Scientists discover a hidden ‘guest’ in Picasso’s The Blue Room

Using state-of-the-art infrared technology, researchers have solved one of art’s mysteries.

For years, art experts suspected the existence of a hidden painting underneath Pablo Picasso’s The Blue Room. The painting is one of the earliest examples of the Spanish master’sBlue Period, when he was experimenting with indigo hues to convey sadness and melancholia.

In the 1990s an X-ray revealed a fuzzy figure of something beneath the painting, reports theSydney Morning Herald. But it wasn't until 2008 that researchers managed to use infrared lightning to scan the image. That was a crucial step towards solving the puzzle. When researchers used infrared scanning and multi-spectral imaging technology, the image of a bearded man resting his face on his ringed fingers appeared. 

Technical analyses were then used to date the hidden painting. The result: 1901, the same yearThe Blue Room was painted. At the time Picasso was 19 years old and still struggling to find his revolutionary style. The ringed man can shed some light on the stylistic experimentation that led to the Blue Period.

Researchers continue to work hard to identify the colours of the original painting. The aim is to recreate a digital image that can help art experts better understand Picasso’s transition between the Blue (1901-1904) and Rose Periods (1904-1906). Figuring out who the bearded man is, is part of the project as well.

This isn’t the first time science has revealed a secret painting in Picasso’s artwork. There’s a moustached man hidden beneath Woman Ironing (1904). 

Reusing canvases has been common practice for centuries, especially among young or penniless artists. Over the past few years scientists have discovered many other unknown drawings hidden beneath famous paintings. Vincent van Gogh’s Patch of Grass, for example, hides the portrait of a peasant woman, and a beached whale was found ‘hiding’ in a painting by Hendrick van Anthonissen.

Fish-eating spiders are real, and they cover most of the planet

Scientists have discovered spiders that eat fish twice their size exist on every continent except Antarctica.

Image: Clockwise from left - Alfredo Dosantos Santillan; Ed Germain; Loren Jarvis

After reviewing more than 80 reports of fish predation, researchers from Australia and Switzerland have found that fish-eating is far more widespread in spiders than previously imagined. 

Of course, spiders are already known to eat reptiles, mice and even birds and bats. But prior to this, tales of spiders hunting fish in the wild had been anecdotal and isolated to a few different locations.

But after studying all the available literature on the topic, alongside unpublished information from biologists and naturalists, the researchers found the phenomenon occurs pretty much all around the world, and in spider species belonging to eight different taxonomic families. These semi-aquatic spiders, they found, can all walk on water and swim and dive. Their research is published in PLoS ONE.

"It's important to gather as much information as you can into one place so that you can put this phenomenon into some context," Bradley Pusey, from the University of Western Australia told Marc Llewellyn over at ABC Science.

Only one of the fish-eating spiders, the diving bell spider, lives under the water. The rest inhabit the edge of water bodies, where they spend most of their time eating insects that are smaller than them, the researchers believe. But occasionally they’ll score one of these fish, which are around 2-6 cm in length, on average 2.2 times the size of the spider.

"The spiders that live there are probably hunting for insects most of the time and occasionally, or quite frequently in the case of some families, they are hunting fish," Pusey explained. "You would think that there was a much higher risk of a spider being damaged in that ensuing conflict, but there's a really significant payoff … it's a big-ticket food item with lots of protein and flesh to consume, whereas an invertebrate has lots of hard material that the spider discards.”

Their hunting strategy is actually very sophisticated, and for most of the fish-eating spiders involves waiting on a rock with its three front pairs of legs on the water surface, where they appear to receive information from vibrations on the surface - almost like they’re fishing and waiting for a tug.

Once a fish touches one of their legs, they throw themselves into the water, where they kill their prey with a bite to the base of the neck. The spiders then drag the fish back to dry land and inject them with digestive enzymes before eating them, the researchers found.

So we guess if fish are capable of nightmares, this is what they’re having them about. Join the club.

35 Ways For Teens To Make Money (Adults Too!)

I can remember my teenage days well. I didn’t want to work, but I needed to make money to support my social life. So I umpired, cut grass, and bagged groceries. I didn’t particularly love any of the jobs, but in order to offset my spending, I needed to work.
The good news for teens today is there are a wide range of ways to make money- that weren’t around when I was a teenager. Most of them require a good work ethic, but there are a lot of new opportunities available.

Luckily for many teens, they may already be very skilled in certain areas that could easily translate into a nice side income for them. For example, I remember hearing about a teenage girl who designed Myspace backgrounds and was making more money than her parents. So potentially, a teenager who is willing to work hard could make considerably more than working traditional “jobs” like at McDonalds, cutting grass, bussing tables, etc. For even more, check out these 5 legit work-from-home job opportunities.

What type of teen are we talking about?

The 7-year period defined as the “teenage years” sees a wide range of maturity levels. I remember moments where I showed high levels of maturity and moments that are better left unspoken. Interestingly, my immaturity didn’t necessarily decrease as I grew closer to 20 years old. My point is that some of these jobs are going to require a teenager who is “on the ball” in terms of maturity. But if you have (or are) one, these could be much better alternatives to “would you like to supersize that?”

The 35 Ways To Earn Money

1. Make Money Online with Swagbucks

Basically this is a free site that offers you a bunch of ways to earn cash, gift cards, or other rewards.
You can earn by answering polls, taking surveys, doing simple tasks (like giving feedback about a website), trading in old video games or books, and even playing games on their site.
I have tried it out and have received multiple payments from them, so I can attest that it is legit. While you won’t get rich doing this, to me it seems like a great way for internet-loving teens to make some money.  Find out more here.

2. Sell stuff on eBay for Mom and Dad

I am sure mom and dad wouldn’t mind sharing some of the profits, if you sell some of their clutter for them. I say ask them for 50% of what you make from it!

3. Freebie Trading

A couple years ago I did an interview with a guy who made $28,000 in one year doing this part time. It is work and requires organization skills to do it well, but it is legit.
I tried my hand at it using Project Payday and their training materials to see that it was legit.
Basically companies are willing to pay you to do trial offers for their products. They know that many people who do the trial offer will like their product and continue to be customers, so they are willing to pay people to sign up for trial offers.
So one of the main ways of making money freebie trading is signing up for offers like a Free Netflix trial, emusic.com, applying for a Discover Card, etc. The key to success seems to be having a calendar where you can keep track of when the trial periods end and make sure to cancel before they end.
If you are interested in learning more I definitely recommend Project Payday as they have a ton of training guides (free if you complete a couple offers) that will greatly simplify the process. Oh and they have a A+ rating with the BBB as well.

4. Take online surveys

I am not particularly fond of the whole online survey thing since I had a bad experience using CashCrate. But there are lots of online survey sites and people who do it successfully. Here are a few if you want to investigate it further:

• Swagbucks
• Global Test Market
• MySurvey
• Vindale Research
• Survey Downline

I recommend proceeding with caution and definitely not paying anything to join.

5. Raise Money Online

If you are raising money for a community service project or missions, you might want to check out a site like GoFundMe.com. They make it easy for teens to raise money for any type of project. People have used it to raise the money for everything from mission trips to medical bills, weddings and honeymoons, business ventures, and even college tuition.

6. Build Websites For Others

I can’t tell you how many people have asked me to build them a website since I started this one a couple years ago. I am not seeking the work and people are requesting it, so if you do a little legwork and pursue small business owners, there is a lot of work available. Teens might be great for this, because they would be able to work for less than some higher end website developers, which would put them in the price range that it seems many small businesses are looking to spend. Here is a great course to help you get started.

7. Cleaning out Foreclosed Homes

With there being as many foreclosed homes out there as there are, the bankers (who now own the houses) don’t want to clean them up and they are willing to pay hefty sums for those who will.  So it is fairly easy to start a Foreclosure cleanup business and get paid pretty well in the process. If you are interested here is a course you can take to learn more.

8. Freelance Write

As they say on the web “content is king” and everyone wants it. Places like Elance or Odesk have thousands of different job openings available for freelance writers. If you are not in a rush for receiving compensation and know how to do keyword research, there is money to be made writing at Hubpages and Squidoo. For more on this method, check out How to make money with Hubpages.

9. Start a Christmas Light Hanging business

If you aren’t afraid of heights and can handle being out in the cold, this is a pretty great business opp.  Some people earn a full-year’s salary just hanging lights for 2 months each year.  Here is a course that provides some more info.

10. Sell Plasma

Not sure how old you have to be, nor how painful it is, but if you are into that sort of thing, it can be a way to make some quick money.

11. Take part in medical studies

I have a couple friends who have almost done this exclusively as a job. They were basically human guinea pigs, but they made some decent cash at it. Sometimes they would have be at the medical facility for up to 48 hours, so your schedule may need to be flexible. Just google “medical studies” + your city to find some options.

12. Fiverr

Fiverr is a website that allows you to sell your service for $5. There are all kinds of crazy things people are offering and getting paid for on there – like taking a picture holding a sign, recording 2 sentences in an irish accent, recording a video singing a certain song, and even prank calling a friend all for $5. So if you have a little creativity, there are some fun ways to make some money on the side.

13. Gigwalk

Gigwalk is a fairly new iPhone app that offers payment for completing simple tasks based on your location. For example users earn by taking pictures of a restaurant’s menu, verifying roadblocks and signage, and other simple tasks. If you are in a big city (which typically has more opportunities) there is some decent potential with this one.

14. Get paid to Tweet

Did you know that advertisers will pay you to send out tweets about their products? As you could imagine the bigger your audience the more you will get paid, but you can find out more here – SponsoredTweets.com.

15. Have a Garage Sale

If it is something too large or that won’t sell on eBay for some reason, you can always have an old-fashioned garage sale!

16. Tutor or give lessons

Are you great at math, science, or kicking a field goal? Why not advertise your skills to those a few years younger than you? Many parents are willing to pay a teenager to tutor their child in an area that needs development.

17. Create Myspace Facebook Graphics or Pages

or Twitter backgrounds for that matter. Just set up a simple site to sell your work, get a paypal “buy it now link” and you are off and running.

18. Write product reviews

There are places like Ciao, Epinions.com, ReviewStream.com that pay for product reviews – if you have an opinion and can type quickly this might be a good option. Another one that just popped up is called Ukritic and they allow you to write reviews of products and then you can earn affiliate commissions from the sales of those products. It might not be quick cash, but for those who like to write it may be a decent option.

Jobs requiring a uniquely mature teenager

19. Buy and Sell cars for profit

If you love cars and aren’t afraid to haggle, you could start a car flipping biz.  We have a friend of the family who has done this for years.  He scours the classified listings for deals, lands a good deal and then drives the car while trying to sell it for a couple grand more. Sometimes he sells them quickly, sometimes it takes a little longer, but he gets to drives lots of cars (which he loves) and makes a nice side income as well.  Here is an online course to help you get started.

20. Rent out your car for $10+ an hour

I just heard about RelayRides.com which allows you to either rent or lend your car to others – and get paid in the process. If you live in a big city, this could be pretty profitable!

21. Blogging

Two years ago I wasn’t sure if there was money to be made blogging, but I have since found it to work out nicely. It isn’t something that will provide much income quickly, but if you stick at it, it can. I wrote extensively about how to make money from a blog a few months ago.

22. Design Web Logos

If you have a flair for design, it may be worth trying to make some money designing logos for small business or blogs.

23. Social Marketing Consultant

Many companies are looking for qualified candidates who know the ins and outs of Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter to help them with their social marketing efforts. Head over to a job site and search for “social media marketing”.

24. Sell articles

Following in that same vein, you can sell articles you write at places like Constant-Content.com, ArticleSale.com, Helium.com.

25. Start an eBay business

Last year I experimented with starting an eBay business to see if there was money to be made. While profit margins can be thin selling on eBay, there are over a million eBay businesses, so it is a viable option.

26. Sell Digital Photos

Making money as a photographer has become easier over the last decade. There are now lots of sites looking to buy digital photos: Shutterstock.com, 123RF.com, Dreamstime.com, CreStock.com, Fotolia.com. As with most things, the better you are the more money you will make, but it can be nice passive income if you work at it.

27. Find odd-jobs on Craigslist

Some of these might be landscaping work, or similar odd-jobs, but it might be great summer time work for teens!

28. Sell widgets on Etsy.com

If you create any kind of arts or crafts or widgets of any sort, you should check out Etsy.com.

29. Join a Focus Group

There are likely to be focus groups in your area that may be willing to hire teens. Organizations are always looking for participants because there are business advantages for focus groups. Just Google “focus group” and your city to get started.

30. Sell Your Video Game Accounts

Are you a gamer? Try selling your accounts, virtual gold, or virtual weapons. You can often sell items like these on gamer forums or even on Ebay.com.

31. Be a Mystery Shopper

This is the dream job isn’t it? You get to shop and get paid! The added bonus is that you secretly have recourse when you are treated poorly in the store.

32. Offer to do jobs on Zaarly.com

Zaarly is a website that connects those offering random services (like walking a dog, being a personal assistant for a day, giving guitar lessons, etc) with buyers who are looking for those services.  I would suggest checking out some of the ideas listed on the site and sign up and offer those services.

33. Get paid from your iPhone (smartphone)

There seem to be some apps popping up that pay you to do simple stuff like take a picture of a menu, or of yourself drinking a starbucks, or verifying that a road is closed – you get the picture. Here are a couple that I found:

• Juno Wallet
• WeReward
• Gigwalk
• CheckPoints

34. Teach English (or other Language) Classes Online

Did you know that English speakers are in high demand in Asia? As a result many are turning to freelance English teachers using websites like Italki.com. The site is basically a virtual online classroom for freelance teachers and students. Anyone can offer lessons (and set their own price) and anyone can take lessons.
From a quick scan, it looks like making $15-20/hour is a fair expectation.

35. Make Money by Viewing Ads On Your Android Lock Screen

I’ve been trying out this android app called Locket that puts ads on your lock screen and pays you for each time you unlock your phone.
I’ve been trying it out for a few days and have made about 3 bucks thus far, so it isn’t huge, but at the same time, I didn’t really have to do any work to earn the money.
Anyway, if you are interested in checking it out, I have a quick video review that you can watch here…

Homi Bhabha's iconic bungalow goes under the hammer for Rs 372 crore

The sprawling Mumbai bungalow of the late scientist Homi Jehangir Bhabha which was sold at an auction in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Mumbai: 'Mehrangir', the iconic bungalow of Homi J Bhabha, father of India's atomic energy programme, here was on Wednesday sold at an auction for Rs 372 crore, despite demands to turn it into a museum.

The highest bidder, whose identity was not disclosed at his request, landed the sprawling property at plush Malabar Hill which went under the hammer at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), its custodian.

The property fetched Rs 115 crore more than the reserve price of Rs 257 crore.

"As per the request of the winning bidder, the identity will not be disclosed at this stage," NCPA said in a release.

The three-storey bungalow with a built-up area of over 15,000 sq ft on a plot measuring 1,593 sq m, offers a beautiful view of the sea.

After Bhabha's death in a plane crash 1966, his brother Jamshed, a patron of art and culture, became the custodian of the estate.

On Jamshed's death in 2007, the property was transferred to NCPA, an institution he had nurtured. Some employees of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) had recently petitioned the Centre and moved the Bombay High Court against the sale and sought the bungalow to be converted into an atomic energy museum.

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37 missing, 2 dead after boat sinks off Malaysia

Banting, Malaysia: Thirty-seven people remained missing on Wednesday after an apparently overloaded boat carrying Indonesian illegal migrants heading home for Ramadan sank overnight in rough seas off western Malaysia, killing at least two.

Officials said 58 people had been rescued or made it to land by themselves after the accident around midnight near Port Klang, Malaysia's largest port.

"But 37 people are still missing and we have found two bodies," said Mohamad Hambali Yaakup, head of the Port Klang office of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency.

"We plucked some of the survivors from the sea and others were found on land."

The boat sank not far from shore, raising hopes that many of the missing had already made it to safety on their own, he added.

Officials believe 97 passengers were aboard the wooden boat, including some children.

Authorities said rescued passengers told them they were seeking to return home to Indonesia across the Malacca Strait -- the busy shipping lane between Malaysia and Indonesia's Sumatra island -- for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Officials had initially said the passengers were believed to be seeking to enter Malaysia.

"From interviews with those rescued, they said they were returning to Aceh (in northern Sumatra). They did not have any travel documents," said Mohamad Hambali.

"As in previous years, many Indonesian migrants will be leaving Malaysia ahead of Ramadan."

Around two million illegal immigrants -- the vast majority of them from Indonesia -- are estimated to be working in Malaysia.

Large numbers of them annually return home to Indonesia ahead of Ramadan, which begins around the end of June and will culminate in late July with Eid al-Fitr, Islam's biggest festival.

Both countries are Muslim-majority.

"We believe the boat was overcrowded and the sea was rough during the incident," Mohamad Hambali said.

Access to survivors was not immediately available as they had been taken into custody by police.

Authorities said five vessels and a helicopter were searching for survivors.

Relatively affluent Malaysia is a magnet for migrant workers from poorer neighbours such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Accidents, however, are frequent as thousands annually risk the sea journey in rickety boats to seek low-paying work -- typically shunned by Malaysians -- on plantations, construction sites and in factories.

Indonesians often add to the risk by choosing to cross the Malacca Strait in darkness to avoid detection.

Last August a boat carrying more than 40 Indonesians heading home for Eid-al-Fitr sank off southern Malaysia.

Malaysian authorities called off a search several days later, with seven confirmed dead and 33 still missing.

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YouTube to launch paid music service

Mumbai: YouTube stated that it plans to launch a paid streaming music service, amid criticism that its existing, free video website might block the music videos of labels that do not agree to its terms.

YouTube has partnered with ‘hundreds of major and independent’ music labels for the new service, the company said in a statement, confirming long-running rumors that the world's most popular online video website will offer a paid music service.

The news comes as some music trade groups have criticized YouTube's plans to potentially block the content of certain labels from appearing on YouTube's free, ad-supported Website unless they sign deals to participate in the new, subscription streaming music service. The deals that YouTube is offering are on "highly unfavorable, and non-negotiable terms," according to a news release issued by the Worldwide Independent Music Industry Network last month.

YouTube declined to comment on the terms of the deals, but said in a statement that the new service would provide new revenue for the music industry.

"We’re adding subscription-based features for music on YouTube with this in mind - to bring our music partners new revenue streams in addition to the hundreds of millions of dollars YouTube already generates for them each year," YouTube said in a statement.

YouTube has already signed deals for the paid service with 95 percent of the music labels that it previously had deals with for its existing, ad-supported music video webiste, a person familiar with the matter said. Blocking certain music labels' videos from appearing on YouTube's free website might be necessary in order to provide a consistent user experience for the paid service, the person said.

The YouTube service is expected to launch at the end of the summer and will allow users to listen to music without any ads, according to a person familiar with the situation. Among the other features expected are the ability to listen to music offline and the ability to listen to an artist's entire album instead of just individual songs, as is currently the case on YouTube, the person said.

Streaming music services such as Spotify and Pandora are becoming increasingly popular among consumers, as digital music downloads decline. Apple Inc announced plans to acquire streaming music service and premium headphone maker Beats for $3 billion last month.

Google launched the $9.99-per-month Play All Access subscription music service in 2013. The forthcoming YouTube paid music service could potentially work in coordination with the Play service so that consumers aren't forced to subscribe to two separate services, the person familiar with the situation said.