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

[MIKA27]

Skydiver almost gets hit by meteorite

According to geologist Hans Amundsen—of the Natural History Museum in Oslo—you're looking at the first ever film of a meteorite falling through its dark flight stage. The lucky guy who filmed it was skydiver Anders Helstrup, who survived the encounter unscathed.

The chances of this happening, according to the scientist, are "much less likely than winning the lottery three times in a row." Here's the original video. You can see the meteorite zooming down at the 0:22 mark.

While he almost got hit by it, Anders told the Norwegian national television NKR that he didn't see it when it happened.

I got the feeling that there was something, but I didn't register what was happening.

It was only after he looked at the footage of his helmet cam when he realized this could be a rock from outer space. He was amazed and eventually took the film to the University of Oslo. The scientists there confirmed that, indeed, it was a meteorite plunging into Earth at terminal velocity, a stage called dark flight.

During this phase, the meteorite "no longer travels at an angle, but falls straight down." According to Amundsen, who initially was very skeptical about it's nature, it can't be anything else but a fragment of a meteorite: "The shape is typical of meteorites—a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded."

He believes that "the meteorite had been part of a larger stone that had exploded perhaps 20 kilometres above Helstrup."

[MIKA27]

The A-10 Warthog Looks Especially Cool In This Photo

It must be the combination of the steel grey palette, the black accents, and their patches and rivets, but these two A-10s look especially cool and futuristic to me in this photo. Like they can be piloted by this guy.

Perhaps it’s because this aeroplane has become such a design icon that it has already transcended its own time. I can’t remember any other plane so ugly that became so beautiful so quickly. Perhaps the original Thunderbolt, which was so chubby compared to the P-51 Mustang and other planes of that era. Look at this amazingly beautiful beast now:

But while both look equally burly, the original Thunderbolt wasn’t as deadly as the Warthog, which was built around a gun two times the size a Volkswagen Beetle — the 30mm GAU-8 Avenger, the biggest gun ever in a combat jet.

The top photo is by Master Sgt. Becky Vanshur for the National Guard.

[MIKA27]

Stem Cell Researchers Just Figured Out How To Create New Embryos

A team of researchers from the University of Virginia just made scientific history: They figured out how to turn stem cells into full blown fish embryos. In other words, scientists can now control embryonic development, a key to being able to grow organs and even entire organism from stem cells.

“We have generated an animal by just instructing embryonic cells the right way,” said Chris Thisse, who made the discovery with her husband Bernard. She added, “If we know how to instruct embryonic cells, we can pretty much do what we want.”

We can do whatever we want?! That’s both incredibly exciting and a little bit scary. What’s pretty unbelievable about the breakthrough, however, is the fact that controlling embryonic development comes down to just two signals. Previously, the question of how few signals it would take was one of biology’s biggest challenges. The researchers now think it’s possible to manipulate these signals to direct the formation of organs — a sort of holy grail for the medical field.

Next, the Thisses will attempt to turn stem cells into mouse embryos. And, while they’re playing God, the rest of the scientific community will undoubtedly be checking and double checking their work.

The brain of the vertebrate zebrafish embryo. Though it was a bit smaller than a normal one, the embryo grown from stem cells contained all the right parts to support life.

[MIKA27]

Aussie Scientists Discover Potential Cancer-Blasting Drug.... In A Tobacco Plant

Australian researchers published findings this week on a newly-discovered plant compound that destroys cancer cells, but leaves healthy cells unharmed. They found it in possibly the last place you’d look for a cancer cure: the family of plants that brings us cancer’s number-one culprit, tobacco.

The research team at La Trobe University discovered the cancer-blasting protein in the flowers of Nicotiana alata, a relative of cigarette tobacco that’s usually planted as an ornamental (though it’s sometimes smoked in ****** pipes). A protein called NaD1 helps the plant fight off fungi and bacteria — and, it turns out, that same protein is like a sniper for cancerous cells.

On the cellular level, NaD1 works by plunging sharp pincers into fat molecules present in the outer membranes of cancerous cells.

This action rips the cells open, spilling their guts and destroying them before they can spread their cancerous mutations to other cells.

“There is some irony in the fact that a powerful defence mechanism against cancer is found in the flower of a species of ornamental tobacco plant, but this is a welcome discovery, whatever the origin,” said Dr. Mark Hulett, lead investigator in the study.

The most promising aspect of NaD1 is how it specifically targets cancerous cells. Many of the most vicious, lifestyle-limiting side effects of current chemotherapy stems from the fact that the drugs tend to kill healthy cells as well as cancerous cells.

Now that the researchers have an idea how the mechanism works, they’re laboring to see how it can be put to use. Preclinical trials are underway at a Melbourne biotech company, though Dr. Hulett predicts it will take a decade before the substance finds its way to hospitals.

In the meantime, stay away from those tobacco products. The good cousin in the family may work out to be very good, but the bad cousin is still undeniably bad.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: This Doomsday Plane Is Putin's Personal Escape Pod

America isn’t the only superpower with a “Doomsday Plane” for its head of state. When Russian President Vladimir Putin needs to escape danger, he hops aboard this top-secret flying communications center.

A special missions variant of the Tupolev Tu-214 commercial transport aircraft, the Tu-214SR is Russia’s answer to the US E-4B, an airborne command and control plane built specifically for the Russian president’s use and considered successor to the Ilyushin Il-20 Coot, which has been in service for the better part of four decades. Produced by Aviastar SP and Kazan Aircraft Production Association, the twin-engine, long-endurance jet can carry 62 passengers with comparable range and speed to a Boeing 757. But unlike the Boeing, the Tu-214SR is packed to the gills with cutting-edge sensor and communications equipment.

While significantly less is known about capabilities of the 214SR than the E-4B, we do know that it carries an MRC-411 multi-intelligence payload, which includes electronic intelligence (ELINT) sensors, side-looking Synthetic Aperture Radar (to spot incoming air threats from long range), and a variety of Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Communications Intelligence (COMINT) equipment. Four onboard generators provide ample amperage while a set of external fuel tanks allow the plane to remain aloft for trips up to 10,000km.

The two such 214SRs entered service in 2008 with the Presidential Special Applications Squad and are operated by a crew of four. However, the plane was only declassified last year when it made its public debut at the Moscow Air Show. Since then, it’s been spotted in the skies above both the Sochi Olympics, and more recently — and ominously — in Crimea.

[MIKA27]

There's A Woman Hidden In This Painting Of A Moth

Briefly: A beautiful black-and-white rendering of a Pandora Sphinx moth. But look closer. Can you see her? There’s a woman hiding in it. Keep looking. It will appear to you soon and, when it does, it will you freak out.

It’s a body paint demo video by Roustan Bodypaint.

[MIKA27]

Star Wars: Episode VII Has Already Begun Filming

Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn said filming of Episode VII in the popular sci-fi franchise has already begun, but he added casting has been the greatest difficulty in getting the latest Star Wars launched

The new Star Wars movie is already being filmed and most of the cast for the latest installment—Episode VII—has already been chosen, said Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn.

Horn, whose studio is producing the film, said of the cast for the upcoming Star Wars movie, due in 2015, “We have a lot of them… We’re just not completely done yet,” The Hollywood Reporter reports. Horn added casting has been the greatest difficulty in getting the latest Star Wars launched.

Speculation has surrounded casting for the movie for some time, with rumors flying that Adam Driver of HBO’s Girls will play the villain in the new Star Wars installment and reports of talks with Lupita Nyong’o, who starred in 12 Years a Slave, as a female lead.

But in response to further questions about the cast, Horn adopted a Yoda voice. “Patience, you must have,” he said.

The screenplay for the film has been completed, and was written by J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan following an early draft by Michael Arndt.

Horn said the film will be released in December 2015.

[MIKA27]

Bill Clinton Is Right: There Are Aliens in Space

http://youtu.be/6PNttGg-z84

The former president weighs in on the existence of ET—and he's probably right

One of the good things about being an ex-President is that you get to say the kinds of things you could never say when you were still the most powerful person in the world. Take aliens—the space kind. Last night, during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, the 42nd prez admitted not only that when he was in the White House he ordered a review of all of the documents related to the long running rumors over aliens landing in Roswell, N.M. in 1947, but that he would not be surprised if we did eventually get a cosmic caller.

“If we were visited someday I wouldn’t be surprised,” he said, “I just hope it’s not like Independence Day,” a reference to the 1996 movie in which aliens do land—and behave very, very badly.

Has Clinton gone ’round the bend? Not a bit–depending on whether you subscribe to the life-is-easy or life-is-hard school of thought. Physicist, broadcaster and author Paul Davies of Arizona State University is one of the leading proponents of the we’re-all-alone camp, arguing in his aptly titled book The Eerie Silence that biology emerging from dead chemicals was such a cosmic longshot that it’s entirely possible it happened only once, here. But that position is becoming increasingly untenable.

First, there are about 300 billion stars in the Milky Way and our galaxy is one of at least 100 billion in the universe. So, as the overworked idiom goes, do the math. What’s more, ever since the Kepler Space Telescope was launched in 2009, close to 4,000 candidate planets have been discovered in the Milky Way and close to 1,000 have been confirmed.

Planets aren’t the same as biology—witness Earth’s lifeless brothers and sisters in our solar system—but the increasingly evident presence of water and organic chemicals in asteroids, comets and throughout the interstellar medium suggests that the ingredients for life are everywhere. If that’s so, it may take little more than that chemistry plus some energy source (light or heat) plus time to cook up something living. Clinton may have had his political critics in his eight years in the White House, but science, in this case, appears to be on his side.

[MIKA27]

Did Ancient Microbes Cause Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction?

About 252 million years ago, climate change killed almost every living species on Earth. The survivors made up roughly 10% of the species that existed prior to this catastrophic event, which scientists refer to formally as the Permian-Triassic extinction and more informally as the Great Dying.

SciShow’s Hank Green walks us through the five most recent mass extinctions. The recurring theme of climate change altering species’ natural habitats, making them inhospitable, is impossible to miss:

What caused the dramatic changes to the climate leading up to the Great Dying? As Green points out, the standard explanation has been that volcanic activity is to blame. And given that we know considerable seismic shifts were happening around this time (Pangaea had formed less than 50 million years earlier and would be gone 75 million years later), it would be a remarkable coincidence if the Great Dying had nothing to do with volcanic activity.

But according to an international team of geophysicists working through MIT, it was the ancient methanosarcina that fed on the volcanic nickel deposits (and subsequently filled the air with methane gas) that destroyed the global ecosystem. And because their theory is pretty airtight—we know the volcanic nickel deposits were there, we know methanosarcina were there, we know methanosarcina fed on nickel, we know they produced methane, we know methane in proportional quantities would make the Earth pretty much uninhabitable—it’s likely to become the prevailing theory.

And if it’s true, we are following the methanosarcina’s lead. Much like them, we are consuming abundant resources, releasing vast quantities of environmentally destructive waste in the process, and indirectly damaging ecosystems on a global scale. This is, it seems, a very old story.

[MIKA27]

Pakistan: Nine-month-old boy accused of planning murder

A nine-month-old boy has appeared in court in Pakistan on charges of planning a murder, threatening police and interfering in state affairs, it appears.

Baby Muhammad Mosa Khan is one of more than 30 people facing charges after a police raid to catch suspected gas thieves in the city of Lahore, The News website reports. Police say the suspects tried to murder security officers by pelting them with stones.

But the Times of India newspaper quotes the infant's father as saying the group was protesting against an electricity shortage.

The infant appeared in the courtroom sitting on his father's lap and clasping a bottle. He was given bail and the case has been adjourned until 12 April, reports from Lahore say. His father is also among the accused.

The murder charges against a baby have alarmed Punjab's Chief Minister Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif. He has asked for clarification from the province's inspector-general of police and demanded "stern action" against the officials who registered the case.

The assistant superintendent who filed the charges has subsequently been suspended, The Nation website says.

MIKA: W.T.F!?

[MIKA27]

AYRTON SENNA STORMTROOPER RACING HELMET

One of the greatest Formula One drivers of all time, the late Ayrton Senna, died on the track 20 years ago during the San Marino Grand Prix. The 34-year-old Brazilian had already won three Formula One world championships and was surely not done nabbing trophies. Here he gets the kind of posthumous honor that would make any Star Wars fan’s dreams come true: a Stormtrooper racing helmet.

The helmet, made by Andrew Ainsworth of Shepperton Design Studios, uses the original molds he used for the actual 1977 film. Artist Jason Brooks has done the rest, decorating it with the appropriate paint and decals that Senna would’ve worn. Even if you’re not a sci-fi fan, you can’t deny the tastiness here. It’s all for the Art Wars exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

[MIKA27]

HARDCORE HARDWARE RHINO TACTICAL TOMAHAWK

Hack and slash video games are some of the finest stress relievers known to modern man (says us). But when your system freezes up, then what? We say helicopter yourself into some dense, desolate, South American jungle and try to hack and slash your way to safety with this MFE01 Rhino Tactical Tomahawk from Hardcore Hardware.

It can infinitely spawn med kits, there’s nothing else this jack-of-all-tools can’t do; hammer, smash, chop, dig, split—you name it. There’s a nail puller, pry bar, axe head, and more, all made from D2 tool steel with a Teflon coating. Choose your handle in flat black or coyote brown. The MFE01 was jointly created by Hardcore Hardware and the Australian Army, and we’re guessing those guys have hacked and slashed a smidgen in their day. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

Out of Place in Time: Was This Hammer Made 100 Million Years Ago?

Oopart (out of place artifact) is a term applied to dozens of prehistoric objects found in various places around the world that seem to show a level of technological advancement incongruous with the times in which they were made. Ooparts often frustrate conventional scientists, delight adventurous investigators open to alternative theories, and spark debate.

A hammer was found in London, Texas, in 1934 encased in stone that had formed around it. The rock surrounding the hammer is said to be more than 100 million years old, suggesting the hammer was made well before humans who could have made such an object are thought to have existed.

Much mystery surrounds the so-called “London Hammer.”

Carl Baugh, who is in possession of the artifact, announced that it was tested by Battelle Laboratory in Columbus, Ohio, a lab that has tested moon rocks for NASA. The tests found the hammer to have unusual metallurgy—96.6 percent iron, 2.6 percent chlorine, 0.74 percent sulfur, and no carbon.

Carbon is usually what strengthens brittle iron, so it is strange that carbon is absent. Chlorine is not usually found in iron. The iron shows a high degree of craftsmanship without bubbles in the metal. Furthermore, it is said to be coated in an iron oxide that would not readily form under natural conditions and which prevents rust.

Glen J. Kuban, a vocal skeptic of Baugh’s hammer claims, wrote in a 1997 paper titled “The London Hammer: An Alleged Out-of-Place Artifact,” that the tests may have been conducted privately rather than at Battelle Laboratory. He cites a 1985 issue of the magazine Creation Ex Nihilo. Epoch Times contacted Battelle Laboratory to verify. A spokeswoman said she had not heard of the hammer in her 15 years at the lab, but she would check into it.

Kuban said the stone may contain materials that are more than 100 million years old, but that doesn’t mean the rock formed around the hammer so long ago. Some limestone has formed around artifacts known to be from the 20th century, so rocks can sometimes form fairly quickly.

Baugh’s website says, however, that the fossils in the stone surrounding the hammer “retain fine detail, indicating that they were not reworked, but [are] part of the original formation.” This would suggest the fossils and the hammer are from the same time period, that the fossils did not just get mixed up in materials that formed rock around the hammer at a later date.

Carbon dating performed in the late 1990s “showed inconclusive dates ranging from the present to 700 years ago,” Baugh supporter David Lines reported at the time. According to Kuban, Lines said the test had been contaminated by more recent organic substances. Such contamination is one of the reasons Baugh is said to have delayed having the artifact carbon dated (skeptics say he delayed because he feared being proved wrong). Dating is often called into question on both sides—by skeptics and proponents—for various reasons when it comes to ooparts.

The object was found by a hiker, and it seems it was not found embedded in the original layer of rock, which would have made a stronger case for an ancient origin. It was a chunk of rock found resting on a ledge, perhaps having tumbled there from within a larger formation.

As evidence of the hammer’s age, Baugh said part of the wooden handle had turned to coal. The photos of the hammer show a black part of the hammer that looks like it could be coal.

The debate surrounding the hammer’s origin has become bound up with the creationism versus evolutionism debate. Baugh is a creationist. Kuban is a creationist-turned-skeptic (or a much more moderate creationist). Various creationist organizations take different stances on this artifact, and many evolutionists dismiss it as a creationist hoax. But the object remains a fascinating one apart from its role in this controversy.

This is one of many objects said to be out of place in time.

[MIKA27]

Tom Hardy and James Gandolfini star in first trailer for The Drop: watch now

The first trailer has arrived for The Drop, in which Tom Hardy plays the bartender at a place serving as a money drop-off point for the area’s local gangsters.

So when the bar is ripped off one night, both Hardy and his cousin, played here by the late James Gandolfini, find themselves indebted to some distinctly unpleasant characters.

But while Hardy wants to turn his back on the whole business, Gandolfini (who was something of a badass himself, in his younger years) is hell-bent on getting every cent of the money back, one way or another…

Take a look at the first trailer, below:

[MIKA27]

The Incredible, Fiery Process Of Making Copper Wire

Wires are some of the most basic components of the modern world, which practically guarantees that most of us take them for granted. But as English Russia so kindly shows us, the process behind our messy heaps of wiring is anything but ordinary.

The photos, taken by E. Golovach, give us a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the often beautiful process of copper wire production. Plus, if you’ve ever wondered how all your dirty, recycled copper bits manage to be turned into something that’s actually useful, herein lies your answer.

We’ve included some of our favourite factory scenes below, but you can head on over to English Russia to check out the full set of fiery photos. [Enineering-RU via English Russia]

It all starts with a rusty heap of scrap metal. Anything containing copper will do…

...because any extra casings burn off when it gets melted down into copper soup.

To get temperatures up to boiling, factory workers inject oxygen under extremely high pressures.

The molten copper (which still contains quite a few impurities) starts flowing into molds.

Apparently, the temperatures were so high that the camera snapping photos was even damaged at this point.

The molds are then dipped in water to cool down to manageable temperatures.

The cooled molds get sent off to shed their impurities in giant electrolysis baths.

And out come these much prettier copper sheets.

To be made into wire, this copper gets sent out to a new shop to be melted down once again.

The pure, molten copper is cooled and shaped into a large snake.

At which point it gets stretched and stretched until it’s thin enough to meet the necessary diameter.

[MIKA27]

Tsunami Warning Tests Galapagos Islands

At 8:46 PM, on April 1st, the Nazca and South American tectonic plates ground against each other, 60 miles northwest of Iquique, Chile, 12.5 miles beneath the coastal waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. The resulting 8.2 magnitude earthquake triggered a swift reaction all along the South American coast, a region accustomed to large quakes and mindful of the dangers of tsunamis.

More than 1,000 miles away from the epicenter, in the Galapagos Islands, a newly crafted tsunami evacuation plan was being enacted minutes after the quake occurred. Sirens wailed in Puerto Ayora, the largest town on the islands, as people gathered for dinner. Circulating firefighters with megaphones urged people to move to higher ground through a network of previously designated meeting points. Most complied; some remained behind, unconvinced of the danger or confident in their topographical positioning.

The architect of the evacuation protocol, Ernesto Vaca, was in the heart of the action, along Puerto Ayora’s waterfront. In the darkness, he helped villagers and tourists move bags and board buses, cars, scooters – anything with wheels – to move up the mountain that dominates the island of Santa Cruz. Surf shops and tourist agencies were shuttered, promotional photos of tortoise-watching and snorkeling excursions incongruous in the tense evening air.

There was good reason to be concerned. In 2011, a wall of water swept across the Pacific Ocean following the earthquake that crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant. By the time it reached Puerto Ayora, the wave was over 12 feet tall; it crashed through glass windows and flooded most of the lower part of the town. Although the damage was relatively minimal, the event provided a stark wake-up call for local government officials.

Vaca has spent much of the last three years developing the evacuation plan as the Galapagos Province’s Director for Emergency Preparedness and Risk Management (he relinquished the post a few months ago). The position had been created only a few years earlier when, in 2008, Ecuador adopted a new constitution. “We are the only country in the world to insert a risk management component in our constitution,” he explains. “It is now mandatory to have plans to protect the civilian population, to instruct, train, and teach the public employees about what they should do in case of an emergency.”

The emergency preparedness remit for the Galapagos reads like an apocalyptic screenplay in a region prone to all manner of natural disaster – fires, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods. 600 miles from the Ecuadorian mainland, the islands also need to be mindful of sluggish external assistance.

Vaca supervised a thorough overhaul of each town’s safe zones, incorporating predictive models that revealed the flood-prone zones for a range of wave heights. He conducted seven evacuation exercises with schools and three large-scale test runs, one in each of the province’s main towns. His team examined local infrastructure to fortify emergency supplies of food, water, and electricity generation. (Vaca sought a 72-hour window of self-sufficiency before assistance would be forthcoming from the mainland.)

By 8:45 PM local time (the Galapagos are three hours behind Chile), the streets of Bellavista, a village well above the splash zone, were bustling, the evacuation plan an apparent success. As open-air cafes spilled out onto the sidewalks and crowds huddled around televisions, an atmosphere of kinetic, purposeful calm prevailed.

Fortunately, the wave never came during the night of April 1st (a minor, sub-meter surge was measured late in the evening), but the vagaries of tsunami formation made it a narrow miss. Tsunamis form when land motions associated with earthquakes displace the ocean and generate a series of waves. The magnitude of an earthquake itself doesn’t necessarily tell the full story of displacement and wave geometry; minute differences can mean the difference between a gentle swell and a wall of roiling water.

In the future, Vaca hopes, townspeople will be similarly cooperative and the Risk Management team will avoid boy-who-cried-wolf syndrome. “The people tell me, ‘it never happened, so why should I get concerned?’” recounts Vaca. He’s hoping that a broad public education campaign, from schoolchildren to governmental officials, will prove convincing.

“Last night the evacuation was good,” Vaca says in soft dawn light on April 2nd. “There is still room for improvement, but we are ready.”

[MIKA27]

Microsoft Is Suddenly a New Company. But Is It Too Late?

Just a two months into the tenure of new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft feels like an entirely different company. It’s finally letting go of the past and looking towards the future. That’s nothing less than a wonderful thing, but it comes with a caveat: You have to wonder if it came too late.

On Tuesday, at its annual developer conference in San Francisco, the software giant unveiled a free version of its Windows operating system — a seismic shift in strategy that never would never happened under ex-boss Steve Ballmer — and a day later, the company made an even more remarkable move in open sourcing many of its software development tools and programming languages, freely sharing the underlying code with the world at large.

That may seem like a small thing, but in Microsoft’s world, it’s absolutely enormous. For the past two decades, Microsoft — more than any other major tech company — has kept its distance from the increasingly powerful open source movement, and for years, it actively worked to squash it.

When you also consider that the company recently released a version of its Office software suite for the Apple iPad — something Ballmer was loath to do because it might hurt sales of tablets running Windows — you know that Microsoft is finally ready to compete for the future. Nadella has taken the company by the throat and immediately pulled it forward. He realizes that in today’s world, Microsoft must operate more like Google. You don’t succeed by trying to force an expensive operating system onto the market. You expand your tech empire by offering free operating systems and free developer tools. You can then make your money by selling other stuff, like web services and online ads and maybe even Microsoft Office.

The question is whether, after so much water under the bridge, Microsoft can actually make this work. Inside the company, voices have been calling for big moves like this for years, and while it dithered under Ballmer, rivals like Google took control of so many new markets, from smartphones to cloud services. Ex-Microsoftie Sam Ramji was one of those voices, and though he applauds the New Microsoft, he’s not sure the future can be won. “Times are changing,” he told us after Microsoft revealed its free OS and free developer tools. “But is the change coming soon enough?”

Mark Russinovich.

What’s undeniable — though Steve Ballmer denied it for years — is that Microsoft had to make these moves to at least have a fighting chance in the new tech world. And Mark Russinovich — a Microsoft Fellow and one of the lead architects of the company’s Windows Azure cloud service, another step into the future — believes that the company is now prepared to succeed. This starts with that free version of Windows, which is aimed not only at smartphones but at the next big thing: wearables.

Since the OS is free, Microsoft can more easily get the thing onto phones, digital eyewear, and other devices, and once it’s there, Nadella and company can use it to sell apps and online services. “If you look at the way business models are going, it’s not about the bottom-most piece of the system,” Russinovich told us on Wednesday, at the Microsoft developer conference where it unveiled the new OS. “The device itself — the OS that runs on top of that — is not where the value is. The value is in what you put on top of that.”

Indeed it is. The trouble is that Google and Apple have all but won the smartphone and tablets wars, and some rivals, including Google, already have a head start on wearables. If Microsoft has offered a free version of Windows even a few years ago, the challenge ahead wouldn’t be nearly as daunting.

In similar fashion, by open sourcing its developer tools — including the .NET programming framework and Visual Basic and C# programming languages — Microsoft can get them into the hands of more coders, and that means these coders will build more stuff for Windows and other Microsoft platforms — at least in theory. As open source software, these tools are more attractive to coders not only because they’re free but because it’s easier to understand how they work. If you’re building an application atop a programming framework like .NET and run into a bug, Russinovich says, there are cases where you need to understand the inner-workings of the framework in order to find that bug. “When its open source,” he explains, “you can go and look at it and say: ‘Oh, it’s because of this.’”

Ramji agrees that free .NET is the way forward — as would any other seasoned developer. But as with the free version of Windows, he thinks the change may have come too late. Because programming tools like Java have been open source for so long, they’re already blanketing the programming world, and things like .NET have an awful lot of catching up to do. “The majority market share technology…is hard to unseat because there are so many external subsidies — community projects, word of mouth, commercial products.”

In other words, an open source .NET is now free to spread across the tech landscape, but it will have a hard time replacing Java, which is hooked into so many parts of that landscape. Or, if you like, you can think this in even simpler terms: Nadella is the right man for Microsoft, but he should have arrived years ago.

[MIKA27]

SPIEGELAU STOUT GLASS

If you assumed that a stout glass made in collaboration with two of the finer breweries around (Left Hand Brewing Company and Rogue Ales) would be nothing short of perfection, then you thought right. The Spiegelau Stout Glass is exactly what you'd look for in a glass made to enjoy the roasted malts, coffee, and chocolate aromas so-often found in a stout. The results of rigorous testing with the best stouts available from both collaborators, the dimensions of this glass have been perfectly honed to enjoy the key characteristics of those beers — from the slender base to its tulip-shaped mouth.

[MIKA27]

2015 BMW M4 CONVERTIBLE

Speed and horsepower are one thing just on their own — but when you add in a drop-top that can fold up in under 20 seconds, then you really have something worthwhile. Retaining the same glorious power plant that its hard-topped predecessor had (a three-liter, 425-horsepower, twin-turbocharged straight six), the 2015 BMW M4 Convertible has the added benefit of letting in some of that sun you've been craving all winter.

Available with either a six-speed manual transmission or a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic, it pushes all that power through its rear wheels, helped by an active differential, adaptive suspension, and more. And though it's a bit heavier than its non-convertible sibling, we're willing to bet you'll hardly notice with all that wind going through your hair.

[Fuzz]

Pakistan: Nine-month-old boy accused of planning murder

MIKA: W.T.F!?

Just look at those eyes, thinking murderous thoughts... or maybe he just had a big dookie in his diapers?...

[MIKA27]

The Weird Weaponized Animals of WWII

The escalation of World War II brought with it an arms race of epic proportions, with each side racing to develop various weapons technologies with which to more efficiently kill each other. This time of frantic weapons research brought about some of the most deadly weapons the world had ever seen, the atomic bomb perhaps being the most notable. Yet it seems that the human capacity for imagination knows no bounds, including in the realm of weapons of war.

While some engineers were designing newer and deadlier aircraft, bombs, missiles, or other mechanical means of devastation, still others worked in the shadows of secret labs perfecting ways to turn animals into weapons. The results, while by no means always successful, were some of the most bizarre attempts at weapons of war ever devised. Here we will look at some of the creative ways in which human beings attempted to harness animals for the purpose of waging war during the Second World War.

Bat Bombs

Toward the end of World War II, the Air Force was looking for a better way to burn Japanese cities to the ground. They wanted an easy way to cause massive damage as well as shock and awe.

At the time, most dwellings in Japan were still made out of wood, bamboo, and paper in the traditional style, and were therefore highly combustible. In 1942, a dental surgeon by the name of Lytle S. Adams considered this potential weakness and contacted the White House with the idea of strapping small explosive devices to bats and dropping them over a wide area.

According to the plan, the idea was for millions of bats, specifically the plentiful and easily obtainable Mexican Free-tailed Bat, to parachute toward earth in an egg shaped container carrying small incendiary devices strapped to them.

The bat bomb container

At the designated time, the container would open and the flying mammals would disperse to find their way deep into the attics of barns, homes, and factories, where they would rest until the charges they were carrying exploded. It was hoped that the bats’ behavior of seeking out dark places to rest and their small size would serve to make sure they would be able to infiltrate targets easily. Additionally, since most Japanese structures were wooden and therefore highly flammable, it was thought that even a few bats in a building with very small charges would set off devastating fires that would rage out of control.

While it may seem like a far-fetched idea, the project was actually picked up by the government and gained some momentum. Prototypes were made and in the early 1940s, a test with some armed bats went awry when they set fire to a small Air Force base in Carlsbad, New Mexico. It was a set back, but proved that at least the bat bombs had the potential to be effective.

After that accident, the project was turned over to the Navy, which continued it for more than a year. During that time, the Marines conducted a test where they released the bats over a full mock-up of a Japanese city. The test was a success and the critters were able to start quite a few fires.

After this rousing success against the mock up town, more tests were planned for the summer of 1944, and the project seemed like it would come to fruition. Then, after having sunk more than 2 million dollars developing and testing the bat bombs, the project was cancelled since it was considered to be moving too slow. The bombs weren’t likely to be fully operational until mid-1945, and the military didn’t have that kind of time to spare. Therefore, the bat bomb project was scrapped to focus on the atomic bomb which would eventually be used instead to horrific results.

The mastermind behind the project, the dentist Adams himself, lamented the ending of the project, and after the dropping of the atomic bombs asserted that his bat bomb plan would have caused just as much structural damage with a fraction of the loss of life.

Anti-tank Dogs

Anti-tank dogs were dogs that were taught to carry explosives to tanks, armored vehicles and other military targets. They were intensively trained and developed by Russian military forces from as early as 1930.

Originally, the dogs were trained to carry an explosive device to a wide range of targets and then release the bomb, after they would run away and the device would be detonated by timer or remote control. Tests of this system proved unsuccessful. The dogs would become confused about their targets and would sometimes even return to their masters with the explosives still attached to them, a potentially alarming development.

The system of deployment was subsequently simplified. The intended targets became just tanks and instead of releasing the bombs and running to safety, the dogs would now have fixed bombs attached to them which would detonate as a lever was pushed while crawling under the vehicle. The resulting explosion would kill the dog, effectively making them suicide bombers.

The anti-tank dogs actually saw real combat service and were deployed extensively against the Germans in 1940-41, with mixed results. Gunfire tended to scare the dogs and furthermore they were only able to effectively attack tanks that were sitting completely still. Often the dogs would be picked off by enemy fire as they waited for a tank to come to a stop.

Another glaring problem that soon became evident was the fact that the dogs had been trained on the Soviet’s own diesel powered tanks rather than on those of the enemy, which were gasoline powered. The dogs’ reliance on their keen sense of smell ended in the unfortunate result of some of them bombing the tanks on their own side.

The U.S. military also trained anti-tank dogs in 1943, but never used them.

Pigeon Guided Missiles

During World War II, the U.S. began developing a missile guidance system under the code name Project Pigeon, which later became known as Project Orcon, for “Organic Control.”

The idea was concocted by an American behaviorist, B.F. Skinner, and involved using pigeons to physically ride within missiles and guide them to their targets. In the plan, the pigeon would ride in a compartment aboard an unpowered, gliding missile as a screen was displayed in front of the bird showing the target. The pigeon would be trained to peck at the target on the touch sensitive screen and the missiles flight control systems would adjust according to where on the screen the pigeon pecked. This was a one way trip for the pigeons but they were seen as cheap, plentiful and fairly easy to train.

The pigeon guided missile

Despite initial skepticism at the slightly absurd notion of using pigeons to deliver high explosives, the project went ahead and initial training and tests were conducted. Although 25,000 dollars were spent on the project and some success was seen in the training, the project was later scrapped as it was deemed to be too impractical.

The U.S. Navy later picked up the project in 1948 under the new name Project Orcon, but again the plan was dropped when computer guidance systems became more advanced.

Rat Bombs

The British, not to be left out of the insanity of using animals as weapons, also developed such devices during World War II against Germany.

The British Special Operation Executive developed a method of delivering explosives that involved the use of dead rats. The rat carcasses were to be filled with plastic explosives and left in targeted locations, namely factories, where it was speculated that stokers tending boilers would dispose of their revolting find in the furnace, thereby detonating the bomb and destroying the factory.

It was thought that since even a small puncture in a high pressure boiler could do extensive damage, only a small amount of explosive would be required. The idea was dropped and never put to use as it finally occurred to those involved that the plan was highly impractical and difficult to implement.

Biological Rat Warfare

During World War II, the idea of using disease against the enemy started to gain traction. The USSR started developing a way to deliver deadly pathogens to enemy lines using rats as a delivery system.

The disease that was chosen for the project was tularemia, also known as rabbit fever, a very fast acting and acute infection that is spread through contact with infected animals and is also respiratory transmissible. Infected rats were gathered and set loose in enemy held areas in the hopes that they would spread the disease among enemy troops.

The rats proved to be astonishingly effective, particularly at the offensive on Stalingrad. Friedrich Paulus, the commander of the German 6th army, had to take a break on the offensive due to the ravages of the disease, and according to documents, about 50 percent of German prisoners who were taken captive after the battle were reported to be suffering from classic symptoms of tularemia.

Despite these dramatic results, the program was fraught with problems. Since the disease was highly virulent, it inevitably came over the front line with its vectors and infected a lot of Soviet soldiers as well. In addition, the body develops a life-long immunity against tularemia if the disease is properly treated in a timely manner, and infected individuals do not pose a danger to other people as the disease is not passed from person to person. To top it off, antibiotics such as streptomycin, levomycetin, and tetracycline destroy the germ within a very short period of time, and sunlight kills the pathogen within 30 minutes.

These setbacks did not stop Soviet scientists from continuing their research with the tularemia microbe after the end of WWII, and by the end of the 1970s military biologists had increased its destructive capacity.

World War II was not the beginning of mankind’s propensity for using animals for war and it certainly would not be the end. The idea of using animals as weapons was around long before World War II and has continued even into the present. For instance, dogs are routinely used for many military applications in modern forces, and the U.S. Navy uses dolphins and sea lions in various capacities. It seems that as long as humans continue to wage war against each other, we will find ways to utilize our fellow creatures of the Earth to help us carry it out.

MIKA: Makes one wonder what is being done now...

[MIKA27]

Guys, 100 pages thus far on this thread and whilst it's been al ot of work (Which I enjoy ), it wouldn't have amounted to all this without your support, occasional posts as well as the many PM's I normally receive on a weekly basis.

Thanks for reading and your contributions.

Mika

[MIKA27]

10 Brutal Serial Killers And The Disturbing Art They Created

The following 10 psychopaths are the very definition of pure evil.

If you combined all of their respective sickening and twists deeds, you'd have enough to fill Hell twice over. You could pass them off as tormented souls whose formative years set them on downward path or more accurately as deeply disturbed individuals with a thirst for inflicting pain and brutality on their innocent victims.

Many of them were creative, both in terms of avoiding detection and also the manner in which the way they stalked, hunted and then slaughtered their prey. Several of the most notorious killers in popular culture, were also artists. Painting, drawing and sketching just some of the chilling images swirling around in their warped minds.

Today their artworks are known in the art world as 'Muderabilla'. Worryingly enough, they are often highly sought after by collectors each fascinated by the artistic expressions of some of the most degenerative members of modern society. Some were created whilst they were on death row, others whilst they were going about their gruesome deeds.

1. Arthur Shawcross Convicted of murdering 14 victims

2. Keith Hunter Jesperson - Convicted of murdering at least 8 women

3. Charles Ng - Convicted of jointly murdering 11-25 women

4. Alfred Gaynor - Convicted of murdering at least 8 women

5. Ottis Elwood Toole - Convicted of murdering between 6-65 victims

6. John Edward Robinson - Convicted of murdering at least 8 women

7. Henry Lee Lucas - Convicted of 11 murders

8. Danny Rolling - Convicted of murdering 8 victims

9. Charles Manson - Convicted of perpetuating the murders of 7 victims

10. John Wayne Gacy - Convicted of murdering 33 teenage boys

[Fuzz]

Guys, 100 pages thus far on this thread and whilst it's been al ot of work (Which I enjoy ), it wouldn't have amounted to all this without your support, occasional posts as well as the many PM's I normally receive on a weekly basis.

Thanks for reading and your contributions.

Mika

You just like padding your post count!

Seriously though, great work Mika!

[MIKA27]

You just like padding your post count!

Seriously though, great work Mika!

Yep, you know how it is!