Latest Invention: Mind-Controlled TV Concept

Haier's latest invention recently presented is a mind-controlled TV at
CES 2012. Dubbed the "Brain Wave TV", the device features a 58-inch
display and it can be seen at the company's booth. This is just a
prototype that the company is currently working on.

To be able to control the futuristic television set, the user only
needs to put on an EEG headpiece (on the image you can see the right
position of the device that reads your brain).

However, the company did not show any TV interface. Instead it decided
to demonstrate its innovation on a mini-game in which the player
should try to make a barrel explode by focusing on it very hard.

Basically, the headpiece reads the electrical activity on the user's
scalp. Still due to the fact that currently it only has one main
sensor, the device didn't really show good results, though the whole
idea is worth appreciating.

According to Haier, in the near future it plans to equip its EEG
headpiece with functions that will allow the user to use their brain
to adjust the volume and switch channels.

Zazzle print from Art Nation

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My Love Of Old Hollywood: Hollywood and the USO

My Love Of Old Hollywood: Hollywood and the USO

Doctor turned serial killer in WW2 Paris

Nazi-occupied Paris was a terrible place to be in the waning days of World War Two, with Jews, Resistance fighters and ordinary citizens all hoping to escape. Disappearances became so common they often weren't followed up.

And one man used the lawlessness for his own terrible purposes, killing perhaps as many as 150 people.

Yet it wasn't until thick black smoke seeped into buildings in a fashionable part of the city that firefighters and police were called to an elegant townhouse where they found body parts scattered around -- setting off a manhunt that led them, eventually, to Marcel Petiot.

The crime was very much of its time, said David King, who chronicled the hunt for Petiot in "Death in the City of Light."

 

"Paris was not a good place to be. A lot of people were trying to leave Paris, a lot of people just disappearing. He had it plotted out, a very devious plan," said King, in a telephone interview.

"Respect for the law was tarnished under the Nazis. Even if you suspected something, a lot of people were very, very reluctant to go forward, especially if they were Jewish."

Petiot, as it turned out, was a respected physician who turned serial killer by night, preying largely on Jews desperate to leave Paris by luring them in with promises of escape. He was accused of murdering "only" some 27, but authorities suspected his real toll was far higher.

King, a former history professor, first stumbled across reference to the killings while browsing in a bookstore and picking up a World War Two memoir by a spy. At first, he couldn't believe what he read.

But the grisly details stuck with him, and after he confirmed the story was true, he finished his other projects and came back to it.

"Here's a guy -- Marcel Petiot, who was accused of all the murders. Obviously very intelligent, charismatic, has a respected position, is into collecting antiques, interested in the arts," he said.

"And yet, you get to the other side, when he's accused of some of the most disturbing things you can think of: savagely dismembering bodies."

Through years of research, including perusal of Parisian police archives closed since the crimes took place, King pieced together the story of how Petiot claimed to be a member of the resistance and lured many of his victims in by promising them safe passage to South America in return for payment.

Once in Petiot's hands, the victims were told to write letters to their relatives, telling them that they were fine and would return once times had settled down. Then they were killed, most likely by lethal gas, and dismembered or burned.

"It's a microcosm of the whole Nazi terror and Paris being a bad place to be. There's got to be more than just exploiting peoples' hopes and dreams and desperation, but that's what he does," King said.

Though Petiot eluded police on at least one occasion, after appearing amid the crowd that gathered after the initial grisly discovery and speaking with a patrolman before riding off on his bicycle, he was eventually captured, tried and executed.

King, the author of several other books, said this one was particularly hard to immerse himself in due to the content, however horrifically fascinating the story.

It also had an impact on him personally.

"I'm generally a pretty outgoing person, but I'm probably a little bit more reluctant about things now," he said.

"Dr. Petiot seemed like the nicest guy -- charming, intelligent, friendly. You could just strike up a conversation with somebody like this ... I found myself on my guard more."

US Emergency Notes In WWII

During WWII the US Treasury issued two special types of Silver
Certificates more commonly know as Brown & Yellow Seals.

The Hawaii notes were printed for use in Hawaii after the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor. This Silver Certificate has "Hawaii" running
vertically on the right and left sides of the the face of the note,
with large letters across the back. The normal Blue Silver Certificate
Seal was replaced with Brown.

The North Africa note was printed for use during Operation Torch,
which was the Allied invasion of North Africa. The normal Blue Silver
Certificate Seal was replaced with Yellow. The reasoning for the
replacement on both notes was to assure instant recognition ( and
devaluation if necessary ) in the event of defeats by the enemy, or
capture of large quantities of cash.

These Emergency notes are scarce! How rare? These notes are 175 to 200
times rarer than the Blue Seal Silver Certificates. But lets not
forget these notes were to be destroyed after the war and very few
were actually kept by soldiers returning home.

Each note is in circulated condition, has original color, not over
shadowed in brown, has no pin holes or heavy folds, and are preserved
in a hard plastic snap cases for display.

Real Life "Valkyrie" - Rare WWII Wound Badges from Assassination of the "evil One"

"In the collecting world one of the most elusive of all collectables
is a German wound badge dated '20 July 1944.' As a rule, German wound
badges were not dated, however, a run of about a hundred badges were
made with this and a facsimile of Hitler's signature on the obverse.
This run was made for him to award to the soldiers wounded in this
closest to successful attempt on his life. I guess the intent was to
reward those who were loyal and willing to continue to stand, quite
literally, close to Hitler. I like to think of it as a commemorative
to the 'so close' attempt on his life.
This nearly successful assassination of the evil one was refreshed to
the general population in the recent film 'Valkyrie' starring Tom
Cruise. Although the attempt failed, it was such a large scale
endeavor it could not be covered up. This should have been a wakeup
call for all of German to rise up and stop the madness, but it was
not. Furthermore the paranoid witch hunt that followed probably
eliminated any other organized plans in their infancy."

WWII pilot not allowed to sit in plane

WWII pilot not allowed to sit in plane

Published: Jan. 9, 2012 at 2:51 PM

 

STOKE-ON-TRENT, England, Jan. 9 (UPI) -- A 91-year-old World War II pilot was banned from sitting in a restored Spitfire fighter plane at a museum in Stoke-on-Trent, England.
Museum officials cited health and safety risks when they told Eric Carter he could not climb in the cockpit of the Spitfire at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, The Sun reported.
"You couldn't make it up. I used to fly those things every day fighting the Germans -- now that really was a health and safety concern!" Carter said. "To think that I couldn't sit in a stationary Spitfire in case I got hurt. I just wish the Luftwaffe had been so caring. The people at the museum had their reasons, but I had to laugh."

Carter took part in a secret air mission during the war to keep the port of Murmansk open to preserve supply lines to Russia after the Nazi invasion in 1941. He said he volunteered for the mission knowing it was very dangerous.
"I was young and must have been mad, but perhaps we were a tougher generation," Carter said.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council said on the day Carter visited the museum, there wasn't a proper seat in the plane and the paint on the plane contained traces of radioactive radium.
"For those reasons, and because of his age, the people on the day thought it best he did not sit in the plane," the council said.

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/01/09/WWII-pilot-not-allowed-to-sit-in-plane/UPI-57331326138686/#ixzz1izqEcbDs

 

                                                

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Revealed: Nazi spy was UK's first double-agent

LONDON — A British engineer regarded for decades as a Nazi spy was really Britain's first double-agent who helped the Allies defeat Germany, according to a recently released book.
The authors of "Snow: The Double Life of a World War II Spy," also reveal that spy Arthur Owens is the father of Hollywood actress Patricia Owens, who starred in "The Fly" in 1958 and "Sayonara" with Marlon Brando in 1957.
Arthur Owens was a Welsh nationalist, according to the book by espionage writer Nigel West (pen name of Rupert Allason) and Welsh author and film producer Madoc Roberts.
The Germans recruited Arthur Owens, a failed inventor who needed money, to spy when he was on a 1935 business trip to Belgium.
Under the code name Johnny O'Brien, Owens gave the Nazis vital information about Britain's military buildup ahead of World War II.
Later, the book claims, he agreed to become a double agent for MI5, the British spy agency.
Re-dubbed Snow, Owens paved the way for a string of successful double agents and helped deliver scores of German spies to the British, the book says.
The book, which has a Facebook page, describes Owens' cover as so deep that neither side was ever wholly confident of his loyalties, the Telegraph said. In 1941, Owens' MI5 handlers ordered him interred in Dartmoor prison, where he gained the confidence of German inmates and fed information back to his spymasters.
"Arthur Owens was the foundation of the double-cross system which proved so vital in helping the Allies in so many areas," West told the Telegraph. "His contribution has never fully been appreciated, but it is hard to overstate how important his role was."
Roberts called Owens' character complex.
"His contribution to the war effort is undeniable, but what is less certain is what his motivations were," Roberts told the Telegraph. "Ultimately he was probably out for himself. But even if his intentions were not entirely honorable, without him the entire course of the war may have been different."
As for his daughter, Patricia Owens never fully acknowledged who her father was, the Telegraph said, because she feared backlash from people who considered her father a traitor.
Owens' contributions were officially revealed when documents were declassified in the 1970s, the Telegraph said, but few people took notice.
After the war, Arthur Owens lived in anonymity in Canada and later Ireland, the Telegraph said.

Why Irish soldiers who fought Hitler hide their medals?

By John Waite BBC Radio 4, Face the Facts

Five thousand Irish soldiers who swapped uniforms to fight for the British against Hitler went on to suffer years of persecution.
One of them, 92-year-old Phil Farrington, took part in the D-Day landings and helped liberate the German death camp at Bergen-Belsen - but he wears his medals in secret.
Even to this day, he has nightmares that he will be arrested by the authorities and imprisoned for his wartime service.
"They would come and get me, yes they would," he said in a frail voice at his home in the docks area of Dublin.
And his 25-year-old grandson, Patrick, confirmed: "I see the fear in him even today, even after 65 years."
Mr Farrington's fears are not groundless.
He was one of about 5,000 Irish soldiers who deserted their own neutral army to join the war against fascism and who were brutally punished on their return home as a result.
They were formally dismissed from the Irish army, stripped of all pay and pension rights, and prevented from finding work by being banned for seven years from any employment paid for by state or government funds.
A special "list" was drawn up containing their names and addresses, and circulated to every government department, town hall and railway station - anywhere the men might look for a job.
It was referred to in the Irish parliament - the Dail - at the time as a "starvation order", and for many of their families the phrase became painfully close to the truth.
Treated as outcasts
Paddy Reid - whose father and uncle both fought the Japanese at the battle of Kohima Ridge - recalls a post-war childhood in Dublin spent "moving from one slum to another".
Maybe one slice of bread a day and that would be it - no proper clothing, no proper heating.
"My father was blacklisted and away all the time, picking turnips or whatever work he could get. It's still painful to remember. We were treated as outcasts."
John Stout served with the Irish Guards armoured division which raced to Arnhem to capture a key bridge.
He also fought in the Battle of the Bulge, ending the war as a commando.
On his return home to Cork, however, he was treated as a pariah. "What they did to us was wrong. I know that in my heart. They cold-shouldered you. They didn't speak to you. What happened to them was vindictive and not only a stain on their honour but on the honour of Ireland”
End Quote Gerald Nash Member of the Irish Parliament
"They didn't understand why we did what we did. A lot of Irish people wanted Germany to win the war - they were dead up against the British."
It was only 20 years since Ireland had won its independence after many centuries of rule from London, and the Irish list of grievances against Britain was long - as Gerald Morgan, long-time professor of history at Trinity College, Dublin, explains.
"The uprisings, the civil war, all sorts of reneged promises - I'd estimate that 60% of the population expected or indeed hoped the Germans would win.
"To prevent civil unrest, Eamon de Valera had to do something. Hence the starvation order and the list."
Ireland adopted a policy of strict neutrality which may have been necessary politically or even popular, but a significant minority strongly backed Britain, including tens of thousands of Irish civilians who signed up to fight alongside the 5,000 Irish servicemen who switched uniforms.
Confidential list
Until I showed him the list - the size of a slim phone directory and marked "confidential" - John Stout had not realised his name was included.
But after the war it quickly became apparent that he could not get work and was not welcome in Ireland - so he returned to Britain.
"I feel very betrayed about how we were treated, it was wrong and even today they should say sorry for the problems we had to endure. We never even got to put our case or argue why it was unjust," said Mr Stout.
And the list itself is far from accurate, according to Robert Widders, who has written a book about the deserters' treatment called Spitting on a Soldier's Grave.
"It contains the names of men who were to be punished but who'd already been killed in action, but not the names of men who deserted the Irish army to spend their war years as burglars or thieves," he said.
In recent months, a number of Irish parliamentarians have begun pressing their government to issue a pardon to the few deserters who remain alive.
"What happened to them was vindictive and not only a stain on their honour but on the honour of Ireland," TD Gerald Nash said.
But for those nonagenarians who helped win the war but lost so much by doing so, time is of the essence, and it is running out fast.

Goliath: First unman robot in war

Sprengpanzer Goliath was a german unmmaned small armored vehicle used for demolition, mine clearing or antitank purposes. It could carry between 60 to 80 kilos of high explosive and was radio guided up to 3km. It was powered by an electric (sd.kfz 302) or petrol (sd.kfz 303) engine. Entered in service in 1942 around the russian fortress of Sebastopol.