STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

New Godzilla Trailer Gives Terrifying Glimpse of the Massive Monster

Just yesterday there was a little rash of audio teasers for director Gareth Edwards’ upcoming Godzillareboot.

The most spine tingling of which was Bryan Cranston’s Joe Brody going full on Panicked Walter White and proclaiming (amongst other things): “What’s really happening is that you’re hiding something out there. It is going to send us back to the Stone Age. You have no idea what’s coming.”

Now we know what he was talking about. In the new full official trailer – not to be confused with the teaser which just showed a bunch of soldiers air-dropping onto what seemed to be the back of the beast – we get a sense of the scale of this new Godzilla. And he is massive. He’s also apparently wreaking a path of destruction across San Francisco to Asia to Las Vegas that no one can stop.

This trailer also has a bunch of talk about how “in 1954 we awakened something” and something else about nuclear tests in the Pacific. So far it seems like Edwards’ film will have a lot of mood, suspense, and action — and ties to Godzilla’s origins — but it’s still hard to tell if it’ll be all dread and no fun.

But bottom line, Legendary Pictures’ new version of Godzilla, which hits theaters May 16 and stars future Avengers: Age of Ultron players Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch) and Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver), looks monstrously epic. We’ll have to wait and see if it’s also a massively good time.

[MIKA27]

At Last, a Google Glass for the Battlefield

Walking around Silicon Valley with an augmented reality display on your face makes you a glasshole. On the battlefield, though, similar technology will soon turn U.S. soldiers into a lethal cross between the Terminator and Iron Man.

Q-Warrior, the newest version of helmet-mounted display technology from BAE Systems’ Q-Sight line, is a full-color, 3D heads-up display designed to provide soldiers in the field with rapid, real-time “situational awareness.”

With a high-resolution transparent display, Q-Warrior overlays data and a video stream over the soldier’s view of the world. Q-Warrior also includes enhanced night vision, waypoints and routing information, and the ability to identify hostile and non-hostile forces, track personnel and assets, and coordinate small unit actions.

“Q-Warrior increases the user’s situational awareness by providing the potential to display ‘eyes-out’ information to the user, including textual information, warnings and threats,” Paul Wright, the soldier systems business development lead at BAE Systems’ Electronic Systems, said in a statement.

“The biggest demand, in the short term at least, will be in roles where the early adoption of situational awareness technology offers a defined advantage.”

This technology is not the stretch you might think. Specialty work-related applications for everyone from cops to doctors are increasingly considered the future of wearable computing. BAE clearly wants to be the Google of the warzone.

The display would play well with the Army Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) currently under development. TALOS is a powered exoskeleton to haul heavier equipment with liquid armor capable of stopping bullets and the ability to apply wound-sealing foam.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is working on the Warrior Web Project, which has many of the attributes of the Army’s Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit concept.

“[The] requirement is a comprehensive family of systems in a combat armor suit where we bring together an exoskeleton with innovative armor, displays for power monitoring, health monitoring, and integrating a weapon into that — a whole bunch of stuff that RDECOM is playing heavily in,” said Lt. Col. Karl Borjes, a U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) science adviser, in a statement.

Q-Warrior is initially expected to be deployed with Special Forces and at the section commander level, but BAE says it expects the technology to eventually reach all soldiers.

“This is likely to be within non-traditional military units with reconnaissance roles, such as Forward Air Controllers/Joint Tactical Aircraft Controllers (JTACS) or with Special Forces during counter terrorist tasks,” said Wright.

”The next level of adoption could be light role troops such as airborne forces or marines, where technical systems and aggression help to overcome their lighter equipment.”

[MIKA27]

North American scientists track incoming Fukushima plume

The likely scale of the radioactive plume of water from Fukushima due to hit the west coast of North America should be known in the next two months.

Only minute traces of pollution from the beleaguered Japanese power plant have so far been recorded in Canadian continental waters.

This will increase as contaminants disperse eastwards on Pacific currents.

But scientists stress that even the peak measurements will be well within the limits set by safety authorities.

Since the 2011 Fukushima accident, researchers from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography have been sampling waters along a line running almost 2,000km due west of Vancouver, British Columbia.

And by June of last year, they were detecting quantities of radioactive caesium-137 and 134 along the sampling line’s entire length.

Although the radioactivity concentrations remain extremely low – less than one becquerel per cubic metre of water – they have allowed the scientists to start to validate the two models that are being used to forecast the probable future progression of the plume.

One of these models anticipates a maximum concentration by mid-2015 of up to 27 becquerels per cubic metre of water; the other no more than about two becquerels per cubic metre of water.

Bedford’s Dr John Smith told BBC News that further measurements being taken in the ocean right now should give researchers a fair idea of which model is correct.

And he emphasised again: “These levels are still well below maximum permissible concentrations in drinking water in Canada for caesium-137 of 10,000 becquerels per cubic metre of water – so, it’s clearly not an environmental or human-health radiological threat.”

Dr Smith was speaking at the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2014 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

He was joined on a panel discussing Fukushima by Dr Ken Buesseler from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

The Whoi scientist described the citizen science effort now under way to record radioactivity in beach waters of the western United States.

Members of the public are being recruited to regularly gather water samples from California to Washington State and in Alaska and Hawaii.

No caesium-134 has yet been detected. Caesium-137, which was also released by the damaged power plant, is in the environment already as a result of the A-bomb tests in the 1950s and 1960s. However, Dr Buesseler expects a specific Fukushima signal from both radionuclides to be evident very shortly in US waters.

The sampling project, which is organised at the website ourradioactiveocean.org, is having to be funded through private donation because no federal agency has picked up the monitoring responsibility.

“What we have to go by right now are models, and as John Smith showed these predict numbers as high as 30 of these becquerels per cubic metre of water,” he told reporters.

“It’s interesting: if this was of greater health concern, we’d be very worried about these factors of ten differences in the models. To my mind, this is not really acceptable. We need better studies and resources to do a better job, because there are many reactors on coasts and rivers and if we can’t predict within a factor of 10 what caesium or some other isotope is downstream - I think that’s a pretty poor job"

[MIKA27]

What it takes to fly spy plane U-2 to the edge of space

The Lockheed U-2 once kept tabs on the might of the Soviet nuclear arsenal – and still flies today. Richard Hollingham talks to one of the skilled few who got to fly it.

In any list of the world’s most impressive jobs, being the pilot of a U-2 spy plane must come near the top. This legendary high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft was designed during the Cold War to capture photos of the Soviet Union. Tested in the Nevada Desert’s top-secret Area 51, it is associated with major diplomatic incidents, space alien conspiracies - and an Irish rock band.

Remarkably, almost 60 years after its first flight and in today’s era of high-definition satellite images, the U-2 is still in service - though it was recently announced that the fleet might be retired in the 2015 fiscal year. Only the best of the best get to fly it. And while social attitudes have changed since the 1950s, nicknames stick.

“Its known as the Dragon Lady,” says Colonel Lars Hoffman. “It’s like a lady when you’re flying up high – it’s a very smooth ride – but it’s more of a dragon when you get back down to low altitude.”

As commander of the US Air Force Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in the Mojave Desert, Hoffman is almost certainly one of the world’s best pilots. His predecessors at the school include moonwalker Buzz Aldrin and the first man to break the speed of sound, Chuck Yeager. Graduates include the second American in space, Gus Grissom, and the only person to manually fly the Space Shuttle (or any vehicle at all) from Mach 25 to landing, Joe Engle.

Photos of these aerospace legends and their comrades line the school’s corridors. Most of the roads at Edwards, on the other hand, are named after the 200 or so test pilots who have lost their lives here, pushing the boundaries of aviation. This is the home of the “right stuff” and Hoffman looks the part: tall, square-jawed and charming. I have to confess to being a little star-struck.

He graduated from the school in 1997, and has flown everything from the latest fighter planes to the Goodyear blimp. But the single-seater U-2 remains a personal favourite. Flying at 70,000 feet (21 km) – twice the height of commercial airliners – he likens piloting the U-2 to flying in space. When I met him recently at Edwards we talked about this and the secret missions the aircraft fly.

The shooting down of a U2 in 1960 over the USSR sparked an international crisis

The U-2 first flew in 1955 and it is still flying – but has the mission changed?

The mission hasn’t changed but the aircraft has changed considerably. The ones that we fly today were built in the 1980s and were significantly upgraded in the 1990s with new engines, electronics and avionics. The sensors we fly with today are the absolute state of the art. We also have capabilities to network to satellites, to other aircraft and to the ground, so it truly is a 21st-Century weapons system.

What sort of missions is it used for?

It’s used for both tactical and strategic reconnaissance. For example, flying along a sensitive border looking into a country of interest we can take images and we can record signals intelligence that tells us what’s going on in that country, such as North Korea for example. We can also fly over battlefields and, in real time, see the battlefield in high resolution. We can communicate to units on the ground or command centres to tell them exactly what the tactical situation is.

You fly at 70,000 ft – 50,000 ft used to be considered space – how dangerous is it to fly at that sort of height?

There’s a line known as Armstrong’s line – it’s about 50,000 ft (15km). When you’re above that line if you were to lose pressure, your blood would literally boil due to the low pressure. So, we wear a full pressure suit like astronauts wear to provide an extra layer of protection if we were to lose pressure in the cockpit. The cockpits have been pressurised over the years to an altitude of 29,000 feet (9km), that’s like standing on the top of Everest all day. So I’m wearing the full pressure suit, I’m breathing 100% oxygen, my body is feeling like I’m standing on top of a mountain, so it’s quite fatiguing.

What is it like to be at that sort of height where you are flying higher than anyone else on Earth?

It is an amazing feeling. The last long flight I took was to deliver an aircraft from Beale Air Force Base in Sacramento, California, non-stop 12 hours and I landed in the UK. The flight was across Canada, Greenland, Iceland and then dropping into the UK. It was the most amazing experience, those 12 hours, to be detached from humanity on Earth, much like astronauts feel on the International Space Station. It takes about an hour to come down from altitude to land and you have to be alert for the landing because it’s such a physical experience to do. But when you touch down it takes a little while to reconnect with life on Earth.

The U2 has clocked up nearly 60 years in operational service

How do you stay alert for 12 hours isolated in a tiny cockpit high above the planet?

The aircraft flies on autopilot for most of the flight and that’s good because the margin at altitude is very narrow between the maximum Mach that the aircraft can fly before it breaks up and the stall speed. It’s about 10 knots.

It’s also a handful to fly at altitude because the air is so thin – it’s like balancing a pencil on the tip of your finger. You really have to come back down to lower altitude before you can gain control back.

We can eat through tubes in the helmet and most of the time we’re able to listen to music or something to keep our minds occupied, to keep alert. We are given tasks throughout the flight to record readings on instruments, so it keeps you occupied throughout the flight.

Do you feel like an astronaut?

I do actually, putting on the full pressure suit it’s very similar to the suit the astronauts wore when they flew in the Space Shuttle. And that’s the closest thing I can think of to being an astronaut – especially being up there on your own. You really do start to feel removed, or detached, from the Earthlings that are still on the surface of the planet. When you look down and you see an airliner passing below you and it’s half of your altitude, you start to realise how high you are and how alone you are up there. It’s a feeling, I bet, that astronauts experience when they’re on the space station.

A comparable experience to the first Americans in space, who flew alone, the Mercury astronauts?

In the movie The Right Stuff, there’s this scene with John Glenn orbiting the Earth and he did feel alone there for a while. It was communication with the team on the ground that kept him focused, occupied and alert while he was orbiting the Earth. It’s the same sort of thing in the U-2, you can be very detached and can get lonely so you have to keep occupied when you’re going along.

Are you out of the range of surface-to-air missiles or other attack?

In most places we are beyond those surface-to-air missiles but there are areas we fly where we are vulnerable to those, so we have layers of defence to avoid being attacked. [unsurprisingly he did not reveal where or what those measures were.]

[MIKA27]

Indonesia: Rising sea 'threatens 1,500 islands'

As many as 1,500 of Indonesia's islands could be under water by 2050 because of rising sea levels, it's been reported.

In the capital city, Jakarta, the main international Soekarno-Hatta Airport could be below sea level as soon as 2030, with outlying districts turned into lakes, says Singapore's Straits Times, quoting a report from Maplecroft's Climate Change Vulnerability Index.

"This archipelago's biggest threat is rising sea levels, where 42 million people living 3km from the coast are vulnerable," Ancha Srinivasan of the Asian Development Bank says.

Twenty-four islands have already disappeared off the coast of Aceh, North Sumatra, Papua and Riau, according to official research, and experts are worried this trend could accelerate. Indonesia comprises around 17,500 islands, of which approximately 6,000 are permanently inhabited.

What's more, rising acidity in sea water is causing supplies of fish to dwindle. Fish have moved further out to sea, depriving communities of once-secure fishing stocks. "It may be a small change, but has a significant impact on marine ecosystems and fish spawning habits," Ancha Srinivasan told the paper.

Up to 10% of Indonesia's low-lying islands could be at risk

[MIKA27]

Chile: Costumed wrestlers inspired by cult 70s TV show

Costumed men and women battle it out in Santiago, Chile, where an underground wrestling scene has sprung up, inspired by a cult 1970s TV show, it appears.

Wearing extravagant costumes, a league of 20 wrestlers - including six women - re-enact scenes from the show Titanes en el Ring, the Santiago Times reports. Over the course of three hours the wrestlers fight, sometimes in mixed matches, until there are three champions, the newspaper says.

The original Argentinian programme was hugely popular, spawning spin-off shows across the region. In Chile, viewers followed heroes like Mr Chile as he wrestled adversaries such as La Momia in the ring.

Titanes en el Ring ended its run in 1973 but was resurrected in a new form in 2010, when dedicated fans who loved the show as children launched a wrestling league based on it - known as the Xplosion Nacional de Lucha Libre.

In the ring, wrestlers act in the style of the characters from the TV show

The wrestling events are attended by fanatic crowds, including families with small children

[MIKA27]

Bizarre 25 Year Old Russian Film Set On A Medieval Alien Planet

You might not have heard of the book ‘Hard To Be A God‘ which was published in 1964, but it is certainly one of the more unusual works in the genre of science fiction.

It was written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky and despite it’s sci-fi undercurrents (the story is based in a place known as the ‘Noon Universe’) the story is actually set in the Middle Ages. The central character Anton is sent back in time to observe society in all its bloody and barbaric forms. The core concept is to highlight how effective ignorance, blind faith and religious institutions have been in the oppression of progress, science and universal enlightenment.

Indeed the title itself ‘Hard To Be A God’ is a commentary on Anton’s very own role as a frustrated observer, watching a species plunder its resources with little collective vision for the future.

German actor / film director Peter Fleischmann was so fascinated by the story that he decided to turn the novel into a film of the same name, which was released in 1989 with a mixed response. Funded in Western Germany but filmed in the USSR, ‘Hard To Be A God’ was doomed from the start in many ways, Arkady and Boris Strugatsky struggled to see eye to eye with Fleischmann, who was a notoriously difficult director to work with. Ultimately they both walked away, washing their hands of the film itself and heavily criticising his adaptation of their creative vision.

25 years since it’s release, the film has achieved a cult-like status on account of just how strange, erratic and yet visually arresting it is. Here’s a few teasers from the movie itself. So after you’ve watched all the various seasons of Game Of Thrones, why not look up “Hard To Be A God” one of the most obscure yet startlingly original movies involving medieval madness and alien visitations…

[MIKA27]

JAGUAR XFR-S SPORTBRAKE

Choosing a car can be hard. Do you go for speed, comfort, or utility?

With the Jaguar XFR-S Sportbrake, you don't have to pick just one. Powered by a 5.0L supercharged V8 producing 542 hp, this sleek station wagon moves from 0 to 60 in just 4.6 seconds and boasts a top speed of 186 miles per hour. This power gets to the ground via an eight-speed automatic transmission and 20-inch forged alloy wheels with custom Pirelli tires, but lest you think it's all about performance, the interior boasts a 825W, 18-speaker Meridian audio system, additional headroom, remote-folding rear seats to open up massive cargo room, and premium materials, including carbon leather. The downside? You'll likely have to head to the UK to get one.

[MIKA27]

FOUNDERS KBS BEER

A staple of the rising craft beer culture are release events for special beers, done once a year and many times at the brewery only. KBS (Kentucky Breakfast Stout) from Founders Brewing might be the best of these releases, and you can find it outside of the brewery walls as well.

KBS is an imperial stout brewed with an ungodly amount of chocolate and coffee, and then aged in bourbon barrels for a full year. The other bourbon barrel coffee stouts are imitators, while KBS is the innovator. Don't pass up a chance to try this highly acclaimed beer this spring.

[MIKA27]

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S THE EMPIRE STRIKETH BACK

Already finished William Shakespeare's Star Wars?

Well, I have some good news for you. Ian Doescher, The Bard's great great great great grandson, has been hard at work on the sequel, William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back.

As you might expect, this book is based on the events of Episode V, but recounts them in iambic pentameter, and, like its predecessor, brings the story to life through black-and-white Elizabethan-style illustrations. By the way, that grandson stuff? I totally made that up.

[MIKA27]

See The New Xbox One Dashboard In Action

Get a good look at the Xbox One’s new dashboard update in this video released by Microsoft’s Major Nelson today.

The update — which includes improvements to party chat and the friends list on Xbox One — will go live in March, just in time for Titanfall. Looks good!

[MIKA27]

What Do You Think About Apple HQ's Official Steve Jobs Statue?

Of the over 10,000 entries submitted, Apple has officially chosen this piece, created by Belgrade sculptor Dragan Radenović, to commemorate and remember Steve Jobs who lost his battle with cancer almost two and a half years ago.

Given the sleek lines of the iPhone and other hardware created by Apple while Steve Jobs led the company, the rough finish of this sculpture — adorned with Cyrillic letters, a one and zero, and a bust of Jobs — seems to go against the company’s design ideals.

But those at Apple who selected the piece apparently preferred its imperfections over sleeker, cleaner submissions.

So what do you think? Does this piece best represent Steve Jobs, or does it completely miss the mark? What other recent statues or memorials have succeeded or failed in your view? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

MIKA: I think... WTF!?

[MIKA27]

Reports of Hitler’s Death Were Wildly Exaggerated

Rumors and conspiracy theories of Adolf Hitler escaping Germany at the end of the World War II have circulated since 1945.

Apparently, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin felt strongly enough about the rumors he told American President Harry S. Truman at the 1945 Potsdam Conference he believed Hitler escaped from Germany to South America. More people claimed to have seen the Führer alive and well directly after the war than saw Elvis after the King of Rock ’n Roll died in 1977 from an apparent drug overdose.

And that’s a lot of people.

The official story of the end of World War II tells of the suicides of German Führer Adolf Hitler and his wife of one day Eva Braun.

Two days before the Soviet Red Army had completely encircled Berlin, the longest surviving witness to Hitler’s final days, bodyguard Rochus Misch said in an interview that the Führer told his inner circle, “That’s it. The war is lost. Everybody can go.”

When the Soviets swarmed the Fuehrerbunker on 30 April 1945, Braun and Hitler were already dead; Braun by cyanide capsule, Hitler had shot himself with his personal Walther PPK 7.65mm. But before the Soviets could find them, the bodies had been taken outside, dumped in a shell crater, doused with gasoline and set on fire. Only bones were left for the Soviets. After discovering the remains were Hitler and Braun’s, the Soviets removed the bones and reburied them twice before storing them in Moscow.

After April 1945 things get murky. Misch, who died on 5 September 2013, at 96, told America’s NBC News he lived in the bunker in close quarters with Hitler and knew the German leader had died.

However, there is some debate on whether those remains are actually Hitler’s. In 1999, Professor Michael Perrier of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, claimed that when he compared dental X-rays of Hitler’s skull to the remains in Moscow, they were close enough to convince him the remains were, in fact, Hitler’s. However, Nick Bellantoni of the University of Connecticut, conducted DNA tests on the remains in 2009 and concluded the jawbone and skull stored in Moscow were those of a woman between the ages of 20 and 40. Braun was 33, and Hitler, presumably not a woman, had just turned 56. Although the skull matched Braun’s age and sex, it showed a bullet wound, and according to eyewitnesses, Braun had not been shot.

For decades, rumors have persisted that Adolf Hitler escaped Germany in the final days of the war, and found refuge in Spain or South America. A recent book by best-selling author Jerome Corsi, “Hunting Hitler,” claims the United States government helped the German leader escape. The 2012 documentary “Hitler in Argentina,” by Israeli filmmakers Noam Shalev and Pablo Weschler, allege Hitler died there in 1965. The 2011 book, “Grey Wolf: The Escape of Adolf Hitler,” authors Simon Dunstan and Gerrard Williams say Hitler and Braun’s suicides were faked, and the newly-married couple left the Fuehrerbunker, made it to a runway, and left Germany on a Junkers-52 transport aircraft.

All these routes led to Argentina, and as early as 21 September 1945, America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation began to look into the case. FBI records released through the Freedom of Information Act show the bureau responded to reports of a man who “claims to have aided six top Argentine officials in hiding Adolph (sic) Hitler upon his landing by submarine in Argentina. Hitler reported to be hiding out in foothills of southern Andes.” The man (name redacted from the FBI file) wanted immunity from being returned to Argentina in exchange for the information.

According to this informant, he was one of four men who met Hitler and a group of nearly fifty people, including two women, and a doctor, when two German submarines stopped along the tip of the Valdes Peninsula, which is in the gulf of San Matias, at 11 p.m.

one night about two and a half weeks after the fall of Berlin. It took until dawn to unload the submarines and strap the group’s possessions to pack horses. The FBI’s source said the plans had been arranged by the German government and “six top Argentine officials.” The group was lead inland “toward the foothills of the southern Andes,” where they arrived at the ranch of a German family at dusk. Hitler’s group was to live with German families who had settled in a number of local cities, including San Antonio, Videma, Neuquen, and Muster.

After the Argentine officials paid the soon-to-be informant $15,000 for his part in the plan, he fled to America because “the matter was weighing on his mind and that he did not wish to be mixed up in the business any further.” The man added Hitler was ill, suffering from asthma, and stomach ulcers. The Führer had also shaved off his toothbrush mustache so he wouldn’t be as easy to recognize.

Then the informant disappeared. The FBI couldn’t find record of him through the Immigration and Naturalization Service, local police, or through their own search.

The Argentina claim wasn’t the only Hitler sighting the bureau looked into. Between October and November 1945, the FBI received information in the months after the war claiming Hitler was alive and well in New York City, Switzerland, on a ranch in New Mexico (this information came via a penned note from a Spiritualist medium), and back again to Argentina. A letter to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover stated (with spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors unedited),

“Hitler is in Argentina, He is liveing in a great underground establishment beneath a vast hacienda – 675 miles west from Florianopolis (Brazil); 430 miles northwest of Buenos Aires; and that ‘two doubles’ are there with Hitler. The western enterence to elevators leading to Hitlers new underground is a wall operated by photo-electric cells, and that by code signals of even dim flash lights, wall slides to left, lets Autos speed in, and instantly slides back into place. Do not believe the British lie that Hitler is dead I am A full blooded American and think this should be investigated at once.”

The letter (name redacted) also claimed, “I canot davulg the mans name at present who gave me the news I have.”

On 5 November 1945, a man wrote to the FBI because his mother saw Hitler in workman’s clothes board a train on Houston Street (city name not on letter).

To fuel the fire of the “Hitler is alive” hypothesis, the Associated Press reported on 27 October 1945, that the French newspaper France Soir quoted Germany’s wartime ambassador Otto Abetz as saying Adolf Hitler, “is certainly not dead. (Hitler) was not a coward – I believe one day he will return.”

On 27 September 1947 the FBI received a letter that had been sent to an address in Germany that was purportedly sent by Adolf Hitler. The agent (name redacted) who sent a copy of the letter to FBI headquarters from the Oakland, California, bureau office, began with;

“Gentlemen, perhaps you recall Orson Welles’ attack of the martians? I have a letter from Hitler in German that would multiply the sensation of Welles’ 100 times.”

In the translated letter Hitler states, “No doubt it is well known that little has happened in my life that could be called laughable, but when at the time of the Russian attack on Berlin I found refuge in the basement of the Imperial Chancellery building, I was informed that my body and that of my wife Eva Braun had been covered with naptha and burned in the Chancellery garden. I could not help smiling for at this time we were many kilometers southwest of Berlin on our air journey to Argentina.”

Stories sent to the FBI about a man sitting with Hitler at a restaurant in New York, that the Führer was alive in Spain under the care of a doctor named Stahner, he was in Brazil, or Black Mountain, North Carolina, and was seen boarding a train on the Illinois Central Railroad line continued until 1950. At least that’s the extent of the files the bureau has released.

[polarbear]

What Do You Think About Apple HQ's Official Steve Jobs Statue?

Of the over 10,000 entries submitted, Apple has officially chosen this piece, created by Belgrade sculptor Dragan Radenović, to commemorate and remember Steve Jobs who lost his battle with cancer almost two and a half years ago.

Given the sleek lines of the iPhone and other hardware created by Apple while Steve Jobs led the company, the rough finish of this sculpture — adorned with Cyrillic letters, a one and zero, and a bust of Jobs — seems to go against the company’s design ideals.

But those at Apple who selected the piece apparently preferred its imperfections over sleeker, cleaner submissions.

So what do you think? Does this piece best represent Steve Jobs, or does it completely miss the mark? What other recent statues or memorials have succeeded or failed in your view? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

MIKA: I think... WTF!?

Is it just me, or does it look like someone has stuck a knife in the left hand side of that statue

Kinda ironic...

[Fuzz]

What Do You Think About Apple HQ's Official Steve Jobs Statue?

That's a 1 and a 0 on the side? I thought it was his wingdangdoodle... added to that the knife and Kuato...

[OZCUBAN]

What Do You Think About Apple HQ's Official Steve Jobs Statue?

Of the over 10,000 entries submitted, Apple has officially chosen this piece, created by Belgrade sculptor Dragan Radenović, to commemorate and remember Steve Jobs who lost his battle with cancer almost two and a half years ago.

Given the sleek lines of the iPhone and other hardware created by Apple while Steve Jobs led the company, the rough finish of this sculpture — adorned with Cyrillic letters, a one and zero, and a bust of Jobs — seems to go against the company’s design ideals.

I like he bust component the rest CRAP

But those at Apple who selected the piece apparently preferred its imperfections over sleeker, cleaner submissions.

So what do you think? Does this piece best represent Steve Jobs, or does it completely miss the mark? What other recent statues or memorials have succeeded or failed in your view? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

MIKA: I think... WTF!?

[OZCUBAN]

Indonesia: Rising sea 'threatens 1,500 islands'

As many as 1,500 of Indonesia's islands could be under water by 2050 because of rising sea levels, it's been reported.

In the capital city, Jakarta, the main international Soekarno-Hatta Airport could be below sea level as soon as 2030, with outlying districts turned into lakes, says Singapore's Straits Times, quoting a report from Maplecroft's Climate Change Vulnerability Index.

"This archipelago's biggest threat is rising sea levels, where 42 million people living 3km from the coast are vulnerable," Ancha Srinivasan of the Asian Development Bank says.

Twenty-four islands have already disappeared off the coast of Aceh, North Sumatra, Papua and Riau, according to official research, and experts are worried this trend could accelerate. Indonesia comprises around 17,500 islands, of which approximately 6,000 are permanently inhabited.

What's more, rising acidity in sea water is causing supplies of fish to dwindle. Fish have moved further out to sea, depriving communities of once-secure fishing stocks. "It may be a small change, but has a significant impact on marine ecosystems and fish spawning habits," Ancha Srinivasan told the paper.

Up to 10% of Indonesia's low-lying islands could be at risk

Then we will see some "Boat People"

[MIKA27]

Astonishing Images Of A Diver Swimming On Top Of Great White Sharks

Ocean Ramsey doesn’t ride on top of great white sharks for fun or frivolous show. She does it to dispel their image of cruel killing machines, to call attention to the fact that sharks are seriously endangered. Which really sucks, because they’re crucial for the sustainability of the oceans and, therefore, our own species.

Like with wolves and other large predators, our image of sharks is deformed by irrational fear and hate. The fear is rooted on rumour — scattered news that get amplified and deformed as they are retold again and again. These obscure stories make us anthropomorphise these animals. We give them human qualities and emotions — like cruelty and anger — giving them motive and turning them into thinking monsters akin to psychopaths. And once they are like us, we can hate them.

But the fact is that the only thing sharks are trying to do is survive, contributing to the trophic pyramid that is the base and covenant of all life on Earth. Without them, that pyramid would collapse. Instead of hating and hunting them — based on the stupid thought that this our Earth — what we should do is get out of their way.

How can she swim with sharks without being attacked?

It’s pretty simple: Ramsey is an expert diver, a surfer and a shark conservationist who understands the behaviour of these animals and respects them and their habitat. In her own words:

I’m not advising that people go out and just jump in to the water with White sharks or Tigers or other large species, just as I wouldn’t recommend jumping into a yard with a strange dog. Sharks do need to be respected as wild animals and appreciated for their role as top predators in the ocean ecosystem. My shark experiences have all been positive in part because while I know sharks are not mindless man-eaters, I simultaneously have respect for their capabilities, a lot of experience interacting with animals and reading body language, behaviour, and I am comfortable with my own water abilities while also trusting my dive partner. Given the number of surfers and swimmers who frequent shark territory in low visibility often dressed in black wetsuits or floating on surfboards portraying a seal-like silhouette, it is a huge testament to sharks sensory systems and intelligence that mistaken identity bites “attacks” are so rare. Like many animals, individual sharks display different dispositions and personalities or temperaments and not all are comfortable with or interested in interaction with humans.

Ocean is also a free diver who is capable holding her breath for five minutes and seven seconds.

You can listen more about this and other shark issues in this video, which has really awesome footage of her swimming with these animals:

Ocean Ramsey with a tiger shark.

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The Number Of Known Planets In The Universe Just Doubled

NASA’s $US600 million Kepler Space Telescope has discovered a few new planets. Actually, Kepler data revealed 715 new exoplanets. That’s astonishing. It’s actually twice as many as we previously thought existed. The number of known Earth-sized planets also just quadrupled.

This is pretty great news for a couple of reasons. First of all, if you’re holding out hope that we are not alone in the universe, your odds just got a lot better. The more planets there are out there, the more likely one of them will be home to some amazing alien life form or even civilisation. And, since we learned back in November that 20 per cent of all exoplanets exist in the so-called Goldilocks zone — that is, the distance from a star where planets will most likely support life — there are now hundreds of candidates.

From a space nerd’s point of view though, the discovery is exciting for a slightly different reason. This massive batch of new exoplanets, the biggest exoplanet discovery to date, gives scientists all kinds of neat new data to work with.

For instance, astronomers now know that our solar system is especially roomy. That is, the distance between planets is much greater in our solar system compared to other star systems, where the planets are sort of crammed together close to the star. “It’s starting to look like planets further out are rare,” said MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager who did not participate in either of the two new papers that detail the Kepler discoveries.

What we don’t know, however, is what these planets look like. Because Kepler finds exoplanets by spotting the wobble in the light of the nearby star, we don’t know if these are rocky planets or gassy planets. We certainly don’t know what things look like on the surface.

To gain a greater understanding of what this means in the long run, we reached out to Lee Billings, author of Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars. He’s wonderfully optimistic about the whole thing:

We are discovering exoplanets practically everywhere we care to look, and as they pour out of the sky, we are increasingly finding worlds that in simple terms of orbit, size, and mass are essentially indistinguishable from our own.

The stage is now set for the next phase of our search for life elsewhere in the universe, in which we move beyond simply detecting tantalising planets to actually learning whether or not they are very much like our own living Earth. To do that, we must deploy sophisticated instruments on the ground and in space to gather their faint planetary light — to take their pictures — so that we can map their surfaces, remotely sniff their atmospheres, and seek out signs of habitability and life.

This is arguably the grandest quest in the history of life on Earth, and whether they know it or not, everyone now living is privileged to bear witness to its unfolding.

So as our space tools improve, we’ll learn more and more. And hey, maybe one day we’ll discover that Earth twin that gives us another option once we completely wreck this planet. [Washington Post]

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The New Lamborghini Huracan Has Its Own Trailer

Car unveils appear to be serious business these days. That’s why Lamborghini decided to make its own trailer for the new Huracan supercar, officially being unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show.

It’s a pretty-enough trailer for a fairly same-same-looking marketing idea, but just look at that car. Phwoar.

Do want.

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Rolls-Royce Is Designing Giant Drone Ships To Sail The High Seas

Believe it or not, sailors are a big drag on shipping vessels. They weigh down the ship, take up space, cost thousands of dollars a day, and even cause most of the accidents at sea. So it’s no surprise that Rolls-Royce’s maritime division wants to replace them with robots.

Rolls-Royce’s Blue Ocean development team is perfecting designs for massive drone ships that will be able to shuttle cargo across the ocean without a single human being on board. Instead of a bridge, these ships come equipped with cameras that beam 360-degree views from the vessel back to dry land where teams of operators steer them to their destinations.

The space saved by removing the crew’s quarters also means that the ships can carry more cargo and — of course — make more money.

How much more? Well, on ships like these, the crew costs an average of $US3299 a day, a figure that amounts to 44 per cent of the total operating expenses. If you cut that out and add whatever extra they make for the extra cargo, it could really affect the bottom line for shipping companies. And don’t forget about the part where there would be fewer accidents in the absence of human error.

Also, no pirates.

Obviously, removing the crews on cargo ships isn’t an easy sell. First of all, it’s not exactly legal under current maritime law. (Rolls-Royce thinks they can get that changed within a decade.)

Maritime unions also don’t like the idea at all, and plenty of people have doubts about whether the technology is actually there yet.

That said, people were saying the same thing about unmanned aerial vehicles and robots on the battlefield a few years — and look at us now. [Bloomberg]

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Batman Enters the Apocalyptic World ofTerminator in Awesome Animated Short

Welcome to the world of Batman versus The Terminator. The year is 2029. It’s been three decades since the artificial intelligence defense network Skynet destroyed most of the human race in a nuclear holocaust. But as the survivors huddle in the ashes against hopeless odds, perpetually backlit by some sort of red light, a hero emerges: Batman. In this seriously excellent animated short by Mitchell Hammond, the Dark Knight sets out across the country in a battle-ready Batmobile to kick some AI tail and have his own superhero meet-up with the Terminator equivalent of Superman: John Connor.

Forget Christian Bale in Terminator: Salvation (seriously, forget it). This is the only Terminator/Batman crossover you’ll ever need.

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Remembering Japan's kamikaze pilots

Japan hopes to immortalise its kamikaze pilots - a squad of young men who crashed their aircraft into Allied ships in World War Two - by seeking Unesco World Heritage status for a collection of their letters. Rupert Wingfield-Hayes meets the former pilot who built the collection, in honour of his fallen comrades.

"Kamikaze" - it is a word that has become synonymous with all that is crazy, fanatical and self-destructive. I remember as a young schoolboy in Britain learning about the kamikaze pilots. To me, what they had done was inexplicable. For long afterwards, it coloured my view of Japan, and it left me with a nagging question: how did it happen? What caused thousands of ordinary young Japanese men to volunteer to kill themselves?

I had long dreamed of asking a kamikaze pilot that question. And so it was that last week I found myself ringing the bell of a comfortable-looking house outside the city of Nagoya in central Japan. Moments later, striding out to meet me came a small, energetic and very neatly dressed old man, a wide smile on his face.

Tadamasa Itatsu is a spritely 89-year-old with twinkling eyes and a firm handshake. He cancelled his tennis game because I was coming, he tells me.

It's hard to believe that cheerful old man was once a kamikaze pilot.

In March 1945 Itatsu-San was a 19-year-old pilot. Hundreds of American and British battleships and aircraft carriers were sailing towards Okinawa. He was asked by his commander to volunteer for one of Japan's infamous "special attack" squadrons.

"If Okinawa was invaded, then the American planes would be able to use it as a base to attack the main islands of Japan." He tells me: "So we young people had to prevent that. In March 1945 it was a normal thing to be a kamikaze pilot. All of us who were asked to volunteer did so."

The inside of Itatsu-San's home is a shrine to his fallen comrades, the walls covered in grainy photos of young men in flying suits.

Over and over as we talk, he comes back to the same point - these young men were not fanatics, they believed their actions could save their country from disaster.

"Common sense says you only have one life," he says, "so why would you want to give it away? Why would you be happy to do that?

But at that time everyone I knew, they all wanted to volunteer. We needed to be warriors to stop the invasion from coming. Our minds were set. We had no doubt about it."

Itatsu-San did not die. As he flew south towards his target, his engine failed and he was forced to ditch in the sea. He returned to his unit, but the war ended before he could try again.

For many years afterwards he kept his story a secret, ashamed he had survived. He often thought of committing suicide, he says, but didn't have the courage.

Then, in the 1970s, he began to seek out the families of his dead comrades, asking them for letters and photographs from the dead pilots. His collection became the core of what is now known as the Kamikaze Letters.

From a series of long cardboard tubes Itatsu-San pulls thin pieces of paper covered in black calligraphy. He carefully unfurls one on the table and begins to read.

"Dear mother, my one regret is I could not do more for you before I die. But to die as a fighter for the emperor is an honour. Please do not feel sad."

A lot of the letters are in this vein. They appear to confirm the view that a whole generation of Japanese men had been brainwashed in to self-abnegation and blind obedience to the Emperor.

But there are others, which show a minority of kamikaze pilots had not swallowed the propaganda, and even some that appear to reject Japan's cause.

One of the most extraordinary is by a young lieutenant, Ryoji Uehara.

"Tomorrow, one who believes in democracy will leave this world," he wrote. "He may look lonely but his heart is filled with satisfaction.

Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany have been defeated. Authoritarianism is like building a house with broken stones."

Itatsu-san unfurls the "Kamikaze Letters"

So what should the world make of the Kamikaze Letters, and should they be given World Heritage status?

Itatsu-San clearly thinks they should. He describes them as a "treasure to be passed down to future generations". But even today with the benefit of 70 years' hindsight, Itatsu-San remains astonishingly unreflective about what happened to him and his comrades.

"I never look back with regret," he says, "The people who died did so willingly. I thought at the time it was really bad luck to survive. I really wanted to die with them. Instead, I have to concentrate my efforts to maintain their memory."

Japan has immense problems with its memory of the war. Prominent politicians and media figures still frequently espouse absurd revisionist versions of history - that Japan never started the war, that the Nanjing Massacre never happened, that tens of thousands of comfort women "volunteered" to become sex slaves for the Japanese military.

The massive bombing of Japanese cities at the end of the war, and in particular the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has allowed the construction of a narrative of victimhood. Japan is the only country to have suffered an atomic attack. The firebombing of Tokyo, in one night, killed at least 100,000 civilians. But when talking about these horrors, what is often forgotten or omitted is how it all began.

Likewise, the desire to remember the terrible sacrifice made by the young kamikaze pilots is understandable. What often appears to be missing is that question: "How did we get here?"

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Saddle Ridge Hoard: Buried gold coin stash 'worth $10m'

A California couple found a stash of gold coins buried on their property last year valued at as much as $10m (£6m), rare coin dealers have said.

The 1,427 coins, which date from 1847-1894, were never circulated and are in mint condition, numismatist David Hall told the Associated Press.

The unnamed couple found them buried in rusting metal cans under a tree while on a walk last April.

It is seen as the largest haul of buried treasure in US history.

"We've seen shipwrecks in the past where thousands of gold coins were found in very high grade, but a buried treasure of this sort is unheard of," David McCarthy of currency firm Kagin's, who is advising the couple, told Reuters news agency.

"I've never seen this face value in North America and you never see coins in the condition we have here."

The coins were buried in rusted old metal cans

The couple live in a rural area of California known as Gold Country for the swarms of prospectors who descended on the region during the 19th Century gold rush.

They found the coins in an area of their land they called Saddle Ridge, and the coin dealers who have seen the haul have taken to calling it the Saddle Ridge Hoard.

It is a mystery who buried the coins - and why.

Mr Hall of Professional Coin Grading Service of Santa Ana, California, which recently authenticated the coins, told the Associated Press the coins' face value adds up to about $27,000. But some of the coins are so rare they could sell for $1m each.

The couple plan to sell the coins on Amazon.

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TOYOTA TACOMA POLAR EXPEDITION TRUCK

Ebay have listed a one of a kind vehicle, a chance to own the ultimate adventure truck.

The purpose built vehicle was modified over a period of two years to perfection, it was designed to break the Guinness World Record for the fastest drive across the earth’s most deadly terrain: across the icecap to the South Pole and back again. Described as "The most unique and successful concept truck ever built”, ´Polar` is now available for purchase, with both Guinness World Record certificates included with the sale. More details at Rufauto or go straight to the listing at Ebay.