Reader Beeftopia shares a report: Research published in a major medical journal concludes that a parachute is no more effective than an empty backpack at protecting you from harm if you have to jump from an aircraft. But before you leap to any rash conclusions, you had better hear the whole story. The gold standard for medical research is a study that randomly assigns volunteers to try an intervention or to go without one and be part of a control group. For some reason, nobody has ever done a randomized controlled trial of parachutes. In fact, medical researchers often use the parachute example when they argue they don’t need to do a study because they’re so sure they already know something works. Cardiologist Robert Yeh, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and attending physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, got a wicked idea one day. He and his colleagues would actually attempt the parachute study to make a few choice points about the potential pitfalls of research shortcuts. They started by talking to their seatmates on airliners. […] In all, 23 people agreed to be randomly given either a backpack or a parachute and then to jump from a biplane on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts or from a helicopter in Michigan. Relying on two locations and only two kinds of aircraft gave the researchers quite a skewed sample. But this sort of problem crops up frequently in studies, which was part of the point Yeh and his team were trying to make. Still, photos taken during the experiment show the volunteers were only too happy to take part. The drop in the study was about 2 feet total, because the biplane and helicopter were parked. Nobody suffered any injuries. Surprise, surprise. So it’s technically true that parachutes offered no better protection for these jumpers than the backpacks.
Vader, facing his own blade. Image: Screencap via YouTube
“Vader Episode 1: Shards of the Past” is the first installment in a fan film series by the Star Wars Theory YouTube channel, and it’s a good ‘un. Taking place in the early months of the Empire—after the full fall of the Republic but before the Clones were replaced with cheaper Stormtroopers—the film focuses on Darth Vader, forced to carry out the Emperor’s will even amidst deep resentment and confusion.
It’s fertile ground for a Star Wars story, as the recent comics have shown, and the creators of this film do some interesting things with it. It opens with a lengthy fantasy sequence, featuring Vader acting out all his fury at himself and his Master, before setting up a conflict that seems like it should be impossible.
Really, though, the star here is the visual design, which captures a live-action Star Wars look perfectly. It’s particularly thrilling to see Clone Wars-style clone armor in live action. It’s well worth a watch for that alone.
No word on when we’ll see more of this story, but I’ll be keeping a lookout.
For more, make sure you’re following us on our new Instagram @io9dotcom.
(PG-13: Language) While walking down the street one morning, Ed Lawson spotted the aftermath of what appears to have been a very intoxicated driver side-swiping parked cars. But this clip is far less about the destruction and more about the Lawson’s genius commentary.
There are few things more frustrating than wasting ammo trying to get your rifle zeroed. If you just can’t find the paper or can’t seem to chase that zero down, turning expensive ammunition into nothing but noise gets old real fast. Since I’m constantly bolting optics onto loaner rifles, I thought I’d share how I get zeroed at 100 yards with as few rounds fired as possible.
Jeremy S. for TTAG
First and foremost — non-negotiable to this process, actually — is a rock-solid rifle rest. Jon Wayne Taylor and I have gravitated to the Caldwell Stinger this year, but there are many Lead Sled options and other inexpensive ones that use straps and clamps to keep things stable.
Keep in mind you don’t actually have to shoot from this rest. You do need to shoot in as accurate a manner as you and your rifle are capable of, but the rest is only needed for holding the rifle absolutely steady while you’re making adjustments to your optic.
Jeremy S. for TTAG
Bore Sighting
Your first step is to establish a rough zero. The only goal of this step is to land your first bullet anywhere at all on the target.
If you’re shooting a bolt action rifle, remove the bolt. If you’re shooting an AR platform rifle, remove the upper receiver, then remove the bolt carrier. With the rifle or upper (or whatever assembly contains the barrel and mounted optic) on the rest or otherwise held absolutely as rock steady as physically possible, look right down through the barrel.
Jeremy S. for TTAG
The chamber end will be a larger circle and the muzzle end a smaller one. To ensure you’re looking straight down the centerline of the bore, center that muzzle circle in the chamber circle.
Adjust your rifle rest set up until you have the target — visible through the barrel — centered in the bore. It’s more difficult to be precise with this if you have a short barrel with a large bore rather than a long barrel with a small bore, though seeing the target while using the barrel as a zero-magnification telescope is easier. Try to get your eye closer to the chamber if you’re having difficulty seeing your target through the barrel.
Once your barrel is on target, it’s time to get your rifle scope on target. DO NOT MOVE the rifle AT ALL during this process, or it won’t work.
Run the turrets until the reticle is centered on the bullseye. Usually that’s clockwise on the elevation turret to move the reticle up and clockwise on the windage turret to move the reticle right, but knowing which is which doesn’t much matter. Just turn ’em and watch the reticle move and move it to the center of the target.
Confirm that the target is still in the center of the bore when you look through the barrel.
You’re now bore sighted. This is a [very] rough zero. You can also use a laser bore sighter to accomplish this, but they’re often very difficult to spot at 100 yards in daylight. If it’s visible, though, it’s even easier than looking down the bore.
Jeremy S. for TTAG
Firing and Adjusting
Get stable — remember those fundamentals — and fire a shot. If you know your rifle and ammo combination is extremely accurate and feel confident you made a good shot, one round can suffice. If it’s a new gun or a gun that puts up a bit of a spread, fire three to five shots to create a group. You’ll use the center of this group for the next step.
Re-adjust the rest (or put the rifle back on it if you weren’t shooting from it) so the reticle is, once again, perfectly centered in the bullseye.
Jeremy S. for TTAG
Now, dial the turrets until the crosshair is on your bullet hole (or centered in your shot group).
You’re zeroed!
At least, in theory. You’ve matched up your rifle scope’s point of aim with your rifle’s point of impact, and that’s what this game is all about. It may be nice to confirm things with another shot(s), though, and do any fine-tuning that’s needed.
You may also want to consider tapping your turrets with a little tool or a round of ammo or something. Not enough to move the rifle at all, of course, but enough to unstick the widgets inside the scope just in case your hardware is old, cheap, etc. Then make sure it’s still centered on that bullet hole.
Jeremy S. for TTAG
Bingo! I got quite lucky when I chose to go through this process on camera for the video above — the confirmation shot was effectively dead-on with this ~1 MOA rifle (which I’d normally give the 5-shot group treatment). “In real life” I expect to do a final fine-tuning if I want the rifle and ammo combo to be truly dead-on zeroed.
There you have it: a straightforward zeroing process for jumping right to 100 yards, sighting in, getting your first shot on paper, and zeroing your scope quickly. And all while using as few as one single round of ammo.
This video from NightHawkInLight talks about an interesting fireproof material named Starlite, which was invented by a hairdresser, which should have changed the world, but didn’t… because the inventor was so secretive that he refused to even let samples of Starlite out of his sight, and as far as we know, he told his formula to nobody before he died in 2011.
The video host noticed that Starlite produced a foam in response to flame, which reminded him of some experiments he’d done in the past… so he went to work and came up with a formula that can be made using common household ingredients that you might have in your home right now:
Baking soda
Corn starch
Elmer’s glue
Mix up a batch that’s 90% corn starch and 10% baking soda, then add enough white glue to turn it into a putty. You’re done!
He places a thin layer on a flimsy plastic cup and shows us that a blowtorch flame won’t conduct heat through his newly-made putty.
Afterward, he tells viewers why it works… and explains why it becomes cool enough to touch just seconds after a flame has been removed from it.
Has he re-created Starlite? Nobody knows… but it’s still a really interesting material that’s easy to make, and could be just the thing for insulating a home forge — or even just blocking the heat from a soldering torch during home plumbing repairs, so you don’t set your house on fire.
Or use it along with a camp stove while backpacking, camping, etc. The possibilities, as they say, are astounding.
The Laravel team released Laravel Cashier v9.0 this week requiring an upgrade of PHP and upping the minimum Laravel version to Laravel v5.7. Learn more about the latest major release of Laravel Cashier.
It’s Christmas time, and The Predator has found its way to the North Pole, terrorizing every reindeer and elf that stands in its way. But is Santa gonna just sit there and take it? No way. Sit back and enjoy this new stop-motion holiday classic, courtesy of 20th Century Fox.
Apple’s music streaming service will soon be available to even more people with smart home devices. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to Mashable that Apple Music integration will come to “other Alexa-enabled devices soon.” This means that those who have Alexa-enabled devices that are not Amazon’s own Echo speakers will be able to listen to and control tracks and playlists from Apple Music.
Apple Music started rolling out on Echo speakers this week. The integration allows users with paid Apple Music subscriptions to connect their accounts to the Alexa mobile app and use it as their default music service. Apple Music joined Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and others already available on Echo speakers.
Setup takes only a few taps in the Alexa app: navigate to the Music page within the Settings page and then tap on Link New Service. Select Apple Music from the given options and then enable the Apple Music skill and sign in to your account using your Apple ID. Once signed in, set Apple Music as your default music service.
You can then ask Alexa on your Echo to control music playback from Apple Music. All of the usual voice commands apply, letting you play, pause, and skip tracks, listen to playlists and radio stations, and search for new music. You can even set a song from Apple Music as your alarm tone.
The expansion to non-Echo devices will excite many—likely audiophiles the most. Echo speakers are not consistent in their sound quality because different Echo models are designed for different needs (some users want to save space and go for an Echo Dot, while others care a bit more about the audio quality of the speaker and go for the standard Echo). But there are plenty of Alexa-enabled speakers made by audio companies, like the Sonos One, that audiophiles have already invested in. Those who also subscribe to Apple Music will soon be able to use Alexa on their preferred speakers to control their music.
It’s unclear which Alexa-enabled devices will get this integration first and how quickly we can expect the feature to roll out. Regardless, bringing voice controls for Apple Music to more devices helps Amazon gain more regular Alexa users. It could also help Apple convince more people to subscribe to its streaming service thanks to increased accessibility.
We already have Die Hard on our annual Christmas viewing list, but if you don’t, this official trailer that 20th Century Fox just dropped should convince you that it belongs there, right alongside A Christmas Story, Home Alone, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Elf.
By the time you hear about a research project online or in the news it’s probably already gone through countless iterations and changes. Until Morressier, however, that early stage research was done separately by researchers who barely interacted with each other.
Morressier is a service for early stage research. This means it allows researchers to “raise the profile of their conference posters, presentations and abstracts and showcase their work from the very beginning.” Because most early stage research appears at conferences few of us ever see, by making projects more visible at those conferences we all get better research.
“We focus exclusively on the findings from the earliest stage of the research process, content that was traditionally restricted to halls of universities and conferences,” said co-founder Sami Benchekroun. “By bringing this content online and making it accessible, scientists can avoid repeating their peers’ mistakes and easily build on each other’s findings.”
“We help scientists showcase and gain attribution for their previously hidden early-stage research via individual DOIs. On the basis of our content we can showcase signals and trends in science at a far earlier stage than our competitors,” he said.
The service is live now and has raised over $6 million with help from Redalpine and Cherry Ventures.
“After witnessing the vital exchange happening at academic conferences around the world firsthand, the cofounders were inspired to launch Morressier to digitize the traditionally offline research from these events and ensure the conversation continues year-round. Our aim is to help scientists make progress faster by making previously hidden early-stage research discoverable and accessible,” said Benchekroun.
I spoke to the founder at Disrupt Berlin this year. You can check out the video below.
