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

[MIKA27]

Forging This Beautifully Intricate Sword Is So Damn Impressive

Do you remember the Green Destiny sword from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I didn’t. But that damascus steel blade finished with jade is so damn gorgeous and stunningly detailed that, after seeing the guys at Baltimore Knife and Sword make it, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it again. The whole build process is so intensive. From how they alternate and stack different metals; to folding the metal on top of each other; to etching out the design, carving the jade and adding the finishing touches, it’s one of the most beautifully intricate swords they have ever made.

[MIKA27]

South Korea Accused Of Massive Cover-Up Of Rape And Murder Ahead Of 2018 Olympics

South Korea is getting ready to host the Olympics in 2018. But a new investigation by the Associated Press has revealed that the last time the country hosted the Olympics, in 1988, the country locked up thousands of so-called vagrants and was complicit in their murder and rape.

The new report from the Associated Press is based on hundreds of secret documents and dozens of interviews with former prisoners and guards. The systematic cover-up of these human rights violations has continued over the past 30 years, and the current government refuses to investigate the case.

The South Korean government, under former dictator Park Chung-hee, initiated a program to clear the streets of vagrants as early as 1975, by setting up 36 facilities where the homeless, disabled and political dissidents would be imprisoned. The former dictator is the father of current South Korean President Park Geun-hye.

By the mid-1980s, in the lead up to the 1988 Olympics, the program intensified. By 1986, there were over 16,000 “vagrants” in these slave labour prisons where people were regularly abused and sometimes murdered. Some former employees of the prisons have gone so far as to call them concentration camps, while still defending the work they did.

The people of these prisons were put to work making products that would find their way to countries in Europe, as well as Japan. One of the most notorious facilities, Brothers Home, was incentivised by the government to arrest more vagrants based on the generous subsidies provided. Those subsidies grew based on the number of prisoners the facilities held. But the government continues to refuse to investigate the claims.

“The government has consistently tried to bury what happened. How do you fight that? If we spoke up, who would have heard us?” one former inmate who was raped and endured five years of slave labour told the Associated Press. “I am wailing, desperate to tell our story. Please listen to us.”

You can and should read the entire Associated Press report.

[MIKA27]

The Mysterious Underwater Ghost Town of Argentina

Nature is undeniably a beauty, but it can also be an insatiable, ferocious beast. It is ever lurking at the fringes of our seemingly safe civilization and cities, just out past where our illusory wall of safety ends and coiled to pounce at any time. Mankind’s structures, buildings, even whole cities or civilizations can be swallowed up and wiped off of the face of the earth as nature inexorably moves in to satisfy its ravenous hunger as we stand by powerless to stop it. Tsunamis, floods, earthquakes, volcanoes, sinkholes, even the slow, creeping strangulation of advancing jungle can serve to render our legacy to ruin or erase all signs that we were ever even there at all. However, sometimes nature does not keep what it has taken forever, but rather gives it back after decades or even centuries; regurgitating forth the jumbled remains of what it has devoured. One such case is a town in Argentina which was once the very epitome of the good life, only to be wiped off the map for decades before being revealed once again as a haunting, eviscerated ghost of its former self.

Villa Epecuén in its heyday

In the country of Argentina, around 570 kilometers out from Buenos Aires, along the shores of Lago Epecuén, is a now forgotten, almost accursed place. Here is a lake with unusual properties; a saline level 10 time higher than sea water, second in its saltiness only to the Dead Seain Israel, and which has long been said to be imbued with various therapeutic qualities, such as the ability to staunch the effects of aging, and cure depression, rheumatism, various skin conditions and diseases, anemia, diabetes, and an assortment of other ailments including even serious diseases such as cancer. Even the name of the lake, Epecuén, means “eternal spring,” a testament to the legendary attributes linked to it. The rumored origins of the lake reflected this power; as it was said that the lake had been formed when a chief had shed tears in mourning over a lost lover. It was this profound belief that the lake could cure numerous diseases and ailments that caused an intense interest in developing it as a resort area, and a bustling tourist resort would erected here in the 1920s.

Villa Epecuén, as it was called at the time, was a resort unlike any other in the country in those days. It was a lavish affair, with no expense spared to build luxurious accommodations and draw in numerous businesses, guesthouses, and hotels, to the tune of an estimated 25,000 visitors per season and a permanent peak population of around 5,000 people in the 1970s, all living in opulent luxury and basking in the sun with terrific views of the serene lake. At its peak in the 1960s, Villa Epecuén was home to over 300 businesses catering to the influx of wealthy visitors from around the country, such as hotels, guesthouses, lodges, shops, restaurants, and other resort facilities, all nestled within the rugged beauty along the lake’s placid shores.The rich were drawn here in droves by the majestic scenery, top-notch facilities, and the purported therapeutic healing effects of Lago Epecuén’s water. So potent were the purported healing and youth enhancing properties of this place that it was heavily mined for its minerals and sulphates, which were then wrapped, packaged and sold at exorbitant prices.

Villa Epecuén now

It seemed to be a place almost too good to be true, but there was danger lurking under the veneer of this grand paradise, ever silently threatening it from beyond the eyes of the flocking tourists. A key element in ensuring that this prosperous resort continued to function was a shoddy, rocky dam located a short distance away, which kept the waters from inundating the town and its many visitors who vacationed unaware that they were doing so under the shadow of the threat of being wiped out by a flood should the dam fail. This lurking threat was usually just under the surface, and would not make itself apparent until the area underwent a period of heavier than usual rainfall, which caused the water levels of the lake to start creeping up year by year.

For years the dam held steady, groaning under the weight of the inexorable rise of the water until on November 10th, 1985, when a freak standing wave, known as a seiche, sprung up from the lake like a monster to ferociously smash into the dam and finally cause it to buckle under the strain it had been accruing for so long. So began a creeping, unstoppable surge of water that spread out to begin slowly swallowing the resort town. Many of these people retreated to the nearby lakeside resort town of Carhue. The threat was slow moving, allowing the people of Villa Epecuén to gather their things and evacuate as the water reached up further and further around them, but there was nothing they could do to save their livelihoods and homes. There was time to say their goodbyes to their luxurious life, yet the surging flood would not relent as it slowly devoured the town, eventually burying it under 10 meters (33 feet) of murky, briny water.

Villa Epecuén

From the surface it appeared as if the one bustling resort town had vanished from the face of the earth; erased from existence as if it had never been their at all. However, down in the murky depths Villa Epecuén remained totally intact, still eerily inviting and pristine and complete with fully furnished dwellings, cars parked along streets, and even lush gardens and trees, as if someone would come home at any moment, yet there was just silence and the sweeping currents of water weaving through the abandoned, submerged ghost town and the swaying leaves of its suffocating, dying trees. Thus began the town’s slow transformation as it was digested by the lake itself. The corrosive salt water began to go to work on the structures here, eating away at metal and wood, peeling paint, rusting away and defacing everything it embraced. The once gorgeous town began to dissolve into a twisted, rusted out shell of its former glory, all of its life sucked out of it to leave a mere hollow husk of its former glory. The once attractive buildings now became something akin to hulking, spined sea beasts rummaging about through the muck and silt; wild, feral things much different to what they had been born.

For nearly 20 years this ghost town was rather like the legendary Atlantis, lurking deep down beneath the waves, until when in 2009 unusually dry weather caused the lake to gradually shrink and recede. Little by little, the scarred, ruined skeletal remains of the once flourishing resort town began to come up from the depths gasping for air. As the water gradually released its cold grip on the town, these ruins which had lain shrouded in darkness and murk for decades began to poke forth from the brine, and it was apparent that this was not the place it once had been. The ghastly visage of the emerging ghost town was as if the whole place had been whisked away to some parallel dimension of rampant entropy, only to phase back into our reality something less than and unrecognizable to what it had been in its past life.

The trees which had dotted the area and once been so vibrant were now long dead trunks and withered husks with lifeless spidery limbs reaching for the sunlight which had never come. Ruined, rusted out furniture and crumbling, decrepit structural components corroded and bleached by salt jutted and poked from the thick stench of decay as if spikes of some dying sea creature still making its last stand against an alien threat. Long abandoned automobiles still lined the streets, but they were now feral apparitions half dissolved and caked with salt, less like the cars we know and more like the carcasses of some sort of sea monsters that had remained ensconced within the ocean for aeons. The once opulent resort was now a degraded, chaotic mess of haphazardly strewn concrete rubble and the desolate, cast off detritus of a forgotten age. This was like some salt-caked, inhospitable post-apocalyptic world that had been consumed by nature and vomited back into our realm in an obscene, jagged semblance of itself. To walk along these bleak, eerie streets and their rotted relics bent to the wrath of nature now is to walk along what may very well be a vision of what Hell might be like.

When the lost town of Villa Epecuén lurched back up out of the depths to drink in sunlight once more, it was deemed to be beyond salvation or repair. This was a wild place which had seemingly forsaken the world of the living and which would likely never be tamed or brought back from the limbo it existed in. The area was labelled a disaster zone, and only a very few stalwart, brave souls were willing to come trickling back in to sift through what nature had seen fit to leave behind. One 82-year-old former resident by the name of Pablo Novak even came back to try and rekindle a new life amidst the deteriorated skeleton of this once great town, and currently remains the sole inhabitant here, offering to show the vestiges of the once venerable resort to whatever curious soul or macabre thrill seeker who happens to wander in. He remains alone, the only ones to join him those who wish to pass through, gaze at the macabre scene, and leave.

For now, Villa Epecuén remains mostly deserted. The town is a snapshot of a time long gone, warped by time, like the twisted remains of some fossilized prehistoric beast or a photograph ruined enough by the ages to warp the image and hide its true appearance. One can walk among these streets and feel that there was once life thriving here and thrumming through its veins, but that this essence has long ago been leeched out, leaving in its place a bleak alien landscape that has little in common to its past life. The town has been resurrected in a sense with its unveiling to the outside world once again, but it is not and never will regain the vibrance it had in life. This is a dead place of salt, wind, and desolation.

[MIKA27]

MI GUITAR

Gone are the days when, in order to be considered legitimate, an instrument had to operate without a charge. Years after Bob Dylan plugged in his electric guitar and hip hop musicians started producing songs on MPCs, electronic instruments are ubiquitous. They are in the music we listen to online and at the live shows we attend with our friends. The MI Guitar is the newest addition to that arsenal.

While the MI is shaped like a classic electric guitar, the similarities end at the fret board. With six strings pulled across the body of the guitar, and a fret board that with buttons all the way up it – is designed to make playing the guitar easier, and more approachable for the enthusiast who many not be able to dedicate a whole lot of time to music. The guitar communicates with a mobile app that displays both the chords and the lyrics to songs so you can easily play along to your favorite tracks. The price for one of these is $300. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

PULL START FIRE

Being able to start a fire with your bare hands is a legitimately cool skill, but it can take a lot of time and effort. For when you don’t have anything to spare, the Pull Start Fire is a perfect go to for setting up camp.

With this on hand, you can get a toasty fire going with just a simple tug of a string. All you have to do is set up your dry logs, tie this iPhone sized fire starter down to a log with its green string, then remove the red one at a safe distance. When you pull on the string (for safety – it requires between a 2.6 and 4 pounds of tensile force), a friction-ignition system lights up the eco-friendly flammable powder that then burns up the contents of the fire starter, wax, and sawdust casing itself. Your pile of wood will almost immediately catch on fire as the little box heats up to 1,500 degrees. Whether you are a fire-starting purist who wants a backup, or someone looking to get the chore done in the fastest way possible – this is a great tool. You can get a pack of 6 for $25. [Purchase]

[Fuzz]

Check Out The Goddamn Bear-Man In This Russian Superhero Movie

So he's basically an Ursa Major ripoff?

Deadpool's Director Wants Spider-Man To Crossover Into Fox's Marvel Movies

This needs to happen!!

EL PURISTA SMOKERS ARMCHAIR

Check out the pics and you will see one glaring mistake. The photographer was obviously not a cigar smoker.

[MIKA27]

Watch The First Full Trailer For Jason Bourne

You know his name: it’s Bourne part five. Series original director, Paul Greengrass, returns to see Matt Damon be a general bad ass. Check out the trailer and let us know what you think!

There’s no Jeremy Renner as Alex Cross (in this particular flick) as we join Jason Bourne several years after his disappearance at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum.

“Jason Bourne isn’t a super hero,” says Greengrass. “He doesn’t wear a cape or a mask. He’s not one of those kinds of guys. He is just an ordinary man. I think when people watch Jason Bourne they can imagine how they might react in those situations and those circumstances, and when you see him thinking his way through and coming up with a plan and executing his plan, that’s incredibly exciting.”

“It has taken us a long time to come back because we didn’t have the right story before. The world needed to change and then there comes that moment when it makes sense. You know when it feels right and that’s when you do it, not before.”

Jason Bourne hits Australian cinemas on July 28.

[MIKA27]

An Illustrated History of American Money Design

It’s not just paper. From the first notes issued by the Continental Congress to the latest star-spangled bills released by the Federal Reserve, the history of money in America is laced with rebellion, propaganda, and—of course—lots and lots of wealth. It’s awkwardly beautiful.

The history of paper currency, specifically, serves as a curious lens through which to understand the origins of this complicated nation. Like the government itself, money in America dates back to 1776 when the Continental Congress issued the country’s first official dollar bills. But before and well after that, it had been a free-for-all with any bank or state able to issue its own currency. It wasn’t until the 20th century that the nation’s currency would be standardized and even recognizable to present-day observers.

On April 20, 2016, the Treasury announced a major redesign of American paper currency. For the first time in over a century, women will reappear on banknotes—specifically the $20, $10, and $5 bills. It’s the beginning of a new era of American money design. But how we got here is a bit of a twisted tale.

Out of Many, One

Appropriately enough, the word “dollar” can be traced back to the early days of New York City. In the 17th century, New York was a Dutch settlement known as New Amsterdam, and the currency of choice was the leeuwendaler, or lion dollar. An abbreviated version of the word became widely used in all 13 colonies not only to refer to the Dutch currency but also the peso de ocho (piece of eight), or Spanish dollar.

In the years leading up to America’s independence, each of the colonies started issuing its own currency. Some used the term dollar, and others used British denominations such as shillings and pence. When the American Revolution began in 1775, however, the Continental Congress issued the nation’s first paper currency: the United States Dollar. These were commonly known as Continentals, and the British quickly took to counterfeiting them as a method of economic warfare.

Counterfeiting was hardly a new problem. Even colonial currencies had anti-counterfeiting measures already in place. Common method involved including intricate patterns and went so far as to use actual plant leaves in the printing process to create unique patterns on the notes. Of course, adding the phrase “’Tis DEATH to Counterfeit” also served as a grim reminder of the punishment for the crime:

The back of a 1770 Maryland dollar that could be exchanged in London for four shillings and six pence worth of gold

The design of the first Continentals largely resembles the colonial currencies already in circulation. The denominations ran from one sixth of a dollar up to $80, and each note featured an ornate border with text that read “United States of North America.” Now familiar iconography also appeared on the notes, namely the unfinished pyramid with 13 levels for the original 13 colonies. Whether it’s an early reference to Manifest Destiny or a secret Masonic symbol embedded by the Illuminati, the pyramid would later gain an all-seeing eye on top and become the back of the Great Seal of the United States.

A $50 Continental note from 1779

Over the course of the Revolution, the Continental Congress would issue over $240 million worth of these notes. The currency was rapidly devalued due, in part, to highly skilled British counterfeiters flooding the market with fakes. Inflation spread so fast that the notes were practically worthless by 1781, a crisis that ultimately led to the idea that any currency in the United States would need to be backed by silver or gold or… something.

The Coinage Act of 1792 would define the silver dollar as the primary unit of money in the United States. Signed by George Washington himself, the law established the Mint as well as the coin system still used today—from the copper penny to the silver dime all the way up to the gold $10 eagle. Only coins were considered legal tender, however. It took nearly a century before any semblance of order would emerge in the paper money game and, namely, before paper currency would be considered legal tender.

The Wildcat Era

Things got complicated as the newly independent United States started to grow. While the Coinage Act gave the young nation a currency, the federal government didn’t issue banknotes until the Civil War. This left the task of printing paper money to the states and to private banks. You can imagine the chaos that ensued.

Throughout the early 1800s, there was an endless variety of banknotes. All of the paper money looked different, and the further you traveled away from the issuing bank, the less it was worth. For example, a $5 bill from the Agricultural Bank of Tennessee might only be worth $4 in New York. Banks would keep logs of various banknotes and their exchange rates, an especially difficult task in an era before modern communications. And most importantly, the private banknotes were not legal tender. They were only worth something if the issuing bank could redeem them.

An example of wildcat currency from the early 19th century

To make things even trickier, scam artists got involved. Since any bank chartered by a state could start printing money, some people would open up so-called “wildcat banks” in a remote region and start issuing private banknotes. Because the banks were out of the way—especially out West—it was more difficult for people to redeem those banknotes, and the notes would be worthless if the bank failed.

There was another big problem with the wildcat era, also known as the “Free Banking period.” Counterfeiting was easy. Any crook could take worthless wildcat currency, scratch off the name of the failed bank and replace it with that of a legitimate one. Because bookkeepers wouldn’t always know what a specific bank’s design looked like, they were easily tricked. Eventually, the problems caused by wildcat currency would lead the federal government to create a national banking system with a national currency. The Civil War played a role, too, of course.

The Birth of the Greenback

The Civil War was a complex crisis that was complicated even further by the limited amount of legal tender in circulation. Again, paper money was not considered legal tender up until this point. Even private banknotes were supposed to be backed by gold or silver.

War is expensive, and both the Union and the Confederacy needed a way to pay soldiers. The South rushed to print its own money, and the first Confederate dollars entered circulation just two months after the Southern states split off from the rest of the nation. Sometimes referred to as “Greybacks,” these bank notes were not backed by gold or silver, although it was written on the bills that they’d be redeemed “six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States.” That obviously never happened.

While some Confederate notes featured leaders like Jefferson Davis, this $10 from 1862 depicts a slave picking cotton.

Short-lived as they were, the Confederate dollars bore some design elements that would also appear on United States currency in the years to come. The ornate but simple border, engraving style, and two-color printing should look familiar.

As the Confederate States started circulating its own dollars, the Union rushed to find a financial solution of its own. Congress passed a law to print $50 million worth of Demand Notes in the summer of 1861. These banknotes were considered legal tender and were backed by bonds. By 1863, however, they were almost all out of circulation, since the government used them to pay customs duties.

Abraham Lincoln was originally featured on this $10 United States banknote from 1862.

Taking the suggestion of an Illinois businessman, President Lincoln convinced Congress to approve a plan for issuing unbacked paper currency in 1862. The Legal Tender Act authorized $150 million worth of full legal tender Treasury notes. While the design largely resembled the limited Demand Notes, the Treasury seal is stamped on the front of each note. The large rectangular bills earned the nickname “Greenbacks,” naturally, because the backs were printed in green ink.

Greenbacks represented the first widely issued paper money in the United States since the days of the Continentals. The banknotes were printed by the National Bank Note Company and featured a number of techniques not only to celebrate America’s national identity but also to prevent counterfeiting. The engraving was performed by a master craftsman and produced a unique texture on the paper. The baroque designs on both sides the banknotes were produced with a little bit of mechanical help. A device akin to a Spirograph enabled the engravers to produce the beautiful geometric scrollwork patterns that can still be found on American money today. Even the recognizable typeface remains largely the same.

Remarkably, this is only the beginning of America’s growing obsession with money. After the war and throughout the Gilded Age, the designs became intensely sophisticated and eventually legendary. Every banknote was a work of art.

The Silver Certificates

After covering all the chaos of the Civil War and the Wild West, it’s time to talk about the golden age of American currency design. While greenbacks remained widely used for the rest of the 19th century, new types of paper money were issued, and holy hell, were they beautiful.

Let’s start with Silver Certificates. In 1886, the United States issued the first and only banknote to feature the face of a real woman on the front. Martha Washington appears on the original $1 Silver Certificate. (She was also on the back of a different Silver Certificate along with her husband George.) As the name implies, the banknotes were redeemable for real silver and were offered in denominations of $1 through $1,000 over the course of nearly a century.

To this day, the Silver certificate from 1886 is the only American banknote to feature a real woman on the front.

As you can see, the once-simple borders have evolved to include more scrollwork and text. The almost spiderweb-like designs around the large numeral one embellishes the earlier style of the Greenbacks. In a similarly grandiose style, the engraving of Martha Washington is almost lifelike. Believe it or not, this is one of the more humble Silver Certificates.

On the heels of the World’s Columbia Exhibition in Chicago, the federal government released the Education Series which is widely regarded as the most beautiful American money of all. Perhaps the most complex design is the $1 bill featuring Columbia—who was not a real woman—pointing at the then-newly completed Washington Monument.

The $1 Silver Certificate from the 1896 Series, also known as the Education Series

And this is the aforementioned back featuring both George and Martha Washington. Check out the angels darting out of the corners!

The back of the $1 Silver Certificate from the 1896 Series

It gets better. The $5 Silver Certificate from the same year is my personal favourite and bat **** awesome. Featuring a depiction of “Electricity Presenting Light to the World,” it not only presents a startling, almost futurist aesthetic but also celebrates the new American dominance in technology and innovation. Thomas Edison must’ve loved it.

The $5 Silver Certificate from the 1896 Series

During this same time period the Legal Tender notes remained in circulation. However, it was on the Silver Certificates—and, to a lesser degree, the Gold Certificates—that the most recognizable aspects of American money design started to be come fairly standardized.

Running Antelope is featured on the $5 Silver Certificate from 1899.

The shape of the borders and location of the portrait would evolve slightly over time, but this is pretty much what American money looked like for the entire 20th century. Silver Certificates can still but used as legal tender today, though the government stopped issuing them in 1957.

The Gold Certificates (With a Little Technicolor, Too)

The federal government started issuing Gold Certificates a few years before Silver Certificates, though they weren’t quite as widespread. The earliest series in 1865 came only in high denominations and looked a bit like the Legal Tender notes introduced around the same time. You could call them “goldbacks.”

However, in the early years of the 20th century, a new and rather familiar design appeared. Using a three-ink printing process, the Gold Certificates were wonderfully vivid, so much so that the 1905 Series is commonly known as the “Technicolor Series.” You can see why.

George Washington on the stunning $20 Gold Certificate from 1905

The federal government continued to print Gold Certificates in denominations as high as $100,000 until 1934. The last of them look very similar to the standardized currency design, although some still had that sick bright gold back.

The back of a $1,000 Gold Certificate from 1907. Alexander Hamilton was on the front.

It really screams America, doesn’t it?

Little Bitty and Slightly Less Pretty

Everything changed once again when Congress passed the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. This set up a system whereby Federal Reserve Notes were distributed to various Federal Reserve Banks around the country. The banknotes are legal tender backed by Fed, though Gold and Silver Certificates continued to be produced for quite some time. However, it was the new Fed system that brought us the timeless American money design that survived most of the 20th century.

At first, the notes remained as large as earlier banknotes. The front featured dead presidents, black and red or blue ink printed on a very special paper from Crane & Co.

This $100 Federal Reserve Note from 1914 depicts an unusual profile of Ben Franklin

Many of the images on the back portrayed famous moments in American history or more generic depictions of American industry and values.

This $5 Federal Reserve Note from 1914 shows the struggles of early settlers

Then came the most dramatic shift. American money got smaller. While all bills up until this point had been roughly 7.5-by-3 inches, every single banknote began to shrink to about 6-by-2.5 inches in 1928. The government decided to shrink the bills for a number of different reasons, the most impactful of which was the savings on paper.

The small bills also got a redesign, one that remained in place until 1996. Since many of these bills are still in circulation—in fact, the $1 bill remains unchanged—you can spot them instantly. You’ve probably never seen a $10,000 bill, though.

Salmon Chase appears on the $10,000 Federal Reserve Note from 1934

While it’s unusual not to see a president on more modern money, Chase was an exceptional player in the history of American money. He was Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln and introduced the nation’s first paper money and national bank. The federal government last issued the $10,000, $5,000, $1,000, and $500 in 1934. Today, the largest bill in circulation is the $100, some say to make drug trafficking and money laundering more difficult.

Increasingly Awful Redesigns

This brings us to the ambitious redesign of 1996. In an effort to improve anti-counterfeiting measures, the federal government redesigned five of the six remaining denominations of Federal Reserve Notes: $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100. The presidents’ heads got bigger and were moved off center. Much—but not all—of the beautiful engraving and scrollwork on the borders went away. New methods of thwarting counterfeiters, like color changing ink, also appeared on some of the bills. Still, it didn’t take long for a clever Chicago man to crack it and start printing virtually identical counterfeit $100 bills in his basement.

The familiar new $100 bill that first appeared in 1996

The design from 1996 wasn’t the worst. However, the federal government updated the design yet again in 2003 adding more colors, more security measures, and a truly awful portrayal of American sophistication. Remember the star-spangled bill I mentioned earlier?

Oh say can you see that ugly flag graphic?

American money design is invariably a representation of who we are as a country—or at least what we’d like to be. This is why the 2016 redesign that incorporates women and minorities is such a big deal. We see the images on paper money daily, some more than others. But more importantly, it’s a message we’re sending out to the world when the dollar leaves these borders. When outsiders enter it, it’s perhaps the government-made product they handle the most.

None of this is to say these slivers of ink and paper define us. Come on, though. It’s America. Sure they do.

And whilst on this very topic, the UGLIEST note I have ever seen is surely the new Australian $5 note...

[MIKA27]

Seeing These Card Tricks Up Close Almost Makes You Believe in Magic

Magician Patrick Kun isn’t breaking the wheel when it comes to these magic tricks but the way he packages them: short and sweet and right in front of the camera with little to no explanation, it makes watching magic sso much more fun. There’s no long build up, there’s no need to weave a senseless story, there’s no psychological ploy, it’s just slick visual trickery right in front of you.

[MIKA27]

NASA Is Launching A New X-Planes Program To Test Green Aviation Technology

Throughout its history, NASA has not only been responsible for developing spacecraft, but also cutting-edge aircraft that pushed the boundaries of technology and flight. Now, they’re getting ready to do it again.

NASA announced today that they would be launching the “New Aviation Horizons” initiative, which will develop a new generation of X-Planes “during the next 10 years as a means to accelerate the adoption of advanced green aviation technologies by industry”.

The X-Planes have historically been at the cutting edge of technology: X-1, flown by Chuck Yeager, broke the sound barrier in October 1947. Other aircraft in the series have their own share of major advances, demonstrating sweeping wings, ramjets, Vertical Take Off and Landing, and others. The last in the series was the X-56 in 2013, which tested high-altitude, long endurance flights for unmanned aircraft.

In February, NASA awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin for a new supersonic plane, with the intention of beginning tests in 2020: the aircraft would be experimenting with Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST), which will reduce the sonic boom that makes these types of planes difficult to use around populated areas.

The emphasis on testing and developing more green technologies will also go a long way towards reducing the world’s air fleet on fossil fuels, while also reducing their carbon emissions. As the price for fuel is likely to rise again in the future, this will also benefit carriers and consumers.

[MIKA27]

Fran Kranz Will Be Matthew McConaughey's Lackey In The Dark Tower Movie

Fran Kranz (Dollhouse, Cabin in the Woods) has been cast in The Dark Tower as Pimli — but as a Pimli who doesn’t appear to be quite the same as he appears in the book.

For one thing, Pimli Prentiss isn’t described as a “man in his mid-thirties with tousled hair” as much as he is old, overweight and balding. Also, The Hollywood Reporter describes the movie Pimli as “the right-hand man of the Man in Black”. And while Pimli is an antagonist, that’s not really how his role works.

His casting also gives more insight into exactly which parts of the books are going to be in this movie. We already know it’s not an adaptation of the first book and that “a lot” of the movie will take place in the present day. Pimli shows up and does his thing in the seventh book (The Dark Tower), so we can probably safely say that it’s one of the plots being used in the movie. I wonder if we’ll actually see Pimli’s biggest plot moment in the movie or if he’s going to be an unrecognisable character.

Regardless, that sounds like we’ll Kranz act as a sidekick to Matthew McConaughey’s Man in Black. I fully believe he’d steal the every scene as a comic-relief type lackey from almost anyone. I can’t wait to see him leverage all that skill in scenes with McConaughey.

[MIKA27]

There May Be A Giant Lake Lurking Beneath The East Antarctic Ice Sheet

In further proof that our planet still has amazing secrets to give up, scientists are reporting evidence of an enormous, never-before-seen subglacial lake buried beneath the East Antarctic ice sheet. Cthulhu hunters, take note.

The first hints of the lake, presented at the European Geosciences Union Meeting in Vienna this week, include a series of mysterious linear grooves, which appear to cut across more than 1000 kilometres of Princess Elizabeth Land, toward the eastern coast of Antarctica. According to the researchers who spotted the features in satellite imagery, some of them may represent the outflow from a long, ribbon shaped lake that covers nearly 1000 square kilometres.

“We’ve seen these strange, linear channels on the surface, and are inferring these are above massive, 1000-kilometre-long channels, and there’s a relatively large subglacial lake there too,” Martin Siegert of Imperial College London told New Scientist.

If confirmed, the subglacial lake would rank among Antarctica’s largest, second only to Lake Vostok in size. But unlike Lake Vostok, which is buried in the remote heartland of East Antarctica, this lake is close to a coastline and a research station, making it in theory much easier to study.

That’s great news for biologists, who are fascinated by the isolated communities of extreme life forms found kilometres beneath the Antarctic ice. The organisms adapted to live in subglacial lakes may be the closest analogue we’ve got to life on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, or Saturn’s Enceladus.

According to New Scientist, researchers from the US and China recently collected ice-penetrating radar data over Princess Elizabeth Land, which could confirm the presence of a subterranean swimming pool. One way or another, it looks like we’ll soon know whether we’ve found another spot on Earth to study alien life.

[MIKA27]

The Ring Takes On The Grudge in The First Trailer For Japanese Horror's Ultimate Crossover

Sadako vs. Kayako is J-horror’s answer to Freddy vs. Jason. It’s about the clash between the ghost who haunts people who watch a certain videotape (Sadako of Ringu, or The Ring) and the ghost who haunts a house with the worst vibes ever (Kayako of Ju-On, or The Grudge). This trailer is all in Japanese, but it’s still freaky as hell.

Yes, it’s the clash of the creepy long-haired titans we’ve all been waiting for. I’m gonna give the early edge to Sadako, just because Ringu gave me way more nightmares, but it’s anyone’s game at this point. Japanese audiences will know the answer in June, when the monster mash-up movie makes its premiere.

Two questions, though: What took them so long? And how quickly can Western horror hounds see this thing?

[MIKA27]

Thanks To James Bond, Pierce Brosnan Couldn't Wear Tuxedos

So you think you know everything about James Bond? No? Well, that’s fair enough. Even if you were Ian Fleming himself I’d have questions, the first being “How did you get out of your coffin?” Anyway, let’s move away from the necromancy, to the romance of Bond, James Bond… and a bunch of things you probably didn’t know about the pop culture icon.

In the video above, Metal Floss’ Elliott Morgan takes us through 27 informative tidbits about Bond, including the fact the fifth incarnation of Bond, Pierce Brosnan, couldn’t wear a tuxedo in other films thanks to his Bond contract.

For movie buffs, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory author Roald Dahl wrote the screenplay for You Only Live Twice, while Goldfinger’s Gert Fröbe, who played the titular antagonist, was dubbed by another actor due to his poor English skills.

On a more obvious note, loads of actors have been considered for the role of Bond over the years, though you may not have known that **** Van Dyke and even Mel Gibson fall under this banner.

Check out the clip for more Bond-related factoids.

[MIKA27]

There's A Gigantic Reef Surrounding The Amazon River And Nobody Noticed

It’s incredible that it escaped notice for so long, but scientists have just discovered a massive, 9500 square-kilometre reef system at the mouth of the Amazon river. And it’s home to some truly bizarre life forms.

When we hear “reef”, we typically think colourful corals and crystal-clear tropical waters. Which is probably why nobody ever bothered to look for one at the outflow of the world’s largest river. Discharging up to 300,000 cubic metres of sediment-loaded water every second, the Amazon river generates a thick, smog-like plume that darkens the surrounding seafloor, depressing light and oxygen levels. So you can imagine the surprise of the scientists who discovered a large reef system — built mainly of sponges and algae — sitting right beneath it.

“More of these sorts of non-coral reefs have been discovered in recent years,” Fabiano Thompson, an oceanographer at the University of Brazil, said. “But we are not aware of this exact type of reef in other places. A special system has been formed here.”

To be fair, folks have been finding corals and other reef-building organisms near the mouth of the Amazon for years. But it wasn’t until Thompson and his colleagues began an extensive field survey back in 2012 that anybody had a clue how widespread this ecosystem was. Dominated by sponges and crust-forming red algae called rhodoliths, the reef stretches along a 1000 kilometre strip of shallow, outer continental shelf, from the French Guiana border to Brazil’s Maranhão State. A paper describing the find appears today in Science Advances.

Because the reef cuts across the mouth of the Amazon, environmental conditions change dramatically along its length. In the north, the river plume casts a heavy shadow, rendering both light and oxygen scarce. Further south, the water becomes clearer, sunnier and well-aerated. This, in turn, has resulted in distinct ecological communities along the length of the reef.

In the southern portion of the reef, the food chain is based on photosynthetic algae that produce sugar from sunlight to support a diverse mixture of sponges and corals. But as one travels north, the sunlight disappears and the ecological landscape changes. Tiny green algae are replaced by a more exotic class of primary producers, microbes that can make their own food by stripping energy from inorganic chemicals. Scientists call this process chemosynthesis.

Chemosynthetic microbes are prominent in extreme environments, such as deep ocean vents or subterranean lakes, but rarely are they numerous enough to sustain a large, macroscopic ecosystem.

“This is the first chemosynthetic reef that uses minerals like ammonia and sulphur to sustain the reef instead of light and primary production,” Thompson said. “This could make the system quite unique.”

Unique as it may be, the northern Amazonian reef joins a growing number of reefs worldwide that are entirely distinct from the coral-dominated archetypes we know and love. Colourful “sponge gardens”, for instance, thrive off the west coast of Australia and the coast of British Columbia. Meanwhile, there are spectacular deep sea corals living miles beneath the ocean’s surface where the sun never shines. It’s possible, Thompson said, that chemosynthesis helps sustain some of these hardy bottom dwellers, as well.

Although we’ve just begun to explore it, that Amazonian reef faces numerous human-caused threats, from offshore oil and gas drilling to industrial fisheries to climate change. As coral reefs around the world continue to suffer from the largest bleaching event on record, discoveries like this one remind us why it’s so important to protect fragile marine ecosystems. Imagine all the other wonders we haven’t yet discovered.

[MIKA27]

B&O Play's BeoPlay A1: A Small, Beautiful, Hi-Def Bluetooth Speaker

Danish brand Bang & Olufsen is the world’s oldest continually-operating audio company, and makes some incredible — and incredibly expensive — speaker systems and televisions. But it also runs the B&O PLAY sub-brand, which makes speakers and headphones for a younger generation — who are still obsessed with sharp design and crystal clear audio quality, but that want more fashion-forward gear and at a little more accessible price. B&O Play’s new BeoPlay A1 speaker is the smallest it has ever made, but it still sounds great — and with a built-in mic and USB Type-C charging, it’s surprisingly high-tech too.

The new BeoPlay A1 takes on the UE Boom and UE Roll — it’s a small, battery-powered, super-portable speaker with built-in Bluetooth and an internal rechargeable battery. The A1’s battery will last for 24 hours of continuous music playback, and it charges over the reversible USB Type-C connector, too, the same as your HTC 10 or LG G5 smartphone. There is, of course, also a 3.5mm auxiliary audio jack.

Its design, though, is more conservative than its competitors — but at the same time, it looks gorgeous. The top half of the BeoPlay A1 is anodised aluminium, available in a natural silver or moss green finish, smoothly curved with a grille of tiny laser-cut holes across its circular surface. The lower half is a rubberised polymer in a matching colour, and around its circumference the only protrusion is a natural leather shoelace strap — all the buttons around the A1’s edge are recessed and soft-touch, so as not to catch or snag on the bag or purse you carry it in.

B&O wants the BeoPlay A1 to be a speaker that you don’t keep in a case — the designers want you to carry it around with you using that leather strap, and they want you to take it everywhere. It’ll survive the little bumps and scrapes of everyday use. The sound, too, is designed to be shared; the A1’s speaker fires upwards, projecting sound across the entire 360 degree arc, with a quoted frequency range of 60-24,000 Hertz and total output power of 60 Watts across two dedicated amps for the speaker’s woofer and tweeter. A built-in microphone means it can be used as a high-quality speakerphone, too.

The speaker’s built-in 2200mAh battery can charge at up to 3A, so you can use the same fast charger that powers your USB-C phone and top up the A1’s capacity within a couple of hours. The B&O Play BeoPlay A1 speaker will be out by May in Australia — or maybe even earlier — for a $379 recommended price, in stores like Myer as well as Bang & Olufsen’s retail stores around the country and New Zealand.

[MIKA27]

Adidas' Low-Profile Vest Backpack Is Better Than Batman's Utility Belt

When you’re out exploring the city you need something to carry all your stuff, but a heavy backpack hanging off your shoulders isn’t ideal. Adidas’ Yohji Yamamoto-designed Y-3 Sport Backpack wants to fix that by securely wrapping around you like a vest so it feels almost weightless. Fair warning — you’ll have to cough up $US410 ($525) for the pleasure.

You won’t be carrying around a 15-inch laptop inside it, but you can easily squeeze an extra pair of shoes in there, and it has an integrated hanging system for a Camelbak so you can stay hydrated.

Reflective fabrics, waterproof zippers and ventilated back padding means the Y-3 Sport Backpack is also a viable option for runners or cyclists who need to carry a few essentials like a phone and a wallet but don’t want them banging around in their pockets. It’s not a cheap alternative to a messenger bag, but isn’t it time you upgraded that bag you’ve been carrying since high school?

[MIKA27]

POWERBOMB PORTABLE CHARGER

External batteries are pretty boring. Sleek, silvery, and thin, just about every single one of them looks like they were rough drafts stolen from one of Apple’s design labs. Rohul Shirbhate, a product designer from New Bombay, India, has exploded that stodgy design strategy with his Powerbomb Charger.

Shaped like a hand grenade, this little device can hold up to 13000mAh, enough charge to juice up your iPhone six times over. Even with the unorthodox design, the Powerbomb has all you could want from a battery pack. With light indicators that let you know how much energy the device has stored, and a simple and intuitive USB charging port – you’ll never have to watch your devices power down again. While it doesn’t look like this is for sale at the moment, keep an eye out, it could burst out of the design phase any time.

[MIKA27]

YAKUZA-INSPIRED INTERIOR BY CLAIRE LEINA

Wallpaper has always been intended to imbue a room with a mood or feel without capturing the eye and drawing too much undue attention. The interior design of the Koi Restaurant in Aix-En-Provence as designed by Vincent Coste and applied by Claire Leina breaks that rule of thumb in the best way possible.

Originally inspired by the tattoos that engulf the bodies of high-up Yakuza gang members, this menacing but beautiful design straddles the line between illustration and pattern, covering the interior of the restaurant’s rooms much like the tattoos cover the entire bodies of gang members. In other sections of the restaurant the images of a dragon fighting a koi fish sneak out more subtly, like a tattoo revealing itself from underneath a hiked-up shirt-sleeve. This stark black and white design contrast wonderfully with the wood, metallic red, and yellow lighting throughout the space.

[MIKA27]

BULLET BLUETOOTH 4.1 EARBUDS

Whoever said big things come in small packages must have gotten their hands on the Bullet Bluetooth 4.1 Earbuds at one point. Not only are these little wireless headphones the world’s smallest, but they also feature a state of the art design while packing impressive sound quality for the user.

Weighing in at an ultralight 3.5g, the Bullet also hosts a built-in microphone for making wireless phone calls. It comes with a portable charging capsule to keep these puppies live without the need to hunt for an outlet. And guess what? At the end of the day, go ahead and charge the charger within the safety of your own home. Additional features include CVC Noise Reduction for noise suppression and echo cancellation. It also supports multi-point connectivity for connection with multiple devices. Charging time is about an hour with an impressive 80 hours of standby time for those always at the ready for those merger and acquisition conference calls. Available now for $150. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

BOEING 737 COWLING CHAIR

Ever wonder what it would be like to sit inside of a Bowing 737 engine cowling? Well, probably not, but thanks to England-based Fallen Furniture, you can experience it anyway. They’ve crafted a luxurious leather 737 Cowling chair from authentic parts of military and civilian aircraft.

In its original form the chair sits atop a highly polished aluminum base Stood. Not only does this support the chair, but also allows it to spin effortlessly on its axis. It’s the pinnacle of luxury seating, and hard not to feel like some sort ofBbond villain while posting up within the confines of the turbine cowling. Each finished shell is adorned in high gloss allowing the piece to really pop in any setting. And the plush interior upholstered in premium quality black leather complements the piece as a whole, which serves as a proper tribute to the aviation industry and its heritage. Each chair measures 6.5 feet in length, depth, and width, and can be made to order and customized according to personal preferences. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

The Original Po’ Man Charcoal Grill

Don’t let its appearance fool you, this thing is a lot more than a garbage can with a sweet paint job. Inside the cleverly designed exterior is a full charcoal grill and smoker capable of helping you create a feast for the entire family. The Original Po’ Man Charcoal Grill is built out of highly durable rolled steel and stainless metals before getting a high temp BBQ paint job. Inside, you’ll find two skewers, a grill grate, drip pan, coal box, and a starter cup for rubbing alcohol to get the grill running quickly and cleanly. It’s as functional as it is fun.

[MIKA27]

A Ferrari Amusement Park Is Coming to the U.S.

Ferrari has had a difficult time keeping its foot on the gas as of late. As the brand tries to recover some of the luster from its heyday, one area it has done surprisingly well in is amusement parks. Yes, amusement parks. Following up on the success of Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, Ferrari is planning new theme park locations around the world, and one of those spots will be in the United States. Like the amusement park overseas, Ferrari will build rides all centered around racing and speed when they break ground. No more details have been released yet, but we’d recommend purchasing these tickets over a FastPass at Disney.

[MIKA27]

Dash Wireless Smart Earphones

The Dash Wireless Smart Earphones are now available for purchase! The innovative devices aim to put on the table some extras that regular Bluetooth earphones aren´t able to provide such as: store up to 4GB of music rather than simply stream the tunes from other devices, act as an activity monitor and tracker, they´ll also let you make and take calls, and are touch sensitive, use a swipe or a tap to interact with them. You also get the mandatory app (IOS, Android or Windows) to get full control, manage volume and settings, check your performance data or create your own special profile. Also featuring the interesting passive noise cancellation mode, this gives you the option to hear the noise around you or diminish its intensity when it´s on, giving you a more crystal sharp sound but isolating you from your environment (not ideal when going on a walk or on a bike commute). The special case they come in will let you charge up to 5 times, providing a use of up to 3 hours for each charge.

[MIKA27]

GARMIN APPROACH X40 SMART GOLF BAND

Keep tabs on both your fitness level and your game with the Garmin Approach X40 Smart Golf Band. Designed to be worn both on the course and off, it records typical fitness tracker data like your steps, calories burned, distance traveled, hours of sleep, and heart rate. But when you hit the course, it can track individual stats like fairways hit, greens in regulation and putts per round, average distance for each club, longest drive per round, and, when paired with the TruSwing golf club sensor, can even provide swing metrics in real-time, meaning it's the rare item that can improve both your golf game and your health.