Month: November 2022

Enlarge / LEDs have opened up new possibilities for lighting car interiors, as seen in the new Hyundai Ioniq 6. (credit: Hyundai)

The annual auto show is underway in Los Angeles this week, and Hyundai used the event to make the North American debut of its next electric vehicle, the Ioniq 6. It's a curvaceous sedan, one that looks better in person than on a two-dimensional screen, and when it goes on sale in 2023, it will be yet another example of the lighting revolution that's brightened up automotive interiors, and perhaps brightening a driver's mood.

We've written before about how LEDs have been embraced by designers crafting the exteriors of new cars. Freed from the old confines of inefficient bulbs and large, often round reflectors, today new cars and trucks are decorated by strips and slashes of yellow and red daylight running lights, with headlamps that light brighter and throw further down the road. If a car's headlights are its face—and humans are good at seeing faces in things—then new lighting technology has given our vehicles a new range of expressions.

Instead of direct lighting, the Ioniq 6's LEDs project onto the door cards. (credit: Hyundai)

Vehicle interiors are becoming more expressive, too. LEDs have taken over from incandescents here, bringing color along for the ride. The Ioniq 6, for example, boasts 64 different hues to choose from, backlighting the door cards and the dashboard.

Enlarge / Forensic facial reconstruction of the "Connecticut vampire" (aka JB55), accounting for known tooth loss and inferred health issues. Hair is based on 19th-century styles. Skin, hair, and eye color are based on phenotype predictions. (credit: Parabon NanoLabs )

Thanks to the efforts of Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, we now know what the so-called "Connecticut vampire" probably looked like. Using DNA analysis and a 3D scan of the skull, the two labs collaborated to digitally reconstruct the face of the 19th-century man whose remains were discovered more than 30 years ago. The image was revealed earlier this month at the International Symposium on Human Identification conference in Washington, DC. The work also builds on earlier DNA analysis to strengthen the evidence that the man in question was a former resident named John Barber.

As we've reported previously, children playing near a gravel pit in Griswold, Connecticut, back in 1990 stumbled across a pair of skulls that had broken free of their graves in a 19th-century unmarked cemetery. Subsequent excavation revealed 27 graves—including that of a middle-age man identified only by the initials "JB55," spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin. Unlike the other burials, his skull and femurs were neatly arranged in the shape of a skull and crossbones, leading archaeologists to conclude that the man had been a suspected "vampire" by his community.

Analysis of JB55's bones in the 1990s indicated the man had been a middle-age laborer, around 55 when he died. The remains also showed signs of lesions on the ribs, so JB55 suffered from a chronic lung condition—most likely tuberculosis, known at the time as consumption. It was frequently lethal in the 1800s due to the lack of antibiotics, and symptoms included a bloody cough, jaundice (pale, yellowed skin), red and swollen eyes, and a general appearance of "wasting away." And the sickness often spread to family members. That could be why local folklore suspected some victims of being vampires, rising from the grave to sicken the community they left behind.

Enlarge / Forensic facial reconstruction of the "Connecticut vampire" (aka JB55), accounting for known tooth loss and inferred health issues. Hair is based on 19th-century styles. Skin, hair, and eye color are based on phenotype predictions. (credit: Parabon NanoLabs )

Thanks to the efforts of Parabon NanoLabs and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory, we now know what the so-called "Connecticut vampire" probably looked like. Using DNA analysis and a 3D scan of the skull, the two labs collaborated to digitally reconstruct the face of the 19th-century man whose remains were discovered more than 30 years ago. The image was revealed earlier this month at the International Symposium on Human Identification conference in Washington, DC. The work also builds on earlier DNA analysis to strengthen the evidence that the man in question was a former resident named John Barber.

As we've reported previously, children playing near a gravel pit in Griswold, Connecticut, back in 1990 stumbled across a pair of skulls that had broken free of their graves in a 19th-century unmarked cemetery. Subsequent excavation revealed 27 graves—including that of a middle-age man identified only by the initials "JB55," spelled out in brass tacks on his coffin. Unlike the other burials, his skull and femurs were neatly arranged in the shape of a skull and crossbones, leading archaeologists to conclude that the man had been a suspected "vampire" by his community.

Analysis of JB55's bones in the 1990s indicated the man had been a middle-age laborer, around 55 when he died. The remains also showed signs of lesions on the ribs, so JB55 suffered from a chronic lung condition—most likely tuberculosis, known at the time as consumption. It was frequently lethal in the 1800s due to the lack of antibiotics, and symptoms included a bloody cough, jaundice (pale, yellowed skin), red and swollen eyes, and a general appearance of "wasting away." And the sickness often spread to family members. That could be why local folklore suspected some victims of being vampires, rising from the grave to sicken the community they left behind.

Enlarge (credit: NurPhoto / Contributor | NurPhoto)

Advertisers pulling out of Twitter as the platform remains unstable under Elon Musk’s leadership have many reasons to be concerned about brand safety, Reuters reported.

Major brands pausing advertising include Audi of America, United Airlines, General Mills, General Motors, Volkswagen, Modelez International (which makes popular products like Oreos), and Omnicon (which manages advertising for brands like McDonalds and Apple). Beyond the damage of brand impersonations through the Twitter Blue paid verification scandal, spokespersons for these groups have pointed to increases in hate speech on the platform and cuts to Twitter support staff as most worrying.

“We felt there is a risk our advertising would appear next to the wrong messages," Mondelez CEO Dirk Van de Put told Reuters.