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

[MIKA27]

This Dazzling Laser Show Is Way More Effective Than Any Warning Shot

Warning shots are a waste of ammunition and not a particularly effective deterrent. Instead, modern warfighters inform potentially lost civilians/potential suicide bombers that they’re in the soldier’s rifle sights by blasting them with laser light from barrel-mounted laser dazzlers like these.

The US military had a rough go manning vehicle checkpoints during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. These locations were prime targets for suicide bombers and routinely targeted by insurgents. If a driver refused to slow down for the checkpoint or appeared to be a threat, soldiers would respond with hand signals, flashing lights, and warning shots. However, on more than one occasion, these initial warnings went unheeded, requiring the use of deadly force — sometimes it was a foiled insurgent, sometimes it was an Italian news crew.

Since audible threats of oncoming violence (read: warning shots) have proven ineffective, the US military has switched over to a visual warning cue: the laser dazzler. Officially called the Ocular Interruption System (OIS), these devices weigh about 4.5kg apiece and are designed to mount onto the Picatinny rail of the M4, M16A4 or M27 Infantry Automatic Rifle. It beams a non-blinding array of lasers out as far as 500 meters to deter incoming threats, getting brighter and more brilliant the closer they get. Though their performance differs among manufacturers and models, most dazzlers operate at the 532nm wavelength to produce a bright green light with outputs ranging from 35 to 200mW.

As the USMC Concepts and Programs page explains:

The OIS will allow Marines engaged in combat, stability and security, and force protection operations to employ an intense visual cueing device to hail and warn personnel and vehicle operators at safe standoff distances.

The effective range of the OIS and its ability to automatically regulate dazzling laser energy to keep it below hazardous levels will allow us to challenge potential threats at greater distances than currently available while minimising fatalities and limiting collateral damage.

So, technically, they don’t cause permanent blindness, but getting a faceful of this laser beam will temporarily blind and disorient a driver. Which, while uncomfortable, is still a much better option than being plugged full of 5.56mm NATO rounds.

The USMC has just announced plans to purchase more than 1800 of these hand-held devices and will soon be fielding them as part of its Escalation of Force Mission Module Kits.

[MIKA27]

Nigeria's Using A Biometric ID Card That Doubles As A Debit Card

Make all the “Dear Friend” email scam jokes that you want — Nigeria now has one of the most sophisticated government-issued ID systems in the world. A new nationwide card that rolls out this week collects biometric information to prevent fraud and includes a debit card feature backed by MasterCard.

The National eID card, which was officially launched over the weekend by president Goodluck Jonathan, is in many ways the equivalent of an American drivers’ licence, with name, age, and fingerprints collected as part of the application process. (Nigeria is also doing an iris scan, which some states do.) The cards will serve as the primary identity verification system for government services and international travel for everyone over 16.

But unlike our drivers’ licenses, Nigeria’s card can also be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted as a method of payment. This is perhaps the most progressive part of the program and would provide the most social impact: Only about 30 per cent of the country’s citizens currently have bank accounts. This card would instantly allow the other 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population to save and spend money in the same way as that small group.

Of course, MasterCard knows this and that’s why they’re involved: They’re hoping to get some new customers out of the deal. It’s not unlike a similar partnership that Google has entered into with Kenya’s government that gathers personal information as part of an electronic public transport system (which will eventually allow users to charge other goods on their cards as well).

The plan is to require all citizens to have the card by 2019, which is the year that Nigerians will need the cards to be able to vote. Fraud is still a concern, and should be for such a large endeavour, but it’s a small risk compared to the importance of providing equal access to the global economy in an increasingly cash-less world.

[MIKA27]

Japan's Decade-Long Mission To Mine An Asteroid

1999 JU3: It doesn’t sound like a very noteworthy name. It’s just one of more than 5,000 Apollo-class asteroids. But 1999 JU3 could become a household name if Japan succeeds in mining it — a mission that JAXA has struggled with for decades, often disastrously. And on Sunday, it revealed the probe that could redeem it.

Four years ago, a Japanese spacecraft called Hayabusa returned to Earth after a nearly decade-long journey through space. It bore precious cargo: Dust. More specifically, about 1,500 grains of dust — or about one-millionth of a gram — collected from an asteroid called Itokawa more than 200 million miles away. It was a historic moment, but it was also a disappointment. Hayabusa wasn’t just supposed to bring back a handful of dust. It was supposed to mine the asteroid and cart back evidence that would reveal incredible things about the origins of the universe.

JAXA scientists collect the original Hayabusa sample after it returned to Earth

What happened? As this excellent blow-by-blow from Jonathan O’Callaghan explains, a long string of malfunctions: A solar flare screwed up its solar panels. It had issues with its existing power sources and navigation systems. When it finally did reach the asteroid, the probe it sent down to the surface “drifted off into space, never to be heard from again,” says O’Callaghan. When Hayabusa itself attempted to land, communications were lost, and it’s now believed that the probe bounced off the surface several times. The system that was designed to “mine” it failed. Finally, the probe launched itself back into orbit, dragging only a tiny bit of dust from the rock it was designed to dig into.

The problems didn’t end there — there was a month of radio silence, a fuel thruster leak, and more — but Hayabusa eventually made it back to Earth, thanks to some brilliant fixes dreamt up by JAXA. And while the speck of dust it brought back was certainly useful and historic, the core of the mission had failed. So on Sunday, when JAXA unveiled the completed spacecraft designed to redeem the project, its name was no surprise; Hayabusa-2, which will launch sometime this year, will finish what its predecessor started.

The probe will make a four-year journey to 1999 JU3, where it will do a series of extraordinary things. First, it will put down a lander and three “hopping” rovers on the surface. Then, it will fire a so-called “space cannon,” essentially a metal bullet, down into the asteroid to collect samples from inside the body. Basically, Hayabusa 2 will drop a bomb on this piece of rock and then land inside the subsequent crater.

It’s an incredibly ambitious program, and it’s inspiring given the dearth of funding that NASA is currently struggling with. But what makes it really exciting, and what brings us back to ol’ 1999 JU3, is what it will be bringing back.

Unlike the iron dust-covered stone that the original probe crept down upon, 1999 JU3 was chosen because it contains organic material and even water — and it could solve some of the most essential questions about how life came to be on Earth. For example, one mystery deals with how amino acids — the building blocks of organic life — came to be on Earth. New Scientist explains:

One theory as to how amino acids first arrived on Earth is that they hitch-hiked on asteroids or comets that bombarded our infant planet. But to prove this, researchers must first find amino acids on space rocks.

The Daily Galaxy continues:

The dust gathered could tell if amino acids first arrived on Earth by hitch-hiking on asteroids or comets that bombarded our infant planet. Last year NASA confirmed that its Stardust mission had captured amino acids from the tail of the icy comet Wild 2. But asteroid 1999 JU3, which thermal imaging indicates is rich in carbon compounds, is much closer to Earth and may therefore provide new insights into life’s origins.

Hayabusa has been a long, expensive, problem-ridden space program. It’s the kind of space program that many would say isn’t worth the cost. But, as we’re seeing on the eve of its second life, it’s also the kind of space program that could end up altering our understanding of how life on Earth came to be. If that’s not enough of a justification, I don’t know what is.

[MIKA27]

Terrifying Dash Cam Video Shows What It Is Like To Be Inside A Tornado

http://youtu.be/LothinaCIsM

According to the Youtube description, this video — published yesterday in Reddit but shot last year — captures the moment when a tornado violently hits a village in Bashkiria, Russia. The hair-raising footage was taken from a car’s dash cam that stayed on even when the tornado was passing right over it.

[MIKA27]

Uber Is Currently Fighting The Battle That Jitneys Lost 100 Years Ago

The mid-1910s saw an explosion of people driving unlicensed cabs. They were called jitneys (slang for a nickel, which was also what they typically cost) and cities across the US scrambled to regulate them. Today, cities around the world are struggling to regulate modern-day jitney coordination companies — ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft. But unlike the ragtag cabs of a century ago, the modern day jitney company is well-financed, and plans on throwing plenty of money around to make sure it’s not regulated out of existence.

The rise of the jitney was incredibly sudden. A perfect storm started brewing in 1914, with an economic recession leaving thousands of men out of work. This was coupled with the emergence of a secondhand market that the world hadn’t seen before: used cars. Men who couldn’t find other work were now able to purchase a relatively inexpensive secondhand car and start work as a taxi entrepreneur the very same day.

Southern California was the birthplace of the jitney, and it’s also where regulators fought hardest to outlaw their use. But aside from places like Los Angeles (home of the first jitney), cities like Kansas City saw the jitney arrive seemingly overnight. With the rise of so-called ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft in the past couple of years, there’s no doubt history will write a similar “overnight” narrative for the arrival of the 21st century’s answer to the jitney.

As Carlos A. Schwantes explains in the 1985 paper The West Adapts the Automobile: Technology, Unemployment and the Jitney Phenomenon of 1914-1917:

Born in Los Angeles in mid-1914, the jitney attracted little attention outside of southern California until January 1915. Then in the space of a few weeks, or sometimes a single day, jitneys by the hundreds crowded onto the downtown streets of western cities in the United States and Canada.

In Kansas City, for example, during a two-week period the number of jitneys jumped from zero to two hundred cars, carrying nearly 25,000 passengers a day, and that was only the beginning. Two weeks later, the number of jitney patrons in Kansas City reached 45-50,000 a day.

Most cities weren’t sure what to do. There were a number of competing interests, each with their own solution to the jitney explosion. Some cities tried to regulate the chaotic industry that had sprung up without warning. After a few years, Los Angeles simply outlawed the jitney due to the amount of revenue it was losing as fewer people were taking the city’s railways.

But other cities tried a different approach. Kansas City, for example, appointed a jitney inspector in 1919. The first job for this city official was to make sure that the cars themselves were safe. Jitney drivers would often modify their vehicles with enormous contraptions on the back to fit more paying customers.

The Kansas City inspector first insisted that all jitney drivers have insurance (something that Uber and its ilk have been battling over) and that the cars themselves are safe for passengers (another point of contention when Uber doesn’t want to reveal its driver screening processes and vehicle inspection policies, citing its “secret Uber sauce.”)

Under the headline, “Safer Travel in Jitneys” the Kansas City Times in 1919 proclaimed that it was now safe to ride in jitneys throughout the city.

From the October 23, 1919 Kansas City Times:

The boding of the jitneys has opened a new source of patrons to the drivers. Many persons, principally women shoppers, did not ride in the jitneys because they feared personal injury for which there would be no compensation. Now all passengers in jitneys will be assured of financial protection.

This added cost was tough for the jitney operators to absorb. But by the early 1920s, the jitney drivers had even harder obstacles. The political winds were shifting in Kansas City and in 1921, the city began regulating where the jitney drivers were allowed to operate. Any streets near railways were suddenly off limits. And the railways were there for a reason — that’s the path that provided the greatest route from where people were to where they wanted to go.

By the end of the 1910s, the jitney was no longer thriving and most major cities had simply outlawed their existence. For others like Kansas City, it took a few more years for entrenched transportation companies like those operating the railways to do away with the jitney almost entirely. Despite the loose coalitions that were formed by jitney operators, they didn’t have a strong national unified front to blunt the attacks on the city level.

That’s really the key difference here in the early 21st century. Companies like Uber are swimming in cash thanks to powerful investors. And they’re using plenty of that cash on lobbying efforts, including hiring former Obama administration officials like David Plouffe to “woo consumers and regulators alike…”

Just as services like Uber’s ride-sharing are hailed today as the underdog and champion of the working class, so too were the jitneys positioned as the great path to reform in the 1910s.

Again from Schwantes:

The jitney, in short, was widely perceived as a liberating new form of transportation for the common man. It was, proclaimed one enthusiast, “a new page in the history of locomotion when convenience and economy came together for the first time.”

The ride-sharing industry is at the fight or die crossroads in its historical arc. They have purchased the weapons to fight effectively and are determined not to go the way of the jitney. But once companies like Uber win, what next?

As many commentators, like Farhad Manjoo, have pointed out, the modern jitney cab is now a commodity. People don’t really see a difference between an Uber or a Lyft ride. In fact, drivers are often equipped with multiple phones sometimes working for half a dozen companies at once, as you can see in the photo below.

Uber needs to establish itself as the dominant company in the market in order to stay alive long term. Because once the regulatory battles have been won, the real fight begins. In fact, Uber has already started to wage their version of ride-share guerrilla warfare.

Under the internal codename Operation SLOG, Uber is ordering and cancelling the rides of competing companies and attempting to poach employees through coordinated schemes. And once a given company “wins” it’s a pretty safe bet that they’re begin to act like any of the legacy transportation companies.

Which is to say, you can assume that a company like Uber will embrace regulations and try to keep the so-called new disruptors at bay. This time, we’ll get to see the timeline where the jitney cabs won. And I’m guessing it won’t necessarily be everything its boosters were hailing it to be.

[MIKA27]

Swordfighting, As You See It In The Movies, Is A Lie

The kind of swordfighting you see in movies and TV shows, where everything is graceful and balletic and entertaining, is fiction. Nobody ever fought like that. The real thing was messy.

Back to the Source is a documentary that’s going to look into the revival of traditional European martial arts, specifically the art of clanging swords together. The revival isn’t easy, though, as most of the records documenting just how people fought are incomplete, or not incredibly helpful.

As you can see, what they have pieced together isn’t pretty. Real combatants never bothered dancing and swinging. They just focused on getting the other person’s sword out of the way as quickly as possible then stabbing them. Or getting them to ground and stabbing them. Or just breaking them.

The doco is asking for a very modest £5,500, and is being made by someone who’s in the scene himself.

[MIKA27]

Arcades In Movies Were Glorious

Ah yes… the old arcades of the ’80s and ’90s. Many of you may not remember them, but they were wondrous things to behold. And they were even more glorious in the movies! Bring back those days!

The folks at the Huffington Post have created a supercut of the arcades and video games of yesteryear in old movies. It really does make you wistful for those grimy palaces of neon and cigarette smoke. Here’s a list of the movies they used:

• “Rancho Deluxe” (1975)
• “Jaws” (1975)
• “Jaws 2″ (1978)
• “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” (1978)
• “Dawn of the Dead” (1978)
• “Midnight Madness” (1980)
• “Bustin’ Loose” (1981)
• “Death Wish II” (1982)
• “Rocky III” (1982)
• “Tron” (1982)
• “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” (1982)
• “Jekyll and Hyde… Together Again” (1982)
• “The Toy” (1982)
• “Joysticks” (1983)
• “WarGames” (1983)
• “Twilight Zone: The Movie” (1983)
• “Strange Brew” (1983)
• “Nightmares” [segment 'Bishop of Battle'] (1983)
• “Never Say Never Again” (1983)
• “High School U.S.A.” (1983)
• “Rumble Fish” (1983)
• “Footloose” (1984)
• “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” (1984)
• “Ghostbusters” (1984)
• “Gremlins” (1984)
• “The Karate Kid” (1984)
• “The Last Starfighter” (1984)
• “The Philadelphia Experiment” (1984)
• “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” (1984)
• “Ninja III: The Domination” (1984)
• “Night of the Comet” (1984)
• “The Last Dragon” (1985)
• “Code of Silence” (1985)
• “The Goonies” (1985)
• “Real Genius” (1985)
• “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986)
• “Maximum Overdrive” (1986)
• “The Colour of Money” (1986)
• “Something Wild” (1986)
• “Over the Top” (1987)
• “Can’t Buy Me Love” (1987)
• “Best Seller” (1987)
• “Death Wish 4: The Crackdown” (1987)
• “Bloodsport” (1988)
• “Big” (1988)
• “Parenthood” (1989)
• “Back to the Future Part II” (1989)
• “The Wizard” (1989)
• “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” (1990)
• “RoboCop 2″ (1990)
• “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991)
• “Suburban Commando” (1991)
• “Juice” (1992)
• “Encino Man” (1992)
• “Honeymoon in Vegas” (1992)
• “Roadside Prophets” (1992)
• “Toys” (1992)
• “Double Dragon” (1994)

[MIKA27]

Samsung’s New Galaxy Note Doubles as a Virtual-Reality Helmet

The Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has a Quad HD display and provides the screen for Samsung’s new Gear VR facemask.

Samsung is serious about phablets, and its three latest announcements add compelling twists to its Galaxy Note lineup. The most straightforward of the company’s new offerings will be the Galaxy Note 4, its latest flagship big-screened phone. Beyond that, things get much more interesting: A Note 4 doppelganger called the Note Edge with a wraparound AMOLED screen, and an Oculus-like VR mask driven by the Note 4, the Gear VR.

Samsung’s New Phlagship Phablet

The new Galaxy Note 4 runs Android 4.4 KitKat and has a 5.7-inch AMOLED display with a 2,560 x 1,440 (Quad HD) resolution; that adds up to an incredibly sharp and colorful 518 ppi screen. Its cameras also get significant upgrades. Optical image stabilization bolsters its 16-megapixel main camera, and there’s an 8X digital zoom on that shooter. To reduce pixelation on those digitally-zoomed images, Samsung says the camera uses its own special blend of HDR-like image compositing. The front-facing camera also gets a bump, with a higher-resolution 3.7-megapixel sensor and an F1.9 aperture that helps it perform well in low light. According to Samsung, it also has a 120-degree field of view, which is a much wider-angle lens than most selfie cams.

The Note 4′s removable battery is an ample 3,220mAh unit, and the company touts its “Rapid Charge” feature, which can juice the battery 50 percent in 30 minutes. Similar to the Galaxy S5 and Galaxy Tab S, the phablet also has an “Ultra Power Saver” mode that the company claims can last 24 hours with just 10 percent battery life.

I can say with confidence that it feels good in the hand. The metal-framed Note 4 has a soft faux-leather back like its predecessor, but there’s no fake stitching this time around. Its S Pen also works more like a mouse on this version; you click the stylus’s side button and drag the pen across text to highlight it, and the same actions allow you to drag-and-drop onscreen items precisely. Along with the user-accessible battery, there’s also a microSD slot that lets you add up to 64GB of extra storage.

All the Note 4 specifics haven’t been revealed just yet. Samsung says it will be available with a 2.7GHz quad-core CPU (likely to be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 chip, although Samsung wouldn’t comment on the specifics) and with dual quad-core CPUs like the Exynos-based Galaxy Tab S. The pricing has yet to be announced, but the phone will launch on all all four major U.S. carriers in October.

Gear VR: A Phablet-Driven Oculus Rift

Sold separately (at a price yet to be announced this fall) will be the coolest phablet accessory in world history: the Gear VR. This is an Oculus Rift-style headset that works only with the Note 4. You insert the Note 4 into the facemask, and the phone automatically enters VR mode when you dock it into the headset.

The Note 4 docks into the Gear VR headset to provide processing power and an immersive high-res display.

When docked, the Gear VR uses the Note 4 display and its processing power for full-immersion games and movies, while the headset has its own magnetometer and accelerometer to calculate movement, as well as a proximity sensor to know when it’s on your face.

Built-in lenses with a 96-degree field of view sit between your eyes and the screen, and there’s a touchpad on the headset’s right temple for navigating on-face menus. The sides of the mask also host volume controls and a menu-back button, and there’s a focus-adjust wheel on top. The whole thing clings to your face with Velcro straps.

It is much, much more immersive than you’d expect from a phablet strapped to your face. I experienced a four-part demo that included 360-degree footage of a Coldplay concert, an Avengers virtual environment, a playable space game, and mild-nausea-inducing helicopter videos that made me feel like I was floating hundreds of feet off the ground at high speeds. I’ve done similar demos with the Oculus Rift, and I’d be hard-pressed to find a difference in performance. (It’s worth noting that the display on the Oculus Rift Development Kit 2 is made from the panel of a Samsung Galaxy Note 3). The fact that it was almost entirely powered by a phone and not jacked into a computer was mind-boggling, and the wireless freedom contributes to your range of motion.

For content, Samsung has inked a partnership with Oculus that will make games and movies downloadable for the Gear VR setup through the Oculus Store. Not all Oculus content will be compatible with the Note 4/Gear VR tandem; games and videos will need to be optimized for mobile in order to work.

Samsung Galaxy Note Edge: A Note 4 With an Extra Side Screen

If the Gear VR hadn’t stolen its thunder, the Galaxy Note Edge would have been Samsung’s eyebrow-raiser of the day. Its specs are essentially identical to the Galaxy Note 4, except for its unique 5.6-inch AMOLED screen, which wraps around the right edge of the phone to provide a slim, slanted side display.

The Galaxy Note Edge has the same internal specs as the Note 4, but its AMOLED screen wraps around the side of it.

When you lay the Note Edge flat on its back, it looks like the world’s shortest clock-radio—and that is actually one of the device’s use cases. The edge of the screen is sloped at about a 45-degree angle, so the bulk of the screen can be turned off while the edge displays the time and alarm settings.

You can also set it up to scroll sports scores or Tweets like a ticker, display weather information, or scroll through stocks. It basically acts as a custom notifications panel, moving that information to the side of the device so that it doesn’t hog any valuable screen real estate.

When you’re using it as you would a normal phone, that vertical side strip offers quick access to a list of your most-used apps. Some of the in-app controls handled by that edge screen are ingenious little tweaks. For example, when you’re using the camera, the slanted edge houses the shutter button and all the settings controls. It’s a much more natural setup for hitting the touch-shutter button—it now rests right under your index finger on an comfy slant—and it provides a full-screen viewfinder view.

No pricing was revealed for the Note Edge, but it’s expected to be available this fall in the U.S.

[MIKA27]

Ukraine crisis: France halts warship delivery to Russia

The Vladivostok was due to be delivered to Russia by late October

France has said conditions are "not right" for delivery of the first of two Mistral navy assault ships to Russia.

President Francois Hollande's office blamed Moscow's recent actions in Ukraine.

France had until now resisted pressure to halt the delivery, saying it had to respect an existing contract.

Russia's Deputy Defence Minister Yury Borisov said the French decision would not hold back Moscow's plans to reform its armed forces.

"Although of course it is unpleasant and adds to certain tensions in relations with our French partners, the cancelling of this contract will not be a tragedy for our modernisation," he said, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin tweeted his thanks to the French leadership for its "responsible decision", which he said was "important for restoring peace in Europe".

The Vladivostok, the first of the two helicopter carriers, was expected to have been delivered to Russia by late October.

The second, the Sevastopol, was to have been sent next year, although no mention of it was made in Mr Hollande's statement.

As the crisis has escalated in eastern Ukraine and as Russia's direct military role there has become more blatant, so the pressure on the French government to halt its sale of two advanced assault ships to Russia has grown ever stronger.

The US and a number of other countries have long made their feelings plain. But the deal weathered tensions with Moscow over Syria, and the Russian crew of the first vessel which is already undergoing sea trials has travelled to France to begin training.

This was the most significant Western arms sale to Russia and its postponement - the exact terms of the suspension of the deal are not clear - marks a very visible rebuff to Moscow on the eve of Nato's Wales Summit.

The Mistral assault ships can carry up to 16 heavy helicopters, land troops and armoured vehicles. Their delivery would have resulted in a marked improvement in Russia's amphibious capability.

Russian sailors, seen here with their frigate the Smolny, have come to France to train on the Vladivostok

France has come under pressure from Ukrainians to scupper the Mistral deal

But Mr Hollande's office said Wednesday's remarks by the Russian and Ukrainian presidents about a possible ceasefire were not enough to allow France to give it the go-ahead.

"The president of the republic has concluded that despite the prospect of ceasefire, which has yet to be confirmed and put in place, the conditions under which France could authorise the delivery of the first helicopter carrier are not in place," it said in a statement.

Previously France had argued that EU sanctions could not apply retroactively to the Mistral contract, and that it would have been too costly to cancel.

The deal for the two helicopter carriers is worth 1.2bn euros ($1.6bn; £0.95bn).

Separately Poland has given details of military exercises to be held later this month in Ukraine.

A defence ministry statement said the exercises, codenamed Rapid Trident 14, will involve hundreds of soldiers from Nato member states including the US.

Peace deal hopes

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he had agreed a "ceasefire process" with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Mr Putin said he hoped a peace deal could be reached by Friday, when representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the rebels meet in Minsk for talks.

The pro-Russian rebels have said they support Mr Putin's proposals, but that they do not trust Mr Poroshenko to maintain a ceasefire.

It is not clear whether any truce is being observed on the ground.

Meanwhile, in Estonia, US President Barack Obama sought to reassure the Baltic states that they would be protected by Nato, and said that Washington would stand by Ukraine.

Insisting that Russia is in no way a negotiating party in the Ukrainian conflict, Vladimir Putin is nevertheless certain that it is Moscow's proposals that are going to advance both sides to peace. Mr Putin's plan is short and leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Take, for example, a point on moving Ukrainian troops away from positions from which towns and cities can be shelled. Taken to an extreme, this could mean rewinding the situation on the ground to a point several weeks ago before Ukrainian advances.

Just two weeks ago the discussions centred around when, and not if, the rebels would have to move out of Donetsk and Luhansk. But Moscow's plan will allow them to strengthen their control over the two regional centres and other areas.

Mr Putin has often seemed unwilling to negotiate from a position of weakness and the reversals of the past few days illustrate this perfectly. Now it's Petro Poroshenko who has to choose whether to accept something which clearly protects Kiev's enemies in eastern Ukraine.

The announcements come a day before a Nato summit in Wales which is expected to discuss the alliance's response to Russia's involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

More than 2,600 civilians and combatants have been killed and more than a million people have fled their homes since fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine in April, when pro-Russian separatists there declared independence.

Russia has denied accusations by the West and the Ukrainian government that it is sending troops and military equipment over the border to support the separatists, who recently gained the upper hand against government forces.

[MIKA27]

Icelandic business plans energy bar made of insects

Insects are a staple food in parts of the developing world, but two businessmen from the unlikely location of Iceland are proposing to use them to make energy bars.

Bui Adalsteinsson and Stefan Thoroddsen say on their website they got the idea from a UN report suggesting the western world could benefit from using this abundant source of protein, and formed a company to make bars with ground-up bugs. They got funding from the Startup Reykjavik programme earlier this year, and have just announced the second prototype of their Crowbar on Twitter.

They tell the Nutiminn news site the insect "superfood" breaks down into amino acids that the body needs, and is also rich in calcium and vitamins. Crowbars "provide a realistic, sustainable choice of excellent nutrition in your pocket, whether you're taking a two-minute break from a challenging hike or need a boost between work meetings," the pair insist.

Stefan admits not everyone is likely to enjoy the flavour of insects, but told the IceNews site that Crowbars have the answer - "mixed with other ingredients like almonds, coconut and cacao, you can't really taste a lot of the crickets", which he describes as mild and nutty. They have presented their prototype bars at food tasting events in the capital Reykjavik, and hope to go into full production later this year.

[NJP]

I remember going to Grundys on the Gold Coast as a kid. Just epic, me and the old man lost hours and he was as bad as myself with the arcade games. Great memories and only a few of my mates had ever been to the arcade of dreams. Watching the clip got all my old GABA juices flowing parts of the brain reacted too **** I had forgotten.

Just magic Mika.

[MIKA27]

These Two Dancers Will Floor You With Their Stunning Moves

A few months ago, we featured turf-dancer Marquese 'Nonstop' Scott dancing to Michael Jackson's 'Beat it'- it was a performance few thought anyone could top.

Until now....

He's raised the bar even higher, by teaming up with a fellow dancer called Poppin John. Together they perform one of the most impressive dance routines you're likely to see this year.

The two constantly play off one another, using all manner of super slow-motion moves and mesmerising choreographed tricks, moving seamlessly in time to a backing dubstep track.

It's a combination that sees the music and dancers in perfect unison. Quite how long they rehearsed this routine is anyone guess, but to get this good, you need some seriously skill and a hell of a lot of dedication.

Still, when the results are as awesome as this, it's infinitely worth it.

Sit back, turn it up and get ready for your eyes to seemingly deceive you.

BONUS: The Beat It Video

[MIKA27]

I remember going to Grundys on the Gold Coast as a kid. Just epic, me and the old man lost hours and he was as bad as myself with the arcade games. Great memories and only a few of my mates had ever been to the arcade of dreams. Watching the clip got all my old GABA juices flowing parts of the brain reacted too **** I had forgotten.

Just magic Mika.

You are welcome my friend: My brother and I used to scrounge for cash even nick small change from my dads pockets to play arcade games at the local arcade. I recall Ninja Turtles cost 10 Cents a credit, Altered Beast, Pac Man, the list goes on. We were there all day, it was a popular pass-time here as no doubt it was in many other countries such as the USA and Japan.

What I miss the most (And some may recall) the distinctive smell of an arcade. I can't describe it but for anyone who frequented these arcades, there was that distinct smell of electronics, the sound of the games in standby mode, I truly miss those days.

[MIKA27]

CAR COLLECTOR’S $4 MILLION HOME WITH SHOWROOM GARAGE

You park the car and turn around for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th looks as you walk away. You sneak peeks outside your office window every hour to see how she’s doing. Yes, you’ve got it bad for your car; but not as bad as this guy.

In West Bellevue, Washington, one gentleman has taken his auto aficionado status to luxurious new heights with this $4 million mansion. There are two bedrooms and three bathrooms, but the stars of this home are the 20 cars inside the custom-made garage. Nothing good on TV? Just turn your head and admire your collection of sports cars, easily viewable from the couch. The mystery man also loves red, and we’ll admit it looks pretty dope throughout the house. The Ferrari throw pillows might be pushing it though. Check out the video below.

[NJP]

You are welcome my friend: My brother and I used to scrounge for cash even nick small change from my dads pockets to play arcade games at the local arcade. I recall Ninja Turtles cost 10 Cents a credit, Altered Beast, Pac Man, the list goes on. We were there all day, it was a popular pass-time here as no doubt it was in many other countries such as the USA and Japan.

What I miss the most (And some may recall) the distinctive smell of an arcade. I can't describe it but for anyone who frequented these arcades, there was that distinct smell of electronics, the sound of the games in standby mode, I truly miss those days.

Oh the smell. The noise was hypnotic and the heat of the machines even the arcade would have you down to a fluorescent singlet in no time. You could get a tan off the screens in winter. For me thinking about it I taste bubble gum I was a pig for it.

[MIKA27]

7 Minutes Of Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare's Multiplayer

We’ve heard it all before, but I really do get a sense this year’s Call of Duty is going to be a significant step forward to some degree. Maybe it’s that word ‘Advanced’. Maybe it’s because it isn’t technically a sequel to something or other and a new ‘brand’ in its own right. Whatever. Activision has worked its marketing magic on me and I’m ready to believe again.

Call it a response to Titanfall, call it whatever you like, I just like the idea of a team finally getting to unleash the ideas it had been holding back for years. I remember when I first saw the demo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. We were told back then that Infinity Ward had been waiting a long time to make a game set in the modern era, and therefore poured every single idea they had into the project.

I wonder if we might be witnessing something similar with Advanced Warfare? I sure hope so.

Either way, the game feels like an uncharacteristic risk for the series, so at the very least I’m intrigued. I’m intrigued to see how it all fits together, intrigued to see how the new mechanics affect the game’s balance. In general Advanced Warfare has just sparked my interest into a franchise I thought I was done with. Here’s hoping they deliver something special.

[MIKA27]

Missing Libyan Jetliners Raise Fears of Suicide Airliner Attacks on 9/11

Egypt set for military intervention as Libya spirals toward failed state

Islamist militias in Libya took control of nearly a dozen commercial jetliners last month, and western intelligence agencies recently issued a warning that the jets could be used in terrorist attacks across North Africa.

Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports.

“There are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing,” said one official. “We found out on September 11 what can happen with hijacked planes.”

The official said the aircraft are a serious counterterrorism concern because reports of terrorist control over the Libyan airliners come three weeks before the 13th anniversary of 9/11 attacks and the second anniversary of the Libyan terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

Four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in the Benghazi attack, which the Obama administration initially said was the result of a spontaneous demonstration against an anti-Muslim video.

A senior State Department counterterrorism official declined to comment on reports of the stolen jetliners.

A second State department official sought to downplay the reports. “We can’t confirm that,” he said.

Meanwhile, officials said Egyptian military forces appear to be preparing to intervene in Libya to prevent the country from becoming a failed state run by terrorists, many with ties to al Qaeda.

Libya remains an oil-rich state and if the country is taken over completely by Islamist extremists, U.S. counterterrorism officials believe it will become another terrorist safe haven in the region.

The officials said U.S. intelligence agencies have not confirmed the aircraft theft following the takeover of Tripoli International Airport in late August, and are attempting to locate all aircraft owned by two Libyan state-owned airline companies, as security in the country continued to deteriorate amid fighting between Islamists and anti-Islamist militias.

Video surfaced on Sunday showing armed fighters from the Islamist militia group Libyan Dawn partying inside a captured U.S. diplomatic compound in Tripoli. The footage showed one fighter diving into a pool from a second-story balcony at the facility.

Tripoli airport and at least seven aircraft were reported damaged during fighting that began in July. Photos of the airport in the aftermath showed a number of damaged aircraft. The airport has been closed since mid-July.

The state-owned Libyan Airlines fleet until this summer included 14 passenger and cargo jetliners, including seven Airbus 320s, one Airbus 330, two French ATR-42 turboprop aircraft, and four Bombardier CJR-900s. Libyan state-owned Afriqiyah Airways fleet is made up of 13 aircraft, including three Airbus 319s, seven Airbus 320s, two Airbus 330s, and one Airbus 340.

The aircraft were reportedly taken in late August following the takeover of Tripoli International Airport, located about 20 miles south of the capital, by Libyan Dawn.

Al Jazeera television reported in late August that western intelligence reports had warned of terror threats to the region from 11 stolen commercial jets.

In response, Tunisia stopped flights from other Libyan airports at Tripoli, Sirte, and Misrata over concerns that jets from those airports could be on suicide missions.

Egypt’s government also halted flights to and from Libya.

Military forces in North Africa, including those from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt have been placed on heightened alert as a result of intelligence warning of the stolen aircraft.

Egyptian military jets reportedly have conducted strikes inside Libya against Libyan Dawn positions recently, and U.S. officials said there are signs a larger Egyptian military incursion is being planned.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi was quoted as denying Egyptian air strikes into Libya have taken place but suggested that military action is being considered.

Secretary of State John Kerry last week told his Egyptian counterpart that the United States would speed up the delivery of Apache attack helicopters, although it is not clear the Apaches would be used in any Libyan operations.

Egypt’s military-backed government appears to be seeking a more significant role in regional security after the Obama administration helped engineer the ouster of Libyan strongman Moammar Qaddafi in 2011. Since then, the Obama administration, through its announced policy of “leading from behind,” has stood by while Libya gradually has spiraled into chaos.

The Libyan government announced Sunday that it no longer controlled the capital of Tripoli.

“We announce that the majority of the ministries, institutions, and associations in the capital Tripoli are no longer under its control,” a government statement said.

Libya’s parliament in August declared both Ansar al Sharia and Libyan Dawn as terrorist organizations working to overthrow the government.

Ansar al Sharia, which is based in Benghazi, recently publicized on social media that it has obtained large numbers of more sophisticated weapons, including SA-6 surface-to-air missiles, anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles, assault rifles, and armored vehicles. The group is closely aligned with al Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria.

Abderrahmane Mekkaoui, a Moroccan military expert, told Al Jazeera television, which first reported the airline theft Aug. 21, the alert regarding the stolen jetliners was preventive and covers the region from Cairo to Lagos Nigeria.

Mekkaoui said the jets are being held by the Libyan group called Masked Men Brigade, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department in December.

The Masked Men Brigade is linked to al Qaeda and Ansar al Sharia—the group behind the Benghazi terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2012.

Until the Libya Dawn takeover of the airport, announced Aug. 24, two other militia groups, known as Al Qaqa and Al Sawa controlled the airport and all aircraft belonging to Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways.

Mekkaoui said “credible intelligence” reports given to states in the region indicated the Masked Men Brigade “is plotting to use the planes in attacks on a Maghreb state” on the 9/11 anniversary.

Counterterrorism expert Sebastian Gorka said that if the theft is confirmed, the stolen aircraft could be used in at least two ways.

“The first would be how commercial airliners were used on Sept. 11, 2001, literally turning an innocent mode of mass transit into a super-high precision guided missile of immense potency,” said Gorka, who holds the Maj. Gen. Charles Horner chair at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Va.

“The second tactic could be to use the airframe with its civilian markings as a tool of deception to insert a full payload of armed terrorists into a locale that otherwise is always open to commercial carriers,” he said.

Michael Rubin, a counterterrorism specialist with the American Enterprise Institute, said commercial jetliners in the hands of terrorists could be formidable weapons.

“Who needs ballistic missiles when you have passenger planes? Even empty, but loaded up with fuel they can be as devastating,” Rubin said.

“Each plane could, if deployed by terrorists to maximum devastating effect, represent 1,000 civilian casualties.”

Among the potential targets are urban areas and economic targets, like Saudi Arabia’s oil fields.

“Anyone who has ever flown over Saudi Arabia at night can see refineries like Yanbu lit up like Christmas trees against the blackness of the desert,” Rubin said. “One Saudi security officer once told me that they would only have about 90 seconds to shoot down a hijacked plane from the time it left international airspace to impact in one of the region’s most important refineries.”

Rubin said in 2003 a Boeing 727 went missing in Africa fueling concerns about a terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi.

“What is striking is that more than a decade later, the United States hasn’t taken the need to safeguard what are effectively giant guided missiles seriously,” he said.

A former Libyan general, Khalifa Haftar, has been leading anti-Islamist forces. His group has access to Libyan air force MiG jets that have conducted strikes on Libyan Dawn positions in recent days. Haftar also has conducted military raids in Benghazi.

The United Nations Security Council on Aug. 27 announced plans for new sanctions on Libyan militias and terrorists. In a resolution the U.N. warned of the “growing presence of al Qaeda-linked terrorist groups and individuals operating in Libya.”

[MIKA27]

Majority of Americans Don’t Want Redskins To Change Their Name

A large majority of Americans don’t want the Washington Redskins to change their name, despite recent aggressive campaigns against the “racist” name by the likes of Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nev.).

A new ESPN poll found 71 percent said it “should not” be changed. This suggests more acceptance for the name across the country than in the D.C. area, where last year a Washington Post poll found that 66 percent supported the name.

Over the past few decades, support has primarily dropped among Democrats, while around 90 percent of Republicans have favored the name for the past two decades.

According to the Washington Post:

The basic question of whether “Redskins” is offensive stands at the core of support for keeping the name. The poll found 28 percent saying the Redskins’ name shows disrespect to Native Americans, while 68 percent said it does not. Among those who find the name offensive, 63 percent support changing the name. But among the majority who say the name does not show “any disrespect,” 90 percent support keeping the name.

Convincing the broader public “Redskin” is a racial slur has proven difficult for opponents of the team’s name, and quality data on Native Americans’ attitudes have been scarce. While dozens of Native American organizations and tribes have endorsed a name change, the sports franchise has repeatedly cited a 2004 national survey finding 90 percent of self-identified Native Americans said the name was not offensive. While a recent survey of Powwow attendees in California found far more opposition to the Redskins name and suggested attitudes may have changed, no rigorous survey has tested Native American attitudes on a national level.

The Redskins spokesman called the results “skewed negatively” but welcomed the findings:

“The ESPN poll methodology is obviously skewed negatively but it still shows three to four times more support for keeping the name. Thanks to all of the Players, Coaches and fans over the last 82 years, we are fortunate to always be recognized as one of the most popular sports teams in the world. We are looking forward to our season opener in Houston on Sunday.”

[MIKA27]

Giant spider stories

http://youtu.be/ED92X9LagNA

A Coast-To-Coast program last week featured British zoologist (and cryptozoologist) Karl Shuker.

He discussed the legends of giant spiders living in the Congo and in South America.

He also related two stories of sightings that supposedly took place in New Guinea during World War 2.

The first story involved an Australian soldier who took a few steps off a jungle path to relieve himself.

He noticed a huge web in the undergrowth, and soon realized he was face to face with a giant, black hairy spider. According to the witness, its body was the size of a small dog.

In the second story, an American soldier claimed to have seen a huge emerald-green spider.

Fast forward to the 12:50 mark to hear these two stories.

[MIKA27]

THE 60-YEAR HISTORY OF THE B-52 STRATOFORTRESS

hen General Nathan Twining, chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force from 1953 to 1957, called the Boeing B-52 “the long rifle of the air age” shortly after it entered service on June 29, 1955, no one imagined that the eight-engine, 390,000-pound bomber would still be operational 60 years later.

Had he a crystal ball, General Twining would have been able to add that the nation’s new “long rifle” would go on to become the longest-serving military aircraft in American history. Continually upgraded, modified and adapted to new missions, the amazing B-52 is far from being finished after six decades; in fact, the Air Force plans to fly it until 2040.

That’s astounding longevity for any vehicle, particularly a weapon with an expected service life of just a few years, whose origins date back to the years immediately following World War Two.

Employed as a high-altitude nuclear delivery vehicle, low-level penetrator (to evade surface-to-air missiles), conventional bomber, flight test asset and foil for popular music, the Stratofortress is a military and cultural fixture.

The saying “the last B-52 pilot has yet to born” may no longer hold true, but there are still plenty of grandfathers and grandsons — and in at least one case, three generations of a single family — who have both served as Stratofortress aircrew. Since the last months of the Vietnam War, the B-52 community has affectionately referred to the big bomber as the “BUFF” (Big Ugly Fat Fellow); that conflict marked the first use of the BUFF in combat. Since then, the B-52 has been engaged in nearly every action the U.S. has entered, from Desert Storm and Operation Allied Force (Kosovo) to operations Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan) and Iraqi Freedom.

Thankfully, it has never been called upon to fulfill the role for which it was originally intended: an intercontinental, high-altitude nuclear bomber.

In 1940, it was feared that England might fall to the Nazis, and the USAAC called for designs for a weapon with transatlantic range to continue the fight against the Axis; Convair’s gigantic B-36 “Peacemaker”, first fielded in 1948, was the answer to that call. Ironically, rapid advances in technology, including the emergence of high-speed and high-altitude jet fighters, made the newly operational Peacemaker obsolete. But an outline for the B-36’s replacement had already been issued, calling for a bomber with an unrefueled range of 8,000 miles with a 10,000-pound bomb load and a top speed of 450 mph. The Peacemaker already carried much more (up to 86,000 pounds with the B-36D) and nearly met the range requirement; but it wasn’t fast enough to evade attackers or reach targets quickly.

Boeing responded with a large, straight-wing turboprop design, the B-54, but its performance was only slightly better than that of the Peacemaker. The end of 1948 saw advances in jet engine development and aerial refueling, and, on a visit to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base on Thursday October 21, 1948, the Air Force asked the B-54 design team to consider the possibility of a pure-jet heavy bomber. So the design team closeted itself in a hotel in Dayton, Ohio that weekend, and on Monday the 25th, presented the Air Force with the design that would make its first flight just over three years later as the YB-52.

The futuristic airplane was a huge advance over previous heavy bombers, incorporating many of the engineering features Boeing’s radical B-47 Stratojet medium bomber had only just pioneered: the 160-foot-long B-52 was a swept-wing, long-range (upgraded models could exceed 8,800 miles unrefueled), high-speed hammer.

Eight Pratt & Whitney J57 turbojets were pylon mounted on the B-52′s 185-foot wingspan. These were developed especially for the BUFF, capable of producing more than 11,000 pound of thrust (initially) and propelling the bomber to 650 mph in level flight. They also provided enough power to haul combined internal and (later) external loads as heavy as 70,000 pounds. Six men were required to operate the fearsome new jet: a pilot, copilot, radar navigator (bombardier), navigator, electronic warfare officer and tail gunner (eliminated in 1991, with the removal of the tail gun).

Together they could deliver a nuclear knockout the likes of which had never been imagined. Later versions, including those now in service, could punch harder and more precisely with conventional weapons. By the time the BUFF made its operational debut in June 1955 as the B-52B, Boeing already had more advanced variants under development, including the C, D, E and F models that were to form the core of Strategic Air Command’s (SAC) nuclear bomber force through the early 1960s.

Beginning in 1958, nuclear-armed SAC B-52s flew “airborne alert” to ensure the safety of a response team in the event that the U.S. was caught off guard by enemy attack. BUFF crews remained aloft 24-7 on flights as long as 26 hours, supported by multiple aerial refuelings; similar flights occurred during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis to prevent the escalation of the superpower stand-off.

It wasn’t until June 1965 that B-52s were first used as conventional bombers, during the Arc Light bombing campaign in Vietnam. Then, during Operation Linebacker II in December 1972, B-52s delivered over 15,000 tons of bombs across 11 days; this intensive action, in addition to General William C. Westmoreland’s saturation strikes throughout the remainder of war, is credited with bringing the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table to end conflict.

By that point, longer-ranged and more powerful “second-generation” B-52Gs and B-52Hs had been operational for 11 years, adapted to utilize a wide variety of stand-off missiles as well as conventional bombs. Both munitions were employed by the B-52 during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, wherein BUFFs flew 1,741 sorties and delivered more than 27,000 tons of bombs.

B-52 crews finally stood down on September 27, 1991 after 36 years on nuclear alert, and by May 1992 all variants had been retired except for the B-52H, which remains in service. B-52Hs participated in the opening strikes in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 and continue to fly close-air support missions alongside the much younger B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit.

Altogether, 744 B-52s have been produced, and while the youngest B-52 in service was built in 1962, modernization continues today with the Combat Network Communications Technology (CONECT) upgrade, a digital architecture including display screens, computer network servers and real-time beyond-line-of-sight communication links, allowing crews to stay connected to the world throughout their mission. CONECT upgrades to the remaining 76 B-52Hs are expected to be complete by 2020; later that decade, the newly outfitted BUFFs will fly alongside their eventual replacement: the Long-Range Strike-Bomber.

[MIKA27]

Dwayne Johnson confirms he will play Black Adam in DC's Shazam

After weeks and months of speculation, Dwayne Johnson has officially confirmed that he will be playing the part of Black Adam in DC's forthcoming Shazam adaptation.

The star took to his Twitter feed to break the news, posting the quote, "kneel at his feet or get crushed by his boot", before continuing, "my honour to become… #BlackAdam".

It had been reported that Johnson was either going to play the hero, Captain Marvel, or his nemesis Black Adam, the latter having been the favourite given that Johnson had previously described him as his favourite comic-book character.

Black Adam is a powerful sorcerer with designs on controlling the universe, and is the primary antagonist of Captain Marvel, the superhero alter-ego of young Billy Batson.

However, whether or not he is entirely villainous in this incarnation remains to be seen, with Johnson also including the hashtag "#TheAntiHero" at the end of his tweet…

The film has yet to receive an official release date, but with Johnson's role now confirmed, expect that to change in the coming weeks...

[MIKA27]

Bran Stark won't be in 'Game of Thrones' season 5

There are no current plans to include Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) and Hodor (Kristian Nairn) in season 5 of the HBO fantasy hit. The rather stunning plot shakeup was first let out of the bag by Nairn during an interview. “We have a season off and we have a year’s hiatus, solely because I imagine our storyline is up to the end of the books,” he said, then added regarding his DJing career: “So, I get my year off now to do Rave of Thrones and gallivant all over the world.”

The move ditches Bran and Hodor now that they’ve reached Bran’s three-eyed crow mentor, which is nearly as far as the characters have progressed in George R.R. Martin’s novels. For the fifth season of the series, producers are going to a new Westeros country — Dorne, which will be shot in Spain — and adding some new characters. Leaving behind Bran will give the show more time to spend with the new characters, and some time for the other storylines to catch up to Bran’s (as well as for Martin potentially to release his next book in the saga, The Winds of Winter).

Martin himself did a similar maneuver in his novels as his saga’s scope expanded, leaving out some key characters from his last two books. Still, the move is bound to upset some fans of Bran’s storyline, and marks the first time a major character has been benched for a full season. HBO had no comment.

MIKA: WTF! Who wont miss Hodor saying "Hodor"

[thecrowder]

Nigeria's Using A Biometric ID Card That Doubles As A Debit Card

<snip>

The plan is to require all citizens to have the card by 2019, which is the year that Nigerians will need the cards to be able to vote. Fraud is still a concern, and should be for such a large endeavour, but it’s a small risk compared to the importance of providing equal access to the global economy in an increasingly cash-less world.

A government license tied to a bank account is terrifying! Reminds me of the bar code that everyone in the movie "Idiocracy" has tattooed on their arms--crazy to think that movie may be an accurate prediction of the future!

[MIKA27]

You Might Accidentally Swallow The World's Smallest RC Helicopter

At what point does a flying remote control toy become too small? Bandai’s new Pico-Falcon is just 4.5cm in length and looks like it can be flown and manoeuvred inside a cupboard with enough skill. But it also looks like the slightest breeze could send it careening out of control — “Nobody cough or sneeze, I’m trying to land this thing.”

The world’s newest smallest RC helicopter of course also comes with a very tiny battery which limits flight times to just four minutes with a 30 minute charge. That’s still long enough to make a few laps around your living room, and suitably annoy anyone in the vicinity by buzzing their heads as close as you can. And at just $US46 you won’t be in financial ruin if this thing accidentally gets sucked up by a vacuum, falls down a drain, or snatched out of the air and eaten by your cat.

[MIKA27]

There's $US2.5 Billion Worth Of Silver And Gold In Phones Sold This Year

Your gadgets contain tiny specks of precious and rare earth metals — we rely on these dust-sized particles, which are so small they’re often not recycled because the cost of recycling outweighs the value of the metals. But according to the American Chemical Society, the overall value of these minute materials is massive.

In a report published Monday in Chemical & Engineering News, a materials scientist at Sheffield Hallam University does the maths on just how much precious metal is in your phone — and how much, overall, is in the phones sold in a single year:

Each phone contains about 300 mg of silver and 30 mg of gold. Just the gold and silver used to manufacture the phones sold this year are worth more than $US2.5 billion.

The report, titled Dialling Back On Cell Phone Waste, uses the statistic as a launching board into a look at efforts to improve how e-waste is dealt with. That includes everything from building a circuit board that dissolves more easily to reveal salvageable materials, to “biomining,” a process that uses organic materials to parse the metals.

Thanks to recent efforts from activists and journalists, the issue of e-waste is gaining more notoriety of late. You see, when you throw away a cell phone or computer (or even a power drill), it’s more often than not shipped to a poverty-stricken part of the world where workers are tasked with salvaging the metals inside them. That often means burning them — and inhaling toxic fumes — in order to scrape tiny bits of metal remaining inside the husks of your old gadgets.