Fairy Circles - what are they?

Either Fairy rings, or someone's really bad at golf.
(Courtesy-Mike and Ann Scott/Namib Rand Nature Reserve)

If you trek through the grasslands of Nambia or Angola, you may come across some eerie circular patches of land where the grass doesn't seem to grow at all. These are dubbed Fairy Circles and must not be confused with Fairy Rings, a circular growth of mushrooms/fungi. Fairy rings are seen in many parts of the world while Fairy circles are exclusive to Africa.

So what exactly are these mysterious patches? Scientists have failed to come up with plausible explanations for these growths. These patches seem to grow for decades then die, leading to one researcher, a Walter Tschinkel, to believe that these circles are in fact "alive". Initially, he was led to believe that the cause of the patches was due to termite activity underneath the soil, releasing toxins or just destroying the grass from underneath. That, however, did not turn out to be the case, nor was it anything to do with the soil and nutrients. Any soil placed from outside the circular patch into the circle did not cause any vegetative growth.


By looking at satellite images of the same sites over a 4 year period, he saw a decrease in the radius of the circles (regrowth of vegetation around the edge of the circles), leading him to believe that  these circles are indeed alive or dynamic. He estimated that smaller circles have a lifespan of around 30 years while the larger ones have twice the lifespan of the smaller ones.


He still, like many other scientists, does not know what exactly causes them or rather, why they occur. According to Namibian folklore, these rings constitute spiritual and magical powers to their shamans of old.
Pretty interesting indeed. Must be a colony of mutants living deep underground and the smoke from their underground chimneys cause these rings...


-Via ScienceNow

A dark Soviet secret.

Highway to hell.

In a little town of Ozersk, nestled between the Ural mountains lays a secret that has been closed off for several decades to the general public.

Back in the 1950's, during the Cold War stand off between the Soviet Union and the United States, the Soviets had seen the destructive power of a nuclear attack on the Japanese at Hiroshima that signalled the end of World War 2. They wanted to know what the effect of intense nuclear radiation had on people. The Soviet Union had commissioned several sites known as ZATO (Closed Administrative-Territorial  Formation) where in which most of soviet research and arms manufacturing occurred. These cities never existed on soviet geography and were serviced by scientists and engineers who were never seen in the public.

Pickled radiated brain anyone?

Ozersk was the centre of a massive experimentation program in which over a quarter of a million animals including cats, rats, dogs and cows, were all subject to intense radiation bombardment from α, β and γ rays. They literally lived, breathed and ate (they were fed high doses of radiated food) radiation. When they died, their vital organs like the heart, lungs, etc were sliced into thin pieces and studied or stored in formalin. These jars of stored organs still remain today, left as they were since the end of the cold war and the split of the Soviet Union. Scientists have been able to obtain permission to enter these ZATO's and gather the data collected by their predecessors and hopefully utilize it for some good. The scientists involved in the project say that such data is considered irreplaceable in the scientific community as such extensive experimentation of such kind cannot be done today due to "funding and ethical reasons".

-Material and Images via Bldgblog

Japanese illustrator serves up his genitals for dinner.

Yea...another loony bin. He basically serves his whole set of genitalia (scrotum, penis and testicles) to 5 diners who were willing to fork out ¥100,000 ($250) for the meal. The illustrator who doesn't prefer to be called a 'He' or a 'She' goes by the name of Mao Sugiyama and Mao claims to be asexual. He had an operation to remove his genitals for his 22nd birthday. Mao had then tweeted about his offer:

“Please retweet. I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen…. I will prepare and cook as the buyer requests, at his chosen location.”

 
His privates were reportedly 'disease-free' and were served with Italian Parsley and button mushrooms. They were prepared by a licensed chef.


Ugh, I really don't know how I didn't vomit at the screen just writing that out. I couldn't find a proper link for the picture - presumably because its just puke-worthy. All I could find was this:

http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRolYm3oARZtTXDy9G0LSo7uxXTn3_bmwwGi-2EYiCXw3TSRpdcNoRoWWve

Dunno if it'll work though.

47-million year old couple (of turtles) caught in the act.

Locked in stone and shale  (courtesy- Naturmuseum Senckenberg)

The fossilized remains of nearly 9 pairs of mating turtles were found in the Messel Pit in Germany, famous for its treasure trove of extensively preserved fossils collected over the years since its disuse as a coal/shale mine.

Scientists say that the turtles were in coitus on the surface of the lake but died and sank to the bottom as they were overcome by toxic gases released by a volcano. True love never dies eh?

Pig Nosed Cousin. (Courtesy: Erik W. Grow)

These old fellas have descendants around though. The pig nosed turtle loses the reptilian scales for a smooth shell that allows it to breathe under water but these are pretty much the same turtles you see up in stone. Only smaller of course.

Harpooned through the head and alive.

What happens when you fire a harpoon at your friends head? (Accidentally of course)

The usual answers fall under the category of Death and Obituaries. However in the case of 16 year old Yasser Lopez from Miami, this was not to be the case. While having a swim in a lake near his home, his friend accidentally set off a harpoon while loading the gun with the resulting harpoon lodged in Yassers head penetrating just above his right eye, through the brain before coming out at the back.

Ouchies! (Courtesy: Metro.co.uk)

However the harpoon missed all major blood vessels in the brain so Yasser pretty much walked himself into Jackson Memorial Hospital with a big spear in his head. The docs managed to remove the harpoon using fire and rescue equipment as well as an intensive 3 hour surgery for the bit inside the brain.

An odd scar to have but a cooler/miraculous story behind it.

No water, no tub? Don't worry, just rub!

DryBath: Paving the way for a lazier, cleaner generation.
(Courtesy: Headboy.org)

A student in South Africa going by the name of Ludwick Marishane has invented what is known as DryBath: a showergel that doesn't require water and is simply rubbed onto a persons skin. It is said to kill off 99.9% of all bacteria and does not leave that alcohol like scent that you commonly find after lopping on some hand sanitizer.

One packet replaces one tub of water and will be priced at 30p per packet. Marishane invented the product just using his basic phone, google and wikipedia(!) and was inspired by what he calls his lazy friend who presumably, smelled worse than my gym socks. A really neat invention that Marishane claims will be utilized by the military, airline and hotel industry in the near future, it also enables the poor to be able to maintain a better standard of hygiene, specially those who have little or no access to water sources.

Bug Zapping Lightsaber? Yep, it's real...

...and you can make it too.

Hack a day give comprehensive instructions as to how to build your very own crude lightsaber that zaps bugs into oblivion. Using the metal mesh of an electrified bug racket and your favourite lightsabers available from Toys R Us or wherever you find lightsabers these days and with good old electric tape, you could be the worlds next bug zapping master just yet.

Have a look at the video below (courtesy: Hackaday.com).

Review of The Raid: Redemption

This summer sees a vast variety of great action/sci-fi blockbusters hitting the screens. But how about something more....human?

The Raid: Redemption is an indonesian Action/Crime flick focusing mainly on the action bit. I mean THAT'S where it's at in the film. The story-line is focused on a rookie member of a SWAT team who's been picked in a 20 man team that's being led to a particular indonesian mafia's lovely abode - a 30 storey building that houses all of every imaginable filth and grime the world of scum has to offer. The team are led into an ambush on the 6th floor and well...here's where the fun begins.

I began to get dizzy with the speed of the martial arts performed in this film. There is one particularly memorable scene where the protagonist deals with a whole horde of these thugs using his bare hands (and whatever debris he comes across). Yea sure, the hero usually wins in these scenarios, but the emotion shown  with each punch thrown and landed, both by the protagonist and his assailants is insane! I felt the same pain the guy who fell onto a broken and very sharp door base....neck first mind you...felt. The action mayhem ensuing throughout the film will leave flinching and grabbing your hair and other body parts at the pain dished out.

The story is rather flaccid in the sense that there could have been more to it, but then again, most action films have one straight plot - Find bad guy, kill bad guy and everyone goes home. There are some small twists but nothing major that will leave you going 'I never saw that coming'.

All in all, a great action film for those people who just want to see blood and guts and crazy men on drugs with machetes and rifles.

7/10 in my opinion.

The iPad's Latest Competitor - Microsoft Surface.

It's about time Microsoft came up with something that would see them try and tap the tablet market share currently dominated by Apples all too famous giant iPod Touch, the iPad.

 Enter Microsoft Surface. This touchscreen device will be powered an Intel or ARM based chip, depending on which version of Windows you want. The Intel model is set to have a 1080p screen while its little brother, the ARM model, is set to have a much lower resolution screen. The ARM chip will run the Windows RT version housed inside a thinner Magnesium body (9.3mm thick) while the Intel chip will run the x86 version of Windows 8 (powered by an Intel i5 Ivy Bridge processor), this being the thicker of the two tablets at 13.5mm (likely due to a bigger battery to power that 1080p screen and processor...)

Equipped with a large 10.6inch screen, kickstand and a covering case that also acts as a touch responsive keyboard, Microsoft really seem to want to take the fight to Apple and Google. This device will be slightly heavier than the current generation of iPads on the market. It may also serve to irritate other manufacturers that want to use the Windows 8 platform on their mobiles as they will now view the tech giant as a new competitor in tablet market specially if Microsoft undercuts their price of the tablet.

Tablet or ultrabook? (Courtesy - Microsoft)

The tablet will have 'digital ink' input via stylus and will be at a resolution of 600dpi as well as standard capacitance touch capabilities. The Intel based chipboard will have between 64GB and 128GB of storage and will be priced in the ultrabooks (like the chromebook) range while the ARM based chipboard will have 32GB to 64GB of storage and be priced in the tablet range, although for either of these, the price will be significantly cheaper as Microsoft owns the Windows license. There doesn't seem to be any info with regards to battery life...must be still working out the kinks on how to power the 1080p screen on the Intel model.

Exciting news, eh? Although Microsoft has set its sights on the tablet industry, I doubt that Apple or Google Android are too worried about this as the Windows 8 Platform really needs to prove that it can perform better and smoother that the other two OS already out there. If you want to have a preview of what the Windows 8 platform is going to look like, Microsoft have already released a pre-release edition on their website. Click here to get it!

How to create your very own Tabasco Sauce Lamp.

Was trudging through the reading list and came across this gem from blog.makezine.com. Really funky  way of creating your own lamp out of those used Tabasco sauce bottles you accumulate...

It's a bit techy to create, specially when you need to program a chip to control individual light ups of the each bulb. But hey, it's worth a shot!

Follow the link here to check out how to create your very own Tabasco Lamp.

So what have YOU got living on you?

Pretty much an everyday life scenario
 (Courtesy - nutritionnibbles.blogspot.com)

Everytime we reach out and grab our coffee mug or (in my case) my PS3 controller, I unknowingly pick up over a hundred thousand little hitch-hikers in the process. These little fellas have the potential to protect you or, if things go sour, harm you. The scientists working at The Human Microbiome Project have been able to catalogue just exactly what lives with us in synergy.

(Courtesy - HMP)

Through the marvels of DNA sequencing and its many recent advances in a technological point of view, the scientists were able to map out what exactly we have crawling down our spine or being waved about our villi (little finger like projections inside our small intestine that aid in digestion and absorption). They've even managed to find out the crawlies living in your urethra... the tube from which you pee out of. (How they got samples from there, I'm not too sure.)

Sounds like a bit of fluff right? Are there really any benefits in finding out what lives on us? The answer is yes. Some studies have been performed that show the an increased immune system development thanks to the 10,000 odd varieties of bacteria a healthy human being carries. These bugs can also help fight off inflammation in some cases by producing anti-inflammatory molecules that work just like aspirin.

Everyone of us has a different make up of bugs on us. They carry the same genetic expression but they live in different sets of 'communities' ie, they can perform the same action as another type of bacteria. However, these bacteria can cause a wee bit of an upset if they manage to mutate as is the case of evolution. The one rogue fellow has the potential to cause life-threatening harm is also found on nearly 20% of humans as just part of the normal posse that inhabit your surfaces - Staphylococcus aureus. These guys do nothing at all really...unless they mutate inside your nasal passage, thereby creating a superbug that everyone in a hospital hates to hear about - MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus).

Staph aureus in all its cluster glory
(Courtesy -textbooksofbacteriology.net)

300 people took part in the program to map out the flora that flourish and gee golly wizz, they did indeed produce a great set of results that have shaped a path for further research into how these bugs help and harm us humans. Oh and the old adage prevails as always...the cleaner the person, the less amount of bacteria you carry. Go have a shower now.

Another set of toe-tapping songs

So...more songs that have been causing the usual mayhem at work.

Sebastian Ingrosso and Alesso - Lose my mind:
Been out there for a bit but it hasn't dimmed at all on my radar. Great vocals and synths!

Rudimental (Feat John Newman) - Feel the love
A mix of DnB and Dub, the reggae sounding vocals blend seamlessly with  the song. A good track to pump the volume to.

Skrillex (feat Sirah) - Bangarang
Good old Skrillex, doesn't fail at all with this new track of his. It's really odd listening to this on the radio in the morning though. Headache much?

Flo rida - Whistle
A pretty feel-good tune, really great to listen to at random or when you feel a bit meh.

WWDC: Preparing your electronic shopping list for the holidays.

The Apple WorldWide Developers Conference kicks off at 6:00PM GMT tonight and boy aren't the Maclovers just drooling and bleary-eyed waiting for some major news with regards to Apple's hardware and software.

From what I've gathered across various forums and blogs, Apple seem to be doing a major shakeup across its range of Macs and a big new software update is in the mix as well.

The Macbook Pro:

The new Macbook with Retina display (Courtesy - Apple.com)

The Macbook Pro is set to make way for a newer model of its predecessor, some say most likely a hybrid mix of the Air and Pro. The new Macbook is set to have Intels latest Ivy Bridge processors and supporting up to 16GB of RAM. With other portable devices like the Samsung Chromebox supporting SSD type Harddrives, maybe that feature would be incorporated into the Macbook, although I highly doubt they'd do that. A much more powerful AMD graphics card in the range of upto 2GB Dedicated RAM is set to be included under the hood. The Retina screen could make a subtle introduction into the Macbooks world, coupled with upgrades to the webcam and other peripherals and hubs (USB 3.0, Bluetooth 4.0 etc)....all of this inside a particularly thinner and lighter version of the older Macbook. The people at techcrunch.com say that the outer body will not be made of liquidmetal, as it was rumoured earlier that it actually would be made of the same.

The New iOS6:

Confirmed! (Courtesy - tech2.in.com)

At the time of writing, this has indeed been confirmed as a picture was posted up on tech2.in.com showing the banner detailing iOS6's presentation at the keynote. Facebook is going to be integrated into iOS just as twitter was in the current version. The new OS will be set to showcase its brand new iMaps, seeing off the trekker/adventurers/lost people's best friend, Google Maps. Apparently set to have 3D mapping enabled (Google also showcased a similar feature a few days ago) they are set to clash heads with Google. Our good old (retarded) man-servant (set as default on the English iPhones) Siri may have a major update as well, hopefully allowing him to be of slightly more use to me instead of back answering all my requests to be a loyal servant. OSx Mountain Lion is set to be showcased as well for the range of Macbooks. The major part of Mountain Lions game is to enable streamlined use between it's laptops and tablets/phones. iMessage, Notifications Centre, Game Centre....a lot of stuff we see on the iPhone and iPad currently will be ported onto OSx for the Macbooks.
That's something to be excited about.

The New iPhone.....not.:

The iPhone isn't set to make any appearance at tonight's showcase. At the most, Siri's upgrade may be ported onto the current generation of iPhones. Oh yay.

Steve Jobs' presence will surely be missed by the horde who attend the WWDC annually but I'm pretty sure Tim Cook will put on a snazzy show for the apple masses. Hopefully we get to see whatever I've splashed up on over here later today!

Bananas as keyboards? Awesome.

Supermario and Playdough controller? (Courtesy - BBC)

I was trawling through the BBC and came across this wonderful article regarding bananas being used as keyboards. What?! So these MIT students have managed to create touchpads out of everyday objects that are able to conduct electricity. From staircases to cats to plain ol' paper to even clay dough to control supermario! I've put the video for you to check out below.

Click here for the video link!

The testers say that the devices use very low currents and are not detectable by animals or humans, so yay, human drumkits will soon be available in a store near you.

The project has received a great response, acquiring funding of over $440K already. Hope to see this one spread.

The Euro 2012 Rush!

This Friday, Poland and Ukraine open their doors to 16 of the best European footballing teams there are. With the world as its audience, I can safely say this is going to be one of the best tournaments this year filled with drama, tears and of course, lots of goals.

Ronaldo warming up for training (Courtesy - UEFA/AFP/Getty)

A controversial English selection has already made the headlines with former Liverpool and West Brom manager Roy Hodgson choosing to leave out big names and better players for a younger, green and untested squad, but we will only find out on Monday the 11th of June at 5pm GMT when the Three Lions go up against Les Bleus. The French look nothing like the disorganised, rioting bunch they were back in South Africa in 2010. With the likes of Ribery and Benzema both shining in their respective league the French attack seems a very potent force to deal with. England also have hosts Ukraine (the whole squad has a mysterious stomach bug from when they were in Germany) and Sweden.


The group that interests me (and a lot of others I'm sure) is aptly named the "Group of Death". Powerhouses Netherlands and Germany have with them the defensive Danes and tricky Portuguese. Mario Gomez's powerful figure up front for the Germans along with the brilliant playmaker Ozil are sure to terrorize their oppositions defence. The Dutch have with them a wide variety of brilliant attackers. The long range shooter Sneijder, the vicious left boots of Robin Van Persie and Robben, the bursting energy of Kuyt...'tis one helluva team. The group game to watch is Germany Vs Portugal and starts at 7:45PM GMT on the 9th of June. 


The Azzurri play the defending champions Spain at 5PM GMT on the 10th of June followed by the Irish playing against the Croatians 2 hours later. With the massive match fixing scandals rocking the Italian nation, I wonder if Italy would progress beyond the group stages. As a fan of the Italians, I hope they do. This may also be a platform on which the floundering Torres can make his mark and end the run of a disappointing season in which he failed to emulate the success he was when playing for Liverpool.

The last group (more like the first to be playing) comprise of hosts Poland, their arch-rivals Russia, The Czech Republic and underdogs, Greece. The Poles play the Greeks at 5PM GMT on the 8th of June, the first game of the Euro 2012. Will the Greeks be able to pull off one of the most unanticipated of wins as they did back in 2004? Maybe. It would make for another memorable event in footballing history.

Lahm of Germany(Right) vs Turan of Turkey in the Euro
2012 qualifying rounds. (Courtesy: UEFA/Getty)

The prelude to the games has already started off with an air of suspicion against the two Co-Hosts thanks to a BBC documentary Panorama, which unearthed rather startling evidence of unchecked racism in the two respective countries. You can watch the 30 minute documentary below.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01jk4vr/ (UK audience only)

So get ready for a month of awesome footballing action for if you, like me, are Football League starved, then this tournament is sure to whet your appetite.

Highlights of E3: Sony

Sony highlighted various hardware and software at it's feature presentation. One of the more memorable devices involve linking with the PS3's Eye, Move controller and the PS3 itself and is called the Wonderbook.

The Wonderbook is targeted towards the younger generation with the demo showing a new Harry Potter-esque game The Book of Spells. Through augmented reality, you interact with the "book" that springs up media (or in this case, spells) and you can actually interact with book via the TV screen. Your Move controller acts as the wand and enables you to cast spells and enjoy a set of minigames where you can test out your newly learned spells.

Another device showcased Sony's very own mobile phone based platform. They've teamed up with HTC to bring out the best of the Playstation Suite or now called Playstation Mobile - the platform on which it runs. Sony have announced that PSM is open source based and has thousands of developers already working on creating new games designed specifically for the mobile device. No more facebooking on the tube home? That remains to be seen...

And then there's the games. Yes the eye watering, mind numbing visuals and storyboard that are melded into some of Sony's most memorable games were put on display as well.

God of War: Ascension:
Oh Kratos, you beast. The gameplay demo looked nothing short of beautiful, with a much smoother framerate than its predecessors. The visuals have been notched up from the cartoony sort of graphics to a much more visceral and savage texture.The moves are there along with bloody, epic take downs including a brain splitting (literally) end of an elephant monster. Another game on my must have list.

Beyond:
David Cage, the director of the visually appealing, psychological thriller Heavy Rain was back to show the audience what looks to be another masterpiece in the making. Beyond follows the story of Jodie Holmes, a woman who has a connection to the netherworld. The demo looked outstanding visually, and the voice acting of Jodie Holmes features Ellen Paige add to the merit list. The facial animations looked great enough to be called "real". Waiting for more previews on this one.

The Last of Us:
This is another must watch gameplay demo. The amount of detail put into the environment the two lead characters walk around in is nuts. Voice acting was decent from what I heard, but the environment setting really makes you feel like you are the last ones out there. The gameplay looked very, very interactive specially in an instance where the protagonist runs out of ammo and the enemy hears it to come at him for an all out attack when he gets smashed in the head by a rock or vase or something by the second lead character. That was epic.

Farcry 3 made a multiplayer demo, but I didn't find it all that different from the other Farcry games I've played before. Looks same old, with the standard bright green/brown texture combination of the environment.

The PS Vita also made an appearance showing a vast library of games ready to be released soon. Call of Duty: Declassified, Assassins Creed III: Liberation and button mashing All Stars Battle Royale featuring most of your favourite PS3 characters like Sweet Tooth, Solid Snake and so on.

Watch the whole Sony press conference below!

Highlights of E3: Microsoft

Hopefully everyone in England enjoyed the long weekend thanks to the queen and her 60 years of reign. If you didn't know, the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo or E3 was held on the 5th of June and it showcases the latest in gaming and technology there is to offer in the coming future. With 1 hour features from Microsoft, Sony , Nintendo and others, this years was the biggest E3 yet.

Some of the main attractions that caught my eye are highlighted below.

Microsoft:


Microsoft's feature showcased many features of what we all expected to be announced. A 5 minute Halo 4 gameplay clip wowed the audience with the return of the legendary Master Chief and his trusty AI sidekick Cortana followed by an all new and immersive storyline featuring a new race called the Forerunners who seem to pack one hell of a punch when in combat with the Chief. While the environment shown doesn't really show any marked up improvements over its predecessors, it was only a short clip and I'm sure there would be a marked difference in the final release.

Something I didn't expect was an announcement by Epic Games. Gears of War 4: Judgement  will be coming soon to an Xbox console near you! Check out the trailer for the game below.

Ubisoft also made an appearance, demoing the new Splinter Cell game which features our all time, never ageing hero, Sam Fisher back in action. Set in Iran-Iraq, Fisher needs to find and interrogate a leader of the insurgent group that currently holds the supposed namesake of the game, the Blacklist. The game has visually improved from the last title and has an amazing new feature called Execution where in Sam can lock onto several enemy targets at once and then in quick and fluid succession, takes them out in real time in the most coolest of finishes. Doing this does not lock you out, rather it allows you to accommodate a wide variety of other moves while you perform your execution streak, like execute guard, vault over obstacle, knee another guard while executing another, then finished off knee'd guard and so on. Check out the video clip to see what I'm going on about.

                                      

Another Ubisoft gem is the much awaited Assassins Creed III. I'm sure the video below says everything that needs to be said...fluid gameplay, the ability to climb organic surfaces (literally anywhere you can actually grab onto) and Tomahawks! I cannot wait for the 30th of October.

                                       

Microsoft also featured more Kinect related upgrades as well as the Xbox integration with MLB.tv and NBA to be able to show you all the games that go on live.

I've embedded the full Microsoft E3 conference below, if you're interested.