Researchers from the University of Tokyo have teamed up with members of the Japan Origami Airplane Association to develop a paper aircraft capable of surviving the flight from the International Space Station to the Earth’s surface.

(VIDEO from disputada.com)

The researchers are scheduled to begin testing the strength and heat resistance of an 8 centimeter (3.1 in) long prototype on January 17 in an ultra-high-speed wind tunnel at the University of Tokyo’s Okashiwa campus (Chiba prefecture). In the tests, the origami glider — which is shaped like the Space Shuttle and has been treated to withstand intense heat — will be subjected to wind speeds of Mach 7, or about 8,600 kilometers (5,300 miles) per hour.

A large spacecraft such as the Space Shuttle can reach speeds of up to Mach 20 (over 15,200 mph) when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, and friction with the air heats the outer surface to extreme temperatures. The much lighter origami aircraft, which the researchers claim will come down more slowly, is not expected to burn up on re-entry.

No launch date has been set for the paper spaceplane, but Shinji Suzuki, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Tokyo, is thinking ahead. “We hope the space station crew will write a message of peace on the plane before they launch it,” says Suzuki. “We don’t know where in the world the plane will land, but it would be nice to send a message to whoever finds it.”

Like Origami?? Check out the world’s most complex origami here (its in Japanese, but I’m guessing they’re saying, “holy shit, that’s amazing.”)

Source: Pink Tentacle

New York, I had never been until last week.

First Impressions:

“Whoah.”

Lasting Impressions:

“160mph Shatner”

Let me explain,

You materialize right in the middle of Manhattan from up and out of the ground. You stand, defensive and ready¬–on alien terra forma, saying melodramatic things, “We’ve got to get to 7th Street, this is 7th Avenue,” or “I thought Queens was in Brooklyn” or “This is pronounced How-ston not Hew-ston.” The landscape is alien¬–buildings of unnatural size loom gigantic above. You hustle at their feet, north and south, east and west are all the same. The hum is deafening–a thousand iron cicadas. Amongst the buildings, you could be anywhere on the island, or nowhere on earth, but the prices tell you you’re somewhere. The millions humming and buzzing around you–all there on auto-pilot, driving up the price of one another’s rent. The cacophony makes you nauseous, and you head indoors seeking the familiar: warmth, a chair, food, a table, some music. The nausea worsens, the pathogens produced by millions of tightly packed, highly stressed humans, the particulate matter, the cold–you become ill, you’ve lost contact with the Enterprise.

Then, out of chaos you find it– the rhythm, racing past you grab it and hold on, making it your own. The subways make sense, east and west are again polarized, and you begin to hum. You are the cacophone, yet the rhythm finds you. Like William Shatner at 160mph, incredibly, the rhythm finds you.

Watch this instructional video  and learn how the Triumph Motorcycle Corp “adds argument juice from women’s brains to help the motorcycle change directions quickly” or how “the company grows their engines from engine embryos” to name a few.

Boomin’ Grannies from www.bittermelon.org

New Mexico, America–If you ever find yourself working at Burger King, and get busted for successfully poisoning two unsuspecting police officers with a near-lethal dose of marijuana (click here to see the a video-reenactment of one of the officer’s harrowing 911-call–courtesy of CurrentTV)–do what these two New Mexican teenagers have done–pick the stoniest judge in New Mexico to proceed over your trial, and tell him you know about the Cocaine and the Dildo up in Minnesota, and if he doesn’t want anyone to know about the northern orgies, there had better not be any jail time.