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

[MIKA27]

The Foldable Phones Samsung Promised Might Be Available Early Next Year

 

Last year, Samsung promised us foldable phones, possibly unveiled by this January. That date is clearly long gone, but sources tell Bloomberg that the new launch date could be early 2017, so maybe we won’t have to wait so long to decide if this is something we all actually want.

In the latest report, sources said the company wants to release two phones, and one of them will have a 5-inch handset that turns into an 8-inch tablet. A recent Samsung patent shows a smartphone that folds directly in half, almost like the flip phones of yore.

Foldable phones aren’t a new idea. There have been ideas for tri-fold smartphones, and companies like Sony and Sharp have been messing around with the technology too. Samsung does seem to be the company closest to taking the idea to market and its foldable-phone project, codenamed “Project Valley”, has been in the works for a while. The company even had a concept video a couple years ago, but whether people are really clamouring for a foldable phone is a different question.

Sources say phones could finally debut at Mobile World Congress in February though, seeing how we were burned last September, they could also… not.

[MIKA27]

Journalists Are Backing Out Of The Olympics Over Zika

Athletes have already expressed concern about travelling to the heart of the Zika outbreak to compete in this summer’s Olympics. Now journalists are opting out entirely. Several NBC employees will not travel to Brazil to cover the games, including Today anchor Savannah Guthrie, who announced today that she’s pregnant.

The CDC made a recommendation in February that women who are pregnant should not travel to Zika-affected countries, then later expanded the recommendation to include women who are considering getting pregnant. Brazil is currently experiencing one of the most serious microcephaly epidemics, which has been connected to the Zika outbreak.

The New York Daily News had previously reported that several staffers have already told NBC that they will not go to Rio. According to Reuters, a “handful” of employees have elected not to cover the Olympics, and NBC respects their decisions. Guthrie, who is due at the end of the year, said doctors recommended that she should not travel to Rio.

So far only one Australian athlete — golfer Marc Leishman — has announced he will not go to Rio, because he is concerned about transmitting Zika to his recently ill wife. A few other athletes backing out are also citing Zika. Several female athletes have also made public statements professing their concerns about contracting the virus before trying to get pregnant.

[MIKA27]

Live Fish Photographed Inside A Jellyfish Knows The Furthest Depths Of Regret

While freediving in their home of Byron Bay, Australia, photographer Tim Samuel and videographer Franny Plumridge stumbled on a rare sight: A fish stuck inside a jellyfish. The fish was apparently somewhat able to steer its new and permanent hat.

But the look on its face says it all: Oh God, what have I done. Will I die with such indignity, able to see the wide ocean before me but never again touching it?

The tragic sight of the trapped animal left Samuel, the photographer, with an ethical dilemma. “My first impressions were amazement as I had never seen anything like it before,” he told Gizmodo. “I contemplated freeing the fish as I felt bad for it, but in the end decided to just let nature run its course, which was a difficult decision for me to make.” Samuel added, “I don’t know what happened to them.”

Nature is truly amazing.

[MIKA27]

Chicago Might Plug Its Giant Hell Pit With A Highway-Straddling Skyscraper

There’s a giant abandoned hole punched in the Chicago landscape. Here’s a plan to make that hole a lot less holey.

The 34m wide, 23m deep hole was dug with the best intentions. It was supposed to house the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere, Santiago Calatrava’s Chicago Spire. But the development succumbed to the recession and the gaping void never got filled. It just sat there, mouth agape. For almost 10 years.

There were some great ideas for what to do with the hell pit, like turn it into the world’s deepest/scariest swimming pool, but eventually the city just planted more trees around it and tried to forget it ever happened.

Now the architecture firm Gensler has proposed a brand-new take on the Chicago Spire. No, it’s not really a spire, it’s more like an ironing board propped up over the city. But those straddling limbs of the Gateway Tower, as Gensler calls it, would also serve as a tourist attraction, connecting to the city’s existing Riverwalk and shuttling people directly up to a sky deck that’s 610m in the air.

As for the role of the hole, it’s not entirely clear. Perhaps the architects need all that depth to bear the weight of the entire 610m building. Maybe visitors who board the special elevators to the sky deck will be plunged deep into the hole first before they’re then rocketed up the supertall, like an architectural drop zone ride.

One thing is for certain. Anything is better than a hell pit.

[MIKA27]

Supergirl Is Finally Going To Show Superman As An Actual Character

After an entire season of seeing Superman from a distance, or blurry, or backlit with a glare, or just his foot, or with his texts, Supergirl is celebrating its move to the CW by actually casting the character. Oh thank you, Kryptonian god.

The casting process for Clark Kent is currently underway for season two of Supergirl. Executive producer Andrew Kreisberg’s statement says:

Greg (Berlanti), Ali (Larter) and I are beyond thrilled to welcome Clark Kent and his slightly-more-famous alter ego to the world of ‘Supergirl.’ Superman will be appearing in the first two episodes of the new season and we cannot wait to see who next dons the red cape!

As you can see, they’re not going to string out the reveal any longer. First two episodes out of the gate on the CW, and the giant Superman-sized hole will be filled.

[MIKA27]

We're One Step Closer To Growing Human Organs Inside Of Pigs

In an effort to tackle the organ donor shortage, researchers in the United States have successfully created part-human, part-pig embryos and implanted them into a sow. Eventually, these animals could act as incubators for human organs, which concerns some ethicists.

As reported by the BBC, researchers from the University of California, Davis, injected human stem cells into pig embryos to create the chimeras (the word “chimera” is derived from mythology, but it’s the scientific term used to describe an animal that has genetic information from more than one species). The human-pig embryos were then implanted into a sow, where they will be allowed to develop for 28 days before the pregnancies are terminated (the full gestation period for pigs is 114 days). The scientists will analyse the foetal tissue to make sure everything is developing normally.

In September of last year, the US National Institutes of Health said it would not fund this type of research until more was known about the implications. Even though the pigs are supposed to develop as normal pigs — save for the human organs — there’s fear that something unforeseen could happen, and that the pigs would somehow be humanised. There’s particular concern that the genetic material from humans might cause the chimeric pigs to develop human-like brains, but experts believe this is unlikely.

Undaunted by the NIH’s concerns, several labs are now working to make this a reality. Human-pig embryos have been created before, but this marks a first for the UC Davis researchers.

To create the human-pig embryos, the researchers used CRISPR to knock out the genetic information required for the foetus to grow a pancreas, resulting in a genetic “niche”. To fill the void created by process, the scientists then injected human induced pluripotent (iPS) stem cells into the embryo. Theoretically, this should cause the pig embryo to grow a human pancreas. In the future, such pigs would be allowed to mature, and would later have their human organs harvested. In short, they’d basically serve as incubators for human organs. The current work is focused on the pancreas, but other organs could also be grown, including hearts, livers, kidneys, lungs and corneas.

There’s no question that something needs to be done about the ongoing organ donor shortage, but this solution already seems a bit anachronistic. This concept, originally known as xenotransplantation, has been around since the 1970s. By the 1990s, there was hope that GMO pigs could be used en masse to provide an almost unlimited supply of organs for patients, but research stalled due to fears that humans might be infected with animal viruses. The advent of CRISPR has revitalised this line of research because biologists can now selectively weed out these undesirable retroviruses.

Animal rights advocates aren’t thrilled with this approach. As Peter Stevenson from Compassion in World Farming told the BBC’s Panorama program: “I’m nervous about opening up a new source of animal suffering. Let’s first get many more people to donate organs. If there is still a shortage after that, we can consider using pigs, but on the basis that we eat less meat so that there is no overall increase in the number of pigs being used for human purposes.”

He’s not wrong; this quasi-dystopian solution seems like a major step backwards. And indeed, there are other research efforts currently underway that won’t require the use of animals, such as bioprinting, advances in cold storage and the promising field of regenerative medicine where biologists can literally grow a patient’s organs in the lab.

So yes, let’s continue this line of research into human-pig chimeras — it’s probably the best short term solution that we have. Research into this area is developing quickly, and it will likely be available sooner compared to the other research efforts. But let’s go about this with the understanding that it’s a stop-gap measure and not a long term solution.

[MIKA27]

Researchers' Attempt To Find Even One Pristine Spot On Earth Ends In Total Failure

An exhaustive attempt by researchers to find a single untouched space on planet Earth has yielded no results. Sorry, folks, everything is ruined now.

Researchers at the University of Oxford undertook the task in the hopes of finding a still pristine location, perhaps deep in the Arctic circle or on some remote island. Instead, as they detail in a new paper in PNAS, they got a better look at just how completely human activity has hit every single inch of the globe, to the point where they couldn’t identify even one such spot.

In addition to looking at the archaeological record, researchers also looked at microfossils, analysed ancient DNAs and created a large statistical model of changes in plant growth. Prior to the Industrial Revolution they found that the impact of human civilisation was mostly localised. But as our tech got more advanced, so did its ability to migrate to the point where, even without setting foot in a place, our presence was still felt. Even in ancient forests where no people lived, or left any evidence of having lived before, the environment was still shaped by people, as the crops people grew migrated and overtook the area.

No matter how remote the destination you find may seem, the truth is that if you want to experience a place of untouched wilderness today, the only way to do that is to hit another planet.

[MIKA27]

DUCATI 750 SS KRAKEN BY IRON PIRATE GARAGE

Built from a Ducati 750 SS, the Kraken brings new meaning to blackout themes. Iron Pirate puts their welding prowess on display in the detailed trellis of the rear subframe that brings the upright cylinder of the Ducati motor to the forefront, creating a flat ‘bone line.’ A yellow divide line also wraps around the bike adding a visual break to the sleek design. The tank moves beyond tradition and features a horizontal strap at its tip above the phrase, “The rougher the seas, the smoother we sail.” Not a bad mantra for an iron pirate. The exhaust is also finished with two horizontal pipes that flank the frame’s underside. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing more builds from these guys soon as we feel they’re just getting started.

[JohnS]

20 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

Researchers' Attempt To Find Even One Pristine Spot On Earth Ends In Total Failure

An exhaustive attempt by researchers to find a single untouched space on planet Earth has yielded no results. Sorry, folks, everything is ruined now.

Researchers at the University of Oxford undertook the task in the hopes of finding a still pristine location, perhaps deep in the Arctic circle or on some remote island. Instead, as they detail in a new paper in PNAS, they got a better look at just how completely human activity has hit every single inch of the globe, to the point where they couldn’t identify even one such spot.

In addition to looking at the archaeological record, researchers also looked at microfossils, analysed ancient DNAs and created a large statistical model of changes in plant growth. Prior to the Industrial Revolution they found that the impact of human civilisation was mostly localised. But as our tech got more advanced, so did its ability to migrate to the point where, even without setting foot in a place, our presence was still felt. Even in ancient forests where no people lived, or left any evidence of having lived before, the environment was still shaped by people, as the crops people grew migrated and overtook the area.

No matter how remote the destination you find may seem, the truth is that if you want to experience a place of untouched wilderness today, the only way to do that is to hit another planet.

Mars...here we come? 

[MIKA27]

9 Bizarre Effects of Prohibition

When the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act were put into place, clearly someone had to see there would be more than a few unintended consequences. Some of the effects are well-documented, like the rise of organized crime, others are not. Here are a few of the odd and surprising effects of Prohibition. 

There Were More Pharmacists

Whiskey could still legally be prescribed by pharmacists to treat an array of medical issues. Medicinal alcohol sales increased by 400% from 1923 to 1931 and the amount of registered pharmacists also increased drastically.

It Made Some People a Bit Overconfident

Some folks were so sure that alcohol lead to almost all crimes, that towns actually sold off their jails right before Prohibition went into effect. What ended up happening? Severe overcrowding and increased federal spending on prisons . . . or the exact opposite of what people thought would happen.

More People Found God
Many could still acquire wine for religious purposes. Not only did more people start going to church and synagogues, but there was a jump in self-professed rabbis who could also get their hands on wine.

It Killed a lot of People

Because bootleggers concocted unregulated liquor, a greater percentage ended up being tainted. Approximately 1,000 Americans died from drinking that liquor each year during Prohibition. Also, in an awful attempt to scare people from drinking any alcohol they could get their hands on, the U.S. government actually ordered some industrial alcohol to be poisoned. After all was said and done, it is estimated that around 10,000 people died from this poisoned alcohol. On top of all of this, the spike in organized crime added to the death toll as did people believing they could drink things like filtered antifreeze.

Hospitals Wanted to Stay Nice and Clean

Hospitals could still order alcohol (most likely rubbing alcohol which some tried to consume during the time) for cleaning purposes. The amount these hospitals ordered increased dramatically.

It Was Awesome For Grape Growers

Grape growers made out like bandits by selling grape concentrate, or “wine bricks,” to consumers. Many cleverly “cautioned” buyers by telling them not to dissolve the brick in water and put it in a dark place for awhile or it could turn into wine. During the first five years of Prohibition, California growers increased their land by about 700%.

It Kick-Started Liquor’s Comeback

Before the onset of Prohibition, beer and spirits were on even playing fields with Americans spending about the same amount of their income on both. During Prohibition, distilled booze became king thanks to its higher alcohol content which meant less needed to be transported. Beer prices increased 700%.

Cocktails Became More Popular Than Ever

Martinis and other cocktails flourished during Prohibition because they covered up the off-taste of not-so-great booze. Drinks like the Sidecar became popular and have stuck around since.

It Gave Rise to “Booze Cruises”

People with enough money could basicallyy take cruises to nowhere. They would sail out to international waters to drink. The ships would just go around in circles and then return

Sources: PBS/ Wikipedia/ NCBI/ Cato/ BuzzFeed/ Prohibition Repeal/ Slate/ Cato/ Mary Miley

[MIKA27]

MASTER LOCK BLUETOOTH PADLOCK

Never forget your combination again with the Master Lock Bluetooth Padlock. This smart lock opens via a free companion app that also lets you see your access history, tamper alerts, and battery status. There's a directional keypad on the front for backup access if you forget your phone, a boron carbide shackle that's resistant to cutting and sawing, and you can even give friends temporary access through the app. This version is for indoor use only, but there's a weather-resistant version available if you need it.

[MIKA27]

Trench Warfare In World War I Was A Smarter Strategy Than You Realise

History remembers trench warfare as wasteful, futile, and uninspired, but in reality it was a deeply thought-out system that underwent constant revision. Here’s how it worked during World War I.

Top image: A painting by Captain Kenneth Keith Forbes shows a Canadian 15cm howitzer supporting British troops in the attack on Thiepval on 16 July 1916 during the Somme offensive. Via Canadian Artillery in Action.

It was around this time 100 years ago that the mobile battlefield along the Western Front ground to a screeching halt — a 708km stretch that barely moved in the ensuing four years.

As the war raged and spread in 1914, a curious development occurred on the Western Front. Owing to exhaustion, dwindling reserves, and the horrific loss of life, both sides dug in and assumed a defensive posture. The appalling battles of August showed that moving troops on open ground was a prescription for mass suicide. Once things settled after the First Battle at the Marne, troops were ordered to seek cover in trenches. It was meant to be temporary, but the realities of 20th century warfare would prove otherwise.

Trench warfare — or what could also be referred to as siege warfare — was forced upon the combatants for a number of other reasons. Unlike the situation in the East, the Western Front settled along a relatively short stretch of land. On either side of this bitterly fought over line were massive accumulations of armies — and the combined industrial strength of the primary combatants. But perhaps most importantly, the necessity of trench warfare emerged owing to the state of technology in the second decade of the 20th century.

The Need For Trenches

Indeed, it was an era that had seen rapid advances in metallurgy, chemistry, and high-precision mass production. Seemingly overnight, weapons technology had become immeasurably more advanced that it was just a few decades before.

Among the new advancements, perhaps none was as potent as the new artillery. By 1914, artillery was equipped with hydraulic mechanisms for absorbing recoil, so they no longer had to be repositioned after every shot. The shells, which contained propellant, a warhead, and a timing device, could be directed at the enemy more rapidly, more accurately, and at greater range than anything seen before. It was artillery that dominated the Great War, killing more people from 1914 to 1918 than any other weapon.

Along with the machine gun and grenades, these technologies turned the Western Front into a prolonged siege — but instead of defending castles, the modern armies of the 20th century were defending industrialized powers.

When the war moved to the trenches, armies worked hard to produce new techniques to support the new system. Their aim was to find a way to avoid as many unnecessary casualties as possible. And indeed, trenches — though they’re often seen as the harbinger of death — actually saved countless lives.

An Intentional War of Attrition

That being said, and as the war progressed, the primary combattants of the Western Front became sceptical that the war could be won with a decisive military victory. As Winston Churchill noted, “The war will be ended by the exhaustion of nations rather than the victories of armies.” Similarly, Germany’s Erich Ludendorff became frustrated that his generals “had to renounce the vision of tangible victory.”

A Cheshire Regiment trench at the Somme.

But the Allies and the Central Powers were not ready to call it quits. What’s particularly remarkable — and even disturbing — about the Great War was how each side insisted on taking it to the enemy in hopes of eventually winning the struggle. The challenge for the generals was to turn a seemingly defensive system into something more offensive.

As a consequence, and for the most part, each side attempted to exhaust the other — to sap the enemy of the will to fight, or to exhaust them of resources and manpower. Some generals remained convinced that a decisive breakthrough was possible — as witnessed by the catastrophes at The Battle of the Somme and the Nivelle Offensive — but most understood that it was simply a matter of wearing the enemy down.

Perhaps the most potent example of this strategy was The Battle of Verdun — the longest sustained siege of the First World War. The super-concentrated assault was designed by Erich von Falkenhayn, and it was meant to drain France of its ability to fight. Indeed, Verdun itself had no strategic importance. Nor was any kind of breakthrough desired. The point was to simply turn the battlefield into a death machine.

Elaborate Defensive Systems

There are many misconceptions about the First World War. It’s often imagined that the trenches were a pair of ditches that extended from the North Sea to Switzerland, and that soldiers were unceasingly asked to climb out of their trenches and engage the enemy in a futile battle.

But the trenches weren’t just protracted gullies — they were deep and elaborate systems. Both sides had different design philosophies that changed as the war progressed and as military needs demanded. What’s more, the tactics that supported these defensive structures were more sophisticated than just “going over the top.”

Credit: Aurthur Guy Empey’s “Over The Top” (1917)

On average, each side had 5,000 men per mile of front. The generals used this manpower to construct complex defensive systems that extended for miles behind the foremost trench. In order to confuse the enemy, and to prevent an enemy soldier from wreaking too much havoc after a breach, the trenches were dug-out as zigzag mazes and fortified in all the ways possible.

Credit: Aurthur Guy Empey’s “Over The Top” (1917)

The fundamentals of trench design were roughly the same for the three armies. Writing in A World Undone, G. J. Meyer explains:

First came the true front line, a trench six or more feet deep and about that wide, generally heavily manned. A mile or so to the rear was a support trench with a second concentration of troops. Farther back still, beyond the range of all but the biggest enemy artillery, was a third line for the reservers. All but the lightest guns were behind this reserve line, unreachable except by the most successful offensives.

But as Meyer concedes, even this description is too simple:

Trenches were often impossible to dig in the waterlogged soil of Flanders, where walls of sandbags had to be erected instead, and maintaining a continuous line could be difficult in the rough hills of north Switzerland. The German front “line” often included three parallel trenches, the first for sentries, another for the main force, the third for backup troops. However many such rows there were in any particular place, they were connected by perpendicular communications trenches, shielded by fields of barbed wire as much as thirty feet deep, and, more and more as the war wore on, studded with machine-gun nests. The trenches were less often straight than broken by dogleg turns, so than any enemy troops who got into them would have a limited field of fire.

An aerial view of the Loos trench system, 1917. Note the zigzag patterns and extensive lines of communications trenches.

Owing to the extremely poor conditions in the trenches, men were put on a rotation schedule. Like the trench system itself, these routines changed according to the demands of the war. But for the most part, soldiers spent no more than a week at the foremost trench. From there they would be pulled back to the support line, then to the reserve line, and finally to the rear. The pattern would then repeat.

No Man’s Land

Between the two armies lay No Man’s Land, a stretch of territory that measured anywhere from a half-mile to only a few yards. The land was shattered by shell holes, packed with barbed wire, and littered with dead bodies, debris, and the ghostly remnants of trees.

Entering into No Man’s Land during the day meant instant death, but it came to life at night. Raiding parties pulled night shifts, capturing prisoners for interrogation, spying on the enemy, and sometimes making a quick kill.

The Allied Tactics of Siege Warfare

With the physical parameters of trench warfare established, military planners then set their sights on engaging the enemy. Problem was, after making a relatively short advance, attacking soldiers would find themselves caught up in an energy-sapping fight within the enemy’s labyrinthine and impossibly deep trench system.

As early as 1915, and in an effort to overcome these issues, Allied forces began well-planned and thorough artillery barrages intended to destroy large sections of fixed defences and to demolish the enemy’s barbed wire. It was the beginning of more “scientific” artillery technologies that would become standard. Artillery fire became a very carefully controlled and monitored process, governed by meticulous trigonometric calculations of range and trajectory.

For example, the Allies introduced the concept of the “creeping barrage” in which a forward-moving wall of destruction would be followed by advancing troops. A great idea — at least in theory (later in the war, tanks, in conjunction with artillery, would produce this vital spearhead effect).

Indeed, even the heaviest bombardment proved limited; mass artillery barrages often failed to cut the wire, and machine gun nests were quickly restored. It became painfully obvious that heavy artillery could stop an enemy advance.

But tactics took on an almost Darwinian quality, evolving via a process of constant adaptation. As historian William Philpott writes:

More munitions and guns, especially heavy guns, were seen as an answer to this, plus a longer bombardment to ensure that all targets were properly engaged. The attack also demonstrated that infantry elan still counted for much in the assault. It also confirmed that the momentum of an attack was best sustained by pushing deeply into the enemy’s defences, rather than getting bogged down fighting for the front lines. These principles would form the foundation of First World War offensive tactical doctrines.

The French were particularly enthusiastic about artillery. In 1917, generals Auat and Nivelle developed the idea of a “general reserve artillery” in which many pieces of all sizes of weaponry were grouped together at a specific place on the front. By the end of the war, the French had amassed an astonishing 5,000 75mm guns and 5,500 pieces of heavy artillery.

Field manuals recommended meticulous artillery preparation and strong cooperation between the artillery and the infantry, in particular the posting of artillery observers to the front line so that they could accurately observe their falling shots and correct accordingly.

The New Weapons

Other weapons began to make an appearance, forever altering the nature of trench warfare. These included mine warfare (in which miners dug beneath enemy lines to lay tons upon tons of explosives), aeroplanes (mostly for surveillance), flamethrowers, poison gas (which had more of a terror effect than a tactical one — but still a deadly technological innovation), and tanks (which by 1918 were starting to be used by the Allies in a very Blitzkrieg sort of way).

But according to historian Francois Cochet, the real star of trench fighting was the grenade. He writes:

In its many forms — offensive, defensive, flammable, rifle — it proved to be extremely versatile. The defensive ‘grid’ grenade enabled the soldier to stop the assault of the enemy with sharp projectiles once he had reached a distance of 18.29m and was sheltered in his trench. The offensive grenade with a limited blast, silenced the opponent, especially in mine trenches. The French possessed a defensive grenade as early as 1914, but in the battles of the Argonne in particular, they relied on homemade gadgets such as ‘firecracker rackets,’ simple wooden boards wired and loaded with dynamite or melinite. Later, they developed more reliable grenades.

The New German Doctrine of ‘Defence in Depth’

By August 1916, after the failures of Verdun and the Somme, General Falkenhayn was relieved of his duties on the Western Front. He was replaced by the unit of Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg, who replaced his super-wasteful war of attrition — the fatal attempts to “bleed France white” — with an entirely new defensive strategy aimed at prolonging and preserving Germany’s position in the war. Most especially, and from that point on, all operations had to measured by the proportion of losses in men and material rather than the gain of territory (Germany was starting to feel the pinch of the blockade).

To that end, Ludendorff developed a field manual titled, “Principles of Leadership in the Defensive Battle in Position Warfare.” Historian Matthias Strohn explains:

The new doctrine advocated a more flexible defence. For this, the battlefield was now divided into two zones. The first was the forward zone, which would usually be surrendered to the enemy after a short period of resistance. This area stretched from the enemy lines to one’s own main defensive positions. Under certain circumstances, this zone could also be evacuated without any resistance, so that the enemy would quickly enter the second zone, the area of main resistance. This zone was deep area into which the enemy would be dragged and which he would exhaust himself. Within this zone, often several kilometers deep, neatly created trenches that had given way to dugouts and concrete strongholds which served as the corset-bones of the defence. Resistance was to be conducted in a flexible manner, and it was expected that some defensive positions would be lost to the enemy in the course of the battle. This was not a major threat, as long as the German forces were able to keep the initiative and to mount counter-attacks which would eventually drive the enemy forces out of these positions.

This “elastic” defence, which resulted in the formation of the Hindenburg Line, was quite remarkable. Unlike the Allies’ rigid system, German defenders could now fall back, join the much stronger line of secondary defence, and assume superior positions to wear out the enemy.

A glimpse of the Hindenburg Line after the war.

After a few false starts (because some of Ludendorff’s nervous officers failed to follow his exact instructions), the new system proved its worth. Perhaps the best example occurred on April 14, 1917 during a British assault. Moving behind the deadly curtain of a creeping artillery barrage, British soldiers quickly became bogged down by German artillery. The British advance was slowed down, and the infantry became separated from the support artillery. The German defenders then had enough time get into position once the British creeping barrage had gone over them. The Germans showered the British troops with bullets. Worse, the British troops were then surprised to encounter small-arms fire from German reverse slope positions and strongholds that had not been destroyed by the British artillery (it’s very difficult to destroy positions behind a hill). Less than three hours into the attack, the British lost two-thirds of their strength and were forced back to their starting line. Two days later, Ludendorff’s system wreaked havoc for the Allies during the Battle of Chemin des Dames, a part of the ill-fated Neville offensives.

Exhaustion

But it was not meant to be for Germany. Eager to defeat the Allies before the United States could make a meaningful impact in the war, Ludendorff organised the 1918 Michael offensive — an intense, if not vague, last gasp. After an initial stunning breakthrough in which stormtroopers were used to exploit breaches and opportunities, the Allies fought back, pushing the Germans back across conquered territory — including the Hindenburg Line. But it came at a terrible cost. Now that the war had emerged from the trenches, and with soldiers once again exposed, the final year would prove as deadly as the first.

But the war of attrition had finally run its course. With Germany exhausted, and with revolution brewing, its military leaders decided to abandon the war. The importance of trench warfare, and all that was required to sustain it, clearly played a major role in the eventual outcome of the conflict.

[helix]

9 hours ago, MIKA27 said:

Journalists Are Backing Out Of The Olympics Over Zika

Athletes have already expressed concern about travelling to the heart of the Zika outbreak to compete in this summer’s Olympics. Now journalists are opting out entirely. Several NBC employees will not travel to Brazil to cover the games, including Today anchor Savannah Guthrie, who announced today that she’s pregnant.

The CDC made a recommendation in February that women who are pregnant should not travel to Zika-affected countries, then later expanded the recommendation to include women who are considering getting pregnant. Brazil is currently experiencing one of the most serious microcephaly epidemics, which has been connected to the Zika outbreak.

The New York Daily News had previously reported that several staffers have already told NBC that they will not go to Rio. According to Reuters, a “handful” of employees have elected not to cover the Olympics, and NBC respects their decisions. Guthrie, who is due at the end of the year, said doctors recommended that she should not travel to Rio.

So far only one Australian athlete — golfer Marc Leishman — has announced he will not go to Rio, because he is concerned about transmitting Zika to his recently ill wife. A few other athletes backing out are also citing Zika. Several female athletes have also made public statements professing their concerns about contracting the virus before trying to get pregnant.

No one should go. WHO should shut it down to prevent the global spread of this outbreak.

[MIKA27]

9 hours ago, helix said:

No one should go. WHO should shut it down to prevent the global spread of this outbreak.

I whole heartedly agree  Whenever there's a disease it's better to try and contain it, NOT spread it.

WHO has authroised and claims the Rio Olympics are safe despite loads of doctors and scientists stating the opposite. These prominent doctors and scientists wrote an open letter to WHO, you can see it HERE.

And here is WHO's response

I still often wonder if the old way of business is still in play, the old brown paper bag under the table trick to get this one to pass?  I mean seriously, the Rio Olympics should be cancelled IMO and if WHO doesn't shut it down, it should be the athletes who pull the pin and not attend.

[oliverdst]

21 minutes ago, MIKA27 said:

I whole heartedly agree  Whenever there's a disease it's better to try and contain it, NOT spread it.

WHO has authroised and claims the Rio Olympics are safe despite loads of doctors and scientists stating the opposite. These prominent doctors and scientists wrote an open letter to WHO, you can see it HERE.

And here is WHO's response

I still often wonder if the old way of business is still in play, the old brown paper bag under the table trick to get this one to pass?  I mean seriously, the Rio Olympics should be cancelled IMO and if WHO doesn't shut it down, it should be the athletes who pull the pin and not attend.

 

10 hours ago, helix said:

No one should go. WHO should shut it down to prevent the global spread of this outbreak.

Well, I will be there in the end of August. If you dont hear about me after that...

 

PS: unless you are or intend to get pregnant I wouldnt care that much.

PS2: I dont intend to get pregnant.

PS3: believe me, when in Rio you have many more things to worry than mosquitoes.

[MIKA27]

8 minutes ago, oliverdst said:

 

Well, I will be there in the end of August. If you dont hear about me after that...

 

PS: unless you are or intend to get pregnant I wouldnt care that much.

PS2: I dont intend to get pregnant.

PS3: believe me, when in Rio you have many more things to worry than mosquitoes.

About the following:And you know I respect you a great deal Oliver

PS: unless you are or intend to get pregnant I wouldnt care that much - You can still contract the virus and spread it to women..?

PS2: I dont intend to get pregnant - Refer to above response and below image 

PS3: believe me, when in Rio you have many more things to worry than mosquitoes - Completely agree, I know the murder rates there are astronomical. 

On a slightly different note, has anyone seen Children of Men (Below is the full movie)? If this Zika virus spreads, I wonder if our kids will be able to have children that are healthy and normal or will we be in a similar situation? Slightly different here but who will want children that are born with Microcephaly?

 

[oliverdst]

2 hours ago, MIKA27 said:

About the following:And you know I respect you a great deal Oliver

PS: unless you are or intend to get pregnant I wouldnt care that much - You can still contract the virus and spread it to women..?

PS2: I dont intend to get pregnant - Refer to above response and below image 

 

PS3: believe me, when in Rio you have many more things to worry than mosquitoes - Completely agree, I know the murder rates there are astronomical. 

On a slightly different note, has anyone seen Children of Men (Below is the full movie)? If this Zika virus spreads, I wonder if our kids will be able to have children that are healthy and normal or will we be in a similar situation? Slightly different here but who will want children that are born with Microcephaly?

 

No problem, Mika, all the respect here, bro. Brazil can be heaven or hell.

 

It's not clear at this moment if Zika can be transmitted via corporal fluids. Same say it's possible but there is no definitive study so far.

Zika was first discovered in Africa and reached Brazil last year. No long term studies so I can't say the real factors to be considered before travelling to a place where there is an outbreak. Olympics will be during winter so I think things will not go as bad as if we were in summer.

What I know is that is a pain to go to a place and be worried about this kind of thing. I prefer to postpone the trip.

[Fuzz]

It's all good. Each month the rate of new Zika infections is falling.... now that most of the country is already infected.

[MIKA27]

One Tweet From Elon Musk Made $770 Million Disappear

Tweets are mysterious things. They’re sometimes witty, usually banal and often garbage. But if you’re Elon Musk, your tweets can have a very real impact on how companies are valued. For instance, one tweet from Musk yesterday wiped out $US580 million ($773.2 million) from Samsung SDI’s market capitalisation. No joke.

Rumours had been swirling that Samsung SDI, a company associated with Samsung that makes batteries and displays, was working with Musk’s company Tesla for batteries in the upcoming Model 3 electric car. But Musk set the record straight on Twitter yesterday afternoon, explaining that the company was working exclusively with Panasonic.

“Would like to clarify that Tesla is working exclusively with Panasonic for Model 3 cells. News articles claiming otherwise are incorrect,” Musk tweeted, dispelling the rumours. The belief had been that if Panasonic couldn’t handle producing enough batteries for the new Model 3, then perhaps Samsung’s SDI division would pick up the slack.

That single clarifying tweet from Musk sent Samsung SDI’s stock plunging eight per cent this morning, losing roughly $US580 million ($773.2 million). Panasonic added about $US800 million ($1 billion) in the same period.

Investors, much like many car consumers, are obsessed with the potential for Tesla’s Model 3. The car is slated to be relatively affordable by luxury car standards. Until now, Tesla electric vehicles had largely been the realm of the super rich. But if Tesla can figure out how to take their tremendous branding cachet and turn it into something that middle class people can afford (without sacrificing its luxury appeal) then many investors are going to get very, very rich.

Samsung, on the other hand, took a walloping over the head — all thanks to some rumours that turned out to be false. But if Musk’s Twitter account has that much power, we hope he has a strong password and two-factor authentication turned on. If Musk ever got hacked, it could send markets into a minor tailspin. Seriously, it’s happened before. Remember the time the stock market reacted to false news of US President Obama’s assassination in 2013 after the Associated Press Twitter account got hacked?

Bloomberg has reported that Tesla may still be working with Samsung on their Energy products, meaning those Powerwalls and Powerpacks that people can use in their home and businesses for power storage.

I reached out to Tesla, where a spokesperson confirmed that Tesla Energy’s potential use of Samsung battery technology involved the “energy storage products for home, commercial and utility-scale use”.

[MIKA27]

Everyone Can Stop Speculating, Suicide Squad Is Officially PG-13

This should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been following the film; everyone involved has said that, no matter how well Deadpool did, they were still aiming for a PG-13. That didn’t really stop the speculation Suicide Squad would be rated R, but this will.

The producer said PG-13, the director said PG-13 and now the MPAA has officially slapped a PG-13 rating on the film. No R here. And, it doesn’t sound like there’s an R-rated cut lying around, since director David Ayer said in April that “For an R movie, you have to decide to do it right out the gate, and that was never the case here. We were always going to hit the PG-13 rating. But the film is meant to be that.”

It is meant to be PG-13, it is PG-13. And thankfully, no one tried at the last minute to force it into an R. That would have been painful.

[MIKA27]

YOU'LL BE LEFT STUNNED WHEN YOU SEE THIS MYTHOLOGICAL STREET ART

Hailing from the province of Guangdong, Chinese street artist Hua Tunan pays tribute to the past and present with his vivid and energetic work. In among his gigantic murals, you'll find mythological Chinese dragons, powerful tigers, rhinos and lions. Each surrounded by waves of colour and movement.

He initially sketches his ideas into a small notebook, being bringing them to life on a far bigger scale. Whilst Tunan creates the majority of his work in his own private studio, some of his larger pieces can be see among the streets of his hometown.

You can see more of his graffiti and unique art through his Tumblr profile.

[MIKA27]

Man Lives For A Year With His Heart In A Backpack

Doctors at the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center recently announced one of the more shocking breakthroughs in recent medical science: a man successfully lived a year without a heart in his body. Instead, he wore an artificial heart on his back.

A Michigan man recently underwent a successful year-long trial for the new external artificial heart known appropriately as a “Syncardia.” Stan Larkin, age 25, was diagnosed with familial cardiomyopathy along with his brother. This heart disease causes the muscle walls of the heart to deteriorate, which prevents them from contracting and pumping blood. The disease is among the leading causes of sudden death for athletes.

Stan Larkin posing with his Syncardia total artificial heart.

Larkin was close to death’s door when doctors decided to test the new Syncardia artificial heart on him. The device is known as a “total artificial heart,” or TAH. There are two tubes running from the patient’s body into the artificial heart; one for incoming blood and one for outgoing blood. The TAH has an electric pump powered by two lithium-ion batteries that are re-charged using standard electrical outlets or even the cigarette lighter adaptors in cars.

According to a page for patients on the Syncardia website, the effects of the artificial heart are immediate:

Once implanted, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart provides immediate, safe blood flow of up to 9.5 L/min through each ventricle. Soon after the surgery, doctors and family members often watch patients turn from sickly gray to a healthier pink as blood flow is restored to their body and their vital organs.

Larkin’s recovery was profound enough that he was even able to resume playing basketball, all the while wearing his heart on his back.

  

Currently, the organ donor system in the United States has a severe backlog, causing some patients to wait months or even years for a donor. Patients like Larkin who suffer from severe cardiac defects often have be hospitalized for the entire duration of their transplant wait-list time. Devices such as the Syncardia have the potential to vastly improve the quality of life for individuals waiting for organ transplants.

[MIKA27]

Lost at Sea - The incredible story of Bill Durden, who survived 20 hours treading water in the Gulf of Mexico

Bill Durden was on a roll. He'd just caught two good-sized groupers and tossed his line back into the water when he felt it snag on the bottom of his boat. The engine, he realized, wasn't in neutral. Durden gave the rod a good tug. It yanked him right back, pulling him straight out of his flip flops, off the back of the boat, and into the Gulf of Mexico—25 miles from shore.

As Durden broke through to the surface—gasping for air—he watched his unmanned boat orbit around him on a path that moved further and further away. Locking his eyes on the white hull, he tried to swim back to it as quickly as possible. But between the motor, which was still running at three or four knots, and the wind, it was hopeless. Within minutes, it was gone.

His heart started to race as he spun around looking for something other than blue. There was no land in sight. No boats, either. He didn't have a life vest. His long-sleeved yellow t-shirt hung heavy on his arms and the equatorial sun beat down on his face.

The gravity of his predicament hit him immediately.

"I was like, 'This is a bad, bad situation,'" he says.

It was June 1, the first day of grouper season, and just hours earlier, Durden, a 60-year-old FedEx pilot, had untied his 22-foot Grady-White from a dock behind his house to go out trolling. Down from Reno to spend a couple of weeks at his vacation home on Homosassa River, just north of Tampa, Florida, he wanted to take advantage of the clear, beautiful afternoon.

It would be 20 hours until Durden got out of the water.

When his boat disappeared from sight, the former Navy pilot automatically recalled the survival tactics he'd learned. He started swimming east—the direction he boated in from.

"I knew it was damn-near impossible to swim to the shoreline," he says. "I figured the closer I got, the better my chance of getting rescued. I just had to have a game plan; I had to do something. So I swam really slowly."

He'd learned in the Navy to drownproof himself, staying above the water as long as possible with his arms spread, kicking his legs and fluttering his fingers so his face wouldn't go under, then flipping to the other side and floating, alternating every few minutes. He calculated about how long it would take before his wife, Lisa, called in to the Coast Guard to report him missing. She was visiting her mother just south in Bradenton, so it would be a few hours at least. In the meantime, he kept swimming. But the thirst kicked in quickly. He prayed that a can of Coke or a water bottle with just a few drops left in the bottom would float his way. None did.

A few hours before sunset, there was a glimmer of hope: A boat drove by. Durden tried to jump up as high as he could, waving his arms furiously as he screamed, "Man overboard! Man overboard! Over here!"

They didn't hear him.

Then came the moment he was dreading: nightfall.

"After that boat passed me, I knew I was in there for the night. That was a sad, sad feeling," he says.

Durden had been treading water for nearly eight hours with no food or fresh water, fully exposed to the elements. He was exhausted, his eyes and throat burned from saltwater, and all he could think about was his thirst. He passed the hours fantasizing about untwisting the cap off an ice-cold bottle of water and taking a long, deep gulp.

Meanwhile, his wife Lisa got back to the house at about 8:30 that evening and realized her husband of four decades hadn't returned.

"I thought maybe the boat had broken down. We had put in a new battery in it the day before," she says. Lisa called Sea Tow boat towing to ask if they'd gotten a call from him. They hadn't, and they recommended she call the Coast Guard immediately.

The next few hours were a whirlwind, with Sheriffs coming over to the house to ask questions about Bill and the boat, friends checking on Lisa, and her son, Billy, calling for updates from California.

"I just kept telling everyone that he was a Naval aviator—that he knows how to survive," she says. "I was scared but I never flipped out. I just knew he'd be OK. He knows how to survive."

Durden heard a small splash behind him. Then a bigger splash to his left. It went silent and he breathed a sigh of relief. Then there was a little suction on his foot. And another right next to it. He looked down through the clear, deep-blue water and he saw two little remora fish latched onto his foot. He kicked them off. Another five clamped on, so he just let them suck on his swelling legs.

"I had my own personal saltwater fish tank swimming around my feet," Durden says.

At this point, Durden had been in the water for 12 hours. He once again started swimming to what he thought was the east, but then realized he was heading the wrong way. It was harder to navigate in the dark and he was having a tough time focusing.  

He took a break. To keep his mind busy he stared at his dive watch, which glowed in the dark. He fixed his gaze on the stars, then on the little neon digits on his wrist, then back on the stars. It was like a game.

Midnight came and went.

A dolphin glided out of the water about 15 feet away. A moment later, he felt a smooth slippery surface bump up against his side. Was it the dolphin? He couldn't bring himself to look down.

Durden prayed. And he began to consider what he'd do once he made it back onshore. He'd appreciate his wife more. He'd spend more time with his friends and family. He'd go buy more life vests. 

One thing he didn't think about was death. "I was really pissed off at myself for being so dumb. I thought, This is too stupid to die over. I'm retiring, and I'm going to get at least one of those retirement checks."

Before daybreak, he saw two shrimp boats coming toward him. He mustered the energy to wave and scream. But as he swam closer, he realized he was hallucinating.

As the sun rose, he started to dry heave. He had diarrhea and his swollen tongue filled his bone-dry mouth. But he'd found the buoy of a crab trap to hang onto. Just before 10 a.m., he saw something hovering above him. At first he thought it was a UFO, but then he realized it was a drone, 3 feet by 3 feet.

"I thought, the Coast Guard is using a drone to find me! I knew they would. That drone hung over me for 10 to 15 minutes." But the Coast Guard didn't follow. Had he imagined it? He doesn't think so, but he can't be sure.

Then, finally at about 10:30 a.m. he saw a flare rip through the sky. He heard the roar of an airplane engine: A C-130 Coast Guard plane was flying overhead and had spotted him. Shortly after, a helicopter arrived. 

It turns out they'd tracked the boat's GPS to find Durden's approximate location, and spotted him thanks to his bright yellow shirt. "I started waving like crazy," he says. "Oh my God, so much relief. It was like an angel appeared in the sky."

A member of the Coast Guard was lowered into the water with a basket, and Durden was slowly lifted from the water. He was shaking uncontrollably and could barely speak. When he got into the helicopter all he could say was, "Can you get me a Gator… a Gator… a Gator…" The officer asked, "You mean a Gatorade?"

When he got to dry land, his wife was there. His sister, who'd driven straight through the night from Atlanta, was there, too. Even though his boat had washed up on shore at 1 a.m., they never doubted that he would be found.

Bill Durden with the Coast Guards who rescued him.

Durden insisted he didn't need to see a doctor, but when he woke up on Friday after sleeping for 13 hours, he was still having trouble speaking and breathing, so Lisa insisted he get checked out. He got an IV to help with the breakdown of his muscle cells, and he has sores and a sunburn on his face. He's mostly just ready to put the ordeal behind him.

"For the last couple of nights, when the sun goes down, I get knots in my stomach. But I'll go back on the boat. I just won't go alone. Today, I bought four automatic, self-inflating life vests and I'm going to buy some other rescue equipment," he says. "I am so thankful to the Coast Guard; they're the reason I'm here. I feel grateful to be alive. And I want to not think about it for awhile."

[MIKA27]

DEUS EX BIONIC ARMS

The first actual ‘robotic arm’ was produced way back in the 1960s by a man named George Devol. It wasn’t the kind you’d see Luke Skywalker using, but it worked well enough to be picked up by General Motors and incorporated into their manufacturing line. Now, years later, robotic prosthesis are becoming more and more common, but they remain prohibitively expensive for many. Just recently, Open Bionics and the design team behind Deus Ex have teamed up to develop an attractive but affordable bionic arm modeled after the game’s main character, Adam Jensen.

The robotics and medical firm based out of Bristol, England, are no strangers to collaborating with film makers and comic book publishers – not too long ago they released both Iron Man and Star Wars bionic hands for young children. These new prostheses, however, seem a bit more ambitious. These new designs incorporate the Square Enix game’s high-design mentality into almost all aspects of their build. As if this all wasn’t cool enough, the blueprints of the arm will be open-source, meaning that they will be available for anyone to print themselves and use. The team hopes to have this technology available within the next year, but no specific release date has been unveiled.

 

[MIKA27]

CONVERSE ALL STAR MODERN COLLECTION

It isn’t everyday that an iconic product gets a redesign, and it’s far from a guaranteed success. Remember ‘New Coke?’ Gauging the reaction in the press after Converse’s unveiling of their new All Star Modern, we think these new shoes are on just about the polar opposite course.

As a whole, Converse has stuck true to the basic design of the shoe while giving them a modern flare. Both the Hi and Ox silhouettes from the storied sneaker company are being infused with Nike’ technology and being presented in six different striking colorways. Uppers on both models will feature a circular knit sock and Hyperfuse, making for a textured, sturdy, and breathable construction perfect for everyday where. Toe caps are infused with a TPU, and the outsole is made from a full phylon outsole. It’s a leap for the storied athletics brand, probably the boldest one they’ve made since joining the Nike family, but it looks like one that’ll pay off. Shoes go on sale June 16th. [Purchase]