Apple iPhone spontaneously combusts aboard flight in Australia

 

An Apple iPhone spontaneously began smoking and emitting a red glow while aboard an airplane in Australia. Passengers aboard Regional Express flight ZL319 were welcomed to their destination in Sydney, Australia on Friday by a frightening ordeal. According to the airline, a passenger’s iPhone began “emitting a significant amount of dense smoke” shortly after the flight landed, and the smoke was accompanied by a red glow. A flight attendant extinguished the device and no passengers or airline staff were injured according to the airline. The phone in question appears to be an iPhone 4 (pictured above) as opposed to the new iPhone 4S model, and it has been collected by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau as part of its investigation. Regional Express’ full press release follows below.

MEDIA RELEASE

MOBILE PHONE SELF COMBUSTION

Regional Express (Rex) flight ZL319 operating from Lismore to Sydney today had an occurrence after landing, when a passenger’s mobile phone started emitting a significant amount of dense smoke accompanied by a red glow.

In accordance with company standard safety procedures, the Flight Attendant carried out recovery actions immediately and the red glow was extinguished successfully.

All passengers and crew on board were unharmed.

The matter has been reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as well as the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) for investigation and directions.

The mobile phone in question appears to be an Apple iPhone (see picture above) and has been handed over to ATSB for analysis.

o

Cool, interactive kids' app

There are lots of alphabet books out there. Matching a letter to an object and pairing them with a little bit of cute poetry is a conceit that goes back to the days when alphabet books were printed on a single sheet of paper protected by a thin layer of animal horn.

What makes the iPad/iPhone app X is for X-Ray different is its ability to feed kids' curiosity. Every alphabetic object in X is for X-Ray, from an accordion to a zipper, has had its insides photographed by Hugh Turvey, Artist in Residence at the British Institute of Radiology. (Which sounds like an incredibly cool job, to begin with.)

As you read through the book, you can turn the X-ray vision on and off, rotate some of the images 360 degrees around, zoom in on other images, and even put on a pair of stereoscopic glasses to see things in 3D.

Unsurprisingly, this gimmick works better for some letters than others. A flower, for instance, doesn't make for the most exciting x-ray to look at. Nor does a piggy bank. But the internal combustion engine more than makes up for those brushes with mediocrity. If you put the engine photo in x-ray mode and rotate it, the image comes to life. Suddenly, you're not just looking at the insides of a piece of mechanical technology, you're watching them work—pistons pumping and cranks turning. It's really neat and strikingly beautiful.

My main complaint with the app is really a complaint with app development, in general: X is for X-Ray is only available for iPhone and iPad. I don't own either of those things. If it weren't for the fact that Mike Levad, the app's producer, lives in Minneapolis and brought the app to me to try out on his iPad, I wouldn't even be writing this review. There seems to be a remarkable number of very cool science-related apps that aren't available for Android. I find that a bit annoying.

Watch the video to see a preview of X is for X-Ray.

Download it at the Apple App Store: $7.99 (iPad) and $2.99 (iPhone, iPod touch)

o

Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador spouts fire again

The Tungurahua volcano in Ecuador after several months of relative calm spits back fire and ashes. It had formed a three-mile-high cloud of smoke, the director of civil protection, according to media reports that said on Tuesday. On the slopes of lava flows and incandescent rocks into the valley, reported the Geophysical Institute of the South American country.

In addition, a rumble was heard, and the let vibrate in the villages around the windows. Because of the danger of an outbreak of the Civil Protection called the second-highest alert level. In the nearby villages were distributed face masks and first aid packets.

If the situation heats up, several communities are to be evacuated. "The rumble of us not so much worried. We must also work in the fields, because we earn our livelihood, "said a farmer of the newspaper" El Comercio ". Finally, between December and January harvest.

The 5,000-meter high Tungurahua, located in the Ecuadorian Andes, about 130 kilometers south of the capital Quito. In the language of the natives the name means "fire throat." The volcano is back after more than a century since 1999, active rest. Died in 2006 with major outbreaks of several people.

 

 

 

 

o

Interactive musical map of Colombia

 

The excellent Soundway Records label continues its musical exploration of Colombia with another huge compilation, The Original Sound of Cumbia. To promote the release, they've created a really fantastic interactive "Musical Map of Colombia." Browsing the map is a fascinating experience whether or not you intend to buy the new compilation. That said, I'd wager that after a few minutes playing with the map, you'll be inclined to own some of this music. It's available on CD but I'm inclined to go for the two volume, triple (!) vinyl with free MP3 download once it's in-stock at the US distributor Forced Exposure.

o

Mike Tyson Singing the girl from Ipanema

The musical stylings of Mike Tyson will leave you so ecstatic it's ludicrous as he sings "The Girl From Ipanema" on Brazilian TV

Gotta give him props for keeping the rape to a minimum and not unhinging his jaw and swallowing the host whole.

Here’s Mike Tyson competently covering “The Girl from Ipanema” on the popular Brazilian variety show Caldeirão do Huck.

o

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.o

Disruptions: Fliers Must Turn Off Devices, but It’s Not Clear Why

 

Millions of Americans who got on a plane over the Thanksgiving holiday heard the admonition: “Please power down your electronic devices for takeoff.”

And absolutely everyone obeyed. I know they did because no planes fell from the sky. No planes had to make an emergency landing because the avionics went haywire. No planes headed for Miamiended up in Anchorage. We were all made safe because we all turned off all our Kindles, iPads, iPhones, BlackBerrys and laptops, just as the Federal Aviation Administration told us to. Realistically speaking, I’m going to bet that a handful of people on each flight could not be bothered, or forgot to comply.

According to the F.A.A., 712 million passengers flew within theUnited States in 2010. Let’s assume that just 1 percent of those passengers — about two people perBoeing 737, a conservative number — left a cellphone, e-reader or laptop turned on during takeoff or landing. That would mean seven million people on 11 million flights endangered the lives of their fellow passengers.

Yet, in 2010, no crashes were attributed to people using technology on a plane. None were in 2009. Or 2008, 2007 and so on. You get the point.

Surely if electronic gadgets could bring down an airplane, you can be sure that the Department of Homeland Securityand the Transportation Security Administration, which has a consuming fear of 3.5 ounces of hand lotion and gel shoe inserts, wouldn’t allow passengers to board a plane with aniPad or Kindle, for fear that they would be used by terrorists.

New technologies are often greeted with fear and that is certainly true of a disruptive technology like cellphones. Yet rules that are decades old persist without evidence to support the idea that someone reading an e-book or playing a video game during takeoff or landing is jeopardizing safety.

Nevertheless, Les Dorr, a spokesman for the F.A.A., said the agency would rather err on the side of caution when it comes to digital devices on planes.

He cited a 2006 study by the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics, a nonprofit group that tests and reports on technical travel and communications issues. The group was asked by the F.A.A. to test the effects of cellphones, Wi-Fi and portable electronic devices on planes.

Its finding? “Insufficient information to support changing the policies,” Mr. Dorr said. “There was no evidence saying these devices can’t interfere with a plane, and there was no evidence saying that they can.” I’m not arguing that passengers should be allowed to make phone calls while the plane zooms up into the sky. But, why can’t I read my Kindle or iPad during takeoff and landing? E-readers and cellphones can be easily put into “Airplane Mode” which disables the device’s radio signals.

The government might be causing more unnecessary interference on planes by asking people to shut their devices down for take-off and landing and then giving them permission to restart all at the same time. According to electrical engineers, when the electronic device starts, electric current passes through every part of the gadget, including GPS, Wi-Fi, cellular radio and microprocessor.

It’s the equivalent of waking someone up with a dozen people yelling into bullhorns.

As more and more people transition from paper products to digital ones, maybe it’s time to change these rules.

Michael Altschul, senior vice president and legal counsel for CTIA, the wireless industry association, said a study that it conducted more than a decade ago found no interference ever from mobile devices.

“The fact is, the radio frequencies that are assigned for aviation use are separate from commercial use,” Mr. Altschul said. “Plus, the wiring and instruments for aircraft are shielded to protect them from interference from commercial wireless devices.”

Mr. Dorr reluctantly agreed. “There have never been any reported accidents from these kinds of devices on planes,” he said.

Correction: Changed 0.01 percent to 1 percent when referring to number of passengers on planes in the United States.







 

o