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

[MIKA27]

Ancient Microbes May Have Created The World's Largest Gold Mines

Nearly half the gold ever mined comes from the Witwatersrand Basin, a layer of gold-flecked rock that spreads out under South Africa. The mines there are famously deep and prolific. Why is there so much gold concentrated in this one small part of the Earth’s crust?

A Swiss earth scientist has a fascinating theory, and it involves mats of ancient microbes.

The story, according to a study by Christoph A. Heinrich published this week in Nature Geoscience, begins 3 billion years ago. Earth had yet to undergo its Great Oxidation Event, when microbes began pumping oxygen into the atmosphere, creating the air that we know and breathe today. Back then, the atmosphere was still full of gases like sulfur, which would have reacted with water to become hydrogen sulfide, pouring acid rain over the young Earth.

So here’s the mystery. Geologists have long known that the Witwatersrand Basin’s gold originated with the rich gold veins of the Kaapvaal Craton mountain range, in northeastern South Africa. But how did that gold get hundreds of miles south? According to Heinrich, hydrogen sulfide rained down on the mountains, and the sulfur reacted with gold to create molecules that could be dissolved in water. Those molecules then traveled through rivers that dumped out, finally, into the basin.

How do we get from that gold solution to gold ore? Heinrich thinks ancient microbes living in thick, slimy mats were responsible for pulling the metal out of the water in a process called precipitation. The microbes sucked up the gold, and when they died, they fell to the bottom of the shallow basin. After their bodies decomposed, only the gold was left.

Heinrich based this possible scenario on the fact that some microbes today can reduce gold from its ionic form in water to its solid elemental form. Microbes, as tiny as they may be individually, are powerful enough to reshape the landscape in aggregate. You might even have them to thank for the gold in your circuitboard.

[MIKA27]

Taiwan TransAsia plane crashes into river

A plane carrying mostly Chinese tourists has crashed into a river in Taiwan, killing at least 31 people.

Dramatic video footage emerged showing the TransAsia Airways plane clipping a bridge as it came down shortly after take-off from a Taipei airport.

The plane, carrying 58 people, broke up as it plunged into Taipei's Keelung River. The fuselage was later salvaged by crane.

There were 15 survivors pulled from the wreckage but 12 people remain missing.

John Sudworth reports: "This is no longer a rescue mission, but a recovery operation"

Television footage showed some passengers wading clear of the sunken wreckage and a toddler being pulled out alive by rescuers.

Emergency teams cut open the plane while it was in the water but were unable to reach the passengers trapped in the front section of the fuselage.

As night fell, a crane was used to lift the wreckage on to the bank. The death toll was expected to rise as rescue teams searched the fuselage and the river for the 12 missing passengers.

"At the moment, things don't look too optimistic," Wu Jun-hong, a Taipei fire department official coordinating the rescue effort told reporters.

The fuselage of the plane is hauled from the river by crane

A close up of the upside down plane reveals the damage of the impact and rescue operation

Rescuers finally gain entry to the previously submerged part of the plane

The ATR-72 turbo-prop plane had just taken off from Taipei Songshan Airport and was heading to the Kinmen islands, just off the coast of the south-eastern Chinese city of Xiamen.

It is the second TransAsia ATR-72 to crash in seven months, following an accident last July which killed 48 people and injured 15.

The final communication from the pilots to air traffic control was "Mayday, mayday, engine flame out", according to a recording played on local media. The recording was not immediately verified by aviation officials.

Analysis: Richard Westcott, BBC transport correspondent

Yet again, we are looking at shocking pictures of a plane crash. You'd be forgiven for thinking that flying is getting more dangerous, but it's not. In fact, when you look at the number of crashes and fatalities compared to the huge number of people flying today, we are in a golden era of aircraft safety.

According to safety analysts Ascend, 2014 was narrowly the safest year ever, with one fatal accident per 2.38 million flights, compared to every 1.91 million flights in 2013. That does not include the loss of the Malaysian airliner over Ukraine, where 298 people died, which they count as a war loss rather than an accident.

Nearly a thousand people died in 2014, which is 700 more than the year before. Horrible numbers but compare that to the worst year, 1972, when 2,370 passengers were killed. There was far less flying then, maybe a quarter of what there is today.

Nothing is ever without risk, but the chances of dying in an aircraft "accident" are lower than ever.

Flight controllers lost contact with the plane at 10:55 local time (02:55 GMT).

Footage of the plane filmed from inside passing cars showed it banking sharply, hitting a taxi and clipping the bridge before crashing into the river.

"I saw a taxi, probably just metres ahead of me, being hit by one wing of the plane," an eyewitness told local media.

"The plane was huge and really close to me. I'm still trembling."

The dramatic moment a toddler was rescued from the wreckage of the jet

TV footage showed rescuers standing on the tail section of the broken wreckage trying to pull passengers out of the plane with ropes.

One Taiwanese father told reporters he managed to rescue his wife before noticing his two-year-old son was still trapped underwater. The boy was later rescued but is believed to be in critical condition.

The majority of the plane, including the front section of the fuselage and the wings, was submerged after it plunged into the Keelung River.

Jaime Molloy, an English teacher who has lived in Taipei for three-and-a-half years and works near the scene of the crash, told the BBC: "The most disturbing scenes I saw were the debris, which included carry-on luggage and personal affects, as well as parts of the plane."

TransAsia said it had contacted relatives of all the 22 Taiwanese passengers on board and was attempting to reach relatives of the Chinese nationals.

Among the 15 injured, there were 11 from Taiwan, three from China and one member of the crew. The airline said that one injured passenger had already been discharged from hospital.

The military is helping in the rescue effort

The BBC's Cindy Sui in Taipei says the Chinese tourists could have been on their way home as many people come to Taiwan through Kinmen island.

TransAsia chief Chen Xinde offered a "deep apology" in a televised news conference, but said his planes had been "under thorough scrutiny" since mid-2014.

"Both our planes and our flight safety system are following strict regulations, so we also want to know what caused the new plane model to crash, but I don't want to speculate," he said.

The plane's flight data recorders, also known as black boxes, have been recovered.

http://youtu.be/gDqkW2iuWwc

[MIKA27]

Facing the crocodile that 'ate my wife'

Four months ago, Demeteriya Nabire was killed by a crocodile when she went to the lake near her home to fetch water. The animal later came back to the area but found Nabire's husband waiting, ready to take revenge.

Demeteriya Nabire was at the water's edge with a group of women from her village - they were gathering water from Uganda's Lake Kyoga when the crocodile grabbed her. It dragged her away and she was never seen again.

Her husband, Mubarak Batambuze, was devastated - Nabire was pregnant when she died, and he had lost not only his wife but an unborn child as well. He felt powerless. But then last month he heard the crocodile had returned.

"Somebody called me and said, 'Mubarak, I have news for you - the crocodile that took your wife is here - we are looking at it now.'"

The 50-year-old fisherman made his way to the lake with some friends. "He was a very big monster, and we tried fighting him with stones and sticks. But there was nothing we could do," he says.

So Batambuze went to visit the local blacksmith.

"I explained to him that I was fighting a beast that had snatched and killed my wife and unborn baby. I really wanted my revenge, and asked the blacksmith to make me a spear that could kill the crocodile dead.

Mubarak Batambuze with the spear he ordered from the blacksmith

"The Blacksmith asked me for £3.20 ($5) and made the spear for me," he says. It was a significant amount of money for Batambuze, but he was determined to kill the animal that had snatched his future.

"The crocodile ate my wife entirely. Nothing was ever seen of her again - no clothes, no part of her body that I could identify. I just didn't know what to do - a mother and her unborn child. It was the end of my world. I was completely lost."

Armed with his new spear - specially designed with a barb on one side - the widower went on the attack.

When he got to the water the crocodile was still there, but Batambuze's friends took fright.

"Please don't attack this beast," they pleaded, "it's so huge it may eat you. The spear is not enough - it won't finish the job."

But Batambuze insisted they stay. "I failed killing it the first time around," he told them, "I'm not bothered if I die killing this beast. I'm going to take it on with this spear, and I will make sure that it dies."

A Ugandan Wildlife Authority ranger, Oswald Tumanya, says the crocodile was more than four metres long and weighed about 600kg.

"I had so much fear in me but what helped me to succeed was the spear," says Batambuze.

He tied a rope to the end of the weapon so that once the tip was embedded in the crocodile, he could pull it out at an angle and the barb would cut into more of the animal's flesh.

"I put the spear into the crocodile's side, and while my friends were helping to throw stones at the beast's back, it tried getting its mouth up to attack me again.

"It turned violent, and then there was so much fear in the place. But I was so determined, and I wasn't afraid of dying. I just wanted it dead, so I put the spear in its side and I pulled the rope. That got the crocodile into trouble."

It took an hour and a half for Batambuze and his friends, fighting and retreating, exchanging attacks with the enraged animal, before the crocodile was finally dead.

Exhausted, they made their way back to their village. "There was so much shock. What really surprised everybody was how big the beast was. It wasn't an ordinary crocodile. It was so big. And people called me and my friends heroes," he says.

The dead animal was taken to Makarere University in Kampala, where it was examined by a vet, Wilfred Emneku.

He says a tibia bone was found inside the crocodile's stomach, but while he believes it's human he can't be sure.

A crocodile expert at Charles Darwin University in Australia, Adam Britton, says he would be very surprised if any remains inside the animal's stomach were those of Demeteriya Nabire.

"After 12 weeks... under normal conditions, it would be highly improbable for bones from the same meal to remain in the stomach," he says.

So while Batambuze's celebrity status endures in his village, it is unlikely that he will ever have a grave to mourn at.

"Within myself I'm a very depressed man because I lost a wife and an unborn child," he explains.

"But the locals keep on saying, 'Thank you for killing the beast, that's where we fetch water and we're sure it would have taken somebody else. Thank you so much, you did a great job.'"

"So I'm a local hero - people keep on thanking me."

[MIKA27]

Mummified monk in Mongolia 'not dead', say Buddhists

A mummified monk found preserved in Mongolia last week has been baffling and astounding those who uncovered him.

Senior Buddhists say the monk, found sitting in the lotus position, is in a deep meditative trance and not dead.

Forensic examinations are under way on the remains, found wrapped in cattle skins in north-central Mongolia.

Scientists have yet to determine how the monk is so well-preserved, though some think Mongolia's cold weather could be the reason.

But Dr Barry Kerzin, a physician to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, told the Siberian Times that the monk was in a rare state of meditation called "tukdam".

"If the meditator can continue to stay in this meditative state, he can become a Buddha," Dr Kerzin said.

The monk was discovered after being stolen by a man hoping to sell him on the black market.

Mongolian police have arrested the culprit and the monk is now being guarded at the National Centre of Forensic Expertise.

Worship for eternity

The monk was found as he was about to be sold on the black market

The identity of the monk is unclear, though there is speculation that he is the teacher of Lama Dashi-Dorzho Itigilov, who was also found mummified.

In 1927, Itigilov - from neighbouring Buryatia in the then Soviet Union - supposedly told his students he was going to die and that they should exhume his body in 30 years.

The lama sat in the lotus position, began meditating and died.

When he was dug up, legend has it that his body was still preserved.

Fearing interference by the Soviet authorities, his followers re-buried him and he remained at rest until 2002 when he was again dug up to great fanfare and found still well preserved.

The lama was then placed in a Buddhist temple to be worshipped for eternity.

[MIKA27]

ISIS Selling, Crucifying Children

When ISIS isn’t burning alive captive pilots or beheading innocent journalists, it’s selling, crucifying, and burying alive children.

A United Nations watchdog reports that ISIS has been executing children in this medieval fashion and then burying them alive. (ISIS started crucifying adults last year.) The so-called Islamic State has also been selling children into sex slavery, the U.N.

Committee on the Rights of the Child said. It doesn’t stop there: “We have had reports of children, especially children who are mentally challenged, who have been used as suicide bombers, most probably without them even understanding,” said committee expert Renate Winters.

MIKA: I really hate reading and watching the news these days....

[MIKA27]

Nearly 600 People Were Arrested Before the Super Bowl for Acts Related to Sex Trafficking

In a sting leading up to last Sunday’s Super Bowl, police arrested nearly 600 people across 17 states and rescued 68 victims of human trafficking.

Though some believe links to an increase in human trafficking and major sporting events is a myth, reports continue to pour in of adults and children who are brought to cities where major sporting events will be held in advance of those games for the purposes of prostitution.

This past weekend in Phoenix law enforcement officials said some of the rescued victims reported that they had been brought to Arizona specifically for the game.

In total, 580 people were arrested on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes. Most of these people were responding to advertisements online. A total of 28 people were arrested on suspicion of sex trafficking. Among those rescued from traffickers were 14 juveniles.

Last year, a similar sting that led up to the Super Bowl in New Jersey netted criminal charges against 45 pimps and saw a total of 25 child prostitutes rescued.

In a statement released to the media, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said, “It’s particularly meaningful that this sting culminated on the day of the Super Bowl, which unfortunately has emerged as a prominent haven for sex trafficking.”

[MIKA27]

PORSCHE CAYMAN GT4

Porsche is pulling out all the stops on the new Cayman as the German auto maker unveils the most track-ready version ever. Introducing the Porsche Cayman GT4.

In the past comparing the 911 to the Cayman would be foolish, but the past is the past. This 2-door beauty sports the same 3.8-liter flat six engine found in the 911 Carrera S, albeit a detuned version of the powerplant. That doesn’t mean this thing isn’t capable though. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The sports car pumps out 380 horsepower and 310 lb-ft of torque, good enough for a zero to 62 mph time of just 4.4 seconds and tops out just north of 180 mph. All of that power is pumped through a 6-speed manual transmission. Porsche also lowered the ride height and borrowed suspension and brakes from the 911 GT3. So what does all this mean for you? It means a Nurburgring lap time of 7 minutes and 40 seconds, placing it in the top 50, and in the exact ballpark of the 997 GT3. The vehicle will make its debut at the Geneva auto show, and will carry a window sticker price of $84,600 when it hits showrooms.

[MIKA27]

EXO IPHONE 6 CASE

You forked over a pretty penny for that new iPhone 6, and while you want to protect it from the inevitable bumps and bruises, you’re not looking for some bulky case. The eXo iPhone 6 case offers up the perfect solution.

The design team at Lucidream have created a skeleton case that was built to protect, but also adds to the aesthetic appeal of the iPhone. The minimalist stainless steel skeleton was inspired by the craftsmanship and mechanical movements of a luxury timepiece, and utilizes a unique impact absorption system to survive drops. Although it is sleek and simple, the ergonomic texture applied to the arms increase the grip, preventing those drops from ever happening in the first place. There’s also a mechanical release system for added utility and a non-sagging bezel. The case is currently available for pre-order and will be released this summer with a retail price of $129. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

WOODFORD RESERVE RYE WHISKEY

As consumers of American Whiskey already know, rye whiskey has been making a strong comeback in the past few years despite being more difficult to produce than bourbon. Already one of the staples of the industry, Woodford Reserve Rye officially announces the already trusted brand's entry into the growing field of Kentucky Straight Rye.

It's only the third permanent product that Woodford produces, along with standard Woodford and Double Oaked. The new release takes the classic Woodford packaging and adds a nice touch of green to distinguish itself. It also stands out when it comes to flavor, packed full of rye spice to give you a top notch option to add to your home bar.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Discover "Reset Button" For The Body's Biological Clock

Jetting half way across the world, shift work and those crazy all-nighters are all things that can upset our body’s daily cycle, or circadian rhythm. Over the years, scientists have slowly been piecing together the components of our “biological clocks” that drive these rhythms, and we now have a pretty good understanding of how they are coordinated. Now, scientists have discovered what is effectively a “reset button” in mice, which could eventually help researchers develop novel treatments that correct mismatches between the environment and our internal body clocks.

Circadian rhythms are physiological, mental and behavioral changes that follow an approximately 24-hour cycle, which are primarily dictated by changes in light in the environment. These oscillations are driven by groups of interacting molecules in the body which are collectively known as biological clocks, and it is the job of a master pacemaker located in the brain to coordinate and regulate these clocks to make sure the body is in sync.

It’s been known for some time that this “master clock” is a bundle of neurons in a region called the suprachaismatic nucleus (SCN); however, scientists didn’t know whether altering the way that these cells fire could change how it operates. Now, researchers from Vanderbilt University have demonstrated that it is indeed possible to control the clock by selectively switching on and off this population of cells, which effectively mimics their daytime and nighttime activity.

In order to manipulate the activity of these neurons, the researchers used a sophisticated technique known as optogenetics. This involves inserting genes that code for light-sensitive proteins into distinct populations of cells, creating a bundle of neurons that now respond to light in a certain way. Then, after implanting an optical fiber into the brain, scientists can use lasers to either stimulate (switch on) or inhibit (switch off) these cells.

As described in Nature Neuroscience, the researchers found that by artificially stimulating the SCN neurons, they were able to manipulate the mouse’s sleep/wake rhythms, effectively resetting the master clock. This was particularly interesting because previous work suggested that the firing activity of these cells was only an output of the clock’s activity.

“Of course, this exact approach isn’t ready for human use yet,” said study author Michael Tackenberg. “But others are making progress toward eventually using optogenetics as therapy.” Tackenberg is now taking the work forward by examining whether mice suffering from seasonal affective disorder—a type of depression that has a seasonal pattern—respond to the stimulation.

[MIKA27]

That Guy Who Thinks He Owns The Moon Is So Screwed

Yesterday, we learned that the FAA is gearing up to start licensing business on the moon. And while this can mean any number of things for the aerospace community at-large, for Dennis M. Hope of Gardnerville, Nevada, it means one thing and one thing alone: Dennis is screwed.

This is because Dennis, as the head of the Lunar Embassy Commission, owns the moon. He’s owned the moon since 1980, when he discovered that he had the power to make things true simply by saying them out loud. Although, to be fair, Dennis did file a statement of ownership with the United Nations — he just never heard back.

None of that matters now, though, cause if the FAA has its way, Dennis’ statement will be meaningless.According to yesterday’s Reuters report, the FAA’s regulation “doesn’t mean there’s ownership on the moon.” But with a government body attempt to regulate the comings and goings, Dennis loses his infallible “but no one’s stopping me!” line of reasoning. Even if the FAA loses out to some broader international effort in the future, chances are slimmer than ever that Dennis will have a seat at the table.

[MIKA27]

The Polygraph Has Been Lying for 80 Years

Eighty years ago this week, inventor Leonarde Keeler proudly proclaimed hisexpert testimony before a Wisconsin jury to be “a signal victory for those who believe in scientific crime detection.”

One of the creators of the modern-day polygraph, the man named after Leonardo da Vinci by his father in the hopes that he would do similarly great things, had just presented his findings in the case of Cecil Loniello and Tony Grignano, two young men on trial for the attempted murder of a police officer as they fled the scene of a robbery. The judge in the case had sought out the polygraph because of the technology’s showing at the 1933 World’s Fair police exhibit. Both sides had agreed to allow the test—the defendants saw little to lose and the prosecution was armed with only circumstantial evidence and two untrustworthy witnesses.

Keeler strapped his lie detector to each man’s chest and arm. When Loniello was asked whether he shot the sheriff, the needle recorded a violent fluctuation indicating a change in breathing, a sudden increase in blood pressure, and a rise in pulse. When asked whether he was driving the car, all systems were normal. The results told Keeler and his colleague, Fred Inbau, not only that the two men were both guilty and lying, but revealed each man’s role in the crime. Science, it seemed, had triumphed.

It was the first time that a jury had been permitted to hear polygraph results as evidence and on the stand Keeler was measured in his statements: “I wouldn’t want to convict a man on the grounds of the records alone,” he told the judge. But outside the courthouse, Keeler beamed when the jury returned with a guilty verdict. “It means that the findings of the lie detector are as acceptable in court as fingerprint testimony,” he told the press.

Except that it didn’t. A previous Supreme Court case had decided a decade earlier that the lie detector hadn’t gained approval from the scientific community and was thus inadmissible in court. Apart from a few rare cases, the polygraph has been barred from federal and most state courts ever since.

“The supplanting of the jury and its judgment are something judges have been very wary of,” said Ken Alder, professor of history at Northwestern University and author of The Lie Detectors: The History of an American Obsession.

As early as 1911, an article in The New York Times imagined this kind of world where a truth box—then called a psychometer—would altogether do away with detectives, attorneys, and juries. “The state will merely submit all suspects in a case to the tests of scientific instruments and as these instruments cannot be made to make mistakes nor tell lies, their evidence will be conclusive of guilt or innocence, and the court will deliver sentence accordingly.”

Despite the wide acceptance of the polygraph today—in police investigations, to monitor people on probation, and by the government to screen potential employees—it may not be used as evidence. But the lie detector has found a more circuitous way into our legal system.

“The results of a lie detector are not admissible in court, but if you confess during the course of interrogation, that’s admissible,” said Alder. “The lie detector is essentially used in practice as a way to get people to confess to crimes.”

Keeler’s polygraph was not the first to be conceived or created. Others were patented by Keeler’s rivals at the time, the most threatening of whom was legendary eccentric William Marston, a Harvard-trained psychologist who would go on to create the Wonder Woman comic (a superhero whose weapon happens to be the Lasso of Truth).

The exact origins of the polygraph go back even further.

“The lie detector pioneers were very keen to stress that it was an invention, like the light bulb,” said Geoff Bunn, a professor of psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University and the author of The Truth Machine: A Social History of the Lie Detector. “In fact, the lie detector that we understand, the polygraph machine, with the three different measurement devices—those were all already in use by 19th-century criminologists. All the lie detector guys did was put them in the same box.”

That box—with its essential tech of sensors that record changes in breathing, blood pressure, and sweat—hasn’t changed much since then. And the problem, Bunn said, remains the same as well: It doesn’t work.

“The basic idea that these [measurements] add up to a lie hasn’t panned out,” Bunn said.

But Keeler’s patented box—among the first designed expressly for police interrogation—did get results. According to unpublished survey data kept in archives, up to 60 percent of the criminals labeled deceptive after an examination with Keeler’s polygraph would confess to their crimes.

Keeler’s intentions, while self-serving (he was a publicity hound who even appeared as himself in the docu-noir film Call Northside 777), weren’t ignoble. He had been good friends with August Vollmer, Berkeley, California’s first police chief and a reformer who looked to the lie detector as an alternative to the brutal interrogation techniques of the time. Soon Keeler moved his operation to Chicago, home to the country’s first forensic lab and a notoriously brutal police force. Keeler’s colleague Fred Inbau later described the Chicago Police Department’s reaction to the polygraph like this: “Why use a polygraph? Beat the hell out of him. If he tells the truth, he’s guilty; if he doesn’t, he’s innocent.”

To be sure, the lie detector was a preferable innovation to the blackjacks and rubber hoses many officers employed at the time. But make no mistake: The truth box just turned intimidation from physical to psychological.

According to Bunn, Keeler would say, “Let them stew overnight in the cell… We’ll hook them up to the sweat box in the morning by which time they’ll be so fearful of it, they will simply confess.”

“It does tend to make people frightened, and it does make people confess, even though it cannot detect a lie,” Bunn said.

Even the lie detector’s harshest critics concede it can be a useful interrogation tool.

“There’s a myth of the lie detector in American society where many people believe it works and that has usefulness in some situations,” said George Maschke, co-founder of AntiPolygraph.org, a website dedicated to cheating and ultimately abolishing the lie detector. “For example if a criminal can be convinced by an examiner he’s been caught in a lie, he might give a confession that can be corroborated by other evidence like the location of a body or details about a murder weapon that only the murderer would know.”

But not all confessions, Maschke notes, are equal. Although, according to the 2,500-member strong American Polygraph Association, professional examiners boast over 90 percent accuracy, virtually every scientific association puts the rate much lower. In 2003 the National Academy of Sciences concluded a century of research in psychology and physiology provides little support for the polygraph’s worth. The position of the American Psychological Association is that the lie detector is more the stuff of TV crime drama than scientific reality.

Statistics aren’t kept on the number of polygraphs administered in criminal investigations and current data on the instrument’s reach is hard to come by. By the 1980s, an estimated one million polygraphs were given each year, over a third by private companies, most of which are no longer allowed to do so after an act from Congress barred the practice.

What’s clear is that misplaced trust in the lie detector has consequences. In some cases people have used widely known methods to cheat: with countermeasures like taking drugs or shocking their senses by biting their tongues or clinching their anuses. In 1987, Gary Ridgway passed a lie detector test by “just relaxing.” It wasn’t until 2001 that advancement in DNA technology pointed to Ridgway as the serial murderer of 48 women.

Even more tragic are the innocent who have been wrongly convicted based on the tests. In October, Jeff Deskovic was awarded $40 million for his wrongful conviction in the rape and murder of a high school classmate. Deskovic was exonerated after serving 16 years, his guilt determined largely on the results of a five-hour polygraph exam in which Deskovic says the examiner called the then-16-year-old a murderer, convinced him that he had failed the polygraph, and left him on the floor in the fetal position to give a false confession.

Even the original polygraph’s most vocal advocates seemingly knew that the lie detector wasn’t strict science. In fact, Keeler would demonstrate the polygraph’s accuracy with a deceptive card trick. Keeler would instruct the subject to pick one of 10 playing cards and return it to the deck—which Keeler marked, just to be sure. The subject would be told to look at the cards individually and deny each was his. The lie would be detected, and the correct card would be chosen, thus, giving Keeler the subject’s physiological “lying response,” but more importantly proving the polygaph’s magic.

“In order for it to work, you have to believe it’s going to work,” Northwestern’s Ken Alder told me. “It was a very clever way to trick people.”

[MIKA27]

20 Tragic And Awkward Family Photos To Trump All Others

These days it seems everyone is obsessed with taking a selfie, but it wasn’t that long ago that the annual “family photo” was a common tradition, especially over the holidays. A chance to capture a moment together for future generations to look at and reminisce….or laugh at, depending on the photo in question.

But today I’ve handpicked a selection of 20 family moments that are the very definition of “awkward” in fact if you look it up the word in any dictionary, there’s a good chance you’ll see a picture of one of these photos next to it. At first glance many seem quite innocent, until you look a little closer...

So here's the challenge, lets see if you can make it through all 18 without facepalming, screaming WTF?! at the screen or breaking up into fits of laughter.

I failed by the time I got to number five!

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[MIKA27]

A Smartwatch That Doesn't Need To Be Charged. Finally.

Swatch, purveyor of inexpensive watches you buy on layovers, plans to release a smartwatch within the next three months that will connect to the internet without needing to be charged. That’s a revved-up idea. The new Swatch will be released roughly at the same time as the hotly anticipated Apple Watch, which reports suggest could have catastrophically terrible battery life.

Swatch confirmed its plans in an email to Gizmodo, but details on what this watch might look like or do are slim, except that it will be able to connect to the internet without a charge and that it will be compatible with both Android and Windows phones.

How exactly the watch will be able to connect to the internet without a charge isn’t clear, but I would be very surprised to see a self-winding watch like the Sistem51 Swatch launched last year. It seems more likely, that the forthcoming wristable will be powered by a watch battery that can run for a long period of time before being replaced. (To be clear: What’s pictured above is a Sistem51, not an image of the new watch.)

Even the best smartwatches have the fatal flaw that they need to be removed from your wrist at least every couple of days and connected to power or else they stop working. And if the reports about the Apple Watch are correct, it might need a charge every few hours. A watch that needs to be charged constantly ultimately isn’t useful. Eventually, you will look at it to tell you the time and it will be dead.

That’s why the news about this new Swatch is pretty exciting — smartwatch that doesn’t need charging. Cool! After seeing so many smartwatches that are basically computers that also tell time, I wouldn’t mind something with a little more of the watch’s timeless utility — that also happens to do some computer stuff, too.

[MIKA27]

Watch This Guy Solve A Rubik's Cube With One Hand While Juggling

I could go my whole life without solving a Rubik’s Cube. It’s just not how my brain works. That means I’m in complete awe of how Rubik’s Cube champ Hao-Zheng Lin’s brain works. Not only can he solve the cubed puzzle, but he can solve it with one hand, barely looking and while juggling two balls in the air with the other hand. Holy. Crap.

He also goes on to solve massive Rubik’s Cubes, including one that’s in a pyramid-shape, which is crazy.

[MIKA27]

The Luxury Housing Of Our Flood-Plagued Future Will Float

In our flood-plagued future, what kind of housing will the super-rich buy? In Dubai, we’re getting a sneak peek at what super-luxury real estate looks like in a world with unpredictable waters — and the main selling point is that it floats.

You’ve probably heard of The World before — the four-mile-wide artificial archipelago created off the coast of Dubai by dumping sand into the gulf and building super-luxury housing on top. The project has been plagued by problems over the last few years. According to the company that signed on to run transportation to and from the islands to Dubai, the current of the Gulf is actually pulling sand away from the fake islands, and the project is “gradually falling back into the sea.“

The developer of the World has vehemently denied that it’s sinking. And maybe it doesn’t matter if it is. After all, you could just bypass the issue completely and start building super-luxury housing in the water.

A property developer from Dubai called Kleindienst Group, which is developing the European islands under the name “Heart of Europe,” announced it would do today. According to a release about the project, the group will be building “underwater villas” with two levels above the water and one level entirely submerged in the sea. The houses will cost about $US1.3 million each, and are supposed to be finished by 2017.

And they aren’t the only ones. Construction Week points out that the developer of the Australia/Southeast Asia part of the World is planning a floating development, too, and has “signed a deal with floating island expert Dutch Docklands to create a series of private island villas.” Dutch Docklands is a Netherlands-based company that utilizes engineering techniques developed in the flood-prone Dutch lowlands, and applies them to developments all over the world.

We’re talking about one of the most flashy real estate markets in the world here, so we need to take these plans with a gigantic grain of salt — there’s clearly a lot of bluster here, and these project might just be even more false starts in the ongoing attempts to save the World from is long-floundering self.

That said, a plan to build luxury condos for the super-wealthy that float sounds oddly prescient. The real kicker? That both projects are designed to mimic parts of the world — Europe and Southeast Asia that areactually under serious threat of climate-changed induced flooding. The developers even plan to recreate the culture of Europe, too: “Each island within The Heart of Europe takes inspiration from some of Europe’s most captivating locations,” Kleindienst told the UAE-based National. On the project website, the group says that the islands will “only accept Euros.”

The World seen in 2005 by Chris Jackson/Getty Images. A Virgin Atlantic promotion on the wind-swept UK island in 2006.

That’s a fun little sales technique for the super wealthy, sure, but it’s also strange to imagine a nearly perfect floating simulacrum of European capitals, floating in the ocean, safe from the rising tides that are threatening Venice and some Asian cities. Dubai might be giving us an early glimpse of the future of luxury development in a world where the security of your house is linked to its ability to withstand a deluge.

[MIKA27]

IRIG MIC FIELD

From IK Multimedia comes this new digital stereo microphone that allows you to record with high quality the sound that´s surrounding you using your iPhone or iPad. Designed for either audio or video applications, you can be sure that this mic will get the sound you hear, and want to hear after recording. Using the app that comes with it, iRig Mic Field is the easiest way to record, edit and process professional sound using an Apple device. It´s light and pocket size, so very transport friendly, and you can twist it up to 90º, letting you create accurate and faithful field recordings. It has two high quality condenser capsules, enabling to record what´s around them in stereo mode. Beautifully designed in matt black finish the sleek Mic also features a low-noise and high definition pre amp for audiophile quality, just to make sure your recordings get the professional treatment they deserve.

[MIKA27]

NEXX X60 CORK HELMET

When choosing materials for a motorcycle helmet, cork would seem to be right below yoga mats and right above Styrofoam. Like, could something that keeps wine fresh also keep your dome dent-free? Apparently, yes. The X60 Cork helmet from Nexx somehow pulls it off, and will keep heads turning even after you get off your bike.

Made of impact-resistant, ultra-modern thermoplastic, this DOT-rated this skull-saver also combines a real cork finish over the shell. There’s also a plush, anti-sweat, anti-allergy, removable and washable inner lining. Other highlights include a Micro-Metric buckle and PC Lexan visor shield. The styling is on-point, and come on, any helmet that can double as a bulletin board is alright with us. [Purchase]

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GUINNESS-FLAVORED POTATO CHIPS

Beer and potato chips have been partners in crime for well over 100 years. Burts, a British chip brand, has finally taken the two and combined them together into one glorious bar snack.

Their Guinness Potato Chips are packed with the bitter sweet profile of the world’s most famous stout. Made with a flavoring that contains a blend of barley and hops, the chips are hand-cooked, thick cut, and ideal for Sundays in front of the TV. And if original wasn’t enough, you can also buy a Rich Beef Chilli version that plays off the same Guinness base.

They won’t get you drunk, but they will pair nicely with a pint. We’ll have to hope they make their way stateside.

[MIKA27]

These LED Consoles Were Once The Cutting Edge Of Handheld Gaming

In the world of toys, nostalgia is an incredibly powerful sales tool. Because kids who begged their parents for a given toy eventually grow up to be employed adults willing to splurge on those same toys they remember from their childhood. Our smartphones have become almost as powerful as our home gaming consoles, but we still can’t help but feel drawn to these re-issued classic LED handheld games from the late ’70s and early ’80s.

When they refer to the LED displays on these handheld games, they don’t mean a fancy colour LCD screen backlit with LEDs. They mean a handful of simple, blinking, red LEDs that indicate the positions of players and action on the field. They’re as basic as electronic toys can get, and that’s basically what makes them so wonderful.

Electronic Football was released late last year, but in a few weeks you’ll be able to get your hands on the Electronic Basketball and Electronic Baseball versions too. The sound effects have been slightly improved, the electronics have been simplified, and these games will probably run forever on a pair of modern AA batteries, but the actual gameplay has been perfectly preserved. That’s why they’re just $US15 each, and worth every cent. [The Bridge Direct]

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Star Trek Versus Star Wars Is The Trailer We Had To Have

http://youtu.be/o5S5tBuNJdM

There’s not really much to the seemingly eternal Star Wars or Star Trek argument. Both are set in space but, really, they’re different styles of science fiction with their pros and cons. That said, we can still have a little fun setting them against each other — literally. You know, Star Destroyers blowing up the Enterprise and all that.

Even with the two franchises in the hands of JJ Abrams, it’s unlikely we’ll see an official mash-up, beyond the odd background Easter egg and even then, that’s an ask. Instead, we’ll have to make do with fan efforts, like this one from Alex Luthor.

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These Air Pistols Look Like Weapons From Star Wars

Competitive target shooting is as old as shooting weapons, from bows to laser pistols. But air pistols went through impressive evolution in the past few decades, thanks to manufacturers putting amazingly futuristic arms into the hands of competitors. Some of them look like Han Solo should be shooting.

The 10 Metre Air Pistol is one of the most popular Olympic shooting events, in which women and men shoot with 4.5 mm (or .177) calibre pneumatic pistols at a distance of 10 metres (11 yards). The most interesting thing is that air pistols are not just practically recoilless and vibration free, but also highly customisable to the shooters’ needs. Since precision shooters can choose a wide variety of spring operated, gas spring operated, pneumatic or pre-charged pneumatic air guns, the following list is far from complete; but hopefully provides a good overview of recently-available arms made by the most popular manufacturers.

Gun from the past: Record LP 1, a German spring-piston air pistol. These were common during the first decades of the sport.

The Baikal IZH-46 is a classic Russian sport pistol available since 1988.

MR-651K-23, upgraded version of Baikal IZH-46.

Further modernisation of the Baikal IZH-46 led to model MP-672.

Benelli Kite, a pre-charged pneumatic air pistol designed for the 10 m Air Pistol ISSF shooting event. Manufactured by Benelli Armi SpA of Italy.

Steyr LP 10, one of the most popular single shot pre-charged pneumatic air pistol among ISSF shooters. Made by Steyr Sportwaffen GmbH of Austria.

Morini Competition Arm S.A. 162 EI. Made in Switzerland.

Feinwerkbau Model P58, a German air pistol.

Aeron ACZ-101 Spider, made in the Czech republic.

The Italian Pardini FPM.

Tesro PA10, another German air pistol.

Hämmerli AP20, made by Carl Walther, Ulm, Germany.

Walther LP400, made by Carl Walther, Ulm, Germany.

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Xbox One gets game hubs, speeds up controller

Xbox One's latest system update is going live, bringing with it a host of improvements to Microsoft's console. The upgrade adds game hubs, refined party chat, and improvements for sluggish controllers.

The rollout -- the first for the next gen console in 2015 -- will also see smaller, more aesthetically focussed tweaks, such as the ability to make the operating system's tile layout transparent. The changes made are in response to user feedback, according to Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, Xbox Live's director of programming.

Game hubs are likely to be a popular introduction. Every single Xbox One game will have its own spotlight page, curating popular game clips, live play broadcasts, your friends' play records and leaderboards, and which of them are currently playing -- think a cutdown version of the Halo Waypoint. You'll also be able to launch games directly from the hub, with the option to play solo, with a party, or to stream straight to broadcast.

The focus won't entirely be on user-created content though, with developers able to publish material to their title's activity feed -- news, updates, "making of" materials and more. Players will be able to follow their favourite titles, which will push content to their own activity feed.

Party chat updates, some of which are already active, focus on clarity. New icons indicate the status of a chat connection, while party invites now immediately show which of your friends is inviting you and to which game.

Controller updates aren't quite so impressive on the surface, but will deliver a much-needed performance boost. Currently, the Xbox One controller takes around five seconds to sync with the console but after the update, it will take a mere two. Note though that the controller will need to be connected via USB cable and manually updated through system settings. It doesn't sound much, but that lag in device communication gets really infuriating each time you turn the pad on. It's nice to see Microsoft addressing the problem -- even if it is possibly the ultimate first world problem.

[MIKA27]

P-51B MUSTANG WALLPAPER

The P-51B Mustang was the variant fitted with the British V12 Merlin engine, the aircraft had originally been fitted with the Allison V12 but it wasn’t up to the task and pilots were frequently outperformed by their German rivals. The Merlin gave the Mustang a whole new lease on life, it was now significantly better than anything the Luftwaffe had in the air and the P-51 would stay in service right through into the 1980s for some of the world’s airforces.

The beautiful wallpaper above includes a brief description in French but all the drawings are annotated in english, it also weighs in at a huge 5000px by 3125px in size. You can click here to download the wallpaper or click here to read more about Paul Mantz – the owner and pilot of the red Mustang you see above.

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ZBOARD 2

Pioneers in the weight-sensing electric skateboard game, the makers of the ZBoard are back, and have taken just about everything to the next level.

The ZBoard 2 blows away the competitors, and even the original ZBoard, thanks to upgrades like urethane wheels for a smoother ride, footpads that are lighter and more responsive, and a 500W brushless motor with a top speed of 20mph that gets you where you need to be faster and more efficiently.

The battery is also lighter and slimmer and can be fully charged in just 90 minutes. Choose from the lighter ZBoard Blue with a 16 mile range, or the ZBoard Pearl — which sports a 24 mile range — making it the longest running weight-sensing electric skateboard ever.

Both are light enough to grab and go using the dual integrated handles, making it the perfect method of transportation when it's too far to walk and too short to drive.