Yesterday morning, the Malaysian prime minister confirmed that Malaysia Airlines flight 370 crashed in the south Indian Ocean, killing all 239 people on board. How did Inmarsat narrow down MH370’s location from two very broad swaths across central Asia and the Indian Ocean, and furthermore, if we know where the plane crashed into the ocean, why haven’t we found it yet?
Three days ago, Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 vanished from radar off the south coast of Vietnam in the South China Sea. 239 people were on board — and at this point, it is presumed that they have all perished in some kind of disaster. For me, this is almost incomprehensible: Despite all of the awesome technology that mankind has developed, it’s still possible for a Boeing 777-200 with 239 people on board to vanish. Surely, given the fact that we can track a damn smartphone anywhere on Earth down to a few meters, there’s a better way of keeping track of missing aircraft?
Tired of waiting for others to build his dream machine for him, German engineer Fritz Unger has constructed and tested a prototype jet-powered wingsuit. Other pioneers like, jetman Yves Rossy, have long held media attention for their liberating prone-position manflights, but have no immediate plans to attempt take-off or landing from level ground. If powered wingsuits are ever going to get into the air for sustained flight, what kinds of design might they have?
In a world where quad-core computers are currently the norm, and eight-core processors available for purchase are somewhat rare, computers with more cores might a little unimaginable. A team at Stanford has dwarfed that rare eight-core processor by using a supercomputer that employs over one million cores to solve a complex problem.
China is eyeing its role as a military and economic superpower, and other countries should be concerned. Not for the obvious reasons, though. While the US and China smile and work together publicly, they are entrenched in a deep and sophisticated cyberwar, and it’s only going to grow from here on out.