Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Woooow! This is sooooo cool! Ok, I feel better now. I was scanning Neat-o-ramma tonight and saw this. This is the best DIY flight sim I have ever seen, even has multi axis movement simulation.
Australian amateur pilot and flight sim enthusiast Matthew Sheil spent 10 years and $230,000 to create a homemade flight simulator that precisely mimics the 747 cockpit down to the last dial, knob, and switch!
Link | Matthew’s website (tons more photos, but I can only see ‘em in IE, not Firefox)
This is of interest if you are in southern California or, if people are lucky, in Arizona.
For the first time in years, the countdown for a Minuteman 3 missile test will include blasting open the 106-ton silo door at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
The year’s first liftoff from the Central Coast also marks a return of closed-door missile tests. It’s planned for 12:01 a.m. Wednesday from Launch Facility 10 on north Vandenberg. The launch window remains open until 6:01 a.m. to accommodate any delays from unfavorable weather or technical problems.
Opening the doors isn’t a small matter. There are four explosives that are fired to generate gas that flings the multi tone octagonal door open so the missile can be launched in seconds. Normally the tests launches are done when the door has been winched open slowly but in this case it’s the whole show. It should be quite a site if you can be close enough to see the base when it launches.
The test is of an unarmed re-entry vehicle to see how well the missile works using GPS based satellite navigation instead of radio transponders.
Simply amazing, I find the notion of not hearing your own pulse fascinating and very eerie.
A 65-year-old Quebec man who received a new long-term mechanical heart last month is being described as the only living Canadian without a pulse.
Dr. Renzo Cecere implanted the “Heartmate II” mechanical heart into Gerard Langevin in an three-hour operation Nov. 23.
Officials at the McGill University Health Centre say the device, which is about the size of a flashlight battery, could last up to 10 years
[via jwz]
Man with no pulse considered a medical breakthrough
Long live the Super 8 film format! There looks to be a new movie camera coming out soon (with a little help from the faithful):
The A-Cam DS8 will offer the same features as its Super 16mm brother, including interchangeable C-Mount lenses (the camera ships with a wide-angle f/1.5 9mm Kinoptic lens), parallel viewfinder, 100 ft film capacity, and microprocessor-synchronized frame rates between 6 and 37.5 frames per second. The camera weighs a mere 1.5 kg complete with lens, batteries and film.
Double Super 8 (DS8) is a hybrid format that uses 16mm wide film to capture Super 8 sized frames. One half of the film is exposed, the reels are flipped, and the other half is shot. The 16mm strip is cut into two 8mm-wide reels after processing.
If you want to order one (they need at least 25 pre-orders, but you get a discount) check the info at the bottom of the page after the leap:
Retro Thing: A New Super 8 Movie Camera!?
Wow…
It sounds almost too good to be true: a cheap and simple drug that kills almost all cancers by switching off their “immortality”. The drug, dichloroacetate (DCA), has already been used for years to treat rare metabolic disorders and so is known to be relatively safe.
If this works then it could change the future of mankind. Now, if the university can only find funding to continue their research. Turns out the drug, dichloroacetate can’t be pantented. Umm, will someone out there stop thinking with their wallets and think about their fellow humans? If you want to make a donation follow this link. You can also keep up with the latest research efforts there.
Cheap, safe drug kills most cancers – health – 17 January 2007 – New Scientist
From the bright boys at NASA., a simulator for your model rockets. Very cool! Plug in numbers for body size, type of nose cone, motor type and launch conditions and it will simulate the altitude your ship will obtain.