Trilogy / Storm

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2 June 2012
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This British designed limited edition Storm Trilogy watch has two levels. The top floor is a traditional three-handed clock bolted onto the bottom floor where two totally different one handed displays give you two other time zones. On the right features a simple single hand for hours so if it lies in the middle of the 8 and 9, it’s showing 8:30. To the bottom left is a more unique way of displaying the time due to the obscured viewing area. A single hand of different lengths and design point to the hours in two rows, the shorter hand points to the hours past 3 o’clock and the longer hand points to the hours past 9 o’clock — via Watchismo Times

Red Wolf Pups / Great Plains Zoo

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2 June 2012
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The Great Plains Zoo in South Dakota announced the birth of three rare Red Wolf pups. There are only about 100 Red Wolves left in the entire wild population! Four-year-old mom Ayasha gave birth to a litter of three pups last month — two females and a male. They weighed less than a pound at birth and fit into the palm of a zookeeper’s hand. The zoo’s animal care staff monitored the birth through video cameras and continues to observe the new family — via ZooBorns

How a trio of hackers brought Google’s reCAPTCHA to its knees

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1 June 2012
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Google revamped its reCAPTCHA system, used to block automated scripts from abusing its online services, just hours before a trio of hackers unveiled a free system that defeats the widely used challenge-response tests with more than 99 percent accuracy.

Stiltwalker, as the trio dubbed its proof-of-concept attack, exploits weaknesses in the audio version of reCAPTCHA, which is used by Google, Facebook, Craigslist and some 200,000 other websites to confirm that humans and not scam-bots are creating online accounts. While previous hacks have also used computers to crack the Google-owned CAPTCHA (short for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) system, none have achieved Stiltwalker’s impressive success rate — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Rodia Stone House / Nikos Smyrlis Architect

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1 June 2012
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The house [Nikos Smyrlis Architect] grows linearly in the north-south axis. It is a stone formation deposited by the torrent streams. Is a regular, solid resting on land that was converted from a stone volume after subtractions, sections and surface removals. The owner’s love for climbing and exploring affected the management of the volume as a monolithic element, using stone on all external surfaces and the patency / approach of the roof — via ArchDaily

DNR officers spot man tied to a tree in Wayside Park

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31 May 2012
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Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officers looking for fishing violators found more than they bargained for as they boated past the riverbank of Wayside Park.

The officers spotted a man was sitting in a sling with his wrists and ankles tied to a tree in the Ramsey park 10 May shortly after 5.00pm.

The man was blindfolded, wearing jean shorts, a black do rag and had his genitals exposed.

Ramsey police officers were called in to search for the man, but he appeared to have left the area where they found the sling, which was in a no trespassing area of the park.

They later found the man, identified as Alan David Petrusson, Pillager, walking along the riverbank.

Although Petrusson claimed to have been just resting in the sling and that he did not realise he was exposed, police think he may have been there for anonymous sex, according to Ramsey Police Chief Jim Way — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Rare Martian Pink diamond sold for $17.4m in Hong Kong

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31 May 2012
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A rare pink diamond has been auctioned for $17.4m (£11.1m) — far higher than expected — after six minutes of frenzied bidding in Hong Kong.

Auctioneers Christie’s say that the diamond — the biggest of its kind ever to be sold — was bought by an anonymous telephone bidder.

The Martian Pink diamond is extremely rare. Its owner believed it would fetch the best price in Hong Kong.

The diamond had been expected to sell for between $8m and $12m (£5m – £7.6m) — via redwolf.newsvine.com

American Black Bear / Oregon Zoo

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31 May 2012
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On 23 April state wildlife officials fielded a call from a Medford, Oregon, family that had taken a young bear cub from the wild and brought it into their home. With no idea how to care for the helpless yet wild animal, they turned to professionals. Those professionals turned to Michelle Schireman.

The animal keeper, who serves as the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ population manager for cougars, has fostered orphaned cougar cubs for several years, having placed nearly 75 during her time with the Oregon Zoo — via  ZooBorns

Cops: Man tried to rob Lowes store; from nearby nudist colony

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30 May 2012
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Investigators said they arrested Milton Hodges after a crime spree in Osceola County on Wednesday.

Deputies said Hodges first tried to rob a Lowes store on Pleasant Hill Road. They said he attacked a cashier in the garden section and tried to steal some cash from the register.

He demanded he open the cash register. When he didn’t, he put a knife or what he thought was scissors up to his neck. The cashier got away, Twis Lizasuain with the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office said — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Dholes / Minnesota Zoo

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30 May 2012
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On 12 April the Minnesota Zoo welcomed its first-ever litter of endangered Dhole pups and on 14 April the Zoo welcomed a second litter! These births mark the 10th and 11th litters ever born in the United States. Dholes are exhibited at only two other North American institutions besides the Minnesota Zoo — via ZooBorns

Cybercrime: it’s just too easy

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29 May 2012
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AusCERT general manager Graham Ingram has rejected Eugene Kaspersky’s view that the current golden age of cybercrime will be over in a few years — because the crimes are just too easy to commit.

The returns are high, the risks are low; ie, almost no risk. Isn’t that the type of crime that you would like to do? Ingram said.

You’ll make a lot of money, you will not be caught and you will live a very happy life, he said, because current international law-enforcement cooperation arrangements can’t deal with high-volume, low-impact crime — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Goshawk / Techne

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29 May 2012
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The Techne Goshawk (a re-edition of their 2010 model) features a Miyota 8217 automatic movement. This is a bit more interesting from other Miyota movements that you may be more accustomed to, as it actually adds a 24 hour complication to the mix (this shows up on the dial at the 9 o’clock mark. — via Wrist Watch Review

The Zorg Industries ZF-1 / Adam Savage

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29 May 2012
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Tested takes you inside Adam Savage’s man cave where he keeps amazing movie props and collectibles, as well as works on his own projects. Today, Adam tells the story of his Zorg Industries ZF-1 replica from The Fifth Element, which he’s been working on for over 13 years

Honda CB400 / Black Bridge

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28 May 2012
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Black Bridge is the nom de plume of Beijing-based Adrien Macera. Macera has been tinkering with motorcycles for as long as he can remember, but this Honda CB400 is his first commercial build. The bike was for a friend who owns a bunch of restaurants in Beijing, says Adrien. We normally ride on trackdays with a group of friends. But for this project, he asked if I could build a smaller-capacity cafe racer, for commuting around town — via Bike EXIF

Why force best friends to part?

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28 May 2012
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In Rights
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It is one of the biggest social issues for older people: having to give up a beloved pet to move into aged accommodation. There is much anecdotal evidence of personal pain, but pain out of public view.

A recent forum in Canberra on pets and aged care found agreement among aged care professionals, animal welfare agencies and pet owners that we need to talk about older people and pets – and it is time for change.

I declare my interest. I am a senior pet owner. On ABS figures, in 2012, some 3 million0 Australians are over 65; by 2026 the number will be over 5 million; by 2056, up to 10 million. With an estimated 63% of Australian households owning some type of pet, potentially millions will be older pet owners.

Like me, many older pet owners want to continue to live alongside their pets and think being old shouldn’t require them to forgo pet ownership – whether ageing at home, in a retirement village or a care setting — via redwolf.newsvine.com

‘Extinct’ short-haired bumblebee returns to UK

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28 May 2012
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A species of bee not seen in the UK for a quarter of a century is being reintroduced to the countryside.

The short-haired bumblebee was once widespread across the south of England but it vanished in 1988.

However, after a healthy stock of the bees was found in Sweden, conservationists were able to collect some to seed a new UK colony.

About 50 queen bumblebees are being released at the RSPB’s Dungeness reserve in Kent.

Nikki Gammans, from the Short-haired Bumblebee Project, said: Normally, extinction means a species is gone forever.

But it is magnificent that we can bring back this bee species and give it a second chance here in the UK — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Fire-chasing beetles sense infrared radiation from fires hundreds of kilometres away

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28 May 2012
3 min read
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In Science, Wildlife
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In the 1940s, visitors watching football games at Berkeley’s Californian Memorial Stadium would often be plagued by beetles. The insects swarmed their clothes and bit them on the necks and hands. The cause: cigarettes. The crowds smoked so heavily that a cloud of smoke hung over the stadium. And where there’s smoke, there’s fire. And where there’s fire, there are fire-chaser beetles.

While most animals flee from fires, fire-chaser beetles (Melanophila) head towards a blaze. They can only lay their eggs in freshly burnt trees, whose defences have been scorched away. Fire is such an essential part of the beetles’ life cycle that they’ll travel over 60 kilometres to find it. They’re not fussy about the source, either. Forest fires will obviously do, but so will industrial plants, kilns, burning oil barrels, vats of hot sugar syrup, and even cigarette-puffing sports fans.

The beetles find fire with a pair of pits below their middle pair of legs. Each is only as wide as a few human hairs, and consists of 70 dome-shaped sensors. They look a bit like insect eyes. In the 1960s, scientists showed that the sensors detect the infrared radiation given off by hot objects. Each one is filled with liquid, which expands when it absorbs infrared radiation. This motion stimulates sensory cells and tells the beetle that there’s heat afoot.

The ability to sense infrared radiation explains why, in the past, fire-chasers have gathered in places with neither open flames nor smoke plumes—they don’t need to see the signs of fire to know it’s there. Their detectors must be extraordinarily sensitive for they have arrived at sites that are dozens of miles from the nearest forests — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Kilowatt House / Mollie Taylor

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28 May 2012
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This 1930s Mollie Taylor-designed Kilowatt House art deco property in Bath, Somerset was built between 1935 and 1938 on a former quarry site for the electrical engineer Anthony Greenhill and was described in the Pevsner Architectural Guide as Bath’s only Modern Movement house.

If you fancy it, the house is, unsurprisingly not cheap, selling for around £1,950,000 — via WowHaus

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