Article:

Photo: AP

 Last month, reports emerged that Apple’s new “spaceship” campus in Cupertino, California—which hosts roughly 13,000 employees behind around 3,000 giant panes of glass—had resulted in the company’s employees repeatedly injuring themselves by walking straight into the semi-visible walls.

 Cupertino building officials allegedly warned Apple that the $5 billion Apple Park design would lead to just that happening, and per a public-records request by the San Francisco Chronicle, we now have 911 call records from at least three times those officials were proven right. On January 2nd, 2018, area 911 services fielded two separate calls regarding distracted Apple workers who slammed into glass walls, as well as another two days later.

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 All three of the injured happened to be men. In the second incident, the person in question conked into the wall hard enough that on-site medical personnel deemed he was likely to need stitches. Here’s the first incident, per the Chronicle:

 Call 1 (January 2nd, 2018) Dispatcher: Medical emergency, 185, what are you reporting? Caller: This is Apple security reporting a medical injury. Dispatcher: OK, what is the address of the emergency? Caller: Just a moment. Person in the background, near the caller: If you could let them know Apple Park Way. Caller: Apple Park Way. Dispatcher: What is the address? Caller: Apple Park Way. 1 Apple Park Way. Dispatcher: Can you repeat to make sure I have it correct? Caller: 1 Apple Park Way. Dispatcher: Where specifically should they go? Caller: Transit center, 5A. Dispatcher: Transit center — is that in any specific area at Apple? Caller: It’s off of Tantau Avenue. Caller: Is that right at 1 Apple Park Way though? Caller: It’s going to be Gate 5A off of Tantau Avenue. Dispatcher: So the address you gave me at 1 Apple Park Way is that exactly where we’re going? Caller: Yes. Dispatcher: ...so tell me exactly what happened. Caller: We had an individual who ran into a glass wall pane and they hit their head. They have a small cut on their head and they are bleeding, slightly disoriented. We have on site security with them right now. Dispatcher: Are you with the patient now? Caller: No, I am not with the patient. We are trying to have a security unit call in right now so I connect you over. Dispatcher: How old is the patient? Caller: Late 20s. Dispatcher: Is the patient male or female? Caller: Male. Dispatcher: Is he awake? Caller: He is conscious. Dispatcher: Is he breathing? Caller: That we do not know. Yes, yes, he’s conscious and breathing. Dispatcher: Let me go ahead here and update the paramedics. When did this happen? Caller: It happened around five minutes ago. Around 12:05. Dispatcher: Is there any serious bleeding? Caller: Yes, from the head. Dispatcher: Is he completely alert? Caller: Yes. Dispatcher: All right, one moment. Let me update the paramedics and I’ll have some more instructions for you. OK, I’m sending the paramedics to help you now just stay on the line and I’ll tell you what exactly to do next. You can just refer this to your security. Do not move him unless he is in danger and do not splint any injuries. From now on, do not let him have anything to eat or drink, it might make him sick or cause further problems. And don’t move him unless it’s absolutely necessary. Tell him to be still and wait for help to arrive. I’m going to give you the control bleeding instructions so they can help that ... so listen carefully and let’s make sure we do it right. Get clean dry cloth or towel and place it right on the wound and tell him to press down firmly and do not lift it up to look. Caller: Press on the wound and do not look up. Dispatcher: Correct, correct. I want someone to watch him very closely. If he becomes less awake and vomits, quickly turn him on his side. Before the responders arrive — I’m sure you have already done this — have someone flag down and help them guide the paramedics in. If he gets worse in any way, call us back immediately for further instructions. Caller: Will do. Dispatcher: OK, thank you. Caller: Thank you, have a nice day. Dispatcher: You too. Bye.

 The second injury that day appeared to be somewhat more serious, with Apple security staff unsure whether the patient was fully conscious and aware, and probably in need of stitches to repair a cut over his eye:

 Call 2 (January 2nd, 2018) Dispatcher: Sheriff emergency 336. What’s the address of the emergency? Caller: It’s going to be 1 Apple Park, Cupertino. It’s going to be a medical emergency. Dispatcher: It’s give me one moment… Can you verify the address of the emergency please? Caller: It’s going to be 1 Apple Park Way, Cupertino. Dispatcher: OK and is that a business? What building is it in? Caller: Yes, it’s going to be Apple campus. Dispatcher: What building is it in? Caller: It’s going to be in the main building, section (is) the transit center, just outside of the main campus. Dispatcher: Tell me exactly what happened. Caller: OK. So we had an employee, he was on campus and he walked into a glass window, hitting his head, has a little bit of a cut on the eyebrow. Dispatcher: OK, are you with the patient now? Caller: Uh, no. I’m calling from our call center. We have security on site with the patient. Dispatcher: OK, how old is the patient? Caller: Um, unknown. Dispatcher: OK, is the patient male or female? Caller: It’s going to be a male, adult. Dispatcher: Is he awake? Caller: Yes. Dispatcher: Is he breathing? Caller: Yes. Dispatcher: Give me one moment. Caller: Looks like he is going to be a middle-aged male. Dispatcher: OK, and where is he bleeding from? Caller: A cut above the eyebrow. Dispatcher: Anywhere else? Caller: No. Dispatcher: Is he completely alert? Caller: Unknown at this time. We’re still waiting for an update. Dispatcher: OK. Is he breathing normally? Caller: Yes, to my knowledge, yeah. Dispatcher: Is the blood spurting or pouring out? Caller: Um, I think it’s just leaking … a small cut. Dispatcher: Does he have a bleeding disorder or is on blood thinners? Caller: Not to our knowledge. Dispatcher: Give me one moment to update them. Person near caller, in the background: There’s a cut on the eyebrow. According to our, let’s call it, first aid certified personnel it looks like it’s going to (require) stitches. Dispatcher: Stay on the line, I”ll tell you what to do next. For now, assure him that help is on the way. Don’t let him have anything to eat or drink. Might make him sick or cause further problems. Do you have a gate number? Caller: It’s going to be Gate 5 on the Tantau side. Gate 5 A, 5 Adam. Dispatcher: Do not move him unless absolutely necessary. Let him be still and let him wait for help to arrive. I’ll update them on the location. OK, thank you sir. Caller: Thank you very much, have a good one.

 The last call seems the least serious, with the patient telling dispatchers he was aware the incident was “very silly” and clarifying, “I didn’t walk through a glass door. I walked into a glass door.” The patient added he was not seriously bleeding:

 Call 3 (January 4th, 2018) Dispatcher: Emergency services 305. What’s the address of the emergency? Caller: Hi, 1 Apple Park Way. Dispatcher: I’m sorry you are breaking. What the address? Caller: 1 Apple Park Way. Dispatcher: OK. Is this a building or room number? Caller: It’s going to be in section 9, fourth floor. You are going to go in through the Transit Center, which is Gate 5A, A as in Adam. I have Jessica on the line who is with the patient who hit his head on the glass. Dispatcher: OK. Hello? Tell me exactly what happened. Caller 2: Let me have the gentleman it happened to speak for himself. Dispatcher: That’s OK. Ma’am? Hello? Hi, sir? Patient: Hi, yes. Dispatcher: Tell me exactly what happened. Patient: Um, I walked into a glass door on the first floor of Apple Park when I was trying to go outside, which was very silly. Dispatcher: You keep breaking up. You walked through a glass door? Patient: I didn’t walk through a glass door. I walked into a glass door. Dispatcher: OK, one second. Did you injure your head? Patient: I hit my head. Dispatcher: How old are you? Patient: 23. Dispatcher: Hold on one second, OK. When did this happen? Patient: About a half an hour ago. Dispatcher: Is there any serious bleeding? Patient: No. Dispatcher: Just one moment. Just one second while I update the paramedics, just stay on the line. I’m sending the paramedics to help you now. I’ll tell you exactly what to do next. Do not move unless you are in danger and do not splint any injuries, OK? Help is on the way. From now don’t have anything to eat or drink, it might make you sick or cause further problems. And don’t move around unless it is absolutely necessary. Just be still and wait for help to arrive, OK? I’m going to give you some instructions before I let you go. Before the responders arrive, please put away any pets, gather your medication and if anything changes, call us back immediately for further instructions, OK? Patient: OK. Dispatcher: I’ll stay with you on the line as long as I can and if anything changes, let me know. Tell me when the paramedics arrive. Caller 2: We’re in a locked area of the building. Do I need to meet them to escort them to this area? Caller 1: This is Lauren, from Apple security. We have some officers on site and who will go ahead and let the EMS through. For the dispatcher, it’s through Gate 5A, as in Adam near the transit center on Tantau where you will be entering. Dispatcher: That’s what I have … I’ll go ahead and disconnect with you … Thank you.

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 These are just the injuries we know about. The facility has been open to staff since April 2017, while this is just three days’ worth of 911 calls. It’s possible that this could be somewhat of a never-ending problem, as Bloomberg reported Apple discouraged employees from ad hoc solutions like marking doors with post-it notes, while its moderately high turnover rate could result in newer hires remaining aloof on the issue until that terrible second of revelation. A search of OSHA records found no applicable results.

 The Apple building’s design was the result of a relentless focus on aesthetics and form that Reuters reported was driven by the Apple team’s belief that even standard features like doorway thresholds could distract engineers’ lines of thought. In other words, the company wanted the building to allow staff to move quickly and without distractions or even physical cues as they moved throughout the spaceship, which sounds great until they started bonking into invisible barriers like someone who wandered into the house from Thirteen Ghosts.

 Were one to assign blame here, they might take some cues from experts in safe working environments who pay close attention to preventable hazards. According to the Chronicle’s account, Apple was given plenty of warning from local government officials.

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 “We did recognize that this is going to be an issue, especially when they clean the glass,” Cupertino building official Albert Salvador told the paper. “When you clean the windows, you can’t even tell some of them are there.”

 He added that while visiting the Apple campus with the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s Dirk Mattern, they were discussing the issue with a contractor when another walked directly into the glass.

 “That helped form our point,” Salvador concluded.

 [San Francisco Chronicle]

  ||||| Below are transcripts of three 911 calls from Apple’s new campus, obtained by The Chronicle via a public-records request. The calls, all made in January, relate to injuries suffered by people who walked into glass at the campus, which is called Apple Park. The transcript has been lightly edited. Click here for a story about how a Cupertino official had warned Apple last year about the problem.

 Call 1 (Jan. 2)

 Dispatcher: Medical emergency, 185, what are you reporting?

 Caller: This is Apple security reporting a medical injury.

 Dispatcher: OK, what is the address of the emergency?

 Caller: Just a moment.

 Person in the background, near the caller: If you could let them know Apple Park Way.

 Caller: Apple Park Way.

 Dispatcher: What is the address?

 Caller: Apple Park Way. 1 Apple Park Way.

 Dispatcher: Can you repeat to make sure I have it correct?

 Caller: 1 Apple Park Way.

 Dispatcher: Where specifically should they go?

 Caller: Transit center, 5A.

 Dispatcher: Transit center — is that in any specific area at Apple?

 Caller: It’s off of Tantau Avenue.

 Caller: Is that right at 1 Apple Park Way though?

 Caller: It’s going to be Gate 5A off of Tantau Avenue.

 Dispatcher: So the address you gave me at 1 Apple Park Way is that exactly where we’re going?

 Caller: Yes.

 Dispatcher: ...so tell me exactly what happened.

 Caller: We had an individual who ran into a glass wall pane and they hit their head. They have a small cut on their head and they are bleeding, slightly disoriented. We have on site security with them right now.

 Dispatcher: Are you with the patient now?

 Caller: No, I am not with the patient. We are trying to have a security unit call in right now so I connect you over.

 Dispatcher: How old is the patient?

 Caller: Late 20s.

 Dispatcher: Is the patient male or female?

 Caller: Male.

 Dispatcher: Is he awake?

 Caller: He is conscious.

 Dispatcher: Is he breathing?

 Caller: That we do not know. Yes, yes, he’s conscious and breathing.

 Dispatcher: Let me go ahead here and update the paramedics. When did this happen?

 Caller: It happened around five minutes ago. Around 12:05.

 Dispatcher: Is there any serious bleeding?

 Caller: Yes, from the head.

 Dispatcher: Is he completely alert?

 Caller: Yes.

 Dispatcher: All right, one moment. Let me update the paramedics and I’ll have some more instructions for you.

 OK, I’m sending the paramedics to help you now just stay on the line and I’ll tell you what exactly to do next. You can just refer this to your security. Do not move him unless he is in danger and do not splint any injuries. From now on, do not let him have anything to eat or drink, it might make him sick or cause further problems. And don’t move him unless it’s absolutely necessary. Tell him to be still and wait for help to arrive.

 I’m going to give you the control bleeding instructions so they can help that ... so listen carefully and let’s make sure we do it right. Get clean dry cloth or towel and place it right on the wound and tell him to press down firmly and do not lift it up to look.

 Caller: Press on the wound and do not look up.

 Dispatcher: Correct, correct. I want someone to watch him very closely. If he becomes less awake and vomits, quickly turn him on his side. Before the responders arrive — I’m sure you have already done this — have someone flag down and help them guide the paramedics in. If he gets worse in any way, call us back immediately for further instructions.

 Caller: Will do.

 Dispatcher: OK, thank you.

 Caller: Thank you, have a nice day.

 Dispatcher: You too. Bye.

 Call 2 (Jan. 2)

 Dispatcher: Sheriff emergency 336. What’s the address of the emergency?

 Caller: It’s going to be 1 Apple Park, Cupertino. It’s going to be a medical emergency.

 Dispatcher: It’s give me one moment … Can you verify the address of the emergency please?

 Caller: It’s going to be 1 Apple Park Way, Cupertino.

 Dispatcher: OK and is that a business? What building is it in?

 Caller: Yes, it’s going to be Apple campus.

 Dispatcher: What building is it in?

 Caller: It’s going to be in the main building, section (is) the transit center, just outside of the main campus.

 Dispatcher: Tell me exactly what happened.

 Caller: OK. So we had an employee, he was on campus and he walked into a glass window, hitting his head, has a little bit of a cut on the eyebrow.

 Dispatcher: OK, are you with the patient now?

 Caller: Uh, no. I’m calling from our call center. We have security on site with the patient.

 Dispatcher: OK, how old is the patient?

 Caller: Um, unknown.

 Dispatcher: OK, is the patient male or female?

 Caller: It’s going to be a male, adult.

 Dispatcher: Is he awake?

 Caller: Yes.

 Dispatcher: Is he breathing?

 Caller: Yes.

 Dispatcher: Give me one moment.

 Caller: Looks like he is going to be a middle-aged male.

 Dispatcher: OK, and where is he bleeding from?

 Caller: A cut above the eyebrow.

 Dispatcher: Anywhere else?

 Caller: No.

 Dispatcher: Is he completely alert?

 Caller: Unknown at this time. We’re still waiting for an update.

 Dispatcher: OK. Is he breathing normally?

 Caller: Yes, to my knowledge, yeah.

 Dispatcher: Is the blood spurting or pouring out?

 Caller: Um, I think it’s just leaking … a small cut.

 Dispatcher: Does he have a bleeding disorder or is on blood thinners?

 Caller: Not to our knowledge.

 Dispatcher: Give me one moment to update them.

 Person near caller, in the background: There’s a cut on the eyebrow. According to our, let’s call it, first aid certified personnel it looks like it’s going to (require) stitches.

 Dispatcher: Stay on the line, I”ll tell you what to do next. For now, assure him that help is on the way. Don’t let him have anything to eat or drink. Might make him sick or cause further problems. Do you have a gate number?

 Caller: It’s going to be Gate 5 on the Tantau side. Gate 5 A, 5 Adam.

 Dispatcher: Do not move him unless absolutely necessary. Let him be still and let him wait for help to arrive. I’ll update them on the location. OK, thank you sir.

 Caller: Thank you very much, have a good one.

 Call 3 (Jan. 4)

 Dispatcher: Emergency services 305. What’s the address of the emergency?

 Caller: Hi, 1 Apple Park Way.

 Dispatcher: I’m sorry you are breaking. What the address?

 Caller: 1 Apple Park Way.

 Dispatcher: OK. Is this a building or room number?

 Caller: It’s going to be in section 9, fourth floor. You are going to go in through the Transit Center, which is Gate 5A, A as in Adam. I have Jessica on the line who is with the patient who hit his head on the glass.

 Dispatcher: OK. Hello? Tell me exactly what happened.

 Caller 2: Let me have the gentleman it happened to speak for himself.

 Dispatcher: That’s OK. Ma’am? Hello? Hi, sir?

 Patient: Hi, yes.

 Dispatcher: Tell me exactly what happened.

 Patient: Um, I walked into a glass door on the first floor of Apple Park when I was trying to go outside, which was very silly.

 Dispatcher: You keep breaking up. You walked through a glass door?

 Patient: I didn’t walk through a glass door. I walked into a glass door.

 Dispatcher: OK, one second. Did you injure your head?

 Patient: I hit my head.

 Dispatcher: How old are you?

 Patient: 23.

 Dispatcher: Hold on one second, OK. When did this happen?

 Patient: About a half an hour ago.

 Dispatcher: Is there any serious bleeding?

 Patient: No.

 Dispatcher: Just one moment. Just one second while I update the paramedics, just stay on the line. I’m sending the paramedics to help you now. I’ll tell you exactly what to do next.

 Do not move unless you are in danger and do not splint any injuries, OK? Help is on the way. From now don’t have anything to eat or drink, it might make you sick or cause further problems. And don’t move around unless it is absolutely necessary. Just be still and wait for help to arrive, OK?

 I’m going to give you some instructions before I let you go. Before the responders arrive, please put away any pets, gather your medication and if anything changes, call us back immediately for further instructions, OK?

 Patient: OK.

 Dispatcher: I’ll stay with you on the line as long as I can and if anything changes, let me know. Tell me when the paramedics arrive.

 Caller 2: We’re in a locked area of the building. Do I need to meet them to escort them to this area?

 Caller 1: This is Lauren, from Apple security. We have some officers on site and who will go ahead and let the EMS through. For the dispatcher, it’s through Gate 5A, as in Adam near the transit center on Tantau where you will be entering.

 Dispatcher: That’s what I have … I’ll go ahead and disconnect with you … Thank you. |||||
What is a summary?

– Last month, reports emerged about a strange workplace hazard at Apple's sleek new headquarters in Cupertino. It seems that people keep walking head first into the glass walls at Apple Park. Now the San Francisco Chronicle confirms the news via 911 calls on three separate incidents in early January. Some highlights: First call: "We had an individual who ran into a glass wall pane and they hit their head. They have a small cut on their head and they are bleeding, slightly disoriented." Second call: "So we had an employee, he was on campus and he walked into a glass window, hitting his head, has a little bit of a cut on the eyebrow." When the dispatcher asks if the blood is "spurting or pouring out," the caller clarifies: "I think it’s just leaking … a small cut." Third call: "Um, I walked into a glass door on the first floor of Apple Park when I was trying to go outside, which was very silly." The dispatcher seeks clarity: "You walked through a glass door?" No, the caller responds. "I didn’t walk through a glass door. I walked into a glass door." As Gizmodo explains, Apple wanted an innovative design to allow workers to move around quickly with few distractions, "which sounds great until they started bonking into invisible barriers." (A job application Steve Jobs filled out in 1973 had some errors.)


Article:

Gwyneth Paltrow may want to prepare herself for the worst. Despite her reported efforts to prevent Vanity Fair from doing an article about her, the influential pop culture magazine is moving forward with what many expect to be an epic takedown piece on the Oscar-winning actress.

 "We started a story on her," editor-in-chief Graydon Carter told the Times of London on Sunday, Oct. 13. (Quotes via Radar Online.) "We have a very good writer and it'll run."

 PHOTOS: Gwyneth Paltrow's most outrageous quotes

 Carter's confirmation comes just a little over a month after the New York Times issued a report claiming that the 40-year-old Iron Man 3 star was feuding with the 100-year-old publication. The report alleged that the actress had written an email to her celebrity friends in which she asked that they not speak to the magazine if contacted about her.

 PHOTOS: Gwyneth through the years

 "Vanity Fair is threatening to put me on the cover of their magazine," Paltrow reportedly wrote in May of this year, per a witness who saw the email in question. "If you are asked for quotes or comments, please decline. Also, I recommend you all never do this magazine again."

 The Times speculated at the time that Paltrow and other stars had taken issue with Vanity Fair's criticism of Hollywood; recent articles include a piece about the role of Scientology in Tom Cruise's love life, and a report about the behind-the-scenes problems that plagued Brad Pitt's World War Z.

 PHOTOS: Gwyneth's celeb BFFs

 Carter defended his magazine's coverage of those issues, however, and told the Times it was just business. "We wouldn't be doing our job if there wasn't a little bit of tension between Vanity Fair and its subjects," he said. "In any given week, I can expect to hear from a disgruntled subject in Hollywood, Washington, or on Wall Street. That's the nature of the beast."

 PHOTOS: Celebrity feuds

 He also told the Times of London that he felt more compelled to run the Paltrow piece after her alleged email went public. "Well, she sort of forced my hand," he explained.

 "Some famous people believe that they live in a cone of celebrity that protects them," he was quoted as saying. "But it doesn't really exist anymore in L.A. unless they stay in." ||||| Gwyneth Paltrow is shaking in her (probably very expensive) boots. Despite her complaints and a very public email-campaign to her A-list BFFs, Vanity Fair Editor-in-Chief Graydon Carter has confirmed that his magazine is set to publish a blockbuster takedown piece revealing the true Paltrow once and for all.

 “We started a story on her,” he told The Times of London in an interview published this weekend. “We have a very good writer and it’ll run.”

 The GOOP queen had previously emailed friends warning them not to cooperate with the author of the piece, and further, never to work with Vanity Fair again. Apparently, her pleas fell on deaf ears, because BFF Jay Z is the November cover boy, and she’ll grace the mag herself soon enough.

 In fact, Carter says, Paltrow’s tantrum has made him even more determined to publish the piece. He explained, “Well, she sort of forced my hand.”

 PHOTOS: Gwyneth Paltrow Kisses Justin Bieber At The Bambi Awards

 Despite its cushy reputation, Vanity Fair does not grant celebrities pre-publication approval of photos or text, Carter claims, explaining that publicists are “all p***ed off at us, but I can live with that.”

 And if Paltrow, who recently moved back to L.A. from England, expects any differently, Carter says, she’s got a rude awakening coming to her.

 “She’ll find Los Angeles very different and very difficult,” he says. “Some famous people believe that they live in a cone of celebrity that protects them … But it doesn’t really exist any more in L.A. unless they stay in.”

 That has a lot to do with new 24/7 reality TV celebrities like the Kardashians, of whom Carter is no fan.

 PHOTOS: Gwyneth Paltrow Goes Braless In Chicago

 “Why are they ‘stars’?” he complains. “They are tabloid oddities who will disappear in ten minutes. I’m just weary of the phenomenon. And it’ll go away on its own.” ||||| First photographed for Vanity Fair’s 1995 Hollywood Issue at age 22, Gwyneth Paltrow has had five V.F. covers and appeared numerous times in the magazine. See our photo survey of the always regally attired GOOP goddess. |||||
What is a summary?

– Not besties: Gwyneth Paltrow and Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter. The latter has announced that his magazine will indeed go ahead with the story it started on Paltrow ... a story that Us Weekly calls an "epic takedown." Carter told the Times of London: "We have a very good writer and it'll run." This follows the news that Paltrow emailed her friends asking them to stay mum. What she is said to have written: "Vanity Fair is threatening to put me on the cover of their magazine. If you are asked for quotes or comments, please decline. Also, I recommend you all never do this magazine again." (Radar points out that one friend was unable to comply: Jay-Z will be on the November cover.) That email, says Carter, "sort of forced my hand." Paltrow hasn't always had such an icy relationship with the mag—she's been on its cover five times. See images here.


Article:
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday announced a partnership to cut health-care costs and improve services for their U.S. employees. The announcement slammed the shares of multiple companies in the health-care sector.

 The giant companies, which together employ more than 1.1 million workers, will launch an independent operation that's intended to be free from profit-making incentives.

 The new company's goal at first will be to target technology solutions to simplify the health-care system.

 Details of the new company were sketchy, with principals of Amazon, Berkshire and J.P. Morgan noting that the way it will work remains to be seen. They're hoping that their sheer size will help bring the necessary scale and resources to tackle the issue.

 "The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett said in a statement. "Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country's best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes."

 The announcement makes sense of Amazon's early moves in health care over the last year. It speaks to the desire to rip apart the traditional health-care system from distinctive silos. Experts have anticipated more deals and vertical integration in wake of CVS announcing its intention to buy Aetna.

 Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting, said it's "long past time" for employers like these three to force innovation into the health-care system.

 "For better or worse, there are warped incentives baked into every aspect of the U.S. health-care system, from medical innovation to care delivery to insurance and benefit management," Fein told CNBC. "Rather than merely bashing the current system, I hope this new organization can help patients and their physicians make more informed and more cost-effective decisions. Technology will be necessary but not sufficient to make positive changes."

 Analysts echoed the sentiment that the health-care system is outdated and ripe for disruption, paving the way for the new endeavor. However, they cautioned it could take time. Some experts are skeptical the three companies can meaningfully lower costs and improve outcomes.

 "If this winds up being the low cost provider to make insurance more affordable at employer level, it could wind up being a real disruptive competitor to an industry that has not seen any new players in years/decades," Jefferies analyst Jared Holz told CNBC. "[I'm] not going to call this black swan event yet because there are few details and would be making too many assumptions but it has potential to be."

 J.P. Morgan currently uses Cigna and UnitedHealth Group to administer health benefits on a self-insured basis and Amazon uses nonprofit Premera Blue Cross, according to Evercore analysts. Amazon uses ExpressScripts as its pharmacy benefits manager, said Leerink Partners' Ana Gupte.

 Shares of Berkshire and J.P. Morgan fell slightly, while Amazon edged higher.

 However, shares of health-care companies fell sharply. Express Scripts and Aetna sank 3 percent; Cigna slid percent while CVS and UnitedHealth fell 4 percent.

 "Today's announcement by Amazon, J.P. Morgan & Chase company, and Berkshire Hathaway is clear recognition that the healthcare system needs to continue to create and deliver meaningful value to payors and patients," Express Scripts said in a statement."...We look forward to hearing more about this new initiative and how we can work together to improve health care for everyone."

 Amazon in particular can play a strong role if it promotes a greater presence for technological advances including artificial intelligence and information sharing platforms into health care, said Idris Adjerid, management information technology professor at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.

 "We find that technology initiatives which facilitated information sharing between disconnected hospitals resulted in significant reductions in healthcare spending," Adjerid said in a statement. "That said, it is unclear what the scope of this effort will be. If this partnership is to meaningfully improve healthcare delivery, it needs to include more than the employees of these companies."

 The announcement was light on details but said three top executives, one from each company, will take the lead on the project: Berkshire investment officer Todd Combs, J.P. Morgan's Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold and Beth Galetti, a senior vice president at Amazon.

 Combs was a hedge fund manager before joining Berkshire in 2010. Berchtold was previously global head of mergers and acquisitions at drugmaker Novartis before joining J.P. Morgan last year, and Galetti was FedEx's vice president for planning, engineering and operations before joining Amazon in 2013, according to their LinkedIn profiles.

 "The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. "Hard as it might be, reducing healthcare's burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort."

 "Our people want transparency, knowledge and control when it comes to managing their healthcare," said J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon. "The three of our companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans."

 Here's the full press release:

 Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) announced today that they are partnering on ways to address healthcare for their U.S. employees, with the aim of improving employee satisfaction and reducing costs. The three companies, which bring their scale and complementary expertise to this long-term effort, will pursue this objective through an independent company that is free from profit-making incentives and constraints. The initial focus of the new company will be on technology solutions that will provide U.S. employees and their families with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost. Tackling the enormous challenges of healthcare and harnessing its full benefits are among the greatest issues facing society today. By bringing together three of the world's leading organizations into this new and innovative construct, the group hopes to draw on its combined capabilities and resources to take a fresh approach to these critical matters. "The ballooning costs of healthcare act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy. Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable. Rather, we share the belief that putting our collective resources behind the country's best talent can, in time, check the rise in health costs while concurrently enhancing patient satisfaction and outcomes," said Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO, Warren Buffett. "The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. "Hard as it might be, reducing healthcare's burden on the economy while improving outcomes for employees and their families would be worth the effort. Success is going to require talented experts, a beginner's mind, and a long-term orientation." "Our people want transparency, knowledge and control when it comes to managing their healthcare," said Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. "The three of our companies have extraordinary resources, and our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans," he added. The effort announced today is in its early planning stages, with the initial formation of the company jointly spearheaded by Todd Combs, an investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway; Marvelle Sullivan Berchtold, a Managing Director of JPMorgan Chase; and Beth Galetti, a Senior Vice President at Amazon. The longer-term management team, headquarters location and key operational details will be communicated in due course.

 -CNBC's Meg Tirrell contributed to this report ||||| Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are forming a company to figure out how to reduce health-care costs for their hundreds of thousands of U.S. employees, the three companies said Tuesday.

 “The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy,” Berkshire Chief Executive Warren Buffett said in prepared remarks. “Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable.”

 ... ||||| This combination of photos from left shows Warren Buffett on Sept. 19, 2017, in New York, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, on Sept. 24, 2013, in Seattle and JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon... (Associated Press)

 This combination of photos from left shows Warren Buffett on Sept. 19, 2017, in New York, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, on Sept. 24, 2013, in Seattle and JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on July 12, 2013, in New York. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon and the New York bank JPMorgan Chase... (Associated Press)

 This combination of photos from left shows Warren Buffett on Sept. 19, 2017, in New York, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, on Sept. 24, 2013, in Seattle and JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon on July 12, 2013, in New York. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Amazon and the New York bank JPMorgan Chase... (Associated Press) This combination of photos from left shows Warren Buffett on Sept. 19, 2017, in New York, Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com, on Sept. 24, 2013, in Seattle and JP Morgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon... (Associated Press)

 Amazon is diving into health care, teaming up with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the New York bank JPMorgan Chase, to create a company that helps their U.S. employees find quality care "at a reasonable cost."

 The leaders of each company, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Buffet, and JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon, offered few details Tuesday and said that the project is in the early planning stage.

 "The ballooning costs of (health care) act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," Buffett said in a prepared statement. "Our group does not come to this problem with answers. But we also do not accept it as inevitable."

 The new company will be independent and "free from profit-making incentives and constraints." The businesses said the new venture's initial focus would be on technology that provides "simplified, high-quality and transparent" care.

 It was not clear if the ultimate goal involves expanding the ambitious project beyond Amazon, Berkshire or JPMorgan. However, JPMorgan's Dimon said Tuesday that, "our goal is to create solutions that benefit our U.S. employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans."

 Shares in health care companies took a big hit in early trading Tuesday, hinting at the threat of the new entity to how health care is paid for and delivered in the U.S.

 Before the opening bell, eight of the top 10 decliners on the Standard & Poor's 500 index were health care companies.

 The need for a solution to the health care crises in the U.S. is intense. With about 151 million non-elderly people, employer-sponsored coverage is the largest part of the U.S. health insurance market.

 Health care costs for companies routinely rise faster than inflation and eat up bigger portions of their budgets. Americans are mired in a confusing system that creates a mix of prices in the same market for the same procedure or drug and offers no easy path for finding the best deal.

 Employers have hiked deductibles and other expenses for employees and their families to dissipate the costs, which has hit Americans hard.

 Only 50 percent of companies with three to 49 employees offered coverage last year, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. That's down from 66 percent more than a decade ago. The federal Affordable Care Act requires all companies with 50 or more full-time employees to offer it.

 Amazon, Berkshire and JP Morgan say they can bring their scale and "complementary expertise" to what they describe as a long-term campaign.

 Amazon's entry into the health market has been perceived as imminent, even though the company had announced nothing publicly.

 It has been watched very closely on Wall Street, which as seen Amazon disrupt numerous industries, from booksellers to clothing and electronics chains.

 Amazon, which mostly sold books when it was founded more than 20 years ago, has radically altered the way in which people buy diapers, toys or paper towels. Most recently it has upended the grocery sector, spending $14 billion last year for Whole Foods Market Inc.

 ___

 AP writer Joseph Pisani contributed to this report from New York. Murphy reported from Indianapolis. |||||Summary:

– "The ballooning costs of health care act as a hungry tapeworm on the American economy," says Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, and he has teamed up with some equally huge names in an attempt to go after said tapeworm. Amazon.com, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase on Tuesday announced that they'd be creating a company tasked with coming up with technological solutions that can cut health-care costs for their hundreds of thousands of US employees. "Our group does not come to this problem with answers," Buffett notes—nor, reports the Wall Street Journal, with details on how much it plans to spend, where the company's HQ will be, or how many of its own employees would be impacted—"but we also do not accept it as inevitable." What the companies' leaders did reveal is that the new company will be "free from profit-making incentives and constraints." "The healthcare system is complex, and we enter into this challenge open-eyed about the degree of difficulty," says Jeff Bezos of Amazon, per CNBC, which notes the three companies employ a total 1.1 million workers, though that figure is not exclusive to the US. The AP reports it's unclear whether the trio would welcome other companies into the effort, but it does flag this line from JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon: "Our goal is to create solutions that benefit our US employees, their families and, potentially, all Americans." But they're not exactly benefiting Wall Street at the moment: Pre-market trading was unkind to health care companies, with the AP noting they represented eight of the 10 down companies on the S&P 500.


Summarize this article:

Updated Nov. 29, 2018, at 1:39 p.m.

 The office of Jewish professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who teaches and researches the Holocaust at Columbia Teachers College, was vandalized with swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs on Wednesday.

 Midlarsky found the graffiti—two swastikas alongside the derogatory term “Yid"—when she came to her office around 1 p.m. Wednesday, at which point she notified security. The graffiti was drawn in the entryway to Midlarksy’s office, which is not shared with other staff.

 “I was in shock,” Midlarsky said. “I stopped for a moment, because I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

 According to the NYPD, a different staff member entered the room at approximately 11:47 a.m. Wednesday and did not observe anything unusual at that time. The incident remains under active investigation by the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force and is being treated as an aggravated harassment.

 All Teachers College academic buildings require ID for entry, either from Teachers College, Columbia, Barnard, or other affiliated schools.

 Midlarsky’s office had previously been vandalized in 2007, when a swastika was spray-painted on her door and anti-Semitic flyers left in her mailbox. According to Midlarsky, this prior incident was “horrifying but not surprising” due to her “relatively visible status as a Jew” at the time, citing her numerous published papers and articles on subjects related to the Holocaust.

 However, Midlarsky, attributed this second incident to a broader national rise in anti-Semitic crimes and a changing culture. Midlarsky is a professor of psychology and education whose research interests include altruism, religiousness, and the Holocaust.

 Both the Office of University Life and Barnard College issued statements on Thursday morning strongly denouncing the anti-Semitic act and showing support for Jewish students. A Teachers College spokesperson was unable to comment on the specifics of the incident but provided a statement made by Teachers College president Thomas Bailey.

 Read the full statement below:

 "To the TC Community:

 As you may already have heard, the office of a Teachers College faculty member has been defaced with swastikas.

 We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community.

 Please rest assured that we are working with police to discover the perpetrator of this hateful act. I also want to reaffirm the College’s commitment – and my own – to providing a respectful and welcoming environment for all, and to protecting the safety and dignity of all members of our community.

 Thomas Bailey

 President"

 karen.xia@columbiaspectator.com | @xia_karen ||||| NEW YORK (CNN) -- Three professors and a former professor at Columbia University's Teachers College received hate mail this week, the New York Police Department said. It's the campus that was shaken by several bias crimes directed at black and Jewish professors in 2007.

 Columbia University's Teachers College is once again the target of a hate campaign.

 Three professors received manila envelopes Tuesday with images of swastikas in them.

 The fourth, a former professor who is an African-American, was sent a manila envelope containing an image of a noose, according to NYPD deputy commissioner Paul Browne.

 Among those receiving a swastika image was Elizabeth Midlarsky, a Jewish psychologist who has studied psychological principles in the context of the Holocaust, police said.

 In 2007, her office door was spray-painted with a swastika. (A swastika is the right-angles cross symbol used on Nazi Germany flags).

 The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is leading the investigation into the incident. No arrests have been made.

 "The TC community deplores these hateful acts, which violate every Teachers College and societal norm," said an e-mail Wednesday to faculty and students from the college's president, Susan Fuhrman; and dean, Tom James.

 No arrests were been made in the 2007 incidents. Police declined to say if they believe there is a connection between those cases and the mailings this week.

 All About Columbia University • Hate Crimes • The Holocaust ||||| New York (CNN) The NYPD has launched an investigation into a possible hate crime after a Columbia University professor's office was vandalized with two spray-painted swastikas and a derogatory word aimed at Jewish people.

 Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is Jewish and has published various articles related to the Holocaust, told CNN, "I opened the outer door and almost passed out," when she saw the two swastikas spray-painted in red.

 Midlarsky, who has worked at the university's Teachers College for 28 years, reported the incident to security and received support from staff before being brought home by a van.

 Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, told CNN, "I opened the outer door and almost passed out," when she saw the two swastikas spray-painted in red on the walls of her office.

 "I was so shaky, I wasn't sure I was going to make it," she said.

 Thomas Bailey, the president of Columbia's Teachers College said in a statement Wednesday, "We unequivocally condemn any expression of hatred, which has no place in our society. We are outraged and horrified by this act of aggression and use of this vile anti-Semitic symbol against a valued member of our community." Bailey added that they are working with police to find the perpetrator.

 Read More ||||| [What you need to know to start the day: Get New York Today in your inbox.]

 Two swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur were spray-painted Wednesday on the walls of a Jewish professor’s office at Columbia University, the latest in a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in New York this year.

 The office belongs to Elizabeth Midlarsky, 77, who has written about the Holocaust and has been a repeated target of anti-Semitic vitriol while working as a psychology and education professor at the university’s Teachers College in Manhattan.

 The Police Department said it was investigating the vandalism — the swastikas and the word “Yid” were scrawled in bright red in the entryway to the office — as a hate crime.

 Ms. Midlarsky, who could not be reached for comment on Thursday, found the graffiti Wednesday afternoon, officials said. |||||

– "I opened the outer door and almost passed out." It was then that Columbia University professor Elizabeth Midlarsky saw the two large swastikas spray-painted in red on the walls of her office (photo here), along with an offensive term for Jewish people. Wednesday's scene was deja vu for the ailing 77-year-old, a longtime Jewish activist who's published numerous articles related to the Holocaust during her 28 years as a psychology and education professor at Columbia's Teachers College. A swastika was spray-painted on Midlarsky's office door in 2007 and she was mailed an image of a swastika in 2009, CNN reported at the time. "I feel very, very vulnerable," though "I haven't done anything, said anything," Midlarsky now tells CNN, connecting the latest incident to "a trend and upsurge in anti-Semitism that we've seen in recent years." The incident comes weeks after a Brooklyn synagogue was defaced on the same day that two swastikas were found on Manhattan's Upper West Side, per the New York Times. Days before those events came the fatal shooting of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. On Thursday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Hate Crimes Unit would assist the NYPD in investigating the graffiti, which he called an "abhorrent act of anti-Semitism and hate." It's believed to have been painted between 11:47am, when a staff member came into the room, and 1pm Wednesday when Midlarsky arrived, per the Columbia Spectator. The student-run paper reports ID cards from affiliated Columbia schools are required to access all academic buildings on the Teachers College campus. (A flight passenger was arrested after trying to identify Jewish people on board.)


– Google Earth can be used for more than peeking into your neighbor's backyard: Archaeologists have discovered more than 50 geoglyphs in Kazakhstan, thanks to images from the virtual geographical and map service, reports the International Business Times. Geoglyphs are large designs on the ground, usually created out of mounds of dirt and other natural elements, that can be seen from above. Scientists from Kostanay University, who made their announcement about the structures at an archaeology meeting in Istanbul, say the geoglyphs range in size from 295 feet to 1,312 feet in diameter and come in the shape of squares, circles, crosses—and even a giant swastika, LiveScience reports. (Click to a photo slideshow.) Geoglyphs like these that resemble Peru's famous Nazca Lines have been found all over the world, including giant "wheels" in the Middle East and an elk-like structure in Russia. It may seem surprising at first that a swastika is one of the Kazakhstani creations—and it was made of timber, not dirt, LiveScience notes—but many ancient cultures and religions used the swastika long before Hitler appropriated it. "Swastika" is derived from the Sanskrit term for "good fortune" or "well-being," and the symbol itself is believed to show the sun's movement in the sky, notes the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. "As of today, we can say only one thing—the geoglyphs were built by ancient people. By whom and for what purpose, remains a mystery," two of the project's scientists said in an email to LiveScience. (See what was revealed when sandstorms blew over the Peruvian desert last month.)

Expand this summary.

A Maypole topped with a swastika is raised for a May Day parade in the Lustgarten in Berlin. The May holiday became an important celebration in the Nazi calendar. Germany, April 26, 1939.

 The swastika is an ancient symbol that was in use in many different cultures for at least 5,000 years before Adolf Hitler made it the centerpiece of the Nazi flag. Its present-day use by certain extremist groups promotes hate.

 It was used at least 5,000 years before Adolf Hitler designed the Nazi flag. The word swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being." The motif (a hooked cross) appears to have first been used in Neolithic Eurasia, perhaps representing the movement of the sun through the sky. To this day it is a sacred symbol in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is a common sight on temples or houses in India and Indonesia. Swastikas also have an ancient history in Europe, appearing on artifacts from pre-Christian European cultures. For centuries a symbol of good luck and auspiciousness, the swastika even found expression in Byzantine and Christian art.

 The symbol experienced a resurgence in the late nineteenth century, following extensive archaeological work such as that of the famous German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann. Schliemann discovered the hooked cross on the site of ancient Troy in modern Turkey. He connected it with similar shapes found on pottery in Germany and speculated that it was a “significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors.”

 However, the work of Schliemann soon was taken up by movements that wanted to evoke racial purity, “Aryan identity” and German nationalist pride.

 This belief that the “German race” descended from the Aryan race is likely one of the main reasons the Nazi party formally adopted the swastika or Hakenkreuz (Ger., hooked cross) as its symbol in 1920.

 The Nazi Party, however, was not the only party to use the swastika in Germany. After World War I, a number of far-right nationalist movements adopted the swastika. As a symbol, it became associated with the idea of a racially “pure” state. By the time the Nazis gained control of Germany, the connotations of the swastika had forever changed.

 The swastika would become the most recognizable icon of Nazi propaganda, appearing on the flag referred to by Hitler in Mein Kampf as well as on election posters, armbands, medallions, and badges for military and other organizations. A potent symbol intended to elicit pride among Aryans, it also became a symbol of Nazi racial ideology that called for the elimination of Jews and other groups deemed inferior.

 In Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler wrote:

 “I myself, meanwhile, after innumerable attempts, had laid down a final form; a flag with a red background, a white disk, and a black swastika in the middle. After long trials I also found a definite proportion between the size of the flag and the size of the white disk, as well as the shape and thickness of the swastika.”

 Further reading

 Heidtmann, Horst. “Swastika.” In Encyclopedia of the Third Reich, 937-939. New York: Macmillan, 1991.

 Heller, Steven. The Swastika: Symbol Beyond Redemption? New York: Allworth Press, 2000.

 Quinn, Malcolm. The Swastika: Constructing the Symbol. London: Routledge, 1994. ||||| A historical Google Earth image from 2007 showing the animal-shaped geoglyph in Russia, which may predate Peru's famous Nazca Lines. [ See more Russian Nazca Lines Photos

 A huge geoglyph in the shape of an elk or deer discovered in Russia may predate Peru's famous Nazca Lines by thousands of years.

 The animal-shaped stone structure, located near Lake Zjuratkul in the Ural Mountains, north of Kazakhstan, has an elongated muzzle, four legs and two antlers. A historical Google Earth satellite image from 2007 shows what may be a tail, but this is less clear in more recent imagery.

 Excluding the possible tail, the animal stretches for about 900 feet (275 meters) at its farthest points (northwest to southeast), the researchers estimate, equivalent to two American football fields. The figure faces north and would have been visible from a nearby ridge.

 "The figure would initially have looked white and slightly shiny against the green grass background," write Stanislav Grigoriev, of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of History & Archaeology, and Nikolai Menshenin, of the State Centre for Monument Protection, in an article first detailing the discovery published last spring in the journal Antiquity. They note that it is now covered by a layer of soil.

 Fieldwork carried out this past summer has shed more light on the glyph's composition and date, suggesting it may be the product of a "megalithic culture," researchers say. They note that hundreds of megalithic sites have been discovered in the Urals, with the most elaborate structures located on a freshwater island about 35 miles (60 km) northeast of the geoglyph. [See Photos of Russia's Nazca Lines]

 The Russian geoglyph was made out of stone, now covered by soil, and an archaeological team has been at work studying it. Credit: Image courtesy Stanislav Grigoriev.

 Discovery & excavation

 A man named Alexander Shestakov first discovered the glyphs using satellite images. He alerted researchers, who sent out a hydroplane and paraglider to survey the giant structure.

 This has since progressed to an on-the-ground excavation by a team led by Grigoriev. They've found that the stone architecture of the geoglyph is quite elaborate. When they excavated part of a hind leg the largest stones were on the edges, the smaller ones inside. This past summer they also found the remains of passageways and what appear to be small walls on the hoof and muzzle of the animal.

 "The hoof is made of small crushed stones and clay. It seems to me there were very low walls and narrow passages among them. The same situation in the area of a muzzle: crushed stones and clay, four small broad walls and three passages," Grigorievwrote in an email to LiveScience. He cautioned that his team didn't excavate all the way down to the bottom of the walls, not wishing to damage the geoglyph.

 An image of the makeup of the leg of the Russian geoglyph. Credit: Image courtesy Stanislav Grigoriev.

 Dating the geoglyph

 Among the finds from the excavations are about 40 stone tools, made of quartzite, found on the structure's surface. Most of them are pickaxe-like tools called mattocks, useful for digging and chopping. "Perhaps they were used to extract clay," he writes in the email.

 The style of stone-working called lithic chipping used on one artifact dates it to the Neolithic and Eneolithic (sixth to third millennia B.C.), though Grigoriev says the technology is more typical of the Eneolithic, between the fourth and third millennia B.C.

 If that date is correct, it would make the geoglyph far older than Peru's Nazca Lines, the very earliest of which were created around 500 B.C. Grigorievadded that current studies of ancient pollen at the site will help to narrow down the age. [Gallery: Aerial Photos Reveal Mysterious Stone Structures]

 In the Antiquity journal article, Grigoriev and Menshenin point out that palaeozoological studies show that the landscape in the southern Urals supported fewer trees in the Eneolithic, with forest growth not appearing until about 2,500 years ago. "This means that there were open landscapes in the Eneolithic and Bronze Age, which allowed the hill figure to be created," they write.

 A megalithic culture

 Researchers say this geoglyph may have been built by a "megalithic culture" in the region that created stone monuments in prehistoric times.

 "[M]any megalithic sites with features in common with European megaliths have been located: Some 300 are known but have not yet been studied in detail," write Grigoriev and Menshenin in the Antiquity article. Among these megaliths are numerous "menhirs," large upright standing stones.

 The most spectacular megalithic complexes are on the relatively small Vera Island, located on Turgoyak Lake, about 35 miles (60 km) northeast of the geoglyph.

 Grigoriev and Julia Vasina of the South-Ural State University described the Vera Island megaliths in a 2010 article, noting the surviving portion of one monument, megalith two, as being covered by a mound and supporting a gallery and square chamber. Another monument, megalith one, is cut into the bedrock and covered by a mound consisting of stones, brown sand and lots of grass. It is more than 60 feet (19 meters) long and 20 feet (6 meters) wide. It contains three chambers one of which has "bas relief sculptures" in the shape of animals, probably a bull and wolf.

 Stone tools and ceramics found at the megalithic sites date them to between the Eneolithic period and the early Iron Age, around 3,000 years ago. Researchers emphasize more dating work needs to be done to verify; however, if the evidence holds, the giant geoglyph, along with the megaliths, were constructed millennia before Peru's Nazca Lines, a testament to the building prowess of an ancient prehistoric culture in the Ural Mountains.

 Follow LiveScience on Twitter at @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+. ||||| Over 50 geoglyphs have been discovered across the northern steppe of Kazakhstan, deepening the mystery of why the ancient patterns were created.

 Using Google Earth, archaeologists found the geoglyphs - man-made outlines on the ground made from mounds or ditches that are visible from above - in a variety of shapes, including squares, rings and swastikas.

 Often attributed to the sun, the swastika was used among the ancient Celts, Indians and Greeks, and later in Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. In Asia, the symbol first appears in archaeological records around 2,500 BC in the Indus Valley Civilisation.

 "As of today, we can say only one thing – the geoglyphs were built by ancient people," archaeologists Irina Shevnina and Andrew Logvin, who discovered the Kazakh geoglyphs, told Live Science.

 They added that other structures and evidence of fireplaces within the geoglyphs suggest rituals took place there.

 Experts have compared the findings in Kazakhstan to the famous Nazca Lines in Peru, which were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

 Although some of the Peruvian geoglyphs resemble Paracas motifs, an Andean society that lived between 800 and 100 BCE, scholars believe they were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.

 In the past year, researchers from Kostanay University and Vilnius University in Lithuania have been conducting archaeological excavations, aerial photography and ground-penetrating radar surveys to examine the geoglyphs in Kazakhstan.

 The symbols vary in shapes and size. One swastika was made from timber, although the majority of the geoglyphs were made using mounds of earth.

 One of the largest measures 1,312ft in diameter, suggesting it was created by a larger, well-established culture, the researchers said.

 Ancient tribes may have used the geoglyphs to mark ownership of the land, but the reason behind the creation of the patterns remains unknown.

 Central Asia is pockmarked with other mysterious ancient constructions called kurgans, mounds heaped over a burial chamber. Found across Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Poland, the earliest kurgans appeared in the 4th millennium BC in the Caucasus and are associated with the Indo-Europeans.

 Geoglyphs and similar patterns have been discovered across the world, including in Britain, thanks to the introduction of Google Earth. In 2012, a giant elk-shaped geoglyph was discovered near Lake Zjuratkul in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

 The Kazakh geoglyphs were presented at the European Association of Archaeologists' annual meeting in Istanbul. ||||| More than 50 geoglyphs, including one shaped like a swastika, have been discovered in northern Kazakhstan.

 More than 50 geoglyphs with various shapes and sizes, including a massive swastika, have been discovered across northern Kazakhstan in Central Asia, say archaeologists.

 These sprawling structures, mostly earthen mounds, create the type of landscape art most famously seen in the Nazca region of Peru.

 Discovered using Google Earth, the geoglyphs are designed in a variety of geometric shapes, including squares, rings, crosses and swastikas (the swastika is a design that was used in ancient times). Ranging from 90 to 400 meters (295 to 1,312 feet) in diameter, some of them are longer than a modern-day aircraft carrier. Researchers say that the geoglyphs are difficult to see on the ground, but can easily be seen from the sky. [See Photos of the Amazing Geoglyphs in Kazakhstan]

 Over the past year, an archaeological expedition from Kazakhstan's Kostanay University, working in collaboration with Vilnius University in Lithuania, has been examining the geoglyphs. The team, which is conducting archaeological excavations, ground-penetrating radar surveys, aerial photography and dating, recently presented its initial results at the European Association of Archaeologists' annual meeting in Istanbul.

 The geoglyphs were made of earthen mounds.

 Archaeological excavations uncovered the remains of structures and hearths at the geoglyphs, suggesting that rituals took place there, said archaeologists Irina Shevnina and Andrew Logvin, of Kostanay University, in an email to Live Science. Ancient tribes may also have used the geoglyphs to mark ownership of the land, the researchers noted.

 "As of today, we can say only one thing — the geoglyphs were built by ancient people. By whom and for what purpose, remains a mystery," said Shevnina and Logvin.

 Why they're builders used geometric shapes is also a mystery, although the swastika is an ancient symbol found throughout Europe and Asia.

 Geoglyphs around the world

 While Peru's Nazca Lines are the world's most famous geoglyphs, archaeological research suggests that geoglyphs were constructed in numerous areas around the world by different cultures.

 For instance, in the Middle East, archaeologists have found thousands of wheel-shaped structures that are easily visible from the sky, but hard to see on the ground. Also recently in Russia, archaeologists excavated a geoglyph shaped like an elk, which appears older than the Nazca Lines.

 Ancient geoglyphs have also been reported in many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Brazil and even the Southwestern United States. The introduction of high-resolution Google Earth imagery over the last decade has helped both professional archaeologists and amateurs detect and study these enigmatic structures.

 Editor's Note: This article was updated to reflect the fact that all of the geoglyphs were made of earthen mounds.

 Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| The giant stone structures form wheel shapes with spokes often radiating inside. Here a cluster of wheels in the Azraq Oasis.

 They stretch from Syria to Saudi Arabia, can be seen from the air but not the ground, and are virtually unknown to the public.

 They are the Middle East's own version of the Nazca Lines — ancient "geolyphs," or drawings, that span deserts in southern Peru — and now, thanks to new satellite-mapping technologies, and an aerial photography program in Jordan, researchers are discovering more of them than ever before. They number well into the thousands.

 Referred to by archaeologists as "wheels," these stone structures have a wide variety of designs, with a common one being a circle with spokes radiating inside. Researchers believe that they date back to antiquity, at least 2,000 years ago. They are often found on lava fields and range from 82 feet to 230 feet (25 meters to 70 meters) across. [See gallery of wheel structures]

 "In Jordan alone we've got stone-built structures that are far more numerous than (the) Nazca Lines, far more extensive in the area that they cover, and far older," said David Kennedy, a professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Western Australia.

 Kennedy's new research, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, reveals that these wheels form part of a variety of stone landscapes. These include kites (stone structures used for funnelling and killing animals); pendants (lines of stone cairns that run from burials); and walls, mysterious structures that meander across the landscape for up to several hundred feet and have no apparent practical use.

 His team's studies are part of a long-term aerial reconnaissance project that is looking at archaeological sites across Jordan. As of now, Kennedy and his colleagues are puzzled as to what the structures may have been used for or what meaning they held. [History's Most Overlooked Mysteries]

 Fascinating structures

 Kennedy's main area of expertise is in Roman archaeology, but he became fascinated by these structures when, as a student, he read accounts of Royal Air Force pilots flying over them in the 1920s on airmail routes across Jordan. "You can't not be fascinated by these things," Kennedy said.

 Indeed, in 1927 RAF Flight Lt. Percy Maitland published an account of the ruins in the journal Antiquity. He reported encountering them over "lava country" and said that they, along with the other stone structures, are known to the Bedouin as the "works of the old men."

 Kennedy and his team have been studying the structures using aerial photography and Google Earth, as the wheels are hard to pick up from the ground, Kennedy said.

 "Sometimes when you're actually there on the site you can make out something of a pattern but not very easily," he said. "Whereas if you go up just a hundred feet or so it, for me, comes sharply into focus what the shape is."

 The designs must have been clearer when they were originally built. "People have probably walked over them, walked past them, for centuries, millennia, without having any clear idea what the shape was."

 (The team has created an archive of images of the wheels from various sites in the Middle East.)

 What were they used for?

 So far, none of the wheels appears to have been excavated, something that makes dating them, and finding out their purpose, more difficult. Archaeologists studying them in the pre-Google Earth era speculated that they could be the remains of houses or cemeteries. Kennedy said that neither of these explanations seems to work out well.

 "There seems to be some overarching cultural continuum in this area in which people felt there was a need to build structures that were circular."

 Some of the wheels are found in isolation while others are clustered together. At one location, near the Azraq Oasis, hundreds of them can be found clustered into a dozen groups. "Some of these collections around Azraq are really quite remarkable," Kennedy said.

 In Saudi Arabia, Kennedy's team has found wheel styles that are quite different: Some are rectangular and are not wheels at all; others are circular but contain two spokes forming a bar often aligned in the same direction that the sun rises and sets in the Middle East.

 The ones in Jordan and Syria, on the other hand, have numerous spokes and do not seem to be aligned with any astronomical phenomena. "On looking at large numbers of these, over a number of years, I wasn't struck by any pattern in the way in which the spokes were laid out," Kennedy said.

 Cairns are often found associated with the wheels. Sometimes they circle the perimeter of the wheel, other times they are in among the spokes. In Saudi Arabia some of the cairns look, from the air, like they are associated with ancient burials.

 Dating the wheels is difficult, since they appear to be prehistoric, but could date to as recently as 2,000 years ago. The researchers have noted that the wheels are often found on top of kites, which date as far back as 9,000 years, but never vice versa. "That suggests that wheels are more recent than the kites," Kennedy said.

 Amelia Sparavigna, a physics professor at Politecnico di Torino in Italy, told Live Science in an email that she agrees these structures can be referred to as geoglyphs in the same way as the Nazca Lines are. "If we define a 'geoglyph' as a wide sign on the ground of artificial origin, the stone circles are geoglyphs," Sparavignawrote in her email.

 The function of the wheels may also have been similar to the enigmatic drawings in the Nazca desert. [Science as Art: A Gallery]

 "If we consider, more generally, the stone circles as worship places of ancestors, or places for rituals connected with astronomical events or with seasons, they could have the same function of [the] geoglyphs of South America, the Nazca Lines for instance. The design is different, but the function could be the same," she wrote in her email.

 Kennedy said that for now the meaning of the wheels remains a mystery. "The question is what was the purpose?"

 Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and on Facebook. |||||


Here is a news article: The New Jersey psychotherapist wanted revenge, and, as luck would have it, one of her patients had revealed in his therapy sessions that he was a former member of an organized criminal gang, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Monday.

 And that’s how the therapist, Diane Sylvia, ended up giving orders to an F.B.I. agent posing as a hit man to beat up someone who was blackmailing her, according to the complaint.

 “He needs his pretty little face bashed in, that’s what I really want.”

 “A broken arm would help, too.”

 “Something so he can’t do push-ups, so he can’t work out.”

 A licensed social worker who counsels individuals, couples and children in her office in Linwood, N.J., Ms. Sylvia, 58, was charged on Monday in federal court in Camden with one count of solicitation to commit a crime of violence. She was released on $50,000 bail. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. ||||| For almost a month, federal prosecutors said, therapist Diane Sylvia planned a violent assault on a Massachusetts man with a stranger she believed to be a hitman.

 "He needs his pretty little face bashed in, that's what I really want," she allegedly said of the victim during a meeting last month in her Linwood office.

 The hitman, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, was actually an undercover agent from the FBI, which arrested Sylvia Monday on a charge of soliciting the violent attack on a man she claimed had bilked her for money for years.

 Sylvia, 58, of Somers Point, was introduced to the undercover agent by a patient with past connections to an unspecified "organized criminal gang," an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint, after she told the patient in September of her desire for revenge.

 Sylvia, a licensed clinical social worker, told the undercover agent her intended victim "ended up with some stuff on me that he was gonna report me to the licensing board, which means I have no job," according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

 "How 'bout we break one arm, and just mess up his face, but not with acid?" she allegedly told the agent while making a slashing motion on her cheek.

 "Something that makes him not so cute ... something so he can't do push-ups, so he can't work out."

 Investigators said Sylvia went as far as to buy a pre-paid cellphone to communicate with the undercover agent, and provided the "hitman" with her victim's license plate.

 She ultimately paid the undercover agent $5,000 to carry out the assault, prosecutors said.

 During an audio and video-recorded meeting at her office on Halloween, the complaint says, she suggested she might throw the pre-paid phone off the Ocean City bridge once the job was complete.

 Sylvia's professional profile on Psychology Today says her therapy practice treats individuals, couples, families and children.

 "Our words and thoughts are powerful and help create the life we desire," she wrote on the profile. "The most important component of therapy is the relationship between the client and therapist and the client's willingness to make the decision to change."

 Sylvia was slated to make her initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Camden Monday afternoon, prosecutors said.

 Her attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

 Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

 Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips |||||
A summary of this is?

– A New Jersey psychotherapist was being extorted, and when one of her patients revealed in a session that he used to be in an organized crime gang, she allegedly hatched a plan for revenge. Police say Diane Sylvia, 58, asked her patient to get her in touch with a hitman so she could have the blackmailer murdered. Instead, the patient got in touch with the FBI in September and told the bureau what was going on, the New York Times reports. He pretended to get her in touch with a hitman, but the hitman was actually an undercover FBI agent. By the time Sylvia met with the agent in October, she had allegedly downgraded her plan from murder to assault. She allegedly worked with the agent for a month to put together a plan, NJ.com reports. "He needs his pretty little face bashed in, that’s what I really want," Sylvia, a licensed social worker, allegedly told the agent. "A broken arm would help, too. Something so he can’t do push-ups, so he can’t work out." According to court documents, she made similar requests multiple times, explaining that it would make her "feel better" after being blackmailed by the man for years. She told the agent the man had information on her that he was threatening to report to the licensing board, causing her to lose her job. After allegedly paying the agent $5,000 to beat up the man and disfigure him, she was arrested by the FBI Friday and charged Monday with solicitation to commit a crime of violence. She faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As for her patient, he canceled the rest of his sessions with her after cooperating with the FBI. (A teen allegedly hired a hitman to kill his jeweler dad.)


Here is a news article: These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| It wasn’t a Super Bowl halftime show to die 4. But Justin Timberlake’s only minimally Prince-augmented performance proved to be the fumble-free affair he needed this weekend. Yes, he wore a weird shirt emblazoned with lovingly photographed elk, proving that, no, he hasn’t been reading the comments about his much-snickered-about “Man of the Woods” album rollout. But he made everyone forget about hooves with 12 minutes of the superior hoofing that first made him America’s song-and-dance sweetheart.

 It ended better than it started. Timberlake spent the first couple of valuable minutes under the stage, in a recreation of a sleazy nightclub where you can’t see the artist and everyone is holding cell phones over their heads — a vision of hell, for some of us. But he brought himself out of that “Filthy” milieu and out into the stadium open, where he was joined by what seemed like hundreds of dancers on what seemed like thousands of stages. Haters will continue to say it’s fake — as he correctly prophesied — but at least he made a fast-moving target for ‘em, moving from platform to platform on the vast field faster than Corey Clement making a 55-yard run.

 He sang “Rock Your Body” — not afraid to revive the song that served as soundtrack for history’s most famous nip slip in 2004 — and then said, “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my pleasure to introduce to you…” If this had led to a cameo by Janet Jackson, the roar would have been heard back in the team’s respective hometowns, but of course we’d already been advised this was not to be, nor any other guest appearance, and so we were primed for the letdown of… “the Tennessee Kids!” Bringing out a 10-plus-piece band would have had more impact if every kid and grandma in the audience weren’t aware at this point in history that all the instrumentation at the Super Bowl is canned.

 Also absent, for obvious reasons: a Prince hologram, which TMZ reported and turned out to be semi-fake news, as the site subsequently updated its story with a correction that it would be video of Prince projected onto a wind-swept screen. Somehow, in the delineation of the fine line between what we consider grave-robbing and what we consider tribute, most of us determined that a flat projection was fine, whereas a 3D Prince would have been grounds for canceling Timberlake’s career. Whatever. It was sweet, even if there might have been a better pick than “I Would Die 4 U,” and even if Wendy and Lisa were the guest stars he should have called in if he wasn’t going to call Janet. The unisex Prince symbol that lit up the snowy blocks surround the stadium tied a glyph-y ribbon on this perfectly acceptable homage.

 Timberlake crooned of “disasters in the world” and “so much darkness in the world,” but this was not going to be the place for social commentary, obviously. This would be the place for feelings that can’t be stopped — specifically, boogie-down feelings — and the performance finally came into its own when JT stepped away from that white piano and joined the cast of thousands on the field. “Can’t Stop the Feeling” was the can’t-fail capper to his medley, an inevitable show-closer so irresistible that maybe even Bill Belichick felt less tense for a minute. Well, scratch that. But the ghosts of Up With People had to have been proud.

 The amusing anticlimax to this came when Timberlake ran into the stands and… took time out to try to teach a kid how to take a selfie. Maybe the performance would have been better bookended without cell phones. But if nothing about the optics of this performance adds up to this going on a “Five Most Memorable Halftimes” list, Timberlake turned in a more enjoyably physical performance than just about anybody else who’s done the Bowl show… and if it was more a feat of athleticism than aestheticism, you can’t say that’s entirely inappropriate for the occasion. In a week where he’s had some obvious PR problems with that album launch, it might even have helped bring him out of the woods. ||||| Compared with Prince's, Justin Timberlake's halftime show was a joke

 CLOSE Sheila E. says Justin Timberlake reached out to her after she tweeted that Prince didn't want to be hologrammed and says she wants "people to know there was no hologram." (Feb. 4) AP

 Considering Sunday's Super Bowl was hosted in Minneapolis, not paying tribute to Prince during the halftime show would’ve been sacrilege.

 Prince, who died in April 2016, wasn’t just Minneapolis’ own king of pop, he also gave the Super Bowl its best-ever halftime show performance in 2007.

 Yet, it’s unlikely that Prince and his deservedly-large ego would've been satisfied with the treatment he received: a tribute from Justin Timberlake, an artist with whom Prince had a historically fraught relationship, during a show that fell woefully short of The Purple One's legendary 2007 set.

 There’s a reason why, when rumors spread last week that a hologram version of Prince would join Timberlake on-stage, that the late singer’s fans rioted. Timberlake had a history of mocking Prince in public, from taking a dig at the 5’2’’ singer’s height at the 2007 Golden Globes to dedicating an entire verse to dissing Prince on his song Give It To Me later that year.

 There was no Prince hologram on Sunday, though a projection of the late artist performing I Would Die 4 U, projected on a stories-high white sheet reminiscent of the one Prince himself posed behind during his halftime show with his legendary phallic guitar left fans unsettled.

 Yet, Prince devotees can take solace in the fact that their idol’s 2007 halftime show eclipses Timberlake’s in every way.

 Review: Justin Timberlake's 'Man of the Woods' can't pull off its Americana-pop fusion

 More: Why Prince fans are bashing Timberlake's Super Bowl halftime performance

 Prince sang his songs during his halftime show, while Timberlake let his backing tracks and background singers do the heavy lifting, following a disastrously garbled opening in which the sound was so muffled fans could barely make out Timberlake’s lyrics.

 Between Timberlake willfully ignoring his Suit and Tie vocals in favor of kicking around his mic stand, and the singer desperately reaching for his high notes at the end of Mirrors, he was doomed whether he opened his mouth or not.

 Prince also knew how to balance his classic songs with some innovative risks, ripping through faithful versions of his hits (save a few added guitar solos) before debuting a blistering mashup of All Along the Watchtower and the Foo Fighters’ Best Of You. Meanwhile, Timberlake’s attempts to remix his own pop classics resulted in the lurching rock arrangements of songs like My Love and Cry Me a River, the instrumentals further jumbled by a horns section behind him. As heard in the confused Americana-R&B of Man of the Woods, Timberlake’s genre experimentations didn’t just doom his new album, but also Sunday's show.

 And Prince knew how to stick his landing, ending his halftime set with one of the greatest moments in halftime show history, his breathtaking performance of Purple Rain. What would Prince have thought that Can't Stop The Feeling, a song from the Trolls movie soundtrack, capped Timberlake's set instead of his duet with Prince?

 In a moment that went instantly viral, Timberlake ventured into the stadium stands in the song’s final moments and took a selfie with a teenager who, nonplussed, immediately looked back down at his phone, the singer still performing next to him.

 Somehow, we think Prince would've been more proud of that kid than anything else in Timberlake's set.

 When your friend go dancing with strangers at the club and u just don’t know what to do #selfiekidpic.twitter.com/MzH4237Z1y — Triyoncé (@tribranchvo) February 5, 2018

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2s9A78j |||||
A summary of this is?

– Reviews of Justin Timberlake's halftime show Sunday have generally not been kind, and Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times delivers a particularly devastating line: "This guy has nothing to say and just won't stop saying it." The sentiment applies not just to the halftime show but to Timberlake's new release, Man of the Woods. About the best that can said of Timberlake's Super Bowl performance is that "the tightly choreographed production was impressive from a logistics standpoint," writes Wood. Beyond that, there was almost nothing to enjoy. "The performance lacked soul, meaning, humor; it had no message, nor was it taking any stand—soft, hard or otherwise." At least Timberlake didn't go ahead with rumored plans to perform with a hologram of Prince. Instead, he settled for a lesser version of the late superstar projected on a screen. But even that is inviting unfavorable comparisons to Prince's 2007 show, "which eclipses Timberlake's in every way," writes Maeve McDermott at USA Today. Prince actually sang, "while Timberlake let his backing tracks and background singers do the heavy lifting." Both reviews cite the kid with whom Timberlake took a selfie, though not in a positive light for the singer, because the teen seemed kind of uninterested in Timberlake himself. Meanwhile, Chris Willman at Variety finds better things to say of the show. "If it was more a feat of athleticism than aestheticism, you can’t say that’s entirely inappropriate for the occasion."


Article:

If you've always wanted a high-tech suit of armor that will make you nearly invincible — à la Tony Stark of "Iron Man" — your long wait may soon be over.

 Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) and other groups from business and academia are joining forces to create a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS, that "promises to provide superhuman strength with greater ballistic protection," according to a statement released by the U.S. Army.

 The most amazing features of the suit include integrated 360-degree cameras not unlike Google Glass (but with night vision capabilities), sensors that can detect injuries and apply a wound-sealing foam, and — get ready for this — a bulletproof exoskeleton made of magnetorheological fluids that can change from liquid to solid in milliseconds when a magnetic field or electrical current is applied. [Bionic Humans: Top 10 Technologies]

 If it all reminds you of the liquid-metal shapeshifter T-1000 from "Terminator" or some other sci-fi character, you're not alone. "It sounds exactly like 'Iron Man,'" Gareth McKinley, a professor at MIT, told NPR. "The other kind of things that you see in the movies I think that would be more realistic at the moment would be the kind of external suit that Sigourney Weaver wears in 'Aliens,' where it's a large robot that amplifies the motions and lifting capability of a human."

 The developers from RDECOM, MIT and elsewhere are researching "every aspect making up this combat armor suit," Lt. Col. Karl Borjes, a RDECOM science adviser, said in the U.S. Army statement. "It's advanced armor. It's communications, antennas. It's cognitive performance. It's sensors, miniature-type circuits. That's all going to fit in here, too."

 Not everyone, however, is enamored with the super-advanced gizmos being proposed for the soldiers of tomorrow. "My sense is it is an up-armored Pinocchio," Scott Neil, a retired special forces master sergeant and Silver Star recipient, told the Tampa Tribune. "Now the commander can shove a monkey in a suit and ask us to survive a machine gun, IED [improvised explosive device] and poor intelligence all on the same objective. And when you die in it, as it melds to your body, you can bury them in it."

 Even believers in the TALOS suit acknowledge its limitations. "The acronym TALOS was chosen deliberately," McKinley said. "It's the name of the bronze armored giant from 'Jason and the Argonauts.' Like all good superheroes, Talos has one weakness. For the Army's TALOS, the weak spot is either the need to carry around a heavy pump for a hydraulic system, or lots of heavy batteries. We don't have Iron Man's power source yet."

 For would-be sci-fi superheroes who are ready for their very own TALOS, the wait may prove excruciating: Though various components of the suit are currently in development, the Army hopes to have a prototype ready next year, and an advanced model won't be developed until at least two years after that.

 Follow Marc Lallanilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience. ||||| Special Ops Envisions 'Iron Man'-Like Suit To Protect Troops

 i itoggle caption Raytheon via YouTube Raytheon via YouTube

 In the Iron Man movie series, Robert Downey Jr. plays a billionaire working with his trusty robot to build a protective suit that will help him battle evil.

 Now, the U.S. Special Operations Command is teaming up with industry, universities and laboratories to see if such a suit can be created for the real world of combat.

 Adm. Bill McRaven, who unveiled the idea at a conference in May, says it was inspired by the death of one of his troops in Afghanistan.

 "One of our folks going through the door was killed by the Taliban on the other side in an attempt to rescue a hostage," McRaven, the command's top officer, says.

 So McRaven challenged those at the conference to come up with better body armor. And he posed this question: "Why haven't we put effort into ensuring particularly that guy going through the door ... is protected to the maximum capability that we can provide him, as a nation?"

 That effort is now underway. The Special Operations Command held something of a science fair last month in Tampa, says Jim Geurts, who buys high-tech equipment for the command. At the conference, dozens of technologies were shown off, he says, including "advanced body armor, advance power supply, practical exoskeletons ... [and] different display technologies."

 It's all just a concept now, Geurts says. But it's a concept with a name: TALOS, short for tactical assault light operator suit. It will take a year to even select which technologies to use.

 "We're not at the Iron Man flying suit, you know, flying at 50,000 feet level," he says.

 So, a flying suit is not part of the plan. But the first challenge is to come up with stronger body armor so a commando can survive once he kicks in a door.

 Norman Wagner, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Delaware, is working the problem. He's looking to nanotechnology to create a solution that contains particles smaller than a single red blood cell.

 "We're starting with the material that's almost a liquid ceramic," he says.

 A liquid that can be dipped in Kevlar fabric — the current building block of body armor and helmets — and make it even tougher, literally the moment a bullet strikes.

 "It transitions when you hit it hard," Wagner says. "These particles organize themselves quickly, locally in a way that they can't flow anymore and they become like a solid."

 So a liquid becomes a solid to make better armor protection. But the military wants to do more. It wants to make the soldier faster and stronger.

 Gareth McKinley, a professor at MIT, works on liquid armor, among other things. He says the suit could include attachable frames on the arms and legs that use hydraulics to greatly increase strength and speed.

 "They typically consist of an external skeleton that's attached or bolted onto the human's either upper torso or lower torso," McKinley says.

 Sounds a bit like Iron Man, doesn't it?

 "It sounds exactly like Iron Man," McKinley says. "The other kind of things that you see in the movies I think that would be more realistic at the moment would be the kind of external suit that Sigourney Weaver wears in Aliens, where it's a large robot that amplifies the motions and lifting capability of a human."

 Another function: The commandos need a more complete picture of the battlefield.

 So, the suit will likely include a wearable computer, like Google Glass, says Geurts of the Special Operations Command. Instead of a handheld display, commandos could simply look into the corner of their glasses and get updates on things like the location of enemy forces.

 But, Geurts cautions people not to expect any of this anytime soon,

 "The hope is that we would have some working full-up prototypes in the two- to three-year time frame," he says.

 In the meantime, that kind of suit can only be seen at a theater near you. |||||
What is a summary?

– If you've ever dreamed of being a superhero, there may soon be reason to join the Army. It's developing a "revolutionary" armor that "promises to provide superhuman strength with greater ballistic protection," LiveScience reports. The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit would include a bulletproof exoskeleton frame; sensors to monitor heart rate and hydration, detect injuries, and even apply foam to seal wounds; and a computer that includes 360-degree night-vision cameras. The Army is calling on multiple industries, government labs, and research organizations to make it happen, reports the BBC. If it sounds to you like the stuff of movies, or perhaps comic books, you're not alone. "It sounds exactly like Iron Man," a professor at MIT told NPR for an earlier story, noting the use of hydraulics on the arms and legs to increase strength and speed. Like most superheroes, however, TALOS has a weakness. "For the Army's TALOS, the weak spot is either the need to carry around a heavy pump for a hydraulic system, or lots of heavy batteries," says the prof. "We don't have Iron Man's power source yet." The Army hopes a prototype will be ready by next year, though an advanced model could be a few years off.