In two separate incidents, a total of 13 aircraft from radar across Austria and its neighboring countries in what the nation’s flight safety monitor calls an “unprecedented” incident.

According to Marcus Pohanka of Austria’s flight safety organization Austro Control, the two incidents occurred on June 5 and June 10 and were each 25 minutes in length. In each case, multiple flights completely disappeared from air traffic control screens. Monitors in Germany and the Czech Republic both reported similar incidents.

The planes, believed to be passenger craft, were not entirely lost. They remained in radio contact, and air traffic control was done by voice alone. Pohanka says the planes were never in any danger, and extra controllers were immediately brought in to assist in establishing radio contact and plotting new flight corridors. “Voice communication guaranteed that we knew everything about the planes in Austrian air space and allowed air traffic controllers to do their jobs,” he .

Although experts have said that the problem was probably an issue of interference between the aircraft and transponders on the ground, the mysterious similarities between the two incidents will likely fuel speculation of the extraterrestrial variety. In other words, they’re not saying it’s aliens.

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A recently concluded study has determined that protein might well be the key to drastically reducing your risk of stroke. Just 20 grams per day of chicken or fish can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 20 percent, the research posits.

The study, published in the journal , monitored the diets and health of 254,489 people over the course of 14 years across multiple countries. “If everyone’s protein intake were at this level, that would translate to more than 1.4 million fewer deaths from stroke each year worldwide, plus a decreased level of disability from stroke,” study author Dr. Xinfeng Liu .

Animal protein in particular, rather than the vegetable variety, was found to lower blood pressure, a primary indicator of stroke risk. However, Liu also suggested that people avoid red meat, as it was associated with increased stroke risk.

Previous studies done in the United States have found that protein can both prevent stroke and help people recover from it. A University of California Irvine study from 2010 found that certain supplemental proteins could help  in paralyzed rats.

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A new tax proposal in Washington, D.C., has yoga instructors and gym owners sweating bullets in a bad way. The city is looking to implement a 5.75 percent sales tax on all health club services, including gyms and yoga studios, as part of its 2015 budget, and industry members are worried that it could turn away new customers.

“This feels like a tax on healthy lifestyles,” said Betsy Poos, co-owner of yoga studio in Southeast D.C., . The tax would place and extra 69 cents on her $12 hourlong classes and another dollar on classes of 75 and 90 minutes. Although she doesn’t believe the tax would cause current members to stay away, it could be a turnoff to new students who are already stretching their budgets for a membership. “In the past five months, 25 percent of our sales revenue has come from consumers brand new to our studio—first-time walk-ins.”

Poos isn’t alone in her protest. Multiple organizations have come together to protest the tax initiative, including the Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals (CHAMPS), Capitol Hill’s Biker Barre, and a bevy of local CrossFit Trainers.

D.C. Council chairman Phil Mendelson has defended the bill, saying its not specifically targeting fitness locations but is part of an overall package aimed at revising the individual income tax. Other businesses listed in the initiative include bowling alleys, billiard halls, water delivery services, and car washes, among others. “The goal of the [tax initiative] was to recommend an overall tax structure that is fair, equitable, and reduces the overall burden on District residents,” says Mendelson. 

Still, D.C.’s fitness entrepreneurs believe the tax could have an adverse affect on their business and the overall well-being of the city. “If a doctor prescribes you a pill, there’s no sales tax,” said Yoga Flow co-owner Ian Mishalove. “If the doctor prescribes you yoga, there’s a tax.”

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Ninety-three-year-old Jim “Pee Wee” Martin originally parachuted into Normandy, France, 70 years ago as part of the Allied invasion of Europe. Now he’s going to try it again, hopefully with less shrapnel whizzing through the air.

“They called us the tip of the spear,” Martin . “We wanted to get out of the plane quickly, because it was hitting the plane. Planes were blowing up, and we wanted to get the hell out of there.” Martin was a private in the 101st Airborne, one of the paratrooper divisions dropped behind enemy lines mere hours before the D-Day boats landed. He would go on to fight in Holland, the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium, and Germany.

He won’t be making the jump himself, however. “They are making me do a tandem,” he said in a phone interview. “They are worried about me getting hurt. I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. If I get hurt or I get killed, what is the difference? I’ve lived 93 years. I’ve had a good life.'” 

Martin isn’t the only veteran on a quest to peacefully recreate history. He is , Jock Hutton, formerly of the 13th Parachute Battalion of the British 6th Airborne Division, who will jump into a field near Ranville, along with hundreds of other British, Canadian, and American paratroopers who will reenact the operation. A meeting with the Prince of Wales will follow.

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A coffee brewer in Washington state is planning to release a cannabis-infused cold-brew coffee beverage called Legal. The new product, a creation of , contains about 20 milligrams of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana.

According to product developer Adam Stites, the buzz from the drink, which comes in plain and cream-and-sugar flavors, is equivalent to an IPA or a single glass of wine. “We don’t want to pack so much THC into every one of our drinks that it’s unpleasant, especially for people that are just getting into marijuana,” .

Mirth also plans to release a line of juice-based sparkling sodas, each infused with its own strain of marijuana for different effects. Stites has yet to put a final price tag on the products but expects them to cost between $9 and $11, depending on how many stores want to carry the drinks.

Consumers excited at the prospect of Legal will have to wait a few more weeks for the product as Stites applies for his producer and processor license and waits for final approval from the state. Legal is still a marijuana-based product and must be regulated as such. Edible products in particular have come under scrutiny in states that have legalized pot as fears of overeating and overdosing spread. Marijuana intoxication was of a Wyoming college student who consumed roughly six times the suggested amount of cookies he purchased before jumping off a balcony.

Still, none of that is going to stop Stites. “We can produce several hundred bottles per hour,” he says. “So the question for us really is how quickly are these retail stores going to be open. But we’re really excited.”

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The residents of Forest Hills, Pennsylvania, are keeping one eye on the skies after a local resident was knocked unconscious by an especially aggressive neighborhood hawk. Eileen Bridge was washing her car outdoors when she was “dive-bombed” by what is believed to be a red-tailed hawk, .

“[The hawk] knocked me down,” said Bridge, who suffered lacerations to her scalp and ear, along with a wicked shiner. “There was so much blood on my face, dripping down my blouse.” Despite her wounds, Bridge managed to contact her husband, Pat, who took her to the hospital. Pat Bridge also had a close encounter with the hawk just a few days earlier as he was crossing their yard. “From behind, I heard this rushing air and wind sound,” he said. “It was that hawk. It just glanced off the top of my head.”

The hawk is likely one of a pair that nested in a pine tree behind the Bridge’s home this spring. Nestlings appeared not long after, likely leading to the pair’s aggressive and protective behavior.

In light of the attacks, the state game commission has elected to relocate the nest and its babies.

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When California legalized growing marijuana for medical purposes and personal use, it seemed like the good times were ready to roll indefinitely. But now, dispute over the environmental impact of medical pot farms is heating up in in the Golden State. According to wildlife officials, Northern California’s forests and streams are being polluted and drained of water by medical marijuana farms that have overstepped their legal bounds and begun growing the substance for retail sale, which is still illegal.

Since was passed in 1996, officials recorded more and more streams going dry in the region. So, in an attempt to map the damage the farms were doing, California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Scott Bauer used Google mapping technology to track the number of grow operations in the region and how many plants each contained. “We knew people were diverting water for marijuana operations, but we wanted to know exactly how much,” . “We didn’t know they could consume all the water in a stream.” Bauer’s study estimates that roughly 30,000 pot plants are being grown on each river system in the region, consuming some six gallons of water per plant per day.

The illegal large-scale operations are also introducing unapproved fertilizers to the watershed, potentially affecting salmon, steelhead, and other federally protected wildlife. 

Last year, the problem grew so bad in Lake County, south of Bauer’s study area, that officials voted unanimously to place a ban on outdoor grows. “Counties are the ultimate arbiter of land use conflict,” said Lake County supervisor Denise Rushing. “So while you have a right to grow marijuana for medicinal use, you don’t have a right to impinge on someone else’s happiness and well-being.”

Pot farmers in the region, feeling that responsible users and growers were being lumped in with criminal operators and that the illegal operations would continue regardless of the law, responded by gathering enough signatures to get a referendum placed on the June 3 ballot, allowing the residents of the county to vote on the issue themselves.

For more on the marijuana-environment clash, read ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø‘s coverage of how marijuana farms are threatening California’s fish.

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It’s true: The machines are winning.

The Raptor, a new technological from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (), isn’t as fast as another robot, , but its top speed of 46 kilometers per hour beats that of Usain Bolt (43.92), the fastest man alive.

Significantly (and perhaps disturbingly), the three-kilogram Raptor is bipedal; its two legs are constructed from a lightweight composite material. It also has a tail that allows it to remain stable as it runs and navigates obstacles. Each leg also has a tendon of sorts that allows the robot to reclaim some of the energy spent during its runs.

There are currently no plans for practical applications of the robot, save, perhaps, for eventually ruling the human race.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lPEg83vF_Tw%3Frel%3D0

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In the tradition of Farm Aid and We Are the World, a group of West African rappers have come together to , which has killed 188 people in the region over the past two months. The song, “Ebola in Town,” was recorded by a trio of African artists: D-12 (not the ), Shadow, and Kuzzy of 2 Kings.

The song’s lyrics are aimed at advising West African residents about proper procedure for avoiding the virus and dealing with the afflicted. “Don’t touch your friend,” they sing. “Don’t touch him. No eating something, it’s dangerous. Ebola, Ebola in town.” Partygoers in the capitals of Liberia and Guinea have even come up with a dance for the song in which no bodily contact occurs between revelers.

While Ebola can only be transferred by coming into direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected individual, its fatality rate is roughly 90 percent. With literacy in the region running below 40 percent, it makes sense to communicate public safety messages through a universal medium like song.

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Google has unveiled what it hopes will one day become the standard in automotive travel: a fully autonomous self-driving car. The sleek, gray podlike car—still just a prototype—has no steering wheel, gas pedal, or brake pedal. You simply plug in your destination, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

From Google’s :

We’re now exploring what fully self-driving vehicles would look like by building some prototypes; they’ll be designed to operate safely and autonomously without requiring human intervention. They won’t have a steering wheel, accelerator pedal, or brake pedal … because they don’t need them. Our software and sensors do all the work. The vehicles will be very basic—we want to learn from them and adapt them as quickly as possible—but they will take you where you want to go at the push of a button. And that’s an important step toward improving road safety and transforming mobility for millions of people.

The car was built from scratch without using a preexisting model as the basis. Its main sensor has a full 360-degree view, allowing for more than 200 yards of visibility to track moving objects and obstacles. The driving program is designed to be on the safe and defensive side, avoiding larger vehicles and moving out of blind spots. Google’s designers also accounted for the potential for accidents by granting the car moderate speed capability (currently a maximum of 25 mph) and making the frame more amenable to a collision. “We imagine at some point there will be an accident with one of these vehicles, so we’ve designed the front end to be soft,” . The car also features a redundant breaking system; if one fails, the other takes over.

Technically, the car isn’t completely autonomous. It still relies on Google’s map and road system, and all testing thus far has been monitored by two Google employees who can take control of the car at a moment’s notice in the event of an emergency.

Even though the project is still years away from the market, Google has no intention of ever selling the vehicles. Instead, the prototypes (Google hopes to build 100 over the next two years) are meant to entice partners into the program that will take on manufacturing and marketing the vehicles.

Street testing will begin this summer in Mountain View, California, where the cars will interact with a live-fire environment, complete with clueless pedestrians, zipping cyclists, and twitchy lane-hoppers. It’s hard to imagine it faring any worse than most teenagers behind the wheel.

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