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

[MIKA27]

Emperor Palpatine has a new first name, and it is RIDICULOUS

Considering he's a main character in the Star Wars saga, it's pretty bizarre that Emperor Palpatine has gone over three decades with naught but a surname to his, err, name. But a new Star Wars novel coming out plans to reveal his forename for the very first time - and it's really dumb.

A panel for the recent release of Star Wars: A New Dawn at NYCC revealed the name would début in Tarkin, a new book due out next month by James Luceno. However, it seems a user over at Wookieepedia has nabbed an early review copy of the novel and found out Palpatine's name - allegedly found on page 93 of the novel, according to the source.

So drumroll please, Emperor Palpatine's new name is... Sheev!

Err, yeah. Ol' Sheev Palpatine. Look, just be thankful it wasn't Bernard, okay?

Take this with a pinch of salt, as of course Wookieepedia is a database that can be edited by anyone, so this could all be an elaborate joke someone made to capitalise on the news at NYCC - but at the same time, 'Sheev' kinda fits in line with Star Wars' ridiculous names for people. I mean, this is the universe that's given us Jagged Fel, Mon Mothma, Elan Sleazebaggano (oh I'm sorry, Elan Sel'Sabagno), Finis Valorum and Savage Opress. I mean hell, even that one dude who runs through Cloud City with an ice cream maker has a goddamn name (that's Willrow Hood to you, fact fans). Sheev seems practically normal considering some of the wacky names floating around in the galaxy far, far away.

While Wookieepedia is sticking to its source, we won't really know if The Emperor's name really is Sheev until Tarkin releases on November 4th - but odds are, it's likely to be true.

And very, very silly. Don't forget that bit, either.

[MIKA27]

LEATHER HEAD THANKSGIVING TURKEY FOOTBALL

It's tough to think of something other than food that goes better with the Thanksgiving holiday than football. After all, many families use the holiday as an opportunity to get out in the backyard and conduct a fun, and sometimes too competitive, game.

The Leather Head Thanksgiving Turkey Football is ideal for your Turkey Bowl, featuring a rich, supple leather shell, raw hide laces, and is embossed with a running turkey designed by Jon Contino. It can also be personalized with a family name or message to commemorate the special occasion.

[MIKA27]

How One Photographer Took Incredible Close-Ups Of Space Shuttle Launches

Shuttle launches are audacious displays of smoke, steam and a gigantic man-made vessel being thrust into space. Documenting in-the-moment details can be tricky — the press site for photographers is 5km from the pad itself. That just wasn’t close enough for Dan Winters.

Winters is a photographer whose fascination with shuttle launches began as a kid, at home in southern California, glued to the television to watch Apollo 11 begin its epic journey. His welder father wielded a camera pointed at the screen, ready to snap a pic. At the moment of liftoff the flashbulb popped. When the roll was later developed, that blinding light washed out the action completely, and all that was left was an out of focus shot of the TV. The crushing disappointment at the time transformed into a kind of long-simmering love for the sheer optimism of these spectacular moments.

Decades later, he was given permission to photograph the Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis launches by setting up cameras adjacent to the pad. He needed to design a system to ensure that they could withstand the intense conditions, so he storyboarded out the positioning and timing of each of his lenses and prepped them to weather the start to these incredible journeys.

Below is an excerpt from Last Launch: Discovery, Endeavour, Atlantis by Dan Winters. He recently spoke about the series at the Wired x Design conference, and was kind enough to let us share a part of his story here.

Knowing the shuttle’s path as it thunders toward the heavens, I am able to precisely calculate the type of photograph that each camera will yield. Once the frame is set and the focus point checked and double-checked, I wrap tape around the lens to insure that the critical focus setting isn’t shaken loose by the intense vibration generated by eight million pounds of thrust from the shuttle’s engines. A handmade electronic trigger that is sensitive to sound is then attached to the camera. The trigger has a timer that is set to turn both itself and the camera on ten minutes before the shuttle’s launch “window” opens. The launch window usually lasts for only ten minutes. If a problem arises with the shuttle that cannot be remedied during that short time period, the launch is scrubbed and rescheduled to a later date.

The cameras sit atop heavy-duty tripods that are secured to the ground with tie-down straps of the type normally used by truckers to secure their loads. Augers are screwed into the silty soil and the straps are pulled taught. Fifty-pound sandbags are then placed on each tripod leg in an attempt to minimize camera shake created by the intense pressure wave that will hit it upon launch. The cameras are then carefully covered with rain- and moisture-protective plastic to shield them from the almost daily showers that take place at the Cape.

As I drive away, I watch my cameras out the van’s windows — sitting there at the pad area, poised on their tripods. I am somehow envious that the cameras will witness the spectacle from such a place of honour. As the huge main engines are ignited, their deafening sound activates the triggers, and each camera begins firing at a rate of five frames per second. Depending on the composition and lens focal length, I will usually get five or six images of the orbiter as it passes through the frame.

Once the launch is completed and the pad is inspected by NASA personnel for damage and grass fires (which have in the past incinerated cameras), the pad area is then opened to the handful of photographers given the privilege of setting up so very close to the shuttle.

The first launch I photographed was John Glenn’s historic return to space aboard STS-95 (Space Transportation System mission number 95), on October 29, 1998. It can be a sinking feeling approaching each camera after a launch. On this launch, I had placed four cameras around the pad area. I remember jumping from my escort van and sprinting to my first cam- era only to find that the frame counter was still on 1, indicating the sound trigger had failed and the camera had not fired. The other three worked flawlessly. Back then, after shooting film there was still the wait until the film was actually processed — which seemed like an eternity.

The three launches that are represented in this book were captured using state-of-the-art digital cameras, so I was able to view each of the cameras’ images upon retrieval. Technical problems are always a concern when using complicated electronic devices. Triggers fail. Four of my cameras were “smoked out” before Endeavour (STS-134) even left the pad. On Atlantis (STS-135), I somehow neglected to check to make sure there was a card in one of my seven remote cameras, depriving me of a photograph I really felt like I needed for the series.

Rigging the cameras for these launches can be a dirty business. During the summer months the heat and humidity at the Cape, which is literally situated in a swamp, can be unbearable. In all my travels, from the upper Amazon to the jungles of Burma to remote islands in the South Pacific, I have never seen a more mosquito-infested area. Riding out to the site with an escort in an air-conditioned van, I discover that the temperature differential between the van’s cool interior and the scorching sunlight causes the camera optics to fog immediately upon removing them from the van. This renders the lens useless until it heats up to the ambient outdoor temperature. Setting cameras requires crawling around in the mud, as the cameras closest to the pad need to be as low to the ground as possible to minimize camera shake. In addition to the remote cameras set up at the pad, during the launch I operate two cameras manually from the NASA press site.

When I was first told by the NASA media relations officer that the press site was three miles from the launch pad, I was disappointed and thought that at that distance the spectacle would be diminished. On the contrary, the experience is nothing short of profound. The ground shakes. The shuttle is airborne before the sound hits. The rumble from the eight million pounds of thrust is deafening. The light emitted from the solid rocket boosters is so bright it’s like looking into a small sun.

This is hallowed ground.

The launch pad complex 39A and the press site, with its “futuristic” countdown clock, are both relics of the Apollo era. Pad 39A was used by Apollo 11 to begin its journey to the moon in July 1969. Once the Apollo program ended, pad 39A was retrofitted for the shuttle missions with a giant tower called the Rotating Service Structure or “RSS”. It is a massive arrangement of pipes and girders which serves as a cocoon encasing the shuttle so that every square inch of her is accessible to NASA personnel while the spacecraft is readied for flight. Roughly 12 hours before the launch, the RSS rolls back to reveal her contents. This is a sight to behold. I liken it to a beautiful butterfly emerging slowly from its chrysalis.

[MIKA27]

Ambition Is The New Sci-Fi Movie I Didn't Even Know I Wanted To See

It’s not Interstellar but now I want to see it just the same: Ambition is the sci-fi movie that nobody seems to be reporting about even while its main actor, Aidan Gillen, is arguably the best character in Game of Thrones – Littlefinger himself — and its director was already nominated for an Academy Award in 2002.

It looks good — and very intriguing.

The film will premiere next week, on October 24, at the British Film Institute sci-fi week.

[MIKA27]

This Is Now Earth's Largest Ship, So Big It Can Lift Oil Rigs Off The Sea

This is the Pieter Schelte, which is now the largest ship sailing the seas, surpassing even the Maersk Triple-E*. Built by Daewoo in Korea, this catamaran is so huge that it can lift entire oil platforms off their base, pick up the base itself, and then transport it all to port — which is exactly what it’s designed to do.

This is why this 382 x 117m $US1.7-billion titan is powered by eight 11.2MW engines connected to 13 Rolls Royce 5.5MW thrusters.

The craziest thing? The company that built it is planing to make an even bigger model.

* The Maersk Triple-E is still the longest ship sailing the seas at this time, at 400m.

[MIKA27]

Scattering Your Ashes Into The Stratosphere Is A Very Final Sendoff

Short of having your body shipped off on a flaming longboat, there aren’t many more spectacular ways to be sent off than having your ashes scattered into the edge of the atmosphere. At least, that’s the thinking behind Mesoloft, a company that will do exactly that, and provide a GoPro video to immortalise the moment.

The ashes are attached to a weather balloon, which is sent up to an altitude of around 27km, where the ashes are released into the upper edges of the stratosphere. Depending on how fickle the weather is feeling, they will then drift around the world a few times, before returning to some faraway corner of the planet in the form of rain.

If that sounds like your ideal sendoff, prices start at $US2800 for the barebones package, with a full-fledged launch ceremony running you $US7500.

[MIKA27]

Human Stupidity Gone Viral Makes For Brilliant Organ Donor Ads

Belgium-based ad agency Duval-Guillaume has a new clever campaign using human life-risking stupidity gone viral to raise awareness about organ donation. I can imagine the concept working perfectly with those daredevil videos we sometimes post.

[MIKA27]

A $45,000 Lounger That Automatically Turns To Track The Sun

It’s often said the world isn’t fair, and nowhere is that more obvious than when you’re sprawled out on a lounger trying to soak up a little sun, and it won’t stop moving across the afternoon sky. You can write all the angry letters to Neil deGrasse Tyson you want, but the only solution to the problem (besides getting up and moving) is this $US45,000 lounge chair from Remmus that automatically rotates so you’re always getting a full blast of sun.

The lounger’s got other obscene features too, like an inductive charging pad for your smartphone, a cooler for drinks, LED accent lighting, a waterproof sound system, a misting system, and even a call button for a waiter. But its ability to automatically track where the sun is in the sky and ensure you’re either shaded or enjoying its warmth is what will have people unloading a hefty chunk of change. There’s even a battery-powered model so you can use it on the beach without an obscenely long extension cord back to your villa.

[MIKA27]

The Destructive Low-Cost Precision Of The Excalibur Artillery Shell

“Raytheon is testing a new laser-guided 155mm artillery shell which adds laser-designation to GPS guidance in order to provide more targeting options and better pinpoint targets on-the-move,” reports DoD Buzz. It’s called the Excalibur S.

Unlike expensive missiles, which require sophisticated avionics and propulsion systems, this is a comparatively cheap artillery shell which, instead of following a parabolic course to hit its target, it can change course in mid-flight, effectively flying to its target that can be 40km away.

The video below shows how the previous generation works, but this one wouldn’t look that much different. It will be just more precise and cable of working in areas where GPS signals have been degraded, as well as moving targets.

[MIKA27]

Tipping Rescue Raft Makes It Easier To Pull People From The Water

Water rescues can be particularly tricky because you’re on the exact opposite of stable ground while you’re trying to pull someone to safety. But getting enough leverage to pull a heavy body out of the water looks a little easier with this clever inflatable raft that can be tipped backwards for easier access to the water, without that whole sinking issue.

Created by the folks at Spark Design for the Dutch fire service, the Rescue Tip-Board allows a rescue worker to stand on the back of the raft, causing it to tilt and making it easier to grab hold of someone. The rescuer then simply has to lean backwards which causes the Tip-Board to tilt back down, with the motion automatically hauling the drowning person out of the water so the two can be towed to safety.

And because it’s completely inflatable, the Rescue Tip-Board can be stored and transported in a backpack. When an emergency occurs, a cylinder of compressed air inflates the raft in seconds until it’s rigid enough to support the weight of two passengers. The other advantage to making the raft from fabrics instead of rigid materials is that it keeps the cost down, making it more affordable for rescue services.

[MIKA27]

The Legs On This Puppy-Sized Spider Are 30cm Long

Have you had any nightmares, lately? Would you like some? Then you’ll love the South American Goliath birdeater. This furry spider is the size of a puppy, and thanks to hard claws on the tips of its foot-long legs, it makes a horrifying clicking sound when it scampers through the forest.

Harvard entomologist Piotr Naskrecki recently spotted a Goliath birdeater in Guyana. He was actually hunting for katydids but instead he enjoyed the pleasure of meeting a puppy-sized spider.

At first, Naskrecki thought it was a possum. Then, like any good scientiest would do when spotting a rare species, he lunged at it. This was a mistake:

Every time I got too close to the birdeater it would do three things. First, the spider would start rubbing its hind legs against the hairy abdomen. “Oh, how cute!”, I thought when I first saw this adorable behaviour, until a cloud of urticating hair hit my eyeballs, and made me itch and cry for several days.

But wait, there’s more:

If that wasn’t enough, the arachnid would rear its front legs and open its enormous fangs, capable of puncturing a mouse’s skull, and tried to jab me with the pointy implements.

Let’s review. Curious scientist strolls through Amazonian rainforest encounters puppy-sized spider with claw-shaped hooves, repeatedly approaches beast only to be sprayed in the eyeballs with “a cloud of urticating hair” and then the fangs came out.

Enjoy the nightmares — and never go wandering through the rainforest at night.

[MIKA27]

The London Beer Flood Killed Eight People 200 Years Ago Today

On October 17, 1814, a million litres of beer were unleashed onto London’s streets. The 4.5m tall tidal wave of booze crashed into buildings and flooded cellars, even killing eight especially unfortunate souls. The culprit? A busting vat.

The epicentre of the London Beer Flood was Horse Shoe Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, which was brewing porter in huge vats. A metal hoop on one of these vats snapped. The force unleashed by one bursting vat broke a several others, and pretty soon there was a flood of porter pouring through the streets.

George Crick, the clerk on duty, gave this account to the newspaper, which was recently reprinted in theIndependent:

I was on a platform about 30 feet (9m) from the vat when it burst. I heard the crash as it went off, and ran immediately to the storehouse, where the vat was situated. It caused dreadful devastation on the premises – it knocked four butts over, and staved several, as the pressure was so excessive. Between 8 and 9,000 barrels of porter [were] lost.

Unfortunately, the brewery also happened to be right next to the poorly built slums of St Giles. The beer flooded into the houses, sweeping away and killing several people in them. All told, the London Beer Flood claimed eight victims and demolished two buildings.

You can read more about the London Beer Flood in the Independent, just in time for happy hour.

[MIKA27]

This Artist Uses His Magnifying Glass To Burn Pictures, Not Ants

Jordan Mang-osan is a patient guy. This Filipino artist is so patient that he can sit for hours at a time, calmly holding a magnifying glass over a slab of wood so that the sun can burn the slightest little dark spots into the surface. But eventually a beautiful landscape emerges.

The idea of burning images into wood or any other material is not a new one. In fact, it’s a whole genre of art aptly named pyrography. But Mang-osan’s magnifying glass method is pretty unusual.

You can check out more of Mang-osan’s work on Facebook and buy his work at Fine Art America. And maybe even try it yourself, if you have some time and a steady hand.

[MIKA27]

How The Cast Of Fury Trained For The Most Realistic WWII Film Yet

Fury, the WWII film starring Brad Pitt, opens in Australian cinemas on October 23. The story follows a five-man tank crew as they make the last push into Nazi Germany in April 1945. And, to get things right, the filmmakers brought in a military advisor with 22 years of experience.

David “Sting” Rae is as seasoned as they come. Think he would have a badass nickname otherwise? Nah. He served in the British Army for 22 years (1991-2013), eventually reaching the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1 and the appointment of Regimental Sergeant Major. The US Army equivalent is Command Sergeant Major — in other words, the highest ranking enlisted position. He served in an armoured recon regiment, the Light Dragoons, with which he deployed on eight different tours: four in Bosnia, one in Iraq and three in Afghanistan. When we spoke on the phone this week, he casually mentioned that he’s currently in Iraq, where he’s doing contract work.

Just to put this into context for civilians, I showed my brother, a retired Army captain who served in Iraq himself, Rae’s bio. “Yep, that’s an RSM,” he said. British soldiers call those guys Regimental Scary Monster.” I don’t know if ol’ Brad Pitt was ready for this. But he and co-star Shia LeBoeuf had to go through a boot camp under Rae’s supervision anyway.

Rae was a delight to talk to, but then again, he wasn’t training me. He said he became involved in Fury initially because of friend of his who he served with started a company called Soldier in Blue that provides military advisors and extras to film. After a conversation with director David Ayer, the retired soldier joined up. Here’s what he had to say about his experience with the film:

What kind of questions were they approaching you with in the beginning?

Rae: Initially we threw a lot of technical training at them. Even simple stuff like the ranks of a general, or certain parts of a tank and certain weaponry, or historical facts about the war. Trying to get their heads into it. But then we ran a boot camp to give more in-depth training to the actors. And so it became a five-man tanker rather than five individuals. So what they did ask was, on top of the training we provided, about our personal experiences in combat and how we dealt with those.

So were you putting them through some similar training that you would have gone through in your own training?

Yes, there was lots of that, there were lots of tactic tables, there was gunnery training, there was communications training. Lots of tactics, like I said. Practical safety within the tanks. Or we would do gunnery training and throw them in the tank as well and practically go through it.

At the end of the six-day boot camp, we ran a mini exercise where the crew, the five actors, crewed in their positions which were what they were in the film, we gave them a scenario that was Germans out there with there with their tank, and we sent fire rounds and maneuvers, that necessitated a response and certain actions that were set before them. And we let them loose and for 45 minutes they drove around and they were actually driving the tank, gunning the tank, commanding the tank. Everything that a normal soldier would do and reacting to what was in front of them. They did very very well actually.

How realistic is the tank?

It’s a real tank. [it's a Sherman tank. -Ed] Everything about it is real. No fake tanks on the whole production at all. They’re all real tanks. So they were actually operating a 30, 40 ton tank, and [actor] Michael Peña, the driver, was actually driving the tank as well.

The tank’s name is Fury. See on the tanks, all of them have a name painted on the barrel, and it was common practice back then and it still is to this day to an extent. A lot of the guys named their tank. So this tank was called Fury, there’s another called Murder, Inc., there’s a Lucy 2, there’s an Old Phyllis. It’s more an ownership thing. It’s like having pride in your machine.

Tanks were a huge technological advance in that era. How have they different now?

The modern tank has really only changed so much to where they are bigger. And the reason they get bigger is they need more armour. And the reason they need more armour is because munitions and weaponry advances. Tanks are always getting bigger and bigger. Fundamentally the tank is very much the same. A big heavy, metal, armoured vehicle to protect the crew. And tracks, which allow it to go across terrain, and a gun which can then, kill its enemy in front of it. The platforms are very much the same, they’re just bigger.

You do feel very safe inside a tank until you see another tank hit. Then you understand how vulnerable you actually are.

Working on a movie is an interesting way to translate your personal military experience into a second career.

It was very interesting! I haven’t done one since — I’m actually working in Iraq now — but I would definitely do it again. I very much enjoyed the film set. It’s got very many similarities to the military. There were sort of ranks which were higher up, and everyone worked to a common goal, and everybody respected each other’s work.

In the end, under your supervision, did you think the actors really understood what you were trying to impart to them?

Yeah, they were very respectful. We brought veterans on the set as well as ourselves, and they all knew we were veterans, and we were all quite close. We were in their pockets every day making sure we were happy with what they were saying, what they were doing. Same with the director, that he was content with what he was filming that day and that it was factually, as best as it could be. So the actors respected what we gave them and the land that we filmed on.

I have a respect for the guys that were portraying what it was like in WWII. They very much wanted to get it correct.

What were some of the most important things for you to convey and express to the directors and the writers and the crew as a military advisor?

To the directors to get it tactically correct as best as you can. There’s a lot of soldiers who will see a war movie — perhaps I’ve done it myself — and they will try to pull it apart. Point out what isn’t quite right, etc. The director knew what he was doing and he only needed minor guidance. He knew his history. It was well done.

To me, probably the most important thing was to get the actors to look like a crew. To become like a crew, and to come across not as five individuals, but as one, as a whole. And to look like they actually knew each other. The best way of doing that was actually throwing them into training and hitting them hard with training and I think we managed to get that. Hopefully we’ll see that on the film.

It sounds like this role, for someone like you who has so many years of military service, it seems like more than just a job. Seems like more of a calling?

Yeah, initially I didn’t see it as that. I saw it as just a job. But I sort of grew into it and really, really enjoyed it. If there was a job I could do forever I would do it. I know it sounds over the top slightly but I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed having to give that experience and feeling important, especially within your role. I think it helped working with the team I worked with. It’s a perfect transition from the military to doing something like this.

Fury opens in Australian cinemas on October 24.

[MIKA27]

Jack the Ripper: Scientists who claims to have identified notorious killer has 'made serious DNA error'

It was supposed to have been the definitive piece of scientific evidence that finally exposed the true identify of Jack the Ripper after he had brutally murdered at least five women on the streets of Whitechapel in the East End of London, 126 years ago.

A 23-year-old Polish immigrant barber called Aaron Kosminski was "definitely, categorically and absolutely" the man who carried out the atrocities in 1888, according to a detailed analysis of DNA extracted from a silk shawl allegedly found at the scene of one of his murders.

However, the scientist who carried out the DNA analysis has apparently made a fundamental error that fatally undermines his case against Kosminski – and once again throws open the debate over who the identity of the Ripper.

The scientist, Jari Louhelainen, is said to have made an "error of nomenclature" when using a DNA database to calculate the chances of a genetic match. If true, it would mean his calculations were wrong and that virtually anyone could have left the DNA that he insisted came from the Ripper's victim.

The apparent error, first noticed by crime enthusiasts in Australia blogging on the casebook.org website, has been highlighted by four experts with intimate knowledge of DNA analysis – including Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, the inventor of genetic fingerprinting – who found that Dr Louhelainen made a basic mistake in analysing the DNA extracted from a shawl supposedly found near the badly disfigured body of Ripper victim Catherine Eddowes.

They say the error means no DNA connection can be made between Kosminski and Eddowes. Any suggestion therefore that the Ripper and Kosminski are the same person appears to be based on conjecture and supposition – as it has been ever since the police first identified Kosminksi as a possible suspect more than a century ago.

The latest flurry of interest in Kosminski, who died in a lunatic asylum, aged 53, stems from a book, Naming Jack the Ripper, published earlier this year, by Russell Edwards, a businessman who bought the shawl in 2007 on the understanding that it was the same piece of cloth allegedly found next to Eddowes.

"I've got the only piece of forensic evidence in the whole history of the case. I've spent 14 years working, and we have finally solved the mystery of who Jack the Ripper was. Only non-believers that want to perpetuate the myth will doubt. This is it now – we have unmasked him," Edwards told The Mail on Sunday, which serialised his book.

Edwards commissioned Dr Louhelainen, a molecular biologist at Liverpool John Moores University, to carry out a forensic analysis of the shawl, including the extraction of any DNA samples that may be present within the cloth, which had been supposedly stored unwashed all this time by the family of the London policeman who had acquired the artefact.

Dr Louhelainen, who declined to answer questions, managed to extract seven incomplete fragments of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), and tried to match their sequences with mtDNA from a living descendant of Eddowes, called Karen Miller.

Professor Walther Parson of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Innsbruck has echoed Professor Jeffreys' concerns

The work has not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, and the only detailed description by Dr Louhelainen comes from Edwards' book. "One of these amplified mtDNA segments had a sequence variation which gave a match between one of the shawl samples and Karen Miller's DNA only; ie the DNA sequence retrieved from the shawl did not match with control reference sequences," Dr Louhelainen writes.

"This DNA alteration is known as global private mutation (314.1C) and it is not very common in worldwide population, as it has frequency estimate of 0.000003506, i.e. approximately 1/290,000. This figure has been calculated using the database at Institute of Legal Medicine, GMI, based on the latest available information. Thus, this result indicates the shawl contains human DNA identical to Karen Miller's for this mitochondrial DNA segment," he says.

But experts with detailed knowledge of the GMI's mtDNA database claimed that Dr Louhelainen made an "error of nomenclature" because the mutation in question should be written as "315.1C" and not "314.1C". Had Dr Louhelainen done this, and followed standard forensic practice, he would have discovered the mutation was not rare at all but shared by more than 99 per cent of people of European descent.

"If the match frequency really is 90 per cent plus, and not 1/290,000, then obviously there is no significance whatsoever in the match between the shawl and Eddowes' descendant, and the same match would have been seen with almost anyone who had handled the shawl over the years," Professor Jeffreys said.

Dr Louhelainen appears to have made a basic error in calculating the frequency estimate. There are currently about 34,617 entries in the GMI database, and the figure would have been nearer to 29,000 when Dr Louhelainen carried out his research some time ago. So failing to find a match for a non-existent mutation should have given a frequency of about 1/29,000 – an error suggesting that he had placed a decimal point in the wrong place.

"The random match probability of a sequence only seen once [as claimed for the shawl] is therefore roughly 1/34,617. With a database of this size, it is impossible to arrive at an estimate as low as 1/290,000," Professor Jeffreys said.

Other scientists echoed Professor Jeffreys' concerns, including Mannis van Oven, professor of forensic molecular biology at Rotterdam's Erasmus University, Professor Walther Parson of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Innsbruck, and Hansi Weissensteiner, also at Innsbruck and one of the scientists behind the computer algorithm used by Dr Louhelainen to search the mtDNA database.

A spokesperson for publishers Sidgwick & Jackson said: "The author stands by his conclusions. We are investigating the reported error in scientific nomenclature. However, this does not change the DNA profiling match and the probability of the match calculated from the rest of the haplotype data. The conclusion reached in the book, that Aaron Kosminski was Jack the Ripper, relies on much more than this one figure."

[Habana Mike]

The Legs On This Puppy-Sized Spider Are 30cm Long

I saw recently where these are now terrorizing urban dwellers.

[MIKA27]

PORSCHE DESIGN TIMEPIECE NO. 1 WATCH

It might not be the first timepiece from Porsche Design, but the Porsche Design Timepiece No. 1 Watch is the first to be developed entirely in-house. Much like the company's first watch from 1972, the No. 1 is an all-black affair, with a 42mm titanium case that's treated instead of painted to make the matte finish more durable, as well as a black instrument dial with contrasting white markers.

Behind the blackened sapphire crystal case back, a mechanical Valjoux 7750 chronograph mechanism keeps the time with a power reserve of 48 hours, and a black rubber strap rounds out the understated look. Limited to just 500 units worldwide.

[MIKA27]

I saw recently where these are now terrorizing urban dwellers.

Yep, seen that and it's so funny!!

[MIKA27]

Swimming In An Iceberg Is Like Being Inside The Fortress Of Solitude

http://youtu.be/s5fysX2IQaA

Swimming inside an iceberg looks amazing because the ice looks like glass and that’s crazy, and because it kind of resembles an underwater version of Superman’s Fortress of Solitude. Or at least, like a crystal palace. National Geographic shows us how a free diver explores the ice cold waters below.

The first minute and a half talk about how our bodies naturally drop our pulse while underwater, while the second half shows the spectacular view underneath.

[MIKA27]

Abandoned Buildings In Tampico, Mexico Are Filled With Trees

Tampico is a beautiful tropical city located on the Gulf of Mexico, traversed by canals, dotted with palm trees, graced with kilometres of undeveloped beach.

It was the first major port in Mexico and was the centre of gas and oil production for decades, both of which brought in great wealth to the city and led to the construction of the majestic historic centre, with grand European 19th and 20th century architecture that rivaled New Orleans.

When the oil dried up and was then nationalized, and other ports with deeper waterways were constructed nearby, Tampico’s economy collapsed and the historic centre was in large part abandoned. The huge old office and industrial buildings still stand, although many have been abandoned for decades. The recent narco violence which has transformed Tampico into one of the most dangerous cities in Mexico has not only kept the city from renovating its abandoned past, it has also led to a new wave of abandonment, where thousands of people have fled the city without being able to sell their homes. Today, almost half of the businesses have closed in the historic centre, and some of the most impressive architecture now serves as home to giant trees growing inside the empty structures.

When I went out to shoot early in the morning there was almost no one on the street, and at night the streets were empty, as well. I focused my work on the most majestic office buildings, factories and old houses that were now home to the largest trees, an example of how even the developed, wealthiest cities can be reclaimed by nature in just a few years.

Although I photographed the structures as normal architecture, the green trees protruding from the roof or windows added an extra dimension to the work, revealing one possible (dystopian) future for all architecture.

Kurt Hollander is a photographer and writer originally from New York City, living in Mexico City since 1989. He publishes his writing and photographs in the Guardian, Vice and other media, and is the author of Several Ways to Die in Mexico City (2012), an autobiography.

[MIKA27]

The Scariest Man in Boxing Can't Find Any Worthy Opponents

Gennady Golovkin, potentially the best fighter in the world, handily defeated Marco Antonio Rubio on Saturday. It'll be a while yet before he faces a real challenge.

It happened again on Saturday night. Gennady Golovkin knocked out his challenger. It was his 18th straight knock out. And that is as amazing as it is a problem.

In recent months, Golovkin has become like Mike Tyson at his height—the scariest man in the sport. The middleweight champion Golovkin has the biggest knock-out percentage (90.32 percent) of any middleweight titlist in history. On Saturday he faced a decent boxer named Marco Antonio Rubio who has had 67 professional fights, including 51 knockouts. The fight was a sell-out, with 9,323 spectators, including additional seating that was installed for the fight. There hasn’t been this much excitement around a fighter’s pure aggression since the heyday of Manny Pacquiao four years ago. And yet Golovkin (31-0; 28 KOs) is still pretty much an underground sensation because of the way boxing is organized.

Golovkin moves around the ring economically and beautifully, every step a way to maneuver his opponent into one of his devastating blows. Most professional boxers have a signature punch that creates power or points. Every punch Golovkin throws has power, and his opponents look intimidated from the very first.

On Saturday in Carson, California, Round Two was well underway when Golovkin threw a perfect right uppercut (“That uppercut will make you feel like you don’t have a chance,” said the boxer and commentator Roy Jones) and then a left hook, which put Rubio down. The Mexican fighter beat the count at nine or, maybe, nine and half, but the referee stopped the fight. Rubio didn’t really look like he wanted to keep going, and who could blame him. “He hit me hard, but it’s not the hardest I’ve been hit,” said a dazed Rubio. “I didn’t fight him long enough to know how good he is.”

The fans didn’t care that it was a short night. They had come to see Golovkin knock someone down, and he had satisfied their lust. They chanted “Triple G! Triple G!” with gusto. In the post fight interview, the charismatic Golovkin, who is from Kazakhstan and can speak in broken English and Spanish, gazed at the crowd, smiled, and said, “Buenos noches, amigos!” The crowd laughed, and lapped it up. “Triple G! Triple G!”

“Everyone is scared of him,” Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez had told me last week. And this is an issue for Golovkin: He’s arguably the best boxer in the world, but no marquee fighter will take him on.

Avoiding “dangerous” fighters without a large fan base has always been a part of boxing management tactics. Golovkin has made a name for himself by selling out Madison Square Garden and now the StubHub Center, and HBO Boxing executives are working to have him fight a big name. And yet no one has emerged. He will continue fighting four times a year and increasing his popularity—and aura of invincibility. Famous fighters will eventually have to step forward to face him. Eventually.

As inexcusable as the sport might be to many because of its brutality, the drama of boxing comes from the ridiculous amount of risk involved. When the risk is taken away, what is it?

In reality, boxing is less about facing the best than it is a business of theater. After Saturday’s bout, Tom Loeffler, Golvokin’s promoter, walked through press row and told the media, somewhat vaguely, that Golovkin would fight “overseas” (the money is on Monte Carlo) in February and then, hopefully, in the spring of 2015 against a big name opponent. Loeffler is angling his star client toward a pay-per-view fight with Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto or Mexican Canelo Alvarez. Puerto Rico and Mexico are boxing-mad nations whose fans will shell out $60 apiece to watch a fight on television. (On Saturday, the crowd, many of its members of Mexican heritage, were cheering for Golovkin because he is so fun to watch.) But Cotto and Alvarez will most likely fight each other in May 2015. Cotto is 33 years old and seems to be winding down his career; he has had several pay-per-view fights. HBO sources told me it is most likely that Golovkin, who is now 32, won’t be able to face Alvarez until at least 2016. Imagine that strange scenario in any other sport.

Although boxing fans around the world are calling for Golovkin to fight Cotto, Alvarez, or Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (who is more name than a talent), they are also under different promotional umbrellas, and their promoters have a business reason not to risk their fighters against the Kazakhstan KO artist.

To tweak the more prominent fighters, Golovkin told the crowd that he would like to fight Cotto, and he said about Alvarez: “I respect him, he’s a good boy.” The crowd cheered loudly with the “he’s a good boy” line. Golovkin uses that phrase after he knocks someone out, an empathetic gesture. Meanwhile he will fight four fights a year until a big-name boxer steps forward to face him. It’s all boxing fans want to see, but the sport’s business vagaries don’t allow it.

Just a few minutes before Golovkin took the ring, there was another fight that could serve as a lesson to Cotto, Alvarez, or anyone else who wants to continue their career in the boxing business, and keep the money flowing into their bank accounts. Nonito Donaire, the 2012 Boxing Writers Association of America Fighter of the Year, took on Nicholas Walters of Jamaica. Walters is an exceptional superfeatherweight who calls himself the “Axe Man.” He doesn’t have much of a fanbase. Many of the people had come to watch Donaire, and chanted “No-nito!” during the fight. Donaire went down in Round Three, then took a right to the side of his head in Round Six and crumpled, face first, to the canvas. He tried to rise before the count—and did—but the referee waved off the fight.

When Donaire told the crowd that Walters “beat the **** out of me,” spectators roared in approval, in part out of respect for the fact that he took a challenging fight. But now what? Donaire, 31, never reached a pay-per-view bout, which is the Holy Grail in boxing, and now he is virtually finished. As he walked out of the arena surely contemplating retirement, he saw Bob Arum, his promoter, and apologized. “You’re a great champion,” said Arum.

[MIKA27]

The Ex-Nazis Collecting Social Security

They reportedly received millions of dollars in government benefits even after being expelled from the United States.

On Monday, an exhaustive two-year Associated Press investigation concluded in which it was determined that dozens of former Nazis collectively received millions of dollars in Social Security benefits from the United States. Worse yet, according to the report, once these former Nazis were discovered, payments continued after they were expelled from the country in a bid to encourage them to leave the United States peacefully.

"Since 1979," the AP analysis found, "at least 38 of 66 suspects removed from the country kept their Social Security benefits," the report read. These weren't lightweights either. Suspected activities of the recipients range from participation in the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto to the use of slave labor and the round-up and killing of thousands of Jews. At least four of these men are said to still be alive and receiving money from American taxpayers.

One of the many unsettling revelations from the AP report:

The Justice Department denied using Social Security payments as a tool for removing Nazi suspects. But records show the U.S. State Department and the Social Security Administration voiced grave concerns over the methods used by the Justice Department’s Nazi-hunting unit, the Office of Special Investigations.

State officials derogatorily called the practice “Nazi dumping” and claimed the OSI was bargaining with suspects so they would leave voluntarily.

One enduring criticism of the American response to World War II is the belated enactment of a rescue policy for Jewish refugees seeking to emigrate to the United States. It wasn't until 1944, roughly two years after the systematic deportation and extermination of Europe's Jews had begun, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the most aggressive action to aid the persecuted millions by creating the War Refugee Board.

Decades later, historians continue to debate what more could have been done beyond the military effort that ultimately brought about the war's end. The unfilled immigration quotas from Roosevelt's first term continue to haunt his record. In 1942, in another symbolic step, Roosevelt promised that all war criminals would be pursued at the war's end.

That unfortunate history only adds to the messy dimensions of this story. It's not just the idea that former Nazis found safe haven in the United States, and it's not just that the former Nazis were able to flourish and pay enough into the American system to ultimately receive benefits, although that's certainly part of it as well.

Beyond all this, and the fact that thousands of people were denied this opportunity in America, the loophole that allows the payments is still open. Meanwhile, according to the Office of Special Investigations' own figures, only ten of the men who were removed from the United States were ever actually prosecuted for their crimes.

[MIKA27]

Enjoy 'The Walking Dead'? You'll Love 'The Walking Drunk' Even More

With The Walking Dead's epic 5th season now unleashed, what better way to release some of that tension with a laugh or two? Cue an new amazing show called 'The Walking Drunk'.

It features a selection of society's finest individuals, aimlessly staggering around, mumbling away and forgetting who or where they are.

In fact the only difference between this lot and a pack of zombies is that these guys need a glass of water, verses getting their heads blown off!

[MIKA27]

Children's Tale 'Three Little Pigs' Read By Christopher Walken

Back in 1993 Academy Award winner Christopher Walken was (according to UK TV host Jonathan Ross) able to "fulfill his lifelong ambition to come on national TV and entertain children".

Entirely tongue in cheek, Walken reads aloud the children's story 'Three Little Pigs' adding his own unique spin and wiseguy humour he's so loved and celebrated for.

This is a guy who named his first cat 'Flapjack' and his most recent kitty 'Bowtie' - for all his serious roles, nobody can deny his sense of humour.

It's incredibly random, certainly a little offbeat and pure Walken through and through.

[MIKA27]

Skeletal Remains of “Old Giants” Reportedly Found in Russia

Modern researchers and proponents of the idea that a lost race of “giants” once existed on Earth have often looked to old newspaper reports for evidence of discoveries that involve human bones of exceptional size. Specifically, nineteenth century dailies were once rife with such reports, which are often dismissed offhandedly by skeptical researchers as being hoaxes.

It may be, in fact, that occasionally there are still such discoveries, though the latest among them leaves much to the imagination. A Spanish-language report featuredrecently by RT has described the discovery of ancient human skeletons in Russia in a Bronze-age burial site containing four bodies, each purportedly eight-feet in length.

The report, posted on October 14, 2014, describes that similar bodies were supposedly found, possibly of even larger stature, in the same location:

Russian archaeologists found in the Krasnodar region (northern Caucasus) the skeletal remains of old “giants,” said an employee of the Archaeological Society in the region, Vasili Matáyev, quoted by the Interfax .

As Matáyev stated, the findings have more than 4,000 years. During the excavation of an ancient burial mound belonging to the Bronze Age were discovered the skeletal remains of about four people, two men and two women.

As explained by historian, men were about two meters tall and women over 1.7 meters. Matáyev noted previously in this place were found the bones of human beings even larger.

There are issues with this announcement; for instance, only this Spanish-language version of the report seems to exist, at present, as pointed out by fellow MU blogger Red Pill Junkie, who noted this morning, “I don’t understand why I can’t find any reference to this in English, not even on the English version of RT!”

The report, if anything, does resemble a number of the previous similar reports from decades past, lending to the idea that this may have been a fabricated story. The key here, however, is not to dismiss it on such grounds (i.e. speculation alone), but to seek corroborative information, as can be done with previous reports in conjunction with Smithsonian records.

I’ve addressed this in the past about which details can be corroborated with actual accession card data on file with the Smithsonian Institute, does prove that some of the newspaper items aren’t mere hoaxes. It does not prove, necessarily, that the remains in question were anomalous, or necessarily even of what could justifiably be called “gigantic” in stature.

This is a point, I should note, that some critics of the “giant skeleton” claims continue to miss. I have read at least one skeptical blog about past observations I’ve made on this subject, which interpreted these corroborations with Smithsonian data as my personal attempts to “downgrade giant skeleton stories” so they’ll seem more plausible, while offering evidence of height measurements which, despite being connected with a scientific organization, still don’t lend merit to the “giant” claims. To focus on the question over validity of the Smithsonian’s measurements is missing the point entirely. Again, the fact that some articles can be corroborated with the institute’s own data shows that skeptics who have dismissed all nineteenth and early twentieth-century newspaper reports is bad logic, as well as a fundamental lack of research on their part.

There is also no need to have to “downgrade” anything here, especially when the only verifiable reports of what people have called “giants” in the past tend to involve human remains that are generally under eight feet in length. Perhaps one day we will also find verifiable data about humans that were even larger, which somehow existed in the past (I say “somehow” because of the tremendous strains that would be imposed on one’s body from carrying so much weight). It would be highly unlikely, yes, but to be of this general range of size (eight feet, give or take) is not impossible, as our record of abnormal height among individuals even within the last century has shown.

Hence, apparently there are some “Skeptics” who really only think they must be skeptical of other people’s skepticism which is doing nothing to advance our scientific knowledge. I would argue that hubris of this sort is actually worthy of study, to an extent, as it helps one understand the ideological framework we’re dealing with in terms of attempting to discern, at the end of the day, whether there is indeed any merit to the discussions about supposed giant skeletons.

It is interesting, looking back again at all the hubbub that supposed “giant skeleton” discoveries once caused, particularly in North America, that we don’t seem to come across more modern discoveries of skeletal remains, specifically which involve groupings of the remains of several individuals who appeared to be above average height. What would be the cause of this? Is there indeed a cover up of the data, or does it bring us back to the previous argument that there was really no substance to the old reports anyway, despite corroboration with organizations like the Smithsonian?

Nineteenth century newspaper accounts of “giants”, or even similar news stories from the last week or so, won’t do it by themselves… and yet, we can already see that the search for corroborative information is often the component that isn’t undertaken in the quest for knowledge with regard to the fabled “giants” of yesteryear. If there is any mystery to be solved here, therein may lie the keys to understanding it.