N.W.T. judge says accused using urinal next to him was 'completely inappropriate'

The judge in a meat wastage trial taking place in Behchoko, N.W.T., told the court today that it was "completely inappropriate" for one of the accused to use a urinal next to him during a break in proceedings.

Judge Brian Bruser told the court Thursday afternoon that during a five-minute recess he was using one of the urinals in the men's washroom when one of the accused, Frank Arrowmaker, entered the washroom and used the second urinal next to him. Neither man spoke.

Gameti Chief David Wedawin and brothers Jimmy and Frank Arrowmaker are each charged with a dozen counts of meat wastage. Crown prosecutors say they left caribou meat behind after a hunting trip to Hottah Lake in April 2013. 

The trial is taking place in Behchoko's community hall, which has one men's and one women's washroom. The men's washroom has two urinals and a few stalls.

Bruser told the court Arrowmaker's actions "lacked total common sense."

Arrowmaker's lawyer then applied for a mistrial, saying Bruser's remarks showed he was biased against his client and he would not be able to get a fair trial.

The judge and the Crown lawyer disagreed. Bruser said he was not biased against Arrowmaker and that he only brought up the incident to make sure everything was on the table.

Bruser said his comments did not call the accused's character into question. Court then continued.

Arrowmaker's lawyer now has the option of making an application to the Supreme Court to have Bruser taken off the case.

Gameti resident Leon Wellin continued his testimony Thursday. He says while he was out hunting with a group on Hottah Lake in April 2013, Jimmy Arrowmaker approached them and told them to follow him. They did and found Wedawin and Frank Arrowmaker harvesting 15 caribou.

Wellin told the court that Wedawin and the Arrowmaker brothers were drinking. He said they told him and the other hunters to take some of the meat. A few hours later, when Wedawin and the Arrowmakers left, Wellin says they told him and the other hunters to clean up when they were done.

Wellin said he filled his toboggan with meat he had cut and left the animals Wedawin and the Arrowmakers had butchered at the site. Wellin says he took four of six caribou he took from the lake to Whati and traded them for a boat motor.

Days later in Gameti, Wellin told a wildlife officer he had given the meat to his grandmother. Trading with animal parts is illegal under N.W.T.'s Wildlife Act.

The case has been adjourned until the new year.

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DNA co-discoverer's Nobel medal sells for record price at auction

The Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to the U.S. scientist and co-discoverer of DNA, James Watson, sold at auction on Thursday for more than $4.7 million US, smashing the world record price for any Nobel prize.

The medal, which Christie's auction house had estimated would sell for anywhere from $2.5 million to as much as $3.5 million, was the first Nobel put on sale by a living recipient.

Christie's did not disclose the buyer, who was bidding via telephone and paid $4,757,000, including commission.

The price and record "demonstrate the growing strength in the market for the iconic pieces related to the early understanding and development of the implications of DNA and its growing relevance today," said Francis Wahlgren, international director of books and manuscripts at Christie's.

Watson, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, unravelled the double-helix structure and function of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) in Britain in 1953 in a discovery that heralded the modern era of biology.

James Watson's 1962 Nobel Prize medal sold at auction by Christie's for $4.7 million US - a world auction record for any Nobel Prize. (Christie's/The Associated Press)

The scientists received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962 for their groundbreaking work in genetics. Watson, 86, said he planned to donate part of the proceeds to charities and to support scientific research.

A letter by Crick to his son sold for $6 million in 2013, setting the world record for any letter sold at auction. The missive, in which Crick outlined the structure of DNA shortly before the discovery was published, sold for more than three times the estimate.

Crick's Nobel medal fetched $2.27 million when it was auctioned last year.

A 1936 Nobel Peace Prize medal sold for $1.1 million last year. It had been awarded to Carlos Saavedra Lamas, foreign minister of Argentina, for his part in ending the Chaco War between Paraguay and Bolivia, and for his work on a South American antiwar pact signed in 1933.

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'Excited and nervous' Miss World 2013 debates Oxford students on event's merits

Some of the sharpest minds in student academics turned out at the prestigious Oxford University to hear a speech from Miss World 2013 and contestants for this year's competition on Tuesday.

Miss World 2013, Megan Young of the Philippines, poses near to Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in central London November 25, 2014. (Toby Melville/ REUTERS)

Megan Young was crowned Miss World 2013 when she represented the country of her mother's birth the Philippines.

But it was less about her looks today when she spoke before a crowd of students at the Oxford Union and defended the Miss World event from detractors who say it demeans women.

Miss World 2013 Megan Young (front C) of the Philippines joins hands with other contestants in finale of Miss World 2013. (Murdani Usman/REUTERS)

Before she spoke to the crowd, Young and this year's contestants were given a tour of the University's centuries-old buildings, where some of the world's most celebrated scientists, writers and academic minds have studied.

Young implied that she was feeling a few nerves before the speech.

"I'm a bit nervous of course we're in the Oxford University and we'll be with the Oxford Union so for me to just step into this campus and be in this area where very famous have been it's an honour and I'm just very excited and nervous at the same time."

Young was joined at the debate by competitors for the Miss World 2014 title.

One of those to join her was Miss England, Carina Tyrrell, who is a final year medicine student at Oxford's traditional academic rivals, Cambridge University.

Tyrrell defended the competition from criticism that women are judged more on their looks rather than their brains.

'"You are surrounded by women who represent their countries. These are role models, they are role models to young women and role models to society."'-  Carina Tyrrell, Miss England, 

"You are surrounded by women who represent their countries. These are role models, they are role models to young women and role models to society."

Tyrrell also said that she was looking forward to debating against Oxford University students.

"There is a little bit, yes. I'm hoping to make Cambridge proud and stand my ground, certainly," she said.

Once the tour was finished Young and the Miss World contestants made their way to the Oxford Union, where they were also joined by the 1953 winner Denise Perrier.

The likes of Miss South Africa and Miss United States then delivered speeches before a busy Union.

"Miss World allows women the chance to represent their countries. It allows us the chance to lead. Miss World is not a celebrity, she is an ambassador. She tells women all around the world again that it's okay to have an opinion. She makes changes happen. She identifies problems and she finds solutions. She changes the world," said Miss United States, Elizabeth Safrit.

The contestants then fielded questions from students and Megan Young got emotional as she recalled what the hardest part of being Miss World has been.

"And what... it hurts really, it really does hurt and sometimes you just can't help but cry. I'm sorry I'm getting really emotional because you know I've been through so many countries and it's just so difficult seeing them in this position and you know people are saying you're Miss World you should save the world, and to be honest, we can't really save the world as a whole, we're doing it part by part. We're not Superman. We're human too," said Young.

With the debate at an end the Miss World contestants and students left the Union.

"I was a bit disappointed that it didn't have more of a debate, wasn't formed throughout the evening, perhaps, on the kind of moral issues behind having what's still fundamentally a beauty pageant. And having women from such privileged backgrounds being supposedly representative of their countries," said Oxford University student, Kate Welsh.

"All of us here just came to prove that it's a lot more than just pretty faces behind us. Whether it's a story or here for a reason, for a personal reason," said Miss Puerto Rico.

Miss World 2014 takes place on December 14 at the ExCeL Arena in London, where Megan Young will be on hand to crown the latest woman to win the historic prize.

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Awkward! 'Rocket went off' scene nabs novelist Bad Sex lit prize

Booker Prize-winning Nigerian writer Ben Okri has won the uncoveted Bad Sex in Fiction Award, a prize for erotic literary encounters that push all the wrong buttons.

The writer took the tongue-in-cheek honour Wednesday for conjuring an over-the-top passage in his novel "The Age of Magic."

"The universe was in her and with each movement it unfolded to her," Okri wrote. "Somewhere in the night a stray rocket went off." 

'[The award] is fun but a bit undignified, just like sex, assuming you do it properly.'- Editor Maggie McKernan

Okri, who won the prestigious Booker Prize in 1991 for "The Famished Road," beat finalists including this year's Booker winner, Richard Flanagan; Japanese literary star Haruki Murakami; and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Cunningham.

The Bad Sex award was founded in 1993 to name-and-shame authors of "poorly written, perfunctory or redundant" passages of sexual description. Explicitly pornographic works are not eligible for the prize, run by the Literary Review magazine.

Previous recipients — most of whom have accepted the prize with good humour — include Tom Wolfe, Sebastian Faulks, the late Norman Mailer and the late John Updike, who was awarded a Bad Sex lifetime achievement award in 2008.

Okri did not attend Wednesday's ceremony in London.

"A writer writes what they write and that's all there is to it," he said in a statement.

His editor, Maggie McKernan, said winning the award "is fun but a bit undignified, just like sex, assuming you do it properly."

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University of Texas can't find about 100 brain specimens

The University of Texas at Austin is missing about 100 brains — about half of the specimens the university had in a collection of brains preserved in jars of formaldehyde.

One of the missing brains is believed to have belonged to clock tower sniper Charles Whitman.

"We think somebody may have taken the brains, but we don't know at all for sure," psychology Professor Tim Schallert, co-curator of the collection, told the Austin American-Statesman.

'It's entirely possible word got around among undergraduates and people started swiping them for living rooms or Halloween pranks.'- Lawrence Cormack, co-curator of UT's brain collection

His co-curator, psychology Professor Lawrence Cormack, said, "It's entirely possible word got around among undergraduates and people started swiping them for living rooms or Halloween pranks."

The Austin State Hospital had transferred the brains to the university about 28 years ago under a "temporary possession" agreement. Schallert said his psychology lab had room for only 100 brains, so the rest were moved to the basement of the university's Animal Resources Center.

This file photo shows Charles J. Whitman, a 24-year-old student who killed 16 and wounded 31 from the tower of the University of Texas administration building on Aug. 1, 1966. (The Associated Press)

"They are no longer in the basement," Cormack said.

The university said in a statement that it will investigate "the circumstances surrounding this collection since it came here nearly 30 years ago" and that it's "committed to treating the brain specimens with respect." It says the remaining brain specimens on campus are used "as a teaching tool and carefully curated by faculty."

The university's agreement with the hospital required the school to remove any data that might identify the person from whom the brain came. However, Schallert said Whitman's brain likely was part of the collection.

"It would make sense it would be in this group. We can't find that brain," he said.

Whitman's 1966 rampage at the University of Texas killed 16 people, including his mother and wife. Eleven of the victims were fatally shot by Whitman who had barricaded himself on the observation deck of the University of Texas Tower before he was killed by police.

The 100 remaining brains at the school have been moved to the Norman Hackerman Building, where they are being scanned with high-resolution resonance imaging equipment, Cormack said.

"These MRI images will be both useful teaching and research tools. It keeps the brains intact," he told the newspaper.

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Toronto Argonauts troll Tiger-Cats on Twitter during Grey Cup

Hamilton comes agonizingly close to hoisting the Grey Cup

CBC News Posted: Dec 01, 2014 7:56 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 01, 2014 11:27 AM ET

Grey Cup heartbreak for Hamilton Tiger Cats 3:05

Grey Cup heartbreak for Hamilton Tiger Cats 3:05

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' archrival Toronto Argonauts spent Sunday night trolling the tabbies on Twitter while they played for the 102nd Grey Cup.

After the Ticats' heartbreaking loss, the Argos tweeted out this charming image to Hamilton's account:

The Tiger-Cats (as fans are well aware) also lost in last year's Grey Cup game to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

For anyone who is wondering, the Argonauts didn't even qualify for the playoffs this year. They spent most of the game tweeting cheeky photos at the Ticats.

Oh, and the Tiger-Cats also knocked the Argos out of the playoffs last season. So there's that.

Some fans came to Hamilton's aid after the crushing loss:

The Box J Boys — who are definitely among the Tiger-Cats' biggest fans — also took to Twitter to defend the team. Some of their responses aren't printable (hey, they were angry), but they did send this one out:

Good call or bad? Did the refs get it right calling back Brandon Banks punt return TD?

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MIT researchers design battery powered cheetah robot

It's a robot unlike any other, inspired by the world's fastest land animal and controlled by video game technology.

The robot, called the cheetah, can run on batteries at speeds of more than 16 km/h, jump about 40 centimetres high, land safely and continue running for at least 15 minutes — all while using less power than a microwave oven.

It's the creation of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who had to design key elements from zero because of a lack of, or shortcomings in, existing technology.

'In the next 10 years, our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life.'- MIT professor Sangbae Kim

That includes powerful, lightweight motors, electronics that control power for its 12 motors and an algorithm that determines the amount of force a leg should exert during the split second that it spends on the ground while running. That's the key to helping the robot maintain balance and forward momentum.

An onboard computer organizes data from various sensors and sends commands to each motor.

"This is kind of a Ferrari in the robotics world, like, we have to put all the expensive components and make it really that instinctive," said MIT professor Sangbae Kim, who heads the school's Biomimetic Robotics Lab that designed the robot. "That's the only way to get that speed."

Insight gleaned from the prototype could have real-world applications, including the design of revolutionary prosthetics, wearable technologies, all-terrain wheelchairs and vehicles that can travel efficiently in rough terrain much like animals do, Kim said. There are hopes the robot will be able to be used in search and rescue operations in hazardous or hostile environments where it's too risky to send a human rescuer.

Cheetah the robot can run more than 16 km/h and jump about 40 cm high. (Charles Krupa/The Associated Press)

"When the robot is running, at every step, we calculate the appropriate amount of the force to the legs so that the robot can balance itself," said MIT research scientist Hae-Won Park, who wrote the complex algorithm used to control the cheetah, which weighs around 31 kilograms — about the same as one of its female feline counterparts.

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defence's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. The military research arm is also funding a similar robot being developed by Boston Dynamics. The company says its version is powered by an off-board hydraulic pump and uses a boom-like device to keep it running in the centre of a treadmill.

Crafting the cheetah robot took five years of work and plenty of confidence to ignore those who said electric motors aren't strong enough to propel a running mechanical cheetah powered by batteries.

Researchers continue to tweak their prototype, looking to add additional sensors that would eventually make the robot autonomous.

"In the next 10 years, our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life," Kim said.

22.55 | 0 komentar | Read More

MIT researchers design battery powered cheetah robot

It's a robot unlike any other, inspired by the world's fastest land animal and controlled by video game technology.

The robot, called the cheetah, can run on batteries at speeds of more than 16 km/h, jump about 40 centimetres high, land safely and continue running for at least 15 minutes — all while using less power than a microwave oven.

It's the creation of researchers at the Massachusetts of Technology, who had to design key elements from zero because of a lack of, or shortcomings in, existing technology.

'In the next 10 years, our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life.'- MIT professor Sangbae Kim

That includes powerful, lightweight motors, electronics that control power for its 12 motors and an algorithm that determines the amount of force a leg should exert during the split second that it spends on the ground while running. That's the key to helping the robot maintain balance and forward momentum.

An onboard computer organizes data from various sensors and sends commands to each motor.

"This is kind of a Ferrari in the robotics world, like, we have to put all the expensive components and make it really that instinctive," said MIT professor Sangbae Kim, who heads the school's Biomimetic Robotics Lab that designed the robot. "That's the only way to get that speed."

Insight gleaned from the prototype could have real-world applications, including the design of revolutionary prosthetics, wearable technologies, all-terrain wheelchairs and vehicles that can travel efficiently in rough terrain much like animals do, Kim said. There are hopes the robot will be able to be used in search and rescue operations in hazardous or hostile environments where it's too risky to send a human rescuer.

Cheetah the robot can run more than 16 km/h and jump about 40 cm high. (Charles Krupa/The Associated Press)

"When the robot is running, at every step, we calculate the appropriate amount of the force to the legs so that the robot can balance itself," said MIT research scientist Hae-Won Park, who wrote the complex algorithm used to control the cheetah, which weighs around 31 kilograms — about the same as one of its female feline counterparts.

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Defence's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency. The military research arm is also funding a similar robot being developed by Boston Dynamics. The company says its version is powered by an off-board hydraulic pump and uses a boom-like device to keep it running in the centre of a treadmill.

Crafting the cheetah robot took five years of work and plenty of confidence to ignore those who said electric motors aren't strong enough to propel a running mechanical cheetah powered by batteries.

Researchers continue to tweak their prototype, looking to add additional sensors that would eventually make the robot autonomous.

"In the next 10 years, our goal is we are trying to make this robot to save a life," Kim said.

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Toronto Argonauts troll Tiger-Cats on Twitter during Grey Cup

New

Hamilton comes agonizingly close to hoisting the Grey Cup

CBC News Posted: Dec 01, 2014 7:56 AM ET Last Updated: Dec 01, 2014 9:26 AM ET

Grey Cup heartbreak for Hamilton Tiger Cats 3:05

Grey Cup heartbreak for Hamilton Tiger Cats 3:05

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' archrival Toronto Argonauts spent Sunday night trolling the tabbies on Twitter while they played for the 102nd Grey Cup.

After the Ticats' heartbreaking loss, the Argos tweeted out this charming image to Hamilton's account:

The Tiger-Cats (as fans are well aware) also lost in last year's Grey Cup game to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

For anyone who is wondering, the Argonauts didn't even qualify for the playoffs this year. They spent most of the game tweeting cheeky photos at the Ticats.

Oh, and the Tiger-Cats also knocked the Argos out of the playoffs last season. So there's that.

Some fans came to Hamilton's aid after the crushing loss:

The Box J Boys — who are definitely among the Tiger-Cats' biggest fans — also took to Twitter to defend the team. Some of their responses aren't printable (hey, they were angry), but they did send this one out:

Good call or bad? Did the refs get it right calling back Brandon Banks punt return TD?

22.55 | 0 komentar | Read More