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

[MIKA27]

The US Once Poisoned Alcohol Supplies To Scare People Away From Drinking

Today I found out that in an effort to scare people away from drinking alcohol, the US government once poisoned certain alcohol supplies; this resulted in the death of over 10,000 citizens. This, of course, was during Prohibition. The government became frustrated with the fact that despite the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol being banned, the number of people drinking alcoholic beverages was markedly higher than it was before Prohibition. So to try to get people to stop drinking, the government decided to try a scare tactic.

One way bootleggers of this time made alcoholic beverages was to use denatured, industrial alcohol as the base. Denaturing the alcohol is simply a process to make it undrinkable, usually by adding something that makes it taste or smell disgusting or will induce vomiting. This was originally done (and is still done to this day) in order to allow companies to get around having to pay the high taxes associated with the manufacturing and sale of alcohol meant to be drunk. Alcohol used industrially, for non-beverage applications, are denatured and thus, they don’t have to pay these taxes and so it is significantly cheaper, litre for litre. Without this tax break, literally thousands of industrial products would become drastically more expensive than they currently are.

During Prohibition, this denatured alcohol was often stolen from companies that made industrial alcohol used in various paints and solvents and the like. The bootleggers would then have their own chemists whose job it was to make the alcohol palatable again, basically undoing the denaturing process or to “renature” the alcohol.

With an estimated 227 megalitres of industrial alcohol stolen annually in the 1920s to be later renatured and sold as drinkable alcohol, the government, under President Coolidge, decided to up the stakes and make some of the denaturing formulas lethal, instead of just designed to make the alcohol unpalatable. To do this, they’d generally add things like methyl alcohol (the main denaturing chemical at 10 per cent added, even today); other chemicals added are things such as kerosene, brucine, gasoline, benzene, cadmium, formaldehyde, chloroform, carbolic acid, acetone and many others that were difficult for the bootlegger’s chemists to get out when they’d renature the alcohol.

After the first 100 or so people died shortly after the new denaturing process was released around Christmas, health officials were outraged and the news media picked up the story as intended. Unfortunately, the government’s plan didn’t quite work from that point on. It didn’t scare people away from drinking and rather had little to no effect on people’s consumption of alcohol; instead, the estimates are that it resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 people with a much larger number severely sickened and many blinded by the poisoning.

As New York City’s medical examiner Charles Norris stated: “The government knows it is not stopping drinking by putting poison in alcohol. Yet it continues its poisoning processes, heedless of the fact that people determined to drink are daily absorbing that poison. Knowing this to be true, the United States government must be charged with the moral responsibility for the deaths that poisoned liquor causes, although it cannot be held legally responsible.” (Chuck Norris fighting the man even back then)

People at the time, though, were split on the poisoning program, even with the deaths that were happening because of it. One side felt that the people who were drinking the illegal alcohol got what they deserved, particularly because they knew the risks and broke the law anyways; the other side felt it was a national experiment on exterminating members of society that the government felt were undesirable as American citizens. As one Chicago Tribune article in 1927 stated: “Normally, no American government would engage in such business. … It is only in the curious fanaticism of Prohibition that any means, however barbarous, are considered justified.”

Now, to be clear, the various governments of the world still require denaturing of alcohol that is not for oral consumption and the standard requirement of 10 per cent methyl alcohol is still in effect in most countries. This isn’t really a problem anymore because people have much better ways to get their alcohol than trying to deal with denatured alcohol. The problem at the time was that the US government knew full well that people would be drinking this poisoned alcohol and they hoped the deaths that resulted from this would scare other people away from drinking. Further, when it was clear that it wasn’t scaring anyone away from drinking and literally thousands were dying per year with significantly more than that severely sickened, they kept the program going anyways, though it was hotly debated in Congress.

So next time you start thinking the US government is impossibly screwed up today, headed down the tubes and beyond fixing, well, if you study US history much at all, it’s pretty clear it used to be a lot more screwed up than it is today, not just concerning this issue, but many, many others.

MIKA: Damn that cop on the left looks like Price Charles!

[MIKA27]

CDC Accidentally Ships Deadly Virus, Hopes No One Will Notice

That wacky CDC is up to its old, potentially fatal-virus-spreading tricks again. But instead of anthrax or dengue, this time, the Centres for Disease Control brought a deadly strain of bird flu into its revolving cast of highly contagious characters. While rushing to get to a meeting, a CDC scientist accidentally tainted a tamer strain of bird flu with a far more deadly one — and then sent it out to another unsuspecting lab. Whoops.

This most recent set of hijinks took place at CDC Prevention headquarters in Atlanta in January, when a lab scientist accidentally mixed the two samples, sending what should have been a benign (at least to humans) strain of the virus to another lab. Except, you know, it wasn’t. So when that very same virus concoction was given to some unsuspecting chickens as part of a USDA study in March and all those chickens proceeded to immediately die, the USDA officials knew something wasn’t right.

The CDC lab responsible for the deadly mixed sample then confirmed that, yes, that virus was actually wildly dangerous but told, well, no one. Until June, that is, when a second lab reported a similar problem and CDC Director Dr Tom Frieden was finally notified.

Apparently, the lab scientist who had originally contaminated the sample completed what should have been 90 minutes of work (with both the tame and deadly viruses) in 51 minutes, in an attempt to make the noon meeting. Whether that meeting actually did begin as scheduled, though, remains inconclusive.

To the CDC’s credit, “the viral mix was at all times contained in specialised laboratories and was never a threat to the public,” according to an internal report. But then that’s what they said last time, too. And the time before that. Here’s to hoping Ebola’s not next.

[MIKA27]

Black Hawk Choppers Are Finally Getting The Digital Cockpits They Need

The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter is among the most (in)famous and easily-recognisable choppers in the US military. And, beginning today, these venerable aircraft will receive a 21st century kick in the cockpit.

The Black Hawk medium lift utility chopper has been dutifully serving the US Army and Special Forces since its introduction in 1979. It’s repeatedly proven its durability and performance, spawning no less than 30 utility and special operations variants. The UH-60 has more spinoffs than CSI.

But because they have been in service for so long, two problems emerge. First, the avionics originally installed are now woefully obsolete. Second, only a portion of the Black Hawks in service today have been upgraded to the new flight system, which fragments the fleet worse than Android and demands pilots learn to fly in both the old analogue cockpit and the newer system found in variants like the UH-60M.

However, Northrup Grumman announced earlier today that the US Army has just awarded them the contract to replace the existing analogue control panels with “digital electronic instrument displays,” the NG press release reads. “The new designation for this upgraded aircraft will be UH-60V. The system virtually replicates the newer UH‑60M pilot-vehicle interface, providing a common training environment.”

The defence contractor also revealed a demonstration model today, showing what the new system is capable of. Per the NG press release:

The system features a centralized processor with a partitioned, modular operational flight program with an integrated architecture that enables new capabilities through software-only solutions rather than hardware additions. The architecture maximizes the UH-60L platform performance and reliability while minimising total life cycle cost. The system is also smaller in size, lower in weight and requires less power than legacy processing systems.

Northrup expects to perform the upgrades on between 700 and 900 UH-60′s over the next few years, although there is no timetable yet for their completion.

[MIKA27]

A Poignant Look At Life In America's Trailer Parks

A lot of people turn their noses up at trailer parks. That’s unfair, and David Waldorf’s photo essay about the Brookside Trailer Park in Sonoma, California show us that there’s beauty everywhere, trailer parks included.

Waldorf spent years driving to Brookside in a Uhaul that he’d set up to be a mobile studio. The accomplished photographer would offer free portraits to the residents of the trailer park, and eventually, they came to trust him and invite him into their homes. The access yielded a series of stunning images showing Brookside residents in their homes being themselves. The photos are nothing short of poignant.

There’s something else though. The photos resonate with me, I think, specifically because I myself have played the role of a camera-toting outsider in a tight knit community. Chris Killip, my photographer teacher in college, always challenged me to go to places I wouldn’t normally and talk to people I might otherwise avoid. Sometimes you have remove yourself from your comfort zone in order to find a fresh perspective on your subjects.

Waldorf is clearly a master at this. Clicking through his work, it’s clear he has a gift for capturing people in a wonderfully intimate posture. His photos are the kinda of photos that make you want to take photos of your own. And those are the best kind. [David Waldorf]

[MIKA27]

Can We Live Without Antibiotics?

Scientists are hard at work locating new antibiotics to fight drug-resistant infections, but it’s too late for many—and will likely be too late for many more before the next generation of antibiotics are widely available. It’s very possible that in between today’s era of mostly-effective traditional antibiotics and future generations of mostly-effective new remedies, there will be at least a decade or two when the bacteria will have outrun us. What would that world look like?

A beautifully-written (and jarring) piece by Medium’s Maryn McKenna asks the question, and answers it as well as anyone probably can. With antibiotic-resistant bacteria, as with so many things in life, what we look at is not so much binary possibilities of guaranteed safety and guaranteed doom. Instead, we’re looking at a spectrum of escalating stress, inconvenience, and risk as we attempt to manage a more dangerous future—with mixed success:

“Right now, if you want to be a sharp-looking hipster and get a tattoo, you’re not putting your life on the line,” says the CDC’s [Michael] Bell. “Botox injections, liposuction, those become possibly life-threatening. Even driving to work: We rely on antibiotics to make a major accident something we can get through, as opposed to a death sentence.”

This is something we don’t often recognize when we look at existential threats. Judging by past history, an asteroid impact wouldn’t kill us all; it would kill many of us and leave the rest of us straggling along towards a new Stone Age and, perhaps, eventual extinction thousands of years later. Unchecked climate change probably won’t make the Earth uninhabitable for all humans; just the few billion of us who live closest to equatorial regions, transforming the world into a very sad and violent place (even by human standards). And so on.

Maybe with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and with some of these other threats, we should be asking not whether we as a species can survive these threats, but whether we want to pay an unbearably high price—in terms of lives lost, lives destroyed, and lives simply made miserable—to do so. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria almost certainly won’t wipe out humanity. But if it stands to wipe out a large number of us and leave the rest of us in an unhappy state, isn’t that an outcome we ought to prevent?

[MIKA27]

The Mystic Cannibal Monks of India

Throughout human history there have been a myriad of cults and religious sects that have to varying degrees inspired curiosity, wonder, bafflement, and even fear or disgust. Whether it is from their bizarre practices, disturbing rituals, or extreme fringe beliefs, some of these groups have long exuded an inscrutable sense of mystery and menace to outsiders. One mysterious group that commands a good amount of fear, loathing, and often horror, is a bizarre tribe of cannibal mystics in India known as the Aghori, or Aghori sadhus.

The Aghori sadhus are an ascetic sect of Hinduism, specifically they are Shaivites, meaning they are devoted to Shiva, a powerful Hindu god of death and destruction often ominously referred to as “The Destroyer” and “The Transformer.” The Aghori are said to have split from another Shiva worshipping order, the Kapalika, sometime in the 14th century, but their sect in its present form is believed to have derived from an ascetic by the name of Kina Ram, who is thought to be an incarnation of Shiva and to have lived for 150 years during the late 18th century. The Aghori are monists who deviate from traditional Hindu beliefs in that they do not make a distinction between purity and impurity. They basically believe that the universe is non-dualistic, meaning that the pure, the impure, and indeed all opposites are indistinguishable from one another, and that they are all a part of the same thing. To the Aghori, nothing in the universe is “good” or “bad,” but rather all a manifestation of their god and thus everything is god-like and perfect. To deny anything is to deny their Supreme Being. They believe all other humans, including other Hindus and Hindu sects, are living in a world of illusion

The Aghori seek to free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation by realizing their own place within the absolute. They believe that they are a part of Shiva, and ultimately wish to transcend from their body, or shava, to an incarnation of Shiva himself. To do this, they must become indifferent to everything. They must embrace death, push through disgust and traditional fears, and deny physical pleasures such as sexuality as well as emotions such as hatred, greed, or shame. Likewise, they do not want to leave any physical mark upon the world and as such shun the idea of having families and domestication. Through total denial of oneself, transcending taboos, and embracing everything equally, the Aghori believe they will inevitably remove earthly bonds and attain enlightenment in the form of breaking the cycle of reincarnation and becoming a part of Shiva. The Aghori also believe that the fastest way of acheiving the light of enlightenment is to travel into the deepest darkness first, through seeking purity in death and what most consider to be evil or filthy.

It is this unorthodox approach, as well as their non-dualistic desire to embrace all, even taboos, filth, pollution, and death, that form the basis of the bizarre Aghori practices and rituals that may seem by turns to be strange, ghastly, or horrifying to an outsider.

An Aghori sadhu

The most seemingly harmless traits of Aghori lie in their constant profanity and use of marijuana. Aghori believe that explicit profanity can help shed taboos in an effort to achieve enlightenment, and some are known to gush into profane tirades at a moments notice for no reason at all. Aghori are also constantly smoking marijuana, an act which they claim not to do for pleasure, but rather to enhance or heighten spiritual experiences and to enable them to concentrate more fully on rituals and mantras. They also do not cut their hair, and beards or long, matted or dreadlocked hair are all characteristic of an Aghori sadhu.

In an effort to totally deny themselves and break through their own weak emotions of fear and disgust, Ahgori are known for their disturbing tendency to eat pretty much anything. The diet of an Aghori is truly enough to make most people cringe. They will eat rotten food, putrefied garbage, and even excreta such as human feces or urine. Often these items will be consumed out of a human skull bowl or some other dish made from human bones. While most people will see this as revolting, the Aghori believe that the consumption of such things kills the ego and defies the human perception of beauty. Besides, since they do not believe that anything can be “pure” or “impure,” it does not matter to them whether the food is filth or something that would be more palatable to outsiders. To an Aghori, eating garbage is all the same as eating anything else.

The dark themes of death and the use of human remains also play a large part in the rituals and daily life of the sect. In an effort to totally confront death and decay, the Aghori commonly live in or near cemeteries or cremation grounds, which are thought to be holy places where Shiva lives and are representative of the final living place for everyone. At cremation grounds, the Aghori gather ash with which to cover their bodies. Indeed, often Aghori will wear nothing but human ash smeared all over them, with some only wearing a very small piece of cloth just large enough to barely cover their private parts. They will occasionally wear jewelry or trinkets made from human bone fragments, and some make use of walking sticks made from a human femur. It is also not uncommon to see an Aghori with a grisly bowl fashioned from a human skull, called a kapala, which they will use either as a drinking vessel for liquor, a dish for food, or as a begging bowl.

An Aghori drinking from a skull bowl.

The use of the dead does not stop at the fashioning of trinkets and bowls. Aghori are known to use corpses as a sort of altar upon which to pray or meditate, a practice known as shava samskara, believing that the dead body is a symbol of their own body. The sect is also perhaps most notorious for their grisly practice of cannibalism. The act of cannibalism is part of a ritual with the aim of not only absorbing alleged medicinal effects such as staving off aging, but also facing the duality of life and death and gaining transcendence from one’s lower self into the universal consciousness. The human flesh that is consumed is cut from corpses and then either eaten raw, cooked over an open flame, or sometimes even in a putrid state.

As grisly and revolting as this may all seen, it is not thought that the Aghori actually kill anyone for the bodies used in their rituals or for the purpose of fashioning macabre items. The corpses are mostly gathered from the bodies of the dead floating down the sacred Ganges River. In India, many bodies are cremated, but in Hinduism there are certain types of people that are not to be cremated. These include children, holy men, pregnant women, unmarried women, and those who have died of either leprosy, suicide, or snake bites. Rather than cremation, these bodies are cast upon the holy waters of the Ganges River to be carried away and have all sins washed away. Even bodies that are set on fire to be cremated will often be floated down the river, where the fire will eventually go out leaving them only half-burnt. The Aghori will fish these corpses from the river for their purposes, after which they will do a prayer for the dead before using the bodies as altars, fashioning items from the bones, or consuming their flesh.

An Aghori at the Ganges River.

For all of this dark imagery of death and decay associated with the Aghori, they are also known for their potent healing magic.

Aghori healers are purportedly able to do healing rituals in which they transfer illness, disease, and bad health from the patient and into themselves, after which they will expel it through magical powers. It is said that these healing acts please Shiva, who in turn gives the Aghori sorcerer even more powers over nature. It has even been claimed by Aghori shamans that they have managed to concoct potent medicines from concentrated oils within the corpses they collect which are able to cure all manner of ailments, even the most frightening diseases such as cancer or AIDS.

Of course, it should be expected that a cult that practices such unorthodox and what some might call disgusting practices is shunned. Certainly the Aghori are feared and opposed by some segments of the population in their homeland, yet there are others who revere them for their alleged healing powers. They are also mostly tolerated due to the fact that they do not murder or inflict violence on others to further their religious practices, as unsavory as those might be. In modern times, members of this mystical sect can be found mostly in northern India along the Ganges River, particularly in a place called Varanasi, where their most sacred temple is found. This holiest of Aghori temples is said to hold the remains of Kina Ram, the original incarnation of Shiva that started the modern Aghori sect.

There are many religions, sects, and cults throughout the world that are practiced by people of all nationalities and races. All of them have their own true way towards what essentially all human beings want, a final answer and transcendence to ultimate truth. As disconcerting as the practices of the Aghori may be, should they not be allowed to pursue their own path to what we all seek? Who can say? Whether one agrees with their practices or not, the secretive, cannibalistic, magic practicing cult of the Aghori still exists in India and shows no sign of disappearing any time soon. One can only wonder if their bizarre way of life has truly shown them the way to the enlightenment they seek.

[MIKA27]

New Evidence Challenges Out of Africa Theory – How Old is Humanity?

In the scientific world, nothing is certain. It may seem like some, or even many scientists are staunchly certain about their work, but it’s important to remember that scientists are human, whereas science itself is impartial. If the scientific community had all the answers, it wouldn’t need to keep looking… at anything. That’s kind of the point.

In all scientific fields of study there are, of course, many people working on different subfields, different ideas, and different theories. But in each field there is always a standard theory, or model, or timeline, or what have you (we’ll call it a paradigm for brevity’s sake). That standard paradigm makes up the foundation of the field. Some fields have more than one, others have several, but they all rely on that foundation to proceed, as it lays out the fundamental principles for the field.

It’s always important to understand that standard paradigm. After all, if you intend to solve a problem presented by it, or answer questions posed by it, you must know its principles very well.

Of course, in each and every scientific field of study, there are also competing paradigms. In physics, string theory, which is the standard paradigm, is challenged often by a competing theory known as quantum loop gravity. Both are, in this case, very complex, but also equally valid. And as in most such cases, only one can actually be right. Though it’s certainly no easy task to determine which it is. Hence, theoretical physicists form camps around either paradigm, either supporting or undermining the competing paradigm as a part of their professional efforts.

In other fields, the competing paradigms aren’t nearly as successful as in physics, but they still exist, and they’re still just as valid as the standard paradigm of which they challenge.

Occasionally, efforts under one of those competing paradigms uncovers previously unknown evidence, offering the potential for it to overcome and supersede the standard paradigm. You can imagine such a thing causes quite a stir in the scientific community, and it’s not difficult to understand that some in that community will be for such change, while others will be against it – and they will be passionate in their arguments in either direction. This just further proves that scientists are human.

There are some fields where that stubborn support for different paradigms is unevenly distributed. Paleoanthropology, for instance.

Most paleoanthropologists are strong supporters of the standard timeline of human development, known as the Out Of Africa Theory, which states, among other things, that humans originated on the African Savanna nearly 200,000 years ago, and that our migration from those plains into Asia and Europe happened roughly 60,000 years ago. This standard timeline is supported by a veritable mountain of evidence. Fossils, archaeological finds, genetic markers, et cetera, et cetera. Of course, under that standard timeline there are many sub-theories, like the Savanna Pump Theory, which says that our migration from Africa happened several times over a period of several thousand years. But most such theories work in support of the standard timeline… most.

There are, as mentioned, competing theories in every field, and paleoanthropology is no different. Famous examples are the Aquatic Ape Theory, which is covered under a collection of theories called the Waterside Hypothesis. There are others that are, shall we say, somewhat wild, but as also mentioned earlier, that makes them no less valid, they just may not be, or likely are not correct.

However, when one of those less-likely-to-be-correct theories gains new support through new evidence, it can be earth shattering. Such cracking of the earth’s crust is poised to take place very soon in paleoanthropology.

Very recently, a columnist for the science magazine New Scientist, compiled a document highlighting new evidence from around the world that appears to strongly challenge the Out of Africa Theory.

Most of that evidence relates to fossil finds in China and Mesopotamia. Namely teeth found in the Luna Cave in China’s Guangxi Zhuang region, which appear to be from an early homo-sapiens from 70,000 to 125,000 years ago. Also a partial jaw bone found in Israel’s Misliya cave that is believed to be greater than 150,000 years old.

Now, such finds are interesting, but the nature of fossil analysis means that the conclusions being drawn from them are somewhat unreliable. Such analysis is heavily dependent on interpretation and comparison to other specimens, which means we’ll never be certain of their meaning.

Göbekli Tepe

The most damning evidence though, is genetic analysis that was done by Dr. Katerina Harvatia, the director of paleoanthropology, and her team at the University of Tubingen in Germany. Using the genomes of indigenous populations from south-east Asia, they used complex computer models to calculate that the first homo-sapiens exodus from Africa occurred more than 130,000 years ago.

These models use complex calculations to determine how quickly the levels of genetic diversity in a population tapered off into the Common Era, and such conclusions are difficult to refute – though not impossible.

The Early Exodus Theory, as this is now being called, is still not widely accepted, as may not be surprising. Much discussion and further analysis are needed to clarify some of the sticky points included in the new evidence, but it doesn’t take an advanced doctorate to see how disruptive a confirmation of these findings would be to the paleoanthropological field.

Gunung Padang

Almost tangential to that disruption would be opportunities for researchers in other fields to advance their work, and that would bring about some truly paradigm shifting revelations. Some time ago I brought you some commentary on what some believe is damning evidence against the standard paleoanthropological timeline from two different archaeological sites: Göbekli Tepe of Turkey and Gunung Padang in Indonesia. These sites provide – admittedly questionable – evidence for advanced human cultures existing across Asia and Europe much earlier than the standard timeline allows. If Harvatia’s findings, and the fossil evidence mentioned above, turn out to be correct, this would seem to open a door for researchers of these two sites.

Alternative history buffs and so-called conspiracy theorists will likely take to these findings with a furor, as not only do they often seek to bolster their own pet theories about our history through such news, but they also try to undermine the standard timeline or paradigm – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But these findings are as yet premature. They are promising, and deserve our attention, but it’s important to understand that these things don’t change overnight.

[MIKA27]

UFO Over Houston or NASA Saucer from Johnson Space Center?

Residents of Houston, Texas, have found something to talk about besides football … UFOs. What’s being called a “mass sighting” of a flying object ringed with lights occurred on August 11 and still has not been explained to the satisfaction of many.

Houston musician Andrew Pena was driving on the Interstate 45 freeway south of Houston during a storm when he saw and recorded a circle of bright-colored lights moving around in the sky. After looking at the video at home that night, he posted still shots of the lights on Twitter. As usual, the photos were spotted by UFO watchers and the local media.

The location where Pena saw the lights is about 13 miles north of Johnson Space Center and Ellington Field where astronauts practice flying. Could JSC be testing NASA’s new flying saucer? No comments from NASA have been issued so far.

The “it’s a drone” crowd chimed it, but based on the apparent location of the object, the drone would have to be at least 50 feet in diameter – not the usual quadricopters available on the open market.

The photos caused headlines and posts around the world like “Mass UFO Sighting Over Houston.” Since Pena is the only person so far to come forward with video or photos, “mass” may be a bit of an overstatement.

Again, NASA and JSC have no comments and no one has positively explained the sighting. UFO? Reflection? NASA flying saucer?

Another view of the Houston UFO.

[MIKA27]

STYLIST GIVES FREE HAIRCUTS TO HOMELESS IN NEW YORK

Most people spend their days off relaxing, catching up on much needed rest and sleep – but not Mark Bustos. The New York based hair stylist spends his Sunday (his only day off from work) giving free haircuts to the homeless.

Bustos’ week is spent working in a high-end salon, cutting hair for high-end clientele. But come Sunday he scours the city to find people who would appreciate a good haircut – and don’t have the money to spend on one. He got the idea after visiting his family in the Philippines in 2012, where he rented a barbershop chair to give impoverished children fresh hair cuts. Here in the states, Bustos walks up to men on the streets, and leads in with, “I want to do something nice for you today,” and ends with “What kind of food would you like,” as he cleans his customers up. The stylist says that he loves giving back and most importantly, “We all deserve a second chance.”

[MIKA27]

AUTODROMO STRADALE

It’s time for your daily Italian lesson. Today’s word is “Stradale,” which in means “road going.” Of course it also means “beautiful new watch from the folks at Autodromo.”

The inspiration here comes from the dashboard instruments from Italian sports berlinettas of the late 1950s and early 1960s, with a multi-layered dial that dares you to stare at it for hours. Under the domed sapphire crystal sits a glass hour ring that hovers over the main minutes dial while a 24 jewel Japan-Made automatic movement keeps things ticking. The custom designed leather strap nods to the leather interiors of days gone by. Choose from a black dial with burgundy strap, cream dial with brown strap, or grey dial with navy blue strap. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

BALLS OF STEEL: 18K GOLD WHISKEY BALLS

Ice cubes may keep your whiskey cold, but they also do a great job at diluting the hell out of the finished product. Don’t drink watered down whiskey. Instead, pick up Ball of Steel’s ‘The Executive Set’ 18K Gold Edition whiskey balls.

Sure they’ll help keep your whiskey on chill, but they’ll also help save lives. That’s because with every set sold, the brand will be donating 80% of the sales to the University Of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center – funding testicular cancer research. There will only be 25 handcrafted sets available, all of which come packaged in a beautiful Alder Wood Box sourced right from Fort Collins, Colorado. Each whiskey ball undergoes a long process of gold plating, and comes individually numbered. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

LUXURY BOARD GAME TABLES

If your Magic: The Gathering gathering is consistently happening around a Mountain Dew-stained card table that grandma also uses for Bridge with her blue-haired buddies, it’s possible you might not be taking your hobby seriously enough.

You can change that in a hurry with these beautifully made wooden gaming tables by Geek Chic. Each piece features a dropped surface (aka the “Game Vault”) where your games and maps are kept flat and safely away from spills and such. The Sultan, for instance, has flip down lap desks, secret drawers, an internal rail system, six affixed cup holders, rounded corners, and integrated dice towers. Choose from hand-crafted Black Walnut, North American Cherry or Hard Rock Sugar Maple. With prices ranging from $2,500 – $16,000, you might need to consider upgrading your friends too. [Via | Purchase]

[MIKA27]

ISKETCHNOTE

Sketchnote combines the natural experience of pen and paper with the power of digital. The unique device features a perceptive surface called "The Slate" that allows pen and paper lovers to digitize sketches and notes, simply draw on your favorite sketchbook and your work is magically digitized on your tablet or computer screen!

[MIKA27]

KODIAK POWER BANK

The new Kodiak Power Bank by Outdoor Tech is rugged enough to stand up to anything you throw at it, it is waterproof, shockproof and resistant to the elements. The compact, lightweight and ruggedized portable charger boasts a 6000 milliamp battery(capable of quickly charging a GoPro 6 times, and iPhone 4 times without needing to recharge) allowing you to charge anything with a USB connection.

Learn more at Outdoor Tech, or purchase now from Amazon

[polarbear]

STYLIST GIVES FREE HAIRCUTS TO HOMELESS IN NEW YORK

Most people spend their days off relaxing, catching up on much needed rest and sleep – but not Mark Bustos. The New York based hair stylist spends his Sunday (his only day off from work) giving free haircuts to the homeless.

Bustos’ week is spent working in a high-end salon, cutting hair for high-end clientele. But come Sunday he scours the city to find people who would appreciate a good haircut – and don’t have the money to spend on one. He got the idea after visiting his family in the Philippines in 2012, where he rented a barbershop chair to give impoverished children fresh hair cuts. Here in the states, Bustos walks up to men on the streets, and leads in with, “I want to do something nice for you today,” and ends with “What kind of food would you like,” as he cleans his customers up. The stylist says that he loves giving back and most importantly, “We all deserve a second chance.”

This story made me smile

[MIKA27]

99 Per Cent Of Melbourne's Taxi Drivers Fail New Taxi Test

There’s a push to improve taxi drivers in Melbourne via a test that mimics the infamous “knowledge” test that London cabbies undertake. The only problem is that all but one of the candidates so far has failed the test.

To make matters even more comical, The Guardian reports that the only candidate to actually pass the test, Karen Downie, is actually a taxi driving instructor herself.

The other 233 candidates all failed to get the minimum 85 per cent score needed to qualify as a Melbourne taxi driver under strict new rules. Which actually means it’s more than 99 per cent, for the pedantically minded.

The test doesn’t just cover actual road name and navigational tasks, but also issues of customer service and driver behaviour, with some drivers apparently (and rather sadly) struggling with questions relating to the proper treatment of disabled passengers.

I’m aware that the standard internet response to all of this is to rather quickly cry “Uber!” as though it’s the solution to every single taxi woe, although I’m not personally convinced that’s always true.

The obvious counterpoint to the Melbourne Taxi story would be this one that suggests that there’s a growing problem with people randomly hopping into private cars.

Why? Because they presume that the private car is in fact the Uber they’d just ordered.

[MIKA27]

Watch 35 Minutes Of The Witcher 3 In Action

35 minutes. That’s a helluva long time. But I’d wager if there was any game you’d happily sit and watch someone else play for over half an hour, it’d be The Witcher 3.

In saying that — people watch other people play video games on YouTube and Twitch every goddamn day.

Anyway… this is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt; a developer led gameplay demo that is epic in length. If you have any interest in this game — and even if you don’t — this is well worth watching.

[MIKA27]

Arrested For Marijuana, Jackie Chan's Son Could Face Execution

Chinese actor and singer Jaycee Chan was arrested for marijuana consumption and possession in Beijing Monday. The son of Jackie Chan, he could face up to three years in prison or, at worst, even execution if convicted.

Last night, China Central Television (CCTV) reported that Beijing police had arrested 32-year-old Jaycee Chan, real name Fang Zuming, and Taiwanese actor Ko Chen-tung. Both tested positive for marijuana consumption. The younger Chan was also caught with over 100 grams of marijuana in his Beijing home. Jaycee Chan, best known in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland for film roles in Mulan and 2 Young, joined the Chinese entertainment industry in the 2000s. His arrest is the highest profile drug bust in recent history.

Both younger Chan and Ko can and probably will be charged and punished for drug consumption. It’s implied that consumption carries a lesser punishment compared to possession. A police statement, however, says that younger Chan is currently held for suspicions of harbouring suspected drug users. Younger Chan may face anywhere from mandatory rehab to three years in prison for the hundred grams of marijuana police found. During CCTV‘s broadcast they mention that the Younger Chan can face other charges including selling drugs. Drug dealing in China is technically an executable offence.

China has executed convicts over drug related offenses in the past. China doesn’t release individual data over the amounts drugs they were carrying. Traditionally, China executes drug offenders on the UN’s International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. According to AFP, China executed six people in 2010 over drug dealing related cases.

The South China Morning Post reports that action star Jackie Chan has landed in Beijing to help his son.

Jackie Chan is a current member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, part of China’s legislative body. He’s also an anti-drugs spokesperson in China, a position he’s held since 2009. Jackie Chan maintains several business and investment ventures within the Chinese mainland and has several ties to the ruling communist party. The father and son duo are featured prominently in many advertisements across the Chinese speaking regions, including Singapore and Malaysia.

Over the course of the last two months, over 7800 people were caught in Beijing alone for drug related offences. Since November 2013, China has been on an anti-corruption campaign led by President Xi Jinping. The country has also cracked down on prostitution.

It will be interesting to see what kind of influence Jackie Chan can pull out to save his son from a lengthy prison stay. But even with his celebrity and political power, don’t expect his son to get off totally scot-free amid this crackdown.

[MIKA27]

The Mountain From Game Of Thrones Is Europe's Strongest Man

You’re probably already frightened of Hafthor Bjornsson if you’ve watched his role as Gregor Clegane (AKA “The Mountain”) in Game Of Thrones. All those muscles aren’t just for show, however.

It’s pretty simple. If it exists, Hafthor Bjornsson can lift it. Anything that doesn’t exist is probably just hiding from him.

No exceptions, as shown here when he competed at — and spoiler alert, won — the 2014 European Strongest Man competition. As per his own definition, and I’m certainly not going to argue with him, he is “the future of strength”.

[MIKA27]

DARPA Wants To Make Tanks Sleeker, Faster And Deadlier

Tanks are Goliaths. They’re covered with layers and layers of thick armour for protection, which makes them huge and slow-moving. Now, DARPA wants to change that.

For the last 100 years, the ability of weapons to punch holes through thick armour has advanced faster than the armour’s ability to withstand protection, says a DARPA release. The agency wants to develop vehicles that are lighter and move quicker to dodge attacks rather than depend on armour for safety.

To do that, it has launched the Ground X-Vehicle Technology (GXV-T) program, which has a few specific objectives: reduce the size and weight of tanks by half; double the vehicle speed; and reduce onboard crew needed to operate the vehicle by 50 per cent. The program also wants the vehicles to be able to access 95 per cent of terrain including slopes and various elevations.

DARPA needs two years to work on these technologies before awarding any contracts for these vehicles, so it will be some time before they’re deployed. On the other hand, two years for faster, sleeker tanks doesn’t seem like a long wait at all.

[MIKA27]

Beautiful Images Of Astronauts Releasing Nanosatellites Into Space

This is Oleg Artemyev. In his hand is a tiny satellite, known as a nanosatellite, called Chasqui 1 — and he’s about to throw it into the wilds of space.

Well, throw might not be quite the right word — Artemyev would favour “deploy” — but it’s not far off. Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev conducted a five-hour spacewalk on Monday, and part of that involved letting the satellite drift slowly into orbit, as well removing and installing some new scientific equipment. You can see pictures of

Artemyev releasing the satellite below — and choose your own word for the process.

[MIKA27]

Africa's First Indigenous Aircraft Will Compete With Surveillance UAVs

While Africa’s backyard space program has yet to get off the ground, the continent’s first (arguably) homegrown aircraft has already taken flight. Throughout the continent, these ultralight two-seaters could soon fill the skies where long-range surveillance UAVs are too expensive to fly.

Precious few governments in Africa can afford the state-of-the art Predator UAVs that, say, the US Border Patrol employs, but that’s where the Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance and Surveillance Aircraft (AHRLAC) comes in. It’s the “first ever aircraft to be fully designed and developed in Africa,” according to its manufacturer, South Africa’s Aerosud, and is built to fulfil a number of the same roles that surveillance drones now perform — but, you know, with a two man crew.

The AHRLAC measures 10m long and 4m tall with a 12m wingspan. A single, 950 hp Pratt & Whitney push prop generates enough thrust to lift the 800kg aircraft as high as 9500m for as long as 7.5 hours. Its rear push prop allows the plane to maintain a pokey cruising speed without stalling out, which is essential in surveillance missions. It also lacks the endurance of a Predator, but is still plenty long to fill the bladders of its two pilots. Luckily, the plane’s short 548m takeoff requirement makes it ideal for quick pit stops in the brush.

Competing with commercially available drones demands the AHRLAC be flexible with its load outs for both civilian and military operations. As such, the AHRLAC will be capable of carrying everything from radar and long-range optical sensors to electronic warfare suites and anti-tank missiles.

Dr Paul Potgieter, CEO AHRLAC Holdings said in a press release:

Every single part of the aircraft was pre-designed on a computer which allowed it to have a jigless construction. This means that every part fits together, much like a Meccano set, which saves vast amounts of money and time — especially when exporting globally. The jigless manufacture was made possible by parts being pre-drilled and machine made, allowing for accuracy, reduced need for hand skills and therefore less time to build. We have made all the tools for production for all sheet metal pressings and composite parts so it enables us to hit production much quicker than other aircraft.

A quarter scale prototype racked up more than 80 hours of flight time in 2012 and the first full size prototype made its maiden flight late last year. Should the aircraft’s certification flights go smoothly, they could enter commercial production before the end of the decade.

MIKA: Pre drilled holes.... Did IKEA build it?

[MIKA27]

Researchers Easily Slipped Weapons Past TSA’s X-Ray Body Scanners

Hovav Shacham, one of the security researchers who found a collection of gaping vulnerabilities in the Rapiscan X-ray machines, poses for a full-body scan in one of the systems.

Two years ago, a blogger named Jonathan Corbett published a YouTube video that seemed to show a facepalm-worthy vulnerability in the TSA’s Rapiscan full-body X-ray scanners: Because metal detected by the scanners appeared black in the images they created, he claimed that any passenger could hide a weapon on the side of his or her body to render it invisible against the scans’ black background. The TSA dismissed Corbett’s findings, and even called reporters to caution them not to cover his video.

Now a team of security researchers from the University of California at San Diego, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins plans to reveal their own results from months of testing that same model of scanner. And not only did they find that Corbett’s weapon-hiding tactic worked; they also found that they could pull off a disturbing list of other possible tricks, such as using teflon tape to conceal weapons against someone’s spine, installing malware on the scanner’s console that spoofed scans, or simply molding plastic explosives around a person’s body to make it nearly indistinguishable from flesh in the machine’s images.

The Rapiscan Secure 1000 machines the researchers tested haven’t actually been used in airports since last year, when they were replaced by millimeter wave scanners designed to better protect passengers’ privacy. But the X-ray scanners are still installed in courthouses, jails, and other government security checkpoints around the country.

More importantly, the glaring vulnerabilities the researchers found in the security system demonstrate how poorly the machines were tested before they were deployed at a cost of more than $1 billion to more than 160 American airports, argues J. Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer science professor and one of the study’s authors. The findings should raise questions regarding the TSA’s claims about its current security measures, too.

“These machines were tested in secret, presumably without this kind of adversarial mindset, thinking about how an attacker would adapt to the techniques being used,” says Halderman, who along with the other researchers will present the research at the Usenix Security Conference Thursday. “They might stop a naive attacker. But someone who applied just a bit of cleverness to the problem would be able to bypass them. And if they had access to a machine to test their attacks, they could render their ability to detect contraband virtually useless.”

Unlike others who have made claims about vulnerabilities in full body scanner technology, the team of university researchers conducted their tests on an actual Rapiscan Secure 1000 system they purchased on eBay. They tried smuggling a variety of weapons through that scanner, and found—as Corbett did—that taping a gun to the side of a person’s body or sewing it to his pant’s leg hid its metal components against the scan’s black background. For that trick, only fully metal guns worked; An AR-15 was spotted due to its non-metal components, the researchers report, while an .380 ACP was nearly invisible. They also taped a folding knife to a person’s lower back with a thick layer of teflon tape, which they say completely masked it in the scan.

Rapiscan images showing a subject carrying no weapon (left) versus a .380 ACP pistol sewn to the side of his pants leg, (right) which is practically invisible in the scan.

Even more disturbingly, the researchers found they could easily conceal a 200 gram pancake of putty designed to have the same X-ray deflecting properties as plastic explosives by molding it around a passenger’s torso. The simulated bomb’s detonator, made from a different material, was hidden in the would-be bomber’s belly button.

Scanner images showing a subject with no explosives (left) versus more than 200 grams of simulated plastic explosives molded around his torso, with the detonator hidden in his belly button.

In the explosive example, as with the other hidden weapons, the researchers admit they had to experiment with different setups several times before finding one that left no trace in the scanner’s images. But they won’t share all the concealment tricks they learned. “We’re not trying to to provide recipes to attack actual devices in the field,” says UCSD researcher Keaton Mowery.

In addition to their physical attacks, the researchers also experimented with more inventive digital ones. They found that they could infect the scanner with malware—most practically for an attacker by picking the lock on the scanner’s cabinet and physically installing the malware on the PC inside. Once installed, that malware could be programmed to selectively replace the scan of any passenger with a fake image if he or she wore a piece of clothing with a certain symbol or QR code, as shown in the image below.

In their malware demonstration, the researchers used a distinctive image to signal to their software that the scanner should replace a certain person’s image with an innocuous one.

The researchers say they presented their findings to both Rapiscan and the TSA earlier this year, but didn’t receive any feedback beyond an acknowledgement that the research had been received. When WIRED reached out to the TSA for comment, a spokesperson wrote in a statement that “technology procured by the Transportation Security Administration goes through a rigorous testing and evaluation process, along with certification and accreditation. This process ensures information technology security risks are identified and mitigation plans put in place, as necessary.”

The statement also seemed to emphasize that potential attackers wouldn’t have access to the equipment for testing: “A majority of the equipment we utilize is not available for sale commercially or to any other entity; the agency regularly uses its own libraries, software and settings,” it adds.

The researchers say that preventing would-be hijackers and terrorists from using the techniques they found wouldn’t necessarily be difficult with small changes to how the scanners are used. Though foiling their malware attack would require updates to the device’s software, the trick of hiding a weapon against the side of a person’s body could be prevented simply by forcing subjects to turn 90 degrees for a second scan.

The most important lessons of the study, however, apply more broadly to the airport security scanning systems. They admit that there’s good reason to prevent the machines from being freely available to just anyone—they write that they were only able to hone the dangerous tricks they found because they had access to a working model. But the researchers nonetheless recommend that current and future systems be subject to the same “adversarial” testing that they performed, which would require giving others in the security community access to the machines.

None of researchers among the three universities has been able to obtain a millimeter wave scanner, so they’re not sure whether any of same vulnerabilities they found apply to the full-body scanning machines currently used in American airports. But UCSD’s Mowery says it’s important that those machines be probed for weaknesses by third-party researchers, just as potential attackers like terrorists or hijackers might if they do get their hands on one of the scanners. “We think that putting the machines through testing with independent security experts would result in a more secure system overall,” he says. “We haven’t been able to buy one yet. But that’s not to say other people don’t have access to them.”

[MIKA27]

Cities Are Making Spiders Grow Bigger and Multiply Faster

Something about city life appears to be causing spiders to grow larger than their rural counterparts. And if that’s not enough to give you nightmares, these bigger urban spiders are also multiplying faster.

A new study published today in PLOS One shows that golden orb weaver spiders living near heavily urbanized areas in Sydney, Australia tend to be bigger, better fed, and have more babies than those living in places less touched by human hands.

The largest and smallest spiders collected for the study (5 millimeters is about the length of an adult ladybug, which an orb weaver would probably eat).

The study’s authors collected 222 of the creatures from parks and bushland throughout Sydney, and correlated their sizes to features of the built and natural landscape.

They dissected each specimen back at the lab, and determined its size, health, and fecundity by measuring four attributes: the length of the spider’s longest leg segment, the ratio of that leg segment to overall body weight, the amount of fat on the spider, and its ovary size.

To measure urbanization, the authors looked primarily at ground cover throughout the city, at several scales, where they collected each spider: Are surfaces mostly paved? Is there a lack of natural vegetation? Lawns as opposed to leaf litter?

“The landscape characteristics most associated with larger size of spiders were hard surfaces (concrete, roads etc) and lack of vegetation,” said Elizabeth Lowe, a Ph.D student studying arachnids at the University of Sydney.

Humped golden orb weavers are a common arachnid along Australia’s east coast. They get their name from their large, bulging thorax, and the gold silk they use to spin their spherical webs. They typically spend their lives in one place, constantly fixing the same web (which can be a meter in diameter). Each web is dominated by a single female, though 4 or 5 much smaller males usually hang around the edges of the web, waiting for an opportunity to mate (only occasionally does the female eat them afterwards).

Paved surfaces and lack of vegetation mean cities are typically warmer than the surrounding countryside. Orb weavers are adapted to warm weather, and tend to grow bigger in hotter temperatures. The correlation between size and urban-ness manifested at every scale. Citywide, larger spiders were found closer to the central business district. And, their immediate surroundings were more likely to be heavily paved and less shady.

More food also leads to bigger spiders, and the scientists believe that human activity attracts a smorgasbord of orb weavers’ favorite prey. Although the study wasn’t designed to determine exactly how the spiders were getting bigger, the researchers speculate that things like street lights, garbage, and fragmented clumps of plant life might attract insects. They also believe that the heat island effect might let urban spiders mate earlier in the year, and might even give them time to hatch multiple broods.

The orb weavers could also be keeping more of what they catch. Because they are such prolific hunters, orb weavers’ webs are usually home to several other species of spiders that steal food. The researchers found that these little kleptos were less common in webs surrounded by pavement and little vegetation.

Lowe says quite a few species of spider are successful in urban areas, and she wouldn’t be surprised if some of these other species were also getting bigger. Despite how terrifying this sounds, she assures me that this is actually a good thing. “They control fly and pest species populations and are food for birds,” she said.

[MIKA27]

US tried but failed to free US hostages in Syria

A US secret military mission had "recently" tried but failed "to free a number of American hostages held in Syria", the Pentagon has revealed.

It did not say whether the US troops had also tried to rescue US journalist James Foley, a video of whose beheading by Islamic State appeared on Tuesday.

However, senior US officials - speaking on condition of anonymity - said this was the case.

IS said Foley's death was revenge for US air strikes on its fighters in Iraq.

US President Barack Obama condemned the killing as "an act of violence that shocks the conscience of the entire world".

He compared IS militants, who control large parts of Syria and Iraq to a "cancer" and said the group's ideology was "bankrupt".

The UN, UK and others have also expressed abhorrence at the video.

Mr Foley's mother Diane said he "gave his life trying to expose the world to the suffering of the Syrian people".

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was "extremely concerned for all journalists" still held by IS, describing Syria as "the world's most dangerous place to be a reporter".

'Firefight'

In a statement, the Pentagon said its operation "involved air and ground components and was focused on a particular captor network within ISIL" (the former name of IS).

James Foley had been missing since he was seized in Syria in 2012

James Foley's beheading sent shockwaves across America

"It haunts me, how much pain he was in," said James Foley's father, John

"Unfortunately, the mission was not successful because the hostages were not present at the targeted location."

Meanwhile, the senior Obama administration officials said that several dozen special troops had been dropped by aircraft into Syria earlier this summer to try to rescue US hostages, including Foley.

They added that the troops had been engaged in a firefight with IS militants, killing a number of them. No Americans were killed.

James Foley, 40, was seized in Syria in 2012.

He had reported extensively across the Middle East, working for US publication GlobalPost and other media outlets including French news agency AFP.

'Warning to Obama'

In the IS video, titled A Message to America, a man identified as James Foley is dressed in an orange jumpsuit, kneeling in desert-like terrain beside an armed man dressed in black.

He gives a message to his family and links his imminent death to the US government's bombing campaign of IS targets in Iraq.

Clearly under duress, he says: "I call on my friends, family and loved ones to rise up against my real killers, the US government, for what will happen to me is only a result of their complacency and criminality."

Then the masked militant - who speaks with a British accent - delivers a warning to the US government: "Any attempt by you, Obama, to deny the Muslims their rights of living in safety under the Islamic caliphate will result in the bloodshed of your people."

After he speaks, the militant appears to start cutting at his captive's neck before the video fades to black. His body is then seen on the ground.

Another captive, identified as American journalist Steven Sotloff, is shown at the end, with the warning that his fate depends on President Obama's next move.

Mr Sotloff was abducted in northern Syria a year ago.

Who are Islamic State (IS)?

• Formed out of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) in 2013, IS captured Raqqa in eastern Syria
• By early 2014 it controlled Falluja in western Iraq
• It has since captured broad swathes of Iraq, seizing Mosul in the north in June and the Mosul dam in August
• The violence has displaced an estimated 1.2 million people in Iraq alone
• Pursuing an extreme form of Sunni Islam, IS has persecuted non-Muslims such as Yazidis and Christians, as well as Shia Muslims, whom it regards as heretics
• In July alone, IS expanded dramatically, recruiting some 6,300 new fighters largely in Raqqa, an activist monitoring group said

Islamic State activities as of 14 August