Red Hydrogen One: The internet reacts to the 3D-enabled phone

The brand may not be a household name, but over the past two decades its digital cameras have come to be revered among filmmakers.

They have been used to make top movies including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2, and the most recent Mission: Impossible.

Founder Jim Jannard was previously behind the Oakley sunglasses brand.

So many wondered whether handsets might prove to be the third sector he would disrupt.

On the basis of the first reviews of the Red Hydrogen One, that seems doubtful.

The embargo on write-ups lifted earlier this Monday ahead of the $1,300 (£1,000) aluminium version going on sale in November.

A $1,600 titanium edition is promised to follow.

Testers seemed intrigued - if not overly impressed - by the 3D screen, which simulates a sense of depth rather than produces pop-out images.

But frustratingly it's impossible to capture the effect on a normal camera - meaning neither the reviews nor Red's own ads could show photos or videos of what it looks like.

And while the device can also capture 3D imagery, the effect can only be played back on other Hydrogen Ones, limiting the appeal.

Furthermore, another of the key selling points of the device - the ability to snap additional modules on to transform it into a higher-end video camera - is not due to be released until late 2019.

California-based Red is notorious for missing its deadlines.

The Hydrogen One was supposed to be released months ago and features a last-generation processor as a consequence.

So cinematographers attracted by the idea of an Android phone doubling as a movie camera might want to wait to see how long that takes to be achieved.

Red aims to ship about 16 million of the smartphones a year. Apple sells more iPhones in a month-and-a-half.

But as Essential and Google's Pixel brand have discovered, achieving annual sales of just a few million can be a struggle.

Below are some of the highlights from the early reports.

Digital Trends

The Red Hydrogen One is the most interesting phone of the year, but also the most disappointing... Jim Jannard said people will want to buy the phone when they see the screen. We must disagree. This is clearly the first effort of a company that lacks smartphone experience.

The Verge

Photos of people generally end up looking really goofy, with the person appearing as a paper cut-out on top of whatever was behind them... Videos are still a pain to watch. The effect tends to flicker in and out and have lots of strange artefacts. It can hurt your eyes to watch, and it's a little dizzying any time there's too much motion.

Tom's Guide:

The Hydrogen One is an ambitious device that so desperately wants to change your life. And every now and then, when the display strikes your eyes at just the precise angle, you feel fleeting glimmers of the magic. However, Red is working with technology that simply hasn't been perfected yet... there's no guarantee that Red's particular brand of 3D will be satisfying or stress-free for your eyes.

Gizmodo

While in normal 2D mode, the Hydrogen One's display is relatively high-res... But when you turn 3D on, you can immediately see that the screen's resolution is significantly reduced to the point where you can see individual pixels. On top of that, nothing ever looks that sharp, and there's always a faint rainbow colour cast lurking in the background.

Cnet

It seems like a 3D camera that doubles as a phone. And that's what truly differentiates it from previous 3D devices. The Hydrogen One isn't just about consuming 3D content. It's about creating it. And if that appeals to you, then it's definitely worth checking out... But for nearly everyone else, it's hard for me to recommend.

PC Mag

I see a vision in this phone. It's the vision of a go-anywhere, pro-quality connected movie camera that effortlessly captures massive files and uploads them easily, probably using 5G... [But future] content is going to need to be stable, bright, and in an 8K industry-standard format, not in some proprietary 3D format.

BGR

The Hydrogen One is a fairly run-of-the-mill camera phone, capable of capturing solid photos with good lighting, but struggling in less-than-ideal settings. It's not surprising that Red's first-ever phone can't compete with the likes of Apple or Google when it comes to capturing stunning images, but considering the pedigree and the price of the phone, it's hard to give Red any slack in this department.

A Newly-Discovered Fungus Could Eat Plastics In Weeks Instead Of Years

A fungus discovered on a rubbish heap in Pakistan could break down plastics in a matter of weeks instead of years. 

Aspergillus tubingensis was found to break down a type of plastic known as polyester polyurethane (PU) in just eight weeks.

Plastics normally take decades or even hundreds of years to biodegrade making them extremely harmful to the surrounding environment. 

Earlier this week a giant structure was sent into the Pacific Ocean to try and clean up some of the plastic waste that has been dumped into the sea. 

Even if it’s collected however there’s still no way of getting rid of it without using conventional rubbish dumps.

This organism is just one of several recent discoveries highlighted in a new report by Kew Gardens on the importance of fungi. 

While the humble mushroom might seem like nothing more than a breakfast staple, fungi have proven themselves to be extraordinarily useful in the fields of medicine, bio-fuel production and more recently waste disposal. 

In its report, ‘State of the World’s Fungi’, Kew Gardens outlines the global state of fungi revealing how essential they are to all organic life on Earth. 

It’s believed that there are as many as 3.8 million different fungal species, yet science has only identified 144,000 of them.

In fact 90% of all the plants we know of rely in some way on fungi to stay alive and flourish. Orchids for example are almost entirely dependant on fungi to germinate. 

Penicillin as well as a range of other life-saving drugs were all derived from fungal interactions. Washing powder uses fungi to break down stains and bring dull-looking clothes back to life. Earlier this year, a team of scientists discovered a new enzyme that could also eat some of our worst polluting plastics. 

The enzyme has only come into existence since we started producing the plastic Polythylene terephthalate (PET). Scientists were then actually able to improve its plastic-eating abilities and are hopeful that it could be produced on an industrial scale.

IPhone XR unveiled

The bright, multicoloured iPhone XR is made from aluminium and glass, and with an iPhone X-style edge-to-edge screen, it’s halfway between the iPhone 8 and iPhone X.
The display is LCD, and Schiller calls it the “most advanced LCD ever in a smartphone”. It’s branded as the “Liquid Retina” display (the iPhone XS is a “super retina”, if you’re keeping track), and measures 6.1 inches edge to edge.
But the phone doesn’t have 3D Touch, the pressure-sensitive feature found in every previous iPhone since the 5S. Instead, it’s got “haptic touch”, which basically means it will click if you hold your finger on a button for a while.
Inside is the same chip as in the iPhones XS: the A12. And the front camera is also the same.
As well as the screen, the other major cost-saving is the rear camera: just one, this time, the 12MP wide-angle camera. But the phone doesn’t need the telephoto lens for the fancy new features, because it can fake them made using just AI.
Battery life is “an hour and a half longer than the iPhone 8 Plus”. Is that longer or shorter than the iPhone XS? Give us actual numbers, Apple, don’t make me dig out your press releases from last year and do arithmetic. I’m liveblogging, here.
The iPhone XR starts from $749 for a 64GB device – a price cut on the introductory price of the iPhone 8. It’s available to order on Oct 19, and shipping Oct 26.

Apple's smart watch introduced.

The fourth generation of Apple Watch will have a face that's 30% larger and a speaker that's 50% louder, Apple said Wednesday, at a press event here.

In what was touted as a breakthrough by Apple execs here, the new watch can now do ECG heart tests, which was endorsed on stage by the American Heart Association and Apple said received FDA clearance.

"It's redefining what a watch can do for you. We have re-imagined the Watch," said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

The Series 4 edition of the Watch starts at $399, or $499 with cellular service as an add-on and will be available September 21. The price of the Series 3 watch, currently selling for $329, has been lowered to $279. effective today.

Originally, you could only get notifications on texts and read e-mails if the phone was nearby the Watch. But with the cell service add-on, announced at last year's Apple event, consumers could, say, run with the Watch, without also having the phone in their pocket.

 "That really changed the value of the Watch," said analyst Gene Munster of Loup Venture.  When prices came down and word-of-mouth started to spread, sales for the Watch took off, says Munster. "People felt there was more to it than just fitness tracking."

Munster estimates that Apple has sold 15 million Watches to date, which is tiny for Apple, which sells over 200 million iPhones yearly and over 40 million iPads, but it's still a substantial number, he says.

Most beautiful ladies in Kenya in 2018

Beauty comes in all distinctions. What someone else sees as beautiful may not be beautiful to you. I guess it is for this reason they say beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. With that in mind, there are, however, some cases where certain things or even people can be labelled as beautiful by almost everyone. Kenya as a country has very beautiful ladies. Beautiful ladies in Kenya come from all parts of the country and the diversity of beauty in Kenya is on another level. Kenya has beautiful ladies everywhere. Beautiful ladies from all tribes, from all counties, of different sizes and age groups, different social classes and so on. Out of all the Kenyan woman, because all of them are beautiful, there are those that stand out from the rest. There are those that are more beautiful than the rest. Who are they? Where do they come from? What makes them beautiful? What do they do? Read on to find out more about the most beautiful ladies in Kenya and to also see the pictures of the most beautiful ladies in Kenya.

1. Brenda Wairimu
Brenda Wairimu is a model and an actress. She was born on the 3rd of May, 1989. She is 29 years old. She was born in Mombasa. She also grew up in Mombasa. She studied International B

usiness Management at United States International University. She has been a cast in some Kenyan local soaps, as well as some African TV dramas.

2. Serah Ndanu
Serah Ndanu Teshna as that is her full name is a Kenyan actress. She is currently a host in a Kenyan local channel, K24. Apart from being an actor and a TV presenter, she is also a businesswoman. She was born on the 3rd March, the year 1988. She is thirty years old. She has been a cast to many TV shows. The TV shows include:
Noose of Gold- 2010 to 2013Nairobi Law- 2010The Rugged Priest- 2011Sumu la Penzi-2013 to presentThe Skin Therapy Show- 2015 to presentTwisted- 2016 to present
She won the Best Lead Actress Award at the 2011 Kalasha Awards.
Serah studied for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Tourism Management and Sociology at the University of Nairobi. Her mother was a drama teacher and this is one of the reasons she became an actress. She is beautiful, talented and smart.

3. Eve D’Souza
She is a famous Kenyan media personality, an actress as well as a radio presenter. She was born in Mombasa in the year 1979. This 39-year-old was born on the 11th day of March. She is famous for being a radio presenter for Capital FM. As an actor she has been able to be a cast in the following TV shows:
Big Brother Africa
 3- 2008EMCEE Africa- 2008
Triple Challenge-
Vibe City- 2009
Travel Diaries- 2011 to present
Mentality- 2013
Auntie Boss- 2014 to present
Varshita- 2017.

In 2004, she won the award for Best Female Presenter at the Chat Awards.
She is also the ambassador for Store 66. Store 66 is a Kenyan clothing store. She holds a Bachelor of Education degree in English and English literature from the Catholic University of East Africa. She has been in the limelight for some time now and she has perfected her skill. She has established her spot in the industry she is in.

5. Victoria Rubadiri
She is a Kenyan TV anchor. She is a mix of numerous tribes. She has Maasai, Kalenjin, Scottish, Kikuyu and Seychelloise blood flowing in her veins. She was born on the 28th of January, 1987. She has a daughter and opened up to the world saying she got pregnant when she was eighteen years old. She did her undergraduate at Temple University. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism.

6. Huddah Monroe
She is a Kenyan socialite who gained fame after participating in Big brother eight which was held in South Africa. This socialite has been in the limelight for various controversies including the one against fellow socialite, Vera Sidika. The two had a beef for quite some time. Huddah Monroe was born on the 10th of October the year 1991. This 27-year-old, as of October 2018 was born in Eastleigh in Nairobi. She is from a Somalian father and a Kikuyu mother. She was raised up in one of the shady settlements of Nairobi, in Huruma. To add salt to the wound, she lost her father while she was still young. After her father died, her mother soon remarried and she ended up getting four stepbrothers. She had a tough childhood to the point of her running away from home in some cases. This did not stop her ambition to take her family out of the jaws of poverty. While still young, she was able to do freelance modelling to help ends meet for her family. She is claimed to have a net worth of $3 million. Apart from work, she also loves partying. She is a beautiful Kenyan lady who has had to work to make ends meet.

7. Sarah Hassan
Sarah Hassan an only child, was born in Mombasa. She was born on the September 5th, 1988. She started acting at the age of five. She rose into fame after her role in Tahidi High. Tahidi High is a local Kenyan TV show that is acted in a high school setting and illustrates the life of a Kenyan high schooler. This includes the mischief, the relationship dramas, teacher-pupil scandals and the likes. Her role in Tahidi high saw her scoop the award for Best Actress award in the Chat Awards two times in a row. She was a host for a famous Kenyan wedding show before she left for New York to pursue further studies. The wedding show would show on Citizen Television on Sunday at 6 pm. Apart from being the host of the wedding show, she has also hosted other shows. The shows include the Mashariki Max at Startimes Tanzania, Discovery +254 at Nation Media Group, Mashariki Mix at Mnet Africa. She is married to Martin Dale. The two got married on the 25th February 2017. They two had a garden wedding.
Apart from the award she got as an actress for Tahidi high, she has also been able to win a couple of other awards. In 2014, she won the best actress in Kenya 2014, after her role in a short film,’Now That You’re here’ which was part of the 48Hour Film Challenge. In October 2015, her host and she were awarded the award of the Best TV Hosts at the Kalasha awards for their show Discovery +254. On the 6th of December 2015, she won the award for Best East African Journalist of the Year at the Swahili Fashion Week held in Dar es Salaam. She won this award for her work at Mashariki Mix and Maisha Max for showing the beauty of East Africa to the world. She was the most googled actress in Kenya in 2013. Besides from all that, Sarah Hassan holds a degree in Actuarial Science.

8. Betty Kyalo
I don’t think there is anybody who owns a television set who doesn’t know Betty Kyalo. From her news anchoring job to her controversial marriage and dating life, she truly has had her fair share of the limelight. Betty Mutei Kyalo was born in Kajiado in the year 1989. She did her primary school education at Olerai Primary School and Uhuru Gardens Primary School. She then went ahead to get her high school education at Kangundo Girls Secondary School and then she finally went on ahead to pursue a degree in Mass communication from Daystar University. Her parents divorced early in her life, but her father was still part of her life despite living with the mother. She is the second child. She has a big brother and two younger sisters. She makes this list of top ten beautiful ladies in Kenya, despite having had a disastrous accident while she was still young. She was knocked by a Double M bus while she was making a transition from Railways to Gill House in Kenya’s capital city, Nairobi. She was going to meet up with a buddy of hers for lunch.

The accident was so tragic that she couldn’t do even the basic things like going to the toilet by herself. During this time, her family was scared about how she would handle the situation. Their biggest concern was actually what was going to happen if she saw her face as she was seriously bruised. One day when she was going for an X-ray, she saw her reflection and she entered into a period of depression. This is because she wanted to be a news anchor from way back when she was a child. But after so many successful surgeries, finally letting God handle everything, her skin grew back and now she is the hottie we’ve come to love and admire.

Betty started her career as an intern at Kenya Television Network(KTN). She gained ranks there to the point she became the face of the station. She recently left KTN to join K24. This will come as a shocker but Betty Kyalo is a lover of cars. She loves cars to the point that she has a test-driving part-time job. She said she does not do that job for the money but for the love, she has for cars.

Betty Kyalo was briefly married to another news anchor, Dennis Okari. The two have a daughter by the name Ivana Okari. After dating for such a long time, their marriage did not even stay for more than a year. There are many rumours as to why Betty left Dennis with the most common being how Dennis is a womanizer and thus they broke up due to his infidelity.
She also opened a state of the art spa place and beauty spot with her “former” best friend, Susan Kaittany. However, sometime early this year, they got into differences to the point that Betty took two police officers to arrest her, after accusing Susan of keeping her passport and failing to give it back to her. This saw Betty later denounce her partnership with her. That is a little sneak peek into who Betty Kyalo is just in case you live in some hole.

9. Joyce Omondi
Little is known about this Kenyan gospel artist. She studied in Kenya before going to Knox College in the United States of America where she majored in Economics and Integrated International Studies (IIS). Joyce also holds a masters in Foreign affairs.

Joyce came back to Kenya and released very interesting gospel songs. She learnt how to sing and play the piano at a very young age. This would see her perform in her church and went on ahead to join the church choir. She has many known songs. Her songs are inspired by her own personal events. These are the things she has gone through and what she personally stands for. She is not limited to any specific genre as her gospel tracks range from reggae to neo-soul to smooth jazz to Western and worshory. She was also a host to a popular Sunday morning show which airs every Sunday morning by the name Rauka. She quit the show to go do her masters. Some of the songs under her name include:
ConquerorUinuliweKweliNificheSitaogopaHere I Am to WorshipNakukimbiliaYour PresenceThere You AreGreat GodLihimidi Jina LakePerfect Gift
She won a Groove award in 2013 in the Video of the Year category. She was married on the 18th of December 201.5 She is married to another TV personality; Waihiga Mwaura. The wedding was held at Sawela Lodge in Naivasha.

10. Lupita Nyong’o
She is one of the beauties putting Kenya on the world map. Lupita Nyong’o was born in Mexico City in the year 1983. She is the daughter of KenyaN politician Peter Anyang' Nyong'o. Her mother is called Dorothy Ogada Buyu. She attended college in the United States, earning a bachelor's degree in Film and Theatre Studies from Hampshire College. Lupita Nyong’o is an actress and a fashion icon. She started while still in Kenya and African included before she took the world stage. She is the first Kenyan to ever win an Academy Award. Lupita Nyong'o was nominated for several awards for 12 Years a Slave, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, including Best Supporting Actress, which she won. She was also awarded the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the sixth black actress to win the award. She is the first African actress to win the award, the first Kenyan actress to win an Oscar, and the first Mexican to win the award. She was the fifteenth actress to win an Oscar for a debut performance in a feature film. Apart from 12 years a Slave, which opened the way for her, she was also in this year’s Marvel blockbuster movie; Black Panther.

Here, she took on the role of Nakia. Nakia is the woman T’challa (the Black Panther) is interested in. Let’s wait and see if this movie also gets her another award. She also co-starred in Star wars and Non-stop which are also big Hollywood releases. Lupita Nyong’o currently stays in Brooklyn, New York. She has been on the cover of many world known magazines. Truly showing if the world sees her as being beautiful who are we not to. 

Meet the New Tablet That Rolls-up Like an Ancient Scroll

The slow crawl towards flexible displays that can fold or wrap have become a holy grail for tech futurists, but this new concept device has its inspiration rooted very much in history. Researchers have created a prototype touchscreen tablet that rolls-ups up into a cylinder and can be unfurled like an ancient parchment.

Dubbed the MagicScroll, the prototype device from Queens University’s Human Media department features a 7.5-inch touchscreen that sits neatly inside a housing. Users can rotate the display using a physical rotary wheel on either end of the device, while there’s also a pop-out button to reveal the 2K resolution screen in all its glory.

The partially 3D-printed device can also be used to make phone calls, even when the display is housed within the casing. There’s also a camera, while the motion sensors enable the MagicScroll to use gestures akin to Nintendo’s Wiimote. You can see it in action in the video below

http://v.duta.us/6qdMUQAA

Coconut oil is pure poison

A 50-minute German lecture becoming a viral hit on YouTube might sound unusual, but the title of the talk by Karin Michels, the director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg and a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, has caused a bit of a stir online.

During the lecture, titled "Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors," Michels has made herself very clear with regard to dietary recommendations, and underlined that coconut oil is not healthy.

Its superfood status had already come under scrutiny last year after the American Heart Association (AHA) updated its guidelines, which recommended that people avoid the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil.

'Coconut oil is pure poison'

Michels went a step further than to recommend avoiding the foodstuff, saying "coconut oil is pure poison" and "is one of the worst foods you can eat."

There's no study showing significant health benefits to coconut-oil consumption. And, according to Michels, coconut oil is more dangerous than lard because it almost exclusively contains saturated fatty acids, ones that can clog the coronary arteries.

You can identify fats that contain large quantities of saturated fatty acids by checking to see whether they remain solid at room temperature, as is the case with butter or lard.

Based on the fact that they contain a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, experts recommend olive or rapeseed oil as an alternative, and while it can't be A 50-minute German lecture becoming a viral hit on YouTube might sound unusual, but the title of the talk by Karin Michels, the director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg and a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, has caused a bit of a stir online.

During the lecture, titled "Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors," Michels has made herself very clear with regard to dietary recommendations, and underlined that coconut oil is not healthy.

Its superfood status had already come under scrutiny last year after the American Heart Association (AHA) updated its guidelines, which recommended that people avoid the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil.

'Coconut oil is pure poison'

Michels went a step further than to recommend avoiding the foodstuff, saying "coconut oil is pure poison" and "is one of the worst foods you can eat."

There's no study showing significant health benefits to coconut-oil consumption. And, according to Michels, coconut oil is more dangerous than lard because it almost exclusively contains saturated fatty acids, ones that can clog the coronary arteries.

You can identify fats that contain large quantities of saturated fatty acids by checking to see whether they remain solid at room temperature, as is the case with butter or lard.

Based on the fact that they contain a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, experts recommend olive or rapeseed oil as an alternative, and while it can't be A 50-minute German lecture becoming a viral hit on YouTube might sound unusual, but the title of the talk by Karin Michels, the director of the Institute for Prevention and Tumor Epidemiology at the University of Freiburg and a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, has caused a bit of a stir online.

During the lecture, titled "Coconut Oil and other Nutritional Errors," Michels has made herself very clear with regard to dietary recommendations, and underlined that coconut oil is not healthy.

Its superfood status had already come under scrutiny last year after the American Heart Association (AHA) updated its guidelines, which recommended that people avoid the saturated fatty acids found in coconut oil.

'Coconut oil is pure poison'

Michels went a step further than to recommend avoiding the foodstuff, saying "coconut oil is pure poison" and "is one of the worst foods you can eat."

There's no study showing significant health benefits to coconut-oil consumption. And, according to Michels, coconut oil is more dangerous than lard because it almost exclusively contains saturated fatty acids, ones that can clog the coronary arteries.

You can identify fats that contain large quantities of saturated fatty acids by checking to see whether they remain solid at room temperature, as is the case with butter or lard.

Based on the fact that they contain a lot of unsaturated fatty acids, experts recommend olive or rapeseed oil as an alternative, and while it can't be used for cooking, flaxseed oil is rich in omega-3 fatty acids and is just as good for the body.

While Michels doesn't describe other "superfoods" like acai, chia seeds, or matcha as harmful, at most she considers them ineffective because, in most cases, the nutrients they're touted for are available just as readily in other foods that are more easily accessible such as carrots, cherries, and apricots.

"We are well and sufficiently supplied," she said.

Are saturated fats really that unhealthy?

Most researchers agree that olive oil or linseed oil can form an important part of a healthy diet. While the scientific world is still debating whether saturated fatty acids really are the work of the devil, others say with certainty that that's the case.

However, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition indicated that people who routinely consume cheese, whole milk, and other high-fat dairy products - in essence, products high in saturated fatty acids - are at no higher risk of dying from a heart attack, stroke, or other illness than those who avoid such products.

Another study using data from 135,000 people in 18 countries and published in The Lancet, found that high fat and low carbohydrate consumption were associated with a 23 percent lower risk of death. And, even more exciting, the positive effect still stands, regardless of whether saturated or unsaturated fatty acids are being consumed.

So what's the actual verdict on coconut oil? Most international

dietary guidelines recommend enjoying saturated fats in moderation.

As the saying goes, the dose makes the poison, so if you do have a soft spot for coconut oil, just take care not to overindulge.

This article was originally published by Business Insider Deutschland.

Samsung Introduces the ExynosModem5100 that brings 5G into a reality.

5G is becoming a reality with the Exynos Modem 5100. The Exynos Modem 5100 is fully compliant with 5G NR (New Radio) standard to support new spectrums including sub-6GHz and mmWave for faster data speed of up to 6Gbps.

Furthermore, the Exynos Modem 5100 is the industry’s first multi-mode modem that supports 5G NR with the legacy modes from 2G to 4G LTE. The modem is built on 10LPP process for low power, and is delivered as a single chipset that consists of modem, RF IC, ET (Envelop Tracking) and power management IC for faster time-to-market. With the Exynos Modem 5100, 5G NR enables various brand new experiences through enhanced broadband and massive connection with ultra-reliable and low latency.

Redefines speed.

The Exynos Modem 5100 is a cellular modem that is fully compliant with 5G NR defined by 3GPP’s Release 15 delivering the first set of 5G standard. 

The Exynos Modem 5100 supports both sub-6GHz and mmWave (millimeter Wave) spectrum bands for extremely fast, massive and reliable data connection to realize 5G’s essentials of eMBB(ehnhanced Mobile Broadband), mMTC(massive Machine-type Commnication) and URLLC(Ultra Reliable & Low Latency Communication).

The Exynos Modem 5100 enables mobile device to deliver entirely different user experience with faster download speed of up to 2Gbps with sub-6GHz and 6Gbps with mmWave which is about 1.7 times and five times faster than its predecessor respectively.

More data in less time.

The Exynos Modem 5100 for 5G NR ena

bles mobile devices to utilize wider network bandwidth in both mmWave and sub-6GHz. 

The 5G NR allows utilizing of wider bandwidth up to 100MHz per component carrier in sub-6GHz and over ten times wider in mmWave when compared to a conventional LTE’s 20MHz. 

The Exynos Modem 5100 also supports up to 256-QAM for sub-6GHz and up to 64-QAM for mmWave enabling more bits of data per symbol transferred over the network. Thus, the Exynos Modem 5100 enables higher throughput while using network resource efficiently. And the modem also supports advanced beam-forming technology that actively focuses the radio signal into a precise and highly accurate beam. 

It allows mmWave to overcome many of the environmental challenges that affect communications such as people crowded or density built-up area.

Versatile single chip.

The Exynos Modem 5100 is a multi-mode modem that supports 5G NR as well as diverse legacy major modes from 2G to 4G LTE including GSM, CDMA, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, LTE-FDD and LTE-TDD in a single chip. 

By supporting the 5G and the legacy modes in a single chip, the modem allows mobile devices to operate efficiently while crossing networks from legacy mode to 5G. It delivers better compatibility on the conventional network environment without using extra modem for legacy networks. 

Notably, the Exynos Modem 5100 supports LTE category 19 for downlink speed up to 1.6Gbps via 8CA (Carrier Aggregation) and advanced features such as 256-QAM and 4x4 MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output).

Packed and ready topower on.

The Exynos Modem 5100 is provided as a single chipset that consists of cellular modem, RF, ET (Envelope Tracking) and power management IC. It helps device manufacturer to reduce time and resource for development resulting in faster time-to-market. 

Notably, the Exynos RF offers superb compatibility to support all major RF modes even the unlicensed 5GHz allowing cutting-edge 5G smartphones to be made available to consumers much faster.

Stay connected.

The Exynos Modem 5100, built on the advanced 10nm FinFET process with low-power design, features better power efficiency. The 10LPP, the 2nd generation 10nm FinFET process, allows up to 10-percent higher performance or 15-percent lower power consumption compared to 10LPE (Low Power Early) process. And the Exynos Modem 5100 features low-power state mode that drastically controls power and clock supply. 

Furthermore, the Exynos Modem 5100 is delivered with the Envelope Tracking IC that efficiently determines the power supply voltage needed by tracking and optimizing signal level in real-time.

Stephen Hawking’s Beautiful Mind

Brief history of Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking spent his scientific life exploring some of the deepest questions a human caught in the Einsteinian opera of space and time could ask.

Although Einstein himself never really accepted it, his general theory of relativity predicted that if enough mass or energy were concentrated at one point, space would sag like mattress and eventually close itself off, creating a black hole from which nothing, not even light, could ever escape.

It would be Dr. Hawking’s fate to explore these imagined monsters and ask what their presence portends for the universe, and for those of us who live inside it.

The universe had a beginning

​In 1965, when Dr.  Hawking was 23, the British mathematician Roger Penrose proved that if Einstein’s theory of gravity, general relativity, was correct there is a point of infinite density — a singularity — at the center of a black hole.

In 1970, building on work in Dr. Hawking’s doctoral dissertation, he and Dr. Penrose show that there had to be a singularity at the beginning of time — in other words, a big bang.

That is to say, he showed that the universe had a beginning.

How black holes behave (and misbehave)

In 1970 Dr. Hawking shows that the area of a black hole’s event horizon — a spherical surface marking the point of no return — can only increase, never decrease, as stuff falls into a black hole or it collides and merges with other black holes.

1971 He suggests that mini black holes much smaller than stars created in the Big Bang could be peppering the universe.

1974 He shocks his colleagues and the world by showing that black holes will leak and explode when quantum effects — the weird laws that describe subatomic behavior — are taken into account.

1976 Dr. Hawking says exploding black holes add randomness and unpredictability to the universe, forever erasing information about what might have fallen into a black hole.

Quantum physicists object, saying the universe can’t forget, initiating a 40-year argument about the fate of information.

Dr. Hawking concedes in 2004, but does not say how information is preserved in a black hole, and the argument continues to this day.

A Universe With No Boundaries

1982 Using a mathematical conceit called imaginary time, Dr. Hawking and James Hartle, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, propose a model of a self-contained universe that has no boundary in space or time, and thus no place or time when the laws of physics break down.

In their picture of cosmic history, space-time is like a globe of the Earth. Time starts at the North Pole and goes south as the universe gets fatter. Asking what came before the Big Bang, in this case, is like asking what is north of the North Pole, they said.

Moreover, just as nothing weird happens at the North Pole of the Earth, nothing strange happens to the laws of physics at time zero. Earth abides and so does physics, obviating the need for a creator.

‘A Brief History of Time’

1988 Dr. Hawking publishes “A Brief History of Time.” It stays on the London Times best-seller list for four years, starting a gold rush of science books by prominent scientists.

1991 Errol Morris directs a documentary of the same name about Dr. Hawking and his life.

2007 Dr. Hawking is briefly free of gravity at last on a “vomit comet” flight in Florida

2012 Dr. Hawking stars in the opening of the Paralympic Games in London

2015 “The Theory of Everything,” a movie based on a book by his ex-wife, Jane Wilde, wins an Oscar for Eddie Redmayne.

He can’t make his mind up about aliens

2010 Dr. Hawking tells the Discovery Channel, “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans. We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet.”

2015 He presides over the announcement of Breakthrough Listen, a $100 million search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.

“In an infinite universe there must be other occurrences of life,” he said. “Or do our lights wander a lifeless universe? Either way, there is no bigger question.”

But he is sure about time travel. In 1991, he enunciated what he called the chronology protection conjecture, that will, as he put it, “keep the world safe for historians, It says that the laws of physics do not allow time machines.

Forget me not

In 2016, working with Andrew Strominger of Harvard and Malcolm Perry of Cambridge University, Dr. Hawking took a small step toward a solution of the infamous information paradox. He announced that information about what falls into a black hole might be preserved on the surface, or event horizon, of a black hole.

The universe will remember us, which is no small thing, he declared.

If the rules break down in black holes, they may be lost in other places as well, he warned. If information disappears into a gaping maw, the notion of a “past” itself may be in jeopardy — we couldn’t even be sure of our own histories. Our memories could be illusions.

“It’s the past that tells us who we are. Without it we lose our identity,” he said.

The Earliest Humans in England Didn't Look the Way You'd Imagine

Picture what a person nicknamed "Clark" might look like. Now do it again, knowing that Clark man is the oldest-known Homo sapiens ever discovered in England. Whether the person you pictured was wearing a cheesehead hat or a sort of Stone Age bowler hat, well, we can't verify the man's accessory choices. But we can verify his skin color.

Here's what English people looked like 10,000 years ago.\

Aged to Perfection

A man named Cheddar was originally discovered in 1903 by a construction team making improvements to Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge (no, he really has nothing to do with cheese). We've learned a lot about him in the past century. For one thing, we've pinpointed his age to 10,000 years, and we've been able to guess at his hunter-gatherer lifestyle. But a new genetic analysis has gone further than any previous investigation. Finally, we know exactly what he looked like. Behold:




Surprised? So were scientists. But the evidence was clear: the earliest residents of England did not have today's stereotypically pale skin. Cheddar man's genetic markers suggested that his skin pigmentation was closer to that of sub-Saharan Africa, pointing to the possibility that pale skin didn't arise until much later.

Also, he almost certainly had blue eyes, putting an interesting wrinkle in our modern conceptions of which genetic traits go together. He's a great example of how easy it is to trip yourself up by projecting the present onto the past.

Foul Weather, Fair Skin

Anthropologists have long assumed that people in England had paler skin before the rest of the continent, but this new discovery has rendered that assumption false. Instead, Cheddar man and all of his relatives likely stayed dark-skinned about as long as the rest of Europe — until about 4,800 years ago.



Picture what a person nicknamed "Cheddar man" might look like. Now do it again, knowing that Cheddar man is the oldest-known Homo sapiens ever discovered in England. Whether the person you pictured was wearing a cheesehead hat or a sort of Stone Age bowler hat, well, we can't verify the man's accessory choices. But we can verify his skin color. Here's what English people looked like 10,000 years ago.
Aged to Perfection

Cheddar man was originally discovered in 1903 by a construction team making improvements to Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge (no, he really has nothing to do with cheese). We've learned a lot about him in the past century. For one thing, we've pinpointed his age to 10,000 years, and we've been able to guess at his hunter-gatherer lifestyle. But a new genetic analysis has gone further than any previous investigation. Finally, we know exactly what he looked like. Behold:


Surprised? So were scientists. But the evidence was clear: the earliest residents of England did not have today's stereotypically pale skin. Cheddar man's genetic markers suggested that his skin pigmentation was closer to that of sub-Saharan Africa, pointing to the possibility that pale skin didn't arise until much later. Also, he almost certainly had blue eyes, putting an interesting wrinkle in our modern conceptions of which genetic traits go together. He's a great example of how easy it is to trip yourself up by projecting the present onto the past.
Foul Weather, Fair Skin

Anthropologists have long assumed that people in England had paler skin before the rest of the continent, but this new discovery has rendered that assumption false. Instead, Cheddar man and all of his relatives likely stayed dark-skinned about as long as the rest of Europe — until about 4,800 years ago. That might seem surprisingly recent (it means that for the majority of humanity's existence, there was literally no such thing as white people). But what caused that evolutionary change?

In the warm climates where humanity first evolved, dark skin was a handy way to reflect a substantial amount of sunlight and stave off cancer caused by UV radiation. But up north, where sunlight isn't as plentiful, reflecting that much light can lead to vitamin D deficiency.

At the end of the day, though, Cheddar man stands as a reminder that the past isn't necessarily much like the present — and that race is a lot more complicated than where you come from.That might seem surprisingly recent (it means that for the majority of humanity's existence, there was literally no such thing as white people).

But what caused that evolutionary change?.

Troubleshooting your relationship

Although not everyone acts out middle-age angst in such a way, many of us do experience a reckoning or longing as we approach midlife, the feeling of hitting a wall and wondering if there isn't more to life -- and in, particular, to marriage.

I often see this phenomenon in my own practice, as one or both partners begin to question their relationship. Even in younger couples, disagreements over classic issues such as finances, parenthood and sex can lead to concerns that they may not be on the same page regarding many of life's greatest stressors and demands.

But are such couples headed for divorce, or are they simply mired in difficulties that could be better navigated together?

Develop your communication skills

Good communication is key,  not just the ability to discuss critical relationship issues but to know what you want and express that. We get hung up on the idea of having a lot in common with a potential partner. That's all well and good, but your ability to communicate in a healthy way is more important.

You might be uncomfortable expressing your needs and desires at first, but learning how is the single most beneficial step you can take. And you'll probably save yourselves some unnecessary arguments when you realize that you can't expect your partner to be a mind-reader.

Work on yourself

It's tempting to expect our partners to change to suit our preferences, but the tough work in marriage starts with yourself: If you don't know what you want or how to articulate that, how can you expect your partner to know? Work at it on your own or with a therapist to learn how to express your emotions.

I'm suggesting a paradigm shift in the way we view relationships, It's not all about your partner -- it's about changing yourself, too.

Talk about big issues early on

Of course, when you're newly in love, hashing out finances is hardly sexy. Money seems far too mundane to discuss for couples in the first blush of romance, but it can be a huge source of stress. Good communication skills will help you talk sooner rather than later about difficult subjects, including financial concerns.

Learn to listen

Self-awareness and self-responsibility are critical ingredients to a successful marriage.

Even if you're still in the process of working on your own issues, simply expressing that to your partner can make a difference in your relationship.

For instance, if you tend to interrupt your partner or act dismissive of their feelings, you can acknowledge that you're aware of the problem and are trying to change. You can say, 'I know that how I act affects you, I'm sorry, and I'm working on it,' .

Your partner will feel heard and understood -- and that's what we all want.

Redefine success

If you've both given it your best shot and have concluded that you're not just in a rough patch, there's no shame in parting ways.

Not every divorce is a failure.

Some divorcing couples understand each other better than some married couples do. If you can come to a compassionate and responsible decision about your relationship, sometimes that's better for everyone.

"The Rough Patch" can be beneficial for both single people and couples.

SpaceX poised to launch ‘world’s most powerful rocket’

SpaceX is poised for the first test launch Tuesday of its Falcon Heavy, which aims to become the world’s most powerful rocket in operation, capable of reaching the Moon or Mars some day.

The launch, scheduled for 1:30 pm (1830 GMT) from Cape Canaveral, Florida, is the most ambitious yet for SpaceX, and has been hailed by industry experts as a game-changer because of its potential to propel the California-based company to the very forefront of the modern day space race. “NASA may decide to use it (the Falcon Heavy) as a way of fast-tracking its plans to get to the Moon and Mars,” Erik Seedhouse, assistant professor of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.

Tuesday’s launch is a “huge deal, even for a spaceflight company that routinely accomplishes huge deals,” said Jason Davis of the Planetary Society, describing the Falcon Heavy as “mythical.” No people are on board, just a mannequin wearing a futuristic spacesuit, strapped into CEO Elon Musk’s very own cherry red Tesla car. “Starman in a Red Roadster,” Musk posted on Instagram Monday, showing the rocket’s payload on a pedestal, aiming skyward. Musk has also said David Bowie’s hit “Space Oddity” would play in the vehicle during the launch.

An animated video released by SpaceX to preview the launch showed all three rocket boosters returning to upright landings on Earth, while the car and mannequin emerged from the protective nose cone and sailed into orbit. The car is destined for an elliptical orbit around the Sun, taking it into the vicinity of Mars. “At times, it will come extremely close to Mars, and there is a tiny, tiny chance that it will hit Mars,” Musk told reporters. “Extremely tiny.” Musk reiterated his warning that the maiden launch of the Falcon Heavy — a project he first unveiled in 2011 — may indeed fail. It may even explode on the launchpad. “I would consider it a win if it just clears the pad and doesn’t blow the pad to smithereens,” he said.

There is also a chance the Tesla might not make it beyond low-Earth orbit. First it has to go through the violent Van Allen belt where it will be pummeled by charged particles for about six hours. “It is going to get whacked pretty hard,” Musk said. Even if there is a disaster Tuesday, Seedhouse said it is unlikely to harm the reputation of SpaceX — already a top cargo supplier to the International Space Station under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA and busy with a steady stream of satellite clients and government payloads. “Last year, they had more launches than any other country in the world — never mind any other company,” Seedhouse said. “Every failure they have had they have bounced straight back.” – Most powerful in operation – The Falcon Heavy is essentially three Falcon 9 rockets in one, with a total of 27 Merlin engines.

These engines “together generate more than five million pounds of thrust at liftoff, equal to approximately eighteen 747 aircraft,” said SpaceX. The 230-foot (70-meter) tall rocket is designed to carry nearly 141,000 pounds (64 metric tonnes) into orbit, more than the mass of a fully loaded 737 jetliner. Although SpaceX has said the Falcon Heavy was “designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars,” the plans for it to one day carry people appear to have changed. Musk said another massive rocket under development, called BFR — short for “Big Fucking Rocket” — may be the one to transport crew, while Falcon Heavy may be reserved for equipment.

In any case, when the Falcon Heavy lifts off, “it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two,” SpaceX said. The Falcon Heavy is designed to lift more than twice the payload of the next closest operational vehicle, the Delta IV Heavy, at a far lower cost. The Delta IV Heavy costs about $350 million per launch, according to United Launch Alliance.

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy starts around $90 million. “That is way, way, way below anything else in the government launch industry,” Seedhouse said. Previous rockets that are no longer in commission have been more powerful than the Falcon Heavy — including the Saturn V moon rocket, last flown in 1973, which delivered more payload to orbit. The Soviet era Energia, which flew twice in 1987 and 1988, was also more powerful than the Falcon Heavy. The United States has been unable to send its own astronauts to space since 2011, when the 30-year shuttle program ended, leaving the world’s astronauts to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for transport to the International Space Station.

NASA is building its own massive rocket, called the Space Launch System, but costs are high and the project is years away from completion. Musk said he was feeling “giddy” about Tuesday’s launch, and was not feeling the dread and anxiety he usually experiences ahead of time. “It is guaranteed to be exciting, one way or another. Either it is going to be an exciting success or an exciting failure,” he told reporters. “I’d say tune in. It is going to be worth your time.” A live webcast of the launch is scheduled to begin around 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) on SpaceX.com.

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/spacex-poised-launch-worlds-powerful-rocket/
Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/spacex-poised-launch-worlds-powerful-rocket/

Read more at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/02/spacex-poised-launch-worlds-powerful-rocket/

8 Bad Habits You Must Break To Be More Productive

Nothing sabotages your productivity quite like bad habits. They are insidious, creeping up on you slowly until you don’t even notice the damage they’re causing.

Bad habits slow you down, decrease your accuracy, make you less creative, and stifle your performance. Getting control of your bad habits is critical, and not just for productivity’s sake. A study found that people who exercise a high degree of self-control tend to be much happier than those who don’t, both in the moment and in the long run.

“By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.” –Grenville Kleiser

Some bad habits cause more trouble than others, and the eight that follow are the worst offenders. Shedding these habits will increase your productivity and allow you to enjoy the positive mood that comes with increased self-control.

1. Using your phone, tablet or computer in bed. 

This is a big one that most people don't even realize harms their sleep and productivity. Short-wavelength blue light plays an important role in your mood, energy level, and sleep quality. In the morning, sunlight contains high concentrations of this blue light. When your eyes are exposed to it directly, the blue light halts production of the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin and makes you feel more alert. In the afternoon, the sun's rays lose their blue light, which allows your body to produce melatonin and start making you sleepy.

By the evening, your brain doesn’t expect any blue light exposure and is very sensitive to it. Most of our favorite evening devices—laptops, tablets, televisions, and mobile phones—emit short-wavelength blue light, and in the case of your laptop, tablet, and phone, they do so brightly and right in your face. This exposure impairs melatonin production and interferes with your ability to fall asleep as well as with the quality of your sleep once you do nod off. As we’ve all experienced, a poor night’s sleep has disastrous effects upon productivity. The best thing you can do is to avoid these devices after dinner (television is OK for most people as long as they sit far enough away from the set).

2. Impulsively surfing the Internet. 

It takes you 15 consecutive minutes of focus before you can fully engage in a task. Once you do, you fall into a euphoric state of increased productivity called flow. Research shows that people in a flow state are five times more productive than they otherwise would be. When you click out of your work because you get an itch to check the news, Facebook, a sport’s score, or what have you, this pulls you out of flow. This means you have to go through another 15 minutes of continuous focus to reenter the flow state. Click in and out of your work enough times, and you can go through an entire day without experiencing flow.

3. Perfectionism.

Most writers spend countless hours brainstorming characters and plot, and they even write page after page that they know they’ll never include in the book. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when it’s time to get started because we know that our ideas aren’t perfect and what we produce might not be any good. But how can you ever produce something great if you don’t get started and give your ideas time to evolve? .
“You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”- Author Jodi Picoult

4. Meetings. 

Meetings gobble up your precious time like no other. Ultra-productive people avoid meetings as much as humanly possible. They know that a meeting will drag on forever if they let it, so when they must have a meeting they inform everyone at the onset that they’ll stick to the intended schedule. This sets a clear limit that motivates everyone to be more focused and efficient.

5. Responding to emails as they arrive. 

Productive people don’t allow their email to be a constant interruption. In addition to checking their e-mail on a schedule, they take advantage of features that prioritize messages by sender. They set alerts for their most important vendors and their best customers, and they save the rest until they reach a stopping point in their work. Some people even set up an autoresponder that lets senders know when they’ll be checking their e-mail again.

6. Hitting the snooze button. 

When you sleep, your brain moves through an elaborate series of cycles, the last of which prepares you to be alert at your wake up time. This is why you’ll sometimes wake up right before your alarm clock goes off—your brain knows it’s time to wake up and it’s ready to do so. When you hit the snooze button and fall back asleep, you lose this alertness and wake up later, tired and groggy. Worst of all, this grogginess can take hours to wear off. So no matter how tired you think you are when your alarm clock goes off, force yourself out of bed if you want to have a productive morning.

7. Multitasking.

Multitasking is a real productivity killer. Research confirms that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.

But what if some people have a special gift for multitasking? The researchers compared groups of people, based on their tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They found that heavy multitaskers—those who multitasked a lot and felt that it boosted their performance—were actually worse at multitasking than those who liked to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to another. Ouch!


8. Putting off tough tasks. 

We have a limited amount of mental energy, and as we exhaust this energy, our decision-making and productivity decline rapidly. This is called decision fatigue. When you put off tough tasks till late in the day because they’re intimidating, you save them for when you’re at your worst. To beat decision fatigue, you must tackle complex tasks in the morning when your mind is fresh.

Bitcoin price drops below $6,200

Bitcoin plunged 20 percent to a three-month low on Tuesday, its latest sharp loss following a series of setbacks for the cryptocurrency that, with a collapse across global mainstream markets adding to the selling.

The virtual currency fell to $6,190 for the first time since mid-November, according to Bloomberg News, and represents the latest hammering for a unit that saw a stratospheric 26-fold rise last year.

Tuesday’s collapse comes just six weeks after bitcoin hit a record high of $19,511, fuelled by a flood of speculators looking to make a quick buck, with warnings it could fall another 50 percent.

Since those heady days the cryptomarket — which includes dozens of other units — has been pounded by news of crackdowns by governments including in China, Russia and South Korea, one of the biggest markets for the sector.

On Thursday, India said it would “take all measures to eliminate” cryptocurrencies’ use as part of a payment system and in funding illegitimate activities, while Japanese authorities raided a virtual currency exchange after it lost $530 million to hackers.

Central bank in Europe, Japan and the United States have also flagged concerns about the unit and this week saw several commercial lenders say they would stop allowing their customers to buy bitcoin through their credit cards owing to debt concerns.

Stephen Innes, head of trading for Asia Pacific at Oanda, said “the dynamics behind the moves are regulatory clampdowns and investors losing confidence in crypto”.

The sell-off on Tuesday was exacerbated by crushing losses on world stock markets, with the Dow on Wall Street suffering its biggest one-day points loss and wiping out all its 2018 gains.

The global rout comes as panicked investors fret over rising US borrowing costs, leading them to cash in profits after a stellar couple of months that have seen many indexes hit record or all-time highs.

Equities have enjoyed months of surges fuelled by optimism over the US economy, corporate earnings and the global outlook.

But while traders have been piling into equities, pushing many global indexes to record or multi-year highs, there has been growing concern on trading floors about elevated US Treasury bond yields — at four-year highs — and the likelihood of fresh Federal Reserve interest rate hikes.

“The risk-off tone is hitting Bitcoin almost as hard as a global regulator and bank scrutiny,” said Greg McKenna, chief market strategist at AxiTrader. “The latest dent to the Cryptospace has been banks saying they are shutting down the ability of clients to buy bitcoin with their cards.”

“This could end up a full round trip back into the $1,850/$2,966 region.”

Volkswagen vows to end animal testing after latest diesel scandal

Humans were exposed to the toxic fumes in experiments requested by a group funded by German carmakers, according to media reports. The shocking revelation came after tests on monkeys became public over the weekend.

Reports by German newspapers Stuttgarter Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung said humans had been exposed to a gas found in diesel fumes during an experiment "sometime between 2012 and 2015" requested by a group funded by German carmakers.

The tests were requested by the European Research Group on Environment and Health in the Transport Sector (EUGT) — a now defunct organization founded by German carmakers Volkswagen, Daimler and BMW.

The experiments focused on "short-term nitrogen dioxide inhalation by healthy people," according to the newspapers. An Aachen-based university hospital then examined 25 people after they inhaled varying amounts of the gas over several hours.

The experiments were reported on after recent revelations of an experiment where — in equally controversial tests — monkeys were made to inhale the toxic gas.

Reacting to the accusations, Volkswagen said in a statement "we are convinced that the scientific methods chosen at the time were wrong."

Daimler said Sunday it was "shocked by the extent of those studies and the way there were carried out."

"We strongly condemn the tests," the company said, adding that it had had no say in the testing method and the measures taken by the EUGT were "against Daimler's values and ethical principles."

The Stuttgart-based carmaker said it had launched an investigation into the tests on monkeys and humans which it considered "superfluous and repulsive."

German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said later on Monday she was "horrified" by the news.

"What is known so far is disgusting," she said, adding that the auto industry and the scientific community must explain their role. "The fact that an entire industry has apparently tried to conceal brazen and dubious methods of scientific research makes it even more monstrous."

Donald Trump offered gold toilet at a Museum

New York's Guggenheim museum has turned down a request from President Donald Trump to borrow Van Gogh's work for the White House - instead offering him a gold toilet, media reports say.

The museum apologised for not being able to furnish the White House with Van Gogh's Landscape With Snow, the Washington Post says.

But the Guggenheim suggested a "solid, 18-karat toilet" could be offered as an alternative.

The White House has made no comment.

Solid gold toilet to open to public

According to the Washington Post, museum curator Nancy Spector responded to the White House request last September.

"I am sorry... to inform you that we are unable to participate in this loan since the painting is part of the museum's Thannhauser Collection, which is prohibited from travel except for the rarest of occasions," she wrote in an email.

The 1888 Van Gogh painting, the email added, would be exhibited at the museum's sister institution with the permission of the owners.

However, the curator added that the gold toilet created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan was available to the White House "for a long-term loan".

"It is, of course, extremely valuable and somewhat fragile, but we would provide all the instructions for its installation and care," Ms Spector added.

The fully functional exhibit - titled America - is seen as a pointed satire on excessive wealth in the US.