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

[MIKA27]

Hubble Detects Water Plumes Coming Out Of Jupiter Moon Europa

For the first time ever, the Hubble Space Telescope has observed water plumes on the icy crust of Europa. The Jovian moon is one of the most likely worlds to contain life in the Solar System. According to Lorenz Roth — who headed the team that made the discovery — “this is tremendously exciting.” No kidding.

Above: NASA’s artist conception of the water plumes in Europa.

Until now, there was some evidence that “pointed to the existence of an ocean located under Europa’s icy crust.” But this is the first time that we have observed an actual water vapor plume, most probably coming out of the moon’s icy crust, as Roth explains:

By far the simplest explanation for this water vapor is that it erupted from plumes on the surface of Europa. If those plumes are connected with the subsurface water ocean we are confident exists under Europa’s crust, then this means that future investigations can directly investigate the chemical makeup of Europa’s potentially habitable environment without drilling through layers of ice. And that is tremendously exciting.

They have been investigating this since December 2012, according to NASA, to make sure these are actual water plumes and that there’s not a “more exotic explanation, such as serendipitously observing a rare meteorite impact.”

Roth says that “long cracks on Europa’s surface, known as lineae, might be venting water vapor into space”. These are similar to the the ones detected by Cassini on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons. The ejections seem to be affected by Jupiter’s gravity and the moon’s orbital position. In fact, this can confirm the existence of Europa’s underground oceans, says Kurt Retherford, one of the research team members:

The apparent plume variability supports a key prediction that Europa should tidally flex by a significant amount if it has a subsurface ocean.

According to NASA, Europa’s water plumes don’t escape to space because of its gravity: “Instead, it falls back onto the surface after reaching an altitude of 125 miles, according to the Hubble measurements. This could leave bright surface features near the moon’s south polar region, the researchers hypothesize.”

[MIKA27]

Watch How Scary Fast An Epidemic Would Spread Disease Across The World

If you want to put on a surgical mask, rubber gloves, goggles, ear muffs and trap yourself in a plastic bubble after watching this terrifying video of how fast an epidemic would spread across the world, well, I’d totally understand. Because it’s crazy fast. Using the world’s air transportation network, theoretical physicists have created a model showing how a disease originating from one city can taint the entire world.

Theoretical physicist Dirk Brockmann and his team created a simulation using a hypothetical epidemic that had similar characteristics to the 2009 swine flu pandemic within the context of our globalized world.

The concept behind the simulation is relatively simple: even though some cities might be closer to each other in distance (say London and a small UK town), people would travel there less frequently than cities that are much farther away (say London and New York). So it’s more likely that disease would spread through the air transportation network than it would with roads, ships and so forth. Or at least, a lot more quickly.

After watching the video and shuddering with fear, you can read more about Brockmann’s study here and at Fast Company.

MIKA: Doesn't really quantify time in the video....

[MIKA27]

Protecting Beaches - Shark Net Vs Internet

Seeing as Western Australia is where most shark-related deaths happen, authorities are keen to keep an open mind on news ways to tackle the problem. And no matter what your opinion is on the amount of resources that go into shark attack prevention, their new system put into place will be quite useful – as soon as a tagged shark comes near a beach, a Twitter notice is sent within minutes to anyone following.

With over 320 sharks tagged withtracking devices, WA residents can now be informed if one of them swims within 1km of a beach, UK’s Mirror reports.

While images fly around the internet about how disproportionate our fear of sharks is to the amount of deaths actually caused by sharks, it’s hard to say how much that figure is actually because of our fear of sharks. It’s sparked debate recently, due to funding being diverted to the issue as opposed to problems that cause far more deaths – such as automobile accidents – and also because of our shark nets in place, which kill marine life indiscriminately. But we’re a beach loving nation, and that fear was never going to leave us as soon as Spielberg made a film involving steadily quickening string instruments.

But while people argue about shark nets, and shark finning, Surf Life Saving WA’s new tactic is bound to help people while ruffling very few feathers. It’s a cheaper system, a more automated system, and aside from some possible discomfort when the tracking devices are inserted (which would happen anyway, for SCIENCE), it’s harmless to the sharks. Maybe, one day, it’ll even cut down on the manpower needed to visually observe sharks as they swim near populated areas.

For those in WA, you can follow the Twitter account at @SLSWA.

MIKA: Sounds great "If" youre one to tweet whilst in the water....

[MIKA27]

Alan Turing, Enigma Code-Breaker and Computer Pioneer, Wins Royal Pardon

Nearly 60 years after his death, Alan Turing, the British mathematician regarded as one of the central figures in the development of the computer, received a formal pardon from Queen Elizabeth II on Monday for his conviction in 1952 on charges of homosexuality, at the time a criminal offense in Britain.

The pardon was announced by the British justice secretary, Chris Grayling, who had made the request to the queen. Mr. Grayling said in a statement that Mr. Turing, whose most remarkable achievement was helping to develop the machines and algorithms that unscrambled the supposedly impenetrable Enigma code used by the Germans in World War II, “deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science.”

The British prime minister, David Cameron, said in a statement: “His action saved countless lives. He also left a remarkable national legacy through his substantial scientific achievements, often being referred to as the ‘father of modern computing.’ ”

Mr. Turing committed suicide in 1954, two years after his conviction on charges of gross indecency. He was 41. In a 1936 research paper, Mr. Turing anticipated a computing machine that could perform different tasks by altering its software, rather than its hardware.

He also proposed the now famous Turing test, used to determine artificial intelligence. In the test, a person asks questions of both a computer and another human — neither of which they can see — to try to determine which is the computer and which is the fellow human. If the computer can fool the person, according to the Turing test, it is deemed intelligent.

In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a formal apology to Mr. Turing, calling his treatment “horrifying” and “utterly unfair.” But Mr. Cameron’s government denied him a pardon last year.

An online petition urging a pardon received more than 35,000 signatures. The campaign has also received worldwide support from scientists, including Stephen Hawking.

When Mr. Turing was convicted in 1952, he was sentenced — as an alternative to prison — to chemical castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He also lost his security clearance because of the conviction. He committed suicide by eating an apple believed to have been laced with cyanide.

The queen has the power to issue a “royal prerogative of mercy” to pardon civilians, but rarely does so. Mr. Grayling said that Mr. Turing’s sentence would today be considered “unjust and discriminatory.”

Mr. Turing has been the subject of numerous biographies, as well as “Breaking the Code,” a play based on his life that was presented in London’s West End and on Broadway in the 1980s.

[MIKA27]

Edward Snowden Takes A Victory Lap

The Washington Post has published the first interview with Edward Snowden since the initial wave of press after the 30-year-old former analyst’s leaks this summer. His main theme: Edward Snowden done good.

This is not to say that Snowden doesn’t deserve the praise. The Washington Post makes it very clear in nearly 4,500 words of reporting that, thanks to Snowden’s leak, the NSA “faces scrutiny it has not endured since the 1970s, or perhaps ever.” Indeed, just last week, a federal judge called the NSA’s surveillance efforts “almost Orwellian” and also probably unconstitutional. President Obama’s even changed his tune, and now says that the agency is threatening American business online.

After a set up worthy of a spy movie, The Washington Post gets right to the point. Edward Snowden won. In the exiled whistleblower’s own words:

For me, in terms of personal satisfaction, the mission’s already accomplished. I already won. As soon as the journalists were able to work, everything that I had been trying to do was validated. Because, remember, I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.

Maybe not the best choice of words? The last time “mission accomplished” got this much play it was in a speech on an aircraft carrier. And the mission was anything but.

It also downplays the fact that the battle’s actually far from over. The federal judge who suggested that the NSA’s surveillance might be unconstitutional is just the first of many moving parts that have to change the way this country’s spy programs work. Obama has changed his rhetoric, but he still hasn’t really done anything to clamp down on unwarranted surveillance. Edward Snowden himself remains a forbidden from returning home.

But again! Snowden did a good thing for America. Our own spies were spying on us, and he gave the press the evidence to prove it. Let’s also not forget that thousands of Snowden documents have not been published, so who knows how far the government’s bad behaviour goes. He continues:

All I wanted was for the public to be able to have a say in how they are governed. That is a milestone we left a long time ago. Right now, all we are looking at are stretch goals.

Snowden goes on to describe how he talked to his NSA coworkers about the malfeasance — the NSA says there’s no record of these conversations — and the coworkers agreed with him. Meanwhile, other reports say that he tricked coworkers into giving him access to classified documents. But it wasn’t these coworkers that encouraged him to leak, Snowden said:

I am not trying to bring down the NSA, I am working to improve the NSA. I am still working for the NSA right now. They are the only ones who don’t realise it.

That whole question — who elected you? — inverts the model. They elected me. The overseers.

Snowden explains to the Post how Dianne Feinstein and Mike Rogers “elected [him]” by not asking hard questions and exposing abusive programs. That’s an interesting metaphor and also a really strong point about how Congress just let this bad NSA behaviour happen.

We inevitably have to take Snowden’s words at face value. He leaked the documents and then stepped into the shadows. There is something admirable about that. He’s not yet trying to step forward and become a celebrity activist for privacy and freedom of information. In his own words, he’s just an “indoor cat” hanging out in Russia. It’ll really be time for a victory lap when he can finally come home.

The full interview is well worth reading; head over to the Washington Post to check it out.

[MIKA27]

Iceland Stops Work On A New Highway That Would Destroy Elf Habitats

A lawsuit that halted a new highway in Iceland was filed on behalf of elves. The road construction project is now being delayed until Iceland’s Supreme Court rules on a case from Friends of Lava, a group concerned about destruction to elf and wildlife habitats. Their ideas may not be as bizarre as it first appears.

The proposed highway would cut through the natural lava fields south of Reykjavik, disrupting grass, birds, and… elves. Of especial concern? An elf church in the area. “This elf church is connected by light energy to other churches, other places,” Ragnhildur Jónsdóttir, a self-proclaimed Icelandic elf seer, told The Atlantic.“So, if one of them is destroyed, it’s, uh, well, it’s not a good thing.”

Elf opposition to construction projects in Iceland is nothing new, in fact. Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration gets so many queries from curious press that they have a standard reply, a version of which you can read here, detailing several more instances where equipment failure is believed by some to be the work of displeased elves. For example, the worker who removed a large rock supposedly inhabited by elves then accidentally destroyed a water pipe running to a fish farm, killing 90,000 smolts (young salmon). That’s elf revenge for you.

A 2007 survey found that 62 per cent of the 1,000 Icelandic respondents thought it was at least possible that elves exist. To be sure, that still leaves plenty of people who don’t. The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration’s official elf memo says rumours around the large rock connected to the fish farm incident could also have been a veiled form of protest. “These stories had apparently been made up at the time of the construction project, probably by someone who was opposed to the work or just out of a sense of mischief,” it reads.

That’s whats so interesting about this new elf versus highway saga. Perhaps people who want the highway built are eager to paint the opposition as kooks. Or, perhaps, invoking the elves is an alternative way of expressing a familiar idea: This land is worth saving.

Over at The Atlantic, Ryan Jacobs spoke to Árni Björnsson, the former director of the ethnological department of the National Museum of Iceland:

Björnsson speculated that the stories are used to express “a sort of primitive environmentalism.” In a way, they represent a special connection with the natural landscape that is otherwise difficult to articulate. Haukur Ingi Jónasson, a professor in project management at Reykjavík University who wrote about elves during his graduate studies in theology and psychoanalysis at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, says Iceland’s many mountains, hills, and rivers are loaded with significance for the people who live near them. “[Elves are] kind of a ritualistic attempt to protect something meaningful, respect something of importance, and acknowledge something of worth,” he said. In other words, the elves honour a balance of power that has always leaned clearly in the direction of nature and the whimsy of its erupting volcanoes, shifting glaciers, and quivering ground. “We are kind of always at the disposal of something that is not us,” he said. “It’s it. It’s nature. It’s out there. I cannot control it, it’s it that I have to comply with.”

Environmentalists can appeal to science to make the pitch for why a certain construction project should not be allowed to pollute the habitats of millions of fish or flood the trees where thousands of birds nest. But what moves us, ultimately, is imagining what it’s like to face the mystery and immensity of nature. And that’s where supernatural bleeds into the natural.

[AP - The Atlantic - The New York Times]

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Incredible Photo Shows The Peaceful Alien Beauty Of A Horse Foetus

You are looking at a horse on the 85th day of gestation. It’s an extraordinary photo taken by an extraordinary photographer — Tim Flach. The image is weirdly beautiful, almost magical. A peaceful beauty. We know it’s a horse but it almost feels like a being from another planet.

This is one of the most incredible photos I’ve seen in 2013.

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This Wacky Forward Wing Jet Flew Faster Than The Speed Of Sound

The 1980s ushered in more than a few aeronautical revolutions thanks to the emergence of both composite manufacturing techniques and rapidly advancing digital technology. This uniquely designed experimental aircraft integrated all of them into a single system.

The X-29 experimental aircraft, developed by Northrop Grumman in the early 1980′s from the company’s existing F-5A Freedom Fighter platform, was one of America’s first attempts at using forward-swept wings, canard control surfaces (the stubby front wings beneath the canopy that actually control the plane), and fly-by-wire controls. In fact, it was only the third such aircraft with forward-swept wings to actually take to the air — following the Nazi Junkers Ju 287 in 1944 and preceding the HFB-320 Hansa Jet in 1964.

The X-29′s unique wing design was made possible by the advent of composite manufacturing a decade earlier. By constructing the wings and canards from these materials, Grumman engineers were able to both reduce the amount of aeroelastic divergent twisting that hampered the earlier Nazi planes while drastically reducing the weight of the components.

While the forward sweep greatly improved the plane’s agility and offered a maximum attack angle of 67 degrees — compared to, say, the maximum 45 degree angle that an F-15 can pull off. Unfortunately, this added performance came at the expense of overall control of the aircraft, resulting in a severely unstable flight envelope. To compensate, the X-29 relied on a newfangled fly-by-wire system that utilized no less than six separate computers.

As NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center site explains,

The particular forward swept wing, close-coupled canard design used on the X-29 was unstable. The X-29′s flight control system compensated for this instability by sensing flight conditions such as attitude and speed, and through computer processing, continually adjusted the control surfaces with up to 40 commands each second. This arrangement was made to reduce drag. Conventionally configured aircraft achieved stability by balancing lift loads on the wing with opposing downward loads on the tail at the cost of drag. The X-29 avoided this drag penalty through its relaxed static stability.

Each of the three digital flight control computers had an analogue backup. If one of the digital computers failed, the remaining two took over. If two of the digital computers failed, the flight control system switched to the analogue mode. If one of the analogue computers failed, the two remaining analogue computers took over. The risk of total systems failure was equivalent in the X-29 to the risk of mechanical failure in a conventional system.

Only two X-29s were ever produced. The first made its maiden flight in December of 1984 with rockstar test pilot Chuck Sewell at the helm. Four months later, NASA officially adopted the X-29 for further flight testing. The plane set another record a year later, in December 1985, when it became the first forward-swept wing aircraft to ever break the sound barrier during level flight. Over the next decade, NASA put both X-29′s through the ringer, flying them a total of 242 times before retiring the planes in 1991.

While you can still appreciate the aesthetics of the X-29 at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, it’s the construction and control technologies they helped incubate that have become integral components in modern warplanes.

[MIKA27]

This Solar Charging Tent Means You Can Never Get Away From Gadgets

Camping used to be all about getting away from the clutter of our increasingly connected lives. But then electronic devices became “mobile”, which it turns out means “magnetically attracted to our thumbs,” and solar charging was a necessity. Now Eddie Bauer (the company) is making a tent with a built in solar charger, and Eddie Bauer (the badarse) is probably screaming obscenities in his grave.

So this tent, the Power Katabatic, wears a Goal Zero solar charger up top, a triangular piece that folds with the tent for storage.

Inside is a Goal Zero-supplied battery which, when charged up by Mr. Sun, can bring your survival iPad or other USB device back to life. Based on Eddie Bauer’s Katabatic tent, the never-really-off-the-grid version offers 36 sq. feet of interior space and weighs around 8 pounds.

I guess this is a good way to introduce your tech-addled kids to the great outdoors without completely shocking them with a world of natural beauty that’s not made of pixels. Or maybe it’s for hardcore adventurers who can navigate the woods using nothing but spit and a toenail clipper, but want to throw some technology in the mix. Whoever ends up buying this thing, it’ll set them back about $US500.

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Glowing 'Meteor Smoke' Clouds Appear Over Antarctica

NASA reports that rare, electric blue noctilucent clouds have reappeared over the South Pole, where the clouds are often spotted for five to 10 days every year. NASA calls the clouds “a great geophysical light bulb” that are visible during the darkest nights.

The clouds were spotted by NASA’s AIM spacecraft, which observed a “vast bank” of the clouds that began on November 20 and has expanded to blanket the entire continent, creating a rippling mass of particles that represent the highest clouds formed on earth. The clouds “glow” because of their altitude — they reflect light cast from a horizon we can’t see from the ground. But what causes these clouds to form so high above the surface of the earth?

These polar mesospheric clouds in the Northern Hemisphere were shot by the Expedition 31 crew aboard the ISS in June of 2012.

Last year, atmospheric scientists from Hampton University published a study revealing the discovery of “meteor smoke” in the clouds. When meteors get pulverized in the atmosphere, they leave behind a trail of tiny bits floating in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. It turns out that these microscopic “meteor clouds” provide the building blocks for noctilucent clouds — water molecules gather on the specs of dust, creating ice crystals.

These specks of ice are incredibly small, since they form in the very highest reaches of the atmosphere — which is almost a vacuum. According to Space.com, the cloud particles can be up to 100 times smaller than the particles that make up a normal cloud:

These tiny ice crystals also explain how noctilucent clouds get their electric-blue colour. Small particles typically scatter short wavelengths of light (blue) more than longer wavelengths (red). So from our perspective on the ground, when a beam of sunlight hits a noctilucent cloud, the scattered blue colour is what we see.

Back when the clouds were first discovered, in the mid-19th century, you had to go deep into the Arctic or Antarctic landscape to see them. But, today, they’re appearing more and more often above inhabited regions (for example, over Glasgow in the lead image).

NASA explains that the increase in methane in our atmosphere is to blame. When the gas reaches 60 or 70 miles above earth, it oxidizes to create more water vapor — adding to to the noctilucent clouds. NASA’s scientists describe the increase as a “canary in a coal mine” for climate change.

A 2008 NASA image of noctilucent clouds show the phenomena as the ISS passed over western Mongolia.

So keep an eye out for these luminous, ragged clouds — but keep in mind that while they’re beautiful, they’re also an ominous symbol of how we’re changing not only the earth, but the atmosphere above it.

[MIKA27]

12 Maps Of America From Before We Knew What It Looked Like

The island of California. A huge triangle of land called Florida. A great ocean that cut down from the Arctic into the Midwest. As the New World came into focus beginning in the 17th century, explorers and cartographers struggled to measure a massive expanse of land that would take centuries to accurately map.

Take the long-accepted idea that California was actually its own island, popularised by explorers who had seen Baja and assumed the inlet was actually a continuous straight separating present-day Cali from the rest of North America. For a number of reasons — including economic and political ones — the myth stuck around for centuries. In fact, there’s even a dedicated collection at Stanford devoted to this geographic non-truth, of which there are at least 800 maps. So what reconnected California to America? In 1747, less than 300 years ago, King Ferdinand VI of Spain cleared up a popular misconception with a royal decree: California, it turned out, wasn’t an island after all.

But that’s far from the only cartographic myth that wound its way into legend during the age of exploration. Some of these maps were drawn for navigation, others were drawn with hidden agendas — to, say, spur a particular monarch to fund new journeys.

Take a look at 12 below, which include the first to use the name “America” and the first map printed in the new world.

America

In 1507, Martin Waldesmüller became the first cartographer to draw a map in which America was a free-floating entity — truly a new continent. It was also the first map to even use the name “America,” for the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci, the first to prove that the newly-discovered West Indies weren’t actually India. Of course, the map doesn’t show us much, though a pyramid-shaped Florida does make an appearance, pointing down towards Cuba. Beyond the thin landmass of the southeastern seaboard, though? Terra incognita, unknown lands, represented here by more ocean.

North and South America

This map, drawn in 1540 by by Sebastian Münster, was the very first printed map that called the great body of water to the west of the land by the name Pacific. Orient yourself using the island of “Zipangri,” the name Marco Polo gave to Japan — seemingly just a few hundred miles away from coastal North America.

The Eastern Seaboard

Gigantic fish, mermen, volcanoes, and all manner of other fantastical details illustrate this 1562 map by Diego Gutiérrez, whose intentions were clear: Depict America as a wondrous, resource rich land — and thus convince European monarchs to fund more expeditions.

The Eastern Seaboard

This 1566 is fascinating and colourful — the latter, because it was likely commissioned by the aristocracy. It was drawn by French mapmaker Nicolas Desliens, who was part of the famed Dieppe School of mapmaking, and it shows a surprisingly accurate representation of the eastern edge of the Americas (though some postulate that its maker may have fabricated the entire continent to spur the French monarchs to colonize!). What this map so vividly illustrates, with its verdant green boundaries, is that everything east of, say, Iowa, was unknown. Here, it’s represented as more ocean.

California

One of the most beautiful and detailed maps of the theoretical Island of California comes courtesy of Nicolas Sanson, a French royal geographer and the hand behind some of earliest maps of America. He drew this one in 1656, giving Europe its first real look at the American Southwest.

New England

In 1676, a reverend named William Hubbard — who was one of the first historians to write about New England — published this map, the first to ever be printed in America. It shows New England with north oriented to the right, including details like Rhode Island and New Haven. The map’s name speaks of the style of the day: A Map of New-England, Being the First That Ever Was Here Cut, and Done by the Best Pattern That Could Be Had, Which Being in Some Places Defective, It Made the Other Less Exact: Yet Doth It Sufficiently Shew the Scituation of the Country, and Conveniently.

New “Jarsey” and Philadelphia

English mapmaker and “Hydrographer to the King,” John Seller drew this fairly accurate beauty in 1675, as part of his “Atlas Maritimus.” It’s the first time Philadelphia was ever named on a map — and the second time Pennsylvania was — and it shows two separate Jerseys, East and West, along with names like Cape May and Great Egg, still familiar to us today.

The Great Lakes

Vincenzo Coronelli was a Franciscan Monk and cartographer known in the European courts for making massive, geographically accurate globes. But he was also a mapmaker, and author of the first printed map to show the entire Great Lakes. Of course, they weren’t as perfect as Google Earth’s might be — but for the 1688, this wasn’t half bad.

North and South America

A 1707 map by a Dutch cartographer shows, again, the great island of California — as well as some interesting fiction regarding Asia. But pay special attention to America, too, since there are some fascinating details, like how the Great Lakes, here, are one long, massive river that flows through North America from Quebec.

The Great Lakes and Mississippi

A 1718 map called The Course of the Mississippi, or the St. Louis, the famous river of North America shows how one cartographer imagined the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River connecting. This map was made by the Company of the West, which was responsible for the wild economic speculation in the region — in 1720, it became one of the earliest examples of a “burst” economic bubble. This map must’ve been a helpful tool for the company’s attempts at attracting capital.

North and Central America

In 1750, California was no longer an island and the true shape of the North American landmass was starting to emerge, though British Columbia and the far north are still uncharted waters. French cartographer Robert de Vaugondy drew this map, which helps to explain the special attention given to modern-day Canada, where the French had special interests.

The East Coast

Here’s where things start to look truly modern: A 1755 map of the East Coast, drawn by cartographer John Mitchell, shows the seeds of the modern U.S., including roads and settlements. Of course, the big difference here are the lines that divide it — this map was actually drawn on the eve of the Seven Years’ War with a hidden agenda: To set forth the territorial claims of the British against the French.

[MIKA27]

This Helicopter Lifting A Giant Cannon Is Not A Video Game Still

It looks like Call of Duty. It’s not. It looks like a movie. It’s not. Instead it’s an incredible photograph of a Marine Corps Super Stallion Helicopter taking off with a M777 howitzer in the California desert. In real life. What a powerful image. The helicopter is lugging the 7,500 pound 35 foot long monster of a weapon like it’s nothing.

The photo was taken by Lance Cpl. Keenan Zelazoski at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, California. It was part of an exercise done to prepare for deployment. Fun exercise.

[MIKA27]

Man In China Builds Giant Transformers Replica To Propose To Girlfriend

You know how when a guy courts a girl, sometimes the right move is a grand gesture? A bouquet of flowers to say you’re sorry. A surprise weekend getaway to mark an anniversary. How about a giant Transformers replica to pop the question?

That’s what this guy did. According to Chinese news site Jinyang, he constructed this three-story-tall model of Optimus Prime over the course of 10 months to impress his girlfriend enough that she’d say yes. The superheroic machine took 400 drawings, 40,000 rivets and nearly $US10,000 worth of stainless steel and iron. But boy does it look badass — much more so than some silly toy.

No word on what the lucky lady said, but based on this photo, things look promising.

[MIKA27]

These Massive Japanese Submarines Doubled As Aircraft Carriers

The attack on Pearl Harbor was just the first half of Japan’s plan to bring the US to the bargaining table. The second phase involved a reign of terror to shatter American morale through sustained air strikes against the East Coast, launched from the decks of three gigantic submarines. Yeah, from submarines.

Known as the the Sen Toku I-400-class Imperial Japanese Navy submarine and invented by Japanese Combined Fleet Commander-in-Chief Adm. Isoroku Yamamoto, these hybrid weapons of war machines were designed to take advantage of both their aircraft’s fast strike capabilities and the sub’s natural stealth. Three I-400′s were built during the war, with another two nearly finished, though none of them actually saw combat.

At 121-metres long, 12-metres wide, 7-metres tall, and displacing 6600 tonnes the Sen Toku’s are among the largest subs ever built — 60 per cent larger than their contemporary American submarine, the USS Argonaut, and offered double its operational range.

Each Sen Toku carried three M6A1 Seiran floatplane bombers, which would be launched from the sub’s double-reinforced deck using a catapult assisted 84 foot runway. 157 officers, engineers, electricians, and pilots were needed to command the vessel . “It is the only submarine that carried fighters,” Masanori Ando, who works at the JMSDF Submarine Training Center in Kure told Stars and Stripes. “There is no other example.”

Unfortunately for Japan, by the time the third Sen Toku launched in 1945, the war was nearly over. Two of the subs, I-400 and I-401, were dispatched to Ulithi atoll to attack Allied troops there but arrived just in time to discover Emperor Hirohito had surrendered. Both subs were captured and sailed back to America for study after the war. However when Russia demanded similar access to the technology, the US scuttled both of them in secret around 1946 rather than hand them over to the Soviets.

For the next 68 years, I-400 sat at the bottom of the Pacific before it was rediscovered off the coast of Oahu earlier this month by Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory explorer Terry Kerby and colleagues from the NOAA and the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology.

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Stonehenge's New Visitor Center Looks Positively Neolithic

The decrepit old visitor center at Stonehenge has been too small and too old for decades. In fact, it’s been described with typical Brit candor as “disgraceful” and an “embarrassment” to England. Finally, this month, a new, $US44 million visitors’ center has opened — here’s a look inside.

A lot has changed at Stonehenge since the 1970s, when neo-pagans and hippies regularly held festivals beneath the massive stone arches. Today, Stonehenge is a tightly controlled site, where sensitive archaeological work is still being carried out. Another big problem at the site was one posed by contemporary development: Increasing traffic on a nearby road, the A344, was beginning to seriously threaten the site, according to a 2006 National Geographic survey.

The project was approved in 2009, amidst deep cuts to other public projects — Stonehenge, it seems, gets a pass in times of austerity. And despite a number of delays, the work has gone ahead — the A344 was removed and grassed over this summer, and the construction of the new center finished up this fall, with an official opening in December.

The building, which sits roughly 1.5 miles away from Stonehenge, was designed by Denton Corker Marshall— which went to great lengths to references its much older prehistoric neighbour in the design. An undulating steel and zinc roof, held up by some 200 thin and slightly crooked columns, gives the building an ancient, organic vibe. Inside, three individual spaces for education and visitor services are covered in irregular wooden slats and more zinc.

These flourishes — off-kilter columns and the swaying roofline — are a fascinating attempt to relate a brand-new structure to one that could date back as far as 3,000 B.C. It might even deserve a new moniker: New Neolithic? Second Wave Copper Age? Post-Paleolithic?

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This Alpine House Looks Like It Was Beamed Down From Outer Space

Sure, the larch-wood cladding gives Ufogel a kind of rustic charm, but I’ll be damned if this Austrian guest house doesn’t really look like it just beamed down from a quaint corner of outer space.

Architect Peter Jungmann designed the cozy 484-square-feet pod with a massive, angular window on one side — perfect to take in the view of the surrounding mountains of East Tyrol in the medieval town of Lienz, or, you know, keep watch for the rest of the alien race to pop down from above and join you on the bucolic hillside. The woodsy interior has radiant heating, a wood burning fireplace, and — surprisingly, given its size — room to spread out and relax.

After taking a visual tour of the otherworldly Avoriaz in France, I’m wondering whether the entirety of Europe isn’t being slowly taken over by ski-loving, nature-enthusiast extraterrestrials. Either way, Ufogel’s available for rent, too, if you’re interested in exploring for yourself.

[MIKA27]

Ice Climber Impossibly Survives A Punishing Fall From Ice Wall

http://youtu.be/OGyTYjN1HG8

Ouch. That has got to hurt. Ice climber Mark R. was climbing up a mountain when he was sent plummeting down by a piece of falling ice that hit him. He then basically avalanches down the mountain side and hits every rock down the way. It’s like a scene from Game of Thrones but completely real. And even more insane because Mark R. survived.

DailyDot found Mark R’s helmet cam footage and it’s just nuts. When he’s falling, you don’t know which way is up or down or left or right, it’s just tumbling pain covered in snow and darkness. Look at it:

Mark R. told the BMC of went through his mind:

“Oh ****,” was probably my thought, but the speed at which events took hold meant I knew it was going to go some distance. There was no feeling of panic, more a concerted effort to protect my head and neck and be aware of what was below me, where I was heading and what I could do to slow and stop myself before I got to the more serious rocky outcrops.

Oh **** indeed. Somehow he walked away from this fall with just a bum ankle and a few bruises.

[MIKA27]

Grill Up Your Burgers With A Side Of Geometry

There’s hardly a better time for an Aussie BBQ than Summer, and what better way to celebrate the land Down Under than barbecuing with a charcoal grill that celebrates freedom from traditional geometry?

The one-of-a-kind Decahedron Fire Pit is made from 10 distinct pieces of CNC-engineered plate steel, meticulously arranged to form everyone’s favourite irregular 10-sided polyhedron. The removable grill lets you enjoy your stark geometrical sculpture with or without your dinner in its gaping maw, but doesn’t offer a whole lot of options — or space — for you grilling.

It’s a pretty little sucker, but all that steel comes at a price: $750 to be exact. It might be worth sticking to a grill with a few less sides to save a couple bucks, but no one will blame you for salivating at this one.

[MIKA27]

You'll Be Terrified Of Rips After Seeing This Photo Of One Off The Coast Of Western Australia

Rips. They’re one of the first things new swimmers are warned about, right behind staying between the flags. That said, you might not comprehend just how dangerous a rip can be, fortunately, we have photos like the one above to highlight exactly what the fuss is about.

The photo, snapped by paraglider Scott Patman, was posted on the “Dr Rip’s Science of the Surf” Facebook page, run by UNSW surf scientist Dr Rob Brander. What it shows are rips pulling sand from the coast out to sea, forming a giant swirl of sediment.

According to Dr Brander, the image was taken south of Perth from about 300m in the air, with the swirl positioned 150-200m from the shore.

Bet you'll be sticking to the shallow end of the kid’s pool for now.

[MIKA27]

Everyone Needs To Watch This Impossibly Funny Movie Trailer Right Now

Wolf of Wall Street? Meh. American Hustle? Please. Anchorman 2? Tired. The Hobbit? I dare you. None of those movies in theatres right now compare to the epic awesomeness that is Kung Fury. Never heard of it? It’s ok. Just watch the trailer. It combines all the cheesy glory of 80′s cop movies with Kung Fu, killing Hitler, guns, Vikings, computer hacking, time travel, DeLoreans and dinosaurs

Kung Fury is an over-the-top (you couldn’t tell?) action comedy movie directed by David Sandberg. It nails the balance between ridiculousness, self-awareness, awesomeness and every other -ness adjective ever. The movie is currently a Kickstarter project that needs a bit of funding as most of the scenes of the movie were filmed on a green screen (and artists need to be hired to fill out the green screen in post production). Here’s the plot summary:

During an unfortunate series of events a friend of Kung Fury is assassinated by the most dangerous kung fu master criminal of all time; Adolf Hitler, a.k.a Kung Führer. Kung Fury decides to travel back in time, to Nazi Germany, in order to kill Hitler and end the Nazi empire once and for all. Kung Fury is a visually spectacular action comedy that has it’s foundation in 80s cop movies.

Not ridiculous enough? The movie takes place in 1980′s Miami, Asgard, 1940′s Germany and other far out places. If the Kickstarter is funded, the entire movie will be put on the Internet for free. You know what that means: never watch another movie again until you watch Kung Fury.

MIKA: Haha!! Love the Power glove!

[MIKA27]

Watch American News Anchors Hilariously Screw Up In This Blooper Reel

If you think the funniest person in the world in 2013 was Louis C.K. or Aziz Ansari or some other genius laugh out loud comedian, you’re probably right. But eventually their shtick will get tiring. It’s going to happen. But do you know what never gets old and always stays funny though? Watching the local news screw up over and over again. Like in this fantastic blooper reel.

The local news broadcast is an endless source of comedic gold. The combination of putting green reporters who curse like sailors off air or freeze like deer on camera with cameramen who keep on rolling and news anchors who unknowingly make **** jokes is pretty much the best amateur hour ever. Somebody is always saying something stupid somewhere. NewsBeFunny put together a whole compilation of local news screw ups from 2013.

Everybody screws up. Only the local news screws up on camera for everybody to see.

[MIKA27]

Soviets Spent $US1 Billion On 'Unconventional' Science And Mind Control

Not to be outdone by U.S. military research that inspired men to stare at goats, the Soviets also seem to have poured a nice chunk of change into investigating telekinesis and mind control. A new survey of Soviet “unconventional” research on the server ArXiv has the details.

Based on Russian publications and recently declassified documents, Serge Kernbach at the Research Center of Advanced Robotics and Environmental Science in Germany paints a portrait of unconventional research from 1917 to 2003, twelve years after the fall of the Soviet Union. The government-funded research into the paranormal fell in and out of favour, but ultimately might have cost up to a billion dollars.

Psychotronics — the Soviet term for parapsychology — was an active area of inquiry. As the ArXiv blog explains, “The work built on a long-standing idea in Soviet science that the human brain could receive and transmit a certain kind of high frequency electromagnetic radiation and that this could influence other objects too.” For example, Soviet researchers reported, electromagnetic radiation could stimulate the immune systems of plants and humans. Psychotronic weapons were also tested for their ability to alter people’s minds.

According to Kernbach, Soviet funding for the research mostly dried up in the 21st century — but that doesn’t mean psychotronics still doesn’t rear its strange head every once in a while. In 2007, for example,Wired reported that the Department of Homeland Security was interested in working with a contractor connected to Igor Smirnov, a Rasputin-like character dubbed the “father of psychotronic weapons.”Nothing’s been reported on the deal since, which means it didn’t happen or… you know…

[MIKA27]

BOOKBOOK TRAVEL JOURNAL | BY TWELVE SOUTH

The BookBook Travel Journal by Twelve South looks like a vintage book, but in reality it is a practical leather case with room for the iPad and your other must have accessories, keeping them tidy and within reach. It features two hardback book covers and a rigid spine to protect your precious gear, and inside you’ll find a collection of pockets and adjustable bands that neatly organize and protect all your items.

[MIKA27]

'Suicide bomber' hits Russia's Volgograd train station

A suicide attack on a train station in Russia's southern city of Volgograd has killed 16 people, officials say.

Initial official claims that the bomber was a lone woman have been replaced by uncertainty about who carried it out.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered security to be tightened at railway stations and airports across Russia.

Moscow is concerned militant groups could be ramping up violence in the run-up to the the 2014 winter Olympic Games in the city of Sochi in six weeks.

The Olympic venue is close to Russia's volatile north Caucasus region.

Orange flash

Sunday's explosion rocked Volgograd-1 station at around 12:45 (08:45 GMT) at a time of year when millions of Russians are travelling to celebrate the New Year.

A nearby security camera facing the station caught the moment of the blast, showing a bright orange flash behind the station's main doors.

The explosion shattered windows and sent debris and plumes of smoke from the station entrance.

The first cameras on the scene showed bodies lying outside, and inside, twisted metal and singed, pock-marked walls.

Motionless bodies were laid out in the station forecourt while ambulances rushed those hurt to hospital. About 40 people are said to have been injured, including a nine-year-old girl whose mother was killed in the attack.

"People were lying on the ground, screaming and calling for help," a witness, Alexander Koblyakov, told Rossiya-24 TV.

"I helped carry out a police officer whose head and face were covered in blood. He couldn't speak."

President Putin ordered law enforcement agencies to take "all necessary security measures" in the bomb's aftermath, said a Kremlin spokesman.

He ordered the most gravely injured victims to be flown to Moscow for treatment.

Security will be stepped up at railway stations and airports.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, but a spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said the incident was being treated as an act of terrorism.

An Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region has led to many attacks there in recent years. Insurgents have also attacked big Russian towns.

This attack shows that the bombers do not need to attack Sochi directly to attract international attention - any target in Russia will do, says the BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow.

Volgograd lies about 900km (560 miles) south of Moscow, 650km north of the North Caucasus and 700km north-east of Sochi.

Bomber 'nervous'

The bomb used in the attack contained 10 kg (22 pounds) of TNT, was rigged with shrapnel and was detonated near the metal detectors at the station entrance, Mr Markin said.

The blast blew out many windows and sent debris down the station steps

Formerly known as Stalingrad, Volgograd has a million residents and is described as a gateway to Russia

He said that initial information suggested the bomber "approached a metal detector, saw a policeman there, got nervous and detonated the bomb stuffed with pieces of shrapnel".

He said the security presence had prevented a much higher death toll at the station, which was packed at the time of the blast as several trains were delayed.

Mr Markin was among officials suggesting early on that the bomber was a woman - with RIA Novosti news agency naming the attacker as a Dagestani woman, Oksana Aslanova, and other new outlets publishing pictures of what they said was the severed head of the female bomber.

But investigators' initial certainty was replaced with uncertainty, with suggestions the bomber could have been a man or that there could have been multiple bombers, our correspondent says.

In July, Chechen insurgent leader Doku Umarov posted an online video urging militants to use "maximum force" to prevent the Games from going ahead.

A suspected female suicide bomber killed at least six people when she attacked a bus in Volgograd in October.

On Friday, a car bomb killed three people in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk.

[MIKA27]

Polk Woodbourne Speaker

Free your space of wires and clunky, unattractive audio systems with the Polk Woodbourne Speaker ($600), a wireless, wood-enclosed, all-in-one speaker system. Made to sound as great as it looks, this speaker system features two one-inch 20-watt silk polymer dome tweeters and two 5.25-inch 70-watt polypropylene mid woofers. With an on-board power amplifier and processing by Dolby-Digital, as well as a range of connectivity options (including Airplay, Bluetooth, USB, optical, stereo, and ethernet), you can listen to music from nearly any device, while enjoying it exactly how the artist intended. And with a half-inch-think MDF enclosure finished in wood veneer, as well as a curved front lattice grill, it looks just as good as it sounds.