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

[MIKA27]

Chinese Police Officials Caught Eating Real-Life Monster

It’s bad enough when humans create endangered species through hunting, pollution and other activities. It’s even worse when they knowingly dine on one of the last of a species – just to show they can. That’s what happened in South China’s Guangdong Province when 28 people, mostly police officials, ate a critically endangered Chinese giant salamander.

The Andrias davidianus is both the largest salamander and the largest amphibian in the world, reaching a length of almost 6 feet. There are only three recognized members of the Cryptobranchidae or giant salamander family – the Chinese giant salamander, the slightly smaller Japanese giant salamander (Andrias japonicus), and the much smaller North American hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis).

Besides these three, there have been reports since the 19th century of a Trinity Alps giant salamander in the Trinity Alps of northern California. The Japanese giant salamander is considered by some to be the inspiration for the kappa – a Japanese turtle-shelled reptilian cryptid that is believed to live in rivers and reputed to kidnap children and drown swimmers. The first giant salamander fossil discovered in 1726 was mistakenly identified as a Homo diluvii testis – a human who drowned in the biblical flood.

Drawing of a kappa

The Chinese giant salamander is critically endangered (the highest risk category before extinction) because of loss of habitat, pollution and humans who kill them for unproven medicinal treatments.

The Chinese giant salamander is critically endangered (the highest risk category before extinction) because of loss of habitat, pollution and humans who kill them for unproven medicinal treatments.

Or just because they can. Three journalists who infiltrated the dinner (and were severely beaten when discovered) reported that the 28 attendees were from the local public security department and included several senior police officials and the head of a public security bureau. The attendees knew what they were doing because the dinner was heavily guarded. After the journalists’ story appeared in their newspaper, the Southern Metropolis Daily, 14 police officers were suspended and an investigation was ordered.

It’s too late for one Chinese giant salamander – let’s hope this story helps the rest.

[MIKA27]

Putin’s Polonium-Poison Revenge on ex-Spy Laid Bare in UK Inquiry

Details of the defector Alexander Litvinenko’s gruesome death in 2006 finally get aired in a public hearing. Thousands of innocents were put at risk.

LONDON — Vladimir Putin was today accused of running Russia like a reckless mob boss, ordering an international act of nuclear terrorism that risked thousands of lives as part of a personal vendetta.

The allegations against him and his murderous “Mafia state” were made at the start of a public inquiry into the death of a Russian dissident who was assassinated in London with radioactive poison.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who defected to Britain, died in November 2006 after drinking a cup of tea laced with Polonium-210 at an upmarket hotel near Buckingham Palace.

The High Court judge presiding over the inquiry said classified evidence had already established that there was a “prima facie case” linking the Russian state to the murder of Litvinenko, whose death after he swallowed the rare radioactive isotope was slow and agonizing.

Ben Emmerson, the lawyer representing Litvinenko’s widow, who has been granted access to secret intelligence files, said he would show that Putin and his associates had ordered the assassination of a man who was working with the British authorities.

“He had to be eliminated—not because he was an enemy of the Russian state itself or an enemy of the Russian people—but because he had become an enemy of the close-knit group of criminals who surround Vladimir Putin and keep his corrupt regime in power,” said Emmerson.

The Litvinenko family claims “Sasha”—as he was known to his friends—became a target for Putin when he quit the FSB, the renamed successor of the KGB, and began to speak out against its brutal and illegal operations. Head of the FSB at the time? Vladimir Putin.

Litvinenko’s outspoken attacks on Putin continued until he escaped Russia on a forged passport while he was awaiting trial. The U.S. reportedly turned down his attempt to defect, but he made it to London and succeeded in claiming asylum.

From what he saw as the relative safety of London, he renewed his attacks on Putin. He wrote a book claiming that the Russian apartment bombings that presaged the Chechen War in 1999 were an FSB false flag operation, not the work of Chechen terrorists.

He claimed Putin had links to Russian organized crime, and that the president was responsible for the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a pioneering, dissident journalist killed shortly before Litvinenko was poisoned. The claims showed no sign of slowing down until he was taken ill at the start of November 2006. He was dead three weeks later. His body was so permeated with radioactivity that he was buried inside a lead-lined coffin at Highgate cemetery, in North London (also, as it happens, the last resting place of Karl Marx).

On his death bed, Litvinenko’s accusations continued. “As I lie here I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death,” he said. “You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.”

Emmerson told the public inquiry that Litvinenko’s final allegation would be proved beyond doubt. “When all the open and closed evidence is considered together Mr. Litvinenko’s dying declaration will be borne out as true—the trail of polonium traces leads not only from London to Moscow but directly to the door of Mr. Putin’s office,” he said. “Vladimir Putin should be unmasked by this inquiry as nothing more or less than a common criminal dressed up as a head of state.”

The judge heard that Litvinenko began working for Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, MI6, in 2003. In exchange for information about the inner workings of Moscow and the FSB, his handler “Martin” would arrange consultancy fees to be paid into his bank account.

Before he was killed, Litvinenko had also been working with the Spanish authorities who were planning to bring a court case that would expose the links between a criminal organization known as the Tambov-Malyshev gang and the Kremlin.

“He was killed, we say, partly as an act of political revenge for speaking out, partly as a message of lethal deterrence to others, and partly in order to prevent him from giving evidence as a witness in a criminal prosecution in Spain—a prosecution that could have exposed President Putin’s link to an organized crime syndicate,” Emmerson said.

The inquiry heard that Litvinenko had survived at least two other assassination attempts including one in 2004 when his home was firebombed by two Chechen men.

The British authorities believe that Litvinenko eventually succumbed to an assassination attempt by one man named as Dmitri Kovtun and another named as Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard. Litvinenko met with the men in London on two occasions that fall. It emerged today that postmortem examinations of Litvinenko’s hair revealed that he was exposed to the radioactive polonium isotope on two occasions.

Robin Tam, a lawyer acting for the inquiry, said Litvinenko had remembered feeling sick at around the time of their first meeting in mid-October. “Mr. Litvinenko recalled vomiting on one occasion about two or three weeks before being hospitalized,” Tam said. “It suggests two things—attempts to poison Mr. Litvinenko were made at both meetings and that those attempts met with some success on both occasions.”

Tam said the discovery of traces of polonium at different places across London had resulted in a public safety alert. “Many thousands of members of the public, including British residents and visitors from overseas, might have been at risk from radioactivity,” he said.

The inquiry heard that the only facility in Russia where polonium-210 is produced is Avangard, a nuclear laboratory owned by the Russian Federal Atomic Agency. “This was clearly a professional assassination which was meant to leave no trace,” said Emmerson. “This was not some ham-fisted hit by a criminal gang.”

He said polonium was used because the Russians thought it would leave no trace. The radioactivity was only discovered when police acted on a hunch and called in scientists from the Atomic Weapons Establishment. Once they knew what they were looking for, the poisonous trail would act “like the breadcrumbs left by Hansel and Gretel.”

Lugovoi and Kovtun have been invited to give evidence via satellite link at the inquiry, which is scheduled to last ten weeks. Both men deny any involvement and remain in Russia, where they have become minor celebrities.

[MIKA27]

MIIR VACUUM INSULATED THREADLESS HOWLER

If you’re ready to take your beer connoisseur status to the next level, you’re gonna need a growler. And these aren’t the kind of things you wanna be buying every few months, so investing in a quality container is a paramount goal. The 32 oz. Howler from Seattle-based MiiR could fit the bill nicely.

MiiR growlers feature the company’s double wall vacuum insulation technology which promises to keep your cold liquids cold for more than 24 hours and your hot stuff hot for an even 12. The stainless steel product is also threadless, which MiiR says results in a much better way to close the growler and keep it sealed, preventing leaks and beer residue-related crud from forming. And a nice touch is that the company says each Howler purchase will provide clean water to one person in need. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

WINECRUZER 8-PACK PRO WINE CARRIER

So you’ve been invited to your best friend’s wedding a few thousand miles away. Your best friend who, at last check, still considered Bartles & James Tropical Mango a suitable adult beverage. It’s time to bring your wine, and WineCruzer’s 8-Pack PRO Wine Carrier makes a strong case to be your case.

In fact, it’s more like a portable wine cellar even, as it raises the bar for what one can expect from such a product, with advanced cushioning, thermal insulation and a fresh new bottle tray design, all while conforming to current TSA shipping regulations. The 8-Pack PRO is made of ultra-high-strength polypropylene copolymer resin, and it promises your wine will stay perfect. It’s water and dust tight, resistant to corrosion and impact damage, and impervious to UV rays, solvents and fungi. The carrying case features a pull handle, embedded wheels for those brisk walks to your departure gate, and an automatic pressure release valve. [Purchase]

[Fuzz]

WINECRUZER 8-PACK PRO WINE CARRIER

Gotta get me one of these!

[MIKA27]

Inventor Of The Laser Dies

Charles Townes, the physicist whose work would help lay the foundations for the development of the laser died today. He was 99. His career also ranged far beyond an interest in lasers, into astronomy and a fascination with spirituality.

Dr Townes had an incredible career as a scientist, winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1964. But he’s perhaps best known as the “inventor” of the laser. Townes was also a pioneer in the field of infrared astronomy and was the first to discover water in space.

The quotes around “inventor” aren’t meant to detract from his accomplishments with lasers, but rather to acknowledge that invention is a really messy concept. Townes first built a maser in the mid-1950s, which used microwave amplification rather than light amplification.

Gordon Gould at ARPA (now DARPA) and Ted Maiman at Hughes Labs were working on similar research in the late 1950s. Maiman would actually be the first person to build a practical laser in 1960, working partially from the published research of Townes.

Dr. Townes shared his 1964 Nobel Prize with Russian scientists N. G. Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov because they were also working on the laser in the Soviet Union concurrently and independently of Townes.

Townes would be best known later is his life for advocating the idea that science and religion would one day merge, revealing the secrets of creation.

“I look at science and religion as quite parallel, much more similar than most people think and that in the long run, they must converge,” Townes would tell a Harvard crowd in 2005. “It’s a fantastically specialised universe, but how in the world did it happen?”

[MIKA27]

Striking Images Of The First War That Felt Like A Video Game

The USAF Air Combat Command just tweeted this photo: “Today in 1991, US-backed coalition air forces attained air supremacy over the Iraqis.” Aside from any geopolitical consideration, there’s something unsettling about it. It is simultaneously imposing for what it shows and terrible for what it doesn’t.

Above: Formation of three F-15 Strike Eagles and two F-16s Fighting Falcons calmly flying over Kuwait’s burning oil fields.

From this altitude, the human and environmental catastrophe gets reduced to a mere backdrop, a simple set for America’s overwhelming air superiority — it didn’t take long before the Pentagon could declare itsveni, vidi, vici.

Maybe I feel this way because this was the first war televised in real time. I remember my father waking me up in the middle of the night: “Come, the Americans have launched an attack on Iraq.” I stood in the living room, fascinated by the images moving on the screen — tracer fire, missiles, and explosions all over Baghdad. It didn’t look different from any Hollywood war movie. It didn’t look real. It never occurred to me that real people were dying in Iraq and Kuwait, regardless of their intentions and political affiliation. It was all a big show. A video game someone else was playing.

These images are frames of that show. Today, they could be a frame captured from any video game or fake war movie. Maybe that’s why people don’t care anymore: Nothing real feels real anymore because the world of entertainment feels so real to us, despite being fake.

F-14 Tomcats from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf awaiting their turn refueling from a KC-10A over Iraq during Desert Storm while conducting a MIGCAP mission to turn back fleeing Iraqi fighters.

[MIKA27]

A Hologram Of Emperor Marcus Aurelius Floats Above This Watch

When you’re spending just shy of $55,000 on a watch (or $60,000 if you prefer the look of white gold) you’re going to want something that catches people’s eyes so they know just how affluent you are. And as Back to the Future 2 proved, nothing grabs someone’s attention like a hologram floating in mid-air. Or, in this case, just above your watch.

But it isn’t magic or high-tech tomfoolery that makes it appear as if a golden bust of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is floating atop Christophe Claret’s new Aventicum watch. In reality it’s just a clever optical device called a ‘mirascope’ that uses a parabolic mirror to make it appear as if an object placed in its centre is actually floating. You’ve probably seen similar devices used as gags with coins that are impossible to grab.

The Roman theme is continued throughout the rest of the Aventicum as well, with a quartet of horse-drawn chariots racing in circles on the back of the watch, and the numbers of the face suitably spelled out with Roman numerals. In lieu of hour and minute hands, tiny ‘H’ and ‘M’ markers circle the outer circumference of the watch’s face, and the use of titanium ensures the Aventicum is light on your wrist, but not so much on your pocket book.

[MIKA27]

Orrb wellness device takes you away from office stress

If you've ever felt trapped in a stuffy office space these sleek pods, set for commercial release in April 2015, might just offer you some respite.

Created by product designer and founder of UK firm Orrb Technologies, Lee McCormack, the Orrb is a "wellness and learning pod", which everyone from office workers to military personnel can use. "It basically provides a sanctuary, where people can relax, recharge and work on self development," McCormack tells WIRED.co.uk.

Standing 170cm tall and measuring 200cm long and 100cm in width, the Orrb is a physical device, which comes with an Orrb X subscription service. This allows up to 50 employees or users per Orrb to be issued swipe cards and set up their own personal accounts.

Users can select either a five, ten or 15 minute session designed to induce mental focus, or immerse themselves in a "wellness session" centred around a personalised learning package, which can be uploaded by individual organisations. For instance, on-screen visuals and sound show users how to regulate breathing and offer meditation tips that help people regain their mental focus for work.

"It's difficult for people to engage in what they're doing if they're not relaxed," explains McCormack.

Inspired from time spent in Japan and India, Orrb has been in the works since McCormack's student days in the 90s when he studied Social Design at Goldsmiths. "It was ahead of its time back then," says McCormack, who asserts that the market has finally become receptive to such devices.

During that time, McCormack saw office spaces transition from closed to open plan. "I predicted that the interaction would be positive on communication, but without private space, we'd start to have a degradation of people's private space through distraction," he says.

The little-known Orrb device already has its fans. Disney purchased 25 pods in 2008, featuring one in science-fiction film The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. And McCormack has also worked on an engineering partnership with McLaren, with F1 drivers such as Lewis Hamilton and Damon Hill using the pods to help with relaxation and focus.

With digital wellness devices such as Fitbit making a name for themselves in the market place, McCormack is intent on following suit and building up a global network of Orrbs.

"It's been a gradual process of seeing how corporate culture is adopting the wellbeing of the employee as important enough to be taken seriously," he says. "We're at that stage now where CEOs are talking about opening up to meditation. That's something we wouldn't have seen five years ago."

McCormack's Orrbs are currently being used in an ongoing programme at the Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington to help soldiers recover from post-traumatic stress.

Along with its use in corporate environments, McCormack wants to apply Orrb to the medical sector. "We're also passionate about helping with mental health issues," he says.

[MIKA27]

There’s a Very Good Reason Why You Should Drink Four Cups of Coffee Every Day

If your friends and family are about ready to send you to caffeine rehab for drinking way too much coffee, fight them as hard as you can.

It turns out, regularly drinking coffee is doing you more good than you think.

A study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that drinking coffee may lower the risk of getting skin cancer.

The researchers found that people who drink four or more cups of coffee every day on average had a 20 percent lower risk of developing melanoma.

According to the NCI, melanoma is the most deadly type of skin cancer that can appear anywhere in the body but it is most common in the skin that’s usually exposed to the sun. It’s the cause of about 9,500 deaths in the US each year.

“Coffee contains numerous bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, diterpenes, trigonelline, and caffeine,” Erikka Loftfield from the National Cancer Institute said. “The predominant chlorogenic acid in coffee, 5-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and to a greater extent its metabolite caffeic acid, have been shown to suppress UVB-induced skin carcinogenesis in mouse epidermal cells.”

But sorry decaf lovers, the medical benefits do not hold true for decaffeinated coffee.

Judging by how many Starbucks there are in the world (there are over 21,000 in 63 countries) we assume that there will be a lot of people who’ll be happy to hear this news. But to be on the safe side, let’s continue lathering our skin with sunscreen.

[MIKA27]

Two Men Are Taking the Most Dangerous Hot Air Balloon Ride Ever

Only a few hundred miles and roughly two days stand in the way of the international team piloting the helium-filled Two Eagles balloon across the Pacific Ocean in a bid to break a pair of major distance and duration records.

Five things to know about the challenge:

THE GOAL

Accomplished balloon pilots Troy Bradley, of Albuquerque, and Leonid Tiukhtyaev (too-kh-TY’-yev) of Russia, launched from Saga, Japan, early Sunday Japan time. They’re aiming for the shores of North America, an attempt that will put them on course to break a distance record of 5,208 miles that has stood for more than three decades.

They’re also looking to break the flight-duration record set in 1978 when Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman made the first trans-Atlantic balloon flight. That record of 137 hours in the air in a traditional gas balloon is considered the “holy grail” of ballooning achievements.

LIFE IN THE CAPSULE

Bradley has likened the journey to a camping trip in the sky. The balloon’s capsule is about the size of a large tent — 7 feet long, 5 feet wide and 5 feet tall, which leaves the pilots little room to move around.

Since they’re flying at an altitude of at least 15,000 feet, they have oxygen masks and are bundled up to cope with the 50-degree temperature inside the capsule. They have sleeping bags and a small onboard heater. The balloon is also equipped with a simple toilet.

FOOD AND DRINK

Packing required the pilots to be thorough since they would be on their own after lifting off. They have freeze-dried meals, fresh fruit, beef jerky and energy bars, along with lots of water to stay hydrated.

They also have a small stove for occasional hot meals. Because of the altitude and the inability to move around, however, they don’t have large appetites.

THE VIEW

Bradley and Tiukhtyaev have been sharing photos of the view from their carbon composite capsule via social media.

Some show the sun peeking over the Earth’s curve, while others show part of the balloon and spotty clouds covering an ocean of blue tens of thousands of feet below.

LIVE TRACKING

The team has been in constant communication with mission control, and updates on the balloon’s location are being posted to social media sites. The team has begun its swing toward Canada, but the exact destination in North America is not known because the location will depend on the winds the balloon encounters along the way.

As of early Wednesday, the balloon was about 1,160 miles off the coast of California — traveling about 34 mph at an altitude of more than 15,000 feet.

[MIKA27]

LAND ROVER DEFENDER FLYING HUNTSMAN 105 LONGNOSE

The Land Rover Defender is not a vehicle that needs any modification, but that hasn’t stopped the team at Kahn Design from consistently pumping out custom gems. This time around the company’s CEO and Chief Designer has decided to create a project of his own – meet the Land Rover Defender 105 Longnose “Flying Huntsman.”

Easily the most ambitious project from the British design firm, this 2-door has received an extra 15 inches to the standard 90-inch wheel base (which is where the “105” in the name comes from). Like many of its predecessors, this thing has been equipped with a 6.2-liter LS3 V8 engine pumping out 400-plus horsepower through a six-speed automatic transmission. Upgraded brakes and suspension were also needed to ensure ample stopping power and the ability to tackle any terrain. The vehicle is expected to fetch roughly $190,000, and will make its official debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show. The brand also announced that it will be working on a 6×6 version as well. We can’t wait. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

MOMENT CASE FOR IPHONE 6

Looking to close the distance between the iPhone 6’s convenience and a traditional camera’s dedicated functionality, the Moment Case might be just enough to earn you some accolades on the semi-professional photography circuit.

Moment’s wide-angle and telephoto lenses were well-received last year, and this case provides an integrated mount for them, along with a shutter button and camera strap. That button is of the two-stage shutter variety, so just like with a traditional camera, you can half-press to focus lock and hold it down to unlock burst mode when used in conjunction with Moment’s app. The button is actually powered by a coin cell battery and connected to the phone via low energy Bluetooth. The case also knows when you attach a lens, kicking in the lens-specific app for you to work with. As of now, the Moment Case is only compatible with the iPhone 6, though the company says if this goes well, they’ll work on designs for other phones. [Via | Kickstarter]

[MIKA27]

YELLOW SPOT IRISH WHISKEY

As bourbon continues to explode in the US, Irish Whiskey is seeing a similar renaissance in its home country, and beyond. The older brother of the famous Green Spot, Yellow Spot Whiskey might not have the same reputation due to scarcity, but it's easily as good, if not better than it's world renowned sibling. This single pot still whiskey was matured in three different types of casks: American Bourbon, Spanish Sherry butts, and Spanish Malaga casks. Aged for 12 years, and sourced from Midleton Distilleries, this fruity, balanced whiskey is nothing short of exceptional, and about to hit US shores for the first time ever.

[Fuzz]

There’s a Very Good Reason Why You Should Drink Four Cups of Coffee Every Day

Judging by how many Starbucks there are in the world (there are over 21,000 in 63 countries) we assume that there will be a lot of people who’ll be happy to hear this news. But to be on the safe side, let’s continue lathering our skin with sunscreen.

Unfortunately, Starbucks doesn't actually sell coffee. They sell super sweet, sugary concoctions with just the faintest hint of coffee.

[MIKA27]

This Gleaming Monolith May Spawn The Next Space Shuttle

This is the European Space Agency’s test spaceplane, which is planned to go on a 100-minute mission without a crew on February 11. It will blast off from Kourou, French Guiana.

What you’re seeing is actually the belly of the so called Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV), more precisely the two body flaps and the heat shield of the wingless spaceplane, which was created in order to test reentry technologies for future European space vehicles.

IXV will be launched into a suborbital trajectory up to 420km, and it will return to Earth at a speed of 7.5km/s at an altitude of 120km just as those vehicles returning from a low-orbit mission. The demonstrator spacecraft, very similar to the lifting bodies NASA experimented on the way to substantiate the space shuttle technology, is 5m long, 1.5m high and 2.2m wide, and fully packed with conventional and advanced sensors, recording heaps of data during the fiery atmospheric dive. IXV will glide through the atmosphere at hypersonic and supersonic speeds before the main parachute deploys to slow the descent for a safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean.

The IXV comprises state of the art thermal protective shells made of ceramics and ablatives, carbon-fibre reinforced polymer structural panels to hold inner elements in place during launch and landing, and certain functional and experimental subsystems, such as power, data handling, telemetry, multi stage supersonic parachute, floatation devices and actuators. Definitely no place for an astronaut in this sleek car sized object.

The Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) flight model during integration at Thales Alenia Space, Torino, Italy, on 12 February 2014.

The IXV during the last preparations at Thales Alenia Space, Torino, Italy.

The IXV installed on its payload adaptor, being prepared for launch, at Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou.

On 23 June 2014 a prototype of the IXV was recovered off the coast of Tuscany, Italy in a practice run. If everything goes according to the plans these balloons will keep the IXV afloat.

The Nos Aries recovery vessel is stationed in Flamenco Island Anchorage in Panama. Over the last month, the crew have been testing the equipment for hoisting IXV out of the water.

These flaps are going to provide thermal protection and control pitch and roll during the long glide back through the atmosphere. Space shuttles had two elevons and one body flap for the same function:

[MIKA27]

Flyover Drone Footage Of Auschwitz Concentration Camp Is Haunting

The BBC flew a drone over the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp today to show off what it looks like, and it’s absolutely haunting. Over a million people died in this concentration camp from 1940 to 1945. It’s been 70 years since the Soviets liberated the camp, and it’s still so tragic to see.

The BBC writes:

Drone video shows the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as it is today – 70 years after it was liberated by Soviet troops. The camp in Poland is now maintained as a World Heritage Site and is visited by thousands of tourists and survivors every year. Auschwitz was the largest camp established by the Germans during World War II. More than a million people – the vast majority of them Jews – died there between 1940, when it was built, and 1945, when it was liberated by the Soviet army.

[MIKA27]

The Futuristic Steam Train Of Our Dreams

This is a concept design for a retro-futuristic steam train that can run on or off the rails. And holy crap is it gorgeous. Ricardo Chamizo is a 3D concept artist in the UK. You can see more of his incredible work on his website.

[MIKA27]

How To Make A Laser-Guided Blowgun Using Household Objects

Grant Thomson, the King of Random, just posted this video showing how to make a blowgun with a laser sight using household objects. The precision and power of this thing is extraordinary so be careful if you’re planning to play with it.

[MIKA27]

The US Military Had One Hell Of A Time Getting Gear Out Of Afghanistan

NATO formally ended combat operations at the end of 2014, but the US military couldn’t just… leave. No, pulling out of Afghanistan was a massive operation in itself, one that took three years of planning and cost an estimated $US28 billion — just to get out.

Over at Fast Company, E.B. Boyd has written searing account about the logistics of leaving Afghanistan, putting the scale of the war in stark perspective.

After 13 years, the U.S. military had 62,000 shipping containers worth of gear spread out over 500 bases across the country. Just packing up everything would have been hard, but this was still an active combat zone, where IEDs still lurked and enemy fighters still attack. The equipment we didn’t take we couldn’t just abandon. Consider the MRAPs (“mine-resistant, ambush protected” trucks), many of which had to be dismantled by hand.

In yards elsewhere, the doomed MRAPs were torn down further. Workers pulled off their thick, blastproof windows. They removed the seats. They ripped out the classified armour. The bare shells were handed off to workers at a third yard, who methodically cut them up into scrap using plasma cutters in a process so secret that workers were told never to use the same pattern twice and photographs weren’t allowed. (They didn’t want enemies to learn where the weak parts were.)

Entire military bases also had to be renovated for new tenants — be it the Afghan army or police other government agency — lest they fall into Taliban hands and become “state-of-the-art fortresses” for the enemy.

This was also complicated by the fact that the military had done a crummy job of keeping track of what it brought to Afghanistan. Take the most basic of items, the shipping container. The military had to create an entire team dedicated to tracking down lost containers.

The military used them for transporting gear, including into Afghanistan. But in a country as infrastructure-starved as this one, they were quickly turned into structures. A shipping container could become a storeroom, an office, a dorm. They were used as walls, entry gates, and foundations for guard towers. In theory, units were supposed to record their containers in a centralized database. But the system wasn’t enforced well, and compliance was spotty…

We couldn’t leave without locating and disposing of all the containers — commercial and military. At the beginning of 2013, military databases said we had 108,000 containers in the country. But who could say for sure? One BCAT member at Shank told me he found a container on a base up north that was logged as being hundreds of miles away — in the Pakistani port of Karachi. The military was forced to create Mobile Container Assessment Teams whose sole job was to hunt down those containers. And yet, just this past November, a GAO report on the subject said the military’s ability to keep detention fees low was still “limited by inaccurate and incomplete data.”

There is much more in Boyd’s fantastic story in Fast Company, which is well worth taking time to read in full. The logistics of leaving Afghanistan are a lens for understanding the scale of the war there, however far away it may have felt to most Americans.

[MIKA27]

This Ad explains Why Unicorns Disappeared

This hilarious ad for French network Canal+ — promoting their film production division — tells the story of why unicorns disappeared from the surface of the Earth. I’m not going to tell you more about it so I don’t spoil it — just make sure you watch it until the very end.

Canal+ has produced memorable commercials in recent years using this same concept. Here is my favourite:

[MIKA27]

Terminator Genisys Looks Surprisingly Good

Will this movie be special against all the odds? Will it suck harder than that last one that was a bit weird? It’s pretty difficult to make the call at this early stage, but the latest trailer is starting to sway me towards ‘hey, this might actually be okay!’

[MIKA27]

Inside the Dangerous World of Amateur ‘Ninja’ Gold Miners

Mongolia is in the midst of an epic gold rush spawning the modern equivalent of the forty-niners who rushed to California in 1849.

The county is rich in natural resources—stunning scenery, yes, but also vast deposits of coal, copper, gold, and other metals. Over the years, industrial mining has punched gaping holes into the landscape, then moved on after taking all it could. Then the locals scour the open pits, taking what the corporations left behind and creating an informal but dangerous industry.

As many as 100,000 Mongolians—nearly 20 percent of the country’s rural workforce—work as independent and unlicensed miners, sifting the dirt for the smallest flecks of gold. Spanish photographer Alvaro Laiz is fascinated by this trend and chronicles this dangerous endeavor in Ninjas: Gold Rush In Mongolia.

“I’ve been always interested in how human beings interact with our environment and how the search for natural resources affects us,” he says.

The term “ninja” refers to the large green pans (used to carry ore and sift gold) the miners carry on their backs, which makes them look like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is a difficult way of life; these miners descend into shafts with little structural support and endure bitter cold or searing heat deep underground. There is little in the way of safety equipment or oversight as they chip away at the earth using rudimentary tools.

“When I ventured down a shaft, the heat, the dust and the noise was so intense I couldn’t see my hands,” says Laiz. “I was there for 40 minutes. It felt like a century. Afterward, I saw with different eyes, the men who spend 10 hours each day down those same holes.

“Watching them work was like traveling back to the times of the Gold Rush.”

Though ninjas are drawn by the promise of riches, most merely get by. The mining is tough on them, and on the landscape.

According to rough estimates by officials and non-governmental organizations, the ninjas pulled as much as 5 tons of gold from the ground in 2013 alone, earning as little as $8 a day for their efforts.

All things told, the Mongolian economy is booming and The Economist says mining industries will drive the country’s economic growth at a faster rate than any other nation on earth in the next decade. The government recently acknowledged the ninjas’ contributions to society and their needs as a migratory and nebulous workforce, but the amateur miners remain at the bottom of the heap because of their crude methods and associated risks. Until there’s employment alternatives, it’s likely the ninjas will continue to speculate.

[MIKA27]

Russian military planes 'disrupted UK aviation'

Two Russian Tu-95 Bear H aircraft were "escorted" by RAF jets

Russian military planes flying near UK airspace caused "disruption to civil aviation" on Wednesday, the Foreign Office has said.

It said the two Russian planes did not enter UK airspace, but the manoeuvres were "part of increasing pattern of out-of-area operations" by Russia.

The planes were "escorted" by RAF jets "throughout the time they were in the UK area of interest", officials added.

Russia's ambassador has been summoned to "account for the incident".

Typhoon fighters were scrambled from RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Coningsby to escort the Russian aircraft, and the RAF said the mission last 12 hours

The Foreign Office refused to give details of the disruption to civil aviation.

BBC defence correspondent Jonathan Beale said the Russian planes - two Tu-95 Bear H bombers - came within 25 miles of the UK.

They travelled from the north, past the west coast of Ireland and to the English Channel before turning and going back the way they had come, he said.

He said the bombers did not file a flight plan, did not have their transponders switched on and "weren't talking to air traffic control".

'Calm and focussed'

This is the latest in a series of similar incidents involving Russian aircraft, and last month Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK was concerned about the "extremely aggressive probing" of its airspace by Russia.

In a statement on the RAF website, one of the controllers involved in the mission said: "Thanks to our integration with air defence systems across Nato, we were able to begin mission planning early and therefore were ready to act in good time."

The controller added: "The operations room was both calm and focussed.

"We constantly train for these scenarios so that we are well rehearsed and ready to maintain the integrity of our airspace."

The RAF said air-to-air refuelling for the Typhoons was provided by RAF Voyager aircraft from RAF Brize Norton.

[MIKA27]

Lost Underwater Forest of Doggerland Found by Diver

Have you heard of Doggerland? If you think it sounds British, you’re right. If you think it’s a place where people have sex in public, get your mind out of the gutter and into the North Sea because Doggerland is actually a lost land mass sometimes called Britain’s Atlantis because it disappeared 8,000 years ago. Now a diver has discovered an underwater forest of Doggerland in 20 feet of water just 300 meters from the shore of Norfolk near Cley next the Sea.

Prior to the last Ice Age, sea levels were so low that the Doggerland land mass connected Britain to mainland Europe, allowing humans to walk from England to Germany. In Mesolithic times, the area had a large freshwater basin fed by the River Thames and the Rhine and was covered with thick forests, making it excellent for hunting and fishing. Sea levels began to rise around 20,000 years ago as the ice caps melted and by 6,000 BCE it was an island about the size of Wales. That’s when it was flooded and disappeared completely. A recent theory is that it was hit by a tsunami that wiped out the few Mesolithic peoples remaining there.

Doggerland before the ice caps began to melt

Britain’s Atlantis stayed a mystery until the early 1900s when plant remains were discovered on the edges of Dogger Bank off the east coast of England. In 1931, a fishing trawler dragged up an antler point, bringing in other vessels that found mammoth and lion fossils as well as prehistoric tools and weapons.

Recently, amateur diver Dawn Watson found huge oak tree trunks, some with branches spanning over 26 feet, on the ocean floor off the coast of Norfolk. Rob Spray, Dawn Watson’s partner in the Marine Conversation Society’s survey project Seasearch in East Anglia, plans to do more dives to estimate the size of the underwater forest and bring up more trees and possibly fossils to determine their age.

http://youtu.be/q4YNH0rNjYE

Doggerland is lost no more and now stands (or sinks) as a testament to what can happen when polar ice caps melt.