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Because it’s full of the Human Torch, see? Yeah, you get it. There’s not a ton of new footage here, but it does contain the first we’ve heard of Doom and the Thing talking and oh my god are they really not modulating Jamie Bell’s voice at all? It’s so weird to see and Thing and hear a teenager.
Contact the author at rob@io9.com.
via Gizmodo
The Fantastic Four Comic-Con Footage Is Here and It’s on Fire
I think this is the most impressive video that Man At Arms has ever done, and that’s saying a lot since they’ve recreated all the coolest weapons from TV shows and movies in real life. But there’s something ridiculous impressive about making a katana (stylized like the one from Kill Bill) the traditional old school Japanese way.
There is so much work in a blade and the result is absolutely stunning. It starts with using 1100 pounds of charcoal to make their own metal from ore to using 24 karat gold as a finishing touch.
via Gizmodo
Making a katana the old traditional Japanese way is so impressive
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)
Fire-starters need not be this complicated, but the Bison Airlighter still looks pretty awesome.
via Gear Junkie
Fire Starter: If Blow Torch And Hair Dryer Had A Baby
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.
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.
via Futurity
Ultrasound heals wounds fast and fights infection
No, you’re not at Comic-Con, but that doesn’t mean you have to skip this preview of Star Wars Episode VII. Disney previewed video from The Force Awakens interspersed with behind-the-scenes chatter tonight in San Diego, and you can watch it after the …
via Engadget RSS Feed
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ preview shows ‘nothing’s changed’
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.
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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via Techdirt.
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.
via Planet MySQL
How to create a rock-solid MySQL database backup & recovery strategy