Helicopters are loud as shit and a lot of times I have to cover my ears with my hands on the helipad waiting for my pilot to bring the bird down. It gets annoying, especially when you’ve got two briefcases full of gold bullion handcuffed to your wrists, WHICH I ALWAYS DO. Helicopters make a lot of noise because of a physical phenomenon called blade-vortex interaction. The new blade shape is combined with another technology called Blue Pulse, which adds three flaps to the edge of the rotor blades. These flaps move up and down at 15 to 40 times per second, using piezoelectric motors that also help to reduce the blade-vortex interaction. Well I think I speak for all private-helicopter owners when I say, “IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME!” Do you know what this means? It means I’ll be hovering silently outside your bedroom window in no time! Now, change into your PJ’s . DOOOO IT! Hit the jump for a video comparison of the two different blades in action.

Want a badass dragon tattoo but worried what your mom will think? Fear not, because now you can get a square instead, and, when you video-chat your special lady-friend on the interwebs, BOOM, IT’S A FLYING DRAGON! You are so hardcore! Of course, not as hardcore as I am because I just had one of those little winged-lizards implanted under my skin. He was in my arm, but I can feel him crawling around in chest now which, oh God — oh God *chest bursts* ALIIIIIIEEEEEEN!! Kidding, kidding, winged-lizard. Youtube via Augmented Reality Tattoo turns your body into virtual art [dvice] Thanks to mchl, who has a real dragon tattoo that flaps its wings when he flexes. Now that’s cool.

This robo-jerk, the same one who tried creating a Facebook profile to infiltrate the Geekologie Fan Page , is now flying around in the first class section of airplanes . BAD IDEA. Travellers on a recent Emirates flight from Dubai to Riyadh were accompanied by a different type of passenger, after the Dubai-based airline was tasked with transporting one of the world’s most advanced humanoid robots. Able to verbally interact with people, Ibn Sina stunned fellow passengers as he was checked in at Emirates’ dedicated First Class check-in counters and relaxed in Emirates’ First Class lounge prior to boarding his flight. The transportation of Ibn Sina required countless hours of planning and input from multiple Emirates Group departments to ensure the humanoid was cleared for travel by the Dubai Police Authorities, the Dubai International Airport and Emirates’ safety team. Uh, could you really not just stuff him in a box and mail him to his destination set it on fire? And how come I can’t even use my cassette player advanced media device during taxi and take-off and this BEEP BOOP BOPPING jerk can fly? OH GOD — PLEASE TELL ME HE DIDN’T GET COMPLIMENTARY BEVERAGE SERVICE. Humanoid discovered travelling on Emirates flight [arabiansupplychain] Thanks to Cohan, Conan’s hunkier, battle-axe wielding brother.

Jonathan Trappe went and attached 55 industrial strength helium balloons to an office chair and took to the skies above North Carolina . Just like a bird. After spending two years in training and upwards of £45,000 (~$74K) on the adventure, this was the technical project manager’s first ever cluster balloon flight. He reached a height of 14,783 feet after strapping the industrial-strength balloons to the steel-cased chair and setting off from an airport in North Carolina. ‘I took two years before this flight gaining my Federal Aviation Administration licence to fly helium balloons as well as hot air balloons,’ said Mr Trappe. Using only a sharp knife to burst the balloons, Mr Trappe explained the difference between bursting a normal party balloon and one used in cluster ballooning. ‘Every time you burst the balloon there follows a juddering shot,’ he said. Not to burst your balloon, Jonathan, but real adventurers don’t spend $75K and two years training for an adventure. Nope, real adventurers spend $200 at Party Central and a drunken afternoon tying balloons to a patio chair. Just sayin’, you make Balloon Boy look like Indiana Jones. And that little bitch just hid in an attic . Hit the jump for a couple more shots from the “adventure”.

Jonathan Trappe went and attached 55 industrial strength helium balloons to an office chair and took to the skies above North Carolina . Just like a bird. After spending two years in training and upwards of £45,000 (~$74K) on the adventure, this was the technical project manager’s first ever cluster balloon flight. He reached a height of 14,783 feet after strapping the industrial-strength balloons to the steel-cased chair and setting off from an airport in North Carolina. ‘I took two years before this flight gaining my Federal Aviation Administration licence to fly helium balloons as well as hot air balloons,’ said Mr Trappe. Using only a sharp knife to burst the balloons, Mr Trappe explained the difference between bursting a normal party balloon and one used in cluster ballooning. ‘Every time you burst the balloon there follows a juddering shot,’ he said. Not to burst your balloon, Jonathan, but real adventurers don’t spend $75K and two years training for an adventure. Nope, real adventurers spend $200 at Party Central and a drunken afternoon tying balloons to a patio chair. Just sayin’, you make Balloon Boy look like Indiana Jones. And that little bitch just hid in an attic . Hit the jump for a couple more shots from the “adventure”.

This is a very well made stop-motion LEGO short . I highly recommend you watch it. I did — twice, and I found it really inspiring. Not as inspiring as the Special Olympics, but still pretty good. Lego Short Film Makes Me Want to Play With Legos Immediately [gizmodo]

Ever wonder how butterflies would fly in outerspace ? Now thanks to BioServe Space Technologies, the University of Colorado and the International Space Station , we have the answer: poorly. Hit the jump for another video of a Painted Lady (these are Monarchs) butterfly trying the same thing and failing just as hard.

Listen, I don’t care how fat you are, God still loves you. But even God would charge you for two seats if you can’t fit in one. Just sayin’. High five, big G! Obese air passenger in economy seat has picture taken [telegraph] Thanks to Add Not Andrew Macgregor and Afern, who always buy two seats but only because they don’t like people sitting next to them.

Sigh…it looks like we're not the only ones bummed about David Beckham jetting out of Los Angeles! When we caught the soccer stud at LAX yesterday afternoon, he looked like he was in a pretty grinchy mood! But even…

A passenger plane headed for an airport in eastern Congo overshot the runway (spider solitaire) and ended up crash-landing in lava. Wicked! Of course, I’m making this cooler than it actually was because it wasn’t molten lava and it wasn’t in the middle of a volcano . Truthfully, I don’t even know why I’m reporting this besides 1. I’m awesome and B. journalism. The plane was flying from Kinshasa to Goma, and passengers had warned the crew that there were heavy clouds, Radio Okapi said. An official from the U.N. mission in Congo, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he does not have permission to speak with media, said there were 117 passengers aboard. Thankfully, nobody was injured. Oh — and I love how people that don’t have permission to speak are always speaking. Such rule-breakers! Now, not to honk my own bike horn or anything, but crash landing an airplane in lava isn’t that impressive. Because one time I docked my pirate ship in the middle of an earthquake . Seriously, right in the middle. The epicenter. I know the terminology, it happened. Plane misses runway, lands in lava [msnbc] Thanks to iceman, who would have cooled the lava with his superpowers and made an ice skating rink.