Hasta La Gadget!

Device makers will soon have a powerful chip with which to build Android L-based 64-bit smartphones and tablets on. Leaked specs are suggesting a respectable feature set within MediaTek’s latest.

The desktop scanner is a wonderful thing, but rugged it ain’t. Yet Nathaniel Stern didn’t let that stop him: The Wisconsin-based artist, who is known for his experimental camera designs, created a waterproof version of an off-the-shelf scanner that captured a series of incredible images of sea life.

Read more…

The 2015 Lexus NX isn’t your accountant’s Lexus. Aggressively designed, and breaking new ground for Lexus with its first turbocharged engine, the new NX attempts to distill what has worked for the RX into a package more appealing to hip urbanites, young families, and those who might more regularly find mountain bikes in their trunk than Whole Foods bags. True … Continue reading

Hammacher has a penchant for testing out consumer electronics and offering the mantle of “The Best” to a select handful of them, which adds more weight to such claims along the way. Well, can one particular ice maker truly stand out from the rest of the crowd? It does seem like it, as evident by this $279.95 Portable Ice Maker that has earned a “The Best” rating from the Hammacher Schlemmer Institute simply because it was the most efficient at producing ice as compared to other models in a similar class.

This Portable Ice Maker will be able to churn out 1″ long conical-shaped ice cubes in batches of 12, where it also boasts of 1.8 lbs.-per-hour ice output that makes it 80% more efficient compared to other models which could only manage a 1 lb.-per-hour output. Apart from that, it is also capable of delivering its first batch of clear, well-formed cubes in less than 10 minutes. In addition, with an easy-to-use, drain-free operation that simply requires filling its 1.32-gallon reservoir with water, you are good to go in the blink of an eye. You have the options of selecting from small to large ice cube sizes, as well as to set the timer for 1/2-hour to 18-hour continuous operation. Shutting it down is a snap, and the 3/4-lb. capacity bin is a snap to remove whenever it is full so that any meltwater will be filtered and re-used for the next batch. If the water tank ends up low on water, fret not – an audible alert is here to the rescue.
[ Portable Ice Maker gains “The Best” marks from Hammacher copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

Children’s skulls found at the edges of Bronze Age settlements may have been a gruesome gift for the local lake gods.

The children’s skulls were discovered encircling the perimeter of ancient villages around lakes in Switzerland and Germany. Some had suffered ax blows and other head traumas.

Though the children probably weren’t human sacrifices killed to appease the gods, they may have been offered after death as gifts to ward off flooding, said study co-author Benjamin Jennings, an archaeologist at Basel University in Switzerland.

Lake dwellers

Since the 1920s, archaeologists have known that ancient villages dotted Alpine lakes in Switzerland and Germany. However, it wasn’t until the 1970s and 1980s that many of the sites were excavated, yielding hunting tools, animal bones, ceramics, jewelry, watchtowers, gates and more than 160 dwellings. Tree rings on wooden artifacts from the sites suggest people lived there at different periods between 3,800 and 2,600 years ago. [Mummy Melodrama: Top 9 Secrets About Otzi the Iceman]

The Bronze Age lake dwellers regularly faced flooding. Whenever lake levels rose, they would pick up and move to dry land, only to return once the waters receded. To adapt to this watery threat, the people built houses on stilts or on sturdy wooden foundations, and created palisades, or fences, made from bog pine, the researchers wrote in the June issue of the journal Antiquity.

But in addition to finding evidence for such architectural adaptations, archaeologists also unearthed more macabre details of life (and death): children’s skulls and skeletal remains encircling the villages at the palisade edges. Many of these ancient skulls were placed there long after their initial burial, at a time when the settlements experienced the worst inundation from rising lake levels, the researchers wrote.

Gift to the gods

In the current study, Jennings and his colleagues took a closer look at the fossil skeletons.

Most were from children under age 10, and though the skeletal remains revealed tooth decay and signs of respiratory ailments, those health troubles would not have been severe enough to warrant a mercy killing, the researchers wrote in the journal article.

The skulls showed evidence of head trauma from battle-axes or clubs, though the injuries don’t have the uniformity associated with a ritual killing. As a result, it’s more likely the youngsters were felled in warfare, rather than killed as a sacrifice for the gods, the researchers wrote.

Either way, it’s clear these weren’t ordinary burials, he said.

“Across Europe as a whole there is quite a body of evidence to indicate that throughout prehistory human remains, and particularly the skull, were highly symbolic and socially charged,” Jennings told Live Science in an email.

At these sites, “the remains are found at the perimeter of the settlement — not inside and not outside, but at a liminal position on the border between in and out,” Jennings added. And at one of the sites, the remains were placed at the high-water mark of the floodwaters. Taken together, the details of the burial suggest the remains were placed as an offering to protect against flooding, Jennings said.

Still, there are many unanswered questions about these mysterious Alpine people.

“There are very few instance or examples of burials in the vicinity of the lake settlements, and so we really do not know where the majority of the lake dwellers are buried, or how they treated their dead,” Jennings said.

Follow Tia Ghose on Twitter and Google+. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

• 8 Grisly Archaeological Discoveries
• In Photos: ‘Alien’ Skulls Reveal Odd, Ancient Tradition
• Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead

Copyright 2014 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.