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

[MIKA27]

This Is Russia's New Nuclear Attack Submarine

Behold the Severodvinsk — the pride of the Russian Navy, the first of the post-Soviet era Yasen-class submarines. It entered service at the end of December 2013 and it will replace the old Akula-class and Alfa-class subs. But unlike those warships, and thanks to a new cruise missile, the Severodvinsk has strategic and tactical nuclear weapon capabilities.

According to the Barents Observer, the Severodvinsk successfully tested its nuclear-capable Calibre missiles during a trial run in 2012:

The new supersonic missile hit its target, reports Rossiskaya Gazeta. The Calibre missile has a flight range that exceeds 2,500 kilometer, according to the portal NavalToday. With such range, the cruise missile can be defined as a strategic weapon if tipped with a nuclear warhead. The new START agreement between Russia and USA does, however, not include long-range cruise missiles into account, a fact said to weaken the deal.

Another cruise missile the submarine is believed to carry has an even longer range, 5,000 kilometer according to an infographic posted by RIA Novosti.

Nice! The Severodvinsk started development in the 1970s. It was hit by many budget-related delays thanks to the fall of the Soviet Union. It was supposed to enter service in 1998 but it was finished in 2010. After three years of testing, it finally entered active service in 2013. In fact, for all we know, it may be in the Mediterranean right now.

But don’t let those delays fool you. If there’s something the Russians do well, that’s nuclear submarines.

[MIKA27]

The US/Mexico Border Is Infested With Underground Machines

The very fact that underground robots being used to patrol the US/Mexico border — a program now moving into its second decade — can be greeted with what amounts to a disinterested shrug is a good indication of how sci-fi our everyday lives have gotten. There are underground robots patrolling the edge of the country.

As the Christian Science Monitor reported last week, the diverse family of semi-autonomous vehicles used by US border patrol agents remains in flux, incorporating new designs and technical capabilities. Indeed, innovations across the field of media robotics — from remote-controlled CCTV to multi-spectral cameras — will all but inevitably find their way into police work and, by extension, into the active patrolling of the nation’s outer periphery.

The specific news peg of the CSM piece was the recent deployment of a wireless camera drone — seen in the image below — that can inch forward through tunnel networks to illuminate, photograph, and film their deep interiors.

“The underground gadgets add to the border’s growing collection of virtual surveillance tools that the federal government has bolstered in recent years,” CSM explains, “including camera towers, unmanned aerial drones, and a variety of wireless technology.” The border, in a sense, is being turned into a weaponised media studio kitted out with camera gear that could make even a film student jealous.

More specifically, they allow officers to patrol parts of the border — otherwise dangerous subterranean passages, from storm drains and culverts to elaborate, purpose-built smuggling tunnels — without putting themselves in harm’s way.

“In fact,” the paper adds, “the remote-controlled robot can transform into a terrestrial drone outfitted with a 12-gauge shotgun, but [uS border patrol] Agent Hecht says that feature won’t be activated.” Yet.

What’s particularly interesting about this, however, is the notion that a broad region of the US southwest is gradually being infested from below with machinery, crackling inside with semi-autonomous camera bots steered by radio through the darkness. In the process, border security is becoming indistinguishable from a weird new underground media project, as police-controlled machinery snakes and rolls its way through labyrinths of subterranean space. These tunnels are like a parallel universe accessible just behind that drain entry, or hiding beneath a few tiles in the floor.

Down in these self-connected mazes of whorled corridors and halls whittled from rock, excavated beneath the surface of national sovereignty, we send our cameras crawling.

In a sense, the outermost edge of the nation-state is being given over to the emerging field of border robotics, becoming an autonomous camera zone slithering inside with little imperial devices.

[MIKA27]

Impressive Full-Scale Lion Made With 4000 Hand-Cut Metal Scraps

This is Turkish sculptor Selçuk Yilmaz and one of his most impressive works: A 1:1 reproduction of a lion weld from 4,000 hand-cut metal scraps. Check out the closeups to fully appreciate Selçuk’s outstanding skills.

[MIKA27]

Time Travelling Scientists Were Going To Save Liquor After Prohibition

After alcohol prohibition was repealed in 1933, many American distillers had a problem: they didn’t have enough old booze lying around. It’s possible to churn out a barrel of whiskey in just a few days, but you need at least 3 years of ageing for many people to consider it any good. The “time travelling” scientists of the Great Depression were going to fix all that.

Here in the 21st century, entrepreneurs are doing their best to artificially age whiskey using science. It’s a neat trick that could help fend off shortages of your favourite brown liquids. But back in the 1930s, there was a particular sense of urgency around the issue.

The 13-year dry spell from 1920-33 (which was hardly dry, of course) meant that most American manufacturers weren’t producing drinks like whiskey — a deliciously intoxicating beverage that has to be aged in barrels, not in the bottle. So scientists had to develop ways to artificially and rapidly age alcohol.

The September 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics explained the research that was going on at the time:

To accomplish 10 or 20 years’ of natural chemical activity in a week is what the research chemists of the liquor industry are trying. There is a large demand for “aged” liquor to be met with new. One method of speeding it up is to bubble ozone through it; another to pass electricity through it as it leaves the still. Yet another is to cause “a miniature Niagara Falls of liquor” to flow over ultra-violet lamps. Lead, silicon, uranium and cerium “catalyes” are used to beat Father Time.

But this wasn’t just some fantasy of the popular press. Serious chemists really were looking into the problem. The April 10, 1934 issue of Chemical Engineering News ran an article about the post-Prohibition interest in rapidly ageing alcohol.

Titled “Artificial Ageing of Spirits,” the paper broke down the four different ways that scientists were trying to make bourbon-soaked “time travel” a reality:

1. Treatment with air, oxygen, or ozone
   
2. Exposure to actinic [ultraviolet] rays
   
3. Electrolytic treatment
   
4. Use of catalysts like charcoal
   

Today, the exact methods of artificial ageing are a closely guarded secret for distilleries like Cleveland Whiskey in Ohio. But judging from what we do know about their processes, they’re probably using many of the same techniques developed by chemists 80 years ago.

Rapidly ageing alcohol using Depression-era methods may not be a real form of time travel, but it’ll have to do for now.

Photo of alcohol bottles circa 1955 from Getty; “Time Machine” news item scanned from the September 1934 issue of Everyday Science and Mechanics

[MIKA27]

Plague DNA Found In Ancient Tooth Suggests Black Death Isn't Dead Yet

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Bubonic plague, but the chances of you knowing next to anything about the Justinian plague are significantly slimmer. That’s because no one really knew anything about the Justinian plague — until recently, that is. Now, two ancient, plague-ridden teeth are finally teaching us a little more about one of the worst pandemics in history — including the fact that another outbreak could be just around the corner.

The two 1500-year-old teeth, which belonged to Justinian plague victims buried in Bavaria, Germany between 541 and 543 CE, contained tiny fragments of actual plague DNA, making them the oldest pathogen genomes we’ve ever accessed (the Black Death having occurred just over 600 years ago). The particularly fascinating bit, though, is that in reconstructing the Justinian genome, scientists have found that both it and the Bubonic plague (which didn’t strike until 800 years after it) are two different strains of the very same pathogen. This means that a third version of the rodent-carried plague could very well be in our imminent future.

As Tom Gilbert, a professor at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, told the AP:

What this shows is that the plague jumped into humans on several different occasions and has gone on a rampage. That shows the jump is not that difficult to make and wasn’t a wild fluke. Humans are infringing on rodents’ territory, so it’s only a matter of time before we get more exposure to them.

We also now know that the Justinian strain of the pathogen originated in Asia, as opposed to Africa, which had been previously thought to be the source. What we don’t know, though, is anything regarding the pathogens’ evolutionary time-scale, suggesting that even earlier pandemics could have been caused by even more distinct-yet-related strains, all coming from the same Y. pestis pathogen.

Of course, if another outbreak were to manifest someday soon, the scientists assure us that modern antibiotics would severely limit the disease’s potential damage. However, if the plague were to evolve into an airborne version, limiting its spread would become far more difficult. According to Hendrik Poinar, director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University in Canada, that type of disease can kill within 24 hours of infection.

Our best bet now is to pay close attention to rodent populations. Because if they start dying off in mass numbers, there’s every chance that we could be next.

[MIKA27]

This New Zealand Toddler Is Ridiculously Good At Skateboarding

Boy, this kid is fearless. Actually, I’m not sure Kahlei Stone-Kelly is even old enough to be called a kid. He’s just a baby. A two-year-old toddler in nappies, who’s already better at skateboarding than many full-grown human adults. Just look at him go and display excellent balance, a little bit of trickery and a whole ‘lotta cool as he glides on that board.

Kahlei has been skateboarding since he was six months old and is basically a little prodigy. He doesn’t nail every trick perfectly, but whenever he falls he simply picks himself back up and tries again. It’s incredible to see a young kid never give up or cry.

[MIKA27]

How The Colours Got Their Names

Dating back centuries, the names of our everyday colours have origins in the earliest known languages. As different societies developed names for colours, across the globe, isolated cultures went about naming the colours, but they all generally did it in the same order.

According to linguists:

There was a time when there were no colour-names as such . . . and that not very remote in many cases, when the present colour-words were terms that could be used in describing quite different qualities [including] ***, lively, smart, dashy, loud, gaudy . . . dull, dead, dreary . . . tarnished, stained, spotted, dirty, smeared . . . faint, faded [and feeble].

Called the hierarchy of colour names, the order was generally (with a few exceptions): black, white, red, green, yellow and blue, with others like brown, purple and pink coming at various times afterward.

Recent research in this area has demonstrated that this hierarchy matches humans reaction to different frequencies in the visible spectrum; that is, the stronger our reaction to that colour’s frequency, the earlier it was named in the culture; or as Vittorio Loreto et al. put it:

The colour spectrum clearly exists at a physical level of wavelengths, humans tend to react most saliently to certain parts of this spectrum often selecting exemplars for them, and finally comes the process of linguistic colour naming, which adheres to universal patterns resulting in a neat hierarchy…

So, like other cultures, English words for the colours generally followed that same pattern, with black and white coming first, and purple, orange and pink coming last.

The Parents of Modern English

Although a number of the languages discussed in this article are self-explanatory, these three benefit from a brief description:

Proto-Indo-European (PIE) – Known as the common ancestor of all of the Indo-European (Europe, India, Iran and Anatolia) languages, it was spoken up to, perhaps, the 3rd or 4th millennium BC.

Proto-Germanic – A child of the PIE, Proto-Germanic (2000 BC-500 BC) was an ancestor of the Saxon, English, German (duh), Norse, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese, Swedish, Gothic and Vandalic languages.

Old English – This early form of English, also sometimes called Anglo-Saxon, was used in England and Scotland from about 400 AD-1100 AD.

In addition, many of the words from these and other early languages are only assumed to have existed. In the study of the origin of words (etymology) these “presumed words” are generally marked with an asterisk (*). For convenience, they are referred to as “written” although it is doubtful that they ever were.

Black

Black derives from words invariably meaning the colour black, as well as dark, ink and “to burn.”

Originally meaning, burning, blazing, glowing and shining, in PIE it was *bhleg. This was changed to *blakkazin Proto-Germanic, to blaken in Dutch and blaec, in Old English. This last word, blaec, also meant ink, as didblak (Old Saxon) and black (Swedish).

The colour was called blach in Old High German and written blaec in Old English. One final meaning, dark (also blaec in Old English) derived from the Old Norse blakkr.

White

White began its life in PIE as *kwintos and meant simply white or bright. This had changed to *khwitz in Proto-Germanic, and later languages transformed it into hvitr (Old Norse), hwit (Old Saxon) and wit (Dutch). By the time Old English developed, the word was kwit.

Red

In PIE, red was *reudh and meant red and ruddy. In Proto-Germanic, red was *rauthaz, and in its derivative languages raudr (Old Norse), rod (Old Saxon) and rØd (Danish). In Old English, it was written read.

Green

Meaning grow in PIE, it was *ghre. Subsequent languages wrote it grene (Old Frisian), graenn (Old Norse) andgrown (Dutch). In Old English, it was grene and meant the colour green as well as young and immature.

Yellow

Thousands of years ago, yellow was considered to be closely related to green, and in PIE it was *ghel and meant both yellow and green. In Proto-Germanic, the word was *gelwaz. Subsequent incarnations of German had the word as gulr (Old Norse), gel (Middle High German) and gelo (Old High German). As late as Old English, yellow was written geolu and geolwe

Blue

Blue was also often confused with yellow back in the day. The PIE word was *bhle-was and meant “light-coloured, blue, blond yellow” and had its root as bhel which meant to shine. In Proto-Germanic, the word was *blaewaz, and in Old English, it was blaw.

English also gets some of its words from French, and blue is one of them. In Old French (one of the vulgar Latin dialects whose height was between the 9th and 13th centuries AD) blue was written bleu and blew and meant a variety of things including the colour blue.

Brown

Derived from the Old Germanic for either or both a dark colour and a shining darkness (brunoz andbruna),brown is a recent addition to our language. In Old English it was brun or brune, and its earliest known writing was in about 1000 AD.

Purple

This word also skipped the PIE and seems to have sprung up in the 9th century AD, in Old English aspurpul. Burrowed from the Latin word purpura, purple originally meant alternately, “purple colour, purple-dyed cloak, purple dye . . . a shellfish from which purple was made . . . [and] splendid attire generally.”

Orange

This colour’s name derives from the Sanskrit word for the fruit naranga. (Yes, the colour orange was named after the fruit, not the other way around). This transformed into the Arabic and Persian naranj, and by the time of Old French to pomme d’orenge. It was originally recorded in English as the name of the colour in 1512. Before then, the English speaking world referred to the orange colour as geoluhread, which literally translates to “yellow-red.”

Pink

One of the most recent colours to gain a name, pink was first recorded as describing the “pale rose colour” in 1733. In the 16th century, pink was the common named to describe a plant whose petals had a variety of colours (Dianthus), and it originally may have come from a Dutch word of the same spelling that meant small.

[MIKA27]

This Gravity-Sensing Satellite Peeks Beneath The Earth's Surface

The European Space Agency’s GOCE satellite has been on a quest to study the Earth’s interior, from space. Now the results are in, and a pioneering effort to map the Earth’s gravitational field in high detail, has just been published in the journal Nature Geoscience. It’s giving researchers an unprecedented look at our planet’s mantle.

The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was the first of a series of ESA satellites built to study the Earth’s gravitational field. This is no easy feat, especially at the level of detail the ESA’s Living Planet Programme was aiming for, where even the tiniest on-board movement can throw off the reading’s accuracy. As such, the GOCE was the first satellite to be entirely solid state, the entire spacecraft is one big integrated gravity-measuring sensor that detects variations in the earth’s pull by measuring the gravitational differences between group of on-board test masses.

The subtle pulls between these test masses allowed the satellite to indirectly measure the variable densities of rock almost 2000km below the surface — including subduction zones, whose movements propagate the Earth’s volcanic activity.

“Ultimately, volcanic activity and earthquakes occur because of these slow movements inside the Earth’s mantle,” Dr Isabelle Panet from the Paris Institute of Earth Physics, France, told the BBC. “The volcanoes and earthquakes are, if you like, just the surface expression of these deep dynamics.”

What’s more, these readings are helping oceanographers better understand the direction and speed of geostrophic ocean currents by combining sea surface height data with the gravity maps generated from GOCE. The satellite itself launched in 2009 into an atmosphere-skimming 255 km orbit before running out of fuel and burning up in the atmosphere last November.

[MIKA27]

The History Of Invisibility And The Future Of Camouflage

In 2004, the US Army made a colossal mistake. It introduced a new digital camouflage called the Universal Camouflage Pattern (UCP), a single pattern designed to work across all environments. Only a few months later, however, as the war in Iraq was intensifying by the day, every soldier on the ground knew the truth: by trying to work in every situation, UCP worked in none of them.

Unfortunately, the race to find a pattern that actually works — a race officially known as the Army’s Camouflage Improvement Effort — has been its own kind of debacle. In 2012, The Daily called it a “$5 Billion Snafu.” The competition solicited new patterns from hundreds of camo designers, then whittled the entries down to four finalists. After four years (and millions of dollars), the Army seemed ready to pick a winner.

The four finalists selected by the army included patterns from Brookwood, Crye Precision, Kryptek and ADS with Guy Cramer.

Yet the delays have continued. The latest rumour was that the entire Camo Improvement shebang was about to be cancelled.

Instead, the theory went, the Army would simply adopt MultiCam, a digital camo made by the Brooklyn company Crye Precision, which has served as a stopgap measure since the revelation that the Universal Camo pattern didn’t work.

Yet that hasn’t happened yet, either — and the tale grows stranger. Back in December, US Congress introduced a bill that would block the Army entirely from introducing a new pattern this year. By 2018, however, the bill would require the entire US Defense Department to adopt the same pattern. Politicians, it seems, are sick of spending money on this never-ending problem. In response to my request for comment from the military itself, spokesman William Layer could only tell me the following — that “the [uS] Army is weighing numerous options and are factoring in recent legislative restrictions.”

Amidst accusations of general incompetence and bureaucratic red tape, there’s also the fact that warfare technology is rapidly evolving — and no one can predict quite how camo will need to adapt in the long term. The burgeoning field of military science that revolves around how our eyes interpret — or misinterpret — information — is still very young. And flinging billions of dollars at the problem hasn’t had the intended effect.

The History of Invisibility

Today’s camouflage has a relatively short history. At the birth of modern warfare in the 18th century — when long-range rifles emerged — the concept of camouflage involved dressing in forest green or field grey. By World War I, troops were experimenting with “dazzle” that made it difficult to gauge the proximity of a ship in the distance. Soon, the technique was being used on humans.

1917: A soldier in World War I models early camouflage.

At the dawn of World War II, the distinctive kidney-shaped splotches of more contemporary camo had emerged — and things escalated quickly from there. By the end of the war, modern painters had even helped develop optical patterns to fool the eye, borrowing ideas from Cubism and Op-Art.

An Allied soldier during World War II.

In the late 1970s, though, the Army introduced a new (and unpopular) type of pattern called “dual texture”, an early forerunner to the “digital” camo we know today. Dual-tex used perfect squares of colour to mimic two patterns at once: one smaller, and one larger, effective at multiple distances.

It was an early forerunner to digital camo, but it wasn’t until the 1990s that camo developed on computers emerged — and, with it, a renaissance in the scientific study of camo. An army officer named Timothy O’Neill, “the grandfather of modern camo“, pioneered the genre with his small squares of colour that were able to trick the eye into seeing a camouflaged soldier or truck as part of the background of a scene.

Dual-tex camo from the 1970s and 1980s.

Why did pixels do a better job that traditional blobs? Because pixels are better at mimicking fractal patterns — which our eyes interpret as white noise. By looking less like figurative “nature”, digital camo gives our eyes nothing to fixate on.

But the eye is a complex piece of anatomy — and recreating the same optical trick for millions of soldiers in an infinite number of environments is nearly impossible. As a result, a cottage industry of independent contractors and engineers has sprung up, each hocking their own unique variant of digital camo — including the four finalists in the US Army’s Camo Improvement effort.

Find the US4CES: An image shows Guy Cramer and ADS Inc.’s finalist entry in the camouflage competition.

Some of these companies declined to comment when I contacted them for this post, most likely because the army’s winner announcement was still to come. But one in particular — Guy Cramer, CEO of Hyperstealth Biotechnology, designer of camo for the armies of Jordan and Afghanistan and one of the four finalists in the Camo Improvement effort — was kind enough to answer many of my questions about camo design and the army’s attempt to improve it.

Taking Advantage of the Eye’s Flaws

As Cramer explained to me, digital camouflage attempts to use advanced optical tricks to confuse the brain into missing the body of a target, rather than simply “blending in” to the surrounding landscape.

“You can’t just throw paint on a wall and call it camouflage,” he says.

“We’re not necessarily trying to create randomness. We want the brain to interpret patterns as part of the background.”

Affecting that kind of visual trickery is a tall order. It involves ideas about colour science, the anatomy of the human eye, and even the logistics of pattern-making. And it’s still not perfect. Let’s take one of the biggest shortcomings the Army’s failed digital pattern, UCP: the scale of the pixelated patterns.

All digital camo has two layers: a micropattern (the pixels) and a macropattern (the shapes the pixels form). If the scale of the macro blobs is too small — as they are with UCP — it triggers an optical phenomenon called “isoluminance”, rendering the carefully-constructed camo pattern into a light-coloured mass. In other words, it makes it incredibly easy to spot targets from a distance. That was one of the biggest problems with UCP, as you can see.

An example if isoluminance from Hyperstealth’s website

And what about colour? In 2004, when the army introduced UCP, it revealed that there was no black in the entire pattern. Black doesn’t occur in nature, officials explained. But Cramer completely disagrees. Black and brown are essential to mimic shadows.

Cramer’s finalist pattern for the Improvement Effort includes something called “boundary luminance”, a thin black line along the macro and micropatterns that tricks the eye into seeing 3D shapes:

The so-called “boundary luminance” in Cramer and ADS’s US4CES.

“If you don’t have at least a percentage of that on your camo, it will stand out and look very 2D because it doesn’t have that depth effect,” he explains. “It was a hard lesson learned.”

Economies of Scale

There are more than half a million soldiers in the Army right now — and printing and cutting enough uniforms for all of them (at the lowest cost!) presents its own unique problem. It’s important that camo “breaks up” the outline of soldier’s body at crucial points like the wrist, knee and ankle.

US4CES

Just like a tiger’s stripes, which run perpendicular to their limbs, these visual “breaks” help to disguise the anatomy of a human target. When a roll of camo fabric is being cut up into millions of uniforms, however, it can be tough to predict where these breaks will land.

Likewise, our brains are very good at recognising patterns — if we see one shape twice, we’re instantly aware that something’s up.

So it’s incredibly important that a uniform’s left and right sides don’t ever match. “A lot of patterns will have this issue,” says Cramer.

“The brain will see an anomaly on the right part of the chest, and if it sees a very similar pattern on the left side of the chest, the brain immediately connects the dots and says, I now see the top part of a human body.”

Cramer’s success has come, in part, because of his ability to engineer patterns that meet all of these complex criteria. He is a pioneer of algorithmic camo design: Rather than relying on his own brain to design patterns, he writes programs that generate true geometric fractals. Fractals, like the classic example of a leaf, are mathematical patterns that repeat themselves at any scale.

Self-similar geometries found in Google Earth by professor Paul Bourk.

Without a reference for scale, our eyes can’t differentiate between a fractal and the background.

That’s why Cramer’s patterns have been used on everything from guns to helicopters (not to mention more than 2.5 million uniforms): Because they are scaleless, they hide objects that are as small as humans and as large as buildings.

Every Conceivable Test

The art of testing these patterns is almost more important than the design itself — and it’s a process Cramer knows well, because he’s helped the Army test patterns for nearly a decade. The process involves quizzing the Army’s best snipers using thousands of photographs.

US soldiers explore abandoned shopping centre in East Baghdad.

At the United States Military Academy at West Point, the test subjects — which include snipers with perfect-or-better vision — don eye-tracking gear and are ushered into an immersive theatre where they’re shown slide after slide of camouflaged soldiers in different environments. There are a huge range of images to go through: For every conceivable environment, from deserts to marshes, and every conceivable weather event. Beyond environmental information, there are issues like range: a pattern must perform well close up as well as far away. According to Soldier Systems, the Camouflage Improvement Effort had 900 subjects test each pattern in 45 environments, resulting in a total of 120,000 data points.

A crucial part of the testing process isn’t just how quickly subjects can identify a visual anomaly — it’s about how quickly they can identify where the body of the soldier is actually lying. That millisecond decision can have a huge impact in the field where, according to one NBC report, identifying a target take the average sniper only 12 to 30 seconds.

Scrambling to Keep Up

In late August, a Special Forces team was unexpectedly removed from a mission in Libya, after terrorist groups stole dozens of guns and gadgets from US Army trucks. What does that have to do with camouflage? Everything, actually.

Along with machine guns and lasers, the raiders stole a gadget that could eventually do just as much damage: A special type of US Army night vision goggles that detect short-wave infrared light — aka the SWIR spectrum. At $US45,000 a pop, these goggles let soldiers see at around 1 μm wavelength, where colours blend together into a white mass. In other words, they make camouflage completely useless. The only pairs in existence have rested safely in the hands of the US Army, until now. Hence the pull out.

“It was never an issue up until now,” explains Cramer. “Now, you’ve got the bad guys running around with the same tech.”

Which hints at the underlying explanation for the camo snafu, beyond sequestration or inter-agency spats: as enemies change and the supply channels for the latest military technology evolve, the Army can’t be sure what exactly the other guys are seeing when they peer over the horizon at their troops.

We’ve come along way from the stone-grey or field-green camo of the 19th century. We’ve even come a long way from the 1960s and ’70s, when a single pattern could do for many decades and many conflicts. Modern warfare is changing at a dramatic speed — and, even when the US Department of Defense picks a new pattern this year or next, it won’t be long before they will be forced to reevaluate it.

A concept image for Hyperstealth’s “Smart Camo” textile, which can’t be shown

It’s almost as if the US Army isn’t looking far enough into the future — where rapid prototyping and smart materials could generate new patterns and textures simultaneously as field conditions change.

Hyperstealth, for example, is working on a project called Quantum Stealth — a light-bending camo project that’s been called an “invisibility cloak” in the media. One project, sadly, that its creators just can’t discuss yet.

[MIKA27]

SPARK SLEEPING BAG

The Spark SPI minimal sleeping bag by Sea to Summit is ideal for adventurers that need to pack light. The Spark has changed adventure traveling completely, without sacrificing comfort nor performance. It uses 850+ loft goose down, treated with moisture repelling Ultra-Dry Down, a micro-weight 10D shell and 15D lining, making this one of the best warmth for weight minimalist sleeping bags available. The Spark compresses to a small pack, keeping weight and bulk to a minimum.

[MIKA27]

MEZE 11 DECO EARPHONES

Meze have introduced a new line of headphones - the Deco range, a premium range with a synthesis of modern design and traditional elements featuring technical and aesthetic excellence. The Meze 11 Deco earphones feature the Meze trademark stylish ebony wood housing, elegant design, and deliver an amazing crisp sound, but that´s a given with any Meze product. Check out our thoughts and some more photos below.

The Meze 11 Deco feature beautifully handcrafted beech wood enclosures with quality and craftsmanship standards specific to the brand. They house 8mm Neodymium speakers that produce crystal clear bass and treble with an amazing level of balance, and harmony. Delivering perfect sound reproduction to satisfy both regular music lovers and audiophiles.

Included with the earphones is a nice little round pouch for storage, and four interchangeable pairs of uniquely shaped high-grade silicone ear-tips. The microphone and volume controls on the flexible, non-tangle cord are also a great addition.

All in all, the Meze 11 Deco are well-executed and technically most advanced earphones, they are some of the best looking earphones we have seen, they look absolutely beautiful and sound brilliant, the microphone is also a great plus. Not only is this a great sound system but an elegant accessory as well.

They are compatible with iPhone, Android, iPod, MP3, MP4, CD, DVD, MD, PSP.

Comes with 3 sizes of soft silicone earbuds and an EVA case to keep them protected and away from the elements.

TECHNICAL DATA:

-Speaker size: 8mm Neodymium

-Frequency response:17Hz-25KHz

-Sensitivity: 101+/-2dB At 1KHz1mW

-Impedance: 14 Ohm

-Rated input power: 3mW.

-Plug: 3.5mm gold-plated

Check out the Meze website for more stunning contemporary headphones, or follow Meze on Facebook for their latest news and updates.

[MIKA27]

FIVE OLIVE OIL

Five Olive Oil is a Greek extra virgin olive oil that comes in a beautiful bottle you´ll want to showcase on your kitchen top or dinning table. The company says "We have the ambition of creating one of the finest premium olive oil brands in the world, with sensational packaging layout and excellent product quality”. Not only will you be getting an olive oil in its purest form with natural flavors and without any additives, but an award wining elegant piece of design as well.

[MIKA27]

DIEVAS VORTEX TACTICAL

Dievas Watch Company is a German brand that focuses in producing high quality timepieces with classic clean lines, reminiscent of specific historical vintage watches.

The Vortex Tactical dive watch was made with the input of military personnel and field operatives, the matt black PVD 44mm case is made from aerospace grade Titanium G5 and the 4mm thick domed Sapphire crystal is treated with military grade anti-reflective coating for improved readability. It also boats a 60-click timing bezel, an automatic Helium Release Valve (for saturation diving) and is water-resistance to 500 meters/50atm. The watch includes two matching tactical straps.

[MIKA27]

FUNKY BUDDHA MAPLE BACON COFFEE PORTER

If you were to make a dream list of ingredients for a beer to make dudes drool, it's tough to imagine the description being any more appetizing than Maple Bacon Coffee Porter.

You read that right, maple syrup, coffee, and bacon all play vital roles in this incredibly balanced porter. None of the flavors overwhelm, but all of them get along amazingly well in this beer that transports us to a greasy spoon diner for a little hair of the dog after a night of carousing. It's even better than it sounds, and for the first time ever, can be found in 22 oz bottles Funky Buddha Brewery.

[MIKA27]

HUDSALVE

It may have been developed for the Swedish Military, but you don't need to be a soldier to enjoy the benefits of Hudsalve.

Well adapted for use in cold weather and wind, this balm is great for protecting your lips, as well as your face, hands, joints, and feet. And as with any great multi-use substance, it's become popular for more than just skin protection, being used as mosquito protection, weapon grease, and even leather treatment. Just don't go looking for it in cherry or some similarly silly flavor.

[MIKA27]

RYNO MICROCYCLE

No, that's not a typo, and you didn't read it wrong — it says microcycle. And that's because while it may share some characteristics with a traditional motorcycle, most notably the styling, the Ryno Microcycle has only one wheel.

Though the handlebars might suggest otherwise, you actually control the Ryno's electric motors by leaning forward to accelerate and back to slow down, with only subtle leans required to turn. Since the redundant motors are contained in the wheel itself, the whole package takes up less space than a bike, and with a range of 10 miles — and a top speed of 10 mph — it's ready to get you around the urban landscape, whether it's on the road, on the sidewalk, or even in the office.

[MIKA27]

PENNY BLUE XO RUM

If you're ready to distance yourself from the occasional rum and Coke but don't want to give up on the sugar cane spirit altogether, Penny Blue XO Rum should rise to the top of your list.

Made at the oldest distillery in Mauritius, where you'll find a sugar cane estate that has been making rum since 1926, Penny Blue is named after the world's rarest stamp, and this rum is very limited as well, with only 2500 bottles making it to US shelves. Each batch is unique as well, some aged in American oak whiskey casks while others spent time in French oak Cognac casks. We're pretty certain you don't want to put this rum anywhere near a bottle of soda.

[MIKA27]

LIFESTRAW GO

For a long time, finding fresh drinking water out in the wilderness was a chore — you either had to bring along purification packets, or else boil what water you could find and then wait on it to cool before drinking it.

Not anymore. With the Lifestraw Go, all you need to do is scoop up some water from a river, stream, or pond, screw on the lid, and drink. Since the bottle incorporates the company's award-winning technology, it removes 99.9999% of bacteria and nearly all waterborne parasites, and is good for up to 1,000 liters of water — or far more than you'll be drinking on a single hike.

[MIKA27]

How Bioelectronics Promise A Future Cure For Cancer

When you think of cyborgs becoming a reality, you probably picture Arnold Schwarzenegger’s glowing red eye from Terminator or the steely, tight-lipped stare of Robocop. But the future where man and machine converge won’t just be built with nuts and bolts. It will be built with biology.

Self-avowed cyborg expert Tim Maly said as much. The first full-fledged cyborg “probably won’t be a mechanical body,” he said.

“It will probably be some biogrown body, and it won’t be recognisable to us as Robocop, because it’ll already be part of a long line of small improvements.”

Those improvements have already begun.

The field is known as bioelectronics, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: biology meets electronics. Before I get ahead of myself, though, it’s important to define what bioelectronics is, then we can start to look at its very exciting possibilities.

Brief History

Bioelectronics is a fairly new word when it comes to scientific disciplines, although its origins go back at least a century. You can look at least as far back as the first accurate recording of the electrocardiogram in 1895 for the beginnings of bioelectronics. That’s when it became obvious that electronic systems could have a profound impact on the field of medicine. Today, some 160,000 defibrillators are implanted in the United States alone, turning thousands of Americans into walking, breathing cyborgs, whether they realise it or not.

The field of bioelectronics has only recently taken off, however. In fact, about 95 per cent of all papers written on the topic were published after 1990. And only in the past couple of years have truly world-changing breakthroughs started to surface. After the 20th century brought us everything from the pacemaker to robotic prosthetics, ambitious scientists started to wonder how they could push the synergy between biology and electronics even further. Instead of building electronic devices that could be implanted in biological systems, for instance, why not build devices that become a part of them?

Biocomputing

So far, the beginnings of this have largely happened on a cellular level. Scientists are building biocomputers, for example, that use biologically derived material to perform computational functions. These mind-bending little inventions actually use DNA to manufacture proteins in a system according to very specific directions. More specifically, they use proteins and DNA to process information instead of silicon chips.

To be considered computers, then, they have to be able to do three things: store information, transmit information, and perform a function according to a system of logic. Scientists figured out how to store and transmit information a long time ago. (After all, DNA itself is in the business of store and transmitting information.) Only last year, did they figure out how to get biocomputers to perform calculations.

A team led by Stanford bioengineer Drew Endy built a system of transmitting genetic information using something they called “transcriptors” that work a lot like electronic transistors. Whereas transistors work by letting electrons either flow or not flow through a gateway, transcriptors allowed a protein called RNA polymerase either flow or not flow along a strand of DNA. This inevitably enabled scientists to build a fully functional biocomputer.

Biology Meets Electronics

Building a biological system that performs like an electronic system isn’t necessarily bioelectronics. Biocomputing is a building block for something bigger, something more akin to learning how biological systems and electronic systems can exist symbiotically. That’s precisely what a team of Harvard scientists accomplished in 2012 when they created a “cyborg” tissue that embedded a three dimensional network of functional, biocompatible, nanoscale wires into engineered human tissue. This discovery represents perfectly that synergy that I mentioned above.

“The current methods we have for monitoring or interacting with living systems are limited,” said Professor Charles Lieber who led the research. “We can use electrodes to measure activity in cells or tissue, but that damages them. With this technology, for the first time, we can work at the same scale as the unit of biological system without interrupting it. Ultimately, this is about merging tissue with electronics in a way that it becomes difficult to determine where the tissue ends and the electronics begin.”

It makes basic sense when you think about it. At the end of the day, the human body is controlled by a series of electrical signals, so Lieber and his team designed this new material after the autonomic nervous system using nanoscale wires to act kind of like nerves.

For now, the material will likely be used by the pharmaceutical industry to see how human tissue reacts to drugs, but the sky’s the limit when it comes to the possibilities of electronic body parts.

A Bioelectric Cure for Cancer

Let’s draw a distinction here. A material that’s part electronic (read: has wires) and part biological (read: is made of living cells) is certainly bioelectric. But the ultimate ambition of bioelectronics takes it a stage further. These — largely hypothetical — devices use the principles of biocomputing and the architecture of biological electronics to do incredible things.

It’ll take some time to get there. So far, what we have been successful at doing in the field of bioelectronics is manipulating the electrical properties of living cells. Tufts University developmental biologist Michael Levin, for instance, believes he can tweak the existing electronic signals in cells to spawn new patterns of growth. This is not dissimilar to tweaking the flow of proteins in a biocomputer to perform a specific function, except its implications are potentially world-changing.

Just think what it could do for cancer research. Levin’s team published a paper last February that outlines how specific electrical signals are associated with tumour growth. In effect, if you could identify that unique bioelectric signal early on, you could spot the tumour before it even starts to grow.

Even further, if you could manipulate that bioelectric signal, you could stop the cancer altogether. This would happen by facilitating the flow of ions into and out of the cells setting off a chain reaction that could alter the course of the disease. In the grand scheme of things, reading these bioelectric signals could help identify and treat all kinds of conditions and possibly even regrow limbs.

Making You a Living Computer

That’s largely where the near term promise for bioelectronics lies: in medicine. These kinds of devices are already coming to market as wearable sensors that tell you about your body. Google’s recently announced contact lens that can monitor glucose levels is a perfect example, as are the many different iterations of LED tattoos. Some of these devices work in tandem with a smartphone or a computer, but scientists ultimately hope they’ll be able to operate autonomously, without wires or perhaps even batteries.

The vision is ambitious. A little over a month ago, pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline announced a $US1 million prize for innovation in the field of bioelectronics. They’re looking for some genius scientists to build “a miniaturized, fully implantable device that can read, write and block the body’s electrical signals to treat disease.” Sounds pretty incredible! This could bring us closer to a cure for anything from asthma to diabetes and potentially save millions of lives. And thanks to recent research we know it’s possible.

Quite frankly, if bioelectronics can do all things scientists think it can do, $US1 million is a bargain for a device like that.

[MIKA27]

Scientists Use Acid To Turn Blood Cells Into Stem Cells In 30 Seconds

This is a game changer, folks. Whereas mining stem cells has been either an ethical quandary or a months-long affair, scientist can now turn any old blood cells into stem cells in just 30 seconds — by dipping them in acid.

That’s right. Take blood cells, add acid, get stem cells. It’s as simple as it sounds.

A team of Japanese scientists stumbled upon the method after observing a similar phenomenon in plants, where environmental stress can morph an ordinary cell into an immature one. New plants could then grow from the immature cell. This has also been known to happen in birds and reptiles, so the team from the Riken Center for Developmental Biology set out to see if something similar could happen with mammals.

They started with mice, of course. Sure enough, when they exposed blood cells from mice to acid, a transformation began. While some of the blood cells died, many became stem cells within a couple of days. “It looks a bit too good to be true, but the number of experts who have reviewed and checked this, I’m sure that it is,” Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, told the BBC.

“If this works in people as well as it does in mice, it looks faster, cheaper and possibly safer than other cell reprogramming technologies — personalised reprogrammed cell therapies may now be viable.”

The breakthrough was described by other scientists as “remarkable”, “revolutionary” and “a game changer”. Why? Well, if you’ve been following the promise and perils of stem cell research, then you know that the issue is both controversial and complicated. At first, scientists mined stem cells directly from embryos, but that involved destroying the embryos. In 2006, teams from Japan and the United Kingdom developed a new method, whereby they introduced certain genes that caused cells to reprogram themselves, becoming stem cells. That discovery won them the Nobel Prize in 2012, but it’s also expensive and time-consuming. Other experimental methods are in the works.

This new discovery not only means that we can produce stem cells cheaply and quickly but also potentially cut through the ethical debate, because no embryos would be harmed. If it works in humans, that is. Of course, there’s plenty more research to be done before scientists can fully understand the process and develop methods for stem cell research. But hot damn, this is good news.

[MIKA27]

This Book Somehow Opens Up 6 Different Ways To Reveal 6 Hidden Books

Done with this book? No need to get another one, because you can just open it a different way to reveal another book. Done with that one? Well, just open it another way and you’ll have another story. And again. And again. Until you do it six times. Because, you see, there are six books in this one book. It just depends how you open it.

This book, which was bound in the late 16th century, is filled with German text and is owned by the National Library of Sweden. It’s like a dos-à-dos book (two books that share the same binding, back to back) but with even more secrets in ‘one’ binding. Erik Kwakkel says:

They are all devotional texts printed in Germany during the 1550s and 1570s (including Martin Luther,Der kleine Catechismus) and each one is closed with its own tiny clasp. While it may have been difficult to keep track of a particular text’s location, a book you can open in six different ways is quite the display of craftsmanship.

You can see more pictures of the 6-in-1 book here. It’s like a very limited, very old Kindle that could only hold six books.

[shlomo]

Scientists Use Acid To Turn Blood Cells Into Stem Cells In 30 Seconds

This is a game changer, folks. Whereas mining stem cells has been either an ethical quandary or a months-long affair, scientist can now turn any old blood cells into stem cells in just 30 seconds — by dipping them in acid.

That’s right. Take blood cells, add acid, get stem cells. It’s as simple as it sounds.

A team of Japanese scientists stumbled upon the method after observing a similar phenomenon in plants, where environmental stress can morph an ordinary cell into an immature one. New plants could then grow from the immature cell. This has also been known to happen in birds and reptiles, so the team from the Riken Center for Developmental Biology set out to see if something similar could happen with mammals.

They started with mice, of course. Sure enough, when they exposed blood cells from mice to acid, a transformation began. While some of the blood cells died, many became stem cells within a couple of days. “It looks a bit too good to be true, but the number of experts who have reviewed and checked this, I’m sure that it is,” Chris Mason, professor of regenerative medicine at University College London, told the BBC.

“If this works in people as well as it does in mice, it looks faster, cheaper and possibly safer than other cell reprogramming technologies — personalised reprogrammed cell therapies may now be viable.”

The breakthrough was described by other scientists as “remarkable”, “revolutionary” and “a game changer”. Why? Well, if you’ve been following the promise and perils of stem cell research, then you know that the issue is both controversial and complicated. At first, scientists mined stem cells directly from embryos, but that involved destroying the embryos. In 2006, teams from Japan and the United Kingdom developed a new method, whereby they introduced certain genes that caused cells to reprogram themselves, becoming stem cells. That discovery won them the Nobel Prize in 2012, but it’s also expensive and time-consuming. Other experimental methods are in the works.

This new discovery not only means that we can produce stem cells cheaply and quickly but also potentially cut through the ethical debate, because no embryos would be harmed. If it works in humans, that is. Of course, there’s plenty more research to be done before scientists can fully understand the process and develop methods for stem cell research. But hot damn, this is good news.

My buddy's wife wrote a really great article for USA Today about this. Can't seem to find it right now, but read it earlier today. Very interesting and hoping it works out in human subjects in a few years.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: Guam Could Get A Missile Shield To Deter North Korean Attacks

Guam’s strategic location just 2400km South of Japan’s shores make the tiny island a very valuable piece of real estate for the US military and a very enticing target for Pyongyang’s missile program. To make sure that Kim Jong Un doesn’t get any funny ideas, Congress wants to arm Guam with our version of the Iron Dome.

Known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system, this Raytheon-built missile shield is designed to to shoot down short-range, medium-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase, just as they cross back into the planet’s atmosphere. But unlike the Israeli’s Arrow III missile shield, THAAD employs only kinetic energy, not an explosive warhead, to disable incoming threats while minimising the spread of whatever they were carrying.

Each $US800 million THAAD system comprises five integrated subsystems: launchers, interceptors, a radar, THAAD fire control and communications (TFCC) units, and THAAD-specific support equipment. The deployment of these systems falls under the Missile Defence Agency’s jursidiction, though the THAAD is also employed by the Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defence System as a land-based supplement to on-board defensive weapons.

The THAAD is being considered for permanent deployment to Guam on account of North Korea’s recent spate of saber rattling — especially being named a potential target during one of Kim Jong Un’s national addresses last year.

The Army has already flown in a battery from Ft. Bliss, Tx, did so this past April, in case of attack. How long they’ll stay depends on Congress.

[MIKA27]

This Wacky Telescope Lets You Listen To What You're Looking At

Unless you’re a synesthete, the five senses are pretty straightforward — but designers keep on coming up with cool ways to mix-up the experience for those of us who don’t have the natural ability. Which is what makes the Wassiliscope so neat: This thing transforms colour frequencies into corresponding sound frequencies, allowing the user to hear what they see. Totally trippy.

The project is by San Francisco-based Christopher Yamane of Fragile Studios, who wanted a way to unite the “materials” — aka waves — of sight and sound. An embedded camera analyses the average light frequency in the viewfinder and gives it an audible match, which is then pumped into the headphones via a triangle wave oscillator.

[Fuzz]

This Wacky Telescope Lets You Listen To What You're Looking At

Taking voyeurism to a new level!