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

[MIKA27]

CRAIGELLACHIE 13-YEAR-OLD SCOTCH WHISKEY

Crafted using malted barley and spring water from a nearby spring, each bottle of Craigellachie 13-Year-Old Scotch Whiskey is a standout from Dewar's Last Great Malts Collection. Craigellachie stands for "rocky hill" and was founded back in 1891 in the Speyside region of Scotland. And it's a single malt that not only satisfies the palate with rich notes of caramel, vanilla, and cloves — but also comes packaged in a eye-catching bottle with a label that is sure to reach out and demand your attention in a liquor store aisle.

[Fuzz]

POWERBOMB PORTABLE CHARGER

In this day and age, I really would not want to be going through airport security with a charger that looks like a hand grenade in my bag.

[MIKA27]

In this day and age, I really would not want to be going through airport security with a charger that looks like a hand grenade in my bag.

Try it bud and let us know what happens

[Duxnutz]

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]

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This makes me cringe. Nothing like having a piece of furniture remind ya of work!

[Fuzz]

Try it bud and let us know what happens

No thanks. Back in '07 I went through Václav Havel Airport Prague with a little souvenir from Venice (a gold and Swarovski crystal Faberge egg style jewellery box/music box) nicely wrapped in bubble wrap. Totally forgot I had the thing in my backpack instead of my checked luggage, so I didn't think twice when I chucked my bag in the X-ray scanner. Boy! Did that security guy have a very shocked look on his face.

Dude starts yelling and gesturing at me to open my bag. I open it and pull everything out. Dude continues to yell at me to unwrap the bubble wrapped package. I unwrap it and pull out the music box, lid pops open and everyone along the line starts hearing

Für Elise! Tells me to move along, but I won't until I've properly re-packed my music box.

Dude is getting angrier by the second, but I still won't budge until I've finished. Whilst I'm packing, I peek over to the monitor to see what all the fuss was about, and bugger me if the damn little thing didn't look like a mini stick grenade!

[MIKA27]

Watch Spider-Man Chase Down The Winter Soldier In New Captain America: Civil War Footage

After a long wait to just see Spidey in Captain America: Civil War, we’ve finally got a better glimpse at just how the character is going to act now that he’s part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Maybe Bucky wasn’t the person to snark at.

OK, so it might not be snark. Spider-Man could be totally honest when he says, “You have a metal arm? That is awesome dude.” In fact, he sounds completely genuine and exactly like a teenager. Who has spider powers. And totally, after that sentence, deserves to be punched into a wall by a very angry assassin.

The best quality TV spot with this new footage also happens to be one with subtitles. Sorry about that, but Spider-Man appears at the :18 mark.

[MIKA27]

Gene Therapy May Have Reversed Human Aging for First Time

The controversial process of reversing aging through gene therapy is no longer solely for mice, if–and it’s a big if–new data from biotech firm BioViva can be validated. The company claims that their 44-year-old CEO, Elizabeth Parrish of Seattle, has become the first human to be “successfully rejuvenated by gene therapy,” after two experimental procedures appear to have reversed 20 years of normal telomere shortening.

BioViva explains:

The company’s intent was to demonstrate that these treatments–which Parrish, as Patient Zero, underwent in Colombia so as not to incur the wrath of the FDA–are fundamentally safe. But early data suggests that in the six months following the administration of the gene therapies Parrish’s telomeres lengthened from 6.71kb to 7.33kb, which would imply that her white blood cells became 20 years “younger” in that time.

BioVIva CEO Elizabeth Parrish

For those not up on theories of telomerase gene therapy, telomeres are short segments of DNA that cap our chromosomes, and they serve as buffers to protect chromosomes from damage. But every time a cell divides, the corresponding telomeres get shorter. Proponents of telomarase gene therapy believe that by lengthening telomeres we can reverse the process of aging. Parrish herself considers aging to be a disease, and as a company BioViva believes that telomerase could be used to combat not just sagging skin but also Alzheimer’s Disease.

Parrish said:

Current therapeutics offer only marginal benefits for people suffering from diseases of aging. Additionally, lifestyle modification has limited impact for treating these diseases. Advances in biotechnology is the best solution, and if these results are anywhere near accurate, we’ve made history

For now, Parrish remains the only human guinea pig for BioViva’s gene therapies, and the company will continue to test their CEO’s blood for months and years to come while they seek some seriously vital third party validation for their findings.

But don’t expect be able to sign up for trials any time soon. As Parrish explained toInverse, gene therapy is still “too far-reaching, [and] the costs to get through the U.S. FDA are too high.” Which pretty much leaves the rest of us who’d like to defy aging to continue to eat more vegetables and hit the gym once in a while.

[MIKA27]

AVEX Freeflow Autoseal Stainless Water Bottle

AVEX, a leading reusable water bottle brand for outdoor adventurers, has introduced the Freeflow Autoseal Stainless Water Bottle, capable of holding liquids up to 10 hours hot and 29 hours cold. The steel water bottle features Avex´s revolutionary Autoseal patented technology, a press-to-sip, release-to-seal button that automatically seals between sips. Available now in several colors including an awesome unfinished stainless version.

[MIKA27]

RELIC PORTABLE BRICK OVEN

Sure you can cook pizzas in your outdoor grill but you won't get that perfectly charred crust without an authentic brick oven. Crafted from layered heat-proof composite stone, the Relic Portable Brick Oven is composed of three interlocking pieces, giving you the mobility lacking in traditional brick and mortar ovens. Multiple high-temperature cores paired with a custom chimney design ensure you reach and maintain the perfect pizza-baking temp. Two different bases give you the freedom to bake on tailgates, picnic tables, your Weber grill, or wherever Neapolitan-style pies are needed.

[MIKA27]

THE NORTH FACE ACCESS PACK

Backpacks are great for carrying stuff, but not so good at giving you easy access to that stuff thanks to their deep main compartments and floppy builds. The North Face Access Pack solves this issue with an innovative quick release latch that can be popped open with a single hand, letting you get at the contents while still holding on to the bag. There's also an external laptop pocket, dedicated fleece-lined interior pockets for your phone, tablet, and such, a pair of external stash pockets, and a fully-molded EVA foam body for robust protection. Available in black or gray heather.

[MIKA27]

SCIENCE COFFEE POUR OVER STAND

Crafted with design and function in mind, the Science Coffee Pour Over Standsports the same sleek finish as your latest iGadget. The aircraft grade aluminum frame is made to accommodate your preferred brew method and is compatible with a number of drippers and range servers. You can even pair it with your trusty AeroPress. It's versatility keeps counter clutter at a minimum, while the stand's clean lines hold up to any modernist's kitchen.

[MIKA27]

John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson Battle Phone-Wielding Freaks in the First Trailer for Cell

Power trio Stephen King, John Cusack, and Samuel L. Jackson—who previously worked on 1408 together—reunited for Cell, an adaptation of King’s apocalyptic tale about a sinister cell phone signal that turns the afflicted into kill-crazy zombies. Tod Williams (Paranormal Activity 2) directs.

[MIKA27]

Earthlight Wants To Send You To Space

But it’s not space like you’ve experienced in any other game. It’s space as the astronauts on the ISS are experiencing right now. Opaque Media is a small Melbourne game developer that has just come back from a week-long visit to NASA. The trip was just one part of a mission to make the first VR game that will truly depict what it’s like to live and work on the ISS.

2016 is the year of VR. Everyone is dipping a toe in it, consumer headsets and systems are finally coming to the market (though in some cases not as fast as we’d like) and game devs are jumping on it. Experimentations in the genre have been numerous and interesting, but the space game seems to linger at the core of the VR experience.

At both E3 2015 and CES 2016, Oculus’s newest technologies were demoed with a game called EVE Valkyrie. It was a first-person dogfighting experience, set in the huge sci-fi world of EVE Online, and the demo debuted to praise from all corners. It was, potentially, one of the first VR demos that felt like it could be a real, playable game.

Since then, other VR space games like Adrift have been released, with many more planned on the horizon. Earthlight is just one of many games that uses the freedom of microgravity to get around the inherent limitations of moving around in a VR game — but it’s a space game with a difference.

Around the time when most of us were enjoying the Easter long weekend this year, the team from Opaque were over in Houston, visiting NASA’s Johnson Space Center. They went to watch, learn and — most of all — ask questions. Now, as Opaque settles into the process of sorting through the wealth of resources gained from their visit, we caught up with Earthlight project lead Norman Wang to learn about astronaut training, life on the ISS and how the game itself is shaping up.

Earthlight devs inside NASA’s cupola simulator

We first got our hands on Earthlight at PAX Australia last year, where the brief but highly inspiring demo was some of most convincing evidence that VR gaming is actually here to stay. Since that demo, the gameplay itself doesn’t seem to have changed much, but the Opaque team has been busy filling out the details of the world that will make Earthlight more than just simple fiction.

Some of these details aren’t fiction at all — the little insights gleaned from NASA that tell the true story of being an astronaut — while others are touches of fantasy, chief among them the fabricated character that the player takes charge of.

How Do Astronauts Talk?

The last time I covered Earthlight I was incredibly excited to learn that the main character was a female Australian astronaut, and Norman has since revealed that that was largely because she was the voice actor who was available at the time. Since the PAX demo, however, the team made the decision to consciously develop the main character as an Australian.

“She may have to come from NASA, because we don’t have a space program,” Norman qualifies, “but she will be Australian — culturally Australian.” How that Australianness will translate to conversations, banter and building relationships on board the ISS still has yet to be seen, but the on-board dynamics are one of the things that Opaque has run past NASA extensively. For example — Norman wanted to find out at what point astronauts on the ISS would start referring to each other by their first names.

“For us, Earthlight wasn’t just about sending people into space, it was about creating that authentic experience of being an astronaut — going through astronaut training and being talked to like an astronaut.”

The flight director’s desk in the active MCC

As it turns out, the dialogue is more important than you’d think. One of the things Norman most wanted to find out from the people who work at NASA was the one thing that they would most like people to experience in Earthlight. The answer was simple — they just wanted the writers to get the vernacular right. Apparently most fiction does fairly well with the hard science, but the professional vernacular used at NASA and on the ISS is almost always wrong.

While documentation and written records chronicling said lingo do exist, Norman says that some of the most important resources they managed to collect were in fact audio recordings of real conversations. One such recording was made during Opaque’s day at NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab — a huge indoor pool intended to train astronauts to operate in microgravity — when the team was lucky enough to watch a pair of astronauts get suited up and lowered into the pool.

The training at the NBL was conducted just as a spacewalk would be on the ISS — spacewalks are always done in pairs, as Norman learned from NASA, with each pair consisting of a lead who is referred to as ‘EV1’, and the second who is called ‘EV2’. Depending on how casual or professional a certain interaction may be, the astronauts may be referred to by their ‘EV’ codes, or by their actual names. Even with these clear parameters, the shifts in tone can be quite complex, and it is this nuance that the Earthlight team seeks to capture.

Our model is looking pretty comfy in their new NASA flight suit!

One of the other most important elements that Opaque has been looking at are the suits that the astronauts will wear. In the timeline of Earthlight, our astronaut will be travelling into space in 2019 — only a few years from now, but practically a lifetime in terms of tech redundancy. In fact, by the time 2019 rolls around, NASA plans to have their astronauts using an entirely different type of spacesuit — the culmination of the Z series suits.

This hard shell in NASA’s suit design lab is the base of the Mark III suit, while the current Z-2 suit in development has a hard upper torso piece.

Because the suit is the main asset that will appear in Earthlight that doesn’t yet exist in the real world, the developers have to have a real understanding of where the suit is right now, and where it’s going.

For example, the Z-2 suit is a rear-entry suit, meaning astronauts step into it through a hatch in the back. In contrast, the EMU suit currently used by U.S. astronauts on the ISS is split in half at the waist — the difference, Norman says, is that the rear entry makes it much easier for an astronaut to get into the suit without any outside assistance.

What Does A Spacewalk Feel Like, What Does It Sound Like?

The suit also leads to an interesting design point that the Earthlight crew were excited to talk about — and something that is perhaps a little-known aspect of life in space. Because the suits are pressurised, Norman uses the analogy of being inside a giant basketball. Although spacewalks require a lot of grabbing — of, say handholds and tools — the astronauts can’t actually feel anything through their pressurised ‘basketball’ suits. They end up gripping things very hard, and causing a lot of trauma to their fingertips.

As a result, spacewalks tend to lead to something called fingernail delamination — astronauts’ fingernails lifting from their nail beds as a result of their EVA suits. In a first person game where the most the player sees of the character is her fingernails, this kind of detail goes a long way towards telling a story.

“When the only thing you see when you look down is your hand, how much of a person’s personality can you communicate through that?”

With the highly successful Earthlight demo’s beautiful spacewalk, it’s no wonder that EVAs will potentially make up a number of important points in this astronaut’s journey. While visiting NASA, the Opaque team got to sit down with veteran astronaut Thomas Marshburn — a man who has logged over 24 hours of EVAs during his time in space, having participated in the Space Shuttle Program and spent time on the ISS.

When asked what the most memorable experience of his time in space was, Marshburn gave a beautiful moment of insight on what the first moments of a spacewalk are like. While waiting in the airlock, he recalls, the EVA tools attached to your suit jingle around like chimes. The airlock opens, and as all the air is sucked out into space the chiming sound goes with it, leaving you in complete silence in the vacuum of space. It’s a moment of vulnerability, of knowing that there’s nothing between you and the endless, airless emptiness but your suit and its life support.

This moment is not one that Earthlight’s team could miss, with Norman saying that he hopes to capture the ritual of preparation for that moment when the character undertakes her first spacewalk.

Video Game Developers Can Help NASA Too

As NASA is currently in the extended process of sending humans to Mars, you might wonder if its employees have the time to be showing game developers around — but NASA is gaining more from this partnership than you would expect.

“Most of all, we want to make sure it’s a true collaboration, that as much as we’re learning from NASA we can also feed back to them.”

In fact, Opaque is currently in the process of creating what’s called a Space Act Agreement with NASA. A Space Act is a kind of partnership that allows outside companies to contribute to NASA, while getting their own benefit from it in return. As far as the team from Opaque can tell, it’s the first Australian company to go through the process of creating a Space Act with NASA — in fact, it’s possibly the first Australian company to work this closely with NASA on anything.

But what could a video game developer offer NASA that might “further [NASA’s] goals for aeronautics research and space exploration”? There’s more to it than you might think.

Take the suits — prototyping a space suit is expensive. Yet the team behind Earthlight has a full VR environment made and ready to go, able to virtually test suit functions in a way that is far cheaper and easier than real life prototyping.

Part of the research done by the Earthlight team at NASA’s suit lab included looking at design features that were either implausible to test or planned for a future date. Things like augmented reality displays in suit helmets, or LED strips that visually display the health and status of the suit.

Norman stresses that they aren’t just creating fantasy with the suit designs, however. The Earthlight team is only interested in functions that might be plausible in real life — if not exactly possible yet.

The Earthlight team talking to people from NASA’s Advanced Suit Lab

The best thing about this constant testing and trialling in VR is that Opaque is developing what is essentially a prototype for NASA’s future suits. This is why the creation of the Space Act between Opaque and NASA is so important — so the Earthlight team can send these assets back to NASA and be a part of the design process for the suits.

“We want to make sure it’s a collaboration,” Norman stresses once again. “We’ll be testing these functions in VR and constantly feeding back to NASA.” In a way, the folks at NASA are the ultimate beta testers for Earthlight — it gets its hands on what Opaque is building before anyone else, so the feedback can work both ways.

NASA has its own VR programs, in fact, which use a custom headset crafted from double Oculus DK2 screens, providing one screen per eye for improved field of view. This shot from NASA’s VR lab shows those headsets being used in conjunction with a machine called Charlotte, used to simulate moving large objects in microgravity.

Recently, NASA has even been experimenting with another one of Earthlight’s release platforms — the PlayStation VR. The program combines PlayStation’s VR system with the ISS’s Robonaut 2, using the VR controls as a way to potentially control robot arms in space — though it’s all still pure simulation at the current time. But when you think about it, this is a very similar system to what Opaque is building in Earthlight — and Norman hopes that Opaque can help further this technology.

Keeping Up With The Technology

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably wondering when you can get your hands on Earthlight. The good news is that it’ll hopefully be sometime this year, though the bad news is that you won’t be getting it all at once.

Earthlight is a game that will be released episodically — and while that seems to be the trendy way to do games these days, Opaque has a very good reason for doing so: tech redundancy. That problem is twofold with a game like this — if the team settled in for an extended development period, they would run the risk of both the technology depicted in game and the technology used to run the game becoming redundant before it released.

Earthlight was demoed on an earlier version of the HTC Vive at PAX Australia 2015

“Before CES this year, even the developers didn’t know about the HTC Vive’s camera,” was Norman’s example — an important thing to consider for the Earthlight team, who are developing primarily on the Vive. He also mentions the difference between the Oculus Rift’s DK2 and the consumer version on the market now — they might as well be different machines altogether.

The same goes for the technology used in the game — though Opaque has given themselves a small window to combat redundancy, with the first episode to be set in 2019. The episodic format gives them time to allow for new technology and discoveries that may change the experience of an astronaut on the ISS.

“We’ll do a lot of system building up front, and then focus on content in the later stages,” Norman says. Each episode will have its own pre-production period — and each of these will involve a dialogue with NASA, determining the viability of the story that Opaque’s design team has planned for that arc.

Norman also revealed that Opaque plans to release an Episode 0 of Earthlight through Steam’s Early Access, and potentially on PlayStation’s equivalent as well. The way he phrases it, it’s only fair — with VR gaming creating such a new and unique gaming experience, how can you expect people to pay for a full game when they don’t really know what they’re getting?

While Earthlight’s Episode 1 will be all about becoming an astronaut, Episode 0 — the Early Access content — will be about training to be an astronaut. Much of Opaque’s research at NASA Johnston had to do with the training process that astronauts go through, and Norman says that most people would be surprised at how exciting the training actually is.

While it sounds like a stretch to sell a space game without actually sending players to space in the first episode, Norman promises that he has solutions in mind for that problem. The main aim of the Early Access episode is to get people used to the VR experience, he says.

Opaque aims to enter Early Access in Q3 this year on Steam, with PlayStation potentially to follow. Episode 1 is scheduled to arrive later this year on the HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift.

“I don’t know a single person who doesn’t want to go to space,” Norman says — and with Earthlight shaping up to be the most accurate space game ever, it’s not hard to imagine there’ll be plenty of people — both gamers and space enthusiasts — lining up for their very own astronaut experience.

[MIKA27]

Robert Downey Jr. Is Teasing A Fourth Iron Man Movie Again

Whether or not there’ll be another standalone Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr. has been the subject of a constant back-and-forth debate for a while now. But Downey Jr. isn’t quite done stoking the fires just yet. He just announced he has at least one more solo Iron Man movie left in him.

The comments come from a special Civil War preview that aired on ABC’s Nightline, in which Downey Jr. says that he feels like “[he] could do one more”. Check out the full segment below, which also features insight from the rest of the Civil War cast:

It’s perhaps not all that surprising that Downey Jr. is bringing a fourth outing back up; after all, unlike Marvel’s other stars, who are all wrapped up in extensive multi-picture deals, Downey Jr. now negotiates his appearances in the MCU on a per-picture basis, as he did for both Civil War and, presumably, his upcoming appearance in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Hinting there could be more on the way gets the fans excited, and adds a nice bit of leverage for deal-making.

But given the ludicrous money Marvel makes from films that star Tony Stark, it’s not exactly shocking to think that there could be at least one more Iron Man movie in the future. Hopefully something actually comes out of the talk this time — we’d love to see another Iron Man at some point in Marvel’s ever-growing cinematic slate.

[MIKA27]

This Blue Angels Stunt Looks So Incredibly Dangerous

The Blue Angels are no strangers to suicidal-looking formations and dives. But this one in particular really stands out as looking quite incredibly dangerous.

In this photograph, two of the squadron’s pilots perform over the Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base. It’s a trick of the angle, of course: The aeroplanes aren’t actually touching. But they are so very, very close to each other.

[MIKA27]

We Finally Have A Trailer For Bruce Timm's The Killing Joke Movie

The definitive Batman voice actors have returned for an animated adaptation of one of the most famous stories in comics history, and everything about it looks fantastic.

We’ve already learned that there will be some places where The Killing Joke strays away from the source material: namely that there will be a new prologue, and that Barbara Gordon will be getting a slightly more respectful treatment. Still, many of the scenes in this trailer are ripped straight from Brian Bolland’s pages, and will — if the original comic is any indicator — be among Mark Hamill’s most terrifying performances as Gotham’s clown prince.

The Killing Joke will premier this year at San Diego Comic-Con, but a release date still has yet to be announced.

[MIKA27]

Mark Millar's American Jesus And Supercrooks Just Got Closer To Becoming Movies

When comic book author Mark Millar writes something, people take notice. Comic readers, sure, but in recent years Hollywood as well. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kingsman and Civil War are just a few of Millar’s stories that have made it to the big screen, and now two more are on deck.

Variety reports that Waypoint Entertainment has acquired the movie rights to American Jesus andSupercrooks, both written by Millar and originally published by Dark Horse and Marvel, respectively.

Drawn by Peter Gross, American Jesus follows a 12-year-old boy who realises he’s the second coming of Jesus Christ, while Supercrooks, drawn by Leinil Yu, follows eight retired supervillains who team up for a heist.

Both films have been circling around Hollywood before, with director Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) considering American Jesus back in 2009 while Nacho Vigalando (Timecrimes) was attached to directSupercrooks back in 2011. There’s no word if either of those filmmakers still have interest.

In addition to these two properties, other Millar comics such as Nemesis, Jupiter’s Legacy, Chrononauts,Starlight and several others are all in various stages of development.

[MIKA27]

City Installs Sidewalk Traffic Lights For Smartphone “Zombies”

The city of Augsburg, Germany this week took a small but transformative step towards enabling crippling smartphone addiction. Augsburg has become one of the first cities in the world to create public infrastructure for the sole purpose of enabling and protecting smartphone users. Specialize traffic lights are being installed into the sidewalk pavement throughout the city intended to let smartphone users see traffic signals without having to look up from their phone screens.

Some city residents are thrilled, citing the move as a boon to public safety. Others, however, see the sidewalk traffic lights as either a waste of taxpayer money or an appeasement to an unhealthy social practice. The traffic lights come in the wake of a German teen being struck and killed by a subway train due to the fact that she was staring at her phone while crossing railroad tracks.

Augsburg isn’t the first city to try such a move to relieve congestion caused by hordes of near-catatonic smartphone users. Chongqing, China and Antwerp, Belgium have both tested designated smartphone “lanes” on sidewalks to try and relieve the unwanted collisions and pedestrian traffic jams that smartphone users can cause.

Disruptive public phone use has become such a problem in Germany that teens there have even created a new portmanteau to describe smartphone users who are unable or unwilling to look up from their phones – “smombies,” short for “smart phone zombie.” Is there where humanity is headed – towards a future where we never have to look away from our devices? If public smartphone use does put us one step closer to making The Walking Dead a reality, at least those dead can now walk safely down traffic light-equipped sidewalks.

MIKA: “Smombies” - Sounds like my ex wife

[MIKA27]

JERRY CAN MINI BAR CABINETS

Jerry cans have been around for a while now. Since the Second World War in fact. The Germans invented the storage device for fuel back in the 1940s but today they’re serving a whole new purpose. One Copenhagen is now outfitting these old designs as mini bar cabinets to be mounted on the wall of your choosing.

Each cabinet reuses old parts from original Jerry Cans and repurposes them into a classy bar setup. And since each can is an original, no two are exactly alike. It’s a one-of-a-kind tribute to the past that houses your own personal libations. However, don’t limit yourself to alcohol. The can’s size allows you to store any number of small items or relics within its enclosure. Each product is made from upcycled metal in Denmark and is handcrafted, so you know these are quality cabinets. They also come in an assortment of colors that’s sure to ease in the persuasion of the old lady for getting your hands on one of these beauties. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

THE ART OF ATARI

Video game graphics have inarguably improved over time. Yet when it comes to the artwork surrounding them, it's hard to beat The Art of Atari. This compendium of artwork was sourced from private collections all over the world, and showcases the gorgeous work of unsung artists who created visuals for advertisements, catalogs, and, of course, the game's boxes and cartridges. The images are accompanied by interesting stories on how some of the games were created, from conception to final product, making it a worthwhile flip-through for art buffs and gamers alike.

[MIKA27]

ROGUE CHIPOTLE WHISKEY

For the uninitiated – the most common comment after taking a sip of whiskey is “it burns!” Those who have acquired a taste for the drink over the years can separate that sensation from the flavor profiles of different whiskey – but if you’re feeling like revisiting that initial sensation in a more whiskey-nerd sophisticated way, you should check out Rogue’s Chipotle Whiskey.

Brewed, distilled, and barrel aged with jalapeño peppers grown on Rogue’s own farms in Oregon, this whiskey has layer on layer of smokey and spicy goodness in it. The attention to detail in the process – from hand picking the chipotle peppers to drying and smoking them over cherry and alder wood at their distillery – shows through in every sip. You can pick this one up for some special cocktail recipes or just sip it over the rocks starting at $44. [Purchase]

[MIKA27]

Altimeter Table Clocks

With a clear nod to the altitude meters located inside the cockpits of WWII aircrafts, these Altimeter Table Clocks can lend an old school military vibe to any space you put them in. The authentic dial houses the remnants of a subdial that marked the plane’s altitude, only it now tells you the time (the altitude of your bedroom probably isn’t all that important to you). Available in two different styles, the Altimeter Table Clock looks far more badass than LED clock from RadioShack you’ve been using for the last two decades.

[MIKA27]

Original Tintin Art Fetches $1.2 Million At Auction

Two pages from one of Herge’s Tintin comics sold at auction at Artcurial yesterday for €1.05 million ($2 million). While not a record, the price demonstrates the robust nature of original comic book art, even outside of the superhero comics.

The pages are original art from the story King Ottokar’s Sceptre, in which Tintin and his companions help thwart an invasion of a small, central European nation from their Nazi-like neighbours. The auction also featured artwork from Frank Miller, Moebius and Enki Bilal.

“Hergé started in the 1920s and kept on working until the eighties, so there are generations of readers and fans,” said Francis, a 63-year-old Belgian collector, who is considering selling his collection. “Additionally, it was widely translated and sells abroad — though I feel prices have plateaued lately.”

While comic book issues have sold at incredible rates amongst collectors, there appears to be a growing trend amongst mainstream collectors across the world, which the Wall Street Journal attributes to “rising appetite of middle-aged men who now can afford to spend lavishly on memorabilia from their childhood.”

[MIKA27]

Someone Is Finally Trying To Stop This Underground Garbage Fire That Has Burned For Six Years

For six years, an underground garbage fire has been steadily burning outside of Saint Louis, Missouri, right next to a landfill filled with nuclear waste buried in the mid-’70s. So why hasn’t anyone managed to extinguish it yet?

The AP reports that the EPA handed down a series of measures designed to stem the fire, including temperature monitors, cooling loops and a giant smothering tarp. Those new measures aren’t being instituted because the fire has spread closer to the nearby waste site, officials said. Rather, the measures are merely to make sure it doesn’t.

But what’s going on with this fire, and why isn’t it just being put out? The problem is that no one seems to have a plan for how to extinguish it. In fact, nobody even knows what’s causing the fire.

The state of Missouri sued the burning landfill owners, Republic Services, three years ago, but the case is stuck in court. Even the EPA’s newest measures still wouldn’t actually put out the fire. They would merely keep it from spreading. What happens if the fire does spread, despite the efforts?

The answer is unclear. Last year, EPA officials told residents that even if the fire did spread to the waste, it was unlikely to be dangerous. However, agency scientists also issued a report admitting that they didn’t really know exactly what else was buried along with the nuclear waste all those decades ago.

Since no one seems to have had any luck in figuring out how to put out the fire yet, the idea of just digging up and moving the waste has also been floated. The EPA’s decision about whether it will actually do that, however, isn’t set to come down for another year. So for now, the fire continues to burn.

[MIKA27]

Belgium Is Giving Its Population Iodine Tablets In Case Of Nuclear Disaster

Maybe the Belgians known something we don’t. The country has just decided to give everyone iodine pills for the event of nuclear catastrophe.

The country already issued iodine tablets to people living within 20km of the country’s nuclear power plants. But its Health Minister Maggie De Block has explained that its widening that net to 100km, “effectively covering the whole country,” according to AFP.

In the event of a nuclear disaster, iodine pills help reduce radiation build-up in your thyroid gland — the part of your body most sensitive to radiation according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The thyroid can’t tell the difference between stable and radioactive iodine, so the potassium iodide pills can be taken to pre-emptively “fill” the thyroid with safe iodine before radioactive iodine enters the body.

The new policy follows concerns that terrorists may have been seeking to gain access to nuclear facilitiesas part of the Brussels terror attacks. Germany has recently also asked Belgium to power-down its Tihange 2 and Doel 3 over safety concerns.

So far Belgium hasn’t acted on the request, insisting that the two plants “respond to the strictest possible safety requirements”. But, err, better give the population iodine pills — you know, just in case.