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

[MIKA27]

Ummmmmmmmmmm.... Mika. Not to detract from this. But when I was quoting the article above, this was outlined as the 'source'.

There's no way in hell you wrote it. But may be something you want to check into.

In fact, if you go to ALL the past few articles, all of them have that very derogatory source. Might be something you want to URGENTLY check into

Must be North Korea - Thanks Maple

[Maplepie]

Must be North Korea - Thanks Maple

Even North Korea isn't on his side!

Disregard the PM, then..

[MIKA27]

A Single Chinese Town Makes Most Of The World's Christmas Decorations

At this point in time, you’ve already hung your tinsel and decorated your tree with blinking lights. Maybe there’s even a glowing Santa statue on your lawn. But did you ever step back and think about where all of these holiday decorations come from? A factory in China is the easy answer. An entire town of factories specializing in Christmas cheer is the correct answer.

It’s not as cheerful as it sounds, though. Several journalists have recently visited the Chinese city of Yiwu, where low-paid workers in 600 factories manufacture 60-per cent of the world’s Christmas decorations. Many of them work for less than $US1 an hour.

While it may seem like being surrounded by all those good tidings seems like fun, it looks like a nightmare. A new set of images from the Sina News Agency shows workers covered in red dust wearing surgical masks and standing in some sort of Hell den. It’s the inside of a factory that produces ornaments and trinkets coated in red felt. The Guardian describes the conditions:

Together with his father, [Wei] works long days in the red-splattered lair, taking polystyrene snowflakes, dipping them in a bath of glue, then putting them in a powder-coating machine until they turn red — and making 5,000 of the things every day.

In the process, the two of them end up dusted from head to toe in fine crimson powder. His dad wears a Santa hat (not for the festive spirit, he says, but to stop his hair from turning red) and they both get through at least 10 face masks a day, trying not to breathe in the dust.

It’s obviously not a huge revelation that China is home to some abhorrent working conditions. But it’s also important to realise how that silly Santa hat you bought for a holiday party cost you a dollar comes at a much higher cost. The BBC’s Tim Maughan reported from Yiwu this summer:

I watch a girl sew white fur trim on to red felt at the rate of about two hats a minute, and as she finishes each one she simply pushes them off the front of her desk where they fall, silently, onto an ever increasing pile on the floor.

Upstairs is the plastic moulding room, mainly staffed by young men, stripped to the waist because of the heat… The men feed plastic pellets from Samsung-branded sacks into machines to be melted down, and then pressed into molds to make toy snowmen and Father Christmases.

While many people are getting increasingly excited about buying American-made electronic and local produce, remember where all those cheap commodities come from, too. That glowing Santa, for instance:

If you’re still having a hard time picturing it, watch the above video from Toby Smith who traveled to Yiwu a couple of months ago and documented the working conditions. He follows the decorations from the factory floor to the freight ship that will bring them to the United States. And even though she’s thousands of miles away, you’ll never get that image of the poor Chinese girl at the sewing out of your head after you see her make a mountain of Santa Hats.

[MIKA27]

Volvo Created A Bike Helmet That Warns Drivers About Nearby Cyclists

Though they share the road, bikes and vehicles don’t always play nice together. So Volvo, known for making some of the safest cars on the road, has helped develop a new safety helmet that lets bikes and vehicles communicate so that both cyclists and drivers are aware of each other when in close proximity — even if they can’t see each other.

Designed and developed in collaboration with POC as well as Ericsson, the concept helmet talks to the popular cyclist app Strava, which shares the rider’s location to the cloud so that it can be accessed by Volvo vehicles. When a bike is in the vicinity of the vehicle, even if out of sight, the driver gets a warning of where they are so they can slow down and be extra cautious. This works in the other direction too, with the Strava app getting the heads-up about a nearby car, warning the cyclist via a flashing alert light on the helmet.

The system obviously won’t do much to protect a cyclist if a collision still occurs (save for the helmet protecting their head) but it should go a long way towards actually preventing those collisions from occurring in the first place. And while there will certainly be concerns over privacy, and even the location data being used in court against a driver or cyclist, the system would still be completely anonymous with the best intentions of just keeping everyone sharing the roads a little safer.

[MIKA27]

Curiosity Snaps Cool Closeup Photo Of Its Damaged Tyre

Curiosity snapped this cool closeup of its wheel on Mars soil last week.

Amazing really looking at the picture to be looking at the soil of Mars guys. It still amazes me that this is happening.

[MIKA27]

North Korea's Internet Is Totally Screwed Right Now

Following several days of continuous connectivity problems, an internet researcher is reporting that North Korea’s internet has gone dark. Whether it’s a cyber attack or a routine outage remains unclear.

News of the outage arrives just two days after the United States asked China to help in cripple North Korea’s ability to mount cyber attacks, after the FBI blamed Kim Jong-Un’s regime for hacking into Sony Pictures. This does not necessarily mean that North Korea itself has become victim to a cyber attack. The country experiences outages all the time, in part due to poor infrastructure. However, some experts think this string of instability is different.

“The situation now is they are totally offline,” Doug Madory of Dyn Research told Bloomberg. “I don’t know that someone is launching a cyber-attack against North Korea, but this isn’t normal for them.” Earlier, Mardory had told North Korea Tech, “I haven’t seen such a steady beat of routing instability and outages in KP before. Usually there are isolated blips, not continuous connectivity problems. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are absorbing some sort of attack presently.”

One can’t help wonder if China or the US might be involved. China, for one, recently announced an investigation into North Korea’s role in the Sony Pictures hack. North Korea, meanwhile, denies any role at all, though the country’s posture became markedly more aggressive in the past couple of days. After proposing the U.S. help in a joint inquiry to prove it had nothing to do with the attacks, North Koreathreatened to strike the White House and “the whole U.S. mainland, that cesspool of terrorism.”

North Korea obviously isn’t happy about being fingered as the villain in the attack on Sony Pictures. (A lot of smart people still don’t think North Korea had anything to do with the hack.) Now, the country can be unhappy with its lack of internet access.

[MIKA27]

The mystery of Chopin's death

When Polish composer Frederic Chopin died in 1849 he seemed to have suffered a classic Romantic death from tuberculosis. But doubts soon arose about the diagnosis, and a scientific examination of the heart earlier this year, while at first appearing to confirm the TB theory, left the mystery unresolved.

It was the dead of night when a secret ceremony took place at a church in the Polish capital, Warsaw, in April this year. A crystal jar, encased in one of the church's pillars, was removed and its contents examined solemnly by genetic and forensic scientists.

"The spirit of this night was very sublime," forensic scientist Tadeusz Dobosz told the Associated Press news agency.

The jar contained a heart preserved in alcohol - most likely cognac - for more than 160 years. It belonged to arguably Poland's most famous son, the great composer and pianist Frederic Chopin. The scientists wanted to check that it was in good condition and to answer the question - what killed the man whose works are regarded by Poles as the musical embodiment of their country?

Chopin died in an apartment in Place Vendome, in Paris, on 17 October 1849, at the age of 39. France's greatest authority on tuberculosis had diagnosed him with the disease months earlier, and duly noted it as the cause on the death certificate.

But things then became less clear. The same doctor, Jean Cruveilhier, removed Chopin's heart and carried out an autopsy. Precisely what he recorded is not known - the notes he made were lost. However, reports suggest he referred to something other than TB, a "disease not previously encountered".

What could that be?

Eventually new theories began to emerge. One medical paper suggested cystic fibrosis - undiscovered in 1849 - was the killer. Another, that Chopin had inherited a form of emphysema, Alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Then in September, the debate appeared to be over. The forensic and genetic scientists who had gathered months earlier at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw for that unprecedented examination revealed their conclusions at a news conference.

Chopin's heart was well preserved and bore "TB nodules" they reported. It was also "much enlarged, suggesting respiratory problems, linked to a lung disease".

It looked like TB, after all. End of story.

But the examination was only visual. No tissue sample was taken for testing. The jar bearing Chopin's heart had not been opened, and had never left the church.

Is a visual examination of a heart inside a jar enough to give conclusive proof of TB? Sebastian Lucas, Emeritus Professor of Pathology at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London, says probably not.

"If the heart was involved in the TB, it would in many cases by affected by pericarditis, an inflammation around the heart," he says.

"TB pericarditis can be nodular or a diffuse process. Nodules sound good for TB as the diagnosis, but other diseases can mimic that appearance - cancer, and a fungus infection such as aspergillosis. You can't tell which one by the naked eye."

The scientists who carried out the examination had wanted to open the jar and test its contents, but faced implacable opposition from "everybody, starting with the great great granddaughter of one of Chopin's sisters", Prof Dobosz said in September. Other opponents, he told Gazeta Wyborzca, included the previous director of Poland's Chopin Institute and the Archbishop of Warsaw, Cardinal Kazimierz Nycz.

To understand this opposition, it's worth considering what Chopin means to Poland.

Frederic Chopin 1810-1849

• Child prodigy of a French father and Polish mother, whose playing was in demand among the aristocracy of Warsaw
• Had a Polonaise published when he was aged only seven
• Wrote Nocturnes and short pieces in dance forms, such as Mazurkas, Waltzes and Polonaises, throughout his career

The composer left Warsaw aged 20, never to return. Throughout his life Poland did not exist. It had been swallowed by Russia, Prussia and Austria in 1795, and only re-materialised as an independent country 123 years later.

Chopin's patriotism found expression in his music, and for Poles it came to symbolise Polish nationalism. His dying wish was for his heart to be removed before burial - in Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery - and his sister then smuggled it past Russian guards into Poland.

Many years later, in September 1939 the pianist Wladyslaw Szpilman happened to be in the middle of a live broadcast of a Chopin nocturne when German bombs fell on the radio station and he was forced off air. On his return to Warsaw Radio in 1945, having survived the utter destruction of the city and the Holocaust, he began by playing the same nocturne - a story immortalised in Roman Polanski's film The Pianist.

To meddle with the heart of a man so bound-up with the struggles for Poland would, for many Poles, be sacrilegious.

"There would be a feeling of desecration," explains Rose Cholmondeley, president of the London-based Chopin Society. "It's like a holy relic, and there is something distasteful about DNA analysis."

But Cholmondeley also thinks there could be another reason why a DNA test might make people uncomfortable.

"It's not absolutely certain it's Chopin's heart," she says.

The legend is that a German soldier removed the heart from its pillar in the church during the war, before both the church and the pillar were flattened. It is then said to have passed through a variety of hands before being returned to a Polish cardinal.

In a bizarre twist, one of the men who supposedly looked after the heart and saved it from destruction is the same man who carried out that destruction - SS Gen Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, commander of the German forces that put down the Warsaw Uprising with great brutality in the summer of 1944.

But as Rose Cholmondeley says, it's hard to know how much of this is true, and the possibility remains that the heart reinterred in the pillar of the church in October 1945, amid patriotic celebration in the ruins of a devastated city, is not Chopin's.

Prof Dobosz disagrees. The April inspection, in his view, dispelled these doubts.

"The condition, the appearance of the preservative, the type of thread used for stitching the heart following dissection in Paris, the type of jar - all, in our opinion, are of the era," he said during the scientists' news conference.

The jar was resealed in the church pillar, with a recommendation that it be left undisturbed until 2064.

What is TB?

• Serious condition caused by bacterium mycobacterium tuberculosis
• Mainly affects the lungs, but can affect other parts of the body,including bones and nervous system
• Was a major health problem in 18th and 19th Century Europe and North America, but was brought under control in 20th Century by improved hygiene and antibiotic treatment
• Remains a fatal disease in countries where population is dense and hygiene is poor

The diagnosis of TB could be regarded as inevitable in Chopin's case.

He was a deeply Romantic figure. The stirring passion and emotion of his music led his German contemporary Robert Schumann to describe it as "cannons hidden among flowers".

And Chopin's appearance - thin, small, very pale - corresponded to the stereotype of the Romantic consumptive.

"Chopin coughs with infinite grace" wrote his lover, the novelist George Sand.

Prof Clark Lawlor of Northumbria University has published a book on the depiction of consumption in literature. The first half of the 19th Century saw TB eulogised as the way for an artist to die, he says. If a fatal illness could ever be considered attractive, than it was TB.

"It's a bit like heroin chic," says Lawlor, "A Romantic idea of consumption as the glamorous disease of the beautiful and the genius. How can any disease be fashionable, how can any disease be Romantic? But it reached this paradoxical position in the 19th Century."

It's tempting to see a blurring of fact and fiction in Chopin's death. But even so, the original explanation of what killed him may still be the most credible one.

"TB was the single most common cause of death in Europe and North America. It was an enormous killer. On a statistical basis, he died of TB rather than Cystic Fibrosis," says Prof Lucas.

While he agrees that Chopin did exhibit some of the characteristics of a CF sufferer and someone affected by Alpha-1-AT, he says they could all apply just as well to someone with TB.

He also doubts whether any testing of tissue now could prove conclusively what killed Chopin, and for that reason his heart - assuming it is his heart - should be left to rest in peace, he says.

"Histopathology of the pericardium might indicate TB, but if it's normal no disease is proven or excluded. Genetic tests for CF would probably be inconclusive. So that's why I don't think they should do it."

No-one may be able to say conclusively what killed Frederic Chopin.

But the Church of the Holy Cross in Warsaw will continue to be a place of pilgrimage for Chopin devotees - convinced that the heart resting there is that of the greatest of all Polish patriots.

[MIKA27]

Stonehenge Find May Rewrite History But Not Reroute Tunnel

Less than 2.4 km (1.5 miles) from Stonehenge at a point called Blick Mead, archeologists are finding large caches of Mesolithic artifacts from over 8,000 years ago, which means they predate Stonehenge and could identify this as the location of the community that built the monument. Unfortunately, it’s also the location of a planned tunnel to be built under Stonehenge to relieve traffic congestion in the area. Can a discovery that may rewrite history also reroute the tunnel?

Blick Mead is near Vespasian’s Camp, the site misnamed for the Roman general Vespasian who never actually camped there. An archaeological team from the University of Buckingham’s Humanities Research Institute, under the direction of David Jaques, found 12,000 pieces of worked flint and burnt flint in such fine condition that some could still cut fingers. Charcoal and bones of ancient cows known as aurochsshow evidence of eating around a fire.

Remains of giant aurochs found at Blick Mead

Radiocarbon dating indicates the Blick Mead site was used for almost 3,000 years between 7550-4700 BC. That could make it the so-called missing link between the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods and possibly identify it as the home of the builders of Stonehenge. This is such an historic find, English Heritage calls it “one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape.”

Which brings us to the tunnel.

Location of the planned A303 tunnel and its close proximity to Blick Mead and Stonehenge

Plans were recently announced for a 1.8 mile tunnel under the World Heritage Site in Wiltshire to relieve traffic jams on the A303, the main route through the area. That same English Heritage, along with the National Trust, called the tunnel a good idea. Now it is believed the tunnel would hamper further excavations and possibly destroy the site.

History or human convenience? Monoliths or money? Which is more important? Who do you think will win this battle of the ages?

[MIKA27]

NASA: Let's Explore Venus In Solar Zeppelins And Build Cloud City There

There’s a lot we can learn about Earth’s atmosphere from studying Venus, however, it’s Venus’ crushingly thick air — precisely what we want to study — that is preventing us from sending manned missions there. But this radical zeppelin could finally help us unlock the secrets of our celestial neighbour.

We’ve remotely visited Mars nearly two dozen times already, but we’ve barely scratched the surface of Venus. Technically, we’ve not actually even seen Venus’ surface, much less scratched it, thanks to the planet’s incredibly dense atmosphere. Venus is covered by dense clouds of sulphuric acid, its air is mostly carbon dioxide and nitrogen, which have turned Venus into a global greenhouse with a surface temperature hovering around 872 degree F and atmospheric pressure 92 times that of our sea level.

“The vast majority of people, when they hear the idea of going to Venus and exploring, think of the surface, where it’s hot enough to melt lead and the pressure is the same as if you were almost a mile underneath the ocean,” NASA’s Chris Jones told IEEE. “I think that not many people have gone and looked at the relatively much more hospitable atmosphere and how you might tackle operating there for a while.”

However, at a height of around 50 km the atmosphere thins and cools to what one would find here on Earth, which is exactly where NASA’s High Altitude Venus Operational Concept (HAVOC) would operate. The plan is to first launch a 31-meter robotic airship to perform initial observations and ensure that the secondary, manned mission would have a fair chance of success.

NASA would then follow up with a 30-day 2-manned mission aboard a 130-meter, solar-powered airship with a small cabin slung beneath the helium-filled dirigible. Then, perhaps, a year-long mission and, if everything goes well, eventually a permanent floating outpost like a real life Cloud City. Though, as you can see in the video above, just getting the necessary gear there will be an enormous challenge and, for the manned missions, we’d have to send a pair of spacecraft — the first with the airship, the latter with the crew.

We can’t even get our Mars rovers to stop drawing dicks in the sand, and NASA really thinks we’re ready to start building floating towns and letting Billy Dee Williams wear a cape again? Man I hope they’re right because that’s going to be awesome. The capes, I mean.

[Fuzz]

NASA: Let's Explore Venus In Solar Zeppelins And Build Cloud City There

Cloud City? Better call Willrow Hood in case the place needs to be evacuated...

[MIKA27]

Philadelphia Literally Burns Old Money For Electricity

What happens to old paper money that’s too worn out to be used? It’s often recycled and made into everything from dog beds to packing materials. But the Philadelphia Federal Reserve office does something even more unique: They send the old currency to local power plants, where it’s burned for electricity.

Yes, Philadelphia is literally burning money to keep the lights on. And that’s a good thing! They used to just shred it and send it to landfills, letting all that energy go to waste.

The Federal Reserve has made tremendous progress with their recycling program in recent years. In 2009 just 30 per cent of discarded paper currency in the U.S. was recycled. Today roughly 94 per cent is recycled. That’s about 4,900 tons worth of money per year.

“Rather than just sitting in a landfill, it’s producing electricity for residents in the Delaware Valley, here in our district,” an official at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia proudly told the Wall Street Journal.

Other municipalities around the country have similar currency incineration programs, including Los Angeles County, where they burn as much as 500 tons of money per year. I suppose the image of burning money is a good reminder to turn the lights off when you leave a room. Your dollar bills are literally going up in smoke.

[MIKA27]

Russia Building World's Largest Collection Of DNA, Called 'Noah's Ark'

The New Cold War is about to live up to its name a bit more literally. Researchers in Russia want to build the world’s largest repository for DNA, storing the genetic material of every creature on Earth, both living and extinct.

Researchers at Moscow State University have secured a grant of roughly $US194 million to make it happen. They hope to build a 166 square mile facility to house the project and are referring to it as “Noah’s Ark.”

RT News reports that it’s the first of its kind in the world. But that’s simply not true. The National Museum of Natural History has the largest biorepository in the world right now, with over 4.2 million samples. Their facility has the potential to expand to 5 million vials, but clearly Russia hopes to surpass them after their facility opens in 2018.

“If it’s realised, this will be a leap in Russian history as the first nation to create an actual Noah’s Ark of sorts,“ Moscow State University rector Viktor Sadivnichy told journalists, as reported by RT News.

The time capsule project is reportedly Russia’s single largest scientific grant. But one has to assume that’s not counting that whole space race thing.

[MIKA27]

Iran Tests 'Suicide Drone'

Today Iranian military forces tested various unmanned aircraft that some are calling “suicide drones.” Because “suicide drone” sounded more intimidating than “model aeroplane that we could fly into things nearby.”

Iran has been conducting military exercises for the past week at the Strait of Hormuz near the Persian Gulf. The show of force has involved air, land, and sea maneuvers over 850,000 square miles.

According to the Associated Press it’s unclear which of Iran’s unmanned aircraft are supposed to be the “suicide drone,” but Iranian news sites have run a number of images that show drones which quite frankly might fit under a Christmas tree.

Some media outlets have referred to the “suicide drone” as the Yasir drone, known to be a modified version of the American ScanEagle drone, captured by Iran in 2012. Other Iranian media have referred to the Raad-85. That Iranian-made drone is specifically designed to crash into an enemy and explode its warhead.

This week’s exercises are codenamed Mohammad Rasoulallah, meaning Mohammad the Messenger of God. Much like the U.S. military, Iran has also been using drones for target practice during this week’s drills. Three drones have reportedly been shot down over the past week.

Iran’s drone capabilities to date have been highly suspect, with many speculating that some of their more advanced looking UAVs can’t fly. However, Iran does seem to have unmanned surveillance aircraft capable of 10-hour flights. Unconfirmed reports have said that Iran’s Shahed-129 drone can stay in the air as long as 24 hours and has a range of just over 1,000 miles.

[MIKA27]

Watch The Mad Skills Of This Woman Cooking Rice Paper Roll Sheets

I could spend hours sitting next to this woman, watching her making rice paper roll sheets. And then fill those rice papers with noodles, cilantro, shrimps, hoisin sauce, cook them in a steamer, and eat them with an ice cold beer.

[MIKA27]

How A Portuguese City Turned Its Buses And Taxis Into Wi-Fi Hotspots

In Porto, Portugal, picking up a free Wi-Fi signal is as simple as hopping into a bus or taxi. The city recently launched a Wi-Fi program that serves 70,000 people a month by offering free internet connections in more than 600 buses and taxis.

The program helps people keep their data usage down, and it also provides city planners information, since the Wi-Fi routers and special sensors also help collect data about when vehicles drive over a pothole or when garbage cans are full. This helps civic planners decide how to prioritise road repairs and garbage maintenance.

Cities have experimented with installing Wi-Fi routers in public places in all sorts of ways. In places like New York and London, there are initiatives that turn old payphones into hotspots. Porto’s plan is unusual because it places routers on moving vehicles and doubles their practical purpose by using them as data sensors for city planning. The program, which is run by a startup called Venium, was funded with $US4.2 million by venture capitalists. If it helps planners choose more efficient methods for dealing with problems, it could end up providing a service that both saves the city money and makes travellers within the city happy. There are already plans for the company to expand to other cities, and it’d be great if other companies used this program for inspiration. The data bills are too damn high.

[MIKA27]

China's Laser-Guided Grenade Launchers Are Deadly From Half A Mile

Not to be outdone by their their American counterparts’ M203 grenade launchers with fancy new SAGM rounds, China’s People’s Liberation Army has been hard at work ripping off the design developing an under-barrel grenade launcher with similar laser-guided capabilities. There’s nowhere to run (or hide) once you’re in these sights.

The launcher is an integral component of China’s futuristic ZH-05 Objective Individual Combat Weapon (OICW), which was introduced at the turn of the century to as an update to the PLA’s existing 1950s-era rifle arsenal. Carried primarily by the Chinese Marines and special forces, the ZH-05 weighs less than 11 pounds fully loaded with 5.8mm rounds (probably because it still uses a manual bolt action). And rather than a traditional iron sight, the ZH-05 utilizes a digital camera integrated into the soldier’s head-mounted optics.

The most impressive feature of the ZH-05 though is its 20mm laser-guided grenade launcher. Designed to perform the same duties as the American M203, the launcher offers a range of a half mile with a blast radius of 25 feet. Plus it offers three kinds of rounds: An anti-personnel airburst, a pellet canister (think long-range shotgun), and a conventional impact grenade.

Per Military Informant:

The measured range-finder range to the target displayed on sight and entered automatically into the fire control system to calculate corrections for the shooting conditions and determine the number of revolutions grenades on the trajectory. Programming grenades carried in the arms, at the stage of loading, and provides an introduction to the original data and amendments issued by the ballistic computer, to solve the problem of combining non-contact point with the contour of a grenade explosion goal.

That means the grenade can be programmed to explode at a set distance, whether or not it actually impacts anything. With proper aim, a soldier would be able to program the grenade’s electronic fuse to detonate and air-burst above an enemy position. In fact, field tests found the launcher 60 per cent more efficient than conventional mortars during urban combat. What’s more, the ZH-05 is reportedly far less expensive to produce than its American “smart rifle” counterpart, the $US34,000 XM-29. Looks like laser-guided grenades are here to stay.

[MIKA27]

Guy Perfectly Uncorks A Champagne Bottle With A Tactical Rifle

The guys at FullMag — previously RatedRR — managed to perfectly open a bottle of cheap champagne using a 50 Cal tactical rifle. Sadly, in the process they also managed to shatter a bottle of perfectly delicious 2006 Cristal Champagne — which makes me sad. But whatever, happy holidays!

[MIKA27]

Taiwanese Animators Have The Most Insane Take On The Sony Hack

“Sony exposed its nuts to the world this week, and it’s been confirmed, they’re real small.” Your friendly neighbourhood Taiwanese Animators have the best, most insane Hot Take on the Sony hack and the ensuing parade of idiocy.

It’s been a while since we’ve posted something from these guys. Their gimmick got a little played out. But this one? This one is damn good, perfectly encapsulating just how bad Sony’s reaction has been to this been to this whole thing, between cancelling its release of The Interview, and showing its arse in just about every way possible. The Taiwanese Animators can be dumb and insane. But in this case, dumb and insane is damn appropriate.

[MIKA27]

SAFE+ MICROLOCK

Nothing quite beats a sense of security, does it? We’re all obsessed with keeping our things secure, and are always weary of expensive objects being stolen — as we should be, of course. But we don’t always carry big, bulky chains and locks around with us to lock our important goods up somewhere. Now, Unikia has released a lock that measures just 4cm in diameter so it’s easy to bring with you anywhere and use: the Safe+ microlock.

The Safe+ microlock has a super strong 66cm wire that is easily rolled back onto the microlock, itself, for a neat storage solution that will fit right into your pocket. Each Safe+ microlock comes with a unique preset 2 digit code that is necessary to snap the lock apart. Simply put, it’s a strong, secure and tiny microlock that will keep things like your bike or backpack next to whatever pole you lock them to without worry.

[paulF]

Volvo Created A Bike Helmet That Warns Drivers About Nearby Cyclists

Had this idea a while ago but for motorcyclists!

[MIKA27]

Italy’s Terror on the Tracks

Anarchists claiming to defend the environment are setting fires on high-speed train lines to stop one of the world’s longest railway tunnels being drilled under the Alps.

ROME—The high-speed train lines that link Italy’s largest cities are crucial arteries used by thousands of people every day for business and pleasure. But lately they have been the focus of provocateurs aiming to spread terror on the train line.

Since the first of December, there have been six fires set along Italy’s high-speed lines—two near Florence and four near Bologna. The rogue fires disrupted service for hours and panicked passengers who found themselves in high velocity trains screeching to a halt to avoid the infernos.

Authorities blame anarchists protesting a proposed high-speed rail line called TAV that will link Turin and Lyon, France. No-TAV graffiti was found at the sites of all the fires. And the authorities also worry that the December fires are just the beginning.

"What I feared would happen has happened: a new act of terrorism against the TAV,” said Italian Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi. "But they won't stop us on the road to innovating and changing Italy.”

Three hooded arsonists were caught on a private surveillance camera setting some of the fires in the early morning fog near Bologna. But they are impossible to identify positively, according to prosecutors who worked through the Christmas holidays on the case. Extra security was also set up along the lines to monitor other signs of potential sabotage. The Bologna fires destroyed the regional train traffic control system, which put the entire rail network in northern Italy on hold until it could be repaired.

“There is a serious danger it could cause a train crash,” Bologna prosecutor Roberto Alfonso told reporters on Christmas Day.

The TAV tunnel drilling site through the Alps in the Susa Valley in northern Italy has been under constant attack since it opened in 2011. It is now protected by military checkpoints to keep the No-TAV protesters at bay, which is why they are targeting other rail lines, says Lupi.

Last month, a militant group known as Armed Operational Nuclei (NOA) asked No-TAV protesters to join what they called an “armed struggle” against the governments of Italy and France, which say they will persist with the rail line at all costs.

In an open letter sent to Italy’s wire service ANSA last fall, the armed group called for increased violence. “Do not use complaints, courts and lawyers to beat and to silence the enemy,” the NOA activists wrote. “You must practice armed struggle."

The governments of Italy and France contend that once the line’s main 40-mile tunnel is bored through the Alps, the project will be good for the environment by reducing highway traffic. The project is partially funded by the European Union, which has made linking the high-speed train lines of Italy and France an infrastructural priority for all of Europe.

The TAV project has also been the subject of a criminal investigation by anti-Mafia prosecutors who worry that the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate has corrupted the project, and will benefit from the new corridor for trafficking illegal waste and other contraband goods. In July, 20 people were arrested in Turin for attempting to infiltrate the project by manipulating the awarding of contracts without a proper bidding process.

Last week, a Turin court convicted four “No-TAV” protestors for a 2013 attack on the tunnel drill site, but acquitted them on terrorist charges. The four have been in a high-security prison since their arrest but were released to house arrest after being cleared of the terrorism charges.

Transport minister Lupi condemned the release and terrorism acquittals, and warned that it could lead to more violence and threats of the type seen in December. “If putting on hoods and organizing an attack on the State is not association for terrorist ends, someone must explain to me what it is," Lupi said. “Personally, I can’t understand how you can define an assault with fires and bombs as anything but terrorism.”

[MIKA27]

Here's The Plane Australia Is Deploying To Help Search For Missing AirAsia Flight QZ8501

The search has resumed for a missing Singapore-bound AirAsia flight QZ8501 which lost communication with ground control while flying over the Java Sea, an hour before it was supposed to land 24 hours ago. Australia is now joining the search effort with this high-tech RAAF plane.

The Australian Defence Force deployed an RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft from Darwin this morning to help with the search efforts.

In a statement from the head of the RAAF, Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin said:

The RAAF AP-3C Orion aircraft has a well proven capability in search and rescue and carries martime search rader coupled with infra-red and electro-optical sensores to support the visual observation capabilities provided by its highly trained crew members.

The Orion was also used in the search for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 off the coast of Western Australia earlier in the year.

Jakarta’s air traffic control lost contact with the Airbus 320-200 around 11:24pm GMT (or 7:24pm EST). On board was a crew of seven and 155 passengers of French, South Korean, Malaysian, and (predominantly) Indonesian. Later, AirAsia confirmed via Facebook that the plane deviated from its course due to weather search. Rescue operations are underway at the guidance of The Indonesia of Civil Aviation Authority, according to the airline.

[MIKA27]

The Trillion Dollar F-35 Won't Even Be Able To Shoot Its Gun Until 2019

Last year, Australia dramatically boosted its order of the still-in-development, problem-prone F-35 stealth fighter. Now a new report says the jet’s 25mm cannon won’t be operational until 2019 at the earliest. Even more laughable is that it probably doesn’t even need the gun to begin with.

Unnamed US Air Force officials revealed the bad news in a Daily Beast story about the F-35. Apparently the software that will power the four-barreled rotary cannon on the Air Force version of the jet, the F-35A, won’t be ready for at least four more years. The US Navy and Marine Corps version use a different cannon, but it will also be years before the software’s ready for those guns.

The real kicker here is that the gun is probably just dead weight (read: a waste of taxpayer dollars) anyways. The F-35A’s cannon can fire 3,300 rounds per minute but can only hold 180 rounds. “I would be lying if I said there exists any plausible tactical air-to-air scenario where the F-35 will need to employ the gun,” one senior Air Force official told the Daily Beast. “Personally, I just don’t see it ever happening and think they should have saved the weight [by getting rid of the gun altogether].”

The jet, which is also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is already the most expensive weapon in American history. It’s expected to cost the Pentagon well over $US1 trillion over the next 50 years. And little hiccups like this only add more taxpayer dollars to that price tag.

[MIKA27]

Bluetooth Is Named After A Medieval King Who May Have Had A Blue Tooth

Bluetooth was never supposed to be called Bluetooth. Back in 1996, a consortium of companies — Intel, Ericsson, Nokia, and later IBM — decided to create a single wireless standard. Each company had been developing their own short-range radio technologies, but all the names they came up with sucked. Then, along came an obscure Scandanavian king from the Middle Ages.

King Harald Gormsson is famous for ruling Denmark and then Norway between about 940 and about 986, ultimately uniting all of Scandinavia. He was also the one who converted the Danes to Christianity. Like many medieval rulers, he also had a nickname: blátǫnn in Old Norse or Blåtand in Danish. It means Bluetooth. The exact origin of the nickname is up for debate, but many scholars believe that King Harald became known as Bluetooth because he had a conspicuous dead tooth that literally looked blue. Makes sense.

What does all this have to do with wireless technology standards of the mid-90′s? Everything, actually. As the above three companies struggled to develop their new standard, Intel engineer Jim Kardach went out drinking with Ericsson engineer Sven Mattisson. In the summer of 1997, as their companies struggled to finalise their wireless standard, the two men went out drinking in Toronto after losing a competition for a specific radio system. Kardach had been working on a program called Business-RF at Intel, while Mattisson had developed similar technology called MC Links for Ericsson. Nokia had their own Low Power RF program, but apparently, their engineer didn’t get to go to drinks.

During their pub crawl, Kardach and Mattisson started talking about history. Mattisson had just read a book called The Longships by Frans G. Bengtsson that cataloged the travels of Danish warriors under the reign of King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson. (He’s often simply referred to as Harard Bluetooth.) Kardach went home and read The Vikings by Gwyn Jones, which he’d actually ordered before the trip. In it, the history-loving engineer learned more about Bluetooth. “Harald had united Denmark and Christianized the Danes!” Kardach wrote in a column a decade later. “It occurred to me that this would make a good codename for the program.”

Kardach even created a PowerPoint presentation to pitch the idea to others in the formal marketing group. As you can see to the left, it was a little bit goofy. The group debated a number of names, including “Flirt” as a hint that devices get close without touching, but couldn’t agree upon anything. Bluetooth became the official codename, but it was only supposed to be a placeholder. When it came time to finalise the name, all of the companies involved in the project agreed to use IBM’s idea: PAN (personal area networking).

But then, of all things, the name PAN presented an SEO problem. Search engines turned up thousands of results for the word, potentially leading to trademark issues down the line. “It was decided then that we would go ahead and launch the SIG with the codename ‘Bluetooth’,” Kardach explained, “but would then change the name when the marketing group came-up with the official name.” Bluetooth was an instant hit, though, and the name was never changed.

When it finally came time to create a logo, the team turned back to Bluetooth’s Nordic origins. The now iconic Bluetooth logo is actually a combination — officially known as a bind rune — of King Bluetooth’s initials in Scandinavian runes: ᚼ and ᛒ. When you join the two to make a bind rune and drop it on a blue background, you get the familiar Bluetooth logo. The iconic image can be seen on millions of devices around the world. All because of a good king and his bad tooth.

[MIKA27]

The U.S. Tries To Pay Cuba About $4,000 A Year To Lease Guantanamo Bay

With the recent announcement that the US will normalize relations with Cuba, we expect a lot to change. Some travel restrictions will be loosened (though not lifted altogether), and you’ll be able to take back $US100 worth of Cuban cigars and rum if you head to the US afterwards. But will Cuba start cashing the cheques that the US has been sending Cuba since 1959 to lease Guantanamo Bay?

In the 1950s Americans used Cuba as its own private playground. American fruit companies had a huge presence there, and American troops felt right at home. But after the 1959 Communist revolution the American companies were tossed out, and Cuba wanted the troops to leave as well. But Cuba and the U.S. had signed a lease for Guantanamo Bay in 1903 that was re-upped in 1934 and President Eisenhower wasn’t about to give it up.

What’s crazy is that the U.S. only pays Cuba about $US4,085 every year to lease the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The current value of 2,000 gold coins.