Mercyvill

China's silent war costs America trillions of dollars and millions of jobs A Chinese soldier stands guard in the Chinese Defense Ministry's Bayi Building in Beijing on Sept. 9, 2013. An estimated 250,000 to 300,000 Chinese soldiers are involved in hacking the computers of other nations' governments and businesses. (Alexander F. Yuan-Pool/Getty Images) An army is attacking the United States. Its war is being waged without bullets or fanfare. Denied by its government, these soldiers operate in shadows and in silence. Yet, glimpses of their operations are seen on a daily basis—hackers and spies attacking and stealing from U.S. businesses and the U.S. government. Until now, a complete view of their operations and of the military department that gives them their orders remained hidden. Yet, China’s spy and cyberoperations all share one thing in common: they’re all orchestrated under the People’s Liberation Army General S...

Will these Boko Haram killings ever end and what tangible measures are being put in place by the Nigerian Government to overcome this menace?

Over the next few decades, baby boomers will reinvent how America dies. That gives Generation X one last thing to roll its eyes about, as it follows a step behind. Colin Chillag, Grandma-Grandpa , 2012. Courtesy the artist and 101/Exhibit . In 30 years, the assisted suicides of people won’t be met by the furor that followed the death of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old woman with terminal brain cancer who ended her own life with a fatal dose of barbiturates on Nov. 1. In 30 years, the media won’t bother with stories like Gillian Bennett, an 85-year-old Canadian woman who took her own life in August using alcohol and barbiturates because she had decided not to liv...

(Getty Images) Hundreds of our languages are teetering on the brink of extinction, and as Rachel Nuwer discovers, we may lose more than just words if we allow them to die out. The last of the 29 Navajo Americans who developed a code with their native language to encrypt military messages in World War 2 has died Tom Belt, a native of Oklahoma, didn’t encounter the English language until he began kindergarten. In his home, conversations took place in Cherokee. Belt grew up riding horses, and after college bounced around the country doing the rodeo circuit. Eventually, he wound up in North Carolina in pursuit of a woman he met at school 20 years earlier.

(Thinkstock) Scientists are starting to build implants they hope can cure blindness and help paralysed people walk. But how do they work? A "window to the brain" implant which would allow doctors to see through the skull and possibly treat patients has been devised by US researchers The brain is one of the most delicate and complex objects in the universe, so tinkering with its activity may seem like a fool’s errand. Yet armed with a growing understanding of the way we process perceptions and memories, neuroscientists are starting to build implants they hope can treat a range of disorders – from blindness to paralysis. But how do these implants work, and what’s possible? Here’s our potted guide to the amazing world of creating brain implants.

1 Refresh Has The Power To Make Your Computer Work Faster This one goes out to all PC users. If you own a PC, there is a good chance that you maybe frantically refreshing your desktop all the time. Have you ever wondered what refresh actually accomplishes? If you said you think it makes your computer work faster, you couldn't be more wrong. There is nothing you can do to make your PC work faster than it can.

1 The Fiji Mermaid: A Monkey's Torso Sewn to the Back Half of a Fish and Covered in Papier-mâché (1842) In mid-July 1842, an English gentleman named Dr. J. Griffin, who was a member of the British Lyceum of Natural History, arrived in New York City bearing a real mermaid that was supposedly caught near the Fiji Islands in the South Pacific. Soon after this, the showman P.T. Barnum tried to convince Dr. Griffin to display the mermaid at his museum. Dr. Griffin agreed to exhibit it for a week at Concert Hall on Broadway. Barnum distributed ten thousand copies of a pamphlet about seductive mermaids throughout the city. In August 1842, huge crowds showed up for the exhibit.

We have said a good deal in this space about the futility of trying to time short-term market moves (see e.g., this , this and this ). No one has demonstrated the ability to do this consistently over time. While it is possible to avoid the very largest of collapses over long periods of time using a simply trend-following approach (see Meb Faber’s " A Quantitative Approach to Tactical Asset Allocation "), the shorter the time horizon, the more difficult this becomes.

1 Heidi Krieger: the German shot put champion who was so masculinized by steroids that she later chose to become a man Giving anabolic steroids to a teenage girl does a whole lot more than help her win a gold medal – it can change her body forever. East German shot put champion Heidi Krieger claims she was so masculinized by the drugs her coaches gave her that she later chose to become a man, and underwent a series a sex-change operations to become Andreas Krieger.

The world if full of mysterious objects, people, places, and events that need more research. In the last 30 years, humans have made some incredible scientific advancement in the area of archeology, astronomy, computer technology, radar, physics, chemistry, biology, and statistics. People are beginning to understand more about how the Earth was made and have identified anomalies that exist in space. Some of the research has opened up questions about historic events and scientific theories. We can only hope that people will evolve and gain a better understanding of bizarre historical events, instead of moving in the opposite direction. This article will examine ten strange topics that need a bit more explanation by world governments.

(Thinkstock) Is there truth to the idea that men prefer blue and women like pink? Claudia Hammond investigates, and discovers why these colours matter more than we think. Ask a little girl what her favourite colour is, and chances are she'll shout "pink". Toy aisles and clothing rails are packed with this shade, but is nothing but pink for girls harmful? It’s easy to spot the girls’ section of a children’s clothes shop because most of it is pink. I know a lot of parents who insist that they would like their daughters to wear something different, but pink seems to hold an irresistible allure for them. But is that really true? Is it inevitable that girls are born to grow up to prefer pink?

Although it's most famous for felines, the area is home to grazing animals like the elephant, too. (Tanveer Badal) Wildlife-rich Serengeti is deservedly Tanzania's most popular park, but with that celebrity comes a catch: crowds. Nearly 200,000 safari-goers pour in each year, cameras held high, their jeeps jockeying for position near anything with four legs. Eastern Serengeti's Soit Le Motonyi region, re-opened after a 20-year hiatus, is exactly the opposite: unspoiled, undriven, unphotographed and most definitely unpeopled. This land, where the short grasses of the plains meet the acacia woodlands, is virtually unknown to anyone save a handful of researchers, most of whom have been here studying cats. Big cats.

Scarlett Johansson in the film Lucy (Columbia Pictures) We often talk of having five senses as a universal truth. In reality, there may be more – or fewer – depending on the way you look at the question. Christian Jarrett explains the controversy. Daniel Kish has been blind since he was a baby but that hasn't stopped him living an incredibly active life that includes hiking and mountain-biking. To do this, he has perfected a form of human echolocation, using reflected sound waves to build a mental picture of his surroundings. Some myths about the brain, such as the idea we only use 10% of our grey matter, are notorious, especially among neuroscientists. These myths crop up every now and then (look at the premise of the Lucy movie this summer), but they are quickly shot down by those in the know.

(Thinkstock) Around half of our acquaintances may be “frenemies” – and they could have a surprising impact on your psychology and physical well-being, says David Robson. I have a problem. I have friends that I love to hate. My “frenemies”, as they are known. And they could be affecting my health. Don’t get me wrong: I love these people. It’s just they drive me crazy. The worst was vain, delusional, and peppered every conversation with barely concealed insults. He would ask me about my news, only to start yawning exaggeratedly.

  Whether you’re in your 30s or are approaching that peculiar age bracket—I’m sure a lot of this applies to you: 1. You realize that you were a college senior about a decade ago. Law School/giphy.com 2. The classic rock station is now playing your favorite songs from high school. Evanescence/youtube.com 3. 10 years ago you looked great in unnatural hair colors. Now you just look ridiculous. Pink Hair/giphy.com 4. Your skin is starting to hang and small wrinkles are claiming territory around your eyes. Wrinkles/giphy.com 5. If you don’t have children then you probably have a furry little companion that’s like a child to you. Sheldon/giphy.com 6. You catch yourself always checking out “mom” blogs. Penny Computer/giphy.com 7. 10 Years ago your friends posted Facebook pictures of them partying, now they’re posting pictures of their chi...

Nine Commentaries book cover (Available for purchase on broadbook.com, amazon.com) The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party were first published in November of 2004, followed quickly by an English translation. In 10 years, the series has led over 180 million Chinese to renounce the communist party and its affiliated organizations, fostering an unprecedented peaceful movement for transformation and change in China. People continue to renounce the party every day. Here we republish the newly re-edited Nine Commentaries, linked to video and audio versions produced by our partner media, NTD Television and the SOH Radio Network . Enjoy our groundbreaking editorial series! —Eds.

Artist depiction of Pocahontas saving the life of Capt. John Smith. (Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons) Most people are familiar with the Disney version of the Pocahontas story—a Native American princess fell in love with the Englishman John Smith during the height of conflict between the English settlers and the indigenous people of the Americas. In 1995, Disney released its artistically beautiful animated film showing the supposed events that unfolded between Smith and Pocahontas. Although Disney is known for creating fictional tales, many people believed that Disney’s account of the life of Pocahontas was a true reflection of past events: the love between Pocahontas and Smith, the bravery Pocahontas showed when saving Smith’s life, and the tragic ending when Smith returned to England for medical treatment. However, this depiction is a far departure from the actual events that occurred, from the real life of Pocahontas.

'You shouldn't need to read my mind to know I want to be fed and walked. (NoMoreWoof) With the likes of Google Glass, Fitbit, and Emotiv wearables are now a familiar concept. Perhaps less known is that animals have been fitted with wearable technology for decades. For example, in the 1960s conservationists fitted endangered species such as gorillas, snow leopards or elephants with radio tracking collars. As research methods improve, laboratory animals are often fitted with wearable monitoring devices rather than more invasive implanted devices. Military or police dogs wear devices that give their handlers a “dogs-eye view” of the areas their animals are patrolling and are even able to transmit commands to the animals .

(SPL) Leaping between galaxies through tunnels in space may sound crazy, but physicists have yet to rule it out. So how could this possibly work, asks Marcus Woo. Scientists say they have extraordinary new evidence to support a Big Bang Theory for the origin of the Universe The universe is huge. Travelling at light speed to the nearest star would take more than four years. Venturing to the other side of the galaxy? More than 100,000 years. So what's an intrepid space traveller to do? One option is a cosmic shortcut called a wormhole, a tunnel through the fabric of space and time that can connect far-flung corners of the universe. It’s the chosen route of many fictional space travellers, including the characters in the upcoming film Interstellar , directed by Christopher Nolan.

(Thinkstock) The world’s most powerful computers can’t perform accurate real-time interpreting of one language to another. Yet human interpreters do it with ease. Geoff Watts meets the neuroscientists who are starting to explain this remarkable ability. When delegates at the United Nations are faced with a runaway speaker - going far beyond the usual 15 minutes or so - how do their live interpreters deal with the situation? One morning this summer I paid a visit to the sole United Nations agency in London. The headquarters of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) sits on the southern bank of the Thames, a short distance upstream from the Houses of Parliament. As I approached, I saw that a ship’s prow, sculpted in metal, was grafted like a nose to the ground floor of this otherwise bland building. Inside I met a dozen or so mostly female IMO translators. They were cheerful and chatty and better dressed than you ...

A recent photo of Charles Manson, now aged 80 Murderous cult leader Charles Manson has been granted a licence to marry, but what is it about this man, who committed his crimes more than 40 years ago, that continues to fascinate? The stare is still the same. The hair may have greyed but the beard remains. With a swastika etched between his eyes, Charles Manson maintains an aura. It is almost 45 years since he sent a group of his indoctrinated followers - known as the Family - to the home of heavily pregnant Hollywood actress Sharon Tate to "totally destroy everyone in it". She and four others were stabbed to death.

Aluminum has been long known to be neurotoxic, with mounting evidence that chronic exposure is a factor in many neurological diseases, including dementia, autism, and Parkinson’s disease. However, definitive scientific proof is difficult to establish due toth the lack of longitudinal studies, as well as pushback from industries that use aluminum in their products. Despite the shortage of conclusive studies, mounting scientific evidence really leaves little room for doubt.

Will stricter controls on painkillers curb abuse and addiction? Shutterstock* Americans consume a staggering amount of the opioid painkiller hydrocodone – about  99% of the world’s supply . In October, after 10 years of debate the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)  reclassified medications like Vicodin, and products that combine hydrocodone with other drugs, as Schedule II controlled substances.