There have been a couple of high-profile solar eclipses lately, but like us, you probably missed the news of the one that passed over Munich in 2019. And every day since then, in fact, unless you were sitting in a particular spot: the couch of one [Bernd Kraus], who has his very own personal eclipse generator.
We’ll attempt to explain. Living in an apartment with a gorgeous western view of Munich is not without its cons, chief among which is the unobstructed exposure to the setting sun. Where most people would opt for a window treatment of some sort to mitigate this, [Bernd] felt that blotting out the entire view was a heavy-handed solution to the problem. His solution is a window-mounted X-Y gantry that dangles a cutout of the moon in just the right place to blot out the sun. An Arduino uses the time and date to calculate the position of the sun as it traverses the expansive window and moves the stepper motors to keep the moon casting its shadow in just the right place: on his face as he sits in his favorite spot on the couch.
There are a couple of time-lapse sequences in the video below, as well as a few shots of the hardware. We know this isn’t an actual coronagraph, but the effect is pretty cool, and does resemble an eclipse, at least in spirit. And it goes without saying that we applaud the unnecessary complexity embodied by this solution.
In the annals of ambitious engineering projects, few have captured the imagination and courted controversy quite like Gerald Bull’s Supergun. Bull, a Canadian artillery expert, envisioned a gun that could shoot payloads directly into orbit. In time, his ambition led him down a path that ended in both tragedy and unfinished business.
Depending on who you talk to, the Supergun was either a new and innovative space technology, or a weapon of war so dangerous, it couldn’t be allowed to exist. Ultimately, the powers that be intervened to ensure we would never find out either way.
First Shots Fired
Gerard Bull, pictured at the Space Research Institute at McGill University in 1964. Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0
Gerald Bull was born in 1928 in Ontario, Canada. After a tumultuous youth, his uncle was able to find him a place at the University of Toronto at the age of sixteen. Where his uncle suggested the medical school, Bull requested a position in the newly established aeronautical engineering course. After passing an interview, he was able to begin his tertiary studies in the field at the age of sixteen.
He would go on to graduate in 1948, a strictly average student that had done little to distinguish himself during his period at the university. However, his energy and passion would eventually see him admitted to further study at the Institute of Aerodynamics, where he studied the design of advanced wind tunnels.
This academic pursuit laid the groundwork for his future endeavors. While finishing his PhD in 1950, Bull would eventually be nominated for military work with the Defence Research Board. That led to his position with the Canadian Armament Research and Development Establishment, where he dived into the world of advanced artillery technology.
He began exploring the use of artillery guns for supersonic aerodynamic research, as a cheaper alternative to building high-speed wind tunnels. Later on, he would go on to develop the High Altitude Research Project (HARP), a joint Canadian-American initiative aimed at exploring ballistics at extremely high altitudes.
Kicking off in the 1960s, HARP’s most notable achievement was the creation of a massive gun capable of firing projectiles into the stratosphere, setting the stage for Bull’s lifelong obsession with superguns.
His early experiments with HARP demonstrated the potential of using artillery to reach the upper atmosphere, though the project was eventually shuttered due to financial and political pressures. The project developed a 16.4 inch (41.6 cm) smooth-bore gun which was installed for testing in Barbados.
By 1962, HARP was firing 330 pound (150 kilogram) finned projectiles at over 10,000 feet per second (3000 m/s), reaching altitudes of 215,000 feet (65 kilometers). The project was funded by using the projectiles to capture meteorological data in the upper atmosphere.
Aiming Higher
The seeds for Bull’s later work on the infamous Supergun were sown during these formative years. His desire was not just to shoot projectiles into the upper atmosphere, but to fire them so fast that they could actually reach orbit. His idea to achieve this was simple — he’d use a large gun to fire a projectile high into the atmosphere, where it would then ignite a rocket to boost its velocity further.
Bull’s SRC was in the arms trade, with the company desinging and manufacturing the GC-45 howitzer for multiple customers. Credit: Sturmvogel 66, CC BY-SA 3.0
Well, simple enough on paper, anyway. But achieving this feat was altogether more complex in reality. Bull began investigating the concept during his time at the HARP project. There, he developed rocket-assisted projectiles that could be fired from an artillery gun without damage to the solid fuel propellant.
Plans centered around a small multi-staged rocket called the Martlet. It was to be fired from a 16.4 inch (41.6 cm) gun that was assembled by joining two existing naval cannons together into one massive barrel a full 110 feet (33.5 meters) long. Sadly, HARP’s funding began to dry up towards the end of the 1960s, and a change of government sealed the project’s fate.
Bull ended up going out on his own, establishing the Space Research Corporation (SRC) to pursue his goals. The company operated as an artillery consultancy for international clients, including the Canadian and US military. He developed improved rifling techniques which helped give military artillery longer range and better accuracy. SRC and Bull would go on to sell shells and guns to states all around the world. On the side, he continued to develop his orbital gun technology.
A small barrel section from Project Babylon exists in the collection of the Imperial War Museum, Duxford. Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0
The culmination of Bull’s work came in the late 1980s with the Supergun project. After serving jail time in the US for dealing arms to South Africa, Bull had moved away from clients in the West, and had taken up work with China and Iraq. Ultimately, though, this gave him the opportunity to pursue his dream of an orbital launch gun once more.
Officially known as Project Babylon, it was commissioned by Saddam Hussein in 1988, while he was then the Iraqi defense secretary. The project’s goal was ostensibly to develop a supergun capable of launching satellites into orbit, potentially reducing the cost and complexity of space launches. The guns were intended to fire multi-stage rocket propelled shells that would be capable of reaching orbit.
Bull agreed to continue work on conventional military artillery pieces for the Iraqi government, in exchange for a $25 million payment towards Project Babylon. The project would see the construction of multiple “Baby Babylon” guns, each measuring 147 feet (44.8 meters) long with a caliber of 13.8 inches (35 cm).
Big Babylon
The ultimate goal, however, was the production of two mighty PC-2 Big Babylon guns. They would measure 512 feet (156 meters) long with a massive 39 inch (99 cm) bore. The PC-2 was intended to be capable of launching a 440 lb (200 kg) satellite into an orbital trajectory, carried by a 4,400 lb (2,000 kg) rocket-assisted projectile. Alternatively, it could have launched a 1,300 lb (600 kg) projectile over 620 miles (1,000 km). The final gun would have sat almost 328 feet (100 m) high at the tip, with the barrel suspended by cables from a large supporting frame. The barrel itself was to weigh 1,510 tons, with the whole structure coming in at a hefty 2,100 tons in total.
Two segments of the Iraqi supergun, Big Babylon, are displayed at the Royal Armouries in Fort Nelson, Portsmouth. Credit: Geni, GFDL CC-BY-SA
The technical challenges were immense. Achieving the necessary muzzle velocity to reach orbit required unprecedented gun lengths and extremely durable materials to withstand the immense pressures involved. The initial construction of the Baby Babylon revealed problems with seals between multiple barrel segments. This was a complication from a a necessary engineering decision, as producing a single barrel at such large sizes was impractical.
Meanwhile, the political implications of the project drew international concern. Given the fraught political situation at the time, a large Iraqi gun project was not popular on the international stage. On paper, the gun’s applications for military use were limited. It was not possible to readily aim the gun, nor could it fire rapid salvos on a given target. It was impossible to move or hide, and it was extremely vulnerable to air attack.
Regardless of these practical limitations, few countries wanted Iraq to have such a potent gun in any way, shape or form. Furthermore, Bull was continuing to work on other Iraqi artillery projects, including Scud missile development. This only made him more unpopular with Iraq’s enemies.
The project’s demise was as dramatic as its ambition. In 1990, Bull was assassinated in Brussels as he approached his apartment’s front door. It followed a series of break-ins to his home, which were suggested to be a threat to the engineer to cease his work on the project. His death effectively ended Project Babylon. Supergun components, which had been in production across Europe, were seized by customs officers, and Bull’s staff in turn abandoned the project. Parts of the gun still exist today, after being donated to museums in the UK.
In the aftermath, the Supergun project remains a fascinating study of the interactions between ambition, technology and politics. Gerard Bull’s legacy is a testament to the limits of engineering, and the limits of our own ruling structures. While technically feasible, the Supergun could not be born, given the perceived geopolitical ramifications of such a weapon.
Gerard Bull’s story is a poignant chapter in the history of space exploration technology, marked by brilliant engineering marred by political intrigue and a tragic end. It serves as a reminder of the complexities involved when mixed-use technologies clash with political interests and national security concerns.
Watching an eclipse from the ground is pretty fun. Depending on where you live, you might even get a decent view. But what if you wanted a truly unique vantage point? You could replicate the work of [Tarik Agcayazi] and [kemfic], who set about filming the recent eclipse from an altitude of 80,000 feet.
That’s what the eclipse looks like from 80,000 feet.
The duo didn’t rent a high-performance aircraft from the US military. Instead, they relied on a high-altitude balloon carrying a glider with a camera payload. The idea was for the balloon to go up, and have the camera capture the eclipse. Then, it would be released so that it could glide back home in controlled flight. However, time constraints made that too hard. Instead, they simplified to a parachute recovery method.
The project video covers the development process, the balloon launch itself, and of course, the filming of the eclipse. High altitude balloon launches are stressful enough, but having a short eclipse as a target made everything even more difficult. But that just makes things more exciting!
The project builds on earlier work from the duo that we discussed back in 2017.
Por otro lado, el jefe de PlayStation Studios, Hermen Hulst, dijo que los ports de PC llegarían al menos un año después, con la excepción de juegos como servicio, como fue el caso de Helldivers 2 que se lanzó simultáneamente en PC y PS5.
Ahora, Silknigth también mencionó lo escuchado por billbil-kun, así que no puede ser coincidencia. Según Silknight, Ragnarok podría lanzarse a principios del 2025, aunque hay una remota posibilidad de que llegue a fines del 2024.
Perhaps a PC version, but not until the first quarter of 2025, if it arrives earlier, it's a gift, but I doubt it. https://t.co/Gb0BEgsjBR
God of War: Ragnarök vendió más de 5.1 millones de copias en su semana de estreno en las consolas PlayStation 4 y PlayStation 5, convirtiéndose en el juego first-party que más rápido ha vendido en su lanzamiento en la historia de PlayStation.
«Desde Santa Monica Studio llega la secuela del aclamado por la crítica God of War (2018). Fimbulvetr ya está en camino. Kratos y Atreus deben viajar a cada uno de los nueve reinos en búsqueda de respuestas, mientras que las fuerzas asgardianas se preparan para una batalla profetizada que terminará con el mundo. En el camino explorarán paisajes increíbles y míticos, y se enfrentarán a aterradores enemigos en la forma de dioses nórdicos y monstruos. La amenaza del Ragnarök cada vez está más cerca. Kratos y Atreus deben elegir entre su propia seguridad y la seguridad de los reinos.»
Características principales:
Un futuro sin horizontes – Atreus busca conocimiento que lo ayude a entender la profecía de «Loki» y establecer su rol en Ragnarök. Kratos debe decidir entre quedarse atado al miedo de repetir sus errores o librarse del pasado para ser el padre que Atreus necesita.
Instrumentos de guerra – El hacha Leviatán, las Espadas del Caos y el Escudo de guardián regresan junto con una amplia variedad de nuevas habilidades para Kratos y Atreus. Las habilidades espartanas mortales de Kratos se pondrán a prueba como nunca antes, mientras pelea contra dioses y monstruos en los nueve reinos para proteger a su familia.
captura de pantalla de los inmensos reinos de Ragnarok
Explora inmensos reinos – Viaja a través de peligrosos e increíbles paisajes a la vez que te enfrentas a una variedad de criaturas enemigas, monstruos y dioses nórdicos mientras que Kratos y Atreus buscan respuestas.
Contenido de la Launch Edition
Cuando compras Ragnarök antes de su lanzamiento, recibirás la Armadura de nieve para Kratos y la Túnica de nieve de Atreus (estéticos).*
*Ragnarök Launch Edition, Edición de Colección y Edición Jötnar incluyen un código de cupón para canjear algunas de las bonificaciones digitales de Ragnarök. Se necesita una cuenta para PlayStation Network y conexión a Internet para canjear los códigos. Desbloquea objetos del juego a medida que avanzas en la historia.
Edición estándar
La edición estándar de GOW Ragnarök (digital y física) contiene el juego completo, ya sea para PlayStation 4 o PlayStation 5.
Si compras la edición estándar de GOW Ragnarök para PlayStation 4, puedes mejorarla a la versión para PlayStation 5 por 10 USD (o el equivalente en tu moneda local).
Edición Digital Deluxe
Con la Edición Digital Deluxe de GOW Ragnarök recibirás:
Juego God of War Ragnarök completo para las consolas PlayStation 4 y PlayStation 5.
Armadura de Valle oscuro de Kratos**
Atuendo de Valle oscuro de Atreus (estético) **
Empuñaduras de cuchillas de Valle oscuro para las Espadas del Caos**
Empuñadura de hacha de Valle oscuro para el hacha de Leviatán**
Banda sonora digital oficial de GOW Ragnarök
Minilibro de arte digital de Dark Horse
Conjunto de avatares
Tema de PlayStation 4
**Desbloquea objetos del juego a medida que avanzas en la historia.
Edición de Colección
Como viste en el video anterior, la Edición de Colección de GOW Ragnarök viene dentro de una hermosa caja que representa al Santuario de la custodia del conocimiento. El santuario fue uno de los trípticos que Kratos y Atreus se encontraron en God of War (2018), que muestra la historia de una poderosa vidente, la hechizera gigante llamada Gróa, quien fue la primera en tener una visión del Ragnarök.
Al abrir el santuario, te encontrarás con los siguiente:
Código de cupón impreso para el juego GOW Ragnarök completo para las consolas PlayStation 4 y PlayStation 5.*
Caja Steelbook(no se incluye disco de juego) – La caja Steelbook de GOW Ragnarök cuenta con imágenes del Oso y el Lobo.
Esculturas de los gemelos Vanir de 5 cm – Con el mismo estilo de los juguetes tallados de los hermanos huldra de Atreus en la edición de colección de God of War (2018), La edición de colección de GOW Ragnarök completa el conjunto con los gemelos Vanir.
Juego de dados de los enanos – Este conjunto incluye un juego de dados con un acabado tipo madera de calidad dentro de una bolsa para dados con un símbolo de Yggdrasil por fuera.
Réplica de Mjölnir de 40 cm – Una detallada réplica del arma insignia de Thor en GOW Ragnarök.
La edición de colección también incluye los siguientes elementos digitales*:
Armadura de Valle oscuro de Kratos**
Atuendo de Valle oscuro de Atreus (estético) **
Empuñaduras de cuchillas de Valle oscuro para las Espadas del Caos**
Empuñadura de hacha de Valle oscuro para el hacha de Leviatán**
Banda sonora digital oficial de God of War Ragnarök
Minilibro de arte digital de Dark Horse
Conjunto de avatares
Tema de PlayStation 4
*Se necesita una cuenta para PlayStation Network y conexión a Internet para canjear los códigos.
**Desbloquea objetos del juego a medida que avanzas en la historia.
La edición Jötnar* de Ragnarök es una selección prémium de elementos diseñados con cuidado por nuestro equipo en Santa Monica Studio para ser un conjunto de colección digno de nuestros maravillosos fans. Ya lo viste en el video de revelación anterior, pero también describiremos su contenido aquí.
Dentro del Santuario de la custodia del conocimiento recibirás lo siguiente:
Código de cupón impreso para el juego completo para las consolas P4 y PlayStation 5.*
Disco de vinilo de 18 cm con música de Bear McCreary – El cual incluye dos temas del compositor Bear McCreary.
Juego de prendedores de Halcón, Oso y Lobo– Representan a Faye, Kratos y Atreus respectivamente, este juego de prendedores simboliza la familia de nuestro héroe.
Anillo legendario de Draupnir – Es un anillo de la mitología nórdica. El anillo legendario de Draupnir viene en una bolsa de tela roja.
Juego de dados de Brok– Este conjunto de dados tiene un acabado de metal plateado con detalles azules. La bolsa de dados tiene el símbolo de los hermanos Huldra.
Mapa de tela de Yggdrasil– Este mapa de tela muestra cada uno de los nueve reinos dentro de las ramas y raíces de Yggdrasil.
Caja Steelbook (no incluye disco de juego)
Esculturas talladas de los gemelos Vanir de 5 cm
Réplica de Mjölnir de 40 cm
La edición Jötnar* también incluye los siguientes elementos digitales**:
Armadura de Valle oscuro de Kratos***
Atuendo de Valle oscuro de Atreus (estético) ***
Empuñaduras de cuchillas de Valle oscuro para las Espadas del Caos***
Empuñadura de hacha de Valle oscuro para el hacha de Leviatán***
Banda sonora digital oficial de God of War Ragnarök
Minilibro de arte digital de Dark Horse
Conjunto de avatares
Tema de PlayStation 4
**God of War Ragnarök Launch Edition, Edición de Colección y Edición Jötnar incluyen un código de cupón para canjear algunas de las bonificaciones digitales de God of War Ragnarök. Para canjear los códigos, se necesita una cuenta para PlayStation Network y conexión a Internet.
***Desbloquea objetos del juego a medida que avanzas en la historia
As our climate changes, we fear that warmer temperatures and drier conditions could make life hard for us. In most locations, it’s a future concern that feels uncomfortably near, but for some locations, it’s already very real. Take the Sahara desert, for example, and the degraded landscapes to the south in the Sahel. These arid regions are so dry that they struggle to support life at all, and temperatures there are rising faster than almost anywhere else on the planet.
In the face of this escalating threat, one of the most visionary initiatives underway is the Great Green Wall of Africa. It’s a mega-sized project that aims to restore life to barren terrain.
A Living Wall
Concentrated efforts have helped bring dry lands back to life. Credit: WFP
Launched in 2007 by the African Union, the Great Green Wall was originally an attempt to halt the desert in its tracks. The Sahara Desert has long been expanding, and the Sahel region has been losing the battle against desertification. The Green Wall hopes to put a stop to this, while also improving food security in the area.
The concept of the wall is simple. The idea is to take degraded land and restore it to life, creating a green band across the breadth of Africa which would resist the spread of desertification to the south. Intended to span the continent from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, it was originally intended to be 15 kilometers wide and a full 7,775 kilometers long. The hope was to complete the wall by 2030.
The Great Green Wall concept moved past initial ideas around simply planting a literal wall of trees. It eventually morphed into a broader project to create a “mosaic” of green and productive landscapes that can support local communities in the region.
Reforestation is at the heart of the Great Green Wall. Millions of trees have been planted, with species chosen carefully to maximise success. Trees like Acacia, Baobab, and Moringa are commonly planted not only for their resilience in arid environments but also for their economic benefits. Acacia trees, for instance, produce gum arabic—a valuable ingredient in the food and pharmaceutical industries—while Moringa trees are celebrated for their nutritious leaves.
Choosing plants with economic value has a very important side effect that sustains the project. If random trees of little value were planted solely as an environmental measure, they probably wouldn’t last long. They could be harvested by the local community for firewood in short order, completely negating all the hard work done to plant them. Instead, by choosing species that have ongoing productive value, it gives the local community a reason to maintain and support the plants.
Special earthworks are also aiding in the fight to repair barren lands. In places like Mauritania, communities have been digging half-moon divots into the ground. Water can easily run off or flow away on hard, compacted dirt. However, the half-moon structures trap water in the divots, and the raised border forms a protective barrier. These divots can then be used to plant various species where they will be sustained by the captured water. Do this enough times over a barren landscape, and with a little rain, formerly dead land can be brought back to life. It’s a traditional technique that is both cheap and effective at turning brown lands green again.
Progress
The project has been an opportunity to plant economically valuable plants which have proven useful to local communities. Credit: WFP
The initiative plans to restore 100 million hectares of currently degraded land, while also sequestering 250 million tons of carbon to help fight against climate change. Progress has been sizable, but at the same time, limited. As of mid-2023, the project had restored approximately 18 million hectares of formerly degraded land. That’s a lot of land by any measure. And yet, it’s less than a fifth of the total that the project hoped to achieve. The project has been frustrated by funding issues, delays, and the degraded security situation in some of the areas involved. Put together, this all bodes poorly for the project’s chances of reaching its goal by 2030, given 17 years have passed and we draw ever closer to 2030.
While the project may not have met its loftiest goals, that’s not to say it has all been in vain. The Great Green Wall need not be seen as an all or nothing proposition. Those 18 million hectares that have been reclaimed are not nothing, and one imagines the communities in these areas are enjoying the boons of their newly improved land.
In the driest parts of the world, good land can be hard to come by. While the Great Green Wall may not span the African continent yet, it’s still having an effect. It’s showing communities that with the right techniques, it’s possible to bring some barren zones from the brink, turning hem back into useful productive land. That, at least, is a good legacy, and if the projects full goals can be realized? All the better.
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