Carter’s life was a difficult one. Professionally, as a working class scholar, he relied on the money he got from the dig’s sponsor Lord Carnarvon. He was ill-fed and ill-clad much of the time and pushed himself very hard. In the years between the end of the excavation in 1932 and his death in 1939 he was not able to publish much of what he’d learned.
So, as famous as Tut became, and the material remains in the king’s tomb, Carter’s research languished. Most scholars in the field never saw more than a scant percentage of Carter’s work and the public at large was exposed to much less than that. Now, 3,500 note cards, over 1,000 photographs, 60 maps and much else besides is available, in addition to photos of the 5,400 grave objects, to anyone with an Internet connection.
The astonishing thing, as the Guardian points out, is the fact that Dr. Jaromir Malek and his staff at the Griffith did this in their spare time. Carter’s a hero but no less so are the Griffith staff. They scanned the paper itself in image files and uploaded transcribed and searchable versions of all writing.
Tutankhamun mask photo by Flydime | Chariot photo by Steve Parker
Archive for the ‘COOL STUFF’ Category
Watch a Giant Robot Arm Simulate a Ferrari Test Drive…This would be Awesome!
Posted: August 8, 2010 in COOL STUFF, VIDEOSWatch a Giant Robot Arm Simulate a Ferrari Test Drive
Driving simulators can give you pedals to mash and wheels to steer, but there’s something essential about that gut feeling of actually moving. This Ferrari simulator replicates it with a gigantic robotic arm. Watch it realistically jostle one test driver:
The CyberMotion Simulator, built by Paolo Robuffo Giordano at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Germany, lifts drivers seven feet off the ground with the robotic arm, adapted from a model found frequently in amusement parks.
A wraparound screen puts the driver in the cockpit of a Ferrari F2007, operated by a force feedback steering wheel and pedals. But the rig isn’t for training the racecar drivers of the future—Giordano says such systems allow us to better understand how we experience motion:
A motion simulation system is a fundamental tool to understand how humans experience the sensation of motion…By running suitable experiments, one can gain better insights into the cognitive processes of the human brain.
He says the robot arm can be adapted to simulate the experience of planes, helicopter, and ships, as well. Sure, but how about a speeder bike from Return of the Jedi? [IEEE Spectrum via PopSci]
This is a Mini Cannon and by Mini I mean SMALL. I don’t think it’s any bigger than a quarter but it packs some power…
Photos – Tour of the USS NORTH CAROLINA (SSN 777)
Posted: July 29, 2010 in COOL STUFF, MILITARY, PHOTOS, SUBMARINEWe take a look at the inner workings of a Virginia-class fast-attack nuclear submarine built in the US.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
In 2007, at the Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding yard in Newport News, Virginia — where the first of the next-generation aircraft carrier class, the Gerald R. Ford, is currently under construction — the US Navy rolled out the North Carolina, the fourth of the Virginia-class fast-attack nuclear submarines.
Today, the North Carolina (SSN 777) is stationed at the New London Submarine Base (as seen in the image above), commanded by Wes Schlauder. The Virginia is the first class of submarines to have true 21st century on-board communications, including a fibre-optic intranet, a server room and large digital screens placed throughout the ship that show what is being viewed through the periscope.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This sign greets all who come aboard the North Carolina.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Most submarine movies have created the romantic image of the skipper in a darkened room, looking through two eye holes, at what can be seen with the periscope. But with the Virginia class, that classic image is no more. Now, the imagery coming from the periscope is translated on to large digital monitors that are spread throughout the North Carolina, including here, in the main control room, as well as in the commander’s personal quarters.
The photo above shows a zoomed in image of the classic submarine Nautilus, at the museum that is adjacent to the New London Submarine Base. The Nautilus is a full kilometre and a half away from the North Carolina, meaning that the image on this screen — which is very crisp — is extremely magnified.
In the lower right quadrant of the screen, the slim wedge represents how much of the 360-degree view from the North Carolina the periscope is looking at.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Here, we see a much wider angle view from the periscope, as designated by the wider wedge.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
In this photo, Schlauder uses the joystick that controls the periscope’s direction and other criteria. With that joystick, anyone can rotate the periscope 360 degrees, tilt the view up or down, and zoom in so that details at a kilometre away are easily discernible.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
In the past, submarines had one sonar room, where the commander could look out through the periscope and where the sonar work was done; and a second room for the drivers of the sub. Now, thanks to modern communications, navigation and driving systems, those separate rooms have been combined into one, modern nerve centre.
This is a view of the pilots’ station, with two seats and a full set of controls for the pilot and the co-pilot.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This screen showcases all the digital trim controls, those that are used to bring the submarine down or up in the water, based on how much air is in the ballast tank.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This screen has the digital controls for navigating the submarine.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
A bank of servers in the North Carolina’s computer room. All the digital data on board the submarine flows through these servers.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
In an emergency, the submarine can be forced to the surface in a hurry by pulling these levers, which are located just above the pilots’ electronic navigation station. By pulling these levers, all water is quickly expelled from the ballast systems, which would cause the sub to shoot up to the surface, and likely break through like a whale jumping out of the water.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This digital screen shows the North Carolina’s coordinates, or any other location, either by virtue of GPS when above water or if under water, by a sophisticated system of sensors that keep highly accurate track of the boat’s movement in three dimensions.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Commander Schlauder looks at two of the North Carolina’s weapons, a Mark 48 torpedo (left) and a Tomahawk missile (in the sheath on the right), which are being held in cradles. The submarine can carry as many as a dozen torpedoes at any time, but if necessary, the torpedo room can be largely cleared out — it is mostly modular — and a Special Forces crew of as many as 36 can be housed here.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Using the special cradle system, the torpedoes are moved into place and then are essentially shoved at high speed out of these tubes. It takes a highly efficient crew about 10 to 15 minutes to prepare and launch a torpedo, though a crew can be working on launching multiple torpedoes in succession.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
There are four tubes in the torpedo room, with two stacks of two on opposite sides of the room.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Torpedoes are hoisted on to the submarine using cranes and are brought in at an angle through hatches above. The torpedoes are then brought down through the levels of the sub at an angle via this slide.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
At the end of the Mark 48 torpedo, this extra device spools out up to 25,000 yards of fibre-thin cable. By staying connected to the submarine, the torpedo can keep constant communications with firing control, which can update the target profile in real time. If the fibre is broken, the torpedo still has enough information and autonomy to complete its last understanding of the target’s location and trajectory.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Commander Schlauder climbs down into the North Carolina.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This is the lock-out trunk, the compartment that is used when it is necessary to put people out into the water while the submarine is below the surface. Because the North Carolina could carry Special Forces, this is where those personnel might begin their mission, leaving the boat two at a time, using special suits to protect them from the conditions.
But regular submarine crew members are also trained in escape methods, and in the case of an emergency, the crew would also leave via this compartment.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This is Commander Schlauder’s personal quarters, which includes a fairly complete workstation and where he can even have the imagery from the periscope piped in if something needs to be seen and he’s not in the control room.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
In the commanding officer’s quarters, the bed pulls down from the wall.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
The commanding officer is the only one on board with a single bed. This is the executive officer’s quarters, and if there are any VIPs on board, or anyone else needing special treatment, they will be quartered with the executive officer.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Most of the crew stay in six bunk rooms, and up to eight crew members can share those rooms with at least two on watch at any given time). The North Carolina is big enough that most often it is not necessary for that form of “hot cotting”, which is what it is called when one crew member climbs into a bed recently vacated by another.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
While the North Carolina is a nuclear-powered submarine and can power itself for as long as necessary when underwater — it can produce enough power for a small city — the reactor is deactivated when the boat is in port. Then, for power, the sub is literally plugged into the port’s power supply, as seen here at the North Carolina’s berth at the New London Submarine Base.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This is the North Carolina’s carbon monoxide burner.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
After going through the carbon monoxide burner, the resulting carbon dioxide is removed by this scrubbing machine. There are two of these for redundancy’s sake.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
It is said that submarine crews are some of the best fed in the military. First, that’s because there is not enough room, as there would be on a surface ship, to carry thousands of pre-prepared meals, meaning that the cooks must prepare meals from scratch. And second, that’s because the good food helps morale, something that’s important for a crew that can be underwater for 90 days or more.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
The crew’s mess on the North Carolina. Each table in the mess is adorned with sports homages to one of the five major North Carolina universities.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
This is the North Carolina’s diesel engine, which is an emergency generator of power if the nuclear reactor stops working and the battery banks aren’t producing enough power as backup.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
The North Carolina is the US military’s fourth with that name. Previous iterations have included an early 19th century ship of the line, and the most recent predecessor was the Battleship North Carolina. This is the silver service from the second North Carolina, an armoured cruiser launched in 1908.
Via CNET.com
Lots of cool photos. Amazed at how far the technology has come and the use of the same old green and grey paint. I would love to go out to sea for a day on one of these Virginia Class Boats, that would be great!
America Before Pearl Harbor – Kodachrome Images…Lots of Really Cool Photos!!
Posted: July 27, 2010 in COOL STUFF, NEWS, PHOTOS 
America Before Pearl Harbor – Early Kodachrome Images
By johnnygunn
On Thu Dec 07, 2006 at 12:32:05 AM PDT
When we think of America during the Great Depression, we often picture it in shades of grey. It was a grim era and nearly all of the photographs we see are in black and white.
This is one of Dorothea Lange’s most famous photographs – a destitute mother in a migrant farm worker camp in California. Lange was one of the many talented WPA photographers who recorded the history and conditions of the Depression across the United States.
Follow me below the fold as we look at America before Pearl Harbor.
Color presents an entirely different image.
This is a photograph of Faro and Doris Caudill, farmers in Pietown, New Mexico.
They lived in a dugout and struggled to survive on Resettlement Administration land.
As the 1930s came to a close, Kodak came out with Kodachrome film – the first commercially viable color film available to the general public. In 1937 and 1938, the colors were still not stable and accurate, but by 1939 Kodachrome was producing color images of remarkable precision.
Now, not just anybody could buy this film. It cost $5 per roll and had to be sent back to Rochester, New York for development. By comparison, in 1938 Congress established the first minimum wage at 25 cents per hour. $5 represented half a week’s work. But the Farm Security Administration sent out about a dozen photographers with this new film. Commercial photographer, Samuel Gottscho, and well-to-do amateur, Charles Cushman, embraced this new technology, as well.
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Urban America
New York City was the metropolis of America.
Times Square was the happening place. Big date. Hop in a taxi.
And go see Night Train at the Globe Theater.
Washington was a city of contrasts – the New Deal having extended its influence across the nation.
But it was still very much a Southern city – especially if you were African American.
Chicago was the transportation, food, and manufacturing center of the country.
And the Southside was still an industrial neighborhood of steel mills and packing houses.
New Orleans was the largest city in the South – not Atlanta.
Jim Crow laws were a fact of life for residents of the Ninth Ward.
San Francisco had been eclipsed by Los Angeles in size, but it remained the most important port and financial center of the West.
And Charles Cushman had to take a photograph of his new coupe beside the recently-completed Golden Gate Bridge.
Rural America
Nearly half of all Americans still lived on farms and in small towns.
The Farmall Tractor had revolutionized farming, but mechanization remained limited.
In rural Georgia, folks still went to town on Saturday by wagon.
And kids still went barefoot in Indiana in the summertime.
Mothers still made clothes for the kids – from flour and feed sacks – as with these girls at the Vermont State Fair.
And grandmothers still made sure that their teenaged granddaughters didn’t hang out at the horse auctions with the menfolk in little towns in eastern Kentucky.
This is my favorite.
Look how mad grandma is and how her granddaughter is stomping away.
Saturdays were the day that everybody went to town in Cascade, Idaho.
But rural life remained quite distinct from urban America – whether on the C-D Ranch in Montana –
Or during the peach harvest in western Colorado.
Modernization
Despite the Depression, modernization proceeded rapidly in the 1930s.
People still traveled by train. Railroads were one of the largest employers.
But the emerging airlines were already flying four-engine Boeing Stratoliners out of Chicago Midway for those wealthy enough to fly.
The country store was the furthest many rural Southerners ever got.
Yet, Miami Beach was filled with northern vacationers.
Hoover Dam began generating electricity for California in 1936 – promising to transform the West.
The Roosevelt Administration’s TVA projects created jobs and electricity for one of the poorest regions of the South. The divide between urban and rural America was beginning to close.
Having Fun
By 1939, Americans wanted to imagine a new and better future after the Depression decade.
The futuristic New York World’s Fair ran for two seasons in 1939 and 1940.
San Francisco’s Golden Gate International Exposition envisioned a Pacific future for America.
Americans celebrated Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak during the summer of 1941 and another Yankees’ World Series championship in the fall.
Dances in Oklahoma were simple affairs – with perhaps a fiddler and guitarist.
And on the cusp of modernity, Americans still clung nostalgically to rural myths –
Not the reality of the poverty that most rural Americans endured during the Depression.
But they saw it in color – – for the very first time.
Those on the Edges
Although immigration had been curtailed in the 1920s, the Lower East Side remained vibrantly Jewish.
African Americans faced brutal discrimination in jobs, housing, education, and public accommodations. It’s no wonder that the women here and even the older girl are suspicious of the white photographer.
The New Deal did little to improve conditions for sharecroppers in Alabama.
Mining families in Pennsylvania still lived in decrepit company housing.
The Roosevelt administration struggled to get Mexican American children out of the fields and into schools in Texas and other border states.
Native Americans, who had only recently received citizenship in their own land, remained desperately poor. This Tohono O’odham grandmother in Tucson shows the same distruct of the white photographer that the Africam American family in Maryland did.
And little do these Japanese Americans suspect – as they celebrate their culture during the World’s Fair – that within two years, they will be deported to relocation camps by their own government.
On December 6th, a very different America prevailed.
After December 7th, that America would be changed forever,
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CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman visited the Samuel Adams brewery in Boston as part of Road Trip 2010, and saw how its beer is made.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
BOSTON–If it were any other day, and I was tipsy from drinking beer on the job, particularly given that it’s not even noon yet, I’d probably be in serious trouble.
But today, I’ve got an excuse: I’m at the Samuel Adams brewery here for a behind-the-scenes tour of the famous facility. And they’ve got me sampling the wares.
I’m here on Road Trip 2010, which has taken me to a wildly diverse collection of places up and down the Northeast, but all I can think right now is that drinking amazingly tasty specialty beer is pretty much at the opposite end of the spectrum from my tour last week on the Virginia class nuclear submarine, the North Carolina. Yet, for me, it’s all part of the same job.
What I’m really here to see is how Samuel Adams makes its beer, and for that, I’m being shown the lay of the land by brewer Grant Wood, who himself hasn’t missed any opportunities for a quick sample of the various beers they’ve offered me to try. I asked him at one point how anyone there stays sober during the workday, and with a bit of a sparkle in his eye, he said that it’s all about sipping.
An obsession with hops
The truth, I learned during my visit, is that making beer is actually a pretty simple process. That’s why Sam Adams can take its brew through every step in the process in a room that’s only about 30 yards long and about 20 yards across. It’s not that every beer made by the company is brewed here; it has breweries in other locations. But it has the equipment here to turn out enough suds to keep the hundreds of thousands of tourists who come through for the factory tour each year happy.
These are hops used for Samuel Adams beer. The brewery gets all its hops from a single region of Germany.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
At its most basic, explained Wood, beer is nothing more than water, malt, hops, and yeast. This is the formula codified by the Germans–with the Germany purity law–in 1516, although that recipe left out the yeast, since microbiology hadn’t yet come along.
The process begins with barley malt, Wood explained. Taking barley that has been harvested, but which is not ready for beer, the brewers malt it, a process that tricks the seed into germinating. This softens the grain, and produces the enzymes and the malty flavors that are critical to making beer.
Click here for a full photo gallery on beer making at Samuel Adams.
Indeed, brewers can produce different flavors of beer by working the malt differently. For example, Wood said, in order to make a porter or a stout–both dark beers–he would start by roasting the malt until it’s a coffee color.
Next up is the hops. At Sam Adams, Wood said, the brewers are true ingredients geeks and have “an obsession” with their hops. Indeed, he said that the way he sees it, hops are to beer as grapes are to wine. In other words, there are countless varietals of hops, and for making Sam Adams’ Boston Lager, it’s all about Germany. Each year, the brewery sends a team to that country’s Hallertau region and hand picks the hops that will be used for the coming year.
That’s because the lager recipe comes from an old family recipe of Sam Adams founder Jim Koch, and in that recipe, the hops were always from Bavaria. Yet, when Koch launched Sam Adams, the specific varietal of hops he wanted to use–Hallertau Mittelfrueh–were on the verge of extinction since they were a bit of a pain for farmers to grow, Wood explained. Still, based on Koch’s needs, farmers began producing them again, and today, there is no danger of their disappearance, largely because of Sam Adams, Woods claimed.
One might wonder why it’s so important to be so specific about hops; to Wood, it’s because the hops are what gives beer its signature bitterness. When they’re added to the brewing process, they’re boiled and their bitter elements are extracted and blended into the beer.
And it might sound strange that Sam Adams would make such a point of going to Europe for its hops, but Wood said that he has always been told not to worry (so much) about cost. As an example, he recalled that Koch once directed him to make a chocolate bock, and was told to go and find the best chocolate to use as a base. As part of that research, it turned out they needed vanilla, and when they found the one they wanted, they discovered it cost $399 a gallon, and had risen from just $99 a gallon two years earlier, thanks to various economic factors.
But Koch didn’t bat an eyelash when hearing the price, and told Wood to buy what he needed.
Brewing time
With the malt and the hops taken care, it’s now time to start the brewing process. So, Wood and his fellow brewers begin to make their mash, crushing and grinding the malt and adding them to filtered Boston city tap water that has been heated to a very specific temperature. The result is a mash that resembles porridge, or oatmeal, Wood said.There are four main vessels used in the brewing process: a mash kettle, a mash tun, a Lauter tuna and a brew kettle.
The three vessels used in brewing: the mash kettle (right), the mash tun, and the lauter tun (left).
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
The brewer will add mash to the mash kettle and the mash tun–20 percent in the mash kettle and 80 percent in the mash tun–and then will bring the mash kettle rapidly to a boil. When it reaches a boil, the mash is pumped into the mash tun, where the new material causes a very quick temperature rise.
This is all about the key part of this process: breaking down the starch of the mash into sugars. And this is where how you do that breaking down determines the quality of the beer.
And now, what’s left is a barley meal, which is sent to a large strainer–the Lauter tun. Here, the grains are strained off and the liquid–known as the wort (a solution of simple sugars)–is moved into the fourth vessel–the brew kettle.
In the case of Sam Adams, where the production of beer isn’t that large, the brew kettle is usually just the mash kettle or the mash tun, which is rinsed out in preparation for the addition of the wort.
Here, the wort is brought to a boil and left there for 90 minutes. It’s then added to the hops. During this process, the wort becomes bitter due to the addition of the hops, but it’s also where the unique flavors of the hops varietals are added.
In total, the process so far has lasted about six or seven hours. Now it’s time to separate out the relevant part of the brew from the waste. So, the brew is moved onto a device known as a whirlpool, or a settler, where the wort is essentially decanted. What’s left after this is a bright, beautiful wort that is ready to be fermented, Wood said.
First, though, it must be cooled down. Coming out of the whirlpool, it is 190 degrees Fahrenheit, and it is then put through a cooler, which brings it down to about 50 degrees. Which means that it’s time to add the yeast.
Pumped into large tanks, and with yeast now added to the mix, the beer begins its fermentation process. This is where the yeast earns its keep. People forget, Wood argued, that yeast is a living, breathing microorganism, and it performs best at specific temperatures. In the case of Boston Lager, the yeast likes a cool temperature.
For the next week, the brew will sit in the fermentation tanks, with the yeast feeding on the simple sugars. The result is the creation of alcohol and carbon dioxide and a host of flavors. The brew is now beginning to taste like actual beer.
After each week of the brewing process, the yeast is collected–it is still alive, and it is set aside and kept cold. The beer is put in another, clean, tank, and the yeast and the wort are added to it.
There’s one more step: as the beer is in its second round of fermentation, but close to the end of that process, the brewers take some of the active fermentation from another tank and add it to the cold brew, where it acts as sort of a cleanup crew, Wood explained. The fresh yeast and fresh sugars essentially smooth out the brew. Add a little more hops, and the tank now becomes known as the aging tank, Wood said, because the brew is now kept for four weeks. This processing is known as lagering, and at the end of the four weeks, it’s time for filtration and packaging.
To be sure, the process is somewhat different for other beers–longer in some cases, shorter in others.
The basic premise, though, is the same, regardless of the beer, and at Sam Adams, they have turned this into a process that has won a lot of awards. Indeed, hanging from the rafters in the brewery entryway are banners celebrating those awards.
These are the three flavors from the Samuel Adams Barrel Collection–New World Tripel (left), American Kriek and Stony Brook Red.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
For me, having seen how the whole process comes together–and had quite a few tastes of different flavors, I’m feeling good. Sam Adams, of course, isn’t just about the Boston Lager. In fact, the company produces 20 different beers, including a new line called the Barrel Collection, so called because its three flavors, American Kriek, New World Tripel, and Stony Brook Red, are fermented in huge barrels that used to belong to an Italian sherry distillery.
These are seriously tasty. But I can’t have more than a few sips. Even though I’ve got a good excuse, I still have a lot of work to do.
For the next two weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last four years, I’ll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more throughout the American Northeast. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. In the meantime, you can follow my progress on Twitter @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip and find the project on Facebook. And you can also test your knowledge of the U.S. and try to win a prize in the Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge.
Video: Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo’s First Crewed Flight
Posted: July 20, 2010 in COOL STUFF, NEWS, TECHNOLOGYSpaceShipTwo, also known as the VSS Enterprise, had made its first flight with a crew aboard, and we’ve got video.
Thursday’s flight marked the first time a captive-carry flight of the spacecraft and its mothership, Eve, has included pilots on SpaceShipTwo. The video includes preparation of the morning flight and air-to-air footage from the Beechcraft Starship chase plane.
The flight lasted more than six hours and included tests of systems aboard board the spacecraft, according to Virgin Galactic. The flight is part of the test program that will lead to the first glide flight of the spacecraft.
There have been several preparation flights during the last month, suggesting the team is preparing for the glide flight even though no date has been released. Though with the Farnborough International Airshow taking place this week and Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, next week, the media-savvy Virgin Galactic team has ample motivation to create a headline or two.
Video: Virgin Galactic
Military Gear: Raytheon’s Anti-Aircraft Laser Unveiled
Posted: July 20, 2010 in COOL STUFF, MILITARY, NEWS, TECHNOLOGY
American defense firm Raytheon unveiled its anti-aircraft laser, of all places, at an airshow in England. Called the Laser Close-In Weapon System, Raytheon said the 50 kilowatt beam it produces can be used against aircraft, mortars, rockets, and small surface ships, and has already been tested against unmanned aerial vehicles.
And the technology is now being ported to another military invention. “We’ve tied this into Phalanx, the U.S. Navy’s anti-missile defense system that links a multiple barreled 20mm Gatling gun to a radar guidance mechanism,” said Mike Booen, VP of Raytheon Missile Systems. “It functions as the last line of defense, so if you can fit a laser onto it, you have a longer reach and an unlimited magazine, cause it keeps throwing out photons.”
The idea of shooting photons may feel like something out of Star Wars (the Phalanx is actually nicknamed “R2-D2”), but it’s actually a concept that dates back to 1950s, when scientists first thought to use lasers as weapons. Raytheon’s anti-aircraft system marks a huge step forward for laser weaponry, though one problem still plagues the technology: weather conditions. In the foggy and moist ocean air, a laser’s energy would actually be absorbed before it reaches its target, thus rendering it ineffective. Raytheon also acknowledges that certain surfaces and materials can absorb the laser’s power.
“Every material reflects, but you can overcome this with power; once you get over a certain threshold–measured in multiple kilowatts–then the laser does what it is designed to do,” Booen said. But in its first tests, UAVs proved no match for the striking power of Raytheon’s Laser Close-In Weapon System, marking the first time ever an unmanned aerial vehicle had been neutralized in a marine environment.
“It was a bad day for UAVs and a good one for laser technology,” Booen boasted.
Head here to see Raytheon’s new laser or check out the Phalanx in action below:
Lockheed Martin, Navy to Deploy Communications Buoys for Submarines: I want my Mail Buoy!
Posted: July 13, 2010 in COOL STUFF, MILITARY, SUBMARINE
New York’s Grand Central Terminal and it’s Secrets
Posted: July 12, 2010 in COOL STUFF, NEWS, PHOTOSNEW YORK–If you want to know what the very latest tech toys are, don’t go to Best Buy or an Apple Store. Go to the lost-and-found department at Grand Central Terminal.
That’s because in a train terminal that services 700,000 people a day, and more than 2,000 lost items a month, those with the latest cell phones, laptops, or other tech gear are bound to lose them while at Grand Central. And there’s a really good chance those people will be reunited with their hot new items.
“We start seeing technology as soon as it hits the streets,” said Grand Central lost-and-found clerk Chris Stoll. “Yesterday, we had three iPhones [come in] and we’ve had iPads.”
Added Stoll, “I’ve joked with customers that I’m going to start making my investments based on what comes through [the lost-and-found] window.”
Click here for a full photo gallery on the hidden secrets of Grand Central Terminal.
As part of my Road Trip 2010 project, I got a chance last week to see some of Grand Central’s many hidden secrets, as well as to learn a lot about the storied terminal’s past. This is a building, first opened in 1913, and fully restored in 1998, that helped keep President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s polio hidden from the American people, that has $20 million worth of precious jewels in plain site, and that to this day provides top-secret assistance to any sitting American president who comes to New York.
But more on that later.
80 percent return rate
Since most people never have any reason to interact with the folks at lost-and-found, they probably don’t realize that Grand Central is home to what may be the world’s most efficient system for reuniting people with their lost items.
According to Daniel Brucker, a medial relations officer in the public affairs office of the Metro-North Railroad, which today operates Grand Central, representatives from lost-and-found departments the world over come to New York to study how the folks here do it. Most such departments claim a top return rate of about 30 percent, yet Brucker said that at Grand Central, fully 80 percent of items turned in eventually find their owners.
Walking around the lost and found, it’s a wonderland of cell phones, umbrellas, backpacks, laptop computers, and one inevitable item: toy train sets. Just about all these items are kept together with similar objects and are mainly stored in boxes marked, say “Cell Phones w/info June.”
Brucker explained that when any item is found or turned in, clerks in lost-and-found, or personnel in the terminal, or on trains know to quickly ask a series of questions about when it was found, on which train, the train car number, and even which seat it was found in, or whether it was in an overhead bin. They also want to know what brand it is, and, say, what kind of umbrella it is.
If found on a train or in the terminal, someone will first put the item in a lockbox, and then transfer it to a police evidence bag that is locked with a padlock, before bringing it to lost and found.
A mechanized coat rack that holds the dozens of jackets being stored in the Lost and Found department at Grand Central Terminal. Each month, more than 2,000 items come through the department, and fully 80 percent of them are returned to their owners.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
The secret sauce of the department’s success rate, though, is the innovative cataloging system it uses and the doggedness with which the clerks try to track down items’ owners. Clerks will go through bags and purses, looking for identifying features. If there’s a credit card or a driver’s license in a bag, it’s easy, of course, but many don’t have such things. So, often, the clerks will resort to calling numbers on business cards left in jacket pockets to see if the contact knows the owner, or call the last-dialed numbers on a cell phone for the same reason.
And it’s not just cell phones, purses, and jackets that turn up here. There’s also artificial limbs, basset hounds, Ray Charles toys, and, of course, a great deal of technology. Indeed, Brucker said that 100 percent of laptop computers are successfully returned to their owners.
In fact, since staffers are entering great deals of salient details about found items into a computerized database, the public can now go online and enter details about items they’ve lost, and if there are matches, they are invited to come to lost and found and provide any final details–such as exactly what was inside that Fendi bag.
To Stoll, though, the most surprising find was probably a backpack containing 250 pairs of VIP tickets to a Dave Matthews Band concert. The bag turned out to belong to a local radio DJ who was supposed to mail the tickets to contest winners but had lost his bag. Stoll didn’t get any of the tickets as a tip.
And while nearly everyone must provide details proving an item is theirs, Brucker recalled one time when that wasn’t necessary. An elderly woman came in looking for her dentures, and when she saw them, she popped them in her mouth and said, “yeah, it fits.” Enough said.
Secret train station
When FDR was president in the 1930s, the White House put a simple demand on the owners of Grand Central: protect the secrecy of Roosevelt’s polio.
They weren’t being vague: They had a plan, and that involved the construction of a secret, fully functional train station deep below Grand Central. And so it was built. Brucker took me to see it–through doorways I’m not allowed to identify, for reasons that will soon become clear–and explained what went on, and still goes on, underneath the busiest train terminal in the U.S.
FDR was from New York state and often returned to New York City. Because his physical condition was not understood by a public that likely would have been unsympathetic to seeing the commander-in-chief in a wheelchair, the president would arrive in New York on a special private train.
But instead of pulling into a normal platform and having a normal train car, FDR arrived on a custom car that contained his 1932 armor-plated Pierce-Arrow limousine. By the time the train would get into the secret tunnels, the president would be inside the limo, and when it hit the platform, the car would be driven out through special, wide doors and then into a special wide elevator. He would then alight into the ballroom at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel above.
The secret train car was armor-clad, and had bullet-proof glass, which in those days meant little more than many, many layers of glass, Brucker said. In addition, a series of vents along the top of the train car were actually gun ports, and it featured unique wheel assemblies that allowed no lateral movement. That was because any such movement would have shaken FDR out of his wheelchair.
The vents on FDR’s secret train car were converted to gun ports.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)
Today, the train car is sitting on a track in the secret train station. The FDR Museum wants it back, but moving it from the tunnels below Grand Central would be an astronomically expensive task, given that it would likely need to be taken apart, piece by piece. So until the museum ponies up, it sits hidden away in New York City.
You might think that this history would mean that Grand Central allows the public to come down to see FDR’s train car, but that’s not the case because of a more contemporary presidential responsibility.
In fact, when any sitting president comes to New York City, a platform and a special train car are made ready in case the chief executive needs emergency egress, Brucker said. And that means that during any presidential visit, all possible entrances that lead to the platform are guarded by a series of federal and local police, and anyone unauthorized to visit the secret station who attempted to do so would likely be taken into custody until the president leaves town.
And that’s why, Brucker said, a few years ago, when the chairman of the Metro-North Railroad tried to go down to the secret station and was stopped by security, he said, sternly, “This is my railroad.” To which the equally stern response was, “Not today.”
Other secrets
Besides the secret train station and the wonders of the lost-and-found, Grand Central is a treasure trove of other little hidden gems.
One is actually a literal gem. When I got to the terminal, Brucker took me into the famous and iconic main concourse (see video below) and asked me if I could see the $20 million jewel that was in plain sight of everyone in the giant room. I couldn’t, and later, he explained that sitting atop the main information booth in the middle of the hall is a lovely, and in fact perfectly accurate clock that is synched to the atomic clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Otherwise, however, it appears unnoteworthy.
It turns out, however, that the clock’s four faces are made from incredibly valuable opal, and it was recently appraised at around $20 million.
Another little known fact involves a small hole high on the concourse ceiling. Unnoticed by most, it is actually the sole remaining artifact of a late-1950s NASA promotion in which the space agency brought a Redstone rocket into the terminal in a bid to garner public support at a time when the Russians were winning the space race.
Unfortunately, the rocket proved to be just a little bit too big for the hall, and a six-inch hole had to be made in the ceiling in order to accommodate the Redstone.
The wrong departure time
Perhaps the most clever secret of all is one that is rooted in humanity. Brucker explained that every single schedule on display in Grand Central Terminal, and indeed anywhere that lists trains leaving the terminal, are off by one minute. It’s not a mistake, either. Indeed, the schedules are amiss because it seemed like a good way to handle the chaos of people running to catch a just-departing train. Rather than have them trip and fall, or drop things, or run into people or pillars, the one-minute discrepancy gives the conductors the ability to say to the running people, calm down or slow down: You still have a minute to go.
And in the world of trains, a full minute is a lifetime.
For the next few weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2010. After driving more than 18,000 miles in the Rocky Mountains, the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last four years, I’ll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more throughout the American Northeast. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. In the meantime, you can follow my progress on Twitter @GreeterDan and @RoadTrip and find the project on Facebook. And you can also test your knowledge of the U.S. and try to win a prize in the Road Trip Picture of the Day challenge.
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