Model Airplanes | Even older kids like to fly

Everyday Scams You May Fall Victim To Without Even Realizing It

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Writer

Image: iStock / yevtony

We consider ourselves pretty savvy, right? That’s part of the beauty of growing up in the digital age! We can spot a scam a mile away. Despite what your grandma really wants to believe, we know that Nigerian princes don’t send emails promising millions. Banks and credit card companies don’t ask for your account information via Facebook Messenger. And the IRS, no matter what people think, doesn’t make phone calls. We hear all the time about people falling for the silliest scams, and it’s actually pretty sad! But that’s not us. Sorry, single ladies – that guy on Tinder with the celebrity profile picture isn’t … a celebrity. But how savvy are we, really? Sure, we can spot an obvious scam. But how good are you at spotting for everyday scams?

We’re not talking about schemes to steal your identity or money. Well, maybe your money. No, we’re talking about things we encounter every single day that we think are normal, but are actually a complete crock. These everyday scams can affect our quality of life, our financial security, and more. They’re designed to just seem like part of life. But when you really think about – we are getting the shaft in so many ways. It would be funny, if it wasn’t so infuriating! How many of these everyday scams have you fallen for? If you’re like us, it’s probably quite a few.

One of the everyday scams that we all
Article source: https://www.mommyish.com/everyday-scams/

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A Lack of Inflation Is the Surest Sign of Booming Growth

Posted on January 29, 2019 by Writer

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Article source: https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2019/01/29/a_lack_of_inflation_is_the_surest_sign_of_booming_growth_103599.html

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XM-03 3D Model Workflow – Visual Arts

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Writer

Hey! My name’s Tim Trankle and I’m a 3D Artist for Pixelmatic.

My most recent task was to create the XM-03 Hornet for Infinite Fleet. I overhauled our 3D asset production workflow to take advantage of new tools and techniques to keep our visuals on the cutting edge. The new workflow has really taken our ships to another level and I’d like to show you just how I make them.

Every ship model has to start somewhere, and I usually start a ship by making its most recognizable features. In the case of the Hornet, that would be the energy-sapping arms and the wings. They contribute heavily to the silhouette and help guide the overall shape.

While I’ve worked with several modelling packages, my go-to for hard surface work is Blender. This is because its modifier toolset is great for creating detail in a non-destructive way and the modelling tools themselves are built for making meshes quickly. It also has great addon support for extending its functionality and there’s one addon that was crucial to this ship’s production that I’ll talk about in a little bit.

For hard surface modelling, I usually like to start with a single polygon plane and build my way up from there. I find that it allows for the most flexibility when creating more unusual shapes. For the Hornet, nearly every large component that wasn’t based on a cylinder started its life as a single plane.

Article source: https://www.gamedev.net/articles/visual-arts/xm-03-3d-model-workflow-r5051/

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What it’s like to pursue a dream for 30 years — and fail

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Writer

For 30 years, Keahi Seymour pursued a dream.

That dream wasn’t to play in the NFL. It wasn’t to front a rock band. It wasn’t to grace the silver screen. It wasn’t to cure cancer. It wasn’t to walk on the moon, discover Atlantis, or lead a nation.

Keahi Seymour wanted to invent a boot that enabled him to run like an ostrich. And he wanted to share it with the world.

But this story isn’t about boots: It’s about the relentless pursuit of a vision in the face of repeated setbacks. What drives someone to stick with an idea for 30 years? To give up everything for a device that seems, to most people, inconsequential? To sacrifice hundreds of thousands of dollars in life savings, time, and opportunity cost?

And can something really be called a failure if the journey was self-fulfilling?

An idea strikes

Like other young lads, Seymour spent his youth in England drawing sketches of cars, hoverboards, and model planes — anything that “moved fast and looked futuristic.”

But on a fateful day in 1987, the 12-year-old saw a TV show about kangaroos that would change the course of his life.

“They were talking about how these hyper-fast animals store elastic energy in their Achilles tendons,” he recalls. “And I immediately thought, ‘Why can’t a human use that same spring-like energy to run faster?”

He grabbed a piece of paper and drew out his grand vision: A 1980s running shoe with a pivot, and

Article source: https://thehustle.co/bionic-boot/

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8 of the Coolest Projects to Come Out of X, Google’s Moonshot Factory

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Writer

Since 2010, Google has dedicated resources to Moonshot projects, forward thinking endeavors designed to solve the world’s biggest problems. So what has the Alphabet-owned company been cooking up?

To start, it’s not entirely a surprise that a division with an emphasis on science fiction is intent on making robots a reality. Not much is available to the public on this particular area, but according to the X website, “teams are investigating how machine learning can be used to teach robots new skills that will enable them to reliably perform useful tasks in unstructured environments.” (Alphabet formerly owned Boston Robotics.)

So all in good time, we suppose.

Read on for some of the most intriguing projects being worked on in X, the Moonshot Factory.

Makani

Makani energy kites, which look like model airplanes tricked out with a bunch of propellers and have the wingspan of a smaller jet plane, are X’s attempt to better harness wind energy. They can generate up to 600 kilowatts of energy, which is enough to power roughly 300 homes. So how does it work? The M600 kite is attached to a ground station, and as the kite is flown, the wind moves through the propellers and the spinning action generates power, which is then sent down to the grid via a tether.

Glass Enterprise Edition

Though the company’s first stab at Google Glass proved that we weren’t quite ready to wear computers on

Article source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/326836

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Early 787 test plane is dismantled for reuse, recycling, or scrap

Posted on January 28, 2019 by Writer

Built in 2009 at an enormous cost of just over $600 million, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner No.5 at last has arrived at its embarrassing final destination — the boneyard.

Boeing long ago abandoned any hope of finding a buyer for the jet. Now an airplane parts and recycling contractor is cutting the carbon fiber jet to pieces at Paine Field in Everett and dismantling it for scrap.

While Boeing pitches this ignominious end as an exploratory step forward in recycling technology, it’s also a cruel reminder that the now popular 787 had a ruinously difficult and expensive birth.

By now Boeing has sold more than 1,300 Dreaminers, and nearly 700 are flying worldwide. The planemaker is delivering the innovative jet at the fast clip of a dozen jets per month, expected to rise to 14 per month in a year or two.

But the earliest 787s were a disaster.

The Everett final assembly plant, fed by a dysfunctional global supply chain, received large sections of the airplane held together with temporary fasteners and in various states of undocumented semi-completion — a production nightmare.

Mechanics toiled to put the planes together, often having to do the work out of sequence, which meant repeatedly assembling and disassembling the parts. Then design flaws were discovered, and the jets had to be torn apart all over again to incorporate fixes.

All this contributed to the Article source: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/early-787-test-plane-is-dismantled-for-reuse-recycling-or-scrap/