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

[MIKA27]

EERO HOME WIFI SYSTEM

Complaints about WiFi are nearly as ubiquitous as the technology itself. Whether it’s service providers not delivering what they promised, or issues with your router, it can be crazy-making to have issues trying to connect with your network. Eero has set out to take on the challenge of weak WiFi networks, and according to more than one tech-reviewer, they’ve passed with flying colors.

The specific issues these little gadgets help with is slow and shaky networks. WiFi routers transfer data at a rate of around 5.0 Ghz, but the problem is that the higher the frequency the shorter they can travel. Eero’s answer is more access points. Taking a cue from the configuration most offices use – setting up a series of routers laid out throughout their buildings to keep you connected – the company has designed a mesh network that’s at the same time effective and user friendly. The setup on these is pretty straightforward, meaning you don’t have to be an IT geek to make it work. You first plug one Eero into your modem and the app will help you strategically place the others throughout your home. Once you have them set up, they’ll blanket your home in super fast Wifi just like that. Pick up a pack of three for $500. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

MERCEDES-BENZ V-CLASS BLACK CRYSTAL BY LARTE DESIGN

For the upcoming Geneva Auto Show, the already roomy Mercedes-Benz V-class van got a huge upgrade from the California-based company Larte. The tuning and design shop essentially turned this van into a private jet – fitting the interior with four deeply reclining seats, alcantara leather, wooden trimmings, a large flat screen TV, a mini-bar, and an Alpine audio system. Also – because you pretty much have to be a mobster or something equally nefarious to be driven around in this thing, the car comes with a biometric safe and privacy curtains.

The tuning company didn’t just modify the interior of this Benz, they also made some changes to the bodykit. With an updated grille, a new set of wheels and a side skirt, this thing will stand out from all the other soccer-dad vans on the road. Details on price aren’t out yet – but you can bet on it being sky-high. [Purchase]

MIKA: Interior is horrible..

[MIKA27]

RIMAC CONCEPT ONE

The Rimac Concept One is a special vehicle, and not just because it's among the rare concepts that become production cars. It's special because it's being dubbed the first all-electric hypercar. Thanks to a quartet of permanent magnet electric motors, one for each wheel, it has a total output of 1088 hp, good for a 0-62 time of 2.6 seconds and the ability to reach 186 mph in just 14.2 seconds. Handling is helped along by the central location of the motors, allowing for perfect weight distribution and a low center of gravity, while the carbon-ceramic braking system helps slow things down when necessary and the luxurious interior keeps you comfortable as the scenery flies by.

[MIKA27]

Sony's Xperia Ear Puts AI Inside Your, Er, Ear

Sony clearly watched Joaquin Phoenix in Her. Its latest announcement is the Xperia Ear, an earpiece that interacts with your phone to inject the sweet mutterings of an AI straight into your skull. Welcome to the future.

Just how “artificially intelligent” is it? So so. The earpiece features a proximity sensor which it uses to tell your phone when it’s popped into your ear. When it’s nestled there, it periodically provides you with information — about the weather, social media updates, texts or missed calls. It uses a slightly modified version of Google Now, so it is genuinely smart, and you can ask it for things like navigation directions, message dictations and the like. Perhaps not enough to fall in love with, but potentially useful.

Sony Ear works with any Android device sporting KitKat or above and will be available in the US later this year during our winter (their summer). There’s no word on pricing or Australian availability just yet. There is one big downside, though: Battery life is sadly limited to three and a half hours of active use. But the earpiece does come with a little case that you can wear in your pocket or handbag — and it lets you recharge the device up to three times while you’re on the road.

We’re not sure anyone wants the future Joaquin Phoenix depicts in Her, but Sony’s certainly not the first to try the “intelligent Bluetooth headset” approach. Motorola did something similar last year with the Moto Hint — and Sony probably won’t be the last.

[MIKA27]

Australian Researchers Find Pancreatic Cancer Is Four Separate Diseases

An international team led by Australian researchers has studied the genetics of pancreatic cancer, revealing it is actually four separate diseases, with different genetic triggers and survival rates, paving the way for more accurate diagnoses and treatments.

The significant findings also include 10 genetic pathways at the core of transforming normal pancreatic tissue into cancerous tumours. Some of these processes are related to bladder and lung cancers, opening up the possibility of using treatments for these cancers to also treat pancreatic cancer.

The study was led by Prof Sean Grimmond, formerly of The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), now the Director of Research & The Bertalli Chair in Cancer Medicine, University of Melbourne Centre for Cancer Research.

Published today in the international journal Nature, the research team included Professor Andrew Biankin from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research and the University of New South Wales and bioinformatician Dr Nicola Waddell, now based at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research.

Over seven years, scientists analysed the genomes of 456 pancreatic tumours to determine the core processes that are damaged when normal pancreatic tissues change into aggressive cancers.

Professor Grimmond said there was an urgent need for more knowledge about the genetic causes of pancreatic cancer, with most patients only living a few months after diagnosis and the condition predicted to become the second most common cancer in Western countries within a decade.

“We identified 32 genes from 10 genetic pathways that are consistently mutated in pancreatic tumours, but further analysis of gene activity revealed four distinct subtypes of tumours,” professor Grimmond said.

“This study demonstrates that pancreatic cancer is better considered as four separate diseases, with different survival rates, treatments and underlying genetics.

“Knowing which subtype a patient has would allow a doctor to provide a more accurate prognosis and treatment recommendations.

Importantly Professor Grimmond said there are already cancer drugs, and drugs in development, that can potentially target the parts of the ‘damaged machinery’ driving pancreatic cancers to start.

For example some strains of pancreatic cancer are unexpectedly associated with mutations normally associated with colon cancer or leukaemia and for which experimental drugs are available or in development. Other pancreatic cancers bear strong similarities to some bladder and lung cancers and we can start to draw on that knowledge to improve treatments,” he says.

In a world first, the team performed an integrated genomic analysis, meaning they combined the results of several techniques to examine not only the genetic code, but also variations in structure and gene activity, revealing more information than ever before about the genetic damage that leads to pancreatic cancer.

This study builds on earlier studies performed by the team as part of the International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC).

[MIKA27]

Here's Your First Glimpse Of Daredevil's Elektra In Action

We’ve been hearing a lot about the Punisher coming to Daredevil season two, but don’t forget that this series is also adding another important character from Daredevil’s comic mythos: the Greek ninja, Elektra Natchios. Here’s just a glimpse of her slicing her way onto the scene, ahead of a new trailer tomorrow.

We apparently live in a world where even trailers come in two parts now — last week’s “part one” saw us get an introduction to the show’s take on Frank Castle, with Elodie Yung’s Elektra making a brief appearance at the end. Presumably tomorrow’s “part two” will emphasise her reappearance in Matt Murdock’s life. For now, you can make do with this short “character artwork” video of her shanking some dudes to whet your anticipation.

[MIKA27]

Pacific Rim 2 Is Back With The Man Behind Daredevil Directing

The on-again, off-again sci-fi sequel Pacific Rim 2 is back from the depths. Deadline reports Legendary Pictures has hired Steven S. DeKnight to direct the film, which will be produced by the first film’s director, Guillermo del Toro.

DeKnight created the show Spartacus but, most recently, was the show runner and head writer on Netflix’s Daredevil, a gig that surely got him this one. It will be his feature film directorial debut.

According to Deadline, the current script was written by Jon Spaihts, who also wrote versions of Prometheus and Doctor Strange as well as the upcoming Passengers and Mummy remake. Travis Beacham wrote the first movie.

Pacific Rim 2 was once on track for a 2017 release before it was delayed and Del Toro moved on. Last year, Universal Pictures was considering a new budget and script and now, with the hiring of DeKnight, they must be happy with it. One person who is very happy, is Guillermo del Toro.

No release date has been set for Pacific Rim 2, but 2018 seems like a good guess. We’ll keep you updated the instant there’s more to report.

[MIKA27]

THE ART OF AMAURY DUBOIS

The art of Amaury Dubois is characterised by curves and intersecting layers, although his background is mostly in paint and canvas, he’s been working recently with photographic collages like the examples you see here.

These pieces were all displayed to the public for the first time at Le Salon Rétromobile earlier this month in Paris, and the works will now be displayed at galleries in Europe. If you’d like to see more of Amaury’s work you can click here to visit his official website.

[MIKA27]

Hard To Kill: Rasputin and Other Immortals

The human body is a pretty fragile thing, when you think about it. Maybe not as fragile as movie makers try to make it seem, but still far less durable than a lot of other life forms on this planet. In the movies, they’d have you believe that, at least for nameless bad guys, you can be killed instantly with a good swift kick to the shin. But if you’re a hero (or anti-hero), you can brush off even nuclear blasts with little more than an endearing scratch or two.

Real life, of course, isn’t like that. Introducing foreign bodies into your own, especially of the pointy variety, is decidedly unadvised. It’s generally a good idea to avoid the business end of guns, and most will tell you that knives do not belong in your belly (or your back, but that’s another article).

The average person holds about five litres of blood, or one and a half gallons. It’s roughly 7% of your body weight, so the bigger you are, the more red stuff you carry. Of course, if you spring a leak you have a problem. That same average person can, in theory, easily survive a loss of blood ranging from 10-15% of capacity (or about half a litre), but beyond that, things get dicey.

Contrary to popular belief though, having a bullet rip through your innards isn’t strictly fatal. It’s actually blood loss – resulting from all those new holes – that will kill you. Yes, there are some other things going on when you’ve been perforated, but as the spunky female supporting character will always tell you, you’ve got to stop the bleeding!

Though, you realise that this is all based on a best case scenario, right? Well, maybe not best case, you’ve just been shot, after all. The point is, there are lots of people who defy the odds of survival; people who not only laugh in the face of death, they pretty much give it the full-monty.

Perhaps the most famous and bewildering tale of such defiant survival is that of Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin. His story is widely misrepresented, however.

Rasputin, as I’m sure you’re familiar, was something of a sensation in Russia at the turn of the 20th century. A most controversial figure, he was said to be one of the most powerful faith healers ever to have lived, he was (depending on who you ask) an occultist extraordinaire, and was certainly a most influential spiritual guru of the time. And above all, he was a trusted advisor to the Russian Tsars, and, according to historians, was the primary catalyst for the fall of the Russian Monarchy.

Whole volumes have been written on who Rasputin was, how he lived, and how he died. Strange as he was, and despite what certain films would have you believe, he was definitely mortal. Though he certainly held tight his grasp on this world when royalty conspired to send him on.

You’ve probably heard the condensed version of the tale; he was poisoned, shot, beaten, and finally drowned at a dinner party in his honour. Though, lest you get the wrong idea, this was not just how they partied in Russia at the time. No, it was Rasputin’s benefactors – who had grown tired of his meddling in political affairs – who decided to put an end to his influence.

Rasputin’s friend (or so he thought) Felix Yusopov invited the mystic to a late-night social gathering. Now, to spare you the minutia of detail, much of which is in question, what is known of the meat in this story is that Rasputin had been served wine and pastries laced with cyanide at this soiree. Most accounts agree that he reluctantly imbibed copious amounts of the poisoned wine, though he may or may not have eaten the tainted pastries. But for whatever reason, he did not succumb to the toxin, except by way of becoming quite drunk.

Desperation set in and either Yusopov himself, or another conspirator – perhaps Dimitri Romanov – attempted a much more overt act to dispatch the holy man. Rasputin was shot in the left side of his abdomen (some tellings claim he was shot in the back) and he fell to the floor, apparently lifeless.

Thinking they had succeeded, the conspirators made haste to dispose of Rasputin’s belongings, and later returned to remove his body, whereupon they found him still very much alive, and attempting escape by crawling up a flight of stairs to the courtyard. Well, this simply would not do; so fellow conspirator Vladimir Purishkevich again tried to shoot him, missing twice and then finding his mark in Rasputin’s back as he fled. He took a final round to the head, in what one can only imagine would have been an Oscar-worthy scene of dramatic fatality, and fell to the snow.

Yusopov, who apparently had been moved to madness by the evening’s events, then set upon him with a truncheon, beating him about the head and body until he was finally pulled off of the proverbial dead horse by his companions. Wouldn’t you know it though, Rasputin was still alive.

Having had enough of this unending assassination, his murderers wrapped him in a carpet and dumped him into the nearby Nina River. Much to the surprise of authorities though, when the body was dredged from the river some days later, there were signs he had yet been alive and had injured his hands trying to break through the ice from the underside.

An unbelievable tale, for sure, but as mentioned, his wounds alone could have been survivable, at least in the short term. Whether he had some immunity to cyanide, or perhaps his hosts administered it incompetently, any single event he suffered that night could not conclusively be deemed fatal on its own. Mostly because none were, until he drowned.

But he’s not the only person to have survived grievous injury at the hands of an attacker.

Jumping back into the 21st century, on May 27, 1988, a Suffolk Country, New York police officer named Kenyon Tuthill was ambushed by a crazed man with a shotgun while he sat in his patrol car. Tuthill took a point-blank shotgun blast to the face, which, as you might imagine, removed not only most of his face, but nearly 30% of his head.

Anyone reading this would be right to assume that Officer Tuthill’s life ended that night, but what if I told you that he never even lost consciousness?

His attacker fled immediately following the shot, likely assuming the officer dead, but Tuthill was still very much alive. The officer called for help over his CB radio, though with most of his mouth gone, he managed only garbled moans. He underwent nine hours of surgery to save his life that day and his attacker was eventually apprehended and was ultimately sentenced to life in prison.

Officer Keyon Tuthill survived what no one thought possible; since then he has gone through more than 17 facial reconstruction surgeries, and was a featured story in the documentary Ultimate Survivors: Winning Against Incredible Odds (1991) starring William Shatner.

These two stories from what seem like opposite sides of history, sit in stark contrast to our news headlines. People are killed so often, and sometimes in such seemingly benign ways, and almost always for no good reason. Our bodies are subject to assaults on every level, and at a glance it seems there’s no logic involved in who lives and who dies. Rasputin’s story typically incites talk of magic, and sorcery, and alchemy, but when a regular guy like Officer Tuthill can survive such massive injury through sheer will, magic seems unnecessary. One thing is certain though, of all the ways a life can be destroyed, killing each other is the worst.

[MIKA27]

SVORN ARCUS CARABINER

Carry your keys in style with the Arcus Carabiner. Featuring a blend of sharp edges with smooth lines, this carabiner combines the virtues of art and function in a handsomely crafted manner. Made from Zinc alloy, this product is light yet durable; not adding any unnecessary weight to your everyday carrying load while maintaining its reliability.

The size is carefully selected to ensure comfort and reduce the appearance of bulky pant pockets when carried. No longer will oversized key chains present a hindrance to your style. You can own the Arcus Carabiner in any color you like, as long as it’s Chrome Noir, and the product ships with a six-month warranty from the manufacturer. Retails at $40. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

Converse Chuck Taylor All Star Peached Canvas

We don’t really need to make a case for Converse sneakers being some of the best Spring/Summer footwear options on the market, but they’ve really outdone themselves this year with these Peached Canvas releases. Each of the options updates the classic look with a soft, comfortable feel that doesn’t sacrifice anything in the durability department and also includes square laces and shiny brass eyelets. Available in hi top (black, gray and khaki) and lo top (almost black, parchment and black cherry) options with red, white and blue Americana accents on the sole.

[MIKA27]

Satellite Island

Satellite Island is a secluded secret hideaway, a truly unique destination. Located in the D´Entrecasteaux Channel, off Bruny Island, in the south of Tasmania, the small island of immense beauty was once home to a reclusive writer, painter and poet. Now a family have turned it into an artful, driftwood-clad hideaway where you can leave everything behind, escape hectic city life, get off the grid, invigorate the mind, and lose yourself in nature’s perfect creations.

[MIKA27]

Snap Pro

Snap Pro is a must have for the new-age mobile photographers, a new case for the iPhone that makes snapping professional pictures easier than ever before. The sleek case brings the best features of a traditional camera back to your phone, equipping it with an actual shutter button, an interchangeable lens system, ergonomic grips, and making it compatible with most tripods. It works directly with the native iPhone Camera App, no cables, no pairing, no batteries or additional apps are needed.

[MIKA27]

TRINITY ONE COFFEE BREWER

There are plenty of ways to brew a cup of coffee, but few that are as visibly pleasing and versatile as the Trinity One Coffee Brewer. Ideal for specialty coffees, the Trinity One is made using stainless steel and a beautiful walnut timber finish. You can brew using the pour over method, air pressure using a weighted cylinder, or cold brew. It will reduce kitchen top clutter and look great in the process.

[MIKA27]

ARASH AF10

Its specs are the stuff of science fiction. Its looks are too. Powered by four electric motors paired with a 6.2L V8 — a system it calls the "Warp Drive" — the Arash AF10 produces an insane 2,100 hp, capable of moving its carbon chassis from 0-60 mph in just 2.8 seconds. Its gearboxes are similarly advanced, with each motor getting a 2-speed box, while the V8 gets your choice of manual or paddle shift six-speed. The body is sculpted to be as slick as possible, with a fixed wing in the rear, and moving wing in the front, and a tear drop cockpit.

[MIKA27]

We Finally Know Who's Starring in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ernie Cline’s Ready Player One just found its biggest piece. Tye Sheridan—whom we’ll see playing Cyclops in this summer’s X-Men: Apocalypse—is set to play the lead character of Wade, aka Parzival.

Deadline reported the news of the casting. Sheridan joins Olivia Cooke, who’ll play Art3mis, and Ben Mendelsohn, who’ll play the villainous Nolan Sorrento.

Ready Player One is set in a near future where everyone in the world is connected via an online, virtual reality called the OASIS. When the creator of the OASIS dies, he creates a Willy Wonka-esque treasure hunt for control of the company which several people, including the avatars Parzival and Art3mis, dedicate their lives to. It’s a crazy, pop culture-influenced futuristic adventure.

If you don’t recognize Sheridan, that’s because he’s mostly been flying under the radar. His big breakout was Mud, he got a major role in the X-Men universe as the the young Cyclops, and last year he starred in Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (Which by the way I highly recommend you watch for a good laugh ). That last one was a terrible movie, but Sheridan was solid in it, and he’s a great choice to play this character, who’s meek in reality, but ultra confident in OASIS.

Ready Player One is scheduled to be released March 30, 2018.

[MIKA27]

These New Star Wars Posters Are Simply Perfect

There are so many Star Wars posters out there these days, it’s incredibly difficult to make one stand out. Well, artist Matt Ferguson has found an answer to that: Make posters that are simple, clean, and instantly recognizable.

That’s easier said than done, of course—but Ferguson’s definitely pulled it off. Along with the Bottleneck Gallery and Acme Archives, he’s about to release an officially licensed series of posters that practically scream “Star Wars,” without being too in your face. Check out the color regular, and gold variant, editions.

All these posters go on sale at 12pm EST February 25. The variants are a limited edition run of 225 while the regulars are a timed edition that will remain on sale until February 28 until 11:59pm EST, and they’ll print as many sets as they sell during that period. All prints are 12 x 24 inches.

They’ll be on sale at Bottleneck Gallery, at a cost of $100 or $115.

[MIKA27]

Batman v Superman Is Getting an R-Rated Director's Cut

Does Superman bleed? He might. He might bleed a hell of a lot more in Batman v Superman’s home video release—which has surprisingly been rated R.

News broke late last night of a rating from the MPAA for the Batman v Superman: Ultimate Edition, labeled for home release, and as an unedited, different cut from the PG-13 movie that will be released in theaters next month. It’s maybe not surprising to hear that the movie has a longer version, considering that many have speculated just how Snyder and his team managed to cram so much into the film.

The theatrical release is already two and a half hours long though, so the Director’s Cut could end up in Lord of the Rings extended edition territory, but we don’t know just how much extra footage is in for now.

It’s unlikely that the film goes too far—the R is just for violence—but still, it’s a bit of a shock to see the film have a cut that warrants the rating bump. Presumably, this cut was in the works long before Deadpool became a box office success. But given the timing, it’s hard not to draw comparisons between this and Wolverine 3's recent R-rating announcement.

MIKA: R rated or not, can't be compared to Deadpool in that the theatrical release is still only PG rated so it's not like theyre trying to cash in on any success seeing the R Rating is purely for home viewing. It would be a different story if they reclassified the flick for cinemas.

[MIKA27]

Your Next Phone Might Have 256GB Of Storage Thanks To Samsung's New Chip

I love high capacity things. So when Samsung announced that it’s producing 256 GB flash storage that can be used in mobile devices, I swooned. The memory is two times faster than the previous generation of Universal Flash Storage (UFS) memory, meaning that phones will not only have greater storage capacities, but also breeze reading and writing operations.

Nonetheless, there are probably still a lot of you thinking this isn’t a huge deal. You might say that the most popular Android phones already support microSD expandable memory, or that Android 6.0 Marshmallow supports adoptive memory, making it easier for your phone to read and write to expandable storage. But that would be missing the point.

Expandable storage has always been a bandage on a much greater problem plaguing Android phones: the cost of high capacity flash memory was too high and the size was too bulky to include in older smartphones. Plus, expandable memory has never performed nearly as well as internal UFS memory. Although Android 6.0 Marshmallow supports a new adoptive memory feature that basically treats external memory as internal memory, neither of Android’s two biggest vendors, LG or Samsung, support the feature in their new smartphones.

Samsung’s new UFS memory is going to make the next generation of smartphones faster — period. The company’s flash memory has long been considered the most reliable on the planet, so much so that even its chief rival, Apple, used Samsung flash storage in older generations of the iPhone. But whether Samsung is used as the vendor for the iPhone 7’s storage remains to be seen.

The iPhone 6s was built without using UFS storage — instead, Apple used its own technology to increase reading and writing speeds in its phones. But the company still uses Samsung as a major supplier of components for the iPhone, namely for the RAM. Given the fact that the iPhone 7 Plus is rumoured to have 256 GB of storage, we would not be surprised to see Samsung flash in one of the tear downs of the next generation iPhone.

[MIKA27]

Rattlesnakes are Taking Over an Island in Massachusetts

If you’re planning to visit Mount Zion Island in Massachusetts, you may want to do it soon. It’s about to be completely taken over by venomous rattlesnakes.

The snakes are timber rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) which were once abundant in Massachusetts and its surrounding states. Today they are an endangered species with only five known colonies left in the state and none in Maine and Rhode Island. The Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) calls it the greatest modern decline of any native reptile and has decided to do something to save the timber rattlesnake.

That’s where Mount Zion Island comes in. It’s the largest island in the Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts and has the perfect environment for timber rattlesnakes … no humans and no roads to get run over on. The island measures 1,350 acres (about 3.6 miles (5.8 km) in length) and has the right combination of vegetation and wildlife to support a large colony of 6-foot-long rattlesnakes.

To give the snakes the best chance for survival, hatchlings will first live at the Roger Williams Zoo in Rhode Island for two years. Once they’re big enough and healthy enough to survive in the wild, they’ll be transported to Mount Zion and let loose.

That gives officials at MassWildlife two years to address this concern of central Massachusetts residents: “Can’t rattlesnakes swim?”

While rattlesnakes are perfectly good swimmers, their survival depends on access to unusually deep hibernation sites (hibernacula), usually in a rock talus or boulder field below a ledge, or a deep fissure in bedrock. These special habitats are scarce on our landscape. Any snake that leaves the island, whether by water or over the causeway, will not be able to find a suitable hibernation site and if unable to return will die over the winter.

MassWildlife experts hope that relieves their concerns. It would be a tragedy for the timber rattlesnake to become extinct. It was a symbol of strength to Native Americans and it’s the snake coiled on the famous “Don’t Tread On Me” flag from the American Revolution.

[MIKA27]

A Surprise Direct Hit and a Predicted Miss in Asteroid News

Astronomers at NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies say a 100-foot-wide asteroid heading towards us at 34,000 miles-per-hour will just miss hitting the planet on March 7th. That would be comforting news except no one at the office warned us about the direct hit that occurred on February 6th. What should we believe, NASA?

According to scientists at NASA’s Center for NEO Studies (CNEOS) at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Asteroid 2016 TX68 could fly past Earth as far out as 9 million miles (14 million km) or as close as 11,000 miles (17,000 km). That’s fortunate because this 100-foot-long asteroid is bigger than the 65-foot-wide asteroid that created a 440 kiloton explosion over Chelyabinsk, Russia, three years ago, injuring about 1,000 people.

Chelyabinsk meteor

That one showed up by surprise, kind of like the meteor that exploded over the South Atlantic Ocean on February 6th. No one saw this one coming either – or at least no one will admit they saw the Earth about to be hit by a meteor one-third the size of the Chelyabinsk meteor and didn’t want to be the bearer of bad news. Fortunately, the 23-foot-wide meteor created its 13 kiloton explosion over the ocean.

Approximate location of meteor explosion

“No worries … that last one was too small,” you say. Maybe, but it was the largest since Chelyabinsk and didn’t get detected until after the fact. Experts say meteors in the 25-50 foot-wide range can cause nuclear bomb-sized problems if they hit the earth directly or explode in the low atmosphere.

These are considered to be once-a century events. We’ve had two in three years. Is anyone breathing easier?

It’s great that we have organizations watching out for large space objects and others actually thinking about ways to destroy or deflect them. Should we have faith that this is really going to give us accurate and sufficient warning or protect us … or should we just resign ourselves to the fact that occasionally ‘hit happens’?

[MIKA27]

STILLHOUSE MOONSHINE

The rebirth of clear corn whiskey continues with Stillhouse Moonshine. Made from estate-grown corn in authentic copper stills by some of Virginia and Kentucky's finest distilleries, this 100% clear corn whiskey is also charcoal-filtered for better quality and flavor. It comes in an array of flavors, including unique variants like mint chip and red hot, and while it may not pack the same punch as the illicit variety, with an ABV ranging from 34.5 to 40%, it's nothing to scoff at, either. It works best as a chilled shot, as a surprise substitute in a classic cocktail, or in a handcrafted punch, and arrives in a display-worthy 100% stainless steel can, letting you enjoy it in places where glass bottles simply aren't an option.

[MIKA27]

This Is What Happens When An E-Cig Explodes In Your Pocket

An Owensboro, Kentucky man was sent to the hospital for second-degree burns last weekend, when his e-cig battery exploded like a firework in his pocket. And he hasn’t been the only one with such luck.

Surveillance footage from a Shell petrol station’s security camera caught the incident on tape Saturday morning. The man was about to pay at the register, when a Roman candle-like blast burst from his pants and sent sparks flying. He ran out onto the footpath, wrestled off his pants and was then blasted by a petrol station attendant with a fire extinguisher.

It’s not the first time an e-cigarette battery has been reported to explode. Just a couple weeks ago, a Texas man also suffered serious burns with a spare e-cig battery went boom in his pants pocket. He, too, was at a convenience store, when the battery blew up and fused part of his jeans to his leg. Yet another man earlier this month in Texas suffered burns, his first degree, when a vape battery blew up in his pants.

We’ll have to see if e-cig batteries, like hoverboards, will soon be banned from train stations, planes, universities and anywhere else that isn’t keen on sudden explosions. The cause of the e-cig blasts is still unclear.

[MIKA27]

Try Not To Drool Over This Exquisite $9700 Replica Of The USS Enterprise

Unless you’re a model maker who works for Industrial Light & Magic, your skills at gluing bits of plastic together probably never turn out like this. But you don’t need skills to put this magnificent replica of the 2009 USS Enterprise on your fireplace mantle — just $US7000 ($9716).

If 2015 was all about the return of Star Wars, 2016 will be for Trekkies since it marks the 50th anniversary of the original Star Trek TV series. This replica isn’t based on the original USS Enterprise that hit the airwaves back in 1966, though. It’s instead based on the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek update, not that it makes this Enterprise any less desirable.

All of the replica’s details, including some 200 different lighting effects, many of them animated, are screen-accurate to the CG version seen in the film. And to show off your investment, it comes mounted on a mirror display base so it’s easy to stare in awe at the detailing underneath the 86cm long replica as well.

So the question shouldn’t be, “Can I afford to buy a $9700 replica of the USS Enterprise?” You should instead be asking yourself, “Does my house really need a new roof?” or “Do my kids really need to go to private school?” [Quantum Mechanix]

[MIKA27]

How The Hell Does Anyone Get This Good At Skipping?

Freestyle competitive skipping is a real sport. It’s badarse and has almost nothing in common with its schoolyard predecessor.

Let that sink in. And then feast your eyes on Nick Woodard — one of the sport’s luminaries and multiple-time world champions — as he performs a routine that involves standing back flips, corkscrews and hand stands. It’s like your childhood had a baby with gymnastics and breakdancing, and that baby is wearing sunglasses and offering cigarettes to other babies.