Wireless power system shown off
A system that can deliver power to devices without the need for wires has been shown off at a hi-tech conference.
The technique exploits simple physics and can be used to charge a range of electronic devices over many metres. Eric Giler, chief executive of US firm Witricity, showed mobile phones and televisions charging wirelessly at the TED Global conference in Oxford.
He said the system could replace the miles of expensive power cables and billions of disposable batteries. ”There is something like 40 billion disposable batteries built every year for power that, generally speaking, is used within a few inches or feet of where there is very inexpensive power,” he said.
Trillions of dollars, he said, had also been invested building an infrastructure of wires “to get power from where it is created to where it is used.” ”We love this stuff [electricity] so much,” he said. Mr Giler showed off a Google G1 phone and an Apple iPhone that could be charged using the system.
Witricity, he said, had managed to pack all the necessary components into the body of the G1 phone, but Apple had made that process slightly harder. ”They don’t make it easy at Apple to get inside their phones so we put a little sleeve on the back,” he said. He also showed off a commercially available television using the system.
Sea lion dies of sex exhaustion
Berlin – A male sea lion from California called Mike has died of exhaustion after over-exerting himself during the mating season in an animal park in Nuremberg, Germany, the city said on Tuesday. The 19-year-old father of 12 offspring through three different females – Farah, Tiffy and Soda – showed signs of tiredness at around midday on Monday, the southern city said in a statement.
“Mike could no longer get out of the pool and was brought ashore by staff. The extremely weakened animal was treated by a vet but died from acute heart failure around 15:30 (1330 GMT),” it said. ”Mating season is a common time for fatalities when bulls often stop eating for days to devote themselves fully to mating. For sea lion bulls with a harem this is the most exhausting time,” it noted.
Mysterious ancient altar found in Roman fort
A massive altar dedicated to an eastern cult deity has emerged during excavations of a Roman fort in northern England. Weighing 1.5 tons, the four-foot high ornately carved stone relic, was unearthed at the Roman fort of Vindolanda, which was built by order of the Emperor Hadrian between 122-30 A.D.
The Romans built the defensive wall across the north of Britain from Carlisle to Newcastle-on-Tyne, to keep out invading armies from what is now Scotland.
“What should have been part of the rampart mound near to the north gate of the fort has turned out to be an amazing religious shrine,” said archaeologist Andrew Birley. A jar and a shallow dish is depicted on one side of the altar, while the other side shows a god-like figure standing on the back of a bull, with a thunderbolt in one hand and a battle axe in the other.
Romans called this god Juppiter Dolichenus, but it was originally an ancient weather god, known to the Semitic peoples of the Middle East as Hadad and to the Hittites as Teshab.
Originally worshiped as a weather god on a hilltop close to the small town of Doliche (what is now the modern city of Duluk in southern Turkey) Juppiter of Doliche began attracting Roman worshipers by the early second century AD. From then on, the cult of Dolichenus took off and spread all over the Roman empire.
N. Korea publicly executes Christian woman for handing out bibles
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman last month for distributing the Bible, which is banned in the communist nation, South Korean activists said Friday.
Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korea groups.
Ri’s parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, the report said, citing unidentified documents it says were obtained from North Korea. It showed a copy of Ri’s North Korean government-issued photo ID.
Last Night of Enigma
Just a little note to say that tonight is the last performance of the enigma tour. Many of you have emailed to ask if there will be a second tour. Derren will be busy until late in 2009 but plans for a second run will be announced closer to the time in 2010.
Recommended reading: Flim Flam
I was amazed to see that this book only has 3 reviews on Amazon so I decided to start a campaign about it. Out of the 3 reviews one of them is 5 stars – a second is a glowing review but only 3 stars, and the third is just plain weird. It’s an easy read and makes me think of Randi as a sort of Indiana Jones of new age spiritualist debunking.
In this book, Randi explores and exposes what he believes to be the outrageous deception that has been promoted widely in the media. Unafraid to call researchers to account for their failures and impostures, Randi tells us that we have been badly served by scientists who have failed to follow the procedures required by their training and traditions. Here, he shows us how what he views as sloppy research has been followed by rationalisations of evident failures, and we see these errors and misrepresentations clearly pointed out. Mr. Randi provides us with a compelling and convincing document that will certainly startle and enlighten all who read it.
Flim-Flam: The Truth about Unicorns, Parapsychology and Other Delusions
The Science of Sex – 7 Studies That Can Help You Score
According to science, the logic behind having a traditional “wingman” is dubious. Because while there is no doubt your friend would like to be a good bro and help get you laid, there are all sorts of evolutionary urges that have him wanting to scoop up all the most fertile ladies for himself.
But every once in awhile, a study like this one about how daily sex is good for fertility comes across our desks and makes us think science is a pretty cool dude with our best interests at heart. So we decided to round up some of those sex studies whose conclusions seem designed to help you smooth-talk women — be they your wife, girlfriend or the lovely lady you’re about to meet — into the sack.
Friday Fun: News Blast
Here’s some games to keep your brain working from the guys over at Conceptis Puzzles. First images of the new Tron movie are out. A fan of Ferrari has built the worlds smallest car – whilst a fan of Star Wars knitted Han Solo, Freddie Kruger and Hellboy, and a flab fan has made an 8000 calorie pizza.
Plenty of videos coming in recently like this one of an inflatable church- someone who is rather stupid, 2 people who are a lot stupider, why clever people have a white roof, a collage of Dr Who (Tennant) apologising a few times and the mayhem that would ensue if Noam Chomsky had a talk show.
If you have links that you wish to share – send them in to submissions@derrenbrownart.com and who knows what might happen.
Warcraft – as addictive as crack cocaine?
Experts have said that some massively multiplayer online games, in which players battle enemies for weapons and rewards, are as addictive as crack cocaine.
Dr Richard Graham, a consultant psychiatrist at the Tavistock Centre in London, is so concerned that he plans to provide online therapy for youngsters who are spending so much time playing these games that they have lost touch with the real world.
A recent report by Sweden’s Youth Care Foundation described World of Warcraft as “more addictive than crack cocaine”. The game, which attracts almost 12 million players every month, is set in a fantasy environment, with users taking on the characters of dwarves, elves and wizards, interacting with other players throughout the virtual world.
Dr Graham said that some players were so addicted to these massively multiplayer online games that they played them for up to 16 hours a day, leading them to neglect their social lives and education.
He has called on Blizzard Entertainment, the company that makes World of Warcraft, to waive or discount the costs associated with joining the game so that therapists can more easily communicate with at-risk players in their preferred environment.
Woman Delivers ‘Stone Baby’ After 60 Year Pregnancy
In a bizarre turn of events straight out of Mr. Ripley’s personal files, comes this true story of a 92-year-old woman who delivered a child (albeit not a live baby) she had been carrying for over half a century! (Long pregnancies are one thing, but THAT is ridiculous!)
Huang Yijun told the press she didn’t have the money to have her fetus removed after doctors told her it had died inside her in 1948.
So she simply did nothing at all about it.
Lithopedion is a very rare medical phenomenon, which occurs when a pregnancy fails and the fetus actually calcifies while still in the mother’s body.
Medically speaking, what often happens is the implanted fetus gets to an advanced stage before it dies. Too large to be absorbed by the body, the remains of the child or its surrounding amniotic sac slowly calcify, turning to stone as a way to protect the woman’s body from infection from the decomposing tissue.
If no complications occur, believe it or not, the mother can basically just go on with her life. According to the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, only 290 cases of lithopedions have ever been documented by medical literature.
