STUFF: News, Technology, the cool and the plain weird

[MIKA27]

Here's The First Trailer For That Halo TV Series

Remember when Microsoft said it was doing a Halo TV series? Nuts, right? Well now, even though Xbox Entertainment has been shuttered, live-action Halo lives on, and this is the first look.

This is Nightfall, a series produced by Ridley Scott and not the one with Spielberg involvement, though that one is allegedly still coming as well. Will it be any good? It’s hard to tell from so little. But either way it’s a small glimpse into the entertainment future Microsoft is rapidly stepping back from.

[MIKA27]

Space Station Astronaut Sees Missiles Exploding On Gaza

German astronaut Alexander Gerst reports live with this photo of Gaza from the International Space Station. This is his description. “My saddest photo yet. From #ISS we can actually see explosions and rockets flying over #Gaza & #Israel”

A sad view indeed — although I have to confess that I can’t distinguish which light flares are normal lights and which are the rockets or the explosions.I'm guessing to the left of the picture with an almost "X" like trail.

[MIKA27]

SOTO POCKET TORCH

Now here is something different, the Soto Pocket Torch, turns any rectangular 50-cent disposable lighter into a wind-resistant torch. The Pocket Torch uses the disposable lighter´s fuel and produces a blue flame that will reach temperatures up to 1300°C (approx. 2,300 °F). Oh, and the disposable lighter increases it lifespan by 60% when used with the Pocket Torch.

[MIKA27]

The Mysterious Moving Coffins of Barbados

Graves and cemeteries are inherently spooky places. Even the best kept and cleanest ones carry with them some intangible air of death and decay. They are reminders of our mortality and where we will end up some day after we’ve cast off our mortal coil. These places are even spookier when they carry unexplained, supernatural mysteries. Graves, tombs, and cemeteries have long been known as places for paranormal or ghostly occurrences, and to find one of the more bizarre cases, one only has to look to the Caribbean paradise of Barbados.

Barbados is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the southern Caribbean Sea and is best known as a sun-kissed, tropical island paradise popular among tourists and travelers aboard cruise ships. It is lesser known for its mysterious burial vault long known for the bizarre and unexplainable phenomena associated with it. In the early 19th century, starting from the year 1807, the Chase Family Vault in the Christ Church Parish cemetery of Barbados, quickly gained notoriety as a hotbed of supernatural activity, and has become one of the most enduring and enigmatic mysteries on the island.

The Chase Family vault is a burial vault located on a hill overlooking the Caribbean at the entrance to the Christ Church Parish cemetery, an ancient colonial cemetery which is near the village of Oistin on the southern coast of Barbados. The vault was built half sunken into the ground and is constructed out of compacted blocks of the coral that makes up much of the island’s foundations, as well as concrete. The vault is entered via descending stone steps and sealed by an enormous slab of blue marble that reportedly required 6 or 7 men to move.

The Chase Vault was originally constructed for a Mr. James Elliot in 1724 and had already been old and weathered by time and the salty air when it was purchased in the year 1808 by the wealthy Chase Family of Barbados for use as a family tomb. The Chase family was not liked by the local people due to their eccentric behavior and vicious treatment of their slaves. The original owner, James Elliot, had never actually been buried within the vault and at the time of the purchase only one body had already been interred there, a Ms. Thomasina Goddard, who was housed there in 1807. The head of the family, Colonel Thomas Chase, decided not to disturb Goddard’s body and allowed it to stay within the vault. Goddard would not remain alone within the tomb for long.

In 1808, an infant born in the Chase family by the name of Mary-Anne Maria Chase, died and was interred within the vault within a heavy lead casket. In a tragic and almost sinister turn of events, the infant’s own sister, Dorcas Chase, died under mysterious circumstances 4 years later in 1812. It is said that her father’s abuse and cruelty had driven her to commit suicide by starving herself to death. Dorcas was similarly buried within the vault in a heavy metal casket that took several people to haul down into the darkness. Death was not done with the family just yet. In August of 1812, just a month after the death of his daughter, Dorcas, Thomas Chase himself died. Ominously, his cause of death was also reportedly suicide. Thomas Chase’s body subsequently joined those of his two daughters within the vault when he was buried in a very heavy metal casket that reportedly weighed around 240 pounds and allegedly took 8 men to carry down and put in place.

According to most accounts, it was during the interment of Thomas Chase that the paranormal characteristics of the vault came to manifest themselves. Upon shifting the huge marble slab to bring in Chase’s casket, it was discovered that at some point the coffin of Dorcas Chase had mysteriously moved so that it was standing upright and upside down against one of the walls. The baby’s coffin has also been moved against the wall. It was not immediately apparent as to how such heavy metal caskets had been thrown into such drastic disarray, especially as no one else was known to have entered the vault since Dorcas’ death and the marble slab had remained exactly as it had been left. In addition, the coffins and the bodies had not been disturbed and nothing had been stolen. The incident was blamed on vandals, the coffins put back where they belonged, and the vault was resealed even tighter than it had been before to deter any future break-ins.

Not much thought was given to the strange occurrence until 1816, when 11 year old Charles Brewster Ames was buried there. Again, upon unsealing the dank tomb, all of the coffins, including the enormous one of Thomas Chase himself, were haphazardly placed about the room as if they had been tossed about like toys. As before, there was no sign of tampering on the entrance. Several bewildered men toiled to set the coffins back in their proper places and resealed the tomb yet again

The story began to take hold among the superstitious local populace. Whispers circulated of black magic and ghosts, and it was said that the tomb was haunted, cursed, or both. There were many stories around this time that have the feeling of creepy campfire tales. One such story goes that a woman on horseback heard menacing shrieks and groans emanating from the tomb as she passed it. Her horse allegedly went into a berserk panic, foaming at the mouth and threatening to throw the woman off. It was then reported that several other horses in the nearby village became insane in the ensuing days and mindlessly dove into the bay, where they drowned.

Two more times the vault was reopened. One more time in 1816 for Samuel Brewster and again in 1819 for a Thomasina Clark, and both times the coffins were found to be thrown into disorder, moved drastically from their original positions. In all of the cases, the only coffin that remained untouched and in its original position was the humble, wooden casket of the vault’s original occupant, Thomasina Goddard. The frail wooden casket had not only remained in its place, but had been missed and undamaged by the heavy lead coffins shifting around it.

The phenomena caught the attention of the governor of Barbados at the time, Lord Combermere, who had been present at Clark’s funeral and had witnessed the bizarre occurrence for himself. He ordered a thorough and extensive inspection of the tomb to look for any evidence to explain the strange happenings. The governor’s wife explained the investigation thus:

“In my husband’s presence, every part of the floor was sounded to ascertain that no subterranean passage or entrance was concealed. It was found to be perfectly firm and solid; no crack was even apparent. The walls, when examined, proved to be perfectly secure. No fracture was visible, and the sides, together with the roof and flooring, presented a structure so solid as if formed of entire slabs of stone.”

After this examination of the vault, the displaced coffins were all restored to their original positions with great effort and measures were taken to ensure that such a thing would not happen again. The governor had the marble slab completely sealed with mortar and additionally put impressions of his signet ring into the wet cement to discourage vandals. As an extra, precautionary measure, the floor of the tomb was dusted with a fine, white sand in order to capture evidence of anyone breaking in to once again defile the coffins.

When 8 months had passed, the governor’s curiosity got the better of him and he ordered the vault to be reopened just to be sure.

When he arrived with a party of men at the tomb, he was relieved to see that the mortar seal was unbroken, the ring impressions were intact, and there was no sign of trespassing. Satisfied that no one had broken in, a sort of macabre curiosity nevertheless compelled the governor to have the vault opened anyway. Immediately, it became apparent that something was awry. Oddly, Thomas Chase’s coffin had been thrown up against the marble entrance almost as if in an attempt to bar entry. It took many men to dislodge the heavy coffin and finally gain entry. What they found inside completely shocked all present. The coffins were once again in disorder, only this time evidently more violently than on previous occasions. Some of the coffins were described as being upended and tossed upon each other, and the infant Mary-Anne’s coffin had been smashed against a wall with such force that a chunk had broken off the corner.

Eerily, the coating of white sand upon the floor was completely undisturbed, with not a single footprint to be seen. There was no sign of flooding or any other disruption either. The sand, floor and walls were totally dry. Additionally, it seemed unlikely that a perpetrator could have escaped past the large coffin that had been blocking the door, even if they had somehow managed to get in without breaking the seal of the door or even managed to budge the door at all to begin with. Nathan Lucas, a member of the Barbados House of Assembly at the time, was present and had this to say about the strange scene unfolding before him:

“…I examined the walls, the arch, and every part of the Vault, and found every part old and similar; and a mason in my presence struck every part of the bottom with his hammer, and all was solid. I confess myself at a loss to account for the movements of these leaden coffins. Thieves certainly had no hand in it; and as for any practical wit or hoax, too many were requisite to be trusted with the secret for it to remain unknown; and as for negroes having anything to do with it, their superstitious fear of the dead and everything belonging to them precludes any idea of the kind. All I know is that it happened and that I was an eye-witness of the fact…”

Upon witnessing such a grim and inexplicable sight, the governor decided to put an end to the phenomenon once and for all. He went about ordering the interred bodies to be buried separately in individual graves throughout the Christ Church Parish cemetery.

The Chase vault itself was ordered to remain vacant and no further bodies were ever buried there. It remains empty to this day.

The Chase Vault

No further unexplainable phenomena occurred at the vault after being emptied, so perhaps it is better that the bodies were ultimately separated to be buried on their own. It seems that when thrown together they had had some volatile reaction to one another that reverberated from the shadowy realm beyond our understanding into the concrete world that our eyes and ears tell us exists. These were the dead not meant to share space in an eternal darkness together. Could they have been perhaps able to find some iota of peace in their being cast apart from one another? Or was something else was at work?

Like other such mysteries of the supernatural, there have been many attempts to explain the events that transpired at the Chase Vault. The theories range from the paranormal, such as ghosts or even that Goddard was a vampire, to the more rational attempts to explain the phenomenon, like seismic activity or underwater flooding. These “rational” explanations tend to come up lacking. If seismic activity was to blame, there would surely have been similar damage to nearby tombs, of which there was none. Flooding also seems unlikely as such heavy caskets would be unlikely to float except in the most extreme cases, and there had been no sign of any such occurrence within the vault at any rate. Even if there had been flooding at work, why would it not have phased the more buoyant wooden coffin of Goddard, the only one to consistently remain unaffected by the weird phenomenon going on around it? Others believe the events that unfurled at the Chase Vault are neither paranormal nor more mundane in nature. Some skeptics believe that the story is completely fabricated, that it is nothing more than a local myth, or even a hoax.

Whatever the cause might be, there is no denying that the perplexing mystery of the Chase Vault endures. No explanations offered thus far have managed to satisfy everyone and so the mystery of the Chase Vault remains essentially unsolved. What happened within the dark, subterranean confines of this eerie tomb all of those years ago? Only the corpses buried there would be privy to such revelations and they are not talking. Perhaps we will never really know for sure. For now, the tomb remains vacant, the echoes of its haunted past the only thing left to inhabit it.

[sharks]

Always an interesting read Mika, top job

[Habana Mike]

SOTO POCKET TORCH

Now here is something different, the Soto Pocket Torch, turns any rectangular 50-cent disposable lighter into a wind-resistant torch. The Pocket Torch uses the disposable lighter´s fuel and produces a blue flame that will reach temperatures up to 1300°C (approx. 2,300 °F). Oh, and the disposable lighter increases it lifespan by 60% when used with the Pocket Torch.

Sold!

[Maplepie]

Sold!

we have these that go for 20 dollars a 'Canadian Tyre'

never buy anything retail price. they have sales every month.

Sale prices are around 8 dollars (so what? 2USD? )

If you want, i'll toss one in your bomb parcel, Mike. along with those two other cigars i promised !!

[MrGTO]

The Sport of Japanese Apologizing

After losing a game, you might think what this Japanese baseball team did was rather extreme. Then again, you might think this is pretty great.

High school baseball is a big deal in Japan. All the teams hope to make it into the national tournament held at Koshien Stadium, home of the Hanshin Tigers. The tournament is broadcast on television, and many of the star players eventually play professional baseball.

Winning is great, but sore losers suck! And after the Noshiro Shoyo High School baseball team was defeated, losing their chance to appear in the nationwide tournament, the entire team lined up by the side of the road to see off the supporters and fans who wanted them play. To each car, they said, "Thank you" and bowed.

Since there was traffic, the players ended up standing there for around an hour. In the rain.

Japanese baseball is stricter than American baseball. In high school, all the players must shave their heads, so they keep cool in the summer, but also so they belong to a team—a cohesive unit. In professional baseball, you really don't see Japanese players blowing bubble gum or spitting everywhere like Major League players do.

Online in Japan, many people praised their actions, saying they took defeat with honor. "I have such deep respect for this team," wrote Twitter user baseball319_t. Another Twitter user wrote that this was "most polite team" around.

On 2ch, Japan's largest blog, however, there were those who were critical of this, saying the players could have gotten sick, that they were overdoing it, and that this was even strange.

It's worth noting that the same team thanks and bows towards fans on the field (which most, if not all, Japanese teams do) as well as bows and thanks the cars as they leave after the game when it's sunny and the team wins.

Extreme or not, if they are going to thank people when they win and the weather's good, I guess, they should thank people when they lose and the weather's crap.

There's always next year, Noshiro. Best of luck.

Use to be this way until the liberals started saying everybody is a winner....

[MIKA27]

Poop-Powered Flamethrower Can Shoot Out Gigantic 30-Foot Flames

http://youtu.be/JoG68mC_mdQ

This poop-powered flamethrower is like the old high school trick of using farts to light fireballs, only on a much more epic scale. The key to creating 30-foot flames from poop, apparently, is grinding the poop into a super fine powder with a blender.

Nick Klein, the guy from Arizona who made this DIY rig, used rabbit manure for his choice of flame fuel for the National Geographic show Doomsday Preppers. He made ‘gunpowder’ by blending the rabbit poop and created methane by mixing the poop with water. The methane served as pilot fuel while the powdered poop made the flames go huge.

MIKA: Wonder if he made a milkshake afterwards...

[MIKA27]

2015 PORSCHE CAYENNE

Porsche’s beloved SUV gets a modest facelift along with the first plug-in hybrid option within the luxury SUV segment. Say hello to the all new, 2015 Porsche Cayenne.

We’ll be the first to say that the Cayenne didn’t really need much upgrading – it’s a beautiful vehicle inside and out already. The German auto maker did so any way, updating the front end with a new fender and hood, along with their “airblades” to help direct cool air at the intercoolers. While there will be a turbocharged 3.0-liter diesel V6 option alongside the a twin turbo 3.6-liter V6 (Cayenne S) and 520 horsepower V8 (Cayenne Turbo), it’s the Cayenne S E-Hybrid that will be getting most of the attention. This particular model will couple an electric engine with a gas powered one in order to achieve 416 horsepower, along with a top speed of 151 miles per hour. Pricing will range from $61,000 all the way up to $114,000.

[Pedro2486]

SOTO POCKET TORCH

Now here is something different, the Soto Pocket Torch, turns any rectangular 50-cent disposable lighter into a wind-resistant torch. The Pocket Torch uses the disposable lighter´s fuel and produces a blue flame that will reach temperatures up to 1300°C (approx. 2,300 °F). Oh, and the disposable lighter increases it lifespan by 60% when used with the

They really need to make one of these that use Bic lighters

[MIKA27]

Here is Your First Look At Mad Max: Fury Road

We’ve been waiting for a new Mad Max movie for a long, long time. If this first trailer is anything to go by, it might just be worth the wait.

And interestingly enough, the trailer doesn’t feature much of Max at all. It focuses almost exclusively on some insane car chase action and Charlize Theron’s character. Already I’m getting a sense that she’s going to completely steal this movie from underneath Tom Hardy. Considering how good Tom Hardy is in almost every movie he’s starred in, that’s a real feat.

I just loved this trailer. Previous reports stated that the movie is basically made up of a single, two hour long car chase scene. George Miller basically confirmed this at Comic-Con.

“The movie is a chase,” he said. “It’s very hard when people are chasing across the wasteland to write that in words; it’s much easier to do that in pictures. Because it’s almost a continued chase, you have to connect one shot to the other. The obvious way to do that was with storyboards [which is what they did first], then put words in later. I worked with three really fine storyboard artists and graphic novelists. We sat in a big room and instead of writing it down, we’d say, ‘So this guy throws a thunderstick at a car and there’s an explosion.’ You can write that, but exactly where the thunderstick is, where the car is, and the explosion, it’s very hard to get those dimensions, so we would draw it. We ended up with 3,500 panels, which almost becomes the equivelant to the number of shots in the movie.”

[MIKA27]

Declassified: The US Government's Secret Plan For A Military Moon Base

More than 50 years ago, before man had ever stepped foot on the moon, the US government hatched a plan whose ambitions were exceeded only by its total infeasibility: A secret, self-sustaining, Soviet-shaming military moon base.

The delightfully extensive 1960 study, dubbed Project Horizon, was just released earlier this week by The National Security Archive. And while it reads more like an alternative history than actual science at this point, it’s still incredible to see just how far our Cold War-induced mania could push us. In the lengthy justification for the project, one point in particular keeps coming up:

To be second to the Soviet Union in establishing an outpost on the moon would be disastrous to our nation’s prestige and in turn to our democratic philosophy.

So to save face and get a better view of its potential target in the process, the United States was determined to set up a permanent residence on the moon.

Researchers knew it wouldn’t be easy, of course, but that’s why they planned out every last detail. The process, of course, would need to start stat:

The program to establish a lunar base must not be delayed and the initial base design must meet military requirements. For example, the base should be designed as a permanent installation, it should be underground, it should strive to be completely self-supporting, and it should provide suitable accommodations to support extended tours of duty.

The full study (though a few hundred pages long) is highly entertaining to read and thankfully, easy enough for the non-rocket scientists among us to understand. But to help, here are the basics of what it takes to make it on the moon.

Building the Base

The plan was to initially send a couple of astronauts to scope out the land and settle in. Once reinforcements arrived, construction could start ASAP.

Since “electric power [would] be provided soon after arrival,” (using a nuclear reactor, duh) the first few space pioneers would be outfitted with a state-of-the-art space tractor — one that would cover pretty much anything you might need for your secret military moon base-building needs. Needs such as:

• Moving of lunar material
• Excavation of sub- surface trenches
• Heavy cargo handling
• Prime mover functions
• And other mechanical work which man alone in a lunar suit cannot perform

Oh, and speaking of that nuclear reactor; they’d have to construct one themselves once they got there.

While this all sounds a bit preposterous even by today’s standards, the scientists conducting the study knew they weren’t quite technologically capable yet — but they did believe it was just a matter of time.

Based on present knowledge, the study has concluded that it is technically feasible to establish a manned base on the moon.

“Technically feasible” is not meant to imply that the equipments are available, or the techniques are completely known.

We didn’t quite have it yet, but in just a few years we would have expected the following:

Daily Life

The goal was to have 12 men living and working on the moon by 1965, just five years after the study was first published. So in addition to planning out the more mechanical logistics, they also had to take the more basic realities of moon life into consideration. Providing food and water alone would be a feat.

As far as rations go, each moon man would be allotted three quarts of water per day, which adds up pretty quickly. So to stay as sustainable as possible, any extra bits of moisture in the atmosphere would be “condensed, collected, and used for washing, thus removing the need for an additional quantity”. Plus, any extra water from urine and “washing wastes” could be distilled out. Which, if that twice-used water was deemed potable, the “three quarts per man per day [could] be reduced or eliminated”. Good luck, boys.

And in addition to the typical dehydrated astronaut fare, researchers recognised that fresh salads do have “morale values”. Obviously, they weren’t expecting carrots and tomatoes to make the trip — just a simple, hydroponic, waste-to-nutrient-converting biodome:

Vegetables for salad may be provided by hydroponic culture, using wastes as nutrients, at least in part, and converting CO2 into O2 in the process, a8 with algae. Ultimately, plant wastes and algae can be used to feed poultry, which thrive in confinement and are, relatively efficient energy converters, producing fresh eggs and meat. Meanwhile, attention will be given to the use of fish and other aquatic animals, such as Daphnia and mollusks, which normally feed on algae.

Yes. The United States Army had every intention of putting real, live animals on the moon to be our friends and our food.

Now, keeping in mind that we still had yet to actually touch down on the lunar surface, the space suit designs are really just based on some educated guesses about what it would take to function. Fortunately for Neil and Buzz, NASA dumped the ice skate idea by the time it was their turn.

Even with all the proper precautions, though, moon life would be incredibly taxing, both physically and mentally. So should your physical and/or mental state succumb to the pressure, a solitary confinement moon chamber would be waiting for you. Included in the medical facilities would be:

Isolation. It would be very desirable to have an area for complete isolation of psychiatric patients and/or communicable disease cases. Specifically, this area will be incorporated in the compartment utilized for the surgical facility and will provide for disposal of excreta, recumbency of the individual and for maximum security. In this latter instance, provisions will be made for a door with exterior locking device, and a window which will automatically close if the pressure in the isolation chamber suddenly decreases.

Unfortunately, the US government bit off a bit more than it could chew with this one, and all that research is now nothing more than a fun little blip on the actual timeline to space. We didn’t even make it all the way there until two years after the Soviet-crushing moon base was supposed to be up and running. But hey, at least we got there first.

You can (and should) head over to The National Security archive to see these plans in full, along with more recently declassified goodies. And if this is what we were planning fifty years ago — god only knows what sorts of interstellar fantasies might be being cooked up as we speak.

[polarbear]

Here is Your First Look At Mad Max: Fury Road

We’ve been waiting for a new Mad Max movie for a long, long time. If this first trailer is anything to go by, it might just be worth the wait.

And interestingly enough, the trailer doesn’t feature much of Max at all. It focuses almost exclusively on some insane car chase action and Charlize Theron’s character. Already I’m getting a sense that she’s going to completely steal this movie from underneath Tom Hardy. Considering how good Tom Hardy is in almost every movie he’s starred in, that’s a real feat.

I just loved this trailer. Previous reports stated that the movie is basically made up of a single, two hour long car chase scene. George Miller basically confirmed this at Comic-Con.

“The movie is a chase,” he said. “It’s very hard when people are chasing across the wasteland to write that in words; it’s much easier to do that in pictures. Because it’s almost a continued chase, you have to connect one shot to the other. The obvious way to do that was with storyboards [which is what they did first], then put words in later. I worked with three really fine storyboard artists and graphic novelists. We sat in a big room and instead of writing it down, we’d say, ‘So this guy throws a thunderstick at a car and there’s an explosion.’ You can write that, but exactly where the thunderstick is, where the car is, and the explosion, it’s very hard to get those dimensions, so we would draw it. We ended up with 3,500 panels, which almost becomes the equivelant to the number of shots in the movie.”

Please dont be ****

Please dont be ****

Please dont be ****

[MIKA27]

The Penis Propaganda That Warned WWII-Era Soldiers Of Venereal Disease

During World War II, a foe far more insidious than the aggressive Axis powers was felling our boys fighting overseas. Venereal disease had always been a huge problem for US troops, but in 1942 the government got serious about schooling soldiers to be more conscientious with their erections. Protect Yourself is a new book that collects this peen propaganda in one place.

A poster division put together within the Works Progress Association’s (WPA) Federal Art Project during the Great Depression was the first group to address syphilis — the fourth leading cause of death at the time — as a public health issue.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, agitprop efforts were pumped up under the Office of War Administration (OWA); this included increasing awareness about the dangers of venereal diseases to servicemen, seventy-per cent of whom were single and most of which were not fully educated about the hazards of unprotected sex.

Using straightforward graphics and to-the-point text, these diseases were depicted as the enemy — along with pretty much the entire female population. “She may look clean — BUT”, “Booby Trap”, and “The amateur is just as dangerous as the prostitute”, were just a few of the cautionary slogans emblazoned across these prints. The messaging was moralistic — don’t do it, basically — or preventative — do it but do it safely.

Regardless of the politics — sexual or otherwise — behind the hand-made, widely distributed efforts, the messaging worked. By the height of WWII, about 600 US military personnel were out of commission daily because of an STD. If that seems high, consider that number was down from a staggering 18,000 — eighteen-thousand!! — sidelined thanks to STDs in WWI.

If you’d like a definite conversation starter for your coffee table, you can purchase a copy of Protect Yourself here for $US25.

[MIKA27]

The Most Accurate Vader Costume Ever

Anovos has been outfitting geeks with replica costumes from popular sci-fi franchises for years, but at Comic-Con this year the company has what is easily the ultimate power in the cosplaying universe. Based on the design created for The Empire Strikes Back, this Darth Vader getup is the most accurate, and surprisingly comfortable, costume you’ll find anywhere.

Nearly every detail has been perfectly recreated by referencing the original props in the Lucasfilm archive, and countless photos taken on set while Empire was filming, right down to the mask’s slightly imperfect asymmetrical design. It’s of course also got working lights on the chest plate, detailed fibreglass armour, and even your choice of authentic leather accents and under suit.

But what’s even more impressive is that Anovos knows how uncomfortable a costume like this can be, especially when worn while wandering around a convention, and has gone to great lengths to make this Vader suit extremely comfortable. The helmet and face mask use a clever magnetic system to easily align and stay perfectly in place, and they have even got a built-in ventilation system to ensure fresh cool air is flowing around your head inside — because nothing is sadder than a Sith that passes out at the first sign of a convention center that isn’t air conditioned.

Pricing it still to be revealed on this masterpiece, although you can safely assume it’s going to be astronomical given the incredibly attention to detail it represents. But if it guarantees you cosplay superiority, how can it not be completely worth it?

[MIKA27]

Game Of Thrones Bloopers Are More Fun To Watch Than The Show

Sometimes, you just need a good laugh after you watch Game of Thrones. You need to see Lannisters act goofy and White Walkers fall off their horses and see beautiful actors screw up their lines. Here’s the blooper reel for season 4 of Game of Thrones, where you get to see all of that.

And here’s a funny ‘alternate’ ending for one of the most tense scenes of the season:

http://youtu.be/jvHK6blDJaQ

[MIKA27]

River In China Mysteriously Turns Blood Red Overnight

The residents of Wenzhou, China, woke up last Thursday to discover that the inner city river had turned blood-red. Everyone is puzzled, as this has never happened before and nobody knows the cause yet.

China Radio International reports:

Inspectors from the Wenzhou Environmental Protection Bureau are taking samples and analyzing the cause of the incident.

The villagers pointed out that there wasn’t a chemical plant along the upper stream.

Local residents say the river was flowing normally at 4am, but it started to redden at around 6am, and in no time at all had turned as crimson as blood.

MIKA: Whatever it is, it can't be good.

[MIKA27]

There's An Actual Piece Of The Wright Flyer Inside Bremont's New Watch

Starting in 2010, Bremont has been paying homage to significant moments in the history of technology with a unique line of watches that includes the Codebreaker which celebrated the work of the WWII Enigma machine crackers. Now the watchmaker is honouring the Wright Brothers’ achievements with a new timepiece that includes an actual piece of the original Wright Flyer.

The Wright Flyer itself currently resides at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum in Washington DC, but only the aircraft’s original frame. The fabric covering the wings has long been replaced to prevent it from completely disintegrating.

The original muslin fabric used to keep the Wright Flyer aloft back in 1903 is actually in the care of the Wright family who’ve provided a section of it to Bremont to include on each of the 300 pieces of the limited edition Wright Flyer watch. In return, proceeds from the watch will be donated to help restore the Wright Brothers’ original home in Dayton, Ohio and turn it into a museum.

Besides containing a significant piece of aviation history, the Bremont Wright Flyer also includes the BWC/01, company’s first in-house automatic movement with a 50 hour power reserve and bi-directional winding.

Pricing hasn’t been specified, but since the Codebreaker started at around $US19,000, you can safely assume the Wright Flyer watch isn’t going to sell for cheaper than that — especially considering it contains a piece of American history the Smithsonian doesn’t even have in its collection.

http://youtu.be/6iv_slSke5I

[MIKA27]

Second Siberian Hole Found – Is Permafrost Losing Its Perma?

As much as I’d like to be doing a story about sandworms – or in this case, ice-worms – or definitive proof of the existence of frosty Hellmouths, the appearance of a second mysterious hole in the Yamal Peninsula of Siberia strengthens the much more mundane musings of scientists that the craters are the result of melting permafrost. While not as exciting as giant worms, UFOs or satanic sinkholes, this explanation may be just as terrifying.

Reindeer herders, members of the Nents who gave the area the name “end of the world,” found the second hole 18 miles from the first. Local lawmaker Mikhail Lapsui told the Moscow Times that it’s much smaller than the first and snow can be seen inside.

Why are scientists pointing to perma-unfrosting? For those in warmer climes, permafrost is defined as permanently frozen soil that has remained at or below 0°C for at least two years. The reason why the pictures we’ve been seeing of the areas around these Siberian holes don’t show ice or even snow is that the permafrost is below an active layer that freezes and thaws seasonally.

The climate change or global warming explanation for the collapsing ground that creates the holes is gaining credence, as Anna Kurchatova from the Sub-Arctic Scientific Research Centre explains:

Global warming, causing an ‘alarming’ melt in the under soil ice, released gas causing an effect like the popping of a Champagne bottle cork.

Permafrost is filled with frozen organic matter, which means the gas that’s being released is methane, which can trap up to 20 times more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. A rapid release of methane due to climate change could cause – you guessed it – more climate change. It’s no wonder these gas-spewing craters from the thawing of permafrost are causing alarm around the globe.

If scientists want to get more people excited about this methane release explanation, maybe they should call it sandworm flatulence.

[MIKA27]

THE WALKING DEAD SEASON 5 TRAILER

http://youtu.be/6IF7QX8uMhg

The folks at AMC have officially debuted the trailer for season 5 of The Walking Dead, and this season looks to be the most exciting yet.

San Diego Comic Con kicks off this week, and that means plenty of news within the world of entertainment is set to hit the web in the coming days. Today we get our first big reveal as this three-minute plus trailer of The Walking Dead lands in our laps. If you’re all caught up on the show (which you better be because we have some spoilers ahead), you’ll remember Rick Grimes and company were being locked up in a container at Terminus. In this new season, it looks as though the Ricktatorship will be going to war with the villains they once hoped would be their sanctuary. The season is set to debut on Sunday, October 12th at 9 pm.

MIKA: My favourite show by far!

[MIKA27]

Microsoft Omitted An Important Point In Its Latest Siri Attack Ad

http://youtu.be/w0pjD4qpIpg

It’s a day ending in “y”, which means Microsoft is looking to hurt Apple’s stranglehold on the smartphone market again. This time it’s hammering Siri for not being as awesome as Redmond’s new assistant, Cortana. But in its haste to crow about how drop-dead awesome it is, Microsoft has forgotten one very important piece of information.

As I’ve previously mentioned, Cortana won’t come out in Australia until some time in 2015. Right now it’s only available in the US, with a roll-out to Europe coming next. Australia and broader Asia-Pacific will have to wait, which makes comparing Siri — which is broadly available — to Cortana — which is still in beta — feels a tad disingenuous.

Of course, Cortana can do some pretty cool stuff and in theory has some definite advantages over Apple’s Siri assistant. All that means nothing when you can’t get it on your freaking phone, however.

Try again, Microsoft.

[MIKA27]

Avengers: Age Of Ultron Looks Like One Awesome Robot Apocalypse Clusterf**k

Avengers: Age of Ultron’s footage made its first appearance at San Diego Comic Con 2014 and people seem to be in awe with what they saw. From what people say, it’s really going to be one huge battle between the World’s Mightiest Heroes and a billion robots.

[MIKA27]

The New Hobbit Movie Teaser Trailer Looks Freaking Amazing

Behold the first trailer for the Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, the last of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy films. It promises to be a great ending to the epic tale of Bilbo Baggins. I can’t wait for that epic battle scene at the end. I remember having goosebumps the first time I read it. And the Smaug’s attack… oh boy.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” brings to an epic conclusion the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and the Company of Dwarves. Having reclaimed their homeland from the Dragon Smaug, the Company has unwittingly unleashed a deadly force into the world. Enraged, Smaug rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town.

Obsessed above all else with his reclaimed treasure, Thorin sacrifices friendship and honor to hoard it as Bilbo’s frantic attempts to make him see reason drive the Hobbit towards a desperate and dangerous choice. But there are even greater dangers ahead. Unseen by any but the Wizard Gandalf, the great enemy Sauron has sent forth legions of Orcs in a stealth attack upon the Lonely Mountain.

As darkness converges on their escalating conflict, the races of Dwarves, Elves and Men must decide – unite or be destroyed. Bilbo finds himself fighting for his life and the lives of his friends in the epic Battle of the Five Armies, as the future of Middle-earth hangs in the balance.

[MIKA27]

How Military Guns Make the Civilian Market

The U.S. Army plans to select a new standard-issue handgun. If history is a guide, similar pistols will soon start appearing at gun stores and crime scenes near you.

This week, the U.S. Army will brief arms manufacturers on the design requirements for a new standard-issue handgun. Several gun makers will compete for the lucrative contract, developing weapons that are more reliable and more powerful than those currently in service. Officials say the upgrade is overdue—it’s been nearly 30 years since the Army adopted the Beretta M9. But the last time the military challenged the industry to make a better handgun, all the innovations intended for the battlefield also ended up in the consumer market, and the severity of civilian shootings soared.

Studying gunshot injuries in the D.C. area in the 1980s, Daniel Webster of Johns Hopkins University noticed an alarming trend—as time went on, more and more patients were arriving at the emergency room with multiple bullet wounds. In 1983, at the beginning of the study period, only about a quarter of gunshot patients had multiple injuries, but in the last two years of the study, that proportion had risen to 43 percent. Over the same period, semiautomatic pistols with a capacity of 15-rounds (or more) were replacing six-shot revolvers as the most popular firearms in the country. It’s not difficult to see the correlation—more bullets in the guns, more bullets in the victims. But why had guns changed so radically in such a short period of time?

In 1980 the Joint Services Small Arms Program invited the firearms industry to develop a new military handgun, with more than double the capacity of the sidearm American troops had been issued previously. At the time, soldiers were still using essentially the same handgun their grandfathers had carried into the trenches of World War I, a pistol John Browning had designed at the turn of the century. Its standard magazine held just seven rounds. The U.S. Army had a long wish list for a replacement, with 72 mandatory design requirements and 13 additional “desirable” features. According to Leroy Thompson, author of The Beretta M9 Pistol, “many of these mandatory requirements were very military-specific, which made it difficult for an off-the-shelf commercial pistol to fulfill them without alteration.”

In a series of trials, prototype guns were slathered with mud, soaked in salt water, subjected to hot and cold temperatures, dropped, and fired thousands of times. The Army tallied each misfire and scrutinized each mechanical failure, requesting various design tweaks along the way. Italian manufacturer Pietro Beretta entered the trials with a prototype based on their Model 92 semiautomatic pistol, which had been developed for Italian military and police forces. By 1985, Beretta had won the contract, and the Army placed a preliminary order for more than 300,000 of the new pistols, now designated M9. Initially the guns were manufactured in Italy, but to meet demand Beretta moved production to Maryland.

Beretta offered a nearly identical handgun for civilians, the Model 92FS. It wasn’t the first high-capacity semiautomatic available to American consumers—there were earlier German and Belgian imports with 12- and 13-round magazines, as well as the 14-round Smith & Wesson Model 59 (commissioned by the U.S. Navy but never adopted). None of these had transformed the commercial gun market like the Beretta. Prior to 1980, semiautomatic pistols represented less than a third of handguns produced in the U.S.; by 1991, 74 percent of all handguns produced in America were semiautomatics.

The Beretta became a pop culture icon. Mel Gibson brandishes his in Lethal Weapon and says, “I’m a real cop, and this is a real ******* gun!” In Die Hard, a terrorist admonishes Bruce Willis, “Next time you have a chance to kill someone, don’t hesitate!” Willis responds by popping off 14 rapid-fire rounds from his Beretta, then says, “Thanks for the advice, pal!” Chuck Norris? Check. Steven Seagal? Check.

Most of the manufacturers that had competed with Beretta for the military contract refined their prototype weapons and offered them for commercial sale. Among these were the SIG-Sauer P226 and the Walther P88, which each had 15-round standard magazines. Contemporaneously, Austrian engineer Gaston Glock used his expertise in synthetic polymers to develop a revolutionary lightweight handgun with a 17-round standard magazine. Originally intended for the Austrian military, the Glock 17 later became a favorite with American customers.

These new, high-capacity guns were hitting the street at the height of the crack epidemic and the era of the drive-by shooting, in a newly deregulated market—in 1986, Congress had passed the Firearms Owners Protection Act. “There was in essence a perfect storm,” Daniel Webster told me. “That legislation greatly decreased risks for people who were diverting guns to criminals. The standards for convicting someone of violating federal firearms sales laws were increased substantially, at the same time that the penalties for those gun sales violations decreased. [Congress] decreased the budget for the ATF. They decreased the number of compliance inspections that they could do. They also rewrote the criteria for needing to have a federal license to sell firearms. So all those things were at play, including the type of guns that were being made.”

Annual gun deaths peaked in 1993. The following year, Congress adopted an assault-weapons ban that capped magazines at 10 rounds. Since the ban expired in 2004, handguns with 15-round capacity or greater have been used in several mass shootings, including the Virginia Tech massacre (55 victims); the attempted assassination of Representative Gabby Giffords (19 victims); and the 2009 Fort Hood massacre (45 victims). Over the past decade, annual gun deaths have crept gradually upward.

Although military contracts drive innovations that make guns more lethal, the same contracts can also spur advances in safety. In the handgun trials of the 1980s, the U.S. military insisted upon several safety features that were state-of-the-art at the time. The Beretta could be safely de-cocked with a live round in the chamber; a firing-pin block prevented the gun from discharging when dropped; a loaded-chamber indicator allowed the user to confirm, visually and by touch, whether there was a bullet ready to fire. Does this mean the next-generation military handgun will integrate the cutting-edge safety technology of 2014? Will the Army adopt some form of smart gun, ensuring the weapon can only be fired by authorized users?

Critics say smart guns are impractical—too complex, too expensive, and not reliable. Even if the industry were to overcome the technological hurdles, though, the Army isn’t likely to adopt smart-gun technology now or any time soon—why would they? The most obvious application is to prevent a child from discharging a parent’s gun, and American soldiers don’t take their kids into combat. In this regard the military brass seem to differentiate between guns suitable for the bedside table and guns purpose-built for the battlefield—a distinction that sometimes eludes the American public.

Whatever new handgun the Army adopts to replace the M9, it will fire a more powerful cartridge than the Beretta’s 9mm. This could be the .45-caliber ammo currently used by the Marines or, according to an Army spokesperson, it could be the .357 SIG or .40 S&W, two cartridges that didn’t exist in the '80s, and which were developed for law enforcement officers to counter increasingly well-armed criminals. It might be quite some time before the Army selects a winning design and awards the new contract. Once they do, you can expect to find an almost indistinguishable pistol in a gun shop near you.