… NASA Still Stumped, Stonehenge Village, Spider-bots, Ghostbusters Ecto-1 for Sale and MORE!

As of this morning, Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog predicts an early spring. Which leads us to what is clearly the biggest news in the international scientific community this week… .

Very Likely is Stark
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations’ paramount scientific authority on global warming, has delivered its starkest warning yet.

Scientists from 113 countries issued a landmark report today saying they have little doubt global warming is caused by man. The scientists said global warming was “very likely” caused by human activity, a phrase that translates to a more than 90 percent certainty that it is caused by man’s burning of fossil fuels. That is the strongest conclusion to date, dealing a crippling blow to the shrinking body of opinion that claims natural forces, rather than man-made causes, are to blame.

The Associated Press reports:

The 21-page report […] only addresses how and why the planet is warming, not what to do about it. Another report by the panel later this year will address the most effective measures for slowing global warming.

Now Hiring: ‘Engineering Leaders Wanted’
The founder of Amazon.com has put out the “help wanted” sign for talented engineers who want to help build a rocket ship.

Jeff Bezos, the Internet billionaire, recently has been working on a hush-hush aerospace project called Blue Origin. Earlier this month, Bezos offered a taste of some of his team’s development on a new sub-orbital spacecraft series, dubbed the New Shepard program — a vertical take-off, vertical-landing vehicle designed to take a small number of astronauts on a sub-orbital journey into space. And he has issued a hiring call for engineers and managers:

Blue Origin is actively hiring. We are particularly looking for experienced propulsion engineers and experienced turbomachinery engineers, as well as a senior leader to head our turbopump group. Folks with turbopump or propulsion experience on large, modern, cryogenic engines such as the RS-68 are of particular interest. Another high priority for us is an experienced leader for our structures team. Structures experience on large, modern vehicles such as Delta IV or Atlas V is of particular interest.

Missing Apollo Moon Tapes, Pt. II
In August, we told you about how the original recordings of the 1969 Apollo Moon landings went missing from the Goddard Space Flight Center. To recap: The tapes, which were originally stored at Goddard, were taken to the U.S. National Archives without any explanation in 1970. In 1984, about 700 boxes of tapes were returned to Goddard along with documents stating that the tapes were withdrawn. When an Australian scientist requested the tapes for a study about Australia’s participation in the Apollo Mission, NASA told him the tapes were missing. An “intense search” was then underway to find them.

This we reported in August.

Now, after months of the aforementioned intense search for the historic tapes, we finally have an update: NASA still doesn’t know where the damn tapes are.

Remains of Village Found Near Stonehenge
Evidence of a large settlement full of houses dating back to 2600 BC has been discovered near the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge in southwest England, scientists said on Tuesday. They suspect inhabitants of the houses, forming the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain, built the stone circle at Stonehenge — generally thought to have been a temple, burial ground or an astronomy site — between 3000 and 1600 BC.

The houses measured about 5 meters (16 feet) square and were located in a small valley north of Stonehenge that leads down to the River Avon. They are on either side of an avenue that leads from the river to a wooden version of Stonehenge.

“We think we are looking at the village of the builders of Stonehenge,” New Scientist reports Mike Parker Pearson, a professor of archaeology at Sheffield University, as having said.

No word yet on the discovery of preserved dancing dwarves.

Super Bowl Staple
Employees of Monarch Beverage Company will be enjoying a long weekend with some free beer, as the company has told all 630 employees that they can stay home the day after the Super Bowl. The beer-and-wine distributor decided to make Monday a paid holiday and sent workers home yesterday and today with a sixer of Blue Moon beer and a Super Bowl T-shirt, reports The Associated Press. Company officials say they decided to make Monday a holiday after they fielded more requests for time off than they could grant.

Also, GovPro reports: In Des Moines, Iowa, customer Michelle Marie Engler, 45, was arrested for public intoxication at the Big Tomato Pizza restaurant after boisterously demanding to know why her food was taking so long. An employee explained that she hadn’t ordered yet.

Spiders, Robots, Spider-bots!
Ken Rinaldo, of Ohio State University’s Art and Technology program, says he began to wonder if you could create a rule-driven group consciousness using the same system that ants use to track food from their nest.

Writes ConnectPress’s John Myers at Pro/E Community:

Ants send messages by leaving chemical trails that other ants can follow. This is how they create long trails of ants following each other from the nest to food and back. Essentially, they leave a series of signals from one point to another.

After making the connection, Rinaldo realized the potential in building robots that used the same kind of communication system.

“I created a robot leg with a sort of servo mechanics,” says Rinaldo. “Each time the legs pull themselves into the right position, the plastic pushes the leg into a new position. The six legs let them have what’s called a tripodic gate.”

According to ConnectPress:

The robots are designed to recognize when they are “hungry” for more battery power and to use the ultrasonic eye to find an available recharge station. The recharge station has a beacon that the eye can detect and rails to guide the robot to charging point. Rinaldo says the robots then use an internal compass and Bluetooth communication system to guide other robots to the recharge station.

Rinaldo, who imagined the robots as part of a conceptual art exhibit, is mostly self-taught in the field of robotics and engineering.

See the video.

In the Market for a New Car? Who ‘Ya Gonna Call?!?!
Hemmings has a Ghostbusters Ecto-1 car up for sale, priced at a whopping $149,998, notes Tech E Blog.

According to Hemmings.com’s for-sale page:

All the mechanics were rebuilt with updates, including a vintage air conditioning system and heavy duty alternator. Show quality paint on a rust free body. All new interior, brilliant chrome. All emergency lights work and so desirable siren with its signature sound. A turn key, dependable auto that’s great for parades, exhibitions or your own personal collection.

Fine print: The Professional Society 1959 Cadillac is an Ecto-1 replica. However, before it became Ecto-1, it also was used in the Sidney Poitier/Rod Steiger film “In the Heat of the Night.”

Manufacturing Racing Wheels
RAYS Engineering is a Japanese manufacturer of high-tech wheels, currently supplying wheels to winning factory race teams of Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Mazda in racing series such as JGTC (Japan Grand Touring Car Championship), JTCC (Japan Touring Car Championship), BTCC (British Touring Car Championship), Formula 3000 and Formula 1.

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at how RAYS Racing Wheels are manufactured:

Cheers.