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

[MIKA27]

London Will Soon Have Fifth Element Style MultiPass For Public Transit

All of a sudden, it’s the 23rd Century. The UK’s government innovation board has just approved funding to begin implementing an all-in-one train/bus/subway/airline pass in 2014. And yes, they actually named it MultiPass after the thing from the Bruce Willis movie.

The plan revolves around a passcard with an e-ink barcode display that would replace a plethora of current travel fare cards.

Supporters envision it being used to pay for every aspect of travel, including parking and snacks along the way. The MultiPass company even says the cloud-based system will always give users the lowest fare, no matter where or how they’re travelling — which is apparently rather challenging in the UK’s current system.

Two pilot tests will begin in 2014, in London and Glasgow, with the full rollout anticipated in the following year. Plenty of time to practice your pronunciation.

[MIKA27]

Inside A Lethal Exhibit Dedicated To The Power Of Poison

Poison can be a curse, a killer, and even a medicine — an alchemical substance that appears in everything from myth to literature.

You might not think of poison as being this multifaceted, but that’s exactly what the American Museum of Natural History’s new exhibit — The Power of Poison — delightfully urges you to do.

What Is It?

An exhibit that explains the many roles poison has played in nature, history, culture, and beyond, in a way that you’ve never considered.

Why Does It Matter?

Because poison effects you, whether you think about it or not. Ever known anyone with cancer? If they underwent chemo, well, that’s a form of poison. Poison is used both to harm and kill — but ultimately, we have also found ways to use it to our advantage.

Poison is also a very important part of our culture. We all know the story of Snow White. But could that poison apple have really put her to sleep without killing her? And how does that relate to surgery and anesthesia? My mind was blown.

Exhibition Design

There is a very clear thematic progression in the Power of Poison. It starts in nature. The curators take you to South America, where you encounter poison frogs and snakes, and you learn about how natives harness the natural poisonous resources to make tools of their own.

Then, you’re greeted with some of the most notorious witches in literature — Shakespeare’s trio from Macbeth — which leads us into the discussion of poison in literature.

There are some stories of poison that are probably very familiar to you. Take literature’s most famous star-crossed teens, Romeo and Juliet, one of whom met death by poison. Then there’s Snow White. And Alice and Wonderland’s dear insane friend, the Mad Hatter.

In the exhibit, all of this is presented like an elaborately designed amusement park ride. Snow White lies before you, entombed in a glass case, waiting to be saved. It reminded me of Disneyland’s “It’s a Small World” ride, but with science and useful information.

The exhibit then progresses into history, where we learn about China’s Emperor Qin, who used to take poison daily — thinking he might build up a tolerance.

There’s also a section that points out how often we see poison in children’s lit. Harry Potter? Comic books? Yes, yes, and then some. This is followed by an interactive portion, where a curator explains the origins of forensics and the role of presence of poison in the 18th century. That then opens into a section with a series of poison stories — and this part is mostly focused on kids — where you’re given a scenario and you have to determine if a person or an animal was actually poisoned.

Visiting

The exhibit opens Saturday, November 16, and runs through August 10, 2014.

Like

One way to gauge how much you like an experience is that you think about it long after it’s passed. And I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the power of poison. I’ve honestly never even thought about poison like this. It has such duality — it is good and bad, used to heal and kill. This exhibit presents those polarities in such a perfect way.

The exhibit is also exquisitely designed. When you’re in South America, you hear forest sounds, as you gaze at a case that’s home to tiny poisonous tree frogs. It’s like a movie set, and it’s amazing.

Don’t Like

There was nothing not to like. If anything, I would have loved for it to be longer.

Who’s It For?

Anyone! It’s a very engaging exhibit, and it’s something kids and adults will enjoy. Seriously, the museum invited a classroom from PS 87 to join in on the preview, and those kids were having a great time.

Can’t make it to New York for the Power of Poison? There’s an interactive app that lets you play along at home.

[MIKA27]

NES Cartridge Flasks Make Video Games Your Least Problematic Addiction

When you consider that a flask is supposed to be a secret way to smuggle contraband libations, an NES game cartridge doesn’t immediately spring to mind as the most subtle design. But maybe that’s the true brilliance behind these game cart recreations that you can fill with more than your cherished high scores.

After all, who’s going to question what looks like a perfectly legit copy of Super Mario Bros. in your back pocket?

Everyone loved that game, who wouldn’t want to carry it around 24/7?

On closer inspection it actually appears to be a faux game called Bar-Hop Bros.; and you can get similar titles like Drunk Hunt, Castle Vodka, and Metal Beer that promise to calm your nerves instead of riling them up looking for that damn dungeon key. The flasks can be yours with a donation of $US15 to $US20 to this crowdfunding campaign, which is a far better idea than sacrificing your own antique cartridges. [Kickstarter]

[MIKA27]

$1 Billion Iraqi Parliament Will Rise Over Saddam's Half-Built Mosque

The Architect’s Journal reports that Zaha Hadid will be the architect of Iraq’s future parliament building, confirming rumours that have swirled for months. The supremely expensive building is the London-based architect’s third planned project in the country where she was born.

Hadid came in third in a 2012 design competition for the project — so how did she end up clinching a commission that she wasn’t actually chosen for? That’s not entirely clear — but it turns out that the competition’s rules included a loophole that would allow the client to choose whichever design they wanted, regardless of the official results. “We are disappointed, but have moved on to other things,” the architects of the winning proposal told Architect’s Journal. In an op-ed published today, The Independentdescribes the choice as “an architectural puzzle.”

While the design details aren’t all out in the open yet, we do know a few things about the project — including the fact that the massive west Baghdad site of the future parliament is a storied one. 31 years ago, it was host to an international design competition launched by Saddam Hussein to build a state mosque, which would have become the largest in the world. But, by the time war began in 2003, the only sign of progress on the 55,740sqm site were dozens of huge columns, with rebar sprouting from them like grass over 45m tall.

The so-called “super mosque” had become a symbol of Hussein’s diminishing power — an unfinished behemoth that the country couldn’t afford and that construction crews couldn’t finish. “Part of the idea is apparently to show that despite the embargo introduced in 1990, Iraq can still carry out great projects,” explained a 1995 Independent article entitled Starving Iraq plans biggest mosque.

It’s hard not to see the similarities between the design competitions of yesteryear and today — at least in terms of scale and cost.

That $US1 billion price tag on Hadid’s design, after all, represents .5 per cent of Iraq’s 2012 GDP.

[MIKA27]

Harness Thor's Mighty Mjölnir Hammer To Charge Your Gadgets

With seemingly unlimited celestial power, it only makes sense that Thor should share a little bit of the Mjölnir Hammer’s capabilities with humanity when he’s not battling Loki or alien invaders. After all, a dead smartphone can be just as catastrophic to some people as the world ending. And while it might not be Thor’s exact hammer, this version of the Mjölnir is far more useful to humans addicted to their phones.

Packing a 2600mAh, 5200mAh, or a whopping 10,400mAh battery (the latter needs a full 10 hours to recharge) this mini-Mjölnir features a microUSB and a full-sized 2.1A USB port that can even charge tablets. It’s also got light-up LEDs and built-in sound effects to satisfy cosplayers. But unfortunately the most powerful version tops out at a steep $US125, so hopefully you’ve got a S.H.I.E.L.D.-sized budget. [Everything USB]

[Fuzz]

The PlayStation 4 Has A Day One DOA Problem

Retailers, however, do look like they’ll accept a return of these consoles.

Look like accepting a return? I'd be wanting a new one straight away, and tested in store, before I leave.

[MIKA27]

Bloomberg: Samsung's Planning A Three-Sided Wraparound Display Phone

If your phone is lacking one thing, it’s a display that covers multiple sides of its boring little rectangular frame. At least, that’s according to Samsung, because Bloomberg is reporting that the company has plans to produce a phone with a curved OLED screen which wraps around three of its sides.

The idea is similar to ones shown off earlier this year: a flexible main OLED droops over two sides of the phone. In turn, that means that notifications and messages can be read from multiple angle, according to Bloomberg’s sources. That sounds, you know, nice, though perhaps not awfully useful — and not great if you have particularly nosey friends. But hey, progress!

The sources explained that it’s an iteration of Youm — Samsung’s umbrella term for its new flexi-screen devices, which so far extends to… just the Galaxy Round, actually. The display could, apparently, wind up in the next Galaxy S, or perhaps the Note, or be the first in a new line. How… vague.

Unsurprisingly, then, there’s no schedule for production or release, though one source said it was “likely” that a device could arrive in the second half of next year. Of course, we all know that Samsung is madly keen on flexible displays and it’s almost certainly the case that this is being worked on in a Korean R&D lab — but, boy, are there a lot hurdles before something like this reaches us humble consumers. Still, seems if Sammydoes have its way the future is, apparently, bent.

[MIKA27]

Look like accepting a return? I'd be wanting a new one straight away, and tested in store, before I leave.

Mate, new consoles always have some issue or another.

I'm getting the XBOX One this Friday on launch, I sure hope there's no red ring of death!!

Oh, for anyone who wants to send a friend request, my tag: M1KA27 (Yep, original)

[MIKA27]

How Ancient Embalmers Pulled The Brains And Guts Out Of Mummies

We’ve unearthed mummy upon mummy from Egypt, the oldest dating back to 3500BC, but one thing has remained a bit of a mystery: what does the mummification process actually entail from a surgical point of view? How did they remove the brains, guts, and other vital organs — what tools did they use and how did they train for it? One anthropologist thinks he’s found out.

Much like a 46-million-year-old mosquito fossilised mid-meal, Egyptian mummification has long provided us embalmed snapshots of an ancient way of life. Just last week, we found out why King Tut’s mummy had not been preserved in the most kingly fashion: his body seemingly experienced ignition inside its sarcophagus due to a flammable cocktail of oxygen, embalming oils, and combustible linens.

One myth of mummy-making has long appealed to our, or perhaps just my, gross sensibilities: mushy brain parts were usually removed from Egyptian mummies and flushed out through the nose, we’ve been told. And that’s not all: more often than not, they were disemboweled and rid of their internal organs as well, to stop decomposition.

In a paper published in the December 2013 issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, Dr. Andrew Wade at the University of Western Ontario investigated the literal ins and outs of organ-removal techniques. Wade looked at films and forensic scans from a sample of 50 human Egyptian mummies, noting that there were two main methods of both excerebration (brain removal) and evisceration (body organ removal). Occurrences of brain and organ removal actually increased over time, as mummification was expanded to non-royals.

As Wade explained over email, methods of brain removal were precise and step-by-step:

In the first, which we see lots of, the brain is removed through a hole made by inserting a metal rod up the nose and breaking through to the braincase. In the second, for which we only have unconfirmed anecdotal evidence, the brain is removed by making an incision in the back of the neck and removing it through the hole in the base of the skull where the spinal cord exits the skull.

The former technique, known as transnasal craniotomy (TNC), is the one we’ve heard the most about because it’s widely supported by tangible evidence. It’s interesting to note, however, that the Egyptians confused the function of the brain with that of the heart, assuming that the latter was the centre of emotion, thought, and personality — which explains why they disposed of the brain, since they figured it would be of no use in the afterlife.

For years, the widely-held belief was that excerebration was conducted with a hook pushed up the nose into the cranial cavity. Greek historian Herodotus is largely to blame for this, as his fifth century B.C. account of Egyptian mummification stated that embalmers “take first a crooked piece of iron, and with it draw out the brain through the nostrils, thus getting rid of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the rest by rinsing with drugs.”

His theory has since been dispelled by the discovery of brain-removal tools that were left in the skull of two mummies, both of which were organic sticks that are believed to have liquefied parts of the brain and removed other sections. According to Wade, most researchers now agree that the Egyptians “broke through the bone with a tool like the hook, used some sort of tool to blend up the brain, and then either allowed it to drain out the nose or flushed it out with water or palm wine or something to that effect.” That being said, Wade found that the brain did sometimes remain in the skull, mummified along with the body, although the evidence doesn’t suggest a clear pattern of occurrence.

Evisceration, on the other hand, expelled organs that the Egyptians wanted to preserve, usually in one of two ways:

In the first, the best known, the organs are removed through a slit in the left side of the abdomen. In the second, and less frequent method, the organs were removed through the anus, ******, or a combination of the two. Because it’s difficult to clearly identify the route (the legs are wrapped pressed together, so there’s lots of skin folds and resin pooled here) we looked at these together as evisceration through the perineal area.

Yet again, Herodotus’s account was a bit off-base: he claimed that penny-pinchers could get a quickie evisceration with just a cedar oil enema, a toxic brew that “brings with it the whole stomach and intestines in a liquid state.” Wade’s findings didn’t show extensive proof of cedar oil use — instead, they indicated that social status played a role: transperineal evisceration was only employed during mummification of noble women.

Since the Egyptians placed great value on a comfortable afterlife, they believed you would need access to certain key organs. So, post-evisceration, the liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines were dried and stored in four canopic jars that were then kept with the body. As per mummy law, the heart was supposed to stay inside the body, considered integral to an Egyptian’s success in the afterlife. But that wasn’t always the case, Wade explained:

As for the removal of the heart, it is my feeling that this important organ was being intentionally removed from commoner mummies in order to ensure that the elite would save a more favourable afterlife for themselves. The data from my studies and from others support the preferential retention of that important organ (the organ of emotion and intelligence) in elites and its absence in commoners… So, the commoners having their hearts removed may simply not have known that their mummies weren’t going to keep their hearts, while the elites could retain all of their faculties and enjoy the afterlife as they did their life.

Tough break for the commoners, I’d say, although it wasn’t uncommon, after all (pardon the pun). Some rituals were simply reserved for the elite. A snippet from a copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead elucidates this further (Faulkner, 1985:156): “As for any noble dead for whom this ritual is performed over his coffin, there shall be opened for him four openings in the sky…. As for each one of these winds which is in its opening, its task is to enter into his nose. No outsider knows, for it is a secret which the common folk do not yet know; you shall not perform it over anyone, not your father or your son, except yourself alone. It is truly a secret, which no-one of the people should know.”

[MIKA27]

A Self-Driving Mini Cooper Submarine For Commuting On Rivers

You’re late for a meeting in the CBD, and you’re still 45 stop-and-go minutes away. You walk a few blocks to the Los Angeles River, where you board a stylish pod-like watercraft. Soon, you’re zipping down the river channel, faster than any vehicle on the motorway.

This could be LA’s future, according to a concept by BMW Group DesignworksUSA for a waterborne Mini Cooper built to travel the local river system.

Each year, the Los Angeles Auto Show has a theme for its Design Challenge, where it taps firms from around the world to dream up concept vehicles. The theme this year is “Biomimicry & Mobility 2025: Nature’s Answer to Human Challenges”, which, to the BMW Designworks team meant combining LA’s biggest transportation problem (traffic) with its greatest underutilised transportation asset (its rivers).

“We knew that traffic congestion was something we all wanted to improve,” says designer Anders Thogersen. “And we have all these very big river systems in L.A. that we could use for a new highway system.”

Inspired by bioluminescence in jellyfish, the Mini Cooper pods would use a chemical reaction created when salt and fresh water mix in the presence of certain bacteria, creating hydrogen fuel. This process not only generates energy, but the water intake/outtake system can also serve as the propulsion method for the craft. Tiny “cleaner” robots, inspired by many types of fish that do this in real life, keep the Mini clean by nibbling algae from its surfaces.

“The idea is that we’re making a submarine,” says senior designer John Buckingham. “Even though jellyfish were the original inspiration for the direction, we moved towards a more conventional look and we chose Mini to make it fun and playful.”

The other key part of BMW Designworks’ proposal is taking the LA River and other tributaries and filling them with enough water so these little submarines can travel around the city on these newly created “subways.” In the winter the water does flow tremendously deep through these channels, so they reasoned that flooding the channels permanently would create a dual benefit of replenishing LA’s groundwater and preventing billions of gallons of stormwater from flowing directly into the ocean.

Having hundreds of speeding boats in the river might raise a huge environmental concern for a body of water that is just starting to see some serious revitalisation. Neither Thogersen or Buckingham had been down to the LA River before this project, and were surprised to learn about the movements to restore the river to a more natural state.

But the designers believe that allowing more people to use the river for transportation and recreation will engage more people in its future, much like the theory behind the kayaking programs offered on the river the past two summers. “It will bring people to the river more,” says Buckingham. “Allowing it to have some commercial use will draw people down there, especially when winter comes around and there’s no kayaking.”

While we probably won’t have these fleets of Mini-subs taking over our waterways just yet, this concept does help us start to think of LA. as more of a river city. The BMW Designworks team sees us not only using existing rivers and bays for transportation, but also reinstating Venice Beach’s canal system (which was once much larger than it is now), and possibly daylighting more creeks that have been asphalted over.

Maybe more feasible is a coastal transportation network — which, right now, only really consists of private ferries to Catalina — that would allow people in, say, Marina del Rey to commute to Long Beach via ferry instead of the 405 Freeway, or to take a water taxi from Santa Monica to Malibu and thus avoid traffic on the Pacific Coast Highway.

Also feasible is the idea of turning at least part of the LA River into a canal — without a current to worry about, this would open up a whole range of options for the river. A water bus could run from one neighbourhood to another. People could easily kayak to and from work.

And, someday, maybe, take one of these submarines too.

[MIKA27]

'Nasal Ranger' Smelloscope Will Save Cities From Stinky Pot

Colorado’s newly legalised marijuana industry has had an unforeseen dark side: pungent dankness running wild on the noses of innocent citizens. Only a mechanical hero could save them. Call in the Nasal Ranger.

Yes, in order to better investigate odour complaints, Denver Police are using a bizarre-looking nose telescope that quantifies the stinkiness of stinky stinks. The Nasal Ranger Field Olfactometer, designed and manufactured by the family-owned, Minnesota-based business St. Croix Sensory, is actually a rather ingenious device. To function, a dial-operated mixer delivers varying ratios of filtered and full-flavour air to the operator’s nose. Meek odours wash out when mixed with small amounts of purified air, while a particularly stinky smell can still remain detectable in a 500:1 mix. The History Channel’s Modern Marvelsdemonstrates:

This past summer, Gizmodo’s Editor-in-Chief Geoff Manaugh and his wife, writer Nicola Twilley — of NYC cow tunnel fame — visited St. Croix Sensory to learn more about the Nasal Ranger first-hand. Or first-nose, as the case may be. There, the firm’s co-founder and technical director, Charles McGinley, led them through the odoriferous process.

To facilitate its use and application, the ingenious smelloscope offers an ODOR TRACK’R GPS-powered app, storing data from every sniff check to create a stink-map. Perfect for keeping an eye (or a nose) on repeat olfactory offenders.

So far, the majority of Denver’s doobie dankness complaints have stemmed from growers, not consumers. Wielding the Nasal Ranger, an officer can impose a fine of up to $US2,000 for odours detectable beyond an 8:1 clean-to-stinky ratio. Obviously, this isn’t new technology; the Nasal Ranger has been used for over a decade to monitor offensive or dangerous odour production in agriculture, industry and sanitation facilities.

But legalising marijuana opens up a whole unfamiliar realm for state governments, and this strange device could give police departments some quantitative sway in arguments between legal pot producers and their scent-sensitive neighbours.Denver Police expect a whole new wave of smell complaints when retail sale of marijuana becomes legal on January 1st, 2014. So you Denverites might want to fan your arms around if you see Johnny Law unholster that smelloscope.

[MIKA27]

Nimbus Personal Dashboard

Information surrounds us at every turn in our daily lives — we're consumed with numbers, whether it's the number of emails we have yet to read, miles we've run that week, or minutes (perhaps hours) we'll spend in traffic on the way to work.

The Nimbus Personal Dashboard ($130) gives you a visually intriguing way of displaying all that data, so you can consume it at a glance. In order to set it up, you just pair it with an iOS or Android app, choose which data sources feed to which gauge, and let the dials start turning. Uses for it are seemingly endless, as it syncs with a huge array of services, including your FitBit, your email provider, and your favorite social media sites.

[MIKA27]

Spruce Stove:

While knocking down entire trees can be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon, not everyone likes to occupy their day chopping up fireplace-sized chunks of wood. For the lazy woodsman with a strong back and plenty of space in their living room, there's this Spruce Stove ($TBA).

Built to accommodate an entire tree trunk (so long as it's straight and has been pruned of all its branches), this stove features a camera-aperture-like opening that allows you to slowly feed in a log as it burns. All you need to do is find an appropriately-sized log, set it up on a couple of saw horses, and watch as the stove consumes anything you feed into it.

[MIKA27]

Mercedes SLS AMG GT Final Edition:

Unfortunately, all good things must at some point come to an end — and this gull-winged thing of German beauty is no exception.

But at least the Mercedes SLS AMG GT Final Edition ($TBA) gets to go out in style. Limited to a run of just 350 units, those lucky enough to get behind the wheel of the last SLS AMG will get to experience every bit of its naturally-aspirated 6.3-liter 591-horsepower V8 engine. Set to be revealed at this year's Los Angeles Auto Show and Tokyo Motor Show, the Merc gets a special two-tone red and black paint scheme worthy of such an iconic sportscar. While sad to see it go, we can think of no better way to watch it leave.

[MIKA27]

Espadin Marca Negra Mezcal:

Mezcal is a unique, ancient, and quite amazing spirit that has yet to break through to the mainstream. You could say it's a relative of tequila, because both use agave, but that's where the similarities end. Mezcal is best described by the term it is derived from, "oven-cooked agave", a process that gives this spirit it's unique qualities.

Espadin Marca Negra Mezcal ($100) is a great place to start, especially if you enjoy the smoky qualities found in scotch. Marca Negra (Black Hand) might be one of the smokiest Mezcal's around actually, making it a fine candidate to pair with a fine cigar on a cold night.

[Fuzz]

'Nasal Ranger' Smelloscope Will Save Cities From Stinky Pot

They stole the idea from Professor Hubert J Farnsworth!

[MIKA27]

Do We Live in the Matrix?

In the 1999 sci-fi film classic The Matrix, the protagonist, Neo, is stunned to see people defying the laws of physics, running up walls and vanishing suddenly. These superhuman violations of the rules of the universe are possible because, unbeknownst to him, Neo’s consciousness is embedded in the Matrix, a virtual-reality simulation created by sentient machines.

The action really begins when Neo is given a fateful choice: Take the blue pill and return to his oblivious, virtual existence, or take the red pill to learn the truth about the Matrix and find out “how deep the rabbit hole goes.”

Physicists can now offer us the same choice, the ability to test whether we live in our own virtual Matrix, by studying radiation from space. As fanciful as it sounds, some philosophers have long argued that we’re actually more likely to be artificial intelligences trapped in a fake universe than we are organic minds in the “real” one.

But if that were true, the very laws of physics that allow us to devise such reality-checking technology may have little to do with the fundamental rules that govern the meta-universe inhabited by our simulators. To us, these programmers would be gods, able to twist reality on a whim.

So should we say yes to the offer to take the red pill and learn the truth — or are the implications too disturbing?

Worlds in Our Grasp

The first serious attempt to find the truth about our universe came in 2001, when an effort to calculate the resources needed for a universe-size simulation made the prospect seem impossible.

Seth Lloyd, a quantum-mechanical engineer at MIT, estimated the number of “computer operations” our universe has performed since the Big Bang — basically, every event that has ever happened. To repeat them, and generate a perfect facsimile of reality down to the last atom, would take more energy than the universe has.

“The computer would have to be bigger than the universe, and time would tick more slowly in the program than in reality,” says Lloyd. “So why even bother building it?”

But others soon realized that making an imperfect copy of the universe that’s just good enough to fool its inhabitants would take far less computational power. In such a makeshift cosmos, the fine details of the microscopic world and the farthest stars might only be filled in by the programmers on the rare occasions that people study them with scientific equipment. As soon as no one was looking, they’d simply vanish.

In theory, we’d never detect these disappearing features, however, because each time the simulators noticed we were observing them again, they’d sketch them back in.

That realization makes creating virtual universes eerily possible, even for us. Today’s supercomputers already crudely model the early universe, simulating how infant galaxies grew and changed. Given the rapid technological advances we’ve witnessed over past decades — your cell phone has more processing power than NASA’s computers had during the moon landings — it’s not a huge leap to imagine that such simulations will eventually encompass intelligent life.

“We may be able to fit humans into our simulation boxes within a century,” says Silas Beane, a nuclear physicist at the University of Washington in Seattle. Beane develops simulations that re-create how elementary protons and neutrons joined together to form ever larger atoms in our young universe.

Legislation and social mores could soon be all that keeps us from creating a universe of artificial, but still feeling, humans — but our tech-savvy descendants may find the power to play God too tempting to resist.

If cosmic rays don't have random origins, it could be a sign that the universe is a simulation.

National Science Foundation/J. Yang

They could create a plethora of pet universes, vastly outnumbering the real cosmos. This thought led philosopher Nick Bostrom at the University of Oxford to conclude in 2003 that it makes more sense to bet that we’re delusional silicon-based artificial intelligences in one of these many forgeries, rather than carbon-based organisms in the genuine universe. Since there seemed no way to tell the difference between the two possibilities, however, bookmakers did not have to lose sleep working out the precise odds.

Learning the Truth

That changed in 2007 when John D. Barrow, professor of mathematical sciences at Cambridge University, suggested that an imperfect simulation of reality would contain detectable glitches. Just like your computer, the universe’s operating system would need updates to keep working.

As the simulation degrades, Barrow suggested, we might see aspects of nature that are supposed to be static — such as the speed of light or the fine-structure constant that describes the strength of the electromagnetic force — inexplicably drift from their “constant” values.

Last year, Beane and colleagues suggested a more concrete test of the simulation hypothesis. Most physicists assume that space is smooth and extends out infinitely. But physicists modeling the early universe cannot easily re-create a perfectly smooth background to house their atoms, stars and galaxies. Instead, they build up their simulated space from a lattice, or grid, just as television images are made up from multiple pixels.

The team calculated that the motion of particles within their simulation, and thus their energy, is related to the distance between the points of the lattice: the smaller the grid size, the higher the energy particles can have. That means that if our universe is a simulation, we’ll observe a maximum energy amount for the fastest particles. And as it happens, astronomers have noticed that cosmic rays, high-speed particles that originate in far-flung galaxies, always arrive at Earth with a specific maximum energy of about 1020 electron volts.

The simulation’s lattice has another observable effect that astronomers could pick up. If space is continuous, then there is no underlying grid that guides the direction of cosmic rays — they should come in from every direction equally. If we live in a simulation based on a lattice, however, the team has calculated that we wouldn’t see this even distribution. If physicists do see an uneven distribution, it would be a tough result to explain if the cosmos were real.

Astronomers need much more cosmic ray data to answer this one way or another. For Beane, either outcome would be fine.

“Learning we live in a simulation would make no more difference to my life than believing that the universe was seeded at the Big Bang,” he says. But that’s because Beane imagines the simulators as driven purely to understand the cosmos, with no desire to interfere with their simulations.

Unfortunately, our almighty simulators may instead have programmed us into a universe-size reality show — and are capable of manipulating the rules of the game, purely for their entertainment. In that case, maybe our best strategy is to lead lives that amuse our audience, in the hope that our simulator-gods will resurrect us in the afterlife of next-generation simulations.

The weird consequences would not end there. Our simulators may be simulations themselves — just one rabbit hole within a linked series, each with different fundamental physical laws. “If we’re indeed a simulation, then that would be a logical possibility, that what we’re measuring aren’t really the laws of nature, they’re some sort of attempt at some sort of artificial law that the simulators have come up with. That’s a depressing thought!” says Beane.

This cosmic ray test may help reveal whether we are just lines of code in an artificial Matrix, where the established rules of physics may be bent, or even broken. But if learning that truth means accepting that you may never know for sure what’s real — including yourself — would you want to know?

There is no turning back, Neo: Do you take the blue pill, or the red pill?

The Matrix Revealed

Tantalizingly, just weeks before The Matrix came out in 1999, astronomers analyzing the light from distant galaxies published hints that the universe’s “constants” might not be so constant. Specifically, they found that the value of the fine-structure constant — which determines how the galaxies’ light should appear — is one thousandth of a percent bigger today than it was 10 billion years ago.

Glitches caused by our simulation being patched up could also be at the root of truly bizarre results that defy the normal rules of physics. One such possible effect appeared in 2011, when physicists working on the OPERA experiment in Europe made headlines as they claimed to have measured subatomic particles called neutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light, considered the universal speed limit.

Unfortunately, neither case proved a slam-dunk for a virtual universe. Independent tests could not back up the fine-structure constant data, and the speedy neutrinos turned out to be due to a faulty experimental setup. But there is a more fantastical explanation: These inconstant-constants may have instead been simulation glitches, glimpsed just before our programmers fixed them.

[MIKA27]

They stole the idea from Professor Hubert J Farnsworth!

[NJP]

I see Mezcal in my future. The last time I sat down with tequila it was a bottle of Sauza Conmemorativo a special gift because I like John Wayne. Needless to say it it kicked as hard as the Duke and for the rest of the night I taked like him. All good now it's been three years.

[MIKA27]

Star Wars Down Under Is Finally Here, And It's Flamin' Incredible

I take back everything disparaging I ever said about the fan-film Star Wars Down Under. This is the best fan recreation of the Star Wars universe I have ever seen. Watch this. Right now.

Star Wars Down Under follows one man’s quest to restore order to the galaxy with the purest substance known to Australians: beer.

Our hero lands in the Outback with his ship in search of a frosty cold space beverage. On his quest, he meets aliens and Jedi who are all gearing up for a war with a suited villain who has oppressed the people by taking control of their lives and burning down the pubs. Cue outrageous special effects as the Rebels fight back for their way of life.

The music is perfect, the sounds are perfect, the CGI is incredible and the script is loaded with laughs.

It’s 30-minutes of unadulterated awesome, even with the ‘Strayan twang.

MIKA: Gotta love the Boomerang light sabres and Ned Kelly storm troopers!!! Just need some of Robs crocodile BBQ

[MIKA27]

Forza 5's Mount Panorama Circuit Looks Better Than The Real Thing

Thousands of Aussies watch the Bathurst 1000 every year, as giant V8 supercars thunder around Mount Panorama looking to come out with glory. Forza 5 knows how much the fabled race means to us, and has measured it with lasers to create a perfect replica, complete with a virtual V8 supercar to call your very own.

Now all they need to do is throw randomly-generated Kangaroos onto the track during races and then it will be just as realistic as the Bathurst 1000!

[MIKA27]

Tepco Removes First Fukushima Fuel Rods, Finally Gets Something Right

TEPCO workers successfully removed the first fuel rods from the damaged reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and transferred them into portable casks on Monday. Those who have been following the follies of the power company should be pleased that a meltdown did not occur.

These are just the first of many fuel rods that will be removed from the plant in the next year though. By the end of 2014, TEPCO will move some 1331 spent fuel rod assemblies and 202 unused assemblies will be moved from reactor 4 into portable casks as the plant is decommissioned. The rods moved on Monday are unused rods from the plant’s Number 4 reactor which was prioritised since its located on the fifth floor of a building with structural damage. It’s a tricky manoeuvre too, since the rods must remain submerged in water at all times lest they overheat and cause a meltdown.

Challenging as it sounds, TEPCO president Naomi Hirose says that “moving spent fuel into long-term storage is a routine task that TEPCO has taken more than 1200 times over the years.” The situation at Fukushima is obviously exceptional, of course, given the damage caused by the catastrophic earthquake and on-going complications, like the semi-regular spilling of radioactive water. Nevertheless, progress is progress. Said Hirose, “The success of the extraction process therefore represents the beginning of a new and important chapter in our work.” God knows TEPCO could use a fresh start.

[MIKA27]

The First Airless-Tyre Vehicle You Can Own Is A Wicked ATV

Airless — or non-pneumatic tyres — have popped up from time to time over the past few years, and while they offer many advantages over traditional air-filled tyres, they haven’t been available outside of research labs — until now. Polaris is officially the first company to offer a vehicle with non-pneumatic tyres on its new Sportsman WV850 H.O. all-terrain vehicle.

Military enthusiasts might recognise the ATV’s design, and that’s because Polaris based it on the US army’s MV850 ATV. So with a reinforced steel exoskeleton it can tow 680kg or slowly winch another vehicle up to 1587kg. In other words, it’s almost like a miniature badass all-terrain tank, minus the giant cannon.

But of course the real stars of the show are the ATV’s TerrainArmor tyres which Polaris claims can survive a hit from a .50-calibre round and still function just fine for 560km. They look similar to airless tyres being developed by Bridgestone and Michelin, but there’s no indication they belong to either company, so Polaris might have developed its own. And as for the ATV, it will be available next month for $US15,000 in limited quantities, so if you’re tired of fixing flats, you might want to get your pre-order in fast.

[MIKA27]

A Drone Hit A Guided Missile Cruiser During A Weapons System Test

The whole point of testing things is to ward off future problems, right? And the US Navy has plenty to look into since a drone that was deployed as a radar test crashed into a ship during a weapons system test. Test. Testing. Test.

There were 300 crew members on the USS Chancellorsville yesterday when it was hit by an aerial target drone off Point Mugu in Southern California. Two people sustained minor injuries from the crash, and the ship is going to the San Diego Naval Base for evaluation. It is unclear whether the drone has ever malfunctioned before or what happened this time. Nothing calms the nerves like some routine Saturday testing. [USA Today]

[MIKA27]

Paris gun attacks: Liberation and Societe Generale hit

A manhunt is continuing in Paris after a gunman attacked offices of the newspaper Liberation and fired outside the HQ of the Societe Generale bank.

A photographer, 27, was critically hurt at Liberation. The gunman later forced a motorist to drive him to the Champs Elysees before allowing him to go.

Police are looking for the same man who broke into the Paris offices of the 24-hour news channel BFMTV on Friday.

Police have now been stationed outside all the main media offices in Paris.

At a news conference, investigators held up two images, one of the suspect in a street and another taken from BFMTV surveillance cameras on Friday.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the "most likely possibility" was that a lone gunman was behind the three attacks and the hijacking. He said the suspect had not yet been identified and the motive was still unclear.

The man is said to be between 35 and 45 years old, between 1.7m and 1.8m tall (5ft 6" and 5ft 10"), with stubble and greying hair.

Mr Molins said the suspect was wearing a black vest, a cap and white-soled green shoes.

The BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says the gunman had walked into BFMTV on Friday morning and emptied the chamber of his gun in the reception area.

"Next time, I will not miss you," the man had said to an editor he threatened.

Our correspondent says that, for a time on Monday, a police helicopter hung over the Champs Elysees amid fears the gunman might be heading towards the Eiffel Tower, but it is speculated that he might have gone into the metro.

People were encouraged to stay indoors.

Police said the suspect was calm and assured, and each time has walked away from the scene of his attacks.

French media say the suspect told the motorist he hijacked that he was armed with grenades.

President Francois Hollande, who is in Israel, said the priority was "to stop an individual who had tried to kill and could try to kill again".

'Ran for cover'

At 10:15 local time (09:15 GMT) on Monday, the gunman entered the Paris offices of Liberation, near the Place de la Republique in the east of the city, and opened fire.

He injured a photographer in the chest and stomach before escaping. Liberation said three spent cartridges had been found.

The gunman did not say anything during the attack, Liberation reported.

Some two hours later, the bank Societe Generale confirmed that a man opened fire outside its headquarters in the western business district of La Defense. No-one was injured, the bank said.

One witness of the bank shooting told Le Figaro that he heard a large bang and saw a man wearing a khaki coat and a cap and carrying a shotgun.

The gunman's second shot caused panic and the man then disappeared down some stairs on to a street, the witness said.

Another witness, Pierre-Albert Garcias, said: "We thought it was an explosion at first, it didn't sound like gunshots.

"I turned around and the man was in front of me, 10 metres away. He was actually reloading his gun. So we all ran for cover, we got down on our stomachs behind a wall."

Security has been stepped up at media offices

The president of Liberation, Nicolas Demorand (centre), described the attack as "very, very serious"

The gunman hijacked a car to the Champs Elysees and is believed to have escaped

Police say the gunman then hijacked a car in Nanterre, close to La Defense, and forced the driver to take him to the Champs Elysees, where he was dropped near the metro station George V.

Liberacion later said the photographer underwent surgery and was being kept in intensive care.

The victim - who has not been named - was said to be a freelance assistant photographer who had just arrived at the newspaper office to work on a fashion photo shoot.

Police sealed off the area around Liberation's offices. Interior Minister Manuel Valls has visited the scene, along with Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti and the Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoe.

Mr Valls said: "As long as this person is still on the loose and we do not know the motives, this represents a threat. We must move fast."

Liberation's publisher Nicolas Demorand said: "In a democracy, when someone enters a newspaper office with a gun, this is very, very serious, whatever the person's mental state."

He added that the shooting had left the newspaper's staff traumatised.