"A Swiss daredevil’s bid to cross the English Channel propelled by a jet-powered wing strapped to his back moved a step closer yesterday with a successful 36km test flight over Switzerland. The flight proves that his jet-powered wing can take him far enough to make it across the channel from Calais to Dover. He hopes to make the crossing on 24 September if the weather is suitable. Yves Rossy - who calls himself FusionMan - jumped from a plane above the Swiss town of Bex and reached speeds of up to 180mph during his 12 minutes of jet-powered flight before landing at an airfield in Villeneuve. Rossy first unveiled his jet-powered wing in May with an 8-minute aerobatic display over the Alps.” Check out the video below.
DEFENDER of the favicon is little pixel game that plays as the browser’s favicon. It’s “a JavaScript remake of Eugene Jarvis’ brilliant arcade game Defender written by Mathieu ‘p01’ Henri and inspired by Scott Schiller’s experiment with generated favicons VU meter. The idea was to push the concept of generated favicons further and pack a thrilling retro shooter in 16x16 pixels using JavaScript, canvas and data: URIs. Press N to start a game or shoot, and WASD or the arrow keys to move your Defender over the humanoid city. If your browser struggles to update the favicon, press enter to toggle between favicon & canvas display.” [via dalmaer on twitter]
"Equally suited to land and sea. Chrome roll-top waterproof backpacks challenge the assumptions of how waterproof bags should be built. Our ground breaking design brings together two separate, and typically opposed, ideologies of backpack construction. First we start with a superior all-weather backpack with large easy access external cargo pockets, urethane coated YKK zippers, large external wet-dry pocket, comfortable shoulder straps, daisy chain lash points, haul loop handle, waist strap, adjustable sternum strap, and unbreakable stainless steel hardware. Next, we add to the main compartment, a fully waterproof liner with high frequency RF welded seams, and finish the whole thing off with a watertight roll-top closure. This dual bag ideology creates a bag that is completely waterproof when it needs to be, but exceptionally functional for the other 99% of the time that it is above water.” I’ll take one in fluorescent pink, thank you. [via xenijardin on twitter]
"Five years ago, Aptera‘s founder Steve Fambro endeavored to design and build a passenger vehicle that was safe, comfortable, and more fuel-efficient than anything ever produced. This aspiration, combined with his background in engineering, led him to an intensive study of aerodynamics, and composite aircraft construction. He hypothesized that a low-drag, aerodynamic body shape could be achieved without sacrificing comfort, drivability or safety. What emerged, after much designing, conceptualizing, and constructing, was a prototype two-seat, three-wheeled vehicle. This first operating prototype achieved a stunning 230 miles per gallon. Building on this success, Steve expanded his Aptera team and created the Aptera Typ-1, which has been re-designed, re-engineered, and refined into a production ready vehicle.” The Aptera is available with a pre-order reservation for $500 if you live in California. The vehicle costs $26,900. [via missrogue on Twitter]
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