Tag: measure

Iraq stops using $60,000 dowsing rods for bomb detection

After the July 3 suicide bomb that killed 300 people in Baghdad, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi banned the use of the ADE 651. a fake bomb detector made by British fraudsters, who claimed the gadgets could detect bombs, ivory, drugs, and golf balls. The Iraqi military had purchased $60 million worth of the bogus devices. The founder of the company that made the useless devices is in prison serving a ten-year sentence. I think he should spend a lot more time than that behind bars, since a great many people died by putting their trust in the devices. ABC News Faced with mounting criticism, former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered an investigation into the effectiveness of the devices in 2010. The outcome was inconclusive, and they continued to be used. The head of the Interior Ministry’s bomb squad department, Jihad al-Jabri, was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to four years in prison for accepting a bribe from the British manufacturers. But the case against him did not address whether the wands were effective. Many Iraqis believe he was a scapegoat to protect more senior Iraqi officials from prosecution. Politics also may have played a role. After the July 3 blast, al-Abadi fired the military officer in charge of Baghdad’s security and accepted the resignation of Interior Minister Mohammed Salem al-Ghabban, who was in charge of police.

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Iraq stops using $60,000 dowsing rods for bomb detection

Porsche screws up

Legendary automaker Porsche may have mistakenly swapped two screws in its 918 Spyder hybrid-hypercar’s seat belt system. Thinking of the customer, Porsche has voluntarily recalled their $850k practical, about town race car. Via Autoevolution : A mistake in the original parts catalog for the Porsche 918 Spyder has led to a recall of the hybrid hypercard. Porsche 918 SpyderAccording to Porsche, the printed document unwittingly transposed the locations for the screws which tighten the seat belt mount and the belt reel mount. Since those screws are one-time-use only, and are also not the same, technicians who had to work on them might have unintentionally installed the wrong screw in the wrong position. Because of this mishap in the original parts catalog, which has since been corrected, there is a risk of some Porsche 918 Spyder models having wrong screws fitted to their seatbelt mounts and seat belt reel mounts.

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Porsche screws up

New Zealanders raise millions to buy beach and donate it to the public

Awaroa beach — which was open to all — in New Zealand’s Abel Tasman National Park was privately held by Michael Spackman (a businessman embroiled in complex financial shenanigans ) who had decided to sell it; two New Zealanders, fearing that the new owners would use it as a private beach, started a crowdfunding campaign that raised about NZ$2.3m from some 40,000 people to buy it and donate it to the country’s national parks system. (more…)

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New Zealanders raise millions to buy beach and donate it to the public

Apollo 11 sourcecode on Github

Though the code for Apollo 11’s “Apollo Guidance Computer” has been online since 2003, when Ron Burkey rekeyed it from the scans that Gary Neff had uploaded, ex-NASA intern Chris Garry’s posting of the code to Github last week has precipitated a widespread interest in the code, along with close scrutiny of the code itself. (more…)

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Apollo 11 sourcecode on Github

Peruvian officials seize eight million dried seahorses

Evidently dried seahorse is super popular in China. Fishing for seahorses is illegal in Peru, where eight million of them were seized last June. Via National Geographic : Four years ago Peruvian authorities seized 16,000 dried seahorses abandoned on a street near an airport in Lima, the nation’s capital. If you think that sounds like a whole lot of fish, think again. This time they confiscated eight million of the little creatures at the Port of Callao in Lima—the nation’s largest seahorse haul. Discovered on June 7, the seahorses were on a Chinese-flagged ship bound for Asia, according to China NewsAsia, which cited a government statement. Authorities arrested the captain in connection with smuggling the goods, worth nearly $4 million on the black market.

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Peruvian officials seize eight million dried seahorses

The liquid that pours itself – Polyethylene Oxide

Steve Mould demonstrates an unusual mucilaginous substance that pours itself out of a beaker, once you get it started. This stuff reminds me of some bad head colds I’ve had.

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The liquid that pours itself – Polyethylene Oxide

This tiny camera can be injected with a syringe

University of Stuttgart researchers used 3D printing to fabricate a tiny three-lens camera that fits on the end of an optical fiber no wider than two human hairs. Eventually, the technology could lead to a new kind of very thin endoscope for looking inside the human body. According to the researchers, the camera delivered “high optical performances and tremendous compactness.” From Phys.org : (The camera) can focus on images from a distance of 3.0 mm, and relay them over the length of a 1.7-metre (5.6-foot) optical fibre to which it is attached. The “imaging system” fits comfortably inside a standard syringe needle, said the team, allowing for delivery into a human organ, or even the brain. “Endoscopic applications will allow for non-invasive and non-destructive examination of small objects in the medical as well as the industrial sector,” they wrote (in their scientific paper). Below, the lens (blue) was fabricated directly on the optical fiber (red). The fiber and camera are emerging from a hollow, 27 gauge syringe needle:

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This tiny camera can be injected with a syringe