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

[MIKA27]

Machines Sensed The Nepal Earthquake From Nearly 13,000km Away

When a massive earthquake struck Nepal on April 25, it created seismic waves that travelled around the world in a matter of minutes, propagating swiftly through Earth’s crust and mantle to rattle seismic stations in the US. The Nepal quake was devastating, but the fact that it was felt nearly 13,000km away is actually not unusual.

Most earthquakes strong enough to be felt near their sources also produce body waves that radiate downward through the Earth. Those body waves can travel nearly all the way around the world, so seismic instruments record the waves of distant earthquakes pretty often. In fact, seismic stations far from the source of an earthquake can help pinpoint its epicentre by triangulating with other stations.

Mapping the Interior of the Earth

Geologists rely on seismic readings from distant earthquakes to help them learn about the interior of the Earth. Seismic waves travel at different speeds depending on the type of rock they’re passing through; heated rock slows the waves down, for instance. By measuring the speed of seismic waves at different points, geologists can use the changes in their speed to produce an image of the Earth’s interior. It works on the same principle as radar, sonar or ultrasound imaging, but with different types of waves in a different material.

Because seismic waves from distant earthquakes travel through the mantle and the deep layers of the crust, they offer a great tool for imaging the deeper layers of Earth’s interior. That’s the goal of the EarthScope project, an array of seismic stations spanning the entire continental US to gather seismic data and map the deep geological structure beneath the continental US.

Here’s a video of EarthScope’s seismic stations picking up the Nepal earthquake.

The white dots in the animation are seismic stations, and they turn red when seismic waves move them upward and blue when seismic waves move them downward. The seismograph at the bottom of the video is from the station circled in yellow, just southwest of the Great Lakes.

EarthScope includes the Plate Boundary Observatory, a network of 1200 seismic stations around the continental US and in Alaska, which use laser strainmeters to detect small changes in the ground’s shape, tiltmeters to detect changes in ground level, GPS units to detect small changes in position, and, of course, seismometers to detect even the faintest tremors.

Predicting Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions

The project also includes the USArray, a movable grid of 400 seismic stations which has slowly marched eastward across the US over the past decade. Geologists set up 400 closely spaced stations along the Pacific coast in 2004. For two years, they took seismic readings and gathered data to help map the deep structure of the Earth, then they moved a little further east.Now, USArray has reached the end of the line, the easternmost slice of the continental US, where it will monitor the waves from distant earthquakes until 2017.

Why do geologists care about mapping the deep structure of the Earth? It provides better insight into the processes that drive natural hazards like earthquakes and volcanoes, for one thing.

Last month, geologists combined data from USArray with seismic readings from local earthquakes around Yellowstone to produce the first complete map of the Yellowstone supervolcano’s magma plumbing. That map included the discovery of a second magma reservoir, which geologists had long suspected but had been unable to locate without the deep imaging offered by distant earthquakes’ body waves.

Understanding these massive subterranean structures could one day give us better insight into when the next earthquake will strike, or when a volcano will erupt. But first, we have to gather data. And that’s what USArray is all about.

[MIKA27]

This Is A Ridiculously Perfect Shot Of A Chinook Helicopter

Just look at this photo. On the highest mountain in North America, surrounded by stunning snowy scenery and beneath a sun halo, sits a 50-year-old tandem rotor heavy lift helicopter equipped with ski landing gear.

An aviator from D Company, 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment stands outside a CH-47F Chinook helicopter at the Kahiltna Glacier base camp on Mount McKinley in the shadow of 13,965-foot Mount Hunter April 27, 2015. Soldiers and Chinooks from the D/1-52d “Sugar Bears” made short work of delivering several thousand pounds of equipment to base camps at 7,000 and 14,000 feet for the 2015 climbing season, saving money and time for the National Park Service and gaining invaluable experience operating at altitudes and in terrain not available for training missions outside Alaska.

[MIKA27]

STEAMPUNK NIXIE TUBE CLOCK

These steampunk nixie tube clocks are handmade to order from black walnut, brass, stainless steel and long-life nixie tubes. Each one is made in the United States and can be shipped with power supplies that suit mains electricity in almost any country, including Canada, the USA, Australia, the UK and the EU.

Nixie tubes are neon gas filled glass tubes containing a series of sandwiched filaments in the shape of numbers 0 through 9. When one of those filaments has a charge applied, the nixie tube will light up with a soft orange glow – in this case displaying the time or date depending on which setting you’ve chosen. [PURCHASE]

[MIKA27]

The Little Slaughterhouse on the Prairie

What is evil?

Is it a condition, like a sickness that we catch and which spreads and festers within our being? Is it something we are born with; a defect of our very nature? Is it some sort of unseen force that compels and drives us? Or is evil merely a point of view, just one multifaceted aspect lying within the spectrum of human experience? If there is truly a force that can be known as “evil,” it most certainly existed within a family of unassuming homesteaders in the Old Wild West who would go on a ghastly, bloody spree of abduction and murder that would shock the nation and cement their reputation as the first American serial killers, before they would mysteriously vanish from the face of the earth.

Evil came to southeastern Kansas quietly and without fanfare, like a cold wind in the spring of 1871, in the form of the Bender family. This was the era of the Old West, of homesteaders heading west, trying to make a new life in a new land far from the death and destruction left in the wake of the bloody Civil War that had been ravaging the nation. The Benders were at first just another group of lost souls seeking peace in the midst of chaos, trying to strike out and forge a new life in a land of opportunity.

The Bender Family moved into 160 acres (65 ha) of registered land located between the towns of Thayer and Galesburg, in western Labette County, adjacent the Great Osage Trail, which was at the time the main passage of those looking to travel further west in their drive for a new life. This was a major passing point for those who were looking to find their dreams and fortunes in the new frontier of the west, and all manner of people went through here on their way to hopefully a better life far away from the devastation they had previously known. The Bender homestead was made up of a single room house that was then divided into two sections by a wagon canvas, with one section being devoted to the living quarters and the other being a public inn and general store selling various essential goods such as tobacco, horse feed, black powder, and alcohol. The Bender inn was also open to those in need of a place to rest during their long, arduous journeys.

The Bender family was thought to be of Germanic origin, with the mother and father only reportedly able to have a rudimentary grasp of the English language, only able to speak with a thick, barely comprehensible accent. The family was comprised of the mother, the father, John or “Pa Bender,”and their two children John Jr. and Kate. They had a few eccentricities, mainly their shaky grasp of English and the fact that their son, John Jr., was considered a half-wit due to his propensity for bursting out into giggling laughter at a moment’s notice. Additionally, the mother, “Ma Bender” was also known as somewhat of a recluse, and was thought to be so aggressive and unfriendly that many referred to her as “She Devil.” In fact, the family was in general seen as rather morose and withdrawn. However, the daughter, Kate, was known to be rather outgoing and friendly, and was also a purported spiritualist and healer, offering healings and séances to those in need. Kate conducted various seminars on spiritualism and public healings, and made bold claims that she could cure all manner of afflictions, including even blindness and deafness, but for most of the men who passed through the main draw was her alleged good looks.

One of Kate Bender’s ads

The Bender establishment, thanks in part to Kate’s charms, alleged powers, and colorful disposition, drew in numerous people who were on their way to seek their fortunes further west. They offered a peaceful place to stay and relax from their tiring journeys. It was around this time that many travelers passing through the area seemed to have the habit of disappearing, never to be heard from again. The weirdness started in May, 1871, when the body of a man only known by the name of Jones was found at Drum Creek with his head bashed in and his throat cut. The following year, two more were found with the same grievous injuries. By 1873, there were numerous missing persons in the vicinity, enough that people were starting to avoid traveling through there altogether.

At the time, no particular suspicion fell onto anyone. After all, this was the day of the Wild West, when there were numerous reasons for why someone might go missing. It didn’t help that the trail that passed the Bender homestead was known as a haunt for thieves and robbers. It was somewhat expected that some people who started their wayward journey west would inevitably go missing. As the mysterious vanishings continued, blame was aimed at the local Native American tribe, which was seen as harboring malevolence towards the onward westward trek of the white man, but this would change when one mysterious disappearance in particular would raise awareness of the bizarre situation, and would shine a light straight at the previously relatively unassuming Bender family.

Ma and Pa Bender

In the winter of 1872, a man by the name of George Loncher and his infant daughter went missing on their way to resettle in Iowa after the death of Loncher’s wife. In the spring of 1873, a concerned Dr. William York, who was a neighbor of Loncher, went on a quest to try and locate what had become of them, but he too ended up joining the ranks of those who had disappeared without a trace. It just so happened that York was rather well connected, with two brothers by the names of Colonel Ed York and Senator Alexander York. Both were well aware of William’s travel plans, so when he failed to reach his destination, they were immediately ready to launch a thorough investigation into the matter. A massive search was mounted for their missing brother involving over 50 men, and every traveler and homestead along the trail was questioned, yet no one seemed to have any knowledge of where the doctor had gone.

It was on March 28, 1873 that the search came to the Bender homestead. York, accompanied by a Mr. Johnson, arrived at the inn and were greeted warmly by the Bender family, who admitted that doctor York had indeed stayed with them but had left and been on his way without incident. When told about the unfortunate disappearance of the doctor, the Benders suggested that perhaps he had been attacked by aggressive Native American tribes along the way. The men questioning them believed the story and even graciously stayed for dinner, after which they continued on their quest for their missing brother with no further suspicion placed on the Benders.

Things changed on April 3, 1873, when it came to York’s attention that a distressed, bedraggled woman had reported visiting the Bender inn only to be ominously threatened with knives by Ma Bender, after which the woman had made a desperate escape. York got together a band of armed men and descended upon the inn. When confronted, Ma Bender vehemently denied the woman’s reports, and made the bizarre claim that the woman had been a witch who had cursed her coffee. She then commanded the men to leave her property at once. The men, as well as several neighboring families, were all convinced that the Benders were guilty, but there was no hard evidence to pin anything on them and so they left without further incident.

The Bender cabin

In the ensuing weeks, there would be more inexplicable disappearances, and rumors began to spread that the Bender inn was responsible. A town meeting was called to discuss the matter, which was attended by over 75 locals, including none other than Pa Bender and his son, John Jr.. At the meeting, it was decided that search warrants would be obtained to search every single homestead in the vicinity between Big Hill Creek and Drum Creek in the Osage community. At the time, the Benders in attendance made no particular objection to the idea and they went home peacefully after the meeting had convened.

Three days later, a cattle hand by the name of Billy Tole was driving cattle past the Bender property when he noticed that the inn seemed to be abandoned, with unfed animals milling about their pastures and no sign of any human activity. Due to bad weather, no immediate investigation was launched, but several days later, a group of volunteers was drawn together by the Township Trustee in order to mount a search of the apparently abandoned Bender inn. Several hundred volunteers converged upon the inn to find that indeed it appeared to be empty. A search of the interior of the home confirmed this, and it was found that all of the food, clothes, and family possessions were gone. The whole family had just up and gone. As the men searched the home, a foul odor was noticed wafting from somewhere in the home, and it was soon found to be emanating from what seemed to be a trap door under a bed. It was here that the gruesome reality of the situation would begin to sink in.

The bed was moved aside and it was found that the trap door had been nailed firmly shut. When it was pried open, the party discovered an underground room that reeked of a foul smelling, fetid stench. Although the room itself was empty, the stone slab floor was found to be covered with a copious amount of clotted, festering blood. The men smashed open the stone floor with sledge hammers, fully expecting to find rotting corpses lurking beneath, but none were found. Sensing that dead bodies had to be on the premises somewhere, the search party dug underneath the cabin and men went about the property probing the ground with metal rods in the search for buried corpses.

Graves on the Bender property

It was out in the vegetable garden where they would find the first one, the missing Dr. York himself, laying face down just below the surface of a mound of disturbed soil with his head smashed in and his throat cut. The horrified men continued the search and made the gruesome discovery of another nine bodies buried haphazardly around the property, as well as various body parts that did not seem to match up with those that were found, suggesting more bodies awaiting discovery. Most of the corpses had had their heads similarly bashed in with some sort of blunt object like a hammer, and their throats had been viciously cut wide open.

Among the bodies was the infant daughter of the missing Mr. Loucher, buried under the body of her father, as well as the mutilated body of an 8 year old child. Some of the bodies had been mutilated in what was described as an “indecent manner.” Only one body, that of a very young woman, had remained mostly intact, and it was thought that she had been killed by strangulation or perhaps even buried alive, although it was unknown as to why this should be the case. The discovery of so many shallowly buried, brutally murdered corpses was so horrifying that the area was nicknamed “Hell’s Half-Acre,” and the family itself came to be known as the “Bloody Benders.” In addition to the bodies and body parts, several types of hammers, including a claw hammer and sledgehammer, as well as knives, were found in the house.

In the aftermath of this macabre discovery, investigators started to paint a picture of the grim story behind the Bender inn. It was thought that visitors to the inn would sit down for dinner at a seat near the curtain that separated the house into two sections, after which the unsuspecting victim would be bludgeoned to death with a hammer from behind the curtain, their throat slit, and their body would be dumped down the trap door into the secret room. It was also thought that Kate Bender would hold her seances in the house, during which guests would be encouraged to sit with their backs against the canvas curtain. While Kate kept them preoccupied, one of the other Benders, most likely Pa or John Bender Jr., would smash open their heads with a hammer. The bodies were then stripped of all belongings and valuables and kept in the hidden cellar until they were able to be buried somewhere on the property, with a favorite place being a nearby orchard. Oddly, around a dozen bullet holes were found in the roof and walls of the inn, seeming to suggest that some of the killings did not go entirely according to plan, with the guests fighting back. It was believed that Kate Bender in particular was responsible for bringing in clients to the inn, who she seduced and then distracted with her charming disposition and good looks. It was also thought that John Jr.’s half-wit persona was carefully cultivated, and that he went out bringing customers in with the perfect, calculated coldness of an efficient killer.

The Bloody Bender inn

Testimony from various eyewitnesses seemed to support the theories as to what had happened at the Bender inn. One guest who lived to tell the tale by the name of William Pickering reported that he had been attacked by a knife wielding Kate Bender after he had refused to sit at a “seat of honor” near the canvas curtain. Another man, a Catholic priest, relayed the story of becoming unnerved when he noticed Pa Bender trying to suspiciously conceal a large hammer under his clothes, after which the creeped out priest had left the inn and went on his way. Numerous guests remembered being harassed into sitting at the “seat of honor” and verbally abused or even kicked out if they refused to do so. One man named Mr. Wetzell, along with his travel companions, reported being yelled at by Ma Bender and kicked out for not sitting where they were told, after which both Pa and John Bender had emerged from behind the curtain as they left. Still others reported hearing strange sounds from behind the curtains, and even hearing “otherworldy whispers” from there.

Other odd details about the family emerged during the ongoing investigation that further increased the bizareness of the whole incident. It was discovered that the family was not even really called the Benders, and that only the mother and daughter had any family relation at all. “Pa Bender” was in fact born John Flickinger, while John Bender Jr. was really John Gebhart and “Ma Bender” was in reality Almira Meik, and was thought to have had around 12 children over the years. Ma Bender was also found to have been married on several occasions and that each husband had met an untimely end, dying from blunt force trauma to the head. It was also speculated that John Jr. and Kate, who was actually born Eliza Griffith, were not really siblings, but rather husband and wife. Another weird rumor that surrounded the family was that Ma Bender had killed her other children because they had been witnesses to her pervious husbands’ murders, leaving only Kate, her fifth born. It seemed increasingly clear that no one had really known who these people were at all.

It was thought that the main motive for the killings was mostly robbery, pure and simple. In those days, most travelers carried all of their money and wordly possessions with them. The system that the Benders had in place worked out perfectly for them, as the trail west was a perilous one from which some were expected to never return, and the mail service was slow and unreliable. A person could be missing for weeks before anyone realized it, and by that time it could be attributed to any number of dangers lying along the route west. The location of the Bender inn, located right on the only trail heading west, also made it a very attractive stopping off point for wary travelers, especially when they were being actively pulled in by Kate Bender. Although the victims are surmised to have been killed for the purpose of robbing them, some of the victims had had very little money on them, and it was supposed that the Benders were not above slaughtering people for the sheer demented thrill of it. Although only 10 bodies were found on the Bender property, it was believed that they were responsible for at least two dozen killings during the time the inn was in operation, between 1871 and 1873.

The discovery of the Bender charnel house of horrors caused a media sensation at the time, and a massive manhunt was launched in search of the missing family. There was also a reward offered for information leading to their arrest, which quickly skyrocketed from $1,000 to $3,000, a healthy sum of money in those days. Authorities found the Benders’ abandoned wagon on the outskirts of the city of Thayer, along with a starving team of horses that had just been left behind. Investigators believed that the family of murderers had then boarded a train and headed to a colony of outlaws in the border region between Texas and Mexico. It was a lawless, rugged place that law enforcement officers avoided due to the high number of police who had gone into the region and never returned. From there, what truly happened to the Benders remains murky and littered with rumors, tall tales, and hearsay.

Some claimed that a group of vigilantes hellbent on vengeance had tracked the family down and gunned them down. Several other groups of vigilantes made similar claims, with one saying that they had lynched the family and thrown their decapitated bodies into the Verdigris River, and another saying that they had tied Kate Bender up and burned her alive at the stake, but for all of these claims no one ever collected the large reward that was being offered for their arrest. Others claimed that Ma Bender had actually killed her husband before the family had fled, or that he had died of pneumonia shortly after their departure. Another persistent rumor was that he committed suicide at Lake Michigan in 1884. In the end, despite all of the theories and rumors, no one knew what had become of them, a mystery that persists to this day.

Over the ensuing years, the family was allegedly sighted from time to time, and on October 31, 1889, arrests were made in Niles, Michigan, of two women who were thought to be Ma and Kate Bender, but they were never positively identified as such and with very little evidence to keep them they were released. 12 people were eventually arrested as accomplices or accessories to the crimes, including helping disposing of or receiving stolen goods, but none of them offered any insight into where the family had gone off to. Countless leads and tips were followed up on by investigators, and numerous search parties were launched, but none of these led anywhere. In the meantime, the Bender house was ransacked by thrill seekers and was little more than a hole in the ground by 1886, with many of the artifacts collected there winding up in museums over the years. No further evidence has ever been found for what truly became of the Bloody Bender family, and it has turned into one of the greatest unsolved murder mysteries of the Old West, indeed one of the most perplexing crimes in history.

The Bender home

The Benders are perhaps best known today for being mentioned by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the books Little House on the Prairie, who claimed to have been to the inn and even that her father had been involved in the manhunt for the fugitive family. Although the story has been seen with skepticism over the years, the testimony of such a famous author did help put the story into the public consciousness. Ingalls famously said of her father’s search for the Benders:

Pa always said in a strange tone of finality, ‘They will never be found.’ They were never found and later I formed my own conclusions why.

The bizarre tale of the Bloody Benders has spawned all manner of weirdness over the years. It has long been claimed that the vicinity of the house is haunted by the victims of the crimes. Especially the cellar which once held the bodies of the slaughtered guests is said to produce inexplicable wailing and moaning noises, and various apparitions are routinely spotted on the property. There are even stories that Kate Bender herself is among the specters that lurk here. The area where the house once stood and its decrepit cellar have perhaps not surprisingly become a favorite of ghost hunters. If only those ghosts could tell us the answer to the mystery of where the Benders went.

What is the source of evil? Is it a force unto itself, driving us to commit atrocities? Joseph Conrad once said “The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” This is a sentiment that seems to fit in with the mysterious case of the Bloody Bender family, who were no doubt capable of great wickedness and driven by some sinister drive to perpetrate it. Whatever it is that truly happened to them, their grim deeds continue to make their mark on the history of unsolved murders to this day.

[MIKA27]

People in Sleepy Village of the Damned Wake Up Craving Sex

For the past four years, residents of the small town of Kalachi in northern Kazakhstan have been plagued by a mysterious sleeping sickness which knocks them unconscious without warning, keeps them in a coma for up to six days and has no known cause or cure. The sickness has prompted the media to label Kalachi the “Village of the Damned.” Now its residents say they’re suffering from strange side effects after awakening, including hallucinations, odd behaviors and a month-long craving for sex. Say what?

Scientists and doctors investigating the sleeping sickness could not agree on a cause, although some speculated that it’s due to radon and other gases leaked from secret uranium mines in the area dating back to the days of the Soviet Union that were closed in the 1990s. While residents who moved away from the area no longer suffered from the sleeping sickness, people living in Krasnogorsk, a village even closer to the mines, have had no cases of the illness.

An abandoned uranium mine in Kalachi

While 140 people have left Kalachi, almost 400 have remained and put up with the sleeping sickness in hopes it would be cured or just go away. Instead, they now are reporting some strange side effects. Nurses at the hospital report children seeing their mothers grow eyes on their foreheads and mild-mannered adults acting like animals or calling the nurses whores and prostitutes.

Then there’s the sex. Men are reportedly waking up from their 6-day slumbers craving for sex, a desire that lasts for a month. One nurse described a newly-awakened man who “still couldn’t eat properly let alone walk, but he was all over his wife. He really needed it.”

Government workers checking Kalachi for radiation

The sex craving is causing problems for both men and women (it lasts a month!) and the never-ending sleeping sickness, hallucinations and mass psychosis has residents increasing their demands for causes and cures. The Kazakh government is spending nearly $10 million on the problem, including money to build apartments for residents to relocate to. Many now suspect there’s a secret plan to move them out so a secret gold mine can be opened.

Would a government give its people sex cravings just get them to move away so it can mine their gold? Stranger things have happened.

[MIKA27]

LUMINAID PACKLITE 12

Whether you need some light in your tent or just a valuable addition to your emergency preparedness kit, a portable, solar-powered lantern sounds like a solid buy to us. The LuminAID PackLite 12 looks like a strong contender.

Providing up to 12 hours of consistent LED light (or 32 hours in blinking emergency mode), this cleverly designed product also twists flat and inflates, making it extremely convenient for stuffing in a backpack. Its battery comes partially charged, but for full brightness you need to charge it in direct sunlight for about seven hours. Ship sinking? No problem. The LuminAID PackLite 12 is waterproof (up to 1 meter deep) and it floats, so your odds of getting fished out of the water will greatly increase. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

SPA BICICLETTO ELECTRIC BIKE

The electric bicycle market is definitely a small niche, so the best way to grab a piece of that smaller market share is to design an electric bicycle that really stands out from the pack. Introducing SPA (Societa Piemontese Automobili) Bicicletto, an electric bike that sports a luxurious look and is outfitted with high-tech equipment.

The SPA Bicicletto electric bicycle has an all-carbon frame that’s both lightweight and slender and is equipped with a 500W hub motor, installed in its rear wheel. The battery sits inside of the frame. On a single charge, it has a range of 31 miles in full-electric mode, or roughly 74 miles for pedal assistance. The Bicicletto has 26″ wheels and a removable LED headlight, LED turn signals, brake and hazard lights and Formula T1 brakes. The bike runs on battery, so the tank on top is actually a small storage space. With its carbon frame, unique LED headlight and sleek design, the Bicicletto is a stylish way to roll down the street. The SPA Bicicletto will run you $11,000. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

NIXON STAR WARS WATCH COLLECTION

Officially branded Star Wars merchandise and “stylish” aren’t two things you normally hear together. Nixon is looking to change that with their line of Dark Side-inspired timepieces. Coming soon, the collection of four watches will be based on a Stormtrooper, Imperial Pilot, Darth Vader, and Boba Fett. You can sign up on their site for more details about the release.

[MIKA27]

THE WATERBURY WATCH FROM TIMEX

Everyone knows you can get a quality watch from Timex that’s easy to maintain, easy to upgrade and, most importantly, affordable. What a lot of people don’t know is that Timex has been in the watch game for almost two centuries. To celebrate the 160+ years (since 1854) that Timex has been doing this, they’ve released The Waterbury collection. Destined to be future classics, each watch is made with solid steel and genuine leather, along with the Timex features and affordability you’re accustomed to. In addition to a number of case, bezel and strap options on the standard Waterbury, it’s also available as a three-dial chronograph with black or brown accents. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

WAXED CANVAS PIPE ROLL

Camping days can be long when you’re away from the comforts of home, so cap one off around the campfire with your pipe. This Pipe Roll from Bradley Mountain is constructed from durable, heavyweight waxed canvas and oiled leather to stand up to a lifetime of adventure.

The three pockets (from left to right) are designed to hold your lighter and tamper, tobacco (or other material), and your pipe. It’s a handmade carryall that makes toting your pipe and smoking goods stylish and easy. To unwind after a long day, just open your Pipe Roll. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

SMARTPHONE CONTROLLED PAPER AIRPLANE

PowerUp 3.0 turns your self-made paper airplane into a smartphone-controlled flying machine! The process is very simple, create your paper airplane, attach the PowerUp 3.0 smart module, and connect it via Bluetooth to the app on your smartphone (Android & iOS). You can then push throttle to full and launch the paper airplane high up into the sky, where you can control it up to a 180 feet/ 55 meter range, for 10 minutes! You can tilt your smartphone or tablet right or left for maneuvering and ascend or descend using the throttle lever. The device has a crash-resistant design, so no worrying about the perfect landing. Also included are a micro USB for charging, a spare propeller and rudder, and four special paper templates to ensure easy folding and flying spare

[MIKA27]

CAROLINA PIGTAIL MEAT TURNER

There's something very rustic about cooking food over an open flame. There's also something rustic about this Carolina Pigtail Meat Turner. Hand-forged in the Tar Heel State from a single railroad spike, it can add some unique old-west flair to your grilling setup. The carefully curved bottom that makes it easy to flip steaks and other meat, ensuring your dinner plans don't get derailed.

[MIKA27]

IWC CONNECT

It's not what I'd call a smartwatch. But it could make mechanical watches smarter.

The IWC Connect is a new digital device that's soon going to be appearing on the straps of the company's sports watches — starting with the Big Pilot — and tracking your activity without taking over the watch's face. In addition, it's also supposed to be able to control other devices connected to the Internet of Things, although how that's going to happen is, at this point, a complete mystery.

[NJP]

Something hot about the angry electric bike chick. And so much room for inappropriate innuendo..I'll be good.

[MIKA27]

Something hot about the angry electric bike chick. And so much room for inappropriate innuendo..I'll be good.

Oh I agree and thought about writing something but I restrained myself also. She looks angry but she's probably puffed from riding

[MIKA27]

Sign from the Heavens? Hiker Photographs Giant Cloud God After Chilean Volcano

A giant cloud monster was spotted floating in the sky above Chile on Wednesday following the Calbuco volcano eruptions. For obvious reasons, the strange man-like formation has creeped out religious fanatics who believe the giant is a actually sign from the gods.

After 40 years, the Calbuco volcano made news this past Wednesday when it erupted, covering the National Reserve Llanquihue and the surrounding 12 miles with massive plumes of ash and smoke. The explosions, which were captured by an unsuspecting hiker, have been somewhat overshadowed (pun) by the strange cloud-shape that appeared in the sky over Puerto Montt shortly afterwards.

According to the photographer, Hariet Grunewald, the strange figured loomed down over the city for quite some time before dissipating completely into the sky.

So there you have it folks. Is it a sign from God himself, or just boring old pareidolia?

[MIKA27]

Short Film: A Tense Military Mission In A Post-Apocalyptic World

In Andrée Wallin’s short film State Zero, you know things are going to hit the fan and that the mission will go south, but you don’t know when. The world Wallin creates is mysteriously dead and the fear in the characters is real so you know it will happen soon, you just have to enjoy the tense ride until it’s done.

A lot of the effects in the short are nice and I’d love to see more of post-apocalyptic Stockholm. Here’s some background:

In the near future, the capital of Sweden has turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. we join four soldiers on a routine mission in ‘zone 3′, with the assignment to investigate an old surveillance tower that just went offline.

[MIKA27]

Aussie Startup Can Help You Save 20% On Your Car Fuel Bill

GoFar has launched an F1 inspired device that works like a fitness band for your car. Not only does it help you drive more efficiently to save fuel, it can track data such as fuel use and sync it to your phone.

Ray, as the GoFar team call the device, is an OBDII dongle connected to an LED filled ‘ray’ that sits on top of your dash. Drive efficiently and it lights up blue. Too heavy on the power and it will start to glow red as you use more fuel.

By simply following Ray’s advice, you can improve your driving efficiency.

The science behind the GoFar device is that every car engine has a sweet spot where it uses full most efficiently. By giving you feedback on your driving, the team claim you can save over 20% in fuel costs.

It also promises to actually decrease trip times, as you tend to end up with a higher average speed. Other studies into more efficient driving has shown it can also reduce accidents.

Plenty of cars already have efficiency feedback, so what makes Ray special is the behind the scenes data logging. Connecting to your phone via Bluetooth, the dongle records ongoing information such as fuel consumption.

Using the free GoFar app, you can review your data, compare trips and even compete against others to see who can use the least fuel.

The GoFar Ray launched via Kickstarter on Monday, but was already fully funded 2 days later. You can still jump on board though and reserve your device at a discount, otherwise it will set you back $149 after the campaign.

For more information about all the features, head over to the GoFarwebsite and Kickstarter.

[MIKA27]

A Soviet Doctor Stranded In Antarctica Had To Cut Out His Own Appendix

In February 1961, Leonid Rogozov was one of 12 men wintering at a new Soviet base in Antarctica. He was also their only doctor. So when he came down with a bad case of appendicitis, well, there was only thing to do really: He had to remove the appendix himself.

Over at BBC Magazine, Sara Lentati chronicles the improbable auto-appendectomy, performed in the middle of nowhere. It was impossible to fly during the winter, and the journey by sea would have taken over a month. Rogozov was stuck at the base. He would die if the appendix burst, so he had to try something no one had ever done before.

Rogozov tasked two men on the expedition as surgical assistants who would hand him tools. There was no general anaesthesia. At first, Rogozov used a mirror, but the backwards image made things harder rather than easier, and he ended up working by touch. Here’s how it went, in Rogozov’s own words.

The bleeding is quite heavy, but I take my time… Opening the peritoneum, I injured the blind gut and had to sew it up. I grow weaker and weaker, my head starts to spin. Every four to five minutes I rest for 20 – 25 seconds.

Finally here it is, the cursed appendage! With horror I notice the dark stain at its base. That means just a day longer and it would have burst… My heart seized up and noticeably slowed, my hands felt like rubber. Well, I thought, it’s going to end badly and all that was left was removing the appendix.

Rogozov’s gamble was successful and he survived to tell the whole tale, which you can read, along with all the grisly details, over at the BBC.

[MIKA27]

This is what Happens When A Flock Of Birds Hits An Aeroplane Head On

You should have seen the other guy, said the plane. The plane, a Boeing 738 operated by Turkish Airlines, was landing at Nevşehir-Capadoccia airport when it got its nose punched in by a flock of birds. The birds, judging from the marks and cracks and colour of said punched in plane nose, presumably suffered a worse fate.

So everybody lost. Well, all the passengers of the plane are safe. So that’s cool, I guess.

[MIKA27]

BAE's New Goggles Roll Together Night Vision And Thermal Imaging

In the dark, soldiers have two options if they’re to see: night vision or thermal imaging. Both have their advantages and disadvantages — but now, BAE’s new goggles mean there’s no need to choose.

Usually night vision goggles are used to understand the immediate environment — they amplify the small amounts of available light — while thermal imaging is used to identify people (or targets) at a distance, because heat shows up in stark contrast to the surroundings. With the US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, though BAE has created a set of goggles that combine both technologies.

Currently being readied for use in the field, the new goggles overlay thermal and night vision images for the soldier. Meanwhile, a wireless link to a weapon’s scope also means that the user can see their sight imagery inside the goggles. In turn, that means that aiming lasers are no longer required, allowing soldiers to remain covert. Details of how the technology works remain scant, but BAE claims the devices are light and low-power, making them efficient for use in the field.

[MIKA27]

'The Most Beautiful Sound in the Canadian Rockies Is Silence'

"I'm 88. I call it my piano years," Edward Hunter, a life-long skiier, says in this soulful documentary by Sherpas Cinema. "There are 88 keys. Some black, some white, but they all work together for harmony. I hope I've had some harmony in my life."

Hunter has ridden the slopes of Banff National Park's Mt. Norquay for more than eight decades. He has a remarkable, intimate connection to the mountains he calls home. "I feel good in the morning when I see the sun hitting the upper slopes of the mountain and slowly work down," he explains in the film. "I feel good when I see my kids carrying on skiing. Any day is better if I'm skiing with them."

[MIKA27]

CIA's Ex-No. 2 Says ISIS ‘Learned from Snowden’

The former deputy director of the CIA says in a new book that the NSA contractor’s disclosures allowed the forerunners of the terrorist group to evade electronic surveillance.

Edward Snowden’s leaks about U.S. intelligence operations “played a role in the rise of ISIS.” That’s the explosive new allegation from the former deputy director of the CIA, Michael Morell, who was among the United States’ most senior intelligence officials when Snowden began providing highly-classified documents to journalists in 2013.

U.S. intelligence officials have long argued that Snowden’s disclosures provided valuable insights to terrorist groups and nation-state adversaries, including China and Russia, about how the U.S. monitors communications around the world. But in his new memoir, to be published next week, Morell raises the stakes of that debate by directly implicating Snowden in the expansion of ISIS, which broke away from Al Qaeda and has conquered large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria.

“Within weeks of the leaks, terrorist organizations around the world were already starting to modify their actions in light of what Snowden disclosed. Communications sources dried up, tactics were changed,” Morell writes. Among the most damaging leaks, he adds, was one that described a program that collects foreigners’ emails as they move through equipment in the United States.

Terrorist groups, including ISIS, have since shifted their communications to more “secure” platforms, are using encryption, or “are avoiding electronic communications altogether.”

“ISIS was one of those terrorist groups that learned from Snowden, and it is clear that his actions played a role in the rise of ISIS,” Morell writes.

That is not a consensus view within the U.S. intelligence community, where officials have been divided over how much ISIS really learned from the Snowden leaks that it didn’t already know. The group didn’t begin seizing territory in Iraq until a year after the leaks began. And last year, a U.S. intelligence official with access to information about ISIS’ current tactics told The Daily Beast that while the group had “likely learned a lot” from the Snowden leaks, “many of their forces are familiar with the U.S. from their time in AQI, [and] they have adapted well to avoiding detection.”

The acronym refers to Al Qaeda in Iraq, the group from which ISIS sprang. It was the target of a massive surveillance and hacking campaign by the NSA and U.S. military forces in Iraq from 2007 to 2008, which primarily targeted fighters’ cell phones. Presumably, ISIS learned from their predecessors—long before Snowden appeared on the scene—that their communications were subject to surveillance and that they should be careful about how they used their phones and email.

But three current and former U.S. officials recently told The Daily Beast that the Snowden leaks had undoubtedly tipped off at least some terrorists to the fact that their communications could be monitored, particularly as part of the program that collects foreigners’ emails in the United States.

That program, authorized by section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was among the first to be revealed in Snowden’s disclosures, though the fact that the United States had the legal authority to collect emails in that way was well known. But the current and former officials said that the documents Snowden leaked named the U.S. companies that were providing information to the NSA, and that some terrorists who were under surveillance then stopped using those companies’ email services.

The officials didn’t name those individuals or say which companies they’d been using, but they were convinced that absent the Snowden leaks, the terrorists would have continued to use the American email providers.

“The damage has already been significant and will continue to grow,” Morell writes, referring to the Snowden disclosures. He notes that while much of the public debate in the U.S. stemming from the leaks was over the NSA’s collection of Americans’ phone records, “Snowden damaged a much more important program” in leaking about activities conducted under Section 702.

In his book, Morell also raises the possibility that Snowden’s leaks weren’t limited to the NSA, and he strongly suggests that the ex-systems administrator, who now lives in Russia, may have stolen from the CIA, as well. Snowden was a CIA employee from 2006 to 2009, before he went to work for the NSA as a contractor.

Morell writes that in a briefing with CIA Director John Brennan in mid-June 2013, shortly after the first stories about NSA surveillance appeared in the Guardian and The Washington Post, “I made clear that we needed to know a number of things—as soon as possible. One, were there CIA documents or information in the materials that Snowden had stolen from the NSA? Two, had he stolen any classified information when he served at the CIA?”

Once CIA officers were given access to the NSA’s internal security review about what Snowden took, “the news was not good,” Morell writes. “[A]mong the documents at risk were not just NSA secrets but CIA secrets as well.” Morell doesn’t elaborate on what those secrets were or what kinds of operations they might have involved. But the CIA does some gathering of electronic intelligence, like the NSA, and it works closely with the agency on some operations.

As to the second the question of whether Snowden stole classified information while he worked at the CIA, Morell writes, “I am not permitted to provide the answer that was briefed to me, because of concerns about the national security implications if this information were disclosed.”

But Morell does go on at length about Snowden’s term of employment at the CIA, noting that “amazingly” the agency chose to hire him even though he had no college degree, had served briefly in the military, and “had self-taught computer skills but little else going for him.”

Morell also says that “Snowden’s employment application, work performance, and behaviors created concerns at the [CIA]—including security concerns. Snowden was aware of this, and he departed the Agency before they could be resolved and before the Agency could take any action against him.”

Morell appears to be referring, at least in part, to an account from one of Snowden’s CIA supervisors, who reportedly wrote a “derogatory” note in his file based on the supervisor's suspicions that Snowden was behaving strangely in the time before he left the agency to take work as a contractor. In 2013, The New York Times reported that the CIA suspected Snowden was trying to break into classified computer files that he didn’t have permission to access.

A day after the Times story ran, the CIA issued a public statement denying that the agency suspected that Snowden might be trying to break into classified computer networks. But the CIA didn’t dispute that Snowden’s supervisor had written a report noting a “disturbing shift” in Snowden's behavior and that the supervisor’s concerns weren't forwarded to the NSA or its contractors until after Snowden began leaking to journalists. The Times based its original report half a dozen law enforcement, congressional, and intelligence officials with “direct knowledge” of the supervisor's report.

In his book, Morell counts himself among the numerous intelligence officials, past and present, who’ve labeled Snowden a “traitor” who risked exposing U.S. intelligence secrets to national adversaries, as well as terrorists. Morell stops short, however, of accusing Snowden of being an agent of a foreign government, or spying on its behalf.

“My own view on this question is that both Chinese and Russian intelligence officers undoubtedly pitched him—offering him millions of dollars to share the documents he had stolen and to answer any questions they had about the NSA and CIA. But my guess is that Snowden said, ‘No, thank you,’ given his mind-set and his clear dislike for intelligence services of any stripe.”

That said, Morell argues that Snowden may have “unwittingly led the Chinese or, more likely, the Russians to his treasure chest of documents.” Morell says they then could have applied the “immense capabilities” of their own intelligence services. Those capabilities include industrial-scale computer hacking to steal secrets from countless U.S. companies and, in the case of the Russians, to breachsensitive computer networks at the White House and the State Department.

[MIKA27]

FENDER WHISKEY BARREL AMPS

A bottle of whiskey was the post-show beverage of choice for so many legendary rock bands. Fender is bringing the two worlds together again with the release of their limited edition “80 Proof” Blues Junior amplifier. The cabinet for the amp is crafted from used whiskey barrels, and no two are alike. Packed inside the booze-soaked case is 15 watts of all-tube power, reverb, and an upgrade 12″ 8-ohm Jensen P12Q speaker. Only 100 will be made—60 of which will be sold at select retailers in the States—so if you want your musical setup to include a bit of whiskey history, you’d best snag one before they’re gone for good. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

I.W. HARPER 15 YEAR BOURBON

We don't blame you if you aren't familiar with I.W. Harper 15 Year Bourbon, or even the Harper name, mostly because it hasn't been available here in the US in nearly 20 years. The Harper brand dates back to the late 1800's, when Isaac Wolf Bernheim and his brother began distilling. It has remained a premium offering in Japan all along, and if finally back on shelves in the states after a long hiatus. Packed with flavor, this 15 year old bourbon whiskey was distilled at the Bernheim Distillery and comes packaged in this decanter that is as classic as the Harper brand name.