Category: News

Researchers hunting for Amelia Earhart‘s lost plane believe they have identified a piece of the aircraft for the very first time since her disappearance.

An aluminum fragment discovered on the uninhabited Pacific atoll Nikumaroro in 1991, near where Earhart disappeared on in 1937, has been identified “with a high degree of certainty” as part of Earhart’s Lockheed Electra.

Earhart took off from Miami on June 1, 1937, officially kicking off her second attempt to circumnavigate the world. On July 2, 1937, she took off from Lae, New Guinea, with just 7,000 miles to go, and disappeared.

According to researchers at The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, which is dedicated to locating Earhart’s plane, the fragment is very likely a patch installed as quick fix to replace a custom-made window on her plane.

Nikumaroro has long been suspected as the final resting place of Earhart after a 1937 was discovered to have possibly captured a glimpse of her Electra’s landing gear.

[via Discovery News]

Strap in! This porta-potty is currently hundreds of feet in the air over the new stadium for the Minnesota Vikings. Construction began in December of 2013 and is scheduled for completion in 2016.

With the stadium costing the team and tax payers an expected $1.024 billion, the construction company clearly doesn’t want bathroom breaks slowing workers down.

Both photos were taken by David Tinjum, of the Mill City Times.

When Boston Dynamics first revealed their ATLAS robot last year, the bipedal humanoid robot was a clunky, slow moving contraption tethered to a jumble of cords that performed a variety of controlled tasks awkwardly.

Now with help from the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), the ATLAS robot has received programming updates that enable it to walk like a human with more agility and control than ever before. Even more impressive is the robot’s ability to walk over a pile of jumbled cinder blocks while easily maintaining its balance. Although the ATLAS continues to perform these tasks slowly, its increased coordination and expanded capabilities are important milestones achieved that will only improve with time to include even greater agility and eventually, speed.

Its construction and development funded and overseen by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the ATLAS robot is approximately 6 feet tall and weighs about 330 pounds. The ATLAS is made out of aircraft-grade titanium and aluminum with blue LED lights mounted inside its chest. The humanoid owes its agility and balance to an onboard computer that receives information from a laser rangefinder and stereo cameras that survey and gauge the robot’s immediate surroundings.

[via Gizmodo]

A doctor who returned from treating Ebola patients in Africa to NYC in recent weeks has been hospitalized with a confirmed case of the virus.

Dr. Craig Spencer returned to his home in Harlem from Guinea last Friday, October 17. He had been checking his temperature twice a day, and Thursday, he had a fever of 100.3 degrees. NYC officials said that yesterday he traveled, via the 1 and L subway lines, to Williamsburg to bowl at The Gutter.

Williamsburg’s bowling alleys right now. Top photo: The Gutter. Bottom photo: Brooklyn Bowl. (Photos: @aymanndotcom) pic.twitter.com/MG0gBaKtKm

— ANIMALNewYork (@ANIMALNewYork) October 23, 2014

This morning, the venue posted an update on its Facebook page that the New York Health Department is working to clean and sanitize the venue, and that it expects to reopen sometime today:

We voluntarily decided to close The Gutter yesterday evening as a precautionary measure while we gathered more information. We are working with the NYC Health Department to have the bar cleaned and sanitized under their supervision and expect to be open sometime today after that is completed. Doctors advising the Health Department have told us that our staff and customers were at no risk.

Just how dangerous would “E-bowl-a” be in a bowling alley? The NY Times has produced this helpful explainer, Q. Can You Get Ebola From a Bowling Ball?:

A. Dr. Craig Spencer, the patient with Ebola currently in isolation at Bellevue Hospital Center, went bowling in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn on Wednesday evening. According to city health officials, he had been taking his temperature twice a day since he left Guinea on Oct. 14. His temperature was normal on Wednesday evening, and he did not yet have any other symptoms, such as nausea or diarrhea. Ebola experts say the disease cannot be transmitted before the appearance of symptoms.Although the surface of a shared bowling ball is a likely place to find germs — and some people avoid bowling for this very reason — it is extremely unlikely that Ebola could be passed that way. There is no evidence that it has been passed, as colds or flu sometimes are, by touching surfaces that someone else touched after sneezing into their hand. Ebola is normally passed through contact with blood, vomit or diarrhea.

If someone left blood, vomit or feces on a bowling ball, and the next person to touch it did not even notice, and then put his fingers into his eyes, nose or mouth, it might be possible. But, the Ebola virus does not not normally build up to high levels in saliva or mucus until very late in the disease — several days after the initial fever sets in — and it is unlikely that someone that ill would have just gone bowling. Also, the Ebola virus is fragile and susceptible to drying out. It does not normally survive for more than a few hours on a hard, dry surface.

[via The Guardian & New York Times]

A suspicious submarine sighting off the Swedish coast has set off a a new “hunt for Red October.” The search for the mystery invader is ongoing after the Swedish military released photos of a “foreign vessel” found near the Stockholm archipelago. The Swedish government is not yet in a position to make formal accusations, but signs are pointing toward Russia being the culprit.

On Friday, October 17th, Swedish intelligence believe they intercepted a distress signal emanating from their waters and directed towards Kaliningrad, home to the Russian Baltic fleet’s headquarters. The message was in code, but sent on an emergency frequency indicating that whatever is hiding near Stockholm may be damaged or having mechanical difficulties.

Following the sightings and signal intercept, Sweden’s Baltic Sea Navy has been mobilized to levels not seen since the Cold War in an effort the hunt down the intruder. Over 200 service personnel along with helicopters, minesweepers and an anti-submarine corvette fitted with stealth-type anti-radar masking are now combing the area.

An incident would certainly not be a first for Russia, which has a history of having its submarines caught in deadly or compromising situations.

[via The Inquisitr]

 

Photos have emerged of an incredibly sad and bizarre “elephant pig” born this month in Northeastern China. The piglet was born with a trunk-like appendage instead of a mouth, and only survived for a couple of hours after its birth. The farmer, who gave his name as Mr. Hong, said the piglet was the second in a litter of eight piglets and was the only one of the group born with an “elephant trunk.” Recent studies have highlighted the risk that elevated levels of pollution in China may pose to livestock, but it is not known if this incident is connected. Mr. Hong is said to have frozen the carcass to preserve the strange beast.

[via The Huffington Post]

The dense rain forest of Washington state’s Olympic peninsula will soon be the site of a curious set of war games conducted by the United States Military. Plans have been drawn up to test and refine the US military’s ability to use and maintain electromagnetic weapons inside national forest lands. Pumping radiation out of towers at 14 locations, including stations on the Quinault, Queets, Hoh rivers and rain forests, the United States government is saying that there is little to no risk to humans or large animals in the region.

According to an environmental assessment, the purpose of the war games is to train to deny the enemy of:

“all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation (i.e. electromagnetic energy) for use in such applications as communication systems, navigation systems and defense related systems and components.”

The assessment also states that the level of radiation will pose no serious health hazard. The Peninsula Daily News reports:

“The Navy’s environmental assessment, which includes plans for protecting people and large animals, found no significant impact from the $11.5 million warfare training project, planned to be operational on the West End by September 2015.”

However, supporting documents warn that humans will need to be at least 100 feet away from the transmission towers, and that exposure to the emitted radiation can damage the eyes or exposed skin. Locals remain skeptical of the true health risks. More information can be found at the USDA Forest Service website.

Ebola vs. Stocks

A little explainer:

VIX measures volatility in the stock market. Volatility is bad for stocks and will cause the market to decline as investors sense a growing panic. (Stocks are down about 10% since Ebola became big news late in August).

SG Pandemic Indicator measures the newsflow for the Ebola outbreak. Spread of the virus = more news stories = higher indicator.

Combining the two measures produces an interesting correlation… are investors pulling out cash in anticipation that the outbreak’s worst is yet to come?

[via FT Alphaville]

The current Ebola outbreak most likely started when a human patient zero came into contact with an infected animal, and the hunt for origin of Ebola and other exotic diseases can often take researchers to the far reaches or the world. It may be, however, that scientists should be keeping a closer eye on pathogens living at home. A study of 133 rats captured from five different locations around New York City has uncovered at least 18 new viruses not previously known to science.

In addition to e. coli, salmonella, and the Seoul hantavirus (known in Asia but new to the US), researchers from Columbia University isolated the new viruses, including two closely resembling hepatitis C:

“We found an extraordinary diversity of bacteria, and a large number of unknown viruses,” said Dr. Dan Lipkin, director of the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. “Rats are sentinels for human disease. They’re all over the city: uptown, downtown, underground.”

The researchers have not yet determined if any of the unknown bugs can be transmitted to humans, but experts are alarmed… “This is a recipe for a public health nightmare,” Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, told The New York Times.

[via The Verge]

Reports of creepy clowns carrying knives and other weapons have been tormenting people in the California city of Bakersfield for the past week, police said Sunday.

In the latest incident, a person telephoned the Bakersfield Police Department on Saturday night, reporting a clown armed with a firearm, said watch commander Lt. Jason Matson:

“We’ve been having sightings all over the city,” Matson said. “They range from anywhere from a guy carrying a gun to a guy carrying a knife running up to houses.”

The mysterious sightings are being documented under the Instagram handle “Wasco Clown.” The photos suggest that more than one clown may be stalking Bakersfield.

[via The Huffington Post]