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Flight Review

When I first sat down to watch Flight, I was anticipating a disaster movie. I got one, but not quite in the manner I expected.

I'm going to clarify straight away: this is a film about addiction. This is a film about alcoholism and drug abuse and the incredible damage it can do to a person and their relationships and their life in general. Denzel Washington, playing main character Captain "Whip" Whittaker, absolutely excels in this role, and I would recommend you see it just for his performance.

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Dutch Engineer Takes To The Skies On Custom-Built 'Human Birdwings'
Science, news Jason England Science, news Jason England

Dutch Engineer Takes To The Skies On Custom-Built 'Human Birdwings'

The tale of Daedalus and Icarus engineering two pairs of flying wings out of feathers and wax to escape exile imprisonment at the hands of King Minos is one likely familiar to you all. Icarus might have ultimately failed in his attempt to save himself by flying too close to the sun – upon melting the wax that affixed feathers to his arms - but we humans seem to be fascinated by the idea of real human flight, outside of twin-engines and rocket-powered boosters of course. It’s an almost romanticised idea, being able to stretch your arms and go wherever you so choose, ill-constrained by gravity rooting you to terra firma. If a viral video is to be believed however, it is possible and Belgian engineer Jarno Smeets has achieved it.

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iPhone 4 spontaneously combusts

It was your pretty standard Regional Express flight from Lismore to Sydney...well up until a passenger's mobile phone self-combusted shortly after landing.

Luckily the phone wasn't in the passenger's trouser pocket at the time, and no people on board were harmed.  After the plane landed, the iPhone started to glow red and emit a dense cloud of smoke, which the Flight Attendant was quick to extinguish.

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World's first manned multicopter/flying human blender takes to the skies

Had to be quite a brave chap to do this.  Four quadrocopters propelled a human into the skies, and into the aviation history books last week in Germany.

Plenty of fantastic achievements have been made with some copters, motion sensors, gyroscopes and some intuitive design and programming; but to make a craft which could be ridden is something that didn't really cross our mind, probably because of the vain possibility of a Mortal Kombat-esque fatality of dismemberment and further dismemberment of the aforementioned dismembered through the collection of propellors you see surrounding the partakee.

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