The Pseudo Satellites Watching Over Earth + The First Latino Superhero Movie

Ben Hernandez Bray drew from his brother’s tragedy in an ode to Los Angeles barrio culture.

In 2006, Ben Hernandez Bray’s brother, Craig, overdosed at the age of 29 after getting out of prison for gang-related activity. He got caught up in the street life, doing a lot of crazy stuff unbeknownst to his family, including the older brother who helped raise Craig in a fatherless Mexican-American household in the rough San Fernando Valley.

Ben’s mom and grandmother had done everything they could to keep their kids away from gangs, but here they were at the San Fernando Mission burying their youngest son. “You feel like a statistic,” Ben Bray says. “To see my mom cradle and hug that coffin as it’s going down into the ground was just tremendously painful.”

Ben, 50, never fell prey to the streets, but his little brother’s story stayed with him as he forged a career as a Hollywood stuntman, and Craig inspired the plot of El Chicano, Bray’s feature directorial debut, which premieres in theaters today. Billed as the first Latino superhero movie, it’s an action-packed thriller with an all-Latino cast.

These almost-satellites might soon connect your phone when you need it most.

The Zephyr looks like a detached airliner wing with propellers soldered on top. The unmanned Airbus-designed vehicle with a wingspan of 82 feet can fly for almost a month and is so light that two people can lift it. But that’s not the most unusual thing about it. The Zephyr is not actually an airplane.

It flies higher than any plane, deep in the stratosphere. Yet it stays below the Kármán line — a height of 62 miles — that marks the start of outer space, so it isn’t a satellite. The Zephyr is one of a growing number of high-altitude pseudo satellites (HAPS) that are being designed to watch over Earth like satellites, but with the flexibility of drones, using the unique advantages of a strip of the atmosphere below outer space. It’s an idea that’s exciting researchers, space agencies, defense firms, technology giants and airplane manufacturers alike.

This journey provides a one-of-a-kind glimpse into small-town life. And it will soon be replaced.

The Gwalior-Sheopur Narrow Gauge Express covers India’s longest narrow gauge railway line of 123 miles — at an otherworldly speed of just under 10 miles per hour. Yet it’s this slow pace that allows for a rare voyage in which passengers get a glimpse of daily life in small-town India — sometimes even within touching distance of houses — from a perspective that a car or a faster train won’t provide. And it’s likely that it will soon disappear as the nation prepares to replace the track with a broad gauge line.