I Take My Data Shaken, Not Stirred.

I bring you news today of a new operation called Pionen located 30 meters within the bed rock of Stockholm city, Sweden. 100% up time operation is ensured by two German made Maybach MTU diesel engines producing 1.5 Megawatt of power. The lair, designed to withstand a hit from a hydrogen bomb, consists of 16 inch thick fortified front doors. The entire facility can be surveyed from the conference room whose floor is molded to be the surface of the moon. Cooling is handled by Baltimore Aircoil fans producing a cooling effect of 1.5 megawatts. Connectivity is no issue with triple redundancy Internet backbone access (full redundancy with both fiber optics and extra copper lines with three different physical ways into the mountain). It features greenhouses, simulated daylight and waterfalls for aesthetics as well as atmosphere creation, fog machines that produce a thin film of smoke across the floor where you walk and a huge 2600-liter salt water fish tank. Why? Just because.

It may sound like the secret underground lair of James Bonds latest nemesis but it is actually the newest data center built in a former nuclear bomb shelter by one of Sweden's largest ISPs. Jon Karlung, CEO at Bahnhof (the ISP behind Pionen) had this to say on the design of the facility:

“I’m personally a big fan of old science fiction movies. Especially ones from the 70s like Logan’s Run, Silent Running, Star Wars (especially The Empire Strikes Back) so these were an influence,“ said Karlung. “James Bond movies have also had an impact on the design. I was actually looking for the same outfit as the villain ‘Blofeld’ in Bond and even considered getting a white cat, but that might have been going a bit far!”

The Five Coolest Things the US Govt is Developing

The Flying Car:

Call Doc Brown, all we need now is a flux capacitor and it'll be 1985 all over again, ...wait

Thought Controlled Limbs:

Because reaching for another Toastito is really cutting into my sitting around doing nothing time.

Demonstration Video

Artificial Pack Mules:

I'll wait for Gen11, with any kind of luck it'll have arms so it can mow the grass.

Demonstration Video

Laser Guns:

[insert Star Wars / Light Saber joke here]

"Kill Proof" Soldiers:

Research? Why are we spending money on this? Someone get Matt Damon on the line, we'll bang this out before the weekend.

Truly Embedding Video ... wait for it ... In Video.

This post goes out to all you production artists out there as well as anyone who works with video. Stanford artificial intelligence researchers have developed software that makes it easy to embed objects such as images or video within a video. The objects are not placed over the top of the base video, they are actually embedded within the video. The software is easy to use and hints at a future where users can easily and cheaply serve video to users that feature targeted ads just as web pages do now.

At the Zunavision site the Stanford developers offer the below video as well as a sign up form to use the software

Weaponised Lasers On Sale, Just In Time For Christmas

Northrop Grumman has said that it is ready to take orders for the "world's first ruggedised, weaponised high energy solid state laser designed for battlefield applications". The raygun module is dubbed FIRESTRIKE™. The solid-state laser unit weighs over 400lbs, sends/receives instructions and data via an RJ-45 jack and can be synchronized with additional units to emit a 100 kW beam.

No I'm not reminising about the '85 film Real Genius. This is the real deal. Just in time to fill my long time christmas wish of being able to vaporize my enemies with the click of a mouse. So for all you out there looking to get me a stocking stuffer this year, this will do just fine, sans Iceman.

Gear Head Post: '09 ZR-1 Engine Build

For all my gear head brethren dying to see a video showing an engine build from start to finish of GM's super charged 7 Liter LS-9 for the 2009 Corvette ZR-1.

Nov. 14, 2008: The Week in Weirdness

"It's amazing, it's astounding, but it's no B.S."
- George Carlin(RIP)
News involving your fellow man at their less than stellar moments.

If I gotta go, so do you!

Police say a woman has died on the way to a cemetery when a traffic accident hurled her late husband's coffin against the back of her neck. Barcelos died instantly.

Man eats his way out of prison!

Canadian prison authorities were forced to release a 450-pound (205 kg) drug gang member this week because he was too large for his cell, the Journal de Montreal newspaper reported on Wednesday.

And you thought you were bad about cleaning up!

An elderly woman has been living with two skeletons and a badly decomposed body of her siblings in a suburb of Chicago, one of whom may have died at least 20 years ago, authorities said on Saturday.

If you want me you'll have to go through my grandpa!

Contradicting Homer Simpsons' belief that old people are useless, police say a Tampa man used his 72-year-old grandfather as a shield against officers during his arrest.

Note to self: Blow torch not a viable duster.

A single-story home in Sargent, GA was damaged by fire after the homeowner accidentally set the fire while cleaning cobwebs from the eaves around the exterior of the residence with a blow torch.

Schooled!

Ken Mink, a 73-year-old full-time student, scored two points Monday night in Roane State Community College's 93-42 victory over King College's junior varsity. Mink entered the game with about 16 minutes left in the second half and attempted one shot in about three minutes. Seven minutes later, he went back in the game, was fouled and made two free throws.

Economy got you down? Have a sexy party!

An Australian holiday resort will hold a month-long, nude "anything goes" party to combat an expected economic downturn, media reports said on Thursday.

Parents got you down? Go to Grandma's!

A 9-year-old boy was caught driving his parents' car alone after police received a report about an unmanned vehicle moving down the street. The boy took the car, which had been parked with the key in the ignition at his family's home in Gifu, central Japan, to visit his grandmother's house, a police spokesman said.

Little House on the Prairie? Only on Cinemax!

Finally, confirming what I've been saying for years, Finland has rated the DVD release of the much-loved children's television series "Little House on the Prairie" suitable for adult viewing only.

Ken Block: The driver all men THINK they are!

When it comes to driving, Ken Block is a god among men. In the video below he gives us another example at Gymkhana practice of his seraphic if not supernal driving skills.

A Doctor, a Mutation and a Potential Cure for AIDS

It has been about 6 1/2 years since the "Jared Has Aides" South Park episode announced that AIDS was officially funny since it had been 22.3 years since the discovery of the fatal disease. Which makes it almost 29 years since it's discovery today. But today is a new day and there may finally be a cure for the AIDS causing HIV disease.

From The Wall Street Journal:

"The breakthrough appears to be that Dr. Gero Hütter, a soft-spoken hematologist who isn't an AIDS specialist, deliberately replaced the patients bone marrow cells with those from a donor who has a naturally occurring genetic mutation that renders his cells immune to almost all strains of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS."

All I can wonder is: I should have been a doctor. 30 year deadlines??? That's my kind of time line! How long would you last in your industry if it took you that long to accomplish something?