Shooting Hoops with the World’s Largest Slingshot

  

Some highlights below, but you really need to watch the video to believe it.

A band of bros called Dude Perfect cut down a tree to build what they call the world’s largest slingshot. They then shot a basketball from quite a distance (no specifics mentioned), and it actually flies through the net. Swooooosh! This can only be described as epic.

Volvo Announces the World’s First Pedestrian Airbag in the V40

  

Volvo unveiled its all-new 2013 V40 five-door hatchback this month at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show. The five-door hatchback also introduced the world’s first pedestrian airbag system that helps reduce the severity of pedestrian injuries. 

Sensors in the front bumper register the physical contact between the car and the pedestrian. The rear end of the hood is released and at the same time elevated by the deploying airbag. The inflated airbag covers the area under the raised hood plus approximately one third of the windscreen area and the lower part of the A-pillar.

Fortunately before the V40 comes in contact with a pedestrian, the V40 also features a Pedestrian Detection system that can warn the driver if a pedestrian steps out into the road in front of the car and automatically activate the brakes if the driver does not respond in time.

Pedestrian Detection with full auto brake consists of a radar unit integrated into the car’s grille, a camera fitted in front of the interior rear-view mirror, and a central control unit. The radar’s task is to detect a pedestrian or vehicle in front of the car and to determine the distance to it. The camera determines what type of object it is.

Woman gives birth to almost 14-pound son

For months doctors had warned a Southern California woman that she would be having a big baby. But no one expected him to be this big, when the healthy boy weighed in at 13 pounds, 14 ounces after being delivered by cesarean section, the North County (Calif.).

"How'd he fit?" was the immediate reaction of his mother, Cynthia Sigler of Vista, Calif., after the delivery on Thursday. While doctors estimated two months ago that Jayden Sigler would weigh about 9 pounds, they increased his size to 11 by early March, his mother told.

Jayden's birth weight almost doubles that of his sister, Jailyn. The now 2½-year-old was 7 pounds, 2 ounces at birth. Mostly full-term babies weigh between 5 pounds, 8 ounces, and 8 pounds, 13 ounces.

Dr. Jerald White, the attending physician who helped deliver Jayden Sigler at Tri-City Medical Center, said he was the biggest newborn he had ever seen in the over 20,000 babies he has helped deliver. "It wasn't so difficult that it created a problem for anybody," the doctor said about delivering a very big newborn by cesarean section, which can be more difficult.

But it did make sense why the end of Sigler's pregnancy was so challenging. "When I saw how big he is, I understood why I was in so much pain," she told. But Sigler's son doesn't come close to the biggest newborns of all time.

According to the Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby weighed 23.75 pounds. Born in 1879, he died 11 hours after birth. Guinness also notes a 22.5-pound baby born in Italy in 1955. More recently, a 19 pound, 2 ounce baby boy was born in Indonesia in the fall of 2009.

Even though Jayden didn't come close to those numbers, Sigler said she has had to make some adjustments to accommodate such a big baby. "My sister took back the newborn and zero to 2 months clothes yesterday," the new mom said.

Hair color chart - Garnier

Hair color chart - Garnier

Teenagers fashion 2012

Teenagers fashion 2012

Hairstyles for school 2012

Hairstyles for school 2012

Shoes spring summer 2012 - women

Shoes spring summer 2012 - women

Medium hairstyles summer 2012 women

Medium hairstyles summer 2012 women

Pakistan beats Bangladesh by 21 runs at Asia Cup

Umar Gul took three wickets with Mohamamd Hafeez, Saeed Ajmal and Shahid Afridi claiming two each as Pakistan beat Bangladesh by 21 runs in the opening match of the limited-overs Asia Cup tournament on Sunday.

Chasing a target of 263, Bangladesh was dismissed for 241 with 11 balls to spare, with Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan contributing 64 each. Nasir Hossain scored 47 in a sixth-wicket stand of 89 with Shakib. In Pakistan’s innings, opener Mohammad Hafeez scored 89, Nasir Jamshed made 54 and Gul added 39. Gul finished with bowling figures of 3-58.

Pakistan’s victory was far from straightforward as Bangladesh was just 39 runs away when Nasir was bowled by Gul with four wickets intact. After Bangladesh was reduced to 135-5, Nasir and Shakib steadied the innings and helped the team reach 224 before losing Nasir. Bangladesh lost the remaining four wickets for just 17 runs in a hard-fought battle. Shakib was the last man to go, dismissed by Gul, as he appeared frustrated to watch so many partners fail to make a stand and attempt to win the game. Shahadat Hossain was unbeaten for no runs.

Earlier, Pakistan was cruising at 135-1 in the 28th over but was reduced to 198-7 by the 42nd over in the face of tight bowling by Shahadat Hossain (3-53) and Shakib (2-41). Tailender Gul faced only 25 balls in his aggressive innings to help a struggling Pakistan reach 251-8. Sarfraz Ahmed was not out for 19 while Saeed Ajmal was unbeaten on eight at the end.

The 11th edition of the Asia Cup also involves India and Sri Lanka. India has won the competition five times while Sri Lanka won it four times. Pakistan has won it once.

Top 10 smartphones in 2012

Today's top handsets are as much mobile computers as phones. As well as making calls, they allow us to access thousands of handy apps, play games, watch movies and listen to hours of music. But with so many models available, you might find it tricky to track down the one that's best for you. The high cost of pay-as-you-go smartphone handsets and the long contracts associated with the most desirable devices can make matters even more complicated.

We've rounded up our top 10 handsets to help you decide on the best phone for you. In our humble opinion these are the latest and greatest smartphones currently available. 

10. Orange San Francisco II

The Orange San Francisco II is a budget smartphone. But in terms of bang for buck it's hard to beat. Its predecessor set a new benchmark for entry-level Android devices, and Orange has crafted a worthy follow-up, building on the features that made the original San Francisco such a hit. The screen is nice and bright and the chassis slimmer and sleeker than you might expect; a 5MP camera has also been squeezed into the handset. However, social networking features are few and far between. The touchscreen is a little unresponsive. Plastic also rules the day when it comes to the casing.

9 HTC Sensation XL

Beats by Dre-branded headphones have become the must-have cans for fashion-conscious music fans. HTC are obviously hoping to repeat the trick for phones by slapping the Beats logo on their new super-sized handset, the Sensation XL. However, the tie-up with the Beats line is more than just a cosmetic one - the phone features some unique audio tuning features and a bundled set of specially designed urBeats earphones. Throw a 4.7-inch display, single-piece aluminium chassis and 8MP camera into the mix as well, and you've got a phone that's guaranteed to be a hit.

8. Sony Xperia S

The Sony Xperia S features a distinctive design: a see-through plastic bar that slices across the bottom of the phone, giving it a futuristic look and feel. The spec sheet for Sony's new flagship device is also impressive, particularly the 12MP snapper and gorgeous high-res screen. However, there are a few niggles that stop this phone from achieving true greatness. It's rather thick and bulky, for one, and there's no microSD slot for upgrading the memory.

7. Motorola Razr

The new Razr is absurdly thin at just 7.7mm, and a beautiful Kevlar fibre shell alongside a Corning Gorilla Glass screen help make it every inch the equal of its popular ancestor. The phone's dual-core 1.2Ghz processor blows away the original Razr's tech, however, and back in 2004 8MP cameras were dedicated snappers, rather than smartphone components. A hefty amount of memory and some excellent multimedia features are also on board, all of which should help to make the rebooted Razr a success.

6. BlackBerry Bold 9900

BlackBerry sold more smartphones in the UK last year than any other manufacturer, and the Bold 9900 will only cement their position. It's their thinnest phone yet at only 10.5mm and the superb BlackBerry keyboard has also been married with a responsive touchscreen, making the phone perfect for both business and pleasure. The design is pure class as well, featuring a brushed stainless steel frame. Built-in Near Field Communications (NFC) technology will also keep this handset cutting-edge for some time to come.

5. Nokia Lumia 800

Ever since Nokia and Microsoft joined forces we've been waiting for a phone that would show off the best of each company's expertise. Well, that phone is finally here - the Nokia Lumia 800. The design of the handset is the culmination of decades of Nokia development - unfussy and attractive, functional yet also fun (the 800 Lumia comes in several colours). As you'd expect, the Carl Zeiss camera is a great feature, and the 3.7-inch ClearBlack curved display has fantastic depth and contrast. All this hardware is coupled with the wonderfully intuitive Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) - the best version of Microsoft's smartphone OS yet. A recent firmware update also improved the Lumia 800's battery life dramatically.

4. Samsung Galaxy Nexus

The Samsung Galaxy Nexus is one hot handset. Although the screen is 4.65 inches, the resolution is 1280 x 720, meaning it's both massive and pin-sharp. But although the Nexus' hardware is certainly noteworthy, it's more remarkable for its software at the moment. The Galaxy Nexus is the first phone to feature Ice Cream Sandwich, otherwise known as Android 4.0. This, when coupled with an NFC chip, facial recognition unlock feature, and amazing synchronisation with Google services, makes the Nexus a very impressive package.

3. HTC Sensation XE

HTC has quickly established itself as one of the top players in the smartphone market, releasing a string of fantastic phones in quick succession. The HTC Sensation is currently their flagship 1.2Ghz dual-core device - the XE edition ups the processor speed, extends the battery life and adds Beats Audio software and stylings. Looks-wise it's certainly a head-turner: solid yet classy, slim but packing a massive 4.3-inch screen. The HTC Sense 3.0 interface is highly customisable too, and an 8MP camera on the rear can capture 1080p video too.

2. Apple iPhone 4S

Some say the iPhone 4S is merely a bridge phone, designed to prop up sales of Apple's handsets before the iPhone 5 is released next year. Even if that turns out to be true, the 4S is still a great handset in its own right. Although it's identical to a regular iPhone 4 on the outside, a number of tweaks and improvements have been made under the hood. The camera, for instance, has been bumped up from five to eight megapixels, the processor is faster and Siri, a virtual personal assistant, is now built-in. The easy-to-use iOS and the pin-sharp Retina Display still seem a cut above the competition.

1. Samsung Galaxy S II

The Samsung Galaxy was a stellar handset and its sequel, the Galaxy S II, is even more impressive. A dual-core 1.2GHz processor means apps and web browsers run at warp speed on the Android 2.3 OS. The bright and colourful 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus screen makes movies and games gorgeous to behold. Throw in an 8MP camera, 1080p video recording and a super sleek (8.49mm) and light (116g) design, and you've got one hell of a handset.

Solar storm passes without incident

NASA image showing extreme ultraviolet wavelengths on Sun's surface

A solar storm in the Earth's magnetic field has passed by the Earth with minimal effects, experts say. "The freight train has gone by, and is still going by, and now we're just watching for how this is all going to shake out," said Joseph Kunches, a scientist with US weather agency Noaa.

The last of the charged particles from the Sun will pass Earth Friday morning. There had been fears that this "coronal mass ejection" could wreak havoc with satellites or power grids on Earth. However, Dr Kunches said, "all told, it's not a terribly strong event".

Some air traffic was re-routed away from polar regions on Wednesday and Thursday, but no large-scale effects of the storm have been reported. "This week's solar storms have been stronger than those of recent years but moderate when viewed over the longer term," said Paul Cannon, director of the Poynting Institute at the University of Birmingham.

"Most technological systems appear to be behaving well so far. However, given the Sun's activity forecasters will be closely watching the geospace environment over the next few days." The current coronal mass ejection (CME) - travelling at some 1,300km per second - began arriving at Earth on Thursday morning, after the release of two particularly strong solar flares earlier in the week.

Activity near the Sun's surface rises and falls through an 11-year cycle that is due to peak in 2013 or 2014. Some solar flares result in CMEs - the launch of a huge bubble of charged particles hurtling toward the Earth at speeds up to millions of kilometres per hour.


The Earth's magnetic field protects it from the constant onslaught of high-energy particles from the Sun and elsewhere in the cosmos. However, the solar storms that mark the arrival of CMEs can disrupt the field enough to have an effect on the Earth's surface - causing current spikes in power grids or disrupting navigation devices. Among the more benign effects is that the magnetic-field disturbance can make the Northern Lights visible at lower latitudes. But it is often unclear, even up to the last minute, just how grave or spectacular the effects will be on Earth - that depends on the magnetic alignment of the material within the CME, which is difficult to predict.

Because different parts of the bubble can have different alignments, scientists say that the storm could still have adverse effects as it passes. "The magnetic field in the solar wind is not facing in the direction of danger. But it could change, into the early evening," said David Kerridge, director of geoscience research at the British Geological Survey.

Although space weather scientists have seen no more significant activity since the solar flares that launched the current storm, scientists around the globe are still keeping a close watch on the Sun. "The part of the Sun where this came from is still active," Dr Kerridge said. "It's a 27-day cycle and we're right in the middle of it, so it is coming straight at us and will be for a few days yet. We could see more material," he explained.

But regardless of its eventual extent, this episode of solar activity is a preview of what is to come in the broader, 11-year solar cycle. Dr Craig Underwood, from the Surrey Space Centre, UK, said: "The event is the largest for several years, but it is not in the most severe class. We may expect more storms of this kind and perhaps much more severe ones in the next year or so as we approach solar maximum. "Such events act as a wake-up call as to how our modern western lifestyles are utterly dependent on space technology and national power grid infrastructure."

1 - Solar flare and eruption. 


2 - Billions of tonnes of superhot gas containing charged particles is released. 


3 - Particles drawn to poles collide with atmosphere causing polar lights.



Many storms are benign; this storm could enable skywatchers to see the Northern Lights from parts of the northern US and northern UK. But the strongest storms can have other, more significant effects.

In 1972, a geomagnetic storm provoked by a solar flare knocked out long-distance telephone communication across the US state of Illinois. And in 1989, another disturbance plunged six million people into darkness across the Canadian province of Quebec.


What are the Solar Storms?

The sudden release of magnetic energy stored in the Sun's atmosphere can cause a bright flare


This can also release bursts of charged particles into space


These solar "eruptions" are known as coronal mass ejections or CMEs


When headed in our direction, the charged gas collides with the magnetic "sheath" around Earth


The subsequent disturbances in the Earth's magnetic envelope are called solar storms


They can interfere with technology: satellites, electrical grids and communications systems


They can also cause aurorae - Northern and Southern Lights - to be seen at lower latitudes