Month: July 2015

Mutant daisies; sounds like an obscure band, is actually a scary, real thing

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Via: Source

Photos have been sweeping the internet the past day or so which show what is reported to be ‘mutant daisies’ near Fukushima in Japan, the site of a nuclear reactor meltdown about four years ago.

Deformed daisies photographed near Fukushima (Via Twitter)

Pretty weird stuff if we do say so ourselves. Brings to mind the 3-eyed fish from many classic Simpsons episodes.

Six nuclear power reactors melted down at Fukushima in 2011, following a massive tsunami. And these daisy photos sadly help illustrate how devastating that meltdown was.

Cheaters on blast: Hackers threaten to out entire Ashley Madison usership

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Via: Source

Who needs the wild west when we all have the internet, right?

The latest addition to stories that could truly only occur in 2015, the website Ashley Madison has been hacked, with the culprits threatening to disclose the identities of every user on the site.

Why would that be so bad, you ask? Well, you’re a good person if you thought that. Ashley Madison is Tinder for married people; a website and app set up exclusively for people to coordinate affairs.

The fact that Ashley Madison provided a subtle, neat way for these people to…well, do what they wanted to do, the site has become incredibly popular in recent years, boasting close to 40 million active users this year.

However, the secure platform that made the site so popular in the first place, has come up short in relation to this most recent attack by hackers. We will have updates on this story as it develops.

Markets Update: Gold, Commodities down while US Dollar is in demand

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Via: Source

Amid increasing signals from Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen that the first US interest rate hike in 9 years may be coming down the pipeline this year (as analysts have been predicting), it appears that those statements are having an effect on commodity prices, sending those markets sharply downward Monday morning.

Gold was down as markets opened on Monday morning.

The connection between the information coming out of the Fed and the price drop on commodities is a pretty obvious one. Higher borrowing costs make investing in commodities like gold less appealing because they don’t offer pay interest, or offer returns like assets, including equities or bonds.

Also, any interest rate increase on the dollar would increase the demand for the currency, likely continuing the capital outflow from metals, other commodities, or emerging market investments. As of this writing, the Bloomberg Intelligence Global Senior Gold Valuation Peers Index had dipped as much as 8.4% during trading.

Billionaire investor Yuri Milner to invest $100 Million to find alien life

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Via: Source

In what appears to be one of the more obscure (i.e. awesome) investments in an already stellar investment and entrepreneurial career, Yuri Millman, an early investor in, or co-founder of companies like Uber, Air Bnb, Facebook, Twitter, and a number of other billion-dollar-valued tech companies, will be turning his attentions to the skies above.

“Are you there ET? It’s us, humans.”

Indeed, Mr. Millman was a scientist before he was an investor and tech entrepreneur, and it now appears as if he will finally be getting the chance to meld his passion for science with his incredibly successful business career.

His new, $100 million project is entitled Breakthrough Initiatives, and was announced just today at the Royal Society in London. The project has a number of other prominent names attached to it, including Stephen Hawking himself. The program will coordinate two of the most powerful telescopes man has ever produced, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.

The program will survey the closest 100 million stars to our own sun, and will also extend beyond the reaches of the Milky Way, looking for conditions that are suitable for life. To help aggregate and analyze the massive amount of information these telescopes will help to collect, the program will tap the innovative SETI@home program, a computer program distributed by Berkeley in California, which will allow some 9 million people to use their home computing power to help push the project forward.

Indeed; an absolute ton of cash, and some of the best minds of a generation are all coalescing now in the name of one of the most important questions to ever face our species; Are we alone?

Open Championship weekend preview; from the oddsmakers themselves

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‘Follow the money’ is about as good a piece of advice as any to follow when you are trying to figure something out. Trying to figure out what, you ask? Trying to figure out ANYTHING, really. If you want a logical explanation for why something is the way that it is, simply follow the trail of who’s making money off of it the best that you can.

And in that line of thought, we present to you our annual Open Championship weekend preview, as seen through the eyes of the some of the most logical sports fans out there; the gamblers. Let’s take a look at some of the odds on a few of the top contenders.

Via: theopen.com

Jordan Spieth: The 21 year old phenom actually leads the field in terms of betting odds. A number of strong performances already this year, and a reputation for being consistent and calm beyond his age have earned this golfer a solid 9/2 odds rating to win the Open, making him the favorite heading into the weekend.

But, according to oddsmakers, there are a number of other strong contenders as well.

Dustin Johnson: Johnson forced Spieth into a playoff hole at the U.S. Open, the last major tournament leading up to the current Open Championship. This shows that he’s in excellent form, feeling confident, and ready to contend for the title at major tournaments. He sits at 11/1 odds to bring home the championship trophy.

Another contender is Justin Rose, who already has a number of top three finishes this year, including at the Zurich Classic in April. He sits at 18/1 odds currently, while other well known golfers like Adam Scott and Tiger Woods sit at more than 20 to 1 odds to come out on top.

Either way, the challenging links golf found at the legendary St. Andrews courses in Scotland is unlike anything stateside, and is always worth a viewing for sports fans of all sorts. Who do you think will come out on top this year?

Leonardo DiCaprio x Tom Hardy x Alejandro Inarritu = COMPLETE EPICNESS

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Fresh off cleaning up last Award’s season with the visually stunning Birdman, director Alejandro Inarritu has dropped his new trailer this morning for the upcoming The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy.

Based partially on true events as recorded in a novel of the same name by Michael Punke, the movie follows legendary explorer Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) in the rugged wilderness of the absolute earliest stages of the Wild West on a quest for survival, revenge, and ultimately; freedom. But seriously, words do this trailer no justice.

New iPhone commercial throws some serious shade

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It is a debate that is seemingly less and less raging all the time, and a new iPhone commercial just may take the Android vs. iOS argument a step closer to the grave. Check it out, below.

And honestly, the ad makes some good points. The complete, inalterable integration of hardware and software has been a core tenet of Apple since the earliest, now legendary days of both Steves; Jobs and Wozniak. This design and construction philosophy has resulted in some of the most fluid, and revolutionary products our world has ever known. As a now famous example, Jobs would not let the original iPod be released until users could get from one point in the interface, to any other, in 3 ‘clicks’ or less. Thus, the ingenious wheel system was born; perfectly melding the exterior hardware with the internal, operative software.

But of course, this hardline approach to product construction does have it’s naysayers (remember the days when you could pop the back off your phone, and remove the battery? Not with an iPhone, obviously), and also, for the sake of competition, don’t we want a healthy smart phone market with a number of able competitors?

We absolutely do. But this writer for one, just can’t imagine ever switching away from an iPhone, and that seamless, integrated hardware and software experience that Steve Jobs mandated all those years ago. A mandate that reaps benefits to this day.

What do you think? Do you like the extra freedom that Android allows its developers and users? Or do you prefer the near-flawless user experience of iPhone ownership?

New video shows EXACT moment El Chapo escaped

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As you surely have heard by now, notorious Mexican drug lord El Chapo escaped in an elaborate tunnel from his cell in a high security prison.

The escape triggered a flurry of different story lines, but one of the stranger ones to surface on the internet in the past few days is a video of the exact moment El Chapo drops out of his cell and into the tunnel. We will have updates as this story develops.

New GoPro Hero4 Session; How small is too small?

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Go Pro’s are awesome cameras. People who are more accustomed to higher-end camera equipment generally complain about the sound recording quality, but other than that? What is there not to love about the sturdy and portable cameras?

And with the advent of the all new GoPro Hero4 Session edition, a good thing becomes even better. The new Hero4 Session is even smaller (about 1.5 x 1.5 inches) than its predecessors, and comes in a unique cube shape, different than the rectangular ones it follows. Other advantages include it being completely waterproof (other GoPro cameras require a plastic case to keep out water), and the fact that it’s so small and light allows for side mounting (on a helmet, motorcycle, or variety of other surfaces), which is not advised with older, larger GoPro models. However, like all GoPro cameras, there are a few logistical issues.

The new camera takes 4 seconds to turn on and start recording, so if your buddy is about to launch off a sketchy rope swing and you’re on camera duty, be sure to have your camera rolling well ahead of time. Also, to watch playback as you film, you either need to connect it to your smartphone via the GoPro app, or to a separate GoPro remote. But who has time to watch the replay when you’re out doing adventurous, awe-inspiring activities, anyway? For our money, GoPro cameras are amongst the most versatile, and fun to use on the market, nonetheless. For the whole review, check the video below.