Topic: War and Peace - on July 19, 2016 at 5:12:00 PM CEST
70 Years Ago, the U.S. Military Set Off a Nuke Underwater, And It Went Very Badly
Then they tried it four more times. Seventy years ago, on July 26, 1946, the U.S. military tried a new type of nuclear test. A joint Army/Navy task force had suspended a nuclear device, oddly named Helen of Bikini, 90 feet below the surface of the water, in the middle of Bikini Atoll, one of the isolated rings of coral and land that make up the Marshall Islands. Arrayed around the 21-kiloton bomb were dozens of target ships.
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Topic: MUSIK - on July 19, 2016 at 5:09:00 PM CEST
Björk’s virtual reality exhibition is coming to London
The European premiere of Björk Digital runs in London throughout September, and will include a live performance from the Icelandic artist at the Royal Albert Hall. Björk has been touring around the world throughout the year with Björk Digital, an exhibition of digital, video, and virtual reality collaborations made to coincide with her latest album Vulnicura. Today, the Icelandic artist has announced that she will be bringing the exhibition to the UK for its European premiere.
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Topic: POLITIK - on July 19, 2016 at 4:38:00 PM CEST
Donald Trump brags that he reads even less than Sarah Palin
Donald Trump doesn’t read. While the GOP nominee for president admitted he gets most of his news from “the shows,” meaning the Sunday morning talk shows, Trump doesn’t read about the news or the world the way other presidents or candidates for president have. “Presidents have different ways of preparing to make decisions. Some read deeply, some prefer to review short memos that condense difficult issues into bite-size summaries, ideally with checkboxes at the bottom of the page. But Trump, poised to become the first major-party presidential nominee since Dwight Eisenhower who had not previously held elected office, appears to have an unusually light appetite for reading,” the Washington Post writes.
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Topic: POLITIK - on July 19, 2016 at 4:36:00 PM CEST
Turkey's president says all he wants is same powers as Hitler
In a world first, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan uses Hitler's Germany as a positive role model for his constitutional reforms. Turkey’s controversial President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sparked mockery and condemnation by defending new powers he wants to give himself as being similar to Adolf Hitler’s. In a statement that surprised even his critics, Mr Erdogan responded to arguments that putting political power in the hands of the presidency would not work in a "unitary state".
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Topic: War and Peace - on July 19, 2016 at 4:34:00 PM CEST
The H-Bombs in Turkey
Among the many questions still unanswered following Friday’s coup attempt in Turkey is one that has national-security implications for the United States and for the rest of the world: How secure are the American hydrogen bombs stored at a Turkish airbase? The Incirlik Airbase, in southeast Turkey, houses NATO’s largest nuclear-weapons storage facility. On Saturday morning, the American Embassy in Ankara issued an “Emergency Message for U.S. Citizens,” warning that power had been cut to Incirlik and that “local authorities are denying movements on to and off of” the base. Incirlik was forced to rely on backup generators; U.S. Air Force planes stationed there were prohibited from taking off or landing; and the security-threat level was raised to FPCON Delta, the highest state of alert, declared when a terrorist attack has occurred or may be imminent. On Sunday, the base commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, and nine other Turkish officers at Incirlik were detained for allegedly supporting the coup. As of this writing, American flights have resumed at the base, but the power is still cut off.
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Topic: DRUGS - on July 19, 2016 at 4:31:00 PM CEST
Now That It’s Legal, Colorado Teens Are Smoking Less Weed
There’s a common myth about teenagers drinking in France. Because many French young people are allowed moderate amounts of wine at dinner, the story goes, they learn that booze isn’t such a big deal and thus drink more moderately. As it turns out, France has a serious problem with young binge drinkers, so that cute theory is out the window. But in Colorado, where weed has been legal for a few years now, it turns out that pot use among teens has been declining. Could that indicate that legalization leads to more responsible use? The data comes from a recent survey of 17,000 adolescents by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The most striking facts are these: In 2009, when pot was still a jailable offense, 25 percent of teens there admitted to toking in the last 30 days. In 2015, that number dropped four points, to 21 percent. Additionally, Colorado teens are smoking less than the national average for their age group.
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Topic: PHOTO - on July 19, 2016 at 4:27:00 PM CEST
This Vintage 1927 Steampunk Bowling Alley Looks Amazing
During the midst of prohibition, the original Highland Park Bowl first opened in 1927. During the 80s and 90s the space transitioned into an iconic live music venue is Los Angeles called Mr. T’s. Now 89 years later, the 1933 Group have restored and revitalized the vintage bowling alley, transporting patrons into a different era with a steampunk vibe.
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Topic: Drone - on July 19, 2016 at 4:26:00 PM CEST
This drone can detect and detonate land mines
The creators of a drone that can autonomously map, detect, and detonate land mines say their technology could potentially clear the world of these deadly devices in the less than 10 years' time. It's an ambitious goal, but one well worth pursuing. Worldwide, there are thought to be some 100 million land mines, many of which are leftover from conflicts long since finished. Every year these mines kill thousands of people, the vast majority of which are innocent civilians. The Mine Kafon Drone (MKD) wants to help change this.
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Topic: TOR - on July 19, 2016 at 4:22:00 PM CEST
Core TOR Browser Developer Leaves Project, Shuts Down Critical Node Relays
Lucky Green, a core contributor to the Tor Project, has made an announcement that he would be leaving the onion router project and taking another road to continue his life from now on. The bridge authority relay Tonga managed by Green won’t be serving the Tor network after August 31, 2016. For those who don’t know, Bridge Authorities are special Tor relays which maintain a list of bridges for external bridge distribution mechanisms.
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Topic: Space - on July 19, 2016 at 4:20:00 PM CEST
The World's Most Powerful Telescope Just Discovered 1,230 New Galaxies
The MeerKAT First Light image of the sky, released today by Minister of Science and Technology, Naledi Pandor, shows unambiguously that MeerKAT is already the best radio telescope of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. Array Release 1 (AR1) being celebrated today provides 16 of an eventual 64 dishes integrated into a working telescope array. It is the first significant scientific milestone achieved by MeerKAT, the radio telescope under construction in the Karoo that will eventually be integrated into the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). In a small patch of sky covering less than 0.01 percent of the entire celestial sphere, the MeerKAT First Light image shows more than 1300 galaxies in the distant Universe, compared to 70 known in this location prior to MeerKAT. “Based on the results being shown today, we are confident that after all 64 dishes are in place, MeerKAT will be the world’s leading telescope of its kind until the advent of SKA,” according to Professor Justin Jonas, SKA South Africa Chief Technologist.
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Topic: Space - on July 19, 2016 at 4:17:00 PM CEST
Kepler Confirms 100+ New Exoplanets
Astronomers have confirmed another 100 of Kepler's more than 3,000 candidate exoplanets. Phys.org reports: "One of the most interesting set of planets discovered in this study is a system of four potentially rocky planets, between 20 and 50 percent larger than Earth, orbiting a star less than half the size and with less light output than the Sun. Their orbital periods range from five-and-a-half to 24 days, and two of them may experience radiation levels from their star comparable to those on Earth. Despite their tight orbits -- closer than Mercury's orbit around the sun -- the possibility that life could arise on a planet around such a star cannot be ruled out, according to Crossfield." Because the host star as well as many of these other confirmed exoplanets are red dwarf stars, the possibility of life is reduced because the star and its system is likely to have a less rich mix of elements compared to our yellow G-type Sun.
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Topic: Space - on July 19, 2016 at 4:16:00 PM CEST
How Do We Beam Pictures Back From Jupiter? It Takes A Village
Before Juno, the uncrewed spacecraft that NASA successfully inserted into orbit around Jupiter on July 4, there was Cassini, a similar multimillion-dollar amalgam of scaffolding, solar panels and scientific instruments that entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Cassini’s success helped pave the way for Juno, but in 1992, a congressional budget cut nearly grounded that earlier mission before it even reached the launchpad. Tasked with the suddenly urgent job of making Cassini cheaper to build, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory took an ax to the bits that made the engineers nervous — the moving parts.
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