Wednesday, September 19, 2007
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H-46 Sea Knight Catches Fire, Shows Marines Need New Helis
11:58PM Jesus Diaz | Talking about fires, fumes and Boeing, watch as this venerable US Marine Corps’ Boeing H-46 Sea Knight spontaneously bursts into flames on top of an aircraft carrier. While everyone escaped, Okinawa style, this shows the need for the Marines to get a replacement for their ageing helicopters, which were delivered from 1964 to 1971. I vote for jetpacks. [Liveleak] More »
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Humans Further Exploit Squirrels With Challenging Obstacle Course
11:20PM Charlie White | You may have winced at that squirrel catapult we showed you a couple of months ago, but here’s a Rube Goldbergesque contraption that squirrels willingly navigate. Look at those little guys running the obstacle course, willing to do just about anything for their next meal. One of the ambitious rodents ran the course 20 times in one day! Don’t miss the end of the video for another example of a unique squirrel/machine interface. [Vooba] More »
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AH-64D Apache Rechargeable Micro RC Helicopter is Licensed by Boeing
11:15PM Charlie White | Looks like one more of those tiny styrofoam helicopters has taken to the air, and just like the others, this one pretty much goes up, down, and bangs into walls. This AH-64D Apache Rechargeable Micro RC Helicopter is supposedly so realistic it’s officially licensed by Boeing (that Apache name was the part that was licensed, not the design). More pics, post-jump. More »
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Intel Skulltrail PC Gaming Platform (Kind of) Has SLI, Runs on Zombie’s Blood
10:40PM Jesus Diaz | Intel is showing their new dual-socket PC platform, running their upcoming 45-nanometer Quad-Cores, X38 chipset and dual-x16 PCI Express Graphics. The board —specially created by Intel and NVIDIA for the show— used two GeForce cards in SLI. However, the big news is that either Intel or its partners could included NVIDIA’s nForce MCP technology in future Skulltrail boards. The PCs will be designed for extreme gaming, which may mean either kicking butt in BioShock or playing Tetris while doing bungee jumps. [Impress PC Watch and Hot Hardware] More »
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Apple confirms old iPod games don’t work …
10:18PM Matt Buchanan | Apple confirms old iPod games don’t work with either the fat nano or iPod classic since they’ve been “reformatted,” so you’ve gotta pony up again if you wanna play again. [iLounge] More »
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New iPod nano Has the Cheapest Build Cost, Highest Profit Margin Yet
9:20PM Matt Buchanan | The prolific pull-apart analysts at iSuppli have finished their strip down/sourcing assessment of the latest iPod nano, estimating that the 4GB model packs $58.85 worth of hardware, while the 8GB one costs Apple $82.85 in partage. The rub is that they’ve shaved off 13 bucks in hardware costs from the previous generation despite adding video goodness, and over $31 from the first gen of nanos. One probable way they’ve shoved down costs is by inciting some old fashioned price wars between their suppliers. Apparently Apple’s been flipping back and forth between suppliers for various parts as they move from one line to another, which iSuppli’s Chris Crotty says they wouldn’t do “unless there was a compelling cost-related reason to do it.” Well, hopefully quality would make for another compelling reason to switch suppliers. You know, if they were getting crappy shipments of certain parts. [BW] More »
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Boeing Dreamliner Could Be Unsafe, Dan Rather Reports
9:09PM Jesus Diaz | Dan Rather is at it again, this time claiming that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner could be “unsafe.” The report says that due to its “brittle carbon compounds, [the aircraft] is more likely to shatter on impact and may emit poisonous chemicals when ignited.” Rather’s report is based on a former Boeing engineer and other “industry exper” testimonies. Instead of pointing fingers now, wouldn’t it be better to wait until the plane is actually finished and passes —or fails—all FAA tests? More »
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How to Make a 25mm Bolt Action Sniper Rifle out of PVC Piping
8:53PM Addy Dugdale | How-to website Instructables is running Launch It, a contest for people to send in their homemade inventions. And here’s one of the entries, a 25mm pneumatic cannon. Boasting a two-and-a-half-foot barrel that is one inch in diameter, the rifle has custom bolt-action mechanism, a modded sprinkler valve as the primary firing valve, and a $40 sniper scope on the top. I love the fact that one minute the brains behind the weapon is reminding us about safety goggles, the next he’s telling us that PVC is undetectable by X-ray machines. [Instructables] More »
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Blue Label -Snail- Espresso Machine Hopefully Makes Espresso That Matches Its Looks
8:38PM Matt Buchanan | We’ve seen our fair share of high design-minded espresso machines, but the Blue Label -Snail- by Pierre Ittner is without a doubt the sleekest, most comely java juicer we’ve come across. According to Google’s machine translation, it’s forged from aluminum, uses nespresso pods—hopefully not just—and has a 19-bar pump, with the alluring deep blue hue coming from a “flip-flop” lacquer. If extremely attractive espresso machines are your cup of coffee (sorry), be sure to scope out the other prototype designs on the site. [room69 via OhGizmo!] More »
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