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The Star Wars sound effects team does a brilliant job at breathing life into droids like BB-8 and R2-D2 using nothing but bloops and beeps. But what if BB-8 ran an operating system created by Microsoft? As Brian Elder discovered, BB-8 would be far less adorable and much more annoying if he spoke using Windows XP’s notification sounds.
[YouTube via Laughing Squid]
via Gizmodo
BB-8 Would Sound Incredibly Annoying if He Ran on Windows XP
You would think that a large university like New York University — better known as NYU — would have decently competent lawyers. Especially since NYU has its very own law school that is frequently one of the top ranked law schools in the country. So it’s a bit surprising to see NYU file a copyright infringement lawsuit against YouTube that seems to, pretty clearly, go against the DMCA’s rules (found via Eric Goldman).
The lawsuit is mainly focused on someone named Jesse Flores, who apparently runs a YouTube account called Atheists Exposed. I think it would be fair to say that Flores does not like atheists, and the summary of that YouTube account my be subtitled "videos of atheists behaving badly." I’m not sure which video in particular upset NYU, but the university submitted a DMCA takedown notice to YouTube, claiming that some of his footage infringed upon its copyright. As I type this, the video in question remains down.
Flores, appears to have filed a counternotice on May 3rd — in which he doesn’t even claim fair use. Rather, he says that he received permission to post the video from the Veritas Forum at NYU, saying that it had the rights to the video in question.
NYU then reached out to Flores directly asking him to withdraw the counternotice. Flores, perhaps not too surprisingly, has refused to withdraw it. YouTube has made it clear that it will follow the rules in the DMCA — specifically Section 512(g)(2)(B) and (C) — which say that upon receipt of a valid counternotice (and the lack of a lawsuit filed against the uploader) the site is to replace the removed material in 10 to 14 business days after the counternotice. There are a few conditions around this, but none are that important in this case. There also is some question as to whether or not the site has to replace the content. The statute can be read that way, though some have argued that that’s a weird result, since sites should have free control to refuse to repost any video if they so choose.
Either way, NYU noticed, YouTube took it down, Flores counternoticed, and YouTube has said it’s putting the video back up. Under the very, very, very, very clear language of the DMCA, this means that YouTube is protected from liability if there is any infringement in the video. That’s the whole basis of the safe harbors. They say "if you take down upon notice and follow these other rules, such as reposting it after 10 business days upon counternotice," then you’re protected from a copyright lawsuit.
So, what did NYU do? It sued YouTube (and Flores). The suit against Flores, obviously, will turn on whether (1) he actually received a license, as he implies, or (2) if not, if the use was actually fair (and again, we don’t know enough to say at this point). But including claims against YouTube? That’s not just a non-starter, it’s ridiculous, and makes you wonder if NYU’s lawyers spoke to any of the copyright experts at NYU’s own law school to explain that this is not how the DMCA notice-and-takedown process works. The most generous interpretation of this is that NYU’s lawyers completely misinterpreted the DMCA (and YouTube’s notification to NYU about the counternotice) and read the requirement of a lawsuit to include YouTube, so that the site knew not to put the video back up. What YouTube and the law actually require is merely evidence that a lawsuit was filed against the uploader. Including YouTube in the suit is an interesting way to provide "evidence," but it also goes completely against the DMCA’s safe harbors.
I’m guessing that NYU will file an amended complaint fairly soon that drops YouTube from the complaint. But, still…
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via Techdirt.
NYU Sues YouTube For Reposting Video After Video Poster Sent DMCA Counternotice
By Chris Heinonen
This post was done in partnership with The Wirecutter, a buyer’s guide to the best technology. Read the full article here.
The BenQ HT2050 is the best $1,000 projector for those who want a bright, colorful, detailed image—better than what’s possible with cheap projectors—but don’t want to spend more than twice as much for the next serious upgrade. We’ve based this on over 50 hours of research and 110 hours of directly testing seven competing models (and considering six others) with the objective measurements of $20,000-worth of testing gear. The HT2050 has the best contrast ratios in its class and light output that’s brighter than some projectors that cost three times as much. What really sets the HT2050 apart, though, is accurate color, which produces a more realistic image than the rest of the field.
Projectors can range in price from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. Here’s the tricky part—picture quality doesn’t increase linearly as you go up in price. More often, there are gems at specific price points. Our pick is for someone who wants good picture quality but doesn’t want to spend more money on our awesome projector pick but wants a better image than that of our $500 pick.
The two most important attributes of a projector are contrast ratio and brightness. Contrast ratio is the difference between the brightest part of the image and the darkest. A lower contrast ratio would mean the image is more washed out, usually with more gray-looking blacks.
Brightness, or light output, is almost equally important. It determines not only how bright the image is (obviously) but also how large an image you can create (image brightness decreases with image size) and, in many ways, what type of screen you can use.
These two factors are followed in importance by color accuracy, and, more distantly, resolution and color temperature. Lastly, all projectors need a screen of some sort; just shining them on a wall won’t result in the projector’s output looking its best.
For our original article, we compiled a list of all the projectors in the $1,000 price range that had positive reviews. It was a surprisingly short list, as not many websites review projectors with the in-depth, objective measurements we’re looking for. We also eliminated business projectors, because their colors and processing aren’t typically as good for movies and TV as a home theater projector.
BenQ recently created a new model to replace our previous pick, so we got in the replacement and tested it, along with several other new models. We did our testing using i1Pro2 and C6 meters with SpectraCal’s CalMAN software. We tested for light output, contrast ratio, color, color temperature accuracy, and more.
The BenQ HT2050 offers accurate colors, meaning its image is more realistic and lifelike than that of other models at the same price. It’s also bright, has a decent contrast ratio, and has great detail with motion. Overall, the image is better than most projectors from five or more years ago and as good as (if not better than) that of many at several times its price.
Measuring the light output with a lux meter, we found that the BenQ produced 1,130 lumens when calibrated and in eco-bulb mode and 1,665 lumens calibrated in normal-bulb mode. Switching to vivid mode gave us a less accurate image but a massive 2,200-plus lumens.
To put that another way, a movie-theater screen should be around 15 foot-lamberts in brightness. The HT2050’s 1,665 lumens is enough for 24 foot-lamberts on a 150-inch version of our favorite projector screen. Basically, the image will be plenty bright, even if you get a giant screen.
The HT2050’s contrast ratio is 1,574:1. Without calibration, this measures even better at 1,719:1. Plus, though other projectors in this price range have inaccurate colors—especially greens, for example—colors look far more realistic on the HT2050 than on the competition. That means more natural-looking grass, more realistic blue skies, and so on.
The BenQ HT1075 was our prior pick and is what you should get if the HT2050 isn’t available. The models are close enough in performance—aside from input lag—that you won’t usually notice the difference unless they are side by side. The HT2050 has a little bit better contrast, its color is slightly more accurate, its input lag is lower (33 milliseconds vs. 49.7 milliseconds), and there’s a little less noise. Because performance is close enough that we don’t recommend anyone upgrade from one to the other, if the HT1075 goes on sale for at least $100 less than the HT2050, you should consider buying it.
If you have a smaller room (with the projector closer than 9 feet from a 100-inch or larger screen), or you want to place the projector closer to the screen and still have a big image (say, less than 5 feet for a 100-inch image), check out the BenQ HT1075’s short-throw sister model, the BenQ HT1085ST. The specs are basically the same, aside from the different lens. Check out the section on short-throws or ProjectorCentral.com’s great Projection Calculator Pro to see how well the projector fits in your room.
The BenQ uses DLP technology, which creates artifacts known as "rainbows." Most people don’t notice or aren’t bothered by them, but some people do and are. The Epson 2040 is based on LCD technology, so it won’t create rainbows. It’s also very bright, with a 27.8-millisecond input lag, but it offers a lower contrast ratio than the BenQ models and, because it uses three LCD panels instead of a single DLP panel, it isn’t as sharp.
This guide may have been updated by The Wirecutter. To see the current recommendation, please go here.
Cloud storage is becoming more and more popular for offsite storage and DR solutions for many businesses. This post will help with those people that want to perform this process for MySQL backups directly into Amazon S3 Storage. These steps can probably also be adapted for other processes that may not be MySQL oriented.
In order to perform this task we need to be able to stream the data, encrypt it, and then upload it to S3. There are a number of ways to do each step and I will try and dive into multiple examples so that way you can mix and match the solution to your desired results. The AWS S3 CLI tools that I will be using to do the upload also allows encryption but to try and get these steps open for customization, I am going to do the encryption in the stream.
There are a number of ways to stream the MySQL backup. A lot of it depends on your method of backup. We can stream the mysqldump method or we can utilize the file level backup tool Percona Xtrabackup to stream the backup. Here are some examples of how these would be performed.
When using mysqldump it naturally streams the results. This is why we have to add the greater than sign to stream the data into our .sql file. Since mysqldump is already streaming the data we will pipe the results into our next step
[root@node1 ~]# mysqldump --all-databases > employee.sql becomes [root@node1 ~]# mysqldump --all-databases |
xtrabackup will stream the backup but with a little more assistance to tell it to do so. You can reference Precona’s online documentation (http://ift.tt/1TaV9Fc) for all of the different ways to stream and compress the backups using xtrabackup. We will be using the stream to tar method.
innobackupex --stream=tar /root > /root/out.tar becomes innobackupex --stream=tar ./ |
Now that we have the backup process in place, we will then want to make sure that our data is secure. We will want to encrypt the data that we are going to be sending up to AWS S3 as to make sure the data is protected. We can accomplish this a couple of ways. The first tool I am going to look at is GnuPG (https://www.gnupg.org/), which is the open source version of PGP encryption. The second tool I will look at is another very popular tool OpenSSL (http://ift.tt/1lpRHFC). Below are examples of how I set them up and tested their execution with streaming.
I will be creating a public and private key pair with a password that will be used to encrypt and decrypt the data. If you are going to do this for your production and sensitive data, please ensure that your private key is safe and secure. When creating the keypair I was asked to provide a password. When decrypting the data I was then asked for the password again to complete the process. It was an interactive step and is not shown in the example below. To accept a stream, you don’t provide a file name to encrypt, then to stream the output, you just don’t provide an output parameter.
[root@node1 ~]# gpg --gen-key
gpg (GnuPG) 2.0.14; Copyright (C) 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
Please select what kind of key you want:
(1) RSA and RSA (default)
(2) DSA and Elgamal
(3) DSA (sign only)
(4) RSA (sign only)
Your selection? 1
RSA keys may be between 1024 and 4096 bits long.
What keysize do you want? (2048)
Requested keysize is 2048 bits
Please specify how long the key should be valid.
0 = key does not expire
<n> = key expires in n days
<n>w = key expires in n weeks
<n>m = key expires in n months
<n>y = key expires in n years
Key is valid for? (0)
Key does not expire at all
Is this correct? (y/N) y
GnuPG needs to construct a user ID to identify your key.
Real name: root
Name must be at least 5 characters long
Real name: root@kmarkwardt
Email address: markwardt@pythian.com
Comment:
You selected this USER-ID:
"root@kmarkwardt <markwardt@pythian.com>"
Change (N)ame, (C)omment, (E)mail or (O)kay/(Q)uit? O
You need a Passphrase to protect your secret key.
can't connect to `/root/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent': No such file or directory
gpg-agent[1776]: directory `/root/.gnupg/private-keys-v1.d' created
We need to generate a lot of random bytes. It is a good idea to perform
some other action (type on the keyboard, move the mouse, utilize the
disks) during the prime generation; this gives the random number
generator a better chance to gain enough entropy.
After typing for what felt like FOREVER, to generate enough entropy
gpg: /root/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key 1EFB61B1 marked as ultimately trusted
public and secret key created and signed.
gpg: checking the trustdb
gpg: 3 marginal(s) needed, 1 complete(s) needed, PGP trust model
gpg: depth: 0 valid: 1 signed: 0 trust: 0-, 0q, 0n, 0m, 0f, 1u
pub 2048R/1EFB61B1 2016-04-29
Key fingerprint = 8D98 2D23 3C49 F1E7 9CD2 CD0F 7163 EB03 1EFB 61B1
uid root@kmarkwardt <markwardt@pythian.com>
sub 2048R/577322A0 2016-04-29
[root@node1 ~]#
ENCRYPT
[root@node1 openssl]# echo "test" | gpg --output install.log.gpg --encrypt -r root [root@node1 openssl]# cat install.log.gpg ? ??? Ws"???l? ??g ?w??g?C}P ?5A??f?6?p? ???Qq?m??&?rKE??*}5.?4XTj?????Th????}A???: ^V?/w?$???"?<'?; ?Y?|?W????v?R??a?8o<BG??!?R???f?u?????????e??????/?X?y?S7??H??@???Y?X~x>qoA0??L?????*???I?;I?l??]??Gs?G'?!?? ??k>?
DECRYPT
[root@node1 ~]# gpg --decrypt -r root --output install.log.decrypted install.log.gpg
install.log.decrypted
You need a passphrase to unlock the secret key for
user: "root@kmarkwardt <markwardt@pythian.com>"
2048-bit RSA key, ID 577322A0, created 2016-04-29 (main key ID 1EFB61B1)
can't connect to `/root/.gnupg/S.gpg-agent': No such file or directory
gpg: encrypted with 2048-bit RSA key, ID 577322A0, created 2016-04-29
"root@kmarkwardt <markwardt@pythian.com>"
[root@node1 ~]# ls
install.log.decrypted
install.log.gpg
ENCRYPT STREAM
[root@node1 ~]# mysqldump --all-databases | gpg --encrypt -r root or [root@node1 ~]# innobackupex --stream=tar ./ | gpg --encrypt -r root
As with GPG we will generate a public and private key with a pass phrase. There are other ways to use openssl to encrypt and decrypt the data such as just using a password with no keys, using just keys with no password, or encrypt with no password or keys. I am using keys with a password as this is a very secure method.
[root@node1 openssl]# openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout privkey.pem -out req.pem Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key .......................................+++ ........+++ writing new private key to 'privkey.pem' Enter PEM pass phrase: Verifying - Enter PEM pass phrase: ----- You are about to be asked to enter information that will be incorporated into your certificate request. What you are about to enter is what is called a Distinguished Name or a DN. There are quite a few fields but you can leave some blank For some fields there will be a default value, If you enter '.', the field will be left blank. ----- Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]: State or Province Name (full name) []: Locality Name (eg, city) [Default City]: Organization Name (eg, company) [Default Company Ltd]: Organizational Unit Name (eg, section) []: Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []: Email Address []: Please enter the following 'extra' attributes to be sent with your certificate request A challenge password []: An optional company name []: [root@node1 openssl]# openssl x509 -req -in req.pem -signkey privkey.pem -out cert.pem Signature ok subject=/C=XX/L=Default City/O=Default Company Ltd Getting Private key Enter pass phrase for privkey.pem: [root@node1 openssl]# ls -al total 20 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 May 5 10:47 . dr-xr-x---. 9 root root 4096 May 4 04:38 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1103 May 5 10:47 cert.pem -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1834 May 5 10:43 privkey.pem -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 952 May 5 10:43 req.pem [root@node1 openssl]# rm -rf req.pem
ENCRYPT
[root@node1 openssl]# echo "test" | openssl smime -encrypt -aes256 -binary -outform DER cert.pem > test.dat
[root@node1 openssl]# cat test.dat
???0??1?k0?g0O0B1
0 UXX10U
Default City10U
?V??p?A$????PO??+???q@t??????\"%:0
??J?????5???0?D/?1z-?xO??&?#?;???E>^?g??#7??#m????lA???'??{)?*xM
P?l????]iz/???H???????[root@node1 openssl]#
DECRYPT
[root@node1 openssl]# openssl smime -decrypt -in test.dat -inform DER -inkey privkey.pem -out test.txt Enter pass phrase for privkey.pem: [root@node1 openssl]# cat test.txt test
ENCRYPT STREAM
[root@node1 ~]# mysqldump --all-databases | openssl smime -encrypt -aes256 -binary -outform DER cert.pem or [root@node1 ~]# innobackupex --stream=tar ./ | openssl smime -encrypt -aes256 -binary -outform DER cert.pem
Now that we have secured the data, we will want to pipe the data into an Amazon AWS S3 bucket. This will provide an offsite copy of the MySQL backup that you can convert to long term storage, or restore into an EC2 instance. With this method I will only be looking at one. The Amazon provided AWS CLI tools incorporates working with S3. Allowing you to copy your files up into S3 with the ability to stream your input.
In order to tell the AWS CLI S3 copy command to accept STDIN input you just have to put a dash in the place of the source file. This will allow the command to accept a stream to copy. The AWS CLI tools for copying into S3 also allows for encryption. But I wanted to provide other methods as well to allow you to customize your own solution. You can also stream the download of the S3 bucket item, which could allow for uncompression as you download the data or any other number of options.
UPLOAD STREAM
echo "test" | aws s3 cp - s3://pythian-test-bucket/incoming.txt
BACKUP / ENCRYPT / UPLOAD STREAM
-- MySQL Dump -> OpenSSL Encryption -> AWS S3 Upload [root@node1 ~]# mysqldump --all-databases | openssl smime -encrypt -aes256 -binary -outform DER cert.pem | aws s3 cp - s3://pythian-test-bucket/mysqldump.sql.dat -- Xtrabackup -> OpenSSL Encryption -> AWS S3 Upload [root@node1 ~]# innobackupex --stream=tar ./ | openssl smime -encrypt -aes256 -binary -outform DER cert.pem |aws s3 cp - s3://pythian-test-bucket/mysqldump.tar.dat -- MySQL Dump -> GPG Encryption -> AWS S3 Upload [root@node1 ~]# mysqldump --all-databases | gpg --encrypt -r root | aws s3 cp - s3://pythian-test-bucket/mysqldump.sql.gpg -- MySQL Dump -> GPG Encryption -> AWS S3 Upload [root@node1 ~]# innobackupex --stream=tar ./ | gpg --encrypt -r root | aws s3 cp - s3://pythian-test-bucket/mysqldump.tar.gpg
References
PlanetMySQL Voting: Vote UP / Vote DOWN
via Planet MySQL
MySQL encrypted streaming backups directly into AWS S3
University of Warwick rightOriginal Study
Posted by Nicola Jones-Warwick on
You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.
Overweight people who took a capsule for eight weeks that contained two compounds found in red grapes and oranges saw improvements in blood sugar levels and artery function, researchers report.
“This is an incredibly exciting development and could have a massive impact on our ability to treat these diseases,” says Paul Thornalley, a professor in systems biology at the University of Warwick Medical School. “As well as helping to treat diabetes and heart disease, it could defuse the obesity time bomb.”
When participants received both compounds—trans-resveratrol (tRES) in red grapes and hesperetin (HESP) in oranges—at pharmaceutical doses, the compounds acted in tandem to decrease blood glucose, improve the action of insulin, and boost the health of arteries.
“As well as helping to treat diabetes and heart disease, it could defuse the obesity time bomb.”
After eight weeks on the treatment, researchers noted an improvement in insulin resistance in trial participants that was similar to improvements seen six months after bariatric surgery.
The compounds work by increasing a protein called glyoxalase 1 (Glo1) in the body that neutralizes a damaging sugar-derived compound called methylglyoxal (MG).
For the study, researchers increased Glo1 expression in cell culture and then tested the formulation in a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover clinical trial.
Thirty-two overweight and obese people between the ages of 18 and 80 age who had a BMI between 25 to 40 took part in the trial. They were given the supplement in capsule form once a day for eight weeks. They were asked to maintain their usual diet and their food intake was monitored via a dietary questionnaire. They were also asked not to alter their daily physical activity.
Changes to their sugar levels were assessed by blood samples, artery health measured by artery wall flexibility, and other assessments by analysis of blood markers.
The team found that the highly overweight subjects who had BMIs of more than 27.5 with treatment displayed increased Glo1 activity, decreased glucose levels, improved working of insulin, improved artery function, and decreased blood vessel inflammation. There was no effect for those taking the placebo.
“Obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease are at epidemic levels in westernized countries,” Thornalley says. “As exciting as our breakthrough is, it is important to stress that physical activity, diet, other lifestyle factors, and current treatments should be adhered to.”
Although the same compounds are found naturally in some fruits, the amounts and type required to see the same effects cannot be obtained by eating more fruit. Pharmaceutical doses could be administered in capsule form.
Innovate UK funded the work, which appears in the journal Diabetes.
Source: University of Warwick
Netflix’s upcoming Voltron: Legendary Defender is looking a whole lot more palatable than previously imagined. DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming Netflix reboot of the classic series is taking a lot of cues from familiar faces (and voices) as the first trailer makes its way to audiences today.
The series comes to Netflix on June 10 with an hour-long premiere episode and ten additional 22-minute episodes from executive producer Joaquim Dos Santos and co-executive Lauren Montgomery. Dos Santos was in part responsible for the smash hit The Legend of Korra, and it’s easy to see where this modern vision of Voltron found so much of its influences. It’s colorful, loud, and frenetic, as the trailer shows off, but also personal and silly, true in many ways to the original Voltron’s mission.
The trailer is our first glimpse of characters Princess Allura, Coran, Shiro, Hunk, Lance, Pidge and Keith. There are some familiar voices in the crowd as well, like Adventure Time’s Jeremy Shada and Flight of the Conchords’ Rhys Darby.
"We wanted to make it closer to what we remember the show being versus what it actually ends up being when you go back and watch it," Montgomery explained of the series.
It’s easy to get excited about the series with this new information, voice cast, and a glimpse at what’s to come, especially when you consider how Dos Santos himself describes the new vision of Voltron.
"Our teens are reacting to the insane idea [that] there’s a giant intergalactic war going on, and now they’re going to pilot five lions that become a larger robot, and one lion will wear another as a … well, as a boot …" A boot, indeed.
You can check out Voltron: Legendary Defender next month in its entirety when it hits Netflix.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
via Engadget
Netflix’s ‘Voltron’ assembles in its second trailer
You have to be careful when attending a renaissance festival. Some of those in attendance take historical accuracy very, very seriously. Whipping out your smartphone could lead to a night in the stocks, and trying to film the festivities with a flying drone will incur an even worse fate for your quadcopter.
At a renaissance festival in Russia, one costumed participant took preserving historical accuracy into his own hands by bringing down a drone buzzing overhead with nothing but an impressively accurate spear toss. It doesn’t appear as if anyone was hurt by the crashing drone—royalty or peasants—but the locals were presumably concerned about what manner of witchcraft or wizardry was keeping the magical craft in the air.
[YouTube via Laughing Squid]
via Gizmodo
Renaissance Festival Actor Spears a Historically-Inaccurate Drone Right Out of the Sky
In 1943, a band of expert Norwegian skiers operating as covert operatives helped turn the tide in the fight against Nazi Germany and Hitler’s relentless push to harness the power of a nuclear bomb. Their gripping mission to sabotage his plot was largely lost to time, until now.
In the dead of winter at the outset of 1943, Axis forces had swept into Norway and seized an obscure and remote hydroelectric plant and manufacturing facility for its rich production of deuterium oxide – known to most of the civilized world now as “heavy water,” the crucial – and for Hitler, elusive – ingredient of a nuclear weapon.
As Nazi forces relentlessly pushed co-opted engineers to accelerate the Reich’s nuclear program, a small covert band of Norwegian agents, proud patriots ready to give their lives to save the planet from the most nefarious terrorists to date, skated and slalomed toward the heavily fortified facility, and their place in history. —Adam Ruggiero
The Winter Fortress: The epic mission to sabotage Hitler’s atomic bomb, by Neal Bascomb, is excerpted below with permission of the author and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.
In a staggered line, the nine saboteurs cut across the mountain slope. Instinct, more than the dim light of the moon, guided the young men. They threaded through the stands of pine and traversed down the sharp, uneven terrain, much of it pocked with empty hollows and thick drifts of snow.
Dressed in white camouflage suits over their British Army uniforms, the men looked like phantoms haunting the woods. They moved as quietly as ghosts, the silence broken only by the swoosh of their skis and the occasional slap of a pole against an unseen branch. The warm, steady wind that blew through the Vestfjord Valley dampered even these sounds. It was the same wind that would eventually, they hoped, blow their tracks away.
A mile into the trek from their base hut, the woods became too dense and steep for them to continue by any means other than on foot. The young Norwegians unfastened their skis and hoisted them to their shoulders. It was still tough going.
Carrying rucksacks filled with thirty-five pounds of gear, and armed with submachine guns, grenades, pistols, explosives, and knives, they waded, slid, and clambered their way down through the heavy, wet snow. Under the weight of their equipment they occasionally sank to their waists in the drifts. The darkness, thickening when the low clouds hid the moon, didn’t help matters.
Continued on next page…
via Gear Junkie
Excerpt: Hitler’s Nuclear Ambitions Were Thwarted By Skiers
Using an unprecedented technique of matching stars to the locations of temples on Earth, a 15-year-old Canadian student says he’s discovered a forgotten Maya city in Central America. Images from space suggest he may actually be onto something.
William Gadoury, a teen from Saint-Jean-de-Matha in Lanaudière, developed an interest in archaeology after the publication of the Maya calendar announcing the end of the world in 2012. After spending hours pouring over diagrams of constellations and maps of known Maya cities, he noticed that the two appeared to be linked; the brightest stars of the constellations overlaid perfectly with the locations of the largest Maya cities. As reported in The Telegraph, no other scientist had ever discovered such a correlation.
Here’s how he did it: After studying 22 different constellations, Gadoury noticed that they neatly corresponded to the locations of 117 Mayan cities located in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. When looking at a 23rd constellation, he was able to match two stars to known cities—but a third star remained unmatched. Using transparent overlays, Gadoury pinpointed a location deep in the thick jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico.
“I did not understand why the Maya built their cities away from rivers, on marginal lands, and in the mountains,” explained Gadoury in Le Journal de Montreal. “They must have had another reason, and as they worshiped the stars, the idea came to me to verify my hypothesis. I was really surprised and excited when I realized that the most brilliant stars of the constellations matched the largest Maya cities.”
Taking this idea further, Gadoury contacted the Canadian Space Agency, who provided him with space-based images from NASA and JAXA. These satellite images revealed a batch of undeniably geometric structures hidden under the jungle canopy. Gadoury, along with Dr. Armand LaRocque, a remote sensing specialist from the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, believe it’s an ancient Maya pyramid surrounded by 30 smaller structures. The teen has named the city—which has yet to be explored and verified—K’aak Chi, which means “Mouth of Fire.” If confirmed, it would be among the largest Maya cities ever discovered.
LaRocque said the use of satellite images, as well as the contribution of digital image processing, helped to confirm the possible existence of this forgotten city. “Geometric shapes, such as squares or rectangles, appeared in these images, forms that can hardly be attributed to natural phenomenon,” LaRocque said.
Daniel de Lisle of the Canadian Space Agency said he was fascinated by the depth of Gadoury’s research, and that linking the position of stars and the location of a lost city “is quite exceptional.” He told The Independent that “There are linear features that would suggest there is something underneath that big canopy,” adding that “There are enough items to suggest it could be a man-made structure.”
What needs to happen now is a ground expedition, but that won’t come cheap, nor will it be easy. Tthe location of the site is in one of the most remote and inaccessible areas of Mexico. And as LaRocque put it, “Expedition costs are horribly expensive.” Gadoury has contacted a team of Mexican archaeologists, and he’s hoping to take part in any subsequent mission to the site.
“It would be the culmination of my three years of work and the dream of my life,” said the cool teen.
So, uh, can someone get a Kickstarter going for this kid immediately please?
via Gizmodo
Teen Discovers Lost Maya City Using Ancient Star Maps