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Growing up, I always thought the Space Shuttle was really fast. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s not really that speedy. In fact, the peak acceleration of the Shuttle was a measly 3G. A top…
via MightyMega
Fastest Sci-Fi Spaceships Ranked by Speed (Infographic)

Guns are dangerous but making a beautifully ornate gun is basically like unbelievably detailed artwork crossed with masterful machinery work. I love this video showing the steps it takes for a Holland & Holland shotgun to be made because it’s so cool to see all the different methods blend together.

The metal of the barrel, the wood of the handle, the art in the detail—it’s like a shotgun merges old world and new school technology in one.

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via Gizmodo
Video: The beautiful craftsmanship of making a shotgun

Healing times for skin ulcers and bedsores can be reduced by a third with the use of low-intensity ultrasound, a … Continued

The post Ultrasound heals wounds fast and fights infection appeared first on Futurity.

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Ultrasound heals wounds fast and fights infection

The TSA’s Secure Flight system apparently isn’t all that secure, according to the barely-readable portions of the recently-released Inspector General’s report. The TSA has a Pre-Check program that requires a ton of personal information and $85 to participate in. It also has "Secure Flight," which grants Pre-Check privileges on a case-by-case basis, for which travelers pay nothing. This simply means they won’t always find themselves in the short line, but it does call into question the need to provide a ton of information up front, much less $85 for an experience others are getting for free.

Much like everything else the TSA is nominally in charge of, it has flaws. A whistleblower report to the TSA and the Office of the Inspector General claimed that the use of a "risk-based rule" led to a "vulnerability in aviation security" back in early 2014. (This would be before the Pre-Check system allowed a convicted murder with explosives experience to bypass more rigorous screening, simply because the boarding pass included the "wave me through" checkmark.)

What this "vulnerability" was is never openly explained. There’s plenty of text in the report (28 pages of it, in fact), but everything specific is hidden under a thick layer of black ink. What we do know is that it involved boarding passes and the TSA’s "risk-based assessment" program.

As a result of the report, the TSA suspended the redacted Secure Flight "rule". This rule was apparently linked to passengers’ ability to print out their own boarding passes with the handy Pre-Check checkmark on them. Apparently, someone used someone else’s ticket or found a way to print boarding passes without providing proper ID verification. Either way, this mysterious "rule" went away, and along with it, some Pre-Check passenger privileges.

Now, the TSA is planning to add additional layers of verification to the Pre-Check/Secure Flight system. But this won’t fully go into effect until later this year. In the meantime, the "rule" remains suspended.

As a result of this redacted breach, the OIG’s office made three recommendations — which are also mostly redacted.

The first suggests the nature of the breach (or the problem with the rule) [or both].

Explore the feasibility of encrypting commercial aircraft carrier boarding passes [rest of sentence redacted].

The other two recommendations target the TSA’s upgraded credential authentication program.

The TSA pretty much disagrees with the entirety of the OIG’s assessment. Scattered between heavy redactions are various punchy odes to its pretty-much-infallible coin toss it calls "risk assessment." Scattered between other redactions are assertions that the TSA is pretty good about assessing threats and has been steadily improving for years without the OIG’s constant nagging.

But before it heads into that, the OIG declares the TSA to be "responsive" to its first recommendation, even though it didn’t do anything more than declare the recommendation too expensive and too difficult.

Management Response to Recommendation #1: TSA officials did not concur with Recommendation 1. In its response, TSA said in 2012 it explored the cost and feasibility of encrypting commercial aircraft carrier boarding passes [redacted]. After engaging industry stakeholders, TSA decided not to adopt this approach because of limited data fields in some air carrier systems and encrypting boarding pass barcodes is cost prohibitive. TSA said it decided to pursue a more practical and affordable solution using a digital signature.

Nothing’s too good for the USofA! I mean, nothing’s too practical and affordable. So, let’s just use a "digital signature" because it’s pretty much just as secure, right?

Now, we just have to assess the wisdom of the TSA’s estimation of itself in light of this new (but very limited) information. It thinks it’s doing a bang-up job making flying more secure. TSA head John Pistole frequently mentions the many programs it uses in addition to pre-flight scanning/screening, most of which have been determined by others to have a 50% hit rate.

On one hand, its screeners managed to miss 95 out 100 prohibited items during a recent assessment of its screening protocols. (But, man, it was all over that bag of cash, wasn’t it!) On the other hand, its long-running ineptitude has yet to result in mass hijackings. It fails at the thing it does the most of (patdowns, screenings) and its more intangible efforts (risk assessment) haven’t proven to be any more accurate than its in-person patdowns. In totality, we have a self-important entity whose presence is hardly justified. It appears air travel would be roughly as safe without the TSA’s multiple encroachments. What it argues works well actually doesn’t, and new issues are dismissed as not being worth the effort/expense to fix.

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TSA Blows Off Inspector General’s Suggestion Boarding Pass Information Be Encrypted

Have you ever wondered what could happen if your MySQL database goes down?Although it’s evident such a crash will cause downtime – and surely some business impact in terms of revenue – can you do something to reduce this impact?The simple answer is “yes” by doing regular backups (of course) but are you 100% sure that your current backup strategy will really come through when an outage occurs? And how much precious time will pass (and how much revenue will be lost) before you get your business back online?I usually think of backups as the step after HA fails. Let’s say we’re in M<>M replication and something occurs that kills the db but the HA can’t save the day. Let’s pretend that the UPS fails and those servers are completely out. You can’t failover; you have to restore data. Backups are a key piece of “Business Continuity.” Also factor in the frequent need to restore data that’s been altered by mistake. No ‘WHERE’ clause or DROP TABLE in prod instead of DEV. These instances are where backups are invaluable.Let’s take some time and discuss the possible backup strategies with MySQL…  how to make backups efficiently and also examine the different tools that are available. We’ll cover these topics and more during my July 15  webinar: “Creating a Best-in-Class Backup and Recovery System for Your MySQL Environment” starting at 10 a.m. Pacific time.On a related note, did you know that most online backups are possible with mysqldump and you can save some space on backups by using simple Linux tools? I’ll also cover this so be sure to join me next Wednesday. Oh, and it’s a free webinar, too!Stay tuned!The post How to create a rock-solid MySQL database backup & recovery strategy appeared first on MySQL Performance Blog.
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How to create a rock-solid MySQL database backup & recovery strategy

At Yahoo, we manage a massive number of MySQL databases spread across multiple data centers. In order to identify and respond to performance issues, we rely on an extremely lightweight and robust web based tool to proactively investigate the issues in them.The tool has real time tracking features and continually gathers the most important performance metrics, provides visualization and statistical analysis for quickly identifying performance patterns, bottlenecks and possible tuning opportunities.FeaturesLightweight Agentless Java Web ApplicationRich User InterfaceGather and Store performance metrics Detect anomalies and send alertsAccess to Real time Performance dataOpen SourceToday, we’re releasing MySQL Performance Analyzer. You can check out the code on GitHub.We’re looking forward to interacting with the MySQL community and continue to develop new features. – MySQL Database Engineering Team, Yahoo
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Introducing MySQL Performance Analyzer

A knife is the most essential and useful tool you can take with you into the outdoors. But, do you know how to get the most out of one? Let’s go over the basics and show you all the stuff a knife can do.

Want to get started using a knife outdoors? The basic Mora Companion in carbon steel costs less than $15 and excels at any job described here. Spend more on a knife because you want to, not because you need to. The Mora is also very light, making it a great companion (har) for ultralight backpackers.

I’ll be demonstrating all this with an Esee-6, my favorite bushcraft blade. This is one I’ve owned for eight years or more and which has served well on numerous adventures. For 10 times the price of the Mora, you get a longer, thicker, broader blade made from better steel, as well as a full-tang design that bolts the comfy linen micarta handles to its outside.

Knife Safety

Being in the outdoors creates its own safety concerns. Often, you can find yourself a long ways from medical care or even other people. So getting hurt is a bad idea. And further exacerbating the danger are often fatigue, inclement weather and unfamiliar or tricky terrain. So, it may seem elementary, but using a knife safely is of paramount concern.

For this reason, I strongly recommend you carry a fixed-blade knife in the outdoors. Even the strongest folding mechanisms and locks can break, either leaving you with a non-functional tool or badly cutting your hands.

Always keep a knife in its sheath. Laying it on the ground or stabbing it into a piece of wood can result in injury should you fall onto it or trip over it or otherwise knock into it. Use the knife, then return it to its sheath. Every single time.

Before drawing the knife, ensure you aren’t holding the sheath where the blade could potentially cut through it and into your hand. And, make sure your hand isn’t on the sharp side, where the blade may cut it as it comes free.

Draw the knife in two stages: first loosen the blade in its sheath by taking hold of the handle with a forehand grip and pushing against the sheath with your thumb. Then, wrap your thumb back around the handle and slowly and deliberately pull the knife straight up and out of the sheath, then away from your body.

Always move the knife in a slow, considered and deliberate way. Do so at least an arm’s length from other people, while you have a secure footing or seat. Retain a strong grip on the handle. Make sure any knife movements carry it away from your body and that no limbs or fingers or other body parts will be in the knife’s path should it suddenly break free.

Never stab with a knife. Doing so can cause your hand to slip down onto the blade, cutting it badly. Doing so can also ruin a knife’s tip. If you must perform a stabbing motion (such as to open a can), locate the object being stabbed securely on flat ground, place the knife straight down on top of it, make sure your feet and legs are out of the way, hold its handle securely, then tap its pommel with a piece of wood. With any operation, only use enough force to accomplish the job.

Everyone should carry and use their own blade, that they’re responsible for maintaining, sharpening and caring for. But, if you must pass your knife to someone else, start with a forehand grip and rotate the knife between your forefinger and thumb so its handle faces the other person and the edge is pointed up, away from your arm and hand. Pass it to them and allow them to securely grasp it before releasing. Some acknowledgement from the other party that they now securely have a hold on the knife is a good idea. Just say, “thank you.”

Never throw a knife. Doing so can easily result in a lost or broken blade and they can bounce back towards you with surprising force.

Finally, regularly sharpen your knife to keep it as sharp as possible. Regular maintenance is far easier a task than bringing a dull blade back to life. And, because using it requires far less force, a sharper blade is always going to be a safer blade.

If you’re sitting down while using a knife, place your elbows on your knees to ensure the knife clears your legs.

All this may seem a little pedantic, but being deliberate, considered and careful with how you use a knife is a lot better than hiking back to civilization across multiple days, carrying a lost finger in one of your pockets.

Knife Grips

Outdoors, the vast majority of things you’ll use a knife for will be food prep, opening packages, cutting cord, in assistance of first aid or processing wood for fire or shelter making.

For the vast majority of those tasks, a forehand grip, where the knife is closed in your fist, with the edge facing the first joint on your fingers, is going to be what you use. For fine control during small tasks, moving your thumb or index finger to the top of the blade’s back can help. For power, you’ll want to fully close your fist around the knife’s handle.

It’s a good idea when considering the purchase of a knife to ensure that you can fully close your fist around the handle. Many bullshit tacticool, oversized blades now come with overly large handles. You know, because not being able to hold your knife properly is super manly.

Some knives, as pictured, place a finger choil in front of the handle. You can choke your grip up on the blade to place your forefinger here for added control during fine cutting. Just be warned that you lose some purchase on the knife in doing so; don’t choke up for heavy tasks.

When cutting cordage (rope, vines, paracord, shoe laces, tape, whatever) you may want to use a reverse grip, where the edge points towards the join of your thumb. The key to using this grip safely is to pull with your shoulder (for lesser power) or torso (for more) and not your arm. This moves you with the knife as it comes towards you, allowing your arm to keep it from closing the distance to your body.

Bushcraft experts like Ray Mears are big proponents of the chest lever grip, which facilitates both lots of power and lots of control for difficult cuts, while keeping the knife moving away from your body. To do this, it employs your strong back muscles as you pull your hands apart. Personally, I rarely feel the need, but it’s still a good grip to know. Mears says you should hold the blade with the edge pointed in the reverse direction to the forehand grip, pointed up towards your knuckles.

Knife Uses

Chopping: Using a forehand grip, place the knife against the wood you want to get through, then use a wooden “baton” of about wrist thickness to drive the blade through the wood. Do this in the same wedge pattern you’d use to chop with an axe or hatchet. A knife will take longer to perform this job, but is easier to carry.

Splitting: Again with a forehand grip (make sure your fist is closed), place the knife’s blade over the wood you want to split, in the same direction as the grain and taking advantage of any splits or gaps that may already be there. Then, use that same baton to whack the protruding tip of the knife while exerting equal downward pressure on the handle. The longer a knife is, the larger the wood it will span. To split a large log with a small knife, simply split off little fractions of it, around the edges.

Carving: Want to put a point on a peg? Sit or kneel with one leg raised as a working surface. Hold the wood in one hand, with the hand braced on that leg and using a forehand grip with a closed fist, carve away from your leg and body. Think about the natural path of your forearm as you straighten it and use that natural travel and strength to your advantage. With force, a carve will remove a lot of wood. With care, a carve will remove very thin slices of wood; this is how you make a feather stick for fire starting. Putting the end of the stick against something will help maintain fine control if you’re doing that.

Slicing: First, find a log or similar flat surface on which to cut. Think: cutting board, this is just like food prep at home. Then, using a forehand grip with your thumb or forefinger on top of the blade, hold it at an angle and draw it through the material being sliced. Make sure your body is out of the way.

Cutting With Power: Using the chest lever grip, securely hold the stick or limb being cut and use your back muscles to draw the blade through it. Go hard, making sure your knees and other people are out of the way.

Cutting With Control: Again use the chest lever grip, but instead work your way around the stick being cut, carving a continuous wedge-shaped notch. Your opposite thumb may help there.

Drilling: Need to put a hole in something? Place the object on a secure surface (like a log) that the knife will be ok poking into. Using the forehand grip with a closed fist, place the tip of the knife where you want the hole, apply pressure and twist the knife back and forth. Be very careful not to apply so much pressure that you may lose your grip and cause your hand to slide down onto the blade.

These are the basic moves you’ll use with a knife; combing them gives you the ability perform more complex tasks like fire making, shelter building and food preparation.

What do you use a knife for outdoors and how do you do it?

IndefinitelyWild is a new publication about adventure travel in the outdoors, the vehicles and gear that get us there and the people we meet along the way. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

via Lifehacker
How To Use A Knife Outdoors