Model Airplanes

Next to an autobody shop, off of Ramkhamhaeng Road in Bangkok, an abandoned 747 and two smaller MD-82 planes sit derelict and lying in pieces. Besides the oddity of seeing huge planes lying by the side of the road, you also happen to be looking at a makeshift home. 

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Junked planes seems to have occupied the yard since at least January of 2010, being first reported as the nose sections of two Boeing 747s. In January of 2014 two MD-82 jetliners formerly operated by Orient Thai Airlines were added. (The MD-82 model was involved in a fatal 89 person crash at Phuket International Airport in 2007 which may explain why there were being scrapped.) By 2015 a 747 had been added as well as another more unusual addition. Three Thai families had made moved in turning the airplanes into their makeshift homes.

Said to be owned by a local businessman who has been selling off parts of the airplanes for scrap, the planes have been stripped of seats, interior paneling, TV sets, and overhead compartments. Flight magazines, oxygen masks, and life vests litter the grounds and interiors. The families who live in the scrap planes have done what they can

Article source: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/airplane-graveyard-in-bangkok

Starting an airline was no easy matter. There was little past experience to learn from and they were dealing with new technology — the “airoplane” — that was very unreliable and even dangerous. But there’s always been something about aviation that captures the heart of adventurous people. Fred Warren Kelly was one of them.

After winning the 110-meter high hurdles at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, followed by a track meet where the distraction of seeing his first airplane cost him the race against Jim Thorpe, Fred was hooked.

But it wasn’t just pilots. Mechanics and other ground personnel also fell in love with the flying business. To them it wasn’t just a job — it was a calling. They put their hearts and souls into building a huge new industry. The world would never be the same — and America led the charge.

Flying in the

Article source: http://www.cdapress.com/3/article_ff11d137-d219-59e9-a0f6-3348549605d8.html

When the Islamic State group took over the ancient city of Palmyra, it destroyed some of that city’s ancient heritage, which dates to 2000 B.C.  The ancient structures, art and architecture were examples of idolatry, IS said, and their destruction was called for by the Quran.

To most of the world, watching IS demolish the ancient palace of Nimrud and other parts of the UNESCO World Heritage Site was heartbreaking.

But if you find yourself in London this week, you can get a glimpse of one of the destroyed structures, the “Arch of Triumph,” displayed in Trafalgar Square.

London Mayor Boris Johnson (center L) watches as a 5.5-meter (20ft) recreation of the 1,800-year-old Arch of Triumph in Palmyra, Syria, is unveiled at Trafalgar Square in London, Britain, April 19, 2016.

The 11-ton arch was re-created by students at the Institute of Digital Archaeology.  The team used photographs to map the arch in exquisite detail on a smaller scale and then rebuilt it life size using a 3-D printer.  

The printer didn’t reprint a pristine version of the arch; the

Article source: http://www.voanews.com/content/looking-back-to-the-future/3298524.html

Microsoft said so long to production for the Xbox 360 video game console this week. Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, announced in a blog post that Microsoft would finally cease production of the video game console.

Above: Phil Spencer, head of Xbox, at Build 2016.

It was a rare sentimental moment in an industry that always looks forward, not back. I was a chronicler of the console’s history, as the author of two books on the making of the original Xbox and the Xbox 360. For me, it gives me a chance to reflect on the history and the changes we’ve seen in what has now become a $99 billion video game business. As the old guy in game journalism, I don’t pass up opportunities to reminisce about the good old days. As time goes on, it’s sometimes hard to retain the milestones that we should remember most.

“From the original Zero Hour launch event, to the incredible reaction received last year at E3 when we announced that you could play your Xbox 360 games on Xbox One, the soul of Xbox 360 was about putting gamers at the center of every decision we make — and we apply this principle across our business to this day,” Spencer wrote.

I was at that Zero Hour event in an old airplane hangar in the Mohave Desert. I wrote a few dozen posts about all of

Article source: http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/22/the-deanbeat-saying-so-long-to-the-xbox-360-after-a-decade/