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

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Fender's New In-Ear Headphones Can Cost As Much As A Guitar

The guitar manufacturer Fender has launched its first ever range of in-ear headphones — sorry, Pro In-Ear Monitors — and they cost up to $US500 ($715) a pair.

There are five models to choose from, which range from $US100 ($143) to $US500 ($715) in price. They’re made by a brand called Aurisonics that Fender has recently acquired, and some of the new models are actually updated versions of existing products.

The cheapest set come with a semi-transparent grey casing, and are said to be suited to being “driven by a smartphone, making them ideal for offstage listening”. The more expensive models are cased in colourful metal frames, 3D-printed into a shape that was created by scanning thousands of ears. Fender claims that they fit “95 per cent of ears like an expensive custom-moulded monitor”, making them suitable “for long playing sessions”.

The guts of each of the headphones varies with price, so it’s worth investigating the range to find out which ones might be most suitable. Or you could buy a new guitar — your call.

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STEP ABOARD THE WORLD’S MOST LUXURIOUS PRIVATE JET

If you ever flown economy, you'll know how frustrating it is having to walk past the luxurious first-class cabin on your way to having your knees around your ears and a tray table against your forehead. But a new private jet known as Skyacht One makes the currently level of first-class look like a cramped shoebox.

It's a staggering 4,000sqm in size whilst its interior is a tribute to the classic yachts from the 1930's, complete with lots of brass, wooden finished and amber lighting. Along with its luxurious fit out the 'Skyacht One' comes complete with a cocktail bar, a huge television, oversized comfy beds and a plush bathroom and shower. There's even a conference room so you can meet with clients and lock in the deal whilst you're 30,000 feet in the air.

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BOLT LIGHTNING PROTECTIVE TENT

A few thousand people get struck by lightning every year. About 96 % of those killed and injured are people

out in the open. The majority of them are people participating in outdoor activities such as hiking and camping. Many accidents in the mountains can be ascribed to the panic brought about by spectacular lightning that generates extreme fear among tourists. It is estimated that there are a few times more victims indirectly linked to discharges than those struck directly. The project aims at increasing the safety of people caught out in the open during a thunderstorm. The tents are made of ultralight materials and thus meet the needs of those practicing many different kinds of outdoor recreation. They can be put up fast and are easy to carry around. They also protect against unfavourable weather conditions accompanying thunderstorms, for example rain and wind.

BOLT HALF

A lightweight (1,2 kg) tent with full lightning protection* for day-long trips, indispensable in difficult situations brought by a sudden change of weather conditions (a thunderstorm, downpour, wind). Due to its size, the tent can be put up in seemingly unsuitable places, like a ledge, ridge etc.

*direct and ground strike (step voltage)

BOLT ONE

A lightweight, compact, one-person tent with full lightning protection* for longer trips of a few days.
*direct and ground strike (step voltage)

BOLT AIR

An ultra-lightweight, pneumatic tent with a groundsheet protecting from injuries due to step voltages (the most common way people are struck by lightning). Just like Bolt-Half, thanks to its size, it can be quickly and easily put up in places unsuitable for standard tents. It is designed for day-long trips where additional weight would be burdensome.

BOLT FAMILY

TESTS

HIGH VOLTAGE GENERATOR

The tent underwent high voltage tests with discharges produced by an impulse voltage generator. An electrode imitating a tourist's head had been placed in the tent. The estimated voltage depended on the distance between the tent and the end of the electrode and varied between 400 kV and 1MV.

CURRENT GENERATOR TEST

A high current generator was used to check the tent's durability. A series of electrical discharges with different peak current values were directed at the top of the frame of poles.

TESTS RESULTS

Some scorching appeared at the pole joints due to the very high temperatures reached at those points. This is explained by their relatively high contact resistance. The stakes, which laid freely on the laboratory floor during the tests, melted to some extent. Again, it was a result of the high temperatures generated at those points during the discharges. The dramatic increase of the temperature in the short period of time resulted in sparks, i.e. particles of hot aluminum. The peak current was comparable to that occurring in lightning – statistically, it varies between 30 and 40 kA, though higher values (more than 200 kA) have been also reported.

BOLT LIGHTNING PROTECTIVE TENT

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BOODLES MULBERRY GIN

For centuries, the Mulberry tree has lined English countrysides. The fruit from the tree has also been a fixture in Mulberry Gin, a lower ABV liquor commonly used in punches and cocktails. Boodles Mulberry Gin pays homage to those traditions, with a fresh take on the classic drink. It's a sweet sipper, with mulberries, raspberry, and currant flavors. It's the first mulberry gin to be made available stateside, and can be enjoyed over ice or in a punch for your next cold weather gathering.

[MIKA27]

Hang Onto Your Pea Soup—The Exorcist May Be Coming To TV

More proof that this is the Year of Satan in pop culture. The Exorcist is coming back—but not in the way you’d expect. It’s coming to TV, with a modern twist.

Fox has given a pilot order to The Exorcist, which will be based on the original 1971 William Peter Blatty book. This new take, written by Jeremy Slater (Fantastic Four, The Lazarus Effect) is more modern than the iconic 1973 film, and is being described as “a propulsive, serialized psychological thriller following two very different men tackling one family’s case of horrifying demonic possession, and confronting the face of true evil.”

But can The Exorcist compete on a weekly basis with the hijinks of Damian and Lucifer? Only time (and Satan) will tell.

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This Site Lets You Search Netflix's Global Library

Netflix are cracking down on the use of VPNs to access catalogues from different regions, but if you’re lucky enough to still have yours working for you this could be the key to finding exactly what you want to watch, when you want to watch it.

The unofficial Netflix online Global Search (uNoGs) is a huge searchable database of everything on Netflix, anywhere in the world. You can search by availability, title, genre, runtime and year of release. You can also filter by Netflix and IMDB ratings. uNoGs also gives full audio and subtitle details, IMDB listings and Rotten Tomatoes listings for each entry.

You’ll simply need to switch your VPN (Which is NOT illegal as you pay a subscription) to the region you want to access. uNoGs even gives you the information on which VPN, proxy or DNS provider to use for the content you want.

TorrentFreak spoke with the creator of uNoGS operator, Brian.

“I initially built the site just for myself because the few sites that were providing a service like this were extremely limited in terms of search functionality,” Brian says.

“I wanted to be able to see what was available in every country, when it was added, when it was supposed to expire and when it actually expired. Once I completed the initial build for myself I decided to share it with everyone.”

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Controversial 'Transmittable Alzheimer's' Theory Is Starting To Look Plausible

Back in September, researchers in the UK discovered that brain disorders such as Alzheimer’s may be transmissible through certain medical procedures. Sceptical scientists urged caution, but now a different set of autopsy results have shown the same thing.

As reported in Nature News, the latest autopsies were performed on the brains of patients who died of Creutzfeldt — Jakob disease (CJD), a rare brain-wasting disorder. Many years earlier, these individuals had received surgical grafts of dura mater — a membrane that covers the brain and spinal cord — prepared from human cadavers. Regrettably, these grafts that were contaminated with the prion protein responsible for CJD.

Five of the seven brains analysed also showed signs of Alzheimer’s disease. This was odd because the individuals, age 28 to 63, were too young to have developed the amayoid plaques indicative of the neurological disorder (amyloid plaques are a misfolded protein that fuels the spread of Alzheimer’s). Analysis of a control group failed to show signs of this wasting signature. This suggests that that the “seeds” of certain neurological diseases can be transmitted during certain medical procedures — or even through contaminated surgical instruments. The new report, written by researchers from Switzerland and Austria, can now be found in Swiss Medical Weekly.

Back in September, a different research team discovered something very similar. While performing an autopsy on eight CJD patients, University of College London researchers found that four of them exhibited similar vascular amyloid beta pathology. Alarmingly, all of these patients, most of whom were quite young when they died, caught their CJD from a growth hormone derived from the pituitary glands of human cadavers — some of which were contaminated with prions.

Importantly, neither study suggests that Alzheimer’s can be transmitted through normal physical contact. Also, cadaver-derived human growth hormone (HGH) isn’t used any more, as it’s been replaced by synthetics. But scientists are now seriously worried that “amyloid seeding” is actually a thing. Nature News reports:

[if true] it would have important clinical implications. In general surgery, for example, any amyloid-β proteins, which are very sticky, would not be routinely removed from surgical instruments; standard sterilization procedures cannot shift them.

“It is our job as doctors to see in advance what might become a problem in the clinic,” says neuropathologist Herbert Budka of the University Hospital Zurich, Switzerland, who is a co-author of the latest paper.

This theory will require more proof if it’s to be accepted by the scientific community. Both studies are purely observational, and both were performed on a limited sample of subjects. Moreover, neither study proves that the deposits of amyloid beta were actually caused by the contaminated dura mater or hormone injections.

But these finding, though preliminary, are nonetheless disturbing. It shows we still have lots to learn about neurodegnerative disorders and the ways in which seeds of amyloid beta proteins can be transmitted. And if this theory is ultimately proven to be true, it will put even more pressure on health care providers to provide a clean and safe environment for its patients. It’s a terrifying thought.

[MIKA27]

HYPERCHILLER ICED COFFEE MAKER

We love iced coffee as much as the next workaholic, but tossing ice cubes into your freshly brewed cup of joe is a recipe for a watered down disaster. Fret not though fellow coffee fiend, the HyperChiller is here to save the day.

Using a multi-chamber design, this little device ensures that your coffee never comes in contact with the ice, meaning you can kiss diluted concoctions goodbye for good. Simply pour your coffee into the recessed section of the lid, swirl it around, and in less than a minute your brew will be cooled down by as much as 130 degrees. Now just pour over ice and enjoy; tasty, ice cold coffee without the fuss. You can scoop yours up online for $30. [Purchase]

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GROTTA PALAZZESE HOTEL CAVE RESTAURANT

Taking her to a nice, fancy restaurant is a good way to show her that you love her, but what if that restaurant were built into a cave in Italy and has been dubbed “one of the most romantic settings in all of Italy?”

The Grotta Palazzese Hotel has a restaurant that’s carved into the limestone cavern at Polignano a Mare, a small town built on the cliffs overlooking the Adriatic Sea’s gorgeous water. The cave has been used to host lavish banquets since the 1700s. The lighting that has been set up in the cave is expertly placed, with sconces and candles adding beautiful glows. Now, up to seven guests of the hotel are able to catch some sleep in one of the hotel’s cave-carved suites, each of which contains a balcony that provides breathtaking views. The spot is open from May to October.

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Stolen Smoked Rum

Some booze hides flavors so you can discover them during a session of quiet contemplation. Stolen Smoked Rum is not that bottle of booze. Crafted from Caribbean rum that’s been aged in whiskey barrels and infused with arabica coffee beans, vanilla from madagascar, and fenugreek, Stolen Smoked Rum is bold with its flavors. Oh, and it just happens to be the world’s first smoked rum. All that adds up to a rum with punchy notes of maple syrup and vanilla, a nice spiciness, and a unique smokey finish. Use it to mix up a Smoke Old Fashioned or Smoke and Cola, or just pour some over ice.

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Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort

Nimmo Bay Wilderness Resort is an all-inclusive luxury resort located in the middle of the Great Bear Rainforest in British Columbia, where every single view is postcard perfect. Accessible only by helicopter, float-plane or boat, the intimate family owned and operated resort offers guests a mere 9 private log cabins, and an endless array of outdoor activity options including - grizzly bear viewing, fishing, snorkeling, rope swinging, tubing, wake boarding, hiking, glacier tours, beach combing, heli-hiking, heli-fishing, whale watching, old growth forest tours, cultural experiences, rock climbing, kayaking and more. Immerse yourself in a North Pacific wilderness with majestic mountain peaks and redolent lush rainforest spaces, where you can unplug, relax and slow down to the rhythms of nature.

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The Movie Book

Movie buff´s rejoice! The Movie Book (Big Ideas Simply Explained) is a new book that profiles 100 of the best movies ever made throughout the world. The beautifully illustrated book covers the most influential films, from classic 1930s film noir and Hollywood romance to international art-house and 21st-century sci-fi, with epic´s such as Casablanca, Lawrence of Arabia, Easy Rider, Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Gravity, and many more.

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SHELBY GT40 MKII 50TH ANNIVERSARY LE MANS EDITION

Built by Superformance to mark the anniversary of the GT40's legendary 1-2-3 finish at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, the Shelby GT40 MKII 50th Anniversary Le Mans Edition is as close as you can come to owning one of the cars that actually ran the race. This replica is actually a collaboration between Shelby, Superformance and Safir, and is so authentic to the originals that it's right-hand drive, right-hand shift, and over 90% of the parts are interchangeable. Limited to just 20 examples, it comes with a GT40P serial number, and is available in three color schemes to match the three aforementioned race cars.

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THE BRUERY MASH BEER

A preferred choice during the winter months, an English style Barleywine provides warmth and flavor to help ward off freezing temperatures. Mash from The Bruery not only fits that description, but was also aged in bourbon barrels to make is even more attractive. It's sweet but not cloying with flavors like dark fruits, caramel, vanilla, toasted coconut, and toffee. Overall, it's a big beer. And at 12.5% ABV, it's a warming nightcap that's sure to thaw the iciest of palates.

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FERRARI F80 CONCEPT

Imagined as the successor to the LaFerrari, Italian designer Adriano Raeli's Ferrari F80 Concept keeps the long nose and wind-funneling rear of its predecessors while making a curious change to the powerplant. Instead of relying on a V12 engine, as Maranello's prior flagship steeds have done, the F80 uses Ferrari's KERS technology to coax a hypothetical 1,200 horses from a twin-turbo hybrid V8. Raeli expects that power to be good for a 0-62 time of 2.2 seconds, and a top speed of 310 mph, fast enough to earn a spot among the fastest production cars of all time — assuming it ever gets built.

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A Pen-Sized Microscope Could Spot Cancer In Your Doctor's Office

The process of identifying cancer — from taking a sample of a tumour to getting the results back from a laboratory — can be long-winded. When there isn’t time for all that, this new hand-held microscope could help doctors identify cancer cells in just a few moments.

Designed by University of Washington mechanical engineers for use in operating theatres and doctors’ offices, the device is said to be capable of allowing a trained medic to identify cancerous tissue. The team suggests that a brain surgeon could use it to check that they’d removed all cancerous traces of a tumour, say, or a dentist could quickly check if an abscess was cancerous to minimise the concerns of a patient.

The device itself uses a technique that’s known as “dual-axis confocal microscopy” to achieve sharp focus even a little way into opaque materials. As a result, it can resolve cellular details even up to half a millimetre beneath the surface of tissue. The images are created faster than usual by quickly scanning a light beam across the surface using micro-electrical-mechanical mirrors to build up lines of the image.

In the pictures below, you can see how the images created by the handheld device, in each case on the left, compare to ones created by a multi-day process at a clinical pathology laboratory, on the right. Obviously it’s not quite as good, but the results, published in Biomedical Optics Express, are impressive.

Indeed, what doctors would be looking for are variations in sub-cellular details, which tell cancerous cells apart from healthy. You can see in the images that the new device offers that kind of insight — with the cell nuclei showing up particularly well.

The researchers hope to carry out a series of clinical tests, and roll it out in health centres within 2 to 4 years.

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Scientists Have Finally Found A Biological Process Behind Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complex disease with elusive origins, but the mystery became much clearer today, when a landmark new study based on genetic analysis of nearly 65,000 individuals pinpointed a specific gene and biological process behind it.

The discovery injects new hope into the century-old quest to treat — and perhaps even cure — the debilitating psychiatric disorder.

Roughly one per cent of the population suffers from schizophrenia, a disease characterised by hallucinations, emotional withdrawal and a declining cognitive function, beginning in adolescence or early adulthood. Despite decades of research, we’ve made very little progress treating schizophrenia, in part, because it’s been so difficult to nail down the cause.

“Since schizophrenia was first described over a century ago, its underlying biology has been a black box, in part because it has been virtually impossible to model the disorder in cells or animals” said Steven McCarroll, director of genetics at Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research. “The human genome is providing a powerful new way in to this disease.”

McCarroll would know, too. In 2014, he participated in a massive international collaboration which pinpointed more than 100 regions of the human genome carrying risk factors for schizophrenia. Now, in a paper that appears in Nature, McCarroll and his colleagues have revealed a specific gene and biological process underlying the strongest risk factor of all.

On the surface, the culprit behind schizophrenia sounds a bit odd. It’s a variant in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) — a set of proteins that decorate the surface of your cells — that binds to foreign molecules and presents them to the immune system.

But McCarroll’s new study, which looked at the DNA of nearly 29,000 individuals with schizophrenia and 36,000 without, showed that this particular MHC variant causes the expression of a gene known as C4 to go into overdrive.

And it so happens that C4 is present at neuronal synapses, the connections between neurons that transfer chemical and electrical signals in your brain. On a cellular level, too much C4 can reduce the number of synaptic connections, a process known as “synaptic pruning”. On a human-scale, this can lead to schizophrenia.

The findings represent a major breakthrough for neuroscience, but McCarroll and his colleagues see their discovery as the first step on a path toward new and more effective treatments.

“Because the molecular origins of psychiatric diseases are little-understood, efforts by pharmaceutical companies to pursue new therapeutics are few and far between,” said Bruce Cuthbert, acting director of the National Institute of Mental Health “This study changes the game.”

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It's Suprisingly Easy To Turn Off Niagara Falls

New York State Parks is holding a hearing this week about what might seem like a controversial topic: Whether or not to turn off Niagara Falls. This is a process called dewatering, and yes, it’s happened before.

The falls — at least part of them — would need to be dewatered to allow for the reconstruction of several historic bridges in Niagara Falls State Park, some of which were built as early as 1901.

If it happens, this won’t be the first time Niagara’s gone dry. In 1969, the American side of the falls (called American Falls) were dewatered. The water was simply diverted using what’s called a cofferdam, so it fell over the bigger, more famous Horseshoe Falls instead. The 183m cofferdam was created by dumping 27,800 tonne of rock and dirt until the flow was stopped completely.

The Army Corps of Engineers studied the dry falls for five months, which ended up becoming a tourist attraction in themselves. The plan was to pick up the trash (including some bodies), study how erosion might be affecting flow, and decide if an intervention might improve the falls, structurally and aesthetically. In the end though, engineers realised they could not improve upon Mother Nature.

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White Great White and Giant Venomous Spider in Australia

Australia has its share of strange creatures and a lot of strange animals too. Over the past week, two of the strangest and deadliest showed up down under. A white great white shark washed up on a beach while a huge venomous funnel-web spider is turning its life around and helping humanity … or at least humans who have been bitten by funnel-web spiders.

The white great white shark was spotted on a beach in Port Hacking, New South Wales, by local resident Luke Anslow, who said it was alive in the surf when he first saw it. Anslow took pictures of the dead shark which he posted online. Workers from the New South Wales Department of Fisheries retrieved the carcass and brought it in for analysis.

Marine biologists determined that the small shark was a juvenile great white by the shape of its snout and the fact that it had no secondary caudal keel (a small horizontal fin in front of the tail fin) that the similar-looking porbeagle shark has. The shark had no injuries or other indications as to why it beached. As for its white color, the black eyes mean it’s a leucistic, not a pink-eyed albino.

Even so, it’s still extremely rare.

Meanwhile over in Newcastle, New South Wales, a brave, unnamed person caught what may be the largest funnel-web spiders ever and turned it in to the John Hunter Hospital which forwarded it to the Australia Reptile Park, home of Australia’s only venom-milking program. Program supervisor Billy Collett said the 10 cm (4 in.) leg span of this spider was the largest he’d ever seen – which explains why he’s now called Big Boy.

Big Boy – the largest known venomous funnel-web spider

Big Boy isn’t just any record-breaking funnel-web … he’s a Sydney funnel-web (Atrax robustus), the most toxic of the species. One bite releases atracotoxin which, in less than 10 minutes, causes intense pain, sweating, nausea, diarrhea, pulmonary edema and circulatory failure. Fortunately, the venom can be collected and injected in small doses into rabbits that build up antibodies which are then extracted and made into an anti-venom serum. There have been 13 recorded deaths from funnel-web spider bites in Australia but none since the anti-venom program began.

A white great white and a deadly giant spider doing good. Only in Australia.

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Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson: WTF!?

Yes, Joseph Fiennes, the white younger brother of Ralph, is set to play the King of Pop in a 9/11 road trip comedy. We can—and should—do better.

The casting of white British actor Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson in an upcoming U.K. film has left fans of the late King of Pop in a state of bewilderment and shock, with many airing their grievances on social media. Fiennes will co-star as Jackson in a movie titled Elizabeth, Michael & Marlon set to premiere later this year. The film is a comedic retelling of a fabled story involving the King of Pop, Elizabeth Taylor, and Marlon Brando on a road trip from New York City to Los Angeles on Sept. 11, 2001. Acclaimed actors Stockard Channing and Brian Cox as Taylor and Brando, respectively, are so pitch-perfectly cast that neither requires much if any further explanation. But Fiennes as Jackson is a whole different story altogether.

Fiennes spoke about the bizarre project and acknowledged that playing the megastar Jackson would be “a challenge.” The Shakespeare In Love actor also discussed the tone of this bizarre comedy based on a disputed Vanity Fair story about the trio of legends who, unable to secure a flight out of New York on the day of the 9/11 attacks, took their show on the road.

“I got the script the other day,” Fiennes explained to WENN. “It’s a challenge. It’s a comedy. It doesn’t poke mean fun but it’s a story, possibly urban legend, whereby Michael, Marlon Brando, and Liz Taylor were all together the day before 9/11 doing a concert. Airspace was shut down and they couldn’t get out and Michael had the bright idea to go to hire a car and drive.

“So the three of them got in a car and drove 500 miles to Los Angeles. It took them a while because they had to stop at a lot of Burger Kings for Marlon, but they got out!”

Fiennes didn’t say much, however, to address the 500-pound elephant (no, not Brando) in the room: Why was a white actor cast to play an African American entertainer? Even with Jackson’s specific physical attributes at that point in his life—he suffered from vitiligo, which causes the skin to lose its pigment—it’s not beyond reason to consider that there are qualified black actors out there that could convincingly portray Michael Jackson. One has to wonder if there is all that much consideration given to getting this “right” at all, especially when considering these industries’ inherent preference for white faces to sell.

Of course, this latest bit of questionable casting comes in the midst of a highly visible dialogue on race in mainstream cinema. The lack of diversity among this year’s Academy Award nominees has led to a revamp of the voting system and of the Academy itself, as well as a much larger conversation on opportunities in front of and behind the camera throughout the many tiers of Hollywood.

While Brits Charlotte Rampling and Michael Caine shrugged off the #OscarsSoWhite campaign (Rampling even said it was “racist against whites”), U.K. star Idris Elba recently spoke to the Houses of Parliament regarding the lack of varied opportunities for non-white actors in British entertainment and how it affected him both as a black fan and as a black actor.

“Because I never saw myself on TV, I stopped watching TV,” he said. “Instead I decided to just go out and become TV.

“There wasn’t enough imagination in the industry for me to be seen as a lead,” Elba said. “When you don’t reflect the real world, too much talent gets trashed. Thrown on the scrapheap. Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t. And talent can’t reach opportunity.”

Elba also shared his belief that Hollywood was far ahead of the U.K. regarding opportunities for people of color.

“I went to America because I was running out of parts,” he said. “The USA has the most famous diversity policy of all: the American Dream. I want that British dream.”

If Hollywood is the standard-bearer for opportunity, then we should all be deeply concerned about the state of diversity in the film industry. That isn’t intended to be glib, but to convey the gravity of the problem; how deeply we must go to uproot and rectify it.

There is both a casual ambivalence and quiet hostility towards broadening the range of opportunities for non-white stars to truly thrive in the mainstream, and things like casting a white man to play Michael Jackson only serve as further proof that there are filmmakers who are deeply determined to tune out the cultural conversation.

British actor and Sons of Anarchy star Charlie Hunnam was announced as the lead in the upcoming American Drug Lord, the story of Mexican-American Edgar Valdez Villarreal, who went from Texas high school football star to brutal cartel leader known as “La Barbie.” Villareal’s nickname was attributed to the fact that he had blue eyes and a fair complexion, “like a Ken doll.”

“It seems not well thought-through to be upset over casting an excellent actor to act as a character with whom he seems to share many physical resemblances,” argued producer Vincent Newman. “I suppose those offended by this would have disqualified Al Pacino from acting as Tony Montana or James Caan as Sonny Corleone. It’s acting after all, and the merit of the choice will be assessed as it is with all casting choices, on the quality and believability of his performance.”

Pacino’s famously over-the-top faux Cubano Scarface shtick isn’t exactly the best performance to cite as far as white actors tackling “ethnic” characters, but when there is already evidence of clear racial bias in which actors are even considered for roles in the first place, it should be clear why casting Fiennes as the famously pale Jackson or Hunnam as La Barbie raises questions. How many actually black or Latino actors had the opportunity to land these roles? How many producers already know from the first reading of the script that they would prefer to cast white guys who look like non-white guys as opposed to proper black/Latino leads?

These are questions that recognize how racial biases in casting, green-lighting, and marketing films are as detrimental as flagrant racist contempt. And long after awards season has passed, we’ll be left to answer these questions if we are committed to addressing the disparities that lead to white guys deciding who and what goes on screen. Joseph Fiennes as Michael Jackson is a symptom of a deeper sickness that moviemakers are only now beginning to treat. This movie won’t be the final say on this subject, but as it happens, it adds fuel to a very necessary conversation. Here’s hoping major film studios in both America and Britain pay closer attention to that conversation and do more than pay lip service to those initiating it.

And here’s hoping we don’t get a Ralph Fiennes cameo as Jermaine.

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Renegade NYC Snowboarding With the NYPD

What to do when New York is getting smacked with one of the worst blizzards in its history? Well, if you’re YouTuber, filmmaker, and modern day merry prankster Casey Neistat you find a friend with tire chains and ride the city streets like they’re a course in the X-Games.

Blasting through the avenues, Neistat and friends tear through Times Square and other landmarks, leaving a wake of cheering, and often awestruck, fans as they go. Naturally someone called the cops, but hey, this is New York, where they have better things to do, so when they catch up to the crew they prove that even the police have a sense of humor.

“Someone complained about you, so we’re just gonna act like we’re talking to ya,” an officer amicably tells the tow-vehicle’s driver.

Neistat has gained a cult following for his videos, which include taking the NYPD to task over bike lane regulations and iPod's Dirty Secret, in which he takes Apple to task over their lack of battery support, which went viral and forced the computer giant to change policy.

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Aereo Founder’s New Startup Wants to Bring You Wi-Fi—And Cut Out the Providers

BECAUSE IT WASN’T enough to piss off every major television broadcaster in America with his last company, Aereo, now Chet Kanojia is taking on the country’s biggest Internet providers with a new start-up called Starry.

The company, which Kanojia officially announced in New York City this morning after keeping it under wraps for a year, aims to offer people wireless Internet access at speeds that are faster than wired broadband at a fraction of the cost. The goal is to circumvent not only the hefty infrastructure cost of wired networks, but also the companies that build and provide those networks—as well as all of the complexities of getting a technician to come to your home and install that network. Instead, Starry allows anyone to plug in a small device at home and receive the Internet instantly over a wireless connection.

“This is how it should be in our opinion,” Kanojia said. “Wired infrastructure is just difficult.”

Here’s how it works: Starry utilizes what are known as high-frequency millimeter waves to deliver the signal to people’s homes. To broadcast that signal, Starry installs so-called Starry Beams on rooftops throughout a city. Each Beam can cover roughly 2 kilometers, sending connectivity directly to hubs called Starry Points, which people can place just outside their window to pick up a signal. This set up means that Starry will launch city by city, region by region, as it installs these networks of Beams. Its first market will be Boston, with beta tests launching this summer.

Kanojia declined to say just how much a monthly plan for Starry would cost, except to say that it will be much cheaper than standard broadband, because Starry’s own costs are expected to be much lower. According to the company’s estimates, the average wired network costs about $2,500 per home to deploy. Starry’s cost, Kanojia says, is just $25 a month.

The Next Fight

In many ways, Starry is the continuation of Kanojia’s longstanding mission to give consumers more choice in how they connect to the Internet and television. With Aereo, Kanojia wanted give cord-cutters a way to watch live over-the-air television without buying a full cable package. To do that, it built warehouses full of mini-antennae and argued that those antennae were no different than the bunny ears people are free to buy for their own homes.

The broadcasters begged to differ, arguing that if they had to pay for the rights to copyrighted programming, then Aereo should, too. In the end, the Supreme Court sided with the broadcasters, forcing Aereo to close up shop for good. Now, Kanojia is again bracing for a fight which is, while equally difficult to pull off, slightly less risky.

Kanojia, for his part, believes the regulatory winds are blowing in his favor. “I think in general there is a desire for competition,” he says.

There will, of course, be ample competition, not only from giants like Comcast, but also newer providers like Google, which have been expanding its Google Fiber networks across the country in recent years. It will also face off against startups like Karma which, though still in their infancy, are also experimenting with wireless access.

But while Starry is competing directly with these companies, it’s also building routers that anyone can use, no matter their internet service provider. The Starry Station is a sleekly designed device with a touchscreen interface that allows people to track the devices on their network and the overall health of their network on a daily basis, and lets them install things like parental controls and, possibly, even ad-blocking technology at the network level. The router, which retails for $349.99 is intended to be a high-tech upgrade from the black box routers that leave cobwebs of wires on living room floors across America.

If Starry’s plan works, it could accomplish the very thing Aereo set out to do, which is free consumers from the bundle. In Aereo’s case, it was the cable bundle. In Starry’s it’s the broadband bundle. Something tells us another battle with the industry incumbents won’t be far behind.

[MIKA27]

JEEP WRANGLER YELLOW JACKET BY STARWOOD MOTORS

There’s a lot of cool customizations that can be done to a stock Jeep, and we’ve already seen some great adjustments. But, the Starwood Motors Jeep Yellow Jacket is one of the most impressive custom Jeep we’ve seen to date.

Immediately apparent is its feisty yellow paint job, with black accents which, of course, gives it the appearance of a yellow jacket. It comes with metal cloak fenders and massive VPR JK front and rear bumpers. It uses an AEV Heat Reduction Hood that has cooling properties to keep the engine compartment cooler than the average Jeep. It has a 4″ Terra Flex short arm suspension lift, which has a yellow powder coating on the components, adding to the aggressive appearance. It’s not only the exterior that’s worth talking about, either. Within its doors, you’ll find Ferrari 458 Italia Leather seats in Black Nappa Leather with Yellow contrast stitching. An Alpine 7″ touch screen navigation system is outfitted in the front, and the factory gauges have been replaced by Starwood Customs’ own. [Purchase]

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DeLoreans are Going Back Into Production

First we had Lexus working on a hoverboard. Then we got self-lacing sneakers from Nike. Now the DeLorean Motor Company is giving us the pièce de résistance from Back to the Future. That’s right, 2017 will mark the return of the DeLorean. The iconic look of the time-traveling ride will not be altered, and the (estimated) 300 vehicles will be crafted from existing materials. The company aims to sell the new DeLoreans for under $100k. We’ll start saving now.

[MIKA27]

LIV Genesis X1-A

After huge success with the most backed Swiss watch project on Kickstarter (LIV Genesis X1), LIV watches is blowing up the popular crowdsourcing website again with their latest timepiece, the limited edition LIV Genesis X1-A.

The watch was fully funded within the first 34 minutes of hitting the site, and we can understand why, a stunning timepiece with a brash, sporty, modern look, and with an automatic Swiss movement for under $500. Built by hand in Switzerland, the GX1-A is powered by an automatic Sellita SW200 movement, and features a screw-down bezel, offered in stainless steel or in black or grey IP coating, and comes with a choice of a canvas, leather, Nato, or silicone strap.