Science & Technology

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30 Nov 2015 - world's largest windfarm installation vessel, Seajacks Scylla delivered to UK by South Korea
Classification society ABS reports that the world's largest and most advanced wind farm installation and offshore construction vessel, the ABS-classed Seajacks Scylla, has been delivered by Samsung Heavy Industries' Geoje, South Korea, shipyard.  read more »

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Oct 27, 2015 Reuters - Eating processed meats like hot dogs, sausages and bacon can cause colorectal cancer in humans, and red meat is also a likely cause of the disease, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said.
The review by WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), released on Monday, said additionally that there was some link between the consumption of red meat and pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer. IARC classified processed meat as "carcinogenic to humans" on its group one list along with tobacco and asbestos, for which there is "sufficient evidence" of cancer links.

Each 50-gram (1.8-ounce) portion of processed meat eaten daily increases the risk of colorectal cancer by 18 percent, the agency estimated. A 50-gram portion would be the equivalent of eating one hot dog or two slices of bacon. Americans eat about 21.7 grams of processed pork per day, according to a 2011 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Oct 28, 2015 Reuters - California considers adding meat to cancer-alert list
California is examining new World Health Organization findings to determine whether to add red meat and foods like hot dogs, sausages and bacon to a cancer-alert list, setting the stage for a potential battle with the meat industry over warning labels.  read more »

Image courtesy NASA and Scott Kelly

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ex-hedge funder increases price of pill 5,000% overnight, drawing outcry
Hedge funder buys rights to drug used by AIDS patients and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. A hedge fund trader is at the centre of mounting controversy after the pharmaceutical company he bought raised overnight the cost of a life-saving treatment for people with Aids and weakened immune systems from $13.50 per pill to $750.

The 5,000 per cent increase was enacted last month for Daraprim, known generically as pyrimethamine, by Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York, a start-up firm, shortly after it bought the rights to the drug. The firm is headed by Martin Shkreli.

Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or pregnancy, according to the Centres for Disease Control. About 60 million people in the United States may carry the toxoplasma parasite.

Ex-Hedge Funder Buys Rights To Drug Used By Aids Patients And Raises Price From $13.50 To $750 Per Pill  read more »

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ABC news - Couple Fighting With Verizon Over $2M cell phone bill, said it took them 10 months to clear up - $2 million for one month
A couple in Oregon say they spent 10 months trying to clear up a whopping $2 million phone bill, which they say has prevented them from buying the home of their dreams. Ken Slusher and his girlfriend, of Damascus, Oregon, have a balance of $2,156,593.64 on a Verizon Wireless bill that was for a wireless account that they opened in November. "Yeah, it's been very stressful to say the least," Slusher told KPTV.com.

The couple canceled their service in December and returned their phones in January, but the bills continued to arrive, as first reported by KPTV. Customer service representatives told them in-person and on the phone that they promised to clear up the matter, he said.

Slusher said he hoped to close on a new house next Monday and his girlfriend and their children are eagerly awaiting the move. But he said his mortgage company won't sign off on a loan due to the phone debt. They began receiving several calls from collection agencies demanding upward of $2,000, KPTV reported. According to Slusher, the couple's first bill should have been around $120, but it was actually $698 with a balance of $451.

CBS - Volkswagen said its cheating software affects 11 million vehicles and may cost up to $87 billion  read more »

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The duel was based on a code of honour. Duels were fought not so much to kill the opponent as to gain "satisfaction", that is, to restore one's honour by demonstrating a willingness to risk one's life for it, and as such the tradition of duelling was originally reserved for the male members of nobility.

telegraph.co.uk -MegaBots, an American engineering company, challenged Japan's Suidobashi Heavy Industry to a duel. Japan's Suidobashi accepts MegaBots' challenge of a duel, paving the way for robot wars on a grand scale. It's the moment we've all been waiting for: two giant fighting robots - one Japanese and one American - will square off in a melee one year from now.

dailydot.com Jul 6, 2015 - The makers of a giant, real-life, human-powered robot have challenged their Japanese counterparts to a giant robot duel. Japan responds to U.S. giant-robot battle challenge: "Bring it on"
Last week, a U.S. giant-robot company summoned a Japanese giant-robot company to fight them in a giant-robot duel. In their challenge video, U.S.-based Megabots gave Japan's Suidobashi Heavy Industry—and all of Japan—the opportunity to name the battlefield and "meet in one year's time." It's on.  read more »

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Fossil Fuels Losing Cost Advantage Over Solar, Wind: cost of producing electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind has dropped significantly over the past five years, narrowing the gap with power generated from fossil fuels and nuclear reactors, according to the International Energy Agency.
“The costs of renewable technologies -- in particular solar photovoltaic -- have declined significantly over the past five years,” the Paris-based IEA said in a report called Projected Costs of Generating Electricity. “These technologies are no longer cost outliers.”  read more »