Vorzeigebesteck

Wegen einer Handbewegung steht der Künstler Jonathan Meese in Kassel vor Gericht. Wegen einer verweigerten Handbewegung wird das Verfahren aber vertagt. Die Richter seien befangen, meinen die Anwälte Meeses. Dieser verteidigt derweil die Freiheit der Kunst.

Der US-Geheimdienst lernt aus dem Überwachungsskandal. Mitarbeiter werden strenger überwacht, große Datenmengen sollen nicht nur an einem Ort gespeichert werden.

Im mexikanischen Drogenkrieg gerät die Zivilbevölkerung schnell zwischen die Fronten. Um dem Terror rivalisierender Banden zu entgehen, suchen hunderte Dorfbewohner in einer Kirche Schutz.

Mit einer Kickstarter-Kampagne will der Hersteller der Android-Konsole Ouya frisches Geld für die Entwicklung exklusiver Spiele auftreiben.

Staffers of Kyoto University and Panasonic Corp. have jointly devised a technology that may be used for greening desert

Ein US-Gericht hat den Vollzug eines Todesurteils gestoppt, weil die Inhalte der Giftspritze nicht mitgeteilt werden. Der Verurteilte müsse Details seiner Tötung kennen.

The United Nations on Thursday marked the Nelson Mandela International Day, celebrating the South African leader's 95th birthday and honoring his devotion to public service, social justice and reconciliation.

Movie Posters Recreated with Comic Sans and Clip Art [via]

Previously: Movies Described with the Same Sentence

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LEGO parts are plastic. 3D printers make parts out of plastic. So the transitive property tells us that a LEGO 3D printer should be able to recreate itself. This one’s not quite there yet, mostly because it doesn’t use plastic filament as a printing medium. Look close and you’ll probably recognize that extruder as the tip of a hot glue gun. If all else fails you can use the machine as a precision hot glue applicator.

The instructions to make your own version include the design reference and a few ideas for getting the most out of the glue dispenser. For the design phase [Matstermind] used LEGO Digital Designer. It’s basically CAD with the entire library of LEGO parts available as building blocks. from there he assembled the machine which is controlled by an NXT brick. He goes on to link to a few different printing mediums. There’s instructions for using crayons to make colored glue sticks, as well as a method of printing in sugar using the hot glue extruder.

We remember seeing one other LEGO 3D printer. That one didn’t use an extruder either. It placed blocks based on the design to be printed.

[Thanks Bryson via Prosthetic Knowledge]

Filed under: 3d Printer hacks, toy hacks

In a massive new study published by the McKinsey Global Institute, Susan Lund, James Manyika, Scott Nyquist, Lenny Mendonca, and Sreenivas Ramaswamy discuss the five opportunities for U.S. growth and renewal.

Among other things, they have a lengthy discussion about America's education system and how it has yielded some of the most underperforming student in the developed world.

They believe that an impending wave of teacher retirements gives presents an opportunity to get some top-notch educators into the system. From McKinsey:

The US teaching profession is poised to experience a wave of turnover, and now is the time to step up efforts to retain the best teachers and attract a new generation of top talent. There are currently 3.3 million public school teachers, but some 40 percent are expected to retire over the next decade, and another 400,000 are expected to leave for other reasons. By 2020, more than 50 percent of the current teachers in US schools will have begun their careers after 2012. With a new generation of teachers entering the classroom, this is a unique opportunity to raise the quality of classroom instruction by changing recruitment approaches and providing a new level of coaching, mentoring, and training to build teaching skills in the critical first five years on the job.

Of course, the issue is providing the right incentives to motivate people to pursue the career track:

Raising the quality of instruction starts with recruiting exceptional students into the teaching profession. Realizing meaningful gains will hinge on addressing the factors that have discouraged many candidates from entering the profession in the past: lack of a career ladder, low respect for the profession, low pay, and variable principal quality. A recent McKinsey survey of 1,600 high-performing college students found that just 9 percent wanted to go into teaching.

While pay isn't everything, it is something.  And the authors provide some interesting global comparisons that show where the U.S. lags considerably:

US high school teachers are paid 72 percent as much as all college graduates in the workforce, while in other OECD countries, that figure is 90 percent (Exhibit 35). But making teaching more attractive is not simply a matter of money: professional development is also essential (especially for new teachers and those who work in troubled schools). A meta-analysis of 1,300 studies found that students scored 21 percentage points higher than average on standardized tests when their instructors received more professional support and training. Studies show that when training is ongoing, collaborative, and driven by relationships with individual coaches, it is most effective at helping teachers raise student achievement.

"Countries with exceptional student achievement treat teaching as a highly selective profession that is accorded tremendous prestige and competitive compensation," wrote the authors. "Only the very best students are admitted into teaching programs in Singapore, Finland, and South Korea, for example, and standards are especially high for elementary school teachers"

"The United States could consider options such as college grants for high-performing students who choose teaching, to remove the obstacle of future student loan debt," they add. "But regardless of the mechanisms chosen, teachers should be celebrated and respected as skilled professionals who provide a vital public service."

Some things to consider.

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In Wiesbaden entsteht ein neues High-Tech-Gebäude für die NSA. Die US-Army gibt sich offen, doch was wirklich auf ihrem Gelände passiert, wissen selbst die Anwohner nicht.

The UK will invest £60 million ($91.2 million) into a project to build an aircraft that would fly in outer space and make it possible to take hundreds of passengers anywhere in the world in just four hours.

The investment, announced Wednesday, is being made through the UK Space Agency. It will help British aerospace firm Reaction Engines develop a rocket engine that can run at higher power than what is possible today.

More power means it can fly faster — as fast as Mach 5, chief engineer Alan Bond said in a recent video.

The £60 million will be given to the company in two stages: £35 million in 2014/2015, and £25 million in 2015/2016. It will be used to for technical design work, and improving lightweight heat exchanger technology.

Reaction Engines says the heat exchanger, which rapidly cools hot air entering the engine and passed "vital tests" in November 2012, is the first that is light and efficient enough to be used for space travel.

The engine, called Sabre, would power the Skylon, a 276-foot long unpiloted aircraft that would take off and land horizontally, and cost about $1.1 billion to build.

The project has already passed a UK Space Agency technical assessment, Reaction Engines said in a press release, and test flights are planned for 2020. The company says the next phase of development will create about 1,000 engineering and technology jobs, and 2,000 more jobs "in the wider economy."

READ MORE: This Technology Could Make Possible To Fly Anywhere On The Planet In Four Hours

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Lange wurde darüber diskutiert, nun ist es endgültig unter Dach und Fach: Köln bekommt ein Jüdisches Museum. Der Stadtrat entschied am Donnerstagabend, dass das Museum von der Stadt gebaut und vom Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) betrieben werden soll.

Given the long, awful history of violence between groups of people, it's easy to think that humans are predisposed to war. But a new study of violence in modern hunter-gatherer societies, which may hold clues to prehistoric human life, suggests that warlike behavior is a relatively recent phenomenon.

DALLAS, July 18 (UPI) -- Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's widow has commissioned a New Hampshire auction house to sell his wedding ring, saying she wants to "let go" of the past.

If you are a gun owner, chances are you are familiar with the nationwide shortage of ammunition. You may have even thought about trying to save cash by learning to reload your own bullets.

You’re not alone: shooters across the country are turning to the hobby simply known as “reloading.”

“It’s booming,” said SafeSide, LLC., owner and National Rifle Association instructor and training counselor Lynn Garnand.

“The uptick, the demand for classes in reloading is huge. My business is primarily training in the reloading world and I also make reloaded ammunition commercially,” he told TheBlaze in a phone interview. “I can’t keep up on either front.”

Coupled with increasing costs, ammunition shortages have driven many gun owners to sign up for reloading classes.

Garnand, who is based out of Wisconsin, told TheBlaze his classes are either “packed” or completely sold out.

“People want to get into them because they can’t find ammunition any other way,” said Garnand. “This year versus last year — my business has easily doubled.”

NRA member Greg Meyer told TheBlaze he got into reloading shortly after President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009.

“As for costs, initially, after consideration of the money spent on the bullet press, casing tumbler, primer tools, scales,” he said, “I think I am spending about 25 cents a round.”

“As I use my equipment, that cost gets lower with every round. I like to load 158 grain lead semi wadcutter bullets for my .38 specials and full 230 gr metal jacket round noses for my .45 auto. I can still get those at a reasonable price from a local manufacturer,” he added.

Gun owner and reloading enthusiast Chad Hanson said he got into the hobby because of the ammunition shortage — but he also enjoys it.

“Gun owners like me have discovered ways to work around high costs by reloading,” the Las Vegas-based Environmental Technician told TheBlaze.

“Reloading saves me approximately two-thirds the usual cost of ammunition. But that has changed slightly because demand is so high and supply is scarce,” he added.

Brad Snyder, marketing manager for KTS1 Inc., which works closely with TruCarry, CCW, said reports of an increase in the number of reloaders are “totally accurate.”

But here’s the thing: as reloading increases in popularity, stores across the country are struggling to keep up with the demand for supplies involved in refilling ammunition. This includes brass and powder.

“I can tell you that if I had my choice I would love to use Sierra bullets & Vihtavuori powder but those are hard to come by,” Hanson told TheBlaze.

“Powder and primers are becoming scarce and going up in price,” Meyer added.

Several business owners confirmed that the reloading boom has affected the supply and cost of ammunition-related goods.

“Under normal conditions, we try to keep approximately 125 different kinds of powders on hand,” Cliff Poser, of Cliff’s Guns, Safes and Reloading in Boise, Idaho, told NPR. “And at this time, we only have approximately 20 kinds of powders on hand.”

Dillon Precision spokesman Mark Pixler agreed: “It has been a challenge because we’re used to operating at a certain level.”

He added that recent calls for the company’s goods have “crashed the company’s phone system.”

“We were literally unable to make outgoing phone calls. So we literally had to go and buy some prepaid cellphones so that we could conduct essential company business on the telephone,” he said.

“Gun shows were good locations to get supplies such as primers, powder, and slugs,” Meyer said. “Now, those components are becoming more and more scarce.”

Fortunately, he added, there’s a shop near him in San Jose, Calif., “that keeps a good supply of powder and primers for reloaders like me. But that is rare. There are other options like Cabella’s or Natchez Shooters supply where one can purchase components for ‘reloading.’”

KTS1 Inc. President Kathy Martin confirmed the increase in the cost of ammunition-related supplies.

“Prices fluctuate,” she said.

Supplies for reloading .223, for example, have seen some pretty dramatic swings in recent months, according to Martin:

• Primer in March: $19 per 1,000
• Current: $38 to $54 per 1,000
• Brass (for 223) in March: $75 per 1,500
• Current: $175 per 1500
• Bullets in March: $17 per 100
• Current: $28 per 100
• Powder in March: $17 per pound
• Current: $28 to $35 per pound

She clarified that costs are starting to “see a slight downturn,” but added that “daily events and news have a huge influence on costs.”

The increase in the number of reloaders has been driven by the shortage of ammunition. And, according to store owners and reloaders, the shortage of ammunition has been driven by bullet-hoarding.

“People think they’re not going to be able to get any ammunition because they think it’s going to be outlawed,” Garnand explained.

He said fears over recent gun control efforts have subsided somewhat and prices should soon return to normal levels.

Previously, Garnand said, he saw people buying the maximum amount of ammunition allowed by stores (i.e. “limit five boxes per customer”). Now, he added, people are buying only a couple boxes at a time rather than maxing out all at once.

“We’re starting to settle back down to our normal level of consumption,” he said.

“But from a finance perspective,” he continued, “something interesting is about to happen. There’s going to be a huge glut on the market.”

A “glut” is when the markets are flooded with an excess of a certain product.

“People bought all this stuff and they will eventually dump it,” he said, adding that he believes the ammunition situation in America will soon return to normal levels.

And with a return to normalcy in the availability/affordability of ammunition, the reloading craze will most likely quiet down.

Still, as Kathy Martin mentioned, these things are subject to change based on daily events and the news.

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Ein schwieriger Besuch für beide Seiten - Finanzminister Schäuble findet zwar anerkennende Worte für die Griechen. Einen weiteren Schuldenschnitt schließt er aus. Athen bringt weitere Spargesetze auf den Weg, und die Regierung atmet erst einmal auf.

WASHINGTON, July 18 (UPI) -- Security officials advised hundreds of current and past U.S. congressional aides to change passwords after hackers posted their email addresses and passwords.

Vier Menschen sind innerhalb weniger Tage im Bodensee ertrunken. Ein 76-Jähriger kehrte am Donnerstag nicht vom Schwimmen zurück. Ein 16-Jähriger verstarb, nachdem Taucher ihn aus zehn Metern Tiefe geborgen hatten. Auch am Dienstag starben zwei Männer.

Die "Tagesschau" ist eine Nachrichten-Institution. Doch in der Zielgruppe der 14- bis 49-Jährigen bröckelt der Führungsanspruch der 20.00-Uhr-Sendung. Denn erstmals schalteten zur Prime Time jetzt mehr junge Zuschauer die RTL-II-"News" ein.

The Times Higher Education has released their annual list of "exam howlers" and it's filled with some ridiculous typos and mistakes.

As THE puts it, every year the publication asks teachers to send in their "favourite student slip-ups." This year's list is filled with previously unknown factoids about sex, death, and religion. Here are some of the best:

• A student writing a paper on evolution opened her essay with "Sex has puzzled biologists ever since it was discovered by Darwin and Mendel." Her professor deemed that "an unpleasant image."
• Another student in intellectual history argued that Spanish military dictator Francisco Franco "was supported by right-wing panties."
• A student in media studies may have mixed up a metaphor when they described a controversial Holocaust documentary as "a hotly contested potato."
• THE writes that a history student in New Zealand "confused the story of Pavlik Morozov, the Soviet youth murdered by his family after informing on his parents, with a more heartwarming tale" when he claimed that Morozov was "a Russian explorer who discovered the true meaning of Christmas."
• A professor of microbiology and molecular biology might have to explain the finality of death to his students, as two wrote that "Nigella seeds can cure all disease except death" and "Ebola could lead to death, in some cases fatal."

Head over to THE next week to see which one wins >

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A team of scientists have finally filmed a sight they have been waiting to see for decades: a drop of extremely slow-moving pitch break off and fall.

The team running the pitch-drop project at Trinity College in Dublin witnessed the drop fall at roughly 5pm on July 11, according to Nature News.

It may not seem like a hugely momentous event, but moments like these only come around once a decade or so, and the drop has never been filmed before. Paying close attention to how this slower-than-molasses experiment gives scientists an extraordinary glimpse into the physical properties of an ordinary substance.

"We were all so excited," project leader Shane Bergin told Nature News. "It’s been such a great talking point, with colleagues eager to investigate the mechanics of the break, and the viscosity of the pitch."

Pitch, also known as asphalt or bitumen, moves so slowly at room temperature that it appears to be a solid. Watching the drop allowed the team to estimate the viscosity of the pitch: It flows about 20 million times slower than honey and more than 2 billion times slower than water.

They think that the funnel and pitch was set up in 1944 by Nobel laureate Ernest Walton who was a professor at the school. They think he wanted to use the experiment as an educational tool.

When first set up it took three years for the blob of pitch to begin flowing out of the funnel, and then another seven to ten to form a drop. The set up lay neglected for years, until scientists literally blew the dust off the pitch and began watching it again.

The flowing pitch is one of the world's longest-running scientific experiments. Last April, they set up a web cam so people around the world could watch the drop finally break off and fall.

While it has taken years to flow out of the funnel, it only takes a tenth of a second for the drop to dislocate and fall. Seeing it happen is so rare that in the 83 years that an even older pitch experiment has been running at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, no one has witness any of the nine drops have fallen.

Watch the Trinity College drop fall, the first time this historic event has ever been captured on camera:

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Finally, government loves you and wants you to be happy

MOST Americans may not realise it, but their country is a little freer, and perhaps slightly tipsier than it was last month. On July 1st it became legal to make beer at home in Mississippi. Alabama lifted the threat of prosecution for homebrewers in May. It is now legal to craft your own suds in all 50 states.

Benjamin Franklin is said (probably apocryphally) to have called beer "proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy". Jimmy Carter signed a law exempting home-made beer from excise tax in 1978, in effect legalising homebrewing at the federal level. But it has taken 35 years for the most puritanical states to swallow the bitter pils of legalisation. Outfits such as the American Homebrewers Association (AHA) have been lobbying state legislatures to loosen up for decades. It took five years of legislative ferment to get the law changed in Alabama, for example.

Opponents have an image of "an old country guy back in the woods" says Richard Force, an avid homebrewer in Alabama. In fact, Mr Force is a data analyst for a medical technology firm. He recently won "best in show" at a Mississippi homebrewing competition, he notes, for a smoked beer with "a wonderful, roasted ham flavour".

Craig Hendry, the head of a pressure group called "Raise Your Pints", has been homebrewing illegally in Mississippi for the past 12 years. He agrees that the hobby attracts "a different group of people from the regular Miller Bud Coors drinkers". They are not in it to save money, Mr Force says: "If you just wanted to drink beer, it would be much cheaper to buy a 30-pack of Natty Light at the supermarket." He reckons he spends about $1,500 a year on his habit, though he insists that he seldom drinks more than one beer a day. Travelling to contests costs money.

It was the economic arguments, both men agree, that won over wavering legislators. Many homebrewers ultimately set up shop commercially. Jefferson County, home to Birmingham, Alabama's biggest city, had only one brewery in 2008, Mr Force notes; there are three now, with another two in the hopper, as it were. Given that the county declared bankruptcy two years ago, the extra revenue these new ventures bring in is as intoxicating to local officials as their wares are to patrons.

But homebrewers' long stagger to freedom is not yet complete. For one thing, it remains illegal to make your own beer in the "dry" counties of many states, including Alabama and Mississippi. And even in places where homebrewing is legal, a host of subsidiary regulations still gum up the taps, points out Gary Glass of AHA. There are often limits on how much you can brew, where you can consume your handiwork, whom you can serve it to and so on. Idaho even insists that homebrewers use only ingredients grown within the state. It is possible, it turns out, to make beer from those famous potatoes.

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Fährt die S1 bald alle zehn Minuten, die H-Bahn auch am Samstag? Wenn es nach dem Asta ginge, dann würden so die vielen Studenten im nächsten Semester zur Uni gelangen. Bei der Sondersitzung der BV Hombruch stießen sie aber auf Gegenwind.

Wände und Decken malern, Heizkörper lackieren, Leisten streichen - vor dem Auszug müssen Mieter noch mal richtig viel Arbeit in die alte Wohnung stecken. Viele könnten sich Geld und Arbeit sparen, weil in ihren Verträgen ungültige Klauseln stehen. In solchen Fällen müssen Mieter gar nicht renovieren.

US-Forschern ist ein Durchbruch bei der Therapie des Down-Syndroms gelungen. Im Labor konnten sie das Chromosom, das die Krankheit verursacht, ausschalten. Allerdings soll noch jahrelange Forschung nötig sein.

SEE ALSO: Korea's Obsession With Plastic Surgery

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