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

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The Xilo 5.1 Speaker Is Made From a Formula 1 Exhaust

iXoost is an Italian company that makes some of the most gorgeous speakers and sound systems we’ve ever seen. Based in Modena, the capital of engines, the designers behind iXoost do their hometown justice by using Formula 1 exhausts to make their elaborate creations. The latest release, Xilo 5.1, uses a monocoque chassis in aluminum and wood with hand-shaped exhausts for the “ultimate expression of Made in Modena craftsmanship.” Hook your audio device up with Bluetooth or an aux cable to play your music (or use the app to play car / aircraft engine noises) through the five separate speakers and down-firing subwoofer. It’s the perfect gift for the racing fan that has everything.

[MIKA27]

Hover Camera

Hover Camera is a small self-flying drone packed with a 13MP camera sensor, 4K video capabilities, and has the ability to follow you around as you walk or run indoors and out. The super lightweight drone has four propellers housed in carbon fiber cages, measures about 7 inches square and 1 inch thick, weighs about 8 ounces (means it won’t have to be registered with the FAA), and when not in use, it folds to roughly the size of a VHS video cassette. Stand-out features include facial recognition and following, autonomous flight, image stabilization, and 360 pano recording.

[MIKA27]

HIGHLAND PARK ICE EDITION SCOTCH WHISKEY

No distillery celebrates the Vikings quite like Highland Park. And Highland Park Ice Edition Scotch Whiskey pays homage to the Viking roots of the brand's Orkney Islands home. The 17-year-old single malt scotch clocks in at just under 108 proof and comes in a blue tinted bespoke bottle that features a Norse symbol which represents the creation of the world. It's also encased in a mountain-shaped wooden cradle, and under 4,000 bottles will see store shelves in the U.S. by the end of May.

[MIKA27]

YAMAHA MT-07 ONYX BLADE BY ROUGH CRAFTS

Looking like something that a very stylish grim-reaper would ride, this new build from custom motorcycle shop Rough Crafts is aptly named Onyx Blade. Built to order for a resident of Taipei, this modified Yamaha MT-07 is perfect for ripping through traffic in the densely populated city.

As the head of the Taiwanese shop, Winston Yeh told the guys atBike Exif that the most attractive and interesting part of the Yamaha MT-07 is the frame of the bike. In his opinion, too much of the stock elements set on that frame are over-designed and take away from its appeal – so when Rough Crafts set out on this project, they made sure to find a way to accentuate the frame. Rough Crafts achieved just that by replacing much of the bodywork with more angular matte-black aluminum pieces. In addition to that, Yeh modified the front end by shortening the forks and making them a good deal stiffer and added on sharp-looking covers. Few take too much of an issue with the stock engine on the MT-07, so modifications on the engine were restricted to just an addition of K&N Filters and an Akrapovič exhaust. Throughout the rest of the bike there are some finer details, like the instrument panel on the gas tank, the headlight grille, and seat. The overall result is one mean looking bike that highlights the best of what the original frame had to offer – and then some.

[MIKA27]

Nixon Unit Tide

Designed for the waterman, the Nixon Unit Tide watch features a large graph showing current tide and 48 hours of past/future tides. Sporty and rugged the Unit Tide is a surfers tool that features tide info for 270 beaches around the globe. It also features past and future tidal information so you can get real dialed in for your next adventure. With 100 meters (330 feet) 10 atm water resistance the watch can be worn in all types of weather. So if you are an active person and are the tide-oriented type this is the watch for you.

[MIKA27]

FLYBOARD AIR

We're getting closer and closer to real hoverboards — and unlike the one BTTF, this one most certainly can run over water. The Flyboard Air is still a prototype, but it just carried its company's founder well over a mile up the coast of France, setting a Guinness World Record in the process. It's propelled by a jet unit that can run for up to 10 minutes, hit speeds of over 90 mph, and fly up to 10,000 feet in the air (not that it's recommended). The result of four years development, it's sadly going to need at least one more before it comes to market.

[MIKA27]

MONTBLANC PATRON OF ART EDITION PEGGY GUGGENHEIM PEN

Introduced to the avant-garde by Marcel Duchamp and credited with helping the careers of such well-known artists as Ernst, Kandinsky, and Pollock, Peggy Guggenheim was one of the 20th century's most influential collectors. Unveiled in Venice, the city she called home and which houses her collection in a museum that bears her name, the Montblanc Patron of Art Edition Peggy Guggenheim Pen pays tribute to this icon in a number of ways. There's the skeletonized structure of the barrel, which evokes the dramatic entrance to her collection, the clip design that carries the lion of Saint Mark, the red stripes so commonly seen on the mooring pillars for the gondolas that cruise the city's canals, and the paws engraved in the nib to represent her love for her 14 Lhasa Apso dogs. Available in three limited editions.

[MIKA27]

HIGHLAND PARK BOWL

Housed in a 1920s-era building, Highland Park Bowl continues the venue's history as a bowling alley while taking advantage of its rich history. During the year-long restoration and revamp, the current owners discovered a ton of unopened spirits from the 1970s that will help augment the cocktail program, while a wood-fired oven churns out Neapolitan-style pies. There's also a live music venue, named Mr. T's Room after the former longtime owner, and an eight lane bowling alley that's backdropped by a huge mural that dates back to the 1930s and exposes the vintage Brunswick pin machines to help tie the area to the rest of the space's retro-industrial setting.

[MIKA27]

This Tiny Star Is Now The Best Place To Hunt For Alien Life

In a few years, powerful new telescopes will usher in a search for habitable worlds outside our solar system. And TRAPPIST-1 — a dim, tepid star just a smidge larger than Jupiter — is one of the first places we’ll look. It’s only 40 light years away, and it’s home to several promising, Earth-sized exoplanets.

Three siblings, described today in the journal Nature, are the first exoplanets ever discovered around an “ultracool dwarf” star. And they’re a jackpot when it comes to the search for alien life. Each planet is similar in size to Earth or Venus and probably rocky. The planets all skirt the edge of the so-called habitable zone. Finally, these potential Earth twins are so close to us that we can begin studying their atmospheres right now.

“This is basically a paradigm shift,” study co-author Julien de Wit told Gizmodo. “If these planets have atmospheres, they really are the best places to look for life.”

So far, the search for exoplanets has focused on hot, bright stars, both because they are easy to spot in the sky and because we expect to find planets like Earth around stars like our own. But stars that are very cool and faint compared with the Sun are abundant throughout the galaxy. And when it comes to finding habitable worlds, these dim bulbs have one big advantage: their light doesn’t swamp out the signal of small, rocky planets.

“It is easier to study the atmospheres of exoplanets orbiting dim stars,” de Wit said, explaining that as a star gets smaller, a larger fraction of its light can pass through a planet’s atmosphere. What’s more, dim stars tend to be bright in the infrared, which is the best part of the spectrum for picking out key atmospheric features like water vapour and oxygen.

With this in mind, a team of astronomers led by the University of Liège’s Michaël Gillon put together a prototype telescope several years back to hunt for exoplanets around ultracool dwarfs, a group of dim objects teetering on the edge of starhood. Called TRAPPIST, the 0.6m scope sits at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, studying 60 nearby stars that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Like the Kepler Space Telescope, TRAPPIST searches for dips in infrared light — called transit events — that occur when a planet passes between its star and the Earth.

Now, after surveying just 15 of its 60 targets, the telescope has yielded a major discovery: three Earth-sized exoplanets orbiting a Jupiter-sized star 40 light years away in the constellation Aquarius. Dubbed “TRAPPIST-1”, the star is only eight per cent the mass of the Sun and 0.05 per cent as luminous.

Scaled comparison of the Sun and the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, which is much smaller and redder

Two of the system’s planets, TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, are in very tight orbits, making a complete rotation around TRAPPIST-1 in less than three days. Although they’re orbiting at a distance much closer than Mercury, these planets only receive a little more sunlight than Venus. TRAPPIST-1d is in a wider orbit, receiving less sunlight than the Earth and perhaps even less than Mars.

We don’t yet know the masses of the planets, which makes it impossible to determine their composition. But based on their sizes and close orbits, de Wit says, we can be pretty sure they’re made of rock and ice.

TRAPPIST-1b and 1c are past the inner edge of the habitable zone where liquid water oceans can develop. TRAPPIST-1d, meanwhile, is teetering on the habitable zone’s outer rim. Nevertheless, portions of all three planets might be able to support life, thanks to a strange quirk of their orbit.

Unlike the Earth, which spins about its axis as it circles the Sun, planets in very close orbits become tidally locked — stuck in a particular orientation, with a permanent day side and a permanent night side. This is thought to be the case for the planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1. While the daysides of TRAPPIST-1b and 1c are too hot to support life as we know it, a twilight band between day and night may offer balmy temperatures and Earth-like weather.

TRAPPIST-1d’s exact orbit isn’t well constrained. If this planet receives as much solar energy as the Earth, the entire surface could be habitable. If it’s colder than Mars, the world may be covered in a thick sheet of ice. Even in the latter case, it’s possible TRAPPIST-1d has liquid water oceans and squirming life forms just beneath the surface.

“Life could still exist on a frozen planet, it would just be extremely hard to pick up remotely,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, an exoplanet research at Cornell University who was not involved with the study. “That’s the reason we have to fly to icy moons like Europa to see if there is life elsewhere in our solar system.”

Artist’s impression of planets orbiting TRAPPIST-1.

Travelling to the TRAPPIST-1 system is out of the question — but we may be able to pick up signatures of life from afar, by scouring the atmospheres of these planets for chemicals like carbon dioxide, water vapour and oxygen. When starlight passes through a planet’s atmosphere, different fractions are absorbed based on the molecules present, resulting in a distinct spectra. This spectra can reveal the planet’s atmospheric chemistry, including any signatures of life.

Peering into the skies of exoplanets to hunt for biosignatures is beyond state of the art — but not by much. The first telescope able to do so for nearby stars will be the James Webb, a 6.5m wide exoplanet hunting beast that blasts into orbit in 2018. Meanwhile, de Wit and his colleagues are getting a better look at the TRAPPIST-1 planets right now using the Hubble Space Telescope, which can determine if they have any atmospheres at all.

Even if none of the TRAPPIST-1 planets is habitable, the discovery of three Earth-sized worlds around an exotic star will help us round out our understanding of exoplanet diversity.

“It is exciting to fill in the gaps and learn what rocky planets would be like if they get more sunlight than Venus, or less than Mars,” Kaltenegger said.

Whatever we wind up finding around TRAPPIST-1, it’s clear we live in an incredibly exciting time when it comes to studying planets beyond our solar system — and that the biggest discoveries are still ahead of us.

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New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 Trailer Debuts The Technodrome

It may look like it’s made of the weird “Tranformium” nonsense from Transformers: Age of Extinction, but that’s definitely Krang’s Technodrome making its debut in this new trailer for the sequel to 2014’s live-action TMNT movie, Out of the Shadows.

So no one’s going to accuse this thing of being a cinematic masterpiece, but I have a pretty serious question. This film includes Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, a better Shredder, the Technodrome and the Turtles’ ridiculous, sewer-lid-shooting Party Wagon van. Is… is it possible that this will be a good TMNT movie?

If not, I have a follow-up: If the Turtles didn’t have nightmare eyes and unspeakably disturbing human teeth, and if the film didn’t find a way to sexually objectify Megan Fox, would this be a pretty good TMNT movie? I kind of think it might.

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Hilarious Tour Guide Teaches You To Speak Italian With Your Hands

If you’ve seen The Sopranos or met someone from Italy you know Italians love to talk with their hands. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just a collection of randomised arm flapping and emphatic gestures! Italians have a whole vocabulary of hand movements to quickly (or quietly) convey what they mean.

Sergio Solazzo is a tour director for Nada’s, and recently appeared in a video where he runs through some of the most common hand signs you might see in the country, like how to say you have no money, think someone is attractive or want someone to get lost. You know, standard stuff for a cautious tourist. A few of the signs are remarkably similar though, and a 15cm difference in position changes “this food tastes great” to “you’re a crazy person.” Interestingly, the sign for “watch out” resembles the akanbe face in Japan, which is considered childish and a bit rude.

It’s easy to slip up, so when in doubt leave the passionate gesticulating to the locals. Even if you’re seeing a metal show, think twice about throwing up the “devil horns” during a trip to Italy — you’re telling the band their wives cheat on them.

[MIKA27]

The Exorcist Tranforms Into A 'Vomit-Wrenching' Theme-Park Attraction For Halloween

It’s never too early to start thinking about Halloween, especially when you might need to plan some travel in tandem with the holiday. For the first time ever, Universal Studios will be incorporating The Exorcist into its popular “Halloween Horror Nights” theme-park events in Orlando and Hollywood.

According to Universal Studios’ press release, which might be the only press release I’ve ever received that contains the words “vomit-wrenching,” the attraction will supply nightmare material for the rest of your days:

At Universal Orlando Resort, guests will see, hear, feel — and even smell — every iconic levitating, head-spinning, vomit-wrenching, skin-crawling moment from the film. They will be paralysed with fear as they witness the power of the supernatural, scream uncontrollably as they become part of Regan MacNeil’s possession and run in terror as they try to escape the horrific battle between innocence and evil.

Universal Studios Hollywood’s “The Exorcist” maze will resonate as a real life interpretation of the demonic film, daring “Halloween Horror Nights'” guests to live the nightmare experienced by a tortured Regan and her determined mother. The maze will recreate some of the film’s most haunting scenes, ushering guests into its unparalleled terror as if their very souls were possessed by the devil.

By “some of the film’s most haunting scenes,” do they also mean the horrific medical tests Regan endures before she goes full Pazuzu? The below promo video, which is heavy on bed-rattling and pea soup, suggests not — though for my money those spinal tap scenes are just as traumatic.

The “Halloween Horror Nights” events kick off September 16, so you have plenty of time to get that Captain Howdy costume in order.

[MIKA27]

John Oliver To Cicadas: Here's Everything You Missed Since 1999

This year, the cicadas flooding the Northeastern United States will actually be 17 years old, due to the strange insect’s 17-year-long gestation period. Needless to say, lots of things have happened since 1999.

The internet no longer sucks, Dr Dre is a Beats billionaire, and Beyoncé is our pop-culture Queen. What can we say, it’s been a weird 17 years.

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Extreme Heat Will Make Parts Of The Middle East And Africa Uninhabitable By 2050

New research shows that temperatures are set to skyrocket in parts of the Middle East and Africa, making human habitation next to impossible. In a region that’s home to 500 million people, that could trigger a climate-exodus of epic proportions.

These new climate projections, compiled by researchers from the Max Planck Institute, tell an incredibly scary story — like, apocalyptic Mad Max scary. According to Johannes Lelieveld and colleagues, even if Earth’s average temperature were to increase by 2C compared to pre-industrial times, the summer temperature in these regions would still increase more than twofold by the midpoint of the century. Combined with prolonged heat waves, decades-long megadroughts and windblown desert dust, these environmental conditions would be intolerable for humans, forcing many to migrate.

By 2050, summer temperatures in parts of the Middle East and North Africa would stay above 30C at night. During the day, temperatures during the hot seasons are predicted to rise to 46C. By the end of the century, midday temperatures would reach 50C. By comparison, the average maximum summer temperature in Eastern California’s Death Valley is 46C, and the average maximum summer temperature in Sydney is 26C.

Heat waves will likely occur ten times more frequently than they do now, and they will last much longer. Prior to 2005, there were about 16 excruciatingly hot days per year on average. According to the new models, it will be unusually hot for about 80 days per year — a figure that will jump to 118 days by the end of the century.

And if all this wasn’t bad enough, the researchers also found that desert dust in the atmosphere is increasing over Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Syria. They’re attributing this to an increase of sand storms as a result of protracted droughts. Climate change will exacerbate this even further.

This will have a dramatic effect on people who live in these areas.

“Climate change will significantly worsen the living conditions in the Middle East and in North Africa,” noted Lelieveld in a statement. “Prolonged heat waves and desert dust storms can render some regions uninhabitable, which will surely contribute to the pressure to migrate.”

For the study, the researchers based their calculations on two scenarios, one in which global emissions of greenhouse gases start decreasing by 2040 (that is, we succeed at meeting the climate target set at the recent UN Climate Summit in Paris), the other based on the assumption that greenhouse gases will continue to increase unabated (usually referred to as the “business-as-usual scenario”). In the latter scenario, the mean surface temperature of our planet will increase by more than 4C compared to pre-industrial times.

Unfortunately, both scenarios yielded dramatic temperature rises in these desert regions, particularly during the summer months when it’s already very hot. Parched desert surfaces cannot cool by the evaporation of groundwater, and since the balance of surface energy is controlled by heat radiation, this makes the greenhouse gas effect even worse.

[MIKA27]

XERIC SOLOSCOPE WATCH

With a squarish design and offset lugs, the Xeric Soloscope Watch easily stands out from most mechanical timepieces. It's powered by an automatic movement, using twin balance wheels move both the outer and inner rings that combine with a single hand to show both the hours and minutes. The crown is hidden underneath the watch to maintain a clean design, the Horween leather straps attach via a quick-release mechanism, and each watch is hand-assembled, and limited to just 999 units of each finish.

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The Creators Of Siri Are Releasing A New AI Next Week

Although you might associate Siri with Apple, that particular pocket assistant wasn’t born in Cupertino. In fact, Siri was an independent app before its acquisition by Apple in 2010, and now its founders are back with a new and improved version, “Viv”.

According to a report in the Washington Post, two of Siri’s founders, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, are on the cusp of launching a new AI. Name Viv, it’s purported to be an even more useful and intuitive assistant than Siri, Google, Cortana or Alexa.

All of those are limited by interactions: sure, they can all play music off Spotify or order an Uber, but they’re limited to picking from a list of scripted responses. Viv is supposed to be far more flexible, imitating the feel of a real human assistant.

The end prize is worth fighting for, which is why a serious new AI is worth talking about. Virtual assistants can serve as the intermediary between humans and apps, provided that they work well enough and consistently enough. If those boxes can be ticked, Viv could “reinvent mobile commerce” — not the future we were promised, but probably the one we deserve right now.

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Terrifying Bushfires Prompt The Evacuation Of An Entire Canadian City

Residents of Fort McMurray, Alberta — home to 83,000 people — have been ordered to leave as an out-of-control bushfire swept into the city. It’s the largest fire evacuation in the province’s history.

Fire officials in Fort McMurray are bracing themselves for what will undoubtedly be another challenging day. Fuelled by record-breaking temperatures that hit 32C, the fire swept into the city yesterday at around 6:20pm. A mandatory evacuation order was issued for the entire city, which is located 435km north of Edmonton and is home to thousands of oil sands workers.

Fires could be seen burning through suburbs on Tuesday afternoon as the flames made their way towards the downtown area. Walls of flame erupted along a highway out of Fort McMurray as panicked residents plotted their safest routes out of town. Residents could hear the popping noises of exploding fuel tanks as they made their way down Highway 63. Emergency officials say entire neighbourhoods have been wiped out by the bushfire. Exact numbers aren’t yet available, and the fire is burning in several areas in the city’s south end. It’s too early to tell, but this has the makings of a terrible disaster.

The situation became quite chaotic as residents took to the roads. Some people were only given 30 minutes notice and were told to leave everything behind. Gridlock was endemic. The speed of the fire’s advance left many people — including city officials — completely off guard.

“On the left was a big gas station; the flames jumped over the highway and blew up the gas station. It was torched,” noted Fort McMurray resident Cassie White in a Globe & Mail article. “People were driving on the shoulder. There were flames maybe 15 feet high right off the highway. There was a dump truck on fire — I had to swerve around it — and there was a pickup truck on fire as well. The entire trailer park on my right was in flames. Roofs were coming down.”

To which White added: “It almost looks like a zombie apocalypse.”

Officials have accounted for about 53,000 evacuees from from McMurray, many of them retreating southward towards Anzac and Lac La Biche. Around 18,000 of them fled to Edmonton. Hotels around the region are completely booked as evacuees desperately look for places to stay. Incredibly, no fatalities or serious injuries have been reported at this time.

The fire had been burning near the city since Sunday, covering an area nearly 27 square kilometres, but shifting winds in the early afternoon on Tuesday led to the dramatic turn of events.

The province has asked for military help, and it should receive it soon in the form of assistance from the Army and the RCMP. However, city officials will have to wait for an agonising two days before the military can effectively respond. There are currently only 150 firefighters tackling the blaze, but they’re expecting about 70 to 80 reinforcement from Edmonton later today. The fires were so severe on Tuesday that the firefighters had to pull back.

“The wildfire behaviour is extremely erratic and it isn’t safe for firefighters to be on the ground,” noted Laura Stewart, a bushfire information officer, in the Globe article. “It’s a very fluid situation, and things are changing by the moment.”

[MIKA27]

Inside The Toxic Sulphur Quarries That Keep Your Tyres Rolling

You can thank the guys toiling in this pictures for the fact that you don’t have to change your tyres very often: They’re mining sulphur, which is mainly used to vulcanise rubber and make it more durable.

This series of images from Associated Press shows how sulphur is mined from the crater of Mount Ijen in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia.

An attraction for tourists by day, workers descend into the crater, which is more than 2740m above sea level, at midnight, working until dawn so that they can avoid the heat of the day.

But conditions are still pretty dire: They have to endure toxic fumes and carry huge slabs of the bright yellow material, earning up to $US10 ($13) per day at best.

[MIKA27]

A Redesigned Waterbed Makes You Feel Like You're Floating On Air

Waterbeds are a forgotten relic of the ’70s and ’80s, but a company called Starpool has redesigned the sloshy snooze experience to serve as a relaxation tool, rather than a way to make you feel like you’re sleeping on a boat. Forget a standing desk, the Zerobody might be the next must-have office accessory.

Instead of hiding a massive water-filled bladder inside a mattress, the Zerobody uses it as a design element. It sits exposed inside an upholstered frame so that when you climb in and lie down on top of it, your body is enveloped by the bladder filled with warm water. You get that lovely bathtime feeling without getting wet.

The overall effect is akin to your body floating weightless, as if you’re inside a sensory deprivation tank, but without all of the claustrophobia, or the need to be completely naked. Starpool partnered with Italian designer Christiano Mino and a brain research company called Necogita to ensure the Zerobody can serve as a meditation tool when used alongside an app. It even comes with colour-changing LEDs to help you really zone out.

There are no pricing details just yet, but even if it’s reasonably affordable you still might have a hard time convincing your boss as to why your office needs one. That is, until you convince her to try it out.

[MIKA27]

LAMBORGHINI GALLARDO BATMOBILE

Here’s what you get when you combine significant disposable income with an affinity for Gotham’s high-flying hero. Built for the iconic Gumball 3000, a trans-European rally that brings together wealthy enthusiasts and talented builders from around the world, this Batmobile was put together by Team Galag.

From the looks of it, they did a fantastic job as we can barely make out the underlying Lamborghini Gallardo make. Team Galag is making the journey in this two-seated carbon fiber beast that receives a whopping 500 hp from its 5.2L V10 engine. Not to worry, though, these models come with AWD, which is a good thing considering the weight of this carbon fiber car. All told, the Batmobile is about 20 feet long by 12 feet wide and sits on four 26-inch wheels. So if you find yourself anywhere between Dublin, Ireland and Bucharest, Romania this year be sure to keep an eye on the road for this one. Watch the video below.

[MIKA27]

BMW R NINET DA#4 BY DIAMOND ATELIER AND K1X

What happens when a custom bike builder and a streetwear label combine forces to build a retro-style roadster? A jaw-dropping confluence of style and strength, that’s what. Diamond Atelier and K1X worked hard on this custom R nineT, and let’s just say the results are groundbreaking.

Both brands originated in Munich, Germany. Therefore, choosing a BMW as the base model was an easy decision for these two creatives. K1X looked to design a low-slung bike with aggressive features and Diamond Atelier was just the right building outlet to accomplish that feat. The finished product features an 1180cc two-cylinder Boxer engine, pushing out 115HP, with a suspension upgrade to handle such power. The bike also boasts a hand-built header, new intake system, and GP exhaust muffler. The frame was also reworked, incorporating the addition of a hand-built aluminum gas tank and tailpiece, hand-stitched seat, and the CNC-machined alternator cover. All these specs and more are wrapped up in a smooth glossy superblack finish and hand-mixed olive paint for the hubs and details that match the seat. It’s set to debut on May 6 in Munich during a release party called “Wroom Wroom Boogie” with free Gin and Tonics for the first 300 guests. Just saying.

[MIKA27]

CLASE AZUL ULTRA ANEJO TEQUILA

You can drink regular tequila to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, or you can drink the most luxurious tequila in the world. Clase Azul Ultra Anejo Tequila is aged for five years in previously used sherry wood casks and limited to only 100 bottles. And speaking of the bottle, it's hand painted with platinum and boasts a silver agave medallion with a label that is applied using 24-karat gold. One of the most sought after tequilas on the planet presented as a true work of art.

[MIKA27]

Alden Ehrenreich Has Been Cast As the Young Han Solo

The rumors are true. Alden Ehrenreich, who made a name for himself earlier this year in the Coen Brothers’ Hail Caesar, has been cast as the young Han Solo in the 2018 Star Wars story directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.

Multiple outlets such as Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter are corroborating the news though there has yet to be an official announcement from Lucasfilm. That should be coming soon though.

Ehrenreich, 26, has been acting since 2009. He started with roles in two small, Francis Ford Coppola movies, worked with Woody Allen on Blue Jasmine and then did Park Chan-wook’s Stoker. However it was his turn as cowboy movie star Hobie Doyle in Hail Caesar that really turned heads. He won the Solo role over thousands of other actors. such as Jack Reynor and Taron Egerton.

Lord and Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 Jump Street) are helming the currently untitled movie from a script by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan. We know little about the specifics of the movie except it’ll take place before A New Hope and feature Solo’s early meetings with Chewbacca.

The Han Solo Star Wars Story is currently scheduled for May 25, 2018. Miller recently tweeted the following.

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A Smoke Bomb Ice Cocktail Seems Almost Too Dangerous To Drink

If there’s smoke… you should drink it? Cocktail Chemistry shows how you can make an ice ball full of smoke for your cocktails that once you crack open, will unleash the smoke monster. The effect is really cool, like the spirit gods are anointing your drink as worthy.

[MIKA27]

Daredevils Jump Out Of Plane, Play Quick Game Of Quidditch Before Landing

Quidditch is a real sport, adapted by Middlebury College students for non-magical players on the ground. However, a team has gone and shown us that it’s entirely possible to play the game while in the air: while skydiving.

Colombian telecommunications company Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Bogotá (ETB) filmed the short film, sending a group of skydivers up with a couple of brooms, a quaffle and a hoop. After they jumped, they managed to play a quick game before landing.

This looks like tons of fun, and they get major props for their attention to detail, from the equipment chest to the costumes that they were wearing while in flight.

Let’s just hope that nobody gets smacked with a Bludger on the ground.