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

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It's An Awkward Time To Be A Star Wars Fan

Star Wars is not a series of movies. It’s not a collection of interconnected stories. And it’s not a genre. Star Wars is instead a place, a universe, a setting for a series of movies and other interconnected stories.

Now, Star Wars is being refreshed, but it’s still Star Wars. While the events are different, the things are still the same. Same alien species, same ships, same planets.

Star Wars began as a film in 1977, though a novelization and comic adaptations of that original movie actually predated it. By early 1978, the Expanded Universe was off and running with the Star Wars comics by Marvel a huge success and Alan Dean Foster’s Splinter of the Mind’s Eye novel serving as a backdoor blueprint for a sequel that was never made — it told a story that was decidedly not The Empire Strikes Back. The Marvel comics continued well into the ’80s, and the real meat of the EU kicked off in 1991 with Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire. Hundreds of novels and comics and video games and 23 years later, Disney, upon purchasing LucasFilm and getting the ball rolling on a new sequence of movies, decided to wipe the slate clean on the Expanded Universe, leaving only the six previous films and the Clone Wars TV series as the basis for what is in effect a rebooted franchise.

The best Star Wars authors, whether it be in books, comics, TV or movies, knew that this galaxy is a lived-in place, and it has rules and a framework that they broadly operated within — it’s not really that different from writing fiction about our world. Those stories have since been erased from the timeline, but we still remember them. And the framework they established is still useful.

Leland Chee at LucasFilm has spent the last 15 years compiling a database of all the **** we’ve ever seen in Star Wars, and they’re holding onto as much of that stuff as they can. Because it’s by that stuff that we recognise Star Wars as Star Wars, even as we, the most hardcore of hardcore Star Wars nerds, venture into this unfamiliar territory.

Enter Aftermath, the first Star Wars novel set after the original trilogy in the new united continuity. Aftermath is part of, and the centrepiece of thus far, a new branded series of ancillary materials called The Journey to The Force Awakens. There’s a lot of ground to cover between movies (30 years or so), and having a title like “Aftermath” implies it will go after a good chunk of it.

It picks up some months after the destruction of the second Death Star and the deaths of Darth Vader and the Emperor, and purports to show us where things went from there — how the Rebel Alliance began to form a proper government, and how the Empire has begun to crumble now that its head has been chopped off, and what they’re doing to try to stave off an ultimate defeat.

This new piece of Star Wars lore tells a rather mundane story. It is effective in giving the reader a broad feel for the situation in the galaxy in the wake of the Battle of Endor, thanks mostly to a series of brief “interlude” chapters that hop around to various places to see how the changing political situation is affecting random folks. And the idea of some Imperial power players gathering for a secret meeting to figure out how to keep the Empire from falling apart is very intriguing. It’s also familiar, because the old Expanded Universe contained 15 years of stories about the Empire trying and failing to get its **** together.

But the main plot actually functions as an odd aping of the original Star Wars film (with a far less meaningful series of events), which is the sort of narrative that does not work after 38 years of storytelling in this universe. There’s a sentiment, coming from the sorts of people who don’t get the full scope of Star Wars, that Star Wars stories have to be a very specific sort of light and fun action/adventure/fantasy thing. Aftermath feels like the product of that idea. There’s no room for behind-the-scenes development or scheming — only high-scale, flashy adventures. But Star Wars exists in a universe with a thousand stories already told and a thousand more on the way. Authors creating new lore have to acknowledge that.

The latest chapter in Star Wars lore has another problem, and it’s an issue I’ve seen come up a number of times before: a lack of concern for the particulars of the universe that serve to ground the most hardcore fans even in unfamiliar territory. Aftermath is the very definition of “unfamiliar territory,” since it represents the first step forward in the rebooted Star Wars continuity.

One line, for instance, references a smuggler ship called the Moth, which carried protagonist Norra Wexley to Akiva, the planet on which most of Aftermath takes place: “Looks like a bog-standard smuggler, though. Flying a small Corellian freighter — an, ahh, let’s see, an MK-4.” This is, so far as I can tell, the first mention, ever, of a model MK-4 Corellian freighter. Wendig never describes what it looks like, nor does its classification imply that it would be similar to a familiar type of Corellian freighter. In fact, the classification “MK-4″ does not follow the naming conventions of any previously established types of Corellian ships, and there are a lot of previously established Corellian ships. The Millennium Falcon, by the way, is a modified YT-1300 Corellian light freighter — if you didn’t understand before why we might get weird about Corellian freighters, that might help explain it.

It seems like a small thing, but its effect is meaningful. The defunct old Expanded Universe canon is pretty well imprinted, and so moving forward in Star Wars fandom is always going to be uncomfortable to some degree as we try to understand the new order of things. There are ways to ease us through the transition, one of which would be to make liberal use of well-established terminology and ship types and whatever else is incidental to the story you’re trying to tell. There’s a ludicrous amount of that stuff in the archives, and so pulling from it whenever possible will make people feel more comfortable in this awkward time. Not doing so for no significant reason, on the other hand, is an easy way to make us uncomfortable.

Another line references existing lore in a way that betrays a lack of comprehension of it. “A Woman. Zabrak — or is it Dathomirian? Or Iridonian? He’s not sure of the distinction or if one even exists.” The distinction in race here isn’t important or even relevant to the story in Aftermath, just as it wouldn’t be meaningful for you to care what brand of white person I am. Since it doesn’t matter at all, that line just comes off as a weak attempt at fanwank that doesn’t really work because anybody who would know what all that means (fans of the Clone Wars show, mostly) would wonder why that line was even there.

This sort of issue has come up before, in two main instances: when Lucas Licensing first created the Expanded Universe continuity in the ’90s, and when the prequel films were released.

The prequels were bad. For people who aren’t like me — we’ll call them “normal” fans, no disrespect intended — that’s all it was. They were just massively disappointing and shitty. That’s a big deal, yes, but it could have been worse.

And it was worse for super-fans. To us, the prequels were an insult. Not an intentional one, probably. When writing the first new Star Wars films in a decade and a half, George Lucas did not set out to irritate his franchise’s most ardent fans. But irritate us he did, by not paying attention to the details as much as we did and still do.

The Expanded Universe, we had always been told, was Star Wars canon. To us, it defined Star Wars. It did so because it explored that place far more thoroughly than a trilogy of movies ever could. The movies will always be what brought us to this place, but these other stories kept us there. Most people just visited Star Wars. Fans that obsessed over the Expanded Universe lived there.

I suspect George didn’t quite understand what he’d unleashed when he created Star Wars, even decades later as he was collecting royalties on the sales of a hundred novels that carried its branding. And when he decided it was time to make new films, I’d guess he probably didn’t think it was a big deal to just write them however he felt like writing them, acting as if he had a blank slate to build on the original trilogy.

The situation back then was not quite what it is now with The Force Awakens and this new sequel trilogy. Whereas the period after the original films has been heavily mined with new material, the Expanded Universe steered clear of the period before the films, where George would place the inevitable prequel trilogy. So unlike in this new era, there was no grand declaration of a canon reboot ahead of Episode I. There was, however, the qualification that any material written by George himself would supercede any of the Expanded Universe stuff. That, of course, was to be expected.

Being nerds of the highest order, Star Wars fans were certainly not opposed to retcons should they come up. Nerd franchises of all sorts had always been rife with them, as had the Expanded Universe itself — a natural occurrence given how out of control the EU had been. Bantam Spectra’s handle on continuity was solid in the broad strokes but the sheer density of the release schedule meant there were constant discrepancies in the smaller details. Some authors just wanted to do their own thing and didn’t understand the world they were writing for. So we were used to seeing those discrepancies arise and later novels try to reconcile them or at least recontextualize them.

By the time the prequels came around, the folks monitoring the EU had gotten enough of a handle on it that such occurrences became rarer. The key to a workable retcon is that you know you’re doing a retcon. It felt as though when George wrote that Jedi weren’t allowed to have romantic entanglements or that Boba Fett was the cloned son of a guy named Jango, that he just didn’t know they contradicted the existing continuity.

I’ve read Aftermath, pored over some of the new Marvel comics, watched Star Wars Rebels. This is the first ever official Star Wars canon reboot and it will take time to adjust. But this new version of the world still hasn’t established an identity. Maybe the movies will make real progress in that direction — they will at least be something more tangible to grasp on to — but for now it feels like its stumbling through the darkness, not really understanding what it is. And since I did understand what it was, the uncertainty makes this awkward transition all the more awkward.

I still have some hope; JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy have said all the right things over the last couple years. But to look on the bright side: given the relatively tight handle the LucasFilm Story Group has on the new canon, it’s almost impossible to imagine anything on the horizon being as bad as The Crystal Star.

But never say never.

[MIKA27]

Limited Edition ‘Back to the Future’ Pepsi

We may be struggling with the whole working hoverboard thing, but Pepsi isn’t going to sit around and wait for other Back to the Future awesomeness to catch up. Coming later this month, Pepsi will release 6,500 bottles of “Pepsi Perfect,” a limited recreation of the soda Marty McFly consumed in the movie. The soda, which is regular Pepsi made with real sugar, will come in special packaging and sell for $20.15. You can try your hand at snagging a bottle when they get released online on Oct. 21.

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Sempli Monti Beer Glasses

Sempli, best known for their Cupa line of glasses that rotate on a point in the base, knows how to make a fantastic glass that also makes a statement. For the latest release, designer Daniele “Danne” Semeraro turned his keen eye to everyone’s favorite sudsy beverage. The Monti Taste Collection includes four different glasses—one for IPA, one for Pilsner, one for Pints, and one for 12oz bottles. This collection is specifically designed with a flat bottom and convex interior (the first Sempli has produced) to enhance the effervescence of carbonated beverages. Short of popping the top on a wax-coated whale, this is the coolest you can look while drinking beer. The lead free crystal glasses come in two packs based on style, or a four glass tasting set that includes one of each.

[MIKA27]

The Trailer for Martin Scorsese’s New HBO Drama, ‘Vinyl’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBPQ0v86BUA

If you thought The Wolf of Wall Street was Scorsese’s last drug-fueled epic, perhaps you should flip on HBO this coming January. Vinyl, from Scorsese, Terence Winter and Mick Jagger, is going to drop you right into the heart of the New York music scene of the 70s. And yes, there will be sex, drugs and rock’n’roll aplenty. Here’s the first full trailer for the coming series.

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Gunpowder Finishing Salt

Gunshow is a restaurant in Atlanta with a rotating weekly menu that includes everything from BBQ spiced pork belly and pan-seared flounder to a dish with duck three ways called “Duck, Duck, Duck.” After years of experience in the Gunshow kitchen, chefs Kevin Gillespie and Joey Ward poured their knowledge into the creation of Gunpowder Finishing Salt. With a blend of Hawaiian volcanic salt, chipotle, black pepper, garlic, onion, sumac and some other secret ingredients, the tangy spice mix with smoky, residual heat is the perfect finishing touch for “grilled meats, fried foods, barbecue or any foods lacking deliciousness.” It also looks like gunpowder and comes in a cool 5oz container that’s sure to have your guests wondering what you’re cooking with. [Purchase]

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$36 Million Worth of Cars Were Wrecked in the Making of the New Bond Film

We don’t know how much Spectre, the coming installment in the Bond series, will make, but we hope it’s a lot because they have a bill on their hands to the tune of $36,000,000. Okay, so they don’t actually have to pay all of that, but they did destroy quite an expensive collection of cars in the process of making Spectre.

The seven specially designed Aston Martin DB10s that were sent to the scrapheap alone are enough to make any car enthusiast teary-eyed. The film, which is the most expensive Bond movie ever produced, hits theaters on November 6. Car fans should bring tissues.

[MIKA27]

SUUNTO TRAVERSE WATCH

Capable enough for the trail, handsome enough to wear everyday. The Suunto Traverse Watch offers outdoor-ready features like GPS and GLONASS navigation, altitude, distance, weather alerts, and automatic breadcrumbs that can help you on your next adventure. And when you're back to your daily routine, it tracks your daily steps and calorie count, and works with the Suunto Movescount app to push calls, texts, and notifications to your wrist. It's made in Finland, with a composite case, stainless steel bezel, and silicone strap, and is available in black, white, graphite, or amber.

[MIKA27]

Blame the Fans for Loki Getting Cut Out of Avengers: Age of Ultron

On a list of the best things to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Tom Hiddleston’s portray of Loki has to be near the top. Over multiple movies, the adopted brother of Thor has wreaked havoc on Earth and Asgard but was sadly absent from Avengers: Age of Ultron. That wasn’t always the case, though.

Hiddleston did shoot a scene for the sequel, but director Joss Whedon and producer Kevin Feige decided to cut it. Why? Well, the actor told explained to Digital Spy.

And here’s the quote if you can’t watch the video:

I was part of the dream sequence for the character of Thor. I shot for a day and enjoyed it very much, and then I received a phone call from Kevin Feige [who] said that in test screenings, audiences had overemphasized Loki’s role. They thought that because I was in it, I was controlling Ultron, and it was actually imbalancing people’s expectations so Joss and Kevin were like, ‘Let’s cut it because it’s confusing people.’… It made sense to me when I saw that film.

That kind of makes sense. Obviously Ultron wasn’t being controlled by Loki and you’d hope people would understand those sequences weren’t actually happening. But Loki has been such a prominent presence in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his appearance could definitely be a distraction. Especially since, at the end of the film, Thor kind of suggests a larger power has been behind all the previous events.

Either way, we haven’t seen the last of Loki. We don’t know exactly when we’ll see him next, but after his surprising twist in Thor: The Dark World, Thor: Ragnarok seems like a good bet. That’ll be out July 28, 2017, and directed by Taika Waititi.

[MIKA27]

REVO SUPERSYSTEM

Home audio devices are at a point where technological differences between various systems are negligible, nearly to a point where their technical specs are indistinguishable from one another. With this being the case, design is playing an increasing role in the choices we make for the technology that fills our home, which is why the Revo SuperSystem caught our eye.

This speaker system expertly blends a traditional look with modern capabilities, sporting an eye-catching aesthetic that sets it apart from the other devices on the market. As far as the technological side of things, it uses UNDOK technology to allow users to wirelessly beam their music from the iOS or Android devices to the speaker, filling the walls of their home with their favorite music. It also uses Bluetooth with aptX to deliver CD quality streaming from any of your devices. It’s available now for $835. [Purchase]

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ELECTRIC GI FLYBIKE

One of the biggest problems with electric bikes is that their frames are big — at least, big enough so that you won’t want to have to find a secure space to store it when you’re not using it. Now, there’s an e-bike that folds in half in just one second.

It’s called the Gi Flybike, and it aims to transform the way millions of people commute around the world every day. With just one swooping motion, the bike folds down to half its size. It lasts for 40 miles on a single charge, and has puncture proof tires. The electric bike also has an integrated bike lock, so you won’t have to worry if you left yours at home. It also has integrated rear lights and a smart headlight. It’s currently available for pre-order on Kickstarter with an early backer price of $1,990, with an estimated delivery set for June 2016. [Purchase]

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IGLOO PARTY BAR

Igloo Coolers have introduced the ultimate party cooler, the Igloo Party Bar. The heavy duty cooler is heavily insulated and features a removable lid, drink dividers, locking casters, a drain plug, integrated bottle opener, heavy duty handles, handy utility loops, and best of all - LED lights that provide 360-degree interior lighting, letting thirsty guests find what they want quickly, and allowing the party to continue when the sun goes down.

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Badass Historical Chemists: Locusta

Locusta was one of the first recorded professional chemists. She was employed by several royal Romans, and even established a school for other chemists. Here’s why it was best not to piss off either her or her students.

Although Locusta was one of history’s great chemists, and lived in the relatively well-recorded first century AD, we don’t know much about her work. This is because her focus, practically-speaking, was poisons. And she was good at her job. Well-known, to those who knew who to ask, she made a great connection when she helped a noble woman named Agrippina, who had a very inconvenient husband. Locusta helped her dispatch him, and go on to a very convenient one — Claudius, the emperor of Rome and Agrippina’s uncle. When he eventually also became inconvenient (by possibly leaving the rule of Rome to his biological son, Britannicus, rather than Agrippina’s son, Nero) Locusta supplied a dish of poisoned mushrooms.

Locusta then switched bosses, working for Nero, who had her get rid of Britannicus. At this point, it was obvious to the royals that it paid to have the best poisoner in Rome on their side. With Nero’s help, Locusta set up a school for poisoners. At the school, Locusta and her students made new poisons, gauged their strength by testing them on humans and animals, and did research on how to detect poisons in food, wine, or embedded in material.

It’s a shame that no records of Locusta’s research survive, as they certainly would make interesting reading. To this day, scholars try to figure out what poisons she used, and which rich and famous Romans fell victim to them. Some people believe that she killed Britannicus with cyanide, but beyond that the best anyone can do is speculate that she used plant-based poisons, instead of the more well-known arsenic.

Alas, Locusta’s career as a semi-public poisoner-for-hire was doomed. She’d been condemned and awaiting execution several times, only to be saved by some royal who had a use for her. When Nero fell, so did she. Nero’s successor, Galba, sentenced her to death, and this time it took. She died in approximately 68 AD.

[MIKA27]

Over 90,000 Australian Vehicles Affected By Volkswagen Emissions Scandal

Own a recent diesel Golf, Polo, Skoda Octavia or one of a variety of Audis? Your engine could be producing a lot more harmful emissions than it should. Volkswagen has made a tool available online so owners can check if their cars is affected.

While many of the 90,000 are commercial vehicles, there are still around 55,000 passenger cars producing extra pollution.

The main cars facing a recall are 2009 to 2013 Golfs, 2009 to 2014 Polos, 2009 to 2013 Skoda Octavias and a range of Audi vehicles such as the Q5.

You can check your vehicle online via the Volkswagen tool.

If your car is one of the unlucky ones, you don’t have to do anything just yet and you can keep driving it.

Volkswagen has said, all affected vehicles are safe and able to be driven. As soon as the technical solutions to service the vehicles are identified and available in the various markets, all customers will be notified by Volkswagen Group Australia.

We reached out to the NRMA for their comment on the issues. They are concerned with the delay in Volkswagen providing information, and the potential for a delay into next year for the recall.

“Volkswagen has not met expectations and customers have lost trust. They need to work hard to rebuild trust by ensuring the recall happens as openly, yet quickly and smoothly as possible”.

The whole shemozzle came to light when university testing of diesel cars found that certain models produced a lot more emissions than they should.

It turns out that the car’s engine management software was turning on emissions controls for testing, but leaving it off for normal driving.

While bad for the environment, the reason behind this choice was to improve engine performance, reliability and reduce fuel consumption.

Worse, unless Volkswagen comes up with a clever solution, recalled and ‘repaired’ cars are likely to see significantly higher fuel consumption and potential ongoing maintenance costs.

Volkswagen has said that a recall could begin at the start of 2016 and take all year.

Australia is not that affected compared to other countries, with 11 million vehicles around the world with the cheating software.

Volkswagen faces what could be billions of dollars of fines, not to mention a lot of angry customers (and no doubt lawsuits) if the recall results in lower performance and worse fuel consumption.

[MIKA27]

The First Private Mission To The Moon Is Planned To Launch In 2017

A private team from Israel has become the first to secure a launch contract to loft a rover into space and, with any luck, on to the moon in the second half of 2017.

SpaceIL has signed a deal with California-based Spaceflight Industries which will see it launch its craft aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launcher. The deal is the first verified launch contract to be made by any of the teams competing in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, which promises $41.6 million to the first private organisation to land on the moon.

SpaceIL’s craft won’t be alone in the Falcon 9, though. It will sit in a capsule shared by a selection of satellites that aren’t headed to the moon. When the containing capulse separates, SpaceIL’s craft will be released and it will use “advanced navigation sensors to guide it to the lunar surface, with engineers in a mission control room standing by to remotely send commands and corrections as needed.”

If SpaceIL achieves the feat, it won’t be the only first it manages. Only three countries have ever landed a rover on the Moon: the United States, Russia, and China. If its attempt succeeds, you could add Israel to the list.

SpaceIL, a non-profit, is largely funded by private donors, who have so far contributed $69 million to its cause. Winning the XPRIZE may be somewhat of a help, then. To actually achieve that, the team — or one of the other hopefuls — must land their craft on the moon, explore at least 500 meters of its surface, and then transmit high-definition video and images back to Earth. By December 31st 2017. It looks like they’re cutting it fine.

[MIKA27]

Watch A Fighter Jet Land On The Middle Of A Highway Road

Here’s really cool footage of a Swedish Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighter jet landing on a road in Finland. The Aviationist says both Finnish and Swedish aircraft were conducting a military force exercise at the Rovaniemi Air Base and on the strip of road. There are also pictures of the planes taking off from the road too.

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Proof That The Sky Is Both A Magical Being And A Terrifying Force Of Nature

My favourite parts of Mike Olbinski’s Monsoon II isn’t the terrifying bits where the sky turns evil dark monster and decides to pour lightning and strike water down onto the ground but when it dances around like a balletic being and then notices that we’re watching and moves its clouds so it envelopes us all. What a world to look up to.

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SCRIMSHAW KNIFE KIT

The Scrimshaw Knife Kit by Mollyjogger is an all inclusive package to try your hand at scrimshaw etching – a unique art form that began during the heyday of the whaling era of the 1700s.

This kit contains a 4 1/8” Trapper Knife, a hardened steel scribe, 1/2 dram of India ink, a bamboo tracing tool, carbon paper, fine steel wool, ink applicators, step by step instructions and sample graphics.

[MIKA27]

Russia Ramps Up WWIII Talk

Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov invited a few friends to celebrate his capital city, Grozny, and his own birthday on Monday. Among them were the leader of Russian-annexed Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, and the Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum. They pushed a button that sent aloft huge jets of water—supposedly “the world’s biggest fountain”—illuminated in brilliant colors. And that might have seemed benign enough.

But there was about the scene, many viewers thought, an uneasy sense of foreboding—the kind of thing some historian of the future will use to crystallize a moment that leads to disaster, like, say, the opening of Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August, about the beginning of World War I. It starts with the spectacular royal funeral of England’s Edward VII in 1910, noting in hindsight that the event marked the sunset of one historical era and the beginning of horrible unknowns. As one participant wrote: “All the old buoys which have marked the channel of our lives have been swept away.”

What bothered many independent observers and commentators in Russia was that Kadyrov had another much less benign occasion than his birthday to mark: Earlier this month he had said that if Moscow let him send his militias to Syria, “Then we’d celebrate.” On Monday the Russian Duma acknowledged that Russian “volunteer soldiers” would go to war in Syria. So Kadyrov will have a chance to show off what the 20,000 well-trained soldiers in his militia can do.

The message of Kadyrov and the official pro-Kremlin press was relatively simple, and not unlike the refrain of the Bush administration more than a decade ago: “We’re fighting the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here.” Or, as Vladimir Soloviyov, a leading commentator on Rossia-1 TV, told his audience, Syria is less than 1,000 kilometers from the Russian frontier: “This is not some faraway conflict. Once finished with Syria, Islamists will come after us.”

Even Russian audiences with little idea what jihad might mean, and virtually no concept of Shia versus Sunni, much less the Alawite Assad regime versus the self-proclaimed “caliphate,” could grasp that basic idea.

But as Russia puts more soldiers’ boots on the ground and more warplanes in the air, the Kremlin has created serious tensions with several countries.

On Monday Russia angered NATO by violating Turkish airspace twice. NATO condemned Russia for “the extreme danger of such irresponsible behavior.” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Russia's bombing campaign in Syria was a “grave mistake,” that Putin’s strategy was unacceptable for Turkey.

The potential risks to Russia came out only in the independent media. Over the weekend, radio and online discussions were devoted to the historical preambles that led up to global conflagrations: World War I, World War II, relating them to the potential consequences of the current airstrikes in Syria.

The radio station Echo of Moscow invited historians, journalists, and politicians to comment on a joint statement by France, Germany, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Britain, and the United States calling on Russia to stop bombing Syrian rebels and focus airstrikes on the so-called Islamic State, or ISIS.

Satirist Victor Shenderovich said he was convinced that the Kremlin needed the Syria news as an opiate for the masses, to make the public forget internal issues. “War in Syria is a perfect picture: explosions, airplanes,” said Shenderovich. “These are very exciting scenes to watch: Our MiG and Su planes bombing everything makes people feel a bit more confident about their attitude to life, so that they do not want to check what they have in the fridge.”

Vladimir Ryzhkov, a politician and historian, told The Daily Beast that “to prevent World War III, it is important to understand the mechanisms of escalation, of mistrust in conflicts—without understanding the mechanisms, we won’t be able to avoid the repetition of historical events.”

Russians have been concerned for generations about a potential nuclear conflict with the United States—the older generation has a vivid memory of the Cold War threat, and nobody wants a nuclear disaster.

“Russian politicians have a strong inferiority complex up against the United States, which was partly compensated for by the Crimea operation and military exercises with China,” said Ryzhkov. “That is a psychological compensation and hopefully a prophylactic preventing World War III.”

Russian political analyst Yulia Latynina doubts that the intelligence union of Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Russia will be successful. “We got involved in a war that even theoretically cannot bring us any victory,” Latynina said on Echo of Moscow.

[MIKA27]

NISSAN CONCEPT 2020 VISION GT ‘FIRE KNIGHT RED’

Nissan originally gave us a preview of their Concept 2020 Vision Gran Turismo last year, rolling it out as a DLC pack for Gran Turismo 6, and now we get our first look at the same stunning vehicle in Fire Knight Red.

It turns out the Japanese auto maker will be unveiling a real-life version of the supercar at the upcoming Tokyo Motor Show, and if it’s anything like the one the video game (the AWD model that’s powered by a twin-turbo V6 paired with three motors), expect this thing to be absolutely insane. While we don’t know any specifics at this time, many are already speculating that the real-life concept may be a precursor for the upcoming GT-R. Expect the curtain to be pulled back on October 29th.

[MIKA27]

Sunglasses Made From Kentucky Bourbon Barrels

Bourbon & Boots has a new product that perfectly fits with their namesake and their old South passion—polarized sunglasses made from used white oak Kentucky bourbon barrels. The Wayfarer-style glasses have a smoke tint with 100% UV protection, polarized lenses and a double-hinged construction for a snug fit. Each pair comes with a certificate of authenticity that indicates the brand of bourbon barrel that was used to make your fancy new shades, and they’re packaged in a custom oak case for protection and storage. These might just be the tastiest sunglasses you’ve ever put on your face… even if you can’t drink them. [Purchase]

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BANG & OLUFSEN BEOLAB 90 SPEAKERS - ONE CAN DREAM!

They look like they're from the future. They sound like it too. Bang & Olufsen's Beolab 90 Speakers use a crazy array of 18 Scan-Speak loudspeakers placed in specific locations and directions paired with 14 ICEpower and four class D amplifiers — for a total of 8200 watts — to deliver strikingly clear, lifelike sound. The insane 360-degree design and Active Room Compensation technology deliver fantastic sound no matter where the speakers are placed, or you can use the Beam Width and Direction control to place the sound precisely where you want it. You can save your settings as presets in the companion app, and can also have them automatically pulled up via a B&O TV or by connected devices, most of which likely cost far less than these.

[MIKA27]

PRAISE THE PIG

You could argue that bacon is that the height of its popularity, but there is way more to enjoy from the pig than just the crispy strips we crave. Praise the Pig: Loin to Belly, Shoulder to Ham--Pork-Inspired Recipes for Every Meal puts a focus on all things pig, with this cookbook dedicated to loads of delectable pork dishes. Learn how to shop for the right parts of the pig and then make them part of breakfast, lunch, dinner, or snack time. Over 50 recipes are featured, helping you discover just how versatile this famous meat can be.

[MIKA27]

Past And Future Collide In This Gorgeous ISS Photo Of Athens

This web of lights is one of the most ancient cities in the world, seen from 400km above the Earth. Athens, Greece, is the ancient home of Plato and Aristotle, but in this photo taken from the International Space Station, it’s a sprawling modern metropolis.

Cosmonaut Sergey Volkov posted this image from his Twitter account yesterday.

People have lived in Athens for at least 9,000 years, and today it is home to about 3 million. About 3,000 years ago, Athens was one of the most powerful city-states in ancient Greece — a center of trade, philosophy, and art. Today, remnants of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art and architecture exist alongside modern life.

[MIKA27]

Just About Every Surface Inside Nissan's Concept Car Is A Screen Display

Seats, headrests, the entire dashboard — these are just some of the surfaces Nissan is covering with screen displays in their new concept car. We’re already glued to phones and computers already, so why not fry our eyes in front of pixels as car passengers, as well?

This concept car from Nissan is called “Teatro for Dayz,” and will debut at the 44th annual Tokyo Motor Show, which kicks off October 30. It’s just a concept car, so it’s not anything that’s actually happening — for now, at least. It’s just supposed to get us thinking about what cars in the future could look like.

Yokohama-based Nissan said in a press release: “Designed especially for the digital native generation, this vision of near-future vehicles departs from convention and marks a shift in perception.” When the car is in drive mode, a bunch of useful displays pop up on a white surface. But when the car’s parked, nearly every flat surface lights up like a technicolor acid trip in a Ford-era discotheque.

Nissan says that the driver can hide unnecessary information on the screen and adjust the size of displays like gauges and maps. In park mode, the colours and designs of the displays are fully customisable, as seen below. There are even LED screens on the outside of the vehicle that broadcast your creativity to fellow motorists. The idea is for the car to be “a versatile tool for creativity like a smartphone.”

My life is 90% screens at this point anyway. Up next: LED shower curtains?

[MIKA27]

The Fly That Wants to Be a Bee

A bee or not a bee – that is the question when you get buzzed by a newly-discovered species of fly that looks very much like a bee. To add a little more sting to this new fly, it’s the first insect species to be classified using only high-resolution photographs and not dead specimens.

Discovered by Drs. Stephen A. Marshall from the University of Guelph in Canada, and Neal Evenhuis from the Bishop Museum in Hawaii, the rare bee fly known as Marleyimyia xylocopae is native to South Africa and looks strikingly like a carpenter bee (Xylocopa flavicollis).

A carpenter bee

According to their study published this week in Zookeys, Marshall took the high-resolution photographs of the bee fly and Evenhuis used them to determine it was a new species – one of only three bee flies of the genus Marleyimyia and the only one that isn’t nocturnal.

Why did this fly evolve into a doppelganger of a carpenter bee? Marshall and Evenhuis haven’t figured that out yet. It could be a form of Batesian mimicry (often seen in butterflies and named for English naturalist Henry Walter Bates) where a species takes on the looks of a poisonous or menacing species to scare away predators. It could also be a parasitic trick to fool carpenter bees for some purpose – like eating their food or their eggs. That determination requires further analysis.

An example of Batesian mimicry

And probably some dead flies. The decision to allow Marleyimyia xylocopae to be declared a new species based solely on photographs was controversial among entomologists. A two-dimensional photo – even in high definition – cannot show odd colorations or shapes. Since a picture can’t be dissected or placed under a microscope, it can’t be analyzed to identify or clarify traits that might answer questions like why this fly looks like a bee. A video, a dead specimen or a living bee are obviously needed.

Or are they? What if it’s the last of its species? Do we really need to name everything? Do we really need to kill everything?