18 September 1961. New York. Helena Rubinstein, 655 Fifth Avenue. Hair dryers.
This looks as regimented as anything the Army had to offer, although I do spy one nonconformist wearing flats. Photo by Samuel H Gottscho — via Shorpy Historical Photo Archive
It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s Hello Kitty.
That’s what a seventh grade student from California had in mind when she came up with her dream science project: sending a Hello Kitty doll her dad brought back from a business trip in Japan into space.
Lauren Rojas, a 12-year-old from Antioch, California, got the idea after seeing a television commercial in which a balloon was launched into the sky. She thought she could do the same with her Hello Kitty doll. She would test air pressure and temperature at high altitude for her school’s science fair — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A wolf hunt in Sweden that had angered environmentalists has been suspended, just days after it began.
The Swedish government had authorised what it called a targeted cull, saying it would create a healthier wolf population.
But it was suspended pending a full legal review after conservationists appealed to the courts.
Hunters killed three out of the 16 wolves allowed under the quota before the cull was called off — via redwolf.newsvine.com
This material, developed by AIST, is an organic substance where the adhesion strength can be varied repeatedly. This is achieved simply by shining light on the material, without heating or cooling it.
When the material has solidified, it’s yellow, but if it’s illuminated with UV light, it gradually liquefies and becomes orange. If you shine green light on the material, it hardens again, and reverts to yellow. This is the first example of a solid-liquid transition caused by light alone, deliberately and reversibly, in a single substance — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A propaganda video from the North Korean authorities has been removed from YouTube following a copyright claim by games maker Activision.
The clip showed a young man dreaming about a North Korean space shuttle destroying a city that resembles New York.
But the footage of burning buildings was taken from Activision’s top selling game, Call of Duty.
North Korea insists its space programme is for peaceful purposes.
But the country’s intent — particularly towards South Korea — has raised concerns leader Kim Jong-un has plans for a ballistic missile system.
The video was posted on Saturday by North Korea’s official Pyongyang YouTube channel — via redwolf.newsvine.com
It’s a historic day for one of America’s most confounding companies.
AOL ended an eight-year money-losing slump in 2012, the company announced this morning, as all of its divisions ended the year quasi-profitable
for the first time under Tim Armstrong’s reign as CEO.
AOL was dubbed by some the hottest tech stock of 2012
. You might question the use of the word hottest
in that label, but it’s kind of true. Tim Armstrong is doing something right …
… but what is that, exactly? — via redwolf.newsvine.com
— via The Bold Italic
An MP has called for an investigation into the death of an elderly woman from hunger and dehydration after bureaucratic confusion between the UK Border Agency and Surrey county council.
Gloria Foster, who was in her 80s, was alone for nine days after the company that she paid to take care of her was closed by the UKBA for employing illegal immigrants. The council was given the company records but apparently failed to go to Foster’s aid. Foster’s MP, Crispin Blunt, described her ordeal as horrific
.
He said: Clearly there are questions to answer and I would expect a comprehensive investigation between all of the agencies involved. I said last week that I would certainly not like to pre-judge any more of the narrative before it is formally established. Yesterday’s desperately sad developments can only increase the salience of that need
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
Lucca Uitzicht opTorre dei Guinigi met Eiken, originally uploaded by Alex Janssen.
The city of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy, is famous for its medieval architecture and intact city walls. Yet among all of its exquisite buildings one stands out. The Torre Guinigi or Guinigi Tower in English towers over the city.
At the top of the 44.5 meter high tower is something of a surprise – a garden containing, of all things, oak trees.
High above the city this small wood has provided a haven of peace for centuries — via Kuriositas
IMG_9209, originally uploaded by vebests.
Bethlehem Chapel is a chapel dedicated to the Roman Catholic worship, located in the French town of Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau in Loire-Atlantique, along the main road 58 between Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau and Le Pellerin.
Classified as a historic monument in 1911 and restored between 1993 and 1995, the present chapel pinnacles where some of the newly created chimeras are derived from the American film culture and Japanese animation
Poland’s Warsaw Zoo is celebrating the birth of a baby Giant Anteater. The male baby was born on January 18, and is the fourth baby for the zoo’s breeding pair — via ZooBorns
In the near future, ladies prim and proper will stroll around with octopus umbrellas — via Boxyheadbry
Michael Dell is taking the company that bears his name private. As rumored, Dell has signed a leveraged buyout agreement worth $24.4 billion.
Dell, the company’s founder, chairman and CEO, in partnership with global technology investment firm Silver Lake Partners and backed in part with Microsoft’s money, will acquire Dell. Dell stockholders will receive $13.65 in cash for each share of Dell common stock they hold.
The price represents a 25 percent premium over Dell’s closing share price of $10.88 on Jan. 11, 2013. The Dell board unanimously approved a merger agreement, which will ultimately see Dell and Silver Lake take the company private.
It’s not a done deal yet. The merger agreement provides for a so-called go-shop
period, during which the Special Committee — with the assistance of Evercore Partners — will actively solicit, receive, evaluate and potentially enter into negotiations with parties that offer alternative proposals. The initial go-shop period is 45 days. The agreement also must be approved by a vote of unaffiliated shareholders — via redwolf.newsvine.com
5-11 Fire in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighbourhood, originally uploaded by Andrew Krumtinger.
Just one of the awesome photos of a recent Chicago fire — via Flickr
A tiny genetic patch
can be used to prevent a form of deafness which runs in families, according to animal tests.
Patients with Usher syndrome have defective sections of their genetic code which cause problems with hearing, sight and balance.
A study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, showed the same defects could be corrected in mice to restore some hearing.
Experts said it was an encouraging
start — via redwolf.newsvine.com
ITV Studios is to re-invent the Classic Thunderbirds series 50 years on from its first television debut.
ITV Studios and New Zealand based Pukeko Pictures, in collaboration with world-famous Weta Workshop (Avatar, King Kong, The Lord of the Rings) are to co-produce Thunderbirds are Go! (working title) a 26 x 30’ major new children’s series set to debut on ITV and UK’s CITV Channel in 2015.
This re-invention of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s iconic series will be produced using a unique mix of CGI animation and live-action model sets. Showcasing Pukeko Pictures’ and Weta Workshop’s ground-breaking creative and technical excellence, it will deliver a whole new level of action-adventure animation for today’s audience, whilst also affectionately paying tribute to the legacy of model locations from the classic series.
Featuring the world’s most famous family of heroes, International Rescue, Thunderbirds are Go! will blast the five brave Tracy brothers back on to television screens piloting their incredible vehicles into impossible rescues across the globe — via redwolf.newsvine.com
A major trial of a new booster vaccine has ended in failure, marking a major setback in the fight against tuberculosis (TB).
It was the first big study in infants since the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine was introduced in 1921.
BCG is only partially effective against the bacterium that causes TB, which is why several international teams are working on new vaccines.
The latest, known as MVA85A, failed to protect babies who had already had BCG — via redwolf.newsvine.com
On 6 January, Poland’s Wroclaw ZOO welcomed the birth of a little female South American Tapir. This striped little girl is healthy, nursing regularly, and growing strong. She will be weaned in about 6 months. She has been named Melba, and spends her days in an indoor exhibit where guests can watch her playing and cuddling with Sabrina, her mother — via ZooBorns
The right to have root on your machine,
that is, full administrator access to your computing devices including smartphones, is a key issue,
Sir Tim Berners-Lee told a geek-heavy audience at the Linux.conf.au 2013 conference in Canberra this morning.
The right to have root on your machine is the right to store things which operate on your behalf,
he said.
Berners-Lee recognised that when ordinary users have administrator rights on their devices, it introduces a security risk: The applications they install might inherit those rights and use them to perform malicious actions.
In the situation that we have apps working on someone else’s behalf, then we need to work on the security models. The JavaScript security models, the containment of cross-site access, are the best we can do at the moment… If you’ve got ideas about how we can make it more manageable and more powerful… I’d like to hear
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
US democracy has been hacked
by big business and needs to be reclaimed using the power of the internet to hold politicians to account, according to former US vice-president Al Gore.
Offering a blunt assessment of the extent to which private companies influence decision-making in the US, he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show: American politics has fallen into a state of disrepair,
in an interview to mark the publication of his new book, The Future.
Gore added: It can be fixed, but we need to recognise that our democracy has been hacked … It has been taken over … and is being operated for purposes other than those for which it was intended
— via redwolf.newsvine.com
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