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

[MIKA27]

A Life-Size R2-D2 Mini Fridge That Can Actually Deliver Your Drinks

Jabba the Hutt realised that R2-D2 was better suited to serving drinks on his sail barge than being a sassy sidekick to C-3PO, and apparently Haier Asia’s AQUA brand agrees because come 2016 you’ll actually be able to buy this rechargeable remote control R2-D2 mini fridge that comes to you.

As Star Wars collectibles and merchandise go, this creation instantly tops that original rocket-firing Boba Fett figure when it comes to desirability. It’s not only a full-size and fully detailed R2-D2 complete with lights, sounds, and movement, it’s also a working fridge! And one that comes right to the couch you’re too lazy to climb out of to quench your thirst. This isn’t just a product for Star Wars collectors, this is genuine innovation for humanity.

Who cares if it only has enough capacity to hold only a dozen cans? And who cares if it’s yet another device you have to remember to charge every night? Those are tiny inconveniences when you consider you can finally buy your own astromech droid that actually does something useful. When was the last time you needed help with repairing your spaceship?

Pricing is still to be determined, which of course means the Artoo fridge will cost a small fortune when it’s finally available. But when has price ever stopped Star Wars fans from expanding their collections?

[MIKA27]

Californians Fear Quakes As Rare Oarfish Washes Ashore

Most people appreciate smoke alarms, weather radar images and other signs that a disaster may be imminent and it would be a good idea to head to safer ground. When seventeen feet worth of earthquake warning in the form of a dead oarfish washed upon the shore of South Catalina Island off the coast of Los Angeles this week, Californians got worried – especially since this is the second rare “messenger from the sea god’s palace” to be deposited on the island in 18 months. Is it time to listen?

Seventeen-foot oarfish that washed up on South Catalina on June 1

The Japanese say yes. The giant oarfish (Regalecus glesne) is known in Japanese folklore as “ryugu no tsukai” – a messenger from Ryūjin, the dragon god of the sea, bearing warnings that some shaking is about to go on.

And some shaking DID go on. The oarfish washed up on South Catalina Island on Monday, June 1. On Tuesday, June 2, the U.S. Geological Service reported an earthquake in the area with the center being just north of the oarfish. It was most likely caused by Santa Cruz-Catalina Ridge and Ferrelo Fault in the waters off of Southern California. You don’t need a dead oarfish to tell you that’s where South Catalina Island is located.

Coincidence? Tell that to the people who ignored 20 dead oarfish on beaches hit by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.

The off-shore faults run north up the California coast to Washington and beyond. That includes Oregon, where a number ofearthquakes were recorded in its coastal waters on June 1. Does that date ring a bell?

The 17-foot oarfish that washed up on June 1 was larger than the 10-footer from October 2013. Is this a bigger warning? Are we going to wait until a record-setting 50-footer shows up before we decide to heed the message? Don’t forget, scientists have said that the release of carbon monoxide by underwater earthquakes could be poisoning the huge fish and causing them to beach and die.

So why are the people in those pictures smiling?

[MIKA27]

MANCAN PERSONAL KEG SYSTEM

What would you rather have in your refrigerator: a growler or a brewery? If you’re the thirsty type, you’ll choose the brewery (without the 50 or so employees), and that’s why the ManCan is on our radar.

Able to hold a full gallon (nearly 11 bottles worth) of your favorite beer, this is a personal keg system you can take anywhere. Made with 304 stainless steel, the ManCan promises to be indestructible. It has a flexible tap system, it’s easy to clean, and your beer stays fresh for weeks. Just bring it to any brewery or growler filling station and then skip all the way home. If a gallon of beer sounds too intimidating for you (did you notice our eye roll?), you can buy the original ManCan 64 for 64 ounces of liquid refreshment instead of 128. Watch the video below. .[Purchase]

[MIKA27]

COLA MAISON

Cola and whiskey are a great combination, but dumping a bunch of high fructose corn syrup into your glass isn't the best way to mix a drink. Cola Maison Syrup is handcrafted in Quebec using all natural ingredients like Kola Nut, along with essential oils to help create a perfect complement to your favorite whiskey. One bottle serves about 25 drinks, from a Jack and Cola to your own signature cocktails.

[MIKA27]

US Air Force Uses 'Moronic' Selfie To Bomb ISIS Headquarters

Many of us know feeling of posting a regrettable pic or two online. But while your thoughtless photos might be an embarrassment, they (typically) aren’t offensive enough to merit a US Air Force strike. If you’re an terrorist, on the other hand, a wee bit more discretion is probably advised.

ISIS didn’t post **** pics, but in hindsight that might have been a better call for the Islamic State militants who instead allowed selfies taken in front of a secret headquarters to surface on their social media. The photos caught the attention of US Air Force Intelligence, who, 22 hours later, took the entire building out with three JDAM-equipped bombs.

General Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, described the Air Force’s successful use of social media intel to take out an ISIS target at a speech Monday in Arlington:

The [airmen are] combing through social media and they see some moron standing at this command. And in some social media, open forum, bragging about command and control capabilities for Da’esh, ISIL, And these guys go ‘ah, we got an in.’

So they do some work, long story short, about 22 hours later through that very building, three JDAMS take that entire building out. Through social media. It was a post on social media. Bombs on target in 22 hours.

It was incredible work, and incredible airmen doing this sort of thing.

ISIS is infamous for exploiting social media for recruitment purposes. According to Air Force Times and CNN, the organisation has a reach of about 200,000 viewers on Twitter and other sites, which has helped it recruit roughly 3400 Westerners.

But would-be Islamic State militants are not the only ones paying attention to what ISIS posts on the internet: The US Air Force is constantly combing the organisation’s social media for revealing photos exactly like the one in question.

Just remember: Once it’s on the internet, there’s no turning back.

[MIKA27]

The World's Biggest Aircraft Could Launch A New Age Of Airships

Airships lost much of their popularity after the fiery Hindenburg disaster in 1937. But one company’s looking to revive the technology with the biggest aircraft on Earth.

It’s called the Airlander 10: over 90m long, it’s a floating airship that’s 25 per cent bigger than a Boeing 747. It’s 37,945 cubic metres in volume, and can soar up to 6000m and move at 145km/h cruising speeds. It’s made by Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), a British company that wants to make quiet aircraft that also don’t pollute.

Like a blimp, the Airlander lacks internal structure but keeps its shape with a helium-filled hull made out of Vectran, a tough fibre spun from liquid crystal polymer that resists cuts and moisture. It can take off and land anywhere like a helicopter — no ground crew or additional infrastructure is needed.

So, besides size and speed, how’s this different from your run-of-the-mill Goodyear? Why go through all the effort to build something with a record-breaking size but is considered an antiquated vehicle? Because of its cargo-carrying potential.

The company says it can lug up to nine tonnes for 2400km. You could even argue that the Airlander 10 is really just a giant drone, because it can fly without a pilot. With humans aboard, the company says it stays afloat for five days, and if unmanned — over two weeks without any need to refuel. Those are features that could also open up possibilities of military surveillance.

Despite its lighter-than-air construction, the aircraft is still laded with useful tech, like a weather radar that helps the UAV dodge storms. According to CNN, the monster drifter could also be powered by solar panels in the future, and the company also says it burns 20 per cent less fuel than standard aeroplanes.

Incidentally, HAV originally planned to build it for the US Army (hence the UNITED STATES ARMY plastered on the vehicle in the vid below), but budget cuts kept it in the UK. The company later scored a $US5 million grant from the British government, and now the first flight tests are on deck for later this year.

I don’t think anyone’s arguing that airships could ever rival aeroplanes (hopefully we’ll have high-speed rail that will do that), but airships have also had other near-comebacks in the past too. Maybe it’s be to enlist some healthy scepticism, but we hope this inflatable fortress goes nowhere but up.

[MIKA27]

Extinction Looks Like It'll Be Smarter Than Your Average Zombie Flick

Zombie flicks tend to focus on the “during” part rather than “after” though exceptions do exist, including 28 Weeks Later and, er, Fido. Soon you can add Extinction to the list, a post-zombie apocalypse movie starring Lost’s Matthew Fox, where a small group of survivors used the inclement weather to “outlast” their undead aggressors.

Zombies are often treated as one-dimensional threats — no one really expects them to do much other than shamble along and devour the living. “Evolving” undead is an angle usually avoided by undead fiction, but Extinction wants to have a go, putting forward a scenario where zombies can adapt to their environment.

The movie follows Fox’s character of Patrick and a father-daughter pair in Jeffrey Donovan and Quinn McColgan, as the characters Jack and Lu respectively. Rather than run, the trio have survived in a small town for almost a decade, until it all goes south when the undead — stronger and more deadly than before — make a return.

The CG backgrounds in the trailer are a little unconvincing, but I like the way it transforms into a Night of the Living Dead situation, with a group of people stuck in a boarded-up house surrounded by zombies. It’d be a shame if it relied on jump-scares, without leveraging the psychological horror as Living Dead did.

It’s due out in the US on 31 July. Sadly, there’s no Australian release info. Still, it might be worth keeping an eye out for if you prefer more intelligent zombie films.

[MIKA27]

Watch The First Trailer For Ridley Scott's The Martian

The Martian is a movie that basically started life on Reddit, as a self-published novel by sci-fi writer Andy Weir about a manned mission to Mars that goes horribly wrong. It’s now a massive Hollywood blockbuster, and the first official trailer for the film is finally out.

The printed-word iteration of The Martian is interesting purely because it deals with the hard science of space travel and alien worlds extremely well — Weir has a background in computer science and is the son of a particle physicist, and spent the three years of writing the book mostly on maths calculations and scientific research. Here’s hoping that the movie respects that, and hopefully we’ll get a modern 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[MIKA27]

Bill Nye's Solar-Powered Space-Sailer Has Woken Up

For the last few weeks since its launch, the experimental LightSail satellite has been orbiting Earth, unable to make ground contact thanks to a software glitch. But earlier today, the spacecraft’s handlers successfully deployed the little craft’s gigantic sail.

Following the initial launch on May 20, LightSail went offline due to a software glitch. It spent eight days in silence, before dropping in and out of contact last week, with firm contact only re-established on Saturday. But with the batteries still charged, mission control was able to go forward with one of the main achievements for the experimental flight: deploying the tiny satellite’s huge solar sail.

LightSail is an experimental project, funded by The Planetary Society, a non-government organisation founded by Carl Sagan in 1980, currently boasting our planet’s very own Science Guy as CEO. LightSail is a project aimed at testing the technical and economic benefits of solar sails, which use sunlight to propel themselves through the vacuum of space.

The LightSail craft that’s currently in orbit is too low to allow for actual sailing, since the satellite will be caught in atmospheric drag. Instead, it’s meant to test things like deployment and communications, in preparation for a full mission next year.

Solar sail technology isn’t particularly new, having already been tested by the Americans and Japanese. What LightSail is promising, though, is low-budget space exploration. The LightSail craft is made up of CubeSats, tiny satellites weighing about three pounds each. LightSail has three of those, and a huge Mylar sail covering 344 square feet. That makes it cheap — $US4.5 million for the whole mission.

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NYC's Centuries-Old Dream Of Expanding Into The Hudson Is Coming True

The tiny, constricting footprint of Manhattan is one of the things that turned it into a real estate juggernaut. At the same time, developers and futurists have dreamt of permanently expanding the city into the water around it. And they’re still trying.

Today DNA Info brings us news that a plan to build a huge island in the Hudson River, connected to the southwestern edge of Manhattan by a walkway, was granted approval by the Hudson River Park Trust. You may remember the plan from a few months ago; the $US130 million project is being financed largely by Barry Diller and Diane von Furstenberg, will be devoted to “the arts,” and features acres of parkland and several performance spaces.

Now that it’s gained approval from the conservancy group devoted to the area, the plan will go on to seek approval from officials including the Army Corps of Engineers. However, it’s starting to look a lot more real — with new renderings from the design firm in charge of the project, Thomas Heatherwick, showing a lush, undulating landscape heaped with wildflowers, nooks, and a conspicuous lack of garbage.

Exactly how much land would this add to NYC’s footprint? Almost three acres — which is only a tiny fraction of Manhattan’s some 21,000 acres. But this project has plenty of precedent: Developers and engineers have worked to expand Manhattan’s western edge into the Hudson practically since the Dutch arrived.

For example, for a number of years in mid-1800s, there was even a 13th Avenue in the city, created by artificially infilling the Hudson. It didn’t last — only a few blocks remain of the faux-avenue today:

But filling in the mighty Hudson was just too lucrative of a plan to ignore.

In the 1930s, there was an engineer named Norman Sper who wrote excitedly of his proposal to pave over the entirety of the river and infill it with a layer cake of roads, train tunnels, and valuable real estate.

Just 12 years later, in a LIFE article, the businessman and real estate tycoon William Zeckendorf proposed a new airport for the city — situated, yep, right on the Hudson. The airport would stretch a full 144 blocks,according to Untapped Cities, and its runways would actually sit on top of the building itself.

And then, of course, there are the successful infill projects — the ones that are far less memorable, perhaps, because they’re now simply part of the city’s grid.

Battery Park City, for example, expanded a huge chunk of the city about .2 miles out into the River — using land that was excavated from the digging of the World Trade Center’s foundation.

As far as infill plans go, Diller’s seems pretty innocuous. Still, it’s interesting to realise that the construction technology that’s going into its development has remained pretty similar since the Dutch first started infilling chunks of the river with stones and refuse to create piers in the 17th century — and that, in the end, the motives behind expanding the footprint remain roughly the same as they were 300 years ago.

[MIKA27]

The Joan of Arc Nobody Knows

A new biography charts Joan’s bloody path to sainthood, revealing her bravery but also her hit-or-miss military skills, her competitiveness, and her love of luxury.

“How foolish were all those lesser men who have risked death to fight a war so easily forgotten by the great.”

There is no quote that perhaps sums up the reader’s emotions after devouring historian Helen Castor’s newest bloody book, Joan of Arc: A History, which tackles the popular saint’s role in the Hundred Years’ War. Castor’s account is filled with gruesome murders, even more gruesome accidents, and layers of intrigue that make Game of Thrones look like child’s play.

Joan of Arc has long been a troublesome figure for historians. Existing documentation of her life and her trial for heresy is unreliable in many ways. There is the issue of language, as her French was translated into a lawyer’s Latin. Then there are the contradictions between her heresy trial in 1431 at Rouen in English Normandy, and her retrial in 1456 after her death once the Armagnac king had seized most of France.

Despite those challenges, what is so enjoyable about Castor’s book is that she unfolds Joan’s story in a largely straightforward, albeit skeptical, manner, but places it within two larger framing devices.

The first is that of religion and the fervent belief in divine intervention in the world of man. Many today may scoff when politicians claim God told them to run, but in the 15th century people believed that God really did determine who ruled. The second frame contrasts Joan’s simplistic mindset (just attack every city opposing you) against the incredibly chaotic system of political allegiances, honor codes, and dynastic entanglements besetting Europe during the Hundred Years’ War.

The book begins with the Battle of Agincourt, the 1415 English victory against greater French odds. The battle largely sets the agenda for the story prior to Joan’s arrival on the scene—bloody events in which the French usually wound up embarrassing themselves.

Agincourt mattered greatly, Castor claims, because for the English, “their king’s claim to the throne of France … had been utterly, gloriously vindicated by his astonishing victory.” Castor splendidly demonstrates that contrary to our contemporary assumption that this was a legitimate French struggle against English usurpers, many at that time felt differently. Much of the French population under English control, most notably Paris, supported the English claim to the throne.

Belief in divine will was not unique to the English. Charles VII, the French dauphin (heir apparent), was in La Rochelle in 1422 when the great hall of the palace collapsed. “Amid the choking dust and splintered debris,” writes Castor, “many died and more were badly hurt—but, apart from a few scratches, the dauphin was miraculously unharmed.” As this coincided with news of his father’s death, “the divine purpose for which he had been saved became clear.”

Into this world colored by such talk of providence came Joan, a peasant girl who fed right into one of these divine interpretations, and directly opposing the other. While women claiming visions from God may seem odd today, Joan was far from unique in that regard. Just a few decades earlier, for instance, a French woman named Ermine became notorious for her visions of angels and demons. In fact, once Joan herself achieved what we can only call stardom, she found herself swatting away other would-be female visionaries.

What made Joan unique, in Castor’s eyes, is that she tied her visions directly to the idea of Charles’s divine right to rule, and her holy mission involved her in military action. Unpacking Joan’s story, Castor straddles two points of view. The first is that Joan was a singular figure who accomplished remarkable things for a peasant girl. She survived intense scrutiny physically (a queen and a duchess both examined her to see if she was still a virgin) and mentally (by going before the eminent theologians of France, twice). She did in fact achieve success on the battlefield, most notably with the lifting of the siege on Orléans.

Castor writes sympathetically of how Joan must have endured the constant threat of sexual violence. And she notes that in the end, as Joan burned alive, she was heard to call out Christ’s name, and “her lips moved in restless, ceaseless prayer.”

However, Castor also notes that success seems to have gone to Joan’s head. The peasant girl came to enjoy the finer things, including fur cloaks and wine. She was dismissive of others like her, and had little subtlety as a military strategist. And despite her orders from God, she did lose—at Paris, La Charité, and Compiègne, where she was captured.

Ironically, Castor seems more enamored with the other women who made their mark on this era. It was Yolande of Aragon, mother-in-law of Charles VII, who recognized the role Joan could play and financed her army, Yolande who set up Charles’s court in Bourges after he escaped from Paris, and Yolande who cagily capitalized on English squabbling to lure disaffected nobility to her son-in-law’s side. Castor also singles out Anne of Burgundy, sister of one of the era’s more wily players, Philip the Good, and wife of the Duke of Bedford, who oversaw English operations in France. It was Anne who largely kept the Duke of Burgundy on the English side, and in Castor’s view Anne’s early death was a major factor in the undoing of allegiances that had held the English kingdom together.

If the book is a whirlwind of names and alliances, it is never dull, thanks to Castor’s knack for weaving in salacious bits, usually involving a particularly unfortunate death. There is, for instance, the chilling murder of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, on a bridge during a parley. The earl of Salisbury had the fatal misfortune of surveying Orléans from a watchtower when it was struck by a cannonball. When he was found, “he was still breathing; but, where one side of his face had been, there was only a gaping, bloody hole. He died eight days later.”

Then there is the genuinely weird stuff: Henry V sent a rider 60 miles to obtain the foreskin of Jesus Christ, which would protect Henry’s wife in childbirth.

Nevertheless, the major players and the countless other men and women who fought or starved or died during this bloody time have not enjoyed anything like the fame that clung to Joan down through the centuries. Due in large part to the city she saved, Orléans, and to the industry of a nobleman (Gilles de Rais, later hanged for sexually assaulting and murdering more than 100 children) who was obsessed with her story, Joan’s legend thrived. Her heresy trial conducted under an English crown would be reopened under a French one, and then thrown out. In the end, her story was just too appealing to too many people to be ignored. It may have taken five hundred years, but eventually, inevitably, the same Catholic Church that branded her a heretic made her one of its more recognizable saints in 1920.

[MIKA27]

ROCCBOX WOOD FIRED OVEN

The Great BBQ Wars of 2015 have begun, where fork-armed men compete to see who can win the most “Mmm, that smells good”s from their neighbors. You ready to see your secret weapon this year? Surprisngly, it involves pizza.

With the Roccbox, we’re guessing the Joneses will have a hard time keeping up, as this compact (16.3 x 18.6 x 20.9 mm) stone oven can bake a 12-inch pie in as little as 90 seconds. There’s a compartment in the back that can be filled with either gas or wood for fuel, and at 44 lbs. it’s certainly capable of making the trip on your next adventure too. Notable features include integrated thermometers for monitoring temperature, a sturdy weatherproof construction, and a heat-up time of just 15 minutes. Pop in a pizza, a roast, or whatever else gets you drooling. You can pre-order the Roccbox now for $535. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

SALT X AETHER EYEWEAR

Southern-California based brands Aether Apparel and luxury eyewear makers SALT, have teamed up for an exclusive collaboration on a limited-edition line of sunglasses. Both brands have an intense passion for the outdoors, and the collection itself is designed for those drawn to adventure. Two models are available, the Scout, and the Explorer, both motorcycle-inspired styles that feature lightweight, beta-titanium frames, nearly unbreakable temples and titanium nose pads help keep the glasses in place. Both models also feature windshields and an extended frame-top, to reduce air flow and peripheral sunlight.

[MIKA27]

AVERY LILIKOI KEPOLO BEER

A cold, refreshing Witbier is tough to beat on a hot summer day, unless of course you're tipping back a Lilikoi Kepolo from Avery Brewing. Lilikoi is a Witbier, but has loads of passionfruit added to the brew, giving it a unique aroma and flavor. The passionfruit takes it from a simple refresher to a special treat, with subtle tartness and the amazing ability to transport you to a tropical place instantaneously.

[MIKA27]

BIB & TUCKER BOURBON

Choosing the best looking bottle on the shelf without any other knowledge of what it contains, won't typically yield good results. However, Bib & Tucker Small Batch Bourbon is an eye pleasing example that looks as good on your bar as it tastes in your glass. Named after an old expression describing your best looking attire, Bib & Tucker is a six year old bourbon distilled in small batches and bottled at 92 proof by 35 Maple Street Spirits. Finally, a liquor store gamble that truly pays off.

[MIKA27]

Japan Plans To Explore Martian Moons With Asteroid-Probing Tech

Countries are scrambling to get to Mars in a good ol’ fashioned space race. But focus might be shifting to the red planet’s two moons. According to reports, Japan announced plans yesterday to bring its asteroid-probing technology to the tiny Martian satellites.

JAXA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, says it wants to scope out Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two moons, as early as 2022. It will nab samples that will tell us about Martian history and help us prepare for future manned missions to the planet itself. JAXA plans to build upon the tech it used with its history-making Hayabusa probe. In 2010, Hayabusa became the first probe ever to land on asteroids, collect dust samples, and ship ‘em back to Earth.

JAXA’s announcement comes at a time in which Phobos and Deimos are budding celestial celebrities. Last week, Space.com reported NASA’s conceptual plan to build a base on the ten-mile-wide Phobos that could allow for easier, cheaper, less risky human access to Mars. Back in 2011, Russia had its own plans to reach Phobos, but failed.

Hayabusa-like asteroid-combing technology could prove useful in finding out more about the two moons’ origins, as well. They’re small and kinda lumpy, and resemble asteroids more than moons. This leads some scientists to think Phobos and Deimos were pulled into Mars’ orbit from the asteroid belt.

P.S. “Phobos” means “fear” and “Deimos” means “panic”, which aren’t great omens — but the moons’ role in human space exploration seems to be becoming more key.

[MIKA27]

The New SPECTRE Teaser Trailer Is Out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkn3i4QDlAU

Bond is back. Again. The original SPECTRE trailer gave us our first look at the new MI6, new Moneypenny, new M, and a new Aston Martin DB10. There’s a second, slightly shorter teaser out, and it’s only getting us more excited for the movie’s November release.

This one-minute spot played during the third game of the NBA Finals in the US, and it’s standard Bond fare — cars on fire, people getting punched in the face, cool sunglasses, and regular spy stuff. Enjoy!

[MIKA27]

‘Hacksaw’ Fugitive Charmed Guards With Oprah Portraits and Sweet Talk

The killer who escaped a New York prison had a grisly nickname behind bars but was known as a “fantastic artist” who understood women.

Inmates and prison guards called him “Hacksaw”—a savage nom de ghoulinspired by the weapon he used to butcher his elderly boss almost two decades ago. But Richard W. Matt had a soft side, too: drawing Oprah.

“Matt was a fantastic artist,” a longtime supervisor told The Daily Beast of the ex-con, who—along with his sidekick, convicted murderer David Sweat—has been on the run since late Friday after escaping from Clinton Correctional Facility in northern New York.

Officials say the violent criminals couldn’t have pulled off their escape alone. They named female prison worker Joyce Mitchell, 51, as a possible collaborator in the elaborate bust. Mitchell has worked as an industrial training supervisor at the prison’s garment depot for eight years.

Investigators told CNN that Mitchell might have been the prisoners’ planned getaway driver but had a change of heart at the last minute. Instead of spiriting the fugitives away, she had a panic attack and gunned it to the hospital, sources said. Mitchell’s cellphone was used to dial several people connected to Matt, but it’s unclear whether she knew her device was being used.

On Tuesday, police swarmed the town of Willsboro, some 40 miles south of the clink, as the harrowing manhunt for the murderers entered a fourth day. Officials were chasing a tip from a citizen who spotted two suspicious men on a rural road during a rainstorm late Monday. When the tipster’s car approached the men, the two fled into nearby farm fields, authorities said.

“They were walking down the road, not dressed for the elements,” said Willsboro Town Supervisor Shaun Gillilland. “They ran into the fields, from what I understand. So this behavior... was suspicious.”

Meanwhile, two Dannemora residents told ABC News they were “lucky to be alive” after glimpsing the cold-blooded killers—one toting a guitar case—in their backyard around 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The residents said they confronted the duo, and one of the men responded: “We’re just lost. We don’t know where we are. We’re on the wrong street.”

For years, Matt and Sweat punched in as garment factory workers alongside 50 other “honor block” inmates, who, for up to 65 cents an hour, sewed and stitched prison undergarments, shirts, trousers, and an ensemble of utility clothing for the prison in Dannemora. The jailhouse atelier also exported its wares to other prisons and state agencies, including the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

But Matt, 49, didn’t just show off his sewing skills. Inspired by portraits of Oprah Winfrey, he began crafting his own pencil drawings of the television icon. “He drew people pictures; he did a portfolio on Oprah and it was really, really good,” the supervisor, who requested anonymity, remembered fondly.

Matt’s supervisor purposely kept herself insulated from the crimes committed by the rapists and murdering inmates at Clinton. Finally, she found out about Matt. “His nickname by everybody was ‘Hacksaw,’ and that’s how come I talked to the guards about him,” she said.

“I knew that was Matt’s nickname,” she said. “I was curious for a long time. ‘Why do they call him Hacksaw?’ And now I know, thank you.”

Matt disregarded prison protocol when he decided to show his sketches to staffers. “He brought them over to show the corrections officers,” the source said. “He wasn’t supposed to bring them over.”

The Oprah art peddling would be the least of the prison’s worries. The charismatic killer pulled off his third escape attempt last weekend by using power tools to drill through cell walls and make a getaway through a maze of tunnels to a manhole outside. For his jailers, he left a note with a crude Asian caricature that said, “Have a nice day.”

When the former supervisor learned of the escape, she was flummoxed. Matt and his lunch buddy Sweat—who was serving a life sentence for killing a sheriff’s deputy—were once under her watch.

“Matt had his art, and I know that he was a good worker and he came every day,” she said. “He would not be one that I would think would do anything like this.”

The insider said that while Sweat worked in “a little cage” and cake-walked through the day with “plenty of downtime,” Matt kept busy affixing pants pockets or stitching the hems of T-shirts.

Civilian staffers were warned through 40 hours of annual training not to be fooled by the crafty convicts, she said.

“You have to be on your guard all the time,” the source said, adding that the inmates “do read lips, so you have to be very careful about what you say when you talk to your correctional officers. They hear things.”

The inmates have incredible powers of persuasion. “They’re very respectful and know how to treat you like a woman wants to be treated,” she said.

Sometimes the rapport crosses into dangerous territory, and the moves by the inmates have been put on so thick that romantic encounters result. “At the factory it happened a couple of times,” the supervisor said. “The worker, she was let go and the inmate was moved out of that facility.”

Such honeyed words may have lured in Joyce Mitchell, who previously worked on an assembly line making slippers until her factory outsourced jobs abroad. That’s when she followed a seamstress colleague over to Clinton Correctional.

On Saturday, Mitchell checked herself into the hospital for “a case of nerves,” officials revealed.

Her son, Tobey Mitchell, claimed there’s no way his mother could be involved with the criminals’ escape plan.

“She’s not going to risk her life or other people’s lives to help these guys escape,” the 21-year-old told NBC News.

The son said he hadn’t spoken to his mother or dad, Lyle Mitchell, who also works at Clinton Correctional Facility, since Saturday.

Tobey Mitchell said that as far as he knew, Joyce Mitchell was hospitalized for chest pain. “She’s very nervous, she’s a very nervous person,” he added. “The truth will come out.”

Harebrained hoodlums, some of them factory workers like Matt and Sweat, have made failed attempts to escape the prison in the past. “To be honest with you, there’s others that have tried it,” the former supervisor said. “They tried making a ladder out of the belt looping on the pants and tried going over the wall.”

Others even attempted to weave rope out of dental floss. “Their ingenuity is there,” she mused.

One retired corrections officer told The Daily Beast that inmates would work in the garment the shop until 8 or 9 p.m. Industrial supervisors like Mitchell train prisoners, as a corrections officer stands guard nearby.

“If you see a civilian [being] a little too chatty with an inmate, you pull them aside and say, ‘These people—they’re not our friends. They’re here to do their time,’” the retired officer said.

“But sometimes it falls on deaf ears,” he added. “Some of them have a spot in their hearts for them.”

The insider also said noise from constant construction at the crumbling 150-year-old prison creates the perfect conditions for an escape.

“It’s amazing it hasn’t happened before now,” the former guard said.

[MIKA27]

Madness Stones to New Age Medicine: A History of Drilling Holes in Our Heads

Modern neuroscience is so famously and fascinatingly complex that it has inspired its own idioms—“it’s not brain surgery,” for example. This phrase plays off the idea that neurosurgery requires extremely sharp wits and manual dexterity.

This connotation makes sense from our 21st century vantage point, given that exotic concepts like brain implants, neural probes, and thought-enhancing smart drugs are casually bandied about in scientific circles.

But you only need to look back a few centuries before realizing that brain surgeons weren’t always so sophisticated and precise on the operating table. In fact, for millennia, the most advanced neurosurgical technique available was straight-up drilling into a patient’s head, which was seen as a solution to all kinds of mental problems.

This practice is known as trepanation, and according to neuroscientist Charles G. Gross, it is the oldest known surgical procedure, dating back at least 8,000 years. Trepanning also appears to have been an unusually expansive, cross-cultural technique, practiced by ancient peoples ranging from Mesoamerica to Europe to Asia.

We know this because trepanned skulls have been recovered from a variety of burial sites around the world. These wounds are distinguished from other head traumas by their shape, position on the skull, and post-trauma evidence of re-healing.

A Neolithic trepanned skull

It’s difficult to speculate on what kind of role trepanation played in these preliterate societies, though its sheer ubiquity suggests the procedure was employed in response to a wide variety of different ailments. In addition to treating traumatic head wounds and mental illnesses, archeologists and historians have suggested that may also have been conducted for religious purposes, such as exorcising demons from a supposedly possessed mind.

The tools used in these early operations ran the gamut from sharp pointed rocks to carved obsidian blades. With the advent of metalworking in the Bronze Age, fine-tuned saws and scalpels were used instead, while some cultures developed a technique of scraping down the skull with glass.

But despite these diverse archeological roots, it wasn’t until around 400 BCE, when Hippocrates compiled the treatise On Wounds of the Head, that trepanation was first addressed with any level of detail in writing. Even then, the account is somewhat garbled.

“[Hippocrates] could not explain clearly, in the pathological terms used in his time, why routine early trepanning was beneficial,” said neurosurgeon Graham Martin in the Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.

A 1525 engraving of trepanation

“His technique was hesitant, suggesting he himself had never done the routine early trepanning he advocated, and he had not yet realised that his policy would be unacceptable to most Greek patients,” Martin continued. “It is suggested that he might have learnt trepanning on a brief trip to Marseilles, where the Gauls had already trepanned for 1,500 years.”

Inexperienced though he may have been, Hippocrates certainly understood the need for precision in brain surgery, and advocated proceeding with trepanation only with the utmost care. Furthermore, his treatise cemented the idea that boring a hole in a patient’s head was the best way to relieve pent-up pressure caused by blood, madness, demons, or whatever else a physician diagnosed as the underlying problem of an ailment.

A 13th century depiction of trepanation

There are some exceptions to that rule, however. For example, trepanation was widely practised in Mesoamerica as a therapeutic treatment for headaches, and other brain diseases. But it may also have involved a ritual element as well. It was so popular in the pre-Columbian Zapotec settlement of Monte Albán, for example, that patients occasionally got the procedure done multiple times, as if they were casually filling up a cranial punchcard.

Serially trepanated skull from Monte Albán

We don’t know why these people had their heads repeatedly punctured, or even if it was voluntary. Perhaps Monte Albán was home to a mad scientist who was experimenting with novel brain surgeries, or perhaps these holes are the fallout of initiation rites, or indications of rank or status. With only archeological artifacts to guide us, it’s difficult to root out the underlying reasons for such invasive operations.

Fortunately, by the time the 15th century rolled around, trepanation was scrupulously documented by many Renaissance painters in Europe, whose work exposes all kinds of bizarre beliefs about the procedure’s ability to supernaturally cure mental problems.

For example, some physicians at this time believed that neurological and psychological conditions were caused by a magical “stone of madness” or “stone of folly” that needed to be extracted from the patient’s brain before it corrupted the entire organ.

This weird theory inspired some incredible fine art depictions of trepanation, epitomized by Hieronymus Bosch’s fantastically bizarre painting “The Extraction of the Stone of Madness.”

“The Extraction of the Stone of Madness,” c. 1488-1516

Though this notion of an implanted stone of madness turned out to be a brief fad in trepanation’s history, the diversity of paintings inspired by it suggests that the theory definitely captured the public imagination.

“A Surgeon Extracting the Stone of Folly

Fortunately, neurosurgery has matured a lot since the Renaissance, and accordingly, trepanation has been edged out by less hamfisted methods. It is still occasionally used by neurosurgeons as an emergency treatment for hemorrhages, but in this context, it is usually called a craniotomy—a rebrand that distinguishes the traditional burr-hole procedure from its variant in modern medicine.

Interestingly enough, however, trepanation hasn’t been excised from public culture, despite the fact that doctors have largely phased it out of practice. Since the mid-20th century, there has been a steady rise in self-inflicted trepanations, inspired partly by a Dutch librarian named Bart Huges, who drilled a hole into his head with a dental toolon January 9, 1965. He claimed the process was painless.

Huges trepanning himself

Huges was a big advocate of using mind-altering psychedelics to expand one’s consciousness, and he believed that trepanation was basically a one-way ticket to a perma-high. It should come as no surprise that he handcrafted a codex-style scrollcalled “Homo Sapiens Correctus,” in which he argued that trepanation increased the brain’s circulatory metabolism, thus curing depression and other psychological conditions.

Huges cultivated a small number of skull-drilling disciples, including filmmaker Amanda Feilding (Huges and Feilding were also romantically involved for a while). Feilding documented her own self-performed trepanation in her 1970 film “Heartbeat in the Brain,” and she later ran for Parliament on a pro-trepanation platform (where do the current primary candidates stand on that issue?).

Excerpt from the documentary “A Hole in the Head” about self-performed trepanation

She also performed the surgery on her long-time partner Joey Mellen, with whom, I feel it is important to mention, she has two sons named Rock Basil and Cosmo Birdie.

“[Trepanation] is still a hypothesis, one which isn't provable at the moment because I don’t think we have the instrumentation to fully investigate it yet,” Feilding told Joseph Cox. “The research we did on trepanation, which was only done on about 15 people, is not nearly enough to make any concrete scientific claims. We need more research with more people.”

[MIKA27]

HEISENBERG BLUE ICE VODKA

Hard to believe that Breaking Bad ended almost 2 years ago, but the almighty Heisenberg lives on through his own line of vodka.

Looking to cash in on one of, if not the greatest television show to ever hit the small screen, 21st Century Spirits has teamed up with Sony Pictures Television to release Heisenberg Blue Ice Vodka. More than just a gimmick, this is actually some really good vodka. In fact Blue Ice recently won a gold medal at the 2014 San Francisco Spirits Competition, so we’re sure the drug kingpin would be proud of his name and silhouette appearing on the bottle. The spirit has just begun hitting shelves here in California, with planned rollouts for the rest of the country coming later this year. Check out the official commercial for the limited edition vodka below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6I09CSttDCY

[MIKA27]

MERIWETHER TENT

The Meriwether Tent, by suppliers of luxury outdoor goods Shelter Co. is the canvas-covered palace of every glamper’s dream. Measuring 16 feet in diameter and standing 9.5 feet tall at the center, the teepee-style tent is large enough to sleep 4-6 adults comfortably. It is made with a fully attached waterproof vinyl ground sheet (available in three colorways) and a water resistant canvas upper to keep guests protected from the elements. It also offers guests plenty of ventilation during those hot summer nights, trough the front screen door as well as 4 closable sidewall screen windows and 3 screened vents at the apex. After use, it all packs nicely into an included duffle bag.

You can pick one up for a special price of $999 (until 13Th June) at Touch of Modern

[MIKA27]

SRIRACHA BACON JERKY

Jerky is good. Bacon is good. Sriracha is good. All three together? Portable snacking bliss. Sriracha Bacon Jerky combines this man-food pyramid in each delicious bite. It's made by hand in small batches using all-natural bacon that gets marinated in sriracha glaze, then cooked in a jerky oven to come out with just the right texture and chewiness. Available in 2 oz. pouches that you can order individually or set to have delivered every 15, 30, 45, or 60 days — not that we'd recommend waiting that long.

[MIKA27]

This 45-Minute Blade Runner Cut Is Made Of Footage Not In The Final Film

There are already multiple official versions of Ridley Scott’s classic film Blade Runner, but YouTuber Uchuu Daisakusen managed to make a completely different cut using just the B-roll from the film and takes that ended up on the cutting room floor. Check out their 45-minute version of Rick Deckard’s journey.

No, it’s not as grand as the official Blade Runner cuts and it relies heavily on voiceover to string the visuals together, but it’s neat to see this alternate universe take on the film and what this version suggests about the nature of Deckard himself.

[MIKA27]

The Oldest Bridge In New York City Just Reopened After 40 Years

Before the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg Bridges, there was High Bridge, arcing far above the Harlem River to connect Manhattan to the Bronx. Originally designed as an aqueduct in 1848, the bridge was closed for the past 40 years until a ribbon-cutting yesterday reopened it to foot traffic.

The longest-standing bridge in New York City was gated in the 1960s due to a lack of funds to maintain it. Over the past few years, as part of Michael Bloomberg’s efforts to revitalise several city parks, a $US61 million restoration made structural improvements to the bridge, repaired the antique iron railing, and added safety fencing. Animal NY captured some drone footage which hints at the dramatic views afforded from the 123-foot-high span.

In addition to preserving a critical moment in New York City’s history — these pipes of water, after all, are what allowed the tiny city to grow — High Bridge reinstates an important pedestrian connection between two New York boroughs. Those who wished to walk between Manhattan and the Bronx had to go far out of the way along busy bridges designed for vehicles or take a convoluted subway route. Just in time for summer, High Bridge now gives Bronx residents easy access to a large park in Washington Heights with a pool.

It’s kind of a perfect twist on the repurposed piece of infrastructure that once delivered fresh water to New Yorkers — it’s now delivering New Yorkers to aquatic refreshment.

[MIKA27]

The LA Dodgers Got Its Name From Brooklyn's Deadly Streetcars

Most people know that the blue-hatted Los Angeles Dodgers were once the Brooklyn Dodgers. But while you may have assumed that the “Dodgers” moniker referred to avoiding a tag or stealing a base, the true story is more complicated. That’s because the Brooklyn Dodgers were once the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers — and those trolleys were deadly.

But before we get into the etymology of “Dem Bums” from Brooklyn, it’s useful to review a little bit of baseball history. It all started in the mid-19th century, when baseball was not yet a national pastime. It was a leisure activity and, initially, a way to build community and camaraderie in a country full of immigrants.

In many ways, New York City had become an epicentre of baseball fervour after the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York played the first full game against the New York Nine in 1845. (The New York Nine won 22-1.) The game’s popularity spread across the country, of course, but teams formed in other boroughs, including Brooklyn. In fact, the Atlantic Base Ball Club of Brooklyn won the very first national championship in 1857 and dominated the game for years to follow.

Here’s a fantastic photograph of the Brooklyn Atlantics, “champions of America,” in 1865:

Building on a tradition of success, real estate magnate Charles Byrne formed another baseball team in 1883: the Brooklyn Grays. At this point in baseball history, teams were largely known by their colours, and it was up to the newspaper writers to come up with their names. The Brooklyn Grays became the Brooklyn Bridegrooms in 1888, for instance, because six members of the team got married during the season. A few years later, however, another name started appearing in the press: the Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers.

There’s a bit of confusion surrounding the exact origins of the name “Trolley Dodgers”. As one sports history blog explains, the team moved in 1891 to Eastern Park which was surrounded by horse-drawn trolley lines. These slow-moving cars didn’t really require dodging, though. It wasn’t until the 1890s, when the Brooklyn Rapid Transit started to replace the rickety old trolleys. These fast-moving trolley cars were powered by a new-fangled thing called electricity.

This is where the story gets dark. In the late 19th-century, Americans weren’t accustomed to fast-moving vehicles running down city streets. Brooklyn was actually the second city in America to get an electric trolley line. As such, pedestrians hadn’t learned the habit of looking both ways when crossing the street. After all, if you stepped out in front of a horse, the horse would typically just stop in its tracks. An electric trolley car, however, would plough right over you.

Nevertheless, the speedier electric technology prevailed, and before long Brooklyn was completely covered in streetcar lines. The death toll from trolleys hitting pedestrians quickly rose. In the first year, 1892, five people died after being hit by trolleys. The Evening World reported that year:

[A] new precaution is necessary for the suffering Brooklynite. In addition to being always prepared to dodge the trolley wire, he must always be careful to step clear of the trolley rail.

There were 51 deaths in 1893 and 34 in 1894. By the time 1895 rolled around, Brooklyn had earned itself a reputation, and the newspaper writers across the country bestowed a new title on the city’s baseball team. The first use of the team name Trolley Dodgers actually popped up in print over a hundred miles away from Brooklyn. From The Scranton Tribune on May 11, 1865:

The “Rainmakers” and the “Trolley Dodgers” are the latest terms used by base ball writers to designate the Phillies and Brooklyns respectively.

The name stuck. Soon many newspapers were referring to Brooklyn’s baseball team as the Trolley Dodgers. One magazine called it a “playful descriptive term,” though some might think it somewhat derisive towards Brooklynites. Inevitably, however, the city — which became a borough of New York City in 1897 — embraced the term.

Over time, the Trolley Dodger moniker was shortened to Dodgers. The baseball club officially acknowledged the nickname in 1933, when it put “Dodgers” on its jerseys. Five years later, the now familiar Dodgers script appeared. It’s the same script that Jackie Robinson wore when he became the first African-American player in the major leagues in 1947. In 1958, the Dodgers moved West, but the Los Angeles Dodgers kept the name, as well as the same iconic logo.

In the years that followed, trolley cars disappeared from the streets of Brooklyn and Los Angeles. But the legend lives on as a lasting memory of how technology and city culture collide, sometimes to a deadly degree.