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

[MIKA27]

BANDIT9 LIMITED-EDITION PANTHER

We can’t resist a blacked out bike, especially when it’s given a cool name. Thus is the case with the Bandit9 Panther, a limited-edition motorcycle so blissfully black that it looks like it belongs to Bruce Wayne.

The bike is based on a 2012 Triumph Bonneville T100, and it has been heavily modified from the stock version. It has custom tail and brake lights, aluminum hand guards, and a modified frame. The exhaust also saw some changes, with a new muffler replacing the stock muffler. Of course, everything is painted a solid black, giving it a delightfully dark look all-around. There are only 9 units manufactured, and it will run you $19,000. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

VICTORINOX INOX PARACORD WATCH

Not all watches are made equally, but sometimes you want to place more focus on durability than the actual look of a watch. But with the I.N.O.X. Paracord watch, you don’t have to sacrifice style.

It is equipped with a special Naimakka paracord bracelet that’s hand woven from genuine American made parachute cord — the same cord that is approved by the army to save lifes. So, you can believe that it is highly durable. It also makes for a versatile survival tool. The watch has the time and date on its face, and is water resistant up to 200 meters deep. It has up to 8 tons of pressure resistance. It’s also drop resistant, as it won’t break from a drop of up to 10 meters. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

CONVERSE CHUCK TAYLOR ALL STAR QUILTED PACK

The classic Chuck Taylor is a shoe that will literally never go out of style, but to help keep things relevant and fresh, the Nike-owned footwear label consistently drops new iterations of the popular silhouette. Introducing the Converse All Star Quilted Pack.

This time around, we see the beloved sneakers draped in a quilted nylon upper that’s been lined with fleece to help keep your feet warm for the colder months that lie ahead. The sneaker will be offered up in your choice of red, white and black in a low-top version, along with a high-top version in either blue or grey. All the color options feature tonal stitching throughout the upper, a set of blacked waxed laces, and contrasting white midsoles. The shoe just started hitting select Converse retailers this week.

[MIKA27]

Shark Jaw Bottle Opener

There are times when you want to tear into a cold one like a ravenous beast. That’s why there’s the Shark Jaw Bottle Opener. The heavy metal bottle opener allows you to sink some teeth into your delicious prey while keeping your chompers intact. With its gold finish and sturdy design, the Shark Jaw Bottle Opener is not only more interesting than your average bottle opener, it will last longer, too. Drop a set on your home bar for the next time you smell beer in the water.

[MIKA27]

HOTEL FASANO PUNTA DEL ESTE

The striking design of its individual guest bungalows could be anywhere. The main lobby and restaurants suggest Tuscany. Yet Hotel Fasano Punta del Este is set just minutes from the Uruguayan shoreline. The luxury hotel offers two sizes of accommodation, both of which offer private terraces, limestone bathrooms, and living quarters with sofas. Three restaurants offer varying levels of formality and Italian fare, the full-service spa offers everything from heated indoor pools to multi-day detox therapy, and should you be looking for something more vigorous, there are plenty of sporting opportunities nearby.

[MIKA27]

MIDLETON DAIR GHAELACH WHISKEY

Makers of famed Irish whiskies like Jameson and Green Spot for decades, Midleton Distillery aren't afraid to experiment as well. Midleton Dair Ghaelach Whiskey is a prime example, as it's the first from the distillery to be aged in native Irish oak before bottling. The juice is a combination of whiskey aged 15 to 22-years-old that was first aged in bourbon casks before being transferred to Irish oak hogshead. It's bottled at 116.2 proof, and each bottle can be traced to one of 10 130-year-old Irish oak trees.

[MIKA27]

The Glorious Poster For Star Wars: The Force Awakens Has A Giant Planet Killer On It

The official one-sheet poster for Star Wars: The Force Awakens just dropped, and it’s glorious. It’s also loaded with new details, including our first glimpse of the rumored planet-killer superweapon.

The new poster features the new characters that we know of so far: Kylo Ren, Captain Phasma, Poe Dameron, Rey, Finn, BB-8 and Maz Kanataand, as well as classic characters such as Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO. Conspicuously missing? Luke Skywalker.

Here’s the full, high resolution poster:

The really cool reveal here is the new Superweapon, which looks similar to the original Death Star. Could this be Starkiller Base? And, if that’s the case, will the First Order’s station do as advertised and kill stars? We’ll likely get some inkling before too long.

In addition to the poster, Starwars.com confirmed that we’ll be getting a new trailer tomorrow night during Monday Night Football, and outlines some exclusives that fans will be able to pick up at a bunch of theater chains.

[MIKA27]

Happy 30th Birthday, Nintendo Entertainment System

On October 18, 1985 Nintendo of America took a huge gamble, releasing a console into a North American market that seemed to have washed its hands of video games completely. Thirty years later those hands are filthier than ever.

While Nintendo’s Family Computer (Famicom) system enjoyed massive success in Japan following its 1983 launch, getting a video game system launched in North America following the video game crash that same year was proving nigh impossible. Nintendo of America president (and husand to the daughter of Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauch) Minoru Arakawa spent a couple of years looking for buyers or partners for distributing the new console but came up empty.

But company leadership refused to let Arakawa throw in the towel. Instead they sent an initial shipment of 100,000 Nintendo Entertainment Systems to the U.S. and had Arakawa and his team hold a limited launch event in the country’s toughest market—New York City.

It was definitely tough. Retailers didn’t want to sell the things—didn’t think they could, even with the cool light gun and silly robot setting it apart from previous game consoles. It was only due to a desperate deal by Nintendo that the systems showed up in stores at all. The company allowed retailers to stock the units for free, only paying for the units that sold.

Between the official launch date through the holiday season the console sold...well enough. Reports put the holiday 1985 sales numbers between 50,000 and 90,000 units—enough that the test markets would expand to other cities in early 1986, leading to a country-wide release later that year.

The entire story of what was basically a Japanese invasion and resurrection of a dead market is told comprehensively in David Sheff’soutstanding book “Game Over: How Nintendo Conquered the World,” required reading for anyone serious about video game history.

Long story short, the U.S. said “No thanks,” Nintendo said, “No, we insist,” and the rest is legend.

And here we are, 30 years later, enjoying the fruits of Nintendo’s insistence more than ever before.

MIKA: One of my favourite consoles - Timeless

[MIKA27]

Vin Diesel reveals Fast & Furious 8 will be set in New York

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Fast & Furious franchise. After months of searching, the eighth film in the increasingly bonkers saga finally found itself a director in F. Gary Gray, and now it has a confirmed location: New York City.

The news was confirmed by star Vin Diesel during an appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s talk show, with the actor revealing the next film will be set in "New York, baby!" It’s the first time the series has upped sticks to the East Coast, having spent the last few outings globetrotting from Rio to London.

The traffic-laden, skyscraper-hugging streets of the Big Apple should lend themselves perfectly to the series’ signature brand of vehicular mayhem, and we fully expect to see Diesel driving a tank off the top of the Empire State Building at some point in the film. Directed by Gray, Fast & Furious 8 will open on April 14 2017.

[MIKA27]

Apollo and Space Shuttle pioneer George Mueller dies

It's a sad week for space travel: acclaimed NASA administrator George Mueller (shown at right) has died at the age of 97. He was only with the agency for six years, but he's well-known for instituting key oversight changes that helped the Apollo program reach the Moon on time -- he insisted on testing complete launch systems rather than individual parts, for example. Moreover, his legacy extends well beyond that short stint. Mueller advanced initial designs for the Skylab space station, and is widely considered the "father" of the Space Shuttle thanks to his advocacy and early work. He may not be as famous as some astronauts or scientists, but his efforts reverberate throughout NASA's history. He'll be missed.

[MIKA27]

What Wiped Out Three Quarters Of Ancient Greece?

One of the great early civilizations collapsed in a mere fifty years, with 75% of the population disappeared a century later. What the hell happened to ancient Greece?

When we think of ancient Greece, we typically think of robes and columns and people inventing democracy. That’s fine, but it arguably involves people who weren’t originally Greek. The classical age of Greece came after most of mainland Greece was populated by northern tribes. Whether these tribes came to the area as part of an invasion or a migration is up to the historians. What’s certain is they weren’t the first great civilisation there.

That distinction belongs to the Mycenaean civilisation of the late Bronze Age. Now, to be fair, the Mycenaeans had already toppled an empire, the Minoans, but they had replaced it with an empire of their own. In 1500 BC, they ran their empire from Crete, but had far-flung settlements. They lived in well-built palaces which they decorated with bronze and ceramic art. They had a complicated trade network, shipping staples, such as grain, and specialty products, such as perfumed oils, all over the Mediterranean. They even went exploring. Around 1300 BC, their ships were still crossing the ocean with cargo from Cyprus, Canaan, Egypt, and Anatolia.

But by 1200 BC, their palaces were destroyed, their major cities were abandoned, and most of their technology seems to have been forgotten. By 1100 BC, 75% of their population had disappeared.

How did the accomplishments, knowledge, and population of one of the great powers of its time disappear?

The first sign that something was wrong came in 1250 BC, when many great cities suddenly started strengthening their outer walls. We don’t know who they were trying to defend themselves from, but it didn’t seem to do any good. Fifty years later, most large cities were in ruins.

Some historians speculate that the “Sea Peoples” may have been involved. These aggressive boat people show up in Egyptian records around 1200 BC. They could have been the people who brought the walls down in Mycenae or they could have been the refugees fleeing from their ruined cities. We don’t know.

From about 1185 onwards, there were grain shortages in the agricultural areas of the trade network. If even the farmers were going hungry, a city, newly-destroyed, and with only luxury goods to sell might have suffered famines that would deplete the population, or convince everyone to move out on in search of food. And some people believe that it was the Dorians themselves who crushed the Mycenaean civilisation and drove out its people.

Perhaps the most unsettling conclusion is that it was no one thing. Empires rise and fall. Technology flourishes and is forgotten. A spell of bad luck can wipe out an entire civilisation.

[MIKA27]

Can You Solve The Creepy Crypto-Puzzle That's Consuming The Internet?

There’s a sinister cryptographic puzzle sweeping the Internet, with forums abuzz with people trying to decode the clues held within a creepy video. Can you help work out what it all means?

The whole thing started when Johny from GadgetZZ.com posted a video online from a CD he received in the mail. The disc had nothing but an alpha-numeric string written on the front, but when he popped it into a computer (which was, uh, brave), it turned out to contain a video. A very creepy video, which people have since found on YouTube. It’s pretty weird, so brace yourself if you watch it below.

It shows someone dressed in robes and what appears to be a mask with a bill, a little like the ones worn by doctors during the black death. There appears to be a blinking light in his hand, along with a torturous soundtrack — which also seems to contain hidden information, using a technique known as steganography.

Indeed, some folks have already been looking at the audio track in a spectrogram, which shows the variations in frequency content over time. And there are some weird messages hidden in there, like the one at the top of the page and the one just below. There also some NSFW images hidden in the sound’s frequency content, that seem to show a woman being tortured.

There’s a Reddit string where people are contributing their insights about what they can find in the video. So far, people have identified GPS co-ordinates of the White House, a morse code message that translates to ‘RED LIPSLIFE TENTH’, and a binary string that says”You have one year or less” in Spanish all hidden in there or in associated data.

It’s impossible to say if the puzzle is some kind of artwork, a genuine threat, or an incredibly elaborate publicity stunt at the moment. But the Internet is no doubt going to try and work it out.

[MIKA27]

How Neurosurgeons Can Now Look At Your Brain Through Your Eyes

For many years scientists have been trying to find a way to measure the pressure in a patient’s brain without having to drill a hole in the person’s skull. Although this remains the most reliable way to measure pressure in the brain it is invasive, expensive and comes with the risk of infection and bleeding.

Assessing pressure inside the brain is an important part of diagnosing certain neurosurgical conditions. These include brain tumours, cranial deformities, traumatic brain injury and infection.

Several years ago ultrasound imaging technology, which uses an ultrasound probe over the eye, was introduced as a non-invasive method to identify this pressure using static imaging. But although it allows neurosurgeons to assess most cases of pressure inside the brain, static ultrasound imaging does not pick up all the cases.

Our study, to be published soon, has advanced the current static imaging method. Our technique involves analysing a short video clip of the back of the eye to mark pressure in the brain. It is a faster and potentially more accurate way than the existing technique.

There are limited statistics about children with neurosurgical disorders in Africa, but the number of children with hydrocephalus is thought to be quite high. Hydrocephalus is the result of a build up of fluid pressure which compresses the brain and causes the skull to enlarge. Untreated, it could result in death.

A reliable technique to estimate the pressure on the brain therefore needs to be very accurate.

Using sound waves to see the brain

The eye is directly linked to the brain by the optic nerve which sits at the back of the eyeball. It delivers the visual information collected by the retina to the brain. The optic nerve sheath is a balloon shaped structure. As pressure in the brain builds up fluid from the brain is forced along this sheath. It dilates this sheath in the same way that a balloon is inflated.

The optic pathway therefore allows us to extract important information from the brain using non-invasive imaging techniques. Recent advances in ultrasound imaging technology have made it a very appealing tool to assess raised pressure inside the skull. The use of ultrasound in neurosurgery is most appealing because it is radiation-free, portable, widely available and relatively cheap.

The way the technique works is that the ultrasound probe is placed over the closed eye allowing us to see the deeper optic structures as they connect with the brain.

The currently used technique involves a snapshot of the optic nerve sheath. The width of the sheath is then compared to other clinical and imaging markers to infer that there was increased pressure in the brain.

How the new technique works

Our study has several differences from the existing static imaging technique. Aside from measuring the changes in the diameter of the sheath to indicate increased pressure, we have developed a dynamic technique that analyses the way the sheath moves as a result of the person’s pulse. This motion was then compared with intracranial pressure, demonstrating a remarkable consistency.

As an initial study we performed the ultrasound measurement on a large cohort of children. Previous studies using the ultrasound technique on children have not compared it to directly measured pressure in the brain. Diagnosing neurological disease in children is notoriously difficult because the symptoms are often quite subtle.

We also identified certain shortcomings in the current ‘static imaging’ technique which resulted in limited accuracy, a limitation described in many other studies.

Although the static technique takes between two to three minutes to collect all the images that are needed, our technique could significantly decrease this time to around 30 seconds to record the information.

It is also the first study of its kind to be conducted on such a large group of patients, with significant results.

The use of non-invasive techniques to measure the pressure inside the brain to diagnose certain neurological conditions has gained much attention recently. These include measurement of blood flow to the brain and the pressure in the ear. But many of these studies have been limited because of inconsistent accuracy.

Making it more accessible

Our goal is to refine the accuracy and improve the simplicity of our technique. By doing this we hope that assessing the pressure inside the skull using this modified technique can be performed at a primary health care level.

This would speed up the diagnosis of raised pressure in the brain associated with certain neurological disorders.

In a resource challenged environment like South Africa, where the average child with a neurological condition is referred to the appropriate centre much later than they should be, an accurate tool that allows early diagnosis would make a substantial difference. From a neurosurgical perspective, diagnosing increased pressure in the brain earlier would be a useful marker of underlying neurological disease.

This simplified yet effective technique has the potential to change the way we diagnose certain neurological conditions. But more importantly perhaps, this could possibly be done at the level of primary health care facilities, such as day hospitals and clinics.

[MIKA27]

Drought Brings A 16th-Century Mexican Temple To The Surface Again

The ruins of the Temple of Santiago are not an easy destination to visit, or even have a look at. The walls of the once sacred building are usually hiding under water, but now drought lowered the river the temple has been hiding in, revealing a rather awesome sight.

The mid-16th century Mexican church (also known as the Temple of Quechula) has been submerged in the Grijalva River since 1966, when the dam of the Nezahualcoyotl reservoir was completed, and the 61-metre (183 feet) long, 14-metre (42 feet) wide, and 10-metre (30 feet) high building is only visible at low water levels. But because of the lack of rain, the water level in the reservoir has dropped by 25 metres (82 feet) this year, making the colonial church visible again.

According to an Associated Press report, this is the second time a drop in the reservoir has revealed the church since it was flooded. In 2002, the water was so low visitors could walk inside the church.

[MIKA27]

Apple Suspends Hundreds Of Apps For Stealing Personal Data From A Million Users

More than 250 iOS apps were found in violation of Apple’s App Store privacy policy, scooping up data from one millions users estimated to have downloaded the offending apps.

SourceDNA, an analytics service that uncovered this seedy app behaviour, found that the apps were gathering email addresses associated with the user’s Apple ID, plus a list of all the apps users had installed, serial numbers, and other information that can be used to personally identify and track users.

The apps were violating privacy by pulling data from private APIs, in a breach so secret that the app developers themselves are not likely to have known about it. Chinese company Youmi reportedly accessed the apps’ private APIs through a third-party advertising SDK that stored the data and sent it to its own servers, and apparently Youmi’s been pulling data from devices for about two years now, reports Ars Technica.

According to SourceDNA, Youmi bypassed Apple’s app review process by testing what apps could sneak by, then used the same obfuscation technique to request user data. SourceDNA found that while Apple was locking down on private APIs to prevent apps from getting the platform serial number in iOS 8, Youmi worked around it enumerating peripheral devices, like the battery system, then sent the serial numbers as a hardware identifier.

Apple has since patched its approval processes to prevent future apps using a similar technique from getting into the App Store. The company released a statement confirming the SourceDNA findings, saying that they are “working closely with developers to help them get updated versions of their apps that are safe for customers.” Here’s the entire statement:

We’ve identified a group of apps that are using a third-party advertising SDK, developed by Youmi, a mobile advertising provider, that uses private APIs to gather private information, such as user email addresses and device identifiers, and route data to its company server. This is a violation of our security and privacy guidelines. The apps using Youmi’s SDK have been removed from the App Store and any new apps submitted to the App Store using this SDK will be rejected. We are working closely with developers to help them get updated versions of their apps that are safe for customers and in compliance with our guidelines back in the App Store quickly.

One would hope Apple should have been screening for this kind of thing. The SourceDNA blog postdoesn’t list the offending apps by name, but privately provided a list to Apple, so it’s on them to ensure the app review process catches these third-party companies vying for our info.

[MIKA27]

The Official Game Of Thrones Colouring Book Really Isn't For Kids

Thanks to talented artists like Johanna Basford, colouring books have somehow become an incredibly popular pastime again — and not just for kids. Bookstores are now flooded with intricately illustrated black and white books targeted at adults, including an upcoming collection featuring scenes from A Game of Thrones.

Hopefully there aren’t actually any six-year-olds familiar enough with A Game of Thrones to put this on their Christmas lists this year, but the rest of us only have to wait until October 27 to pick up a copy for about $US11.

Entertainment Weekly got an early look at some of the 96 pages of intricate black and white illustrations in the new A Game of Thrones colouring book from artists like Yvonne Gilbert, John Howe, Tomislav Tomić, Adam Stower, and Levi Pinfold. Ladies and gentlemen, start your pencil sharpeners.

The show’s cinematographers and post-production artists already do an amazing job at bringing the series to life with lavish colour palettes that make you feel like you’ve been taken to another world. But with a coloured pencil or marker in hand, you’re now free to create your own version of Westeros. Who hasn’t thought that Jon Snow would look better with green skin?

[MIKA27]

Warming Waters May Be Releasing Giant Plumes Of Methane Off The Coast Of The US

Scientists have detected a disproportionate number of methane bubble plumes off the Washington and Oregon coast. The warming Pacific ocean may be triggering the release of this powerful greenhouse gas, which has remained frozen beneath the seafloor for thousands of years.

The new study, which has been accepted for publication in Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, details over 160 bubble plumes observed over the past 10 years. An inordinate number of these plumes were observed at a critical depth where frozen methane “ice”, or hydrate, decomposes on account of warmer ocean temperatures. Lead researcher H. Paul Johnson from the University of Washington says these plumes are probably not coming from the seafloor sediments, but rather from decomposing frozen methane.

The downstream effects of this leaking methane aren’t entirely clear, though historically, methane has contributed to sudden and dramatic swings in the Earth’s climate. Once in the Earth’s atmosphere, methane acts as a powerful greenhouse gas. On a related note, warming-related methane emissions have also been detected in Arctic permafrost and off the Atlantic coast.

This map shows the locations of the 168 bubble plumes included in the study.

It’s also not clear how much methane gas is actually getting to the surface. The researchers say that most of the deep-sea methane is getting gobbled up by marine microbes during the journey up. These microbes convert the methane into carbon dioxide, which results in low-oxygen and acidic conditions in deeper offshore waters. From there, this tainted water trickles along the coast and makes its way into coastal waterways.

“Current environmental changes in Washington and Oregon are already impacting local biology and fisheries, and these changes would be amplified by the further release of methane,” noted Johnson in an AGU statement.

The melting methane could also destabilize the seafloor slopes.

Results of the new study show that methane gas is leaking from all depths along the Washington and Oregon coast, but the plumes are more abundant at the critical depth of 500 meters, where the decomposition of frozen methane occurs.

It’s important to point out that the researchers have yet to confirm that the plumes are actually comprised of melting methane deposits. But as study co-author Evan Solomon points out: “The results are consistent with the hypothesis that modern bottom-water warming is causing the limit of methane hydrate stability to move downslope, but it’s not proof that the hydrate is dissociating.”

The team is now performing a chemical analysis of samples emitted by sediments along the coast.

Sadly, this is yet another example of the wide-reaching effects of climate change — assuming, of course, that the researchers are correct in their assumptions. Indeed, one of the more alarming aspects of human-instigated climate change is the way it’s triggering the release of green house gases not related to human activity. These plumes, like other newly arising phenomenon (the Pacific’s warm “blob” certainly comes to mind), are a sign that thing’s aren’t right.

[MIKA27]

Garmin Now Puts Directions And A Live Feed Of Your Baby On Your Car's GPS

Touchscreen tablets never quite killed off e-ink book readers like the Kindle, nor did GPS-equipped smartphones kill off dashboard GPS nav units. They’re still thriving, and Garmin intends to keep it that way by now letting parents also monitor their kids in the backseat using the same display that’s giving them directions.

The company’s new $US200 babyCam accessory mounts to the front or back of a seat’s headrest — whichever provides the best shot of a child in a carseat — and wirelessly streams (up to 9 metres) a live video feed to a compatible Garmin GPS navigator. It makes for one less distraction for a parent while driving, and on certain Garmin nav units they can actually just use voice commands to quickly switch between their map and directions or the live feed from the babyCam.

Powered by a pair of AA batteries or a USB cable connected to a power source in the vehicle, the babyCam also includes night vision capabilities allowing the driver to check on a child when it’s dark out without having to turn on a car’s interior lights which could wake a slumbering infant.

New parents (who are probably perpetually exhausted) will also appreciate another of the Garmin babyCam’s features; when they arrive at their destination the nav unit will remind them to check for passengers before exiting the vehicle, preventing a quiet sleeping infant from accidentally being left behind. Although, how often is an infant really quiet or sleeping?

No word yet on an Australian release for the babyCam.

[MIKA27]

Fires In Indonesia Are Emitting More Carbon Than All Americans Combined

The United States may be the second largest carbon emitter on the planet, but it’s got a new rival: forest fires. Indonesia is in the midst of a devastating fire season, one that’s kicking up more greenhouse gases than the entire US economy.

There have been nearly 100,000 forest fires in Indonesia this year, according to the World Resources Institute. The habitat loss from these blazes is tremendous, but for climate scientists, there’s an even bigger concern. Many of the fires — 52% — are occurring in tropical peatlands, ecosystems that store some of the largest amounts of carbon on the planet. Peatland fires are like a pollution bomb, smouldering through centuries-old soil carbon and releasing vast plumes of CO2 and methane into the atmosphere.

To put the climate-warming potential of these blazes in perspective, the World Resources Institute decided to compare them with emissions from some of the world’s biggest carbon polluters. The graph below depicts average daily carbon emissions from the totality of US economic activities (in blue), compared with Indonesian forest fires (in yellow). We can see that beginning in September 2015, daily emissions from Indonesia’s fires surpassed our own.

The fires will die out eventually. But according to a recent scientific paper, fire seasons are likely to become longer and more intense in the future. If the 2015 fire season indicates a new pattern, then we could be in real trouble. Because if you thought getting human beings to reduce their carbon emissions was tough, try asking thousands of remote, tropical islands to do the same.

[MIKA27]

Eddie Murphy and the Long-Awaited Cosby Joke

When Saturday Night Live aired its 40th anniversary episode in February, many hoped it might be the perfect occasion for Eddie Murphy to return to stand-up comedy. They were off about the timing—but only by a little. The moment fans had been waiting 28 years for finally came when Murphy did five minutes of material while accepting the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center on Sunday night. His target: Bill Cosby. Though that might be the comedic equivalent of low-hanging fruit these days, Murphy’s jokes marked a deliberate shift in his own thinking on the subject in recent months.

Murphy’s impression of Cosby is already legend. It memorably leads off his film Raw, where he recalls Cosby chastising him for using too much bad language in his previous stand-up set, Delirious. Murphy was asked to reprise his act for SNL 40, in a sketch that mocked Cosby’s shattered public image. But he turned down the opportunity, only giving a brief “thank you” speech on the show and telling no other jokes. (Kenan Thompson did the sketch.) “There’s nothing funny about it,” he told The Washington Post. “If you get up there and you crack jokes about him, you’re just hurting people. You’re hurting him. You’re hurting his accusers.” So what changed?

At the Twain Prize ceremony, which will air on PBS on November 23, Murphy noted that Cosby had won the prestigious comedy award in 2009, and hadn’t yet been asked to give his trophy back. He then launched into an impression of a foul-mouthed Cosby refuting such a demand, further jabbing at the contrast between his clean image and the horrifying accusations of sexual assault that more than 50 women have made against him. Ironically, Cosby twice turned down the Twain Prize before accepting it, because he was unhappy at the “profanities used” in the 1998 ceremony celebrating the inaugural winner Richard Pryor.

Murphy has long seemed to understand Cosby’s hypocrisy, at least since the release of Raw marked the end of the former’s stand-up work. And he reportedly worked hard on the material he debuted at the Kennedy Center, running through the jokes with Arsenio Hall and Chris Rock in a D.C. hotel room beforehand. “[Eddie] said, ‘Because Cosby gonna get sick of this soon, he’s gonna get sick of people hating, and eventually he’s gonna have to say something,’” Hall told The Washington Post. “And we were like, ‘That is funny, man. Are you willing?’”

So why did it take until now for Murphy to rise to the occasion? The SNL sketch represented a perfect opportunity, but the stage may have been too grand—the viewing audience was huge, and Murphy may not have wanted to make his return performing material he didn’t write (the sketch was Norm Macdonald’s creation). “I was like, ‘Hey, I’m coming back to SNL for the anniversary, I’m not turning my moment on the show into this other thing,’” he told The Washington Post.

So it was a pleasant surprise to see one of the most famous comedians alive returning to the stage on his own terms, and the fact that he used the platform to mock Cosby will likely make even bigger waves. Murphy has become more reclusive in recent years. He’s even stopped appearing in mediocre Hollywood comedies, which were the backbone of his career in the 1990s and 2000s. His Kennedy Center appearance might signal the start of the third act in a storied career, or might just be a fascinating throwback to remind fans of his legacy. Either way, it’s still clear that if Murphy tells jokes, people will listen.

[MIKA27]

THESE MONOCHROME ARTWORKS ARE THE MOST AWESOME THING YOU'LL SEE TODAY

There's no mistaking the explosive visual style of Japanese illustrator Shohei Otomo. He was trained by one of the best in the business, his father is Katsuhiro Otomo famous creator of the cult manga Akira.

It's a talent and gift that clearly runs in the family. Otomo Jnr's monochrome artworks pay tribute to the style and conformity of classic Japanese culture, whilst injecting a playful look as the absurdity and chaos of present day Japan.

Each character, from Geishas, quelling kids to police officers inhaling drugs have been created entirely using a black ballpoint pen - no Photoshop trickery, just incredible technique and patience.

You can see more of Otomo's weird and wonderful illustrations through his official site

[MIKA27]

The Jackalope May Be Alive and Living in Canada

No mythical creature or cryptid has more clear photographs and excellent stuffed specimens than the elusive jackalope – the infamous and vicious hybrid combination of a jackrabbit and an antelope. The one thing we’ve never seen is a live one. That may change with news from Ontario, Canada, that a jackalope has been spotted near … you guessed it … a nuclear plant.

Gillian Sutherland-Jones, a resource management technician at the Bruce Peninsula National Park in Ontario, says the first reported sighting of the jackalope was in the spring by a campground visitor. In September, a video was posted on Facebook showing the jackalope in the park.

The Ontario jackalope

Tales of jackalopes or rabbits (or hares) with horns date back at least to a 13th century Persian tale of a rabbit with a single horn (a unihare?). There are natural history texts from 17th century Europe showing a horned hare. But the jackalope stories most people have heard come from the American West, where the first jackalope was allegedly spotted in 1829 in Douglas, Wyoming, which was also the home of Douglas and Ralph Herrick who began selling stuffed jackalopes in the 1930s. They allegedly risked their lives catching these strange creatures that could mimic a human’s voice and attack legs with their horns. It was said the best way to catch a jackalope was to get it drunk on its favorite drink – whiskey.

Another image of the Ontario jackalope

As many who have examined the photos and video have pointed out, the horns on the Ontario jackalope look a lot like a second set of ears. Could the jackalope have evolved horns with this new look to scare off hunters? Gillian Sutherland-Jones isn’t so sure.

It is possible that the hare sustained some sort of injury, but given the uniformity to both ears, it is more likely a birth defect

What could cause such an unusual birth defect? Might it have something to do with the Bruce nuclear power plant just 90 miles from the park. Not according to park image protector Gillian Sutherland-Jones.

We have no reason whatsoever to believe that there is a link.

That reasoning is fine … until more of these jackalopes are found with two ears and two more so-called “other ears.” Whether the Ontario jackalope exists or not, Bruce Peninsula National Park campers and local residents are using the sighting as an excuse to stock up on heavy boots and plenty of whiskey.

[MIKA27]

Romania’s Alien Cave World of Creepy Crawlies

We like to think we have a general idea of what life is. The sun shines down, it spurs photosynthesis on this green, wet planet of ours, oxygen is created the food chain begins, and life spreads its wings. It seems as though this is common knowledge, and that it is an unchanging, immutable law of life. Yet this is not always how things are. There are places upon our planet that defy these rules, and which manage to exist and even thrive in ways that are in direct contradiction of what we think life is. These are places where life is closer to being alien than anything earthbound in nature. One such place lies within the bowels of the earth in Romania, an environment that has remained completely enclosed and cut off from the sun for millions of years, yet which has supported for countless millennia an array of bizarre life quite unlike anything else on this world. It is a dark realm of eyeless slithering, scampering creatures like something out of a science fiction movie, which have existed here in the pitch black on the fringes of our definition of life, completely independent of the sun and churning about deep beneath our feet since before humans were even a thing. It seems that one does not have to go into space to find alien worlds.

Within Constanța County, Romania, near the city of Mangalia and just a stone’s throw away from the Black Sea and the Bulgarian border, there is a desolate, barren plain bordered by the Danube River and the Casimcea Valley that seems almost as if it is the surface of another planet. Here in this geothermally active area the stark landscape is riddled with sinkholes, sulfur spewing vents, methane seeps and sulphidic mud; a perilous, harsh, forbidding place seemingly inhospitable to any life. It was here that prospecting was carried out in 1986 in order to test the area’s suitability for construction of a geothermal power plant to harness its power, and to this end a series of shafts about 30 meters deep were dug into the ground. At one point, one of these shafts broke through into a hollow area far below the ground. When workers peered down into the hole, they could see the passage leading down into the impenetrable blackness below from which belched forth large amounts of carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide. It seemed that the passage perhaps led down into some sort of cave far below, but there could be found no entrance to it anywhere above ground and so the prospecting expedition was cancelled and the mysterious fume spewing hole sealed up until it could be ascertained just what lay there down below in the total darkness.

The cave remained sealed off from the outside world as it had been for millions of years until after the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, when Christian Lascu, a very prominent Romanian cave scientist, dared too venture down into the murk, to a place that would prove to have been sealed off from the light of day for 5.5 million years. First he was lowered down into the shaft by rope, where he hung precariously suspended in the inky blackness, harmful gases permeating the air around him, gradually descending down into the unknown with only the bouncing meager light from his helmet fighting back the dark. After a harrowing 20 m of this drop into what could have been the mouth to Hell itself for all he knew, Lascu reached the bottom, where the sweltering temperatures reached 25 ºC and the noxious, choking gases were so thick that a breathing apparatus was required. Here a labyrinth of narrow limestone passages coated with an an ochre clay led out into the murk. Crawling through these claustrophobic passages led to a main chamber with a length of 300 metres, a total area of just 12,000 square meters, and dominated by a stagnant subterranean lake heavily laden with hydrogen sulphide which was redolent with the overpowering scent of rotting eggs or burnt rubber, and which would have choked the scientist unconscious without his breathing gear. It would later be found that underwater passages led off from the festering lake, emerging occasionally into pockets of air called air bells.

It seemed as if this toxic, inhospitable cave world of pitch black in the total absence of light would be the last place anyone would expect to find life, but it soon became apparent to Lascu that the floors and walls of the cave were literally crawling with it. Everywhere he looked or stepped things scampered, scuttled, slithered, scurried, and skittered in a nightmarish mass of pale, translucent centipedes, spiders, scorpions, insects, worms, snails, and lice never before seen by humans, as well as other less definable things that flitted through the gloom in the light of his helmet. Within the placid pool of water, thriving in its reeking hazardous fumes, were a plethora of water scorpions, shrimps, and leeches, as well as a mysterious, bizarre floating mat of frothy foam that resembled a sheet of tissue paper bobbing upon the surface. Lascu, recognizing the significance of this incredible teeming array of complex life in a cave so far below ground, in a toxic environment without any sunlight and sealed off from the outside world for millions of years, immediately left and had the cave sealed until further research expeditions could be mounted, which would go on to find that what has become known as Movile Cave was far more unique and indeed bizarre than anyone could have possibly imagined.

Within Movile Cave

It was soon discovered that Movile Cave was completely and totally sealed off from the outside world in every way. There are no natural entrances to the cave and no passages leading to the surface. In addition, it was found that the surface of the cave is covered with a thick layer of hydrophobic clay, which prevents absolutely any water from the outside world from seeping into the cave. This is evident in the complete absence of any stalactites, stalagmites, or indeed any other evidence at all of water coming in from the surface. The water in the cave was found to be provided by a subterranean reservoir held within ancient spongy sandstones below, which gradually bubbles up into the cave. The 1986 nuclear accident at Chernobyl had also littered the area around Movile Cave with radioactive materials such as caesium and strontium, yet no traces of these substances were found in the cave, indicating that it was exceptionally well sealed and impenetrable from the outside world, with no sign of any bacteria from the surface present either. In every way, it was found that Movile Cave was completely cut off from the sunlit world above, and had been for the better part of 6 million years.

Then there was the thriving ecosystem of life down in the Stygian darkness which by all indications should not be here. The atmosphere is filled with harmful fumes and gases including hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, and has an oxygen level of only 7 to 10% compared with the usual 20%. The air here is also laden with carbon dioxide, with up to 100 times the amount typically found out in open air, and there are large amounts of methane as well. Additionally there is absolutely no sunlight down here, nor is there any organic material dripping into the cave from above or any food particles coming in with the water from below, meaning that this is an environment completely absent of any input or energy from the sun. Since there is no sunlight, there is no photosynthesis, and combined with the total lack of any organic material flowing into the cave from any source, this should mean that there is no source of food for anything to survive on here. Yet nevertheless, Movile Cave is teeming with life of all kinds, and indeed no other cave on earth is as inhospitable nor has such a diversity of interdependent species, with 48 discovered so far and 33 of those completely unique to this one cave. In fact, it seems that in Movile Cave, the worse the atmosphere gets, the more life there is. So how is this possible for such a bustling ecosystem to exist down in this harsh alien world?

Movile cave spider

The very foundation of this ecosystem is bacteria that use a process of chemosynthesis, which is using chemical reactions for energy production rather than photosynthesis. These bacteria convert substances such as ammonia and sulfides found in the cave’s geothermal waters into organic compounds. Simply put, the chemosynthetic bacteria are like the “trees” of the cave, forming the base of the ecosystem and food web. One such type of bacteria called methanotrophs oxidize the methane spewing forth here and leak nutrients that serve as food for yet other bacteria. Another is the floating film upon the water of the underground lake, which is actually a vast mat of bacteria known as autotrophs, upon which small creatures such as amphipods and nematodes graze and which are subsequently preyed on by larger and larger predators, creating and sustaining a food chain that is similar in many ways to the remote ecosystems congregating around deep sea vents, and is the only such ecosystem currently known to exist on land. These bacteria also serve to further expand the cave, as one of the byproducts of their oxidization of hydrogen sulfide is sulfuric acid, which gradually eats away at and erodes the rock over centuries to make the caves and chambers bigger. In the end, we have a totally enclosed, isolated ecosystem which creates its own space and uses energy sources completely independent of the sun to sustain large numbers of complex life down in the total blackness of the bowels of the earth.

And what unique life that is. Although there are no vertebrates to be found here, there is a multitude of species of invertebrate life of all kinds, some of which are quite large and all of which have uniquely evolved in complete isolation down in the darkness independent of the sun. All of the creatures in Movile Cave display a total absence of pigmentation, making them a pale white or even in many cases translucent, and in an environment where eyesight is pointless, none of them have eyes. Additionally, most species of insects and arachnids here have developed outsized antennae and bigger legs than their terrestrial cousins. These adaptions help the otherwise blind organisms to feel their way through the darkness, the longer limbs assist in climbing over rocky surfaces, and they are thought to also utilize chemical and electrical sensors to find their way around and to capture prey. This has resulted in an amazing array of pale slithering creepy crawlies with long legs and antennae which are horrific enough to give any arachnophobe nightmares. By 1996 alone, new species of spiders, slug, insect, centipede, isopod, a type of leech never before seen anywhere, and an utterly unique organism known as a waterscorpion, had been discovered lurking within the cave’s dark depths, and there are undoubtedly more unique organisms prowling the caves which have yet to be discovered.

Cave centipede

With its forbidding environment and its walls, floor, and pools inhabited by pale slithering beasts of all manner, Movile Cave is most certainly not a place for the fainthearted. All manner of eyeless spiders, leeches, centipedes, and multi-legged things crawl through the oppressive, almost tangible darkness here and some of the slithering, scampering creatures inhabiting this alien land show some bizarre characteristics. The spiders down here still spin webs even though there are no flying insects to catch. Instead, the webs ensnare tiny insects known as springtails, which hop and bounce about into the clutches of the waiting predators. One type of spider oddly has a close terrestrial relative, which is a type of tropical spider native to the Canary Islands, lying 4000km to the west and fully exposed to the light of day. The life here is so weird, strange, and in some ways quite terrifying in appearance that it has served as inspiration for several horror movies, including Neil Marshall’s The Descent and Bruce Hunt’s The Cave, both from 2005.

All of this leaves one to wonder just how all of these creatures got down here within the depths of the earth in the first place. It is speculated that during the Miocene Epoch, about 5.5 million years ago, around when the Mediterranean Sea dried up as Africa moved north and stopped the Atlantic from flowing into it, there was a cataclysmic climactic event that forced the tropical species living above ground to find a new place to live or risk dying out. As the climate further changed, the only ones able to escape the impending doom their habitat faced were the ones that were able to adapt to living in warm subterranean caves beneath the cataclysm and ever drying environment. After that, the cave world below was sealed off from the outside world and the organisms buried in the black beneath began their evolution into what they are today. This is the prevalent theory, but it is still a mystery as to just exactly how this unique plethora of underground life took root in this perilous, isolated environment.

The unique environment of Movile Cave has much to teach us. For instance, it is thought that the conditions here are similar to what they were on primordial Earth, when sunlight was blotted out by an atmosphere thick with carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia, meaning the organisms in Movile Cave could give us clues to how life first formed on our planet. Additionally, this completely isolated, harsh ecosystem might show us how other organisms might exist in other extreme habitats on Earth, and how they can thrive while teetering on the edge of the limits of life as we know it. The ability of the cave’s bacteria to oxidize methane and carbon dioxide is also of interest, as these are the biggest causes of global warming and could give us clues on how to remove them from the atmosphere. Beyond our own planet, the lifeforms of Movile Cave can also teach us about how life might exist and evolve on other worlds across the void of space, and it has been speculated by NASA that life on Mars could have had similar ecosystems around 3.5 billions years ago when the planet was much warmer. It has even been suggested that the warm liquid water beneath the Red Planet could even now support an ecosystem perhaps similar to the one that has established itself in Movile Cave. The lifeforms here can show us what alien life on Mars and beyond might be like.

Expeditions to Movile Cave have continued to try to find answers to its mysteries, and many exciting finds are being made all of the time here. It has been ascertained that the cave may be part of an aquifer that extends over 80 square miles, and new species are being discovered here all of the time. However, exploration is carefully controlled by the Romanian Academy and the Emil Racovita Institute of Cave Sciences in Bucharest in order to preserve the fragile ecosystem and prevent it from being corrupted by the outside world. There are only certain times of year when research is allowed and a strict limit is imposed on how many people may enter and how much material can be removed for study at any given time. Only three people at a time are allowed within the cave for one hour per visit and only around 30 people have ever been inside this remote, alien realm, which is comparable to the number of people who have been to the moon. In order to lessen the chances of foreign microbes disrupting Movile Cave’s ecosystem, researchers change their clothes before entering and wear sterilized boiler suits and shoes. In the dark tunnel leading down to the cave, there is a heavy trapdoor which keeps out foreign matter.

Despite all of these precautions, the cave’s ecosystem is in danger. The very presence of humans delving into this dark domain threatens its existence, as the simple process of breathing can possibly disturb the delicate balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the cave, and there is no way to fully prevent small amounts of microbes from the outside world from finding their way here. The cave faces other threats as well. The steel door which is meant to keep out foreign matter is constantly being compromised by searchers scavenging for scrap metal, which authorities cannot always prevent. There is also the rapid urbanization of the nearby area of Mangalia, and this rampant development is steadily encroaching upon the area where the cave lies. The sewage systems of this burgeoning urban area, and in particular septic tanks, have the potential to leak contaminated water which could possibly somehow infiltrate Movile Cave at some point and have disastrous consequences.

The ecosystem of Movile Cave is truly alien and unique. Cut off completely from the outside world for millions of years, it has nevertheless managed to spawn a diverse array of life that has evolved independent of the sun and the realm above it. No other ecosystem on land has ever been found like this and here in its womb of darkness we could have the answers to whether alien life exists and indeed the secrets of life itself. But for how long will it remain? How long before this isolated web of life crumbles under the inexorable approach of mankind and its urbanization? How long before it is crushed by the very outside world it has managed to hide from for eons? In some ways, for all of the things it can teach us, it seems that it might have been better if the bizarre ecosystem of Movile Cave were never discovered at all. Perhaps it would have been better if it had remained sequestered and hidden away within the bowels of the earth as it always had since humans were just a glimmer in our ape ancestors’ eyes millions of years ago, and to remain a secret realm for millions more.

[MIKA27]

JEEP WRANGLER TERMINATOR BY STARWOOD MOTORS

Starwood Motors has long been one of our favorite 4×4 customizers, and it looks like the Texas-based crew have another project up their sleeve as we head into the holiday season. Meet the Terminator.

The aptly titled vehicle is based on the beloved Jeep Wrangler, and was built to dominate any surface on the planet – from surface streets in the city to dirt trails in the backcountry. Powered by a 6.4-liter Hemi V8 complete with Borla headers and cat-back exhaust, this thing has a ton of get up and go. Other updates include new axles, axle housings with full trusses, axle sleeves, gusset kits, and a new Baer brake system to help you stop on a dime. The Dallas builders also tossed in 4.56 gears along with a Tom Woods custom driveshaft. While this specific Jeep will land in the arms of one lucky enthusiast, Starwood has plenty more beastly 4x4s to choose from. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

WEEHOUSE

Compact, modern, and eco-friendly, the Weehouse is a turnkey sustainable living solution. Each house is factory-built and delivered on a truck mostly complete, and offers passive solar heating, solar energy, and rain water collection. Despite the simple shape, there are a number of different options to suit your specific needs, including multiple possibilities for siding, flooring, countertops, cabinets, appliances, and bathroom finishes. All you need is furniture.