Apparently, some crazy vodka-addicted Russian engineers/mechanics/crazy Ivans decided that putting together a Soviet-era truck, a gas tank, a top cockpit, and a jet turbine was something useful. Or funny. Or both. What the frak does this thing really do? What is its purpose? Apparently nobody knows. And, most probably, we will never know.

I guess I'd have to hunt this one down, and press the big red button. [Dark Roasted Blend]

Designed by Korean firm D'strict, the tech is a combination of infrared motion sensing and 3D imagery, pretty much like Microsoft's Project Natal. It's not quite as seamless as Natal, but given that it's main purpose is just to add a little flash to a cellphone announcement, we're awfully impressed—and distracted. Check out the video below for a clip of one of the announcements, and you'll see what we mean. [Fast Company]

Samsungmobile Jet making film from d'strict on Vimeo.

The video shows a very fake-looking UFO coming in over Piccadilly Circus and elephants bungee jump out of it. OK. Then they interview people who are so amazed by the thing they didn't just see.

If you're going to do something crazy in public to promote your phone, actually do it. Then again, I'm posting it, so what do I know? [Brainstorm 9 via NotCot]

The Concorde, first launched in 1977, was a joint British-French governmental venture to create a commercial, passenger supersonic jet. It ran over budget (six times over, actually) and was banned in various spots around the world (including New York City, temporarily) due to concerns over safety and the thundering sonic booms that resulted from the jet's breaking of the sound barrier. It lost a tremendous amount of money for both England and France and ran its final flight in 2003, at that point a bit outdated—the cockpit, while impressively techy in 1979, was full of analog dials and displays that looked silly in the 21st century. Only 20 Concordes were made, and there was no real motivation to update them, due both to a lack of competition and a distinct lack of profitability. Yet it was also an iconic, incredible achievement, capable of flying New York City to Paris in 3.5 hours, and still current holder of a ton of speed records.

Nothing we have now can touch it. A flight from NYC to Paris today takes over seven hours, compared to the 3.5 it took the Concorde. Plane travel has, for better or for worse, become more about economy than luxury, speed, and style. Sure, a cross-country flight on Southwest will only run you $150, but there's no thrill, no sense of the cutting-edge. The Concorde had those qualities in spades.

While researching the Concorde, I found a lot of interesting sidenotes to the story. For one, many of the same design team that created the Concorde went on to engineer the Airbus, the populist economy plane of our modern, boring times. But funniest to me is the continual hatred the British have of the French, and how it manifested in the forced alliance between the two countries to build the Concorde.

In response to a "perceived slight" by the French President Charles de Gaulle, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan pulled what I now think of as a Bushian move: He changed the spelling of "Concorde" to the more "English" Concord. Even funnier, when the British Minister for Technology, Tony Benn, later changed the spelling back, there was mass nationalistic outrage in England. To diffuse it, Benn had to specify that the reconstituted E on the end of the word stood for "Excellence, England, Europe and Entente (Cordiale)." Yeah, right, Benn. I'm sure the E stood for England. Unbelievably, this quelled the Francophobe anger, though Benn would later mutter about how ridiculous the whole mess was in his memoirs.

We'll take our iPhones over 1979's Walkmans, and thank god for internet porn. But just one time, we'd like to break the sound barrier while crossing the Atlantic.

Gizmodo '79 is a week-long celebration of gadgets and geekdom 30 years ago, as the analog age gave way to the digital, and most of our favorite toys were just being born.

Yes, apparently this is a great idea because it can be the key to obtain cheap geothermal power. These drills—created by Jared Potter—will go deep into Mother Earth to reach the magma to make geothermal energy wells. The magma will be used then to superheat water and produce electricity using steam and turbines—forever and ever—something that is impossible now even with today's state-of-the-art drilling technology.

Unlike current drilling methods, the flame-jets make holes without touching the rock itself. Potter has two prototypes so far, both with the same results. The first fires a 3200ºF hydrogen flame to heat the rock, making cracks that expand into a full hole in a matter of minutes. The other one superheats a jet of water at 7200ºF and can work at super-deep levels, with extreme pressures.

They are both in the preliminary testing stages, but as you can see in the video, they show promise. If they work, it will be great idea with—hopefully—great benefits for all of mankind.

My primitive self, however, has a funny feeling about this. You know, why do people insist on doing things that may end up badly? Don't we have enough with pandemics and the bloody Apophis and its 3,000 dark comet friends coming to destroy the planet with Pink Floyd music playing on the background soon?

Maybe Mr Potter should get a job as a birthday party magician.

Samsung calls the browser Dolfin, and it'll come to other Samsung phones in the future (okay, that's what I'm most excited about). No carrier in the US yet, but it's UTMS, so probably AT&T, if it comes here at all.

It feels surprisingly nice for an all plastic handset, and the touchscreen's pretty decent for being resistive. Ironically, the menus seem way more sluggish than you'd expect given the processing power inside. [Samsung]

Samsung Jet Specification
Network: EDGE/GPRS Class 12 (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
HSDPA 3.6Mbps (900, 2100 MHz)
Display: 3.1" 16M WVGA AMOLED
Camera: 5.0 Megapixel AF camera+ Dual Power LED
Face Detection, Smile Shot, Panorama Shot, Blink Detection,
Geo-tagging, Photo Editor
Video: D1 Video Playback/D1 30fps Video Recording
MPEG4, H.263, H.264, WMV, DivX, XviD, Video Editor
Audio: Music Player with DNSe & SRS WOW Sound Effect
Find Music, 3.5 Ear Jack, FM Radio/Recording
MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR, MIDI, SP-MIDI,
i-melody, WAV, MMF, XMF, OMA DRM v2.1, WMDRM,
DivX VOD

Value Added: In-house developed Dolfin Browser, WAP 2.0, One finger Zoom
Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, Share Pix & Mobile Widget,
A-GPS, On Board Navigation(3D Map), TouchWiz 2.0,
Motion UI, Media Gate 3D, Multi-tasking Manager
Connectivity: Bluetooth® v2.1, microUSB (USB v2.0 Hi-Speed), Wi-Fi
Memory: 2GB/8GB, External MicroSD slot (Up to 16GB)
Battery: 1,100 mAh - Talk time : 2G/492 minutes, 3G/300 minutes
- Standby : 2G/422 hours, 3G/406 hours
Size: 108.8 x 53.5 x 11.9 mm

SAMSUNG JET: ‘SMARTER THAN A SMARTPHONE'
Samsung Mobile is proud to launch the Samsung Jet - a high end innovation to mark a new chapter in full touch phones. Packed with features, Samsung Jet delivers the very best in power, speed and brilliance, all housed in a sleek and stylish design, to produce a unique touch experience.

Smart features with user-friendly interface
Samsung Jet's innovative smartphone-like features take the handset to the realms of being ‘smarter than a smartphone'. Opening up a whole new world of web experience, its high performance Dolfin web browser has been developed in-house and allows easy, super fast surfing. Samsung Jet also supports the option of multi-window browsing to surf several web pages simultaneously - up to five pages at any one time. Also, it allows for multi-window web browsing and for book marking widget to save your favourite websites. Samsung Jet features a bespoke multi-tasking manager, making it little bit easier. In addition, the multiple background download, multi-purpose address field and ad-blocker ensure users only need to focus on what they really want to. Samsung Jet is the first feature phone to adopt the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync Email system, with a more convenient user interface as a result of more streamlined push-email for business users. Breaking away from multi-touch zoom technology which requires the use of two fingers and two hands, Samsung Jet gives our consumers the ultimate in usability, portability and convenience through the brand-new concept - ‘one finger zoom,' which enables one hand operation to zoom in and out. One finger zoom can be used not only for the Internet browser, but also for Photo browser and file viewer to see TXT, PDF and PPT files in four times bigger size - all just with one finger tip while you're on the move.

An Ultra Brilliant Display with AMOLED
The Samsung Jet has a display which offers unrivalled quality and brilliance for its users. The 3.1" Samsung WVGA AMOLED display is four times sharper than a WQVGA screen. Samsung Jet's screen provides stunning, super bright and vivid images in perfect natural colours, with the very best high resolution display for viewing multimedia on the go. Samsung Jet's ultra brilliant display has a 180° viewing angle, gives a super fast touch response and is also very efficient in its power consumption. Thanks to WVGA AMOLED technology, Samsung Jet consumes 40% less energy than a mobile phone equipped with TFT-LCD display. The remarkable image quality transforms mobile content into amazing visuals. Thanks to the 480dpi brilliance in its WVGA AMOLED display, Samsung Jet provides a high quality multimedia experience, transforming mobile video into pure viewing pleasure.

Speedy Performance with an Accelerated Application Processor
Samsung Jet takes the meaning of performance in full touch mobile phones to another level with its revolutionary speed, which is all thanks to the 800MHz Accelerated Application Processor. This sophisticated high performance processor is Jet's secret to speed and versatility, integrating multiple applications into one marvelously seamless experience. Instant response from a 3D touch interface matches the speed of touch. The accelerated application processor can integrate various functions such as navigation and viewing, so users can access them all without usual lag time or blurred visuals that can disrupt the pleasure of the experience.

Intuitive Interaction with TouchWiz 2.0
To ensure the most hassle free and pure experience for its user, Samsung Jet features TouchWiz 2.0 user interface (UI), an upgrade from previous TouchWiz user interfaces seen on the F480 (Tocco in UK) and other Samsung full touch mobiles. Building on the strong reputation of the interface of the F480, Samsung Jet houses an advanced TouchWiz 2.0, giving outstanding touch capability in online browsing and a powerful and responsive reaction. Multiple applications run both seamlessly and simultaneously through the use of Jet's powerful application processor, enabling users to dip in and out of the features as they wish. With its intuitive 3D media gate UI and motion-response UI, users can enjoy a dynamic, content-based experience. The 3D media gate on Samsung Jet offers easy access to six key multimedia features, such as Photo album, Music player, Video player, FM Radio, Games and internet, all simply accessed by rolling a six sided cube UI on the screen. Samsung Jet features ‘motion gate', Samsung's own motion recognition engine which brings you access to your multimedia favorites as well as speed dialing just by tapping, tilting or flipping the handset. To enhance the usability in full touch screen, Samsung introduces ‘smart unlock', a feature which enables users to unlock the phone and execute the menu directly by drawing an alphabet letter on the screen. Users can set up the menu that they want to go to directly according to the alphabet letters from A to Z. The ‘smart unlock' technology allows users to programme their own, customised movements in order to operate the handset, bringing the ultimate in personalisation. Samsung Jet has an online widget function to access useful mobile applications and get live information such as weather, news and search engines by online widget downloading. There are more than 30 widgets already available on Samsung Jet and users can download more from the website. These include a personalisation widget to adapt the screen layout and wallpaper. A three-page main menu and three-page widget screen offer quick and easy application search and reuse.

Powerful, Fun and Easy to use Features
Samsung Jet also has an A-GPS application, to provide navigation services in life-like 3D, to convey real places, information and directions in real-time. This incorporates 3D Map Navigation, GPS on Google maps and location-Based Services. The GPS system features Geo-tagging, enabled through a Geo- magnetic sensor to send location information and updates on traffic conditions by SMS, link location information to navigation, and a compass. Samsung Jet's GPS application can run on ‘Drive to' or ‘Walk to' modes. When it comes to music, Samsung Jet's unique features give users the option to operate simultaneous playback audio and scroll through the phone's music library with superb sound quality. For video, the DVD-like video playback recording (with D1 Video Playback and D1 30fps Video Recording) enables seamless playback without residuals and the ability to instantly download and play DivX and Xvid formats without converting, resizing and lateration - all in HD-like quality on its brilliant AMOLED screen.

About Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2008 consolidated sales of US$96 billion. Employing approximately 164,600 people in 179 offices across 61 countries, the company consists of two business units: Digital Media & Communications and Device Solutions. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com

The Joint Strike Fighter, also known as the F-35 Lightning II Fighter, is the most costly project in Pentagon history, so it's a little bit problematic that some spies scampered in and nicked an unknown, but undoubtedly large, quantity of data without getting anywhere near caught. The cyber-spies encrypted the data on its way out, so nobody's really sure where they came from or where the data went, but some IP addresses have been tracked to China, prompting a little bit of back-and-forth between the DoD and the Chinese government.

A Pentagon report issued last month said that the Chinese military has made "steady progress" in developing online-warfare techniques. China hopes its computer skills can help it compensate for an underdeveloped military, the report said.

The Chinese Embassy said in a statement that China "opposes and forbids all forms of cyber crimes." It called the Pentagon's report "a product of the Cold War mentality" and said the allegations of cyber espionage are "intentionally fabricated to fan up China threat sensations."

Though the most valuable information, including data on the F-35's flight control and sensors, is inaccessible (stored on non-networked computers), nobody's really sure exactly what happened, and nobody, from the manufacturers to the researchers to the Pentagon's press team, wants to talk about it. It's a pretty alarming read, check it out. Wall Street Journal, image also via WSJ

This 720HP vehicle is the product of fiery, diesel-loving Spaniards. (It's pretty much the exact car I'd imagine our own Jesus Diaz designing.) Powered by a V12 engine, the Tramontana R-Edition goes from 0-60 in 3.6 seconds. And much of the vehicle, including the chassis, body, that fighter jet cockpit and its rims, are constructed of carbon fiber.

In other words, it's a steal at $500,000, the R-Edition's going price. And hey, if you can't afford the payments, chances are that you could outrun the authorities. [If It's Hip via Core77]

The plane will be designed to carry 12 tons of payload into orbit and return safely, without having wasted $100 million worth of throwaway rocket. The company behind this hybrid shuttle is Reaction Engines, which just got a million euros in funding to prove that its "air breathing" Sabre engine can work.

According to the BBC, the key to this engine is a super-cooler, which takes gasses entering the intake at 1000 degrees celsius, and drops them to -130 degrees C in 1/100th of a second, thanks to "arrays of extremely fine piping." God knows those rocketeers love their piping.

Though not much more is known about Skylon at this point, it's safe to say we'll hear more about it and other non-wasteful spaceships in the future. I just hope they keep that Hotblack-Desiato-meets-Naboo-cruiser look. [BBC News]

Apparently, they felt that their $45 billion dollars of bailout money entitled them to a luxurious corporate jet that features "plush interior with leather seats, sofas and a customizable entertainment center." The French-made Dassault Falcon 7X also has an impressive range of 5,950 nautical miles—meaning that it can fly as far East as Saudi Arabia and as far West as Russia.

After learning of their plans to go ahead with the purchase, Obama's officials told Citigroup execs simply to "fix it." Ohhh, man that feels good. Like a satisfying smackdown that all taxpayers can revel in. [Huffington Post via Digg]

Be sure to hit up the link to see the rest of the insane inventions in all their retro glory. [Uber-Review]

The jet exhaust is at wide angles for the helicopter application it was in. They wanted the exhaust to go away from the tail boom and have just enough velocity to keep the hot exhaust from being recirculated into the intake. The exhaust provides no thrust, it's all shaft driven but I do spray fuel into the exhaust to make some smoke and fire. It's funny how people think a jet engine isn't working properly if fire isn't spewing out the back, unless it's the engine on the passenger jet they're sitting in.

According to Chris, it can do the 1/4 mile in 11.17 seconds, and it topped at 113mph because he hasn't adjusted the rear axle ratio yet. "I have about $17,000 in the whole thing," Chris told us, "I got the turbine from a friend who deals in Government surplus. This all came about after being on the TV show 'Junkyard Wars' where i built a jet powered tricycle with a jet engine made from an old truck turbocharger." [RunRyder via Hacked Gadgets]

It's claimed that the truck now houses the largest turbine motor of any land vehicle in the world, with the ability to blow over a full-sized SUV behind it. Note to self: never, under any circumstance, park your car behind a firetruck that can likely fly into space under its own power...unless I can sneak some sweet free leftover minutes from a public meter...then it may be worth the risk. [lifeontop via crave]

Next year, Jet Pack International will release a model with 19 minutes of flight that runs on Jet-A fuel, however.–Brian Lam

Jet Packs Finally On Sale: How to Buy Your Rocket Belt [Pop Mechanics]

The Jet, designed for the active music lover, packs the biggest punch. Sporting the same 1.5-inch OLED as the Opal, the Jet is also splash-resistant and comes with a Body Mass Index calculator to help you visualize your obesity. It plays MP3, WMA and WMA/DRM files and includes an FM tuner. The 1GB Jet runs $69 while the 2GB version is $89. Also available is the Jet Stream, a 1GB wireless version of the Jet that touts "lossless" audio transmission to the headphones for $149.
Also from the RCA/Thomson family are Jensen's new JPM3005 SportFones. The SportFones also eliminate the tangle of wires by integrating a 512MB digital media player into the headphones themselves, including simple controls on the side of one earpiece. Also designed for the gym rat, the SportFones are wrapped in sweat-resistant silicone. Pick them up in a zippered carry bag in February for $69.99. – Karson Thompson

Hit the jump for a video of the world's biggest Super Soaker in action.

– Louis Ramirez
Jet Turbine Fire Extinguisher [via High T3ch]