North Korea
South Korea speeds up creation of Kim Jong Un 'decapitation unit' cnn v
The country is speeding up plans to set up what some call a "decapitation unit," a brigade specifically tasked with targeting North Korea's "wartime command," including leader Kim Jong Un, according to a South Korea Defense Ministry official.
The brigade was initially supposed to be ready in 2019, but the Defense Ministry now says it'll be established "by this year."
Greece
Greece Heads Into Another Economic Crisis: Time To Finally Exit the European Union? forbes
...with [the Syriza Party] lagging in the polls, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras recently pushed through a pension boost and VAT suspension which, in Europe’s view, violated the 2015 bailout, worth $92 billion (the value depends on changing exchange rates), by European institutions and the International Monetary Fund imf.org. Athens contended that it had met its fiscal targets while its creditors said they had to be consulted to assess the impact. They then suspended the package.
Greece is a bit like your dissolute brother-in-law. A spendthrift, he gets himself into financial trouble and asks for a loan. You give it to him based on his promise to stop drinking, smoking, and romancing the ladies. He doesn’t, of course, but you really didn’t expect he would do so. However, you still want your money back. Although he promised to repay you, he doesn’t understand why you are asking. Your wife gives him some more money, based on his redoubled promise to reform his bad spending habits. And so it goes.
Long-form article, but well worth the read for insight into the current state of Greece's economy.
UK
UK military to build prototype 'laser weapon' bbc
The aim is to see whether "directed energy" technology could benefit the armed forces, and is to culminate in a demonstration of the system in 2019.
Tech
New SuperBatteries are Finally Here trendintech
It’s been a long time coming, but the wait is now over for a battery that lasts longer than your milk. Having to replace batteries in games, remotes, and other electrical devices are annoying, especially when you seem to be doing it every month. But, that may all be a thing of the past thanks to the Prague-based company, HE3DA he3da.cz. New superbatteries have finally been created that are capable of charging faster and lasting longer than any other technology out there and are being mass produced as you read this.
If these weren't supposedly being already produced, I wouldn't link it. Better battery technology is always in the news, but almost never actually shows up anywhere outside of a lab. Let's hope the future is actually coming this time :P
Sony's Life Space UX projector is the coolest magazine rack you've ever seen mashable
This short-throw projector falls into the [odd] camp. Unveiled at CES 2017 ces.tech, the prototype can project a crisp 4K image to the wall it resides under. So far, so good. But after showing how well it handles photos and videos, the demo proposed another use case: browsing magazines. You can call up a grid of magazine covers as easily as a channel guide. Select one, and it enlarges and virtual pages turn. It's reading, but on TV!
Augmented Reality
BMW hopes Google's augmented reality Tango technology will help it to sell cars businessinsider
The app — developed by technology consultancy firm Accenture accenture — allows people to walk around a virtual car that isn't really there and even step inside and explore the interior. It was uploaded to the Google Play Store on Thursday but it will only work on Tango-enabled google devices, which are only just appearing on the market but include the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro and the Asus Zenfone AR.
Also see BMW i pilots augmented reality product visualiser powered by Tango, Google’s smartphone AR technology bmwgroup
Future
IBM Brain Trust Predicts That ‘Superhero Vision’ Is On Its Way fortune
IBM's researchers think a new generation of scanning devices that combine multiple mini-sensors will be able to see a much broader part of the spectrum and endow smartphones or tablets with the ability to see more than is visible to the human eye (which, by the way, can't see 99.9% of the spectrum—so think of what we're missing!).
Ah, the future - where everything is possible, maybe :)
Research
Nano-chimneys can cool circuits sciencedaily t
Scientists have [previously] determined that forests of nanotubes grown from graphene are excellent for storing hydrogen for energy applications, but in electronics, the heptagons scatter phonons and hinder the escape of heat through the pillars.
Squishy Clockwork Biobot Could Dose You With Drugs From the Inside spectrum.ieee.org v
This strange new biobot comes from the lab of Samuel Sia, a professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia University columbia.edu, in New York City. It uses neither battery nor wires, and can be controlled from outside the body to deliver a dose on command. It’s a gadget well suited for this new era of personalized medicine, Sia tells IEEE Spectrum. “Doctors want to see how the patient is doing and then modify the therapy accordingly,” he says.
He has already tested the gizmo in lab mice with bone cancer, with exciting results that were published today in the journal Science Robotics.
Space
India to launch 103 satellites in record single mission japantimes.co.jp
The rocket is set to blast off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota in February carrying three Indian satellites and 100 foreign ones from countries including United States, France and Germany, the Press Trust of India said.
Also see 6 Things You Must Know about ISRO’s Record Breaking Planned Launch of 103 Satellites in February! thebetterindia
There is a treat overhead as rare comet C/2016 U1 is visible in Cornwall with binoculars this month cornwalllive w!
C/2016 U1 was first detected in October by Nasa's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (Neowise), the asteroid-and-comet-hunting portion of the explorer mission, and is currently heading past Earth on its way towards the sun and back to the outer solar system.
Also see NASA says mysterious object hurtling towards Earth could be an asteroid or a comet cambridge-news.co.uk
Society
Pro-lifer arrested for ‘domestic terrorism’ outside Planned Parenthood, but never left sidewalk lifesitenews v
Ryan, who regularly comes to the abortion center to help women and pray, was seemingly minding his own business on New Year’s Eve morning when police showed up at the Planned Parenthood location, placed him under arrest, handcuffed him, and escorted him to be placed in the back of a police cruiser. He remained there for an hour while police dogs were called in to search the building for bombs, but no one was evacuated. Defenders of the Unborn posted a video of the incident.
Of course I wasn't there and only know what's written, but this article and video seems a far cry from other headlines saying an activist was arrested for bomb threats against a clinic. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Others...
Polar bear mascot can't handle the ice in commercial outtakes youtube v
Normally I don't pass stuff like this on, but the auto-play on the WP played this and it cracked me up...so I'm passing it along inspite of myself :D
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