This awesome pendant is an authentic Lego toy that I have suspended from gorgeous red chain. He is maroon red and ready to go on some nautical adventures with you — via Essem Design
19 foot Pressure Wind Tunnel, originally uploaded by NASA on The Commons
Scottish author Iain Banks, best known for his novels The Wasp Factory and The Crow Road, has died aged 59, two months after revealing that he had terminal cancer, his publisher said.
Banks died less than a fortnight before the scheduled publication of his final book, The Quarry, which focuses on the final weeks in the life of its cancer-ridden protagonist.
He was one of Britain’s most prolific writers and unusual in his talent for both mainstream novels and science fiction, which he wrote under the name Iain M Banks — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via Wil Wheaton dot Tumblr
The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,
he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world’s most secretive organisations — the NSA — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Three endangered Malayan Tiger cubs were born at Busch Gardens Tampa on 31 March. The litter consists of two males and one female, each weighing between six and seven pounds. They are currently being monitored around the clock by the park’s animal care team. These newborn cubs will add to the genetic diversity of the Malayan Tiger population and contribute to conservation efforts for the species. Malayan Tigers are Critically Endangered. Scientists estimate that only 500 remain in the wild — via ZooBorns
The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.
The Guardian has acquired top-secret documents about the NSA data mining tool, called Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks.
The focus of the internal NSA tool is on counting and categorising the records of communications, known as metadata, rather than the content of an email or instant message.
The Boundless Informant documents show the agency collecting almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March 2013. One document says it is designed to give NSA officials answers to questions like, What type of coverage do we have on country X
in near real-time by asking the SIGINT [signals intelligence] infrastructure
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
The Romans didn’t invent concrete, but they did establish its versatility. The structural ingenuity of the Baths of Caracalla, the Pont du Gard and the Pantheon would not be surpassed for a thousand years.
But if the dazzling concrete curves and cantilevers of modern architecture have matched the Romans’ for style and structure, today’s standard recipe, 2,000 years later, remains in some ways inferior.
New research into Pozzolanic cement, so named for the corner of the Bay of Naples where the ash of Mount Vesuvius facilitated its creation, shows the advantages of the Roman method. Their mixture for hydraulic concrete, a blend of volcanic ash and lime, has a tougher molecular structure than its modern equivalent. It’s unusually resistant to fragmenting and nearly immune to the corrosion caused by salt water. That’s why Roman jetties and port structures have weathered two salty millennia, while our maritime concrete creations degrade within a matter of decades.
So why aren’t we doing as the Romans did?
For one thing, the methods largely vanished with the fall of Rome. They really haven’t been examined at a very fine scale until now,
says Marie Jackson, one of the researchers who has been studying the molecular composition of Roman seawater concrete. There’s been a general lack of knowledge about what the Roman model could produce
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
A beer fridge in north-east Victoria is the latest victim of an increasingly-sophisticated software robot
employed by Telstra to identify things that interfere with its mobile network.
The Herald Sun reported late Sunday night that the rogue beer fridge
had been traced to a Wangaratta man’s garage after an investigation by Telstra’s operations personnel.
The fridge is believed to have been interrupting mobile signals in several neighbourhoods
of the town of 17,000, which lies about 230km from Melbourne.
Though it is at the more unusual end of the spectrum of equipment that might interfere with mobile networks, Telstra’s area team manager for mobile coverage delivery in the Victorian metropolitan, Richard Henderson, told iTnews it is one example of hundreds and hundreds of investigative interference jobs that are done each year across the country
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
This small afghan is perfect for added warmth in bed or just for sitting on the couch watching a movie. These little guys are a simple detail that adds a cute and colourful touch to your room. This small throw measures at approximately 4’3” wide and 3’4” long. It’s made with 100% Acrylic yarn — (via Etsy
A team of Australian industrial designers and scientists have unveiled their prototype for the world’s first bionic eye.
It is hoped the device, which involves a microchip implanted in the skull and a digital camera attached to a pair of glasses, will allow recipients to see the outlines of their surroundings.
If successful, the bionic eye has the potential to help over 85 per cent of those people classified as legally blind.
With trials beginning next year, Monash University’s Professor Mark Armstrong says the bionic eye should give recipients a degree of extra mobility — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Hankerie came out of this idea — watermelon swiss roll. I will name it as cakemelon
. This creative idea inspired from the Australia Melon that I’ve seen in supermarket here. Most of the Australia watermelon melon are more pinkish, but surprisingly they’re sweeter than what we have in Malaysia — red flesh watermelon — via Hankerie
If you make a mistake in your project and you need to rip back, it can be tricky to grab the live stitches and put them back on your needle.
In stockinette stitch, identify the row below the row you will want to start re-knitting. Insert your needle under the first strand of yarn in the V that makes up the first stitch of the row on the right side. Continue this down the row, picking up the first strand of yarn in the V and skipping the second leg of the V. You’ll be picking up every other strand of yarn without dropping any. This week’s tip shows us how to pick up stitches before ripping back so your don’t have to worry about the live stitches unravelling.
In garter stitch, you’ll be doing the same thing. If you stretch your knitting a bit, you can see the same V’s under the bumps of the garter stitch. Insert your needle into the first leg of the V in the garter stitch as well.
Once you have your needle inserted all the way along the row, you can pull the working yarn to rip back the rows above the needle. The stitches will be sitting on your needle ready to go.
It’s best to use a needle smaller than your working needle to pick up your stitches, but remember to switch back to the original size needle when you start knitting again — via Webs Yarn Store Blog
Some of the world’s biggest internet giants have condemned online spying and the PRISM surveillance program run by the US’s National Security Agency (NSA).
This week, The Guardian newspaper revealed details of the PRISM program, while The Washingston Post claimed federal authorities have access to the central servers of many technology companies including Google, Facebook, Apple, AOL, Skype (Microsoft), PalTalk and YouTube (Google).
In a number of similarly worded statements the technology companies responded denying US government agencies had direct access to its servers and data.
The bosses of Google and Facebook denied having ever heard of the PRISM program before the Washington Post report — via redwolf.newsvine.com
Spectacular Rustgill (Gymnopilus pampeanus), originally uploaded by Red Wolf.
Spectacular Rustgill (Gymnopilus pampeanus), originally uploaded by Red Wolf.
This is a hand sculpted cuttlefish with the proper amount of arms and everything! It’s made from tinted translucent polymer clay and glazed in order to give it that nice glassy look. The white dots are suspended between the body and the outer layer to give it depth. Impress your friends by explaining why this is not a squid — via Etsy
A litter of Mexican Gray Wolves, the most Endangered wolf species in the world, came to the Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden — and not by conventional means. They arrived on a LightHawk flight at Tri-State Aero, Inc. and were immediately given into the care of zoo staff. The pups are doing well — via ZooBorns
RSS – Posts