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[MIKA27]

New Mexico School Shooting Leaves 2 Seriously Injured

ROSWELL, N.M. (AP) — A 12-year-old New Mexico boy drew a shotgun from a band-instrument case and shot and wounded two classmates at his middle school Tuesday morning before a teacher talked him into dropping the weapon and he was taken into custody, officials and witnesses said.

A boy was critically injured and a girl was in satisfactory condition following the shooting at Berrendo Middle School in Roswell.

Gov. Susana Martinez said the students were in the gym, where they typically hang out before classes start during cold and inclement weather. The 12-year-old opened fire with the shotgun there at about 8 a.m.

However, he was "quickly stopped by one staff member who walked right up to him and asked him to set down the firearm, which he did," Martinez said at a news conference.

Superintendent Tom Burris said the school's faculty had participated in "active shooter" training, and they responded appropriately Tuesday.

"In the 10 seconds that transpired from the time of this thing starting until the teacher had control of the weapon, there was no cowardice," Burris said. "There was protection for our kids. Everyone acted and did their duties today at Berrendo Middle School."

Officials at University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas, said an 11-year-old boy was flown there in critical condition and a 13-year-old girl arrived in serious condition. Her condition was upgraded to satisfactory Tuesday evening.

Information from nurses treating the boy indicates he was the shooter's target, hospital spokesman Eric Finley said. There was some confusion about the boy's age, but Finley said his parents told the hospital he is 11.

The governor said a staff member received very minor injuries but declined medical care because he wanted to stay and help.

The suspected shooter, whom police have not named, was transferred to an Albuquerque psychiatric hospital following a hearing Tuesday, according to attorney Robert Gorence, who is representing his family. Gorence said the family will release a statement Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, hundreds of people poured into the Roswell Civic Center for a prayer vigil, including elected officials and law enforcement officers from various agencies. There were many hugs and tears.

"We really need this," Roswell resident Maria Lucero, 35, said of the vigil. "We need to pray for the families of the victims and the little boy that did the shooting. I'm going to pray for them all."

Eighth-grader Odiee Carranza said she was walking to the school gym when the shooter bumped into her as he rushed past. She told him to be careful, and he apologized and continued on. The boy ran to the gym, where he pulled a gun from a band instrument case and fired at the students.

"Then he shot up in the sky, then dropped the gun, and then some teacher grabbed the kid that had the gun," Carranza said.

Carranza described the shooter as a "smart kid and a nice kid."

Student Gabby Vasquez said the boy who was shot "was really nice, got along with everybody."

State Police Chief Pete Kassetas said the investigation was in the early stages, and authorities were still looking into a possible motive. He estimated more than 100 students and faculty members needed to be interviewed.

"I don't have a lot of answers as of yet," Kassetas said, adding police believe they have the only individual responsible for the shooting in custody. The suspect's name was not released.

"I want to make sure the community knows there's really nobody else out there," Kassetas said.

A statement from the state police said authorities responded at 8:11 a.m. The school was placed on lockdown and children were bused to a nearby mall, where parents picked them up.

At the mall, parents waited anxiously. Some held hands, while others hugged each other.

Classes were later canceled and won't resume until Thursday.

Two prayer services were scheduled for Tuesday night at Roswell's Calvary Baptist and First Baptist churches. Pastor Chris Mullennix of Calvary Baptist said parents were worried and heartbroken, but there was a sense among many he spoke with that the community would be able to come together.

"This is something that strikes people to the core," he told The Associated Press. "We're not talking about a flesh wound or just a mental wound. We're talking about the very souls of people being shaken and rocked by something like this."

Mullennix said the prayer services will start the healing process.

"This is tragic but yet people in Roswell are tough, and people in Roswell will recover because we do have a sense of community, and I think that's really important," he said.

In the hours after the shooting, social media sites were flooded with sentiments offering prayers for the community. Some Berrendo students posted on their Facebook pages that they were frightened and didn't want to return to classes.

"I'm still scared to go back to school," Carranza said.

Roswell has a population of about 50,000. It is a center for ranching and farming, and is home to the New Mexico Military Institute, the only state-supported military college in the West. The city is perhaps best-known as the site of an alleged UFO crash in 1947.

[MIKA27]

The North Dakota town that thwarted a neo-Nazi takeover

Bobby Harper remembers thinking there was something strange about his new neighbour in the tiny rural community of Leith, North Dakota, when they first met.

It was a warm dusk in autumn 2012 on the sleepy town's main road, a gravel path that curls away through wheat fields to the vast Great Plains sky.

"He said, 'hey, do you have any land for sale?'" recalls Harper, the town's sole black resident. "And I said, 'no'.

"He wouldn't quite turn around, so I could see his face and I thought that was kind of strange."

Little did Harper or any other resident suspect, but the newcomer was Craig Cobb, a notorious neo-Nazi.

He had been quietly snapping up homes in the town since April that year, with the intention of turning it into a white separatists' enclave called Cobbsville.

For the barely 20 inhabitants of Leith, it was the beginning of a nightmare that is still not over.

Sherrill Harper (with husband Bobby) received a letter saying: "What are you doing 'married' to a *****?"

Cobb, the son of a multi-millionaire businessman, was fleeing allegations of inciting hatred in Canada when he made his way over the border into North Dakota early in 2012.

The 62-year-old's plans for Leith were exposed in August last year by the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based civil rights organisation.

It published a report detailing his acquisition of about a dozen cheap plots of land in the town, which lies 50 miles (80km) south-west of the state capital, Bismarck.

Harper's wife, Sherrill, a 59-year-old homemaker, says: "I felt this was surreal. Leith, this little, teensy town. This man had these big plans to take it over.

"And because I was a white woman married to an African-American man, they wouldn't want us here."

After his scheme was exposed, Cobb began flying Nazi flags from his ramshackle, two-storey home.

Clockwise from left: Craig Cobb; A sign he put up in Leith; One of the flags he flew outside his home

In a part of the country where many people are of German and Russian ancestry, the swastika is something residents neither want to forget, nor especially be reminded of.

Cobb, meanwhile, began handing out property deeds to some of the American far-right's most prominent figures, urging them to settle in Leith and help him seize a voting majority.

In September, Sherrill Harper received a letter which urged her to join Cobb's movement. It said: "What are you doing 'married' to a *****?"

Later that month, a small group of members of the National Socialist Movement, formerly the American Nazi Party, travelled to Leith at Cobb's invitation to stage a far-right jamboree.

They were greatly outnumbered by counter-demonstrators, many from the nearby Indian reservation.

• National Socialist Movement: Founded in 1994, it is one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, with chapters in more than 30 states
  
• Council of Conservative Citizens: Founded 1985, sprung from the pro-segregation movement in the southern states
  
• American Freedom Party: Founded 2009, with origins in California. Has a racist agenda and is against immigration
  
• Klan groups: Dating back to post-American Civil War era, they are active in most US states and may have more than 5,000 members
  

Bobby Harper, a 53-year-old welder, says: "Things were so in turmoil that we considered getting rid of the town, just letting Cobb take over."

But his wife adds: "I really believe he thought the people of Leith would roll over and play dead. And I think he was very surprised when that's not what happened."

The town's fight-back began with a website to publicise its predicament, along with a legal defence fund.

Gregory Bruce, who set up the portal, said: "The impact on Leith is it's pretty much destroyed everyone's peaceful life.

"It's caused them to feel very frightened by just one man. He's even threatened to bring [former] prisoners here from different states. It's a zoo. We call it a circus of freaks."

Self-proclaimed skinhead Kynan Dutton, 29, and his girlfriend Deborah Henderson, 33, answered Cobb's rallying call.

They moved to Leith in early October from the state of Oregon.

Deborah Henderson, the last remaining Cobb ally, recently moved out of Leith

Later that month, police were called to eject a drunken Dutton from a town-hall meeting after he launched into a racist, foul-mouthed rant.

Sherrill Harper remembers that scene - a recording of which shows Dutton making a Nazi salute and shouting: "Sieg heil" - as a turning point.

She says: "I thought, 'these are the kinds of people that are going to take over our town?' This is not what I wanted."

On 16 November, Cobb and Dutton swaggered through the town carrying shotguns and shouting obscenities. Alarmed residents called the police.

Both men are now in custody, each facing seven felony terrorism charges and, if convicted, between 10 and 35 years in prison.

The town, meanwhile, hired a lawyer to issue citations forcing Cobb to upgrade his home, which has no running water or sewer.

His house has been declared legally unfit for habitation and two other properties he bought are earmarked for demolition.

Henderson was the last remaining Cobb ally in Leith until she recently left the town.

The BBC spoke to her shortly before she moved away.

As she stood sobbing outside Cobb's dilapidated home, where she was living with her three young daughters, she cut a lonely figure.

But then Henderson started praising the White Man's Bible, a stridently anti-Semitic, racist screed.

She told an anti-parable about a pioneer-era mother who finds a rattlesnake under her child's bed in their frontier log cabin.

When asked what the serpent might represent, she suggested: "Multiculturalism."

"I definitely like and support things that are good for the white race," she said.

Of her African-American neighbour: "I'm honestly thankful that there's only one. I know that sounds rude."

In a brief telephone interview from Mercer County jail in North Dakota, Cobb told the BBC he had moved to North Dakota because it was "one of the last Aryan bastions" in the US. The thinly populated state is 90% white, according to census data.

Cobb spent much of the interview discussing his belief that there is a conspiracy to breed the white race out of existence.

But he defended his vision for Leith as his "right to free associate", while arguing that the state is stopping him practising his "religion of racial awareness".

An arraignment hearing is scheduled for Cobb and Dutton on 15 January.

Tom Metzger, a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard who was given a property in Leith by Cobb, says the attempted takeover of the town has failed.

The 75-year-old, of Warsaw, Indiana, told the BBC: "Craig got carried away.

"I warned him not to bring in the Hollywood-style Nazis, or everyone would go crazy. And that's exactly what's happened."

Still, the people of Leith are not complacent.

"Just because Cobb's in jail, this isn't over," says Sherrill Harper.

"I still pray his plans are defeated."

[MIKA27]

Topless photos atop Empire State Building spark lawsuit

Model Shelby Carter, said to be a friend of photographer Allen Henson, was filmed while topless on 9 August 2013

The owners of New York's Empire State Building have sued a photographer who shot images of a topless woman on the skyscraper's observation deck.

They say Allen Henson's actions in August were "inappropriate" at a family tourist attraction and that he lacked permission to hold a photo shoot there.

The owners seek $1.1m (£668,455) in damages.

Henson says the photos were taken of a friend on his personal cell phone and have "zero commercial value".

The New York-based photographer and Iraq war veteran told the BBC he first learned of the lawsuit through the news media on Monday and had not yet retained a lawyer.

'A great view'

"It wasn't a photo shoot," he said, adding the images were taken of a good friend, Texas-based model Shelby Carter, on the 86th storey observation deck.

"We thought it would just be wonderful, a great view… no harm no foul," he added. "Nobody was injured, no children were around."

In a lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court, the companies that own the building and operate the observation deck argue the incident threatened their ability to ensure a "safe, secure and appropriate place for families and tourists".

ESRT Observatory and ESRT Empire State Building also claim Henson lacked the required permission to use the trademarked image of the popular tourist spot, which attracts four million visitors annually.

The photographer told the BBC the photos were not intended for commercial distribution and he had not made any money from them since they were taken.

He also added that many of the tourists around him on 9 August were also taking photos and video on their personal mobile phones without prior permission.

"It's not logical," he said of the lawsuit. "They've made a mistake here."

[MIKA27]

Mystery of Alexander the Great's death solved? Ruler was 'killed by toxic wine' claim scientists

Alexander the Great may have been killed by toxic wine made from a poisonous but harmless-looking plant, scientists have claimed.

The mystery of why the Greek King of Macedon, ruler of the largest empire in the ancient world, died at just 32 has baffled historians and scientists for over 2000 years.

Some argue that he passed due to natural causes while others believe he was secretly murdered using poison at a celebratory banquet.

His death in 323BCE came at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon after he developed a fever and soon became unable to speak and walk. He was ill for 12 days.

Dr Leo Schep, a toxicologist from New Zealand’s National Poisons Centre says it is impossible that poisons such as arsenic were to blame - as cited in some theories - as death would have come too fast.

Instead, in his new research, Dr Schep argues that the most likely culprit was Veratrum album, a poisonous plant from the lily family also known as white or false hellebore.

Often fermented by the Greeks as a herbal treatment for inducing vomiting, importantly, it could account for the 12 days it took for the leader to die.

It would also match an account of Alexander the Great’s death written by ancient Greek historian Diodorus, who said he was struck with pain after drinking a large bowl of unmixed wine in honour of Hercules.

“Veratrum poisoning is heralded by the sudden onset of epigastric and substernal pain, which may also be accompanied by nausea and vomiting, followed by bradycardia and hypotension with severe muscular weakness. Alexander suffered similar features for the duration of his illness,” the research, printed in the medical journal Clinical Toxicology says.

Dr Schep has been working on the mystery for over 10 years after he was approached by a team for a BBC documentary in 2003.

“They asked me to look into it for them and I said, 'Oh yeah, I'll give it a go, I like a challenge' - thinking I wasn't going to find anything. And to my utter surprise, and their surprise, we found something that could fit the bill,” he told The New Zealand Herald.

Dr Shep does however caution that despite his theory, the actual cause of death cannot be proven: “We'll never know really,” he says.

[MIKA27]

China Is Testing A New Ultra-High Speed Missile Vehicle

According to Pentagon officials, China’s military has begun testing of a new ultra-high speed missile vehicle, which is designed to deliver warheads through US missile defenses.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that test of the new hypersonic glide vehicle — referred to as WU-14 by the Pentagon — were carried out last week on January 9. The aircraft was detected “travelling at extremely high speeds” over China, and was apparently “designed to be launched atop one of China’s intercontinental ballistic missiles”, before it glides at speeds over 10 times the speed of sound.

If the story is correct, it would be huge leap forward in terms of China’s aircraft arsenal. Indeed, it sounds like it’s a rival of the US Military’s Hypersonic Technology Vehicle, pictured above, which is also undergoing testing; the fact that China is catching up so quickly is a big deal.

All in, if the sources at the Pentagon are right, it’s another sign that China is seeking to build its defence infrastructure apace.

Though quite what it plans to do with it remains to be seen.

[MIKA27]

Senator Proposes 140km/h Speed Limits For Australia

We’ve sat in Australian traffic jams for years, endlessly jealous of Germany’s amazing autobahn system that lets you go as fast as you feel safe going while others get the hell out of your way. There are renewed calls from a New South Wales-Senator-elect to make this a reality, but something tells me the plan isn’t entirely thought out yet.

Senator-elect David Leyonhjelm of New South Wales is behind the new push, reportedly calling for freeway speed limits to be abolished and have them set by motorists actually using the roads.

He’s all for speed limits of 140km/h on freeways, and the abolition of 40km/h zones adding that if there were no monitoring in these zones, nobody would do that speed.

While he’s probably right, those 40km/h zones are there to protect kids in school zones and those getting off buses, so let’s not abolish those.

And let’s keep in mind, as Fairfax points out, this plan comes from the guy who thought that charging asylum seekers $50,000 to “come through the front door”, while arming more people in order to prevent gun violence were good ideas. Oh boy.

[MIKA27]

A Swede's Insane Rant Against The Internet As Told By Google Translate

Bo Bergman, a 73-year-old Swedish man living in the quiet locality of Simlångsdalen (population about 500) is not reading this right now. This is because Bo Bergman really hates the internet. Like, a lot.

In fact, Bo Bergman’s distaste for the festering contagion that is our precious information superhighway has grown so strong that he felt compelled to pen a call to action, one that was ultimately published in his local paper. Bo Bergman’s one, little request? Shut it down. Shut the whole goddamn internet down.

The letter was already ridiculous in its native Swedish, but run the piece through Google Translate, and you walk away with an absolute masterpiece. A Luddite’s dream of overblown technological fatalism, with an icing of machine translation. Here is the Google-translated piece in its entirety, but you can head over to Hallandsposten to see the manifesto in all its original glory.

Technology. I am come from the analogue time because I seem to see today’s world from the perspective of the younger ones can not do, it’s because they have nothing to compare to. I am 40-baby boom, and to view the “blindness” of the young is deeply depressing.

I mean precisely that, by and large, have now become slaves of machines. When Jesus never came, saw computer technology and the Internet as a saviour . Look around, everywhere people standing and staring at a computer screen!

Take any workplace, doctor, bookseller, go in every single place, use your eyes and your brain, and think!Outrageously!

This “computer prostitution” many are forced to, in order to have food on the tables. Unequivocally, it takes several times longer today to perform an errand, than 20 years ago.Everywhere, everywhere, codes and other things should be kept in the head, to write them down, then they may be stolen and exploited. And is made.

Are there any who can deny it unbearably lengthy procedures surrounding everything from a cup of coffee, a great deal?And if the power goes out, it stops everything! Everything!Pharmacy, medical center, hospital, train, plane, everything stops, and even business doors!

The Internet has become the criminals and the self Sick great forum! All that evil is rampant as weeds, and everything just spreads.

My suggestion: Shut down the internet! You can not have gone too far, says surely you. Non! Return the Internet to the Military Department, if at all, before everything collapses. Scrap maybe there too.

Human beings are designed for analogue technology = hands that move towards a meter. It’s all come from the discovery of the sundial. So we measured the first time sooner. Our genes are “analogue”. If someone says that the clock is for example 13:47, what does that say?Nothing, hard to understand. But looking at an analogue clock, and you understand immediately!

What do you others who have “stuck in the trap”?

Bo Bergman

MIKA:

[MIKA27]

How Wind And Dust Are Spreading A Deadly Fungal Disease

Called the “silent epidemic,” a little-known fungal disease called valley fever has become 10 times more common in the past decade. Its fungal spores are being spread by dust storms in the American Southwest. Exactly why valley fever suddenly increased has nagged at public health officials, but a piece in The New Yorker suggests something quite prosaic is partially responsible — construction.

Valley fever is endemic to the Southwest desert — including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Texas — which means that the fungus predates modern human settlement in the region. Dana Goodyear writes, for example, about a region just north of Los Angeles, where development has encroached into valley fever territory:

Antelope Valley has seen its population double in 30 years, and it has been transformed from a sleepy agricultural backwater to a dense exurb. Fields that once grew alfalfa — a water-intensive crop that has become too expensive to cultivate — now grow houses, in master-planned communities of 20-five hundred units.

People have stubbornly insisted on living in inhospitable environments before, devising technology — central heat or mosquito-killing pesticides, for example — to survive. But the very construction of all these new houses may be stirring up fungal spores in the Southwest. The fungus usually lives as long filaments in the soil that break off as airborne spores. Outbreaks tend to occur after disturbances in the soil, such as archeological digs, earthquakes, or dust storms. It’s not a stretch to add construction to the list.

Dust storms that spread spores are becoming worse with the Southwest’s ongoing drought. Public health officials have also blamed rising temperatures from climate change, which make the region hotter and drier, for part of the increase in valley fever. Climate change is also expanding the range for a whole suite of diseases, as pathogens survive in places once too cold or otherwise inhospitable to them. At the same time, the human population is sprawling, so these ranges increasingly overlap.

It’s possible we could come up with a technological solution for valley fever — a vaccine, better dust filters, or even fungus-killing bacteria, as The New Yorker piece hints at. But in the long run, there’s another way of thinking about it. Rather than stubbornly continuing to live in inhospitable environments, perhaps there are places where settlements simply don’t belong?

[MIKA27]

Official Batkid Short Film Might Be Better Than The Dark Knight Movies

Make-a-Wish just released the official short film recapping the day when Batkid saved San Francisco and it’s just as soul saving now as it was then. Hell, the 10 minute short might make for a better movie than some ofThe Dark Knight trilogy (we’re talking about the third one). Anyways, if you somehow missed the Batkid saga a few months ago or want to smile today or see new angles and hear new dialogue from Batkid, watch the movie above. It’s fun

[MIKA27]

Atomic Scientists: We're Still Dangerously Close To The Apocalypse

Each year since 1945, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists sends a letter to the UN Security Council in which they tell them how close we are from nuclear holocaust using a Doomsday Clock. In 1960 we were two minutes from midnight. Their new 2014 report says we’re still five minutes from the Apocalypse. “Five minutes is too close,” they say.

The organisation — which was founded by some of the researchers who participated in the Manhattan Project — counts with the collaboration of a board of sponsors that includes 18 Nobel laureates to analyse current data to give this estimate. They always give good reasons:

The Nuclear threat

Speaking at Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate in mid-June, President Obama proposed a reduction in the limit on US and Russian deployed strategic nuclear warheads from the current New START level — 1550 warheads on each side — to 1000.

Obama’s speech came just days after Iran elected a new president, Hassan Rouhani, who quickly changed the tone of the country’s foreign policy, clearing the path for the first direct talks between the United States and Iran in 35 years.

[...]

Around the world, much nuclear material remains unsecured.

Soon after Obama’s Brandenburg Gate speech, Russia offered political asylum to Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked US classified documents, creating an international media sensation, and Obama called off a planned summit with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. There appears to have been little movement since on nuclear agreements between the United States and Russia.

China is reported to be modernising and quantitatively increasing its nuclear arsenal, albeit at a slow pace. India and Pakistan continue to expand their arsenals and stockpiles of fissile materials. Both countries are developing and testing new missiles, many nuclear-capable. India plans to build a nuclear submarine fleet and to develop a ballistic missile-defence system, the deployment of which could destabilise the subcontinent.

Despite authoritative reports that it has a nuclear weapons arsenal, Israel continues a policy of nuclear ambiguity while strenuously trying to scuttle talks on Iran’s nuclear efforts. In February 2013, North Korea conducted yet another nuclear weapon test, the first under its new leader, Kim Jong-un, and issued a series of military threats, some involving the use of nuclear weapons.

And there’s more…

The nuclear threat is bad enough, but the board talks about many other dangers that threat our global survival. The certainty of climate change that keeps causing more and more extreme crisis every year is one of them, but they also point out at recent technological developments that have greatly accelerated in 2013:

Headlines from 2013 only hinted at the speed and scope of technological change — from synthetic biology to three-dimensional printing to robotics and beyond — that is sweeping the globe. The positive aspects of this fast-moving technological advance mask a core problem: What happens when scientists create a technology with the best of intentions, but society cannot properly control it? Bioengineering, for example, might eradicate some diseases — but it might also put infectious weapons in the hands of terrorists. Sophisticated robots might help governments respond to disaster — or be programmed to hunt and kill humans with ruthless efficiency.

We can prevent it

It’s a grim outlook, but they also offer reasonable solutions:

Demand that US and Russian leaders return to the negotiating table.Once there, they should take the courageous steps needed to further shrink their nuclear arsenals, to scrap their deployment of destabilizing missile defenses, and to reduce the alert levels of their nuclear weapons.

Support international discussions about the humanitarian effects of nuclear weapons. Talks begun at the Oslo conference in March brought developing countries to the table and increased knowledge about the danger posed by any nuclear exchange to countries around the world. We encourage the United States, Russia, France, the United Kingdom, and China to join these talks instead of boycotting them, as they did last spring.

Exercise political leadership on climate change. World leaders must curb carbon-emitting practices and support energy technologies — including wind, solar, and geothermal power generation and vigorous energy efficiency measures — that will mitigate further disastrous alteration of the climate. The science on climate change is clear, and many people around the world already are suffering from destructive storms, water and food insecurity, and extreme temperatures. It is no longer possible to prevent all climate change, but you can limit further suffering — if you act now.

Sadly, it’s the same advice every year and every year it gets mostly ignored.

Keep up the good work, everyone.

[MIKA27]

Japan's Launching A Giant Net Into Orbit To Scoop Up Space Junk

Something must be done to deal with the estimated 100 million bits of man-made space junk circling the planet, and Japan is taking the lead. But can we do? Shoot it with a laser? Invent Wall-E-like robots to collect it? Nah… let’s just blast a big net into space.

Next month, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa) will do just that. Having teamed up with a company that manufactures fishing equipment, Jaxa developed a wire net nearly 300 metres long but just a foot wide that will be launched into orbit. Once it’s unravelled, the net will generate a magnetic field that will theoretically attract nearby space debris.

The mission isn’t as whimsical as it sounds. The growing cloud of space junk circling the planet poses a real threat to the hundreds of satellites in orbit, not to mention the International Space Station. It’s not just nuts and bolts, either. Experts believe there are some 22,000 pieces of space debris over 4-inches in size. Any one of those chunks could start a chain reaction that could take out Earth’s entire communications system.

Jaxa’s net test next month is just the first of many. By 2019, the agency hopes to send a net nearly half a mile long into space to scoop up all that random debris. It’s unclear what they’re going to do with the junk after they’ve captured it, although hopefully there’s enough scrap metal to finally get that Voltron project going.

[Fuzz]

Atomic Scientists: We're Still Dangerously Close To The Apocalypse

But we need those nukes just in case we have to re-start the Earth's core, blow up an approaching asteroid or sneak it on board an invading alien mothership!

[MIKA27]

Blackphone Promises To Be A Mobile Phone To Beat The NSA

Privacy is at the forefront of everybody’s mind, now more than ever. So Blackphone, which will run a “security-oriented” version of Android and claims to be able to foil the NSA, couldn’t be better timed.

The brainchild of renowned cryptographer Phil Zimmermann — and in fact a commercial venture between his company Silent Circle and Geeksphone, a Spanish startup working with Firefox OS — the phone will run a forked version of Android called PrivatOS. That will, apparently, provide the ability to securely: place and receive phone calls, send text messages, hold video chats and transfer and store files.

All told, the idea is to offer users “everything they need to ensure privacy and control of their communications, along with all the other high-end smartphone features they have come to expect.” How exactly it will do that remains under wraps for now, but you can expect to find out more during the Mobile World Congress in February — because Blackphone will, apparently, be available for pre-order on the 24th of that month, which is the first day of the show. Stay tuned. [Blackphone]

[MIKA27]

How A Giant Replica Of The Vatican Ended Up In A Small African City

Construction on the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the largest church on earth, started 28 years ago in the small Ivory Coast city of Yamoussoukro. Planned by then-president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who led the country through two decades of economic boomtime known as the “Ivorian miracle”, the church would be a monument — to God, but also to himself.

The economic miracle spanned from 1960, when independence from France arrived, to the late 1970s. Like similar booms in the United States or Germany, it had already begun to show troubling signs of decay by the early 1980s. But, by then, the 75-year-old Houphouët-Boigny was in the process of putting the finishing touch on his presidency: Moving the Ivory Coast’s capital to Yamoussoukro, his tiny hometown more than 240km inland of the country’s biggest city.

To build his capital, Houphouët-Boigny recruited a French-Lebanese architect named Pierre Fakhoury. Together, they planned a grand, super-modern city of the future, featuring palaces, roads, one of the largest airports in Africa, and a church — the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro — that would be modelled directly after St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The church would be the crown on the new capital’s head: A 30,000 square metre masterpiece, filled with details to shame the real vatican. There would be a 45kg gold cross, an ornate papal villa, and a massive stained glass window showing Jesus Christ, flanked by the president himself. The Vatican requested that Fakhoury make the church’s dome just slightly lower than St Peter’s own.

The basilica took $US300 million and five years to build, during which Houphouët-Boigny’s country fell into a deep depression, and ultimately, war. By the time the church was finished, in 1990, the Ivory Coast had plunged into an even gloomier era.

The pope had agreed to consecrate the basilica, under one condition, as a New Statesmen account of the building explains:

One of the pope’s conditions for coming to Yamoussoukro to bless what many here and abroad considered to be a vulgar vanity project was that Houphouët-Boigny construct a hospital next to the church. During the papal visit, a foundation stone for the hospital was laid. The stone is still there. “The money for the hospital has been in an account in the Vatican for 15 years,” Inès said. “We don’t know why it has not been built.”

It’s easy to see the Yamoussoukro project as a headstrong mistake — and certainly the church fits the description. But building Yamoussoukro, the city, was a risk that hundreds of other governments of the 1960s and ’70s took. The dream of modernism — particularly in the developing world — led dozens of confident politicians to invest in entire new cities. Look at Brasilia, a city built in the middle of nowhere, filled with memorials and tributes designed by a single architect, Oscar Niemeyer. Or Chandigarh, the Indian city designed in the 1950s by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret.

Some of these cities failed; other succeeded beyond their planners’ wildest dreams. Cities are complicated organisms. For Yamoussoukro, a combination of fatal flaws — starting with the impending economic collapse and ending with Houphouët-Boigny’s deluded decision to focus on a church rather than building a stable infrastructure or economy for the city — doomed the project from the start.

Today, the church reportedly hosts a tiny congregation of no more than a few hundred people, though it was built to seat 7000.

Luckily for those of us nowhere near the Ivory Coast, French photographer Jean-Baptiste Dodane has licensed his beautiful photos of the church under Creative Commons. Take a look, and just try not to ruminate on today’s misguided monuments to personal vanity.

[MIKA27]

Antarctic Ice Is Hiding A Super-Trench

The ice sheet that covers Antarctica is ancient, hiding a whole landscape of mountains and valleys that once teemed with life. Using radar and satellite footage, scientists are studying this hidden world — and they just found a 3.2km deep canyon down there.

A new paper in the January issue of the Geological Society of America Bulletin describes how scientists from Newcastle University and Bristol University’s Bristol Glaciology Centre measured the chasm. Because the ice sheet is so huge, it was “incredibly serendipitous” that they even found it at all, says lead author Neil Ross. Using radar, the research team penetrated the deep ice to discover a hidden valley known as the Ellsworth Trough, near Ellsworth Lake, where a British team recently drilled down to look for evidence of life.

Scientists have known about such rifts for years, but needed to collect more data about the precise size and shape of them. In this case, Ross’ team only had radar data for each end of the valley — and no clue what lay in between.

It turns out that this valley — now canyon — was so big, it could be seen by NASA satellites. That’s right: Below miles of ancient ice, the trench was still visible from space. So NASA gave them the data they needed to discover that the trough was actually 3km deep, far deeper than the canyon discovered under Greenlandic ice last year, and also much deeper than the Grand Canyon itself. Ross waxes poetic in a statement:

To me, this just goes to demonstrate how little we still know about the surface of our own planet. The discovery and exploration of hidden, previously-unknown landscapes is still possible and incredibly exciting, even now.

So what actually created this mega-canyon? Well, Antarctica was once part of a single giant continent that dates back hundreds of millions of years. But 80 million years ago, Antarctica (along with India and Africa) broke apart, spinning southward at a pace of 16cm per year (that’s light speed, in geological terms). The rift created long valleys and chasms across the warm landscape and then the climate began to cool — glaciers appeared, carving out even deeper chasms.

These glaciers grew deeper and wider, eventually creating the Antarctica we know today and obscuring the incredible mountain ranges beneath it. It’s amazing to imagine that in a few hundred million years, the same process could take place in America, covering our own Grand Canyon under miles of ice, buried until a few intrepid alien geologists rediscover it

[MIKA27]

Nissan Made One Of The Coolest Car Chases Ever

http://youtu.be/RxE5eNmxfJM

I think I can watch this over and over again.

To promote its new social game that enters people in for a chance to win a Nissan Rogue, the company created a story-driven ad featuring one of the best-looking car chases I have seen in ages.

Enjoy, The Briefcase.

[MIKA27]

Awe-Inspiring Skies, Captured by an Extreme Storm Chaser

The incredible storm photos in Mike Hollingshead’s portfolio include tornadoes that seem to come down right in front of him, epic lightning and apocalyptic swirling clouds. He appears to be blessed (or cursed?) when it comes to finding the most extreme weather in America’s heartland. But while luck is certainly part of it, he says it’s mostly just a lot of hard work and thousands and thousands of miles of driving.

“Persistence pays off, at least some of the time,” says Hollingshead, 37, who lives in Blair, Nebraska.

There are years when things click and he comes away with a whole batch of mind-boggling work. But then there are years like 2013, when Hollingshead worked himself to exhaustion, relied on the very best data and still came away with almost nothing. All told, Hollingshead says he probably drives 20,000 miles a year in his Mitsubishi Eclipse.

“I’ve driven eight hours only to get out there and have nothing happen,” he says. “And then all I have in front of me is eight more hours of driving to get home because I don’t want to waste money on a hotel.”

Hollingshead has been chasing storms for more than a decade and is self-taught, both in meteorology and photography. He grew up in Nebraska watching storms but really got into it after his first real chase landed him right in front of a tornado in Iowa.

“It’s pretty easy to get hooked when that happens,” he says.

At the time he was working at a corn milling plant and chased storms after work or on the weekends. Sometimes, if the conditions looked like they might produce, he’d ask for half a day off. Eventually, the job started to wear on him, and the allure of chasing got bigger, so he quit and started chasing storms full time.

“I couldn’t take it anymore because it was boring, so I saved up enough money to get me through for a little while,” he says. “Thankfully it mostly worked out.”

His first viral hit came in 2004 when he captured a whole series of pictures during a crazy storm cycle in and around Nebraska. Those pictures got passed around via email and got his website over a million hits. That’s the year sales of his highlight videos from the chases also took off.

His second big hit came by mistake. At some point, someone on the internet grabbed his 2004 Nebraska photos and mislabeled them as a storm from Texas. The mislabeled photos went crazy on the internet then got grabbed again and mislabeled once more.

Then Katrina hit and the photos were mislabeled as part of that storm. And on it went.

Hollingshead and others have slowly gone through and corrected some of the mislabeling and he’s been able to issue invoices to some of the publications that used his photos without permission. But it still happens. Many people probably remember the photo of the Statue of Liberty with the storm clouds behind it that went viral after Hurricane Sandy. The fake photo was debunked and people pointed out that it was actually a photo of the statue superimposed on one of Hollingshead’s storm photos from Nebraska.

“It’s been a pain, but I guess it also helped spread my name,” he says.

Other big hits include the September 2012 cover of National Geographic, and inclusion of his photos in movies like Take Shelter, The Fifth Estate and in the final episode of Dexter.

As you can imagine, there have been some close calls while out chasing storms. He says he always plays it safe, but one time in Bowdle, South Dakota, he was right next to a violent tornado that kept growing and passed with a couple hundred feet of where he was standing.

“It was close,” he says.

One safety concern that he’s always careful about is the growing number of storm chasers that clog up the highways along the storm’s route. He says people sharing photos of storms in the early days of the internet caused the first real spike in the number of people on the road, but he says it’s gotten to a level of absurdity now that show like Storm Chasers have popularized chasing. He says areas near big cities — Wichita, Oklahoma City — have the worst crowds. One time while out chasing a storm he says he had to wait on an on-ramp for 15 minutes while a miles-long row of chasers passed before he could get on the freeway.

“I gave up on chasing the storm at that point,” he says.

This long-lived supercell produced an EF4 tornado that tracked across northeast South Dakota and just missed the town of Bowdle on May 22, 2010.

A supercell tracks across southern Nebraska.

A shelf cloud moves over a storm chaser producing something called a "whales mouth" in southeast Nebraska on August 9, 2009.

A supercell storm moves over a York, Nebraska truck stop on I80 on June 17, 2009. Half an hour earlier, the storm produced a large tornado near Aurora, Nebraska.

A striated supercell passes just north of Grand Island, Nebraska on May 10, 2005.

Mammatus clouds spread across the sky in central Nebraska following severe storms.

An intense high precipitation supercell storm moves south in the Nebraska Sand Hills south of Valentine on July 13, 2009.

A supercell moves across southwest Iowa on August 26, 2004, producing short-lived tornadoes near the town of Coin.

The sun pokes through under a long-lived supercell moving across northeast Nebraska on May 28, 2004.

Mammatus clouds form over northern Oklahoma.

Lightning rises from television towers in North Omaha.

Hail, sometimes as big as baseballs, falls near Fairburn, South Dakota during a summer storm.

A fog storm overtakes the Badlands of South Dakota on June 18, 2008.

The sun sets under a severe storm in central Nebraska on August 17, 2005.

[MIKA27]

Ohio’s Lethal-Injection Experiment

The state plans an untested execution method as drug supplies become limited

Thursday’s scheduled execution of Ohio prisoner Dennis McGuire will mark the first use of a controversial two-drug method of lethal injection in the U.S. But it’s unlikely to be the last.

As states struggle to replace sodium thiopental, a drug widely used in lethal injections for years, many are turning to untried combinations. The first four executions scheduled this year, each in four different states, will use a different combination of lethal-injection drugs that are largely untested.

“In the old three-drug combination, each drug was being used for what it was designed for,” says Dr. Jonathan Groner, a professor of clinical surgery at the Ohio State University who studies lethal injections. “But Ohio is taking drugs that are normally used for things like a colonoscopy, and they’re giving massive overdoses to kill people. They’re using them for their toxic side effects.”

Lawyers for McGuire, who was sentenced to death for the 1989 rape and murder of Joy Stewart, argue that the method of lethal injection planned by the state is unconstitutional because of the risk that McGuire will be conscious as he suffocates to death.

Dennis McGuire

“It is our contention that he will be aware of that terror and sensation of suffocating for around five minutes, from the time the drugs start to flow,” says Allen Bohnert, McGuire’s attorney. McGuire, who reports sleep-apnea-like complications, may also be more vulnerable to problems than others on death row, Bohnert argues. Officials have disagreed. Last week, a federal judge denied McGuire’s plea for a stay of execution, and Ohio Governor John Kasich denied a clemency request.

For years, most states have used a standard three-drug combination in lethal injections: a barbiturate or anesthetic (either pentobarbital or sodium thiopental), a paralytic agent (pancuronium bromide) and a drug to stop the heart (potassium chloride).

But those drugs are becoming harder for states to obtain. In 2011, Hospira announced it would stop manufacturing sodium thiopental, which was used by almost all of the 35 states that had the death penalty. (There are currently 32 states that have capital punishment.) As the supply dried up, states looked for alternatives, notably in Europe. Those pharmaceutical companies soon refused to sell drugs to U.S. states that planned to use them for lethal injections.

The latest strategy for states scrambling to find usable lethal-injection drugs is to rely on largely unregulated compounding pharmacies. In 2012, a meningitis outbreak in Massachusetts that killed 64 people and sickened 750 was linked to the New England Compounding Center. That incident led Congress to enact a law in 2013 that allowed larger compounding pharmacies to voluntarily register with the Food and Drug Administration. But many smaller pharmacies are likely to remain under the federal radar.

These supply difficulties have led states to tinker with their lethal-injection methods. In Florida, a three-drug combination using midazolam hydrochloride — a sedative used as the first drug — was administered on Jan. 7 to execute Askari Muhammad. In Oklahoma, a three-drug combo utilizing pentobarbital was used to kill Michael Wilson. But in Ohio, the state plans to administer a two-drug method never used before — midazolam and hydromorphone — that was initially designed as a backup plan to its previously used one-drug protocol: pentobarbital. It’s likely that the state can no longer obtain that drug, according to Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center.

Dr. Groner says he’s unaware of any testing on midazolam, a Valium-like sedative and hydromorphone, which will be used to stop McGuire’s breathing. There’s also the possibility that complications could arise from the drugs’ manufacture at a compounding pharmacy.

“If it’s 75% pure or mislabeled or partially expired, it’s the anesthesiologist’s worst dream,” Dieter says. “And it’s being applied not by anesthesiologists but by prison guards. Experiment is kind of an electrifying word, but I think that’s what this is.”

So far, judges have been unsympathetic to the claims that the current, untested era of lethal injections violates the Eighth Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment. Bohnert, McGuire’s lawyer, says he thinks it’s going to take an execution to go bad in a very public, visible way for anything to change.

“From what I have been told, at least as to using the two-drug method here in Ohio, it’s not a question of it, it’s just simply a question of which inmate,” Bohnert says.

MIKA: I have other ideas for Death penalties but won't voice them as no doubt, it will be moderated...

[MIKA27]

Sigmund Freud's ashes targeted in Golders Green Crematorium raid

"Callous" thieves have tried to steal an urn containing Sigmund Freud's ashes in a raid on a north London crematorium.

The burglars "severely damaged" the 2,300-year-old urn that contains the remains of Freud and his wife Martha.

They attempted to take it from Hoop Lane Cemetery in Golders Green overnight on New Year's Eve.

Freud, who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis, died in London in September 1939.

Detective constable Daniel Candler said: "This was a despicable act by a callous thief.

"Even leaving aside the financial value of the irreplaceable urn and the historical significance of to whom it related, the fact that someone set out to take an object knowing it contained the last remains of a person defies belief."

Freud moved to Britain from Nazi-controlled Austria in 1938.

Golders Green Crematorium has seen the funerals of many notable figures, including Dracula novelist Bram Stoker, comedian Peter Sellers and singer Amy Winehouse.

A crematorium spokesperson said the urn had been moved to a secure location and security was being reviewed.

[MIKA27]

RUBBER BAND MACHINE GUN

Next time you engage in an office rubber band warfare, pull out the Rubber Band Machine Gun and make everyone surrender. This crazy contraption is capable of firing 672 rubber bands in an impressive 48 seconds!

The all-wooden, fully-automatic machine gun includes 16 barrels capable of holding multiple bands each, and a fully automatic trigger mechanism activated by a small electric engine, fed by 5 AA batteries. This bad boy can fire rubber bands at a rate of 14 shots per second at a range of over 26 feet! Also included is a fast charging device, allowing you to charge the weapon in a few minutes

[MIKA27]

EPSON MOVERIO BT-200 GLASSES

Before you say anything — no, the Epson Moverio BT-200 Glasses aren't meant to be the kind of wearable tech that you'd put on in public — at least, we hope not.

These are augmented reality smart glasses, meant for wearing to watch and interact with video, and play games. Equipped with dual screens for two-dimensional and three-dimensional viewing, they project video at a pixel resolution comparable to most HD TVs. An attached Android-powered device controls the experience with a textured touchpad. Equipped with motion sensors, GPS, and a gyroscope, the glasses take inputs from rear-world movement and apply it to whatever you view.

[MIKA27]

VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE DUNE CONCEPT

VW has played around with the idea of a buggy-style rides before — see the Volkswagen Buggy Up Concept (Below), for example — but never has one come so close to production-ready as the Volkswagen Beetle Dune Concept.

Based on the Beetle R-Line with same 210hp, 2.0L TSI engine but longer, wider, taller, and with additional ground clearance, this offroader features a ski rack built into the roof and rear spoilers, 19-inch wheels, Bi-Xenon headlights, LED fog lights, a 7.7-inch touchscreen, two-tone seats, and a six-speed DSG transmission. Sadly, still no word on whether this one might eventually make an appearance at a dealer new you.

[MIKA27]

OMEGA SPEEDMASTER MARK II WATCH

Is '70s style making a comeback? Well, it certainly is with this Omega Speedmaster Mark II Watch.

A reintroduction of a watch that first appeared in 1969, this handsome, masculine timepiece features a water resistant brushed steel case and matching bracelet and your choice of either red/orange and gray or monochrome black and white dials.

As for specs, it's powered by a Omega Calibre 3330 automatic movement, with a certified COSC Chronometer, raised tachymetre marks, and a date indicator located at 6 o'clock. Just be sure to pay attention, as there's no "Mark II" marking on the face to let you know which is which.

[MIKA27]

US Police Keep Borrowing Border Patrol Drones For Domestic Surveillance

Generally speaking, domestic drone surveillance is a big no-no. Nevertheless local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies are finding a way to do it by borrowing drones from US Customs and Border Protection. And, according to a recent FOIA request, it’s happening more and more.

Between 2010 and 2012, Customs and Border Protection flew 687 drone missions for other law enforcement agencies around the country. Those missions included everything from finding missing persons to spying on marijuana farms. The names of many specific law enforcement agencies were blocked out in the flight logs that the Electronic Frontier Foundation recently requested, but the Coast Guard and DEA are believed to be the most drone-hungry agencies.

This shouldn’t be a huge surprise. Demand for drones is on the rise, and the FAA authorised the use of commercial drones for aerial surveillance over six months ago. However, because the FAA will need a couple years to write the rulebook on domestic drone use, law enforcement agencies have had to find an alternative. That’s where the Border Patrol comes in. Once word got out that those drones were up for grabs, demand boomed. “As the other entities found out we were able to fly, and where we were able to fly, the requests started to come up,” former Customs and Border Protection chief David Aguilar told The Washington Post.

Is this a big deal? That depends on your perspective. On one hand, it’s all happening legally and probably for a good cause. On the other hand, it’s sort of the Wild West up there, as the skies remain unregulated for drones. It’s also hard to tell exactly what the drones are doing because Customs and Border Protection refuse to disclose the names of many of the law enforcement agencies using them.

So the mystery thickens. Don’t get too bent out of shape, though. Think of it this way: At least the drones spying on Americans aren’t armed. Yet

[MIKA27]

13 Nail-Biting Images Of San Francisco's Bay Bridge Under Construction

In the battle royale between landmark San Francisco bridges, the Golden Gate will probably always get the glory. But after 70 years its sister span to the east is coming into its own. The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress is an upcoming exhibition at the city’s De Young Museum that chronicles the earliest days of construction from 1933 to 1936.

The majority of the show is comprised of images from Peter Stackpole, a staff photographer for Life magazine who was known for his shots of California. Here, we see a particular breed of documentation that’s never not amazing: Workers grappling with super structures. There’s something about black-and-white dudes stone cold chillin’ on precarious cables and I-beams in front of a foggy skyline that is just too cool.

The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress will be at the De Young from February 1st through June 8th. In the meantime, scroll down and ponder whether you’d have the guts to go to such great heights.

Gallows frames dot the catwalk as cable spinning begins between towers W2 and W3 by Peter Stackpole, ca. 1936.

Bay Bridge, Eastern Span Under Construction, March 22, 1936.

Bay Bridge Construction by George Booth Post, ca. 1934

Overview of Cable Spinning Operation by Peter Stackpole, 1935

Riveter Without Safety Belt Finishing Off a Tower Plate by Peter Stackpole, 1935

Pay Day (Hank Dennington and others on payday at the paymaster shack located a the base of tower W2) by Peter Stackpole, 1934

A Properly Outfitted Bridgeman with Hard Hat, Heavy Gloves, Spiked Wrenches, and Safety Line by Peter Stackpole, 1935

Iconic image of bridge construction, 1935. Photo: Peter Stackpole.

Workers hang above the bridge.

The Raised Bridge by Dong Kingman, ca. 1934

Aerial view of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge under construction in 1935. Photo: San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA

Bay Bridge west span under construction, 1935