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

[MIKA27]

Rare Bobcat Nabs Shark and Camera Nabs Rare Snow Leopard

Two rare big cats made interesting and somewhat historic appearances this week. A man in Florida took a picture of a rarely seen bobcat on a beach doing something even more rare – hauling in a shark. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in a much colder spot, a wildlife camera confirmed for the first time that the rare snow leopard has moved into a Siberian nature park.

Bobcats (lynx rufus) roam most of the continental United States but the nocturnal felines are rarely seen, so John Bailey thought he was watching a dog playing in the water on a Fort Pierce beach around 6:30 pm. As he got closer, he realized he was seeing a bobcat wade into the surf, pounce on a shark and drag it to shore. Bailey managed to take one photo with his camera before the bobcat dropped the shark and ran off.

Bobcat dragging a shark to shore on a beach in Florida

Skeptics picked the photo apart but wildlife officials saw nothing unusual. Bobcats like water and, although they prefer forest fauna, a hungry one would definitely be game for seafood.

2015 is the International Year of the Snow Leopard, celebrating this beautiful endangered big cat that is down to about 6,000 adults in the wild, of which less than 2,500 are breeders. Preferring alpine and sub-alpine zones and elevations ranging from 3,000 to 4,500 meters (9,800 to 14,800 feet), snow leopards (Panthera uncia) are found mostly in the mountains of Central and South Asia.

Siberia created the Saylyugem National park in the Altai Mountains in 2010 to protect wildlife and attract new species to the area.

Photographs and videos of what may be multiple snow leopards were take in March 2015. Experts examining the images have detected some differences and are sending droppings to a lab to determine if the park has a pack of snow leopards.

Night image of a snow leopard in Saylyugem National park

One reason the Saylyugem park was created is that hunters killed at least 10 snow leopards in the Argut river valley in the 1990s, selling their hides for fur and their remains for medicine. The bobcat is endangered in three U.S. states and, like the snow leopard, their only natural enemy is humans, which is never good for animals.

[MIKA27]

FALCON F7 AMERICAN SUPERCAR

Looking to give the Italians a run for their money in the supercar department, the Detroit-based team at Falcon Motor Sports has pulled the curtain back on their latest creation, the Falcon F7 supercar.

One quick glance at this menacing machine, and you know it means business. The 2-door sports car is built on a lightweight monocoque chassis using a blend of aluminum, carbon fiber, and kevlar – all materials that save weight without sacrificing strength and durability. Under the hood is a Lingenfelter-built V8 producing 1,100 horsepower through a six-speed dual clutch transmission, a setup that helps this bad boy sprint to 0-60 mph in just 2.7 seconds, and a top speed of 200 miles per hour. Of course that much power requires equally impressive stopping power, which is why Falcon opted for oversized Brembo carbon ceramic brakes on all four corners. Inside the cockpit a handcrafted leather interior surrounds you, while an in-dash iPad mini offers up complete control of your music, and a removable targa roof lets you shed the top during those beautiful summer nights. This American supercar carries a sticker price of $195,000.

[MIKA27]

SILOLONA SOJOURNS LUXURY CRUISES INDONESIA

Silolona Sojourns are one of the most sought after private travel experiences in South East Asia. Silolona Sojourns offers expeditions on two primary boats the Silolona and the Si Datu Bua, both modern incarnations of the traditional Indonesian ships, originally used for trade along the historic spice routes, these mini yachts offer comfort and experiences that can compete with some of the most modern yachts of today. Built using raw materials with great attention to detail, the luxury yachts, are modeled on the traditional Indonesian trading vessels known as the Phinisi. The yachts are designed to offer unparalleled luxury onboard with all modern comforts while sailing, but also assured its guests of a rich traditional experience. Through the journey, guests get the opportunity to travel to remote places on the archipelago, experiencing the diverse traditions and cultures. From diving, snorkeling around the best reefs in the world or simply relaxing under the shade of the yacht’s splendid sails on its elegant teak deck, passengers aboard can experience a variety of activities. You can enjoy a scrumptious meal cooked by the Executive Chef on-board, and use all water sports equipment including sea kayaks, dive equipment including wetsuits for certified divers, snorkel equipment, water skis, wake board and fishing gear.

[MIKA27]

RIGHT GIN

As the days get longer and colder, it's time to figure out your best options for classic Gin cocktails. And Right Gin from Altamar is nothing short of a perfect candidate. Made from a grain base in Malmo, Sweden using water from a nearby protected lake, Right Gin has all the juniper and citrus flavors you'd expect from a dry gin, but also includes Sarawak Black Pepper which gives it a subtle, unique twist. Perfect for Martinis or Gin & Tonic as you celebrate Spring.

[Duxnutz]

Regarding autonomous flight of airliners, there is not any need to redesign the airplane. All modern airliners already have Cat3 Automatic Take Off and Landing Systems. They can and do, easily fly the entire trip autonomously. If you feel a firm but controlled landing, that was most likely an auto-land. The pilots fly quite a few landings manually to maintain their currency and you can usually tell because they either flare and land very softly or bounce a landing, where the autonomous system sticks every landing at 3-6 ft/sec every time.

Some airports like Heathrow are known for having lots of automatic landings because of the environment and because they have all of the equipment for a Cat3 landing.

1) CAT III CAPABILITY: Typically large airliners have this but there's a whole host of limitations on auto-land. Tight cross wind limits, surface condition, redundancy of down grading to CAT 2/CAT 1 if certain conditions aren't met or the situation doesn't call for it. That's if the airport is CAT 3 capable to begin with. Lots of $$$ to spend to do that.

I know it's hard to believe but there's alot of small, almost imperceptible decision and reasoning events that occur even before the door has been closed on your average flight. Sitting down the back with your coffee and newspaper I can see how it appears 'EASY' but believe me when I say, it's a heck of a lot more complicated than you think. Regardless of how much fear the media has spread that we're all maniacs.

Rant over.

[MIKA27]

The FBI Lets Criminals Walk In Order To Keep This Device A Secret

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is notoriously secretive about its cell phone tracking tools known as Stingrays. Now, new documents obtained by the ACLU show how the Feds keep their surveillance gadgets shrouded in mystery: the FBI makes cops dismiss criminal cases if they threaten to reveal secrets about Stingrays.

The American Civil Liberties Union received an unredacted copy of a six-page non-disclosure agreement between the FBI and the Erie County Sheriff’s Department, once a court ordered that the ACLU had a right to request the information.

The agreement explicitly outlines the many steps local law enforcement needs to take in order to have permission to use the Stingrays, which are made by the Harris Corporation. Here’s the directive to stop prosecuting to protect the technology:

“In addition, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office will, at the request of the FBI, seek dismissal of the case in lieu of using or providing or allowing others to use or provide any information concerning the Harris Corporation wireless collection equipment/technology, its associated software, operating manuals, and any related documentation”

The agreement hamstrings local law enforcement to a point where it has to ask the FBI permission to reveal anything related to Stingray use.

Think about this: While insisting that the bad guys will win if anyone finds out anything about a powerful surveillance tool, the FBI is willing to let other criminals walk free to avoid having to reveal its secrets.

And that isn’t the only disturbing thing revealed by the records. They show that Erie County only obtained a court order to use Stingrays once, even though there were 47 documented uses.

The FBI’s tight-lipped party line has been, over and over again, that releasing any information about Stingrays will help the bad guys. That’s what FBI Director James Comey said when he finally addressed Stingrays, and that’s the line trickling down to local enforcement using the devices. Look at the original FOIA denial from Erie County to the ACLU, which rejected the request on the basis that it would jeopardize criminal investigations and “could if disclosed endanger the life and safety of a person.”

A judge ruled that this “but the bad guys will win and someone could DIE if we tell you” denial failed to follow the law.

This code of silence is far too broad. Of course, the FBI and local law enforcement should not be made to reveal specific deployments of surveillance tech in ongoing investigations. But none of the information that has come out of the disclosures about Stingrays has rendered the technology less effective. What these public disclosures have done is show how law enforcement has tried to minimise any oversight about the use of these powerful devices, oversight that is set up to protect privacy rights. Nobody wants the FBI to be impotent. But letting the FBI operate with impunity is another matter.

[MIKA27]

The Doctor Who Infected 1300 Guatemalan Patients With STDs

In the 1940s, a young American doctor went to Guatemala to do medical experiments. He was funded by the venerable US National Institutes of Health, but he did not make anyone healthy. Instead, he deliberately exposed 1300 people to sexually transmitted diseases.

Dr John C. Cutler was no mad scientist. His experiments exposing prostitutes, prisoners and asylum inmates to STDs were carried out under the Public Health Service. They are flagrantly unethical by modern standards, but that they were deemed acceptable at the time — and perhaps that’s the most horrifying part of all.

Last week, 800 Guatemalans filed a class-action lawsuit for $US1 billion against Johns Hopkins University for its role in the STD experiments. Why now, 70 years later? Cutler never published the results of his experiments, which were frankly shoddy science. And thus the experiments were simply forgotten until 2010, when Wellesley professor Susan M. Reverby stumbled across Cutler’s paper while researching the Tuskegee experiments in Alabama. (Cutler also worked on these experiments, where hundreds of African-Americans infected with syphilis were not given treatment). The Obama administration issued an official apology then, but medical ethicists have since called for compensation for the Guatemalan victims.

The 1940s were a different time, of course. Sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis, loomed far larger in the public imagination than they do today. Even though scientists had proved that penicillin could cure syphilis by 1943, ways to prevent STDs were still lacking — a problem for soldiers just returning from WWII. That’s where Cutler came in.

The road from Terre Haute to Guatemala

Twenty-eight year-old Cutler was just two years out of medical school when he began running a series of tests — called the Terre Haute prison experiment — where he infected prisoners with gonorrhea. The US military wanted to test new prophylaxis, or preventative treatments, for the common STD. And for that, they needed a reliable way to infect people with the disease.

Cutler developed the strategies he would later employ in Guatemala in the U.S. Researchers put bacteria, occasionally collected from prostitutes, directly on the penises of the prisoners. The prisoners had technically consented to the study, however questionable the idea of “consent” by prisoners is by modern standards. But at least the prisoners knew they were being infected with gonorrhea. The would not be true when Cutler relocated his work to Guatemala in 1946.

The Terre Haute experiment was eventually abandoned because researchers could find no reliable way of infecting the men. In Guatemala, however, prostitution was legal, and Cutler could run this experiments with a “natural route” of infection. Plus, the US Public Health Service (PHS) already had a presence there, and Cutler could work closely with Guatemalan health officials.

“Gross violations of ethics”

Beginning in 1946, Cutler devised a series of experiments to find reliable ways of spreading STDs, primarily syphilis. His team exposed over 1300 people in all, most of whom were not told they were being infected with diseases. (“This double talk keeps me hopping at time,” he wrote in a letter to a colleague.)

Not everyone exposed got sick with syphilis. But among those who did contract syphilis, not all were treated right away either, even though penicillin was available.

Here are some of experiments Cutler carried out. The descriptions can get graphic.

• Prostitutes who tested positive for gonorrhoea or syphilis could visit prisoners at Guatemala City’s Central Penitentiary — all paid for by U.S. taxpayers, notes Wellesley professor Reverby in her paper on the experiments. She goes on to write, “the researchers actually timed how long they spent with the prostitutes and thought they acted ‘like rabbits’.” In a similar experiment with Guatemalan soldiers, records show a prostitute servicing 8 soldiers in 71 minutes.
• At National Psychiatric Hospital of Guatemala, the team tried to infect asylum patients by scratching the arms, faces or mouths of women and the penises of men with a needle full of syphilis bacteria. Hundreds of psychiatric patients were thus exposed to syphilis.
• The single most horrific case may be that of Berta, who was infected with syphilis but not treated for three months. As Matthew Walter describes in Nature, “Her health worsened, and within another three months Cutler reported that she seemed close to death. He re-infected Berta with syphilis, and inserted pus from someone with gonorrhoea into her eyes, urethra and rectum. Over several days, pus developed in Berta’s eyes, she started bleeding from her urethra and then she died.”

Although Cutler’s work was officially sanctioned, he clearly knew something was not right. In 1947, New York Times science editor Waldemar Kaempffert wrote up a study about penicillin preventing syphilis in rabbits, concluding that such an experiment would be “ethically impossible” in humans. Cutler wrote a letter to his superior about the Times article, which he ends with:

I hope that it would be possible to keep the work strictly in your hands without necessity for outside advisors or workers other than those who fit into your program and who can be trusted not to talk. We are just a little bit concerned about the possibility of having anything said about our program that would adversely affect its continuation.

The aftermath

Cutler never succeeded in finding a reliable way to get people sick with syphilis through any kind of exposure, which made testing a treatment to prevent it impossible. Eventually, with the war over, the PHS lost interest and Cutler was reassigned back in the States. He would join the ongoing Tuskegee study from 1951 to 1954, and he rose up to become assistant surgeon general of the PHS in 1958. He died in 2003, with his obit calling him a “much beloved professor”.

Meanwhile, the results of his Guatemala research languished in a dusty archive until Reverby rediscovered them in a trove of his papers at the University of Pittsburgh. The rediscovery prompted a Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues report in 2011 that concluded the experiments involved “gross violations of ethics.”

Before the current lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University, a class-action lawsuit asking the US government for compensation was dismissed in 2013. Now, the suit names Johns Hopkins University for employing several professors who sat on government commissions that recommended and funded the studies in Guatemala. The suit also goes after Rockefeller University and Bristol-Meyers Squibb, the latter of whom made the penicillin used in the studies.

Cutler is now dead. So are most of the subjects of the studies. What can justice for these victims look like in 2015? It’s clear that something very wrong happened here — what’s less clear is how we right the wrongs of history, three generations later.

[MIKA27]

Incredible Satellite Images Show China Building Artificial Archipelago

It seems strange that a remote patch of water would become the focus of international controversy and millions of dollars worth of infrastructure. But that’s exactly what’s happening in the South China Sea right now.

At a news conference today, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson spoke about the country’s project to reclaim seven reefs, turning them into actual islands using massive dredging machines that suck sand off the ocean and floor and deposit into the shallows using long hoses. “We are building shelters, aids for navigation, search and rescue as well as marine meteorological forecasting services, fishery services and other administrative services,” said the spokesperson, according to Reuters.

Why was China holding a press conference about its activities?

Well, for one thing, the US Defense Secretary is visiting nearby this week, and China was defending its actions to further its claim to pieces of disputed land that many of its neighbours also claim.

But China was also responding to an incredible report from The Center for Strategic and International Studies and featured in the New York Times and elsewhere, showcasing new satellite images of a remote, tiny reef normally used by fisherman — which is now the focus of a massive infrastructural effort by China to turn it into a permanent island.

It’s called Mischief Reef, and while it’s only one of several reefs being turned into outposts by China, it’s gives us a glimpse at how the process works. The circular reef sits about 800km from mainland China and 200km from the Philippine island of Palawan, making it incredibly remote — but also very valuable, since it’s near one of the busiest shipping lanes on Earth and might also be sitting on oil reserves. This is hotly contested ocean, and every nearby country from Vietnam to Thailand to Singapore has claims to it.

In its report, the CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative says that in February, a Chinese “Amphibious Transport Dock” was seen near the reef. Shortly thereafter, dredging machines were seen using sand taken from the entrance of the reef to build up the “rim”, widening the passage for larger ships into what is now a “chain” of fake islands.

By mid-March, “new structures, fortified seawalls, and construction equipment are present at several locations along the reef. Several dredgers are also present, and construction appears to be ongoing,” the CSIS writes.

Out of nothing, an artificial archipelago is born. Maybe it’s for shelter as China claimed today. Maybe it’s to further China’s claim to a very valuable patch of the South China Sea. Either way, it’s probably not going to be the last “fake” island we see emerging out of this hotly-contested stretch of sea.

The sci-fi author Jack Williamson imagined terraforming as a way for humans to colonise other planets in the 1940s — but 75 years later, it’s being used by humans colonise the ocean here on Earth.

[MIKA27]

A Look At The Tefifon, Germany's Doomed 1950s Music Player

After World War II, people in the US started buying vinyl and record players more than ever before. But over in West Germany, another music player took off: the Tefifon.

Invented in the 1930s by a German engineer named Karl Daniel, the Tefifon is like a mash-up of several obsolete music technologies. Like an 8-track, it plays a cartridge. Unlike the 8-track, a Tefifon cartridge — called, adorably, a “Tefi” — is not magnetic. It actually works more like a record player, since the Tefifon reads these cartridges by pressing a stylus to deep plastic grooves. And like a Minidisc player, the Tefifon is now almost impressively obsolete.

Even though it never really made it out of West Germany, the Tefifon was a legit audio player at the time. Bigger cartridges held around four hours of music, and sound quality was better than shellac records. Then again, it was not as good as vinyl, and as the 1950s died down, so did the short-lived audio player. The Tefifon plant closed down in 1965. If they ever do a German reboot of Mad Men,this is one period detail they could get right for the early seasons.

[MIKA27]

The Plan To Build An Undersea Cable Around The US -- And Why They Need It

There’s a new undersea cable in the works, unlike any system that’s been built before. It is almost 10,000 miles long. It winds under the Arctic Ocean, from the United Kingdom, over Canada, and down to Japan, offering the fastest possible route between London and Tokyo. It stops on icy Canadian shores along the way, providing internet access to small communities entirely dependent on spotty satellite connection. And what’s really new: the cable is made possible only by climate change. Melting Arctic ice is making way for giant cable ships.

Or so this is the business case Arctic Fibre has pitched. But from a purely technical and economic standpoint, the cable makes less sense. There are plenty of terrestrial networks spanning North America. Why choose a route through a radically de-populated area and a completely inhospitable environment? Why spend $US640 million to connect Arctic communities with a high-capacity cable when they will never use a significant per cent of it? With the enormous number of data connections between London and Tokyo, who would buy the capacity on this cable? The same question could be posed to other recent (and failed) projects that sought to spend millions to link already-connected endpoints via circuitous routes, such as SPIN, a cable system designed to hop from island to island across the Pacific.

One answer: these cables offer diversity — a redundant and geographically disparate pathway that makes traffic overall more reliable. If laid, they would better protect our information flows from people, environments, and other forms of interference. Arctic Fibre avoids pressure points between Europe and Asia, including the earthquakes of the Luzon Strait, South China Sea, and western Pacific. It bypasses social and political unrest in the Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea. It avoids transit zones where ships can easily drop anchor on the cables. It has direct circuits that circumvent the United States, creating a channel between Europe, Asia, and the Middle East that is supposedly secure from NSA monitoring.

Diversity has been important to telecom companies in the past, especially when a few monopolies controlled all of the submarine network. Yet the industry for the most part is conservative: it tends to stick with the tried-and-true, following existing lines across the ocean. Even though 99% of transoceanic internet traffic is carried by undersea cables, most of these systems are clustered in only a few zones. In Australia, almost everything exits through Sydney and Perth. On the United States’ east coast, most of the internet departs from landing stations outside of Miami and New York.

This didn’t seem to be a pressing problem until recently, when several very public cable breaks revealed just how fragile the network really was. In December 2006 the Hengchun earthquake off the coast of Taiwan triggered underwater landslides, breaking seven cables and significantly decreasing internet connectivity. In 2008 a series of cable cuts occurred just north of Alexandria, Egypt, a pressure point in Europe-Asia traffic. The following year a global summit was convened on the resilience of network infrastructure. The summit’s participants concluded that even though individual systems were highly reliable, on a “global level, the overall interconnectivity of the continents violates a fundamental reliability design principle — avoid single points of failure.” They worried about “geopolitical chokepoints” where cable paths were funneled together and warned us that a disaster in one of these areas “could cause catastrophic loss of regional and global connectivity.”

The cable breaks, the summit, and the ever-increasing dependency on undersea systems spurred a number of projects that, like Arctic Fibre, offer truly innovative routes across the ocean. Yet actually creating a robust, diverse network is a challenge that can’t be solved easily.

For example, take the case of Pacific Fibre, a transpacific cable proposed in 2010. Like Arctic Fibre, a key rationale for the cable was diversity. Since 2001, the Southern Cross Cable Network had been the only system linking New Zealand to the rest of the world. The country was dependent not only on one set of cables, but on the decisions of a single company. Pacific Fibre and its supporters argued that New Zealand needed another link for diversity and for information security. If Southern Cross was severed, it would jeopardize the nation’s functioning, especially since most internet content originates offshore. Financial transactions, email access, and videos of dancing Kiwi birds would all be disrupted.

Although this was surely an admirable intention, the economic situation made the cable almost impossible. In most places it is far cheaper and easier to just extend a new cable to old landing points. One entrepreneur told me that when the Australian government expressed interest in routing a cable to Melbourne instead of Sydney for diversity (adding extra length and millions of dollars), he said: “The only way it’s going to work is if you pay for it. Send check, I’ll build. Haven’t heard too much since then.”

The challenge would not be in the engineering — this was an economic, not a technological bottleneck. The cable team had to construct a system that would be profitable. To do so, they planned a low-latency cable — one that, like Arctic Fibre, would offer a more direct route with less temporal delay. Microseconds make a huge difference to high-frequency traders on global stock markets. They take advantage of slight changes in price at different locations to secure trades at quicker rates. Companies that have a more direct connection can exploit this. Just a few milliseconds can result in a difference of $US20 million in a single month. If Pacific Fibre had landed its cable in Los Angeles, it could have pitched itself as the quickest route to the United States, potentially making New Zealand a site for more tech development.

Yet the pitch for a low-latency cable — an “express route” — would mean routing into existing hubs, landing at Sydney, Auckland, and Los Angeles, rather than Melbourne or San Diego. The need to make money was in direct conflict with the desire to construct a physically diverse network.

Pacific Fibre was also caught in the bind that Arctic Fibre faces today. Innovations in network geography are perceived as “risky” by the industry. A new geography means a set of new things that could fail, and this can deter investment and experimentation. Historically established routes are seen as more secure, more fundable. And yet, this negates the drive for diversity — a new set of routes and pathways that ensures our constant stream of data isn’t disrupted.

Ultimately, Pacific Fibre announced that it had failed to raise the hundreds of millions of dollars needed to lay the network. So despite the fact that most people in the industry agreed that New Zealand could use a second cable (even Pacific Fibre’s competitors hoped that it would succeed), the need for diversity was not enough to convince investors, governments, or the public to pay for the route. Anthony Briscoe of Telecom New Zealand says that this problem is a global issue: “As soon as you say ‘internet’ now, people think, ‘I get it, free.’ Yet someone has to make that infrastructure investment.”

Projects like Arctic Fibre raise difficult questions. On one hand, we have a fragile global network. Traffic is routed through narrow pressure points and power consolidated in the hands of a small number of companies. If we want a truly reliable network, we need diversity. But on the other hand, diversity means funding risky projects and paving ever more paths through fragile environments.

[MIKA27]

How To Tie The Only Five Knots You'll Ever Need

There are a million different knots for doing a million different things. But, these five are easy-to-learn, easy-to-tie and accomplish 99 per cent of the jobs you’ll ever need a rope to do. Anyone can make these, here’s how.

Good Knot-Tying Practices

The more knots you tie in a rope, line or string, the more you reduce its strength. And, the right not won’t slide or come undone when you want it to, but may still be easy to reposition, adjust or untie as a result. That’s why learning to use the right knot for the job is so important.

You wouldn’t think that something as simple as tying a knot could be dangerous, but depending on what you end up using it for, a broken line or a slipped knot could hurt or kill someone. Or, your cargo could simply fly off the roof of your car. To avoid that happening, you need to practice; only ever use a knot you’re sure of.

To get the most from your knot tying, you’ll also want to work with clean, dry cordage of an appropriate strength, size and elasticity for the job. If you’re not sure how much a rope can hold, don’t trust your life to it.

When you’re making a knot, it’s important to keep the line from twisting, binding and to try and keep tension even throughout its construction. That’s going to be easiest on a flat surface, as you see here, keeping the knot spread out and flat allows you to observe its form and adjust the lengths of its individual parts as you tinker with it.

Don’t assume you can just watch one of these gifs then rely on that knowledge next time you’re in the outdoors and standing in the home depot parking lot with a pile of lumber. Practice them at home, practice them in the field on non-critical jobs and, only when you’re confident in them, start relying on them instead of that handy Velcro kit.

Bowline Hitch

Need to rescue someone? Throw them a bow line, which won’t ever slip or tighten. That avoids injury and gives them a secure loop to grab, step in or put their arms through. Bow lines also make great handles, again because the loop will never, ever slip. It’s also incredibly quick and simple to tie, even with cold, wet, shaking hands.

Two Half Hitches

Want to tie a rope to something? This is how you do that. Use the two half hitches to tie off a tarp or hammock with a strong, quick, secure connection.

Tautline Hitch

Want to tie a rope off to something, but be able to vary its length? Think tent guy line or similar. This is the easiest way to do that and the knot will hold its place on the line, so long as tension remains on it.

As a variation, you can tie-on a separate line using the same knot, thereby adding one or more lengths of rope to another in a way that they will hold their place under tension, but allow you to slide that position up and down the main line.

Figure Eight

A traditional square or overhand knot binds so tightly under tension that you often have to resort to cutting the rope rather than untying the knot. The figure eight allows you to easily tie a rope onto a carabiner or similar securely, but easily untie it even after applying huge tension. This one’s used on sailboats and in climbing as a result, but you can use it anywhere you’d like to attach something to a rope.

There’s two versions. In the first (above), you’re tying the rope to something with a closed loop that the rope must pass through. It looks a little complicated as you’re passing the rope back through itself after going through the tie-off point, but the trick is just to follow the figure eight back around. Difficult to photograph, but easy to do once you figure it out once.

The second is easier and assumes you’re attaching to something with a clip, like a carabiner. You could tie this with your eyes closed, which is sorta the idea: it’s dead simple and impossible to forget. And, it retains 85 per cent of the rope’s strength when tied.

Trucker’s Hitch

Ever wondered how people tie stuff tightly to the top of their cars? This one will allow you to drive home with a mattress on your roof, without it blowing off. It does that by giving you simple mechanical advantage that enables you pull the rope tight, then lets you tie it off quickly and easily while it’s still tight. Once you’ve figured this one out, a hank of paracord kept in your trunk will allow you to haul pretty much anything. It can also be used to tie something down tightly virtually anywhere. Need to compress a foam roll and attach it to your backpack? This is how. You’re welcome.

[MIKA27]

Australian Government Considering Implementing GST On Overseas Purchases, Netflix Subscriptions

Gerry Harvey and his band of merry retailers are crowing today: the Federal Government is considering charging GST on online purchases under $1000, which will include subscriptions to services like Netflix. It’s being branded the “Netflix Tax”, and it means you’re probably about to start paying more for your tech.

Fairfax reports this morning that the next Federal Budget may include a lowering of the GST threshold for purchases made online under $1000, which means that all that sweet gear you ship to our shores from Amazon and the like will soon attract a 10 per cent bill.

What’s interesting is that it’s being dubbed “the Netflix tax”, meaning that online subscription services would also be targeted. There’s even a suggestion that Uber rides could also be subjected to new taxes under the new budget measures.

You may remember that a consortium of retailers, headed up by mouthpiece Gerry Harvey, campaigned for online purchases of under $1000 to be subjected to the GST, but a report from the Productivity Commission found at the time it would cost more money to collect the taxes than it would earn.

The National Retailers Association also warned that thousands of jobs could be lost if the GST wasn’t applied to these purchases at the time.

[MIKA27]

CT SCUDERIA DIRT TRACK

CT Scuderia represent Italian design at it´s finest, the watch brand was founded by Enrico Margaritelli, a third generation Italian watch-maker, and former professional motorbike racer. CT Scuderia´s main inspiration comes from café racing, but the founder also has a passion for another strong and very challenging form of motorcycle racing - Dirt Track, and with this collection, pays tribute to the old discipline within the racing world.

With four styles to choose from, the sporty timepiece features CT Scuderia´s signature crown at the 12 o´ clock position, and a silicon strap with three holes for breathability.

[MIKA27]

ULTIMA EVOLUTION COUPE

It's one of the fastest cars you can buy — but you won't be driving one of the lot anytime soon. That's because the Ultima Evolution Coupe is a kit car. Based on the legendary Ultima GTR, it features the same Le Mans Group C-inspired body shape, but underneath is powered by a LS Chevrolet V8 engine tuned to your liking, and thus producing anywhere from 350 to 1,020 hp. That top end number is good for a pants-soiling 0-60 time of 2.3 seconds and a top speed of 240 mph. There are other notable features, like a refined chassis, new headlight units, and even an optional backup camera, but with raw performance that insane, they don't even matter.

[polarbear]

Australian Government Considering Implementing GST On Overseas Purchases, Netflix Subscriptions

Gerry Harvey and his band of merry retailers are crowing today: the Federal Government is considering charging GST on online purchases under $1000, which will include subscriptions to services like Netflix. It’s being branded the “Netflix Tax”, and it means you’re probably about to start paying more for your tech.

Fairfax reports this morning that the next Federal Budget may include a lowering of the GST threshold for purchases made online under $1000, which means that all that sweet gear you ship to our shores from Amazon and the like will soon attract a 10 per cent bill.

What’s interesting is that it’s being dubbed “the Netflix tax”, meaning that online subscription services would also be targeted. There’s even a suggestion that Uber rides could also be subjected to new taxes under the new budget measures.

You may remember that a consortium of retailers, headed up by mouthpiece Gerry Harvey, campaigned for online purchases of under $1000 to be subjected to the GST, but a report from the Productivity Commission found at the time it would cost more money to collect the taxes than it would earn.

The National Retailers Association also warned that thousands of jobs could be lost if the GST wasn’t applied to these purchases at the time.

I'd be curious to see what has changed for the Productivity Commission to make this more profitable to implement

Maybe its just a scheme to shut Gerry Harvey up without actually planning to enforce it

[MIKA27]

I'd be curious to see what has changed for the Productivity Commission to make this more profitable to implement

Maybe its just a scheme to shut Gerry Harvey up without actually planning to enforce it

Gerry Harvey is an a**hat IMO - constantly complaining YET HE ALSO has his own offshore retail store a real hypocrite

[MIKA27]

The UN Will Debate Whether To Ban Killer Robots

Whether or not to preemptively ban killer robots will be a debate point at a United Nations meeting next week. And yes, “killer robots” sounds like a sci-fi cliche. But this is the reality of the future of warfare, and this debate is unlikely to do much other than highlight how sinister military tech may become.

The UN will meet in Geneva on April 13 to discuss the pros and cons of creating robots capable of autonomously annihilating human life. The United States and Israel are already using defence systems that respond to attacks by firing weapons automatically, and with the quick rise of weaponised drones in the past few years, countries deploying lethal automated machines soon is a very real possibility.

Real and terrifying. Which is why Human Rights Watch and Harvard Law School recently released a report focusing heavily on the cons of such a development, titled Mind the Gap: The Lack of Accountability in Killer Robots.

The report emphasises that developing intelligent robots that could attack humans autonomously would essentially nullify accountability for murder and create war zones devoid of consequences. After all, if a soldier screws up and kills the wrong person, they have to deal with the ramifications. If a robot malfunctions or doesn’t recognise civilians, children, and friendly fire, the blame game gets murky.

“They would thus challenge longstanding notions of the role of arms in armed conflict, and for some legal analyses, they would be more akin to a human soldier than to an inanimate weapon. On the other hand, fully autonomous weapons would fall far short of being human.”

HRW is asking the UN to encourage nations to sign treaties prohibiting the development of killer robots, arguing accountability is crucial to stopping inhumane acts of war.

No matter what kind of lip service goes down at the UN meeting, it’s unlikely that the world’s military superpowers will easily accept a ban like this. Last year, a similar debate was had, and guess what? No ban resulted.

Even if there is a UN ban, that’s not exactly a guarantee countries will actually play along as promised. Unmanned weapons have been hugely popular in the Obama Administration. Taking things a step further and removing humans from the “loop” — making weaponised robots that don’t need a human to first give them the OK to shoot — is an appealing prospect for countries more concerned with minimising risk to their troops than, you know, not sending weaponised robots incapable of recognising war crimes into the world.

Saying killer robots have potential for enormous harm is a ridiculous understatement, but there are many reasons militaries around the globe want them. They offer a vision of a future where soldiers are not traumatised by committing acts of violence. Never mind that acts of violence will still occur, and perhaps with more collateral damage. This will not be a quickly resolved debate.

[MIKA27]

Awesome Photo Of The V-22 Osprey At Night Makes It Look So Eerie

This is such a cool shot of the awesome tilt-rotor aircraft, the V-22 Osprey. The crazy flying machine is on a US Navy ship at night and the way it’s illuminated and glowing in the dark makes me think it’s about to dive into some sort of dark underworld mission inspired from The Grid or something.

[MIKA27]

An Infant Star's Neighbourhood Is Brimming With Life's Precursors

Four hundred and fifty five light years away sits a newborn star that bears striking resemblance to our Sun. It’s awash in a sea of complex organic molecules which could, one day, coalesce to form proteins, nucleic acids, even life itself.

Over 4.6 billion years ago, our baby Sun was also surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust. We know from looking at comets — which are like artefacts from the solar system’s formation — that this ”protoplanetary disk” was filled with water and organic molecules. Now, using a powerful telescope that’s able to detect tiny wavelengths of radiation emitted naturally from molecules in deep space, Harvard astronomers have learned that the disk surrounding the million-year-old star MWC 480 is likewise rich in life’s simple precursors, containing enough methyl cyanide to fill Earth’s oceans.

“Studies of comets and asteroids show that the solar nebula that spawned our Sun and planets was rich in water and complex organic compounds,” said Harvard astronomer Karin Öberg, lead author of the new study which appears this week in Nature. “We now have evidence that this same chemistry exists elsewhere in the universe, in regions that could form solar systems not unlike our own.”

Astronomers have known for some time that interstellar clouds are very efficient factories of organic molecules. Cyanides, and particularly methyl cyanide, are important precursors to the amino acids that form proteins. But until now, we’ve only observed these lonely organics in the cold, dark depths of interstellar space, and it’s been unclear whether they could withstand the powerful radiation emitted by a young star.

Artist’s impression of the protoplanetary disk surrounding MWC 480

For MCW 480 — a star twice as massive as our sun — organic molecules do more than survive. The sheer volume of methyl cyanide surrounding the young star tells astronomers that organic molecules are forming very quickly, outpacing the radiative forces that naturally break them apart. As this solar system continues to evolve, the researchers speculate that some of its organic molecules will become safely locked away within comets, and perhaps ferried to other environments that are more conducive to life.

“From the study of exoplanets, we know our solar system isn’t unique in having rocky planets and an abundance of water,” said Öberg. “Now we know we’re not unique in organic chemistry. Once more, we have learned that we’re not special. From a life in the universe point of view, this is great news.”

So, note to humanity’s cyborg descendants: check back in on MCW 480 in another five billion years or so. We might just find someone staring back at us.

[MIKA27]

We Definitely Shouldn't Have Taught Robots How To Sword Fight

Japan’s Namiki Laboratory is known for its robotic arms and high-speed vision systems that can move and react faster than a human being can. That’s the neat part. The scary part is that for some reason the researchers there have decided that teaching their creations to effectively fight with swords was a good idea. Have we not learned from those Terminator movies how this will end?

Using a pair of high-speed cameras working to give the arm stereo vision, the robot is able to recognise the position and movements of a human opponent, as well as its own sword. Once the human starts to attack the robot uses custom algorithms to calculate the possible trajectories of its opponent’s sword and then plots an effective defensive motion to protect itself using its own weapon.

And as you can see in the video, even in the lab the arm is very, very skilled at fending off human attackers. Which means that one day our robot usurpers won’t even need guns to wipe us out. Great.

[MIKA27]

Zombie Apocalypse Pranks Are Becoming A Thing

Since we’re all pretty much obsessed with the zombie apocalypse at this point, I guess it was only a matter of time before people started zombie-pranking each other.

We’ve seen this attempted before, but the couple behind Prank vs Prank has just pulled off what’s got to be one of the most well-organised zombie attacks in recent history. Watch innocent bystanders across Philadelphia register legitimate piss-your-pants terror as they find themselves faced with pack of (sometimes convincing) zombies.

One thing’s clear: whether or not the rational part of our brains has accepted the coming horde, when a snarling, blood-splattered stranger is staggering toward you, it doesn’t really matter.

MIKA: I really feel for that kid at 2:23 mark and his parents who will no doubt be taking him to therapy and sleeping with his light on until his at least 30 years old

[MIKA27]

Resurrecting 1500-Year-Old Canals Could Fix Peru's Water Shortages

Lima is one of the world’s largest desert cities, so when it rains it — just kidding, it pretty much never rains. Which leaves Peru’s capital city especially vulnerable to water shortages, and the surprising solution might be reviving a system of ancient canals that date back to even before the Incas.

As New Scientist reports, the city’s water utility company is now working to conserve ancient stone canals in the Andes mountains called amunas. These canals, long fallen into disuse, were originally built by the Wari culture 1000 to 1500 years ago. The water company will be grouting these long-forgotten canals to make them functional again.

The amunas are actually much than primitive aqueducts bringing water into the city; they’re a feat of major landscape engineering. They divert water during the rainy season, when big rivers overflow to springs that then run year-round, essentially turning the landscape into a giant sponge that can be squeezed for water during the dry season.

Water specialists estimate that reviving the amunas can account for 60 per cent of the water deficit during Lima’s dry season. And it’s a lot cheaper than a fancy new desalination plant. Sometimes, ancient tech can be just as good as high tech.

[MIKA27]

We're Six Years Closer To A Clean Energy Future Than We Thought

Key price indicators in the clean tech industry are about six years ahead of estimates, and it’s mostly thanks to companies like Tesla that are pioneering cheaper, smarter solutions for mass-market consumption which can be used across a wide range of applications. This is a very good thing for Earth.

Noah Smith writes in Bloomberg View about a study coming out of the Stockholm Environment Institutewhich offers one of the most comprehensive surveys of clean energy technology. The study points to two key components to the clean energy future which are becoming increasingly more affordable: Solar-collecting infrastructure and batteries.

The price of electric vehicle batteries, for example, have dropped to levels not expected until 2020. Manufacturers like Tesla and Nissan are now able to make batteries for about $US300/kWh, making an EV car more attractive to consumers than an internal combustion one (depending on gas prices, which are unfortunately for clean energy are going down again). After pledging to make batteries for 500,000 cars by 2020, Tesla’s battery is also being tested for home use, which will complement the growing demand for solar power and help bring prices down there as well.

In his piece, Smith also proposes a new way of thinking about clean energy, which is very smart: Thinking of batteries and solar as the same solution to our biggest energy problem:

Each of these trends — cheaper batteries and cheaper solar electricity — is good on its own, and on the margin will help to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, with all the geopolitical drawbacks and climate harm they entail. But together, the two cost trends will add up to nothing less than a revolution in the way humankind interacts with the planet and powers civilisation.

It’s a great read, and finally some welcome good news on the energy front.

[MIKA27]

Crazy Wingsuit Guy Smashes Right Through A Sign While Flying Super-Fast

The last thing I would want to do while flying in a wingsuit (other than fly in a wingsuit) is to blast through a sign while flying. But wingsuit pilot Sebastian Alvarez is not me. He angled his flight route perfectly so that he would smash the Chilean flag sign on his way down. That is some sniper level of precision.

[MIKA27]

THIS FROG HAS THE MOST BIZARRE REACTION TO BEING TOUCHED

This Frog Has the Most Bizarre Reaction to Being Touched

This frog's defense tactic is probably one of the weirdest things you'll see today! I mean seriously, it's just downright bizarre!

Most amphibians are born with special defense tactics. Some are poisonous, some can jump fast for a quick getaway, and while other dig into the mud and hide. But this frog. This guy is in a special category all to himself. Take a look for yourself in this video.