On the flat lava plain of Reykjanesbaer, Iceland, near the Arctic Circle, you can find the mines of Bitcoin.

To get there, you pass through a fortified gate and enter a featureless yellow building. After checking in with a guard behind bulletproof glass, you face four more security checkpoints, including a so-called man trap that allows passage only after the door behind you has shut. This brings you to the center of the operation, a fluorescent-lit room with more than 100 whirring silver computers, each in a locked cabinet and each cooled by blasts of Arctic air shot up from vents in the floor.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, whose work as a weapons designer for the Soviet Union is immortalized in the name of the world's most popular firearm, died Monday at the age of 94.

Kalashnikov once aspired to design farm equipment. But even though his most famous invention - the AK-47 assault rifle - sowed havoc instead of crops, he often said he felt personally untroubled by his contribution to bloodshed.

With its new Huracán, Lamborghini is about to unleash a new kind of fury on Ferrari’s all-conquering 458 Italia.

Powered by an even meaner development of the all-aluminium, 5.2-litre V10 from the outgoing Gallardo, the mid-engine Huracán is tipped by Lamborghini to blast from zero to 62mph in a scant 3.2 seconds, and will rip beyond 124mph in less than 10 seconds.

New York City, a traditional incubator for artists, has now become a 'gated citadel' for creativity.

On May 5, musician Patti Smith was asked what advice she had for young people trying to make it in New York City. The long-time New Yorker's take? Get out. "New York has closed itself off to the young and the struggling," she said. "New York City has been taken away from you."

Smith was not the only New Yorker to reject the city that had nurtured artists for decades. In October, musician David Byrne

Nine in 10 Americans will celebrate Christmas this year, but a new poll shows that increasing numbers see the holiday as more tinsel than gospel truth.

This year more than ever, Americans prefer that stores and businesses welcome them with the more generic "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" than "Merry Christmas," according to a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service.

And for one in four American adults (26%), Dec. 25 is simply a cultural holiday, not a religious holy day.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is known for making big bets in the world of innovation, and on Sunday night on 60 Minutes he revealed what might be one of his biggest: product delivery by flying robot drones.

The service is called Amazon Prime Air and it's slated for rollout sometime in 2015, depending on FAA approval.

Say "laptop" or "tablet" or "app" to a technophile and you may get them interested. Say "robot," and you've got them excited.

For centuries, we've been intrigued by the concept of creating mechanized beings that are as much like us as possible. And as our technological know-how marches ever forward, we're closer than ever to doing it.

From robots you can buy right now to the ones invading the work force to tech giant Google's move into military robotics, our automated friends are no longer just the stuff of science-fiction double features.

But like many scientific advances, fantasy was a prime motivator.

Seventeen rescue robots are competing in Florida this weekend, where their task is to clear away debris, break through walls and climb ladders -- a test run for their use in future disaster scenarios. But the humanoid figures are still a little shaky on their feet.

"Atlas" is attached to a hook, like a piece of meat, with his metal limbs dangling limply from his torso.

Suddenly the 150-kilogram (330-pound) robot comes to life. The hydraulic system whines, an orange light starts blinking on the robot's head and a laser scanner shaped like a tin can rotates in its face. The knees begin to bend slowly, as Atlas cautiously places his two flat feet onto the ground.

When I was in veterinary medical school, I could often be found lounging in the fraternity living room listening to jazz records. My classmates were stunned that I was wasting so much time, when most of them had to study while I seemingly had nothing to do. O.K., so maybe I graduated fifth in my class rather than first, but I was not nearly as stressed as my classmates.

My reason for sacrificing study time was that it bolstered my spirits. Veterinary medicine is a lot harder than most people think. Veterinarians learn the same anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, microbiology, and so on as physicians do. In some schools, human and veterinary medical students take many of the same basic science classes. Moreover, veterinary students have to learn about multiple species, learn more public health, and take a year’s worth of surgery.

When I was a resident I was given the opportunity to participate in a series of seminars designed to improve my teaching skills. In one discussion group the discussion leader asked us a question to which no one had an immediate answer. So he waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, one of my colleagues offered an answer that happened to be incorrect but which then sparked a lively discussion we all found quite valuable.

After the seminar, I had a chance to talk with the discussion leader and remarked how unfazed he'd seemed by the silence that had greeted his question, which had seemed to stretch on for what I'd figured to be almost five minutes. He replied the silence had only lasted 30 seconds.

 We were known in the markets of Zambia as Christmas. As our team of 12 walked through the stalls where vendors sold fresh mangoes, smelly dried fish, and other produce, they would call out to us, "Please give me Christmas. I also want Christmas!"

A year ago, our team leaders wife Moira wanted to bypass all the Christmas stress and clutter. She had read in Nehemiah 8:10, "Go home and prepare a feast, holiday food and drink; and share it with those who don't have anything: This day is holy to God. Don't feel bad. The joy of

If you have been worried about high blood pressure, you may be able to relax a bit. New guidelines were released Wednesday that suggest that people over 60 can have a higher blood pressure than previously thought.

High blood pressure is not something to be taken lightly. It is often referred to as the 'silent killer' because many times there are little or no symptoms and it can cause heart attack, stroke, and kidney failure.

The New York City Council added electronic cigarettes to a ban on smoking in offices, restaurants, bars and parks, a move that may be followed by other U.S. cities.

The council voted 43 to 8 to approve the measure, which was backed by Speaker Christine Quinn and Health Commissioner Thomas Farley.

Alcohol. Bond’s alcohol.

The British spy James Bond may routinely get himself out of dangerous situations with skill and charm, but his body may be suffering all the while because of his drinking habits. British researchers predict he could die from alcohol-related causes, such as liver damage, by age 56.

One of the many characters Peter O'Toole played on-screen insisted that he wasn't an actor but a movie star. We knew better.

The real O'Toole, who died Saturday in London at 81, was triumphantly a great actor and a great screen idol. He played a variety of roles, from meek (1969's "Goodbye Mr. Chips") to bombastic (1968's "The Lion in Winter").

In the process, he yielded a body of work that, taken together, was likely more varied than any actor of the prodigious, mostly hell-raising generation of male actors that emerged as screen icons mid-20th century. (In terms of variety, only Michael Caine challenges O'Toole, but not Richard Burton, Richard Harris or Sean Connery.)

 Next to Beyonce, the musical surprise of the 2013 holiday shopping season so far is the limited iTunes release of "The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963." It's a potential gold-mine excavation: fifty-nine previously obscure tracks, unknown outside the subculture of obsessive collectors.

Over on the bookshelves, the recently published first volume of biographer Mark Lewisohn's three-part "The Beatles: All These Years" takes up considerable space. Titled "Tune In," the first book offers 944 pages on the iconic group, concluding in 1962 -- before they were famous. Beyond serving as baby boomer stocking stuffers, do these kinds of archaeological digs enhance the Beatles' legacy? Or is pop-culture nostalgia starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel?

Benedict Cumberbatch's voice brings resonance while design shows a multicultural flair.

He's the biggest star of the movie so there was a lot that went into creating Smaug, the dragon the size of a 747 that rules over Erebor with greedy malevolence in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Here are five things you need to know about the huge beast that helped the Hobbit sequel rule the box office this past weekend.

1. His resonance comes from a human counterpart.

British actor Benedict Cumberbatch did motion-capture in finding the way Smaug would move but especially to capture facial expressions, and he also lent his deep voice. Joe Letteri, visual-effects supervisor on The Hobbit, says he took a lot of cues for Smaug's persona from the thespian's vocals, especially confronting Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) when he sneaks into the dragon's lair. "He wakes up, someone's in there to steal his gold, why

Making creative expertise a lasting part of your company means more than just hiring a few designers. You also have to retain, direct, and eventually promote them — something that managers from other backgrounds can find daunting. Recommendations often fall into tired caricatures: creatives are temperamental, they demand constant stimulation, they should be indulged. Creative professionals do fare better when they’re given flexible schedules, meaningful work, and license to fail — but then, so do the rest of us.

Supplementing already nutritious diet may in fact be harmful, doctors warn

If you're one of those countless people who gulp down a packet of mulch-vitamins in the hopes that it will improve your health or stave off disease - you're wrong. Researchers are now saying that these multi-vitamins have no foreseeable positive consequence on overall health, Furthermore, they warn, adding vitamins to an already nutritious diet may have negative side effects.

"We believe that the case is closed -- supplementing the diet of well-nourished adults with (most) mineral or vitamin supplements has no clear benefit and might even be harmful." Such were the findings in an editorial published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. "These vitamins should not be used for chronic disease prevention. Enough is enough."

Google may have just entered Skynet territory with its acquisition of Boston Dynamics, an engineering company that has designed robots for the Pentagon and has close ties to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Google (GOOG) has been aggressively buying robot makers over the past year, and its larger autonomous-machine strategy is overseen by Andy Rubin, the Google executive who led the development of Android.

It is commonly known as gac, from the Vietnamese gac or quaả gac (quaả being a classifier for spherical objects such as fruit). It is known as mùbiēguo) in Chinese, and variously as Baby Jackfruit, Spiny Bitter Gourd, Sweet Gourd, or Cochinchin Gourd in English. In Thai it is  pronounced fahk khao.

The latin name is Momordica cochinchinensis. It can be found throughout the region from Southern China to Northeastern Australia, including Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.

HIPSTER PHOTO SHARING SERVICE Instagram announced a messaging service called Instagram Direct on Thursday, as it looks to challenge Snapchat and Whatsapp.

Rumours surfaced at the end of November claiming that Instagram was plotting a messaging service to rival send-and-delete photo service Snapchat, and the firm put an end to the speculation on Thursday by announcing Instagram Direct.

Young King Arthur was ambushed and imprisoned by the monarch of a neighboring kingdom. The monarch could have killed him but was moved by Arthur's youth and ideals. So, the monarch offered him his freedom, as long as he could answer a very difficult question. Arthur would have a year to figure out the answer and, if after a year, he still had no answer, he would be put to death.

The question?....What do women really want? Such a question would perplex even the most knowledgeable man, and to young Arthur, it seemed an impossible query. But, since it was better than death, he accepted the monarch's proposition to have an answer by year's end.

He returned to his kingdom and began to poll everyone: the princess, the priests, the wise men and even the court jester. He spoke with everyone, but no one could give him a satisfactory

Martin was returning to work in his London office after spending two weeks with his brother over in New York. He was coming back with a heavy heart. It was not just that it was the end of a wonderful holiday; it was not just that he invariably suffered badly from jet lag; it was that Monday mornings always began with a team meeting and, over the months, he had grown to hate them.

Martin was aware that colleagues approached these meetings with hidden agendas; they indulged in game-playing; and he knew that people were not being honest and open. The meetings themselves were bad enough - but then there was all the moaning afterwards. "The usual people saying the usual things". "I could have improved on that idea, but I wasn't going to say". "I was thinking of making a suggestion - but I couldn't be bothered".

Nutrition experts contend that all we need is what's typically found in a routine diet. Industry representatives, backed by a fascinating history, argue that foods don't contain enough, and we need supplements. Fortunately, many excellent studies have now resolved the issue.

On October 10, 2011, researchers from the University of Minnesota found that women who took supplemental multivitamins died at rates higher than those who didn't. Two days later, researchers from the Cleveland Clinic found that men who took vitamin E had an increased risk of prostate cancer. "It's been a tough week for vitamins," said Carrie Gann of ABC News.

News is bad for your health. It leads to fear and aggression, and hinders your creativity and ability to think deeply. The solution? Stop consuming it altogether

In the past few decades, the fortunate among us have recognised the hazards of living with an overabundance of food (obesity, diabetes) and have started to change our diets. But most of us do not yet understand that news is to the mind what sugar is to the body. News is easy to digest. The media feeds us small bites of trivial matter, tidbits that don't really concern our lives and don't require thinking. That's why we experience almost no

A monument to the Ten Commandments that sits outside the Oklahoma statehouse may soon have some unholy company.

Satan worshipers are seeking to build their own monument at the state Capitol, and Lucien Greaves, a spokesman for the Satanic Temple, said he’s “optimistic” it will be approved.

“I really don’t see a grounds which they can reject this,” he told ABC News.

The avocado is colloquially known as the Alligator Pear, reflecting its shape and the leather-like appearance of its skin. Avocado is derived from the Aztec word "ahuacatl". Avocados are the fruit from Persea americana, a tall evergreen tree that can grow up to 65 feet in height. Avocados vary in weight from 8 ounces to 3 pounds depending upon the variety.

A certain shopkeeper sent his son to learn about the secret of happiness from the wisest man in the world. The lad wandered through the desert for 40 days, and finally came upon a beautiful castle, high atop a mountain. It was there that the wise man lived.

Rather than finding a saintly man, though, our hero, on entering the main room of the castle, saw a hive of activity: tradesmen came and went, people were conversing in the corners, a small orchestra was playing soft music, and there was a table covered with platters of the most delicious food in that part of the world. The wise man conversed with everyone, and the boy had to wait for two hours before it was his turn to be given the man's attention.

A man who took great pride in his lawn found himself with a large crop of dandelions. He tried every method he knew to get rid of them. Still they plagued him.

We all know that going to bed on a full stomach is a big no. After a hard day at work or school, our body needs a break from performing the functions it performs on a daily basis, and your digestive system should be no exception to this. Also eating fatty meals before bed can trigger heartburn. However, if you really need to eat do your best and eat something light, and eat at lest two to three hours before you go to bed.

Top 10 High Calorie Foods You Should Never Eat Before Going To Bed

1. Pasta
Pasta is one of the fattest foods you need to avoid before going to bed. It may sound like an easy fix if you are hungry, especially since there are many pasta recipes that take less than 30 minutes to prepare, but keep in mind that pasta is a very rich source of carbohydrates that will eventually turn into fat when you hit the bed. Keep in mind the classic pasta toppings full of cheese and oils as well as the high glycemic index of this meal, this is you should steer clear from this fatty food before bedtime!

Every year, about 9,400 young children in the U.S. are injured falling off high chairs, a new study finds. Doctors warn that despite the chairs' perceived safety, children in high chairs can be harmed if a chair is not used properly.

The study also showed that the rate of such injuries increased by 22 percent over the study period, from 2003 through 2010.

Head injuries were the most common type of injury associated with high chairs, followed by bumps or bruises and cuts, according to the study. The researchers looked at children ages 3 and younger who were treated in U.S. emergency departments, and the results are published today (Dec. 9) in the journal Clinical Pediatrics.

A woman who had worked all her life to bring about good was granted one wish: "Before I die let me visit both hell and heaven." Her wish was granted.

In the United States we are raised to appreciate the accomplishments of inventors and thinkers—creative people whose ideas have transformed our world. We celebrate the famously imaginative, the greatest artists and innovators from Van Gogh to Steve Jobs. Viewing the world creatively is supposed to be an asset, even a virtue. Online job boards burst with ads recruiting “idea people” and “out of the box” thinkers. We are taught that our own creativity will be celebrated as well, and that if we have good ideas, we will succeed.

It’s all a lie. This is the thing about creativity that is rarely acknowledged: Most people don’t actually like it. Studies confirm what many creative people have suspected all along: People are biased against creative thinking, despite all of their insistence otherwise.

My sisters, something wondrous has happened. Researchers at Microsoft are developing a smart bra that alerts women to their stress levels, so that they might avoid “emotional overeating.”

According to the BBC, the blueprint “contains removable sensors that monitor heart and skin activity to provide an indication of mood.” The bra takes your EKG and feeds it to an app on your phone, which then counsels you to avoid the refrigerator, because you’re stressed, or to go ahead and cross the kitchen threshold. (You’re calm! You can handle it.) What a sign of progress that technology now recognizes the holy trinity of womanhood, emotional instability, and concern for food and weight. These researchers totally “get” us! (Please let the bra be pink.)

Australian researchers said Thursday they had established the existence of vast freshwater reserves trapped beneath the ocean floor which could sustain future generations as current sources dwindle.

Lead author Vincent Post, from Australia's Flinders University, said that an estimated 500,000 cubic kilometres (120,000 cubic miles) of low-salinity water had been found buried beneath the seabed on continental shelves off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.

After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave, in which he would find a well. 'Ask the well what is truth', he was advised, 'and the well will reveal it to you'. Having found the well, the seeker asked that most fundamental question. And from the depths came the answer, 'Go to the village crossroad: there you shall find what you are seeking'.

There really can't be any adult in this great big world that has never tried coffee. It's consumed everywhere, and judging by the amount of Starbucks locations in the United States alone, (in 2012, there were 10,924!) we love our caffeine.

And that's fine. In fact, there are many advantages to being one of the 54 percent of Americans over 18 who drink coffee everyday. Coffee can be pretty amazing for your brain, your skin and your body. Read on to discover 11 reasons you should wake up and smell the coffee...

Scientists have known for more than 150 years that sharks get cancer. And yet the belief persists that the animals don't suffer from the disease.

That misconception is promoted in part by those who sell shark cartilage, who claim that the substance will help cure cancer, said David Shiffman, a shark researcher and doctoral student at the University of Miami. But no studies have shown that shark cartilage is an effective treatment, and the demand for the material has helped decimate shark populations, researchers say: Humans kill about 100 million sharks per year, according to a March 2013 study (although many factors contribute to the killing of sharks, including demand for shark-fin soup).

Among the Aztec people of Mexico, it is said that a long time ago there was a great fire in the forests that covered our Earth. People and animals started to run, trying to escape from the fire. Our brother owl, Tecolotl, was running away also when he noticed a small bird hurrying back and forth between the nearest river and the fire. He headed towards this small bird.

Pantone, an X-Rite company and the global authority, today announced PANTONE® 18-3224 Radiant Orchid, a captivating, magical, enigmatic purple, as the color of the year for 2014.

“While the 2013 color of the year, PANTONE 17-5641 Emerald, served as a symbol of growth, renewal and prosperity, Radiant Orchid reaches across the color wheel to intrigue the eye and spark the imagination,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “An invitation to innovation, Radiant Orchid encourages expanded creativity and originality, which is increasingly valued in today’s society.”

The experience of our minds may be shaped by belief. The idea that our minds are whatever we imagine them to be may seem like an assertion that is hard to prove. But confidence is crucial to learning and knowledge, so the term “imagination” in this sense simply connotes a confident belief in our constructed mental processes and our minds’ content.

Essentially, the mind may be understood as a “blank slate” in the human infant, and from that point onwards, knowledge is accumulated through association and confidence, including imagination. The mental world relies on belief, association and confidence in what

According to a December 5 news release from the University of Arizona (UA), an international team of astronomers has discovered the most remotely orbiting planet found to date around a single, sun-like star.  HD 106906 b — the first exoplanet to be discovered by the UA — is 11 times Jupiter’s mass and orbits its parent star at 650 times the average Earth-Sun distance, making the celestial body unlike anything in our own Solar System.

In a week filled with huge announcements and surprises, we're closing out the week on one of the biggest: Disney, which had previously bought Lucasfilm and the rights to "Star Wars," now also owns "Indiana Jones."

Before you cry out that he belongs in a museum, please note that under the terms of the deal Paramount Pictures will retain distribution rights to the first four films, as well as an active participation in any future installments. However, any possible "Indiana Jones 5: The Return Of LaBeouf" would be distributed and marketed solely by Disney.

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way.

It’s a tried and tested technique used by writers and poets, but can psychology explain why first moments after waking can be among our most imaginative?

It is 6.06am and I’m typing this in my pyjamas. I awoke at 6.04am, walked from the bedroom to the study, switched on my computer and got to work immediately. This is unusual behaviour for me. However, it’s a tried and tested technique for enhancing creativity, long used by writers, poets and others, including the inventor Benjamin Franklin. And psychology research appears to back this up, providing an explanation for why we might be at our most creative when our minds are still emerging from the realm of sleep.

In old times, fable retells the story of the young athletic boy hungry for success, for whom winning was everything and success was measured by such a result.

One day, the boy was preparing himself for a running competition in his small native village, himself and two other young boys to compete. A large crowd had congregated to witness the sporting spectacle and a wise old man, upon hearing of the little boy, had travelled far to bear witness also.

South Africa's first black president and anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela has died, South Africa's president says.

Mr Mandela, 95, led South Africa's transition from white-minority rule in the 1990s, after 27 years in prison.

He had been receiving intense home-based medical care for a lung infection after three months in hospital.

In a statement on South African national TV, Jacob Zuma said Mr Mandela had "departed" and was at peace.

"Our nation has lost its greatest son," Mr Zuma said.

He said Mr Mandela would receive a full state funeral, and flags would be flown at half-mast.

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Nama lengkapnya Lo Siaw Ging, namun ia lebih dikenal dengan panggilan dokter Lo. Di Solo, Jawa Tengah, dokter keturunan Tionghoa berusia 78 tahun ini populer bukan hanya karena diagnosa dan obat yang diberikannya selalu tepat, tapi juga karena ia tidak pernah meminta bayaran dari pasiennya.

Setiap hari, kecuali Minggu, puluhan pasien antre di ruang tunggu prakteknya. Mereka berasal dari berbagai kalangan, mulai tukang becak, pedagang kaki lima, buruh pabrik, karyawan swasta, pegawai negeri, hingga pengusaha. Pasiennya tidak hanya datang dari Solo, tetapi juga kota-kota di sekitarnya, seperti Sukoharjo, Sragen, Karanganyar, Boyolali, Klaten, dan Wonogiri.