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

[MIKA27]

Interstellar Trailer: Christopher Nolan's Next Epic

It’s about space travel. It comes out a year from today. That’s everything we learned about the movie from this trailer, and we’re dying to know more.

Nolan isn’t giving much away with this. A haggard Matthew McConaughey, a pickup truck, a cornfield. But the historical references in this two-minute trailer — Chuck Yeager, Gemini 6, Apollo 11, Atlantis — will send shivers up the spine of anyone who’s gazed longingly at the sky.

[MIKA27]

This Crazy Pneumatic Tube System Will Deliver Burgers At 87 MPH

Waiter service too slow for you? How about a pneumatic tube that spits out sliders at 87 MILES PER HOUR? C One Espresso, a cafe in Christchurch, New Zealand, has concocted just such a plan to deliver mini-burgers straight to your table via pressurised air.

The cafe already uses pneumatic tubes to deliver order slips to the kitchen, and a heftier burger-moving tube system is currently being tested. Once the tubes are all installed, the sliders and a side of fries — or “chips,” in Kiwi speak — arrive stacked in a metal canister. It’s like going to the bank — for burgers.

[MIKA27]

Magic Colour-Changing Camo Blends In No Matter The Season

Camouflage only works when it’s got the same colour and pattern as your surroundings. When the foliage takes on a different hue, you don’t want to be caught wearing last season’s colour. This magical new camouflage solves that problem with temperature-sensitive dyes to keep your sporting wear fashionable year-round.

Cabela’s ColorPhase camo takes on a springtime green hue at temperatures over 65 degrees. When the air gets cooler, the green turns to brown, mimicking the dull muted tones of late fall and early spring. Not every hunter may need such high-tech gear — deer, for example, can’t distinguish between green and brown, though turkeys can. Still, the most fascinating part is imagining how this technology could be used, perhaps to make year-round fatigues for soldiers. Whoever ends up wearing ColorPhase, they’ll never be dressed for the wrong season.

[MIKA27]

Video Of China's Jade Rabbit Rover Rolling On To The Moon's Surface

http://youtu.be/ht4_hJBHejA

One small rollout for a rover, one giant leap for China National Space Administration.

China’s state-run television network is reporting that the unmanned Yutu lunar rover has successfully soft-landed on the moon. The rover, which touched down a few minutes after 9PM Saturday night Beijing time, is the first object to be successfully soft-landed on the moon since 1976.

The Chang’e-3 landing craft carried the rover to the smooth Bay of Rainbows region of the moon after a voyage launched December 1st. The rover, named Yutu (Jade Rabbit in English), is a 260lb six-wheeled solar powered explorer with a top speed of 660 feet per hour. For the next three months, it will conduct tests on the lunar surface and set up a telescope to study earth’s plasmasphere.

An earlier Chinese spacecraft successfully orbited the moon, collecting data before being intentionally crashed into the moon’s surface. The next mission in the Chang’e program is intended to bring back rock and soil samples from the moon some time before 2020.

[MIKA27]

Why Runways Get Renumbered When The Earth's Magnetic Field Shifts

US aviation authorities can make rules about air travel (god no inflight calls, please), but it’s still beholden to the whims of earth’s shifting magnetic field. Runways are named after their compass orientations to help pilots navigate. A changing magnetic field, however, means they now have to be renumbered.

Earlier this year, Oakland International Airport became the latest major airport to change its runway signs and repaint its asphalt — all thanks to subtle changes in the earth’s electromagnetic forces.

Oakland’s Runway 27, from which Amelia Earhart flew to Hawaii in the 1930s, is now called Runway 28. The number comes from taking the runway’s magnetic compass direction (between zero and 360), rounding to the nearest 10, and taking out the zero. If a runway’s direction changes by more than 5 degrees, the FAA requires it be renumbered.

Over at KQED, Andrew Alden explains why earth’s magnetic field changes:

The Earth’s magnetic field arises from its own substance as the huge body of molten iron in its core stirs with the Earth’s rotation and the moon’s steadying hand. Electrical currents in the iron generate magnetic fields that struggle against the stirring, acting like a natural turbine and powering the magnetism that draws our compass needles to attention. This sounds busy, and it is. The geomagnetic poles, north and south, are always wandering and must be closely monitored by a network of observatories to keep navigation accurate.

As earth’s magnetic north pole wanders from its geographic north pole, its magnetic field also changes in different ways for different parts of the world, and it’s difficult to predict where the field will shift enough to make a difference for airports. In the past few years, Stansted Airport in London and a handful of airports in Florida, including Tampa’s, have also had to renumber their runways.

These small shifts in earth’s magnetic field are inconvenient for aviation, but they’re nothing compared to a complete flip of the north and south poles. This has happened hundreds of times in earth’s history, the last time 780,000 years ago. It’s hard to say exactly what will happen — we humans have never lived through one — but it will definitely affect more than runway signage.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: Mortar-Hunting War Truck Gets Powerful New Laser Cannon

The US Army’s High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD) has been under development for some years now, however until this point, it’s been little more than a proof of concept. But thanks to a new upgrade to its firing system, the HEL MD can now burn most any incoming threat clean out of the sky.

Last time we heard about the HEL MD, it was sporting a 10KW laser — hot enough to fry a UAV’s electronics but not sufficient to handle more traditional threats like rockets, artillery and mortars (collectively known as RAM). That’s why Boeing has quintupled its power output to 50KW.

During a series of tests held at White Sands Missile Range earlier this month, the HEL MD successfully knocked more than 90 mortars out of the air, as well as a number of UAVs. In addition to the integrated laser and beam director mounted in the vehicle, the upgraded HEL MD utilised a separate, surrogate radar: the Enhanced Multi Mode Radar to track incoming rounds and queue up shots.

And while the current iteration is quite powerful, Boeing isn’t done yet. The next version will double its current out put to a staggering 100KW and be able to kill even cruise missiles. Pew-pew indeed.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: This Multi-Launcher Spits Out Missiles Like A 12-Barrel Revolver

While the Phalanx has proven an immensely effective self-defence system for the US Navy, it’s far from a watertight solution. To intercept incoming threats that the Phalanx can’t handle, the US Navy is investing in a rotating missile-launcher that lobs a baker’s dozen of self-propelled missiles at anyone dumb enough to engage.

Developed through a partnership between Chemring and Raytheon, it’s called the Chemring Countermeasures and Raytheon Missile Systems and consists of a prototype 12-barrel, multi-role Centurion launcher that fires not only anti-surface missiles like the Raytheon-Lockheed Martin Javelin, but rocket-propelled munitions and mortar-launched (sub-)munitions as well. The Centurion launcher is designed to rotate so as to minimise its footprint on the ship’s deck, allowing it to potentially be installed on virtually any ship from small patrol boats to Nimitz-class supercarriers. What’s more, each barrel can be individually loaded and independently fired, granting American sailors an unprecedented degree of flexibility in how they respond to threats.

“We’re bringing an entirely new dimension to ship self-defence by providing a sea-based, inside-the-horizon platform protection,” Rick Nelson, vice president of Raytheon Missile Systems’ Naval and Area Mission Defence line, said in a statement.

“Chemring’s Centurion launcher, when coupled with Raytheon’s combat-proven missiles, offers an evolutionary capability to defeat surface threats with this One System-Multiple Missions technology.”

Though a recent, land-based demonstration of the launcher held at the Defence Training Estate in Salisbury Plain, England successfully targeted and destroyed a static target there is no word yet on when (or even if) the system will enter service.

[MIKA27]

This Goldilocks Mug Will Keep Your Coffee At The Right Temperature

Coffee is a fickle mistress. Take a sip too soon and you risk searing your tongue, wait too long and it becomes undrinkably tepid.

But with this ingenious phase-change mug prototype, your coffee will cool to a perfectly drinkable 60C and stay there for hours.

“Our goal was to create a coffee mug that will take piping hot coffee and cool it to a hot, but drinkable, temperature — and keep it at that temperature for a long time,” Logan Maxwell, the co-creator of the aptly named Temperfect mug, told R&D Mag.

The secret of the mug’s temperature-control abilities is its unique insulation material. The Temperfect uses a three-wall design — an inner wall that holds the liquid, an outer wall that you hold, and a middle wall separating them. Between the outer and middle walls, there’s an insulating vacuum (just like most such mugs), but between the inner (coffee-facing) wall and the middle partition, Maxwell injected a proprietary nontoxic phase-changing chemical. This material is a solid at room temperature but will melt into a liquid when heated by the coffee. This melting sucks out just enough heat to cool the coffee to 60C and transfers small bits of that energy back into the liquid over a long period of time to maintain the 60C mark.

“I did some research and found that most coffee is served at between 200F (93C) and 185F (85C), and that coffee can burn you at any temperature above 140F (60C),” Maxwell continued. “So we set our ‘ideal’ temperature at 140F (60C).” The Temperfect mug is currently on Kickstarter (and has already broken its $US23,500 goal with 20 days to go) Now if there were only something we could do about this damnable hot porridge.

[MIKA27]

Six Feet Over: The Future Of Skyscraper Cemeteries

This month in Oslo, an architecture student named Martin McSherry presented a controversial idea to a gathering of cemetery and funeral professionals. The topic? His design for a “vertical cemetery” that could, in theory, solve Norway’s growing graveyard conundrum.

In McSherry’s vision for Oslo — which he presented at the Oslo Conference for Nordic Cemeteries and Graveyards — the dead would come to rest in a tall, airy skyscraper in the center of the city. It would start out as a simple white framework with an adjoining, permanent crane, which lifts coffins into slots inside the structure. The tower would grow over the years, as this crane would add more and more plots to the network — over time, the building would come to represent the sum of the city’s citizens — a reminder and a memorial at the same time.

“In time, the city’s tallest and largest building will become a grave for all its citizens — the city’s ever-changing monument,” McSherry added. The precious land saved on the ground, in turn, would be used for parks and buildings for the living. The idea was met with a cacophony of protests — but also a few strong supporting voices.

But why does the idea of a skyscraper burial seem to disturb so many people?

First of all, it helps to know a bit about Norway’s situation. Norway, like many land-scarce countries, practices grave recycling: Every citizen is allotted two decades in their spot before the land is reused for other bodies (your family can pay to preserve your space for longer, if they want). It’s a practical solution — and it worked fine until World War II.

That was when Norwegian law began requiring that bodies be buried inside of air-tight plastic wrappers — the thinking being that the tarps would prevent contamination of soil and water source. But when the first batch of graves were turned over for reuse, the bodies hadn’t decomposed completely — thanks to the protection of the plastic. As a result, the country is quickly running out of spots to bury its citizens.

There’s even a cottage industry surrounding the conundrum: One graveyard worker will inject coffins from above with a limestone compound that accelerates decomposition for $US670 per plot. That might seem expensive — but he’s already treated 17,000 of them.

And Norway isn’t alone.

As Baby Boomers reach old age, many countries are confronting similar crises. The BBC reported that England is on the brink of running out of burial plots, while some researchers have calculated that it will take a Las Vegas-sized piece of land to bury the 76 million people expected to die between 2024 and 2042. In an October op-ed in The New York Times, Christopher Coutts argued for America to adopt “unembalmed natural burial that allows cemetery plots to be reused after decomposition has occurred.”

But it’s not that simple. Death and burial — in America and elsewhere — is fraught with tradition and meaning, and “revolutionizing” those rites of passage is easier said than done. Above all, the idea is to maintain a person’s dignity in death. And for some, concepts like highrise cemeteries do anything but. “Please don’t bury me in a skyscraper,” begged The Independent’s Memphis Barker, adding that “the poetry of it isn’t quite right“:

There is nothing elegiac about a skyscraper: they’re ambitious, lean, and busy. Many of us spend an entire life hustling from high rise to high rise; without wanting to sound too much like Alain de Botton, a change of scene is surely one of the more appealing aspects of crossing over. (It’s apt that the memorial at Ground Zero is a pool, not a tower).

Personally, I’d beg to differ that skyscrapers can’t be elegiac. In fact, cemetery designers in Israel and Brazil are already going vertical with stacked necropolis designs. And if you look far enough back into the cultural history of burial, you’ll find that vertical grave sites are actually old news.

For example, there’s Egypt’s Gebel al Mawta, or Egypt’s Mountain of the Dead, a Roman-era burial site that rises high above the landscape of the Siwa Oasis:

The Mountain of the Dead

While plenty of European nations have long used stacking burial plots to form tall necropoli, like this one in Italy:

A necropolis in Italy

In Brazil, the Memorial Necropole Ecumenica has stacked the city’s dead within its 32 stories of grave sites for 28 years. The development is the tallest cemetery in the world.

But my guess is that Barker’s disgust at vertical cemeteries is mostly cultural: We think of skyscrapers as our civilisation’s ant farms, buzzing with money, life, and striving in general. But thinking on a longer historical scale, it’s hard to imagine a future where the trend towards urbanization — and thus skyscrapers — doesn’t continue.

As Alissa Walker argued today, the future is tall. That means there will be tall buildings that house not only offices and condos, but gyms, hospitals, community centres, parks, and — yes — cemeteries.

[Fuzz]

Dinosaur asteroid 'sent life to Mars'

Whilst this is a fascinating article, I found it a bit annoying how the author has made it sound like there is evidence that this occurred, instead of just portraying as what it really is, a hypothesis.

[MIKA27]

Oscar-Nominated Actor Peter O’Toole Dead at 81

Critically acclaimed actor Peter O’Toole, known for his role in the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia, has died, his agent confirmed to British press on Sunday. He was 81.

The eight-time Oscar nominee passed away on Saturday at a London hospital after suffering from a longtime illness, according to his agent Steve Kenis, the Guardian reports.

O’Toole announced his departure from the stage and silver screen last year.

“I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell,” he said in his announcement.

The Irish-born actor was heralded as one of Hollywood’s old guard of actors, and received an honorary Oscar in 2003 for his contribution to film. The venerable actor found fame in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia and went on to star in films including Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Ruling Class, The Stunt Man and My Favourite Year.

He is survived by his two daughters, Pat and Kate O’Toole, and his son Lorcan O’Toole.

[Fuzz]

Six Feet Over: The Future Of Skyscraper Cemeteries

Can't we all just learn to enjoy Soylent Green?

[MIKA27]

Whilst this is a fascinating article, I found it a bit annoying how the author has made it sound like there is evidence that this occurred, instead of just portraying as what it really is, a hypothesis.

Unless that is of course the author....had a time machine.

[MIKA27]

12 Creepy Santa’s Frightening The Hell Out Of Children

Now a trip to the North Pole (or rather the local mall) to visit Santa “should” be an exciting time for every family.

Parents get a tip off on what to buy their kids by sneakily reading their wish list to Santa and the kids himself feel that little bit of Christmas magic. That maybe their dreams might come true.

But in the following 12 examples, of that is coming true is their nightmares. From the disheveled to the drunk and frankly downright creepy, we bring you 12 awkward Santa’s that would probably scare most people in the street, let alone impressionable kids.

[MIKA27]

THE COLDER WAR: HOW THE WAR AT THE NORTH POLE WITH THE SOVIETS WOULD HAVE BEEN FOUGHT

Impossible underwater cities, impractical tanks, and lots of cold death

Russia’s announcement that it wants to boost its military presence in the Arctic may sound like the first shot in the start of a new Cold(er) War, but it also highlights how this ice-bound region has long attracted superpower interest. But if 50 years of history is any guide, in the Arctic battle, it’s often the ice, not man, which comes out on top.

A truly killer radar system: Distant Early Warning Line - In the 1950s, the United States constructed a series of early-warning radar that stretched across the Arctic Circle going all the way from Alaska to Greenland. The idea was to spot Soviet bombers on their way to drop nuclear bombs on the United States. The early warning line worked (albeit with some false alarms), but operating the stations came at a high human cost. In a 1959 broadcast with CBC radio, a mechanic described the treacherous conditions for those manning the stations. Workers would sometimes have to attach a rope to themselves when they left a building to be able to find their way back. At one point, men were stranded in an outpost just 300 yards from the main building for three days. “If a man fell into a snow bank, he could be missed and freeze to death,” the mechanic said.

Incredible, impractical tanks: Arctic Surface Effects Vehicle - The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the future-thinking research arm of the Pentagon, is best known for helping to create Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet, and stealth aircraft. But the agency has also funded hundreds of ideas that have never made it to the battlefield. In the 1970s, one such project was the Arctic Surface Effects Vehicle, a 10-ton air cushion vehicle that would be able to help battle the Soviets in the Arctic region. The dilemma of such a vehicle was that its life support equipment took up so much room and weight that it couldn’t actually transport enough personnel or equipment to be useful.

An Arctic War underwater: Submarines under Ice - At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. prepared to hunt nuclear-armed Soviet submarines into their suspected hiding places deep under Arctic ice. “In a nuclear exchange... missiles aboard submarines would most likely be a reserve force for the Soviet Union, with the submarines hiding beneath the ice until summoned to open waters to fire their missiles,” the New York Times reported in 1983, based on statements by a U.S. Navy admiral. The Navy also suggested that Soviet subs had located “a passage under the polar ice” that would allow them to fire their weapons from Canada’s northern coast.

A fake city under the ice caps, filled with missiles: Project Iceworm - In the 1960s, the Pentagon hatched top-secret plans to hide intermediate-range ballistic missiles under the ice in Greenland. The cover for the project was the Army’s Camp Century, a nuclear-powered research station. “On the top of the world, below the surface of a giant icecap, a city is buried,” declared a U.S. Army PR film. The goal of this underground city was supposedly to “master the secret of survival in the Artic.” It never did do that. The shifting ice eventually led the United States to shut down the project in 1966.

Extremely low-tech espionage: Officially, the launch of Discoverer II was just a scientific mission. But the reality was that it was a test of the Corona spy satellite, which would eventually take pictures of the Soviet Union, dropping capsules of film over Hawaii for recovery. But an April 1959 test didn’t go as planned, and the capsule ended up landing somewhere in the vicinity of Norway’s Spitsbergen island, in the Arctic circle, perilously close to the Soviet Union. Despite initial reports that it had been spotted—and possibly captured by the Soviets—the capsule was never recovered, and likely remains buried somewhere in the Arctic ice even today.

[MIKA27]

'Remarkable' rocks within reach of Jade Rabbit rover

Some of the youngest lava flows on the Moon are within reach of China's Jade Rabbit rover, says a leading US lunar scientist.

The Chang'e-3 mission touched down on Saturday at the eastern edge of its designated landing box.

Dr Paul Spudis said the landing area was more interesting than its original destination and could fill in gaps in our knowledge of lunar history.

Meanwhile, officials have said that the rover's instruments are now working.

Five of the eight pieces of scientific equipment on Chang'e-3 had begun their observations, state-run Xinhua news agency said.

The telescopes and cameras are producing clear images, Zou Yongliao, a scientist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at a press conference.

The lander and rover photographed each other on Sunday evening.

The Chinese craft performed the first "soft" landing (non-crash landing) on the Moon since 1976. And Jade Rabbit, or Yutu, is the first rover mission since the Soviet Union's Lunokhod-2 trundled through the grey soil 40 years ago.

A touch down had been planned in the Moon's Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows). But the spacecraft actually landed on the northern edge of Mare Imbrium (the Sea of Rains) - visible on Earth as the right eye of the "Man in the Moon".

In a blog entry for the Smithsonian's Air and Space magazine, Dr Spudis, from the Lunar and Planetary Insitute in Houston, said:

"Whether by design or fortuitous accident, this site is actually more interesting geologically than the spacecraft's original destination."

Chang'e 3 landed at the extreme northern end of a sequence of lava flows, which are estimated - by counting the number of impact craters on them - to be very young in lunar terms.

Dr Spudis said two major terrain types dominated lunar geology: the bright rugged highlands dating from the Moon's formation 4.5 billion years ago, and the younger "maria", dark volcanic plains made up of iron-rich lava flows.

The lavas began to erupt around 3.9 billion years ago, but it is unclear when this volcanic activity ended. The Mare Imbrium lavas appear to be between one and 2.5 billion years old, making them much younger than any of the rock samples returned from the Moon thus far.

Dr Spudis said the Imbrium lavas were "not only remarkable for their physical properties but are also compositionally interesting".

"Because the rover will examine several different individual areas during its traverse, we will obtain new "ground truth" data to better understand the meaning of data obtained remotely from orbit," he explained.

"At a minimum, Yutu will examine the composition of the surface lava flow."

Data gathered from orbit show the lavas to be high in the metal titanium. Volcanic flows to the north of the landing site seem have a lower titanium content and appear to underlie the ones that Chang'e-3 sits on.

But some of these underlying rocks may have been excavated by impacts, allowing Jade Rabbit to look for them among the debris around craters.

"With data from the rover, we might be able to reconstruct the volcanic stratigraphy of this region of the Moon," said Dr Spudis.

"The Chang'e-3 lander and Yutu rover can provide many answers to our questions regarding the geological history of this region of the Moon and about lunar history in general."

China said it would launch Chang'e-5, a mission to return samples of rock and soil from the Moon, in 2017.

[MIKA27]

Arctic sea ice volume increased in 2013

The volume of sea ice in the Arctic has increased in the past year, compared to previous years.

New satellite data measured almost 9,000 cubic km of ice at the end of this year's melt season, 50% more than at the same point in 2012.

The increase could be good news for the Arctic region, as the amount of ice there, has declined in recent years.

A colder summer and more older ice being retained could both be contributing factors in the increase.

Scientists warn: 'Don't get too excited'

But scientists are keen not to read too much into just one year's recovery.

Professor Andy Shepherd from University College London said: "Although the recovery of Arctic sea ice is certainly welcome news, it has to be considered against the backdrop of changes that have occurred over the last few decades.

"It's estimated that there were around 20,000 cu km of Arctic sea ice each October in the early 1980s, and so today's minimum still ranks among the lowest of the past 30 years."

[MIKA27]

4-year-old genius has same IQ as Einstein

Sherwyn Sarabi scored an IQ of 160, just like Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, and Stephen Hawking. The British boy is already studying at the level of a 9-year-old and has read over 190 books.

Sherwyn Sarabi is a genius child and recently got a 160 score (which is maximum marks) on an IQ test.

A four-year-old boy has stunned psychologists—after intelligence tests revealed him to have the same IQ as Einstein.

Sherwyn Sarabi has tested off the scale for intelligence—scoring an IQ of 160—the highest mark on the test.

It's the same score that experts believe scientist Einstein had, as well as being identical to that of Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking.

Sherwyn from Barnsley, Yorks, started school two years early and became a member of Mensa at the age of three.

He spoke his first words aged just 10 months and has been amazing his parents, teachers and doctors ever since.

The child from Barnsley, Yorks, started school two years early and became a member of Mensa at the age of three.

Now after gaining the maximum marks in his most recent IQ test, 160 marks on the Whechsler Scale, Sherwyn has proven his intelligence to be extraordinary.

Educational psychologist, Dr Peter Congdon said: "Sherwyn has a very superior level of intelligence, he is incredibly gifted and his vocabulary is out of this world.

"His intellect reaches the highest possible levels of reason and when he talks to you he has the social skills of a much older child.

"His mental age is measured at 8 years and 9 months, more than twice his actual age.

"It is very unusual for a child to have this type of intelligence, he came out at the very top on the tests.

Sherwyn's mother, Amanda Sarabi, said that her son loves to ask questions all day long.

"I specialize in specially gifted children but when I tested Sherwyn I knew I had come across something very special."

Whilst most four-year-olds have not yet started school, Sherwyn is already studying work for eight and nine year-olds at Rastrick Independent School, Huddersfield, West Yorks.

Sherwyn's mother, Amanda Sarabi said: "He is a very happy healthy child and loves to talk.

"He questions everything and I have been doing my best to answer his questions to the best if my knowledge.

"His general knowledge is amazing for a four year old, I think it's because of all the questions he asks all day long.

"Sherwyn has read over 190 books and his favourite is the encyclopedia as he loves learning new things."

[MIKA27]

Scientists discover second DNA code

The breakthrough was made as part of a project funded by the US National Human Genome Research Institute.

It has long been believed that DNA is responsible for telling the cells how to make proteins, but thanks to an international collaboration of research groups scientists now believe they have identified a second DNA code, one that instructs cells on how genes are controlled.

"For over 40 years we have assumed that DNA changes affecting the genetic code solely impact how proteins are made," said John Stamatoyannopoulos who is lead author of the study. "Now we know that this basic assumption about reading the human genome missed half of the picture."

The find is important because it implies that changes in DNA that occur due to illness or age may be having more of an effect that previously believed.

"Many DNA changes that appear to alter protein sequences may actually cause disease by disrupting gene control programs or even both mechanisms simultaneously," said Prof Stamatoyannopoulos.

[MIKA27]

PORTABLE LAPTOP STAND | BY AVIIQ

The Aviiq Portable Laptop Stand is perfect for the mobile professional always working outside the office. The sleek stand is unlike other laptop stands that are big, bulky and hardly portable. The super portable laptop stand elevates your laptop at a 12 degree angle making it ideal for wrist and screen visibility. When not in use fold it down to a very thin 1/4 inch and easily pack it in your laptop bag.

[MIKA27]

Kaliningrad: European fears over Russian missiles

European countries bordering Russia's territory of Kaliningrad say they are worried at reports that Moscow has put nuclear-capable missiles there.

Lithuania and Poland both issued statements of concern.

Russia has not confirmed the report but insists it has every right to station missiles in its western-most region.

Moscow has long threatened to move Iskander short-range missile systems to Kaliningrad in response to the United States' own European missile shield.

Russia sees the missile shield as a threat to its nuclear deterrent.

It was one of the biggest sources of confrontation between Moscow and Washington during the presidencies of George W Bush and Vladimir Putin.

President Barack Obama tried to "reset" relations with Russia, and the shield system was revised - but it survived in a different form and continued to antagonise Russia.

'No violation'

The US insists that the missile shield is not aimed at Russia but designed to defend Europe from attack from "rogue states" - assumed to include Iran.

A Russian defence ministry spokesman, Igor Konashenkov, did not confirm the report - in the German newspaper Bild - that the Iskander system had been deployed to Kaliningrad.

But he did say: "Iskander operational-tactical missile systems have indeed been commissioned by the Western Military District's missile and artillery forces," adding that Russia's deployment "does not violate any international treaties or agreements".

The Western Military District includes parts of western and north-western Russia, including the Kaliningrad exclave, which is separated from Russia proper and wedged between Poland, Lithuania, and the Baltic Sea.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia reported on Monday that the missiles had already been stationed in the area for more than a year.

Lithuania's Defence Minister Juozas Olekas said: "I am worried about signals that Russia is about to modernise missile systems it has deployed in Kaliningrad.

"Further militarisation of this region, bordering the Baltic states and Nato, creates further anxiety, and we will be watching the situation there closely.''

The Polish foreign ministry said: "Plans to deploy new Iskander-M rockets in [Kaliningrad] are worrying."

It added that such a deployment "would contradict effective Polish-Russian co-operation, in particular with respect to this region, and undermine constructive dialogue between Nato and Russia. We will raise this topic in our bilateral contacts with the Russian side."

[MIKA27]

The Horrifying Tale Of ‘Krampus’ The Christmas Demon

Now we’re all familiar with Santa Claus (even if there are some children out there who are terrified of him) and his magical reindeer. But what about Krampus? The anti-Santa if you will. The ying to Father Christmas’s yang as it were?

According to European folklore, rather than giving presents to children, our dear friend Krampus chases after them with whips and chains. And rather than a sack full of present, he has a simple tub which he puts all the naughty children in before merciless dragging them off to Hell. Sounds like a nice individual does he? And you can forget about bribing him with mince pies and a glass of sherry, Krampus only takes a shot of schnapps as payment.

Here’s a collection of various interpretations of the mythical demon himself. If you want to keep him at bay, firstly buy that schnapps, secondly be on your best behaviour at all times – lest you want to end up in his tub with a one way ticket to Hell.

[MIKA27]

Senz Smart Umbrella

There are few things as irritating on an already nasty day as dealing with an umbrella that just can't cope with a serious gust of wind — turning inside out, soaking you in the process, or just plain blowing away.

With the Senz Smart Umbrella ($50) you don't need to worry about the wind, or the rain, thanks to its innovative take on the shape of a traditional umbrella. Its angular design is shorter in the front than in the back, helping it cut through the wind without letting any get underneath. An ergonomic handle helps you comfortably hold on to the umbrella, while a range of available colors and prints keep you looking great, even when the weather doesn't.

[MIKA27]

Benny T's Vesta Dry Hot Sauce

Fed up with liquid hot sauces that too-often mask food rather than enhancing it, the guys bringing us Benny T's Vesta Dry Hot Sauce ($7-$10) have re-envisioned what a hot sauce should be. Made from fresh chiles grown on location in their pepper farm (boasting as many as 300 individual chile plants), this hot sauce isn't a sauce at all, but a rub.

It's serious hot sauce for people who like their food seriously hot, available in three variations: hot, made from thai chiles and ahi amarillo; very hot, made from chocolate habaneros and scotch bonnets; and ghost, made from ghost chiles and a chocolate ghost hybrid.

[MIKA27]

Fake Sign Language Guy: Disgusting Con Man or Best Bar Story of All Time?

He may not have accomplished much. He may not have even said anything intelligible. But for a few brief, glorious minutes during Nelson Mandela's funeral a mystery man pretended to do sign language to a worldwide audience of billions.

Somehow managing to convince the epically tight security that he was part of the show, the man stood next to President Obama and several other world leaders and waved his hands about as they spoke. Deaf people watching the event found the event either amusing or distressing – distressing because a man was making a mockery at Mandela's funeral, and amusing because he was somehow getting away with waving his hands about, signing unintelligible fake sign-language gibberish to millions and millions of people across the globe.

Make no mistake – this guy was standing right next to some of the most important people in the world, completely (and convincingly!) bullshitting everyone.

Take a look at this video from a British sign language site comparing what he's doing with someone actually signing what Obama is saying and you can see just how much he was winging it. That guy must have some huge balls to be able to pull that off.

Perhaps the least surprising aspect of this story is that this isn't the first time he's done it, according to The Guardian, who reported that "members of South Africa's deaf community has [sic] previously raised concerns about the interpreter, who has been used at other African National Congress events." He's alleged to be working with the African National Congress, although even they have denied that allegation. Perhaps he's just the pudgy South African version of the guy from Catch Me If You Can, bullshitting his way into both infamy and the annals of history at the same time.

Or perhaps he's just a regular guy who now has the most incredible bar story of all time.