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

[MIKA27]

AUDI LUNAR QUATTRO

Built to compete for the $30 million dollar Google Lunar XPRIZE, the Audi Lunar Quattro is the first four-ringed vehicle not meant for terrestrial use. To complete its mission, it'll have to traverse at least a half kilometer of rocky lunar landscape, while beaming high-res images and video back to Earth. During the journey, which will take an estimated five days, it will need to hitch a ride on a rocket, and deal with temperatures as high as 250º F. In order to overcome these challenges, it's built from a mix of high-strength aluminum and magnesium, uses a pair of stereo cameras to navigate obstacles, has a swiveling solar panel to charge up the battery powering its four hub motors, and, of course, takes full advantage of Audi's legendary all-wheel drive system.

[MIKA27]

An Action Movie Legend Just Joined Vin Diesel in the Third xXx Movie

xXx: The Return of Xander Cage has added Jet Li to its cast, and our interest in Vin Diesel’s latest project just became exponentially stronger. While not much is known about the martial arts legend’s character—is he the main villain, or what?—he will definitely get to “square off” against Diesel’s Cage.

According to Revolution Studios’ Scott Hemming, quoted in the Hollywood Reporter:

“We are extremely excited to have Jet Li join the cast of xXx 3: The Return of Xander Cage as Raif, who is pitted against Vin Diesel’s Xander Cage, and watch these two in action as they raise the bar with some of the most incredible stunts on film.”

Well, that sounds promising. Li—last seen being woefully underused in the Expendables movies—joins a cast that also includes Nina Dobrev (Vampire Diaries), Ruby Rose (Orange Is the New Black), and Samuel L. Jackson, who’s played the NSA agent/mentor character in all three xXx movies.

Aside from hinting at some kind of Diesel vs. Li battle royale (we hope, anyway), the report in THR has scant details on the story. However, it seems the third xXx movie (Diesel’s second, since Ice Cube took over the lead in part two ... hence the “return” of Xander Cage) will be modeled after a certain other long-running hit franchise:

Plot details are being kept redacted, but just as Diesel found renewed success when Fast & Furious was rejigged as an action ensemble, xXx, too, is being reconfigured to surround the action star with a team of toughs and wiseacres.

Director D.J. Caruso (Disturbia) will begin filming xXx next month.

[MIKA27]

Glenn Frey and the mystery of the ‘Take It Easy’ corner in Winslow, Ariz.

If you don’t live in Darlington County, S.C., you probably hadn’t heard of it before Bruce Springsteen made it famous. The same might be said of Simon and Garfunkel’s Saginaw, Mich., where not too many people go to “look for America,”

But each year thousands of people, usually on the way to somewhere else, make a stop in Winslow, Ariz.,about 60 miles easy of Flagstaff, thanks to Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey, whose death was reported Monday. And, thanks to the Eagles’ classic “Take It Easy,” they go to a special corner, where Old Highway 66 meets North Kinsley Avenue, and just stand, which is exactly what you’re supposed to do.

It’s called “Standin’ on the Corner Park.” There’s not much there — a statue of a guy holding a guitar and a red flatbed Ford at the curb. They say if you look hard enough, you’ll see the girl from the song, too. In fact, they’ve made sure of it.

Well, I’m a standing on a corner

in Winslow, Arizona,

and such a fine sight to see.

It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford

slowin’ down to take a look at me.

Come on, baby, don’t say maybe.

I gotta know if your sweet love is

gonna save me.

We may lose and we may win

though we will never be here again.

So open up, I’m climbin’ in,

so take it easy.

The 1972 song “Take it Easy” preceded the park by three decades, and you have to wonder why it took Winslow so long. Perhaps it’s because the city didn’t need it in 1972, when Old 66 went through the heart of town, only to be cruelly bypassed in 1979 when Interstate 40 cut it off — “bleeding Winslow dry,” as Kevin Baxter wrote in the Los Angeles Times a year ago. He, too, was “standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,” but not alone.

“With me are a cute couple from Southern California, who are shivering in the winter chill; three giggling women on break from a holiday office party; and a beefy guy in blue jeans and a lime-green shirt who didn’t say where he’s from,” Baxter wrote. “But it’s no secret why he came. We are among the estimated 100,000 people who will visit this same spot over the next 12 months, drawn by nostalgia to a town whose best days ended decades ago.”

“It’s really crazy. People come here from all over the world,” a clerk at the souvenir shop across the street told him. “They are in such awe of the place.”

But is it the right place? There’s a bit of confusion about that. Glenn Frey said he first heard the song from Jackson Browne, his former roommate. But Browne never completed it or recorded it.

“I told him I really liked it,” Frey said in an interview in 2003. “What a cool tune that is. He started playing it for me and said, ‘Yeah, but I don’t know — I’m stuck.’ So he played the second unfinished verse and I said, ‘It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me.’ That was my contribution to ‘Take It Easy,’ really, just finishing the second verse. Jackson was so thrilled. He said, ‘Okay! We co-wrote this.’ But it’s certainly more of him. Sometimes, you know, it’s the package without the ribbon. He already had the lines about Winslow, Arizona. He’d had car trouble and broken down there on one of his trips to Sedona. He spent a long day in Winslow. … I don’t know that we could have ever had a better opening song on our first album. Just those open chords felt like an announcement, ‘And now … the Eagles.’”

Glenn Frey in 2009

So that sounds like that corner really was in Winslow.

But wait. Browne has given both Winslow and Flagstaff credit, Winslow for the broken down truck, Flagstaff for the girl.

The Los Angeles Times quoted an interview with Browne saying, “‘It was always Winslow. But the image of that girl driving a truck was an image that came from east.’ To be precise, from East Flagstaff. So Frey exercised poetic license, and the result would later be voted one of the 500 most influential songs in rock history.”

On the other hand, maybe the girl was not in Flagstaff: “A friend of mine who grew up in Winslow and is married to a federal judge, adamantly proclaims, ‘I was the girl in the flatbed Ford,'” wrote Bob Boze Bell in his True Western Magazine blog. But the raconteur took the story with a grain of salt: “I’m sure she’s not alone in that claim, but on some level she’s probably right. A glancing semi-encounter with a gypsy song-writer on old Route 66 gets elevated to epic myth in a popular song. We can all relate to that fantasy road trip narrative on some level and stake a claim to it.”

Among those staking a claim is Gary McElfresh, owner of the Dag Haus restaurant in Flagstaff, who somehow determined that the Toyota (not Ford) truck Browne was driving was pulling out of a restaurant then called Wienerschnitzel,” which just happens to be the restaurant McElfresh now owns and calls Dag Haus.

As Reuters’ James Kelleher wrote, McElfresh “claims his corner on Route 66 in Flagstaff is the real ‘Take It Easy’ corner.” But he has yet to put up a statue and is content to let Winslow bask in a false glow.

“Winslow,” McElfresh told Reuters, “needs all the help it can get,” unlike Flagstaff, the hub of the universe.

The truth is that the town that builds a statue first or puts up a sign is probably going to get the credit. After all, people really think the Pilgrims made landfall at Plymouth Rock, almost entirely because there’s a big sign saying “Plymouth Rock, Landing Place of the Pilgrims.”

So shock jock Don Imus took his wife to Winslow before he got married, “to stand on the corner,” the same reason thousands of others make the pilgrimage to “Standin’ on the Corner Park,” like one traveler, on TripAdvisor.

“I can’t describe the joy,” the traveler wrote, “of putting my feet in the spot I’ve heard about in song for decades. If you’re a fan of Jackson Browne or The Eagles or just the song ‘Take It Easy,’ do yourself a favor and stand on this corner yourself!”

On Monday night, sad to say, the night clerk at the historic La Posada Hotel in Winslow, where they get a lot of guests who want to visit the corner, had to hear the news of Frey’s death via a phone call from The Washington Post. Dan Posey said he’d never heard about the corner being in Flagstaff, and he’s pretty positive it wasn’t. Why?

“Jackson Browne stayed in this hotel,” Posey told The Post, “and Jackson Browne said it was Winslow.”

Wherever she is — that girl in the flatbed truck —perhaps she knows.

[MIKA27]

The New Suicide Squad Trailer

The latest trailer for the upcoming Suicide Squad movie is here, and it looks like the film is shaping up to be at least better than we expected. It’s even funny!

Can't wait for this one.

[MIKA27]

This Month In Dashcams: In-Car Raves And Flying Surfboards

Put them in charge of a couple of tons of metal, plastic and petrol, and people do some stupid things. Dash Cam Owners Australia has put together another compilation of Australians being morons on our roads — and this month, it’s just as bad as ever.

This month, strap yourself in for seven minutes and 18 seconds of entirely avoidable accidents, stupid rule-breaking, and a fair bit of swearing.

[Olga]

This Month In Dashcams: In-Car Raves And Flying Surfboards

Put them in charge of a couple of tons of metal, plastic and petrol, and people do some stupid things. Dash Cam Owners Australia has put together another compilation of Australians being morons on our roads — and this month, it’s just as bad as ever.

This month, strap yourself in for seven minutes and 18 seconds of entirely avoidable accidents, stupid rule-breaking, and a fair bit of swearing.

Wrong side of the road!

[MIKA27]

Wrong side of the road!

Maybe for you....

[MIKA27]

How Astronomers Will Solve The 'Alien Megastructure' Mystery

KIC 8462852 has quickly become one of the biggest astronomical mysteries of the decade. It will be months before we have any firm answers on this fitfully flickering star, but astronomers intend to get to the bottom of it. How?

“If we could catch it in the act of dimming again, that would really help,” Penn State’s Jason Wright told Gizmodo.

Wright’s the astronomer who made KIC 8462852 famous last spring, when he nonchalantly suggested that the star might be occluded by an alien megastructure. He, along with several other astronomers I spoke with this week, agrees that the way we’re going to figure this weird star out is to watch it doing something weird.

KIC 8462852, also known as “Tabby’s Star”, was first spotted in the Kepler Space Telescope’s dataset last September. Despite being an ordinary, main sequence F-type star — slightly hotter and larger than our sun — it caught astronomers’ attention. Over four years of observational data, the star’s light output intermittently tanked, something that isn’t consistent with any astronomical phenomenon we’re aware of. Explanations for the star’s unruly behaviour ranged from a swarm of comets to gravity darkening to alien megastructures. You can imagine which of those possibilities sparked a global hysteria.

But KIC 8462852 wasn’t done surprising us. The mystery deepened last week when Louisiana State University’s Bradley Schaefer decided to look at KIC 8462852 in old photographic plates of the sky. When he did, he saw something astonishing: over the past century, the star’s total light output has dropped by about 19 per cent. This star isn’t just sputtering — it’s fading out entirely.

“Observationally, there is zero precedent for any main sequence star to vary in brightness like this,” Schaefer told Gizmodo.

“Seeing this star fade by 20 per cent over a century is more than just startling.”

Dips in KIC 846285’s brightness over Kepler’s 1500 day observational period. The bottom two panels are blown-up versions of the top one centered around day 800 and 1500. Via Boyajian et al. 2015

“We were baffled when it was just the Kepler data, and if it were just this we’d be baffled,” Wright said. “The comet hypothesis was great because it could explain almost anything, but it doesn’t really work for the new data.”

What we do know, according to Wright, is that whatever’s occluding the star isn’t emitting strongly in the infrared spectrum, meaning it isn’t very warm. That means we’re talking about something in a distant orbit, which doesn’t improve our odds of getting a good look at it.

KIC 8462852 is fading over time. Blue diamonds represent measurements taken between 1890 and 1989, while solid and dashed lines are fitted trends. Via Schaefer 2016.

But there is one way astronomers can learn what’s causing the star to sputter — and that’s to catch KIC 8462852 doing it again.

When Kepler watched KIC 8462852 flicker several years back, it was only collecting white light — aggregating information across the visible spectrum. All we can do with this data is pinpoint dimming events. But if it happened again, astronomers would be prepared to make precise measurements in a broader range of wavelengths. As KIC 8462852’s starlight passes through whatever material is occluding it, certain colours will be absorbed more than others. This gives us a spectral fingerprint, which can be used to work out what type of material we’re looking at.

“From the spectrum, we might see absorption lines from any gas associated with the ‘occulter,'” Shaefer said. “We might see a reddening that would point to the occulter being mainly dust, or we might see a colour neutral dip that would point to a solid body. This would greatly narrow down models.”

For the next few months, astronomers are sitting tight. KIC 8462852 is behind the Sun and only visible during daylight hours, making it impossible to observe from the ground. According to Tabetha Boyajian, the Yale astronomer who discovered the star, a few satellites are monitoring it, but the temporal coverage isn’t great. “Mainly, we are now using this time to prepare for what to do when the star becomes visible again in a few months,” she said.

This includes discussing different scenarios, and figuring out what data will be needed to confirm or refute each of them. “When the dipping begins again, we will be prepared to hit it with everything we have,” she said.

Wright added that although two independent surveys haven’t turned up any evidence of extraterrestrial technology, UC Berkeley’s SETI program is now working with the billionaire-backed alien hunting initiative Breakthrough Listen, and plans to conduct a very sensitive broadband sweep of the star’s neighbourhood in the next few months. The prospect that we’re looking at a bona fide Dyson sphere is as unlikely as ever, but….well, it hasn’t been ruled out.

“The ET hypothesis has very little predicative power,” Wright said, noting that you can invoke it to explain just about anything — the so-called “aliens in the gaps” fallacy.

Nevertheless, you can bet astronomers won’t rest until they’re sure one way or the other.

[MIKA27]

These Parkour Bike Tricks Are Super Wild

There’s a lot of good ways to experience a city. You can walk and enjoy the outdoors but that takes a bit of time. You could ride any above ground public transportation system but that traps you inside. You could drive a car but that makes you miss out on things as you focus on the road. Or you could cycle and have fun. Tim Knoll, BMX biker, chose to cycle around Berlin. And to our benefit, he also busted out a few wildly creative bike tricks while doing so.

[MIKA27]

A California Reservoir Infamously Depleted By Drought Rises 5 Metres In 10 Days

A series of big storms sending much-needed rain and snow to Northern California has dramatically replenished a drought-stricken reservoir that was on the brink of disaster. Thanks, El Niño!

Like Folsom Lake, which was profiled in depth (um, shallowness) last winter, Lake Oroville is one of those reservoirs you probably know quite well from photos. Dramatic images of sediment-ringed banks and boat docks resting on the dusty lakebed made national headlines in the US, like a drone video that was featured on NBC Nightly News in May of 2015.

Lake Oroville on 20 July 2011 (photo by Paul Hames/California Department of Water Resources via Getty Images) and on 19 August 2014

On 9 December 2015, Lake Oroville had recorded its lowest water level for the year and was very close to reaching its lowest water level ever. But then El Niño arrived! And by yesterday evening, the water level in Lake Oroville had risen 5m in 10 days, the Department of Water Resources told KRCR.

Here is the part where I issue the standard disclaimer: No, the drought is not over. Refilled reservoirs are good news, but California also needs more snowpack. Luckily, there’s very good news on that front as well.

Yes, that’s four critical locations across California reporting snowpack that’s at or above normal levels for this date.

Come on, El Niño. Bring it.

[MIKA27]

The US Air Force Can't Figure Out How To Stop Its Drones From Falling Out Of The Sky

The US Air Force already has a drone-pilot shortage, but that’s not the only problem with its fleet of unmanned aircraft: Its drones keep falling out of the sky.

The Washington Post obtained accident investigation documents that reveal the extent of the Air Force’s drone woes. The Reaper, which is the favoured drone for airstrikes, sounds like a lemon:

Ten Reapers were badly damaged or destroyed in 2015, at least twice as many as in any previous year, according to Air Force safety data.

The Reaper’s mishap rate — the number of major crashes per 100,000 hours flown — more than doubled compared with 2014. The aircraft, when fully equipped, cost about $US14 ($20) million each to replace.

The Predator — the older, crappier version of the Reaper — isn’t doing much better, with ten crashes last year as well.

Why does the Reaper keep crashing? The Post describes the aircraft’s problem as “a rash of sudden electrical failures”. Air Force Col. Brandon Baker described what happens when a Reaper runs out of its backup battery:

“Once the battery’s gone, the aeroplane goes stupid and you lose it,” said Col. Brandon Baker, chief of the Air Force’s remotely piloted aircraft capabilities division. “Quite frankly, we don’t have the root cause ironed out just yet.”

Keep in mind that four Reaper aircraft cost the Air Force around $US64 million in 2006. This isn’t a DJI shitting the bed. This is a defensive fiasco, and one the Pentagon has been hiding as much as possible:

Although the Defence Department has a policy to disclose all major aircraft mishaps, it did not publicly report half of the 20 Reaper and Predator accidents last year.

In five other cases, U.S. military officials provided confirmation only after local authorities reported the crashes or enemy fighters posted photos of the wreckage on social media.

But can they fix it, at least? Uh — no.

Investigators have traced the problem to a faulty starter-generator, but have been unable to pinpoint why it goes haywire or devise a permanent fix.

Very comforting.

[MIKA27]

Discovery Of Brutal Massacre Pushes Back History Of Human Warfare

Anthropologists working in Kenya have uncovered the remains of a group of prehistoric foragers who were ruthlessly massacred about 10,000 years ago. It’s considered the earliest example of organised violence among nomadic hunter-gatherers, a rare find that’s offering an unprecedented glimpse into what life — and death — was like for prehistoric foragers.

Archaeological evidence of warfare is abundant among settled societies, but the same cannot be said for prehistoric hunter-gatherers. This is why the discovery of 27 foragers who were killed in a massacre some 10,000 years ago is as unique as it is important. In grim detail, it shows what the dark side of life was like for ancient hunter-gatherers, while at the same time extending the history of human warfare. The details of this work, conducted by researchers from Cambridge University’s Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies (LCHES), can now be found in the latest edition of Nature.

A male skeleton, found lying prone in the lagoon’s sediments. The skull has multiple lesions on the front and on the left side, consistent with wounds from a blunt implement, such as a club. Image by Marta Mirazon Lahr, enhanced by Fabio Lahr.

The team, led by Marta Mirazon Lahr of the University of Cambridge, discovered the remains 30km west of Lake Turkana, Kenya, at a site called Nataruk. Twenty-one of the 27 individuals unearthed were adults: eight male, eight female and five unidentified. The partial remains of six children — all under the age of six, except for one young teenager — were found close to the bodies of four adult women and some partial remains.

This skeleton was that of a man, with lesions on the left side of his skull consistent with a wound from a blunt implement, such as a club, and a perforating lesion on his neck vertebrae consistent with an arrow wound.

These foragers died in brutal fashion. Ten of the skeletons exhibited signs of a violent death, including extreme blunt-force trauma to the skull and cheekbones (possibly delivered by a wooden club), signs of arrow lesions to the neck, stone projectile tips lodged in the skull and midsection of two men, and numerous broken hands, knees and ribs.

A skeleton of a female found reclining on her left elbow, with fractures on the knees and possibly the left foot. The position of the hands suggests her wrists may have been bound. She was found surrounded by fish

None of the bodies were buried, and were likely left to rot where they died. Some individuals had fallen into a lagoon, allowing their bones to be preserved in sediment. A number of skeletons with severe skull fractures were found face down.

The positions of four bodies suggests they were bound and tied, including a woman in the late stages of pregnancy; the bones of her 9-month old foetus were also recovered. It’s not known why she and some others were bound in this particular way. As the depiction at left shows, the pregnant woman was found in a sitting position, with her hands crossed between her legs.

One adult male appears to have been hit in the head by at least two projectiles, followed by a blow to the knees with a blunt instrument, and then finally falling face down into the lagoon’s shallow water. Another male took two blows to the head, crushing his skull at the points of impact.

“The deaths at Nataruk are testimony to the antiquity of inter-group violence and war.” Marta Mirazon Lahr

The researchers were surprised at the roughly equal proportion of males to females. Typically in such encounters the victors claim the surviving women and children after killing the men. But at Nataruk, no one appears to have been spared.

The researchers also discovered bits of arrow or spear tips, two of which were made from obsidian — a black volcanic rock that can be worked to razor-like sharpness. The presence of this rare material suggests the two groups came from different home ranges. Carbon dating places the skeletons to between 9500 to 10,500 years ago, around the start of the Holocene Epoch.

Today, this area of Kenya is arid scrubland, but back then it was a fertile lakeshore capable of sustaining a significant population of hunter-gatherers. The site of the massacre transpired at the edge of a lagoon near a large lake. The researchers theorise that the massacred remains belonged to an extended family group of hunter-gatherers who were brutally attacked and killed by a rival group of prehistoric foragers. They say it’s the earliest scientifically-dated historical evidence of human conflict, and a precursor to organised warfare.

“The deaths at Nataruk are testimony to the antiquity of inter-group violence and war,” said Lahr. “These human remains record the intentional killing of a small band of foragers with no deliberate burial, and provide unique evidence that warfare was part of the repertoire of inter-group relations among some prehistoric hunter-gatherers.”

The location of the massacre occurred in a highly desirable place; the foragers would have had easy access to drinking water and fishing. It was likely coveted by rival groups, giving rise to territorial disputes.

“The Nataruk massacre may have resulted from an attempt to seize resources — territory, women, children, food stored in pots — whose value was similar to those of later food-producing agricultural societies, among whom violent attacks on settlements became part of life,” said Mirazon Lahr. “This would extend the history of the same underlying socio-economic conditions that characterise other instances of early warfare: a more settled, materially richer way of life.”

The researchers caution that Nataruk could just be an example of a “standard antagonistic response” between two groups who happened to run into each other.

We’ll likely never know the true reasons for the massacre at Nataruk. The origin of war is a contentious issue among anthropologists, with some saying it’s an atavistic remnant of our species’ more brutal evolutionary past, while others suggest it’s a consequence of ownership and resulting disputes over access to land, water, food and other resources.

Regardless, the new study shows that ancient foragers were not immune to the ravages of war, and that human conflict emerged at a time before our species set aside its nomadic way of life. The myth of the Noble Savage remains exactly that — a myth.

[MIKA27]

Star Wars: Episode VIII Delayed Until December 2017

Originally scheduled for release in Winter 2017, the next installment in the Star Wars saga will now hit cinemas 15 December 2017, almost 2 years to the day from the release of The Force Awakens.

A statement on StarWars.com revealed the news, citing the success of The Force Awakens being released outside of the traditional blockbuster film period.

The film “smashed numerous records, including biggest domestic and global debuts of all time as well as the biggest domestic second and third weekends, en route to becoming the highest grossing domestic release of all time with over $861.3 million and the third biggest global release ever with $1,886.7 billion,” the statement reads.

Star Wars: Episode VIII is in pre-production, with filming scheduled to begin next month in London. Confirmed to be on board are writer and director Rian Johnson and producers Kathleen Kennedy and Ram Bergman.

J.J. Abrams will return in an executive producer role, along with Jason McGatlin and Tom Karnowski.

Hey, a delay can only mean more time to get it perfect, right?

[MIKA27]

Safely Travel Deep Inside A Glacier Through The Eyes Of A Drone

Given the shifting ice can suddenly close a massive crevasse that runs hundreds of metres deep into a glacier, safely exploring them is all but impossible. Unless you’ve got access to a flying drone that isn’t sent flying out of control the second it hits an obstacle.

Many drones have protective housings around their propellers to protect the blades, but Flyability’s Gimball wraps the entire craft in a specially-designed wire cage. It doesn’t just protect the drone, it also freely rotates when it encounters an obstacle so that the drone isn’t suddenly steered off course.

The resulting video is remarkably stable given how often the Gimball drone is actually crashing into the icy walls lining the narrow crevasse. You don’t even need to be an expert drone pilot in order to pilot the drone deep into this glacier. Although, you’ll probably want to practice a bit ahead of time to ensure you can also safely fly the $US25,000 ($36,096) drone back out.

[MIKA27]

The First Official Look At The New Wonder Woman Film Is Here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ur4De7yT8

It’s here! The first footage from the upcoming Wonder Woman film has been released, showing Gal Gadot taking on the iconic role of Diana. The film will tell her classic origin story, from her start in life on Themyscira to her “journey to our world”.

Gal Gadot rocks the warrior Wonder Woman, but the compassionate side of her nature appears to be getting a decent amount of focus, too.

[MIKA27]

This Might Be The Most Brutal Trailer I've Ever Seen

Mortal Kombat XL has just been announced. It has a cool name. It’s essentially a ‘Game of the Year’ edition of the last Mortal Kombat, ‘komplete’ with all the DLC characters, skins, etc.

It has a trailer. It’s brutal as all hell.

It actually might be one of the most brutal trailers I’ve ever seen. Let’s just say it’s very um… Mortal Kombat.

[MIKA27]

Deepest Loch Ness Crevice May Have Monstrous Implications

Theories about where the alleged Loch Ness Monster is hiding can get pretty deep. Now they have the opportunity to get even deeper as a ship’s captain reveals his discovery of the deepest trench ever found at the bottom of the famous Scottish lake. Will this crack finally crack open the case of the Loch Ness Monster?

Keith Stewart is a tourist sightseeing boat skipper for Jacobite Cruises, an Inverness-based cruise company. He regularly steers his tourist-filled boat over the (formerly) deepest part of the lake – a spot near the Urquhart Castle that measures 230m (754 feet) deep, although some reports about the new discovery are saying it’s 813 feet deep.

Whatever it is, Skipper Stewart says he beats it hands down with his new 889-foot-deep trench which he discovered recently with his “state of the art” equipment.

I found this dark shape about half way between the Clansman Hotel and Drumnadrochit which transpired to be a crevice or trench. I measured it with our state of the art 3D equipment at 889 feet. I have gone back several times over the abyss and I have verified my measurements.

Boat selfie showing record Loch Ness depth

His story and the 3D image are probably enticing a lot more tourists to take Stewart’s cruises, but is the deep crevice (now called Keith’s Abyss) real and could it be hiding a monster?

3D image of the newly-discovered deepest trench in Loch Ness

Some experts speculate that the new trench could have formed as recently as 2013 when a 2.4 magnitude quake hit the loch. However, Adrian Shine of the scientific research organization The Loch Ness Project cautions that its location so close to the shore means it could also be a sonar anomaly called a lobe echo, which is a false reading caused by sonar bouncing off the side walls of the lake.

What about the monster? Is it hiding in Keith’s Abyss? Keith Stewart says his discovery started when he saw something unusual on his sonar.

I wasn’t really a believer of the monster beforehand. But two weeks ago, I got a sonar image of what looked like a long object with a hump lying at the bottom. It wasn’t there when I scanned the loch bed later.

Spoken like a true tourist boat captain.

[MIKA27]

PLAIN CITY POSTER BY RUSTLE OF SILK

Rustle of Silk is a boutique French company that still use original silkscreening techniques to produce poster from the 1970s and before.

Each poster is printed by hand on 50cm x 70cm, 300 gram vanilla paper using a 5 colour screen printing procedure. Just 40 examples of this design will be produced, and each will be individually stamped, numbered and signed.

[MIKA27]

Finolhu Villas Maldives

The Finolhu Villas by Club Med is the hottest new holiday destination in the Maldives. It is the world’s first entirely solar powered five-star resort, with several solar panels integrated into all aspects of the resort’s design. Designed by New York-based architects Yuji Yamazaki Architecture, the 13-acre island on the Kaafu Atoll and can accommodate 100 guests year round, either on the island, or over the water in spectacular water villas that are accessed by a walkway, covered in solar panels

[MIKA27]

SMART ROPE

It's tough to beat the calorie burn from jumping rope, and now you can train and track at the same time. Tangram's Smart Rope combines form and function with comfortable 45 degree angled handles to help make this age old workout interesting. Sure, there are other smart ropes out there that provide tracking, but none of them have a strand of bright white LEDs that you can view while you jump. View your jump count, calories burned, or the duration of your workout as the rope swings in front of you. When you're done, the data is all transmitted via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone. The only thing you have to supply is some sweat and an epic workout montage soundtrack.

[MIKA27]

RICHARD MILLE RMS05 FOUNTAIN PEN

Known for their high quality timepieces, the team at Richard Mille are bringing that same attention to detail and tech to the world of fountain pens.

The Richard Mille RMS05 Fountain Pen's barrel and cap are made using the same material that is used in racing yachts. And it's also outfitted with a genuine, manufactured calibre — just like the movement you'd find in a Mille watch. It's used to extend the pen's 18k gold nib with the push of a button. It's then reset and rewound when capped. It also comes with microblasted and satin-brushed surfaces, circular-grained and rhodium plated gears, as well as handpolished angles, locking sections, and sinks. It's not a leap to say this is the most sophisticated fountain pen we've ever come across and it ought to be for the ridiculos asking price of $105K

[MIKA27]

A Man Unleashes an Alien Creature's Mysterious Powers in This Clip From Terminus

Terminus, from South African writer and co-director Marc Furmie, is a science fiction thriller about a man whose quiet, small-town life is forever changed when he car-crashes his way into close contact with an alien organism. Can he save the world—and convince his skeptical daughter to help him in his quest?

Here’s the official synopsis:

Blinded by the light of a falling meteor, David (Jai Koutrae) has a devastating car accident, leading to a profound discovery: an extra-terrestrial organism that may contain the secret of life itself. When David goes missing for two days, Annabelle (Kendra Appleton) searches for her father only to discover him wandering the forest, without so much as a scratch. David’s mysterious reappearance draws the attention of federal authorities and gives Annabelle reason to doubt his sanity. But David has a new sense of purpose, fueled by nightmarish visions. Driven by what he believes is an otherworldly purpose, David must convince Annabelle to believe him and complete his task before government agents can stop him, and the world destroys itself.

[MIKA27]

Australians Develop Bush Fire Shelter That Can Withstand 1000 Degrees Celsius

“It is hard to believe that in 2016 we can send people to the moon but still have not protected ourselves against the very real and increasing threat of bush fires, even though more and more people live in rural areas,” say Tune and Ulla Johansen, inventors of a fire shelter that you can survive in during a bush fire — tested above and beyond the Australian standards.

Other shelters already on the market have either not been tested, or only tested to the Australian standard, according to Johansens. They shelter they have created has been tested to above 1000°C for 135 minutes with steady internal temperatures of 20° for the first 20 minutes.

The average bush fire lasts 15 minutes and reaches 250°C to 450°C, with firestorms lasting 5 minutes and reaching above 1000°C.

You can find out more at the Johansen’s IndieGoGo campaign.

[MIKA27]

Report: Every Major US City East Of The Mississippi Is Under-Reporting Heavy Metals In Its Water

Just when the news about lead poisoning the drinking water of Flint, Michigan, couldn’t get any worse. A report from The Guardian says many US cities are systemically and purposely downplaying the amounts of lead and copper in municipal water systems.

A scientist who was part of an Environmental Protection Agency taskforce disclosed documents to The Guardian which shows how water boards are distorting tests to make their water appear safer, a practice confirmed by an anonymous source:

The controversial approach to water testing is so widespread that it occurs in “every major US city east of the Mississippi” according to an anonymous source with extensive knowledge of the lead and copper regulations. “By word of mouth, this has become the thing to do in the water industry. The logical conclusion is that millions of people’s drinking water is potentially unsafe,” he said.

Specific cities named included Detroit and Philadelphia, and the entire state of Rhode Island.

The documents in question were obtained via FOIA by Dr. Yanna Lambrinidou, who sat on the Environment Protection Agency taskforce that recently proposed revisions on the federal rules for lead. Lambrinidou told The Guardian that more rigorous oversight will reveal more offenders: “There is no way that Flint is a one-off.”

This does not mean the Environment Protection Agency is being lax in its regulations, necessarily — rather it’s the agency’s guidelines that are being ignored by those who are contracted to administer the tests. For example, in Philadelphia and Michigan, testers were instructed by local water boards to run the water for two minutes or until cold before testing for lead, a practice called “pre-flushing,” which is seen as controversial.

Even if the incidences of lead and copper are not as high as the anonymous source claims, Lambrinidou’s assertion that Flint is not an isolated case is probably right. With corroded pipes to blame, there are many American cities suffering from similar infrastructural neglect. Pair that with a testing system that’s so easily gamed, and it may take years for some cities to figure out if their water is truly safe.

[MIKA27]

The US Navy Will Power An Entire Fleet With Biofuel Made From Beef Fat

The potential sources for green biofuels never cease to amaze. Now the US Navy is fuelling one fleet with a bizarre cocktail of petroleum and cow fat.

The group of ships has been dubbed the PR-friendly “Great Green Fleet“, a nod to Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet. The vessel group is made up of an aircraft carrier running on nuclear, and escort ships chugging along on a mix of traditional petrol and a biofuel made from beef fat. Next week, they will take to the seas for the first time, departing from San Diego.

Back in 2009, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that he wanted half the Navy’s energy coming from non-fossil fuels by 2020.

In addition to becoming more eco-friendly, the program will also help cut the American military’s dependence on foreign oil.

According to Mabus, the 50-50 ratio is still too expensive for now, so the four ships setting out from San Diego will use a mix that’s only 10-per cent beef fat fuel and 90-per cent petrol. Further green fuel initiatives will be rolled out throughout 2016, with aircraft and amphibious vehicles also burning biofuels like grade-A bovine juice.

Governments and corporations alike are on the hunt for emissions-cutting biofuels that can be brewed domestically. Microalgae, for example, is being eyed by the US Department of Energy, Japanese startups and international airlines. (In 2011 an algae-powered commercial United flight sent passengers from Chicago to Houston.) Researchers are still trying to figure out ways to get algae fuel costs on par with fossil fuels.

Regardless of how it’s done, the US military’s move towards green energy is a big deal. The US Department of Defence is the world’s biggest consumer of energy, and the Navy accounts for one third of that burn. Biofuels could cut that fuel suck, though, whether they’re made from fatty cow juices or slimy green scum.