Now, almost 17 years later, former investigators are urging authorities to re-open the investigation into the cause of the crash. According to the Associated Press, the call are being made just prior to the release of a new documentary on the event that claims to show new evidence that TWA Flight 800 was shot down by a missile. A petition has been filed with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The new documentary, titled TWA Flight 800, is scheduled to air July 17 on the Epic premium cable TV channel. According to Epix, the movie features “six former member of the official crash investigation breaking their silence to refute the officially proposed cause of the jetliner’s demise and reveal how the investigation was systematically undermined.”

The FBI had initially investigated the crash as a possible missile attack. The NTSB’s final report stated that the explosion on the flight was due to the ignition of the fuel/air mix in the plane’s center wing fuel tank, likely caused by an electrical short circuit.

The NTSB today released a statement regarding the petition, emphasizing that its 4-year investigation into the crash was one of the board’s most extensive investigations ever. From the statement:

The NTSB today received a petition for reconsideration of its investigation into the July 17, 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800. As required by NTSB regulation, a petition for reconsideration of Board findings or a probable cause determination must be based on the discovery of new evidence or on a showing that the Board’s findings are erroneous. The NTSB will review the details of the petition to determine if it meets the requirements set forth in the regulation.

The TWA Flight 800 investigation lasted four years and remains one of the NTSB’s most detailed investigations. Investigators took great care reviewing, documenting and analyzing facts and data and the NTSB held a five-day hearing to gather additional facts before determining the probable cause of the accident during a two-day Board meeting.

The NTSB pointed out that its 400-page report on the crash has been available publicly for over a decade. It also stated that 17,000 pages of supporting material from the board’s docket is also publicly available.

(via AP)

A new documentary, named after the flight, shows interviews with six members of the investigation team who say they feel safe talking about the cover-up now because they’ve retired. They say that federal authorities undermined their findings and directed them to write their reports a certain way.

“We didn’t find any part of the airplane that indicated a mechanical failure,” one investigator says.

“There was a lack of coordination and willful denial of information,” Hank Hughes, a senior accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said. “There were 755 witnesses. At no time was information provided by the witnesses shared by the FBI.”

What they couldn’t put into the official report was that the explosion occurred as a result of an outside source, they say. And though their claims are being refuted by the former Director of Aviation Safety–Tom Haueter–the National Transportation Safety Board says it will reopen the investigation if new evidence is found to prove the first conclusion wrong.

Haueter says that there is irrefutable proof that faulty wiring caused the explosion and that there was no sign of any sort of penetration on the outside of the plane. But Jim Speer, an accident investigator at the time of the crash, said he did discover damage consistent with those that would be formed by a big blast. He requested that the right wing be tested for residue from explosives, and when the test came back positive, he said, he was “physically removed” from a room by two CIA agents.

“TWA 800″ premieres on Epix next month.

Intervention’s final season will be comprised of five episodes that feature “fan favorites” from the series’ long history. Some of the addiction specialists tapped to return include Jeff Van Vonderen, Candy Finnigan, Donna Chavous and Ken Seeley. A&E says the final season will feature some rather intense episodes.

“As Intervention comes to an end, we’re proud to have paved the way for such an original and groundbreaking series,” said A&E and BIO Channel’s executive vice president of programming David McKillop. “We’re honored to have been a part of the 243 interventions since its premiere in March of 2005, leading to the 156 individuals that are currently sober to this day.”

You may have never watched the series, but one episode from the A&E series became a short lived Internet sensation on the Internet a few years ago when the emotional climax was auto-tuned:

[h/t: Reuters]

This week, cable TV channel TLC aired a documentary highlighting one man’s weight difficulties on the island of Guam. Titled 900 Pound Man: The Race Against Time, the documentary chronicles Ricky Naputi’s struggle with his size, the troubles he encounters in finding help, and the difficulty he has sticking to doctors’ recommendations.

Naputi is, for the most part, bedridden and has not been able to go out of the house or shower for “years.” The documentary follows him and his wife as they seek out specialists and try to arrange for a flight to the U.S. mainland, where Naputi could receive life-saving surgery.

Though Naputi’s weight is disabling, he’s nowhere near the heaviest person ever recorded. The record for world’s heaviest man currently belongs to a U.S. man named Jon Minnoch, who weighed around 1,400 lb. at his peak. He also holds the record for weight loss, after he shed 920 lb. Minnoch died in 1983 at the age of 41 weighing nearly 800 lb.

As people are becoming increasingly concerned over 3D printed guns, it’s good to remember the incredible and undeniable good that the technology can enact. Without 3D printers, children like Liam wouldn’t be able to afford the prosthetics that give them an entirely new lease on life.

If you want to learn more about Liam and the development of the robohand, check out the team’s official blog.

Blank’s son, Harrod, reported to the San Francisco Chronicle that his father died of bladder cancer on Sunday at his home in Berkeley, California. Harrod is also a documentary filmmaker.

Blank directed more than 30 documentaries and documentary shorts during his 40-year career. Many of his documentaries focused on nice music and musicians, including films about blues singers, Appalachian music, Cajun music, polka, tamburitza, and Hawaiian music. Blank also took on other documentary subjects such as director Werner Herzog in the moviea Burden of Dreams and Werner Herzong Eats His Shoe. Blank’s final film was All in This Tea, which follows a California tea importer who searches for organically grown “boutique tea.”

Though Blank had been creating movies since 1960, it was the documentary short The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins that propelled his documentary career. Blank went on to found an independent production company called Flower Films.

(Image courtesy Petr Novák, Wikipedia)

Unfortunately, the rest of us will have to wait until Google can get Glass out on the mass market. According to Google’s own Sergey Brin, that might be later this year.

While we wait, check out E.B. Studios‘ latest investigative piece into Glass and the people behind the project. The report also features a Glass mockup created on a 3D printer to better illustrate how one wears the hardware. Check it out:

To learn more about Glass from Google itself, check out this recent TED talk where Google’s Tom Chi spoke on how the company used rapid prototyping to make variations on the hardware.

The really interesting thing about TPB AFK is that the filmmakers are not only releasing the film for $10, but also releasing it for free via The Pirate Bay. It’s not like the filmmakers don’t want people to buy their film though. Instead, releasing the film for free ensures that more people watch it. Those viewers may even end up buying it if they like it.

So, how’s that going for them so far? In less than an hour, the $10 film has earned $21,641 according to the Web site. The majority of that has come from the 1,826 paid downloads thus far, but others have just contributed to the film through donations. The filmmakers are also selling pre-orders of the DVD for $23.

Of course, you may not want to pay $10 just yet to support a film you may not like. You also may not like the idea of downloading it via The Pirate Bay. For you, the filmmakers have also released it on YouTube in its entirety. Check it out:

A new documentary entitled “The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard” dives into the history of The Pirate Bay and its founders. The film also covers the massive legal battle between the founders and the entertainment industry as the courts were asked if a Web site’s founders can be held accountable for the actions of its users. The Sweden Supreme Court said they can this year by refusing to hear their case, thereby upholding a previous verdict that found the Pirate Bay founders guilty.

In the spirit of The Pirate Bay, the documentary will be released for free online under a Creative Commons license. The actual date of release has not been revealed just yet, but the director says it should be out soon.

2PlayerProductions announced this week that Minecraft: The Story of Mojang will be available on December 23. For those wanting an advanced sneak peak, there will be a free screening of the film for Xbox Live Gold members on December 22 at 8 p.m. EST in the US and 8 p.m. CET in Europe.

For those who have no idea what to expect out of a Minecraft documentary, here’s a synopsis from the film’s creators themselves:

In 2009, independent video game designer Markus “Notch” Persson released a work in progress that would go on to break every industry rule for achieving success. Part exploratory adventure, part creative building tool, “Minecraft” evolved from a cult classic into an unprecedented hit, raking daily sales in by the thousands. By the end of 2010, Notch was able to quit his day job and live the dream of founding his own development studio, Mojang.

This feature-length documentary follows the young company over the course of its first year as their profile expands across the world stage and into the homes of millions of gamers. Featuring insights from industry icons (Peter Molyneux, Tim Schafer), journalists (Geoff Keighley, Stephen Totilo), tastemakers (Gabe & Tycho of Penny Arcade), and players profoundly impacted by the game (Yogscast, The Shaft, Minecraft Teacher), the film serves as a time capsule for one of this generation’s most unorthodox success stories.

If walls of text aren’t your thing, 2PlayerProductions has also released a trailer for the film:

Details on how fans can pick up a physical copy of the documentary are forthcoming. Check out the official site for the film for more information.