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

[MIKA27]

JBL AUTHENTICS SPEAKERS

The most impressive thing about the JBL Authentics Speakers ($600-$1,000) isn't their looks, though they are gorgeous in walnut or gloss black finishes — and it's not their sound, though they do sound great with either four or six speakers and 30-50 watts of power.

The most impressive thing isn't even hardware, it's software: Signal Doctor by Harman software. This tech allows the speakers to instantly repair the audio signal from digital music in real time, letting your MP3s and other compressed media sound their absolute best.

Additional features include wireless connectivity over WiFI, DLNA, AirPlay, and Bluetooth, USB charging ports, and the JBL MusicFlow app that lets you easily control playback on iOS or Android.

[MIKA27]

CABELA ULTIMATE ALAKNAK TENT

Spending time outdoors and roughing it don't necessarily have to be synonymous — in fact, you can get by pretty comfortably so long as you have the right gear.

The Cabela Ultimate Alaknak Tent ($1,500) — at 13 by 27 feet — probably has more space than your cramped studio apartment, so you may decide to never head home after your next hunting or camping trip.

Ten sturdy tent poles help support the rugged waterproof polyester tent cloth, fending off the elements even on the wettest, windiest nights.

The tent sports an attached awning that's perfect for hanging out around your camp, while interior fold-down shelves and storage pouches give you plenty of room for small gear. Enough capacity to sleep 11 of your closest friends, three multi-panel windows, and the ability to accommodate a full-size wood-burning stove make this tent the next best thing to home.

[MIKA27]

Crazy Boeing 767 Pilot Takes Off On Tiny Runway After Emergency Landing

“Aviation history in the making,” says the YouTube description.

I don’t know about that, but it’s pretty crazy to watch this Ethiopian Airlines’ Boeing 767-300ER taking off in a shockingly short distance at Arusha Airport, in Tanzania. That runway is only 1631 metres long.

Keep in mind that a fully loaded 767-300ER requires about 2713 metres (8900 feet) to take off, although that varies depending on the runway elevation. But looking at Boeing’s tables and knowing that Arusha is at an elevation of 1387 metres (4,551 feet), it seems about right.

Of course, this takeoff is not a miracle. Physics are physics and flight manuals are flight manuals: such configuration and such environmental conditions for such takeoff distance.

But still, it’s a risky takeoff and a pleasure to watch — especially considering that the YouTube author claims that it came after an emergency landing.

Another angle spotted by althalus2k:

[MIKA27]

This Super-Tiny Windmill Could Someday Charge Your Phone

Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington have come up with a way to build a nickel alloy windmill so small, 10 of them could be mounted on a grain of rice. And if all goes as planned, hundreds of the little things could end up in a case that charges up your smartphone.

UT Arlington’s Smitha Rao and J.-C. Chiao designed the windmill, which at its broadest is just 1.8mm wide. Built from nickel alloy for rigidity, the little fan is self-assembled using wafer-scale semiconductor electroplating principles and a technique the team likens to origami. Rao and Chiao have partnered with WinMEMS Technologies Co., a Taiwanese company researching ways to build micro electro-mechanical systems, to bring the baby windmill to reality.

“Imagine that they can be cheaply made on the surfaces of portable electronics,” Chiao said,

“so you can place them on a sleeve for your smart phone. When the phone is out of battery power, all you need to do is to put on the sleeve, wave the phone in the air for a few minutes and you can use the phone again.”

Maybe she could design a case that aims the windmills below the user’s chin, so you could charge up your phone simply by talking on it.

[MIKA27]

Time Travelling Photographer Adds Herself Into Her Childhood Pictures

Genius. Photographer Chino Otsuka has discovered the art of time travel. Instead of exploiting a whole in the Space-time continuum to time travel, she simply digitally spliced her adult self into old photographs from her childhood. That way it looked like adult version of Otsuka was meeting child version of Otsuka. So clever.

Otsuka explains the thought process behind her excellent photo series Imagine Finding Me:

“The digital process becomes a tool, almost like a time machine, as I’m embarking on the journey to where I once belonged and at the same time becoming a tourist in my own history.”

Sometimes she mimics what she did as a kid, other times she’s simply crossing paths with her childhood self and there’s even a few pictures where it looks like she’s taking care of her childhood self. It’s clever photo manipulation but a few of these shots really make it look like she was there the entire time.

[MIKA27]

This Electronic Sleep Apnea Cure Is Like Auto-Pilot For Breathing

Sleep apnea increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. But the treatment, wearing a CPAP mask to bed, is so uncomfortable that many patients abandon it. Now, research in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine shows that a pacemaker-like electronic implant could reduce symptoms by nearly 70 per cent, by directly stimulating the muscles in the throat to keep the airway open during sleep. It’s like autopilot for breathing.

Like a cardiac pacemaker, the apnea device is implanted under the skin of the chest. A sensor placed between the fourth and fifth ribs monitors breathing patterns, sending a signal to the hypoglossal nerve with each breath. The nerve signal stimulates the muscle at the back of the tongue, keeping the airway open to allow normal breathing. Patients use a remote control to turn the device on at bedtime, and switch it off when they get up.

In a 12-month study of 126 patients fitted with the device, it reduced the number of times patients slowed or stopped breathing by nearly 70%. While the device isn’t meant for everybody — researchers say it won’t work well in very obese patients or those with certain types of soft palate collapse — the promise of CPAP-free therapy for sleep apnea patients is huge. And the wireless remote control activation means sleep mode isn’t just for smartphones anymore.

[MIKA27]

This Flying Drone Helicopter Truck Is A Real Life Transformer

What is this? A flying drone? Eight flying drones? One flying helicopter? A moving room? A truck? It’s a little bit of everything. Called the AT Black Knight Transformer, it combines the vertical take-off and landing of a helicopter with the off-road driving capabilities of a truck. So yes, that means it can fly and drive. Oh and it’s a drone.

You see, when the Black Knight Transformer, made by Advanced Tactics and spotted by Popular Science, is in its fly configuration, the rotors are sprayed out and ready for take off. But when the transformer is in drive mode, the rotors are tucked in to its side to make it look like a normal car. Like this:

Here’s how the transformer technology works:

You can see it shrink down its engines above to become slightly more drivable. And that’s the most promising thing about the Black Knight Transformer, its ability to fit into so many different situations. It can autonomously fly and land itself without risking a flight crew, it can be driven around by the people it picked up and flown again back to safety. So though maybe it’s not quite Optimus Prime yet as a transformer, it’s still a pretty sweet flying car.

[MIKA27]

Randomly Confessing To Murder During A Conversation Seems A Good Way To Pick Up

Non-sequiturs are often employed for comedic purposes, but what if you were to inject random, yet serious-sounding remarks during a regular conversation? Such is the… technique… Andrew Hales adopted when he recently approached complete strangers, engaged them in conversation and then dropped one or two emotional (and criminal) bombshells.

For the most part, his, uh, victims give no attention to his off-the-mark comments and continue to help him with his original query (which usually involves locating a cafeteria or library).

The exception is the last woman, who appears more than a little interested in Hales after he pays her a compliment, but soon follows up with the classic pick-up line “I killed a guy”.

If you’d think this would put her off, it doesn’t, though considering the way Hales delivers the line, it comes across as an actual non-sequitur.

[MIKA27]

Spectacular Photos Of SpaceShipTwo Breaking The Sound Barrier

SpaceShipTwo just finished its third rocket-powered test and reached the highest altitude its ever been at 21,640m by hitting a maximum velocity of Mach 1.4. You can see the new reflective coating on the rocket plane’s tail booms which perfectly reflects the flame and our Earth. Lovely. Cant wait to book my ticket!

Here’s the complete sequence:

SpaceShipTwo falls, just dropped from the mothership.

After being dropped from her mothership, SpaceShipTwo ignites its engine. The photo is taken from WhiteKnightTwo.

Aft view as she keeps climbing.

Maximum thrust of the hybrid engine.

Engine burnout.

[MIKA27]

Iceland Is Making Beer Out Of Dead Whales

These days, brewers get pretty creative with what they put in their beer. You can get beer containing anything from doughnuts to moon dust. And, wacky as it is, weird beer is a pretty fun conversation starter. That is, until you start putting endangered species in it.

This week, environmentalists are up in arms over Icelandic brewery Steðji’s controversial decision to team up with a whaling company and make beer that contains whale meal. The brewers say the whale makes their 5.2 per cent beer healthier, because it’s high in protein and low in fat. On the brewery’s website, they even say drinking it will make you a “true Viking”. But conservationists don’t see it that way. Leaders from Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) said that “reducing a beautiful, sentient whale to an ingredient on the side of a beer bottle is about as immoral and outrageous as it is possible to get.”

Nevertheless, Steðji stands by its brew which was made specially for Iceland’s annual mid-winter festival Thorrablot.

The brewery’s owner, Dagbjartur Ariliusson, told reporters this week that serving the whale beer is in line with the centuries-old tradition of eating whale, including pickled whale blubber, during the festival. But, honestly, capitalism might just take care of this. Evidently, the whale beer tastes absolutely awful.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: These Doomsday Planes Protect Heads Of State When Disaster Strikes

In the event of a nuclear strike, we’re going to be in a little bit of trouble. But at least we’ll die safe in the knowledge that the valiant leaders of our nation — or any yahoos lucky enough to be in office at the time — will be escaping the nuclear holocaust in a fleet of environmentally-impervious airborne command centres.

The Boeing E-4 Advanced Airborne Command Post, part of a fleet of four highly-modified airliners collectively known as project Nightwatch, serve as the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC) for the National Command Authorities. So basically, when we go to Defcon 1, whether it’s due to say a terrorist attack or a North Korean nuke strike or first contact with the Borg, our nation’s leaders can take to the skies and remain out of immediate harm while maintaining full command of the country.

While the President has Air Force One, the Joint Chiefs of Staff ride on these planes, each designated as E-4B. Based on the Boing 747-200, the $US258 million E-4B measures 70m long with a 60m wingspan. Its four General Electric turbofans provide 12 hours of endurance at altitudes above 30,000 feet, though with its mid-air refuelling capability, the E-4B can stay up indefinitely.

The fleet entered active service between 1974 and 1985. Each carries a crew of up to 112 crew (in addition to the VIPs) and is built to withstand virtually all attacks — nuclear, chemical, biological, direct fire, and even EMP — without a significant loss of functionality. In fact, the E-4B still uses analogue instruments in its cockpit specifically because they’re less susceptible to EMP damage than more modern glass displays. The rest of the plane’s systems are cutting-edge and largely classified.

This includes its communications suite. Not only does the aircraft offer satellite communications for worldwide communications, it also carries a 5-mile long spool antenna for the VLF (very low frequency) transmissions, allowing those aboard the plane to communicate directly with the nation’s fleet of nuclear-armed submarines up to 5000km away.

The Air Force only has four E-4B’s in total with one fully-fuelled on standby at all times, often within a stone’s throw of Air Force One so that if the President’s plane is compromised, he’s got a back-up at the ready. The other three not on standby also serve a number of non-end of the world functions such as ferrying FEMA crews to natural disaster sites then acting as temporary command posts until the situation on the ground stabilises.

[MIKA27]

A Massive Road-Building Initiative Is Transforming Africa's Landscape

Africa is home to some of the poorest road networks in the world, which act as a major barrier for trade, education and healthcare. Not for long, though — as it’s embarking on a frenetic road-building exercise that could revolutionise the entire continent.

You only need look at the numbers to realise that Africa’s roads need attention. Figures from the World Bank reveal that the continent has 204 kilometres of road per 1000 square kilometres of land area, a quarter of which is paved. The world average is 944 kilometres per 1000 square kilometres, with over half paved. Sure, that’s partly due to the fact that the continent is so large, but normalising by population makes the picture even more bleak: the UK boasts 6231 kilometres of paved road per million inhabitants, while South Africa manages just 1367 and South Sudan a mere 19.

Those figures are compelling enough that the Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa is taking the issue seriously, sinking 30 per cent of its budget into transport. By 2040, it plans to grow the current network of major roads in Africa from 10,000 kilometres to 100,000. By then, through a process of upgrading existing roads or building entirely new ones, the continent should boast nine major arterial highways, some along the coast, others cross-country. Another 250,000 kilometres of smaller roads will also be upgraded or built, too, along with 70,000 kilometres of basic rural routes.

All told, that’s a load of road. So what can the continent expect from them? The intention, as New Scientistpoints out, is to “boost trade, spark growth and create jobs.” That’s not as speculative as it sounds, either: a recent study near Johannesburg revealed that farmers living fours hours travel time from a major city achieved 45 per cent crop yield, while those eight hours away managed just 5 per cent. Efficient journeys allowed them to get tools and supplies more easily, and the benefit speaks for itself. Education and healthcare will also, naturally, benefit by reduced transit times.

It’s not all roses, though. Much of the road-building has been spearheaded by mining organisations desperate to lay their hands on the mineral deposits of Central Africa. Such developments aren’t very flexible in terms of routing, and sadly, many of the required roads storm straight through irreplaceable natural habitat. Add too that the natural environmental damage caused by building roads anywhere, not just in Africa, and the human risk created by the accidents that result from faster motor traffic, and there’s at least some cause for concern.

But in the relentless push for development, those downsides are far outweighed by the promise of improved trade, education, healthcare and, above all, prosperity. Africa’s plans for its new road infrastructure are storming along like the juggernauts that will end up using it — and it looks like little will be able to get in the way.

[MIKA27]

Lightning Kills Three People On A Beach, Injures 22

Argentina’s beaches are getting quite dangerous during the southern hemisphere’s summer. Seventy people were injured by a swarm of piranhas about two weeks ago and now lightning has killed three teens and injured 22 people in a seaside spa of Villa Gesell, a coastal town in the province of Buenos Aires. Earth can be quite an unforgiving place at times.

The lightning struck some tents right on the beach. The victims were 17, 19 and 21 years old. Among the 22 injured, there were 16 adults and six kids. Two young women are still in the hospital, one in critical state.

Talking to the Argentinian newspaper la Nación, the owner of the spa said it was terrible:

We saw a ball of fire and we heard a deafening noise. The people in the tents flew three or four meters because of the impact. One of the men died burned while driving a quad and another one died when he was playing soccer.

It could have been much worse: “It had rained a bit before. Thankfully many people were gone. Otherwise I don’t know how many more people could have been injured.”

By the way, according to the latest statistics, there’s one in a million chance of being struck by lightning in the United States. Exactly one in 1,107,143 (a figure obtained by dividing the population (310,000,000 people) by the number of people struck by lightning (280.)

[MIKA27]

How Star Trek's Architects Built The San Francisco Of The Future

For architecture nerds, the best part about Star Trek: Into Darkness is undeniably the phantasmagoric depiction of a 23rd-century San Francisco. Towering skyscrapers lined the horizon and flying vehicles weaved between them. It was all so beautiful — until a starship crashed into Earth and wiped out half the city.

Still! Building the San Francisco of the future was a unique conceptual and architectural challenge for the CGI whizzes on the film. This peek into the design process gives you a good idea of just what it takes to build a city that doesn’t exist yet.

[MIKA27]

Sylvester Stallone: "Rocky made me insufferable"

Sylvester Stallone has admitted the success of Rocky made him "insufferable" and think he was "an authority on everything".

"I abused power badly," the US star told host Jonathan Ross during an on-stage interview at the London Palladium on Saturday.

"I read some of the interviews I gave now and wish I could go back and punch myself in the face," he continued.

But he added a dismal showing of a later film brought him back to Earth.

Stallone had left the set of Rocky II to attend a first-day showing of 1978 drama Paradise Alley, only to find there were just two people in the audience.

"And one of them was asleep," he sighed, admitting it had been "a humbling experience" but "a good thing" for him in the long run.

Described as An Evening with Sylvester Stallone, the West End event saw the 67-year-old entertain an audience of appreciative fans with anecdotes spanning the breadth of his four-decade career.

Billed as Stallone's "first West End debut", the 90-minute interview also saw the star of the Rambo and Expendables films show another side to his macho persona.

Bursting into song at one point, he impressed at another by reciting a short passage from Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

Stallone is starring with Robert De Niro in boxing comedy Grudge Match

The evening climaxed with him being inducted into the London Palladium Hall of Fame - an accolade previously bestowed upon Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Discussing the genesis of boxing classic Rocky, Stallone revealed he had been offered up to $300,000 - "a million dollars today" - to let the film be made with another lead.

The Italian-American said it had been a "crossroads moment" in his life, but that he knew he would have "hated" himself had he not stuck to his guns.

The uplifting tale of a lowly debt collector who gets a shot at the world heavyweight title became a box office smash, going on to win three Academy Awards.

Five sequels followed, starting with Rocky II in 1979 and culminating with 2006's Rocky Balboa - which Stallone said was "unquestionably" his favourite.

The actor may reprise his signature role in Creed, a spin-off film that would see the older Balboa train the grandson of a former adversary.

"People think it's Rocky VII but it's not," he said, adding it would be "a very interesting challenge" to revive the character in a different guise.

The actor's John Rambo character, introduced in 1982's First Blood, has enjoyed similar longevity, going on to appear in three more movies.

On Saturday, however, Stallone said the series had "maybe run its course", joking that he would only consider reviving his celebrated commando character if he could be a security guard in Las Vegas.

Moving on to his fellow action leads, Stallone expressed admiration for Expendables co-star Jason Statham, while admitting that he and Arnold Schwarzenegger had "hated each other" during the height of their action careers.

Yet he had little to say about Bruce Willis, whom he called "greedy and lazy" last year in a widely publicised Twitter rant.

There was also no mention of Stallone's actor son Sage, who was found dead last year at his Hollywood home at the age of 36.

Stallone has been in London promoting his new boxing comedy Grudge Match alongside co-star Robert De Niro.

The Palladium event followed a similar one last June, at which Al Pacino took questions about his life and career.

[MIKA27]

Kenyan 'corpse' wakes up in Naivasha mortuary

Kenyan authorities have launched an investigation into how a man declared dead in a hospital woke up alive in its mortuary the next day.

Shocked mortuary workers at Naivasha hospital ran away when the body stirred and was seen to be breathing.

Paul Mutora, who had tried to kill himself by swallowing insecticide, was pronounced dead on Wednesday night.

The chief medic said the drug used to treat him slowed the heart beat, which may have led to the mistake.

"This might have confused medical personnel, but the victim was saved before he could be embalmed," Dr Joseph Mburu, the superintendent in charge of Naivasha District Hospital, was quoted by Kenya's Standard newspaper as saying.

According to the paper, Mr Mutora's father and other relatives visited the morgue on Thursday morning to view the body and then returned home to start funeral arrangements.

"But in the afternoon we were informed, he was alive and were left in shock," the father said.

A witness told the Star newspaper that when noises were heard inside the cold room: "The mortuary attendant and a worker took to their heels screaming."

Journalists photographed Mr Mutora later recovering on a male ward in the hospital in the lakeside town, 90km (55 miles) north-west of the capital, Nairobi,

"This was a mistake from the start and I apologise to my father," the patient said.

[MIKA27]

SWAY | LEANING ELECTRIC THREE WHEELER

Sway Motorsports have introduced at this week´s CES, a compact all-electric, three wheel vehicle named Sway.

The electric trike is targeted at the in-city rider, it features a patented tilting system allowing unparalleled handling on crowded city streets. The dynamic vehicle offers great stability and provides the thrill and maneuverability of motorcycling without the same risk of falling. The creators state that driving Sway is a unique feeling, like a fusion of skiing and motorcycling.

Three models are currently available, the Basic at $4999(20 mile range | 35 mph top speed), the Lithium at $7999(40 mile range | 60 mph top speed), and the LithiumPlus at $10999(60 mile range | 70 mph top speed).

[MIKA27]

COGITO SMARTWATCH

Think all smartwatches are destined to look dorky? Think again.

At a glance, the Cogito Smartwatch ($180) looks just like a regular timepeice — round case, black face, hour and minute hands — but at the press of a button becomes so much more. Because that black face is actually a digital display, notifying you of incoming calls, texts, and emails, as well as calendar appointments and alarms.

Will it let you read the whole thing, like a Pebble? No, but frankly, people that stare at their wrists for long periods of time freak me out anyway.

[MIKA27]

MUSTAFA'S SPACE DRIVE: AN EGYPTIAN STUDENT'S QUANTUM PHYSICS INVENTION

Remember the name, because you might see it again: Aisha Mustafa, a 19-year-old Egyptian physics student, patented a new type of propulsion system for spacecraft that uses cutting edge quantum physics instead of thrusters.

First, a little background: One of the strange quantum facts at work in Mustafa's engine idea is that there's no such thing as a vacuum, devoid of particles, waves, and energy. Instead the universe's supposedly empty spaces are filled with a roiling sea of particles and anti-particles that pop into existence, then annihilate each other in such a short space of time that you can't readily detect them.

Mustafa invented a way of tapping this quantum effect via what's known as the dynamic Casimir effect. This uses a "moving mirror" cavity, where two very reflective very flat plates are held close together, and then moved slightly to interact with the quantum particle sea. It's horribly technical, but the end result is that Mustafa's use of shaped silicon plates similar to those used in solar power cells results in a net force being delivered. A force, of course, means a push or a pull and in space this equates to a drive or engine.

In terms of space propulsion, this is amazing. Most forms of spacecraft rely on the rocket principle to work: Some fuel is made energetic and then thrust out of an engine, pushing the rocket forward. It's tricky stuff to get right, particularly on Earth, which is why we shouldn't be surprised SpaceX's recent launch stopped at the critical moment due to a problem with one of its chemical rocket engines. For in-space maneuvering, many different types of rocket are used, but even exotic ones like ion drives (shown in a NASA image above) need fuel. The only space drive that doesn't involve hauling fuel and complex systems into orbit is a solar sail. And Mustafa's invention can, rudimentarily, be compared to a solar sail...because it doesn't need "fuel" as such, and exerts just the tiniest push compared to the thundery flames of SpaceX's rockets. It's potential is enormous--because of its mechanical simplicity and reliability it could make satellite propulsion lighter, cheaper, and thus indirectly lower the cost of space missions of all sorts.

And if you want proof that the tiniest of pushes can propel a spacecraft, check this out: Two Pioneer space probes, launched in the 1970s, are the farthest manmade objects from Earth...but they're not as far away as they should be. Over the course of a year they deviate by hundreds of kilometers from where all our science says they must be in orbit, and it's been found that it's down to the tiniest of pushes coming from radiators on-board that radiate heat waves out slghtly more in one direction than another.

Aisha's invention is so promising that her university's staff aided with a patent application. She intends to study the design further in the hope of testing it out for real in space, but as the OnIslam.net site points out she notes that there's no funding for a department of space science and this prevents important research being carried out in strife-ridden Egypt.

[MIKA27]

Jennifer McCarthy Releases 911 Call After Space Alien, ****** Gun Debacle

This isn't exactly poetic justice.

Jennifer McCarthy, the ex-wife of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy, made headlines this week when she was accused of whipping a gun out of her ****** and threatening her boyfriend during an argument about space aliens. In a statement and 911 call she released yesterday, McCarthy says she was the real victim.

The 48-year-old Santa Fe, N.M. woman says she called 911 "after having been choked, pushed to the floor and hit in the face by a drunken Mark Paleologo on Saturday morning following a silly argument the evening before."

Paleologo and deputies say McCarthy got into a dispute last Saturday with her 53-year-old lover over space aliens. McCarthy left her house and returned in lingerie,allegedly packing a handgun in her ******. She pulled it out after some simulated sex, then asked Paleologo, "Who is crazy, you or me?"

That's when she allegedly pointed the gun at his head. Paleologo says he wrestled the gun away from her before the 911 call.

In her statement, McCarthy tried to downplay the allegations in the report:

"My call to 911 obviously de-escalated the situation and at that point I thought the matter was resolved and did not require further law enforcement attention. Consequently, I tried to protect Mr. Paleologo and minimized the attack to the officer.

At no time did I point a gun at Mr. Paleologo. At no time did I place a gun or any weapon anywhere in my body.

Unfortunately, Mark’s preposterous version of events was repeated in the complaint and resulted in my arrest."

McCarthy was charged with aggravated assault on a household member.

[Jeremy Festa]

MUSTAFA'S SPACE DRIVE: AN EGYPTIAN STUDENT'S QUANTUM PHYSICS INVENTION

Heavy!

[MIKA27]

Fate of Ark of the Covenant Revealed in Hebrew Text

A newly translated Hebrew text claims to reveal where treasures from King Solomon's temple were hidden and discusses the fate of the Ark of the Covenant itself.

But unlike the Indiana Jones movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark," the text leaves the exact location of the Ark unclear and states that it, and the other treasures, "shall not be revealed until the day of the coming of the Messiah son of David …" putting it out of reach of any would-be treasure seeker.

King Solomon's Temple, also called the First Temple, was plundered and torched by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II in the sixth century B.C., according to the Hebrew Bible. The Ark of the Covenant is a chest that, when originally built, was said to have held tablets containing the 10 commandments. It was housed in Solomon's Temple, a place that contained many different treasures.

[MIKA27]

Aussie Mum In Anti-Bitcoin Crusade After Son's Death

This is a tragic story.

Anna Skelly came home from holiday with her husband to find her son dead on her bed after what looks to be a bad reaction to cocaine. Cocaine which he reportedly acquired from an online drug marketplace, financed by Bitcoin transactions. Now the Sydney mother is going on a crusade against the crypto-currency, calling on the Federal Government to ban it in Australia.

Anna Skelly has launched her own change.org petition to have Bitcoin banned in Australia.

“Tony Abbott,” the petition starts, “commence an inquiry into Bitcoin – it’s protecting drug dealers.”

Rather than mine some Bitcoins to go spend online, Daniel reportedly paid money into the bank account of Cryptospend: a sort of proxy service for buying Bitcoin-related products.

Cryptospend allows you to deposit real money into an account and place an order saying what you want from an online store before the site from which you purchased it delivers the items straight to your door. In this case, that delivery was drugs.

Following the transaction history, Mrs Skelly is calling for the anonymity behind Bitcoin transactions to be removed, or for the currency to be banned in Australia altogether:

“On the 5th November 2013 my 21 year old son purchased drugs online by making a cash deposit at NAB Warriewood, into an account called Cryptospend, as instructed by

of Cryptospend Australia Pty Ltd, Brisbane. This company withdrew from the U.S. following regulatory pressure and has now established in Australia. It is marketing its services ostensibly as a bitcoin currency exchange service via the web.

My son made the payment to Cryptospend on the Tuesday and on Friday he received alduterated [sic] drugs delivered to our home in express post envelopes which killed him.

Despite insisting that his business only operates a currency exchange service for bitcoin, I believe Mr Jeremy West is happy to also profit from facilitating the online drug trade and uses push marketing in emails. It is only

who knows to which dealer’s account my son’s payment actually went.”

Concerned parents make the world go around in a society largely scared of technology it doesn’t understand, but I’m worried that Mrs. Skelly is pointing the finger at the wrong villain.

Sure, Bitcoin is used in some of the darker circles of the web to finance the purchase of drugs, guns and even contract killings, but so is real-world money. Real-world money is used to pay everyone from gun runners, corrupt bureaucrats and drug dealers; all of whom arguably do more harm to the world right now than Bitcoin does.

The real villain in the tale is the online drug marketplaces like Silk Road which sell these illicit substances to anyone with a Bitcoin wallet. In the same way the police crack down on dealers on a street corner, law enforcement agencies are chasing down the owners of drug bazaars on the internet. It just takes time.

Treasurer Joe Hockey was reported in The Canberra Times as saying that he “understood the basis” of the petition and campaign to ban Bitcoin in Australia, but said that any regulation against Bitcoin needed to function at an international level rather than a Federal level.

We don’t want to trivialise the tragic death of poor Daniel; we just want to make sure the right people go down for it.

[MIKA27]

First Game Of Thrones Season 4 Trailer Is Out -- And It Looks Awesome

The first official Game of Thrones season 4 trailer is out at last, and it looks fantastic. April 6 seems so far away. Now I need another shot of House of Cards.

I just look at it and my excitement grows as I anticipate all the moments that I know are going to happen — because I just can’t wait for them to happen (if that makes any sense at all.)

[MIKA27]

Jaguar's Awesome-Looking Superbowl Ad Is Boarding The Hype Train Already

The Superbowl doesn’t kick off until 2 February, but there’s plenty of distance to cover on the hype train before now and then as Jaguar can attest to. Its teaser for the Superbowl is up already, centring on great British villains. Forget all that, and click on this just to watch the amazing Jaguar F-Type race a helicopter gunship.

http://youtu.be/8sx5fDGbVoQ

Sir Ben Kingsley fronts the campaign, and if this is the teaser, I can’t wait to see the full clip.