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

[MIKA27]

The Sneaky Queen Gets the Colony

Whats a Queen Bee to do?

After hatching, a new queen leaves her colony to take off on her nuptial flight. She finds an area where drones (male bees) congregate and mates with many of them. Once mated, she needs a colony of her own over which to rule.

Honeybees solve this in an orderly way. First, very few new queens are born. Workers control whether a particular female will blossom into a queen with the quantity and quality of food they feed her. New queens are created if the reigning queen is near death, so a daughter can take her place. Alternatively, if the colony gets large enough, a new queen will be born and she will set off with some of the workers to start a new colony (a phenomenon called swarming).

Stingless bees of the genus Melipona are different. Queens are seemingly overproduced, with up to 20 percent of all females developing into queens. What happens to all those queens?

A recent genetic analysis suggested a surprising answer. It showed unrelated queens frequently invading and taking over colonies in which the reigning queen happened to die. This finding called into question the assumption that new colonies were only established through swarming or an old queen passing the torch to a daughter queen.

In a new study, researchers from the Universities of São Paulo, Brazil and Leuven, Belgium, took a closer look at the situation. They observed eight colonies of Melipona scutellaris, half of which had their queens removed. The researchers collected the colonies’ queens as they were born and marked each one with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag.

The results confirmed that foreign queen takeovers are common occurrences. Interestingly, queen bees never attempted to take over a colony that had a queen in place. The queens were selectively seeking out colonies without queens in which to establish themselves.

The researchers also noticed that all takeover attempts took place in the evening around sunset. This happened to be the time of day that colony entrance guards were least efficient. Passing the guards is the trickiest part of infiltrating a colony, as they play the major role in rejecting and attacking intruders. Once a bee is inside the colony, she is home-free. Foreign queens seemed to be taking advantage of the letup in guard vigilance around sunset to sneak in to the colonies.

It’s not entirely clear how foreign queens know which colonies lack queens. Previous observations of Melipona bees have revealed queenless colonies to be more “restless and irritable” than colonies with queens. This could be explained by the absence of queen-specific pheromones, which appear to have a calming effect on colony behavior. Invading queens might decide whether or not to enter a colony based on its collective behavior, or they could use the lack of queen-specific pheromones as a cue.

Whatever signals they use, queen bees are experts at taking advantage of the changes in guarding vigilance throughout the day. For newly mated queens in search of a colony in which to settle down and lay their eggs, sneakiness pays off.

[MIKA27]

Enough Already. Does Mars Have Life or Not?

The latest readings do not offer good news for lovers of the Red Planet

Mars has been teasing us for a long, long time. It has canals! announced Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli in 1877. No, it doesn’t, responded NASA‘s Mariner 4 spacecraft when it flew by the planet in 1965. But there might still be microbial life, we all insisted. Not that we can detect, answered the twin Viking spacecraft when they landed on the surface in 1976.

It’s gone back and forth like that ever since, with Earth-based telescopes as well as NASA’s flock of Mars orbiters and rovers detecting topographic formations and surface chemistry definitively proving that Mars was once a warm and very waterlogged place.

What’s more, deposits of water persist still, locked in polar ice and in underground deposits, some of which melt and percolate to the surface in spring. None of the scooping and sampling and scanning by the spacecraft has produced any proof of biology, but there have been tantalizing hints of biological byproducts—in the form of methane.

The most common of all of the solar system’s hydrocarbons, methane is present in high concentrations on Earth, and up to 95% of it is produced biologically—by either living or dead and decaying organisms. Over the past decade or so telescopes and spacecraft alike have similarly spotted signs of methane all over Mars. There are readings from the Canada-France-Hawii Telescope on the summit of Mauna Kea Mountain on Hawaii’s big island showing global Martian methane averages of up to 13 parts per billion (ppb). There are readings from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft more or less paralleling those findings and also reporting seasonal spikes of up to 45 ppb in the north polar region. The Mars Global Surveyor satellite pushed that maximum to 60 ppb. Other observations suggest that at least some of this methane exists in the form of great atmospheric plumes.

Now, the best, most precise and most persuasive findings of all have come back from the Mars Curiosity rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2012, and the answer, according to a paper just published in Science is: a big thumbs-down. Never mind the global averages and the giant plumes, the best guess on the total concentration of methane on Mars is now a puny 1.3 ppb—and that’s the upper limit. As for how statistically confident the investigators are of this conclusion? At least 95%.

“Our result sets an upper limit that is [about] six times lower than the recent measurements,” the authors of the paper wrote. This, they said, “greatly reduces the probability” of significant methane-producing microbial activity.

What makes the results reliable—if keenly disappointing—is the mere fact that the equipment aboard Curiosity is so bloody good. The atmospheric analysis was conducted by an instrument called the Tunable Laser Spectrometer (TLS), which uses two different kinds of laser detectors to do its work. One looks for the spectral lines of methane alone; the other can detect methane, water, carbon dioxide and various isotopes of carbon and oxygen. Neither one saw methane in anywhere near the concentrations the more remote sensors did. And that remoteness is the key to their earlier readings’ lower reliability: an on-site instrument, the investigators write, “offers unambiguous identification of methane.” And, alas, of its unambiguous absence as well.

Had heavy methane concentrations been found, it would by no means have sealed the deal for microbial life. Methane can be produced by geological activity, such as geysers or volcanoes; and it can also be carried in aboard comets or meteorites. Those explanations would have fit nicely with the idea atmospheric plumes, but even those temporary concentrations have been called into question by the new findings. Methane concentrations as high as 60 ppb should have persisted in the atmosphere longer than they have, which suggests that they were not there in the first place.

The good news for Mars-ophiles is that the new findings do not remotely seal the deal against life either. The TLS sampled only the lowest three feet (1 m) of the atmospheric column and methane could exist higher up, though the experimenters believe that their understanding of how the gas moves, disperses and breaks down suggests that the bottom of the column is representative of the rest. What’s more, life still may be living and metabolizing deeply underground; indeed, on a dry, all-but airless surface bombarded by cosmic rays, the safer, wetter subsurface would be the smartest place to hunker down. What’s more, even state-of-the-art instruments are not flawless instruments. The TLS could always be wrong—or at least missing something.

For now, however, the planet that has made a habit of raising, lowering and confounding our expectations has let us down again. If history is any indicator, we have a right to be disappointed—but not to give up hope.

[MIKA27]

Personal jetpack on the market next year, says aircraft company

Bored of sitting in traffic jams on your way to work? Tired of overcrowded train carriages? Too lazy to walk to the office? Soon you will be able to fly there using your own jetpack.

The decades-old dream of Thunderball fans could be a reality as early as next summer after The Martin Aircraft Company said it hoped to have a model on the market within 10 months.

The jetpack will be able to soar to 7,000 feet and hit speeds of 50mph. "Think of it like a motorcycle in the sky," Peter Coker, Martin chief executive, told the Wall Street Journal.

However, with a fuel tank that will only power the twin-duct fan engines for 30 minutes, it's only a good idea if you live close to the office.

The other problem is the price - at $150,000, it's certainly not cheap. But that hasn't put off thousands of adrenaline junkies. "We have more than 10,000 people who have actually enquired as to where they might be able to purchase these in the future," Mr Coker added.

Martin has received clearance to conduct manned test flights, planning to market the jetpack to the emergency services and Army while developing a lighter version for private use.

Authorities in New Zealand, where Martin is based, have classified the product as a microlight, meaning potential pilots will need a licence to fly it. So, start studying now.

[MIKA27]

Birra Fresca Cucumber Mint IPA Beer

Summer is winding down in many parts of the US, but that doesn't mean a crisp, refreshing beer isn't on our minds. Mint and cucumber are both regularly associated with refreshment, but rarely are they associated with beer.

R & B Brewing Company out of Vancouver, Canada decided to take on this refreshment challenge, and have exceeded our expectations, and enlivened our palates as well. Birra Fresca Cucumber Mint IPA ($8) uses over 200 cucumbers that were sourced locally along with their mint. It's a fresh, clean, IPA to sip on in a comfortable chair as you wave farewell to summer.

[Habana Mike]

Birra Fresca Cucumber Mint IPA Beer

Summer is winding down in many parts of the US, but that doesn't mean a crisp, refreshing beer isn't on our minds. Mint and cucumber are both regularly associated with refreshment, but rarely are they associated with beer.

R & B Brewing Company out of Vancouver, Canada decided to take on this refreshment challenge, and have exceeded our expectations, and enlivened our palates as well. Birra Fresca Cucumber Mint IPA ($8) uses over 200 cucumbers that were sourced locally along with their mint. It's a fresh, clean, IPA to sip on in a comfortable chair as you wave farewell to summer.

Yecchhh! Mint does not belong in beer, cucumber maybe....both? I don't think so.

Methinks that, as an IPA, the hops would overpower any hint of cucumber at any rate, should have gone for a pale ale.

That said I'm willing to give it a shot since I've yet to turn away from a gustatory challenge.

[MIKA27]

Yecchhh! Mint does not belong in beer, cucumber maybe....both? I don't think so.

Methinks that, as an IPA, the hops would overpower any hint of cucumber at any rate, should have gone for a pale ale.

That said I'm willing to give it a shot since I've yet to turn away from a gustatory challenge.

Let me know what you think of it when you try it...

Trust Canadiens to think of mint in Beer aye!

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: Howard Hughes's H-1 Racer Was The World's Last DIY Superplane

Inspired by the fleet of aircraft featured in his film Hell’s Angels, Howard Hughes did what any business magnate/aviation engineer/super rich guy would — he designed and built a plane fast enough to break the transcontinental landplane speed record. And in doing so, he catapulted aviation technology leagues beyond the bi-plane of the day.

Hughes began drafting the plane’s design in 1934 with the help of Richard Palmer, a Cal Tech graduate already famous for his radical aircraft design, and hired Glenn Odekirk, who had supervised the Hell’s Angelsfleet, to oversee the planes construction.

Dubbed the H-1 — or simply the Racer, as Hughes preferred — this one-of-a-kind plane measured 8m nose to tail and stood 2.4m tall with a 10m wingspan. Its single Pratt & Whitney R-1535 radial engine was originally rated at 700hp, but when fully tuned put out a whopping 1000hp at its 2590m cruising altitude.

The H-1 fuselage was a sight to behold as well, covered in its polished aluminium skin. The H-1 also employed custom-machined rivets that held the skin perfectly flush to the plane’s frame, as well as retractable landing gear, in order to reduce drag.

In September, 1935 the H-1 took off from a Southern California airfield with Hughes himself at the controls. Four passes over a carefully monitored course later and Hughes set down owning a new world landspeed record at an average of 567km/h. Hughes flew the plane so hard he ran out of fuel before he could land and had to crash the H-1 into a beet field. He walked away from the crash, reportedly only saying, “We can fix her, she’ll go faster.”

With the overall speed record under his belt, Hughes set his sites on the transcontinental speed record, set in 1932 by Jim Haizlip in just under 10.5 hours. For this nonstop cross-country flight, Hughes outfitted the H-1 with longer wings to lessen the stress each would endure over the 4007km flight. On January 19, 1937, the H-1 departed Los Angeles bound for Newark with Hughes again at the controls. Just 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds later, he set the H-1 down on the East Coast — a full three hours faster than Haizlip and nearly as quickly as modern airliners do.

“It was the last non-military plane to set a world speed record,” Jim Wright, told the Smithsonian. Wright built a near-exact full-size replica of the H-1 in 2002. “It was also the last time an individual could design an aeroplane that was world-class. After this, planes of this calibre were designed by teams of hundreds or thousands of people. The Hughes Racer was a personal statement. And when you work on a machine designed by an individual, you learn a lot about that person. The Racer turned out to be a very mysterious aeroplane. But then, Howard was a very mysterious person.”

Although Hughes was unsuccessful in his bid to sell the Racer design to the US military prior to World War II, the H-1 proved the worth of radial engine-powered planes and inspired future aircraft such as the F6F Hellcat, P-47 Thunderbolt, and even, according to Hughes, the infamous Japanese Mitsubishi Type 0.

The H-1 didn’t see much air time after its historic flight and in 1975 was donated to the Smithsonian. It now rests in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC.

[MIKA27]

The Price of Precious

The minerals in our electronic devices have bankrolled unspeakable violence in the Congo.

The first child soldier pops out of the bush clutching an AK-47 assault rifle in one hand and a handful of fresh marijuana buds in the other. The kid, probably 14 or 15, has this big, goofy, mischievous grin on his face, like he’s just stolen something—which he probably has—and he’s wearing a ladies’ wig with fake braids dangling down to his shoulders.

Within seconds his posse materializes from the thick, green leaves all around us, about ten other heavily armed youngsters dressed in ratty camouflage and filthy T-shirts, dropping down from the sides of the jungle and blocking the red dirt road in front of us. Our little Toyota truck is suddenly swarmed and immobilized by a four-and-a-half-foot-tall army.

This is on the road to Bavi, a rebel-controlled gold mine on the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s wild eastern edge. Congo is sub-Saharan Africa’s largest country and one of its richest on paper, with an embarrassment of diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper, tin, tantalum, you name it—trillions’ worth of natural resources. But because of never ending war, it is one of the poorest and most traumatized nations in the world. It doesn’t make any sense, until you understand that militia-controlled mines in eastern Congo have been feeding raw materials into the world’s biggest electronics and jewelry companies and at the same time feeding chaos. Turns out your laptop—or camera or gaming system or gold necklace—may have a smidgen of Congo’s pain somewhere in it.

The mine in the Bavi area is a perfect example. It’s controlled by a potbellied warlord called Cobra Matata, though “controlled” may be a strong word. There are no discernible front lines out here marking where government rule definitively ends and Cobra’s territory definitively begins, no opposing troops hunkered down in trenches or foxholes eyeballing each other through their scopes. Instead there are just messy, blurry degrees of influence, often very marginal influence, with a few Congolese government guys lounging under a mango tree in one place, and maybe two miles down the road a few of Cobra’s child soldiers smoking pot, and nothing in between but big, vacant, sparkling green wilderness.

“Sigara! Sigara!” the child soldiers yell, seeking cigarettes. Photographer Marcus Bleasdale and I quickly push fistfuls of Sportsmans, a local brand, out the window, and they are instantaneously gobbled up by feverish little hands. That seems to do the trick, along with a few thousand crumpled Congolese francs, worth less than five bucks, and then we’re on our way again, rumbling down an excruciatingly bumpy dirt road, past thatched-roof villages and banana trees. In the distance giant mountains nose the sky.

When we get to Bavi, we sit down with the village elders and talk gold. The world gold price has quadrupled over the past ten years, but there’s no sign of development or newfound prosperity out here. Bavi has the same broken-down feel of any other village in eastern Congo: a clump of round huts hunched by the road, a market where the shops are made of sticks, shopkeepers torpidly selling heaps of secondhand clothes, and glassy-eyed men reeking of home brew stumbling down the dirt footpaths. There’s no electricity or running water, and the elders say they need medicine and books for the school. The kids are barefoot, their bellies pushed out like balloons from malnutrition or worms or both.

“We’re broke,” says Juma Mafu, one of the elders. “We’ve got a lot of gold but no machines to get it out. Our diggers use their hands. No big companies are ever going to come here unless we have peace.” Which they clearly don’t.

The birds are chirping, and the afternoon sun is slanting behind us as we walk down the hill toward the gold mine. First stop is to say hello to the “minister of mines,” who is at a pub in the market, sitting Buddha-like with his eyes half closed behind a forest of freshly polished-off Primus beer bottles. He is an enormous man and wears a cheap, silvery blazer stretched awkwardly over the thick rolls of fat on his back.

“Hujambo, mzee,” I say, giving him a respectful Swahili greeting.

He burps—loudly. I tell him we’re journalists and we’d like to see the gold mine.

He laughs a nasty little laugh and then says, “How do I know you’re journalists? Maybe you’re spies.” The word “spies” shoots through the market like a spark, igniting a crowd of people, who suddenly flock around us. A one-eyed child soldier glares at us menacingly and fingers his gun. Another young man abruptly announces that he works for the Congolese government intelligence service and wants to see our documents.

Time to leave, I think. Time to leave, right now. As casually as I can manage at this point, though my voice is beginning to crack, I say, “Fine ... uh ... no problem. Then we’ll just ... um ... go home.”

But the minister of mines shakes his fat head. “No, no, you won’t. You’re under arrest.”

“For what?” I ask, my throat parched.

“For being in a zone rouge.”

Isn’t most of eastern Congo a red zone, controlled by armed groups? I think. But I don’t say anything, because the next minute we’re marched into a car for a five-hour drive to the larger town of Bunia, where we will be held at gunpoint and interrogated in a dark, little house with mysterious stains on the floor.

The story of Congo is this: The government in Kinshasa, the capital, is weak and corrupt, leaving this vast nation rotten at its core.

The remote east has plunged straight into anarchy, carved up by a hodgepodge of rebel groups that help bankroll their brutality with stolen minerals. The government army is often just as sticky fingered and wicked. Few people in recent memory have suffered as long, and on such a horrifying scale, as the Congolese. Where else are men, women, and children slaughtered by the hundreds, year after year, sometimes so deep in the jungle that it takes weeks for the truth to come out? Where else are hundreds of thousands of women raped and just about nobody punished?

To appreciate how Congo descended into this madness, you need to step back more than a hundred years to when King Leopold II of Belgium snatched this huge space in the middle of Africa as his own personal colony. Leopold wanted rubber and ivory, and he started the voracious wholesale assault on Congo’s resources that has dragged on to this day. When the Belgians abruptly granted Congo independence in 1960, insurrections erupted immediately, paving the way for an ambitious young military man, Mobutu Sese Seko, to seize power—and never let go. Mobutu ruled for 32 years, stuffing himself with fresh Parisian cake airlifted into his jungle palaces while Congolese children curled up and starved.

But Mobutu would eventually go down, and when he did, Congo would go down with him. In 1994 Rwanda, next door, imploded in genocide, leaving up to a million dead. Many of the killers fled into eastern Congo, which became a base for destabilizing Rwanda.

So Rwanda teamed up with neighboring Uganda and invaded Congo, ousting Mobutu in 1997 and installing their own proxy, Laurent Kabila. They soon grew annoyed with him and invaded again. That second phase of Congo’s war sucked in Chad, Namibia, Angola, Burundi, Sudan, and Zimbabwe—it’s often called Africa’s first world war.

In the ensuing free-for-all, foreign troops and rebel groups seized hundreds of mines. It was like giving an ATM card to a drugged-out kid with a gun. The rebels funded their brutality with diamonds, gold, tin, and tantalum, a hard, gray, corrosion-resistant element used to make electronics. Eastern Congo produces 20 to 50 percent of the world’s tantalum.

Under intense international pressure in the early 2000s, the foreign armies officially withdrew, leaving Congo in ruins. Bridges, roads, houses, schools, and entire families had been destroyed. As many as five million Congolese had died. Peace conferences were hosted, but cordial meetings in fancy hotels didn’t alter the ugly facts on the ground. The United Nations sent in thousands of military peacekeepers—there are around 17,000 today—but the blood continued to flow. Donor nations sank $500 million into an election in 2006—Congo’s first truly inclusive one—but that didn’t change things either.

Congo’s east remained a battle zone. Ugandans, Rwandans, and Burundians kept sneaking across the borders to sponsor various rebel outfits, which kept using minerals to buy more weapons and pay more rebels, like the wig-wearing Cobra Matata boys. Despite the international outcry, no one knew exactly what to do.

Sometime around 2008 a critical mass of human rights groups and American lawmakers started asking a crucial question: What about the minerals? What if Congo’s mineral trade could be cleaned up and the rebel ATM shut down? A “blood diamonds” campaign in the late 1990s had exposed how the West African diamond trade was funding rebellions on that side of Africa. What about a similar conflict-minerals campaign for Congo?

On July 21, 2010, President Barack Obama signed the Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill, an 848-page behemoth that included a special section on conflict minerals. The law called for publicly listed American companies to disclose whether any of their products included minerals from mines controlled by armed groups in or around Congo. Though Dodd-Frank did not explicitly ban corporations from using Congo’s conflict minerals, it made big companies worry about being linked with what is arguably the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

Even before the legislation was enacted, some leading electronics companies such as Intel, Motorola, and HP had begun tracking the minerals used in their products. Since the law went into effect, many other companies, but not all, have also made progress auditing their supply chains, according to the Enough Project, an American nonprofit that ranks major company efforts to create a clean minerals trade.

Chuck Mulloy of Intel concedes that complying with the new regulations eats into profits (he won’t estimate how much), but “we don’t want to support people who are raping, pillaging, and killing. It’s as simple as that.” By the end of 2012 Intel’s microprocessors were conflict free for tantalum, though the company cannot guarantee that a dash of other conflict minerals, like gold, tin, or tungsten, hasn’t made it into their microchips.

One of the criticisms of Dodd-Frank was that it might prompt electronics companies to simply boycott all minerals from Congo, which would inadvertently hurt local miners’ livelihoods. And this did happen, at least at first. Multinationals stopped buying tin and tantalum ore from smelters unable to prove that their minerals did not fund conflict. And in September 2010 the Congolese government issued a six-month ban on all mining and trading activities in the east—devastating thousands of miners.

But then the first green shoots of a reformed mining trade began to emerge. Congolese authorities started inspecting mines. The army kicked out the militias and rogue soldiers and sent in newly trained mining police to monitor the sites. Armed groups that were trading in tin, tantalum, and tungsten saw their profits drop by 65 percent. Congo’s mines were starting to clean up.

We visited one “green,” or conflict-free, mine, in Nyabibwe, a mining center that stretches for miles in a valley not far from Lake Kivu.

The mountainside was crawling with young, hulking men wearing rags and headlamps, hammering, digging, shoveling, scooping, scraping, and hauling away every possible speck of yellowish cassiterite rock, or tin ore. Their cheeks bulged with chunks of sugarcane for energy. It was an antlike army expending millions of calories and gallons of sweat to feed a vast and distant global industry. None of the men knew much about Dodd-Frank, and when asked about the regulations, most grumbled that the price of cassiterite was still too low.

In Nyabibwe all of the easy-to-reach cassiterite was dug up long ago, so today’s miners must bore deep into the mountain, using only hammers and shovels. Inside one tunnel, named Maternity, the mother tunnel, the walls were moist and slimy and narrower at each step. In the thick darkness there was no sense of up or down, just the drip, drip, drip of water and the faint sound of men singing from deep in the bowels of the Earth.

The miners lug the sacks of cassiterite out of the tunnels on their backs and drag them down to a little hut at the bottom of the mountain, where clerks weigh them, record the numbers in a big book, and affix a plastic bar-code tag indicating that this cassiterite is conflict free. Then onward by motorbike or pickup to Bukavu, the main town, to be loaded onto tractor trailers bound for Rwanda and then to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, a big port on the Indian Ocean. The cassiterite ends up in Malaysia, where it is smelted at more than 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and then sold to electronics companies.

The Nyabibwe mine used to be run by Congolese soldiers. But in 2011 the government ordered the military out. Since then, reports indicate that military-led smuggling may still be going on at the mine. But when we were there, in January of this year, we didn’t see any soldiers, militiamen, or child laborers. The record books looked pretty clean. Nyabibwe seemed like progress.

The problem is that there are still too few clean mines. Only about 10 percent of mines in the east—55 in total—have been deemed conflict free. Although most tin, tantalum, and tungsten mines have been demilitarized, gold mines remain largely in army or rebel hands. Government officials collude secretly with rebel chiefs like Cobra Matata to make money, as we learned when we tried to get to the Bavi gold mine.

After our arrest, soldiers interrogated us in the small, dark house in Bunia for hours: “Who took you to Bavi? What was the purpose of your trip? Where did you go?” they shouted.

We were confused. We knew Bavi was rebel controlled. We’d seen all those rebel child soldiers there with our own eyes. So why did a government intelligence officer have us arrested? Wasn’t the government supposed to be fighting the rebels? When we were released, security agents tailed us and slept in a car outside our hotel.

“You stumbled into a game,” explained a United Nations official with years of experience in Congo. “They are all sharing the illegal spoils. It’s a scramble. It’s grab as much as you can.”

He pointed to the recent scandal of Gen. Gabriel Amisi, Congo’s land-forces commander, who was suspended after UN investigators revealed that he was covertly arming brutal rebel groups, selling them weapons and ammunition that helped them poach elephants for ivory. All this while he was ostensibly fighting the same rebels. A game indeed. A double game.

“The government is crumbling, and everybody is trying to do a deal and cut Kinshasa out,” the UN official said. “Those guys in Bavi didn’t want you seeing what they were up to.”

When we asked him what it would take to fix Congo, he looked down at his polished shoes for a long time. “There’s no easy solution,” he said. “And I’m not even sure there is any solution.”

The next day we flew out of Bunia in a small prop plane. Below us, the banana trees faded into dark green swirls and the thatched-roof villages turned into tiny brown dots as we crossed over the same beautifully sculpted mountains where all that treasure lay buried.

[MIKA27]

Honesty pays off for homeless Boston man

Donations of more than $110,000 (£67,000) have poured in from across the US for a Boston homeless man who returned a lost bag with $42,000 in it.

Glen James alerted police after he found the backpack containing cash and traveller's cheques last weekend, and the bag's owner was then tracked down.

A complete stranger later started an online fund for Mr James after reading media reports about his honesty.

The man, Ethan Whittington, now plans to meet Mr James to give him the money.

Mr Whittington, who lives in Midlothian, Virginia, said he was so overwhelmed by Mr James' honesty that he decided to start the fund.

"The fact that he's in the situation he is, being homeless, it blew my mind that he would do this,'' Mr Whittington was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

He said his idea of starting donations on a crowd-funding website for Mr James "caught on like wildfire ever since".

"It's brought me a lot of hope. This isn't only about rewarding a great guy. I think it's a statement to everyone in America.

"If we come together and work toward one thing and work together, then we can make it happen."

Meanwhile, Mr James, a former Boston courthouse employee, said that he would not have kept "even a penny" of the money he had found the backpack - even if he were desperate.

[MIKA27]

Night of the Living Virus

In George A. Romero’s classic movie of 1968, Night of the Living Dead, speculation was raised that the birth of the zombie hordes was possibly triggered by the actions of a U.S. spacecraft. While visiting the planet Venus, the craft, it was surmised, became bathed in radiation. Then, on its return to Earth, the craft let loose that same radiation upon an unsuspecting populace.

The outcome was nothing less than the rise of the staggering, flesh-eating dead. Is it truly feasible that such a thing could actually occur in the real world?

It’s highly unlikely – in the extreme, to say the absolute very least – that exposure to radiation could provoke any kind of violent, cannibalistic, zombie-like behavior. The possibility that a returning spacecraft might unwittingly unleash hazardous extraterrestrial materials on our planet, however, is not at all an impossibility. In fact, dealing with just such a potentially catastrophic event has already been planned for.

In a fictional format, at least, such a scenario was famously presented in the 1969 book The Andromeda Strain (which was written by Michael Crichton of Jurassic Parkand Congo fame), and in the subsequent 1971 movie spin-off of the same name. Although zombies do not appear in either the novel or the film, pretty much everything else does.

An American space-probe – as it returns to planet Earth and crashes in the wilds of Arizona – unleashes a lethal virus of extraterrestrial origins. Matters soon escalate in ominous, doomsday-like fashion: The U.S. Government struggles to find an antidote. The virus threatens to wipe out the entire Human Race. And…well, you get the apocalyptic picture.

While The Andromeda Strain is just a highly entertaining story of disturbing and thought-provoking proportions, it does, rather incredibly, have its real life counterparts. According to Article IX of The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, that was collectively signed at Washington, London, and Moscow on January 27, 1967, and that was entered into force on October 10 of that year:

“In the exploration and use of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, States Parties to the Treaty shall be guided by the principle of co-operation and mutual assistance and shall conduct all their activities in outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other States Parties to the Treaty.”

The document continues: “States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter [Note from Nick: italics mine, for emphasis] and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.”

It becomes very clear from studying the available data of that particular era that there was indeed official concern about a deadly – albeit admittedly theoretical – alien virus running wild on the Earth and provoking a worldwide pandemic – one which just might escalate, to the point where it could possibly wipe out each and every one of us.

But what if that same pandemic didn’t just kill us, but provoked something along the lines of a real-life zombie apocalypse? No, we are not talking about a Night of the Living Dead-style scenario involving radiation and the recently deceased, but something far more akin to the scenario that played out in the movies 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.

In combined fashion, the films tell of how the UK becomes overwhelmed by what is known as the “Rage Virus.” The infected are not the dead returned from the grave, however. Rather, and as a result of infection from a virus that spreads incredibly quickly, an untold number of British people are transformed into deranged, psychotic killers. Although, thankfully, the “Rage Virus” is merely fictional, we should consider the following…

In the mid-1980s, the first signs of a terrifying condition began to surface in the heart of the British countryside. It was a condition that targeted cattle and made them behave in distinctly zombie-like fashion, before finally killing the animals in deeply distressing fashion. Its official name is Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy. Unofficially, but far more infamously, it is known as Mad Cow Disease.

BSE is caused by a prion – a protein-based agent that attacks and affects the normal function of cells. Worse still, just like the fictional zombie virus of so many movies, prion-inducing BSE is utterly unstoppable and incurable. By 1987, the British Government recognized that it had not just a problem on its hands, but a majorproblem, too. Not only that: the government acted in wholly unforgivable fashion by secretly putting the beef industry, the economy, and profits way ahead of public safety.

In the same way that, in typically fictional format, infected people feed upon the uninfected survivors of the zombie apocalypse, very much the same can be said about the origins of BSE: it was spread by cows eating cows.

To the horror of the British public – who had previously, and utterly outrageously, been kept in the dark – it was finally revealed by the government that, for years, the discarded remains of millions of cattle that had been put to death in British slaughterhouses had been ground to a pulp and used to create cattle-feed. It was, for the animal kingdom at least, Soylent Green come to hideous reality. And that’s when the problems started.

It quickly became very easy to spot a zombie-cow: they shuffled rather than walked; their personalities began to change; they exhibited behavior that varied from confusion to outright rage; and they quickly became unmanageable under normal circumstances.

As the crisis grew, an even more terrifying development surfaced: the infection jumped to the human population, in the form of what is termed Creutzfeldt-Jacob Disease, or CJD, which can also provoke sudden outbursts of rage. The utterly panicked British government took the only option it felt was available.

With close to an estimated 200,000 cattle infected, officialdom decided to play things safe by systematically wiping out no less than 4.4 million cows, all across the nation. While such actions were seen as horrific, they were also perceived as necessary to ensure that chaos and death did not spread even further. For some, however, it was all too little and too late.

Although the cannibalizing process was brought to a halt by the government in the late-1980s, around 200 British people have since died from what is termed variant CJD (or vCJD), the result of eating BSE-contaminated meat. On top of that, the significant increase in Alzheimer’s disease in the UK in recent years has given rise to the highly disturbing theory that many of those presumed to have Alzheimer’s have been misdiagnosed. They may be suffering from vCJD.

Well, wouldn’t an autopsy show evidence of vCJD? Yes, it would, if the brain of the deceased individual was examined carefully.

Indeed, studying the brains of the dead, or testing the blood, are the only sure ways to fully confirm vCJD. But here’s the thing: most people suspected of having Alzheimer’s are not tested for vCJD. If a person has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, then their death is usually attributed to complications arising from the disease, rather than anything stranger or suspicious.

In other words, in most patients where an Alzheimer’s diagnosis has already been put forward, there is no autopsy.Thus, with a lack of large-scale autopsying of presumed Alzheimer’s victims, we have no real way of knowing, exactly, how many may have been misdiagnosed.

Here we see the disastrous damage that a condition of wholly terrestrial origins can provoke across an entire nation – and, more importantly, how that same condition can significantly affect the minds of both people and animals. Perhaps something of extraterrestrial origins could do far worse.

Preparing for the sudden surfacing of an alien-originated pandemic may not mean that government officials are also secretly anticipating that a 28 Days Later-like apocalypse will be far behind. On the other hand, there’s nothing to suggest they haven’t secretly pondered on just such a possibility…

[MIKA27]

Are You Lazy? A Gamer? There's This.

Laying on the floor and gaming is hard work! It’s apparently so difficult that a Japanese company has made the above contraption for individuals who want to sprawl out and game, but don’t want the hassle of holding something up. Holding sucks!

The cushion is called “Goron”, which in Japanese refers to lying down. And that’s exactly what you do: You lie down!

And below is me checking out Goron by lying in it. Actually, you kind of have to climb into Goron. It’s almost as you are putting it on.

The cushion itself is comfortable — surprisingly so. What’s neat about it isn’t just that you can affix your tablet or smartphone to it. No, you fix your tablet to it, but the clamp you affix it to can move. So, this works pretty well if you are playing a motion controlled racing game.

You can also clamp in a monitor and then lie on your back and play home console games too. It seems to work pretty well!

Turning Goron on its side wasn’t exactly comfortable for me, personally. You can also use it sitting upright on the sofa. But what’s the point of Goron if you are sitting up? This is for being flat on your back!

And as goofy as this looks (and damn, it looks pretty darn goofy), I can see it have more serious (and beneficial) applications — say, for individuals unable to get out of bed. For them, this would be terrific. It’s not bad for those healthy folks who can’t bother to sit up straight, either!

Priced at 19,800 yen ($195) Goron is available in Japan in three colours: green, orange and red.

[MIKA27]

‘Super Typhoon’ on Track to Deluge Hong Kong

The strongest storm of the year is on path to collide with Taiwan and southern China

With winds exceeding 160 mph, the newly promoted “Super Typhoon” Usagi is on course to douse Hong Kong as early as Sunday. On Thursday, the storm was upgraded to the equivalent of a category five Atlantic hurricane after its wind speeds were touted to jump from 75 mph to more than 150 mph in just 33 hours time.

Usagi is expected to continue to harnesses its strength for the next day before the brunt of the storm hits south eastern Taiwan early on Saturday. If the powerful typhoon sticks to its projected course, it will likely lose a bit of steam, with peak winds hovering around 100 mph, as it plows into Hong Kong and on across the Chinese mainland on Sunday.

Usagi is a spectacular presentation by Mother Nature ... a nearly axisymmetric, and thoroughly ferocious Cat 5.

[MIKA27]

After Rana Plaza, Tazreen Factory Fire Victims Struggle to Be Remembered

Hundreds of survivors of Bangladesh's Tazreen factory fire, which claimed at least 112 lives, fail to secure medical and financial help in the shadow of the Rana Plaza collapse

The women’s support group is barely visible under the light of a single bulb, and it makes no difference to Shahnaz Begum: she lives in near darkness everyday. Since November’s deadly fire at the Tazreen Fashions garment factory, the 35-year-old sewing machine operator has gone blind in her right eye and is rapidly losing sight in her left, the result of getting trampled in the stampede to escape the blaze that also left her with a broken leg and searing headaches. Though she has already spent most of her compensation on medical expenses, she is more fortunate than the other survivors in her group, most of whom have not received anything at all. “No one else is caring for us,” says Shahnaz. “We have been forgotten.”

With a staggering death toll of more than 1,100 people, the April 24 Rana Plaza disaster held the world’s attention to the dangers of Bangladesh’s garment industry as never before. While efforts to compensate victims and inspect factories are frustratingly slow and erratic, critics agree that overdue safety accords signed by Western brands will have a significant long-term impact on labor conditions in the world’s second largest garment exporter after decades of foot-dragging and neglect.

However, activists and the survivors of the Nov. 24 Tazreen fire — in which at least 112 people perished in a locked factory on Dhaka’s outskirts later found to be producing garments for major U.S. retailers — are fearful that their pre-existing claims for financial and medical help have been further marginalized by Rana Plaza. “These workers are being totally ignored — there is no action plan for them,” says Kalpona Akter, executive director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, a prominent labor rights advocacy organization.

Such concerns were fanned over the weekend by the failure of Western companies to reach a compensation deal for the pain and suffering, medical expenses and loss of earnings of Tazreen and Rana Plaza victims at a meeting in Geneva. IndustriALL, the international trade union federation that coordinated the talks, said that of the 29 Rana Plaza brands and retailers invited, less than a third took part; Tazreen fared even worse with just two out of 14. No-shows included American firms Disney, Sears and Walmart (the latter has maintained all along that its supplier was sub-contracting without its knowledge and it is therefore not responsible.)

IndustriALL Assistant General Secretary Monika Kemperle called the lack of concern for lives “destroyed by the avoidable accidents at Tazreen and Rana Plaza shocking in the extreme.”

The workers have hardly fared better at home. Of the 1,137 Tazreen survivors, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the country’s main trade body, has given compensation of about $1,250 to just 90 workers hospitalized with severe injuries. Yet less than ten months later, Ale Noor, 35, insists she can no longer afford mounting medical bills after sustaining a concussion and shattered leg when she was forced to jump from the third floor of the factory. Co-worker Ruma Begum, 26, says she’s been paid nothing for the simple fact that her wounds are less obvious: a crippling fear of fire and loud noises that, by her own admission, cause her to lash out at her own children. Unable to go back to work, her husband has picked up a job in a garment factory but can only work part-time in order to also care for the family, leaving them almost no money to get by.

Then there’s 16-year-old survivor Sumaya Khatun. Like Shahnaz Begum, she is blind in one eye and fast losing her vision in the other, the result of a tumor in her brain that is pushing further outward each day, distorting her face with intensifying pain. Although doctors refuse to connect the fire with the aggravation of Sumaya’s tumor, her mother, Amiran, is adamant that her illness was hastened by smoke inhalation and a blow to the head that she sustained while fleeing. At a minimum, she adds, her daughter should be paid for her suffering and loss of job. But absent any help from authorities, the girl’s condition has become life threatening. (The BGMEA, for its part, maintains that Sumaya was not present when the list of injured workers to be compensated was prepared.)

As hundreds of Tazreen survivors struggle to secure assistance in the shadow of Rana Plaza, victims and rights monitors say that a breathtaking lack of justice has added insult to injury. Despite a government probe into the fire that concluded the factory’s owner should be convicted for “unpardonable negligence” that was responsible for so many deaths, Delwar Hossain remains a free man who continues to produce garments for export. Though he refused to name the brands supplied, he told TIME that he still works for a handful of European clients that are placing regular, if smaller, orders through a buying house. His near-term plan, he says, is to partner with a Chinese company in order to change his company’s name so he can rekindle his relationships with American customers “some time next year.”

What’s more, after admitting that the factory’s doors were locked as a “standard procedure” to prevent theft, Hossain went on to assert that he himself is entitled to millions in compensation from the government to cover the loss of business. “No one cares about all that I have lost — I am a victim too,” he says, citing the cars and fancy condominium he’s had to give up. And while Hossain’s claims for compensation are liable to fall on already deaf ears, he may at least count on his ongoing involvement in the garment industry: in more than two decades, not a single factory owner in Bangladesh has ever been prosecuted for the deaths of workers.

[MIKA27]

Woman Wins Battle Over 35-Letter Surname

Janice Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele raised the issue after being questioned by a police officer about her driving licence.

A woman in Hawaii with a 35-letter surname has persuaded the island's authorities to change their ID card and driving licence formats because her long name will not fit.

Janice "Lokelani" Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele said she would never consider using a shortened version, and so used the media to urge officials to take action.

For years she has carried two forms of ID: her driving licence, which has room for 34 characters, and her official Hawaii state ID card, which in the past had room for all 35 letters.

But the problem arose after her state ID was renewed in May - and came back the same as her driver's licence, with the last letter "e" missing, and with no first name.

She said she felt compelled to raise the issue with officials after a policeman questioned her about her licence when he pulled her over.

"I said wait a minute, this is not my fault. This is the county's fault that I don't have an ID that has my name correctly," she told Honolulu television station KHON.

The police officer suggested she could use her maiden name.

"I said, how disrespectful to the Hawaiian people, because there's a lot of meaning behind this name.

"I've had this name for over 20 years. I had to grow into this name. It's very deep spiritual path."

She said her last name means "when there is chaos and confusion, you are one that will stand up and get people to focus in one direction and come out of the chaos".

The 54-year-old Big Island resident took her case to KHON, which publicised the problem, putting pressure on the Hawaii Department of Transportation.

Within days, authorities, who had previously told her it would take two years to change and the surname character limit would remain at 35, had decided they could act more quickly.

Caroline Sluyter, from the Hawaiian Department of Transportation, said the state was working to increase the number of characters on driver's licences and ID cards.

By the end of the year, the cards will allow 40 letters for first and last names and 35 characters for middle names, she said.

Ms Keihanaikukauakahihuliheekahaunaele started using the name when she married her Hawaiian husband in 1992.

He used only the one name, but had similar problems before he died in 2008.

[MIKA27]

NASA Will Pay $18,000 To Watch You Rest In Bed--Really

You could file this one under bizarre, but totally legit.

NASA is currently looking for volunteers to lie in bed for 70 days.

That’s right, you could get paid a total of around $18,000 for lying in bed, playing games on your phone, reading books, skyping with your friends and family, taking online classes – and even go on with your day job if you can get away with working remotely, so long as you don’t get out of bed for that entireduration.

And, for those with relinquished childhood dreams about being an astronaut, there may be an altruistic element to participating in the project: in doing so, you’re actually helping the country further conquer the final frontier – space. In a few years, when astronauts land on Mars, test subjects may be able to say they helped get them there. “Subjects in the study look at it as a way to help,” says Dr Roni Cromwell, senior scientist on the bed rest study. “In that what we eventually do will help astronauts maintain their health while in space.”

On a call with Houston (always wanted to say that), I was able to elicit further details from NASA’s news chief, Kelly Humphries and the two scientists involved in the bed rest study.

Here comes the science bit.

The purpose of the study is to research the effects of microgravity on the human body. The study simulates the effects of long-duration spaceflight by having test subjects lie in beds for the 70 day period. The beds are tilted head-down at a six-degree angle.

According to Dr Cromwell, this tilt which causes body fluids to shift to the upper part of the body, sets off cardiovascular events that are similar to what we see in a space flight.

“And by putting someone in bed for a long time, there is also atrophy of the muscle and atrophy of bone density,” she explains.

When astronauts spend weeks and months floating around in space – they don’t need to use more than a fingertip to propel themselves across the room, so their muscles go on vacation – the atrophy described by Dr. Cromwell.

NASA calls bed rest studies such as these ‘countermeasures’, which are used to minimize the changes that occur to the body during spaceflight and to enable the return of normal body functions once back on Earth.

“Being able to test new ideas on Earth saves invaluable flight time,” says Joe Neigut, Flight Analog project manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “What the bed rest does to their [test subjects] physiology and how the exercise countermeasures benefits their physiology helps us better prepare and protect astronauts when they are in space. In fact how it affects the physiology can be applied to everyone on earth.”

Following extended bed rest, subjects are then put through various exercises, such as going on the treadmill or doing squats. Major difference though – it’s a vertical treadmill and squatting is done in a horizontal position. Wow.

Or as my ‘rad’ pseudo-nerdy friend would say:hashtag mind-boggling.

Dr Cromwell goes on to further explain, “We also ask them [test subjects] to do tasks that astronauts would do when they land on a planetary surface. Simulate getting out of a vehicle. Moving heavy objects at a short distance. This gives us an idea as to their functional capabilities.”

The Application

If you think this may be a ‘dream job’ for that lump currently taking up space on your couch, you may be severely disappointed.

“Couch potatoes is not an accurate description for what we are looking. Subjects need to be very healthy,” says NASA’s news chief, Kelly Humphries.

Those who are short-listed in the application round go through a modified Air Force Class Three physical, which is a rigorous physical exam. In addition, there is a psychological screening in which subject candidates fill out a battery of tests, followed by ninety minutes one on one with a psychologist.

“We want to make sure we select people who are mentally ready to spend 70 days in bed. Not everyone is comfortable with that. Not every type of person can tolerate an extended time in bed,” says Dr Cromwell.

“Once they qualify physically and mentally, we do rigorous physical exercises to test muscle strength and aerobics capacity. We want people who have the physical and psychological characteristics of an astronaut. They should be able to do the kind of activities that astronauts do.”

Heather Archuletta, who now works as a NASA contractor for the studies program, got her first taste of life at the agency while volunteering as a subject in a 2008 bed rest study. “Even when it was sometimes challenging, I tried to remember I was doing this for astronauts, so that we can keep them more healthy in space. The day I got up, after being in bed for 54 days [the study was cut short by Hurricane Ike], my feet hurt like crazy walking for the first time! But, I reminded myself, this is what astronauts go through, too. Being a ground analog tester for astronauts is exciting, because you get to experience a lot of the things they do, and you’re also all working with the same doctors. I’ve gotten to meet a couple dozen astronauts now, too.”

For those interested in giving the application a whirl, you can do so here.

* The $18,000 compensation breaks down as follows: $1,200 per week for a total of 15 weeks. While the bed rest component of the study is 70 days, NASA requires subjects for pre-testing and post-testing, which brings the entire duration that the test subjects are required at the test facility in Texas to 15 weeks.

Afterthought: You’re probably wondering how it all works out with taking a trip to the bathroom while on extended bed rest, right?

NASA has it covered. In order to ensure that test subjects can remain at a six-degree head tilt at all times, they are able to shower in a specially modified shower gurney.

[MIKA27]

Northampton clown strikes again with another spooky visitation

The sinister clown that has been appearing on Northampton's streets made another visitation last night.

He was pictured in his trademark white make-up and red wig on St Michael's Road waving forlornly with a clown teddy hanging from his other hand.

The appearance came after a posting on the Facebook page Spot Northampton's Clown promised the clown would be in town.

He said: "To prove i'm real to all the lovers and doubters, i'll see you in town today. Keep those eyes peeled."

So far the clown as been seen in the Kingsley and Abington areas of the town. St Michael's Road is in the town centre.

The clown has become a sensation on social media with thousands of likes on its Facebook page since it was opened on Friday 13.

Many commenters are finding the clown scary.

Kelly Keen was typical of many: "You've been spotted now get out of the clown suit and start acting like a grown up that you supposing are and stop scaring people as some people do have real fears of clowns and you are terrorising them despite what you may say."

For our previous story on the Northampton clown click here.

Her comment came under a posting from the clown which read: "It's not me in the papers. I don't terrorise people I just want to be spotted."

Twitter has been full of commentary on the clown.

MIKA: Could be worse...could have been midgets.

[canadianbeaver]

^^^ Thanks pal. No sleep for me this weekend.

[Fuzz]

Northampton clown strikes again with another spooky visitation

There's only one clown worth mentioning... his name is Homey.

[MIKA27]

This Menacing War Machine Is Actually A Mobile Research Lab

It’s massive, it’s slow-moving, and it’s completely terrifying to imagine it being used in battle. But Secret Operation 610 is designed to spread knowledge, not mayhem. This mobile classroom looks like a cold war relic, but functions as an ultra-modern space for university research.

Amsterdam-based creative office Rietveld Landscape was commissioned by the peace-loving folks at the Treaty of Utretcht Foundation, Province Utrecht and SKOR to imagine the “mobile sculpture”, which is parked inside of Shelter 610 at Soesterberg Air Base, a site established outside Utrecht in 1911 and operational until it was officially closed in 2008. Next year, it will become home to the country’s new National Military Museum (slated to open in late 2014), but in the meantime it’s forming new cultural roots.

Students at Delft University of Technology are currently using the lab as a space to work as they develop a program for silent, carbon-free flying. “The interior is designed in a way that people can work here in different ways,” Rietveld Landscape’s Arna Mackic tells Gizmodo. “The chairs are hinged and foldable and the table automatically comes out from the ceiling. Also there are two extra more relaxed seats in the head of the sculpture where the view is phenomenal.” And it doesn’t hurt that they have an old runway right outside that’s practically tailor-made for testing out their efforts.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: Japan's Seven Stars Trains Are Like An Inland Luxury Cruise

Beginning in October, travellers in Japan’s Kyushu region will be able to tour the countryside in a state of opulence not seen since the days of the Orient Express aboard the new Seven Stars super-luxury rail car.

Designed by Eiji Mitooka and operated by JR Kyushu, the Seven Stars — named after both the island’s seven prefectures and the train’s seven component cars — is the first such expedition train to shuttle passengers among Kyushu’s numerous tourist attractions.

The Seven Stars will be pulled along at a top speed of 113km/h by a modified JR Freight Class DF200 3400HP diesel-electric hybrid locomotive. The subsequent seven coaches — five sleeping cars, a lounge car replete with piano and bar and a dining car — can host up to 28 passengers per trip. Additionally, the caboose will feature a pair of deluxe suites and a glass wall observation area.

In all, the Seven Stars has cost over ¥3 billion ($32 million) to design and build. It was totally worth it. As the Asahi Shimbun explains,

The locomotive is painted in a reddish “ancient lacquer” colour, which is well polished and mirrors the surrounding scenery.

Walls and the floor of the guest rooms in the third train car, which were shown to reporters, are mainly wooden. Hinoki cypress wood is used in the shower room, giving an aromatic experience.

A washbowl was made by the eminent Arita pottery master Sakaida Kakiemon XIV of Saga Prefecture, shortly before his death in June 2013. Luxurious furniture includes pieces made by craftsmen based in Okawa, Fukuoka Prefecture.

For this level of pampering, yes, you are going to pay through the nose. Booking passage on the weekly two-day/one-night or four-day/three-night voyage will cost upwards of $5500 per person. And that’s assuming you can even get a ticket. The train has yet to transport a single passenger, but the cruises have sold out through June of next year. Ticket sales will resume again in January, which should be just long enough for you to scratch together the exorbitant ticket fees.

[MIKA27]

Steam Introduces Phase One Of Its Own Operating System

After a forever-long countdown to a three-tiered announcement, Valve has rolled out phase one of its plan to take over your living room: SteamOS.

What many thought was going to be a Steam Box console is for now in fact a Steam platform, one that will be available for hardware manufacturers to implement at will. Perhaps not surprisingly, the immediate focus is on gaming:

Finally, you don’t have to give up your favourite games, your online friends, and all the Steam features you love just to play on the big screen. SteamOS, running on any living room machine, will provide access to the best games and user-generated content available.

What’s not entirely clear right now is what a “living room machine” entails; presumably one of Valve’s two remaining announcements this week will rotate around its own device, as well as those by third-party manufacturers like last year’s Piston Steam Box. Valve’s remaining announcements will take place this Wednesday and Friday, respectively.

Why the need for SteamOS? Valve honcho Gabe Newell has long been sabre-rattling in Windows 8′s general direction, advocating instead for a Linux-based solution. Valve is wary of a Windows 8 that might threaten to supplant Steam as The Place To Go For Games. It’s unlikely, but possible. Linux has proven to be a valuable escape route, but a flavor of Linux that is Steam just takes things a step further. There’s no doubt that SteamOS is ultimately destined to be the elusive Steam Box’s native language. Once that hits, Linux-compatibility becomes a whole priority. It skews the question further from “does it support Linux?” and more towards “does it support Steam?”

SteamOS also stands to pull even non-gamers into the fold. SteamOS will heavily emphasise an AirPlay-like in-home streaming capability, an expanded focus on music, TV and movies (read: non-gaming content, potentially including Spotify), and family sharing/parental controls. Or, in other words, it will be a simple, free operating system that does just what you want your HTPC to do without all the confusing Linux bulk. No sudo apt-get here. And the more people Valve can get its hooks in, the more potential gamers will have Steam as their de-facto home for gaming if and when they decide to pick up a controller.

SteamOS will also focus on (naturally) graphics processing efficiencies, with access to the full 3000+ strong Steam catalogue, and several top titles available — at some point — natively. Otherwise, all we know is that it will be available “soon”, and that the hardware’s not far behind.

[MIKA27]

An Audi Masterpiece That Belongs On Your Mantle, Not Your Driveway

Taking inspiration from Porsche’s decision to break out into designing everything from sleds to mobile phones, Audi’s decided that it now wants to apply its design chops to beautiful objects without four wheels. And the car maker’s first creation is a stunning see-through table clock that leaves its complex engine completely exposed and visible — not hidden beneath a bonnet.

Audi actually collaborated with watchmaker Erwin Sattler on the clock, with emphasis focused on the design and placement of the various gears which ties back to the company’s automotive roots. And the lack of a traditional clock face, which usually obscures a timepiece’s inner workings, puts all of the wonderful engineering on display as it counts off the hours.

Limited to just 100 pieces, the Erwin Sattler Table Clock by Audi design is now available for order. But be forewarned; similar pieces by the watchmaker sell for upwards of $US10,000, and when you factor in Audi’s involvement you can safely assume it will push the price tag even higher.

[MIKA27]

This Week's Top Comedy Video: Everything Is Samuel L Jackson's Fault

http://youtu.be/wejCrinsT0k

Other than being beautiful (not that Samuel L is beautiful) and rich and powerful, being a celebrity must be really crappy. Can you imagine all the strangers rushing up to you? Can you imagine all the weird demands that ‘fans’ have? Can you imagine all the delusional people blaming you for doing your job? Samuel L Jackson can.

[MIKA27]

Monster Machines: This Mini-Sub Brings The Deep Ocean's Treasures Within Reach

In some ways, exploring the depths of the ocean is every bit as technically challenging as investigating the surface of Mars. In fact, we have a far more detailed understanding of the Red Planet than we do of what goes on under the sea. But this new, affordable manned submersible aims to open undersea exploration to everybody — not just the handful of wealthy nations that currently have the technology.

Under development by the OceanGate company since May of this year, the Cyclops submersible is a five-person submarine designed to perform a variety of underwater tasks. That includes scouting for mineral and gas deposits, biological specimen collection, and salavage operations, all for less than the cost of existing ROV platforms.

The Cyclops measures 5.5m long, 3.4m wide, and just over 2m tall. It weighs 8618kg on land, which is quite svelt for a manned sub, thanks to its unique, 7-inch thick carbon fibre hull construction.

As OceanGate CEO and Co-Founder, Stockton Rush, explained.

Initially we looked at filament-wound carbon fibre. The belief was that we could use some of the technology that had, in fact, been used in Titan missiles. But as we looked at it, it became clear that these issues with [existing] carbon fibre pressure vessels — the ones that are currently constructed are designed for internal pressure — we are looking at something for external pressure

When you’re looking at high external pressure, the consistency of the matrix — in particular, the resin and the fibre — is critical. With [boeing's proprietary] Fibre Place Technology, you can lay the fibre in any orientation that you want without having to lap over the previous wind and you can get a consistency in the matrix that allows you to have a high confidence that you won’t end up getting micro-cracks that propagate in a catastrophic fashion.

Additionally, the sub’s 4-inch thick full hemispherical borosilicate glass viewport is the largest underwater glass structure of its kind, and will allow the sub to initially dive as deeply as 3000 metres, though the company is also working on a second model that will dive to twice that. Granted, neither Cyclops will be able to match the capabilities of China’s 7000m Jiaolong subs, but both should be more than sufficient for offshore energy exploration.

http://youtu.be/da_pMiTGQBQ

An external battery pack will provide enough power for eight hours of normal operation, though should something go wrong, the sub can remain underwater for up to 96 hours via its emergency life support system. Though customers will be able to tailor the subs to their specific expedition requirements, its typical loadout will include six 5000 lumen flood lights, a pair of five-axis manipulators, 2D and 3D sonar, and HD colour cameras.

But what most sets the Cyclops apart from nationally developed deep sea technologies is its affordability. By designing the vehicle for efficiency and incorporating as many off-the-shelf-parts as possible, rather than develop their own proprietary versions, OceansGate expects to rent these vehicles out for just $US35,000 a day — a bargain compared to the cost of conventional ROVs and manned platforms — when the subs hit the waves in 2016.

[OZCUBAN]

‘Time traveller’ predicts world war in 2015

Sep 26, 2013 12:14pm

BACK in late 2000, a man surfaced on the internet claiming to have travelled through time.

The man, who came to be known as John Titor, alleged to have travelled from 2036 by using a time machine installed in a 1987 Chevrolet.

According to Titor, it was the first time machine of its kind, produced and built by multinational conglomerate GE (or General Electric) in 2034.

“No bright flash of light is seen. Outside, the vehicle appears to accelerate as the light is bent around it,” he said of the experience.

“Personally I think it looks like your (sic) driving under a rainbow. After that, it appears to fade to black and remains totally black until the unit is turned off. We are advised to keep the windows closed as a great deal of heat builds up outside the car.”

It’s easy to palm it off as an elaborate hoax, but during the five months of John Titor’s online existence, he spent hours answering questions from believers and sceptics on (now defunct) public conspiracy forum Art Bell about the future, time travel and his own life, including eerie predictions that some internet types believe are coming true.

Perhaps the most compelling argument revolves around the search for an IBM 5100 computer, mentioned by John in one of his first posts.

“The first ‘leg’ of my trip was from 2036 to 1975. After two VGL checks, the divergence was estimated at about 2.5 per cent (from my 2036). I was ‘sent’ to get an IBM computer system called the 5100. It was one the first portable computers made and it has the ability to read the older IBM programming languages in addition to APL and Basic.”

In other words, the computer had the ability to imitate other programming languages. This fact was not widely known during that time frame.

This time, it seemed different. Real. Believable.

“A world war in 2015 killed nearly three billion people,” he wrote.

“The people that survived grew closer together. Life is centred on the family and then the community. I cannot imagine living even a few hundred miles away from my parents.”

“There is no large industrial complex creating masses of useless food and recreational items. Food and livestock is grown and sold locally. People spend much more time reading and talking together face to face. Religion is taken seriously and everyone can multiply and divide in their heads.”

Asked why he used a conspiracy forum to reach the public, he wrote:

>TimeTravel_0: I enjoy the “paranormal” chat rooms for 2 reasons.

>TimeTravel_0: 1. I find the people here are more open to ideas.

>TimeTravel_0: 2. I find it ironic that when what they are looking for falls in their lap, they can’t believe it.

In March 2001, Titor announced he was going offline to travel the boundaries of time yet again, leaving us with this cryptic message: “Bring a gas can with you when the car dies on the side of the road. Farewell. John.”

Since then, private investigators and amateur sleuths have been persistent in trying to crack the mystery of John Titor. Who was he and was he legit?

In a video posted to YouTube, a group of sleuths track down Dr Larry Haber, a Florida-based entertainment lawyer who represents Kay Titor, a woman who has claimed to be the mother of John since 2006.

In the clip, Haber is asked for further details about Ms Titor, but asks the crew to delete his comments.

Haber remains fairly tight-lipped throughout the interview, and denies allegations the story is a hoax.

No wonder. Haber is the CEO of The John Titor Foundation, the company behind the merchandise and book sales that profit from perpetuating John’s story.

He continues to deny allegations his brother, John “Rick” Haber, was John Titor, even though an Italian investigative TV show, Voyager, directly linked him to John and is seen to be the most credible explanation.

His expertise in IT has been well documented, as have the skills of Haber’s son, Brandon.

Brandon’s extensive IT knowledge has led him to work for various US government organisations including NASA and the US Air Force.

The problem is there is little evidence to suggest who John Titor was, real or not. It’s unlikely the mystery will be solved. His mother has never gone public — in fact there is no evidence she even exists.

Maybe John Titor is real. Maybe, at this very moment in time, he’s rolling around with prehistoric reptiles, or conversing with cavemen, or dodging dinosaurs.

Maybe, as Titor suggests, an incredible piece of history has fallen into our lap, and we simply can’t believe it.

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