The Soviet 1K17 laser tank used 66-pound synthetic ruby rods to produce lasers designed for blinding pilots and enemy weapons systems. It doesn’t melt incoming missiles, but still, laser tank!
[Gizmodo]
The Democratic Republic of Congo (not to be confused with the Republic of Congo immediately to the west…. Seriously) has a surprisingly rich history of space programs and rocket launches.
The story first begins back when the DRC was known as Zaire back in the late 1970s. A German company by the name of Orbital Transport und Raketn Aktiengesellschaft (OTRAG) decided to set up a rocket testing and launch facility in the Shaba Province of Zaire and signed an agreement with the government in 1976. To sweeten the deal, Zaire would be given one experimental satellite and a reduced rate for any future rocket launches. Logistical reasons that Zaire was chosen were the low population density near the launch site and because it was near the equator where rockets are just a tad easier to put into orbit.
However, the main reason why OTRAG didn’t set up in West Germany was a combination of two factors. The first factor was the United Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which states that all rockets fired in international air space must be flagged from the country of origin. This directly conflicted with the 1954 Treaty of Brussels which, in part, prohibits the production of long-range or guided missiles on German territory. Zaire had no issue with providing the rockets with a Zaire flag and they placed no restrictions on OTRAG for missile development.
Rockets were launched beginning in 1977 with both successful launches and failures. However, due to intense pressure from the Soviet Union and France, two countries none too pleased with German rocket advancement, Zaire closed the program down in 1979. The video below is one of the failures.
More after the jump!
NASA engineers have proposed a system comprised of a two-mile-long rail gun and a scramjet to launch a spacecraft into orbit. The rail gun would have a 240,000- horsepower motor that would convert 180 megawatts into enough force to accelerate the scramjet down the rail gun to Mach 1.5 in under 60 seconds. The scramjet would then launch from the track carrying the payload. Once it hit 200,000 feet at Mach 10 the spacecraft would separate from the scramjet and fire its rockets into orbit.
The system calls for a two-mile-long rail gun that will launch a scramjet, which will then fly to 200,000 feet. The scramjet will then fire a payload into orbit and return to Earth. The process is more complex than a rocket launch, but engineers say it’s also more flexible. With it, NASA could orbit a 10,000-pound satellite one day and send a manned ship toward the moon the next, on a fraction of the propellant used by today’s rockets.
[Gizmodo]
Calvino Inman weeps blood. TLC is airing a documentary this month called The Boy With Bloody Tears about Calvino and this medical mystery.
We complete the epic adventure of Spiro & The Fudge when our law enforcement tandem attempts to utilize their keen detective skills and uncomfortably close relationship in solving a murderous mystery in mob-controlled Italy. Brian tries to outsmart a pack of wild pandas, and fails. Andrew recommends a new complimentary IKEA service: severed animal heads.
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Located off the eastern coast of Australia, the clusterwink snail (Hinea brasiliana) uses a luminescent shell-flashing defense when its shell is tapped or when it detects predators nearby. Scientists think that this could either be a technique for attracting predators of the predator or perhaps a trick to scare them away. Recent experiments have shown that some crabs are frightened away by bioluminescent glowing creatures.
“When threatened, fingernail-sized H. brasiliana generates pulses of bioluminescent light from a single spot on its mushy body. The light pulses are variable, lasting as short as 1/50th of a second to as long as a few seconds. But the opaque shell diffuses only the blue-green color of light it generates — and no other color — like a highly selective frosted light bulb.”
[Wired]
It’s a pyramid. In China.
Wait, it gets weirder.
It’s on top of a mountain and is not (as far as researchers can tell) a burial tomb for a royal dynasty. In fact, local legend has it that the elevated platform has been used as a UFO launching ground.
Nine scientists form the team that will travel to the western province of Qinghai and the mouth of this 165-198 foot tall structure known as the “ET Relics.”
“The pyramid has three caves with openings shaped like triangles on its façade and is filled with red-hued pipes leading into the mountain and a nearby salt water lake,” says China’s state-run Xinhua agency.
To add to the mystery, iron debris and unusually shaped stones are scattered about the desolate area.
“The theory that the pyramid was created by extra terrestrials is “understandable and worth looking into…but scientific means must be employed to prove whether or not it is true,” says Yang Ji, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
More information on the pyramids of China can be found in this handy YouTube clip.
Listen to the WeirdThings Podcast gang talk about this story as well!
Bound to be the hottest tourist spot next year, the 30-mile radius surrounding Chernobyl is set to open for day trips starting next year. While “illegal” tours already operate in the zone, these new tours will be government sanctioned.“The Chernobyl zone isn’t as scary as the whole world thinks,” ministry spokesperson Yulia Yurshova told The Wall Street Journal. “We want to work with big tour operators and attract Western tourists, from whom there’s great demand.”
No words.
New World Transparent Specimens offers marine creatures from the Japanese artist Iori Tomita that are transparent with colored bones. Using a method that involves the dissolution of natural proteins Tomita adds red dye to hard bones and blue dye to soft bones.
At this point it seems that the collection is limited to marine creatures only.
Scientists claim that the planet Wasp-12b has such a high carbon-to-oxygen ratio that the planet may literally be littered with diamonds and the core of the planet could have diamonds as well. It is the first carbon-rich planet observed and actually has more carbon than oxygen.The lead researcher specifies: “You might see land masses and mountains made up of diamonds.”
Look alive, Morgan City. Seriously though, what in the world is this?
[io9]
In the first of a two part episode we’re introduced to the macho cop alter egos of Brian and Justin. Brian eats up NASA’s arsenic announcement despite Andrew and Justin telling him why he shouldn’t. Then we all learn a valuable holiday lesson when Brian touches someone’s package and nearly dies.
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