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

[MIKA27]

Hacking The Secrets Of Australia's Joint Strike Fighter

Design details of Australia’s new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) have been stolen by Chinese spies, according to reports this week, although it’s not clear whether the information was highly classified or not. But this isn’t the first time information on the JSF has been stolen – it’s just one among a long history of security breaches over the aircraft and its manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

Steven L. Jones is a PhD candidate in International Relations at UNSW Australia. This post originally appeared on The Conversation.

In May 2013, the Washington Post reported that information on more than two dozen weapon systems were compromised by Chinese hackers, including ballistic missile defence systems, the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor transport and the US Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship.

The list also includes aircraft which Australia does or will operate: the Black Hawk helicopter, the P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft, the F/A-18 fighter, EA-18 Growler electronic warfare aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster III heavy transport as well as the JSF.

This is vast range of stolen information and is not likely to be from a single incident, but a culmination of hacks and other thefts over a few years.

For example, in March 2011 the Pentagon admitted that 24,000 files were stolen from a US defence contractor. In May 2011, Reuters reported that the security systems of JSF manufacturer Lockheed Martin and other military contractors were broken into by hackers using duplicate “SecurID” electronic keys, but it was not clear what, if any, information was stolen.

Release going on for years

The JSF has been the subject of the theft or unintentional release of confidential or classified information at various times over the past two decades. In 1996, while Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing were in the new fighter competition, the Pentagon’s JSF Program Office inadvertently released Lockheed’s confidential cost and pricing information to the other two competitors.

In May 2001, much to concern of the US, a petty thief stole a laptop from a British military officer in London. The laptop, which was eventually recovered by the British Ministry of Defence, contained details of progress on the development of the JSF.

In 2009, the Wall Street Journal that hackers had been breaking into the JSF project since 2007, and:

[…] appear to have been interested in data about the design of the plane, its performance statistics and its electronic systems.

The report continued:

The intruders compromised the system responsible for diagnosing a plane’s maintenance problems during flight […] [the] plane’s most vital systems – such as flight controls and sensors – are physically isolated from the publicly accessible internet.

At the time, Lockheed and the US Department of Defense downplayed the seriousness of the report. A Lockheed official was reported to have said:

Representation of successful cyber attacks on the F-35 [JSF] program [are] incorrect.

This was amended with the statement:

To our knowledge there has never been any classified information breach [despite] attacks on our systems continually.

A Pentagon spokesperson said there was “no special concerns”. Similarly, the Australian Department of Defence was reported to have said that:

[…] it has spoken with US Defence officials and Lockheed Martin about the alleged breach, but says extra sensitive data is not kept on systems connected to the internet.

Investigating the thefts

In the prologue to his 2014 book @War: The Rise of the Military-Internet Complex, Shane Harris provides details on the investigation into the security breaches. Harris said that the hackers were operating for months before anyone had noticed.

The US Air Force worked out that the information wasn’t taken from a military computer, and investigators began to look at the computer systems of contractors. Harris writes that the US Air Force brought in its own hacker to investigate but when he arrived at the Lockheed office he was greeted not by officials overseeing the JSF construction, but by the company’s lawyers.

The US air force top generals demanded that Lockheed and other contractors cooperate with the investigation which eventually discovered that Lockheed’s network had been “breached repeatedly”.

They couldn’t say precisely how many times, but they judged the damage as severe, given the amount of information stolen and the intruders’ unfettered access to the networks. In the entire campaign, which also targeted other companies, the spies had made off with several terabytes of information on the jet’s inner workings.

If events of the past year are any indication, electronic theft of JSF information has been much more successful than the physical theft of information. In January 2014, US citizen Mozaffar Khazaee was arrested after trying to send items to Iran including:

[…] numerous boxes of documents consisting of sensitive technical manuals, specification sheets, and other proprietary material for the F-35 [JSF].

The shipment included:

[…] thousands of pages of documents, including diagrams and blueprints of the high-tech fighter jet’s engine.

In July 2014, the US Justice Department charged Su Bin, a Chinese citizen who was living in Canada, with stealing sensitive information about Boeing’s C-17 and Lockheed’s F-22 and F-35 JSF. Working with two co-conspirators in China, Su was breaking into Boeing and Lockheed computers between 2009 and 2013.

In November 2014, Chinese national Yu Long was arrested while carrying:

[…] sensitive proprietary information on titanium used in a US Air Force program, most likely the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Secret or sensitive information?

In the 2014 cases outlined above, it is important to note the term “sensitive” as opposed to classified or secret. The information may be commercially confidential, but not classified at a national security level.

And so too, it is not clear from the reports this week if classified information has been stolen on the JSF. The slide in question, published by the German newspaper Der Speigel, is marked “Secret”, the whole presentation “Top Secret”, but the (U) for each piece of information indicates “Unclassified”.

What is not known is the security classification of the information stolen, as opposed to classification of the slide itself. Lockheed and Pentagon officials who stated in 2009 that no “classified” information was stolen may be technically correct, but it is still problematic.

In 2013, US Defence acquisitions chief Frank Kendall admitted to a Senate hearing that:

A lot of [unclassified information] is being stolen right now and it’s a major problem for us.

Kendall was not primarily concerned that the loss of information would make the JSF vulnerable to attack, but rather that it:

[…] reduces the costs and lead time of our adversaries to doing their own designs, so it gives away a substantial advantage.

What now for Australia’s JSF plan?

So what does all this mean for Australia’s commitment to the JSF? The federal government has committed to buying 72 of the F-35A version of the JSF at a total cost of A$12.4-billion, with the first to be operational by 2021.

For decades, a pillar of Australia’s defence policy has been possessing a technological edge over other nations in the region. It’s paid a significant premium to maintain that edge with the JSF but the theft of information, even unclassified information, erodes the technological edge in terms of quality and timeframes.

That being said, the JSF is much more than a weapons system. It is an enabler of networked information warfare, and it is the information’s technological edge which is critically important. Information warfare is the process of protecting one’s own sources of battlefield information and, at the same time, seeking to deny, degrade, corrupt, or destroy the enemy’s sources of battlefield information.

It is not clear if the electronic and information warfare capabilities of the JSF have been compromised. But China has demonstrated its adeptness in cyberespionage, and it would be concerning if this was indicative of China’s capabilities for electronic and information warfare.

Apart from increasing security measures, the theft of data of the past decade does not have significant short-term consequences for the US or Australia. But the long-term consequences remain unknown, at least until the capabilities of the JSF are fully developed, and we learn more about the Chinese fighters under development.

[MIKA27]

German court rules that men can urinate while standing

A court in Germany has ruled in favour of a man's right to urinate while standing up after his landlord demanded money for damage to the bathroom floor.

The landlord, who was seeking €1,900 (£1400; $2,200), claimed the marble floor had been damaged by urine.

But the Duesseldorf judge ruled that the man's method was within cultural norms, saying "urinating standing up is still common practice".

There is some debate in Germany about whether men should sit or stand to pee.

Some toilets have red traffic-style signs forbidding the standing position - but those who choose to sit are often referred to as a "Sitzpinkler", implying it is not masculine behaviour.

Judge Stefan Hank agreed with an expert's report that uric acid had caused some damage to the bathroom's floor.

But concluding, he said men who insist on standing "must expect occasional rows with housemates, especially women" but cannot be held to account for collateral damage.

"Despite growing domestication of men in this matter, urinating while standing up is still common practice," he added.

[MIKA27]

Remains of Possible Chupacabras Found by Chilean Goat Farmer

Where there are goats, there are bound to eventually be some Chupacabras. That’s why residents of the Chilean town of Monte Patria are keeping a closer eye on their flocks after a local goat farmer recently found the remains of what he fears are pair of the legendary goat suckers.

Javier Prohens raises goats in Monte Patria in the east central Chilean province of Limari. He says one of his farmhands was in an abandoned winery (what he was doing in the winery was not explained nor whether he was working or off the clock, but I digress) when he found the remains of two creatures he could not easily identify. Prohens went to the winery and gave this eyewitness account:

When we got there we saw them lying among some hay bales in one of the cellars. At first we thought they might be bats, but when we looked closer, we realized they had to be something else as the heads were too big for bats. And then someone said they looked like Chupacabras.

Fortunately, someone took pictures so the remains can be inspected by those who don’t have goats to protect. The skulls appear to be elongated and not really bat-like in appearance or size. That would make them closer to the traditional reptilian form of Chupacabra rather than those reported in the U.S. that resemble wild dogs.

A close look at the skull of one of the creatures

No goat remains were found and there don’t appear to be any recent reports of unusual flock disappearances in Monte Patria. That hasn’t stopped local farmers and parents from worrying, according to resident Querubin Lebron

Our livelihoods are built on goat farming. There are lots of goats here. Although it’s said they only attack animals, who knows it is won’t attack our children too.

Chupacabras? Bats? Something else? Until they’re identified, Javier Prohens and his neighbors will be guarding their kids and their kids.

[MIKA27]

This Baby’s Reaction to Seeing Her Mother for the First Time Is Everything

Due to albinism, a pigmentation disorder that has impaired her vision since birth, baby Louise had never truly seen her mother’s face.

But everything changed when she was given special glasses that helped her clearly see the world — and her mom — for the very first time.

[MIKA27]

LEEF IBRIDGE

Have you ever tried to record a video or take a photo and just couldn´t because your apple device didn´t have enough memory left? Don´t worry it does occur more often than you think…so in order to prevent that from ever happening again, and losing what might be an important moment, the guys at Leef developed the iBridge. It´s an IOS mobile storage solution, simply plug it into your iPad, iPhone or iPod and just shoot the camera button, the photo will store directly on it. Leef iBridge also allows you to walk around with your music or movies, so that you never run out of media entertainment. The first time you plug it in, you´ll be prompted to download the app from the appstore and you´re on your way to use it. From capacities starting at 16GB and up to 256GB, you will be sure to store whatever you need.

[MIKA27]

BELL & ROSS BR-X1

Watchmakers Bell & Ross have recently presented the new BR-X1, a sleek sports chronograph (inspired by aeronautical flight instruments) that reveals the watch´s complex movement behind its skeleton dial. Limited to only 250 pieces, the utilitarian Bell & Ross BR-X1 has a titanium and ceramic case with rubber details that feature toggle push buttons to control the chronograph. Each timepiece features its individual number engraved on the back of the sporty black woven rubber strap.

[MIKA27]

ICEMULE COOLERS

Now this is a really cool item! IceMule coolers! These guys started developing their concept based on the premise: "Any place you go, your cooler should go!”. The coolers on the market have to deal with several problems, the hard coolers, though effective, are not portable at all, they´re bulky and not easy to carry along. The soft ones, though portable, are not at all effective, they leak and don´t insulate well enough. The IceMule cooler is the first high-performance soft-cooler, it uses welded seams, instead of leaky zippers or sown surfaces. It has a double-layered shell that houses insulating foam, and is easy to use as a backpack also. From capacities starting at 15lt up to 30lt, the Icecooler let´s you enjoy a cold one whenever you want!!

[MIKA27]

ALMANAC TEQUILA BARREL NOIR BEER

We all know that the relationship between an American Stout and a bourbon barrel can yield fantastic results, but what you might not know is that time in a Tequila barrel can be equally impressive. Tequila Barrel Noir from Almanac Brewing is the proof, with its jet black appearance and hints of smoke and agave from the barrel. You might not expect the influence of tequila flavors to mingle with a stout this well — but the folks at Almanac have proven otherwise.

[MIKA27]

HIGH WEST BOURYE WHISKEY

The jackalope, a mythical creature that is said to be a cross between a jack rabbit and an antelope with horns, is an example of a unique, yet mythical blend.

Bourye from High West Distilling is a blend of equal interest, but is very real and available again after disappearing for years. Bourye is a blend of 9-year-old straight bourbon, 10-year-old straight rye whiskey, and 16-year-old straight rye whiskey. The resulting dram showcases some bold rye spice along with traditional sweet bourbon flavors like molasses and caramel. Hunt some down before it's as rare as a jackalope again.

[MIKA27]

JOSE CUERVO LIMITED EDITION ESPECIAL BOTTLES

There’s a point during every night out when the small talk ends and the action begins. It’s when legends are born, and it usually starts with a shot of Jose Cuervo. To celebrate 220 years of turning ordinary nights into extraordinary ones, Jose Cuervo has released these killer limited edition bottles.

The metallic gold and silver bottles feature brand new artwork that celebrates Jose Cuervo’s rich history as well as the best of Mexico’s traditions. Fear not, each is still filled with the world’s best-selling tequila, only now you’ll want to put the bottle on display after all your wild nights. So pick up a bottle or two, start some adventures and outfit your home bar when you’re done.

http://youtu.be/r3LvVChvuOc

[MIKA27]

2015 SHELBY GT

If you’re a fan of the 2015 Ford Mustang GT’s styling, but just need that little extra oomph, hey, how does 627 horsepower sound? If you’ve got the cash, you can put your order in now for the new Shelby GT.

Featuring a supercharged 627 hp V8 engine, this is the most powerful GT ever. Shelby charges $39,995 to turn your Mustang GT into this voracious python of a muscle car, and besides the insane engine you also get racing-grade wheels, road-gripping Michelin tires, a Borla exhaust, a carbon fiber hood, a performance handling kit and half shafts, upgraded 3.73 gearing, plenty of functional carbon fiber, big brakes, a fully adjustable suspension, and ample Shelby decals and badges to separate your GT from the herd. It’s all street-legal and ready for delivery in the second quarter of this year.

[MIKA27]

The Leatherman Tread Is A Multi-Tool That's Also A Bracelet

If you’re an adult, you should own a multi-tool. This is a Fact. But if you’re also a frequent flyer, you’ll know the annoyance of not being able to carry said multi-tool through airport security both in Australia and internationally. This is where this nifty new tool will come in handy — the Leatherman Tread packs 25 different tools, sans knife, into a vaguely fashionable bracelet.

The Tread is a multi-link bracelet, with 9 links each with 2 to 3 tools on the outer edges — Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, a bottle opener, a cutting hook, glass breaker, and so on. When it’s released in March or April, during the US spring, you’ll have to spring about US$150 for the Tread, or US$200 for the the black as shown above — very expensive, but that’s what you expect from a company with Leatherman’s reputation for quality. I’ve used a black Leatherman Wave for a couple of years now and it barely looks used, so the Tread should stand the test of time.

Later in the year, Leatherman will expand the Tread lineup with a version that includes a Swiss-made quartz movement watch — the QM1 will set you back at least US$500, though. Now I just have to wait and see whether I’ll be able to use the Tread itself as a wristband for my LG G Watch R.

We checked with Leatherman’s official Australian importer to confirm local launch dates and possible pricing, but that’s still to be worked out — at the moment, March is all we know, with pricing still “TBA”.

[MIKA27]

Why The Apple Watch Doesn’t Need More Than A Few Hours Of Active Use Time

Apple’s upcoming wearable still prompts a lot of questions, not least of which is how long it will last on a full charge of its battery. A new report form 9to5Mac suggests that Apple is looking at a smartwatch that will offer 2.5 hours of continuous use for processor-intensive applications like games, 3.5 hours for continuous use of standard apps and 4 hours of active fitness tracking in the background. Apple’s target for mixed use is 19 hours, including long periods where the display is off, but the initial hardware might not quite live up to that expectation, per 9to5Mac’s sources.

The report also claims that the Apple Watch team had hoped for higher numbers, and that it also helped contribute to a supposed delay of launch plans from late last year to early next. And at first glance, the number on paper might provoke some head-scratching or looks of concern among Apple Watchers; 3.5 hours of app use sounds abysmal when measured up against devices like the iPhone, for instance.

But even if Apple falls somewhat short of these figures, it’s likely not going to hurt the consumer success of the wearable, for a few reasons. One of them is that this device is in reality meant to be an occasional use gadget, and the initial limitations for developers backs that up. Apple is setting developers up to use the platform as a conduit for essential information from the smartphone, and a triage device that works precisely because it allows for quick action, rather than prolonged use sessions.

Apple also has existing device capabilities working to its advantage – the field of Android Wear devices generally offer about the same in terms of battery consumption, with some probably doing worse, and some slightly better. The point is that consumer expectation is primed for lower active use times, and daily charging. Battery life is a metric that Apple will have to match, or improve upon with each successive generation, but it can start where consumer expectation for wearables already is, so long as it delivers a superior experience in other regards.

Which leads to the next point working in Apple’s favor: The original iPhone promised only five hours of “talk, video and browsing” time, which was meagre compared to the luxurious long life of competing smartphone devices from the likes of BlackBerry. The Apple Watch, as described in this report, won’t be that far off, and it’s intended for use sessions that should be far shorter and less taxing on its internal powerhouse.

The original iPhone actually fell quite short of some of its competitors in this regard, but the experience was enough to answer the naysayers who argued no one would want to deal with the hassle of a phone you had to charge every day (GASP). Obviously, people were more than willing, and that was in a market where there were options that scored far better in terms of battery expectations, which in this case there really are not, barring the Pebble, but I think the Pebble is actually a good analog to BlackBerry in terms of the competitive landscape Apple will encounter when it debuts the Apple Watch, as its experience pales in similar ways.

For all the complaints about battery life on contemporary devices, it hasn’t seemed to seriously hamper sales of any device type, or specific hardware to date in a way that jeopardized the viability of the product. Apple can shoot for table stakes in this instance, so long as everything else offers a new level of polish and functionality.

[MIKA27]

Pentagon Scolds US Air Force For Wasting Nearly $US9 Billion On Drones

Drones are expensive. Aircraft like General Atomics’s MQ-1 Predator or MQ-9 Reaper cost millions of dollars piece, while the cost of maintaining the fleet stretches into the high tens of billions dollars over their lifespans. The Pentagon’s internal watchdog is aware of this, and recently lambasted the Air Force for not justifying the purchase of 46 Reapers — potentially wasting $US8.8 billion of taxpayers’ money.

That’s a lot of taxpayer dollars! In fact, that’s well over half of what the government spends on veterans education benefits. How could the Air Force be so reckless? Well, according to the inspector general, the main problem with the purchases is the simple fact that the Air Force can’t justify it. Or rather, the branch’s air combat command didn’t even try. In inspector general speak, they “did not conduct and maintain consistent, complete and verifiable analyses for determining the necessary MQ-9 procurement quantity.” The commanders just spent the taxpayer dollars.

The Air Force, perhaps obviously, takes a different view of the matter. “The air combat command’s director of plans said the Pentagon study significantly overstated the potential waste costs, pegging it at $US593.4m for 46 Reapers instead of nearly $US9 billion, and underestimated the stress on the air force to provide sufficient drones for commanders,” reports The Guardian‘s Spencer Ackerman who obtained a copy of the inspector general’s original report. The Air Force also claims that it’s buying 346 drones instead of the 401 that the inspector general says it’s buying.

Well, whatever. We could let the military bureaucrats bark back and forth about the specifics for years, but there’s a bit of a trend that backs up the inspector general’s claims. Remember the Pentagon’s trillion dollar plane that keeps getting grounded, won’t be able to shoot its gun for years, and probably isn’t even that great in the first place? (It’s called the F-35.) With past examples of wasteful spending in the military, it’s easy to believe that the Air Force might’ve screwed up to the tune of nearly $US9 billion. Meanwhile, nobody even wants to fly the damn things. At least the Air Force isn’t just melting down the drones like the Pentagon had to do with $US1 billion worth of bullets recently. At least there’s that.

[MIKA27]

A Look At How Mini Helicopters Could Help NASA's Future Rovers

Driving on the surface of Mars pretty much sucks. Even though the Opportunity rover celebrated its 11th anniversary on the Martian surface today, that robust little craft has also ran into tricky sand dunes and other perplexing surface anomalies. It sure would be nice if some aerial reconnaissance could identified these potential snags before they happen.

Luckily, NASA has the same idea. Earlier this week, NASA spilled some details on a Martian scout helicopter that would let rovers better understand their surroundings. They’d also give scientists a bird’s eye view what’s around the rover and what might be worth poking and prodding a little further.

The current blueprints put this “helicopter” more in the drone category. Weighing just under a kilogram (and will be almost three times lighter than that on Mars) with a blade diameter of just over a metre. In a video published by the Jet Propulsion Labs as part of its “Crazy Engineering” video series, JPL Chief Engineer Bob Balaram describes some the engineering challenges with designing a rotor-based vehicle for Mars’ low-density atmosphere. The ‘copter would need to be autonomous, lightweight, but also rugged enough to withstand Mars’ harsh conditions.

The rover would be used very sparingly throughout the day. In fact, only once for about two to three minutes. But Balaram says that should be enough time for the vehicle to travel about half a kilometer, which is much faster than Oppy’s current 3.2km-per-year speed.

[MIKA27]

This Beautiful Photo Spells Doom For The Sea

This photo looks innocent enough: a simple, breathtakingly beautiful long-exposure shot of algae along the Hong Kong shoreline. But under the surface, the blue luminescence, called “Sea Sparkle”, is bad news for the ocean.

Noctiluca scintillans algal bloom, as Sea Sparkle is more correctly known, is caused by farm pollution that can be seriously bad news for marine life. Noctiluca feeds off the nitrogen and phosphorus run-off from industry, causing a high concentration around some shorelines. The bad news is that ammonia is a by-product of the Noctiluca growth, and high concentrations of ammonia is thought to (unsurprisingly) disturb marine life that lives in the area.

[MIKA27]

US Navy To Publicly Show Their Amazing Railgun For The First Time Ever

The US Navy will publicly show their formidable railgun at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology Expo in Washington DC on 4 February. The electromagnetic cannon launches solid projectiles over 100 nautical miles at more than six times the speed of sound. You can see it in action above.

They will test it on board this weird high speed ship in 2016:

[MIKA27]

This Guy's Archery Skills Are Borderline Superhuman

After watching this video, I can only assume that archer Lars Andersen is some kind of robot. I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone use a bow with such proficiency, accuracy or skill. In fact, Andersen is so good he’s better than Legolas from Lord of the Rings, something I’m sure will have Orlando Bloom in tears. Unconvinced? Just check out the video.

Andersen isn’t just showing off, the clip is also educational, debunking various myths about archery. He originally got his start when he took it up for LARPing (live action roleplaying), but so interested was he in the art of the arrow that he began to research various techniques in old manuscripts and historical texts.

Along the way Andersen learned a few tidbits about how archers operated back in the day before bullets were a thing. For one, Andersen believes quivers are impractical, especially for the archer on the move. A bow-wielder is better off keeping his or her ammunition in hand and reusing whatever your opponents happen to sling your way.

Despite what you may think after seeing Andersen in action, there’s no magic involved, just talent:

“Many people have accused me of being fake or have theories on how there’s cheating involved. I’ve always found it fascinating how human it is, to want to disbelieve anything that goes against our world view — even when it’s about something as relatively neutral as archery.”

That doesn’t stop him from boasting (and rightfully so) about his abilities:

Lars has studied and practised, and he is now able to fire three arrows in 0.6 seconds –- a truly stunning feat making him much faster than the legendary fictional archer Legolas (played by Orlando Bloom in the Lord of the Rings movies).

Not even his friends are safe:

“At one of our combat archery tournaments last year, I ended up in a one-on-one duel against a friend. Every time he shot an arrow at me, I’d shoot it out of the air with one of my own. After five arrows, he just gave up in good-natured disgust. Sure, it was showing off, but it was also a lot of fun!”

[MIKA27]

Snow emergency declared in US

An emergency has been declared in several US states as a storm bringing hurricane-force winds and 90cm (36ins) of snow barrels down on the north-east.

Boston, New York and Philadelphia began shutting down Monday evening as the flurries began, with the worst ahead.

Non-emergency vehicles have been banned on New York City's 6,000 miles of roads after 23:00 local time.

"Recognise this as an emergency, this is not business as usual," said Mayor Bill de Blasio.

New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have declared states of emergency and 50 million people are expected to wake up to a foot of snow on Tuesday.

In other developments:

• 6,500 flights in and out of airports along the East Coast cancelled
• schools and businesses stopped early on Monday
• New York's subway and bus services stop at 23:00 local time
• wind gusts of 75 mph or more are forecast for coastal areas of Massachusetts
• Boston's Logan Airport said there would be no flights after 19:00 local time

Glenn Field of the National Weather Service in Taunton, Massachusetts, told the BBC on Monday afternoon that the storm will be worse than previously thought.

Hurricane-force winds of up to 80 mph (129km/h) will batter Cape Cod, Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard, he said.

A tugboat on the East River with an obscured skyline behind

Stocks of water are running low in some New York shops

Mr Field said the heaviest snowfall will come in the early hours of Tuesday, with 15 inches expected between 0100 and 0500 local time, and 30 inches in total in parts of Massachusetts.

During a Monday afternoon press conference, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged residents to stay out of the way of the 2,300 snowploughs clearing city streets.

"You can't underestimate this storm," the city's mayor said. "What you are going to see in a few hours in something that is going to hit very hard and very fast."

Similar bans for non-emergency vehicles will be in effect later this evening for the states of Connecticut and Massachusetts and would be likely in the rest of New York state.

Millions of people are in the path of the storm

Snowploughs are out in force in Pennsylvania

Queues were out the door at Trader Joe's in Union Square

There are empty shelves in many shops along the East Coast

At least 28 million people will face blizzard conditions over the next day and an estimated 50 million people could see more than a foot of snow in the storm.

"In addition to heavy snow, with blizzard warnings, there's a big threat of high, damaging winds, and that will be increasing Monday into Tuesday," said Bob Oravec, a National Weather Service forecaster. "A lot of blowing, drifting and such."

[MIKA27]

Lakes in Greenland Completely Drain in Just Weeks

One day there’s a lake in Greenland filled with 7 billion of gallons of water. A few weeks later, all that’s left is a mile-wide, 230-foot-deep empty crater. Before anyone goes building a shopping mall on the dry bed, another Greenland lake just like it has emptied and refilled twice in two years. Where are Greenland’s lakes going and why are they disappearing so fast?

According to a study reported in The Cryosphere, researchers at Ohio State University were using high-resolution satellite images to develop a map of the Greenland Ice Sheet when they noticed the sudden disappearance of a large lake that had been there for 40 years. This concerned team leader Ian Howat.

The fact that our lake appears to have been stable for at least several decades, and then drained in a matter of weeks — or less — after a few very hot summers, may signal a fundamental change happening in the ice sheet.

This 2014 photo shows a crater where a lake was a few weeks earlier, next to a deep crack in the ice

Howat, an associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State, thinks the climate change is causing an excess of meltwater that exceeds Greenland’s natural plumbing system and causes what he calls “blowouts” – holes in the ice sheet that completely drain the lakes in just weeks.

The lake that empties and refills was found by geologists from Cornell University and reported in the journal Nature. Also using high-res images from NASA, they determined that the lake was drained and filled twice since 2012 and lost its water at a rate of 57,000 gallons (215 cubic meters) per second, or one 50-foot-long swimming pool per second. All of that draining and filling is not good for Greenland, according to study co-author Michael Bevis.

If enough water is pouring down into the Greenland Ice Sheet for us to see the same sub-glacial lake empty and re-fill itself over and over, then there must be so much latent heat being released under the ice that we’d have to expect it to change the large-scale behavior of the ice sheet.

Greenland is 70 to 80 percent ice so this rapid melting and lake disappearances, coupled with the unprecedented retreat of its glaciers, is of great concern not just to people who live there but to the rest of the world that will be dealing with rising waters.

[MIKA27]

Picture of The Week

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The Rebooted 'Fantastic 4' Movie - First Trailer

While films like Guardians Of The Galaxy and The Avengers may have raked in billions for Marvel, early comic book movies were deeply flawed and generally rubbish. Fantastic Four was one of those stinkers, but the name of the original superhero quartet looks like it’s about to be salvaged thanks to a new reboot coming this year. Check out the new trailer here.

Directed by Josh Trank of Chronicle fame, the new Fantastic Four movie looks gritty and awesome. It’s coming in August, and stars Miles Teller as Mr Fantastic (Reed Richards), Kate Mara as The Invisible Woman (Sue Storm), Michael B Jordan as The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) and Jamie Bell as The Thing (Ben Grimm).

[MIKA27]

The Forgotten Story Of NYC's First Power Grid

Lower Manhattan of the 1880s was a wonderland of futuristic technology and engineering: The city’s first cable car arced over the harbour. A spindly new steel bridge was forming to connect Williamsburg to the city. And on the Lower East Side, Edison was tearing up the streets to build the first permanent power station in the world.

When we think about Edison’s role in illuminating our cities, we often think of him as the loser. In the so-called “War of Currents,” which pitted Edison’s direct current electricity against Westinghouse’s AC/DC alternating currents, Westinghouse would ultimately win out. But years before that would happen, Edison pulled off one of the most remarkable infrastructure projects in NYC history — and he did it on the Lower East Side, on a street you might unknowingly walk down today. Another thing you might not know about Edison’s system? Some of it was operational until 2007.

In a new two-hour documentary about the luminary called American Experience: Edison, premiering tomorrow on PBS, we get a closer look at the incredible project to light up a small patch of Manhattan thanks to clip uploaded by Untapped Cities.

In the late 1870s, Edison had claimed that he would light up the world with his incandescent lights. The first step in his plan to do so? Create what amounted to a square mile showroom on the Lower East Side: An electrical grid that supplied direct current to a chunk of the city thanks to energy generated inside a new power station at 257 Pearl Street. It would supply power to some of the most important businesses in the city, crucially, including the old New York Times building — smart, considering the paper would inevitably cover the mind-boggling development!

But Edison’s great illumination took far longer to bring about than he expected, and the project was plagued with challenges. “It was massive, all of the problems he had to solve,” says writer Jill Jonnes, author of Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World, to PBS. For instance, Edison had to do the dirty work of actually convincing city officials to let him use the Lower East Side as a testing ground, which would require digging up long stretches of street to install 80,000 feet insulated copper wiring below the surface.

He also had to design all of the hardware that would go into his first power grid, including switchboards, lamps, and even the actual meters used to charge specific amounts to specific buildings. That included even the six massive steam-powered generators — each weighing 30 tons — which Edison had created to serve this unprecedented new grid, according to IEEE. As PBS explains, Edison was responsible for figuring out all sorts of operational details of the project — including a “bank of 1000 lamps for testing the system:”

But on the evening of September 4, 1882, the system finally cranked into gear. The New York Times did indeed report on the development within its own building, writing breathlessly the next day:

It was about 5 o’clock yesterday afternoon when the lights were put into operation. It was then broad daylight, and the lights looked dim. It was not till about 7 o’clock, when it began to grow dark, that the electric light really made itself known and showed how bright and steady it is.

“And according to Mr. Edison, they will go on forever unless stopped by an earthquake,” the reporter added. Well, an earthquake or the conceptual equivalent. It wouldn’t be long before Westinghouse’s AC/DC current — the brainchild of Tesla — would win out over Edison’s DC current.

But interestingly enough, the remnants of Edison’s Manhattan grid would endure for more than a century. The last bit of the direct current system was cut out of use in 2007, according to another NY Times story on the slow waning of Edison’s system. Fascinatingly, Edison’s electrical fingerprint remained the longest in the densest, busiest parts of the city, while alternating current hookups began in the outer boroughs and crept inwards, taking decades to replace the older direct current systems of Manhattan.

So next time you’re walking down Pearl Street, perhaps on your way to the TD Bank or Western Union that currently occupy the same stretch of street, keep in mind: NYC’s electrical birth once chugged away beneath your feet.

[MIKA27]

The Four Actresses Who Might Be The New Ghostbusters

Looks like the rumours are true: the next Ghostbusters movie will have an all-female cast, and now we know exactly who those actresses will be.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon are all in talks for leads in the reboot, which is being directed by Paul Feig (of Bridesmaids fame) for While some of these actresses are still negotiating the roles, they’re still expected to be in the movie.

MIKA: I am not against women in movies, in fact I equally enjoy female lead roles. BUT.. Ghostbusters being ALL women is wrong IMO. Having grown up watching the originals, why not mix it up with the original cast who do want to be in the movie and replace those who don't with a mix of men and women?

[MIKA27]

The Bizarre Anatomical Machines of Italy

The historic and magnificent city of Naples, Italy, has long been home to some of the finest masterpieces of art on earth. Among the quaint streets and museums, one can find a place called The Cappella Sansevero, or the Sansevero Chapel, also called the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà. It is a beautifully crafted chapel that is home to some of the best works of the top Italian artists of the 18th century; truly a dynamic treasure of Italy’s artistic heritage. Yet among all of the intricate paintings and marvelous sculptures, one may come across the more bizarre aspects of the chapel. As one peruses the various works of art here, it soon becomes evident that some of the weirder and more eccentric creations that Italy had to offer are displayed in its halls. The strangeness gets weirder and weirder and if you happen to stray off into the underground chambers of the chapel, you are bound to come face to face with one of the creepiest and little understood works of art ever produced by human hands; the enigmatic and baffling human machines of Cappella Sansevero.

The chapel itself dates back to 1590, and was built by the Duke of Torremaggiore, John Francesco di Sangro, on the grounds of the affluent Sansevero family as a private place of worship, and later was converted into a family burial chapel under the hand of Alessandro di Sangro in 1613. It wasn’t until between 1749 and 1766, when Prince Raimondo di Sangro commissioned major renovations, that the chapel began to take on the baroque, masonic inspired form it exhibits today. Raimondo di Sangro went to great lengths to hire some of the most well known artists of the time to help turn the chapel into a luxurious and lavish showcase of artwork.

Cappella Sansevero

Prince Raimondo di Sangro was known as an eccentric, enigmatic, and mystical man. He was the head of the Neapolitan Masonic lodge, the symbols of which are interspersed throughout the chapel, and was a student of numerous areas of the sciences, as well as alchemy and other mystical disciplines. He also spoke several exotic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic and was an inventor, some of his inventions of which were rather bizarre, such as a mechanized carriage with wooden horses that was said to be able to travel over both land and water. These eccentricities led to the Prince garnering a reputation as a practitioner of wizardry and black magic, and rumors abounded that he performed sinister magical rituals, human sacrifices, and curses. It was also said that he could perform great feats of alchemy, such as creating blood out of water or even thin air, and that he used the various body parts of his sacrificed victims in his odious spells and potions. The Prince was said to lock himself away for days on end and perform demented experiments on human beings, such as reanimating the dead. These dark rumors and legends that swirled around the Prince made him into a man to be feared and avoided; a larger than life black sorcerer who could bend magical and natural forces to his will. The Prince did little to deny these rumors and it is thought that he even encouraged them.

Prince Raimondo di Sangro’s eccentricity can be seen reflected in some of the various pieces exhibited within the chapel, and there are flashes of true bizarreness scattered among the more than 30 various works of art that can be found here. The Prince was intrigued by macabre and unusual artwork, sculptures, and pieces of scientific equipment, and as such went about collecting such items for the chapel. Here one can find some mysterious works of art that were atypical for their time. One such piece is a sculpture created by Giuseppe Sanmartino, that is usually referred to as Cristo velato, or “The Veiled Christ,” which depicts a post-crucification Christ and was crafted from a peculiar marble-like substance invented by Prince Raimondo di Sangro himself. It is a remarkable sculpture, famed for the incredibly hyper-realistic way the marble depicts human skin and the fabric of the veil. The effect is somewhat unnerving, and it seems as if the sculpture is a real living person that is wearing an actual veil rather than a completely marble construct, ready to pop awake at any time. The undeniably creepy sculpture looks so real, in fact, that it long was the source of rumors that the Prince had used his dark sorcery to transform a real person into marble. Other unique sculptures on display made of the same eerily realistic material include Francesco Queirolo’s sculpture Disinganno (Disillusion), which depicts a man trying to disengage himself from a net, and Antonio Corradini’s Pudicizia (Modesty), also known as “The Veiled Truth,” which shows a female figure paying tribute to the Prince’s mother.

The Veiled Christ

There are other wonders to be seen in the chapel as well. The ceiling is covered in a striking, chaotically colorful fresco by Francesco Maria Russo called the Glory of Paradise. In addition, although little of it remains intact today, the original floor, designed by Francesco Celebrano, was black and white marble featuring a unique labyrinthine design said to be of Masonic origin and meaning “initiation.” Most of this original floor was destroyed in a major chapel collapse in 1889, but fragments of it remain intact today in one of the chapel’s passageways. In fact it is this very passageway that leads to the stairway down to the basement, where the chapel’s most baffling and mysterious works of art reside.

Working one’s way down a modest staircase into the lower reaches of the chapel, one will first encounter an unusual painting dating from 1750 by the Roman artist Giuseppe Pesce called Madonna con Bambino, which was painted using a unique wax-based paint also created solely for its creation by the mysterious Prince Raimondo. Beyond this painting are by far the chapel’s most enigmatic and unsettling residents; two bizarre half flesh, half metal creations often called “anatomical models,” and more morbidly as “anatomical machines.” These “anatomical machines” were commissioned by Prince Raymond and created by the anatomist Giuseppe Salerno in 1760. The sculptures, if one can call really them that, are of a man and a pregnant woman, dubbed Adam and Eve, and are built over actual human skeletons with slightly askew bones connected by metal pins and wires. There was once even a fetus included within the pregnant woman but it is thought to have been stolen long ago. These two skeletons are overlaid with a complex, twisting network of metal tendrils and hardened arteries and veins which represent the arterial system, viscera and musculature of human beings with amazing, meticulous accuracy. The skulls of the two figures are hinged, and can be opened to reveal an incredibly detailed spiderweb of blood vessels within. Upon their unveiling, the disturbing models were so mystifying and grotesque that it was believed that the dark Prince had actually used his black magic and alchemy on some of his unwilling servants to morph them into these abominations.

Adam and Eve, the anatomical machines of Cappella Sanservo

Regardless of whether they are the result of black magic or not, Adam and Eve present a number of very real mysteries, not the least of which is how they were made in the first place. For years the method of construction was the source of bafflement among scientists and doctors. Were the intricate hardened circulatory systems real, and if so how did they remain so remarkably well preserved for over 200 years? Were they artificial? If so, how could they be reproduced so faithfully? Since there was little to no documentation as to the original creation of the anatomical machines, these were questions for which the answers long remained elusive. The main theory was that the two anatomical machines were created through a process known as plasticization, or “human metallization,” which involves injecting substances directly into the circulatory systems of subjects while they were still living, after which these materials would travel along the veins and harden, painfully killing the unfortunate victim in the process. However, no one really knew for sure.

A more detailed examination of Adam and Eve later showed that they held no evidence of the use of injected substances such as hardening materials or embalming chemicals of any kind. Through various sophisticated tests such as scanning electron microscopy and infrared spectroscopy, it was found that the veins themselves were comprised of a core of twisted metal and silk fibers that was then covered with a layer of a mixture of colored waxes, mostly beeswax. This detailed analysis helped to shed light on the creation of the mysterious Adam and Eve, but it still hasn’t been resolved exactly how the original creator managed to carry it out or indeed why. It is also unclear whether the two subjects were killed for the sole purpose of turning them into these twisted anatomical machines or if they had died before hand and were then changed postmortem. Considering that few records on their actual creation and early history exist, it is quite possible that we will never know for sure.

Whatever the reasons for their creation or the methods by which they were crafted, the anatomical machines of Sansevero Chapel certainly rank among some of the weirdest, most twisted works of art ever conceived of by the human imagination. If the eccentric, allegedly black magic wielding alchemist Prince Raimondo di Sangro was intentionally trying to freak people out, then it was a job very well done indeed.