Random

Some machines are perfect for just one person. A Formula 1 car, for example. Or a Heat-1X rocket.

You haven't heard of the Heat-1X? I feel you might be missing out on something rather special. For this is a rocket built by a Danish nonprofit called Copenhagen Suborbitals. It's a rocket built for one.

You might be wondering if something of this sort might ever get off the ground.

So below I present video evidence of a test launch of the Heat-1X. The New Scientist tells me it cost about $69,000 to build, which is cheerily less than what it takes to buy one of the larger BMWs.

The economics of this project might sound a trifle idealistic. Indeed, last year, a launch went somewhat awry when a hairdryer malfunctioned. This would be a hairdryer that was being used to provide heat inside the rocket.

However, Friday presented us with empirical evidence that the Heat-1X could really fly.… Read more

Given that the world is ending with a rapidity that even the prophets of doom didn't anticipate, it's healthy to think how we might prefer to spend our last remaining years.

A former Google engineer would like to extend an invitation: come and live on a series of barges and water platforms and create your own government and your own way of life.

You might think that Patri Friedman--grandson of the very free economist Milton and son of the very libertarian law professor Paul--is possessed of unrealistic notions.

However, his proposal will be, for many, severely tempting. … Read more

Can it really be the case that cell phone companies will pursue every single customer for an unpaid debt? Even if the person has been dead for months?

This thought is nagging me more than certain elements of my wasted youth after reading a Los Angeles Times story concerning Betty Howard and her Verizon bill.

According to the Times, when Howard, from Loma Linda, Calif., was struggling with breast cancer, she signed up for Verizon's wireless broadband. It seems that Verizon had trouble securing an Internet connection for her. So, last September, she signed up for a package that … Read more

The idea of human beings flying around in the sky like Michael Jackson used to fly into concerts--via jetpack--might seem a trifle outlandish.

However, those crafty souls at the Martin Aircraft Company have flapped one more wing toward the idea of your own personal, $100,000 jetpack, on which you can avoid traffic and soar into (or at least onto) your well-deserved corner office.

One of the potential drawbacks of jetpacks revolves around the idea that if the engine fails, you might just fall out of the sky.

This would not be terribly good for business. So Martin decided to … Read more

I happen to live in something of an earthquake zone and it seems that these things do happen quite randomly, such as when you're sitting at home watching TV.

However, some in Italy feel that it's about time seismologists were held responsible for their supposed ability to recognize when a trembler is going to hit a certain neighborhood.

Science magazine reports that Enzo Boschi, the president of Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, and his fellow seismologists have been charged with manslaughter after they allegedly didn't alert the residents of L'Aquila in Central Italy … Read more

It's curious to me that some people still think that cell phones are for talking to someone.

No, they're for playing games, checking in, and sending naked picture of yourself.

So how odd that one woman seems to have managed to talk on her own little device for 16 hours, while traveling from Oakland, Calif., to Salem, Ore.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, KATU-TV reports that not everyone in the car in which she was sitting was entirely amused by her conversation. Oh, didn't I mention it? She was reportedly in the quiet car of an Amtrak train.

Lakeysha Beard … Read more

I'm about to disappoint a few hardened alienists here, though I'm trying to do it with the finest of intentions.

For I've just learned of a new book called "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base." It offers a radically different theory as to what happened that strange, stormy day in Roswell, N.M., in 1947.

Stories of the hush-hushedness of America's reaction have created legends that will live forever. That these were aliens crash-landing into our lives is, perhaps, the most beloved explanation of a strange phenomenon in … Read more

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