way, he didn’t have to lug it home from the train station.
  
• Churchill can be seen in the 1952 version of Ivanhoe. He had been hired as an archer to shoot arrows from the walls of Warwick Castle.
  
• Mad Jack once appeared on parade with an umbrella “because it is raining” — a legitimate enough excuse for any civilian, but a major faux pas in the military. He was also reprimanded for using a hot water bottle. In retaliation, he used a piece of rubber tubing instead and filled it from a hot water tap, circumventing military protocol.
  

[MIKA27]

Can Kenya's Hidden Aquifer Avoid A Water War?

This week’s jaw-dropping news that a massive aquifer has been discovered beneath Kenya conjured up all sorts of visions of the desert instantly greening like a Chia Pet. But it’s not as easy as digging a well — the aquifer opens up a whole other set of political and environmental issues that face the African nation.

News of the aquifer was so celebrated because it’s estimated that 40 per cent of Kenyans currently have no access to clean water.

Although the amount of water in the aquifer may be enough to meet the country’s water needs for 70 years, delivering it to that 40 per cent will require extensive upgrades to infrastructure and technology, not to mention monitoring the environmental impact so the aquifer isn’t exploited. And that’s where other countries facing water shortages are currently having problems.

The US once faced a similar challenge. The Great Plains were about as productive as the Sahara until settlers discovered the Ogallala Aquifer (or High Plains Aquifer). The shallow underground water reserve is one of the largest aquifers in the world, covering 450,000sqkm from South Dakota to Texas. Cities sprung up in its footprint with the promise of plentiful water, but severe droughts coupled with poor farming techniques resulted in the devastation of the Dust Bowl. It was only when center-pivot irrigation was introduced in 1948 — imprinting those green Pac-Mans on the landscape everywhere — that residents were able to effectively tap and utilise the great amounts of water stored beneath their feet, transforming the region into one of the most productive agricultural zones in the country.

But aquifers are not bottomless fountains of youth for increasingly dependent metropolises. The advances in irrigation which allowed farmers to access the aquifer is now sucking it dry. Aquifers can become naturally replenished, but not at the rate we’re consuming water. New reports this year estimate that the Ogallala could be 70 per cent depleted by 2060.

China is also seeing a Dust Bowl-type effect in the north part of its country, with desertification occurring due to overfarming and changing weather patterns. Their solution is the ambitious South-North Water Diversion Project which started testing earlier this summer. Like a Great Wall for water, the project plans to pump about six trillion gallons per year from the Yangtze River in the south to the drier, more highly populated areas of the north, including Beijing, where the population just topped 20 million. The series of tunnels and canals will take 50 more years to complete at a total cost of $US62 billion plus the displacement of over 350,000 people. And not even that will be enough fresh water for the region, so Beijing is also planning an expansion for its massive desalination plant.

Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) example of moving water to fuel a city, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, turns 100 this year. The order for the water came straight from the top: President Theodore Roosevelt mandated that the water of the Owens Valley be diverted to Los Angeles in the name of progress, where it would do the “greatest good for the greatest number.” This was not the belief of the local farmers who watched their water supply evaporate and executed attacks on the infrastructure known as the California Water Wars (a story familiar to anyone who’s seen Chinatown). In recent years the dry-lakebed-formerly-known-as-Owens Lake has become such an environmental hazard that LA’s Department of Water and Power has to use sprinklers (!!!) to control the toxic dust.

The issue gets stickier when it crosses borders. The US is guilty of drawing so much water off the Colorado River that it no longer flows into the Gulf of Mexico. Now our thirst for fresh water has international implications, altering the the environmental and economic livelihood of Mexico.

To avoid these kinds of conflicts, UNESCO, which facilitated the discovery of this Kenyan aquifer, has been adding to its atlas of underground water (above) for more than decade. In addition to employing new technologies to find water, they’ve also been mapping over 270 “transboundary” sources, meaning sources that span political borders and could be a source of potential conflict.

Some of the most arid regions on the planet are also some of the most unstable, and the discovery of more aquifers will require a different level of diplomatic negotiations, like a famous 1995 agreement which mediates the groundwater resources shared by Israel and Palestine.

By 2025, 1.8 billion people will be facing water scarcity, and two-thirds of the planet’s population will be water-stressed, according to the UN’s statistics on water and cities. Just looking at those facts makes it feel as if the predicted “water wars” are imminent. Water policy expert Mark Zeitoun may have explained it bestwhen framing the value of aquifers in today’s quickly changing world:

“Typically they are seen in much the same way as diamond mines.”

[MIKA27]

Collective Arts Brewery:

Hi guys.

A member of our team here on FOH (Canadian Beaver) just PM'd me a link to a brilliant art/brewing website so i thought I'd post it here for you all to appreciate should you wish to visit. Some of her own work is also there.

COLLECTIVE ARTS BREWING are a grassroots beer company fusing the craft of brewing with the inspired talents of emerging and seasoned artists, musicians, poets, photographers & filmmakers. This brewery is dedicated to promote artists and raise creative consciousness through the sociability of craft beer.

First Canadian Cigar Store

There's some really cool art work to appreciate as well as information to read up on.

Some more about the website - Below

WELCOME TO COLLECTIVE ARTS BREWING

We founded Collective Arts Brewing on two beliefs: The first that creativity fosters creativity. And the second, that we are all in the need of a few pints of creativity.

As a group of creative thinkers, designers and brewers we are united to the lofty notion of raising the creative consciousness through the sociability of craft beer.

Collective Arts Brewing brings together the cultural influences of music, film and the arts with the talents of inspired brewmasters who are on the forefront of craft brewing.

Each of our beers are literally a work of art. Inside, some of the most well crafted beersavailable today. And, on the outside, limited edition works of art by artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers presented as a numbered series. Each series lasts only months and is intended to stimulate, delight and inspire our drinkers while generating further awareness and appreciation of the artists.

Through augmented reality and the technology of our partner Blippar, all labels come to life through the free Blippar mobile phone app. Simply scan the label and launch music, videos and artist bios.

Needless to say this is not an easy undertaking. We could not do this with out the participation of the artists for whom we say thank you and cheers!

The Collective Arts Brewing Team

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: The Aluminium Airship Of The Future Has Finally Flown

There was once a time when man looked to the skies and expected to see giant balloons rather than aeroplanes drifting above. The Hindenburg Disaster promptly put an end to those dreams. But nearly a century later, one company may have finally figured out how to build a dirigible suitable for the 21st century. Just don’t call it a blimp.

This fully rigid airship, dubbed the Aeroscraft, differs fundamentally from, say, the Goodyear blimp. Blimps, by definition, have no internal structure and maintain their shapes only through the pressure of the gas they contain; when the gas escapes, they deflate like the gigantic balloons they are. Rigid airships, like zeppelins before them, maintain their shape regardless of gas pressure thanks to an internal skeleton structure — the Hindenburg utilized highly flammable balsa wood, but the Aeroscraft’s is made of aluminium and carbon fibre — and maintains its buoyancy with a series of gas-filled bladders. And unlike hybrid airships, the Aeroscraft doesn’t require forward momentum to generate lift via a set of wings. It’s all helium power.

The Aeroscraft has been under development by Aeros Corp, the world’s largest airship and blimp maker, since 1996. The project has received over $US35 million in R&D funds and the government has even lent the company a couple of NASA boffins to help develop the aerodynamics and control systems. And with the successful launch of its half-scale prototype, the Pelican, last weekend, the investment looks to have paid off. The future of lighter-than-air travel looks to be imminently upon us.

At 81m long and 30m wide, the Pelican prototype is just about half the size of what a full-scale Aeroscraft will be. If completed the Aeroscraft will measure more than 120m long and be capable of lifting 66 tons or more.

Unlike blimps that maintain a constant buoyancy and rely on ballast and fans to adjust their altitude, the Aeroscraft will employ a unique bladder system that can alter the craft’s static heaviness (relative to air) at will, dubbed COSH (Control of Static Heaviness). The system actually works quite similarly to how submarines use compressed air to float.

The Aeroscraft is equipped with a series of pressurised helium tanks. When the pilot wants to increase altitude, non-flammable helium is released from the tanks through a series of pipes and control valves, into internal gas-bladders called helium pressure envelopes (HPEs). This increases the amount of lift the helium generates, reduces the craft’s static heaviness, and allows it to rise.

When the pilot wants to descend, the process is reversed. This allows the Aeroscraft to easily land and take on cargo or passengers without having to be tied down or add external ballast. Additionally, the Aeroscraft will be equipped with a trio of engines — one on each side and a third on the belly — and six turbofan engines to provide thrust and augment the COSH’s lift, as well as aerodynamic tail-fin rudders and stumpy wing control surfaces, for high speed travel — that is, above 32km/h. Oh it’ll get you there, it’s just going to take a while.

Now, the US government didn’t drop $US35 million just to build a better balloon. Airship technology is being developed to provide a vital role in modern world: runway-less cargo delivery. Getting even modest amounts of supplies and people to remote areas by plane can be a nightmare; you’ve either got to find a suitable runway or be prepared to parachute. From the Australian outback to the Alaskan hinterlands, there are plenty of locations around the world that are simply inaccessible to conventional aeroplanes. Not so with the Aeroscraft.

With a proposed lifting capability of 66 tons and no need for a landing strip, these airships should be able to deliver just about anything just about anywhere in the world. Cargo can either be loaded into the Aeroscraft’s internal cargo bay or slung under the blimp using the company’s proprietary ceiling suspension cargo deployment (CSCD) system. which automatically balances the hanging load to prevent it from swinging around and crashing the dirigible.

While the Pelican successfully lifted off last Sunday, it did so under cautionary tethers. Its first untethered flight is expected to happen within the next few weeks. Eventually, the company hopes to produce a trio of Aeroscraft models: the 66-ton capacity ML866, the 250-ton ML868, and the 500-ton ML86X. There’s even discussion of turning them into giant floating hotels for serene 80-day global circumnavigations.

[MIKA27]

Man Flying To Europe With Helium Balloons Gives Up After Just 563km

Well, that was quick. Balloon-loving daredevil Jonathan Trappe was supposed to float all the way to Europe under 370 helium-filled balloons in three to six days, but he gave up after only 12 hours citing technical difficulties. He hadn’t even made it out of North America.

Late Thursday night, Trappe posted a vague message to his fans on Facebook: “Hmm, this doesn’t look like France.” Indeed, it was not. Trappe was in Newfoundland, just 563km from where he took off in Caribou, Maine. Evidently, the cluster balloon set up that was supposed to carry him across the Atlantic had trouble stabilising and developed a yo-yo effect. It would drop rapidly touching down on the ocean’s surface and would then shoot up in the air, climbing just as rapidly to altitudes as high as 6400 metres.

You can’t really blame Trappe for giving up so soon. After all, five people have died trying to accomplish the same feat. Trappe is safe and sound now, presumably enjoying his unexpected visit to Newfoundland, the land of that famous dog and not much else.

[MIKA27]

Life-Size. Stormtrooper. Action Figure.

The notion that less is more has no place in the world of action figures. At least that’s the only reasonable conclusion you can come to after you see this life-size 180cm tall Stormtrooper you can make your very own.

Who cares if you’ve got the original ultra-rare rocket-firing Boba Fett figure? That plastic projectile won’t do much against this awesome collectible. Created from a high-res digital scan of an authentic mint-condition Stormtrooper action figure by Gentle Giant Studios, this giganto version even features articulated limbs and a matching scale blaster. It’s no wonder the asking price $2300 per pop, with delivery expected sometime late next year. And just wait until you see the blister pack.

[MIKA27]

The Only Thing These Superman Coins Will Rescue Is Canada's Economy

As if Canadian currency wasn’t already colourful enough, to help commemorate the 75th anniversary of Superman — which was co-created by Canuck Joe Shuster — the Royal Canadian Mint has created a series of seven coins honouring the fictional hero.

Minted from gold, silver, and cupro-nickel — which sounds more awesome than it probably is — the coins feature iconic images of Superman from over the years, including lenticular and hologram versions that change colour and imagery as you move them. They range in face value from 50 cents up to $US75, but actually run $30 to $750.

What kind of scam is that? It’s as if these mints have a licence to print money.

[MIKA27]

A Leather iPhone Sleeve That Does More Than Just Look Good

If you absolutely have to put your iPhone in a case of some sort, Hard Graft’s Draw case provides more than just peace of mind. Made from stitched leather lined with a soft felt interior, the case includes a long drawstring cord that does double-duty: It keeps the case securely sealed shut when your iPhone’s inside, but also serves to prop it up in landscape or portrait orientations.

So before you spit take at its $110 price tag, remember that you’re not only getting a case here. You’re actually getting an entire bundle of products including added protection, enhanced ease-of-use, stylish design, and a way to make your friends feel really ashamed of their crappy plastic cases.

[MIKA27]

NATO Built A Real-Life Electromagnetic Ray Gun To Stop Suicide Bombers

In an attempt to thwart and discourage the use of cars and other vehicles in suicide bombing attacks, NATO has been funding the development of a compact electromagnetic jammer that can safely cause an engine to cut out before a bomber reaches their target.

The jammer is designed to be permanently installed at checkpoints to stop a potential threat well before it gets within lethal range, but it’s also compact enough to be carried by vehicles, allowing them to stop suspicious cars before they get too close. The specifics of how exactly it works — and where it’s being developed and tested — are closely guarded secrets, not surprisingly. But once perfected it will also be able to stop other vehicles too like boats, jetskis, aerial drones, and eventually even the mechanisms that trigger the bombs themselves.

[Fuzz]

Life-Size. Stormtrooper. Action Figure.

And just wait until you see the blister pack.

They're already way ahead of you....

[MIKA27]

Scientists Made A 'Terminator' Polymer That Can Heal Itself Like Magic

http://youtu.be/8NYRRz-jSxA

We might not be able to build a liquid metal T-1000 killing machine yet, but we just took a huge step towards building a plastic one.

Scientists have managed to develop a new polymer that — when cut in half — can heal all by itself. Pretty awesome trick.

Developed by a team of Spanish scientists, the material is technically a “permanently cross-linked poly(urea-urethane) elastomeric network,” but they just call it a “Terminator polymer” for short.

The science behind the scenes is a little complex and specific for the layman, but the results however, are easy to see. In just two hours of sitting around, the plastic can meld itself back together and recover 97 per cent of a fully-severed connection. No catalyst required. This is definitely Terminator-esque, but the practical uses for something like this are a little less murder-y, like more durable plastic components in cars, gadgets, and whathaveyou.

Still, it’s impressive to see something futuristic like this in action. According to the authors of the research — published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Materials Horizons – it shouldn’t be hard to produce either:

The fact that poly(urea-urethane)s with similar chemical composition and mechanical properties are already used in a wide range of commercial products makes this system very attractive for a fast and easy implementation in real industrial applications.

Now if only we can mash this tech up with some crazy liquid metal Terminator tech, we’ll really have something to get excited about be terrified of.

[MIKA27]

New Zealand Really Knows How To Make Hilarious Driving Safety Ads

Remember that ad a while ago where a few Kiwi youths are at a party talking about drink driving? It set the internet on fire thanks to its popularity, and now there’s an even better follow-up featuring kids urging folks not to drive while high. The results are hilarious.

The new ad sees three kids sitting in a car comparing how their fathers drive while high. It’s an incredible sketch of kids comparing stoner behaviour.

“Who’s this cheeky fella,” one kid asks while messing with the rear-view mirror. “Looks just like me!”

“Which street do I live on again?”

“Light’s green bro.”

One of them even takes the wheel off to give to the other. I’d honestly rather watch this two-minute stoner comedy out of New Zealand than Dude, Where’s My Car?.

Check it out, it’ll make your day.

For funsies, check out the old drink driving awareness ad below.

[MIKA27]

Google Street View Driver Rams Two Buses And One Truck In Failed Hit-And-Run

It’s not a good year to be a Google Street View driver — or rather, in this case, to be anywhere in the vicinity of one. In Bogor, Indonesia, one ill-fated Google Street View car got itself into a bit of trouble when the driver’s failed attempt at a hit-and-run involved him ramming into two large public busses and a truck. Because third crash is a charm.

Initially, the driver had only hit the one bus, but when he (understandably) appeared to “panic”, he less excusably decided to drive away. Then, in a frantic attempt at an escape, the driver took down another bus as well as a truck. After which he, presumably, decided maybe it’s time to stop. It’s still not clear whether anyone was harmed, but Google has at least confirmed that this incident did, in fact take place.

Further backing up the claims, pictures have been posted to an Indonesian forum by a supposed eyewitness.

In a statement to news agency AFP, Vishnu Mahmud, head of communications for Google in Indonesia said:

We take incidents like this very seriously. We’re working closely with local authorities to address the situation.

In other words: they said pretty much nothing.

Google’s most recent bit of Street View car trouble also happened overseas when Thai villagers attempted to arrest the driver under suspicion of being a spy for builders of unwanted dams. Although, that driver (having committed no crime) was quickly released after swearing an oath on Buddha’s statue. At least the Thai villagers’ suspicion was in the right place — they just had the wrong driver.

[MIKA27]

Audi’s Diesel V10 SUV Supercar Somehow Gets 30 MPG

What has two doors, four-wheel drive, and more torque than a Caterpillar Earthmover? It’s called the Audi Nanuk concept, and if you’ve ever wanted a high-riding diesel supercar, your prayers have been answered.

Debuting at this week’s Frankfurt Motor Show, Audi says the Nanuk concept combines the grippy driving dynamics of a mid-engine sports car with the functionality of an SUV. But with a 5.0-liter V10 mounted amidships, there’s no space for Fido and a carry-on.

While the race-derived V10 is only good for a paltry 544 horsepower, like all diesels, it’s about torque, and the Nanuk packs 738 pound-feet of the stuff. Combined with a specially tuned Quattro all-wheel-drive system and a 4,189-pound curb weight, Audi claims the lifted coupe is good for a 0-60 MPH run of 3.8 seconds and a top speed knocking on 190 MPH, all while returning over 30 miles per gallon.

The ground clearance can be set to three different heights depending on the terrain, while the rear wheels can turn up to nine degrees for greater maneuverability. And if you’re seeing shades of the Lamborghini Parcour concept, you’re not alone — Italdesign Giugiaro designed the off-roading Lambo, and both the automaker and the design house are owned by Audi’s parent company, Volkswagen.

[MIKA27]

The Zombie Ant and the Fungus That Controls Its Mind

The zombie is a simple creature with simple tastes, enjoying leisurely walks on the beach, dining out with hordes of its friends, and every now and then having a good tumble down a flight of stairs. It behaves this way because the pathogen that has infected it doesn’t require complex behaviors in order to replicate — it commands a hungry, nearly indestructible vessel that can walk it right up to its next potential host.

But on our planet there exist zombified ants that undergo a decidedly more complex, and more disturbing, transformation at the hands of highly sophisticated parasitic fungi that assume control of the insects’ minds. What ensues between a host and a parasite with no brain of its own is a battle that is far stranger and far more methodical than anything ever dreamed up by Hollywood. (The zombifying fungus that attacks humans in the videogame The Last of Us comes close, but its real-life counterpart is much, much weirder. And you don’t have to pay 60 bucks to see it, which is nice.)

For many of us it’s hard to feel for ants, what with them ruining picnics or even entire cities, but it’s downright disquieting to watch one infected by these parasitic fungi — species in the genusOphiocordyceps that each, incredibly, attack only a single species of ant. Once a disciplined member of a rigidly structured society, the affected ant stumbles out of its colony like the town drunkard, guided by a pathogen that has pickled its brain with a cocktail of chemicals.

The ant heads, at the behest of the fungus, to a precise position in the forest. Scientists plotting the coordinates of these unfortunate ants have documented a striking regularity to their travels, making the pathogen a bit like GPS for the insect, only, you know, the ant never asked for directions.

The ants “are manipulated to bite onto very specific locations on the underside of a leaf, the main vein of a leaf, leaves orientated north, northwest, roughly 25 cm off the ground,” said David Hughes, a behavioral ecologist at Penn State. “And all of this happens with a remarkable precision around solar noon, making this one of the most complex examples of parasite manipulation of host behavior.”

It’s a position chosen by the fungus, rather unbelievably, for its ideal temperature and humidity — Hughes has experimented with this by moving the ants out of these spots to drier, hotter areas, where the fungus failed to grow. Once the ant has anchored itself by sinking its mandibles into the leaf’s vein, it perishes, and from the back of its head erupts a stalk, which, while in a way is quite beautiful, might be considered the world’s least desirable hat. This in turn rains spores down onto the ant’s fellow workers below, attaching to their exoskeletons and beginning what could euphemistically be called an invasive procedure.

“In order to get through [the exoskeleton], the fungus builds up a pressure,” said Hughes. “We know from studies of fungal parasites of plants, particularly rice, they can build up a pressure inside their spore equivalent to the pressure in the wheel of a 747. So they have a massive buildup of pressure, and when that’s at a sufficient level then they blow a hole through the wall and blow all the genetic material” into the ant.

Thus the cycle begins anew.

According to Hughes, in addition to the 160 known species of ant-controlling fungi, there may be some 1,000 additional varieties out there to be discovered. These don’t even account for the array of additional parasitic fungi that exclusively target specific species of other insects, from beetles to butterflies (let’s face it, butterflies could use to get taken down a notch or two).

The relationship is a remarkable illustration of host-parasite coevolution that scientists are just beginning to understand — fossil records of bite-scarred leaves show this has been happening for at least 48 million years — with ant-hunters, each dependent on a single species, developing astounding adaptations to survive. And in response, the ants have evolved their own brilliant defenses, far beyond

.

“The fungus needs to transmit,” said Hughes, “and it cannot do that inside the nest, because in order for ant societies to work, they have necessarily evolved a prophylactic immune system, which is reliant upon behavioral defense. So they have something called social immunity. They simply stop diseases spreading inside their nest by finding diseased individuals and moving them out.”

Despite the ants’ countermeasures, these fungi are extremely virulent and can, as if trying to show off, wipe out whole colonies. Left unchecked, the fungi might conceivably drive themselves and their ant hosts to extinction. But this is where the tale gets stranger.

The parasitic fungi themselves have their own parasitic fungi.

The very success that allows the fungi to build up what Hughes calls “graveyards in the forest” also “invites other organisms to come in and infect them,” he said. “And these hyperparasitic fungi castrate the zombie ant fungi. So the zombie ant fungi rely upon a spore body that releases spores and continues to cycle, and the other parasite comes in and whacks it out.” In one study Hughes found that only 6.5 percent of a zombie ant fungi’s fruiting bodies produced viable spores.

The whole weird circus is still somewhat mysterious, but Hughes is studying infected ants in the lab to figure out what kinds of chemicals the fungi are using to achieve mind-control, and how exactly mind-control affects transmission. These species, after all, are not alone among fungi in their psychoactive tendencies. LSD was synthesized from ergot, a rye-loving fungus theorized, though far from proven, to have tripped out the poor souls accused in the Salem Witch Trials, which it turns out wasn’t nearly as groovy of a situation as it sounds, on account of all the capital punishment.

“We’re discovering that over half of life on Earth is parasitic,” Hughes said. “It’s the most common mode of existence in the history of life on Earth. But only a tiny minority of parasites do mind-control. And why is that? What is the push in order to control the behavior of your host?”

Other than to enjoy a leisurely stroll on the beach, of course.

[CanuckSARTech]

New Zealand Really Knows How To Make Hilarious Driving Safety Ads

Remember that ad a while ago where a few Kiwi youths are at a party talking about drink driving? It set the internet on fire thanks to its popularity, and now there’s an even better follow-up featuring kids urging folks not to drive while high. The results are hilarious.

The new ad sees three kids sitting in a car comparing how their fathers drive while high. It’s an incredible sketch of kids comparing stoner behaviour.

“Who’s this cheeky fella,” one kid asks while messing with the rear-view mirror. “Looks just like me!”

“Which street do I live on again?”

“Light’s green bro.”

One of them even takes the wheel off to give to the other. I’d honestly rather watch this two-minute stoner comedy out of New Zealand than Dude, Where’s My Car?.

Check it out, it’ll make your day.

For funsies, check out the old drink driving awareness ad below.

My gawd....

And I thought certain other accents were excessively hard to understand at times. Wow - the way they say "bro" is insane! LOL.