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

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Apple's New San Francisco Store Has A 24-Hour Public Space With Free Wi-Fi

Apple has just unveiled a new store in San Francisco’s Union Square, and it’s the template for a new style that will likely eventually be replicated all over the globe, including the most “significant” Australian stores in Sydney and Melbourne. As well as an in-store garden grove for Genius appointments and a 6K-resolution video wall, there’s also a plaza that will be open to the public 24 hours a day with free Wi-Fi and music performances.

The large, imposing metal counters of current stores’ Genius Bars have been replaced with Apple’s signature long wooden benches, and large potted trees in front of massive glass windows. The Genius Grove, as Apple has taken to calling it, will still take the usual appointments and walk-ins, but there’s also a dedicated boardroom for pre-organised appointments with larger company customers — new for the company and targeted at attracting big businesses to the Apple ecosystem.

There’s also a ‘Forum’, built around a 6K video wall, where the company intends to run a constantly-updated Today at Apple series with creative sessions for photographers, musicians, gamers and developers — similar to the regular public events that are already run at Apple Stores around the world. Creative professionals will be stationed around the store near smaller digital displays in an area called “the Avenue” showing new iOS apps, Apple Music playlists and artists, and photos captured on iPhone.

But it’s what is outside the store that actually sounds more interesting and involving than the store itself — especially if, according to The Verge, the majority of Apple customers prefer to buy online rather than visit a retail location. Apple Union Square’s Plaza space, a new idea “found only at Apple’s most significant stores”, will be open to the public 24 hours a day with live music performances, seating and free Wi-Fi. It’s meant to bring the Apple Store experience out into a space where customers — and potential customers — can feel more comfortable.

And, of course, the store has massive glass windows. Each of the 10 panes of glass in the metal-sided, cube-shaped building is a full 42 feet (12.8 metres) tall.

More pics

[MIKA27]

Horrific Canadian Wildfires Now Overtaking Oil Facilities

The wildfire that swept through Fort McMurray two weeks ago has now breached a critical firebreak, threatening Canada’s largest oil production facilities, and forcing the evacuation of thousands more workers. As seen from space, this ongoing wildfire is a horrific sight to behold.

Plans to restart oilsands production in northern Alberta were put on hold this week when a change in wind direction sent the lingering wildfire north towards critical oil sands projects. Some 4000 workers from a dozen work camps, including those run by Syncrude Canada and Suncor Energy, had to be evacuated. The fire’s change of direction caught the companies by surprise, delaying a much-needed return to production. A worker camp with 665 rooms burned to the ground yesterday.

Production facilities have been in a state of limbo since the first week of May, when the wildfire destroyed a significant portion of Fort McMurray, a boom town that’s home to thousands of oilsands workers. The fires have cut Canadian oil output by one million barrels a day. As of yesterday, the out-of-control blaze covered 877,224 acres (355,000 hectares), up from 704,250 acres (285,000 hectares) on Monday.

Earlier this week, the Suomi-NPP satellite captured a natural colour image of active fires near Fort McMurray. Areas outlined in red represent hot spots where the satellite’s Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) detected warm surface temperatures caused by the fires. Thick plumes of smoke can be seen wafting to the northeast.

So far, none of the oil sands have caught fire, but precautions are being made to ensure that they don’t. Many production facilities are deemed low-risk because much of the outlying vegetation has been cleared and there’s plenty of gravel on site.

It’s not immediately clear when the wildfires will be extinguished, but some estimates place it at months. And given its unpredictable nature, it could be a while before oil production returns to normal in northern Alberta.

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Bionic Eye Restores Vision for Blind Man After 40 Years

A Texas man born with perfect eyesight, only to have his retina damaged by infection and then his vision further reduced by botched laser eye surgery, has been able to see for the first time in 40 years after a pea-sized telescope was implanted into his eye.

The recipient, John Jameson, is one of only a handful of patients to receive the bionic eye since it was approved by the FDA less than two years ago, but the success of the treatment is quite staggering; after the telescope was implanted at 8am, legally-blind Jameson was able to read a menu at his local Cracker Barrel by noon.

Quite a leap for Jameson, who explained to local media that previously:

I would imagine what this stuff was and I was satisfied with what I had imagined… In the last three or four years, it got to the point where I could barely see more than light.

The implantable miniature telescope itself was developed by Vision Care, and is utilized as part of the Centra Sight system. It works by employing wide-angle micro-optics in a Galilean telescope design, and with the aid of the cornea it can magnify images in front of the eye up to 2.7 times their normal size.

The product is currently approved for those over age 65 with End-Stage Macular Degeneration–all categories into which Jameson and his diminishing vision fell–and is implanted by peeling back the front layer of the eye and placing the telescope directly into the retina.

Dr. Christopher Shelby, who performed the procedure, explained:

It is really an amazing product that will give patients with certain types of macular degeneration the possibility of seeing details again—reading, watching TV and seeing the expressions on their grandchildren’s faces.

Jameson’s telescope is not the only bionic eye to have become available in the past couple of years; an alternate system called Second Sight works by implanting electrodes onto the retina which connect to exterior glasses that work as a ‘camera’ and send signals to the brain.

And as these bionic eye technologies advance, they may be able to do more than aid the visually impaired; Google was recently awarded a patent for their own bionic eye lens, and some are speculating that developments will come to give even those with standard vision superhuman sight.

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The Myth of James Bond’s Martini

There are few drink orders in history as famous as “Martini, shaken, not stirred.”

While James Bond may have been tasked by the Queen to save the world from a rogues’ gallery of maniacal and creatively sadistic bad guys, arguably his greatest legacy is the shaken Vodka Martini.

The cocktail is so essential to his character that no matter which actor is playing him—Sean Connery, Roger Moore, or Pierce Brosnan—we know it’s 007 by his signature tipple.

No matter the odds or the situation, the audience expects that the suave super spy is ultimately going to save the world, get the girl and, of course, enjoy a well-deserved icy cold Martini.

The only thing is that Bond in the original books and, certainly, his creator Ian Fleming (who would have turned 108 next Saturday) weren’t that dogmatic about drinking Martinis.

British novelist Ian Fleming on the beach near Goldeneye, his Jamaica home, February 23, 1964.

“Film characters need catchphrases, “says Matthew Parker, author of Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born. “The attachment of Bond to the Vodka Martini you don’t really get from the books.”

In fact, Bond orders a Vesper in Casino Royale, the first book in the series and is quite specific about what he wants: “Three measures of Gordon’s, one of vodka, half a measure of Kina Lillet. Shake it very well until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel.”

While the preparation of the drink is certainly familiar to Bond fans around the world, the idea of combining gin and vodka is still quite novel and very different than what’s in the standard Dry Martini. (The Kina Lillet, which is no longer produced, would have been popular in Jamaica at the time, since it contained malaria-fighting quinine.)

“The bar staff are honored to follow these expert instructions; then Bond helpfully advises that grain-based rather than potato-based vodka would make the recipe better,” writes Parker. “For 1953’s rationed and skinflint Austerity Britain, this was pure delicious escapism, just as Fleming’s sojourns in Jamaica were for him.”

The importance of Fleming’s time in the tropical country can’t be underestimated. From 1946 to 1964, he spent a couple months a year at Goldeneye, his estate on the island’s north shore and wrote all of the James Bond stories there. (His house and property have since been turned into a hotel by local and music mogul Chris Blackwell.)

During location filming in Jamaica, Ian Fleming gives Sean Connery some first-hand pointers on his portrayal of James Bond, Fleming's Agent 007.

What did Fleming serve his friends that came to visit him? For the jet set celebrities and socialites that he hung out with in Jamaica, according to Parker, “cocktails were their drink of choice.” Generally, that included, of course, Vodka Martinis as well as Brandy and Ginger Ale.

He wasn’t a fan of beer and wine wasn’t much of an option at the time with the island’s hot and humid climate. Whiskey was another drink that visitors reported being offered. “I think [Fleming] would drink anything he could get his hands on,” admits Parker. “In those circles you had a fully stocked bar at all times.”

For special occasions, Fleming would also mix up a special signature concoction. While no one could blame you for expecting it to be a Vodka Martini, shaken, not stirred, in actuality it couldn’t be more different: a flaming rum punch.

Terence Young is under the camera directing Kitzmiller, Andress and Connery on location in Jamaica.

The evening after his wedding to Ann Charteris he even enjoyed the drink. (To be fair, between the ceremony and the celebration, according to Parker, “strong Martinis” were also drunk.)

Fleming’s long-serving cook and housekeeper, Violet, according to Parker, called the punch the “Poor Man’s Thing.” The recipe for it sounds like something you’d find at a Trader Vic’s outpost. “You have skin of orange, skin of lemon. Pour rum on top. Put sugar in dish. Put on oven, keeping stirring. Set light when coming to the boil. Put lid on the dish, then turn out all the light in the house when carry it in to the guests.”

In order to set it on fire, no doubt, the punch was made with a very high-proof rum. You’d need, of course, a Bond-like tolerance to enjoy more than a couple of glasses. A mission, perhaps, best left to 007.

[MIKA27]

My Dutch cold brew coffee maker

As the weather gets hotter, the harder it becomes to slurp down your favorite coffee. For those uncomfortably hot days and humid nights, you need a cold brew coffee maker. Winner of multiple awards, the My Dutch is a cold brew water drip Dutch coffee maker that features an innovative clean-drip valve that slowly extracts all flavors from the coffee beans enabling you to taste all kinds of fruity flavors combined with a chocolaty aftertaste. Dutch Coffee will let you discover coffee in its purest and fullest form and will surprise you with great flavors you wouldn’t find in the same coffee when using a hot brewing method. Available in two sizes 350ml, or 550ml.

[MIKA27]

Antibiotic-Resistant Superbugs Could Kill 10 Million People A Year By 2050

An 18-month review into antimicrobial resistance warns that superbugs will kill upwards of 10 million people a year by 2050, a frightening prospect that’s being described as “the antibiotic apocalypse”.

The new report (pdf), compiled by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries in Britain, claims that the new era of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is already upon us, and that 50,000 people are already dying each year in Europe and the US from untreatable infections. If nothing can be done to offset this trend, as many as 10 million people could die each year by the mid-point of the 21st century. That would make AMR worse than cancer.

The golden age of antibiotics which the world has taken for granted for well over fifty years has ended,” wrote Sally Davies in the report. Davies, the chief medical officer for England, described the growing ineffectiveness of antibiotics around the world as being on the same level as terrorism and climate change.

“The projected figures are much more worrying,” she wrote. “It is quite possible — and perhaps even likely — that the recent era of material mortality improvements will give way to many years of material mortality worsening.”

Indeed, infections that used to be easily treated, such as tuberculosis and gonorrhea, have reemerged a serious health threat. Antibiotics are also used to prevent infections, and without them, surgeries would once-again become life-threatening. Individuals receiving organ transplants would have to rely on their own immune systems to prevent their bodies from rejecting donor organs. Pneumonia would return as a frightening mortal enemy.

In the report, British economist Lord O’Neill said that doctors and patients need to “stop treating antibiotics as sweets”. No doubt — the more that antibiotics are used, the less effective they become. O’Neill said this issue can no longer be ignored by politicians and the finance sector. He’s hoping that leaders of the world will make it a top priority at the upcoming G20 meeting to be held in China this September.

The current pharmaceutical model also needs to be reworked, argued O’Neill. Drug companies make money by selling antibiotics, but this only serves to encourage the use of antibiotics. To address this, O’Neill is proposing a new way of repaying companies for their inventions via a “market entry reward”. This reward could be as high as $US1.3 billion ($1.8 billion) for the successful development of any new antibiotic that addresses an “unmet need”. The idea here is to sever the link between R&D and the price of a drug.

Billions of dollars of reward money may sound like a lot, but if nothing’s done about it, AMR could cost the world economy $US100 trillion ($138 trillion) by 2050. Which says nothing of the moral cost of inaction.

[MIKA27]

Insane Startup Wants To Create A Man-Made Meteor Shower For The 2020 Olympics

In today’s “I can’t believe they have been funded” news, a startup called Star-ALE wants to create a man-made meteor shower over the city of Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics opening ceremonies. But unlike fireworks, this pyrotechnics show will be visible from an area 200km across Japan.

The first step is a little more involved than just setting up a bunch of fireworks mortars around the Olympic stadium, though. The reason Star-ALE calls its Sky Canvas light show a man-made meteor shower is because the pyrotechnics will actually rain down from space. Starting next year, the company will launch a series of microsatellites carrying 500 to 1000 specially-developed pellets that ignite and intensely glow as they re-enter the earth’s atmosphere.

Like with fireworks, the combustible pellets are made from various metals and elements so that they burn with different colours, adding to the spectacle and improving on what Mother Nature can do. To make sure the idea actually works, in a lab here on earth the pellets were placed in a vacuum chamber and blasted with supersonic hot gases, simulating the friction they’d experience as they re-entered our planet’s atmosphere.

As they return to earth, the pellets ignite at an altitude of 60km to 80km above our heads. From the ground they can be seen from an area at least 200km across and, over the city of Tokyo and the surrounding areas, that means a potential audience of 30,000,000 people will be able to watch the show.

A massive audience is part of the appeal of the Sky Canvas show, as each of those magic pallets apparently cost just over $US8,000 ($11,048) to manufacture. And that doesn’t include the cost of the satellite, and getting the whole thing into orbit. It’s true that host nations try to pull out all the stops to put on an impressive show during the Olympics, but is this maybe taking things a bit too far? If the Tokyo 2020 Olympics weren’t over-budget already, this would surely not help their bottom line.

[MIKA27]

Volvo's New Flagship S90 Is A Rolling Lounge Room

Most would think that motor vehicles and lounge rooms have no place gallivanting with one another. Not Volvo. The Swedish carmaker will debut their innovative new ‘Lounge Console’ in their upcoming flagship sedan, the S90 Excellence.

To show off the unconventional cabin design, Volvo has created a sculpture to explain how the concept would work in the Volvo S90. Both areas of work and play are catered for with the removal of the front passenger seat where an intuitive work station now resides.

The work station features fold-out surfaces, drink holders, a mini refrigerator, luxury glasses by Orrefors and a pivoting large screen which can hook up to any work device such as a Macbook. When it comes time to relax, the lounge reclines to offer ample leg space as well as heated foot support with an automatic ottoman.

Don’t take our word for it, though. Watch in awe at the video above explaining the technology.

[MIKA27]

There's A Wearable That Monitors Your Blood Alcohol Level

It’s like a FitBit but for piss heads, detecting your blood alcohol level.

Skyn is a wristband from breathalyser company BACtrack, and it detects alcohol using a fuel cell technology not unlike that used by your friendly roadside RBT.

The device is worn on the wrist and offers continuous, real-time, and non-invasive monitoring of your TAC (Transdermal Alcohol Content). Alcohol is detected and measured with transdermal monitoring, which tracks the ethanol molecules escaping through the skin.

TAC samples are then converted into a history of your BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) with BACtrack’s proprietary algorithm. BACtrack Skyn uses an electrochemical sensor and connects via Bluetooth to an app on your smartphone.

Since it can take up to 45 minutes for alcohol to be transmitted through the skin its accuracy for some applications (like replacing traditional breathalysers) is unreliable. But what it can reliably be used for is continuous monitoring.

You can relay data to your doctor, it can warn you if you’ve had too much to drink.

Basically, you can passively track alcohol consumption in real-time. There’s no need to take a breath alcohol test — your estimated BAC result is on their wrist, continuously. For instance, your phone could vibrate to notify you that you’re approaching 0.04 per cent BAC and remind you to slow down your drinking.

If you’re aiming for sobriety, a nominated contact could receive a notification when your BAC has gone above 0.00 per cent.

Based in San Francisco, BACtrack won the “Wearable Alcohol Biosensor Challenge” competition held by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism with the Skyn, which came with a $200,000 prize. The competition aimed to uncover wearable technologies that can be used comfortably by everyday people, and was judged on accuracy.

“A limited quantity” of Skyn devices with be available later in the year, says BACtrack, who have opened registrations for pre-order availability notifications.

Here’s a video with more information about how it works:

[MIKA27]

The Final Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out Of The Shadows Trailer Reveals Its Krang

A final trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows has hit the web, showing off a whole lot of mayhem, and finally giving us a good look at the film’s principle villain, Krang.

There’s a bit of new footage here since the last trailer, and while we’ve seen some glimpses of Krang already, this trailer provides a solid look. Recently, Paramount announced that Brad Garrett (Fargo) would be replacing Fred Armisen, who had to depart due to scheduling issues.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows hits theatres on June 3, 2016.

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Working With Steven Seagal Sounds Both Surreal And Hilarious

Oh Steven Seagal. How the mighty fall. From the respectable heights of Under Siege to the deplorable depths of Half Past Dead. It’s no secret Seagal went, uh, off the path as his films transitioned from the silver screen to direct to video, but you don’t realise just how far until you listen to storyteller extraordinaire Stephen Tobolowsky explain how it was working with the guy.

Tobolowsky’s body of work is extensive, though his most memorable, recent outing has been the role of Jack Barker in HBO’s Silicon Valley.

For this story however, we need to wind the clocks back to 1996, when Tobolowsky was cast in The Glimmer Man, directed by John Gray. They didn’t even get through the first day of filming before Gray and Tobolowsky were faced with a Seagal-related problem… and a big one at that:

[Gray said] “Steven Seagal has had a spiritual sort of crisis, a spiritual awakening. He decided that he doesn’t want to kill people anymore in movies.” … “Warner Brothers is very upset, they say ‘Steven, I understand what you’re doing, but you dance with who brung ya. You kill people really good. And in this movie, you have to kill people.'”

Not the greatest revelation to have at the start of a shoot and it made Tobolowsky’s scene with Seagal just that much harder:

The problem is, in the scene, I was playing a serial killer and the whole scene is about him killing me.

I don’t want to spoil the rest of the story — Tobolowsky’s retelling is pure gold. It’s sufficient to say, the veteran actor was more diplomatic and accommodating than I would have been.

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Google's Modular Smartphone Will Ship To Developers This Spring

Project Ara, Google’s dream for a truly modular smartphone, has been a long parade of exciting visions of the future punctuated by disappointing delays. But Google just made a big promise that developers will be be getting their hands on a device this spring with a consumer version due in 2017. Finally!

Although Project Ara has been on Google’s mind for years now, it’s been hampered by hardware delays. The device was originally supposed to be part of a pilot program in Puerto Rico but that plan was axed in August.

After a year, Project Ara didn’t have much to show for all its talk of the future, but it certainly inspired the smartphone old guard to run with the idea. This year’s LG G5 adopted the modular phone principle with a removable “magic slot”, and the upcoming Moto X and iPhone 7 are rumoured to have some kind of modular features.

But where those attempts are the cosy consumer version of what a modular smartphone can be, Project Ara is the rugged frontier: a patchwork of hardware with a number of different modules that anyone can decide how to mix and match. Finally, that dream sounds like it’s almost ready.

At Google I/O, the Ara team demoed its swappable modules, swiping in an camera and snapping a pic all without rebooting the phone. Google’s also released a short teaser video showing Ara in action.

If you’re feeling adventurous, you can sign up for the a Project Ara dev unit right here.

[MIKA27]

The World's Largest Solar Plant Just Torched Itself

Misaligned mirrors are being blamed for a fire that broke out yesterday at the world’s largest solar power plant, leaving the high-tech facility crippled for the time being. It sounds like the plant’s workers suffered through a real hellscape, too.

Damaged steam ducts and water pipes.

A small fire was reported yesterday morning at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) in California, forcing a temporary shutdown of the facility. It’s now running at a third of its capacity (a second tower is down due to scheduled maintenance), and it’s not immediately clear when the damaged tower will restart. It’s also unclear how the incident will impact California’s electricity supply.

Putting out the blaze was not easy task, either. Firefighters were forced to climb 90m up a boiler tower to get to the scene. Officials said the fire was located about two-thirds up the tower. Workers at the plant actually managed to subdue the flames by the time firefighters reached the spot, and it was officially extinguished about 20 minutes after it started.

Located on 4000 acres of public land in the Mojave Desert, the sprawling concentrated solar thermal plant is equipped with 173,500 heliostats — each with two mirrors — that focus sunlight on boilers located on top of three 140m towers. The tremendous heat created by the concentrated solar power produces steam that drives turbines to produce electricity. The plant, the largest of its kind in the world, features a gross capacity of 392 megawatts, enough to power 140,000 homes. Each of the computer-controlled solar-reflecting mirrors is about the size of a garage door.

This image shows one of the plant’s three towers when it’s functioning properly and online

A spokesperson for the plant said it’s too early to comment on the cause, but it appears that misaligned mirrors are to blame. The Associated Press quoted Mike McClintock, the San Bernardino County fire captain, who said that some mirrors delivered sunlight to a different level on the third unit, causing electrical cables to catch fire.

Inevitably, the incident reveals the inherent dangers of concentrated solar power as well as the need to ensure that the mirrors are always on target. Concentrated solar power plants, in addition to being a menace to themselves, can also pose a hazard to local wildlife. Last year, a plant in Nevada torched over a hundred birds when they flew through the plant’s “flux field”.

It’s yet another setback for the Ivanpah facility. For the past few months, the plant has been unable to meet the output levels stipulated in its power purchase agreement, and it was given an extension until 31 July 2016 to improve performance. This fire obviously isn’t going to help.

[MIKA27]

Cate Blanchett, Jeff Goldblum And Mark Ruffalo Will Star In Thor: Ragnarok

A ton of rumours about the cast of the next Thor movie have been floating around for ages, but now Marvel has finally confirmed its cast list. While there’s a few expected faces on there, there’s one really big surprise: Jeff Goldblum is in this movie.

The list confirms the long-running rumour that Cate Blanchett will play the film’s primary villain: Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death, seen in concept art from the movie above. Meanwhile, Jeff Goddamn Goldblum, who recently hinted that he’d be joining a superhero project, will play the Grandmaster — a cosmic character from the comics who is incredibly powerful, and uses said power to essentially **** about in the universe and play games (usually revolving around forcing people to fight against each other for his pleasure).

Mark Ruffalo will naturally reprise his role as the Hulk and Bruce Banner, while the cast is rounded out by Tessa Thompson, confirmed to play Asgardian superhero Valkyrie, and Karl Urban, who will play Skurge, a villainous Asgardian with an enchanted axe that was a long time rival of Thor. The new cast joins the returning Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Thor: Ragnarok is due to hit US theatres on 3 November 2017.

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Base Camp Trailer

The season for campfires, exploring and chasing sunsets is upon us. Experience the outdoors with confidence and comfort in a Base Camp Trailer, specially built for rugged outdoor living and performing in the harshest of climates and conditions. The overland and expedition trailer is fully customized to your needs and hand crafted in the USA, choose extras such as a roll-out kitchen, shower, a gun box, communication box, firewood box, roof tent, or even upgrade it with the off road package and match the trailer to your tow vehicle.

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KNOB CREEK 2001 BOURBON

If Knob Creek is your go-to bourbon of choice, you'll want to pay special attention to the latest release from the folks at Jim Beam. Knob Creek 2001 Bourbon is the oldest Knob Creek release to date, spending 14 years in barrels before being bottled at 100 proof. 2001 was also the year that current master distiller Fred Noe had the torched passed to him from his father, the late Booker Noe. Some of the last barrels that Booker laid down in 2001 are represented in this special batch of Knob that also comes packaged in this commemorative wooden case.

[MIKA27]

Archaeologists Discovered A 5000-Year-Old Beer Recipe In China

Step aside with your claims to long legacies, craft breweries! This reconstructed beer recipe is over 5000 years old. It’s the earliest beer recipe — and the earliest known use of barley — in China.

Archaeologists at Stanford University, while digging along China’s Wei River, made an intriguing discovery: A marvellously complete set of brewing equipment. And at the bottom of that equipment was something even more wonderful: Residue from the drink it once brewed.

After scrapping that gunk from the pots, researchers analysed it and confirmed that it was, indeed, leftover froth from a 5000-year-old beer. They were also able to pin down the recipe of that beer to an unlikely, but delicious-sounding, combination of broomcorn millet, barley, Job’s tears and tubers. The recipe was just published in the journal PNAS.

Beer funnel unearthed in the Wei River banks

But besides suggesting some delightfully unconventional paths for craft brewers to explore, what does this tell us about beer and its place in the world 5000 years ago? Quite a bit — particularly about just how important it must have been.

This recipe sets the date of the crop’s arrival in China back at least 1000 years. That means that, long before people were eating barley in China, they were brewing with it. People were growing it to brew beer and eventually ended up eating it, too — not the other way around.

In other words, brewing beer wasn’t an agricultural sidestep that happened because people had so much of a crop that they were trying to come up with extra uses for it. Instead, beer was an important part of ancient diets, so much so that they were literally planting farms to accommodate it.

[MIKA27]

The Aliens Are Back In A Huge New Trailer For Independence Day: Resurgence

 

Seriously, this trailer is huge — not just due to the scale of the latest alien invasion to befall planet Earth, but because this five-minute long trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence is jam-packed with new footage from the film.

It’s the pretty traditional “Let’s sum up the whole plot of this movie” trailer, as we get to see a complacent mankind in the wake of the 20th anniversary of the events from the first movie, before Jeff Goldblum’s David Levinson finds an alien ship on Earth transmitting a distress signal. The aliens are definitely back for revenge, and… well, you know what happens next.

Things get destroyed, Bill Pullman gets thrown about by an alien and everyone remembers that yes, this will be our Independence Day and all that. You know the drill at this point! But it’s still looking pretty fun.

 

[MIKA27]

Drone Catches Incredible 70-Shark Feeding Frenzy

 

This footage, captured above the appropriately named Shark Bay in Western Australia, shows what happens when 70 sharks come across a whale. It involves rather a lot of blood.

The once-clear waters of the bay fill with plumes of blood as the tiger sharks chow down without mercy on the humpback whale. I can’t work out whether being in one of the nearby boats would provide an amazing spectacle or just pure horror. Maybe a bit of both.

 

[MIKA27]

India Just Launched An Adorable Mini Shuttle Into Space

India is joining the reusable space race. Its space agency has today launched a small space shuttle, that will be used to test the country’s plans for creating a spacecraft that can be used multiple times.

The 1.75-tonne un-manned spacecraft — known as Reusable Launch Vehicle — will travel to 43 miles above the Earth’s atmosphere then descend back to the surface of the planet. This particular shuttle isn’t expected to survive the landing. Instead, it will gather data about the speed and intensity of re-entry, and test the craft’s autonomous landing capabilities.

This mission is the result of five years of work and $US14 ($19) million of investment, according to the BBC. It’s hoped that the country will be using a full-scale reusable spacecraft within the next 10 years.

India joins a long line of folks — not least the private companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin — trying to build a reusable space craft.

[MIKA27]

ASTON MARTIN VANQUISH ZAGATO

Good partnerships bring out the best in both parties, but they can sometimes be hard to come by. Things don’t work out, people disagree, lines get crossed – it happens. That hasn’t been the case when it comes to Zagato and Aston Martin, however. Just recently the two brands have announced a striking new collaboration with their Vanquish Zagato Concept.

Aston Martin’s headquarters in Gaydon, England worked closely with the Milan-based Andrea Zagoto to design and produce this aggressive lightweight carbon fiber body. The Vanquish’s updated 590 horsepower V12 engine now pushes a body constructed from large one-piece panels and featuring specially designed ‘bladed’ LED tail lights. When they step inside, passengers get more than just a powerful car, but a striking interior adorned with a herringbone carbon fibre console and aniline leather seats. Prices have yet to be set, but the car will be making its debut at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este on Lake Como, Italy.

[MIKA27]

Ulisse Daybed

Ulisse Daybed is a beautiful lounger designed for your everyday chilling sessions, powernaps or meditating moments. One of its most interesting features is the solid brass reclining system, that easily and quickly enables you to, safely, decide the inclination you wish to get. Its wooden structure, although being modern and minimalist, has some oriental and African motifs, giving it a more out-of-the box look, which sets it apart from the more commonly seen on plain perpendicular structures. Built using great craftsmanship, attention to detail and premium materials, this elegant item could very well be a great add on to your home or office, letting you relax in style and boost up greatly your life quality.    

 

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NINJA TURTLE LAIR

Their digs have certainly improved since the animated show of our youth — Tribeca is way nicer than the sewer — but it only makes a night at the Ninja Turtle Lair that much better. Available for true fans only, this loft-like space has three bedrooms, two of which have bunkbeds for ninjas in training, and plenty of Turtle-approved features like a glow in the dark basketball court, a classic TMNT arcade game, a TV wall built from classic boomboxes, and, of course, free pizza delivery service. To win a stay, all you have to do is explain why you're worthy of spending a night at the home of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

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Rare Genetic Condition Allows 53-Year-Old to Run 350 Miles without Stopping

Most athletes would agree that lactic acid build-up in the muscles is the bane of all long-distance runners – but not American jogger Dean Karnazes. The 53-year-old has a rare genetic condition that rapidly flushes lactic acid from his system, allowing him to run indefinitely without ever experiencing a cramp or a seized muscle. The extreme runner has completed a marathon to the South Pole at -25C, and completed 50 back to back marathons in 50 days. He’s also jogged a whopping 350 miles in just 80 hours and 44 minutes, without any sleep!

When people exercise, glucose is converted into energy and a by-product of this reaction is lactic acid. As it builds up in the muscles, it causes cramps and fatigue, and signals the brain to stop. But in Dean’s case, he never receives those signals because lactic acid never builds up in his muscles. So he’s able to run for long distances over very long periods of time, giving him an edge in some of the toughest endurance competitions in the world.

“At a certain level of intensity, I do feel like I can go a long way without tiring,” Dean said, speaking to The Guardian. “No matter how hard I push, my muscles never seize up. That’s kind of a nice thing if I plan to run a long way. To be honest, what eventually happens is that I get sleepy. I’ve run through three nights without sleep and the third night of sleepless running was a bit psychotic. I actually experienced bouts of ‘sleep running’, where I was falling asleep while in motion, and I just willed myself to keep going.”

Dean has been running since childhood, having discovered his extraordinary ability for endurance at a very early age. He ran a total of 105 laps around his high school’s track at a fundraiser, while most of his classmates gave up after 15. But he did stop running after high school, returning to the activity only after his 30th birthday. Despite the gap in training, he was able to simply pick up where he left off, covering 30 miles in his very first run. Of course, he did suffer blisters, but his muscles showed no signs of tiring or slowing down. Since then, Dean has performed incredible feats such as completing the 200-mile ‘Relay’ from Calistoga to Santa Cruz all by himself. He did this no less than 11 times.

Amazed by his physical abilities, doctors have performed lactate tests on Dean to find out how long it takes for him to reach his threshold for lactic acid. The test usually ends in 15 minutes for most athletes, but in Dean’s case, the doctors simply had to give up after an hour. Other runners do develop a better lactic acid threshold after years of practice, but in Dean’s case, he appears to have been born with the ability to flush it out of his system.

“I was sent to a testing center in Colorado,” Dean explained. “First, they performed an aerobic capacity test in which they found my results consistent with those of other highly trained athletes, but nothing extraordinary. Next, they performed a lactate threshold test. They said they would take it to 15 minutes, tops. Finally, after an hour, they stopped the test. They said they’d never seen anything like this before.”

 

Dean, a father of two, believes other factors are at play here as well, like his low body fat percentage and his high alkaline, paleo-style diet. He almost always focuses on endurance and not speed. “I don’t care how fast I go,” he said. “I care about how far I go.”

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Bourbon, Tequila, and Dom Pérignon: Inside John Wayne’s Liquor Cabinet

As well as Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon neat, America’s most famous cowboy also liked to sup Château Lafite Rothschild and fancy champagne.

On screen, John Wayne was the definition of a straight-shooting, tough guy who didn’t take crap from anybody. Off camera, the Duke (who would have turned 109 this Thursday), no surprise, liked a stiff drink, usually Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon neat.

That is unless he was on his annual summer pilgrimage to Alaska on broad his 136-foot yacht the Wild Goose, a former World War II-era Navy minesweeper. On those trips, remembers his youngest son Ethan Wayne, if they saw an iceberg they’d pull close and use the boat’s fire axes to break off a bit of what they called “glacier ice,” which would be kept in freezers built into the deck. John particularly prized the ice, since, Ethan says “one piece would last all night” and it wouldn’t water down the drinks.

“He always went for bourbon over generic whiskey,” says Ethan. However, he also had another favorite spirit. “If he wanted a drink it was bourbon or tequila,” says Ethan. John preferred to drink his tequila with crushed ice and a tiny sliver of lemon.

While the agave-based spirit was still catching on in the United States, every winter John would take his boat down to Mexico where, I imagine, he became well acquainted with tequila. By the early 1970s, when John would leave for several months to shoot one of his movies he made sure that his son packed a case or two of Wild Turkey Bourbon and Sauza Conmemorativo Tequila to ensure he had a steady supply on set.

Generally, after a day of shooting he’d grab a rustic cup and relax with a drink. (John would have certainly appreciated the current popularity of bourbon and tequila.)

But John, who famously remarked “I never trust a man that doesn’t drink,” would on occasion have other types of alcohol and in fact had a large chest at home that contained his liquor collection, including vodka, Swedish aquavit and Courvoisier Cognac. “Depending upon the occasion he drank everything,” says Ethan. (However, according to Brian Downes, executive director of the John Wayne Birthplace & Museum in the Duke’s hometown of Winterset, Iowa, he was “not a big beer drinker.”)

John also had a developed a taste for “really high-end French wines,” says Ethan—not that shocking given that he was “a guy who was dining with presidents and heads of states.”

But the family had no wine cellar, and instead John kept his cases of Château Lafite Rothschild and Dom Pérignon champagne in the garage near his prosaic Pontiac station wagon. (Sadly, after Wayne passed away in 1979 those cases were stashed in a storage locker where the wine baked and spoiled.)

For the Wild Goose, Wayne also ordered a range of table wines from Sonoma-based Windsor Vineyards, which created special labels for the bottles. One petite sirah says “Selected By John Wayne For Hospitality Aboard The Wild Goose.” (A number of these boat bottles were sold by Heritage Auctions a few years ago along with many different Wayne family possessions, including a ceramic Kentucky Derby set that featured 10 matching mugs, a decanter and a water jug.)

Given his father’s love of American whiskey, it’s no surprise that a few years ago Ethan co-founded the Duke Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey brand. The bottle’s label has a silhouette of John in full western regalia and bears his signature. Naturally, on Thursday to celebrate John’s birthday, Ethan will be pouring himself a glass of the liquor. He’ll, of course, be having it neat.