"This year we have 125 partipants," show organizer Frank Tiano told us, "with 40 hobby vendors and coverage from 35 magazined from all over the world." In a good weather day, Top Gun gets 10,000 drooling spectators.

Looking at the detail and size of these beasts, we can understand exactly why.

Frank also confirmed to us that the A-10 featured in Popsci.com was going to participate in the competition, as well as many other new entries. So if you are around, it's a complete must, Maverick's glasses not required (but recommended.) [Top Gun—photos by Palmer Johnson, DVD video available from Wildberry Productions]

NOTE: if you're planning on assisting the Top Gun 2008 event, contact us at tips@gizmodo.com if you want to collaborate with us.

On August 31, 2007 an Air Force crew accidentally loaded six live nuclear warheads into a B-52 Stratofortress—stationed in the Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota—believing they were conventional cruise missiles. The weapons were missing, without anyone noticing it, for 36 hours until the B-52 landed in Louisiana.

According to the Pentagon, this happened because the nuclear weapons were stored right next to conventional ones, with just an "8.5 x 11-inch sheet of printed paper to differentiate between the two types." I guess the paper was ignored by the ground crew. I also guess that the paper said something like "Maybe this is bad. Really. No touchy! Noooo touchy!" instead of "NUCLEAR WARHEAD INSIDE. DON'T TOUCH UNLESS INSTRUCTED BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF, YOU MORON" because, otherwise, I just can't understand their mistake.

The report goes on saying that "part" of the problem is that nobody really has absolute control of the nuclear weapons in the US arsenal after the demise of Strategic Air Command. After the fall of the Soviet Union, SAC was split in 1992 into three different commands: the Air Force Space Command (which grabbed ICBM control,) the Air Combat Command (in charge of the bombers themselves) and the Air Mobility Command, which "provides airlift, special missions, aerial refueling, and aeromedical evacuation for U.S. troops." Furthermore, the Air Force nuclear capability is also under the control of the USSTRATCOM, along with the Navy's submarine nuclear ballistic missiles.

The report, however, then says that this "near disaster" was a "human error" because there are tight rules in place that weren't followed. Col. West Anderson, second in charge of the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale AFB in Louisiana, added that they "handle weapons safely and ensure the highest possible standards of individual reliability and professional competence." I guess that means that the crew at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota are a bunch of incompetent monkeys, but his guys are A-OK. However, it all seems that they are just glad that nothing bad happened, so they can get away saving their asses.

Despite this "human error" excuse, their explanation leaves me with the impression that nobody has a real, definitive grasp of where every nuke is except probably Matthew Broderick and the WOPR. Their conclusion doesn't help either: the Air Force treats nukes the same as disarmed missiles when verifying armament, and there's "no written directive that specifically described the required identifying means" to make the distinction before loading the weapons into the bombers.

In other words: there are rules which are not followed, but they need more rules in writing. Perhaps they just need to stop playing Warhawk in their PlayStation 3 and start printing clearer warning signs. [Military.com, Wikipedia]

Steampunkish? You bet. Still, I bet he can kick Hulk's ass. At least for two minutes. Iron Monger, un cappuccino, prego? [io9 and Toysrevil]

And yes, I like to say "swede." I like swedes, some of my best friends are swedes, and I want to move to Sweden. I can't have enough of the TIE Fighters here either.

[StarWars Blog]

It looks like an actual biological quadruped. Seeing it climb through rubble, snow, jumping over obstacles like a wild goat, and saving a near-fall on iced ground at the last second (fast forward to the middle of the video) defies belief. It feels so "animal" that I almost feel bad when they hit it to demonstrate how it regains balance on its own.

The new version of the robot can now carry 340 pounds, which is almost triple the previous weight. It looks to me that that $10 million funding they got from Darpa has been put to good use. [IEEE]

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]

We will have to wait until it's released to see how it works into a humble PC, but I can't wait to turn my three-meter-wide projection screen into the bridge of the Enterprise. [TED]

Located in the atrium of the 5-star Radisson SAS Hotel in Berlin Mitte, the $18.8 million aquarium is 36 feet in diameter and sits on a 29.5-foot-tall concrete foundation. Without a doubt, the most impressive thing about the aquarium from an engineering point of view is the glass surface. Built by Reynolds Polymer Technology, it required 41 R-Cast pannels, 26 for the outside cylinder and 15 panels for the inside, plus 16 on-site bonds. The precision of the work, required to hold that water volume and pressure, it's amazing. Reynolds is specialized in creating this kind of aquarium, among other things, which other jewels like the AB Baltic Mega Mall Aquarium, which holds 43,000 gallons of water but has reef sharks, or the aquariums of the famous the Burj-Al-Arab tower, in Dubai.

It was built in 2003, but we just came across it as we prepare our trips to CeBIT 2008, which is going to happen in Hannover on March but will serve as a perfect excuse to jump to Berlin in order to see friends for the weekend.

Needless to say, the Radisson SAS Hotel Berlin is going to be one of our destinations, hopefully staying in one of the rooms that overlook this awesome piece of engineering. And I will get my diving computer, just in case we can convince the pair of full-time divers that clean and feed the fish every day to let us dive for 30 minutes. [Flickr, Radisson SAS Hotel Berlin, Reynolds Polymer and Wikipedia via Below the clouds]

It's Toy Fair 2008 and Rob Foster is looking for what figures and models to get next. Every year, companies like Hasbro, LEGO or Gentle Giant release new products related to Rob's favorite toy franchise ever: Star Wars.

Jesús Díaz: Hello Rob, stunning collection. The sheer scale, all those figures forming on the shelves, the models hanging everywhere, even all that LEGO stuff... it's just amazing. As I was going through each image, my only thought was: "omfg, it can't be real." So first of all: how many figures does your collection have?

Rob Foster: In terms of 3 3/4" figures, I'd say that there are a little under 2,000 open figures, and 800 or so that are still in the packaging.

JD: When it all started?
RF: I started collecting in 1995 when Hasbro brought the line back. I was 15 at the time.

JD: Long time. How much do you calculate it is all worth now? Something along the lines of the Transformers $1,000,000 collection?
RF: To be honest, I have no idea. The vintage and Gentle Giant products do well when you're trying to sell them, but the modern stuff is over-produced compared to the 1970's and '80s. It's not about making money, so I don't worry about that.

JD: You mention overproduction and I see that you really enjoy getting massive numbers of troopers as well as different models... inside all this plastic horde, are there any favorites?
RB: Probably my favorite is actually the custom vintage Gargan. She was the fat dancer in Jabba's palace and was set to be made into the vintage line before it fell apart in the mid '80s. She was sculpted by Ryan Shaw to match the vintage style, and to my knowledge only about 25 of them were made.

JD: What's the oldest one?
RF: The oldest ones are the first series of vintage toys that came out with the movie in 1977.

JD: And your latest acquisition?
RF: I've slowed down a bit recently, but the latest items I picked up were Hasbro's new wave of figures, the 2008 models, wave 1.

JD: What's the one that took longer to collect? You know, the one(s) you really went the extra mile to grab.
RF: I've been very picky about the loose vintage set. I've been working on it off and on for about six or seven years now. It's taken a long time because they have to be perfect when it comes to paint chips and discoloration. Also, the accessories have to be original vintage too, no reproductions. I hope to get into that later this year.

JD: So no reproductions whatsoever, all originals... what about custom pieces from independent model makers?
RF: Apart from Gargan, I've stayed away from customs for the most part.

JD: How often do you get there figures? Or in other words, are you done yet?
RF: I'm certainly not done yet. I've been slowing down because I'm running out of room (everything has to be contained in that one room), but I want to get more into collecting vintage, and as long as Hasbro keeps making a solid product, I'll stick with the new figures too.

JD: Do you think this is the most complete Star Wars figure collection in the world... or about to get that title, this side of Skywalker Ranch?
RF: No, not at all. A lot of people tell me that it's way up there, but I've seen some pretty incredible collections over the years, lots of them with much more money sunk into them.

JD: I also see you have the LEGO stuff; do you have them all?
RF: I don't have everything Lego has put out, I've just picked up those here and there. The Ultimate Collector Series on the other hand, I actively collect. I just need to get around to buying the Death Star and Naboo Fighter to have them all.

Once you are inside the gallery, check the other pages to access the 134 images. The interview continues below, after the gallery

JD: I see the Ultimate Collectors... and the Falcon. How long did it take you to build it?
RF: I'm guessing it took about 25-30 hours. I worked on it for a weekend and then in evenings after work for a few days.

JD: I see you have many of the figures in their package yet. Does every figure (or almost every one of them) have the equivalent still inside the original packaging?
RF: If a figure came on a regular card, I have it open and in the package. If it came in a big box like with a vehicle or a 5-pack, I only have them opened.

JD: I think the only question left is how the heck do you support this amazingly dedicated hobby—what's your job?
RF: I work in the Art Department at a visual effects / animation studio called Reel FX Creative Studios although my department is now being called "Radium Dallas") doing Motion Graphics work. We do a lot of commercials, but the most recent thing that I worked on that had anything to do with movies, was the opening credits for Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. I animated about half of it.

JD: And what does your other half thing about this?
RB: She's great about it. When my girlfriend and I started shopping for a home, the only thing I asked for was an extra room to put the toys in. She fell in love with this place we live in now, which only has one bedroom and one large main room. I told her the toys were going in the bedroom, and she said that was just fine. So that's our shared bedroom and has been for the last five years. She's a champ!

Indeed, she is. In fact, I can guarantee Rob—whose favorite Star Wars movie is Empire Strikes Back and recently bought a Blu-ray player, just in time—that if she is going through all this, they will go through everything together. Or at least, that's what I tell myself every time I look at all that LEGO. [Jedi Defender]

Playskool says that Kota has sensors in eleven parts of his body that react to the touch and trigger different motions—including some cute horny action—and sounds. They say that the thing will even munch on special leafs, Cookie Monster style. Seriously, this is one of those toys which makes me want to have a three-year-old body rather than just a three-year-old brain. Expect a full butts-on and horny tickling this weekend, live from New York's Toy Fair 2008. [Playskool]

Witness the obliterating power and sheer magnificence of the new Sony CineAlta 4K SRX-R220, the projector that can display 8.850.000 pixels of ultra high definition footage in movie theaters, crazy rich people's home theaters and probably be integrated as deathly weaponry in any space battle station.

This technological terror is the latest iteration of Sony's SXRD (Silicon X-tal Reflective Display) line. Like the SRX-R1xx series it still can't reach 10 megapixels, but it comes loaded with more gear than the Death Star itself: LMT-100 media processor, LMS-100 screen management system, a gazillion gigabytes of RAID storage and uninterruptible power supply are all built-in.

More photos, so you can see the scale of the SRX-R210/R220, full specs, price and availability after the jump.

The projector itself has 4096 x 2160 pixels resolution with a 2000:1 contrast and 14 foot Lambert brightness (a whooping 47,964 cd/m2, according to Sony's site). The SRX-R220 model can fully cover a 20 meter screen (65.6 feet) with its 4.2W xenon lamp while the R110 goes up to 17 meters with a 3.0W and 14 meters with a 2.0W lamp.

The LMT-100 media processor (or Media Block, as Sony calls it) is in charge of pushing all those pixels to the screen, upscaling in case the original material is lower resolution, decrypting the content so no kids can put a couple of terabytes of UltraHD material on BitTorrent, process the multi-channel audio and even place subtitles on the fly using XML or PNG files. Beyond connecting all kinds of video gear using BNC connectors you can also connect a computer, PlayStation 3 or AppleTV using a DVI port. You know, just for fun.

The SRX-R220 and SRX-R210 has prices starting at $126,540, pop-corn machine and Golden Flavor dispenser not included. Expect to see it in a theater near you at the end of 2007 or 2008, because it will be available for sale from May 2007. – Jesus Diaz

Product page (japanese) [Sony via Impress AV Watch]