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

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We Have More To Worry About Than Samsung's Smart TV Privacy Policy

The world has gone nuts today, over a story that says Samsung is spying on us in our living rooms via its Smart TV software. Lines have been drawn between a scary caveat in a privacy policy and George Orwell’s 1984, and we’re being warned about how we’re losing ourselves to technology all over again. Don’t be foolish, guys: your privacy vanished a long time ago.

In case you’re new to this story, here’s what happened earlier.

Over the weekend, someone spotted a clause in Samsung’s Smart TV privacy policy which stated that stuff you talk about in front of your TV gets sent to third parties to be stored and processed. Twitter users then compared the policy to an excerpt from George Orwell’s 1984, which freaked everyone right out.

And for those playing at home, here’s the full clause:

“You can control your SmartTV, and use many of its features, with voice commands. If you enable Voice Recognition, you can interact with your Smart TV using your voice. To provide you the Voice Recognition feature, some voice commands may be transmitted (along with information about your device, including device identifiers) to a third-party service that converts speech to text or to the extent necessary to provide the Voice Recognition features to you.

In addition, Samsung may collect and your device may capture voice commands and associated texts so that we can provide you with Voice Recognition features and evaluate and improve the features. Please be aware that if your spoken words include personal or other sensitive information, that information will be among the data captured and transmitted to a third party through your use of Voice Recognition.”

In layman’s terms, that means the Samsung Smart TV is listening to your voice and sending what it hears off to a “third-party provider” for processing — that third party is an intermediary service that figures out exactly what you said and converts it into data that the TV can use and act on. If you say “change to ABC News 24″ to your TV (under the right circumstances), it will record that snippet of audio, transmit that to a third party, receive a data response, interpret that data, and then dutifully change your channel accordingly.

Samsung isn’t the only tech company that has this kind of clause in its privacy policy. LG has one too, and we went through a similar saga back in 2013 over its “eavesdropping” in the living room. Do you use Siri? She’s doing exactly the same thing.

I’m not about to defend these companies for their third-party data handling. LG has an ad unit on its old Smart TV dashboard that markets products to you, and services like Facebook and Twitter sell your data to advertisers as their primary business model. It’s how these companies make a large portion of their income. It’s happening everywhere, whether you know it explicitly or not.

But then — that’s the whole point, isn’t it? We’re getting all bent out of shape about our TVs potentially spying on us when we willingly hand over much more personally identifiable and abstractly valuable data to services like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Uber et al. We have much more to worry about than a poorly worded clause in a Samsung Smart TV usage policy.

What about the Federal Government’s proposed data retention program that would see all of our metadata sucked up in the name of national security? What about our smartphones tracking our location in the background for innocuous reasons? What about our transit cards that create a map of everywhere we’ve been for later use? What about all the terms and conditions documents you just mindlessly and habitually agree to when you’re installing new software?

All of these things have been happening for years, and it’s a simple and relatively innocuous terms and conditions document shared on social media — which also harvests your data, by the way — that gets our collective back up about privacy?

The reason people are freaking out about the Samsung privacy policy “issue” is not because they’re concerned about protecting their own privacy. It’s because it makes people realise their privacy was traded for convenience and flashy gadgets years ago, and they just clicked “Accept”.

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Restoring This WWII B-29 Bomber Has Taken 300K Hours So Far

Doc sat in a California desert holding area for 42 years before it was rescued in 1987 by dreamers who hoped to see it fly again

This summer, if the dreams of a nonprofit group in Wichita, Kansas, come true, two World War II-­era B­-29 Superfortress bombers will fly together for the first time in a half ­century. Doc, originally one of a squadron of eight airplanes named for Snow White and the seven dwarfs, will finally take off and join Fifi, which has been flying since 1974. It’s an unlikely event that almost didn’t happen—two relics, loud and slow, each of them powered by four big finicky radial engines, restored and maintained by hundreds of volunteers. Together, they’ll be an impressive sight, their polished aluminum skins gleaming in the sun, their long slender wings stretching 140 feet tip to tip, living ambassadors from the distant past.

Doc, built in 1944, was one of a squadron of airplanes named after Snow White's dwarfs.

“There was a good chance this airplane was never going to fly again,” says Jim Murphy, leader of the restoration effort for Doc’s Friends. “We weren’t going to let that happen.” The airplane, built in 1944, was decommissioned after serving in the Korean War, then used for target practice in the California desert. The bomber’s technology was outdated. It was slow. Its military usefulness was gone. But a group of historians who dreamed to see the big airplane fly again rescued it in 1987, and in 2000, Doc was trucked to Wichita for restoration.

When it was designed by Boeing in 1939, the B-29 was a powerhouse of futuristic technologies

Murphy plans to roll the airplane out of the hangar soon, and start taxi and flight testing in the spring. “We’re going to try hard to fly to Oshkosh [Wisconsin] in July,” he says, where Doc and Fifi could finally meet. The two crews plan to fly together above the crowds at EAA AirVenture, the biggest air show in the world. The formation, though small, will evoke the memory of a sky full of the bombers, 1,000 at a time, flying above Tokyo in the final days of World War II.

The engines are a focal point of the restoration.

When the B-29 was designed by Boeing in 1939, it was a technological powerhouse. The guns could be fired by remote control using computerized sights. The crew areas were pressurized, so the men could tolerate long missions at altitudes above 18,000 feet. Eight turrets housed machine guns, and some versions carried a 20mm cannon beneath the tail. The cockpit instruments and radar gear were accurate enough to help the crews aim at targets through cloud layers and at night. Nearly 4,000 were built. The Enola ***, whose crew dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, was a B-­29.

A US Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber flying above the clouds and mountains, mid 1940s.

“Most of Doc’s parts are exact copies of the original parts,” says Murphy, “but the engines have been upgraded. The original engines had lots and lots of problems.” The front-­row cylinders on the radials exhausted to the front, he says, causing overheating and fires. “Those engines were the most unreliable part of the airplane,” says Murphy. “Fifi had already converted to a modified hybrid engine design that combines the original front end with the back end of an engine off an old Sky Raider, and adds 1,000 horsepower. We’ll use that same modification, but the engines will look and sound just the same as the originals.”

The cockpit instruments and radar gear were accurate enough to help the crews aim at targets through cloud layers and at night.

That look and sound is important to the few remaining veterans who still remember their WWII missions. “Last summer, we got a call from the 73rd Bomb Wing—they wanted to hold their final reunion in the hangar here with Doc,” says Murphy. “Listening to those guys and the stories they told, it was a day I’ll never forget. One guy had been shot down three times. Another was a gunner, and he’d been shot in the face—he lost his nose and part of an eye—and he only missed one mission. Those guys could have come home after 20 missions, but they all flew 35 or 40. ‘We went over to win, not to go home,’ they said. All the stories—it was like it was yesterday, when those guys saw the airplane.”

Nearly 4,000 were built, but just one is still in good enough shape to fly.

The restoration’s not done yet. “The airplane is still up on jacks. We’re finishing up the gear doors and we should have those ready this week, then we’ll be ready to test the gear. Then we’ll come down off the jacks for the last time. We’ve got to do the finishing touches on the avionics, then we’ll just be waiting for weather,” Murphy says.

That look and sound is important to the few remaining veterans who still remember their WWII missions.

Once Doc is up and flying this summer, Murphy will face the next challenge—how to recruit and train the next generation of volunteers to keep the airplane in the air. It takes a crew of six to fly Doc: two pilots, a flight engineer, and three observers to monitor the flaps and gear and all the other moving parts. Dozens more are needed to maintain and provide support for the big bomber. Most of the current crew are retired workers from Boeing, including a few in their 90s who were there when the original fleet was built. “We’ve logged nearly 300,000 volunteer hours on this project,” says Murphy. “The first time Doc takes to the air, there’ll be a big celebration.” With any luck, that day is coming up soon.

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Crime-Scene Selfies: Generally A Bad Idea

Social media is awash with incriminating selfless—most recently, that of a Pennsylvania teen who Snapchatted a picture of himself with a murdered classmate.

A Pennsylvania teen charged in the murder of his classmate led cops to his door by way of a selfie. According to prosecutors and police, Maxwell Morton shot Ryan Mangan in the face with a 9mm handgun, then took a photo of himself with his victim and sent the image to a friend via Snapchat’s messaging app.

Though the message was supposed to disappear moments after receipt, Morton’s friend saved the photo and his mother notified police.

Investigators have yet to release a motive for the killing. though a social media footprint of the victim paints a picture of a young man involved with drugs, guns, and gang activity.

Several photos of the victim on Instagram show Mangan holding guns and flashing gang signs. In one captioned, “Let a n***a try me #Gang,” Mangan holds a shotgun. Another, posted just days before his murder, shows Mangan pointing a 9mm at the camera with the caption, “9 On Me #WhoSaidIAintOnShit.”

Morton’s social media presence was scrubbed by family members after the murder, according to friends of the alleged killer speaking on social media.

“(Police) received a copy of the photo which depicted the victim sitting in the chair with a gunshot wound to the face,” according to a police affidavit acquired byTriblive. “It also depicts a black male taking the ‘selfie,' with his face facing the camera and the victim behind the actor. The photo had the name ‘Maxwell' across the top.”

Morton has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder, homicide, and possession of a firearm by a minor.

“I've never seen it before,” District Attorney John Peck told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review of Morton’s gruesome selfie, “but it was a key piece of evidence that led investigators to the defendant.”

The uniqueness of crime-selfies in Jeannette, a small town 20 miles east of Pittsburgh, notwithstanding, a number of criminals have recently taken to social media to incriminate themselves in increasingly violent attacks.

Tarod Thornhill, the 17-year-old suspect charged with shooting a member of a rival gang and two bystanders at a Pittsburgh mall over the weekend, tipped off investigators to his identity when the clothing in photos he posted of himself to Instagram hours before the crime matched the ones seen in the mall’s surveillance footage.

In December, cop killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley posted photos of his firearm with the caption, “I’m Putting Wings On Pigs Today,” to Instagram before he murdered two New York City police officers.

Chelsie Berry and Jared Prier of Missouri were charged with voluntary manslaughter and abandonment of a corpse in a friend’s drug overdose death last summer. High on meth and fearful of the police, the pair dragged their friend to the car and dumped his body onto a driveway. Police caught up with them after they posted a photo of themselves with the dead body to Facebook.

Self incrimination via social media has become so common that according to a 2012 survey, four out of five law enforcement officials used online networks like Facebook and Twitter during criminal investigations. It’s likely that figure has risen in the last three years.

“This is really a question about criminal pathology rather than technology,” Pamela Rutledge, a psychology and social media instructor at Fielding Graduate University in Santa Barbara, California told Triblive. “Perpetrators in need of validating their power and sense of self-importance have used all kinds of communications to ‘brag' about criminal activities—from the local hangout to social media, like Facebook.”

Indeed, before mobile phone selfies and the ability to instantly share them were even a thing, violent criminals have been documenting their misdeeds with whatever technology was available.

The BTK killer, who terrorized Wichita, Kansas for decades and received 10 consecutive life sentences in 2005 for each of his victims, took hundreds of polaroids of his crime scenes as well as a number of himself dressed in women’s stockings and bras.

In 2004, a Canadian gang took photographs of one another as they beat to death drug runner David Marniuk.

And from Steubenville to Halifax, young men have been charged with sexual assault only after photos of their assaults were captured and passed around via text message.

“One of the reasons people take selfies is self promotion; it’s to look good and gain social status,” said Dr. Keith Campbell, head of the Psychology Department at the University of Georgia, who has published research on the psychology behind selfies. “The other possibility is it’s a way of communicating or bonding with friends.”

But in this case, Campbell noted Morton used Snapchat—more a temporary instant messaging service where images are automatically deleted after a few seconds than a platform like of Facebook or Instagram.

Morton likely assumed there was some surety of anonymity by sending the gory image via a service that promises to make his message disappear in a snap.

“It’s not like a serial killer who wants the whole world to follow his crime. Using Snapchat wouldn’t be your choice if you wanted to whole world to see. He probably thought it would minimize the risk of being caught,” Campbell said.

Such faith in the security of the Snapchat app—which can be sidestepped with a screenshot or dozens of third party apps—was obviously misplaced.

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Is This The Next Big Battle of the Ukraine War?

Western leaders are trying to negotiate a political solution to the war in Ukraine, but Mariupol, which stands between Russia and Crimea, has to be ready for the worst.

MARIUPOL, Ukraine—“Where are the sirens? I asked for five sirens but I can only see that there are two available,” the mayor of Mariupol told an emergency meeting in city hall on Saturday. Yuri Khotlubey’s city is under siege, facing what could be the biggest and most important battle of the war in Ukraine, and he’s trying desperately to piece together civil defense operations to save as many of Mariupol’s 460,000 residents as he can. “Please search for more sirens around non-functioning factories,” he said. Very few factories in the city are in operation anymore. “We need to build up our emergency systems,” he said.

Khotlubey had opened the emergency meeting at city hall by announcing yet another attack by Russian-backed rebel forces. That morning a shell had hit the patio of a private house in the village of Gnutovo on the outskirts of Mariupol, killing 54-year-old Alexander Kolanda. The mayor requested a moment of silence in his memory.

There have been many of those.

A woman walks past street vendors at a residential sector affected by shelling in Mariupol, a city on the Sea of Azov, eastern Ukraine February 3, 2015. Mariupol's city administration said the rebels had killed at least 30 people and injured 83 others by firing rockets from long-range GRAD missile systems on January 24.

Khotlubey described his city to The Daily Beast as an “undefeated fortress,” with thousands of Ukrainian forces based in the Mariupol airport and checkpoints on every road heading into town.

Sadly, those checkpoints haven’t stopped the artillery. On Jan. 24, shells and rocket shrapnel killed or wounded more than 100 people, damaged 75 multistory buildings, destroyed 243 private homes, and hit three schools and two kindergartens, in addition to burning the market and an entire parking lot of vehicles in the Vostochny district. Of the more than 30 people killed in the last two weeks, nine were children.

But the city is learning how to survive in wartime. Its strategic location leaves its residents no other choice. Mariupol is a significant port on the north coast of the Sea of Azov, but much more important, it sits astride the key land route from Russia to Crimea, which Moscow annexed almost a year ago. Unless that land corridor is opened in the south of the heavily contested Donetsk region, Russia has to supply Crimea by air and sea.

So there is little doubt a fight is coming. The question is when, and how ferocious it will be. The slaughter of Jan. 24 felt like a taste of what is to come.

Mariupol offered a brief military training exercise for its population: A vehicle drove around Vostochny, the district facing the front line, warning people that a Grad rocket attack was imminent. Pedestrians immediately dove to the ground, terrified.

But the city has not despaired, not yet. On Friday night, visitors were partying and dancing at the Old Beacon bar and restaurant on the beach. Both of Mariupol’s biggest employers, the Azovstal and Ilich steelworks, are still operating and providing support for areas affected by the fighting.

Every day, volunteers, municipal social workers, and private and state businesses coordinate to distribute building materials for destroyed homes, bring people plastic and plywood to fix broken windows, or simply deliver food and clothing for families who have lost everything.

And while world leaders gathered in Munich on Saturday to discuss the prospects of a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, Mariupol made its own preparations at the meeting with the mayor in city hall. State administrators and civil society groups pulled together to help their city, struggling to survive on the front line.

There was a lot of bitterness and criticism over Kiev’s lack of support. “Mariupol feels abandoned by the authorities. One thing nobody here can understand is why neither President Petro Poroshenko nor Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk has visited this city since last September, just to comfort our citizens, give us hope,” said Petr Andryushenko, leader of the volunteer initiative Together.

Pro-Russian forces were less than 16 miles from the Vostochny district, home to almost 30,000 people, the mayor said.

“When I became mayor 17 years ago, I could never have imagined that our brother nation, Russia, could undertake an intervention of such direct aggression, shell our cities, schools full of children, in some hybrid war against Ukraine,” Khotlubey told The Daily Beast, referring to the brutal mix of information war, subversion, and insurgency that has become characteristic of Russia’s tactics in this fight.

Nobody in Mariupol wants the city to get involved in a bigger and more destructive war between the West and Russia, but neither is there much hope that the ongoing peace talks involving Moscow, Kiev, and the Europeans, set to continue this week, will bear much fruit.

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Bud Ad Sparks Beer Fight in Congress

When Budweiser ran a snarky ad about craft beer on Super Bowl Sunday they had no idea they had picked a fight in very high places.

Washington, DC – Budweiser may have to host the next Beer Summit in Washington, because they’ve accidentally pissed off lawmakers in both parties.

While Budweiser thought it was just sticking a finger in the eye of, shall we say, experimental beer fans nationwide with its Super Bowl commercial mocking local craft brewing artisans and aficionados alike, they seem to have forgotten that the craft beer industry has a lot of allies in Congress.

The ad – “Brewed the Hard Way” – disses crafty concoctions, even calling out Pumpkin Peach Ale by name, and declares pride in macro brewing for people who don’t want to “fuss over” silly little details, like the actual taste of their beer.

http://youtu.be/siHU_9ec94c

But to politicians who are falling over themselves to attract the creative energy, votes and small dollar donations sitting largely untapped at their local breweries - the ad was personal.

"I think it's insane,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), a co-chair of the House Small Brewers Caucus. “I don't think it's the right approach."

Beer seems to be taking a note from politics (God, help us all). After Budweiser dropped its multi-million dollar attack ad, craft beer lovers started throwing their own sudsy blows at Big Beer. Lots of them. But politicians seem to be rallying around the little guy, who they say was provoked by Budweiser.

“It’s like the first political attack ad on this thing, so like the politics of beer,” said McHenry, the craft loving congressman who represents a whopping 25 small breweries in his Asheville, N.C. district.

Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) missed the feisty Budweiser ad because he watched the Super Bowl in a “chaotic environment,” but that didn’t mean he wasn’t willing to tear it down.

“They know that the craft beer industry is eating their lunch,” the animated founder of the Small Brewers Caucus yelled. “More and more Americans are developing a taste for beer that isn’t insipid and has real taste, and so they’re now starting to buy them up.”

Burn.

DeFazio’s anger is partly due to recently watching 10 Barrel Brewing Co. of Bend, Ore. become another local operation added to the binder full of craft breweries acquired by Anheuser-Busch InBev – a Belgium-based company that looks to be picking off the most successful American craft breweries one by one.

The conglomerate boasts being the largest brewer in the world and claims to now control 25% of global beer sales. They couldn’t have reached a quarter of international beer sales without scooping up craft breweries in the U.S. though, which DeFazio said starkly contrasts with their Super Bowl message.

“So it kind of contradicts their ad. I mean, they’re trying to say, ‘Oh, come on back and buy the schlock,’ yet on the other hand, they’re out buying up the good beer,” DeFazio said, before he added a warning. “They better not change the formula’s cause people will just stop buying it and someone else will replace them.”

Less than 72 hours after the Budweiser ad unleashed the anger of craft beer fans, Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) reintroduced their legislation aimed at propping up the craft beer industry: The Small BREW Act, which stands for The Small Brewer Reinvestment and Expanding Workforce Act.

The legislation seeks to foster small breweries, i.e. local jobs and votes, through dropping the tax rate per barrel from $7.00 to $3.50 for the first 60,000 barrels a brewery churns out. It would then save small breweries an additional $2.00 on every barrel until they hit the magical 2 million number. The big boys and girls aren’t invited to the dance though; any macro brewery churning out more than 6 million barrels is excluded from the new rates. Sen. Cardin said it’s a simple idea.

“I don’t think we ever intended for small businesses to be burdened with an excise tax, such as the beer tax,” Cardin said. “When we’re talking about a craft brew industry that is generally supporting small business and encouraging a new generation of people who really appreciate the art of brewing beer.”

A quarter of the Senate have signed onto the BREW Act, but Big Beer isn’t sitting this fight out. Within 24 hours of the introduction of the BREW Act, a pair of U.S. House members dropped The Fair BEER - Brewers Excise and Economic Relief – Act. It removes taxes for the first 7,143 barrels and then basically extends the Small BREW Act to Big Beer.

“This comprehensive reform bill supports brewpubs, microbrewers, national craft brewers, major brewers, and importers alike and encourages their entrepreneurial spirit, which is exactly the spirit we need to get America’s economic engine going again,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), an original sponsor of the BEER Act, said in a statement.

Chris Thorne, a lobbyist for Washington’s Beer Institute, called me to tout the BEER Act.

His group boasts that it represents Big and Craft beers alike, but it draws a line in the sand on the BEER vs. BREW Acts debate. It won’t take tax relief for small brewers unless Big Beer gets a slice of the pie too.

“It allows members of Congress to support every part of the industry. They can stand with the microbrewers, the national craft brewers and major brewers and importers,” Thorne said. “They’re not being asked to pick winners or losers in the marketplace.”

Thorne said it’s not about the breweries themselves - it’s really about blue collar vs. white collar drinkers.

“You’re really talking about people who pave roads, lay dry wall, wire houses, deliver washing machines, do landscaping; they’re the ones paying for the light beer and the Mexican imports and they’re the ones paying the top of the dollar,” Thorne said before brushing aside craft beer fans as wealthy elitists. “And some chucklehead who’s making $150,000 a year could put down $50 or $45 bucks for a case of beer he’s a paying a much smaller tax.”

While the BEER Act enjoys 21 cosponsors in the House, in the last Congress the BREW Act was signed onto by 181 House members.

The math is simple for Senator Cardin.

“It’s not even a beer issue, it’s a small business issue,” he said while dismissing the BEER Act.

As for the Budweiser ad itself? Cardin happily leaves his craft beer snobbery aside on that point. “Actually I liked the ad,” Cardin said. “Of all the ads, I thought that one was pretty clever. So I liked it.”

For other lawmakers the Budweiser ad is more complicated.

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D) represents Missouri – home to both Budweiser and a burgeoning craft brewing scene (think Schlafly and their Pumpkin Ale…).

“I heard that there were problems and, you know, I don’t want to take sides,” said McCaskill who doesn’t want to take sides. “I’ve got an awful lot of breweries in my state that I support besides Anheuser-Busch, so I don’t want to get in the middle of that fight.”

Full disclosure: this was written while sipping craft beer. To be fair to Anheuser-Busch InBev, one of them was a deliciously punchy IPA from Goose Island Beer Company – a Chicago brewery InBev scooped up in 2011. This Goose Island’s for you, Budweiser!

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PICTURE OF THE WEEK:

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JAGUAR AND LAND ROVER’S CARS FOR JAMES BOND MOVIE ‘SPECTRE’

If you were excited about the Aston Martin DB10 introduced at the end of last year, just wait until you get a look at the entire vehicle lineup for the new James Bond movie, Spectre.

Both Jaguar and Land Rover revealed their contributions to the 24th Bond film, and saying we’re excited would be an understatement. 007’s villain will be sitting behind the wheel of the gorgeous Jaguar C-X75 supercar in what’s sure to lead to at least one captivating chase scene. Land Rover brought out the big guns for the big screen, tapping 2 of their most popular models including our own personal favorite. For starters, we’ve got a Range Rover Sport SVR equipped with a 550-horsepower power plant, but we’ve saved the best for last – the Land Rover Defender “Big Foot” spec. This particular version of the iconic off-roader includes enhanced body protection, upgraded suspension, and 37-inch diameter off-road tires on all four corners.

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LD CUBE HI-FI SPEAKER COFFEE TABLE

Despite the prevailing winds of music being more about convenience than quality, some companies are still invested in making the listening experience a memorable one.

La Boite Concept is embracing that philosophy with the LD Cube, a coffee table-sized Hi-Fi speaker that’s dedicated to laptops and all wireless devices. The Cube features 100 Watts of sound coming through 6 drivers, 2 medium woofers, 2 tweeters, and 2 full range rear drivers for what LBC calls Wide Stereo Sound, so you’re enveloped in sound in your living room. An HD wireless music kit is integrated in the table’s legs, letting you connect with ease. Of course a big part of the appeal is that the Cube looks great sitting there, with a stylish design that will surely make any gadget-hating girlfriend pleased. [Purchase]

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How Much [X] Could You Eat Before It Would Kill You?

Toxicologists have a saying that “the dose makes the poison”, meaning that anything and everything can kill you in large enough quantities. So here we take five incredibly common (and usually benign) foods and household items to their illogical conclusion. Ever contemplated eating 480 bananas? Don’t do it.

While we’re on that note, this isn’t a dare. Also, drinking that much coffee sounds disgusting and I LOVE my coffee

480 Bananas

Let us ignore, for now, the logistical difficulties of fitting 480 bananas in our stomach, and talk about potassium. A typical banana contains about 450mg of potassium, making it an excellent source of the electrolyte. Potassium ions flow through our bodies, maintaining the balance of fluid inside and playing a role in muscle contractions and nerve impulses. Cells in virtually every tissue in the body have potassium channels.

It would be virtually impossible to eat a median lethal dose of potassium (about 1.4 pounds), but the element is a lot more deadly injected directly into the bloodstream, when a massive and sudden influx overwhelms the body. We know this all too well because in lethal injections, potassium chloride is the final chemical that stops the heart from beating.

179 Espresso Shots

A moderate dose of caffeine is a much-needed pick-me-up in the mornings. A very high dose of caffeine is caffeine intoxication, the worst parts of drinking coffee exacerbated: restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, an upset stomach, a racing heart. Take that to an even further extreme and caffeine can overstimulate the nervous system so much that it causes a cardiac

dysrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) or seizure.

A median lethal dose is about 11 grams for an adult. Caffeine poisoning is extremely rare and unlikely with coffee alone, but the advent of pills and caffeine-laced energy drinks have made the problem worse.

47 Teaspoons of Salt

As any reader of castaway survivor stories will know, do not drink the seawater. There is far too much salt in it for our bodies to handle.

Like potassium, sodium is an electrolyte that regulates the water flowing in and out of our cells. When there is too much sodium in the interstitial fluid that bathes our cells, water will naturally leave those cells by osmosis to restore the balance. This causes the cells to shrink. The most obvious symptoms of hypernatremia, or an excess of salt, are neurological: unresponsiveness, lethargy, weakness. Too much salt, and it can cause seizures or a coma.

17 Bottles of Water

Yes, even water. Water intoxication is essentially the opposite of too much salt. When there is too much water and not enough salt in the interstitial fluid between our cells, those cells start taking in water and swell up like balloons. Tightly packed brain cells have no room to swell inside the skull, leading to brain damage that could be fatal.

Drinking that sheer amount of water is rare under normal circumstances. It is most common in endurance athletes or ravers taking ecstasy, where the sweating leads to a lot of water drinking. But electrolytes lost through sweat also need to be replaced. Our bodies generally do a good job of maintaining a water balance between all that sweating, peeing, eating, and drinking, but it physically breaks down at the extremes — specifically, 17 16-ounce bottles.

24 Tubes of Toothpaste

Every tube of toothpaste comes with a warning: “Keep out of reach of children under 6 years of age.” Fluoride in small doses is indisputably good for preventing cavities, but too much of it can necessitate a call to the poison control centre. Still, a deadly dose requires a lot of toothpaste — 24 180mL tubes for an adult and multiple tubes even for a small child. A review of 87 fluoride ingestion cases in children found none with lasting effects that were the result of eating toothpaste.

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New US Government Agency Will Fight Digital Terrorism

In the wake of the Sony Pictures hack the Obama administration is to establish a new government agency which will “combat the deepening threat from cyberattacks,” according to the Washington Post.

The newspaper explains that, later today, the US president’s counterterrorism chief will announce the new agency, which will be known as the Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center. It will be modelled on the National Counterterrorism Center, which was set up following the September 11th attacks — when the government was criticised for failing to share effectively share and act on intelligence.

After the recent Sony hack, the FBI, NSA and CIA all drew different conclusions. The CTIIC will instead acts as a centralized agency to bring together a cohesive response. The agency will initially be staffed with 50 people, working with a budget of $US35 million a year. It will, the newspaper claims, not conduct any surveillance work itself, instead working with public and private partners to detects possible threats.

It’s not clear exactly how the organisation will differentiate itself from other government agencies though. Indeed, former White House cybersecurity coordinator Melissa Hathaway said to the paper that “we should not be creating more organisations and bureaucracy. We need to be forcing the existing organisations to become more effective — hold them accountable.”

Quite how effective the agency will prove remains to be seen, then. But one thing is clear: the US government is definitely taking digital warfare far more seriously than ever.

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This Enormous Car-Boat Probably Needed Oceans Of Oil To Run

Life for Americans after World War II was supposed to be filled with open roads and open waters. The roads, more often than not, were for getting to work. And the water? That was pure leisure time. This “water-mobile” of 1947 was imagined to provide the best of both, with an enormous (and, one imagines, fuel-guzzling) six-wheeled amphibious vehicle.

From the December 1947 issue of Mechanix Illustrated magazine:

The millions of ex-GI’s who watched wartime amphibious craft climb dripping up the beachheads will recognise the substance of dreams of their own in the “Vacationer,” an amphibious luxury cruiser proposed by industrial designer Robert Zeidman for practical peacetime use. The new civilian amphibian is a descendant of some of the Navy’s experimental vehicles, not the Army’s familiar DUCK. It promises a sustained highway speed of 55 mph and a respectable 10 to 12 knots afloat. Efficient land speed was the first consideration in specifying power; the excellent showing on water is due to improved lines and to the twin screws in tunnels, driven by the twin motors in the stern. Twin rudders give maximum manoeuvrability.

It’s pretty incredible that this vehicle could have been seriously proposed given its size. It had a stove, oven, shower, dishwasher, sink, fridge, freezer, bathroom and a lot of seating. It was supposed to be 10m long and sleep up to six people.

The interior really is something to behold, with plenty of room to put your feet up. But, alas, this gigantic retro vision of the future is relegated to the tomorrows that never were. And given the amount of gas it would have needed, that’s probably a good thing.

[MIKA27]

Unfilmed Scenes From The Original Star Wars Trilogy Illustrated

I always wanted to see the actual infantry attacks on the Hoth’s Rebel Base. Not just a couple scenes but a full Saving Private Ryan’s Normandy invasion battle with a ton of imperial storm troopers led by Darth Vader. Apparently illustrator Dave Dorman had the same idea in mind. Here’s his vision.

You can buy Dave Dorman’s prints here.

[MIKA27]

Australia police arrest two 'terror 'suspects

Counter-terrorism police in the Australian city of Sydney have arrested two men who were allegedly planning a terror attack.

The pair aged 24 and 26 are due to appear in court later on Wednesday.

A hunting knife and an Islamic State flag were seized from them, police say.

Australia has been on a terror alert since last year. In December two out of 18 hostages held hostage by gunman Man Haron Monis were killed along with him when police stormed a cafe in Sydney.

Police that an Islamic State (IS) flag had been found at the home of the suspects in the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield and that they had foiled an imminent attack that was due to have been carried on Tuesday.

"We will allege that both of these men were preparing to do this act yesterday (Tuesday)," said New South Wales Deputy Police Commissioner Catherine Burn.

She said that the arrests were "indicative of the threat" the security agencies now have to deal with, which police say represents a "new paradigm".

A video was also found in the home of the pair which police say featured details about committing a terrorist attack in the name of IS.

The video "depicted a man talking about carrying out an attack", Deputy Commissioner Burn said.

She said that pair were not previously known by police and that counter-terrorism officers were only aware of them when they received information on Tuesday, forcing them to act immediately.

'Plot foiled'

The BBC's Jon Donnison in Sydney says that the latest arrests are not the first case involving an alleged plan to carry out a public beheading in Australia.

In September a man was arrested and charged in connection with a plot to behead a member of the public and drape them in an Islamic State flag in the centre of Sydney.

The arrests of the pair were related to a series of counter-terrorism raids throughout that month, officials said.

Australian police say that in recent months they have foiled numerous terror plots

Two people were killed along with gunman Man Haron Monis when police stormed a cafe he had occupied in central Sydney

The cafe siege in December caused an outpouring of public grief and anger

After raids in Sydney and Brisbane, police said they had foiled a plot to "commit violent acts" in Australia.

At least 11 people have now been arrested and charged with terrorism-related offences since the start of the campaign, which began soon after Australia's terror threat level was raised to "high" for the first time.

Many of those targeted in the raids are alleged to be linked to IS, and are accused of helping people travel overseas to fight with extremists.

[MIKA27]

Could Sony and Marvel's Deal Mean a Non-White Spider-Man?

On Monday night, news broke that Marvel is joining forces with Sony to make more Spider-Man movies. While it's easy to raise an eyebrow at the prospect of more films featuring Peter Parker—there have already been five, and the series has already been rebooted once in the last 15 years—the general consensus among industry reporters is that hitting the reset button once again was basically a no-brainer. The unique character-sharing arrangement struck by Sony and Disney lets the hero join the established "Marvel Cinematic Universe" (where Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, et al have been crossing over with each other for years) as well as appear in a stand-alone film in 2017 produced by both studios (further Sony-produced spinoffs may follow one day). Exhausting, yes, but lucrative.

Given the obvious motivation for this bit of corporate cooperation—big-budget superhero franchises are all-but-guaranteed moneymakers and studios want to cash in—it would be heartening to see Sony and Marvel take a meaningful risk. Namely, the studios could take advantage of the relative safety that comes with doing a superhero reboot and finally bring a non-white Spider-Man to the big screen.

Moviegoers have reached a fascinating—some would say depressing—level of studio awareness in this era of interconnected franchises. Just because you're a Marvel Comics hero doesn't mean Marvel Studios can use you—Fox owns the rights to the X-Men and Fantastic Four, and Sony will continue to retain the Spider-Man license. Part of the magic of reading comic books is watching a company's heroes appear in each other's titles, and that's magic Marvel and Disney have replicated with their criss-crossing Avengers-centric films. But until now, they haven't been able to incorporate Marvel's flagship, web-shooting character.

Sony was one of the many Hollywood studios haphazardly looking to recreate Marvel's success on the fly. After its original Spider-Man series (starring Tobey Maguire and directed by Sam Raimi) flamed out with an expensive and widely-panned third entry, Sony rebooted the series and re-told Peter Parker's origin story with actor Andrew Garfield and director Mark Webb. The Amazing Spider-Man had a smidgen of real-world grit to it and an immensely appealing lead, but couldn't put enough of a new spin on the same well-known tale of Spidey's dead uncle, secret identity, and great power coming with great responsibility. The sequel was bogged down by ludicrous special effects and made only $202 million domestically, an unacceptably low yield for such an expensive, major project.

Nonetheless, Sony was keen in its desire to press on, announcing two more sequels and a panoply of vague spinoffs supposedly focused on the series' villains. Sony even promised that a film about an (unnamed) female superhero would be included, intentionally thumbing its nose at Marvel, which has thus far failed to produce such a film. But these spinoffs lacked any concrete concepts or casts. Any box-office potential could have been boosted by Spider-Man teaming up with the Avengers, which may have been Sony's impetus to agree to this deal. But it also feels like a clear acknowledgment of failure—the studio tried to keep the public interested in Spider-Man, failed, and so has to turn to the acknowledged master of the form to clean up the mess.

From a PR standpoint, the move could be a huge win for everyone involved if played the right way. More specifically, this is an immense opportunity for Marvel to address growing complaints about diversity and hit the home run Sony missed out on when casting Andrew Garfield. In 2011, a jokey Twitter campaign to cast African-American comedian and actor Donald Glover as Peter Parker turned into a serious drumbeat, and eventually a debate over whether just because most superheroes were created decades ago means they have to be forever portrayed as white. As Glover put it in interviews, why wouldn't a contemporary Peter Parker be a person of color? "It's 2011 and you don't think there's a black kid who lives with his aunt in Queens … who likes science? Who takes photography?"

Marvel Comics and writer Brian Michael Bendis acknowledged this criticism by creating Miles Morales, a Black Hispanic teenager who took up the mantle of Spider-Man in its "Ultimate Marvel" titles. Morales has been rapturously received, and that success would be easy to re-create on film, especially since it's unlikely that these new films will replay Spidey's origin on screen for a third time. If Spider-Man swings on-screen in some random upcoming Marvel movie, it'll be hard to avoid the depressing whiff of corporate synergy. It'd help if this iteration could bring with it a genuinely new kind of hero.

[MIKA27]

DOM’UP SUSPENSION STYLE TREEHOUSE CABIN

For many of us, the treehouse represents a golden period in our lives, when we unknowingly risked life and limb to scurry up a sturdy oak tree and read a dirty magazine in our non-OSHA-approved, dad-built treehouse. We’re happy to report you can now return to those glory days – without bothering dad – with Dom’Up, a suspension style cabin that promises to take your outdoor adventures to new heights.

Dutch arboriculturist Bruno de Grunne and architect Nicolas d’Ursel from Trees and People are behind this innovative invention that features a UV-resistant roof made from durable thermo-welded tarpaulin. The lightweight 172 sq. ft. platform gets hung between two trees, as the galvanized steel and natural (and removable) wooden flooring round out the support. The makers say Dom’Up ($28,215) does take a couple of days to fully set up, but that it can then stay elevated in the trees for years. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

TUNA KNOBS

After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Tuna Knobs are now available for purchase. The absence of knobs to fiddle makes it hard to mix on imprecise touchscreens, and lack of tactile feedback often results in messy and imprecise mixes. These small conductive dials aim to change that, they attach to any touchscreen allowing more precise control on your mixes, letting you control DJ and music making apps like you would with dedicated music hardware. Tuna knobs work with several music mixing apps, such as Korg, iDJ2GO, TouchAble, Lemur, TouchOSC, and many more. Head over to their website for more details.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Weigh In On Plans To Hack The Weather And Cool The Earth

Geoengineering (i.e. tinkering with the climate to stop the rising tides of climate change) is a provocative and frankly still kinda crazy idea. Two long-awaited reports from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) out today have some pretty harsh words about geoengineering.

The reports don’t use the term “geoengineering” but are instead titled “Climate Intervention.” The rebranding is necessary, the authors say, because geoengineering implies a precision that does not yet exist. Our scientific knowledge is still far too patchy to understand the exact consequences of our actions.

The reports are focused on two different strategies for planet-hacking: albedo modification and carbon dioxide removal.

The report calls out the first, when particles that reflect sunlight are sprayed into the atmosphere, as especially risky.

(Think Snowpiercer as its worst case scenario.) In fact, the author also renamed it “albedo modification” from the more commonly used “solar radiation management” because, well, we don’t know enough to be “managing” anything. (Albedo refers to how much sunlight is reflected by the Earth.)

“There is significant potential for unanticipated, unmanageable, and regrettable consequences in multiple human dimensions from albedo modification at climate altering scales,” they write in the report. One of the co-authors took to the more colourful pages Slate, where he called the idea simply “barking mad.” Albedo modification also doesn’t address the underlying problem of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide removal, the focus of the other report, is more feasible. In fact, we already have ways of removing carbon dioxide; they are simply slow (planting trees) or expensive (carbon dioxide scrubbers that remove the gas from the air). Researchers need to find better ways of removing carbon but also the political will to do so.

The National Academy of Sciences doesn’t tell us anything scientists didn’t already know, but as advisors to the nation on science, its reports are influential for setting the research agenda. By separating carbon dioxide and albedo modification into two reports, for example, the NAS can advocate for one type of geoengineering over the other. Oh, wait, I meant “climate intervention”.

[MIKA27]

This Is The UK's First Driverless Car

This is the Lutz Pathfinder, the UK’s first driverless car. Stop laughing.

Unveiled today in Greenwich, it’s been built and designed by Coventry’s RDM Group, as part of the Autodrive project. Forty of the vehicles, designed to help shoppers, the elderly and commuters travel short distances, will be tested in pedestrianised areas of Milton Keynes later this year.

Large enough to accommodate two passengers with luggage, the Lutz Pathfinder is powered by a computer sat behind its seats as powerful as two high-end gaming PCs. Twenty two sensors (including panoramic cameras, radar and laser imaging) allow the Lutz Pathfinder to understand the world around it and navigate it.

The cars have a range of 64km/h, with enough juice to last eight hours of continuous travel, maxing out at top speeds of just under 25km/h. A smartphone app will allow would-be passengers to hail the vehicles for a ride, too.

The Lutz Pod’s unveiling is accompanied today by UK government plans to conduct a major review of the rules currently governing the roads in order to accommodate driverless cars in the future. This may include significant changes to the Highway Code and MOT services.

[MIKA27]

Saudi Arabia Is Building A 965km Wall Along The Iraq Border

Saudi Arabia is building great wall — or rather, a great chainlink fence with razor wire — to “protect against ISIS” in Iraq. And it’s not the only country investing in very expensive walls right now, even though they probably won’t work. Why? Because walls aren’t just about security. They’re also powerful symbols.

The Great Wall

News outlets like NPR and UPI have been reporting the project for weeks, but so far we have very few pictures of the actual wall itself.

According to the Telegraph, Saudi Arabia wants to “insulate itself from the chaos engulfing its neighbours,” and it’s doing so with a supremely high-tech wall. Two high fences, 90m apart; 40 watch towers; over 1400km of fibre optic cable; underground movement detection. Saudi Arabia’s government has been talking about this wall for a loooong time — since 2006 — but in early January, ISIS attacked a border post and killed four guards, making it very clear that Saudi Arabia is a big target, and raising the question of the wall once more.

But will a glorified fence really keep out a nebulous group like ISIS? And is that really all this wall is designed to do?

It’s a contentious question, and it’s complicated by the fact that Saudi Arabia isn’t the only world power throwing up walls along its borders. There are dozens of security walls going up around the world, as Reece Jones, the author of Border Walls: Security and the War on Terror in the United States, India and Israel

, told me over email. The International Organisation of Migration reports that 40,000 have people have died in the past decade alone trying to cross borders. “The construction of border walls and the violence of borders is a significant development globally over the past twenty years and one that is not well documented,” says Jones.

Why are so many countries returning to the oldest defence mechanism known to civilisation, one that is far from effective? The answer is more complicated than security alone.

Thousands of Years, Thousands of Walls

Let’s back up for a second. Why did humans even start building walls?

As Annalee Newitz pointed out last year, it wasn’t for defence at all: They were social. As humans domesticated and began to settle in communities and even small villages, walls became a way to foster privacy and even prevent groups of humans from “fragmentation into hunter-gatherer groups.” In the desert, there were environmental benefits too — thick, high walls kept cool air in and created shade, and sometimes were even crowned with wind catchers, or barjeel, that would harness air movement and push it through the buildings below.

Jeddah under attack in 1517

But like so many other countries, walls became a crucial because they are the primary defence against seemingly endless invasions in Saudi Arabia. In a way, you could see the centuries of turmoil that rocked it as a long succession of building, destroying, and rebuilding walls: From the strong, thick walls built hastily around Jeddah in the 16th century to keep the Portuguese out, to the old capital — a walled city called Diriyah, which is now just a lovely, UNESCO-protected ruin — that was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire of the early 1800s after a six-month siege.

Saad ibn Saud palace in Diriyah by Fedor Selivanov.

In a way, Saudi Arabia walling off its borders just seems like a continuation of a centuries of history.

If Walls Don’t Work, Why Are We Building So Many of Them?

Let’s be real, though: The Ottoman Empire invading in 1818 was probably the last time a wall served as an effective defence, too. We live in an age of mortar shells and heat-seeking missiles and cyber warfare. Walls are about as useful as out spleens.

But here’s the funny part: Even though walls are pretty useless today, they’re absolutely exploding across the world. Besides obvious examples like Israel’s “separation barrier” in the West Bank and the United States’ own farcical partial wall at the Mexico border, there are dozens of other countries building walls around themselves right now. There’s the 1690km long fence between Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, There’s the 1127km trench being dug between Afghanistan and Pakistan. There’s the wall that Greece put up along its border with Turkey. North Korea and South Korea too.

An excavator digs a trench along the Pakistan Afghanistan border.

Walls are springing up across our world with incredible speed, which contradicts many cliches about globalisation. Sure, the world is getting smaller; it’s also getting more carefully delineated and guarded. The French historian Jacques de Saint Victor came up with very snazzy term for this phenomenon in an essay called The Return of Walls: A Closed Globalization?. He describes it as the “neo-feudalisation of the world”. Even though it’s draped in technology and futurism, the construction of carefully controlled walls is all about imposing order on the chaos of poverty-stricken, war-torn groups of people.

A Southern Arizona rancher, stands at the border wall with Mexico in 2010.

“These walls are usually built along borders where there is a sharp wealth discontinuity across the border with a wealthy state directly beside a poor state,” Jones told me over email, adding that Saudi Arabia and Iraq have “one of the widest wealth differences in the world,” with GNI per capita at $US53,640 and $US14,930, respectively. The same goes for the US-Mexico border, and the South Korea-North Korea border too. “Typically the country building the wall describes the threat on the other side as an uncivilised and violet people living in an ungoverned space,” he writes.

Ethiopian migrants gather as they wait to be evacuated on the border with Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Keep Control In and Keep the Chaos Out

The violent threat against Saudi Arabia is clear, but there are socioeconomic issues at play with these walls, too. Saudi Arabia, one of the richest countries in the world, is bordered to the south by the poorest and most resource-scarce country in the region, Yemen, which has also become hotbed of terrorism. To the north, there’s a war-torn and poverty-stricken country controlled by ISIL, one of whose stated goals is to take control of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Faced with encroaching chaos on either end, a great wall — no matter how totally futile — starts to make more sense. Walls are just as important as symbols as they are as defences. The security expert Bruce Schneier has described this effect when talking about TSA screenings at American airports as “security theatre:” A feature that enhances a sense of security without security itself.

Walls aren’t really about defences, they’re about optics — demonstrating a controlled divide for the people on either side. “Once the wall has been erected, it acquires a life of its own and structures people’s lives according to its own rules,” Costica Bradatan said in the New York Times. “It gives them meaning and a new sense of direction. All those walled off now have a purpose: to find themselves, by whatever means it takes, on the other side of the wall.”

So maybe Saudi Arabia will actually built this 965km wall it’s been talking about for a almost a decade. Maybe it won’t. It doesn’t really matter, because we’re already talking about it exerting control over the chaos surrounding it. The wall its neighbours and the rest of the world is imagining — the one drawn in the neat, isometric illustrations — seems like it’s almost as important than the real thing.

[MIKA27]

Chinese Police Destroy 3083 Sets Of Fireworks, Creates Huge Explosion

Last Sunday, Chinese police destroyed 3083 sets of fireworks creating a huge explosion in a controlled area of the province of Shenyang. As Shanghaiist reports those fireworks were “posing hazards to workers during the process of manufacturing, managing, transporting and storing.”

[MIKA27]

The Ghostbusters Are Back In A Board Game That May Or May Not Be Haunted

The history of Ghostbusters video games isn’t exactly dotted with memorable titles, so when the folks at Cryptozoic (the same people responsible for the wonderful Adventure Time Card Wars game) wanted to re-visit the franchise, they decided to turn it into an episodic board game instead. And given the explosion in popularity of both board games and busting ghosts as of late, the company probably won’t have much difficulty in making its Kickstarter campaign a success.

It unfortunately means that you can’t buy Ghostbusters: The Board Game just yet, but with a donation of $US80 you can at least secure yourself one of the first copies shipping later this year in October.

The game is based on the art of comic book illustrator Dan Schoening, so if you’ve read the graphic novels you’ll feel comfortable with the style. But fans of the original movie, or the ’80s cartoon, will still be able to recognise all the well-known characters including Venkman, Stantz, Zeddemore, Spengler, Slimer, and of course the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (one of the game’s three ‘boss’ characters).

Each of the game’s four playable ghost-busting characters has a specific role and special abilities that are slowly unlocked as play progresses, and while it can be played alone, Ghostbusters: The Board Game is probably far more enjoyable with a group of friends, just like watching the original movie.

[MIKA27]

Mysterious Beam of Light Emerges from Plant Explosion

It’s been well over a week since an electrical power plant substation exploded in Escanaba, Michigan, knocking out power and causing rolling blackouts for days. While power was eventually restored, very little information has been released about what might have caused it. Could it have anything to do with the bright beam of light seen shooting straight up out of the substation during the explosion?

The explosion occurred at 1:30 am on February 2nd in Escanaba, a city of about 13,000 residents located in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The substation is near the city’s power plant and is run by the Escanaba City Electric Department. According to witnesses, the explosion and the beam of light lasted for several minutes. Power immediately went out throughout the city and residents were advised to keep non-electric furnaces going due to the cold weather or move to designated shelter areas.

Many residents saw the explosion and especially the subsequent fire, smoke and mysterious beam of light. When questioned, local officials said the light was from a train. Numerous videos were posted on the Internet, yet news about the explosion did not appear outside of Escanaba until a week later. Why?

The plant is not a nuclear facility and no UFOs were reported in the area before or after the explosion or anywhere near the beam. No unusual weather was reported, although some wondered if the beam was a secret HAARP experiment.

An interesting and somewhat sinister possibility has been suggested. In 2012, another mysterious explosion occurred in Alpena, Michigan, about 240 miles from Escanaba. That explosion, which was heard and felt by many in the area but was also not reported by the media, was centered at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Centerand there were rumors that the center was being used by Russian special forces troops known as Spetsnaz. Why? As part of a secret plot to take down the U.S. power grid. Now there’s a mysterious power substation explosion in Escanaba.

I know – that’s a lot of far-apart dots to connect. But that’s what happens where there’s a mysterious beam of light reaching from an explosion to the sky and the only official explanation is a locomotive light.

[MIKA27]

Tibetan Mummies and Immortal Cells: A Lost Legacy

What do Tibetan mummies, cancer research and a poor woman from the first half of the 20th century have in common?

No, that’s not the opening line to a really bad joke. It’s a serious question. Though giving you the answer is going to take some time. The one thing all three of those things has in common, is immortality. In a round-a-bout way.

I suppose we should start with Henrietta Lacks. Mrs. Lacks was a pretty young woman who had the serious misfortune of being born in Virginia in the 1920’s; she was, as is politically correct, African American. As may be no surprise, she led a tough life.

Poverty, racism, and the poor state of affairs in that era had dire consequences for a lot of people, and that included Mrs. Lacks.

You see, she died of cervical cancer in 1950, survived by her husband and five children…and, as it turns out, the world’s first immortal human skin cells.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though.

Henrietta Lacks and her husband, David

During the birth of the Lacks’ fifth and final child, complications developed. Profuse bleeding threatened the young mother’s life and though doctors initially assumed syphilis to be the cause, this was quickly ruled out and she was sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for further examination. Ultimately it was found that she had cervical cancer, or malignant epidermoid carcinoma of the cervix. She was treated with radium tube inserts and X-rays, but unfortunately she succumbed to kidney failure within months.

Henrietta Lacks story is a tragic one, but also an all too common one; except for one small fact that led to one of the most important medical discoveries of the century.

During her radium treatments, doctors took tissue samples from her cervix. Today you might think that to be a routine step in a case like this, but it wasn’t exactly common practice back then. One thing that unfortunately is common, then as now, is for doctors to do these kinds of things to women without first getting the woman’s permission. For Henrietta and her family, this turned out to be more of a problem than you might think.

Those stolen samples were given to biologist Dr. George Otto Gey, presumably to be studied in the guise of cancer research. But Dr. Gey quickly found there was something quite remarkable about Henrietta Lacks, or more specifically, her epithelial cervical cells: they’re immortal.

Multiphoton fluorescence image of HeLa cells stained with the actin binding toxin phalloidin (red), microtubules (cyan) and cell nuclei (blue).

It turned out that Henrietta’s DNA had mutated in a very special way, a way that allowed her cells to replicate indefinitely. If you’re familiar with cancer in a biological way, you understand that cancer is, essentially, what results from cells that don’t die when they’re supposed to. Cancerous cells replicate out of control and begin undermining the function of whatever organ they infect.

However, once those cells have been removed from their host, they quickly lose their zest for life. Such is the way of cells, cancerous or not.

But in the case of Henrietta’s cancer cells, they continued to proliferate – that is, to reproduce – even after they were removed from her body. It’s important to understand just what that means. When doctors conduct biomedical research on a cellular level, they obviously need cells to work on. Lot of cells, and lots of petri dishes. It has typically been quite difficult to cultivate and maintain enough cells to be useful in medication and genomic research whilst also trying to keep them alive long enough to bear results. That all changed once Henrietta’s cells came into the picture. Since her cells replicate on their own, and continue to replicate on their own without any outside help, they can be used reliably in those kinds of research trials. They can be replicated and stored and used over, and over, and over…indefinitely. In fact, Henrietta Lacks’ cells were the product of the first ever cell factory. They are what’s now known as an immortalized cell line, and Mrs. Lacks’ – which are officially called HeLa cells – were the first ever found.

The discovery of immortalized cell lines was an incredible breakthrough. It led to the desperately needed polio vaccine and to new medication delivery methods. It helped scientists to unlock DNA and to map genomes, and really, these cells have helped to improve every corner of medical science. Immortalized cell lines have served as the foundation of many new branches of science, both biomedically and technologically. And since Dr. Gey’s discovery, other kinds of immortalized cell lines have been discovered, an important one being the bewilderingly controversial stem cells. Henrietta’s legacy is a true gift to mankind, even though she, nor her family ever saw a single bit of recognition or compensation for the mountains of money that have been made on the back of her unwilling sacrifice.

So what does that have to do with a Tibetan mummy? Great question!

Last week news outlets everywhere were exclaiming that a mummified Tibetan monk that had been found buried in Mongolia might actually be ALIVE!

The remains were of a monk who, apparently, died while meditating and seated in the lotus position some 200 years ago. Far be it for me to tell you what to believe, but the claim that this monk is still alive after having been functionally dead and buried for 200 years is not a scientific one – nor, do I think, is it a reasonable one. It is his fellow (living) monks who have put this forward, and well, you can decide for yourself what the truth is.

Here’s where I see a connection to Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cells though.

This mummified monk is extremely well preserved, which is something we’ve seen with other mummified remains. On occasion we’ll find remains that are so well preserved that the claim of immortality seems plausible. I have only a single question though, what if some variation of the mutation that allowed Henrietta’s cells to proliferate forever is at work in the living mummy of Mongolia? What if he’s dead, but his cells haven’t yet gotten the message?

[MIKA27]

‘60 Minutes’ Bob Simon Killed in Crash

60 Minutes journalist Bob Simon was killed Wednesday night in a car accident on the West Side Highway in Manhattan. His livery cab crashed into a Mercedes and then spun into a pedestrian area near 30th Street, the New York Post reports. The Mercedes driver claimed the cabbie had been driving dangerously.

“He swerved into me. He hit me and he looked like he lost control of the car,” the Mercedes driver told the Post. Simon had reported for 60 Minutes since 1996.

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Costa Concordia Captain Convicted on 32 Counts of Manslaughter

Capt. Schettino was sentenced to 16 years for crashing his ship. He escaped much heavier penalties. Has he learned his lesson? Probably. Has the cruise industry? Maybe.

GROSSETO, Italy — Captain Francesco Schettino was found guilty Wednesday of causing a maritime disaster, guilty of abandoning ship and guilty of 32 counts of manslaughter in the sinking of the cruise ship he commanded, the CostaConcordia. He was sentenced to 16 years and one month in prison.

Schettino’s trial never really was about guilt or innocence. After all, the facts were hard to dispute: Schettino ordered the ship off course and then negligently, albeit accidentally, crashed it into shallow rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio in January 2012. By his own admission, he left the ship before all of the passengers were safely rescued—though he says he accidentally fell into a life boat and couldn’t get back on board. No one died on impact, but 32 of the 4,229 people on board lost their lives during the evacuation, which the captain had failed to call for nearly an hour after the accident.

According to Schettino, the real question has always been about money and how Costa and its parent company Carnival could make sure their insurance companies would pay for the hefty salvage operation, which will have cost $1.5 billion by the time the wreck is dismantled. The Concordia was parbuckled to an upright position in September 2013, and then towed to Genoa last July where it is being stripped down and recycled and sold for scrap.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast last March, Schettino said he was a scapegoat. “Since the beginning, they have searched for a way to put all the blame on me, saying the captain went crazy for a moment, [so as] not to forfeit the insurance money,” Schettino told us. “It didn’t take long to figure out that it would all be better if the responsibility rested with just one person rather than the whole company.”

This week, as his trial wound down, Schettino’s lawyers repeated the claims, telling the panel of three judges that “the cards were stacked against Schettino” from the beginning. They claimed he was vilified, criminalized, and made the laughing stock of Italy.

“The personality that was created is not in line with reality,” Domenico Pepe told the court. “He has been massacred.”

Pepe also argued that the court refused to accept requests to analyze various functions of the ship which Schettino claims malfunctioned and led to the deaths. Because none of the victims died on impact, the defense tried to prove that had the ship’s watertight doors and emergency generators worked, lives could have been saved.

Schettino’s defense team also blamed the crew for not being better trained, which he said was the responsibility of the company, not him. He blamed his helmsman, Indonesian national Jacob Rusli Bin, for misinterpreting his order to turn the ship away form the coast before the rocks were hit. None of those factors proved his innocence, certainly, but they may have played a role in his sentence, which could have been still heavier.

The captain has clearly learned his lesson. He will be able to appeal his verdict, and, given Italy’s court system, has a good chance to get a few years knocked off his sentence. Before the judges retired to deliberate, Schettino spoke: “On January 13, I died with those 32 passengers,” he said, then broke down in tears.

What is less clear is whether the cruise ship industry has learned its lesson.

Schettino’s lawyer told the court that he had an opportunity to go on a Costa cruise, which he said he did to help better understand how to defend his client. He said that when Schettino worked for Costa, the Concordia only had two muster stations, where passengers meet when there is an emergency. Pepe told the court that the cruise he was on had ten. He also said that the members of the staff were attentive and well trained, and that they spoke a number of languages, which he was able to test with his multi-lingual wife’s help.

Pepe said there were crew members near the meeting areas on the ship he took, which was not the case the night the Concordia went down. Pepe also surmised that proper checks had been made to ensure the watertight doors and emergency generators functioned, too.

“This trial has served a purpose: to correct the industry,” said Schettino’s lawyer. “And who knows how many lives could have been lost in the future if not for that.”