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

[MIKA27]

Remember That Movie About Nazis On The Moon? There's Another One

When it came out in 2012, Iron Sky was a cult hit. It didn’t have the most cerebral plot ever devised, but it was good honest fun — Nazis on the moon, people. Over 10 per cent of the movie’s funding came from online crowd-funding, and it may surprise you to know that part of it was filmed in Queensland. Now, there’s a sequel.

The second Iron Sky movie is called Iron Sky: The Coming Race, and just like the first movie it’s aiming to source a sizeable chunk of funding from online donors. Over $75,000 of the $500,000 Indiegogo goal has already been donated, and it’s not hard to see why. Check out this amazing sounding synopsis:

Twenty years after the events of Iron Sky, the former Nazi Moonbase has become the last refuge of mankind. Earth was devastated by a nuclear war, but buried deep under the wasteland lies a power that could save the last of humanity – or destroy it once and for all. The truth behind the creation of mankind will be revealed when an old enemy leads our heroes on an adventure into the Hollow Earth. To save humanity they must fight the Vril, an ancient shapeshifting reptilian race and their army of dinosaurs.

Check out the movie’s teaser trailer below:

[MIKA27]

Ken Block’s Wildly Modded ’65 Mustang Puts Out a Nonsensical 845 HP

If you haven’t lost a few hours to watching Ken Block’s gymkhana video series, you probably should start now. Without spoiling the spectacle, the episodes follow Block as he uses overpowered cars to terrorize racetracks and public roads by drifting within inches of barriers and occasionally humans.

The star of Block’s next video, “Gymkhana 7,” is a heavily modified 1965 notchback Mustang with 6.7-liter Ford V8 overflowing from the hood. Also known as the Hoonicorn, it produces a nonsensical 845 horsepower. That’s like tying 845 adult horses to a car, and have them all start running at the same time. The best part is, it’s in the hands of a guy who can handle all that power.

“I’ve always been a Mustang fan,” says Block, “but especially the old Mustangs. It’s the original muscle car.” He wanted to find a car that would even appeal to kids, like a big Hot Wheels car. Out of respect for the vehicle, Block turned to eBay for a banged up model to work with. “I didn’t want to take a nice restored one,” he says, “so we worked had to find one that was beat up.”

The huge engine is set far back in the hood to accommodate the drivetrain.

That was the start of two years of work by Block’s team Hoonigan, ASD Motorsports in Charlotte, North Carolina, and with RTR, a Michigan-based company that specializes in tuning Mustangs. Underneath the classic body, the tubular chassis, roll cage, and three-piece wheels are all custom. The tires are specially-made Pirelli Trofeo Rs. The body panels are carbon fiber. The side fender flares give the car a wider stance, which translates to better handling at speed. A six-speed transmission sends the motor’s 845 horsepower to an all-wheel-drive system.

One of the biggest challenges was adding the all-wheel-drive system to a car with such a big engine. “No one’s really put an AWD system in this sort of car,” Block says. The huge engine is set far back in the hood to accommodate the drivetrain. The team also made sure to make the suspension is nice and soft. By being able to compress the shocks and send all the weight to the front of the car, Block can easily get the rear wheels loose and drift as needed (which is a lot).

The video series in which the Mustang will make its debut started in 2008. Block, a pro rally driver and co-founder of DC Shoes (which sponsored the videos) went viral, driving around industrial sites with trains and cranes for obstacles to dodge, making the tires scream through turns. Our personal favorite is “Gymkhana 6,” in which Block takes a blown-out Ford Fiesta through a desolate San Francisco, laying rubber around streetcars and catching air over intersections.

But given the glory of this Mustang, we’re thinking Gymkhana 7, whenever it comes out, could top even that.

[MIKA27]

Saving one of Italy's oldest cities from crumbling away

Many of the historic buildings in the Italian city of Naples have fallen into a crumbling state of disrepair. Millions of euros have been promised for renovations but is this enough to restore the heart of the city and make the most of its past?

What you noticed first, was the human skull. Shining white in the sun, it sat on two crossed bones. It wasn't real. It was carved out of stone.

But still, it wasn't what you'd expect to find on the front of a church.

And what a building it was. Its facade was brick red but running up the centre was a thick green stain.

A slimy-looking fungus was feeding off some leaking pipe buried in the bricks. Along the roof, vegetation flourished - thick clumps of grass, nodding against the blue of the sky.

And the air of neglect and decay was accentuated by a pile of rubble. Perhaps something high on the facade had come plunging down - shattering on the cobblestones.

The skull and bones over the entrance were a sign that in centuries past, this church was also a cemetery. Down in the sacred earth beneath its walls, there would have been vaults where racks of human bones were stored.

To go in and explore the old place would have been grimly fascinating and it ought to be drawing in visitors. But that's not possible. The church's blue doors were bolted, and probably hadn't swung open for years.

And that bitterly frustrates the man who was showing me round the alleyways of old Naples. Gabriele Casillo was born and raised in the city centre, and he's rightly proud of its history.

It's one of the oldest continuously inhabited locations on Earth. There are traces in its stones of the Greeks who arrived centuries before the time of Christ. And Romans and Byzantines and Normans and Spaniards all came and went.

But for Casillo not enough is being done to preserve and promote the city's extraordinary legacy. For him the sad plight of the brick red church of the skull was a case in point.

He'd showed me three or four other churches that seemed similarly abandoned. One of them had been burnt out in a fire. Now it stood lost behind a rank of huge garbage dumpsters.

I watched a middle-aged woman stop on the street, and as she slowly smoked a cigarette, she stood and stared into the church's ruined, dark depths, trying perhaps to glimpse a little of its splendid past.

Of course Casillo argued that none of this was good enough for a Unesco World Heritage Site. He represents a group of activists who are pressing for change but he fears no-one is really listening.

The mayor of Naples would certainly argue that that's not true. He's just announced plans to pour 100m euros into projects to enhance the historic centre.

And for all the gloom of those who worry about the place, Naples has so much to offer that is magnificent. I'm not only talking about its grander, monumental buildings and museums.

I stepped into one of its countless, lesser known churches - a vast place that's witnessed more than 400 years of worship. Columns rose to a painted ceiling, where a riot of angels seemed to be riding a cloud that was wheeling through the heavens.

From the dome, shafts of sunlight flooded the altar, gleaming on a golden cross, and in the pews towards the front, a lone figure in a dark coat sat motionless.

The church was part of a monastic complex. For generations monks would have lived and prayed and worked around its cloistered courtyard. Later it became a textile factory.

It produced uniforms for the royal guard of the Spanish, Bourbon kings who once ruled Naples. In more modern times the building was battered about by a range of less glamorous little businesses.

One of them demolished a pillar just so that the courtyard could be used to park a van. But the monastery is now being restored.

A group of artists is turning it into a craft and cultural centre. As they worked, an area of plaster high on a wall came away, and an image was suddenly revealed.

It showed a figure on a white horse leading soldiers in armour. They were all advancing on a lone woman.

The man on horseback is supposed to be a pagan, Roman emperor and the female figure is St Catherine. Legend has it that she was put to death - martyred - for refusing to marry the emperor, preferring instead to devote her life to Christ.

And those restoring the cloisters hope that as they peel away more of the plaster more of these fine, Renaissance artworks might appear all around the courtyard.

It's just one more small example of the richness of the past that lies in the bones of the buildings in the historic heart of old Naples.

[MIKA27]

ROTOPAX FUELPACKS

The Rotopax Fuel Cell System is a great solution for carrying extra fuel on or off road on your adventures, whether traveling by motorcycle, ATV or any off-road vehicle. Packs are available for fuel, water, or even tools and first aid, and they mount easily using a simple install process. The exclusive modular interlocking system allows you to customize your packs according to your varying needs, and thanks to the thick walls and a reinforced structure, along with specially formulated plastic barrier material, these serious containers can be used in the most extreme conditions and have you covered on any adventure.

[MIKA27]

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES TRAILER

Well, here we go… it’s time for the last of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films, and perhaps his last cinematic dealings with Middle-earth ever. Ahead of its Dec. 17 opening, Warner Bros., New Line and MGM have released the final trailer for The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, and it looks chock full of fantasy action.

The 2:33 clip features dwarves battling hideous orcs, sweeping shots of armies going to war, cities on fire, thousands of arrows flying across the air, and that trademark epic feel that Jackson’s flms have had, dating back to Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which is now – damn – 13 years old. Ian McKellen is back as Gandalf, and in the trailer proclaims, “You have but one question to ask yourselves: How shall this day end?”

[Fuzz]

THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF FIVE ARMIES TRAILER

.... in the trailer proclaims, “You have but one question to ask yourselves: How shall this day end?”

Very slowly would be my answer. I still can't understand how the hell anyone can stretch a short children's novel into a trilogy. Hell, run time for the Hobbit series is 3/4 the length of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

If Jackson decides to revisit Middle Earth with The Silmarillion, I wonder if he'll stretch that out to 5 films?

[MIKA27]

Very slowly would be my answer. I still can't understand how the hell anyone can stretch a short children's novel into a trilogy. Hell, run time for the Hobbit series is 3/4 the length of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

If Jackson decides to revisit Middle Earth with The Silmarillion, I wonder if he'll stretch that out to 5 films?

I love all the Lord of the rings trilogy (Original) but for me I think The Hobbit has had a lot more action from the get go comparative to the LOTR movies. Again, I love all the movies, but I think the original trilogy kinda dragged out, especially scenes with Sam and Frodo, was getting a little creepy toward the last flick IMO.

Frodo: "Oh Sam!"

Sam: "Oh Mr Frodo!"

Could have saved around 40 minutes without that going on...

[MIKA27]

Electromagnetic Interference Could Cause Aircraft Weapons To Fire Themselves

Increased radiation, global communications infrastructure, and lightning could be dangerous when combined with planes and drones designed to carry weaponry, according to the Defence Science and Technology Organisation — and ABC’s Catalyst recently visited its testing site to see what measures are put in place to avoid the worst.

The worst case scenario being a weapon that gets discharged without the pilot or drone controller giving the order — all thanks to the bombardment of our ever-growing wireless communications networks, as well as natural interference such as lightning.

Like the rest of the tech world, the machinery used to tell weapons what to do are getting smaller and smaller. And as they operate at smaller voltages, they become more vulnerable to electromagnetic interference.

According to Dr Andrew Walters of the DSTO:

The most hostile environment would be the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. There you’ve got the combination of aircraft landing, and an aircraft landing is when it’s in its most vulnerable position, it has a lot of its panels open and a lot of the wings are extended, and so those cables inside on which the energy can latch onto are exposed. You have that sort of scenario with lots of high-powered transmitters nearby.

To make sure our fighter craft are safe, Catalyst joins the science team as they put model aircraft through various testing procedures, including simulating both consistent currents and big bursts of electricity, and putting a plane in a giant microwave to test radiation.

It’s an especially important procedure for our new, oh-so-popular F-35 planes. Despite being named after the phenomenon, they still need to get clearance before they’re safe to fly around lightning.

You can stream or download the whole segment here.

[MIKA27]

Robert White: Cleveland’s Dr. Frankenstein

The Cold War saw great competitions arise between the Soviet Union and the United States. If the USSR did it, the US wanted to equal if not better their results. Mostly, we remember the arms race and nuclear tensions between the two countries, but there were many other stranger battles to be fought on the fringes of science. Top secret experiments in mind over matter including telekinesis and remote viewing played out in secret on both sides. The race was on to find out who was better at the advancement of science.

In one of the lesser-known and bizarre scientific ventures, Soviet scientists such as Vladimir Demikhov were taking organ transplantation far beyond its acceptable boundaries. It was 1954 when he unveiled his greatest experiment (or abomination) in the form of a two-headed dog. Somewhere between the mythological Greek hell hound Cerberus and mutated animals displayed in carnival freak shows around the world, Demikhov’s creation was an attempt to push transplant science to its absolute limits. (You can click here for an image of one of his two-headed dogs after surgery; dog lovers, you have been warned.) One of his two-headed dogs was later taxidermied and today is on display at the Pauli Stradini Museum Historiae Medcinae in Latvia.

This extreme step forward was replicated in the shocking experiments over the following decade in a quiet lab in Cleveland, Ohio.

What began in 1962 at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine were similar experiments on dogs, seeing if a second brain could be connected to a living dog and kept alive. Early successes led to attempts by Dr. Robert J. White to keep a brain alive free of the body. According to EKG machines hooked up to a monkey’s brain suspended over a pan and pumped full of blood, the brain appeared to remain conscious even 12 hours after removal from the body. But this wasn’t enough for his colleagues. graphic results were one thing, yet proving the brain is still conscious is another matter entirely.

White set out to revise his experiment in a manner that could positively show that the disembodied brain was still functioning normally. This time, he set out to take the head of a rhesus monkey and surgically attach it to the body is another monkey. Essentially, it was surgical head swapping.

An artist’s simplified version of Dr. White’s monkey head swapping. (White et al., 1971)

In 1970, Dr. White realized his ambitious experiment. The head was successfully attached to a different body and responded to external stimuli. Unfortunately, this experiment would only truly allow for brain survival, as any attempt to connect the two spinal cords together would be far too impossibly complex to even attempt. The monkey only survived for eight days before the host body’s immune system rejected the transplanted head, although with modern advances in neurosurgery, Dr. Sergio Canavero of Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group believes we have finally come far enough to make a complete head transplant possible.

In a strange echoing of the past, White was contacted by Russian scientists who were very interested in the work he was performing. He went to the USSR in 1966 where he witnessed first-hand the two-headed dogs, along with dog heads being kept alive by machines built to mimic the circulatory and respiratory functions of a body. Their deeper motivations were not very humble; Russian scientists were eager to learn the secrets of extending life far beyond the death of the body.

In 20o7, Jim Fields produced a short documentary about these experiments titled A: Head B: Body. Fields traveled to Cleveland to interview the famous doctor as well as explore his old lab, sealed up for years but remaining much as it had been at the time of the experiments. This was one of White’s last filmed interviews; he passed away in 2010.

Virginia Leith starred as “Jan in the pan” in The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1959).

This macabre dabbling in living disembodied heads bubbled over into popular culture of the time. These early experiments inspired a stable of low-budget horror films, including The Head (1959), originally a German film titled Die Nackte und der Satan (or The Nude and the Devil). When it premiered in Cleveland in 1961 at the Hippodrome, shrunken heads were given away free to patrons. The American film The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (created in 1959 but not released until 1962) raised questions about the morality of such experimentation with Jan’s head pleading for her own death, but for fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, it provided a lot more hilarious entertainment value.

While we might cringe at the sight of surgically decapitated animals seemingly aware of their predicaments and debate the ethics of such experiments, what was learned from these surgeries has had a profoundly positive effect on neurosurgery as we know it. Techniques including the cooling of the brain as was done in the experiments have helped save lives and led to major advances in repairing damage from brain trauma. Yet White’s long, successful career and great contributions to neuroscience will forever be overshadowed by the day he turned a monkey into a real-life Frankenstein’s monster.

[Fuzz]

I love all the Lord of the rings trilogy (Original) but for me I think The Hobbit has had a lot more action from the get go comparative to the LOTR movies. Again, I love all the movies, but I think the original trilogy kinda dragged out, especially scenes with Sam and Frodo, was getting a little creepy toward the last flick IMO.

Frodo: "Oh Sam!"

Sam: "Oh Mr Frodo!"

Could have saved around 40 minutes without that going on...

To me, The Hobbit is more like a film series loosely based on the book. Jackson should have kept it to 2 films and left all the fan service crap on the cutting room floor. And can somebody explain why uber-Elf Legoham is even in the series?!?!

[MIKA27]

Conspiracy History: Ancient and Modern

There can be absolutely no doubt that in today’s world of global uncertainty, conspiracy theories are everywhere. Saddam Hussein’s ever-elusive weapons of mass destruction, the Edward Snowden affair, the events of 9/11, and the UK’s 7/7, have all attracted the attentions of conspiracy theorists who believe that the stories told to us on these (and many other) topics do not reflect the full facts.

Of course, there is nothing new about conspiracy theorizing: it has existed for just about as long as recorded history, itself. After all, one only has to look at the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the 1968 killing of Martin Luther King, Jr., and NASA’s Apollo moon-landings of 1969-1972, to see that widespread skepticism exists in relation to the official version of events.

It’s fair to say, too, that conspiracy theories vary from the possible to the plausible, and from the downright unlikely and ludicrous to chillingly probable. Do I think there was a conspiracy in the killing of JFK? Yes. Do I think the moon-landings were faked? Not a chance! Of course, there will be those who no doubt disagree with my conclusions on both issues. But, that’s what conspiracy theorizing is all about: trying to figure out what the truth is – or is not.

All of which brings us to the new book from Andrew May: Conspiracy History: A History of the World for Conspiracy Theorists. With so many claims of conspiracy out there, it would be all too easy to quickly crank out a book on the same old, tired, and predictable cases and spin them for an eager audience.

Much of Conspiracy History is, as the title demonstrates (of course!), historical. And, that’s a very good thing. So many conspiracy researchers focus on the present day. In doing so, they fail to note (or simply don’t know of) the deep and dark events that occurred centuries ago and that deserve just about as much publicity as 21st century affairs.

After a welcome explanation of what actually defines a conspiracy theory, Andrew delves into the various categories of conspiracies, including those relating to “false flags,” “lone gunmen,” secret groups and ancient orders, and suspicious deaths. It’s then onto the cases themselves.

For me, the most fascinating chapter of the book is the one titled Secret Identities. It focuses on such near-legendary characters as Kaspar Hauser and Jack the Ripper, as well as the matter of whether or not William Shakespeare was really responsible for the works attributed to him, and the strange saga of an unidentified body found on a stretch of Australian beach in November 1948.

Then there’s the chapter headed Hidden Agendas. The deaths of Rasputin, Napoleon, and the very convenient death in 1100 of England’s King William II - a shadowy and controversy-filled saga that almost rivals the Kennedy assassination – are addressed.

Secret societies, such as the Illuminati, the Freemasons, the Knights Templar, the Priory of Sion, and more, are all addressed and unraveled. As are the conspiracies surrounding Tutankhamun, the 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, and the Nazis.

All in all, Andrew May’s Conspiracy History is a fine study of conspiracies that span not just the decades or the centuries, but thousands of years.

There is much to ponder on, think about, and wrap your head around in this book. And, if conspiracies are your thing, I urge you to get a copy right now.

[MIKA27]

Was the “God Particle” a False Prophet?

Upon reviewing data from last years discovery by CERN of the Higgs boson particle, an international research team now claim that the particle discovered may not have actually been the mysterious “God Particle”, but instead something quite different.

Last year, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (also known as CERN)revealed that a new sub-atomic particle they had discovered fit into the measurements of the then theoretical Higgs boson particle. However, a new international research team evaluating the data now believes that it may have been something different; something with implications that could alter the fabric of our scientific understanding.

“The CERN data is generally taken as evidence that the particle is the Higgs particle. It is true that the Higgs particle can explain the data but there can be other explanations, we would also get this data from other particles,” explained member of the research team Mads Toudal Frandsen, associate professor at the Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics Phenomenology, Department of Physics, Chemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Southern Denmark.

“We believe that it may be a so-called techni-higgs particle. This particle is in some ways similar to the Higgs particle — hence half of the name,” says Mads Toudal Frandsen.

The Higgs boson discovery was originally thought to be the missing link in a model for how the universe was created. The Standard Model, as it has become known, postulates that all forms of matter and energy are governed by small set of laws and theories. The major goal of physics working to comprehend this model is to unite all these theories and laws into a “theory of everything”, by which the behavior of all matter and energy can be better understood.

The techni-higgs is something completely different.

“A techni-higgs particle is not an elementary particle. Instead, it consists of so-called techni-quarks, which we believe are elementary. Techni-quarks may bind together in various ways to form for instance techni-higgs particles, while other combinations may form dark matter. We therefore expect to find several different particles at the LHC, all built by techni-quarks,” says Mads Toudal Frandsen.

If the techni-higgs particle exists, it would require a force to bind them together. The four current known forces of nature, gravity, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and the strong nuclear force, are not enough to bind techni-quarks together.

Thus, a new undiscovered force would be required to make this particle possible.

What this force could be is still unknown, but it is for the time being called a technicolor force. Dr. Frandsen believes that further data provided by CERN will help shed light on this issue, with more research expected to continue in the future.

This research was published in the journal of Physical Review D, compiling analysis done by Mads Toudal Frandsen of the University of Denmark, Alexander Belyaev and Matthew S. Brown from the University of Southampton, UK and Roshan Foadi from the University of Helsinki, Finland.

[MIKA27]

This Hearing Aid Might Actually Be Better Than A Human Ear

Ever think you’d want a hearing aid, even if you hear perfectly? Ticking off the first box on my cyborg checklist, Australian Hearing and Siemens today announced it’s coming out with a hearing aid that’s “proven to outperform the hearing ability of a healthy human ear”.

To be specific, the Binax hearing aid is especially adept at understanding speech in “demanding environments”, and seems to go hand-in-hand with some impressive tech that helps wearers target the sounds they want to hear. In a noisy setting, users control the aid via a mobile app, pointing at which sounds it should focus on, and editing volume, bass, and treble settings.

Two independent studies showed positive results.

Two clinical studies were undertaken with people who have mild to moderate hearing loss, in one of the most challenging environments for a person wearing hearing aids – a cocktail-party. The studies showed that those wearing Binax hearing aids could recall more of the conversations than people with normal hearing.

Controlling the environmental sound so 50% of speech could be recognised normally (known as the Speech Reception Threshold), users of the hearing aid could hear speech at 2.9 decibels higher than those without. Binax users could recall more of the conversations afterward.

Much of the tech seems to be software related, intelligently cutting out both consistent background noise and unpredictable factors such as rising and falling wind.

[MIKA27]

You Can Make Diamonds Out Of Peanut Butter

Diamonds are beautiful, but, sadly, they’re rather expensive. Now, Dan Frost of the Bayerisches Geoinstitut in Germany has discovered that you can make them from peanut butter. No, really.

BBC Future reports that Frost has been working hard to replicate the complex crystalline structures that can be found in the lower mantle of the Earth. He thought that the process may draw in carbon dioxide, in a reaction that extracted oxygen and — because of the large pressures — spat the carbon out as diamond.

So he thought he’d try out that very reaction in the lab. Creating high pressures and then dumping in a carbon-rich material — in this case, peanut butter — he waited. (He could have used CO2, but that would have taken a very long time indeed.) “A lot of hydrogen was released that destroyed the experiment,” he says to BBC Future, “but only after it had been converted to diamond.”

While it may not bag you a discount engagement ring, the researchers do hope that the discovery could help create a new and cost-effective way of creating artificial diamonds for use in superconductors and quantum computing. And maybe, just maybe, Frost may yet work out how the mantle really formed.

[Jeremy Festa]

Very slowly would be my answer. I still can't understand how the hell anyone can stretch a short children's novel into a trilogy. Hell, run time for the Hobbit series is 3/4 the length of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

If Jackson decides to revisit Middle Earth with The Silmarillion, I wonder if he'll stretch that out to 5 films?

Children's novel? You must be thinking of Harry Potter?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MIKA27]

This Device Diagnoses Hundreds of Diseases Using a Single Drop of Blood

The digital health revolution is still stuck.

Tech giants are jumping into the fray with fitness offerings like Apple Health and Google Fit, but there’s still not much in the way of, well, actual medicine. The Fitbits and Jawbones of the world measure users’ steps and heart rate, but they don’t get into the deep diagnostics of, say, biomarkers, the internal indicators that can serve as an early warning sign of a serious ailment. For now, those who want to screen for a disease or measure a medical condition with clinical accuracy still need to go to the doctor.

Dr. Eugene Chan and his colleagues at the DNA Medical Institute (DMI) aim to change that. Chan’s team has created a portable handheld device that can diagnose hundreds of diseases using a single drop of blood with what Chan claims is gold-standard accuracy. Known as rHEALTH, the technology was developed over the course of seven years with grants from NASA, the National Institutes of Health, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. On Monday, the team received yet another nod (and more funding) as the winners of this year’s Nokia Sensing XChallenge, one of several competitions run by the moonshot-seeking XPrize Foundation.

The goal of the XChallenge is to accelerate innovation in sensor technologies that address healthcare problems. Teams came up with tools intended to quickly and easily allow individuals to detect possible health problems without having to rely on analysis from large, facility-bound lab instruments. First hatched by DMI in response to a NASA challenge to create a diagnostics device that could work even in space, rHEALTH was portable from the beginning.

“There used to be no method for good, autonomous diagnosis,” Chan tells WIRED. “rHEALTH technology is highly sensitive, quantitative, and capable of meeting the FDA’s bar for sophistication, while still being geared for consumers.”

Blood to Bluetooth

Here’s how it works: One small drop of blood is dropped into a small receptacle, where nanostrips and reagents react to the blood’s contents. The whole cocktail then goes through a spiral micro-mixer and is streamed past lasers that use variations in light intensity and scattering to come up with a diagnosis, from flu to a more serious illness such as pneumonia—or even Ebola—within a few minutes. There’s also a vitals patch that users can wear to get continuous health readings—EKG, heart rate, body temperature—delivered to their smartphone or the rHEALTH device itself via a Bluetooth link. An app called CHAS (Comprehensive Health Assessment Unit) can walk the user through the process of self-diagnosis.

The real innovation of rHEALTH, according to Chan, is in getting all the diagnostics technologies packed together into one handheld device. By shrinking its components so much compared to traditional devices, Chan says, patients will need to give 1,500 times less blood than they would for regular tests. Since it was originally developed for NASA, the device has even been tested in simulated lunar and zero gravity. “It’s a symphony of innovations, but we’ve pushed all of them individually to create the device,” Chan says.

THE HOPE IS THAT PEOPLE WILL USE THE TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE MEANINGFUL LIFESTYLE CHANGES BASED ON REAL, ROBUST MEDICAL DATA.

Right now, rHEALTH is reliable for cell counts, HIV detection, vitamin D levels, and various protein markers in the body. The next challenges, according to Chan, are adding more tests, scaling up production, and going through the laborious process of getting the rHEALTH commercialized. The company is manufacturing three different models: the rHEALTH One, which will be used for translational research; the rHEALTH X, meant to be used as a kind of power tool for clinicians; and the rHEALTH X1, which will be available for consumers.

Since the rHEALTH One must only be vetted by Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) before being used in research—it doesn’t have to meet stringent FDA standards it will need to reach before being marketing to physicians and consumers—Chan says DMI can ship units in a matter of weeks to interested scientists. Chan’s team will learn from how it’s utilized in research settings to make improvements.

Making Real Changes

It could be a while before consumers actually get access to rHEALTH. In the meantime, the next challenge for Chan and his team is to prepare for the bigger, $10 million challenge from the XPrize Foundation, the Tricorder XPRIZE, which the Nokia Sensing XChallenge was set up to feed. The goal is to create a universal, Star Trek-inspired medical diagnostic tool that detects up to 16 separate health conditions. Of the 11 teams included in the Sensing XChallenge, only DMI is also a Tricorder finalist.

When rHEALTH finally does become available to consumers, Chan says the hope is that people will use the technology to make meaningful lifestyle changes based on the real, robust medical data from the device—a step beyond what he sees as the typical fitness tracker.

“It’s interesting to see how people interact with wearables,” says Chan. “A lot of them think of them as toys or gadgets. That’s not what rHEALTH is. It’s really meant to help you take care of yourself when you’ve got a serious health condition.”

[MIKA27]

The family that saved 3,000 lives

In August, the BBC Magazine reported on a couple who spent millions of euros to save migrants in danger of drowning at sea. Their 60-day mission has now ended - so what did they achieve, asks Alison Gee?

"We helped to save around 3,000 men, women and children who would have otherwise been likely to perish," says Christopher Catrambone who - as we reported earlier - set up the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) with his wife, Regina, and daughter, Maria Luisa.

"I was shocked by the sheer number of migrants that are packed into each boat. Some migrants are pushed into the low deck where they are more susceptible to drowning and suffocation. You don't understand what a horrific journey this is until you actually witness it that closely," Christopher says.

"I recall an elderly Palestinian who sold all his belongings for a measly $15,000 to fund his trip... I also recall a couple of Syrian grandparents who at the twilight of their lives had to leave their beloved Aleppo.

"It's difficult to comprehend the desperation that would have driven them to put their families on such a dangerous journey. And in a way these are the lucky ones. They are the ones who had the financial means to fund the trip... Many of them were professionals: teachers, engineers, lawyers."

MOAS helped transfer some migrants to Italian Navy and cargo ships - the rest were given shelter on board its own vessel, the Phoenix, and were taken to Italy.

For Regina, it was the children she'll remember most. "We received a donation of some toys... The smiles on their faces when we handed out the toys were priceless," she says.

"The children don't really know what is happening when they are on this journey. It's so nice to see a three-year-old girl laughing and dancing around when you're surrounded by so many adults who are so aware of their plight."

The number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea has broken records this year - 165,000 at the start of October. At least 2,200 died between July and September, according to the UN refugee agency.

The Malta-based Catrambones spent two million euros (£1.59m) of their own money funding the mission. They are now trying to raise enough money to send the boat out again next year.

[MIKA27]

In pictures: World leaders and awkward handshakes

China's President Xi Jinping and Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe looked decidedly awkward as they shook hands on Monday.

Their muted - though politically significant - encounter at the sidelines of the Apec summit in Beijing was not surprising, given that relations are at a low over territorial disputes.

It's not the first time Mr Abe's attitude been described as chilly. And he is far from the only world leader to have been caught looking uncomfortable in front of the cameras.

US President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin

Mr Putin and Mr Obama avoided eye contact at the G20 Summit at St Petersburg in September last year. The two countries had just disagreed on whether to take military action in Syria and Russia had refused to extradite American whistleblower Edward Snowden.

French President Francois Hollande and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Mr Hollande seemed less comfortable than Mr Rouhani when they met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September this year, amid talks on Iran's nuclear programme. Mr Hollande said he expected "concrete gestures" from Iran to show it was not developing nuclear weapons.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr Putin, again

Amid heightened tensions over Russia's annexation of Crimea, Mr Putin received what one analyst called a "visual castigation" from Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel at the D-Day 70th Anniversary commemoration in northern France in June this year.

Britain's Prince Charles and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe

Britain's Prince Charles attracted criticism in 2005 when he shook hands with Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who sidestepped an European Union travel ban to attend the funeral of Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.

Former US President George Bush and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Was it a handshake? A hand-clasp? It's not clear in this photograph of the two men in 2008, when Mr Bush visited Northern Ireland on a tour of Europe.

And finally...

So it's not an awkward handshake, but Australia's PM Tony Abbott and Mr Abe nevertheless raised eyebrows when they posed for this photograph in July while touring a mine in Western Australia - a moment which News Limited called a "cringe-worthy corker".

[MIKA27]

The Mystery of the Devil’s Bible

There is something about ancient books and texts that holds a certain sense of mystery and allure. To hold something that was once handled by ancient hands long ago brings with it a fascination about the past, and the enigmatic knowledge held within the worn, dusty pages beckons from across the vast field of time separating us from the past. Ancient books are just naturally mysterious, often inscrutable, and sometimes spooky. Surely one of the weirdest and most bizarre books from the ancient era is the one known as the The Codex Gigas, a text dating from the 13th century AD that is also known as the Giant Book, or more ominously as The Devil’s Bible.

The Devil’s Bible

The first thing that impresses upon seeing the Devil’s Bible is the sheer size of it. The book is 92cm (36 inches) tall, 50cm(19.7 inches) wide, 22cm (8.6 inches) thick, and weighs 74,8kg (165 pounds). These enormous dimensions make the Codex Gigas the largest known medieval manuscript. The whole thing is bound in a leather covered wooden folder that is decorated with ornately shaped metal designs. The strangeness of the book does not end with the impressive proportions and unique appearance. The 310 pages contained within the book are fashioned of some sort of animal skin, most likely donkey or calf skin, and it is thought that 160 animal skins were required to make them.

Scrawled upon these pages are both testaments of the Vulgate Bible, various medical texts, some sort of encyclopedia, a calendar, magical spells, and a text on exorcisms, among others, mostly penned in Latin but also featuring Hebrew, Greek, and Slavic alphabets. The text is heavily illuminated throughout, meaning that the pages and letters are adorned with various decorations such as miniature illustrations, ornate borders, stylized letter designs, and decorated initials, all colorfully highlighted in red, blue, yellow, green, and gold. The book also prominently features various illustrations, including one of the kingdom of Heaven as well as a large, ominous illustration of the Devil that is about 50cm (19.7 inches) high. Adding a sinister twist to the prominent Devil illustration is the presence of several pages leading up to it that are somewhat blackened in stark contrast to the other pages of the book.

The Devil illustration within the Codex Gigas

The contents of the text hold many enigmas. The meticulous handwriting is amazingly uniform throughout, suggesting a single scribe. This detail becomes more mysterious when considering that it has been speculated that the entire gigantic collection of texts held within the Codex Gigas’ pages, including the illuminations and illustrations, would have taken a single person around 5 years of continuous, nonstop writing all day and all night to complete, and that a realistic estimate for creating the entire thing, including the animal skin pages and cover, would be around 25 years for a single individual. This is particularly impressive as the handwriting shows no signs of being deterioration or being influenced by age, disease, or the mood of the writer, never deviating throughout the vast tome of texts. Adding to the bizarre nature of the manuscript is the fact that around 10 pages are missing, having apparently been intentionally removed over the centuries, although it is unknown for what purpose. It has been theorized that these missing pages could have held information that was deemed too dangerous to fall into the hands of mere mortals, that the pages were stolen for some nefarious purpose, or that they were simply found to be offensive to some long ago owner of the book.

Also unknown is the identity of the scribe or indeed the reason why they took on such a monumental undertaking. This is where the creepy legends and history surrounding the book come into play. One legend has it that a Benedictine monk in Bohemia, which is now known as the Czech Republic, committed a grievous infraction against his monastery and was sentenced to be walled up alive within the monastery indefinitely. The monk, desperate to avoid his fate and certain death, is said to have struck a deal with the other monks. He offered to pen in one night a huge religious text the likes of which the world had never seen. It was agreed that if the monk could accomplish this task in one night, then he would be freed. The monk got to work, but it quickly became apparent that it was an impossible feat, and that he would never finish it in time. The monk called for help from the Devil, who appeared and offered to help in return for the monk’s soul and also if he could also include a picture of himself within the manuscript. The monk agreed to the dark pact and was able to complete the manuscript, as well as the illustration of the Dark Prince himself, in time to be set free. This menacing legend is somewhat supported and given a grain of truth by the image of the Devil contained within the book, as well as the fact that indeed it appears to have been penned by a single person with an incredible amount of uniformity that would suggest it was written in a short time rather than over decades of toiling.

The Codex Gigas

Whatever the true origins of the Codex Gigas, it certainly has a tumultuous history. After its creation, the monastery where it was held was destroyed in the 15th century AD and the manuscript passed hands between several local Benedictine monasteries over the years, until ending up in Prague in 1594, where it became part of the collections of the Holy Roman Emporer Rudolph II. The book remained there until 1648, when it was forcibly taken as plunder by Swedish forces during the 30 Year War and taken to Stockholm, where it was kept at the Swedish Royal Library. In 1697, a huge fire broke out at the library, and in order to save it from the flames, someone threw it out of a window. The book survived the fall and the fire, but a few of the existing pages are reported to have come loose and blown away, after which they have never been recovered. The Codex Gigas remained at the Royal Library until 2007, when it was returned to Prague on loan and exhibited at the Czech National Library until 2009, after which it returned to Sweden and remains on display to this day in the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm.

Throughout its history, the Codex Gigas has accrued a reputation for being cursed, bringing misfortune, disaster, and disease to all who possessed it. Indeed, the destruction of its original home, as well as the fire at the Royal Swedish Library have been attributed to this dark curse. As of now, the National Library Sweden has managed to avoid a similar fate, but who knows what sinister powers may lurk within these ancient pages. The mysterious Codex Gigas is one of the biggest draws for the library, and visitors come in droves to look upon the gigantic text as well as read digitized pages of its contents.

The Codex Gigas in 1909

The Codex Gigas is certainly one of the most bizarre, mysterious, and little known ancient texts in the world today. What was the impetus for its creation? Who created it and how long did it really take them? Why were pages removed from it? What happened to the pages lost during the fire in 1697? These are questions for which we may never know the answers. For now, all we can do is marvel at the sheer scale of this weird, beautiful manuscript and speculate on the impenetrable mysteries contained within its archaic, mystical pages.

BONUS: National Geographic Documentary part 1 & 2

[MIKA27]

Ukraine Could Explode in The Next 48 Hours

The arrival of relentless freezing weather, and the appearance of more Russian tanks and missiles, has raised tensions to new highs.

Winter is coming in Ukraine. For people living in basements and in half-ruined buildings in the east of the country, and for the soldiers on both sides, the slow-motion war of the spring and summer has given way to a constant freezing ordeal night and day. Donetsk, the city at the center of the conflict between pro-Russian rebels and the pro-European government in Kiev, is said to be on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe.

But the fighting continues, and grows worse, despite a nominal ceasefire. And the onslaught of the elements has helped raise tensions to the point where a new explosion is expected any day. With the coming of winter, the Russians have come as well, as Moscow appears to be intent on shoring up the positions of its allies, while deterring any effort by Kiev to retake lost ground.

Observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as well as Ukrainian officials expressed concerns about heavy military equipment supplied by the Russian Federation to the rebels, including tanks and ground-to-air missile systems.

On Monday, Ukraine Defense Ministry Spokesman Andry Lysenko reported that rebels now had the Russian-produced Pantsir anti-aircraft missile system (called the Greyhound SA-22 by NATO) positioned just 500 meters from a rebel checkpoint outside of Novoazovsk. “We stress that such a system, even in theory, is not part of armament of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” said Lysenko.

The context is one that everyone in Kiev and Moscow understands: last summer a Russian-made missile blasted a civilian airliner, Malaysia Airlines MH17, out of the sky over the Ukraine war zone. Everyone aboard was killed. Although most evidence points to the tragedy as an accident by a rebel missile unit, Moscow continues trying to pin the blame on Kiev.

Meanwhile, the local Chas Pik Internet news site posted video footage of what are believed to be Russian tanks arriving to support the rebels in Donetsk. Local reports said that dozens of military vehicles and mobile howitzer artillery arrived in Donetsk on Monday, and there seems to be little inclination to disguise the fact in Moscow.

“I admit that without Russian multi-layered support, Donbass [the eastern Ukraine region] would have never handled aggression by the Ukrainian army,” says Sergei Markov at a pro-Kremlin think tank close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Markov tells The Daily Beast he expects the situation in eastern Ukraine to explode in the coming two days. He blames Ukrainian officials for violating the ceasefire agreement and shelling the outskirts of Donetsk city.

“Novorossia soldiers would not initiate the battle,” says Markov, “but I believe their plan is to gradually take control over Piski, Avdiivka, and Schastye, a town with a central heating station. “ Markov also added that rebels might make an attempt to take back control of their former strongholds in Sloviansk and Kramotorsk, “symbolically and strategically important towns for them.”

On Monday Donetsk rebel leader Alexander Zakharchenko declared there would be no ex-change of military prisoners with Ukrainian side until next round of peace negotiation in Minsk, that rebels hoped to have with Ukrainian officials in late November.

Meanwhile, every day the ceasefire death toll mounts. On Monday, Ukrainian authorities reported attacks on their military forces by rebel mortar batteries in Debaltseve, in the Donetsk region and in Orlovske and Hranitne, in the Mariupol region. Two Ukrainian servicemen were reported killed and five wounded.

In eastern Ukraine; three more people were killed and seven wounded by rebel shelling in the residential area of Avdiivka, AFP reported on Monday. In the last four months over 4,000 civilians fell victim to the violence. The Ukrainian security service, the SBU, reported 1,700 people went missing during that time.

On November 5, shells killed two children and wounded several people on a school playng field in Donetsk. The OSCE could not tell who fired at the school, Ukrainian or rebel forces. Last week a Russian doctor Yelizaveta Glinka, known as doctor Liza helped to evacuate nine wounded children from Donbass to Moscow; 50 more children were in bad health condition and needed urgent medical help, the doctor told The Daily Beast. And the depths of winter are still to come.

[MIKA27]

Mexico’s Murderous SWAT Teams

Three American kids allegedly were slaughtered by the so-called Hercules Group, which claimed to use special weapons and tactics just like many cops north of the border.

MEXICO CITY—Even in Tamaulipas, one of the most violent states in Mexico, there was something cavalier, or worse, about the way the “Hercules Group” operated. Back when its existence was officially still a secret, citizens of Matamoros, a border city about five miles south of Brownsville, Texas, complained to the police about a militarized strike force that took orders from city hall. The complaints reached such a pitch that in July, when Hercules was less than a month old, a city councilman named Ulises Ruiz demanded that Mayor Leticia Salazar say more about the group, which, back then had no name.

Then as now, Mayor Salazar was short on details: The strike force existed, its mission was to fight organized crime, its members drawn from the ranks of ex-marines and ex-army regulars, trained by the Mexican navy, how many there were and how much all of this cost was classified.

The state government in Tamaulipas was hovering in the background, airing its concerns that Mayor Salazar’s strike force was uncertified, unregulated, and without legal standing. The mayor responded defiantly with a kind of military pageant that was truly bizarre for such a secretive organization. The public debut of the Hercules Group is a day that not many in Matamoros are likely to forget. A militarized strike force onstage, attired in all black with faces smeared in black as though prepped for a nighttime raid. Behind them, a royal blue backdrop with the city’s logo and its slogan “Land of Progress.” Before them, and a head shorter than the rest, Mayor Salazar at the lectern attired in militant black beret and matching uniform with Hercules Group emblazoned in Spanish above one breast pocket and her last name stitched above the other.

“We are all Hercules,” Mayor Salazar told the assembly of reporters and well wishers that day, “defending our city from the trenches.” In her remarks, the Hercules Group was synonymous with peace and safety. But the president of the state chamber of commerce said it was nothing more than a personal security detail for the mayor and her secretary of social welfare, a wealthy and scandal-ridden automobile importer named Luis Biasi. The mayor and Biasi are a popular topic of gossip in Matamoros. She somehow retained him despite an embarrassing customs raid on a warehouse of his in January that turned up cases of contraband beer, whiskey, and cigarettes. Then in August, the Mexican IRS fined both of them for a scheme to import used cars from the United States and sell them in Mexico as a part of an ill-defined public-welfare program. The worst kept secret in Matamoros is that Biasi and Mayor Salazar are more than colleagues. The president of the state chamber of commerce went a step further and accused Biasi of being the real power behind the Hercules Group. “We don’t understand how the secretary of public welfare can go around deputizing police. Are you the secretary of public welfare or the commander of the Hercules Group?” the chamber president intoned in the press.

Maybe none of which would have mattered much outside the neighborhood, but on Oct. 12 members of the Hercules Group showed up at a barbeque restaurant in the jurisdiction of Matamoros and kidnapped four people, including three Americans, all of whom ended up dead and whose charred bodies were found 16 days later in a field 25 miles east of Matamoros. Mayor Salazar and her administration have gone into lockdown mode and she was back in civilian clothes to make her only comments on the crime, and those were to disavow any responsibility for the Hercules Group, to deny she used the group as her bodyguards, indeed, to deny she kept bodyguards at all. Her repudiation comes more than two weeks after two vehicles belonging to the Americans then reported as missing were photographed while parked inside a sales lot owned by Luis Biasi.

Biasi has not responded to interview requests and has yet to make any comment on the case. State criminal investigators said that nine of the 40 members of the Hercules Group are under investigation in relation to the quadruple homicide. In a statement, Governor Egidio Torre Cantu said “We will apply the full force of the law and zero tolerance.” Last week, the Mexican Justice Department took charge of the investigation. When state authorities in Tamaulipas were still in charge, the chief prosecutor said he saw no reason to interview Biasi or Mayor Salazar.

Raquel Alvarado is the mother of the three young Americans killed. Raquel lives in a modest brick house in Progreso, Texas, a border town less than 40 miles from Matamoros. She said she still doesn’t know what to say when her four grandchildren—ages 3, 4, 5, and 9—ask her where their mother is. She said her children had no criminal charges against them, no prior warrants. Fighting through sobs, she says she hasn’t received any condolences from Mayor Salazar nor gotten any explanation for why this happened.

“She has caused me so much pain, she left my grandchildren without a mother, she took my children away from me. There is no doubt in my mind that she is responsible.”

Raquel’s ex-husband, Pedro, the father of her children, lives just over the border in Mexico in a town called El Control. Pedro has not had a day’s rest since the search for his children began. In an area of Mexico like Tamaulipas, which is dominated by criminal gangs, the murders of children tend to turn grieving parents into investigators, and Pedro is no exception.

It was Pedro who drove to La Curva Texas, the barbeque restaurant on Highway 2, and interviewed the witnesses to his children’s kidnapping. He says the owner of La Curva and members of his staff witnessed the Hercules Group abduct Pedro’s daughter Erica, 26, and her Mexican boyfriend Jose Guadalupe Castañeda Benitez, 32, while they were having lunch. He said he learned that his two sons Alex, 22, and José Angel, 21, arrived in time to try to rescue their sister, but that the men in black military-style uniforms ended up abducting them as well, beating them, putting hoods over their heads and forcing them into armored trucks that bore the insignia of the Matamoros city government.

Those witnesses have not granted interviews to the media, but Pedro says that at least three of them have made statements to criminal investigators. The men from the Hercules Group identified themselves by name, he said, photographed the witnesses at the scene of the crime, confiscated their photo IDs, and threatened to retaliate if they spoke to anyone about what they had seen.

Pedro Alvarado searched for his children for 16 days and it was he and his son Pedro, Jr., who saw the siblings’ missing vehicles, a Jeep Cherokee and Chevy Tahoe, locked inside the gates of a car dealership whose owner is Luis Biasi, the secretary of social welfare in the Matamoros city government. The license plates had been removed and the stereo was stolen from the Tahoe, but Erica Alvarado’s personal belongings were still inside the Cherokee.

“We searched all the impound lots in the city, and there they were,” Alvarado said.

Things got very heated between Pedro Jr. and the manager of the lot, with Pedro demanding to know how the vehicles ended up there and asserting that they belonged to his siblings. He took photographs of the vehicles and vowed to send them to the FBI. The manager made a phone call and eventually relented. He had the vehicles moved to the curb outside the dealership. Pedro Sr. suspects the manager of telephoning the Hercules Group, because two armored trucks arrived and he said that members of the group began to inform him in a threatening manner that he had no business taking photos on private property. The dealership called the Hercules team “right then and there,” Pedro Sr. said. “Because the people in that agency are in charge of that group. Luis Biasi is the one in command of the Hercules.”

The manager of the car dealership declined to comment to the AP about the presence of the murder victims’ vehicles. He said he feared that including his name in an article would endanger his life.

Pedro Sr., said that the men from the Hercules Group ordered him to drive his son’s Tahoe away from the lot and arranged to have Erica’s Cherokee towed to Pedro’s driveway in El Control. “Two pickup trucks full of Hercules escorted the vehicles to my house. They weren’t normal police. They didn’t want to give me their badge numbers or anything. They followed us back to the house and left the vehicles there,” he said.

The Tahoe remains in El Control and the Jeep Cherokee is now parked in the driveway of Raquel Alvarado’s house in Progreso, Texas.

“How can Biasi not be considered a suspect?” Raquel Alvarado asked during a telephone interview. “If the vehicles were found in a business that belongs to him, then he has to explain what they were doing there and who brought them. They haven’t given any explanation. But they did take the plates off the vehicles and why would they do that if they had nothing to do with it?”

The murders in Matamoros mark the third time since June that Mexican state security forces are suspected of extrajudicial executions. In September, 43 students from a rural teachers college in the southern state of Guerrero disappeared and six persons were executed by municipal police officers suspected of acting in consort with a drug cartel. In June, the Mexican army executed 22 suspected gang members in Mexico state and the National Commission on Human Rights reports that the army tampered with evidence, manipulated the crime scene, and pressured witnesses to cover up the fact that most of the executions took place after the victims had surrendered. The Mexican human-rights commission is also investigating the murders in Matamoros.

[MIKA27]

MATTERHORN WHISKEY GLASSES

As the popularity of whiskey continues to rise, independent design firms are creating unique tumblers to help you build out your barware collection. The crew at Tale Design’s have produced one of our favorite offerings in these Matterhorn Whiskey Glasses.

As you may have already gleaned from the name, these tumblers were inspired by the Swiss Alps’ Matterhorn. The bottom of the glass rises up, taking on the silhouette of the iconic 14,690 foot tall mountain. There’s only one drawback. If you like to use ice spheres with your spirit, it’s not going to work with this glass. But if you’re like us, and you prefer your whiskey neat, this is a must have. Each crystal set comes with 2 glasses and can be picked up by contacting the designers directly through their online store. [Purchase]

[Fuzz]

Children's novel? You must be thinking of Harry Potter?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep. The Hobbit evolved from bedtime stories he told his kids.

[MIKA27]

The Coolest 'Batman 2.0' Art Gallery You Will See Today

Brainstorm is a Facebook group where artists can take part in various challenges. This month, the challenge was to redesign Batman (and the Batmobile). The results are probably not the kind of Dark Knight Bob Kane had in mind.

Below are some of the best entries. While most of these slant sci-fi, there are some great historical ideas as well (along with the amazing fantasy take, above, done by Jason Kang).

By Marc Sampson

By Raul Sanchez Osorio

By 洪啟哲

By Jason Kang

By Thesian Jay

By Marco Menegaldo

By Mark Chang

By Steve Jung

By Alexander Forssberg

[MIKA27]

NASA Finally Tests Its Shape-Shifting Aeroplane Wings

First revealed to the public earlier this year, NASA and the US Air Force Research Laboratory have finally begun testing what they hope will be a revolutionary new aeroplane wing design that replaces moving parts with shape-changing assemblies allowing wings to bend and twist to manoeuvre a craft through the air.

In terms of engineering and manufacturing the design of the Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge — or ACTE, for short — is certainly more complicated than the traditional pivoting flaps you’ll find on a modern plane’s wings, but the possible benefits far outweigh those issues. Not only do the new shape-shifting wings promise improved aerodynamics which in turn means better fuel efficiency, they’re also lighter than their predecessors, allowing for a larger fuel tank in the wing which improves the operational range of many aircraft.

And because the adjustable flight surfaces on the shape-shifting wings perfectly curve and blend into the rest of the structure, they will also serve to greatly reduce the tremendous amount of noise generated as a plane takes off and lands with its flaps extended, which will help reduce the environmental impact of an airport. When perfected, the new wing technology has even been designed so it can be retrofitted onto existing aircraft, not just new planes, so entire fleets can be upgraded to help make airports quieter to their neighbours.