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

[MIKA27]

LONGINES HERITAGE MILITARY COSD WATCH

Inspired by a timepiece built for British paratroopers in the 1940s, the Longines Heritage Military COSD Watch combines combat-ready utility with modern convenience. The watch is powered by a Swiss-made self winding mechanical movement with 48-hour power reserve, housed inside a 40mm stainless steel case. The light tan dial has easily-legible Arabic numerals with 24-hour markings, a date window at 3 o'clock, and blued steel Super-LumiNova hands. Finished with a green NATO strap.

[Habana Mike]

THE METRO STATIONS OF MOSCOW

If you’ve ever been in the filthy, rat-infested, graffiti-riddled tunnels that comprise the New York subway system, or the claustrophobic, industrial parts of the London tube system, then you owe it to yourself to see how Russia does underground tunnels. Beneath Moscow lies some of the most gorgeous, artful architecture you could ask for, all made for transporting people around town.

Created in the 1930’s, it was the dream of Stalin that these tunnels be “palaces of the people” and act as not only reminders of the greatness of Mother Russia, but also bomb shelters to protect the citizenry against attacks during the war-torn years surrounding the two world wars. Drawing from various influences, visitors can see Constructivism, Art Deco, and rococo on display in full glory, since little advertising is allowed and spray painting will likely cost you a hand.

Pretty awesome.

Guess that's what you get when the government decides how to spend all the money!

[MIKA27]

This Breathtaking New Footage Of The B-2 Stealth Bomber Is The Best Ever

With the announcement of who will build the Long Range Strike Bomber (LRS- seemingly imminent, it is interesting that Northrop Grumman, the builder of the famed B-2 Stealth Bomber, just released this incredible high-definition footage of their legendary flying wing design weaving through the skies gracefully.

This incredible imagery that looks to be shot over the deserts of the America’s Southwest, shows all the different angles of the B-2, an aircraft that seemingly changes its look totally depending on what aspect you view it from. Even the back of the jet, an area that the USAF has been very sensitive about photographing as of late, is showcased brilliantly.

The timing of the video is extremely interesting. Maybe Northrop Grumman, who has used its marketing abilities to the max during this high-stakes bomber contract competition, is just reminding us one more time who has actually built and maintained the world’s only known combat-proven stealth bomber and manned flying-wing aircraft.

In comparison, Nothrop Grumman’s opponents, a consortium of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, have been much quieter when it comes to publicly winning support for their ability to build America’s next bomber.

Regardless of this intense but shadowy competition, it is amazing to think that in the not so distant future, the B-2 Spirit, even though it will remain in service for decades to come, will be America’s “old stealth bomber.”

This will very well be a true statement, but boy does the design still look amazingly otherworldly.

[Fuzz]

For Fuzz: Hot Toys' Force Awakens Flametrooper Is Here To Incinerate What's Left Of Your Money

I'd buy this just so I can mod it to become a table top lighter!

[MIKA27]

In Case Of Nuclear War, Cut Internet Cables

In Ye Olden Days, the concern about a Russian-American conflict would be the end of the world as we know it. In the 21st century however, an international crisis requires cutting undersea internet cables.

According to a New York Times headline, ‘Russian Ships Near Data Cables Are Too Close For U.S. Comfort’. The point is that apparently, Russian submarines have been hanging out too close to undersea communications cables, raising concerns that they would be cut in a time of war.

As the Times points out, this wouldn’t be a new phenomenon: the U.S. has been tapping underseas cables since the crux of the Cold War, and there’s no overt proof that the Russians have been doing the same.

But the Times‘s sources say this is a matter for concern: one Admiral said he is “worried every day about what the Russians may be doing”; another former military official said “this is yet another example of a highly assertive and aggressive regime seemingly reaching backwards for the tools of the Cold War, albeit with a high degree of technical improvement.”

The level (or not) of the threat is impossible to know without spies placed deeply inside the Kremlin. But either way, it’s interesting to see how critical the infrastructure of the internet is these days — and how different a Tom Clancy movie would look in the modern era.

[MIKA27]

Garmin's New GPS Running Watches Bring Bigger Screens And Better Smarts

The Garmin Forerunner family has long been a pretty great way to bring some science to your running. For the latest versions, what’s mostly not broke ain’t being fixed, but there are some neat-looking new features.

First up are the new Forerunner 230 and 235, the lower-end watches. The difference between the two is that the 235 uses an optical sensor in the watch to monitor heart rate, while the 230 needs to be paired with a more old-fashioned heart-rate strap.

Apart from that, both watches are pretty similar — and nearly identical to the Forerunner 220 and 225 that came before: simple, decent-looking GPS watches that sync to your phone to offer fitness tracking and smartwatch functionality. The biggest change this year is a 44 per cent bigger colour screen: it looks like Garmin’s slimmed down the bezel, which looks much better, and should make the watch easier to read when you’re starting to go cross-eyed from exhaustion.

The other interesting feature is one that’s trickled down from the higher-end 600-series Forerunner: VO2 Max estimation. Your VO2 Max is a measure of how efficiently your body uses oxygen. It’s an important number for anyone doing an endurance sport, but measuring it normally involves an awful treadmill test where you run until you puke.

By plugging information about your heart rate, running speed, age and weight into an algorithm, Garmin can not only estimate your VO2 Max, but also predict race times and give you recovery intervals after workouts. It’s not groundbreakingly critical information, but it’s a neat way to bring the more complicated side of sports science to more average runners.

If you live for stats, though, Garmin has an update to its higher-end Forerunners just for you. The 630 is getting the same bigger screen as its cheaper cousins, but with a much longer list of things to measure, ranging from actually-useful cadence measurements, to dubiously-useful stress estimation.

Otherwise, it’s really just the same Forerunner 620 that we know and love: Wi-Fi syncs your data whenever you come home, Bluetooth pairs with your smartphone for all sorts of smartwatch-esque functions, and the GPS will track your every move when you’re actually out running.

Both watches will start shipping in a range of colours before the end of the year. The Garmin Forerunner 230 will be $389, the Forerunner 235 $469, and the Forerunner 630 starts from $579.

[MIKA27]

Therapy Dogs Really Do Help Cancer Patients

Therapy dogs may actually make a difference in the health of the patients they visit by reducing anxiety and leading to more stable blood pressure.

Dogs usually aren’t allowed in hospitals, but therapy dogs are there for a purpose. The idea is that the simple act of petting a friendly dog can reduce stress and make patients’ lives a little better. Heartwarming tales abound, but until recently, few researchers had looked for hard scientific data on whether therapy dogs actually made a difference.

Researchers at the American Humane Association, led by National Director of Humane Research and Therapy Amy McCullough, are in the middle of an ongoing study on how therapy dogs visits affect kids in cancer treatment. They say that their early results show that therapy dogs actually do reduce stress and even have a stabilizing effect on patients’ blood pressure and heart rate.

McCullough and her team studied the effects of short, weekly visits from therapy dogs on kids who had recently been diagnosed with cancer. 51 kids and their parents at 5 hospitals around the U.S. participated in the study, along with 31 therapy dogs and their and their handlers. Kids who got weekly dog visits had more stable blood pressure and heart rate than those who didn’t get to spend time with a dog, according to early results presented today at the American Academy of Pediatrics National Conference and Exhibition.

Based on anxiety and quality of life surveys, therapy dog sessions helped with anxiety, too. Parents of kids in the control group, who didn’t get dog visits, said that their anxiety levels fluctuated wildly during treatment, but parents of kids who had therapy dog sessions reported more stable levels of anxiety, and even a slight decrease in anxiety by the end of the four months.

McCullough and her colleagues are also interested in the dogs’ perspective. They’re recording the therapy sessions so that handlers can review the videos and rate their dogs’ temperament and stress levels, and they’re measuring the levels of a stress hormone called cortisol in the dogs’ saliva before and after every session. The goal is to learn whether, or when, the dogs are stressed, and use that information to help improve training for dogs and their handlers.

[MIKA27]

Thanks To Wi-Fi Assist, Apple's In A $5 Million Lawsuit

The Wi-Fi Assist feature in iOS 9 was meant to save consumers from shitty Wi-Fi by switching to mobile data. Instead, it’s eating through data caps, and now apparently causing lawsuits.

A California couple is suing Apple for $US5 million in damages relating to Wi-Fi Assist. The suit alleges that after upgrading to iOS 9 on their iPhone 5s’, the couple saw overage charges because they had unknowingly breached their data limits. Because of the number of people (in theory, most every iOS 9 user) affected, the suit reckons potential damages are in excess of $US5 million.

The lawsuit itself can probably be filed alongside McDonald’s coffee in the Hall of Frivolous Fame, but it does highlight that Apple faces a real problem with Wi-Fi Assist and mobile data caps. After iOS 9 came out, a whole legion of articles were penned pointing out that the update was causing an increase in data usage.

Even a former Apple employee who worked on OS X Wi-Fi products has written an article, agreeing that it seems to be a problem, and highlighting Apple’s corporate policy as the culprit.

As a reminder: if you want to disable the ‘feature’, go to Settings->Cellular->scroll down to Wi-Fi Assist, and turn it off. (Or search Settings for Wi-Fi Assist.)

[MIKA27]

THIS MAN'S PASSIONATE STORY WILL MOTIVATE AND INSPIRE YOU

Have you ever wanted to just pack up, buy a one way ticket and follow your true calling? The story of Englishman Paul Martin is a tale that is sure to provide you with all the inspiration and motivation you need.

Now a resident of Tokyo, Englishman Paul Martin is a man truly living his dream.

Filmed by Turkish Airlines, his fascinating story begins during his childhood when his father (who studied karate under the guidance of Vernon Bell, the man responsible for bringing karate to Britain during the 1950s) actively encouraged him to take up the martial art of karate.

He was a natural, becoming the British lightweight karate champion on three seperate occasions during the 1990s - even gaining a call up to the national team in his late 20s. His passion for Japanese culture however, was only about to thrive and become deeper during his work at the British Museum.

Due to his martial art skills he was hired as a member of their security team, but as he spent more time in within the museum itself he became constantly drawn to the Japanese Antiquities collection - famous for it's beautiful yet deadly samurai swords.

It was at that point that Martin boldly and bravely asked if he could work as a curator within the Japanese Hall. At first his inquiry was dismissed out of hand, but in order to prove his worth and dedication he enrolled to study Japanese at night school after work. Several months later, he was offered a role looking after the sword and armour collections within the Japanese collection.

From there, the rest is history.

That role allowed him to visit Japan several time a year, to both secure, lend and return various objects linked to the collection. Whilst in Japan he would frequently take a few extra days as added holiday to learn more about the craftsmanship, technique and history surrounding some of the finest swords on earth.

One trip saw him spending time at Atsuta Jingu in Nagoya a shrine noted for housing the sacred sword Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi.

"Japan is a country that is loyal to its past but also continues to embrace the future. I've learned the true meaning of patience, it required devotion and perseverance." he explains.

Now based permanently in Tokyo and thanks to his extensive education and experience he's considered one of the leading voices on historic Japanese swords.

To many, he is a walking encyclopedia holding a breath of knowledge on the origins of Japanese swords, the individuals that painstaking crafted them and each blades position and influence within Japanese culture.

"The Japanese craftsmen devote their lives to this art. They may practice different crafts but their goal is the same - the pursuit of perfection." he adds.

He also won one of the most notable contests in the country, competing against Japan's finest and most knowledgeable sensei's in a sword appreciation challenge of the Katana blade.

On a personal level, it was an acknowledgement of his genuine passion, dedication and constant involvement with such a fascinating part of Japanese samurai culture.

Whilst Paul's journey from the streets of East London to the ancient world of Japanese culture and is unquestionably unique, as Paul himself admits:

I've learned that it's not the destination that's important, but the journey itself.

If like Paul, you have a dream that you're chasing - our wonderful friends at Turkish Airlines can help you make it happen. Head here and share your story, passion and ultimate dream for your chance to make it a reality. Forget the daily grind, be bold, be positive and together let's make that dream happen!

[MIKA27]

Netflix and Kill: Man Tells Cops He Slayed Friend After Binge-Watching ‘Walking Dead’

After binge-watching The Walking Dead, Damon Perry saw his friend turn into a zombie and killed him, police say.

Perry was drinking heavily and hanging out with Christopher Paquin in a Grants, New Mexico, apartment when he supposedly saw his buddy morph into a ravenous zombie. Perry responded by allegedly beating his friend to death using his bare hands, feet, knives, a microwave oven, and an electric guitar.

“It was one of the absolute worst [crime scenes] I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been with the department for 15 years,” Grants, New Mexico, police department spokesman Moses Marquez told The Daily Beast.

Two maintenance workers had subdued Perry after he began sprinting around the low-income-housing complex, wielding scissors, and chasing other terrified tenants, according to police. (It is unclear if Perry believed these residents, too, were turning into zombies.)

When police arrived, Perry allegedly confessed to the murder and blamed the it on binge-watching The Walking Dead on Netflix.

Perry—a 23-year-old New Mexico resident who made a living doing small odd-jobs—is in custody facing a murder charge. (A magistrate court set his bond at $800,000, cash.)

Despite the bizarre and savage nature of the crime, police say they do not suspect mental illness, though an investigation continues. The suspected root of this gruesome murder is more mundane: binge-drinking.

“The suspect [also] attributed it to being highly intoxicated,” Marquez said. (Apparently, some people can get so monstrously drunk that watching a popular TV show can compel them to act out their darkest zombie-apocalypse fantasies.) It is unclear what his blood alcohol content was at the time of the alleged killing.

Now, in the sober light of day, Perry is no longer concerned about any supposed zombie neighbors or zombie friends trying to bite him. At the very least, he has started to feel bad for the life he took and the people he terrorized, according to the Grants P.D. spokesman.

“He seems remorseful,” Marquez said. “He’s had the time to sober up and realize what has happened, and he has expressed remorse.”

[MIKA27]

Titanic Cracker Sells for $23,000

A biscuit that survived the sinking of the Titanic has been purchased by a collector in Greece for $23,000, according to the BBC.

The biscuit, similar in shape and color to a cracker, was part of a collection from James and Mabel Fenwick, newlyweds who were beginning a three-month honeymoon trip to Europe in 1912 aboard the SS Carpathia, the ship that ended up rescuing survivors of the Titanic,according to auction house Henry Aldridge & Son.

The auction also included photographic negatives and a journal that offered a “unique snapshot” into the rescue of the 700 survivors.

The biscuit was said to be part of a survival kit that would have been found in a Titanic rescue boat.

“The Spillers and Bakers ‘Pilot’ biscuit was kept as a souvenir by the Fenwick’s,” the auction house writes on its site. “It was saved by Mr. Fenwick in a Kodak photographic envelope complete with original notation ‘Pilot biscuit from Titanic lifeboat April 1912.’”

The auction house called the relic the “world’s most valuable biscuit.” The item sold for around $8,000 more than it was expected to receive.

MIKA: $23K!!! Some people with money are just plain crackers

[MIKA27]

THE $50,000 DIY WOODY TRAILER HOME

It’s a tough call for the modern person with wanderlust to decide whether or not they want to own their own home or live like a nomad. The desire to put down roots as well as explore the wilds of the world are both strong pulls in the human psyche, and for one couple, the choice was clear: Do both by building their dream home…on wheels.

It’s called Woody by the couple and it’s a 236-square-foot cabin that is also a luxurious trailer complete with all the comforts of home. A cedar exterior gives Woody it’s folksy charm and distinctive appearance while smart construction makes it a tight and sustainable love nest with a lofted bed, refrigerator, sliding glass doors, and dual skylights for plenty of lounging in the natural light. It’s the mobile home, reimagined [Via]

[MIKA27]

Ben & Jerry’s and New Belgium Craft Beer Ice Cream

Earlier this year, New Belgium and Ben & Jerry’s teamed up to bring the best of the beer and ice cream worlds together with Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale. As many of you probably expected, they’re now making an ice cream, too. Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale will be a limited edition release that adds salted caramel swirls and fudge brownies to a base of New Belgium Brown Ale Ice Cream. Most importantly, the products were purpose built to be paired together. Scoop Ben & Jerry’s Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale Ice Cream. Pour over New Belgium Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale. We have no idea what you’d call it other than a beer float because the name would be too long, but it’s definitely going to be delicious. We’ll take beer and ice cream pairings over wine and cheese any day of the week.

[MIKA27]

They're Never Going To Recast Indiana Jones

Everyone agrees that, eventually, we’ll see a fifth Indiana Jones movie. However, with Lucasfilm and Disney currently focusing on that other franchise, everyone’s favorite fedora-wearing archaeologist has taken a back seat. And that has lead to tons of speculation.

Most of the speculation surrounds lead actor Harrison Ford, who turned 73 this year. He understandably slowed down in the 20 years between Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull so, by the time a new movie comes around, things will only get worse.

That’s why names like Chris Pratt and Bradley Cooper have been tossed around as possible replacements for Ford. The logic is that “Indiana Jones” could go the way of James Bond, becoming an interchangeable role that is more famous than the actors who play it. And while that sounds good for the Internet, one of the franchise’s producers Frank Marshall says that’s not going to happen.

There are a lot of rumors. We haven’t even sat down to talk about Indy yet… at some point we’ll sit down. But there’s a bunch of people who could probably take the baton. [but we are] not doing the Bond thing where we’re going to call somebody else Indiana Jones… we have to figure this out.

“We have to figure this out” is kind of an understatement. Steven Spielberg said he plans on doing another Jones film with Harrison Ford, but he’s kind of busy. So based on Spielberg’s schedule alone, a new Indy movie couldn’t come out until 2018 at the VERY earliest. That would require both an idea (which we don’t think they have yet) and a script (which doesn’t yet exist). So let’s conservatively guess 2020 for a new Indiana Jones movie.

At that time you’re looking at an almost 80-year-old Harrison Ford starring in Indiana Jones 5. Surely, any plot would then involve him passing the whip to a younger generation, much like Han Solo in The Force Awakens. But if that new character isn’t going to be “Indiana Jones,” won’t Lucasfilm and Disney lose their name recognition? How do you sell an “Indiana Jones” movie without Indiana Jones? Isn’t the name “Indiana Jones” more valuable than the actor playing him?

And maybe that’s the answer. Maybe the new star of the franchise just adopts the character’s name. Maybe Indy’s son, Mutt Williams, goes to court and has his name officially changed. Or, preferably, Indy has another relative who doesn’t look like Shia LaBeouf.

If that doesn’t happen though, I’m incredibly curious what the solution could be. I do love that, at this stage, Marshall is respecting Ford’s iconic role and setting the record straight about how things are going. However I still feel like if they “haven’t sat down to talk about Indy yet” and “still have to figure this out,” how can he be sure they won’t go with the Bond option? But if there’s a better way, I hope they find it.

[Fuzz]

Titanic Cracker Sells for $23,000

A biscuit that survived the sinking of the Titanic has been purchased by a collector in Greece for $23,000, according to the BBC.

MIKA: $23K!!! Some people with money are just plain crackers

Should have spent his money paying his taxes!

[MIKA27]

Morocco's New Solar Plant Will Cover An Area Larger Than Its Capital City

Next month, the first phase of a new solar plant will open in Morocco — and when it’s finished, it will cover an area even larger than the country’s capital city of Rabat.

The Guardian has published a fascinating feature on the development of the first stage of the solar power plant at Ouarzazate, known as Noor 1. It will contain 500,000 crescent-shaped solar mirrors that follow the sun during the day to capture sunlight. The mirrors are all 12m high and focus on heating up a steel pipeline carrying a “synthetic thermal oil solution” – which can be heated to 393C and mixed with water to create steam and turn the turbines to make electricity.

Apparently by 2020, it should mean that renewables provide half of the country’s energy needs — when complete Noor 1, along with Noor 2 and 3 (which are due to open in 2017) will generate 580MW of power — enough for a million homes. The project will be welcome not just for environmental reasons, but for security reasons too. Apparently the motivation behind the £6bn ($12.5bn) project isn’t climate change, but the fact that Morocco currently imports the overwhelming majority of its energy needs as fossil fuels from abroad.

It’s an exciting sounding project, and if successful could mean the rest of the world starts taking solar more seriously. You can read the full feature here.

[MIKA27]

Blue's Lola Headphones Are A More Practical Evolution Of A Crazy Idea

Released last year, Blue’s Mo-Fi headphones were an ambitious concept for better-sounding cans. They were awesome, but not quite awesome enough to justify their inconveniences. Can the new Lola model deliver on the big promise for a different kind of headphone?

To recap, the Mo-Fi headphones sounded very good due in part to their totally integrated power design: They have built-in amplifiers. Lots of people use headphone amplifiers to drive their headphones — without diving into it too much, it makes many headphones, especially fancy ones, sound better. The Mo-Fi sounded great but they were huge and cumbersome, and no one, save a very devoted audiophile fanatic, would ever want to use them. (And yes, you recognise Blue as the American manufacturer of boutique quality studio microphones.)

The new Lola headphones use the same odd, mech-like design as the Mo-Fi headphones, as well as the same 50mm drivers. This time, however, the headphones don’t have the built-in amps, enabling a lighter, slimmer design. The new headphones weigh 397g compared to 466g on the older model. That might not seem like much, but even a little bit of weight matters when you’re carrying it on your head.

At $US250, the headphones still aren’t a bargain. More crucially, there’s a risk that without the amps, the headphones will lose the magic that made them sound good in the first place. Still, I’m certainly looking forward to trying them, at the very least to see if they can deliver a shadow of the quality of the originals [Blue]

[MIKA27]

Secret U.S. Stealth Bomber Project Takes Off

The Pentagon dishes out $79 billion to Northrop Grumman to produce the most advanced bomber ever made—part of an attempt to keep the American military edge over Russia and China.

Northrop Grumman has scored the biggest, most important U.S. weapons contract in a decade—beating out a consortium of Boeing and Lockheed Martin to design and build up to 100 new stealth bombers for the Air Force for an estimated $79 billion.

The Pentagon hopes the radar-evading bomber will be able to slip through the increasingly sophisticated air defenses that both Russia and China are building, restoring in the process America's eroding ability to wage war anywhere on the planet whenever it wants to.

"Building this bomber is a strategic investment for the next 50 years," U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter announced on Tuesday evening. "The Long Range Strike Bomber will support America's defense strategy by forming the backbone of the Air Force's future strike and deterrent capabilities."

Details of Northrop's bomber design remain classified. Pentagon officials wouldn't even specify what kinds of engines the new plane will have.

As part of the contract, Northrop Grumman will build an initial 21 bombers, for frontline service beginning around 2025, military officials said. The military's accountants estimate Northrop Grumman can it build 100 bombers for $56 billion. The 10-year development process should cost no more than $23 billion in today's dollars, William LaPlante, the Air Force's top weapons-buyer, said at the Tuesday contract announcement.

“The Air Force has made the right decision for our nation’s security,” Wes Bush, president of Northrop Grumman, said in a statement.

Northrop's win comes as no surprise. The company has more recent bomber experience than Lockheed and Boeing, having built all 21 copies of the Air Force'slast bomber, the B-2. Northrop is also the only one of the three companies that, prior to Tuesday's announcement, lacked a major Pentagon warplane contract.

Boeing is building aerial tankers for the Air Force and Super Hornet fighters for the Navy. Lockheed makes the F-35 stealth fighter for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. Industry analysts had speculated that losing the bomber contract could have forced Northrop Grumman to exit the warplane business entirely, leaving the United States with just two major military plane-makers.

LaPlante denied that Northrop's survival as a plane-manufacturer factored into the bomber decision. "The industrial base was not at all a considertion."

Lockheed and Boeing have 100 days to officially protest the contract award to the Government Accountability Office, which would compell the Pentagon to justify its decision.

The contract award marks the end of a nearly decade-long struggle for the military -- and the beginning of a potential new one. The Air Force tried to kick-start a new bomber program way back in 2006 in order to begin replacing a mixed fleet of 50-year-old B-52s, 30-year-old B-1s and B-2s dating to the 1990s, only to have then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates cancel the effort in 2010 for being too expensive.

The Defense Department took managment of the bomber initiative away from the Air Force and relaunched it, assigining the secretive Rapid Capabilities Office to oversee the program. The Washington, D.C.-based office had previously shepherded design and deployment of the Air Force's X-37B, a high-tech robotic space plane that can spend more than year at a time in orbit.

The new bomber that Northrop Grumman will build is an important component of the Pentagon's strategy for deterring an increasingly well-armed and assertive Russia and China. The Air Force has expressed concern that its older warplanes can't penetrate the latest Russian and Chinese defenses, which include long-range radars and powerful surface-to-air missiles.

“The capabilities of the Long Range Strike Bomber will ensure the United States can hold any target on the globe at risk,” said Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of staff. “This is an exciting day for us.”

[MIKA27]

‘Star Wars’ Tractor Beams Are Real

A “tractor beam” is a science-fiction term that refers to a device capable of pulling in distant objects without any physical contact.

As any true Star Wars fan could tell you, the Death Star was equipped with hundreds of tractor beam generators that were used to seize and capture ships like Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon. But even those who are not quite geeky enough to get those references will still be amazed to know that scientists have now created a real-life sonic tractor beam that can be used to hold, move, and even rotate small objects completely without touch.

The concept of the tractor beam stretches back long before Star Wars. Short for “attractor beam,” the science fiction writer E.E. Smith first coined the term in his 1931 novel Spacehounds of IPC. In addition to Star Wars, the television show Star Trek was responsible for popularizing and solidifying the idea as part of popular culture. In it, tractor beams were routinely used by starships and space stations to tow in smaller crafts that were either inert or in trouble. Since then, tractor beams have pervaded mainstream media, getting referenced by non-sci-fi films such as the Austin Powers franchise, Dumb and Dumber, and Wayne’s World. Some of us might delight in remembering when Garth warns Wayne saying, “Stacy alert. We’ve been spotted and are being pulled in by her tractor beams.”

Whereas in Star Trek, tractor beams appeared as shimmering rays of light, those in Star Wars were invisible. The real-life version has more in common with the latter, as scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Sussex, in collaboration with Ultrahaptics, have used pure sound to control objects.

The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, describes how the team of researchers was able to create the first sonic tractor beam using 64 miniature speakers to generate high-intensity sound waves. These waves work by—get this—creating an acoustic hologram, which acts as a bona fide force field that can manipulate multiple objects in mid-air. Sounds pretty badass, right? The technique is a perfect example of how quickly our technology is beginning to blur the lines between science fiction and reality.

However, this isn’t the only tractor beam to be invented by physicists. Just last year, lasers were used to create the first long-distance optical tractor beam, which was able to move particles a fifth of a millimeter in diameter across a distance of almost 8 inches. However, the sonic tractor beams of this most recent study reeled in spherical beads about 10 times that size, albeit from a shorter distance away. One significant advantage of sonic beams over light-based ones is that it can do a lot more manipulations than just pushing and pulling. The scientists were able to position the high-amplitude sound waves in ways that created three different shapes of tractor beam force fields: one shaped like a pair of tweezers, another like a cage that surrounds and holds objects, and also a vortex that traps them in its center.

Beyond just being a really neat phenomenon, there are very practical real-world applications for sonic tractor beams. In the past, acoustic force fields that could control particles required speakers that surrounded the object. These new sonic tractor beams use a single beam, allowing a device that is placed on the skin’s surface to manipulate particles inside the body. In this way, things like drug capsules, kidney stones, or microsurgical instruments can be maneuvered with a high degree of precision. Additionally, sonic tractor beams could be used to assemble delicate objects that are too fragile to be touched.

As impressive as all this is to the scientific community, it is certain that some technology-spoiled members of society won’t be as satisfied with the findings. Moving small beads less than an arm’s length is nothing close to the tractor beams we’ve encountered in our favorite sci-fi stories. To those naysayers, I can only give you the same advice that Obi-Wan Kenobi gave to Luke Skywalker when Luke wanted to stop his training to go fight before he was ready: “Patience!”

According to the lead author of the study, Asier Marzo, their team has more ambitious plans for the future. At the moment, they are designing different variations of the system, such as “a bigger version with a different working principle that aims to levitate a soccer ball from over 30 feet away.” Holy crap, that is cool. And if we can soon expect sonic beams that can do all that, who knows what can be achieved in the next few decades. Maybe we will see tractor beams that can pull in small aircraft over long distances, and—just maybe—some lucky Star Wars geek will be behind the controls, living out his ultimate nerd fantasy.

[MIKA27]

We Asked an Expert What Would Happen if Russia Cut the Pipeline to the Internet

A Russian submarine at the Saint Petersburg Submarine Museum.

It's sometimes easy to forget (if, in fact, you ever knew) that the information superhighway travels mostly in huge cables buried deep at sea—miles and miles of fiber optic wire that carry on them 95% of our daily communication and $10 trillion (!) worth of global business. If someone were to sever enough of said cables, our tenuous grasp on the modern world would be lost. Electronic banking would be a distant memory, your smartphone would be just a phone, and door-to-door encyclopedia salesmen would descend upon suburban neighborhoods again. In short, life would be hell.

These usually distant fears have been stoked recently by Russian naval activities. According to a story in the New York Times on Sunday, Russian spy planes and submarines are "aggressively operating near the vital undersea cables that carry almost all global Internet communications." American intelligence officials are reportedly worried that this activity could mean the Ruskies are scouting vulnerabilities and thinking of cutting the cables sometime in the future.

Feeding the fear, of course, is the fact that our relationship with Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, has never been more frayed. With military plays in Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, and Syria, he's thumbed his nose at the U.N., and tensions between the US and Russia are at dangerously high levels not seen since the Cold War—something Putin's cagey meeting with Obama late last month illustrated.

So, how likely is it that Russia would cut these cables, and what would it look like if they did? For that answer we asked Nicole Starosielski, Assistant professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University, and author of the book The Undersea Network (Duke University Press), which is accompanied by an interactive digital mapping project, where readers can trace cable routes, view photographs and archival materials, and read stories about the island cable hubs. She made us feel a bit better.

VICE: Russian submarines and spy ships are, according to the New York Times, "aggressively operating" near vital undersea cables that carry almost all global internet communications. There's a growing fear the Russians will cut these cables in some of their hardest-to-access locations. On a scale of one to ten, how totally petrified should we all be about this?

Nicole Starosielski: I don't think we should be totally petrified about this. Or, at least, we should be much more scared of other things before we worry about a Russian threat to US internet traffic. By and large, our network is concentrated along a set of narrow cable routes, which are regularly disrupted by everything from natural disasters to fishermen's anchors. These take out more cables than deliberate cable cutting ever has.

What would it take to cut cables in these "hardest-to-access" locations? Something tells me we're not just talking a couple divers and a pair of bolt cutters.

It wouldn't take much to cut cables in the deep sea. They can be severed just as easily, and using the same means, as shallow water cables. They can be cut with an anchor, a grapnel, or any large, sharp device dragged along the seafloor. It would actually be easier than sending divers down with bolt cutters.

Walk us through what happens if, say, tomorrow we wake up and these vital cables have been severed. Will the internet disappear? Will we have to engage with strangers instead of staring into our smartphones?

This really depends on how many cables are cut, and where they are routed. Cable breaks are actually fairly routine—on average once every three days. But in most cases, traffic can be redirected. When the 2011 tsunami severed a number of the undersea cables in Japan, the country remained online, in part because of its massive number of international connections. In other cases, such as in nations that only have a few cables, a single break could be disastrous. There are a number of occasions when the internet has disappeared after a set of cable cuts. The 2006 Hengchun earthquake severed a number of cables near Taiwan—a pressure point in the global system—and made the internet inaccessible for many, disrupted financial transactions, and brought down other critical systems. In the United States, however, you'd have to cut quite a few cables before anyone would have to start engaging with strangers.

In the Times story it says these cables carry "global business worth more than $10 trillion a day, including from financial institutions that settle transactions on them every second." What does the cutting of these cables mean to us in a financial sense? Should we all be hoarding our money under our mattresses? Will our ATM cards stop working?

Stephen Malphrus, staff director at the US Federal Reserve Board, has said if the cable networks are disrupted, "the financial services sector does not 'grind to a halt,' rather it snaps to a halt." If the undersea cable network stopped operating, it would not only disrupt connections between major financial institutions, but would affect many of our everyday financial transactions. ATM cards included. Online banking would be out of the question. But again, these cuts already happen on a regular basis, and are disproportionately felt in regions with fewer cables.

Beyond spy planes, in what ways does the US monitor the kind of activity we're talking about near these cables?

By and large, cables aren't monitored. They stretch thousands of miles across the ocean, and it's simply too much work to monitor them all. Cable companies have been trying to monitor their lines for over a century, using all kinds of tactics: helicopters, patrol boats, and so on. But that hasn't prevented them from being broken time and time again by fishermen and boaters in the coastal seas

If the Russians did this, wouldn't it disrupt their own internet communications, too? What would be the upside in this for them?

Yes, this is certainly a problem. A worker in the industry once told me that contemporary cable cutting would be kind of like standing out on a tree limb and then sawing it off—you'd disrupt your own networks at the same time. If a Russian submarine were to cut a number of cables linking to the United States, this wouldn't just affect the United States. It would affect all of the countries that use these links to get somewhere else, and all of the countries linking to the United States. We're a huge node in the global communications system, so the effects would extend far beyond our national boundaries. If any country, Russia or otherwise, simply hoped to cause widespread disruption for anyone using digital media, then this might be an effective technique. But it's an indiscriminate one.

Doesn't it seem kind of old fashioned that the entire infrastructure for our data is run through big-ass underwater cables?

Well it is quite old fashioned—undersea cables are one of the oldest global communications technologies. Even though the lines have been updated from copper telegraph wires to high-speed fiber optics, they're still being laid much like they were 150 years ago. And they often run along the same routes. But they're the most effective and efficient way to communicate today. Cables carry data traffic at faster speeds and lower cost than satellites, and it's unlikely that we're going to move on from them anytime soon.

Why aren't the locations of the cables more closely guarded or kept classified?

The most significant human threat to cable systems has never been intentional sabotage. This has been an anomaly in the history of cable disruptions. The biggest threats are from boats that unintentionally drop anchors or nets on cable systems. Some cable companies allocate hundreds of thousands of dollars annually just to repair these disruptions, which they assume will happen. The best protection against this threat is the publication of cable routes, so that way fishermen and other boaters won't accidentally break them. Military cable routes, on the other hand, are kept classified.

[MIKA27]

A Northern California Police Department Is Offering Cops Nunchucks

The Anderson Police Department in northern California is going to begin arming its officers with nunchucks, as the Los Angeles Times reports. After all, if it's good enough for Ninja Turtles and Bruce Lee, then it's good enough for the people enforcing America's laws in 2015, right?

According to the paper, the 20-person police force was "looking for a versatile tool that would limit injuries to officers and the people they detained." Presumably, everything clicked when someone stumbled across a late-night airing of Enter the Dragon on AMC.

"[Nunchucks give] us the ability to control a suspect instead of striking them," Police Sergeant Casey Day said. "I see the value and the safety they bring me."

Officers will not be required to switch out their batons for nunchucks—technically known as "nunchakus"—but if they do feel like spicing up their lives, they have to complete a 16-hour training course. Whatever it takes to keep things interesting in this town of 10,000 people, apparently.

[MIKA27]

COLE HAAN ZEROGRAND WATERPROOF BOOTS

Fall means that both cold and wet weather is on the way, but what does this mean for you? It means you’ve gotta prep with footwear designed to combat the elements, and that’s exactly what the Cole Haan ZeroGrand waterproof boots were built to do.

These high top kicks are sporting an upper constructed from waterproof leather, with leather laces and a grid-like panel running along each side of the shoe providing some nice style accents up top. On the bottom end the brand has outfitted these things with an EVA midsole complete with a deep grooved outsole for optimum comfort and flexibility, and a genuine natural storm welt to further fight those wet weather conditions. The boot is currently available in three different colorways from select retailers. [Purchase]

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KEN BLOCK’S 1978 MKII FORD ESCORT RS

We’re not sure if Ken Block could ever top his gorgeous 1965 Ford Mustang Hoonicorn, but his latest Gymkhana build is still a head turner. The DC founder has officially pulled the curtain back on his 1878 MkII Ford Escort RS.

The first Gymkhana vehicle owned by Block that is not AWD, this RWD beast is equipped with a 2.5-liter Millington four-cylinder racing engine that pumps out 333 horsepower – naturally aspirated. Working with the team at Rocket Bunny and Quick Motorsports, Block’s Hoonigan Racing’s goal was to build a vehicle that would “kill tires with the quickness.” Speaking of tires, the Pirelli rubbers are wrapped around four custom fifteen52 wheels. The car is finished off in a flat-black Hoonigan paint job, complete with stars and stripes across the hood. Expect to see this thing starring in Block’s new Gymkhana video, set to debut in 2016. Watch the short clip below.

[MIKA27]

STAR WARS JEWELRY BY JUSTIN DAVIS

Jewelry enthusiasts know the name Justin Davis, and now the famed jewelry designer has unleashed an incredible collection inspired by the Star Wars movie franchise.

The new line features rings and necklaces featuring Stormtroopers, Darth Vader, C3PO, and even Boba Fett (although it’s unlikely that anyone would buy a Boba Fett anything). There’s also a silver Chewbacca necklace that lacks the shine of the rest of the collection. And if you’re after a cool lightsaber necklace, look no further than Davis’ Luke Skywalker Lightsaber design. If you fancy yourself a Jedi Master, there’s a ring that has the proper logo and a green peridot gem. Of course, the jewelry is only intended for the most loyal of fans, as prices start at $1,000 and venture up to $10,000. [Purchase]

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MONTI BEER GLASSES

If you think the type of beer glasses you sip from don't matter, then you've probably never used proper glassware, like these Monti Beer Glasses. Each of the four glasses is specifically designed to fit perfectly in your hand, and are blown from lead-free crystal. The IPA, Pilsner, Pint, or birra glasses are designed with a specific beer in mind and come in 16 or 12 ounce options.