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

[MIKA27]

ALACRAN MEZCAL

Handmade in Oaxaca, Mexico, Alacran Mezcal is not only a complex, sought after drink, but it also scores points for its beautiful glass bottle with white matte coating. The spirit itself — made from the maguey plant — packs a smoky flavor expected with a Mezcal, but adds a complexity that makes it just as welcome sipped neat as it is in a cocktail.

[MIKA27]

The Biggest Danger From America's Historic Wildfire Season

Wildfires are tearing across Alaska and western Canada at a record-breaking rate this summer. But stands of blackened trees and cross-continental plumes of smoke are only the most visible signs of damage from the 300 or more fires currently raging. The biggest concern may be what’s happening below ground.

Globally, soils contain more carbon than aboveground vegetation and the atmosphere combined. In warmer parts of the world, soil microorganisms chew through dead plants and animals very quickly, cycling their organic carbon back to the atmosphere as CO2. But in the boreal forests, peatlands and tundra that stretch across our planet’s high latitudes, long winters and short growing seasons slow microbial decomposition, allowing carbon-rich organic matter to accumulate. That’s why, even though boreal forests cover a slightly smaller area than tropical forests, they sequester nearly three times as much carbon in their soils.

UNEP WCMC global soil carbon estimates to a depth of 1 meter, in tonnes / ha. Darker regions indicate larger carbon stocks. Image via European soil portal.

Unfortunately, much of that centuries-old carbon is now going up in smoke, in what could represent a major new source of heat-trapping CO2 to our planet’s atmosphere. As Climate Central explains, while the prevailing dogma used to be that carbon-rich peatlands simply didn’t burn, shifting weather patterns and unprecedented drought are quickly changing that:

As warming dries out forests and precipitation patterns change, the water table is dropping in once swampy areas. That makes peat susceptible to burning and when it does catch fire, centuries’ worth of carbon can burn up in the span of a few hours if fires are intense enough. Peat fires are also notoriously resilient, smouldering for days, weeks or even popping up again after a winter of smouldering beneath the surface.

Measuring soil carbon stocks and fluxes is a labour-intensive business, and it will be a while before scientists have good handle on exactly how much carbon this summer’s fires blew skyward. But with bad wildfire seasons like this one becoming the new normal, and soil carbon stocks taking decades to centuries to rebuild, the outlook for one of our planet’s most important natural carbon sinks is looking pretty grim.

[MIKA27]

There Will Never Be Anything More Relaxing Than A Hot Tub Hammock

Think of the most comfortable, most relaxing place you’ve ever been. No matter where on earth that might have been, it can’t even begin to compare to how relaxing the Hydro Hammock must be. People love lounging in hammocks, and people love soaking in hot tubs, and finally the two have become one.

Available in both single and double occupant versions, the Hydro Hammock is made from watertight and extremely resilient synthetic fabric that’s designed to hold the weight of 190 litres of water plus two adults. So you’ll need to find a pair of extremely large and strong trees to string it up between, or someplace with a set of anchors that can hold all that weight.

The creators of the Hydro Hammock have turned to Kickstarter to help fund its production with a crowdfunding campaign that’s trying to raise $US50,000. So there’s the usual risks of backing a crowdfunded product to take into account here, but also a fairly hefty price tag.

You can pre-order the single or double capacity Hydro Hammocks with a donation of $US260 and $US390, respectively, but that only gets you the fabric sling you can fill with water. If you also want the luxury of turning it into a hot tub with warm bubbling water, you’ll need to donate an additional $US920 for the portable water heater, pump, and other required hardware. So all-in-all you’re looking at about $US1200 to realise the joys of your very own hot tub hammock. It might not be so relaxing if you’re worried about blowing your budget, but if you can afford it, you may never feel stressed ever again.

[NCPANTHERZFAN]

GLOBECRUISER MOTOR HOME

Action Mobil are specialists in building expedition vehicles, their highlight is the spectacular Globecruiser, a 4x4 top-class world touring vehicle, and the recently released Global XRS 7200, an extreme all-terrain expedition vehicle powered by a mind blowing 720-hp engine cranking its six wheels. The ultra-rugged motor homes bring comfort and style to your adventures, they feature an unique layout that provides separate areas for lounging and sleeping, and offer an exclusive, homely atmosphere, with Hi-Tech interiors.

I need this for when the Zombie Apocolypse comes!

[avaldes]

I need that just because! That is one bad ass RV:)

[MIKA27]

I need this for when the Zombie Apocolypse comes!

You and me both mate!!

[MIKA27]

I need that just because! That is one bad ass RV:)

Probably a bad ass price tag to match!

[MIKA27]

This Is What The New Ghostbusters Will Drive

If you weren’t already excited about seeing the Ghostbusters’ new proton packs and jumpsuits, director Paul Feig is now offering a sneak peek at the iconic Ecto-1 vehicle. Like its predecessor, it’s a vintage Cadillac. Somewhat unlike the original Ecto-1, however, this new car is undeniably a hearse.

As he’s done with past leaks, Feig tweeted an image of the Ghostbusters 3 paraphernalia in a clear attempt to stir up some intrigue about how he’s resurrecting the classic ’80s franchise. Somewhat appropriately, the new Ecto-1 appears to be a 1980 Cadillac Sovereign Regal, a model that’s actually descendent from the 1959 Cadillac Miller Meteor Combination End Loaders that were used in the first two movies. However, that model was actually used as both an ambulance and a hearse. The original Ecto-1 was, in fact, an old ambulance that was converted into the now legendary design.

All that said, the darker connotation of the new Ecto-1 is appropriate. It actually falls more in line with Dan Ackroyd’s original design which featured an all-black chassis with white-and-purple lights. The original Ghostbusters cinematographer eventually vetoed that colour scheme since so much of the movie was filmed at night and it wouldn’t show up well on camera. But you don’t really need to paint a hearse black to know it’s a vehicle of death — or ghosts.

[MIKA27]

We’re Just Five Days Away From Seeing Pluto Closer Than Ever Before, And Have The Photo To Prove It

After nearly 10 years, at last we have the first images of Pluto thanks to the New Horizons probe.

Just hours ago, scientists received the most detailed shots of the dwarf planet returned by the probe, which is now under 8 million kilometres away from Pluto.

NASA’s space probe, New Horizons is due to reach its closest proximity to Pluto on July 14th. It was launched from Earth on January 19th 2006 — and after 9 years, 5 months and 25 days travelling through space, it will finally reach the most exciting destination.

During the five-month-long, flyby, reconnaissance mission, the probe will get closest to Pluto at 9:49 pm July 14th AEST (or 7:49 am July 14th US EDT) and provide a never before seen close-up look at the ice dwarf planet.

The New Horizons mission was tasked with gathering data on the unexplored and furthest reaches of our solar system — the parts that hold the remnants of the formation of our solar system. And in the 3458 days of travelling, the New Horizons probe has already flown by The Moon and successfully returned data on the atmospheric conditions of Jupiter.

Once it’s past Pluto, the probe will travel further into the Kuiper Belt and explore Pluto’s moons and the other icy celestial bodies at the edge of our solar system – more than 1.6 billion kilometres past the closest planet, Neptune.

It hasn’t been an easy journey, just this weekend on July 4th, the New Horizons probe shutdown and lost communication with ground control. Its processor overclocked as the probe tried to compress data it had captured while preparing to take in further data. Fortunately, NASA managed to re-establish communication with the spacecraft after discovering it went into sleep mode due to this overactivity.

The New Horizon’s mission is part of NASA’s New Frontiers program. With the purpose of further space exploration, the program has already helped gather new information on previously underexplored planets like Jupiter and Venus. In addition to New Horizons, New Frontiers launched mission Juno in 2011 and plans to launch mission OSIRIS-REx next year.

NASA and the US National Academy of Sciences has placed a high priority on the exploration of the Kuiper Belt – which starts from the orbit of Neptune and extends 20 AU (150 million kilometres), meaning it’s 200 times the size of the Asteroid Belt. Delving deep into this region of space hopes to answer questions about the geology and atmospheres of the ice dwarfs and other underexplored celestial bodies.

New Horizons will hopefully begin to answer some of these questions about how the ice dwarfs – Pluto and its moons – match with the rock-based and gas-based planets in our solar system. In turn, this will provide further clues as to the how our solar system evolved and formed.

[MIKA27]

New Zealand Is Joining The Private Space Race

It might be more famous for its sheep than its spacecraft, but New Zealand is about to join the private space race. A company called Rocket Lab is to build a new facility near Christchurch which will launch a payload into orbit before the year is out.

While Rocket Lab is now based in the US, it was founded in New Zealand, reports New Scientist. Facing up to the fact that state-owned launch sites have long waiting lists and high costs, the company has decided to build its own launch pad.

But the decision to be based in New Zealand isn’t due to the company’s heritage, but rather for technical reasons. The company plans to make 100 launches a year: that kind of frequency will require it to put satellites into a variety of orbital slots, and New Zealand’s position on the planet apparently affords the best range of launch angles to achieve that goal. There’s also less aeroplane traffic around New Zealand compared to many other potential sites, which will make it easier to time launches.

Rocket Lab hopes the facility will allow it to bring the cost of launches down to an impressively low $US5 million. But before that can happen, we’ll have to wait and see how the new launch site performs; we won’t have long to wait.

[MIKA27]

US Air Force Drops Expensive (And Useless) Nuke In Nevada

In the face of mounting criticism, the US Air Force just completed the first test flight of the B61 Mod 12mock up nuclear bomb in the Nevada desert. This marks the next step in updating a cold war-era weapon that many experts consider to be completely useless today. The military might as well drop a nuke on a pile of taxpayer dollars.

The whole situation is frustrating, in part, because it’s based on some scary assumptions about an impending nuclear apocalypse. Since its development in 1963 — a year after the Cuban missile crisis — the B61 has been one of top weapons in the US nuclear arsenal. Capable of carriage in supersonic aircraft and a two-stage radiation implosion, this is a bad bomb that we might’ve dropped on Moscow if things had escalated with the Soviets.

However, as the New York Times editorial board explained things a couple years ago, the bombs are “the detritus of the cold war.” The updated B61s are also a very, very expensive detritus. President Obama is already throwing hundreds of millions of dollars at this program to keep these nukes on life support. The total cost of the program is expected to be as high as $US11 billion by its completion in the 2020s, while the true nature of the upgrade is being masked.

This is a nonsensical decision, not least because it is at odds with Mr. Obama’s own vision. In a seminal speech in Prague in 2009 and a strategy review in 2010, Mr. Obama advocated the long-term goal of a world without nuclear arms and promised to reduce America’s reliance on them. He also promised not to field a new and improved warhead.

But refurbishing warheads from the 1960s is apparently cool. Meanwhile, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Air Force still insists on referring to these types of weapons as “gravity bombs” in this modern era. This is misleading since a gravity bomb is really any unguided bomb. Really, it’s a nuke wrapped in a gravity bomb wrapped in a euphemism.

So it’s basically bullshit when Obama and friends talk up their anti-proliferation efforts. In truth, the government is still spending billions on nukes tuned towards the former USSR, while also doing nothing to influence with China, India, or Pakistan (or Israel) to rein in their nuclear programs. An expert gave a lengthy Congressional Testimony on this very topic just a few months ago. Similarly, the Air Force is actively updating its nuclear weapons operation in order to fight a nuclear war when the time is right. As Maj. Gen. Sandra Finan, the commander of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, put it in an April press release, “Our mission is still to deliver nuclear capabilities and winning solutions that warfighters use daily to deter our enemies and assure our allies.”

This is what brings us back to those assumptions about a scary nuclear apocalypse. When politicians are telling us that they’re trying to create a world without nuclear weapons, it’s misleading for the military to just give nuclear weapons new names. It’s even more misleading to spend billions of dollars rebuilding and renaming old nuclear weapons, just so that those politicians can say that we’re not creating any new ones.

Just call a nuke a nuke. The Air Force just dropped an expensive and inevitably useless nuke in the Nevada desert. There was no mushroom cloud this time. But there’s always a next time.

[MIKA27]

Why Can't We Stop Cholera In Haiti?

An outbreak of cholera in Haiti that began in 2010 is still killing people. Why have attempts to get it under control failed?

In early February, when Jenniflore Abelard* arrived at her parents’ house high in the hills of Port-au-Prince, her father Johnson* was home. He was lying in the yard, under a tree, vomiting. When Jenniflore spoke to him, his responses, between retches, sounded strange: “nasal, like his voice was coming out of his nose”. He talked “like a zombie”. This is a powerful image to use in Haiti, where voodoo is practised and where the supernatural doesn’t seem as far-fetched as it might elsewhere. Her father’s eyes were sunk back into his head. She was shocked, but she knew what this was, because she has lived through the past five years in Haiti. She has lived through the time of kolera.

On 18 October 2010, Cuban medical brigades working in the areas around the town of Mirebalais in Haiti reported a worrying increase in patients with acute, watery diarrhoea and vomiting. There had been 61 cases the previous week, and on 18 October alone there were 28 new admissions and two deaths.

That was the beginning. Five years on, cholera has killed nearly 9,000 Haitians. More than 730,000 people have been infected. It is the worst outbreak of the disease, globally, in modern history. Hundreds of emergency and development workers have been working alongside the Haitian government for five years, trying to rid the country of cholera, and millions of dollars have been dispensed in the fight to eradicate it. But it’s still here. Why?

In 1884, the scientist Robert Koch sent a dispatch from Kolkata to the German Interior Ministry about the bacterium that he had been studying. It was “a little bent, like a comma”, he wrote. He was sure that this organism was causing the cholera that had been ravaging the world since 1817, when it laid waste to Bengal. Its onslaught there was shocking, even for a region that had had cholera — or something similar — for so long that there was a specific cholera goddess, Ola Beebee (translated as ‘our Lady of the Flux’).

Ola Beebee was meant to protect against this mysterious affliction, which terrified people. Who would not be scared by seeing “the lips blue, the face haggard, the eyes hollow, the stomach sunk in, the limbs contracted and crumpled as if by fire”? Although 1817 is the official starting date of the first cholera pandemic, humans and cholera have almost certainly coexisted for far longer: that description of cholera’s distinct symptoms was inscribed on a temple in Gujarat, India, over 2,000 years ago.

The world is currently living through the seventh and longest cholera pandemic, which began in Indonesia in 1961 and, before Haiti, was most famous for an outbreak that devastated South America in 1991, killing 12,000 people in 21 countries.

People with access to clean water and sanitation probably think of cholera as being as old-fashioned as smallpox, and long gone. Surely the problem now is Ebola? Away from headlines, though, the gram-negative, rod-shaped bacillus Vibrio cholerae has been consistently murderous. It is currently present in 58 countries, infecting 3 — 5 million people a year and killing 100,000 — 120,000. This latest pandemic, wrote Edward T Ryan of Harvard University, “as opposed to burning out after 5-20 years as all previous pandemics have done…seems to be picking up speed.”

On 11 February this year, Johnson ate soup made from yams and bananas bought at the local market. By late afternoon, he was vomiting. With his soup he had swallowed Vibrio cholerae, which usually reach humans through contaminated food or water. Inside his body, the toxin secreted by the cholera bacteria bound to the cells in the wall of his small intestine, causing channels in the cells to stay open. Johnson’s disrupted cells flooded his gut with chloride ions. Sodium ions and water followed, causing his body to expel fluid and electrolytes and passing on more Vibrio bacteria to infect new hosts. A cholera victim can lose several litres of fluid within hours. Cholera can invade the body of a healthy person at daybreak and kill them by sundown.

Johnson is now safe and healthy in Jenniflore’s house, an hour away from his. He survived because he was taken to a nearby cholera treatment centre (CTC) run by Médecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and because cholera, despite its power, is easy to treat. Eighty per cent of cholera cases are cured by the administration of a simple oral rehydration solution.

Four hours’ drive from Port-au-Prince (it should be two, but it takes two hours to escape the city’s atrocious traffic), I get into a white four-wheel drive vehicle belonging to Action Contre La Faim, a French NGO that is a local implementing partner for UNICEF (one of the major actors in Haiti throughout the epidemic) and also the host of my trip. I’m nervous: this will be my first encounter with cholera patients, and with a CTC. What if the place stinks? How should I react? I don’t have long to think about this because the first visit is to the CTC in Gonaïves, the departmental capital, only a few minutes’ drive from the Action Contre La Faim compound.

It’s a small structure behind a blood bank, located in a yard near a toilet block that includes one stall marked ‘Cholera Patients’ and another marked ‘Tuberculosis’. Before I can enter, I must be chlorinated: hands, first, then I press my shoes onto a chlorine-soaked mat. (“Chlorine is our best friend,” I’m told in another CTC by a smiling clinic worker.) Inside, the small clinic is rudimentary but clean. There are four patients in the treatment area: a young man sitting on his bed, an older woman lying on hers, and two children, including five-year-old Junior*, whose eyes are shut and whose bottom is naked. He looks weak and sick, and it’s heartbreaking.

The ward doesn’t smell, although each patient is lying on a cholera cot, a special bed that has a hole cut out of the canvas and a bucket underneath to catch what in Creole is called dlo diri (from de l’eau de riz, ‘rice-water’), the watery diarrhoea that pours out of cholera patients. When I show images of these cots to friends, they are shocked. Such indignity! But there is no dignity when you are expelling dlo diri. A hole and a bucket are comforts, along with either oral rehydration solution or an IV drip with glucose and electrolytes. A patient’s precise treatment depends on whether they are classed as Plan A (observation and rehydration with oral rehydration solution), Plan B (rehydration and possibly an IV drip) or Plan C (definitely an IV drip).

Junior’s mother Mirlande* says her son was playing outside then started vomiting. She knows how cholera gets you: through dirt, touching people with cholera or not washing your hands. Junior is being treated with an IV drip and yesterday had felt better, but today he’s vomiting again. It’s good she brought him here. In recent years, cholera has become stigmatised. Recipients of cholera kits — soap, water-sterilising Aquatabs and, often, a bucket — are thought dirty. Some sufferers travel hours on motorbikes to get to a CTC far enough away that the neighbours don’t find out, and die en route. Although cholera is most deadly to small children, the elderly and the weak, this basic CTC has given Junior good care in good time and I am glad that he will probably survive. The trouble is, in 2015, the CTC shouldn’t be here at all.

Cholera, it is often said, is a symptom of poverty. Cholera loves chaos. Haiti, home to both chaos and poverty, is a place where cholera thrives. Even before the 2010 earthquake, Haiti ranked 145th out of 169 countries in the United Nations’ Human Development Index. It was the poorest country in the western hemisphere, and 70 per cent of the population lived on less than $US2 a day. In 2014, only 17 per cent of the rural population had access to improved sanitation, and around 40 per cent used unprotected water sources, including rivers. There is regular disaster, caused by corrupt governments such as the Duvaliers, or coups or hurricanes. The 2010 earthquake killed at least 220,000 people and left 1.3 million homeless, according to Haitian government figures (a 2011 USAID report estimated up to 85,000 deaths). By the middle of 2010, Haiti was dealing with a horrifying set of problems. But it didn’t have cholera, a disease that had not been seen on the island for 100 years.

A fellow resident of my guesthouse remembers eating in a restaurant in Artibonite (one of the ten administrative departments in Haiti) in autumn that year. “They brought out a fish. Then suddenly someone came and grabbed it. ‘Don’t eat that! People are dying. There’s something wrong with the river.'”

There was definitely something wrong with the river. The first recorded infections were in members of a family living in Meille, near the Artibonite River, probably on 14 October. Five days later, investigators found ten more cases in 16 surrounding houses. Also in Meille was a battalion of Nepalese peacekeepers working for MINUSTAH, the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti. Rigorous investigation strongly suggests that the cholera came from sewage discharged by the base into the river. The cholera was Vibrio cholerae01, serotype Ogawa, biotype El Tor, a strain never seen in Haiti, and confined until then to Asia and parts of Africa. This same strain of cholera had broken out in Kathmandu on 23 September 2010, shortly before the peacekeepers left for Haiti.

By the end of December, there had been 185,351 cases and 4,101 deaths. Haiti was in a state of terror. Nobody dared shake hands or touch, never mind eat the fish. There were so many corpses that sometimes people transported their dead relatives on a motorbike, propped up between two passengers. People turned to voodoo priests — houngans and mambos — then blamed them too, just as the residents of Britain attacked doctors and hospitals in 1832 after the ‘Asiatic cholera’ of Bengal had reached England via the port of Sunderland and a ship from Hamburg.

The lower classes rioted from Paisley to Dublin to London, convinced that cholera was a plot by the wealthy to do away with them, so targeted seemed this “scourge”. Fears of ‘burking’ — people being murdered for anatomical research, named after the infamous Burke and Hare — led to medical gentlemen being attacked in the streets. The new cholera hospital of Leeds was stoned; Liverpudlians had eight major street riots in two weeks. When a cholera hospital was opened in Toxteth, a mob of men, women and children joined in “hooting, screaming and assaulting several persons who endeavoured to explain the nature of the establishment”.

In fear there is room for superstition, and so it was in Haiti. But there was also a huge and admirable effort from government, NGOs and the UN in treatment and prevention. CTCs were established, as was hygiene messaging that reminded people to wash their hands before eating and after defecating to prevent the spread of dangerous faecal particles. Aid poured in.

By 2014, it was working. After the dreadful death tolls of 2010 — 12, disease spread and fatality were being cut by nearly half each year. There were 352,033 cases and 2,927 deaths in 2011, compared to 27,659 cases and 295 deaths in 2014 (although the number of cases in 2013 in Haiti was still more than the rest of the world’s put together).

“In 2014 we were close to eliminating cholera. We were really close,” says Gregory Bulit, the emergency manager for UNICEF. Of the 800 cases in the country, he says, only 50 per cent tested positive for cholera. Include the 30 per cent false-positive rate of the rapid diagnostic stool test and that number drops still further.

“From January to February,” says Oliver Schulz, head of MSF Haiti when I visited, “the number of cases was almost zero”. Even throughout the worst rainy season from April till June, which anyone working on cholera dreads (rain flushes out excreta from shoddy pit latrines, for one, spreading contamination), there had been no outbreak. The French epidemiologists Stanislas Rebaudet and Renaud Piarroux, who have done outstanding work in Haiti since the outbreak, called the reduction in cases “spectacular” [translated from French]. It looked as though cholera was about to be contained.

There was further cause for optimism. In 2013, the government launched a ten-year National Plan for the Elimination of Cholera in Haiti. It will require ten years because of the severity of Haiti’s infrastructural context (nearby Cuba, which has far superior healthcare and sanitation, has reported only 700 cases and three deaths, although its outbreak is ongoing). The targets are ambitious: by 2017, all public water systems will be regularly chlorinated and monitored. By 2022, Haiti’s water and sanitation access will be increased “to at least the average level of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean”.

In 2014, the government announced a Total Sanitation Campaign, a joint water and sanitation initiative with the UN, because safely containing human excreta and supplying clean drinking water is as much part of the fight against cholera as oral rehydration solution. Nearly four million people, 2,500 schools and 500 health centres will be persuaded to abandon open defecation and use latrines.

A reorganisation of government in 2009 had already seen the creation of DINEPA, a water and sanitation agency that would oversee the improvement of sanitation standards. When cholera arrived, long-term development became an emergency response (which meant that DINEPA oversaw the chlorination of drinking water supplies). The cholera lull in 2014 saw the government begin an ambitious plan to turn the emergency response into a longer-term development plan overseen by the health ministry. NGOs would retreat. Agencies such as MSF began transferring CTCs to the government, and Haiti’s cholera status went from emergency to chronic.

Then came September. Suddenly, explosively, cholera resurged in Port-au-Prince. CTCs were reopened and quickly overwhelmed. When MSF — which had been considering closing its CTCs — opened a new clinic in Port-au-Prince, the first patient arrived within six hours. There were 1,834 cases in September, then 5,018 in October. Something had gone badly wrong.

Up in the hills of Port-au-Prince, I accompany a team from one of UNICEF’s partner organisations, Croix-Rouge française (CRF). The capital spreads from these high hills down to the blue ocean, down to Cité Soleil, Haiti’s famous slum. Here in the hills is where cholera resurged, in the slum of Martissant, one of the poorest and most gang-infested areas of the city. CRF delivers emergency responses to outbreaks. If someone arrives at a CTC or clinic and is thought to have cholera, a team is dispatched — ideally within 48 hours — to set up a ‘cordon sanitaire’, or sanitary barrier. Speed is an important weapon, both in the spread of cholera and in the fight against it. UNICEF and other agencies are excited about a new Google Drive system that enables them to get real-time updates on cholera cases all over the country, something that didn’t exist before. If they know cholera’s routes, they can block them more effectively.

Today’s team wears red vests and baseball caps. They resemble the men on Port-au-Prince street corners who are selling mobile phone minutes, but they carry chlorine sprays, not phone cards. Our target is a narrow street. We reach it though other narrow streets, where women are selling raw meat and cooked food. None of it is covered. The flies are landing freely, their feet likely contaminated with faeces.

In the National Plan to Eliminate Cholera, the country’s sanitation is described as “practically non-existent”. Port-au-Prince has only one operational waste treatment centre for a city of two to three million people. People who do have latrines have them emptied manually by an underclass of bayakou (men who jump, often naked, into the pits and shovel out their contents). Hardly any of that **** is disposed of at the treatment plant; instead, it ends up anywhere the bayakoucan put it. It’s the same ‘anywhere’ where the majority of Haitians without latrines go to do their open defecation. It’s the anywhere where cholera thrives.

We park, finally, and the team gets ready. One man is the disinfector. He puts on a mask, apron and gloves and gets his spray can. There are three stages of disinfection and three strengths of chlorine solution: today will be A-strength (four spoonfuls of chlorine solution in 20 litres of water) and the whole house will be sprayed, along with the neighbours’ houses. Another team member has a clipboard and pen. To combat the speed of contamination, questions are as important as chlorine. How did you get cholera? Where have you travelled? Who have you met? Cholera is easily transmitted in food and water, but also at funerals and carnivals and street markets.

The questions are being asked of Gaelle*, just discharged from a CTC after three days. She leans against the dingy curtain in the dingy concrete house as if it is holding her up. I ask her how she got cholera: “I don’t know. We treat our water.” She and her sister Lourdes* say they buy Aquatabs, water disinfection tablets that are widely available for sale but seen as expensive, unless they are dispensed freely by NGOs. (Most people add chlorine to their water, though usually too much.) I ask Gaelle how cholera is transmitted: “With dirty hands or when the environment is dirty.” Finally, in my most patronising mode, I ask what she thinks cholera is. A small animal, a virus? “No,” she says with some pity for my stupidity. “It’s a microbe.”

When I interview Haitian officials, they talk about outreach and messaging. They mean hygiene posters and pamphlets and megaphones that instruct Haitians to wash their hands, treat their water, keep themselves clean. I don’t think this kind of top-down didactic approach works ordinarily: no one responds well to hectoring. It’s even less successful when the messages are so well known, says one NGO worker, “that if you start [a sentence about hygiene], it’s them who finish the sentence.” As cholera retreated, lassitude grew. “They know what to do,” says Olivier Lamothe, who works on emergency responses for UNICEF. “They say, ‘but I’ve always done that and there was no cholera’. There’s a reticence. We have to figure out how to adjust the message.”

Many residents of Port-au-Prince get their water from official water points monitored by the government. Others buy it from kiosks with names like Eau Miracle (slogan: “I drink Miracle Water; do you?”). There are so many of these kiosks, I don’t see how they can all be monitored. Even if they were, gangs in Martissant have been breaking into the mains and trucking water up the hills, where the pipes don’t reach, to sell it. Breaking into a water main is a great way to get it contaminated, and it’s probably the reason why cholera broke out again in Martissant in 2014. “The network is permeable,” says Gregory Bulit. It’s so bad, official talks are going to be set up with the gangs. If they must sell the pirated water, then at least let it be pirated and chlorinated.

I look at Gaelle’s latrine, a dirty concrete pit inside her house, and wonder how a spray of chlorine can make it safe. I wonder how even all the effort and programmes can make everything safe: every food seller offering fly-covered pigs’ trotters, every hug of a corpse at a funeral and the dirt underneath every child’s fingernails. It seems so daunting. And it will cost a fortune: the government costed the National Plan for the Elimination of Cholera at $US2.2 billion, and a high-level conference on Haiti at the World Bank last year estimated that $US310 million would be needed over the next three years, plus $US70 million more to fix Port-au-Prince’s water supply.

The money is of course lacking. UNICEF, government, MSF, anyone — whenever I ask about funding, I hear the same three words: Ebola, Syria, Ukraine. Donors have forgotten Haiti. Their heads have been turned by other, more dramatic causes. Drama attracts money; water mains and pit latrines do not.

Vibrio cholerae itself is a daunting adversary. About 75 per cent of infected carriers show no symptoms but remain contagious for up to two weeks. Cholera, it’s now understood, can survive in aquatic environments, making it far harder to eradicate. Oliver Schulz of MSF calls it “predictably unpredictable”. Even so, he tells me, you can be prepared for the unpredictable. But in 2014 the Haitian government wasn’t. There was “a deplorable absence of an effective national (and departmental) response system”, as MSF’s latest Haiti cholera report put it.

When the outbreak surged in Martissant, it took days for information about confirmed cholera cases to be reported back. Local government was supposed to take on more responsibility, but local authorities took six weeks to notice that a treatment centre had been reopened in Cité Soleil. The outbreak could have been contained with better reaction times and better information gathering, but people’s attention was not where it should have been. “Preparatory activities for a hypothetical importation of Ebola diverted the attention of MSPP,” wrote the epidemiologists Stanislas Rebaudet and Renaud Piarroux in a report for UNICEF [translated from French]. By December, it was too late. In December, the only national laboratory in the country capable of doing microbiological diagnosis closed when an air-conditioner broke, a situation that the epidemiologists called “ubuesque” after the French absurdist play Ubu Roi. It was still shut in February.

There is more absurdity. On my way out of the Gonaïves clinic, I’d stopped at the nurses’ desk. Three women in nurses’ uniform were sitting squashed up on a bench. They looked miserable, and no wonder — they hadn’t been paid for 13 months. Outside a CTC in Gaumont, an hour’s drive away, the hygienist (who I had seen gathering up used syringes) stopped to chat. Jacob is 33 and has been working at the CTC since seven days after it opened in 2010; he was previously a mechanic but thought that working there was more important. In the worst times, he used to get a salary. Now he is paid an allowance by Action Contre La Faim, but only during outbreaks. Today is the last day of the outbreak: “Tomorrow, I will be a volunteer again.” But he will keep coming.

The government emergency health teams EMIRA — Équipes Mobiles d’Intervention Rapide — have been unpaid for months. At the time of my visit, there were nearly $US2 million of unpaid salaries. I’m told of blockages in the Health Ministry and a top-down culture where the smallest expense must go through the minister. The unpaid workers stay at work, thankfully, because they are good people in a cholera epidemic or because they don’t want to lose their jobs. By April, there had been 14,226 new cholera cases, an increase of 306 per cent on the year before. Twenty-one Haitians have died.

I ask people if they are optimistic. ‘With reservations,’ says Oliver Schulz of MSF, whose impressive CTC in Delmas 33 I visit on my way to the airport, so that I leave Haiti wafting chlorine. He says that cholera can be eradicated (reduced to zero cases in a specific area) but not eliminated (permanently reduced to zero cases, worldwide). “This is an island nation with a border. It is possible to contain it. Cholera is so crazy and so easy to treat.”

‘Yes,’ says the Elimination Plan, although an Action Contre La Faim official describes it as “tidied away on a shelf”, for all the good it has done so far.

‘Yes,’ says the President of Haiti, Michel Martelly, who told Time that he has tried “to change the perception of Haiti as a place where nothing works”.

‘Yes,’ says the brand new Marriott Hotel, opened during my visit, which is meant to symbolise Haiti’s fast-growing economy and faces the hills where people drink Vibrio cholerae.

‘No,’ says a chief nurse in the hospital at Gaumont, which houses a CTC. No, because only three of her nursing staff are paid, yet they are expected to cover the whole hospital and the CTC, as well as report data promptly. She is furious. “We can’t eradicate cholera. We’ve no clean drinking water, there are no toilets. We are not going to escape this.”

* Names have been changed.

[MIKA27]

Watch A MiG-23 Fighter Jet Fly Insanely Close To The Ground

If you were standing up straight, your head would be clipped off from this low pass from a fighter jet. That’s how close this Libyan MiG-23 is flying to the ground. The flyby is terrifyingly low and ridiculously fast and it is completely wild, especially considering how Libya only has a smattering of these jets and is in total chaos right now. So yeah. It’s crazy.

[MIKA27]

These Hanging Hotel Rooms Have Good Food, Great Views, So Much Screaming

It’s not unlike camping, according to visitors. Except for the fact that you’re hanging from a sheer rock cliff 120m above the ground. Oh, and the bathroom. The bathroom is… different.

These are the Skylodges, a set of three steel capsules that hang off of a cliff that leads down into Peru’s Sacred Valley — the heart of ancient Incan civilisation and, today, home to a bustling tourism industry fed by nearby Machu Picchu. Part of that industry is focused on “adventure” tourism in the surrounding valley, like a network of rock climbing routes and zip lines set up by the company that maintains the Skylodges called Natura Vive.

The pods are anchored deep into the rock wall, roughly 120m above the floor of the valley, and are designed around three steel cages that look almost as though they were inspired by Buckminster Fuller. Faced with sturdy transparent panels, the idea is to give visitors a full view of the night sky above them (curtains block “the curious gaze of passing condors, your sky neighbours,” the company says).

You enter the pods through a top hatch, accessed through a wooden platform above the structure — which also doubles as your eating area. But because you reach the pods through either a long climb or a series of ziplines, it seems as though you don’t spend a ton of time in them — you arrive at the end of a long day of scrambling around cliff faces.

One of the most mesmerising things about images of climbers scaling El Capitan and other monumental climbs is how they sleep, suspended from a sheer rock wall, and the company’s Skylodges do replicate that experience, in a way — except with far safer and more luxurious trappings. A quick perusal of Trip Advisor gives us a glimpse: Solar power! Down pillows! A personal chef!

Also, your choice of beer:

Your guide comes with beer or bottle of wine (included), and later cooks dinner for you which is delicious. – Brett K

A “variety of hams:”

This is without a doubt the best meal under the stars I have ever had. The rooms are well equipped, with super confortable beds, cotton linen suited for any fancy hotel. The next morning you have a very nice breakfast, freshly cooked eggs, granola, cheese, variety of hams, etc. – Nicholas G.

Oh, and the “interesting bathroom,” which sounds like a pretty standard dry toilet:

They also provided a nice dinner and breakfast. Pretty nice meal for a pod! Bathroom was very interesting and clean! Gotta separate the liquids and solids but after trekking, this was quite luxurious. – Linda C

Anyone can reserve a spot in one of the pods, which together have room for eight — a night will run you around $US290, and includes dinner, breakfast, and booze. The reviews are outstanding, which would seem to SUGGEST that this set-up is pretty safe. Still: Would you sleep here?

[MIKA27]

When A Cat And An Owl Develop A Beautiful Friendship

We’ve seen cats and dogs getting along together just fine. But cats and owls? Welcome to the world of Hukulou Coffee.

Located in Osaka, Hukulou Coffee is an owl cafe, serving up cups of hot coffee and oodles of owl cuteness. If that weren’t enough (and I guess it’s not), the resident owl, Fuku-chan, is chummy with a kitten named Marimo.

Recently, the pair was introduced on Japanese site Net Lab. Some of the photos below have been retweeted several thousand times.

They’re best friends! And if owl and cat came come together, then everyone can.

In this photo, Fuku-chan is giving Marimo a GOODNIGHT KISS.

You can check out the Hukulou Cafe’s official site here.

[MIKA27]

More Dead Birds Fall From the Sky in Idaho

On June 27, 2015, a road in Kuna, Idaho, was found covered with dead songbirds. This follows the mass deaths earlier this year of over 2,000 migrating snow geese that dropped to the ground dead or dying in eastern Idaho. Why are birds falling out of the sky dead in Idaho? What can be done before it happens again?

Dead birds on the road in Kuna, Idaho

The mass bird deaths in late June were reported by Kuna resident Susan Carlson, who first noticed a problem when her car approached vultures in the road eating dead birds. As she continued driving, she found the road covered with them. She described them as songbirds of various species. Some were alive but near death, others were still dropping in mid-flight, including one that fell on her car. Her reaction should not be surprising:

I was just very disturbed by what I saw … The whole scene made me very, very sad.

Carlson is not the only witness to the mass songbird deaths in Idaho. Evin Oneale, regional conservation educator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, says she’s been getting calls about dead songbirds for weeks. The ones he has examined show no signs of physical injury nor symptoms of avian cholera, which is the official reason given for the snow geese deaths in Idaho in March.

Dead snow geese found in March in Idaho

Oneale believes the songbirds were killed by an infection from an unknown pathogen. Idaho residents think otherwise. Some are blaming climate change or HAARP for the unusually high heat that may have caused exhaustion or excessive thirst. Others blame chemicals used in the nearby alfalfa fields to control weeds and pests. Still others warn of radiation from Fukushima, secret military frequency weapons or cell phone towers.

No one knows what killed these songbirds in Idaho. It’s too late for them. Let’s hope they can give us the answer … and we have the courage to confront who or what is causing it and force a change before it’s too late for all of us.

[MIKA27]

Read the Court Documents Accusing Tom Selleck of Pulling Off a California Water Heist

Actor Tom Selleck and his wife have been accused of shameless water thievery in drought-stricken California.

The Calleguas Municipal Water District has filed suit against the 70-year-old actor (Magnum, P.I., Blue Bloods, Richard on Friends, himself on Muppet Babies) and his wife, Jillie Mack. In the complaint, the Calleguas MWD accuses the couple of repeatedly stealing truckloads of water from public hydrants, and having the large quantities of water hauled via commercial truck back to their beautiful Hidden Valley ranch, which is located in a different water district.

Selleck’s 60-acre, Spanish colonial-style ranch property includes eight bedrooms, stables, a helipad, swimming pool, golf course, and avocado farm. (The kicker here is that Tom Selleck don’t give a **** about avocados: “I don’t eat ’em,” he toldPeople magazine in 2012, reportedly grimacing. “Honestly, they make me gag.”)

The public water district filed the complaint in Ventura County Superior Court on Monday,alleging that water was stolen on at least 12 occasions since 2013—all in the midst of the Golden State’s historic drought. The water district spent roughly $22,000 on a private investigator to nail Selleck, himself a former (fictional) private investigator. The Calleguas MWD is seeking an injunction barring Selleck and his fellow alleged water thieves from exporting water from the district.

“We have a massive call for supply reduction in our service area, and those supplies that are remaining should rightfully be used by those who have invested in the water system,” Eric Bergh, Calleguas MWD’s manager of resources, told The Daily Beast. “This is not a drought-shaming issue; this is a legal issue. Whether rain or shine, [these rules] would still apply.”

“We have a massive call for supply reduction in our service area, and those supplies that are remaining should rightfully be used by those who have invested in the water system,” Eric Bergh, Calleguas MWD’s manager of resources, told The Daily Beast. “This is not a drought-shaming issue; this is a legal issue. Whether rain or shine, [these rules] would still apply.”

Bergh provided The Daily Beast with copies of the complaint, as well as cease-and-desist letters sent to Selleck and Mack in November 2013.

This isn’t the first time Selleck has been involved in a legal battle. In 2009, Selleck was awarded $187,000 after a jury in California determined that a Del Mar equestrian tricked him into buying a lame horse. And in the ’80s and ’90s, Selleck went on legal crusades against the tabloids, which included a $20 million lawsuit against the Globe for reprinting posters identifying him as a closeted homosexual.

Selleck’s publicist did not respond to a request for comment regarding his alleged water heists.

[MIKA27]

We Cannot Allow This Awful Idea For Aeroplane Seating To Become Real

Aeroplanes used to be luxurious things, laden with fine china and unlimited wine. But over the years the glory of flying has faded — giving way to broken technology (frustrating), bruised knees,. Yet, somehow, someone has figured out a way to make things worse.

Behold: the most atrocious idea for aeroplane seating design you’ve ever seen. Conceived by a French company called Zodiac Seats, it almost seems like a sick joke or some misguided reference to the fear of an unknown serial killer. The principle that guides the new design — to give passengers more shoulder and arm room — is not insane. The execution is.

In this recently patented design, seats are staggered in an “Economy Class Cabin Hexagon” so that they alternate between facing forward and facing backwards. This ostensibly offers passengers a little more room above the waist while also opening up the opportunity to face a travel partner instead of sitting side-by-side, with you both staring at the back of the seat in front of you.

But you know what’s worse than staring at the back of a seat in front of you? Staring at a total stranger who’s probably a mouth-breather with a bad nail-biting habit. What’s even worse than that is the new staggered design also ensures that you’re flanked by two more strangers’ faces, a peripheral inconvenience that bound to be as anxiety-inducing as the very act of soaring 30,000 feet in the air inside a metal tube that weighs several tonnes.

There are some variations on the design that make it even worse. For instance, the designers at Zodiac Seats suggest making the seats fold up so that you’re woken up from your nice nap with the loud SLAP of some spring-loaded cushion. Let’s be honest, though. Flying isn’t flying with a little bit of fear and torture these days. Why not take things to their logical conclusion and just fill planes up like cattle cars?

[MIKA27]

You Can Now Tweet From Atop Mt Fuji Using Its New Free Wi-Fi

Getting on the internet from your phone can still be next to impossible in train tunnels, but now even Mt Fuji offers free Wi-Fi, up to 12,000 feet above sea level.

Starting Friday, Japan’s iconic peak will give climbers Wi-Fi access at eight hotspots on the mountain, including three cottages on the summit, Asahi Shimbun reports. The new initiative is in response to the ever-growing number of tourists who aren’t just visiting Japan, but Mt Fuji in particular. It’s a joint effort between Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo and the local governments of Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectures, whose boundaries Mt Fuji straddles.

For being such an advanced country and having the third-most internet users in the world, Wi-Fi service in Japan is surprisingly crappy. All those foreign out-of-towners want their sweet, sweet Wi-Fi, but free wireless is hard to find. Sometimes, “pre-registering” is even necessary: That is, creating an account for a venue’s free Wi-Fi beforehand, at some place where you do have internet access.

Currently, US national parks like Yosemite and Yellowstone offer Wi-Fi, but only at lodges. Other outdoorsy destinations might follow Mt Fuji’s lead, however. Because, hey, even the most rugged adventurer needs the luxuries of the internet. That kayaking selfie ain’t gonna Snapchat itself, after all.

[MIKA27]

The Giant New Panama Canal Will Change The Global Economy (Again)

A few months ago, hundreds of tourists, sightseers and workers crowded into a deep canyon of concrete at the Panama Canal to witness another wonder of the world before it was submerged.

At 11 storeys deep, these canyons made of rough concrete could have been a lost Louis Kahn structure. In fact, they were the newly-enlarged locks of the Panama Canal, which is finishing up a huge expansion project this year. As City Lab’s Laura Bliss pointed out yesterday, the expansion project is nearly complete, with engineers flooding the new locks in May. It’s been underway since 2007, and has cost $US5.25 billion, all in order to accommodate the size of a new generation of container ships called New Panamax, which can wedge into the new 427m long locks.

What’s really interesting about this project is that it’s going to pretty drastically change how the economy of the US — and the world — flows across the globe. A report from the Boston Consulting Group explains how:

According to research conducted jointly by The Boston Consulting Group and C.H. Robinson, as much as 10 per cent of container traffic between East Asia and the U.S. could shift from West Coast ports to East Coast ports by the year 2020.

This shift will have profound effects. The larger ports on the West Coast will experience lower growth rates, altering the competitive balance between West Coast ports and East Coast ports. (With global container flows rising, West Coast ports will still handle more containers than they do today.) It will also shape the investment and routing decisions of rail and truck carriers, magnify the trade-offs that shippers make between the cost and the speed of transportation, and potentially alter the location of distribution centres.

Whoa. Right now, most of the goods that flow into the US come into the country through ports on the West Coast — and then flow across the country through a series of railways and highways. When the port’s expansion opens next year, that will change — and the way your shoes/iPhone/bedspread/foodstuffs arrive at your local Target/Apple Store/Amazon distribution center will change too.

A rolling gate is installed at one of the new locks in April

The canal from the air in April

Flooding the locks in June

The flooded locks being tested this week

[MIKA27]

Meet The Robots That Will Help Run A Tokyo Airport

When I say “airport”, what do you think of? Pat-downs, overpriced Coors Light, screaming kids, broken sanity? In the near future, however, you could start associating air travel with robots: Airport halls may soon be filled with scuttling, helpful machines that will make flying less of a nightmare, and it’s starting at a major airport near Tokyo.

Last week, Japan’s ominously named robotics company Cyberdyne announced new technologies it will start rolling out at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in September: Two robots, one exoskeleton. One robot shuttles unwieldy luggage, another cleans the facility, and the exo assists with heavy lifting.

The suitcase-schlepping robot looks like a cart, and carries objects up to almost 450 pounds (204kg) — useful for any traveller, but especially for Japan’s quickly ageing citizens. It’s also designed to help the loaders moving merchandise at airport stores.

The other robot, a sort of souped up Roomba, autonomously tidies the floor and returns to its home position automatically when done. Meanwhile, the noninvasive, waist-fitting exoskeleton has electrodes that detect the electrical signals muscles emit when a person moves, automatically assisting in limb motions, making things easier to lift. Certainly a useful item for an airport’s staff, like baggage handlers.

This robot is your personal bag carrier, capable of ferrying over 400 pounds of goods.

Japan’s government actively funds robotics R&D, with aims to triple the nation’s robotics market to $US22 billion in the next six years, and is keen on showing off some impressive technology at Tokyo’s Summer Olympics in 2020. Meanwhile, more tourists are flocking to Japan now than at any point in the country’s history. Haneda Airport wants to knock international visitors’ socks off right out of the flight gate.

The Japan Times reported that Haneda’s operator, Japan Airport Terminal Co., stated that Haneda’s robotic trial runs aim to “communicate Japan’s technology from Haneda airport, a doorstep of Japan” to the world. Cyberdyne CEO Yoshiyuki Sankai told the Times that an airport is a perfect place to try out emerging tech like robots, because “an airport is actually a huge place, like a small town, so to speak.”

Cyberdyne and Haneda want to pioneer robot technology that’s used in airports, based on these initial robots’ performance. With any luck, I’ll soon have a few ‘bots to keep me company as I toss back $US8 beer in between flight delays.

The exoskeleton and two robots, whose multiple units will staff Haneda Airport this year.

[paulF]

Watch A MiG-23 Fighter Jet Fly Insanely Close To The Ground

If you were standing up straight, your head would be clipped off from this low pass from a fighter jet. That’s how close this Libyan MiG-23 is flying to the ground. The flyby is terrifyingly low and ridiculously fast and it is completely wild, especially considering how Libya only has a smattering of these jets and is in total chaos right now. So yeah. It’s crazy.

This has got to be the most insane flyby i have ever seen!!!

[MIKA27]

The Colossal New Transformers Devastator Is Better Than The Original

Remakes are supposed to be worse than the originals, right? Isn’t that the general rule of thumb that Hollywood has taught us? So how on earth did Hasbro’s new Combiner Wars Titan Class Devastator set actually turn out to be better than the original version many of us lusted over as kids?

That’s easy; the 60cm tall Combiner Wars Titan Class Devastator is the largest Transformers set ever made. And thanks to modern manufacturing techniques, Hasbro didn’t have to skimp on the detailing this time around. There are so many tiny features and details on the six Constructicon toys that assemble to form Devastator you could spend weeks just simply admiring the giant figure from afar.

But the new Devastator is also more articulated than the original version, and spending $US150 on the set, just to leave it sitting on a shelf, feels like a travesty. Despite all of its magnificent detailing, the new Combiner Wars Titan Class Devastator is first and foremost a toy. And transforming it, and the six Constructicons, will certainly bring back some of the fondest memories you have from your childhood — even if you were never able to convince your parents to buy you the original.

Devastator

The star of this set is obviously the towering Devastator figure. It embodies the old saying, ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,’ and that’s probably why Hasbro sells it fully assembled.

The version we played with was actually the San Diego Comic-Con special edition featuring a handful of select parts upgraded with a shiny chrome finish courtesy of a vacuum metallizing pass. The box it comes in is massive, and a hinged panel on the front opens to reveal the assembled figure inside behind a full-length plastic window. Even collectors are going to have a hard time leaving Devastator in its unopened, mint condition packaging.

What’s most surprising about the assembled Devastator figure is how articulated it is. The arms, hands, and legs can all be moved, rotated, and adjusted to create a variety of different poses. Many of the key joints that help keep Devastator standing also feature ratcheting mechanisms so they don’t give way under the weight of a 60cm tall figure, and the ‘clickety’ sound they make as they’re being adjusted is incredibly satisfying.

Even Devastator’s hands have a decent amount of articulation. The fingers all move as a single unit, they’re not individually hinged, but it still allows Devastator to make fists, grab objects, and hold its humongous blaster.

Devastator was actually the first Transformers toy — in North America at least — that did the whole combining trick. And while there were many that followed, Devastator was the only one to assemble from six similarly-sized vehicles. Later combiners used five vehicles instead, with one always being considerably larger than the rest since it was used to form the larger robot’s main torso.

Even to a ten-year-old kid that approach seemed a little like cheating, and it in turn made Devastator feel all the more special. You’ll actually notice that same five vehicle approach with the other recent Combiner Wars sets too. However, the new Titan Class Devastator features all six of the original Constructicons assembled the same way they did with the original set — and that’s just awesome.

Not surprisingly, even a 60cm tall toy robot made of plastic isn’t light. So Devastator’s feet, which might look a little flimsy, actually do a good job at supporting the fully-assembled figure — with the right pose. There were a handful of times when Devastator simply fell over when its balance wasn’t just right, but there’s enough articulation to ensure that it can often stand on its own two feet, with a heroic pose, for those rare moments when you’re not actually playing with it.

As awesome as the new Devastator is, though, the best part of buying a Combiner Wars set is that you’re not just getting one robot toy, you’re actually getting seven in this case. And Hasbro didn’t skimp when it came to the redesigns of the six new Constructicons either.

Long Haul

ong Haul, the dump truck, is the largest of the six Constructicons toys, and also the trickiest to transform. Most of the Constructicons could be transformed without having to reference an included step-by-step guide, you could just use photos of the robot and vehicle modes as reference. But Long Haul required a couple of peeks to figure out exactly how to get it from a dump truck to a Decepticon.

Having to look at the instructions did feel like a little bit of a defeat, but accidentally breaking the toy would have felt even worse.

So just how large are the new Constructicons toys? Here’s a couple of shots of Long Haul carrying an iPhone 5. Compared to the original Constructicons toys, the new versions are just as gigantic as the fully-assembled Devastator.

Mixmaster

Mixmaster, the cement truck, is the one Constructicon to really benefit from the SDCC special edition’s chrome upgrades. The actual mixing drum and the robot’s chest plates are extra shiny as a result, but that also means you need to be extra careful because the faux chrome finish can easily chip off, even with gentle play.

Bonecrusher

You can’t ask a parent with more than one child to choose their favourite, and it’s equally unfair to ask someone to choose their preferred Constructicon. But were I forced to make a Sophie’s Choice decision, Bonecrusher, the bulldozer, would definitely get the nod. It isn’t the largest or most articulated of the crew, but it was the first Constructicon toy I owned. And I still love how the tank treads transform into a pair of legs and feet.

Scavenger

I’m hesitant to describe any of the new Constructicons as disappointing. But Scavenger, the excavator, is kind of a let down in robot mode. As a vehicle it’s wonderfully detailed and includes an articulated digging arm, but its Decepticon mode feels a little on the flimsy side. When going into battle, you can probably expect to see Scavenger hanging back a little and letting the other Constructicons take the first blows.

Hook

Given how detailed all the new Constructicons toys are, it’s actually a little disappointing that the crane arm on Hook can’t actually extend, or rotate left and right. There obviously have to be some sacrifices in functionality made given the multiple forms each of these Transformers can take, but Hook can’t even serve as a decent tow truck should one of the other Constructicons break down.

It’s a good thing Devastator’s head is actually hidden inside Hook, otherwise it would have a hard time justifying its role alongside the other Constructicons during its yearly evaluation.

Scrapper

Despite some limited articulation when in robot mode, Scrapper, the front-end loader, is easily one of the best-looking Constructicons toys in both of its modes. The giant scoop up front has enough movement to actually be used for scooping up dirt, the toy is dead easy to transform, and you get some lovely shiny chrome upgrades on its chest plating. There’s a good reason Scrapper was one of the favourites amongst my grade school friends, and it still has what it needs to be the most popular again.

Ever since Takara Tomy and Hasbro started re-releasing Transformers figures many years ago (including the beautiful Masterpiece series) collectors have been wondering when Devastator would be next. It ended up taking quite a while for the Constructicons to return, but it was undoubtedly worth the wait.

Is the set worth $US150? That’s a hefty price tag compared to the original version, even when factoring in inflation. But the new Combiner Wars Titan Class Devastator is just so much better than the original ’80s version that it’s simply not a fair comparison. When fully assembled Devastator will tower over your other Transformers toys, and that’s the way it should be. It’s a gigantic robot assembled from six equally-massive construction vehicles, after all!

If we had to recommend a version, we’d probably suggest waiting for the standard set that will be hitting store shelves later this year. The San Diego Comic-Con special edition Devastator is certainly flashy with its shiny chrome accents, but you’ll probably be hesitant to ever take it out of the box given it will only be available in limited numbers. And if you don’t get a chance to actually hold, pose, and transform Devastator, you’ll simply be missing out on a wonderful bit of nostalgia. The ten-year-old version of you wouldn’t have hesitated to play with it, and neither should you.

[MIKA27]

Turn Your Car Into Knight Rider's K.I.T.T. With This Talking USB Charger

Remember that Flux Capacitor USB car charger that kind of turned your ride into the DeLorean from Back to the Future? If for some reason David Hasselhoff is more to your liking, there’s now an alternate version that will turn your vehicle into K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider isntead.

The charger is designed to look exactly like K.I.T.T.’s voice box from the original TV series, complete with flashing LEDs that stay perfectly synced to 11 different phrases it speaks. When plugged into a 12-volt power socket it unfortunately won’t make your ride look like a 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. But it will let you charge a couple of smaller mobile devices like smartphones from its pair of USB ports, so for $US30, available starting today, it’s more than just an awesome ’80s novelty.

[MIKA27]

These Long, Flowing Vortices Look Like Ribbons Tied To A Raptor

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor entered service almost 10 years ago, and it’s still one of the best fighter jets in the US Air Force. In this photo you can see its sophisticated silhouette and ribbons on its wingtips. Just joking; they’re actually vapour vortices behind the aircraft.

An F-22 Raptor from the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 199th Fighter Squadron increases altitude shortly after takeoff at Joint Base Pearl Harbour-Hickam, Hawaii, June 6, 2015. F-22 pilots from the 199th FS and 19th FS teamed up with maintenance Airmen from the 154th Wing and 15th Maintenance Group to launch and recover 62 Raptors that day.