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

[MIKA27]

London Dig Uncovers Roman-Era Skulls

Subway tunnelers uncover first-century skulls of Londoners.

Tunnelers expanding London's Underground (Tube) stations have stumbled on a cache of more than two dozen Roman-era skulls. The skulls likely date from the first century A.D. and may possibly—just possibly—be victims of the famed Queen Boudicca's troops, decapitated during her uprising against Roman rule in 61 A.D.

The intriguing find was made some 20 feet below Liverpool Street as workers bored through ancient river sediments from the long-vanished Walbrook River, once a tributary of the Thames. The skulls and pottery shards found with them may have collected in a bend of the old river, having washed down from a nearby burial ground.

The Roman skulls and pottery are just the latest in a staggering number of archaeology marvels that have been uncovered by the $23 billion (£14.8 billion) subterranean Crossrail engineering project. The project aims to create a new underground rail line beneath London.

The finds cut across history—everything from 9,000-year-old Mesolithic stone tools, to medieval plague pits, to a 16th-century graveyard associated with the notorious Bedlam Hospital. Containing some 3,000 graves, the graveyard was also found near Liverpool Station, in the vicinity of the Roman-era skulls.

So what are the scholars who uncovered these storied skulls saying about their find? We asked discovery team archaeologist Don Walker of the Museum of London Archaeology.

What is the association—if any—with Boudicca's rebellion?

It has been suggested that previous finds of skulls dating to this period may belong to victims of the rebellion, and beheading is certainly not unheard of in Roman Britain. This is a possibility that must be considered but cannot be satisfactorily addressed until full analysis of all material is complete. A quick look at some of the unwashed skulls revealed no evidence of injury around the time of death. But if these people were executed, we might find evidence only on the small vertebrae of the neck and perhaps the jaw.

Even if this was part of a massacre, and there is no evidence that it was, it would be difficult to link it directly to the Boudicca rebellion. Of course, we will keep an open mind for now.

What can you hope to learn from the skulls about life in Roman Britain?

Funnily enough, skeletons normally tell us much more about how people lived than how they died. This is what makes them so valuable to scientists in the study of the past, being direct evidence of our predecessors' lives and experiences. In this particular case, it is unfortunate that we only have disarticulated remains, as we can tell so much more when we have the whole skeleton to study, particularly with regard to disease. However, we will be able to look at the age and sex of the skulls to see whether we have an older or younger, or mixed, group, and whether we have mostly males or females. We will also look for evidence of disease, both in the skull and the teeth. The latter can also tell us about the early lives of the individuals and perhaps their origins: Were they brought up in Roman London, or did they come from elsewhere in Britain or Europe?

How much of a surprise was it to find Roman skulls?

It is never a surprise to find the remains of burials in London! The size of the city and its long history mean that you are never very far away from a burial ground, whether it be Roman or later. One could say that much of central London was a traditional burial site! Museum of London Archaeology and Crossrail's archaeologists have been working for a decade to predict the likely archaeological remains in the areas of the works, and how to deal with them in advance of construction. However, whilst we knew that we would encounter burials from the 16th-century Bedlam burial ground, it was not at all certain whether Roman graves would turn up.

Although known from past finds in this part of London, the sheer number of skulls we have found, currently more than two dozen, has indeed surprised us.

Have these finds changed, modified, or shaded-in previously held perceptions of life in London in Roman times, or of the ancient geography of the city?

These finds are very important, as they help us to characterize the nature and use of one of London's "lost" rivers, the Walbrook. At this very early stage, we are not sure whether the finds will change or modify our perceptions of life in Roman London. What we do know is that they will help us to fill in another gap in the Roman map of the city, allowing us to fill out the information we already have. Each archaeological investigation helps us to join the dots and fill gaps in our knowledge.

How important was the River Walbrook to London in Roman and medieval times?

The Walbrook formed a useful water supply, not only for daily life, but also for industry such as tanneries on the edge of the medieval city. However, the many branches of the stream may have been as much of a hindrance as a benefit to the Romans, who expended much effort to force the watercourses within the city of Londinium into channels revetted with timber, and [who dumped] large quantities of earth to reclaim adjacent ground for building.

How and when did the River Walbrook come to be "lost"?

Most of the stream was constricted into drainage channels during the 15th and 16th centuries, and was then covered over and lost to view, consigned to drains whose successors still run into the Thames by Southwark Bridge.

Along with the Roman skulls, you have the 3,000 graves from the old Bedlam cemetery found nearby. What will you hope to learn from them?

While much work has been carried out on burial populations from the medieval period and the 19th century, much less is known about health in the 16th to 18th centuries, the period of the post-medieval burials at Liverpool Street. It will help us to understand when and how what we characterize as a medieval community changed following the dissolution, during a period of expansion and great change in London.

What has it been like as an archaeologist to get a peek beneath the streets of one of the world's great old cities?

It has been a great privilege being part of the Crossrail project, as it has given us unprecedented access to the capital's past. We are unlikely to have ever got access to excavate sites like the busy roadway at Liverpool Street, outside one of London's mainline railway terminuses. In London, history is everywhere you look, and Liverpool Street has certainly not disappointed.

How has it changed your perception of London?

It makes you realize the great impact that people in the past had on their environment, and that we are just one small part of a very long story. As well as contributing to these big questions, these excavations give us a series of snapshots of the life of Londoners over 2,000 years: a carter in Roman Britain, struggling to get his horse up the road to a bridge over the Walbrook, and losing his horse's shoes in the deep, muddy wheel-ruts; medieval ice-skaters shooting across the frozen Moorfields Marsh; someone in the 16th century with a small gold Venetian coin used as a pendant, aping the much more expensive jewelry of their betters; a family burying their young girl in the Bedlam burial ground, wearing her beaded necklace despite Christian customs; or the local craftsmen, sneaking into the same graveyard to dump the waste pieces and failed items of bone, shell, and even elephant tooth from their nearby workshops.

Subway tunnelers have uncovered archaeological artifacts everywhere from Athens to Istanbul to Mexico City. We also asked Jay Carver, lead archaeologist for the Crossrail project, to discuss such finds in London.

What other significant Roman-era finds have been unearthed by the Crossrails project?

One of the things we are always testing is assumptions about the activities in the Roman period in areas outside the core area of the Roman city. Liverpool Street is the focal point for that research into the road network, extramural burials, local industry, and management of natural resources, and we are finding a wealth of finds there to elaborate on these topics. At places like Whitechapel out along the London Colchester Road, and at Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street which are alongside the Silchester Road (now Oxford Street), evidence for burial, suburban, and roadside settlement has been absent. Finds have been limited to numerous Roman pottery shards mixed with the backfills of quarry pits mined for the valuable brick earth that was used for ceramic building materials and no doubt contributed directly to some of Londinium's buildings.

What has been most unexpected find or finds?

So much has happened across London in the last 2,000 years that the vast prehistory of the area prior to the arrival of the Roman Empire is often obscured or lost below all the subsequent developments. The large collection of animal bones from the ancient Westbourne River, in the Paddington area, really evoked that prehistoric wilderness, 60,000 years before London, when vast herds of grazing animals and predators roamed the Thames Valley. That site inspired the name of our first exhibition "Bison to Bedlam" held in 2012, at which we celebrated the halfway point in the archaeology program.

[MIKA27]

AGV DIESEL HI-JACK HELMET

Diesel and Italian helmet manufacturer AGV have joined forces for the awesome Hi-Jack Helmet. The helicopter pilot style helmet features the unmistakable curve at the sides inspired by the aeronautic design, and contains a concealable visor that is available in different tints which can be adapted to your personal style and needs. The AGV Diesel helmet comes in five distinct styles.

You can purchase the helmet from some Diesel stores, the AGV online store or from Ebay

[MIKA27]

Incredible Hand-Carved Wood Sculptures of Surreal Figures

Sculptor Morgan Herrin takes his time to perfect each of his hand-carved wooden sculptures. Each piece in the dedicated craftsman's collection takes over a year to complete, resulting in intricately detailed works of art. Using otherwise cheap and disposable materials like construction grade 2x4's, Herrin transforms the recycled lumber into stunning life-size figures infused with elements of surrealism.

Though his collection may not be as vast as other wood sculptors, the artist manages to create works that reflect his concentrated efforts. Also, unlike many other creatives in his field, Herrin takes hundreds of hours working with hand tools to construct each piece.

The meticulous sculptor says, "I immerse myself in the subject matter of my work. Often, several very different forms combine to create one physical object. My process is ultimately a result of the combination of my fascination with figurative sculpture of the past and obsessive research into a subject. I reference the passage of time and its effect on art in terms of both physical change and change in viewer perception."

[polarbear]

Incredible Hand-Carved Wood Sculptures of Surreal Figures

Sculptor Morgan Herrin takes his time to perfect each of his hand-carved wooden sculptures. Each piece in the dedicated craftsman's collection takes over a year to complete, resulting in intricately detailed works of art. Using otherwise cheap and disposable materials like construction grade 2x4's, Herrin transforms the recycled lumber into stunning life-size figures infused with elements of surrealism.

Though his collection may not be as vast as other wood sculptors, the artist manages to create works that reflect his concentrated efforts. Also, unlike many other creatives in his field, Herrin takes hundreds of hours working with hand tools to construct each piece.

The meticulous sculptor says, "I immerse myself in the subject matter of my work. Often, several very different forms combine to create one physical object. My process is ultimately a result of the combination of my fascination with figurative sculpture of the past and obsessive research into a subject. I reference the passage of time and its effect on art in terms of both physical change and change in viewer perception."

Wow

[MIKA27]

Einstein’s brain was better-connected than most, according to new study

Albert Einstein’s high-level analytical prowess has so intrigued fellow scientists down through the decades that several groups of them have studied the physiological structures of his brain postmortem for explanations as to why he might have been so smart. And each study has found one or more ways in which his brain physically differed from that of average adults. Recently, a first-ever Chinese study has weighed in on the matter and come up with a new finding of its own: Namely, Einstein’s brain was unusually well-connected.

A research group at East China Normal University in Shanghai conducted the study, the results of which the journal Brain published earlier this week. The group observed high-resolution images of the late physicist’s actual brain tissue, which has been kept fully preserved to this day ever since Princeton University Hospital surgeon Thomas Stoltz Harvey had extracted it just hours after Einstein’s April 18, 1955, death in the hospital from an aortic aneurism.

Weiwei Men, East China Normal physicist and the study’s lead researcher, zeroed in on a central juncture, the corpus callosum, which fuses the brain’s two halves together. In any human brain, Einstein’s included, there is a right hemisphere and a left one, each responsible for a different array of functions—the left discerns order and structure and directs grammar, vocabulary, word comprehension, and mathematical computation, while the right oversees processing of form, structure, language intonation, general quantities, and emotion responses. The two hemispheres communicate and coordinate with each other via the corpus callosum.

Men zeroed in on Einstein’s corpus callosum in the images and used a graphic visualization technique to measure the thickness of the juncture’s various subdivisions. Thickness indicates the number of intersecting nerves at the spot, which in turn indicates the degree of connectivity—more intersecting nerves means better-connected brain tissue.

Then Men and his cohorts compared the measurements with those of the brains of 67 other deceased adults who had been born the same year as Einstein. The conclusion: Einstein’s brain surpassed all of the others in the connectivity between his brain’s hemispheres and their various regions.

Other idiosyncrasies within Einstein’s brain have emerged in earlier studies.

One found more folds across his cerebral cortex, for instance, while another found that his brain had a higher-than-average a higher ratio of glial cells—glial form myelin, participate in signal transmission, and nourish and support the overall brain—to neurons. Men et al’s study is the first to look at Einstein’s corpus callosum in depth, however.

[MIKA27]

The cave so huge it has its own weather system: Explorers discover a lost world with thick cloud and fogs trapped inside

The view from a small window in the wall of the vast Niubizi Tian Keng in the Er Wang Dong cave system, where clouds form inside the huge spaces. Three tiny explorers can be seen negotiating the heavily vegetated floor

Adventurers have stumbled across a cave so enormous that it has its own weather system, complete with wispy clouds and lingering fog inside vast caverns.

A team of expert cavers and photographers have been exploring the vast cave system in the

Chongquing province of China and have taken the first-ever photographs of the natural wonder.

They were amazed to discover the entrance to the hidden Er Wang Dong cave system and were stunned when they managed to climb inside to see a space so large that it can contain a cloud.

An intrepid cave explorer ascends a rope hanging from the Niubizi Tian Keng. This photograph is one of the first-ever images taken of one of a cave so large it has its own weather system

Photographer and caver Robbie Shone, from Manchester, was part of a team of 15 explorers on a month-long expedition that discovered the hidden system.

'A few of the caves had previously been used by nitrate miners, at the areas close to the entrance, but had never been properly explored before,' he said.

'All the major passageways were deep underground and had never seen light before.

http://youtu.be/Ck2_7bg-reU

Explorer Duncan Collis (pictured) climbs a thin rope up to a small ledge overlooking the vast floor surface of Niubizi Tian Keng in the Er Wang Dong cave system. A team of expert cavers have been exploring the caves in the Chongquing province of China

The tranquil rural village of Ranjiagou falls nearby the hidden natural wonder is pictured left, while an intrepid caver stands on the central ridge overlooking the cathedral-like Cloud Ladder Hall, where fog conceals the roof hundreds of metres above (right)

American speleologist Erin Lynch struggles to pull her way across a raging torrent of white water, which is the main river in Quankou Dong. One of the explorers said they had to be aware of high water levels inside the caves, especially when it rained heavily on the surface

'It is always very special, knowing that you are the first to step foot into a cave or somewhere where nobody had previously seen, not knowing what you might find and discover.

'Where else on Earth can still hold secrets and mysteries of discovery? That's what I love so much about exploring.

Mr Shones was particularly excited about the cave network's interior weather system.

The spectacular beddings in the roof of Quankou. Photographer and caver Robbie Shone, from Manchester, was part of a team of 15 explorers on a month-long expedition who stumbled across the natural wonder

The underground camp in Sang Wang Dong is cosy and warm, according to the cavers. Hot food and drink recharge weary and tired explorers who sleep in either suspended hammocks or on roll mats on the floor, before venturing out into the vast surroundings

American speleologist Erin Lynch peers down over her shoulder into a giant void of cloud.The floor is over 240m below and although it cant be seen due to the thick cloud that lingers around her, the echo that reverberates several seconds later reminds her of the volume of empty space and her lofty location

'I had never seen anything quite like the inside cloud ladder before,' he said.

'Thick cloud and fogs hangs in the upper half of the cave, where it gets trapped and unable to escape through the small passage in the roof, 250m above the ground.

'It reminded me of being in an abandoned slate quarrying North Wales in bad weather.

The cave system discovered is not the only one with clouds inside, as humidity rises inside the caverns into colder air to form clouds inside the giant, enclosed spaces.

A giant calcite stalactite boss, dwarfs team member Matt Ryan as he looks up at the giant geological feature

The network, includes 'Cloud Ladder Hall' which itself measures around 51,000 metres squared, while there are rivers and vegetation on the floor of some of its huge caverns.

'Most caves are either accessed by large walking entrance, some require a long deep swim, other may be very vertical in nature where you need ropes to abseil down the walls deep into the caves.

'We had to be aware of high water levels inside the caves, especially when it rained heavily on the surface.

'The drainage catchment to these caves is massive and soon the caves can be extremely dangerous and impassable,' he added.

Duncan Collis and Erin Lynch walk through a section of cave in San Wang Dong called The Sea of Tranquility. Here remains of old Nitrate mining cover the floor in forms of harths - pits and unwanted spoil. One team member said it reminded him of being in an abandoned slate quarrying North Wales in bad weather

An explorer scales the rope up a vertical section of cave known as a pit in Xinu Attic

[MIKA27]

Couple rescued in Russia from borsch-eating bear

Police in the Siberian region of Irkutsk have rescued a couple after a bear broke into their holiday home, attracted by the smell of fresh soup.

A patrol turned up at their dacha near Ust-Ilimsk in the early hours after a neighbour raised the alarm.

They found the couple hiding in their bath-house as the bear digested the hot beetroot soup in their garden.

A warning shot was sufficient to scare off the intruder. No-one was hurt, although there was damage to the house.

According to a police statement, the couple said they had left the soup to cool when they went to bed.

Because of decorating work inside the dacha, they were sleeping out in the bath-house, when they woke to "loud banging".

The police department in Irkutsk released photos of the dacha attacked by the bear.

The bear smashed windows before climbing into the house.

It pulled over furniture while exploring the house.

Traces of the bright red soup could be seen on the cooker.

Peering out, they saw a bear breaking the windows of their glassed-in porch. It then hauled itself inside and devoured "all of the borsch, which was still hot".

After receiving the alert at 01:00 (16:00 GMT Friday), police sent a patrol to the scene. Officers found the bear padding around the snowy garden and fired a shot into the air.

"Startled, the unwelcome guest bounded off into the forest," the police statement said.

Bears, it noted, had been known to come looking for food around dachas in the area before but happily no attacks had been reported.

While splashes of the bright red soup were found at the scene, it could not be immediately confirmed whether the bear had indeed not used a spoon.

[MIKA27]

The mass escape of Jews from Nazi-occupied Denmark

Seventy years ago this month, an extraordinary mass escape happened from Nazi-occupied Denmark. Tipped off about German plans to deport them to concentration camps, almost the entire Jewish population - several thousand people - fled their homes and left the country.

As he stepped onto the fishing boat that was meant to carry them across the Baltic sea to safety, 14-year-old Bent Melchior feared he might never see his home again.

A week earlier, he had left the home in Copenhagen he shared with his parents and four siblings. It was 8 October 1943 and Denmark was under Nazi occupation. Along with thousands of other Danish Jews, Bent and his family were fleeing the Germans.

"We were gathered in this boat that was supposed to carry herrings, but instead it was now carrying human beings," he says.

They set off after dark. There were 19 people on the boat, hiding below deck in case German planes should spot them from overhead. The night air was chilly and the sea rough.

"People started to be sick, and every minute felt like an hour".

Danish Jews in a fishing boat on their way to Sweden, October 1943

Melchior and his family were part of a mass escape. That autumn night, 2,500 Jews set sail for neighbouring Sweden from Danish beaches and ports, in rowing boats, canoes, as stowaways on ferries and cargo ships. Some even swam across.

In September that year, the Nazi secret police - the Gestapo - had decided to deport all Danish Jews to concentration camps, just as they'd done to millions of other Jews across Europe. The raid was scheduled for Friday 1 October, when they had hoped to find families gathering for the Jewish Sabbath dinner.

But when they raided their homes, they found less than 300 people still there.

A few days earlier, Georg Duckwitz, a German naval attache working at the German embassy in Copenhagen, had tipped off Hans Hedtoft, a leading member of the Danish Labour party. Hedtoft, who later became Denmark's prime minister, warned the Jewish community to leave.

"My parents were worried the phone might be tapped. So my mum started ringing other Jewish families, encouraging them to 'take a holiday in the countryside'," Melchior recalls.

"She told them we were also going away for a few days as we hadn't had a holiday that year."

In 1943, Denmark was home to around 8,000 Jews. Although the country had been invaded by Germany three years earlier, the government had accepted the occupation in exchange for a measure of control over domestic affairs. Danish Jews were protected by the Danish government, whose leader collaborated with Hitler.

Bent's father, Rabbi Marcus Melchior

But a determined campaign by the Danish resistance prompted Germany to take over full control of Danish affairs and the government resigned in August. The following month, Hitler ordered the deportation of all Danish Jews.

As news of the imminent Nazi raid spread, Melchior's father, a rabbi at Copenhagen's main synagogue, interrupted a service celebrating Jewish New Year to urge the congregation to go into hiding and to spread the word to other Jews.

The Melchior family caught a train to the island of Falster in south-eastern Denmark. The carriages were filled with German soldiers and Bent's mother and five-year-old brother Paul travelled in an empty first-class carriage in case the youngest family member unwittingly gave away where they were going.

Together with 60 other Jewish refugees, Bent Melchior's father brought his wife and four youngest children into hiding at the home of a bishop. From there, they hoped to flee across the sea to neutral Sweden, which offered safety for refugees.

But getting there was not easy. To even secure a place on one of the small fishing boats being used to ferry the Jews across could cost as much as £5,500 ($9,000) a head in today's money.

After eight hours at sea, the boat carrying the Melchior family came close to land. Dawn was breaking and a lighthouse was clearly visible. But something was wrong. Having learnt in geography at school that Sweden was east of Denmark, Bent realised that daylight was coming from the wrong direction.

In fact, the boat had sailed in a circle rather than east to the Swedish coast. The lighthouse was a Danish lighthouse and the refugees were back where they had set off. The fisherman at the helm had never sailed far from the coast and had no idea how to navigate.

Sitting in the comfortable apartment in central Copenhagen he shares with his wife Lilian, surrounded by pictures of their four sons, his recollection of the escape he made 70 years ago is still crystal clear.

"We were afraid. My five-year-old brother had no idea what was going on. Unbeknownst to me my mother was pregnant at the time, so she had a terrible time," says Bent Melchior.

"If it was dangerous to be out at sea it night, it was even more dangerous in daylight. We could hear German planes overhead. If they had seen us, the Gestapo would have captured us."

Eventually they started to sail east, following the sun. Miraculously, after 18 hours at sea, they reached Lilla Beddinge, a small fishing village on the Swedish coast. A six-year-old boy, Per-Arne Persson, spotted them from the beach and alerted his father, a local fisherman, who sailed out to meet the boat.

Bent Melchior in Sweden in 1944 and at home in Copenhagen this year

Bent Melchior and his family settled down to their new life in Sweden. Bent was enrolled in a Danish school in the town of Lund, while his father got a job as a rabbi. But they were now refugees in a foreign country.

Swedish was not hard for Danes to understand and the Swedish government had assured them they could stay for the duration of the war. Nevertheless, strangers would often make comments about them.

"People would complain that we were taking their coffee rations, or whatever was rationed at the time.

"As refugees we had to queue up to buy second-hand underwear, which they had decided was good enough for us."

Seven decades later, Bent can still recall what it was like to be an alien abroad: "All these denigrating signs, I can still feel today," he says.

Around 200 people were caught by the Germans while trying to escape and deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in what is now the Czech Republic. But more than 7,500 Danish Jews eventually made it across to Sweden in October 1943.

They were brought out under cover. Some escape routes were organised by members of the resistance movement. But most Danish historians argue that the escape would not have been possible had it not been for thousands of ordinary Danes who helped the Jews flee.

Some were "admitted" to hospitals under false names, others were hidden in churches, farms and holiday homes by the sea while they organised transport.

There were of course, exceptions. Eighty Jewish refugees hiding in the loft of a church in the northern town of Gilleleje were arrested by the Gestapo after a young Danish housemaid, engaged to a German soldier, turned them in. They too, were deported to Theresienstadt.

After 19 months in Sweden, the German occupation of Denmark was over. Liberation came on 4 May, 1945 and the refugees were free to return home. Melchior and his family moved back into their old apartment in Copenhagen.

Per-Arne Persson and Bent Melchior

Life fell back into its usual rhythm, but it was never the same. His experience as a refugee galvanised Bent Melchior to a life-long involvement with refugees.

"We were changed people. I became very active in various movements within the Jewish community and outside.

"We tried to take a lesson from what had happened, to stop this terrible intolerance."

He later went on to become a senior member of the Danish Refugee Council and followed his father in becoming the chief rabbi of Denmark.

He has travelled the world telling his story, determined that this tale of survival should never be forgotten.

Per-Arne, the six-year old Swedish boy who spotted their boat from the beach 70 years ago, is still a friend today.

The 70th anniversary of the rescue was marked by a light installation connecting Denmark and Sweden

[MIKA27]

HEAD-UP DISPLAY | BY GARMIN

The Garmin Head-up Display projects navigation information onto your windshield, allowing for a safer drive without taking your eyes off the road. The device pairs with your smartphone and projects information onto a reflective film on your windshield, it displays directions, speed, traffic, estimated time of arrival, the speed limit, traffic information and more. It also warns you of potential traffic delays and upcoming safety camera locations.

[MIKA27]

Star Wars: Frames

If you're a true Star Wars fan, you can probably close your eyes and picture some of the series' most iconic moments: Han Solo as he's lowered into the carbon freezing chamber, or the bittersweet look of redemption on the face of Anakin Skywalker as Luke removes his mask.

Star Wars: Frames ($90) is a celebration of 1,416 moments like these, hand-picked by George Lucas from over one million frames of film, and reproduced across two hardcover volumes — one for the original trilogy and one for the prequel trilogy. Each set arrives in a box designed to resemble Vader's Tie Fighter and opens to reveal images of the Sith Lord himself.

[Fuzz]

Why Is China Testing Satellite-Hijacking Space Weapons?

Somebody in China has been watching too many re-runs of "You Only Live Twice".

Star Wars: Frames

If you're a true Star Wars fan, you can probably close your eyes and picture some of the series' most iconic moments: Han Solo as he's lowered into the carbon freezing chamber, or the bittersweet look of redemption on the face of Anakin Skywalker as Luke removes his mask.

Or the awkward moment when Luke finds out he kissed his sister... yet Leia is strangely cool about it when Luke tells her they're brother and sister...

[MIKA27]

Or the awkward moment when Luke finds out he kissed his sister... yet Leia is strangely cool about it when Luke tells her they're brother and sister...

Yes but that's because Leia was high on drugs and alcohol!!

[MIKA27]

Could GM's Tiny Self-Driving Smartcar Actually Revolutionise Cities?

The city of the future is going to be “crowded, dirty, and resource-constrained,” said Stephen J. Girsky, a vice president of GM, at CityLab, an event in Battery Park City earlier today. And that means everyone’s gonna want one of GM’s new Electric Networked Vehicles, or EN-V.

According to Girsky, GM’s vision of the zero-emission, autonomous, wirelessly connected “car” of tomorrow is already the envy of transportation planners and/or people who want to drive cars that look like Daft Punk helmets. It “performed daily” during the Shanghai World Expo way back in 2010 — which shows how long the EN-V has been GM’s vision of the future — where it came in three versions, named Jiao, Xiao and Miao (NO JOKE).

Hopefully, it also comes in different colours than the Stormtrooper White that sat alone on the red carpet at today’s event. I much prefer the earlier version in Pac-Man Yellow with late ’70s pinstripes.

Because cars are parked at least 90 per cent of the time, Girsky explained, that’s where GM started with their design process. This little guy — I mean, would you just look at that adorable wisp of a car? — not only has a microscopic parking footprint, it’s stackable, meaning you can cram a bunch of them into a single parking space.

OK, so it’s smaller than a Smart Car, but the innovation here is that the EN-V is networked. It drives using front-mounted ultrasonic and vision systems, as well as a roof-mounted GPS and wireless antenna, to help avoid collisions. This technology should also help reduce the number of accidents and improve traffic flow in general. I assume you can tell it where to go using this giant tablet in the center console, which, since you don’t have to drive, you can also use to watch your favourite AT-ST scene in Return of the Jedi.

Of course, the real beauty of the EN-V is that these cars probably won’t belong to anyone. Imagine these babies lined up in a charging station like a bike-sharing kiosk so you can check one out on your way home from work. Or maybe you dial one up and it drives over to your house to pick you up when when you need it. Then, after it calculates your route, it asks you if you’d mind picking up another passenger along the way.

Suddenly, these little pod cars become a form of public-private transit. Taxis are no longer necessary.

And that’s the real question here. GM calls the EN-V “a new class of personal urban mobility.” It seems inevitable we’ll have to give up our clunky, gas-powered, human-navigated personal vehicles, at least eventually. Will the EN-V become the preferred intermediary mode of transportation somewhere between a bike and a bus? Would you “drive” one?

[MIKA27]

Watch This Girl With Telekinetic Powers Freak Out Coffee Shop Patrons

This absolutely amazing and terrifying prank, where a girl with telekinetic powers appears to freak out in a coffee shop, is actually a publicity stunt for the upcoming remake of the film Carrie. But that doesn’t make it any less entertaining or awesome. Make sure you watch it all the way through, too, it just gets better and better.

Using everything from fake walls, to hidden pulleys, to remote control tables, to even spring-loaded shelves full of books, the customers stopping by this innocent looking cafe have no idea they’re about to witness a girl with telekinetic powers lose control after a stranger knocks over her drink. And by ‘stranger’ we of course mean ‘fellow actor,’ but the terrified patrons don’t know that.

If the Carrie remake is half as entertaining as this video is, we’ll definitely be there on opening night — although we probably can’t say the same for the terrified folks in these clips.

[Fuzz]

Yes but that's because Leia was high on drugs and alcohol!!

I knew those Ewoks were into freaky, kinky stuff!

[MIKA27]

This Ultra-Slick GPS Watch Is Designed Just for Pilots (or Wannabes)

A new watch from Garmin takes the age-old tradition of big, multi-purpose watches for pilots and brings it into the GPS age. The new D2 is similar to Garmin’s earthbound GPS watch, but offers several features gadget-hungry pilots will appreciate.

The D2 includes the ability to load a flight plan, calculate the glide ratio, and naturally, it has a moving map display — albeit a pretty basic one. The D2 even has a dedicated NRST button, a feature found on most airplane GPS systems that allows the pilot to immediately locate the nearest airport, whether it’s a real emergency or bladder mayday. Of course, any old school pilot would be carefully following the flight path on the sectional, though the GPS can make the distance calculation a bit quicker.

Back in the analog era of the 1950s and 1960s, pilots and astronauts were somewhat famous for their bulky wristwatches. But beyond the attention-grabbing size, watches like the Breitling Navitimer also gave pilots a portable version of their venerable E6B circular computer to help calculate everything from fuel burn and range to ground speed and time en route. By turning the outer dial of the watch, the circular version of the slide rule was a valuable tool for pilots.

Garmin’s new watch offers many of the same calculations. The data field can be customized to include ground speed, track, and time en route, just like its analog forefather. But with the moving map, adjustable altimeter, an HSI (horizontal situation indicator) equipped digital compass, and vibrating alarms, the D2 offers many conveniences an analog watch just can’t provide. Of course the haters will always point out that the battery won’t die on the circular slide rule. And there’s always the issue of the watch having a clear view of the sky to acquire satellites, something not available in all aircraft.

The new D2 gives Garmin a range of GPS devices for pilots that includes everything from complete cockpit filling panel displays, to tablet and phone-sized units, and now the wrist-sized GPS. With pilots increasingly welcoming consumer tablets and smartphones into the cockpit with pilot-friendly apps, there is now a dizzying number of choices for pilots who don’t want to get lost. They can even buy a paper map (assuming there is a decent backlog of the government-provided maps already printed).

The Garmin D2 will be for sale beginning next month for $449.

[MIKA27]

North Korea Puts Troops on War Footing and Warns of ‘Horrible Disaster’

Joint South Korean, U.S. and Japanese naval exercises provoke bellicose threats from Pyongyang

Pyongyang has put its forces put on high alert after U.S. warships entered the South Korean port of Busan in preparation for a joint military exercise with Seoul and Tokyo.

On Monday Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Pyongyang regime, called the exercise a “bellicose attempt to escalate the situation on the Korean Peninsula […] by openly threatening it with nukes,” referring to the presence of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington. (The U.S. has a policy of neither confirming nor denying whether its ships are equipped with nuclear armaments.)

A North Korean military spokesman said that the U.S. would be “wholly accountable for the unexpected horrible disaster” that faced its “imperialist aggression forces.”

Hostile rhetoric is a common tactic used by the North Korean regime, in order to further its domestic and international agenda.

Experts view this latest statement as another attempt to pressure the U.S. into resuming the long-stalled six-party talks for denuclearizing North Korea in exchange for aid.

“We are closely watching the movement of the North Korean military,” a South Korean military official told the Korean Herald. The country’s Defense Ministry added that the joint U.S.-Japan-South Korean naval exercise was a routine event, and rebuffed criticism from the North as “wrong.”

[MIKA27]

Knob Creek Smoked maple Bourbon

If you've ever wondered what maple syrup would taste like with some bourbon in it, Knob Creek Smoked Maple ($35) might be right up your alley. The flavored bourbon brings just a hint of smoke but has plenty of sweet maple goodness to go along with some of the Knob Creek quality you are already accustomed to. It's a flavorful sipper that might go as well with dessert as it does with some cured meats at the breakfast table.

[Fuzz]

Knob Creek Smoked maple Bourbon

If you've ever wondered what maple syrup would taste like with some bourbon in it, Knob Creek Smoked Maple ($35) might be right up your alley. The flavored bourbon brings just a hint of smoke but has plenty of sweet maple goodness to go along with some of the Knob Creek quality you are already accustomed to. It's a flavorful sipper that might go as well with dessert as it does with some cured meats at the breakfast table.

Americans are always making things more difficult than they have to be. Why not just drink some bourbon with your morning pancakes instead of tea or coffee?

[MIKA27]

Nuclear Fusion Has Broken Even For The First Time Ever

Nuclear fusion, the same process that powers the sun, could provide us with limitless cheap energy — but experiments to date have always used more power than they created. But now researchers have apparently tipped that balance, making fusion a real possibility.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, have been conducting fusion experiments for some time. Using 192 beams from the world’s most powerful laser, they heat and compress a small pellet of hydrogen fuel until nuclear fusion reactions take place. Usually, they have to dump more power in using the lasers than they manage to create from the fusion reaction.

The BBC is reporting, however, that during an experiment conducted in the facility during September, the “amount of energy released through the fusion reaction exceeded the amount of energy being absorbed by the fuel”. If it’s true, it’s the first time any fusion experiment has managed such a feat — and it’s a huge milestone in our quest for fusion power.

It’s not the Holy Grail though. What researchers really want to achieve is ignition: the point at which the nuclear fusion reaction generates as much energy as the lasers supply. That’s not the same as the recent observation, because there are inefficiencies in the fusion system which mean that not all the energy supplied through the laser is delivered to the fuel.

Still, that doesn’t stop this being a massive leap forward. A little more work, and fusion could soon become a real thing.

[MIKA27]

Americans are always making things more difficult than they have to be. Why not just drink some bourbon with your morning pancakes instead of tea or coffee?

Perhaps it's an excuse to drink.... "Americans"

[MIKA27]

A Doctor's-Office-In-A-Chair Measures All Your Vitals At Once

It’s not designed to replace your family doctor, but this sensor-laden chair concept from Sharp could definitely reduce the number of times you need to stop by the clinic every year. The chair looks like it could actually be capable of time travel, but its capabilities are limited to measuring your blood pressure, pulse, temperature and other vital stats in one fell swoop.

All of the data it collects is displayed on a series of overhead LCD panels, while the actual sensors that do the measurements are integrated into the chair itself and its arm rests. In addition to flagging any particularly concerning results, the chair pushes your vitals to the cloud so your physician can examine it without you having to visit their office. And further consultation can be done through video conferencing when required.

Dedicating a corner of your home to this contraption seems like it might be overkill, but for folks who can’t stand hospitals, it’s probably a minor inconvenience at most.

[MIKA27]

How A German Scientist Invented The Perfect Coffeemaker

The Chemex Coffeemaker, a pour-over apparatus invented by scientist Dr Peter Schlumbohm 70 years ago, hasn’t changed a bit since it was designed. It’s the very definition of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So how did this quiet little device gain such a following?

Shlumbohm was responsible for the creation of more than 300 patented devices — 20 of which have a home in MoMA’s permanent collection. Collector’s Weekly has the story of how one of the most iconic of this — the Chemex — came to be:

A German immigrant to the United States, Schlumbohm received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Berlin and moved to New York in 1936 (just as Hitler was consolidating his power). Despite his friends’ protests about the dire state of the American economy during the Great Depression, only five years later, Schlumbohm had invented his famous hourglass-shaped brewer; within a few years of securing his patent, the Chemex was available in department stores and through mail order catalogues around the world. Schlumbohm not only wanted to create a device to brew perfect coffee without a trace of bitterness, but also an elegant product that fit the streamlined aesthetic of Mid-Century Modernism.

The piece also discusses how Schlumbohm approached design in general:

Schlumbohm developed his products by stripping appliances down to their essentials and making them work better. In the vein of modern inventors like James Dyson, Schlumbohm didn’t overload his creations with a jumble of new features — he reshaped the industries he entered through the sheer force of innovative elegance. Maybe that’s why the Chemex still feels so fresh; in a world of overly complex and smirking technology, the Chemex remains a quiet anomaly.

Schlumbohm’s story just goes to show that some of the best designs are the simplest. Head over to Collector’s Weekly for the whole piece

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: Earth's Fastest Electric Car Just Keeps Getting Quicker

While cars like the Nissan Leaf and Tesla S are bringing electric vehicle technology mainstream, a team of student researchers are driving that technology to its very limit. The result: a record-shattering 483km/h bullet car that runs without a sip of gasoline.

The Buckeye Bullet is a series of alternate-fuel vehicles designed and built by students at Ohio State University’s Center for Automotive Research. The first Buckeye Bullet (BB1) measured just over nine metres long, weighed 1800 kilograms, and ran on a series of 10,000 NiMH (nickel metal hydride) secondary batteries powering a 400 horsepower 3-phase AC motor. It set a world record in 2004, hitting a top speed of 437.3km/h on a run across the Bonneville salt flats. It also holds an American land speed record of 506.9km/h — the discrepancy comes from whether or not the event at which the record was set was sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (international motorsports governing body).

For the second generation, BB2, OSU students swapped the NiMH cells out for hydrogen fuels to great effect. In 2008, the BB2 marked a top speed of 461km/h — the fastest ever for a hydrogen vehicle — and in 2009 it set world records for the flying (rolling start) mile and kilometre at 487.4km/h and 487.7km/h respectively.

Later that same year, the OSU was back in Bonneville, having replaced the hydrogen power plant with a new lithium ion battery pack as well as other technologies that were being considered for the upcoming BB3 platform. Though it only raced a few times, that was more than enough for the BB2.5 to break its own record with a top speed of 495.1km/h.

The latest iteration, the Buckeye Bullet 3, is currently under development. OSU has teamed up with Venturi Automobiles to develop an even stronger power train, one able to propel the BB3 beyond 643.7km/h. That’s a huge milestone, reaching that speed would put an electric in the same class as the world’s fastest internal combustion cars for the first time.

The BB3 was supposed to perform a few runs at Bonneville this past September. However weather problems washed out the event and forced the OSU team to instead use a nearby airfield.

But, come June next year, the start of the salt flats’ next race season, the Buckeye Bullet team is looking to once again break its own record. August 2014 can’t come soon enough.

[MIKA27]

Researchers discover first ever evidence of a comet striking Earth

The focus of attention in this research endeavor was on a strange black pebble found many years ago by an Egyptian geologist working in the area of the silica glass.

According to an October 8 news release from the University of the Witwatersrand, a team of South African scientists and international collaborators has discovered unprecedented evidence of a comet entering the Earth’s atmosphere and exploding, creating a huge fireball that wiped out every life form in its path.

Scientists hope that, in addition to providing definitive proof of a comet striking Earth millions of years ago, the discovery will provide new insight into the formation of the solar system.

“Comets always visit our skies – they’re these dirty snowballs of ice mixed with dust – but never before in history has material from a comet ever been found on Earth,” said Professor David Block of the University of the Witwatersrand.

Approximately 28 million years ago, the comet entered Earth’s atmosphere over what is now Egypt, and as it entered, it exploded, causing the Sahara sand below to heat up to roughly 2,000 degrees Celsius. This then caused a 6,000 square kilometer area of yellow silica glass to form; a polished specimen even appears in Tutankhamun’s brooch.

The results of the research will appear in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

The focus of attention in this research endeavor was on a strange black pebble found many years ago by an Egyptian geologist working in the area of the silica glass. The researchers acquired this specimen and subjected it to complex chemical analyses, which revealed that it was the first known hand specimen of a comet nucleus – rather than a strange type of meteorite.

The intense heat and pressure of the explosion also created microscopic diamonds. ”Diamonds are produced from carbon bearing material,” said Professor Jan Kramers of the University of Johannesburg. “Normally they form deep in the earth, where the pressure is high, but you can also generate very high pressure with shock. Part of the comet impacted and the shock of the impact produced the diamonds.”

According to the researchers, in honor of the first well known female mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, Hypatia of Alexandria, the team named the diamond-bearing pebble “Hypatia.”

“NASA and ESA [European Space Agency] spend billions of dollars collecting a few micrograms of comet material and bringing it back to Earth, and now we’ve got a radical new approach of studying this material, without spending billions of dollars collecting it,” said Kramers.

The study of Hypatia has evolved into an international collaborative research program, leveraging the expertise of scientists in a number of different scientific niches. The program is still growing, and several expeditions to the silica glass area have already been completed.