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

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CASKERS

Forget about musty old liquor stores and missing out on that rare bottle of booze from here on out thanks to Caskers. Whether it's brand new or difficult to find, Caskers does the research and puts the best options in front of you.

Stock your bar with selections of craft spirits from around the world and once you make your choices Caskers will deliver it directly to your door. High-quality, hand selected liquor without the legwork. Join now for free and members save up to 40% off retail prices.

The only bummer about all this is that they don't ship to Oz...

[Fuzz]

Jetfire, One Of The Best Transformers Toys From The 1980s, Is Back

This is the Takatoku model that Jetfire was based on. Not sure where mine is, probably packed in a box somewhere.

Don't know what happened to the Transformers, but I still have this Godaikin bad boy!

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Climbers Escape Iceberg As It Starts To Collapse

Impressive video of professional ice climbers Klemen Premrl and Aljaz Anderle climbing icebergs in Greenland’s Disko Bay. Or, better said, trying to climb: They were very fragile and one started to collapse as they were going up.

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The Most Accurate, Highest Resolution Video Of Earth Ever Made

This Earth video created by James Tyrwhitt-Drake using footage from the Elektro-L weather satellite — a Russian satellite that takes one 121-megapixel image of Earth every 30 minutes — is the highest resolution video of our home planet ever created. Watch it in all its 4K glory here.

James Tyrwhitt-Drake writes:

A timelapse of Earth in 4K resolution, as imaged by the geostationary Elektro-L weather satellite, from May 15th to May 19th, 2011. Elektro-L is located ~40,000 km above the Indian ocean, and it orbits at a speed that causes it to remain over the same spot as the Earth rotates. The satellite creates a 121 megapixel image (11136×11136 pixels) every 30 minutes with visible and infrared light wavelengths. The images were edited to adjust levels and change the infrared channel from orange to green to show vegetation more naturally. The images were resized by 50%, misalignments between frames were manually corrected, and image artifacts that occurred when the camera was facing towards the sun were partially corrected. The images were interpolated by a factor of 20 to create a smooth animation. The animation was rendered in the Youtube 4K UHD resolution of 3840×2160. An original animation file with a resolution of (5568×5568) is available on request.

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Some Of Canada's Lakes Are Turning Into Jelly Thanks To Acid Rain

It’s a real bummer to hear that 150 years of industrialisation wrecked the Earth so bad that it will take thousands to recover. It’s a much bigger bummer to see the situation in real life. That’s exactly what’s happening in a large number of Canada’s lakes, which are turning into jelly thanks to acid rain.

A new study from Cambridge University scientists shows how acid rain is leading to exploding populations of a particular type of gelatinous plankton that threatens to clog up the country’s drinking water filtration systems. Basically, the acid rain zapped the calcium deposits in the soil around a large number of Canada’s lakes. Falling calcium levels, in turn, led to the swift decline of certain calcium-rich plankton like Daphnia water fleas, and that meant that their gelatinous, less calcium-dependent competitors in the Holopedium genus (see below) can thrived. Now, many of Canada’s lakes look like bowls full of jelly (see above).

What’s the problem with exploding populations of Canadian, jelly-clad plankton? Well, this just isn’t what nature intended.

“It may take thousands of years to return to historic lake water calcium concentrations solely from natural weathering of surrounding watersheds,” said Dr Andrew Tanentzap from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences who co-authored the study.

“In the meanwhile, while we’ve stopped acid rain and improved the pH of many of these lakes, we cannot claim complete recovery from acidification. Instead, we many have pushed these lakes into an entirely new ecological state.”

This “new ecological state” situation is especially problematic when you consider the fact that some 20 per cent of Canada’s drinking water comes from these lakes. So even though you don’t hear about acid rain on the news as much as you used to, the effects are everlasting. And the United States isn’t doing much better either.

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Freakish Time lapse Of The Snow Wall That Swallowed Buffalo, New York

Meteorologists said that they have never seen radar images like the ones from yesterday’s snow wall that swallowed Buffalo, New York. The snow lake effect was caused by low temperatures now affecting the big lakes, part of a record-breaking blanket of freezing temperatures that covered 85 per cent of the continental US.

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The Gates Of Hell Just Opened In Russia With This Massive Sinkhole

A potash mine in the Perm region, Russia, has collapsed, leaving behind a gigantic sinkhole in the middle of an abandoned town. It’s scary but that’s not the real bad news: a connected mine just few kilometres away sits right underneath a town full of people and houses and experts say it may collapse too.

Earlier this week, RT reports, Uralkali’s Solikamsk-2 potash was evacuated because of a sudden influx of salty water. Then, the sinkhole appeared, proving just how unstable the ground is. An underground tunnel plugged only a concrete barrier links the mine to Solikamsk-1, which is the second mine that sits under an inhabited town. Yeah, it’s probably a good time to get the hell out.

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Boy Born With 8 Limbs Causes Religious Panic in India

Hundreds are crying in the streets, hundreds of others are praying and setting up camp here. Some are even panicking and believe this is a sign of the end of the world. I have never seen anything like this in my whole career.

That’s the scene reported by a public spokesperson in Baruipur, a city in India’s eastern West Bengal State, where a baby boy was born recently with four arms and four legs. Those extra limbs make the child resemble one of the numerous Hindu deities with multiple limbs, causing many to refer to him as a “God boy.”

Doctors have been quick to point out that this is an unusual but known condition known as a “parasitic twin.” This is different than conjoined twins where two fetuses develop joined at the head, hip or legs and usually share internal organs. Parasitic twins develop when one fetus is malformed, causing it to never fully develop and ultimately become part of the other one. The remains of the second twin can often be surgically removed. No information was released on the boy’s condition or if surgery to remove the extra limbs is planned or feasible.

That sound scientific explanation hasn’t stopped believers from flocking to the boy’s family in Baruipur, a city of about 50,000 with, according to the most recent census, an average literacy rate of 84%, much higher than the national average of 59.5%. However, the Hindu faith is strong in West Bengal, which hosts a large annual gajan or festival in honor of the deity Shiva.

The Hindu god mentioned most often in respect to the “God Boy” is Brahma, who is depicted with four heads, four faces, and four arms. Brahma is one of the few Hindu gods who holds no weapons, instead grasping a book and prayer beads while using each head to recite the four Vedas.

If you’re going to hope a child is a god, that sounds like a good one to hope for. If the local authorities think they have crowds now, wait until the God Boy’s image shows up on a piece of toast.

[MIKA27]

The Postman Who Built a Palace in France…by Hand

Walking his delivery route one day in the late 1800s, a French postman stumbled upon a rock that inspired him to embark on a 33-year journey to build a fantastical palace by hand.

Ferdinand Cheval was born the son of peasants in the tumultuous, newly democratic France. But as an old man, he became proprietor of a palace fit for a king—one he built stone-by-stone with his own two hands.

Cheval was born in 1836 in Charmes, France, and he chose to serve his small community as a postman. By the age of 43, he was living in Hauterives, a small town about 30 miles from Lyon, and was traveling an 18-mile mail route by foot each day.

It was during these walks that he began fantasizing about how to break the monotony of daily life. ”[C]onstantly walking in the same surroundings what could I do but dream?” he’d later write proudly in his autobiography. “[T]o change my mind, I used to build a fairy-like palace beyond imagination with all that the genius of a humble man could conceive.”

On one fateful day in 1879, events were put into motion to turn Cheval’s daydream into his full-fledged life’s mission. Walking his normal mail route, Cheval tripped over a stone in the ground. It was a strangely shaped block, due to the area once being underwater, and he took it home with him to examine closer. Inspired, he began picking up more stones each day and taking them home in his pockets. Later, he would walk his route pushing a sturdy wheelbarrow. On his way out, he'd deliver the day’s mail and then, returning home, he'd fill the wheelbarrow with stones.

“I thought: since nature wants to do the sculpture, I’ll do the masonry and the architecture,” he’d later write.

For the next 33 years, he singlehandedly constructed a palace in his garden, stone by stone. He didn’t actually begin building his vision until 1888, after a decade of collecting, and it took nearly 20 more years to gather all the stones he’d use. Holding the architectural smorgasbord of a castle together was cement, wire, and mortar.

At first, he named his creation The Temple of Nature, but later he changed it to be more precise: Palais Ideal, or the Ideal Palace.

The end result of Cheval's decades of labor, his lovechild, is a combination of the most famous architectural styles throughout history. The structure features ornately carved designs that mimic architecture from all corners of the world, from China to Europe and North Africa. There are Egyptian influences and an imitation Hindu temple. Hidden in the structure’s peaks, grottos, and balconies are creatures of all kinds: elephants, giants, birds, and fairies. Bulbous columns, winding staircases, and whimsical bas-reliefs of mythical creatures wrap around the palace. “The tongues started to wag in my home town and surrounding area," Cheval said of those unable to see his vision.

In 1912, Chevral's life's work was finally complete. The neighbors who once mocked him for this seemingly crazy project were in awe, and soon, people came from all over to see the palace. His little town was famous.

But he wasn’t done. He realized he’d need a castle just as grand for the afterlife. He had built a tomb within the palace, but for unknown reasons changed his mind about being put to rest there, and constructed the “Tomb of Silence and Eternal Rest” at a local cemetery. The tomb, though much smaller than the palace, is similarly a vision of ornate twists, arches, and peaks.

Ironically, Cheval’s lack of formal artistic training gave him credibility in the creative world. Artists now consider the Ideal Palace a piece of “naive” or “outsider” art. Andrew Breton called Cheval’s work an early version of Surrealistic architecture. Picasso was said to be a fan.

Cheval got to enjoy the fruits of his labor for a dozen years before he died in 1924 and was interred in his silent and restful tomb. Today, a bronze bust of the postman-turned-architect sits outside the post office and more than a hundred thousand people—nearly six times the local population—visit Hauterives each year to gawk at the maniacal pieces of architecture he left behind.

It may have taken Cheval a third of his lifetime to complete the Ideal Palace, but in the end, one stone transformed into the grand vision he'd day dreamt about so many years earlier. His handiwork work has survived a century.

“The word impossible no longer exists,” he wrote.

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THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO PAPPY VAN WINKLE

I’d say that Pappy Van Winkle is a brand that needs no introduction — except that it does. The truth is that most people don’t know anything about “Pappy”, other than that it’s supposed to be the best of its kind. So let’s set the record straight by getting a couple of basic facts out of the way.

The History of “Pappy”

The name Pappy Van Winkle refers to Julian Sr. “Pappy” Van Winkle, who created the original line of Van Winkle whiskeys. His Old Rip Van Winkle brand of bourbon was introduced at the worst possible time — right before prohibition — and was promptly shut down. In 1935, at the age of 61, he opened a new Stitzel-Weller distillery outside of Louisville that he influenced until his death in 1965. He was 91. The brands produced during that time at the Stitzel-Weller distillery included W.L. Weller, Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell and Cabin Still.

The following decades were tough on the bourbon industry as the public’s drinking perception shifted towards other spirits, especially vodka. After years of steady declines in sales, Pappy’s son Julian Jr. sold the Stitzel-Weller distillery as well as the rights to all of its whiskey brands in 1972 — except for the Old Rip Van Winkle name.

Julian Jr.’s decision to purchase back some of the Stitzel-Weller whiskey stock and bottle it under the Old Rip Van Winkle label is what started the company as we know it today. He had preserved his father’s work to some degree, but the market for Kentucky’s whiskey was still slow to change. Julian Jr. died in 1981, leaving the Old Rip Van Winkle line and the Stitzel-Weller stocks to his son, Julian III.

The natural evaporation in whiskey barrels known as the Angel’s share limits the amount of time distillers can let their spirits age. Keep it there too long, and you might wind up with nothing. This was probably one of the driving motivations for Julian III deciding to launch a 10-year-old version of Old Rip Van Winkle, followed by a 20-year-old bourbon called Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve in the mid ’90s.

Bourbon slowly started to come back in America and Julian III’s whiskey started to gain attention. It was delicious and incredibly cheap compared to similarly aged blended Scotches and single malts, though at $50 a bottle, the 20-year-old was still twice the price of most bourbons. Unfortunately, the Stitzel-Weller distillery owned by Diageo that supplied Julian with his whiskey shut down for good in 1992. Julian’s supplies were now finite. The third-generation Van Winkle entered into a joint partnership with Buffalo Trace in 2002 to ensure the brand’s future.

The question of who makes the juice inside current bottles of Pappy Van Winkle is a huge source of debate and interest for die-hard whiskey fans. The whiskey that earned national awards and mountains of praise was the stuff produced at Stitzel-Weller. There was no way Buffalo Trace could produce the exact same juice. How much would the changeover affect Pappy’s quality?

At some point after 2002, a portion of whiskey produced by Buffalo Trace was being mingled with the old Stitzel-Weller stock to create new bottles of Pappy and Old Rip Van Winkle — particularly in the case of younger offerings. There’s plenty of speculation on which vintages of each offering stopped including Stitzel-produced bourbon. Some basic math can provide a ballpark estimate of a final horizon. The last barrel produced at a distillery which shut down in 1992 would have turned 20 years old in 2012 and 23 in 2015.

The Stitzel-Weller mystique has added to the allure of the Pappy legend and made older bottles far more valuable. It’s also introduced a little uncertainty around the revered bourbon’s status moving forward.

The Bottles

Old Rip Van Winkle Distillery (which again, doesn’t actually distill anything today) sells 10-, 12-, 15-, 20- and 23-year-old bourbons, as well as a 13-year-old rye. The oldest three are bottled under the Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve name and are technically the only three that qualify as “Pappy” from a pure branding standpoint. The 10-year-old bourbon is bottled under the Old Rip Van Winkle name, while the 12-year and 13-year rye carry just the Van Winkle name. The family association has still made other three bottles scarce and expensive.

The Style

Outside of the Van Winkle Rye, the five bottles sold by Old Rip Van Winkle distillery are “wheaters”, a.k.a wheated-style bourbons. What does this mean exactly? By law, bourbon must be made using at least 51 percent corn — though many use roughly 70 percent. The remaining grains used in the recipe are left up to the distiller. Most use some combination of rye and barley to fill out the mash bill, with rye usually being the second most prevalent. In wheated bourbons, wheat replaces this rye. Generally speaking, the switch adds a sweeter profile to the whiskey. Pappy is the most famous wheated bourbon on the market today, but there are plenty of others out there, including the entire Weller line of bourbons by Buffalo Trace, Maker’s Mark and a variety of brands made by Heaven Hill including Old Fitzgerald, Rebel Yell and Cabin Still.

The Craze

No one can definitively answer how Pappy transformed into the phenomenon it is today. Still, a few notable events did help launch it into the national spotlight. In 1998, the beverage institute gave the 20-year-old Family Reserve a 99/100 score. That same year it was also recognized with the “Trophy for Worldwide Whisky” and a Best-In-Class Gold Medallion in the 2008 International Wine and Spirit Competition. Those awards — and many others — got the attention of mainstream publications. Celebrity chef endorsements followed. Anthony Bourdain declared Pappy 20 year old “the most glorious bourbon on the planet” during an episode of On the Table, which aired on the Reserve Channel in 2012. David Chang and Sean Brock have made similar declarations in various settings.

A limited supply of 7,000 cases each year didn’t hurt. Up until recently, bourbons older than 12 years were also rare. Wheated bourbons above that age were virtually nonexistent. In other words, Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve had no competition.

The Taste

Are the three bottles in the Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve line the best bourbons ever made? That kind of decision is above my pay grade. Still, as a collector and fan, I’m happy to share my thoughts on the subject as well as some tasting notes for whatever it’s worth.

PAPPY VAN WINKLE FAMILY RESERVE 15 YEAR (2008)

Suggested Retail Price 2014: $79.99

Street Price: ~$600

Proof: 107

Nose: Brown sugar and wood. Black cherry

Taste: Nuts, vanilla, caramel.

Finish: Syrupy and smooth. Impressive for a 107 proof bourbon.

This is the bourbon I drank at my wedding and my favorite of the Pappy’s (and one of my favorites ever). It’s aged enough to steal the complexities from the barrel without going overboard. I prefer the heat from the higher proof. It provides a nice edge and reminds me of the raw elements of wood and grain that mold bourbon. To me the 15 year is an excellent compromise between its two older brothers. It’s rich and smooth, yet still packs a punch. At its original retail price the 15 year was an absolute steal. Now it has become one of the hardest to find, largely because its price on the secondary market is still a reachable splurge for dedicate fans and collectors.

Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 20 Year (2010)

Suggested Retail Price 2014: $129.99

Street Price / Secondary Market: ~$800

Proof: 90.4

Nose: Very sweet. Raisins and chocolate.

Taste: Silky and rich. Vanilla pudding. A bit of fruit at the end.

Finish: Incredibly balanced. Leather, honey and darker fruits again.

The 20 year is the most highly decorated of the trio for good reason. Experts have rated earlier bottles as close to perfect as it gets without officially calling it perfect. Its velvety texture and finish are what really make this offering stand above almost everything else. Some say its mouthfeel is like a fine cognac. I’ve never really drank that stuff so I can’t comment on comparison, but it does feel freaking remarkable with a good chew. The lower proof versus the 15 is preferred by many and definitely helps this whiskey go down easy. Scarily easy.

Pappy Van Winkle Family Reserve 23 Year (2013)

Suggested Retail Price 2014: $250

Street Price / Secondary market: ~$1,300+

Proof: 95.6%

Nose: Oak, pepper and char. A bit of maple.

Taste: Oily and thick with heavy doses of oak, spice and tobacco. Buttery bread lingers.

Finish: Heaps of wood and char. Caramelized sugars. Prunes and dried plum.

It’s the oldest, priciest and rarest of the Pappy’s — and one of the oldest bourbons on the market period, but none of those factors improve its taste. There’s just a point with bourbons where the barrel’s influence overpowers the nuances of the original whiskey. Finding barrels in this range that are still somewhat balanced is a real challenge and clearly one even the Van Winkle family hasn’t mastered. That’s not to say the 23 is a bad whiskey. It’s impressive that a bourbon this old tastes like anything but tree. It’s just bolder and brasher than the typical bourbon fan will care for. Even at it’s original asking price, its a hard bottle to recommend to anyone outside of collectors.

[MIKA27]

THE DALMORE PATERSON COLLECTION: $1.5 MILLION WHISKEY

If you’re fond of the saying, “Bartender, bring me your finest whiskey!” be sure to steer clear of Harrods Wine Shop in London. Because if you utter that phrase there, they’ll bring you 12 bottles of the Dalmore Paterson Collection, the king of luxury spirits—price tag, $1.5 million.

Each bottle comes from the home of whiskey, Scotland (in this case, the Scottish Highlands), and they range in age from 1926-1990. Each is hand-selected by “the visionary Richard Paterson, Master Distiller of The Dalmore,” and the whole crazy collection comes in a custom made wooden cabinet, featuring 12 handmade crystal decanters that might very well tremble at the thought of holding such supreme spirits. The bottles are also accompanied by Paterson’s own handwritten ledger and the company’s deer emblem in sterling silver. Try not to spill any, would ya? [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

This May Be The Coolest, Most Futuristic Combat Jet Ever Built

The Swedes make some amazing flying machines, like the Saab 35 Draken photographed above by Tony Osborne, London Bureau Chief for Aviation Week. It’s so striking it doesn’t even seem real. It feels more like a space fighter than a plane from Earth. Check out this gallery.

It really feels like a design by legendary sci-fi illustrator Chris Foss.

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This Is How You Fold The Perfect Paper Aeroplane

I used to flip the end of the wings of paper aeroplanes upward and breathe on the head of the aeroplane to make it fly farther. According to John Collins — the maker of the paper aeroplane with the world record for the longest distance — I was doing it wrong. This video shows how to do it properly.

This is the video that shows how they broke the world record. Former Cal Berkeley quarterback Joe Ayoob is the guy throwing the plane.

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This Insane Chinese Concept Train Doesn't Need To Stop At Stations To Pick Up Passengers

A train in motion is a train carrying out its purpose. So why bother stopping at stations?!

That’s the idea behind this concept train from China.

Check out the video below which demonstrates how it works: Passengers step onto a compartment platform above an incoming train, which is then snagged by the train as it moves through the platform. At the next station, anyone wanting to get off moves up into the compartment, which is then snagged by the station.

The train itself never stops, it simply trades embarkation capsules as its moves through a station, giving passengers a window of time to board without the train needing to stop.

MIKA: Thanks Oliver for the news!

[MIKA27]

'4D' Broadcasts Will Let Hockey Fans Feel Every Hit From Their Couch

Sitting rink-side at NHL games affords an unparalleled view of the action, especially when someone gets lit up on the boards right in front of you. But now fans of the San Jose Sharks will be able to recreate that bone-jarring experience in the comfort of their own homes.

The Sharks will be incorporating Guitammer’s “4D Sports” technology into their home telecasts this season. The system leverages impact data collected from 76 sensors embedded in the boards surrounding the team’s ice rink to activate Guitammer’s ButtKicker rumble seat — which has been around for some time, but not used in this capacity — in time with the broadcast. Whenever a player goes into the boards, home viewers will feel the blow in real time.

“Our goal is always to bring fans closer to the action, and what better way than to allow them to actually feel what’s happening on the ice,” David Koppett, a Senior Executive Producer with Comcast SportsNet California, said in a press statement. “Guitammer’s 4D technology helps us transmit the electric energy of a Sharks hockey game right into your living room.”

The technology makes its debut tonight when the Sharks take on the Florida Panthers at the SAP Center. We’ll have a hands-on (or rather, butts-on) report once the game starts.

[MIKA27]

Cool Photos Of F-22s And F-35s Flying Together For The First Time

Behold the F-22 Raptor (top two) and F-35 Lightning II (bottom two) flying together for the first time in history. Arguably the two most technologically advanced military jets in the world, the Lt. Col. Matt Renbarger — commander of the 58th Fighter Squadron — says they mix together like peanut butter and jelly.

When the F-22 and F-35 come together, it brings out the strength of both aeroplanes The F-22 was built to be an air-to-air superiority fighter and the F-35 was built to be a strike fighter. These aeroplanes complement each other and we’re trying to learn how to take that from a design perspective into a tactical arena and be the most effective combat team we can be working with the F-22s.

These F-22 Raptors — from the 94th Fighter Squadron, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia — were moved to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida to fly integration training missions with the F-35A Lightning IIs from the 58th Fighter Squadron stationed there. These are some of the images.

[MIKA27]

And This Year's Grossest Christmas Ad Goes To...

Last year, Poo-Pourri’s ad Girls Don’t Poop proved that humour is the best weapon if you need to advertise a stink-eliminating toilet spray. So this year, for the Christmas campaign, they decided to take their scatological humour a step further and show to the world that Santa suffers from gastric problems too.

MIKA: Seriously...WTF did I just watch!?

[polarbear]

And This Year's Grossest Christmas Ad Goes To...

Last year, Poo-Pourris ad

proved that humour is the best weapon if you need to advertise a stink-eliminating toilet spray. So this year, for the Christmas campaign, they decided to take their scatological humour a step further and show to the world that Santa suffers from gastric problems too.

MIKA: Seriously...WTF did I just watch!?

Wha...?

[MIKA27]

Welcome To Jurassic World With This New Teaser Trailer

Universal Studios just released a 15-second teaser trailer for the upcoming fourth instalment in the Jurassic Park franchise, Jurassic World — and it feels great to be back.

As teasers are wont to do, the brief spot doesn’t show much. We see some neat gizmos as characters go on some kind of high-tech safari ride and a very, very concerned-looking Chris Pratt. The best part of all of this is the slow piano melody playing John Williams’ original theme.

This brief look is just a prelude to the full official trailer, which is expected to air on NBC on Thanksgiving (Velociraptors are known to look like six-foot turkeys after all). The plot of Jurassic World, which opens June 12, 2015, takes place 22 years after the events of the original film and shows that humanity has a really tough time learning its lesson.

[MIKA27]

Insane Video Of A Truck Jumping Over A Formula 1 Car At Full Speed

Holy mother of God, this has to be one of the craziest vehicle stunts I’ve ever seen: The Formula 1 team Lotus got one of their giant trailer trucks to jump over one of their race cars running at full speed. It is absolutely insane.

Lotus claims this is a new distance world record for a truck jump: 25.5m.

According to Raphael Orlove at TruckYeah! the stunt was coordinated by Mike Ryan — an stuntman who worked on Terminator 2. He also drove the truck. I love crazy people.

[MIKA27]

This May Be The Coolest, Most Futuristic Bomber Ever Built

While the Saab 35 Draken may be the coolest, most futuristic combat jet ever made, when it comes to bombers that title goes to the XB-70 Valkyrie, a gigantic supersonic strategic nuclear bomber that never entered service. Seriously, when I say gigantic I really mean it. This thing is unbelievable — check the image below.

There were only two prototypes built of the North American Aviation XB-70 Valkyrie before the project — which wanted to create a nuclear bomber that could penetrate deeply into Soviet territory at supersonic speeds and very high altitude — was cancelled. Powered by six engines, the Valkyrie was that bomber: It could could fly at 70,000 feet (21,336m) at Mach 3+, which put it far from the reach Soviet fighter jets at the time.

But, as the critics of the time said — notably Kelly Johnson, one of the creators of the SR-71 Blackbird and the U-2 spy plane — it was dead even before it left the drawing boards in the mid-1950s (it’s hard to believe that this amazing plane was designed just a decade after World War II ended, just like the SR-71.)

By 1961 the US Air Force knew that new high-altitude surface-to-air missiles could take down the XB-70, as demonstrated by the U-2 shot down in Soviet airspace on May 1, 1960. Then, the birth of the intercontinental ballistic missile — which could deliver the same or more destruction power faster and with no human risk whatsoever — was the final straw that killed this amazing bird.

There’s only one of these prototypes left at the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. The other one was destroyed in a mid-air collision during a test flight on June 8, 1966. Here are two photos taken just before the accident:

The photo below was taken just after the collision. The ball of fire is the F-104 — the one with the orange tail above — that went under and touched the Valkyrie’s right wing before flipping over and destroying the XB-70′s vertical stabilizers and part of its left wing.

The XB-70 spun out of control shortly after that, crashing against the ground before the pilots could eject. This is the story of that accident:

[MIKA27]

The Process Of Turning Raw Cow Hide Into Leather Is Really Gross

Leather is beautiful and luxurious and natural and one of the great materials of the world. However, it’s absolutely gross to make. Here’s the process of turning raw hide into high-quality leather. You’ll see grey goops, a lot of residue, dumps of bizarre liquids and more. Worth it? I guess.

[MIKA27]

Did Ben Franklin Want The Turkey To Be The National Symbol Of The US?

It’s one of those fun facts many have know since they were kids: Ben Franklin liked turkeys so much that he wanted them to be America’s national bird instead of the bald eagle. It’s a popular fun fact. But many are shattered to learn as an adult that this little nugget of trivia isn’t quite true.

So where does this myth come from?

Back in 1784, Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter in which he disapproves of the country adopting the bald eagle as the national symbol of the US. He claims that the drawing that had been produced looked like a turkey anyway and that such a bird would actually be preferable to the eagle. Franklin explained that the bald eagle had a “bad moral character” and was a “rank coward” that merely steals from other birds.

In Franklin’s letter from Paris to his daughter, dated January 26, 1784:

I am on this account not displeased that the figure is not known as an Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the truth, the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America… He is besides, though a little vain and silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.

So yes, he did float the idea that a turkey might be a better bird for a national symbol. But only within the context that people were claiming the bald eagle symbol already looked like a turkey. He never actually advocated this notion publicly or seriously.

As Smithsonian magazine points out, this little fun fact has evolved and grown more popular over the course of the last half century, aided by a 1962 New Yorker cover (pictured above) featuring the turkey in place of the bald eagle.

[MIKA27]

FULL DOCUMENTARY: TRUTH IN 24

Truth In 24 is a free-to-air documentary about the extraordinary efforts of the Audi Le Mans team in the lead up to the storied race at the French circuit in 2008, I know many of you have difficultly following racing series that largely take place away from American soil due to television coverage issues so I won’t spoil the film by giving away the ending, I’ll just say that it’s well worth a watch and a lazy Sunday is the perfect time for it.

The film has a running time of 95 minutes and it’s narrated by Jason Statham – but don’t let that put you off if you aren’t a fan of his films, he does an excellent job here and has a voice seemly perfect for anything motorsport related. If you’d also like to see the follow up film titled “Truth In 24 II” you can see it below as a bonus

TRUTH IN 24

TRUTH IN 24 II - BONUS

[MIKA27]

The Mystery of the Lost Amber Room

There have been various relics and treasures lost to us throughout history. Often irreplaceable and heavily imbued with both monetary and historical value, we are more often than not forced to merely speculate on where on earth these lost treasures have disappeared to. While it may seem reasonable and even unavoidable that some artifacts may become lost to time on occasion, how does one lose a whole room? In the case of one room fashioned of gold and amber at an enormous expense of time and money, created to be unparalleled in majesty and beauty, we have just such a case. The Amber Room of Germany was one of mankind’s great treasures and upon its baffling disappearance also one of our great mysteries.

The Amber Room began its life in 1701, when it was designed by the German architect Andreas Schlüter, and construction on the ornate wall panels was begun at the Charlottenburg Palace in Prussia, which was the residence of the first King of Prussia, Friedrich I. The King’s wife at the time, Sophie Charlotte, had requested it be erected within the palace. The room was actually mostly built by an amber specialist by the name of Gottfried Wolfram, of the Royal Court of Denmark. Wolfram worked on the room until 1707, after which the two amber masters Gottfried Turau and Ernst Schacht continued construction and completed it in 1709.

The room was one of the most amazing masterpieces of 18th century craftsmanship and artistry, and must surely have been a spectacle to behold. Upon the walls of the room were enormous panels fashioned from tons of the purest Danish amber, which was encrusted with various gemstones and inlaid with gold. Upon these sweeping panels of gold and gem covered amber were installed ornate mirrors on gold fittings that were meticulously decorated with more gold and pieces of amber, as well as jewel emblazoned mosaics trimmed with even more gold. The overall impression was of a shimmering room completely made of gold and amber that was said to blaze into a fiery brilliance when lit up by the room’s 565 candles. It was purportedly such an awe-inspiring site that it was often referred to as “The 8th Wonder of the World.”

When Peter the Great, who was an ally of Friedrich I, visited the room he was astonished and greatly impressed. Friedrich I, looking to strengthen his alliance with Russia against Sweden, subsequently offered the room as a gift to Peter the Great in 1716.

The large decorative panels of The Amber Room were shipped to Russia in 18 gigantic boxes, after which they were first installed as part of an art collection in St. Petersburg at a place called the Winter House. In 1755, Czarina Elizabeth had the room moved to the Catherine Palace in Pushkin, where it would later be used as a meditation chamber for the Czarina and a gathering place for Catherine the Great.

The space at the Catherine Palace where The Amber Room was erected was a larger room than it had previously occupied, and thus went under a redesign by the Italian designer Bartolomeo Francesco Rastrelli to further expand it to both fill in the extra space and enhance its magnificence even more. More gold, amber, and gems were brought in, and when renovations were eventually completed, The Amber Room was comprised of around 6 tons of amber and gems, was 17 meters (55.8 feet ) in length, and covered around 55 square meters with glittering beauty. It has been estimated by historians as having a total value of around 150 million dollars in today’s money. Truly this must have been one of the most breathtaking works of art in human history.

The Amber Room was passed down to subsequent rulers in Russia, for whom it remained a priceless showcase of the palace and a source of pride until 1941, when WWII brought with it hordes of hostile Germans looking to loot and kill. The last days of The Amber Room came with the beginning of Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa, which entailed the deployment of millions of German troops into the Soviet Union. What followed was the desecration and looting of tens of thousands of irreplaceable paintings, sculptures, and other works of art, jewels, and priceless artifacts. This was an orgy of looting unlike anything that had ever been witnessed, and massive amounts of cultural heritage were being devoured by the Nazi scourge at a frightening pace. This relentless ransacking force was soon at the doorstep of Pushkin, and the majestic beauty of the Amber room was imperiled.

The curators and officials of the Catherine Palace realized the gravity of the situation. As bombs exploded throughout the city, they frantically tried to disassemble the Amber Room in order to move it elsewhere and therefore prevent it from being looted. As they did so, the amber panels began to crumble due to having weakened over the years. Hesitant to cause further damage to the priceless artifact, desperate officials ended up hiding the panels under wallpaper, gauze, and cotton in a last ditch effort to keep it out of German hands. The ruse did not fool the marauding forces, who quickly discovered the famous prize.

The Amber Room in its original state before it was moved.

The Germans were extremely efficient in their ability to dismantle the Amber Room.

Within 36 hours it had been packed into 27 crates and moved to the Baltic Coast city of Königsberg, presently Kaliningrad, and put on display. In 1943 it was stored at Königsberg Castle in a museum, where it became a favorite of the museum’s director, Alfred Rohde. Rhode had a fascination with amber, and reportedly spent a good amount of time studying the intricate craftsmanship of the panels. As the end of WWII loomed, plans were put into place to pack the panels into crates and store them away from the approaching Allied forces. These efforts were apparently too slow, because soon there were Allied warplanes buzzing across the sky and pummeling the city below into rubble with their bombs. Königsberg Castle was smashed to pieces, along with most of the rest of the city, and so it was presumed that the Amber Room had been destroyed as well. The Amber Room has never been seen since.

The official story is that the Amber Room had become just another casualty of war, and for many that was the end of that.

However, over the years it was speculated that perhaps it had not been destroyed. Rumors abounded of people sighting the missing panels or knowing someone who had had a hand in their removal. What in fact happened to it in those final days of the war is a matter of opinion, and there are various theories on what the ultimate fate of the Amber Room was.

Besides the obvious idea that the room was in fact destroyed by Allied forces, others have speculated that the panels were indeed moved as originally planned. The plan at Königsberg Castle to pack the panels away was thought up at the end of 1943, and the castle wasn’t destroyed by bombing until August of the following year, giving the Germans plenty of time to have the Amber Room moved. The trail the panels may have taken is uncertain. Some speculate they remained somewhere in the city, hidden away from the destruction. Others think they were loaded onto a ship to be transported, after which the ship sank and brought the Amber Room to the bottom of the ocean where it still remains. Still others believe the panels were successfully moved out of the city to join the myriad of other looted treasures, many of which are still missing. Other bizarre theories include the idea that Stalin had made a fake Amber Room which is the one the Germans stole while the real one remained untouched. Others say that the room simply got misplaced, and is sitting in its crates in some anonymous warehouse somewhere, lost and forgotten, with no one being none the wiser. It has also been suggested that some secret cabal has taken possession of the room and guards it from scrutiny to this day.

Whatever it was that happened to this priceless treasure, it has never been seen in public again and its whereabouts remain a mystery.

A rare photo of the original Amber Room

Experts have ascertained that the fragile nature of the materials used in the Amber Room’s construction mean that it has certainly deteriorated and decayed into an unsalvageable state by now. Even before it was stolen, the room had allegedly fallen into a state of disrepair, with many of the pieces and designs falling out or otherwise degraded and in need of restoration. It is believed that even if it were to be found, it would be in a state heavily in need of restoration, possibly unsalvageable, and certainly unworthy of being displayed in its former glory. Nevertheless, since the Amber Room’s disappearance, there has been sporadic tantalizing evidence of it throughout the ensuing years in the form of pieces and shards allegedly from the panels. One of the more promising of these came in 1997, when German art detectives heard that someone was trying to sell what they claimed to be a piece of the Amber Room. When the office of the suspicious party’s lawyer was raided, detectives uncovered a mosaic panel from the room.

The seller of the item claimed that he had had no idea as to the object’s origin. It was later found that the seller’s father had been a German soldier during the war, so it is likely that the pieces were stolen by the man at some point during the Amber Room’s removal by German forces or transit to its new location.

Several large scale searches for evidence of the Amber Room’s continued existence have been launched over the years, which while offering up sometimes tantalizing clues have all failed to actually produce any of the missing panels. One of the more recent searches that has actually claimed to have found it is that of a group of German treasure hunters who claimed to have tracked its location down to an underground bunker in the German city of Auerswalde that was originally designed to house huge, railway mounted cannons that were among the largest ever made. The team claims to have found documents showing that the bunker was the destination for a highly secretive, clandestine shipment involving a large amount of transport trucks and originating in Königsberg, the last known location of the Amber Room. The document allegedly details how over one hundred Soviet POWs were assigned the task of unloading the trucks and moving whatever precious cargo it was down into the subterranean depths of the bunker. The team speculates that the mysterious shipment must be none other than the fabled missing Amber Room. The team managed to pinpoint the location of the bunker through the presence of a ventilation shaft leading down to it. Although the bunker has yet to be opened and examined, the treasure hunters are confident they have finally cracked the mystery. It remains to be seen how much truth their story holds.

The hunt for the Amber Room has had other bizarre attributes over the years. It is said that a curse surrounds the lost relic, and that all those who attempt to locate it will be beset by death and misfortune. There have indeed been accounts of those concerned with the Amber Room meeting untimely ends. A Russian intelligence officer by the name of General Gusev died in a horrible car crash shortly after talking with a journalist about the supposed whereabouts of the Amber Room, and in 1987 an avid Amber Room hunter by the name of Georg Stein was viciously murdered in a Bavarian forest after spending years trying to track down its location. The murder has never been solved. Is this all just coincidence, or are there darker forces at work?

The Amber Room does exist presently, in a sense. In 1979, efforts to reconstruct the magnificent room were begun at Tsarskoye Selo. Over 25 years, the room was meticulously recreated in as much detail as was possible. Great efforts were made to duplicate the original using illustrations and old photographs of the room. Millions of dollars were spent, and Russian craftsmen spent decades working on the project until in 2003, when it was inaugurated at the Catherine Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Amber Room recreation in St. Petersburg

The inauguration marked the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg and was dedicated by none other than Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. The room is on display at the Tsarskoye Selo State Museum Reserve outside of St. Petersburg, but there is certainly something missing in the presentation. The recreation has been said to lack a certain grandeur and elegance that the original most certainly possessed. When looking upon the recreation, while indeed impressive, it is hard to imagine that it conjures up the same feelings of awe and beauty as the original must have once done.

For now, this recreation is all we have. Anyone who wishes to bask in the glory of the original has no other choice. But one still wonders. What became of one of the most beautiful and awe inspiring creations in human history? Does the answer lie somewhere out there? If it does, no on one has found it yet.