LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Michael Jacksonlost the will to live in recent years, a former close confidante said on Friday, as scores of fans camped out to be the first to see the singer’s final appearance in the “This is It” movie.Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, unveiled lengthy conversations he taped with Jackson during their 1999-2001 friendship, and said the “Thriller” singer suffered deep emotional pain.”He lost the will to live,” Boteach said. “I think he was just going through the motions of life toward the end.”Boteach also said that Jackson, who had plastic surgery several times,…

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

[Jake] never ceases to amaze with his inventions, from his Powered respirator to his Steampunk LCD and more. Today he proves that not every hack has to be an amazing one requiring hundreds of hours, tons of soldering, and an Arduino. Instead, he was tired of being charged $50 for a $5 cabin air filter. With a quick squeeze he had access to the filter bay. It was only a matter of finding a similar filter at a home improvement store and then using a scrap wood jig, he could cut and glue his own filter. It’s stuff like…

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

ATLANTA — American Airlines parent AMR Corp. is taking a redoubled run at Japan Airlines Corp., as the company fights for a place in Asia by keeping the hobbled but strategically important JAL far away from rival Delta Air Lines Inc. American is in “intensive negotiations” with JAL to forge a far more expansive joint venture with the carrier, according to people familiar with the matter. American, based in Forth Worth, Texas, also would consider acquiring a minority stake in the giant Japanese carrier to seal the pact, although any such investment would likely be capped at hundreds of…

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

NEW DELHI: Public insurer New India Assurance has accused the troubled NACIL of flouting the tender norms for about Rs 45,000-crore insurance cover for Air India’s fleet to favour a consortium led by an Anil Ambani group firm, which refuted the allegation. While NACIL declined to comment on accusations contained in a letter sent to it by New India Assurance, Reliance General Insurance said it had supplied all the information and documents desired by the aviation company for the tender. In its letter to National Aviation of Company of India of India Ltd (NACIL), New India Assurance Co said, “Tender…

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

The need to conduct laboratory-style experiments runs deep in some people. [Freddyman] built an apparatus to test out several commercial and homemade thermal pastes, including the DIY diamond thermal grease we reported on last month. He setup each experiment in the middle of an air conditioned room, ran the heat sink fan for 30 minutes to equalize the temperature, then turned on the DIY heat generator that the paste and heat sink were connected to. He’s got a lot of data from tests he ran with the eight thermal conductors; air (using no paste), Arctic Silver 5, Ceramique, Dow…

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

Product Features
o Child’s tricycle features an auto-freewheel for comfort and safety
o Designed for riders 18 months to 5 years old
o Komfy-ride air tires, sturdy rear tipping bucket
o Quick-adjust frame with telescoping multiple frame adjustment options
o Tri-wheel steering navigation system….
[...]

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

Artist [Ariel Schlesinger] has managed to replace an air horn’s compressed air tank with butane fuel. This hack manages to change the pitch of the horn slightly, as well as making one very noisy flamethrower. While not as impressive as other flamethrowers, this would probably take the cake for most achievable. Currently the site containing the how-to is down, but we would have to recommend not doing this at home anyway. Video after the jump.

[via todayandtomorrow]

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]

We’ve already covered a pipe bomb mini-fridge this week, but inventor [Tom Chalko] provides us with today’s fridge hack. He noticed that chest-style (laying down, see above) freezers were more energy efficient when compared to normal stand up refrigerators at the same size, despite the colder temperatures involved. This is largely due to the fact that these chest-style freezers keep cold air in like water in a bowl, even if the lid is open. He has written a very thorough report on his findings (pdf), as well as a detailed walk through of the manageable task of converting a chest-style freezer into…

[ Read the rest of the story in the original article... ]