Dwayne Johnson [ THE ROCK ] Dead?

Dwayne Johnson, AKA The Rock, hasn’t died but there’s several different Facebook and social media scams going around this week saying he either died on the set of “Fast & Furious 7” or died during a fall in New Zealand. These are both scams and can carry bogus surveys, rogue Facebook apps, or can carry possibly malware.

The scams have been going on for the past few days, and Johnson has been tweeting the whole time. He didn’t make any mention of a death hoax but posted an Instagram video of him working out in the gym Friday.

On Friday and Saturday, people were tweeting “RIP Dwayne Johnson.” One of the scams reads, “R.I.P. DWAYNE JOHNSON (1972 -2014). He died filming a dangerous stunt for FAST & FURIOUS 7.” Another says, “Actor Dwayne Johnson died while filming a movie in New Zealand early this morning … Preliminary reports from New Zealand Police officials indicate that the actor fell more than 60 feet to his death on the Kauri Cliffs while on-set.”

Scammers likely created these the hoaxes to get web traffic to a particular web page, which is then sold to other scammers, who can use it for more nefarious purposes. One of the pages has surveys that are used to take users’ personal data.

“After sharing as instructed, users will be taken to another page that again supposedly hosts the video. But, users will now be told that they must perform further actions before they can see the video. They may be told that they must fill in one or more surveys, ostensibly to verify their age or show that they are human. Or, they may be asked to install rogue apps that will send out spam and scam messages to all of their friends. In some instances, users may be tricked into adding malicious extensions to their web browsers or downloading malware,” reads a post from Hoax-Slayer.

Celebrity death hoaxes are a common way to spread online scams.

If you’ve downloaded a rogue Facebook app, it’s recommended that you remove it app from your account. You should also “unlike” or delete any post you’ve shared regarding the Johnson death hoax.

To remove the app, log into your Facebook account, and go to your Facebook application settings. This page lists all the applications that you have given access to.

Go below and then click on the “X” on the right side of the app in order to remove it. Some of the fake apps use names like “Fox News,” “Yahoo,” or “YouTube” to trick users.

For some websites, they can also prove to be lucrative if they go viral.

WATCH THIS: You may want to rethink your reaction to a nearby sneeze

The next time you hear an “achoo!” nearby, shield yourself.

A new study shows people blow out gas clouds when they sneeze or cough – and these clouds propel germs further than previously thought.

Scientists at MIT studied how coughs and sneezes move in slow motion using high-speed imaging, in addition to mathematical modeling techniques and simulations. They found that coughs and sneezes have two phases: A quick, jet-like propulsion of droplets, and then a “puff” in which the droplets are suspended in a gas cloud.

When the researchers analyzed the trajectory of the expelled particles, they found that relatively large droplets in the clouds – measuring 100 micrometers in diameter – moved five times further than previous studies had shown. The smaller ones, 10 micrometers across, traveled 200 times farther.

So stop the spread of disease by covering your coughs and sneezes.

Titanic sank during 'average iceberg' year : study

British researchers have dispelled a long-held theory that the Titanic was unlucky for sailing in a year with an exceptional number of icebergs and say the risk of icebergs is actually higher now.
Titanic set sail on its maiden voyage, travelling from Southampton, England to New York on April 10, 1912.

More than 1,500 of the ship's crew and passengers died when it hit an iceberg and sank, five days into its trip across the Atlantic.

It had been suggested that the seas which sank the famous cruise ship had an exceptional number of icebergs caused by lunar or solar effects.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have now shown the ship was not as unlucky as previously thought.

Using data on iceberg locations dating back to 1913 - recorded to help prevent a repeat of the Titanic - they have shown that 1912 was a significant ice year but not extreme.

"We have seen that 1912 was a year of raised iceberg hazard, but not exceptionally so in the long term," said Professor Grant Bigg who led the research.

According to Bigg, the year 1909 recorded a slightly higher number of icebergs and more recently the risk has been much greater - between 1991 and 2000 eight of the ten years recorded more than 700 icebergs and five exceeded the 1912 total.

"As use of the Arctic, in particular, increases in the future with the declining sea-ice the ice hazard will increase in water not previously used for shipping," Bigg said.

"As polar ice sheets are increasingly losing mass as well, the iceberg risk is likely to increase in the future, rather than decline," Bigg said.

The iceberg which sank the Titanic was spotted 500m away just before midnight on April 14, 1912.
Despite quick action to slow the ship it was not enough and the ship sank in just two and a half hours.

Study : Humans had sex with Neanderthals

"The study allows us to conclusively reject an alternate theory that humans and Neanderthals evolved from the same sub-population," scientists said.

The new genome analysis also indicates that modern Europeans and Asians inherited more Neanderthal DNA than previously thought.

"Our approach can distinguish between two subtly different scenarios that could explain the genetic similarities shared by Neandertals and modern humans from Europe and Asia," explained Konrad Lohse, a population geneticist at the University of Edinburgh.

In the study, researchers used a different kind of genetic testing they had previously developed with rare species of European insects and Southeast Asian pigs.

They compared the genome of a Neanderthal, a European human, an African human, and a chimpanzee.

"The method makes maximum use of the information contained in individual genomes," Lohse added.

"Our analysis allows us to conclusively reject a model of ancestral structure in Africa and instead reveals strong support for Neanderthal admixture in Eurasia at a higher rate (3.4 percent-7.3 percent) than suggested previously," said co-author Laurent AF Frantz of the Wageningen University in The Netherlands.

According to Mark Johnston, editor of the journal Genetics that published the study, "This work is important because it closes a hole in the argument about whether Neanderthals interbred with humans".

The method can be applied to understanding the evolutionary history of other organisms, including endangered species, he concluded.

In December last year, geneticists sequenced the most complete Neanderthal genome yet.
Neanderthals are genetically distinct enough from modern humans to earn them their own species designation, Homo neanderthalensis.

They lived among Homo sapiens in Europe, the Middle East, and central Asia as recently as 28,000 years ago before either going extinct or being incorporated into the modern human species.

Is Hockey not India's national game?

We may be assuming Hockey, the game which fetched six consecutive Olympic gold medals, to be our national game but the fact is none of the games or sports played in the country has the status of "national game."

In an RTI reply, the Sports Ministry has made it clear that it has not declared any sports as national game whereas the web portal of Government www.india.gov.in has posted an article glorifying field hockey under the heading 'National Game'.

The curiosity about national symbols drove Lucknow-based 10-year-old Aishwarya Parashar to file an RTI application to  the Prime Minister's Office seeking certified copies of orders related to declaration of National anthem, song, sport, animal, bird, flower and symbol.

Her queries were transferred to the Home Ministry which forwarded the query related to National Sport to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

In a reply, Sports Ministry Under Secretary Shiv Pratap Singh Tomar wrote in Hindi to Aishwarya that the Ministry has not declared any sport or game to be the National Game.

Surprisingly, the government portal under the head National symbol has given details of 14 such symbols which include - flag, bird, flower, tree, anthem, river, aquatic animal, state emblem, calender, animal, song, fruit, game, currency symbol.

The portal says, "Indians of all demographics backgrounds across the world are proud of these National Symbols as they infuse a sense of pride and patriotism in every Indian's heart." 

Top 10 Most Dangerous Airports in the World

Traveling is such an exciting proposition. It gets even more exciting if you head out to exotic places seldom visited by tourists. It becomes most thrilling if it will land you in some of the most difficult runways and airplane approaches on earth. Here is a list of the top 10 most dangerous airports in the world.