Random

I've tended to avoid Russian airlines over the years, even when I lived in Warsaw.

Perhaps it's irrational. Perhaps it didn't help when a tale emerged of a Russian flight in which a 15-year-old happened to be at the controls. It didn't end well.

So when I saw the video that I've embedded, my rational and emotional sides held a dogfight. Was this for real? Could this be excellent trick Russian photography? Was this another case of some rather interesting Russian aviation?

I searched around some of the more serious aviation sites to see what … Read more

There is no plane I feel safer in than a Boeing 747. Its sheer size and its apparent effortlessness offer something no other plane seems to manage: the ability for passengers to relax.

And they don't seem to drop out of the sky all that often either.

However, Boeing is introducing a new and more economical version of the jumbo jet, the 747-8. So, in order to test its capabilities and secure safety certification, Boeing conducted an experiment to see just how well the new plane could abort takeoff.

They loaded it with almost 1 million pounds of weight … Read more

Fortune doesn't always favor the butt-dialer. In fact, has any butt-dial ever enjoyed a good result?

I ask because I bring you news of someone who might be another victim of butt-awful fate.

According to the Associated Press, three men with seemingly ill-intentions were discussing stealing things from people's houses in upstate New York.

It so happened that one of them enjoyed perhaps an imperfect lock on his cell phone. Or perhaps, he had his body positioned in such a way that the cell phone was activated.

In any case, it seems that this activation led to a magical key or two being depressed--to 911.

Kevin Walsh, sheriff of Onondaga County, told the AP that the alleged miscreants were driving not far from a place they had robbed some time previously. … Read more

I don't know about you, but I'm rather partial to a nice smell. Somehow, some people just offer a better odor than others, and one reacts to them more positively because of that.

I am heartened, therefore, to get a sniff of research performed at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

According to National Geographic, the Academy was very interested to see just how animal-like we really are. The academy wondered whether we really are sophisticated in our choice of sex partners, or whether we are, indeed, just like the others on Orwell's farm.

Naturally, if they had … Read more

When you rent out your house, it's always tempting to visit your renters to check that they are happy--and to see that the walls are still in place.

So if you were a PC rental store, would you think to check up on your renters occasionally? Perhaps with those frightfully innovative Webcams?

This Socratic conundrum comes to mind because of a Wyoming Tribune story today that tells of a Casper couple who believe that they were spied on by Aaron's, the Atlanta-based rent-to-buy company from whom they rented their Dell Inspiron laptop.

Crystal and Brian Byrd claim, in … Read more

While the rest of the world is rapt by news of international terrorists and stealth special ops missions, perhaps we should offer a little thought to kissing.

Our new Web-oriented world has brought people together in ways never before possible, but we're still missing some elements of human connection. You know, like the physical kind.

The Kajimoto Research Laboratory at the University of Electro-Communications, however, believes it can bring us that nirvana.

It has create a device that looks like a straw, which doesn't seem entirely sensual. Still, you mimic your kissing motion (everyone's is different, naturally). … Read more

Have you ever had a magician stand right before your eyes and tell you that he has nothing up his sleeve? Have you ever seen a card sharp on a busy street turn up the card you thought of when you know it can't be possible?

And have you ever seen a white iPhone that is exactly the same thickness as a black iPhone?

I ask because I read a curious report in 9 To 5 Mac. It relays details of a Twitter exchange between a reader, Ernesto Barron and Apple SVP of Product Marketing Phil Schiller-- who has … Read more

Many years ago, there was a cricket match between the West Indies and England. (Cricket's a little like baseball, only takes longer and often no one wins.)

The radio commentators were talking about a bowler (pitcher) called Michael Holding. The batsman (hitter) was Peter Willey. One of the commentators then said, quite naturally: "The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey."

After a nanosecond of silence, the whole commentating crew was reduced to monstrous giggles. They couldn't stop. There was nothing they could do. Because, well, one of them had suggested that the bowler was holding … Read more

You thought you had killed another one, techies.

With your boundless need to show how clever you are and how you can force people to change their ways of life, you were sure you had put paid to another traditional industry. But you're not as smart as all that.

Yes, Godrej & Boyce--which a news story claimed was the last known producer of typewriters in the world--declared recently that it was giving up trying to market machines that weigh more than the Taj Mahal and write slower than Thomas Pynchon.

According to India's Business Standard, the company just … Read more