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Man skydives from 13 miles above Earth, isn't satisfied (video)
Your worst nightmares? Felix Baumgartner's breakfast. Determined to cement his legacy in the Pantheon of Daredevilry, the famed skydiver successfully leapt from an altitude of more than 70,000 feet last week -- and that was just a trial. It's all part of Baumgartner's attempt to complete a record-breaking 120,000 foot "spacedive" later this year and, based on early returns, he seems well on his way. His latest jump, completed on March 15th, saw the fearless Austrian carried up to more than 13 miles above the Earth, protected only by a pressurized suit and capsule that hung from a 165-foot high helium balloon. Not long after jumping out, he reached a maximum speed of 364.4 mph, with the entire free fall lasting a little over eight minutes, according to Red Bull Stratos, which is sponsoring the effort. The idea behind last week's run was to test out the balloon and pressurized capsule, though Baumgartner is apparently hoping to complete another jump from about 90,000 feet above ground, before attempting the record breaker sometime this summer. Somewhere, Yves Rossy is furiously polishing off his jetpack. For more details on the equipment used to pull off the feat, check out Red Bull Stratos' video, after the break.
Universal robot gripper sinks shots, throws darts, makes us feel inadequate (video)
Soon there will be little left for us puny humans. Robots have long since replaced us at most menial tasks, now they're looking to claim our lucrative professional sports contracts. They've already proven their mettle at baseball, basketball and hockey. Now researchers at the University of Chicago and Cornell are getting their coffee-filled balloon bot in on the action -- albeit with slightly less ambitious prey in its sights. Dorm room stoners proficient in NERF basketball, drunken dart fanatics and school yard marble hustlers may all be answering to this mechanical party favor soon enough. Don't believe us? Check out the video after the break. Just hope this guy is on your team in the next round of beer pong.
CCP launching EVE character names and pictures into space via giant balloon
Well, it's not technically space, but it's as close as you can get without the help of some Russian rocketeers and their flying machines. As a token of gratitude, the Icelandic MMO moguls at CCP will be placing the names and pictures of every currently subscribed player character in EVE Online (as of 23:59 GMT tonight) into a capsule, which will then be sent into near-space via high-altitude balloon. High-altitude balloons cannot actually leave the Earth's atmosphere and enter legit outer-space, but they are capable of traveling hundreds of thousands of feet into the air; high enough to see the curvature of the Earth against the blackness of space. The event will take place during CCP's own Fanfest 2012 in beautiful Reykjavik, Iceland.
Patch 4.3 PTR: New pets and mounts from Darkmoon Island
As you saw in our Darkmoon Faire video tour, the revamped Faire is now active on the PTR. It brings a batch of new companion pets and mounts for you to collect, including the Darkmoon Dancing Bear, the Swift Forest Strider, and seven brand new companion pets. Each of these mounts and pets must be purchased with game tickets, which are earned by winning the game attractions once per day. Hop past the jump for all of the new pets and mounts and their ticket costs.
Nikon D300s travels to the edge of space, survives to share the results
If you're going to go to the trouble of sending a camera to the edge of space, you might as well send one capable of doing the trip justice, right? That hasn't always been the case with similar DIY attempts (for obvious reasons), but the team behind the so-called Cygnus "spacecraft" decided to go all out when they sent their weather balloon / beer cooler contraption aloft this month to photograph the curvature of the Earth. In this case, going all out meant sending a Nikon D300s DSLR equipped with Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 lens, which managed to capture some stunning pictures like the one you see above -- although some got a bit obscured by ice build-up. There's more where that came from at the Flickr link below, and you can check out a video of the launch after the break. [Thanks, Udi]
Russian eclipse enthusiasts launch floating globe to shoot the moon
That globe, which launched June 15th, was attached to a weather balloon, and apparently carried with it a GPS / GSM tracker, two GoPro cameras, two Canon cameras, and one Buzz Lightyear figurine. The mission? Capture last week's lunar eclipse. Lucky for us, the mission was successful and both the cartoon astronaut and the accompanying film were successfully recovered. The resulting photographs are quite stunning, but you don't have to take our word for it. If you missed Google's live stream, you can catch up with Buzz and the team at the source link below.
Asius' ADEL earbud balloon promises to take some pressure off your poor eardrums
Listener fatigue: it's a condition that affects just about everyone who owns a pair of earbuds and one that myriad manufacturers have tried to mitigate with various configurations. According to researchers at Asius Technologies, though, the discomfort you experience after extended periods of earphone listening isn't caused by faulty design or excessively high volumes, but by "acoustic reflex." Every time you blast music through earbuds, your ear muscles strain to reduce sound waves by about 50 decibels, encouraging many audiophiles to crank up the volume to even higher, eardrum-rattling levels. To counteract this, Asius has developed something known as the Ambrose Diaphonic Ear Lens (ADEL) -- an inflatable polymer balloon that attaches to the ends of earbuds. According to Asius' Samuel Gido, the inflated ADEL effectively acts as a "second eardrum," absorbing sound and redirecting it away from the ear's most sensitive regions. No word yet on when ADEL may be available for commercial use, but head past the break for a video explanation of the technology, along with the full presser.
Google fires Nexus S into space, invites tenuous Galaxy S analogies (video)
How are you killing the time until the Nexus S finally goes on sale? Google's answer to that question has been a typically outlandish affair, involving seven Nexi, a collection of weather balloons, and another quest to see how much can be learned from a humble smartphone's sensors when they're shot to the edge of space. Yes, the Mountain View madmen fired a week's worth of their latest and greatest smartphones through the Earth's atmosphere, hoping to test both the durability and the information-gathering skills of the onboard compass, gyro, and accelerometer, while dedicated GPS modules were installed in each "shuttle" (made out of styrofoam beer coolers, if you can believe it) to help recover the cargo on its return to terra firma. So far, only six of the phones have been recovered -- might this be another of Google's crazy puzzles? A treasure hunt for an Android fallen from heaven? Video after the break. Update: Want to see an Android in space? It turns out that Google was documenting the entire event, and has high-res images and footage of its mascot exiting Earth's atmosphere in a brand-new blog post. Find it at our more coverage links, or hit the break for some video!
Brits launch paper plane into space, show depth of their national debt
It used to be that British engineering enthusiasts would send entire cars up into space, but not in today's age of austerity. No sir, all you're getting this time is a paper plane. A trio of amateur space junkies has successfully lifted and released a paper glider from a height of 90,000 feet, earning itself the glory of being the first to ever conceive of and execute the feat. It took them a year to perfect the vessel, named the Vulture 1, and they used a helium balloon to get it to the requisite height before achieving a relatively bump-free landing 23 miles from the launch site. The whole thing has produced some pretty nice imagery, which you may check out at the source link below, and some inevitable gloating from the Reg crew, who were behind the whole thing and can also be found in the More Coverage section.
Festo's flying AirPenguin robot induces daydreaming beyond the sea (video)
Penguins. Such graceful creatures. Mommy never told us why these birds don't fly, but here's proof that this won't be a concern for our little 'uns. What you're looking at is the Festo AirPenguin's rare appearance outside its German labs -- the Gotengo-esque airship is at The Gadget Show Live in Birmingham, UK this week. Sure, this baby's a bit old, but being up close and personal with it is way more sensational than watching the mere 40-second-long segment from last time, and at least we now know it's the real deal. Video after the break.%Gallery-89964%
Inhabitat's Week In Green: 3D printed veins, solar cell towers, and the Ingocar
At Inhabitat we've seen 3D printers that create entire buildings out of stone and complete meals out of simple ingredients, but this week we watched in awe as scientists used a 3D printer to create the world's first "printed" human vein. And if advances in biotech get your blood flowing, you'll be excited to hear that this week a team of researchers successfully tested a new type of nanobot that travels through the bloodstream to turn off tumor cells. Contact lenses are also getting a much needed upgrade as scientists unveiled a new type capable of fighting glaucoma and other diseases by dispensing a powerful dose of medication. In other news, solar energy is lighting up the world at large as India gears up to power all of its cellphone towers with photovoltaic cells, saving 5 million tons of CO2 and $1.4 billion annually. And speaking of silicon cells, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory recently unveiled its latest creation: a super robot capable of assembling an entire photovoltaic cell in 35 minutes flat. We also looked at a prototype of a prismatic solar balloon that uses a colorful new type of solar cell to soak up the sun's energy from high in the sky. Finally, this week we took an in-depth look at the Ingocar, a hydraulic hybrid drive vehicle so light and efficient that it promises a mileage of 170MPG. This next-gen vehicle uses hydraulic fluid under pressure to accelerate, brake, and eliminate the need for a heavy mechanical drive train, making it 50% lighter than hybrid electric vehicles. And if you've ever experienced the maddening anxiety of circling for a parking spot on crammed city streets, relax - there's an app for that!
Clear your day for these new MGS: Peace Walker screens
Click image to sneak into our gallery We hope you didn't have anything planned for the next hour or so, because we've got quite the mission and you're the only person who can get the job done. See, Konami deployed a bounty of new screens (63 in all) for Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and we can't possibly get through them all. There are some multiplayer screens, art of various characters and equipment shots, and even a few screens of Peace Walker's progressive recruitment system we've dubbed "the smart balloon." As if we weren't frightened enough by stranger danger, now we have to know that the military has had auto-piloting balloons that can whisk us off to "re-education" centers at will since the '70s. It's just a video game, right, guys? Right? %Gallery-83639%
MIT-based team wins DARPA's Red Balloon Challenge, demonstrates power of social networks (and cold hard cash)
DARPA would have you believe that it's the brilliance of modern day social networks that led an MIT-based team to win its red balloon challenge this weekend, and while there's no doubt that the presence of the internet assisted in the locating of ten randomly placed floating objects, we're crediting the bright minds at the university for their strategy of soliciting team mates. The challenge was constructed in order to "see whether social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter should be seen as credible sources of information," not to mention investigate new ways to react to various threats that need instant attention. Less than nine hours after the contest began, MIT's team had deflated the hopes of around 4,000 other teams by finding all ten, though it's hard to say exactly how many members were out looking. You see -- MIT established a website that promised hundreds, even thousands of dollars to individuals who sent in the correct coordinates of balloons, noting that the $40,000 in prize money would be graciously distributed should their efforts lead to a win. DARPA may call it a triumph of the information superhighway; we're calling it victory in numbers.
Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of you folding paper!
Okay, here's where we admit to watching rather a lot of the Pokemon cartoon in college. It was a fun social thing to do after class, and somewhere along the way, our ironic enjoyment evolved into actual enjoyment. Then, right after the movie came out, our enjoyment devolved into complete disinterest.Looking at this Meowth hot-air-balloon papercraft makes us nostalgic for the days of rooting for incompetent homeless child Ash and his friends to capture and train all the Pokemans they could while avoiding Team Rocket's premeditated child abuse.
Nintendo offers prizes, likes Japan more than us
Nintendo of Japan has long supported a "Club Nintendo" program by which ridiculous fanboys (like us) get to register their purchased consoles and software for various rewards. Of course, we have a similar "registering" procedure at MyNintendo.com, but we rarely have anything to show for it ... we got a Metroid Prime 2 demo disc, once. Woo-hoo.It turns out that platinum members (a status obtained by magically accruing four hundred points in a year) of Club Nintendo get to choose between two wonderful prizes: Tingle's Balloon Fight, for the DS, or a custom battery pack cover with your very own Mii imprinted on the back. Such a difficult decision! Whilst they ponder, perhaps we may spirit away these prizes in the night. Who's in?
