Category: Crazy

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From There, I Fixed It – Redneck Repairs: Historical Thursday: Flying Tanks

white trash repairs - Historical Thursday: Flying Tanks

After World War I, military development and testing had reached an unprecedented height. The recent developments in technology had given birth to new inventions that changed the landscape of the battlefield. Two machines in particular emerged in the previous decades that had never been used on a large scale; tanks and airplanes. The next step was obvious – combine the two.

America, Russia and England all tinkered with the idea of transporting the grounded beasts, but the USSR really led the way. After attempts at parachuting mini-tanks from bombers, they hired engineer Oleg Antonov to design a dedicated glider that could parachute full-sized tanks.

After years of development and multiple failures, the project was finally scrapped when the Soviets finally acknowledged there was no plane in existed that could carry the weight of a tank. Fortunately the world never had to experience the fear of a tank gliding 200mph through the air, and the scientist began their work on flying sharks.

 

 

from There, I Fixed It – Redneck Repairs

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From Business and financial news – CNNMoney.com: Insider trading ban hits a snag

What the heck is wrong with our government?!  Our own Congress, the civil servants that we select, can still make money based on inside trading while the rest can’t?!  This is pure bogus at its finest!!

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It should be a no-brainer: a popular bill with bipartisan support that bans insider trading by members of Congress.

from Business and financial news – CNNMoney.com

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From Engadget: Lehmann Aviation’s LFPV UAV packs GPS, autopilot, 11MP cam, 1080p video, yours for $2,352

Sure, an AR.Drone 2.0 will afford you 720p HD video recording in the skies for just 300 dollars, but how does 1080p with 11 megapixels of sensor sound in comparison? That’s exactly what Lehmann Aviation is offering on its new LFPV civil UAV. This $2,352 (1790€) kit is far less expensive than the company’s $17K LP960 from a few years back, but it certainly isn’t lacking in the drool inducing features department — and yes, it’ll capture straight up photographs, too. Apart from letting you conduct reconnaissance of your local strip mall, the LFPV packs a “live data connection” to keep you informed about its GPS coordinates and altitude, among others things, like how soon you’ll need to recharge. Better yet, it uses the same Ground Control System as Lehmann’s other flyers (perfect for when it’s time to upgrade), offering an 800 x 480 live video stream of your journey and total control of where you’re piloting the aircraft. Best of all, the LFPV even packs autopilot if you need to take a break from the controls . We’d be remiss not to point out Eye3’s $999 bring-your-own-camera hexicopter for those already equipped with a beefy ILC shooter, but if the LFPV is right up (or over) your alley, you’ll find a full press release and video just past the break.

Continue reading Lehmann Aviation’s LFPV UAV packs GPS, autopilot, 11MP cam, 1080p video, yours for $2,352

 

from Engadget

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From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: World’s Tiniest Chameleons Found in Madagascar

This little chameleon is one of four miniature lizards identified in Madagascar, adding to our growing list of amazingly teeny animals. The one on the match in this picture is a juvenile, but even the adults max out at 30 millimeters. They’re the smallest lizards in the world, and some of the smallest vertebrates found to date.

The Lilliputian lizard is near the lower limits of size in vertebrate animals. Learning about how these creatures live can put some constraints on animal morphology – if your species has eyes, a backbone and a brain, there’s likely a limit to how little you can get. A different group of field biologists just announced the world’s smallest frog, and they claim it is the smallest vertebrate in the world, knocking a tiny Indonesian fish off the pedestal of puniness.

The chameleons are related to other Madagascan lizards, but DNA analysis showed they have enough genetic differences to count as distinct species, according to the researchers who found them, led by Frank Glaw of the Zoological State Collection of Munich. The animals live in leafy undergrowth in Madagascan forests.

Tiny and camouflaged – how did they find these guys? Most of the lizards were collected at night, when they typically climb up into the underbrush to roost. The field biologists used torches and headlamps to spot the sleeping lizards, according to their paper.

The paper appears in the open-access journal PLoS One.

Teeniest Lizards: Although the four new species are similar in appearance, a genetic analysis showed they are distinct species.  Glaw et al/PLoS One

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

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From Autoblog: Study: Cheaper cars are more expensive to insure

This makes no sense!! (OK, it does, but still!!!)
So basically, don’t buy too cheap of a car?! o.O
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2012 Honda Civic

Life is not fair. That’s about the only rational explanation we can offer for this little fact of life: A low MSRP is likely to mean big insurance payments.

Citing information from Insure.com, MarketWatch says the average price to insure a 2012 Honda Civic sedan, for instance, is about $2,353 per year, while a 2012 Toyota Sienna will run only $1,111 annually. The least expensive vehicles to insure tend to be relatively large vehicles, like minivans, trucks and SUV’s, according to the report. Even though those vehicles tend to be much more expensive than compact cars, they also tend to be driven by older, safer drivers.

Don’t think this is just a case of the rich getting richer, however, as expensive luxury and sports cars are none too cheap to insure either. The 2012 Audi R8 Spyder topped the Insure.com list of most expensive vehicles to insure at $3,384 per year. The Sienna had the lowest average insurance cost in the study, followed by the Jeep Patriot and Dodge Grand Caravan.

Insure.com’s editorial director, Amy Danise, told MarketWatch that the savings some people think they’re getting by buying small could evaporate because of the higher insurance premiums. Her advice to keep premiums low? “Buy the minivan, move to the farm, only drive it locally and make sure you never have an accident or kids,” she said.

I think we’ll just keep writing those checks to AAA instead.

 

from Autoblog