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

[MIKA27]

The Rolls Royce Dawn Is A Cool $749,000 In Australia

Rolls Royce’s new super-luxury, four-seat, drophead convertible Dawn is now in Australia. Like other Rolls Royce motor cars, we didn’t expect it to be cheap, but at $749,000 — oof.

Australia is expected to be one of the most popular countries for Dawn sales, mainly because of our warm climate; we’ll start seeing them (them? Maybe two or three) on Aussie roads from the second half of 2016 onwards. While the new car may look quite similar to other Rolls to the untrained eye, 80 per cent of its body panels are unique, and its roof is the second largest ever fitted to a convertible — and the largest is on the even larger Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead.

Rolls Royce apparently set out to make the Dawn the quietest convertible in the world, with the fully electronic roof closing in just under 20 seconds at speeds up to 50 kilometres per hour. The British marque even has a name for the powered mechanism — it’s called the Silent Ballet. And, let’s be honest, it looks every bit as good with the roof down as it does up.

The back seats actually look like the best place to be on the Dawn; not only do you have oodles of room and your own sumptuous collection of leather and wood, but the boot area under which the fabric canopy is stored looks just like a speedboat’s rear deck. Like other Rolls, the Dawn is powered by the tested, reliable and entirely adequate combo of twin-turbocharged 6.6-litre V12 and eight-speed automatic gearbox.

Australia is the first country in the Asia Pacific region to be graced by the Dawn’s presence, and there’s apparently a “high level of interest” from “affluent yet younger customers”. Expect to see a Dawn or two doing happy laps up and down your local main street some time soon.

[MIKA27]

Physicists Prove That Spooky Action At A Distance Is Real

Entanglement is one of the strangest aspects of quantum mechanics, whereby two subatomic particles can be so closely connected that one can seem to influence the other even across long distances. Albert Einstein dubbed it “spooky action at a distance,” and two new experiments have now definitively shown that the phenomenon is real.

OK, I’ll say it: yes, Einstein was wrong — at least when it comes to his proposed alternative explanation for spooky action.

Along with Boris Podolsky and Ned Rosen, Einstein suggested in 1935 that it might be the result of what are now called hidden variables. It’s possible that there is no spookiness involved, he argued; the hidden variables predetermined the outcome. And since these variables could only influence things in their vicinity (locality), this view has become known as local realism.

Thirty years later, John Bell proposed a means of testing that hypothesis — an experimental set-up that would rule out any possible hidden variables, thereby proving that spooky action is real after all. You take an entangled pair of photons, separate them, and have each choose randomly between two possible “questions” at either location. The “choice” in this case involves one of two possible measurements of different properties being made, selected at random. Those answers should be connected in specific ways if spooky action is true: for instance, if a measurement is made and we find that one photon of an entangled pair is red, we will know that the other must automatically be blue, even if they are miles apart.

Physicists have been conducting variations of the Bell test ever since, with greater and greater precision, but could never quite claim to have produced definitive proof of spooky action, because there were still critical loopholes in the experimental design. Until quite recently, physicists simply didn’t have sufficiently advanced technology to close those loopholes.

Krister Shalm, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado, draws an analogy with the recent VW emissions scandal. The car manufacturer figured out the assumptions made by the EPA in its emissions tests, and modified its performance accordingly to exploit that loophole. The Bell tests conducted over the past 50+ years also make certain assumptions.

So like others before them, Shalm and his colleagues at NIST had to close those loopholes. By doing so with greater precision than ever before, they hammered the final nail in local realism’s coffin. “That idea is now out the window,” Shalm told Gizmodo.

The NIST version of the Bell test involved placing a photon source and two detectors far apart, in three different rooms in the laboratory building. The source pumped out entangled pairs of photons, which were then separated and sent via fibre optic cables to the detectors. While the photons were still en route, the scientists used a random number generator to make a “choice” — the equivalent of calling heads or tails for the flip of a coin. That outcome determined the analyser setting, and if the photon matched that setting, it was considered a detection.

The first loophole involves fair sampling. Let’s say you wanted to test whether a coin was biased. You would flip it 100 times, then count how many times you got heads, and how many times you got tails. If you got, say, 70 heads and only 30 tails, there’s a good chance the coin is biased. But what if for half of those 100 flips, the coin bounced away and fell down the drain? You’d only be counting the remaining 50 flips, in which the coin landed equally on heads and tails. You can assume that the other unrecorded flips were fair, but the coin could still be biased and you wouldn’t know it, because half the results are hidden from you. “If every time I got heads, I threw it away and didn’t show it to you, you’d be fooled into thinking it was fair,” said Shalm.

That’s what happened in prior incarnations of the Bell test: until quite recently, the photon detectors weren’t recording a sufficiently high sampling of photons — above 72% is the critical threshold, according to Shalm. The NIST experiment detected 75% of the photons, thanks to the team’s development of much-improved sources of entangled photons and the use of superconducting materials in its detectors.

It’s incredibly difficult to achieve those numbers, given the intricate process involved. Shalm calls it “quantum archery”: the entangled photon pairs must be coupled to optical fibres — a target about 10 microns in size — and then sent to separate locations hundreds of meters away with minimal losses, weaving in and out of the optical fibres along the way before they finally reach the detectors. Any kind of outside interference will break the entanglement between the photon pair.

This brings us to the second loophole: there can be no faster-than-light communication of information. That means the photon detectors must be at least several hundred meters apart so that any signal travelling at the speed of light can’t reach either photon in its respective location before a “choice,” or measurement, is made. It would take 617 nanoseconds for any signal to travel between the two NIST detectors, and the measurements were completed a good 40 nanoseconds faster than that, so they successfully ruled out the possibility of some kind of mysterious communication between the photons.

The third and final loophole involves freedom of choice, and Shalm admits that it can never truly be closed, because at some point you find yourself in the untestable realm of metaphysics. When that happens, “You’re firmly out of the realm of physics, in my opinion,” he said. But he and his colleagues did address the issue by combining two different processes to generate truly random numbers, thereby closing as much of that loophole as it is possible to close.

They also added a third random bit to ensure there could be no outside manipulation, mashing together data from films and TV shows, such as Back to the Future or Saved by the Bell, with the digits of pi. In order to cling to the super-determinism implied by local realism, “You’d have to believe that sometime before the experiment started, the photons (or whatever was creating the photons) have to be able to influence what two quantum random number generators were doing, and would also have to know what Marty Mcfly was doing in Back to the Future, along with other correlations and the digits of pi,” said Shalm. Any such model would be absurd.

And what about implicit bias? The NIST team thought about that, too, bringing in another physicist who firmly believed in local realism to help design the experiment, lest their own bias against local realism sneak in. When the results came in, that physicist had to adjust his thinking. “He’s a good scientist,” said Shalm. “He saw the evidence and changed his opinion.” But he still needed a period of mourning: “He had a few days where he moped around the halls. You could almost see the five stages of grief.”

Even other physicists might not appreciate the difficulty of firmly closing all those loopholes. If prior Bell tests were akin to climbing Mount Kilmanjaro or Mount Fuji, Shalm said, the NIST experiment is “like climbing Everest or K2 without oxygen.” It took many, many scientists working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, to get the experiment up and running, because every component had to be precise to within one part in a million or billion — like crossing millions of T’s and dotting billions of i’s.

“I’ve poured my blood and tears into this,” Shalm admitted. “I got married in the middle of the experiment and I was analysing data the day of the wedding. I’m glad my bride didn’t run away.”

Science usually progresses in incremental improvements. The NIST results come on the heels of a similar successful Bell test announced earlier this year by physicists at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The Dutch scientists sent two entangled electrons to separate corners of the campus and also found that spooky action was real. They achieved higher detection efficiency than the NIST team, and also closed the loopholes, albeit with substantially lower statistics (a probability of 4% versus the 1 in a billion in the NIST experiment).

And a second team of physicists at the University Vienna just conducted yet another version of the Bell test using one of NIST’s single photon detectors. They reported similar results, submitting their own paper to the journal Physical Review Letters at the same time as Shalm and his co-authors.

Taken together with the Delft results and those from the University of Vienna experiment, NIST’s loophole-free Bell test should settle the question once and for all. As Shalm said. “You would have to have a very bizarre model of the universe to explain these three independent tests [without spooky action].”

[MIKA27]

These Huge Roman Mosaics Were Hidden Under City Streets For 1700 Years

Twenty years ago, construction workers in the Israeli town of Lod working under a city street came across something extraordinary: A massive mosaic, laid down almost two millennia before. Now, they have found another.

The Lod Mosaic has become iconic over the years: It was removed from the city street where it was found, it has travelled all over the world and has been displayed at the most important museums on Earth. It’s been the subject of volumes of academic study, spurring debates about what the perfectly-preserved Roman mosaic describes (some claim that it depicts a shipwreck that the wealthy person who commissioned it survived).

The first Lod mosaic.

Lod, of course, is in Israel. But when this mosaic was made, it was a Roman colony, as the mosaic’s official website explains:

Lod is ancient Lydda, which was destroyed by the Romans in A.D. 66 during the Jewish War. Refounded by Hadrian as Diospolis, Lydda was awarded the rank of a Roman colony under Septimius Severus in A.D. 200. It remained in Roman hands until becoming a Christian city and eventually succumbing to Arab conquerors in A.D. 636… Debris covering the floors contained pottery and coins of the third and fourth centuries A.D., suggesting that the mosaics were laid in about A.D. 300.

The mosaic’s discovery in 1996 brought new attention to Lod, a downtrodden city that saw tens of thousands of new visitors, the New York Times reported in 2009. The city planned a visitor center dedicated to the ancient piece — and the process of building that structure has accidentally uncovered more treasures.

The original mosaic

Today, the city and the Israel Antiquities Authority announced that during the construction process, workers uncovered — yep — another Roman mosaic, as well as other fragments and details of the upper-class home where the original mosaic was discovered in 1996:

The new, 13-metre-long mosaic was situated in a covered courtyard, and it depicts the kinds of pastoral scenes you’d expect of a well-bred Roman of the time: There are vases, fish, birds, and scenes like a lion-esque animal is tearing into its prey.

Officials today described this multi-mosaic house as “meticulous and luxurious,” a space that would have been *raises pinky finger* “in the best tradition of the well-born of the period.” Now, the museum will be redesigned to include the second mosaic — and it seems pretty likely that these fragments will continue to be discovered.

It’s actually not that unusual for mosaics from the Roman or Byzantine era to be uncovered by modern construction, either in Israel or elsewhere. We’ve seen a rash of mosaics uncovered over the past few decades, as city streets and infrastructure are updated and as construction of new neighbourhoods goes forward.

Mosaics are also extraordinarily durable: Not only are they solid and made from stone — they’re flat, which means they won’t collapse or crumble like actual three-dimensional structures and artefacts. In a way, they are the time capsule: Resistant to water and weather, and almost unbreakable.

Almost.

The first Lod Mosaic, for example, has a hole where a cesspit was dug into the ground a few hundred years later. It just goes to show: if you really want to understand a city, from its sewage to its greatest artefacts, look beneath its streets.

[MIKA27]

Cave Diving in the Nullarbor Is Like Floating in Space

You wouldn't know it today, but a very long time ago—around 100 million years—Australia was a continent divided by water. What is now central Australia, the flat, infinite radial plain that lies between Adelaide and Darwin, was once the floor of shallow sea. This is also how South Australia came to have caves full of crystal clear water in the middle of the desert.

Most caves elsewhere in the world were formed when streams carved holes into ancient fault lines, but South Australia was a little weirder. The middle Australian state is bookended by two huge sheets of limestone that formed under the sea. Then later, when the sea drained away, rain gnawed into the limestone to form sprawling networks of water-logged tunnels that disappear for kilometres into the guts of the earth.

Dr Ian Lewis before a dive

None of this was much understood until the 1960s. That's when an Adelaide-based hydrologist named Ian Lewis, among others, started exploring these outback caves and realised just how deep they go. Today Lewis is the public face of the Cave Divers Association of Australia but when he started diving, the sport didn't really exist.

People knew there were deep caves in Mt Gambier and the Nullarbor but that was about all. Even now he remembers that initial sense of wonder when he lead a convoy of divers out to the desert in a green Holden Kingswood during the 70s on an expedition to map previously unknown sites.

"It was something no one had done before," he said. "And the diving was breathtaking. The caves were enormous. The walls were pure white, so our lights reflected off everything. The water was crystal clear and pure. When we surveyed them, the divers were 500 feet apart and you could see them as crystal clear as day."

Cocklebiddy Cave Entrance.

Since then, times have changed. Now there are new faces and new technologies like rebreathers, which extend the amount of time a diver can spend underwater. Lewis himself doesn't do much exploring these days. Instead he leaves much of it to young guns like Dr Richard Harris.

Harris is an anaesthetist by trade and a member of an elite group of cave divers called the Wet Mules, named for their willingness to voluntarily haul heavy equipment to remote caves and spend up to 20 hours following them from start to finish. Harris, or "Harry" as he likes to be called, described diving into a cave like "swimming through air".

"Some people look down through the clear water and feel dizzy," he said. "There's a well-known site inPiccaninnie Ponds, where there is a narrow chasm or slot that drops down about 20 metres and as you swim out over it, the ground drops away out from below you and a lot of people feel like they're going to fall."

"Some people overuse the space analogy, but it's really appropriate. You really do feel like you're suspended in nothing."

Into Kilsby's Sinkhole. "Thrill-seekers" and "suicide freaks" are not welcome.

Cave diving at an elite level is about mastery and precision. The level of technical knowledge needed to pull it off is one of the things that separates it from other exploration-based activities like Urbex. Those who make it that far in the cave diving world mark themselves out as explorers and careful, "technical-minded" divers chasing the perfect dive. A clumsy dive that stirs up silt or disturbs the cave is a professional sin.

To even get to that point takes months of dedicated training, practice, and experience, and access to cave sites is difficult. This is because hazards are real, even if the community are sensitive to public perception and would prefer to not talk about them. When a person dives into the ocean, they have light and can just resurface if they get into trouble. A cave diver cannot. "Thrill-seekers" and "suicide freaks" are not welcome.

"If you want that, you may as well take up skydiving," Lewis said. "We go in wanting to come out again."

Swimming through Tank Cave

While it's all he would say on the subject, things do go wrong and divers do fall in the line of duty. Between 2010 and 2011 the community lost three members, among them marine archaeologist, Agnes Milowka, a highly respected diver from Victoria who died in 2011 while exploring Tank Cave, one of largest and most complex cave systems in the world.

Harris was on the dive team that helped police recover Milowka's body. Milowka, an experienced diver, had become separated from her diving partner while exploring a tight nook. In doing so, she kicked up a cloud of silt, became disorientated and couldn't find her way out.

Though he didn't know her as well as some, Harris knew Milowka and the pair had worked together on the set of Sanctum.

"She was a very happy, gregarious person, full of life, full of adventure. A very high level cave diver, extraordinarily talented, but a little too bold as it turned out, as that's what got her into trouble," he said. "She was a real explorer."

The aptly named Iddlebiddy Cave

Probably the most lethal period in cave diving history came in the 70s when 11 people died in the space of six years. This is what prompted the creation of the Cave Divers Association and the introduction of a training program designed to save people from themselves. Since then, Australian cave diving has a fairly good safety record and until 2010, Harris said there hadn't been a single fatality since 1985.

And while good portions of about 50 known cave sites across the state have been mapped, there is still more out there. Divers call finding something new "laying line" and every now and then someone comes back having mapped a new stretch of tunnel.

This has also tended to put the diver on the front-line of scientific research as they return with water and rock samples, fossils, or discover strange new forms of life. As for undiscovered caves, Lewis says they're out there, but the challenge is finding a way in.

"The limestone is full of holes, you just have to find them," Lewis said. "There's a chance of finding new caves, and the technology to find them is getting better and better. There are 12,000 blowholes on the Nullarbor Plain. Air belts out of them or sucks in. Some may have a cave at the bottom, some may not. No one knows."

[MIKA27]

MOUTH BOURBON CLUB

Subscription services are a dime a dozen, but let’s be honest, most of them just aren’t worth the money. Mouth’s Bourbon Club on the other hand, now this is something we can get behind.

Nothing soothes our soul quite like bourbon, and it’s a year-round pleasure that should be enjoyed regularly. Using their spirit experts, the guys at Mouth will send you a bottle of the good stuff – every single month. That’s right, bourbon made from some of the best independent distillers around the country will show up at your door, like clockwork. And this is some small sample either, for $59 per month they’ll send you a full-size (750 ml) bottle every 30 days, and they’ll also cover the shipping. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

DUCATI XDIAVEL

Ducati have given their popular Diavel Motorbike a relaxed cruiser feel with the new Ducati XDiavel, giving it a true feet-forward cruiser riding position.

At the center of the XDiavel is the new Testastretta L-Twin engine with 156 hp, 9,500 RPM, and a colossal 95 lb-ft of torque, ensuring superbike muscle and a flat torque curve from the low rev range upwards. The styling looks fantastic, and the ride sounds pretty spectacular, plus it comes equipped with high tech features such as a proximity key, advanced traction control, multiple riding modes(such as drag-racing mode) and a belt drive, which is smoother and quieter than a chain-driven motorcycle. Stay tuned for an official release date and pricing.

[MIKA27]

ROE CAVIAR

Skip the chips and dip this year and indulge your holiday guests with some Roe Caviar. Sourced from sustainably farmed White Sturgeon in California, each tin contains the roe from a single fish, selected for size, firmness, color, and taste, with very fine salt to help enhance the flavor and without any added preservatives. Available only through the end of December, it's extremely limited, and comes in 125 gram or 250 gram tins, the latter of which arrives in a custom Monterey Pine wooden gift box.

[MIKA27]

NORLAN WHISKEY GLASS

Years of care went into the production of your favorite whiskeys. Similar care was put into the making of the Norlan Whiskey Glass. The result of over one and a half years of development, it combines the aromatic benefits of a snifter with the aesthetics and casual style of a tumbler, thanks to a double-walled design. Inside the glass a specially developed protrusions that help focus the drink's natural aromas when swirled, releasing every nuance of the spirit. They're hand-blown from Borosilicate glass and available in sets of two, four, six, or eight.

[MIKA27]

RADO DIAMASTER GRANDE SECONDE WATCH

Sporting an unconventional yet instantly recognizable design, the Rado DiaMaster Grande Seconde Watch is a more interesting take on horology than your average timepiece. The interest is in the dual dials, one giving a readout of the minutes and hours, while a smaller, overlapping circle displays the seconds. There's a date window at 9 o'clock, a rhodium-colored high-tech ceramic case that's both light and scratch-resistant, and a brown leather strap to add an extra touch of class that makes it formal enough for the boardroom, yet casual enough for weekend wear.

[MIKA27]

Luke and Vader Face Off in Marvel’s Best Star Wars Comic So Far

Star Wars canon has changed, and some of that has happened in a new wave of Marvel Comics series. Months ago, we saw Luke Skywalker wield a lightsaber against his father way before their fateful meeting in The Empire Strikes Back. This week’s Star Wars comic has them dogfighting against each other and it’s damn great.

Spoilers follow.

The first installment of a crossover between the Star Wars and Darth Vader series, Vader Down #1 launches a climax that’s the culmination of the first year’s worth of storylines in each title. Written by Jason Aaron, with art by Mike Deodato, Frank Martin, Jr., and Joe Caramagna, the first issue finds Vader following information—gained by torture and backchannel deals—that places Luke Skywalker at a remote planet called Vrogas Vas. The near-barren sphere was once home to a Jedi temple but it’s also a refueling base for the Rebel fleet.

The Emperor’s enforcer suddenly finds himself facing three dozen X-wings. The fight that follows is unfair...

...for the Rebels, that is. The spaceship battle sequence that follows is the first of many great moments in Vader Down #1, followed by another great scene where Luke and his dad aim their ships at each other at full speed. They both survive, though, and seem headed towards another pivotal new-canon encounter.

The key feature in Marvel’s new Star Wars comics has been watching the titles’ creators dance around in the negative space of established movie continuity and drop new twists for readers to chew on. As far as new stuff, we’ve already seen Luke duel (badly!) against Vader...

and barely survive an encounter with Boba Fett.

The Lord of the Sith learning that Luke was his son was another highlight, one that established that Vader had an even stronger reason for finding the pilot that destroyed the Death Star.

After reading Vader Down #1, it’s clear that father and son have been on a collision course ever since their last meeting, though it hasn’t seemed that way in the separate series. In Star Wars, Luke’s been on a hunt for Jedi knowledge, using Obi-Wan’s journal to guide him and getting captured by a Hutt who obsessively collects Force-wielder artifacts. Meanwhile, in Vader’s title, the newest storylines have had him backed into a corner by machinations to pursue an agenda away from the Emperor’s awareness. This has been an embattled Vader, barely dodging a new cohort’s master-detective efforts to root out the source of a high-stakes heist Vader himself put together. It’s been a tense workplace drama that’s shown Vader as increasingly vulnerable.

So, it’s great that Vader Down #1 serves as a reminder that Vader is one of the most formidable warriors to ever exist in the Star Wars universe. Scenes where he takes out Rebel ships from the ground feel like they could be moments from the new Battlefront game and his arrogance in the face of overwhelming odds feels well-earned. Luke, on the other hand, still has lots to learn and the Vader Down storyline might be where he gets some more painfully won knowledge. Star Wars’ new future is only a month away in the form of The Force Awakens movie. But, the past of Star Wars continues to change in fun ways, too, which makes this crossover worth paying attention to.

[MIKA27]

This New Star Wars Trailer Is Full Of New Footage

Still keen on Star Wars: The Force Awakens trailers? If yes, get in here, becaues this one is choc-a-bloc with new footage.

[MIKA27]

The Caves That Held A Secret Hungarian Aircraft Factory During World War II

In 1944 and 1945, the Allies were attacking the last supporter of Nazi Germany. Tens of thousands of tonnes of bombs were dropped on Hungarian ground targets, mostly by the Consolidated B-24 Liberator and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bombers of the 15th Air Force. By the end of the World War II, the rain of incendiary and demolition bombs had wiped out all important industrial targets that fed the weakening war machine of the Third Reich — except one. The factory hiding under the 10th district of Budapest did not stop manufacturing fighter aircraft even during the most devastating air raids.

The following photos were taken in the unbelievably huge system of cellars carved into limestone rock under the breweries of Kőbánya, Budapest. Dark rooms, whitewashed, damp walls, wet passages, twisty tunnels and corridors, rusting remains of machines whisper the uncommon story of the quarries of Kőbánya. These caves were left behind by limestone miners, when the mine was finally closed in the 1890s, after a series of roof collapses. Local wineries used the caves for a short period of time, and later the Dreher Brewery bought the abandoned cellars, and used the enormous, cool tunnels for making beer.

During World War II the civil defence league built air raid shelters here, but the main function of the caves became less civilian: from March 1944, Hungarian workers assembled 1900 HP V12 engines and fuselages for Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters, the most popular fighter aircraft in history.

According to some calculations, the underground complex is 35km long, boasting 180,000 square metres of space. The meandering corridors are 4-5m wide, branching into a variety of rooms. There are even enormous, domed halls, sometimes used as chapels. Water seeps in through the limestone walls and the mine is almost constantly wet. Small streams cross the floor everywhere, and mildew blooms along the rocky corridors. The air temperature is around 13-15 degrees, and you can see your breath as you go deeper and deeper, through the poorly lit halls.

Because the tunnels are located 10-15m below the surface (the lowest point is about 30m), the aircraft factory was protected during the last months of the war — partly because the allied bombers didn’t even know there was a military plant under the ground. As one survivor explained, they barely heard the sound of the explosions. Plus, the surface targets of carpet bombings were kilometres away.

The aircraft engine and fuselage assembly plant was so classified that only rumours existed about it for a long time. Few written documents were found by historians, and no photographs at all. We know only that the large aircraft parts were put on trucks and transported to Germany where they were assembled and sent immediately to aerial battles against US and UK forces.

The decades of socialism in Hungary brought to these tunnels the same fate as many Hungarians’ private property. Without proper maintenance, the halls deteriorated in a short time, ceilings collapsed, and groundwater engulfed lot of the structure.

Today, the vast underground complex quite often functions as a filming and bike-racing location. Its flooded tunnels and halls are being used by divers; a few companies grow mushrooms here; and Dreher still owns and uses a large part of it. Many people do not even know that the caves exist at all, and it’s only in the last few years that visitors have been allowed inside. I visited it in 2007 first time, and revisited during a special tour organised by BudapestScenes a few days ago.

[MIKA27]

COBALT VALKYRIE PRIVATE PLANE

If you’ve got $700,000 lying around, you might want to consider purchasing Cobalt’s new Valkyrie, an expertly designed, high performance aircraft that looks like a million bucks.

It can cruise at 220 knots for nearly 1500 nautical miles, guzzling 15 gallons of gas per hour along the way. It’ll hit 240 knots for over 1,000 nautical miles, which will cause it to devour 22 gallons per hour. It is equipped with an aircraft parachute system, interiors by ex-Hermes craftsman, a glass instrument panel that includes an iPad holder (in case you want to browse Reddit while flying), and a huge F-16-esque canopy with 320 degree view. The airplane surprisingly has seating for five and all of their baggage, and sports a turbocharged 350 horsepower Continental engine. It’s still in the conceptual stage, and there are four other Valkyrie prototypes being tested. But since Cobalt has been designing it for nearly ten years, it’s likely that we’ll see a final build relatively soon. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

TUDOR FASTRIDER BLACK SHIELD WATCH

Inspired by the Ducati XDiavel motorcycle, the bold design of the TUDOR Fastrider Black Shield Watch looks great whether you ride a bike or not. The 42mm case is all one piece, crafted from black ceramic with a matte bead-blasted finish. The hands, markers, and indicators for both the main dial and three sub-dials are done in contrasting white, while those of the fixed bezel remain black. It's powered by a self-winding mechanical chronograph movement, has a date window at 4:30, and is waterproof down to 150 meters. It comes with your choice of black rubber or black leather strap with white contrast stitching, and is also available in black/red or black/beige.

[MIKA27]

First-Ever Working Vocal Cords Grown In A Lab

The first-ever working vocal cords able to produce realistic sound have been grown from scratch in a lab, promising hope to people who have lost their voice due to illness, injury or invasive surgery.

The vocal chords are actually, in theory, fairly simple: two bands of smooth muscle lined with delicate folds of mucosa. As air is forced by them, the lining can vibrate at speeds of up to 1000 times a second, allowing humans to produce a wide range of nuanced sounds. But many diseases and surgeries can damage the delicate lining, leaving patients with limited vocal ability.

Now, a team from the University of Wisconsin School of Public Health in Madison has grown working replicas from scratch. They took a 3D collagen scaffold and used two different types of cell to create the artificial cords — fibroplasts that were grown into smooth muscle and epithelial cells that were coaxed into becoming the delicate lining. The donated cells were taken from one dead donor body and the larynxes removed from patients through necessity.

The resulting vocal cords were grown in the lab for two weeks, reaching sizes of around 16 millimetres in length and 1 millimetre in thickness. They were then implanted into the voice boxes taken from dogs, where they were tested by blowing air through them with a fake windpipe. The result, according to the researchers, was a kind of “eeeee” sound, not unlike that made by a kazoo.

That might sounds like a failure, but it’s actually roughly how a vocal cord should sound given that set-up. Humans can shape that sound using subtle variations in the throat and mouth to produce the rich, textured sounds of the voices that we’re used to. The research is published in Science Translational Medicine.

The team also checked that their lab-grown cords were biologically viable by inserting small sections into mice with human-like immune systems. They weren’t rejected, which suggests they should sit well enough in humans too.

But that’s a way off yet: the team reckons that extensive animals testing, stem cell research and trials would be required before lab-grown vocal cords find their way into any human voice box.

[MIKA27]

Winter Is Coming And This NASA Aircraft Will Help Study It

Everybody knows and loves the U-2: the mighty US spyplane. But they may not be as familiar with Lockheed’s matte black ultra-high altitude reconnaissance jet aircraft.

NASA’s ER-2’s recent mission — based upon her high altitude radar system — is more peaceful than her dark sister’s. NASA’s Olympic Mountain Experiment campaign on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State runs from November 2015 through February 2016. The goal is to collect detailed atmospheric data to evaluate how well weather satellites measure rainfall and snowfall from space. Per NASA:

NASA’s ER-2 research aircraft has arrived at Joint Base Lewis-McChord and will join the DC-8 flying laboratory in improving Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) algorithms. The ER-2 will be used for NASA’s Radar Definition Experiment (RADEX) to obtain data that will advance the development of radars to monitor clouds from space. The information that is collected will be used jointly with NASA’s Olympic Mountain Experiment (OLYMPEX), which is verifying rain and snowfall observations made by the GPM satellite mission.

The aircraft rarely can be seen, so here is two more shots of her inside the hangar:

[MIKA27]

True Bad Arse Walks A Record Breaking 500 Metres Across A Slackline At Unbelievable Heights

I gasped. And then cursed. And then just shook my head throughout this entire video. Théo Sanson set a new record by walking 500m across a slackline in the Utah desert. He crossed between The Rectory and Castleton Tower at Castle Valley, Utah and is so impossibly high off the ground that it’s absolutely impressive.

The video is spectacular because you get sweeping views of the desert and get to see how far he walks and feel how far he is from the ground. It’s truly amazing.

[MIKA27]

Sparky Starts Fires When It’s Windy or Damp

If you’ve ever tried to light a fire in damp or windy conditions, or you spent time in the Boy Scouts, you probably know how to start a fire with a gum wrapper and a battery.

Spiffy Lab’s new fire starter works on the same principle, but it’s enclosed in a much more durable, safer to operate package. Inside the negatively charged body of the device that looks like a high-endEDC pen (complete with knurled cap, clip and aluminum / copper material options) you’ll find two AAA batteries (need to add those yourself, obviously) and a positively charged copper tip hiding under the cap. Unscrew Sparky’s cap, touch both the positive and negative “terminals” to steel (steel wool is included, but a gum wrapper will work) and bam! Fire. You don’t need to worry about the windproof rating of your lighter when you’re making fire with science.

[MIKA27]

Boston Harbor Distillery Makes Whiskey From Sam Adams Beer

If you’re a whiskey fan who also enjoys a pint of Sam Adams, your new favorite hooch has just been concocted.

Boston Harbor Distillery, which was started by Rhonda Kallman, one of the cofounders of Boston Beer Co., has just released three new whiskies, each of which were distilled from a different Sam Adams beer. Kallman and company used New World Tripel, Thirteenth Hour Stout, and Merrymaker Gingerbread Stout to make three unique spirits. Each clocks in at 84 proof, so if you’re looking for a much stronger version of one of those classic brews, they would do nicely.

[MIKA27]

PALERMO TRIPOLINA CHAIR

Its design may date back over 150 years, but it's built to last even longer than that. The Palermo Tripolina Chair has a thick vegetable-tanned saddle leather cover, dyed and stitched by hand in a small Buenos Aires workshop. Its robust wooden frame is likewise carved by hand from guindo wood and assembled with iron hardware. And the folding design lets you take its timeless style with you, whether it's to the campground, beach, or just the local park for a lazy afternoon picnic.

[MIKA27]

Uber Set To Be Legalised In NSW

According to a report in the Daily Telegraph this morning, the state’s war with Uber is set to come to a close — or at least a tentative cease fire — as Transport for NSW begins plans to legalise the service.

Uber is currently operating outside of regulation with services like UberX that allows users to request a car driven by an ordinary citizen, rather than a licensed provider. UberX drivers around the country have been pulled up on massive fines since the service launched, as Uber continues to work with state transport agencies to have it recognised as a legal method of transport.

This morning’s report says that Uber will be legalised in NSW next month. Uber drivers will be forced to pay a fee to operate their service under the new plan, while taxis will retain the exclusive right to use cab ranks around the state.

The centre of the taxi industry’s complaint is the cost of entry between Uber and driving a cab. The state government regulates the cost of taxi plates to the tune of over $300,000, while Uber drivers haven’t had to pay a cent to start operating their competing service. As part of the Uber reforms, cab plates are set to get substantially cheaper.

Uber drivers will also need to undergo further safety checks on their vehicles in order to operate in NSW. [Daily Telegraph]

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Farmer Discovers Priceless Trove Of Ancient Roman Coins While Removing A Molehill

A cache of over 4000 silver and bronze coins dating back to ancient Rome has been discovered by a Swiss farmer. Buried some 1700 years ago, it’s one of the largest treasures of its kind ever found in Switzerland.

As The Guardian reports, the trove of coins collectively weighs 15kg. They were found on a spot of land that has never been developed.

The farmer found the cache while trying to rid his cherry orchard of a molehill.

The coins, which are in remarkably great shape, were found in Ueken, which is located in northern Switzerland. A coin expert says their excellent condition likely means they were removed from circulation soon after being minted.

The coins have been dated to the period stretching from the time of Emperor Aurelian (270-275 AD) to the rule of Maximian (286-305 AD). The most recent coins were minted back in 294 AD.

More from The Guardian:

The coins’ excellent condition indicated that the owner systematically stashed them away shortly after they were made, the archaeologists said. For some reason that person had buried them shortly after 294 and never retrieved them. Some of the coins, made mainly of bronze but with a 5% silver content (an unusually high amount), were buried in small leather pouches.

The exact purchasing value of the money is not known, but they probably represented about a year or two of wages. According to Swiss law, the coins “belong to the public,” so at best the farmer will get a finder’s fee. As for the fate of the coins, they’re set to be put on display at Switzerland’s Vindonissa Museum, in Brugg, Aargau.

[MIKA27]

Awesome Picture Of A V-22 Osprey Makes It Look Like An Invisible Plane With Star Engines

The V-22 Osprey is easily one of our favourite aircraft in use today and this picture of it might be the coolest photo of the tiltrotor aircraft ever taken. Because of the haziness and the dust and the focus of the camera, it looks like the Osprey is about to turn on an invisible mode. Even cooler, is how the propellers look like they’re powered by the stars.

The Marines write:

A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey assigned to Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force-Crisis Response-Central Command stages on a hasty landing zone during a tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel drill at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia, Nov. 16, 2015.

[MIKA27]

The James Bond Archives: SPECTRE Edition

Three years ago, Taschen, maker of the finest coffee table books around, released The James Bond Archives, a detailed account of the makings of all the Bond films. Well, with the release of Spectre, that book is no longer complete, so the publisher went ahead and updated it. The James Bond Archives: SPECTRE Edition includes all the on-set photos, unseen stills, storyboards, and more for all the films up through Skyfall, but now tosses the same for the latest installment into the mix. And if you know anything about Taschen, you know this book will ooze style just like Bond.

[MIKA27]

GAME BOY 1UP

If you grew up on the Game Boy, or just respect and understand the trail it blazed for all the handheld gaming devices that came after it, you'll love the idea behind the Game Boy 1Up. The concept takes the original elements of the Game Boy from 1989, and updates them in subtle ways like the addition of earbuds and the evolution to landscape mode. If executed, the 1Up would be compatible with the functions and requirements of current games, constructed from plastic reinforced with natural fiber.