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

[MIKA27]

WOLVHAMMER CYCLING BOOT | BY 45NRTH

Designed specifically for winter riding, the rugged Wölvhammer by 45NRTH are quite possibly the finest winter cycling shoes ever made.

45NRTH have essentially taken inspiration from mountaineering boots and created a cycling shoe instead of taking a cycling shoe and trying to make it warmer. Inside they are equipped with a furry inner boot, 200g Thinsulate insulation, and feature NASA-approved aerogel in the insole to block cold cleats. On the outside, 1000-denier Cordura and waterproof, yet breathable Sympatex outers block moisture and manage perspiration. The Vibram soles are ready for any SPD-compatible cleat of your choice.

[MIKA27]

GALILEO | ROBOTIC DOCK

Galileo is another product born from a very successful kickstarter campaign(received more than $700,000 in funding!).

Now available for purchase, Galileo is a Bluetooth robotic platform for iOS devices, a dock you can control from any place in the world. Once you plug in your phone, you can control it remotely with a swipe of your finger, rotate, tilt, or even set it to automatically track a moving object.

Using Galileo and the Sphere app(free), you can have long-distance video chats, use it as a baby monitor, for home surveillance, you can create multi-exposure spherical panoramas and create breathtaking time-lapses.

http://youtu.be/ZfVo4gwox6A

[MIKA27]

BOLEX D16 Cinema Camera

If you're looking for a camera that flawlessly combines the aesthetic and feel of analog, with the functionality and utility of digital, then you need the Bolex D16 Cinema Camera($3,300).

From legendary 16-millimeter film camera makers Bolex, this camera features a Super 16mm-sized CCD sensor, a high-capacity solid state drive, and captures studio-quality sound and organic-looking video. It's designed to fit comfortably in your hand while you shoot, and accommodates a range of interchangeable lenses including traditional Bolex and C-mount.

With plenty of ports, including HDMI, USB 3.0, the ability to hold dual CF cards, and included LightPost software, there's no limit to what you can do with your footage.

[MIKA27]

Jim Beam Single Barrel Bourbon

With the influx of new bourbon labels and brands on the market in the past few years, it's easy to look past the tried and true Jim Beam logo.

Jim Beam Single Barrel ($35) however, is worthy of consideration. It's the first ever single barrel offering from Beam, representing the seven generations of history that the brand is built on.

And since less than 1% of Beam barrels qualified for this new bourbon, you know you're getting a hand selected gem, not a mass produced mystery. So keep your eyes peeled this spring for this individually bottled, hand-numbered expression.

[MIKA27]

Refined hardware: Robber Baron Watch

Combining the strength of American steel with the elegance of Swiss machinery, the Los Angeles based watchmakers at Refined Hardware are at it once again.

Their newest limited edition conception, the Robber Baron Watch ($1250) features the finest millwork this side of the Mississippi, and encases a hand-built Swiss movement. Each individually-numbered piece is complemented with a guilloche engraved bezel, a form-fitting aerospace steel mesh band, and comes in a hand-laid carbon fiber box. Available now at a one-time-only holiday price, while supplies last.

[MIKA27]

Drunk Gran Turismo Champion Drives About As Well As I Do Sober

Responsible Young Drivers, despite its English name, is a Belgian advocacy group that, well, advocates responsible driving for the young. What better way to illustrate that than with a video game, and a smashed driver behind the wheel?

Tina was sceptical that AMO_RACING87, the top Gran Turismo driver in all of Belgium, was really this hammered.

She thought he was exaggerating. Well, as the resident drunk video-game driving expert here, I can tell you that going from zero to a .10 BAC in a short time — as this guy appears to do — definitely hits you harder than a gradual .10 BAC where you’re more aware of what’s going on and able to cope in an “I’m-not-drunk-no-really-I-can-drive” way.

You start pounding whiskey like this guy and things quickly get all watery and echo-y, like a flashback sequence in Scooby Doo.

That said, I am total arse in a simulation-quality racer, so I watch a sloshed AMO_RACING87 drift into the infield, understeer and accelerate too early in a curve and I’m thinking, “What’s the problem? Looks like my friends’ Forza Drivatars to me.”

The bottom line is it’s an incredibly stupid idea to drive drunk at any time of the year, and even less smart to do so during the holidays, especially around New Year’s when cops are uber-vigiliant for this sort of thing, and not just in Belgium or Australia.

Get blasted and plow the infield in Gran Turismo all you want, but if you’re on your fifth glass of eggnog and it feels like your ears are breathing for you, take a nap.

Have an exit strategy if you know you’re going out. You don’t want to start 2014 with a revoked licence, alcohol counselling and thousands of dollars in fines and legal bills — and that’s the best-case scenario.

[MIKA27]

Radiation Physicist Beautifully Colorizes X-Ray Images of Nature

In late October, at the TEDx event in Groningen, Netherlands, one man stood on the stage and gave a fascinating talk about how his life's work had taken him on a journey to becoming an artist. Arie van't Riet studied radiation physics at Delft University of Technology and obtained his PhD from Utrecht University. As a registered medical physicist, he saw first-hand at the hospital, the amazing progress in image quality x-rays had achieved.

One day, his colleague asked him to take an x-ray of one of his art paintings. It was a thin object and van't Riet had never done something like this before, but as he said, "it worked." This got him thinking about what other kinds of thin objects he could x-ray and flowers came to mind. He started with a bouquet of tulips. The analog image, or the silver bromide x-ray film, resembled a black and white negative. It was digitized, inverted, and then selectively colorized in Photoshop. "And then some people told me that's art," he humorously states, "and I became an artist."

van't Riet went on to x-ray insects and then complete natural scenes that included animals like lizards, turtles, cats and monkeys. He calls these beautiful works "bioramas." As he states on his website, "I prefer [to] X-ray objects of ordinary scenes like a butterfly nearby a flower, a fish in the ocean, a mouse in the field, a heron along the riverside, a bird in a tree and so on. Each time it is challenging me to arrive at an X-ray photograph that represents the sentiment of the scene, to raise questions and excite curiosity. I hope, in most of the images presented here, I succeeded."

Bouquet of tulips

Snails, tulip field

Poppy, penstemon, rododendron and lizards

Medinella, snake and monitor lizards

Trachycarpus wagnerianus, azalea, turtles

Tulip field

Poppies

Water lily, marsh marigold, lily leaves, frog

Duck

Chicken

Cat

Monkey

Tawny owl

MIKA: Simply brilliant.

Also: Arie van't Riet's website

[Fuzz]

Jim Beam Single Barrel Bourbon

And since less than 1% of Beam barrels qualified for this new bourbon, you know you're getting a hand selected gem, not a mass produced mystery. So keep your eyes peeled this spring for this individually bottled, hand-numbered expression.

Considering that some numbers show that JB ship 15 million cases per year (lets say on average 12x750ml bottles per case, that's 135 million litres per year) and others quote 300k charred oak barrels used (53 gallons per barrel, which works out to be 60 millions litres), so even if you go on the lower side of the numbers, that's still 600k litres (450k 750ml bottles). Not exactly mass produced, but not that rare either.

Would still want to try it!

[paulF]

Thanks for this thread and the time you put into mate ,its a lot of work but appreciated and fun to read

cheers Mate

+1 Love this thread

[Habana Mike]

Radiation Physicist Beautifully Colorizes X-Ray Images of Nature

MIKA: Simply brilliant.

Also: Arie van't Riet's website

Truly amazing with a provoking beauty

[MIKA27]

Laser Smartphone Add-On Accurately Measures Everything In A Photo

Forget the sanding, the painting, and all the construction; the worst part of a renovation is having to use a tape measure to size up a room. But if you’re willing to cough up $US560, there’s now a much better way that almost sounds like magic. It’s a smartphone accessory called the Spike that uses lasers, GPS, and other sensors to automatically measure everything in a photo you take. Say wha?!

Since it relies on a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone, instead of interfacing with ports or any of that nonsense, the Spike will play happily with iOS and Android hardware — as long as they include GPS capabilities. The device itself features a laser, a 3D compass, and its own rechargeable battery, and uses all of this to create a fairly accurate guesstimate of the size of objects or structures anywhere from six to 600 feet away.

There is a trade-off, of course. By “fairly accurate guesstimate” we mean the Spike is accurate to plus or minus eight inches, and we assume the closer an object is, the better chance it will have of gauging its size. That being said, it still seems like a wonderful contraption, especially since the dimensions for given objects in a scene are automatically overlaid on the photo you snap. And, you can export the measurements and automatically create a 3D model in SketchUp.

So come May of next year when the Spike will hopefully be shipping to those who’ve pre-ordered, you’ll finally be able to replace that tape measure that’s a giant pain for measuring larger distances. Good riddance.

[MIKA27]

America Might Be About To Get Its First Indoor Throwing Star Range

If this website is to be believed, come 2014, Lexington, Kentucky could easily replace Orlando, Florida as the most popular vacation spot in the country. Because next spring the city will be host to the nation’s first indoor throwing star range and sake bar. Because nothing goes better with rice wine than a throwable metal weapon with multiple razor-sharp blades.

Ninjas’ website links out to a Lexington-based marketing agency called Cornett, so there’s unfortunately good reason to think this might be nothing more than a publicity stunt.

But the address appears to be an actual building, and the site boasts such amenities as lessons, and a wide range of shurikens to buy. We’re incredibly hopeful no one is pulling our leg on this one, because this is something the nation needs, and if it’s real and succeeds, Ninjas claims it’s ready to franchise out the brand.

[MIKA27]

Turn Any Door Into Han Solo Stuck In Carbonite

You know you want this door decal of Han Solo stuck in carbonite. The 32-inch by 80-inch laminated graphic can be attached and reattached to both doors and walls and is specially designed to create that great 3D-like effect. It really does look like Han could climb right out of there, at least in the sample images.

At $US140, it’s not necessarily the cheapest Han Solo-inspired decoration option, but don’t worry. You can find a “wall decal” on Amazon that just appears to lack the cutouts for the door handle and lock. Or check out this unlaminated version on sale at Etsy for a cool $US80. If you’re really on a budget, though, just think: This giant graphic of Justin Bieber’s face can be yours for $US20. He’s no Han Solo, but hey, it’s a conversation piece.

[MIKA27]

This Flying Ambulance May Save Wounded Soldiers From Certain Death

Removing wounded soldiers from the battlefield has always been a dangerous proposition, not just for the wounded but for the Medevac team as well. So instead of sending more soldiers into harm’s way, one Israeli aeronautic company wants to whisk the wounded away aboard a UAV.

The AirMule, as its called by its creator, Dr. Rafi Yoeli, CEO of Urban Aeronautics, is a VTOL UAV measuring 20 feet long, over 6 feet wide, and weighing one ton. It rides atop a pair of ducted fans powered by a Turbomeca Ariel jet engine — similar to Germany’s “flying Jeep” concept from the 1950′s. The AirMule is directed and controlled via via a series of 200 directional air flaps and can fly both remotely or autonomously while carrying up to 880 pounds of cargo.

The AirMule’s fully-ducted fans make it unique among UAV’s. Since the rotors are protected from obstacles and debris, the AirMule will be able to easily and safely operate within urban environments — something that neither traditional propeller or rotor-driven UAVs can do.

Development on the AirMule began in 2007 with a primary emphasis on developing a platform capable of quickly extracting wounded from the battlefield. Since its maiden voyage in 2009, the AirMule has logged dozens of hours of flight time — both tethered and untethered. It has also completed several completely autonomous runs in which the UAV lifts off, flies to a designated point, then returns and lands.

“We’re now able to land and take off from any point”, says Dr. Rafi Yoeli, company CEO told Israel Defence. “For the first time this lets us evacuate wounded from almost anywhere. Our UAV, carries a gross weight of close to 400 kilos”. The company hopes to finalise the AirMule’s commercial development within the next few years, however, the platform has yet to prove that it can safely carry human cargo.

Still, the prospect of self-guided aerial extraction is exciting and not just from a military standpoint. The civilian applications range from high rise fire rescues, urban and coastal SAR, urgent medevacs — anything that we rely on helicopters today for could potentially be performed by an ducted-fan VTOL

[MIKA27]

Astronauts Made A Rare Six Hour Spacewalk To Fix ISS

For only the second time in NASA history, two astronauts made a spacewalk on North American Christmas Eve. Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Michael Hopkins installed a new ammonia pump to fix the cooling loop on the ISS. You can’t beat that, even if you’re Santa Claus.

NASA has their livestream going of the spacewalk and Spaceflight Now is covering it with play-by-play detail. After six hours, it seems the two astronauts have been able to fix the problem on the ISS. One astronaut said, “Houston, you’ve got yourself a new pump module.”

[MIKA27]

British Doctor Branded His Initials On Patient's Liver

Artists generally like to sign their work. Painters, sculptors, poets, all leave their name as a mark of pride. But when your brush is a scalpel and your canvas is the human body, it’s probably best to avoid that urge. One British surgeon is finding that out, after being suspended for branding his initials on a patient’s liver. These ain’t cattle, doc!

Details are slim on this one, but it seems a surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, in England’s West Midlands, used an argon plasma coagulation tool to sear his brand in a patient’s liver. The tool, used to stop bleeding by burning tiny blood vessels shut with a beam of electrically-charged argon gas,can cut up to an inch deep in human tissue.

The surgeon’s signature was discovered by another doctor, who found the initials on the patient’s organ during a different surgery.

Now they fear that potentially hundreds of patients are walking around with organs bearing the surgeon’s name. Doctors say the branding leaves only superficial burns, and isn’t likely to cause any harm to the patients. Small solace when you’re walking around with some bonkers doctor’s insignia on your guts.

Puzzlingly, shockingly, disturbingly, this is far from the first time a surgeon has been corralled for tagging a patient’s parts. A few years ago, a doctor performing a hysterectomy branded the patient’s name on her removed uterus, claiming it was “a friendly gesture.” Another doctor carved his initials into a woman’s abdomen after performing a C-section.

Great. Now in addition to making sure your doctor is operating on the correct limb, you’ve got internal graffiti to worry about.

[MIKA27]

McLaren Is Using Fighter Jet Technology For Wiper-free Windshields

Anyone who’s ever driven in a southern thunderstorm knows that windshield wipers suck. They smear water more than they remove it, and, my God, is that “whip-flick” sound annoying.

Well, worry no more. McLaren says it’s doing away with wipers altogether in favour of fighter jet technology that keeps windshields clean. The British supercar company isn’t revealing too many details, but experts have a pretty good idea of how the new system will work. The fighter jet technology to which McLaren is referring is likely a high-frequency electronic system that pumps sound waves through the windshield, effectively creating a vibrating ultrasonic force field that deflects water, mud, and even bugs.

“It took a lot of effort to get this out of a source in the military. I asked why you don’t see wipers on some aircraft on when they are coming in at very low levels for landing,” McLaren design chief Frank Stephenson told The Sunday Times. “I was told that it’s not a coating on the surface but a high-frequency electronic system that never fails and is constantly active. Nothing will attach to the windscreen.” One ultrasonics professor said he thinks this means attaching “an ultrasonic transducer in the corner of the windscreen.”

If that sounds wildly futuristic and out of your reach, don’t be too hasty. The same system that will go on McLaren’s $US250,000 sports cars by 2015 could be available for the rest of us for as little as $US15 on mass market vehicles within a few years. And just think of all the money you’ll save on wiper blades.

[MIKA27]

An Incredible Photo Of A Colonial Base In An Alien World Called Earth

This otherworldly photo is so amazingly weird and exotic that you may think it comes from a secret colonial base in the Jovian moon of Europa. In reality, it’s the Halley VI Research Station in Antarctica as photographed by Antony Dubber, the chef of the British Antarctic Survey.

The outstanding photo is part Ice Lab, an exhibition on sustainable architecture in Antarctica now at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, United Kingdom. Here’s a video on this fantastic exhibit:

[MIKA27]

Hubble Captures Christmas Tree Topper 200 Times Larger Than The Sun

I wish I could put the southern hemisphere superstar RS Puppis on top of my tree — if it weren’t 10 times more massive, 200 times larger, and 15,000 times brighter than the Sun. This “holiday wreath made of sparkling lights” captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is amazingly beautiful.

From NASA:

RS Puppis rhythmically brightens and dims over a six-week cycle. It is one of the most luminous in the class of so-called Cepheid variable stars. Its average intrinsic brightness is 15,000 times greater than our sun’s luminosity.

The nebula flickers in brightness as pulses of light from the Cepheid propagate outwards. Hubble took a series of photos of light flashes rippling across the nebula in a phenomenon known as a “light echo.” Even though light travels through space fast enough to span the gap between Earth and the moon in a little over a second, the nebula is so large that reflected light can actually be photographed traversing the nebula.

By observing the fluctuation of light in RS Puppis itself, as well as recording the faint reflections of light pulses moving across the nebula, astronomers are able to measure these light echoes and pin down a very accurate distance. The distance to RS Puppis has been narrowed down to 6,500 light-years (with a margin of error of only one per cent).

[MIKA27]

These New Sensors Will Turn Passenger Jets Into Flying Weathervanes

Despite our best efforts, accurately predicting the weather remains about as easy as accurately predicting the next winning Powerball numbers. But with the installation of a new type of humidity sensor, the fleets of commercial passenger jets that inhabit our skies could soon provide meteorologists an unprecedented look at the sky — in real-time.

Developed through a partnership between Aeronautical Radio Incorporated (ARINC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and SpectraSensors, the Water Vapor Sensing System (WVSS-II) will take hundreds of humidity samples over the course of each flight and relay that data to the National Weather Service.

You see, relative humidity levels at various heights within the atmosphere provide vital hints to upcoming weather patterns.

Forecasters use this data to predict the timing of fog, cloud cover, cloud ceilings, and all the other information airlines need to fly safely. And instead of employing traditional weather balloons stationed around the country to do this — which only sample twice a day — the NOAA wants to use planes themselves. They’re already up there — making thousands of flights every day — so we might as well put them to use, right?

The humidity data the new sensor system sends to the National Weather Service.

“Water vapor is the most rapid-changing and under-sampled element in the atmosphere,” Carl Weiss, an aviation meteorologist for NOAA, said in a press statement. “On the heels of a tumultuous weather year, WVSS-II is part of a larger initiative contributing to Weather Ready Nation, our initiative focused on building community resilience in the face of extreme weather events. WVSS-II data upon takeoffs and landings allow forecasters to monitor and stay on top of how moisture is changing in the atmosphere, specifically in severe weather situations when preparedness is especially important.”

The project is still in its early stages, since only Southwest Airlines has signed on so far. However, should this proof of concept work, other carriers are likely to follow — and our ability to forecast the weather will get a huge boost in accuracy. And that won’t just help warn us of impending weather events — it could also put an end to the ubiquitous panic-mongering, too.

UPDATE: Bryce Ford, Vice President of Atmospheric Programs for SpectraSensors has reached out with a bit of additional information regarding the WVSS-II’s install base,

At this time there are actually 112 WVSS-II equipped aircraft operating here in the U.S. There are 87 as discussed by Southwest Airlines, plus 25 operating at United Parcel Services, UPS. UPS was actually the first to install WVSS-II here in the U.S., and has 25 units flying on 757-200 aircraft. UPS also provides that data to support the National Weather Service, and just like at Southwest Airlines, the UPS systems are done via the prime contractor ARINC. Southwest Airlines is the first U.S. passenger carrier to implement WVSS-II.

WVSS-II is also being installed on several Lufthansa aircraft in Germany, which is the first operator in Europe to begin implementations. They are doing that in conjunction with the German weather service, DWD. Several other weather service agencies around the world are planning implementations of WVSS-II with their partner airlines.

All of this is accomplished as part of the Aircraft Meteorological DAta Relay program, AMDAR, coordinated by the World Meteorological Organisation, WMO. AMDAR is a global program conducted by the world’s meteorological service agencies to collect weather data from aircraft, for the improvement of weather forecasting everywhere. Our U.S. NWS is the largest contributor to the global AMDAR program, and leads the way with programs like WVSS-II. These aircraft observations have become a very valuable component of the global observing system for meteorology, and help to continuously improve the weather forecasts we all use every day.

[MIKA27]

Crazy Video: Heavy Military Trucks Being Dropped From A Plane

“Some heavy big trucks being dropped from a military plane in the middle of the night,” says the video description, “huge machines, being launched at incredible speed!” Indeed. I love the faces of those soldiers waiting to jump after the trucks:

http://youtu.be/mugGjnqm3UQ

The soldiers and the hardware belong to the the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment, which “was the first combat paratrooper unit of the United States Army formed during World War II.” They’re being dropped from a C-17 Globemaster III operated by the United States Air Force’s 517th Airlift Squadron.

Another Redditor posted a video that shows the point of view from the truck:

[MIKA27]

A year in hiding in wartime Florence

In 1943, Italy officially changed sides in World War Two, making peace with the Allies against Nazi Germany. It was the beginning of a new chapter in the life of one little Jewish boy in Florence, Marcello Buiatti, whose family suddenly had to go into hiding.

Via Faenza - a pedestrian street, five minutes' walk from Florence's main train station. Standing outside number 43, Marcello Buiatti takes in the surroundings. It has hardly changed in 70 years.

A professor of genetics at Florence University, Buiatti was then a five-year-old boy. He remembers paratroopers floating down into the city in September 1943, when Italy signed an armistice with the Allies.

"Everybody was happy because we thought it was Allied troops coming down and saving us from the Germans, but it was not," he says.

He was with his mother - a Jew born in Poland and educated in Prague - at his father's office in the centre of town near the River Arno. Fortunately his father, a former military man, had used his connections to plan for this eventuality.

The house in Via Faenza - owned by a Fascist who rejected ant-Semitism - was the ideal hiding place. An empty house with a chapel attached, built for the Templars in the 12th Century. Who would suspect it housed Jews?

Two other Jewish families joined the Buiattis - a Hungarian friend and his son, and an elderly couple with two older boys who left to fight with the Resistance. Soon afterwards, Marcello's Polish cousin, "Aunty" Chaja, arrived, having escaped with the help of a partisan from an Italian concentration camp.

While little has changed on the outside, the first-floor apartment where they all lived looks very different today. For the last 40 years, the building has been home to the Lorenzo de' Medici Italian International Institute, offering culture and language courses to foreign students. The kitchen and Marcello's bedroom are now administrative offices. The other rooms are classrooms.

But certain features bring memories flooding back. A small fresco painted in an alcove makes Marcello's eyes shine in recognition. "I remember this angel painted in this wall. My bedroom must have been just here. I remember it as a flash. I keep having flashes."

At times disorientated, Marcello gradually regains his bearings. The office next to the angel alcove is the room they used as a kitchen. He remembers that they had a stove but not very much to eat. When they finished the reserves brought from his grandparents' farm in Friuli, north-east Italy, the partisans would bring them essential supplies.

"There was a priest too. He knew we were Jewish. He sent little packages of edible things and he helped us. He sent them over the roof. The roof is always useful in these cases!"

Marcello laughs, remembering another detail about this room - for a while they kept a live lamb here.

"But nobody knew how to kill him, nobody wanted to kill him. Fortunately, that partisan who had saved my mother's cousin came visiting. He saw that lamb and said 'Why don't you eat him?'

"'I can't kill him,' said my father. So he killed him and we ate it. I remember that it was fantastically good."

Marcello also remembers the special job he had to do every evening after supper.

"I was supposed to turn on the radio at nine o'clock to listen to the Allied radio, who at that time always sent encrypted messages for the Resistance. And my father heard them and told the other people of the Resistance in Florence. So it was quite an important place, our house, for we were spreading the news to several groups of partisans."

Partisans would often come and go from the house but, for Marcello, one was particularly special - a woman who taught him to read and write.

"I have a wonderful memory of that lady. She would come at night. Late in the evening because it was dark. She could sneak into the house. She was very, very brave. She was a young lady, very beautiful, so I fell in love with her. It was a terrible thing when I heard that she had been killed by a bomb."

There were frequent bombings while they were in hiding, during which the families would shelter in the chapel downstairs. Today, it has been restored but at the time it was a dusty, dingy, untidy place. Although he was rarely afraid during air raids spent in the chapel, Marcello does remember one terrifying episode when a German officer came in.

"The Nazi entered from this door here, the front door of the chapel. And we were all lining that wall there. My mother became pale immediately, she was terribly scared. She squashed against the wall because she had blonde hair but she looked Jewish. This officer came inside. He thought we were just there to avoid bombs and said, 'Don't worry, the bombing is ending,' and smiled and went away. I don't know how nobody fainted."

Marcello laughs at the absurdity of it.

"He probably would have got a medal, for we were many Jews and partisans - 10, 12 people hiding in the place."

Only one other episode truly frightened the young Marcello - the German bombing of all Florence's bridges apart from the Ponte Vecchio.

British engineers dynamited what was left of the Santa Trinita bridge before replacing it with a Bailey bridge

"We were in a large room, all sleeping there, and we heard the walls trembling because there were many bridges so it was very strong. And I remember trembling in my bed because the whole house was trembling like happens with an earthquake."

But, for the most part, Marcello says life in hiding was neither scary nor frustrating. On the contrary, he recalls it as a very happy time. Reminiscent of Roberto Benigni's film, Life is Beautiful - in which a father protects his young son from the horrific reality of life in a concentration camp by pretending it is a game - Marcello's parents maintained an atmosphere of fun and adventure for their little boy throughout.

"They managed not to show to me the bad side of what was happening," he says. "I was very seldom scared. I had the feeling that I was a very important person, and that is very important for a kid. My life was really beautiful here in this period. I have good memories."

The happiest was the birth of his little sister, Eva, on 12 April, 1944. In spite of five air raid alarms that day, they stayed upstairs while a midwife in the Resistance helped deliver the baby.

"It was a wonderfully joyful moment for all of us because another human being was born. We were not supposed to have another - the Germans would have killed her," he says.

The baby's birth could not be registered but there were far more pressing issues to deal with.

"We didn't have a crib! And the first night she slept in a drawer. She was very small!

"One evening when it was dark, my father and I went to the market here and bought a sort of basket where she stayed for the whole time."

That was one of the only times Marcello set foot outside the house until Florence's liberation in August 1944.

Entering a room with a stone step beneath the window, Marcello remembers standing on it to look out as the partisans who liberated the city came into town. But the view seems different from the one in his memory... until he squats down to look out from a five-year-old's perspective.

"I was here and I was looking into the street. Everybody was waving and was happy. The partisans were marching and singing. The Fascists were shooting from that house."

Marcello points to the roof of the building opposite, remembering how his mother whisked him away from the window when she saw a sniper firing from it. Days later, he was back at the window, watching the Allied troops enter the city.

"That actually was the Eighth Army, whose head was Montgomery. The first here were the Sikhs that I remember very well because they had turbans and long black beards. Then just after them, the Jewish Brigade arrived. And in the Jewish Brigade we had two of my mother's cousins."

Avraham and Zvi were the only two members of their family to escape death in the concentration camps, having fled from Prague to Palestine before Hitler's arrival. They still live in Israel where Marcello has often visited them. He has never forgotten how they arrived in Florence just in time to save his life.

"I was very ill - I had typhus because the water was not good here. Fortunately they came, because they had quinine and they saved me! I was very lucky."

"Lucky" is a word Marcello uses often. Standing at that window, 70 years on, his face is awash with emotion.

"I feel moved, very moved... It's very important to remember, very important to tell other people what happened. Many people were killed in these times. Our situation was rare. And I'm very, very lucky to be alive."

[MIKA27]

STEP INTO THE VOID | FRENCH ALPS

A new attraction for thrillseekers has just opened in the French Alps. Called "Step Into the Void”, this is the tallest attraction in Europe, it is located on the peak of Aiguille du Midi(Europes highest mountain peak). The death-defying attraction consists of a glass box suspended over the yawning void, 3,395 feet above the ground. It takes visitors almost 20 minutes to get to by cable car, but if you´re brave enough to enter the cube, you´ll be rewarded with one of the most breathtaking 360° views in all of the world - of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps.

[MIKA27]

POV KIT | BY PEAK DESIGN

P.O.V. Kit by Peak Design is an ultra-versatile video mount that transforms your backpack strap, belt or strap-like object into a mount for any GoPro or point-and-shoot camera, and allows you to take amazing POV footage. Includes a J-Arm adapter for GoPro and a point-and-shoot adapter.

Note: this product works along with the Capture Camera Clip - sold separately

[MIKA27]

GARMIN TACTIX

The new Garmin Tactix is the ultimate tactical watch. Inspired by special-ops forces, the field-ready rruggedized watch is built to survive the grittiest tactical and recreational missions. The multifunction Tactix boasts a fully-featured GPS navigator, an altimeter, barometer, compass, waypoints and TracBac navigation capability, plus much more. It is also waterproof (to 50 meters) and features a green LED backlight that won’t flare out night vision.

Available for purchase in Europe here